Chapter 642: Machina Under Martial Law (2)

The Demon Gun of the Old World, Teremer’s Demise.

A specialized weapon for a Demon Gunman, and a top-tier artifact imbued with the essence of Old World shapeshifting technology.

And one of the very few pieces of equipment presumed to have been carried by the Director.

Since realizing the gun’s existence at the Meister selection ceremony, Lennok had put no small effort into acquiring it.

Though he had acquired the demon gun with Oason’s help, it was also true that using it at this point, without adjusting its output, was premature.

Yet, Lennok aimed the transformed harpoon gun at Triton and immediately pulled the trigger.

WHOOSH!!

Immediately after Lennok’s mana coiled around the harpoon gun’s barrel, spiraling and converging as if sucked in.

Compassion of the Archangel activated, space-transferring the harpoon beyond the probe and embedding it into Triton’s forehead.

Following the harpoon that had traversed space to appear right before him in the middle of the dark ocean, currents swirled and converged.

[…!!]

Triton, eyes wide, swung the trident he held in a reverse grip.

RUMBLE!!!

The harpoon, caught between the trident’s three prongs, unleashed an immense impact force, detonating a massive underwater shockwave in the middle of the ocean.

The impact, arriving right before him, was so intense that Triton’s colossal Mechanical Shark body, with which he was fused, was momentarily pushed back.

But the shark, too, strongly flapped its fins in place, regained its balance, and endured the shock.

Having blocked the harpoon with the trident in his hand, Triton gripped it with an expressionless face.

[A single desperate struggle you were permitted in this ocean. I have observed it well.]

Seeing no response from the probe, Triton, in turn, began to draw upon his mana.

[From now on, no action will be permitted other than exposing the belly of that probe!!]

WHOOOOSH!!!

His mana, amplifying as it assimilated with the surrounding environment, limited to the deep sea, began to spread, transforming into an output that surpassed its Hierarchy.

Just as he violently wielded his Will-thought, as if shaking the entire sea around the Seafloor Barrier, attempting to press down on the currents, the harpoon was fired again at supersonic speed.

But this time, the target was not Triton’s forehead, but the flank of the gigantic Mechanical Shark with which he was fused.

BANG!!!

He rotated his massive body, as if flicking his fins, to dodge.

An evasive maneuver, almost instantaneous, in this deep ocean where immense water pressure pressed down.

Under these extreme conditions, he was confident he could face and defeat any monster or superhuman on equal or even superior terms.

Triton’s massive body, smoothly dodging the harpoons stabbing in from all directions as if swimming, pushed itself forward.

The Mechanical Shark, approaching the probe’s front in an instant, opened its maw wide and swallowed the vessel whole.

His intention was to swallow the probe itself and imprison it within the shark’s belly.

But the moment the Mechanical Shark opened its maw wide, clenching its jaw tightly as if to swallow the probe’s hull whole—

CRUNCH!!

The positions of the probe and the harpoon swapped instantly, and the harpoon, vertically oriented, accurately pierced the shark’s palate and tongue.

[Using himself as bait…!!!!!]

Triton, belatedly realizing Lennok’s intent, gritted his teeth and twisted his waist, throwing his trident towards where the probe had been.

The trident, vanishing from his shoulder with a flash, pierced the seawater on the spot and directly struck the probe’s hull.

BOOM!!!

A massive current erupted in the middle of the ocean, spreading like ripples, but the anomaly occurred not with Lennok’s probe, but with the Mechanical Shark.

This was because, simultaneously with the harpoon embedding itself inside the shark’s mouth, dozens of harpoons pierced into the Mechanical Shark’s skin.

[…!!!!!!]

GURGLE!!

The shark’s true body thrashed about in the water, unable to even let out a proper scream.

Harpoons, appearing from nowhere, embedded themselves within Triton’s body before he could even react.

But unlike the thrashing shark, Triton’s face hardened as he realized where these harpoons had come from.

[All the harpoons fired until now…!!]

“You’re quick. Did you remember the number of harpoons?”

Inside the probe, Lennok, with the harpoon gun shouldered, smiled.

Teremer’s Demise. Specifically, its fifth shapeshifting form: the Type Spear Gun.

While its principle is simple—firing harpoon-shaped projectiles as ammunition—its true value lies in what happens after a harpoon is fired and hits its target.

All harpoon projectiles fired before hitting a target are simultaneously ‘superimposed-realized’ upon impact.

The harpoon gun’s ability to embed projectiles into the target as many times as shots were attempted.

In WORLD 2.0, this harpoon gun form and its ability were specialized for forcibly restraining and capturing giant monsters or enemies.

However, its efficiency was poor if the target wasn’t large enough to embed many harpoons, making it a form even Lennok, who played as a Demon Gunman, rarely used.

Lennok combined the demon gun’s ability with Spatial Leap Targeted Shot to simultaneously embed dozens of harpoons into the Mechanical Shark’s body.

CREEEEEEEAK!!!

As the harpoons embedded themselves throughout its body, the shark’s thrashing movements weakened, and its fins began to stiffen.

Triton felt his own control over the body gradually being usurped.

At the tips of the harpoons embedded across the Mechanical Shark’s entire body, mana chains were tightly layered and connected.

Realizing that the ends of those chains were neatly connected to the probe Lennok was riding, Triton roared.

[How dare an unauthorized intruder…!! Are you saying you intend to directly control my body in this ocean!!]

“Control? There’s no need for that.”

Lennok smiled, placed Davi on the firmly connected mana chains, and began to infuse mana through the spirit’s tail tip.

Davi’s Cybernetic Ability flowed along the mana chains, connecting directly to Triton’s Mechanical Shark body.

It forcibly overloaded the shark’s hull, which was half-machine, completely disrupting Triton’s command system.

SNAP…!!

With the sound of something snapping, the Mechanical Shark’s eyes rolled back in their sockets.

A-AAARGH!!!

With a horrifying shriek resembling a human scream, the shark powerfully surged upward on the spot.

The probe, connected by mana chains, began to accelerate along, trailing behind the shark.

A bizarre sight: instead of fighting the Mechanical Shark, Lennok was using it as a propulsion system to traverse the ocean at ultra-high speed.

By riding the current created by the shark’s swimming, the pressure and strain on the probe rapidly decreased.

Only then did Triton realize that Lennok was using him like a sled dog, and he thrashed wildly in protest.

[This cannot be!! How could my authority be so easily…!!!]

“If your output in the deep sea stems from your fusion and reliance on the shark’s true body, then there’s no need to seize your authority.”

Lennok quickly chewed and swallowed an Elixir as he retorted.

Triton, Commander of the 4th Mechanized Troops.

A half-human, half-beast monster with incredible abilities and a body specialized for deep-sea maneuvering and combat.

Strictly speaking, those abilities originate not from Triton himself, but from the Mechanical Shark with which he is fused.

If Triton amplified his combat power by synchronizing with the body of a deep-sea fish using magic-engineering technology, then all that was needed was to paralyze the deep-sea fish’s biological functions.

Davi’s ability, combined with interference capabilities enhanced to the extreme by the Ascension Gate’s design code. Forcibly overloading the Mechanical Shark’s senses was not difficult.

“I’ve overloaded its sensory organs, making them extremely sensitive. It will move towards where the pain feels least, until it dies.”

If the sensations in the deep sea were agonizingly painful, it would naturally try to move towards the surface, where the strain would be less.

Lennok forcibly adjusted the Mechanical Shark’s instincts, turning it into a means to escape this ocean as quickly as possible.

WHOOSH!!!

The probe rapidly ascended, following the Mechanical Shark that swam, surging diagonally upward.

Triton thrashed, swinging his trident to try and dislodge the probe, but the further they moved from the deep sea, the weaker Triton’s mana amplification became.

The sight of the shark and probe ascending at ultra-high speed.

At the same time, Triton’s complexion hardened as he felt the rapidly changing water pressure from all directions.

[This is madness…!! Don’t you know we’ll both die like this!!!]

CRACKLING!!!

Normally, when conducting deep-sea exploration and returning, one should never resurface so quickly.

This is because if the water pressure rapidly loosens, causing a recoil on the body, it would be no surprise to instantly die in a horrific manner on the spot.

If a normal human had been aboard the probe without any countermeasures, their entire body would have exploded the moment they turned their head towards the surface.

WOOOOOOSH!!!

UUGGHHH!!!

Unable to withstand the rapidly changing water pressure, the Mechanical Shark painfully thrashed its body.

Triton, too, gripped his throat, unable to bear the discomfort as if his whole body was about to burst.

He was concentrating on infusing mana to somehow protect his relatively vulnerable internal organs and respiratory system.

Even the probe, made of Armadelta Alloy, couldn’t withstand the changing water pressure and distorted as if it would explode at any moment.

Inside, Lennok’s figure gripped both hands, his face pale, unable to even speak properly.

WHOOSH!!!

Emerging from the dark depths, just after reaching the midway point between the surface and the Seafloor Barrier, streamlined submarines appeared.

[Intruder detected!!]

[Commander Triton is engaging, pursue!!]

Pilots aboard the submersible crafts rammed their vessels directly into the probe, and as if on cue, fired torpedoes.

However, they were swept up by the vortex created by the Mechanical Shark’s ultra-fast ascent, lost direction, and were flung away.

The sight of the shark and probe surging towards the surface at a speed so insane that even the Machina Navy’s pursuit faltered.

Horrified screams, unable to be suppressed, echoed successively over the communication network.

[Impossible. No one should be able to withstand this level of pressure change!!]

[This isn’t pain a human can endure. They’re insane…!!]

[Move!! Contact the main fleet on standby!!]

The moment information arrived that an intruder had appeared at the Seafloor Barrier, the fleet, submarines, and the Machina Navy guarding the sea were mobilized and simultaneously formed a cordon.

Even if the probe were to risk death and escape to the surface from this spot, only dozens of waiting fleets would greet it.

There was no escape.

AAARGH, AAARGH!!!

The Mechanical Shark’s body could no longer withstand the changing water pressure and reached its limit first.

It painfully thrashed its body, which had swollen grotesquely, until its belly and gills burst open, scattering fresh blood into the ocean.

The Mechanical Shark’s figure, belly up, its breath ceased.

Triton, who had been fused with it, also seemed to share in the recoil, his entire body stiff and immobile.

As a Level 7 Ascendant, he was still alive, but barely holding on. Even that was only possible because Triton’s Hierarchy was specialized for the marine environment.

But Lennok abandoned the lifeless shark and used the remaining power of the probe to surface.

“…!!”

Now unable to speak properly, he barely managed to stroke Davi’s head with his fingertips.

At that moment, the Cybernetic Spirit transformed into an ethereal form, escaping the pressure, and Lennok, left alone, gripped the controls.

KIIIIIIING!!!

A frantic ringing in his ears.

His churning stomach and the probe’s cracks, expanding ceaselessly as if about to burst.

If the probe failed and burst, Lennok, directly exposed to the pressure changes, would also be reduced to a lump of flesh.

But Lennok, knowing this, continuously burned the remaining fuel and mana to increase speed.

The probe, surging upward, spinning vertically in the dark ocean, convulsed erratically before breaking apart dozens of meters below the surface.

CRACKLE, CRACKLE-CRACKLE!!!

The chilling sound of metal not breaking, but tearing apart, accompanied by the impact fully engulfing Lennok.

The rapid expansion immediately transformed into a powerful explosion, completely shattering the probe just before it reached the surface.

BOOOOOM!!!

A powerful expansion and explosion erupted just below the surface.

The shock caused the battleships lined up along the coast to sway violently, and a tens-of-meters-high column of water shot up, raining down like a deluge.

The commanders of each ship quickly grabbed their communicators and began issuing orders.

[Find the body. Even the wreckage of the vehicle he was riding will do!!]

[Send down all waiting divers. High-speed boats, begin searching quickly.]

[From now on, turn the mana-detection radar to maximum output!!]

It was beyond comprehension to escape by collaring the Mechanized Troops’ commander, but even so, there was no escaping the pursuit of the waiting 12th Fleet.

The Machina Navy of the Machine City, Machina, boasted the most formidable military power.

Superficially, it guarded important sea areas within Machina’s system, which used seawater as its power source, but it also served as a guardian deployed to protect the Seafloor Barrier.

For this reason, the fleet staff officers continued to debate the identity of the intruder they had just pursued.

“Damn it, how did he infiltrate the Seafloor Barrier without any interference?”

“All physically navigable sea areas are under naval control. We can’t help but suspect an inside accomplice.”

“There are also privatized factory districts and research districts beyond the military’s reach. For now, request an explanation of events from them as well.”

“Find the body and wreckage quickly!! Only then will our report be properly acknowledged by the higher-ups.”

[Commander.]

The voice of the unit commander, who oversaw the Machina Navy’s internal divers, was low and grim.

[We’ve begun searching a radius of dozens of kilometers immediately after the explosion and have found numerous components presumed to be from the probe. However…]

“However?”

[There’s absolutely no trace of a body presumed to be the occupant’s. It’s either completely obliterated into ashes, or…]

“Find it.”

Before the unit commander could properly finish his sentence, the commander spoke in a rigid voice.

[Sir?]

“You cannot return until you find his body in this ocean today. Convey that to the entire fleet.”

Upper Workshop District. Lennok’s workshop.

Mouser sat beside his workbench, hammering, then glanced anxiously at his watch.

“Time…”

Although he had returned as Lennok instructed, he couldn’t hide his unease all the same.

The idea of directly infiltrating the Seafloor Barrier, which was physically inaccessible, felt equally reckless to Mouser.

However, he had only acquiesced because the one who proposed the method was the most outstanding and talented wizard among all those Mouser knew.

“…”

In truth, Mouser also knew.

That cooperating with Lennok might jeopardize his own safety.

Helping with tasks as a craftsman and assisting with the workshop’s operation might be overlooked.

But helping Lennok cast Armadelta Alloy and construct the probe’s exterior could clearly be considered an offense.

In the worst-case scenario, he might be judged by Ex Machina’s military court and imprisoned in a cell where he would never see the light of day again.

“Hmm.”

Mouser, having thought that far, casually hummed as he picked his nose.

“I’ve grown old too. What’s the point now…”

Mouser didn’t consider himself clever enough to attach reasonable justifications to everything he did or wanted to do.

Because Lennok had saved his life at Blaiver Magic Tower.

Because it was interesting to see him run the workshop in such a unique way by his side.

Because he was curious about the truth behind the death of his master, Furnace General.

Because he thought that wizard might truly unearth the secret buried deep beneath the Machine City.

There were plenty of reasons if he looked.

Mouser wasn’t interested in neatly organizing and containing such emotions.

He was simply more curious to see how far the young partner, who had made his tedious artisan work interesting, would reach into the city’s depths.

“It’s been ages since Van said he’d be back. When’s he actually coming?”

The return time Lennok had mentioned was long past.

Even if he had succeeded in secretly approaching the Seafloor Barrier, by now the Machine City’s 12th Fleet would have ample time to detect an anomaly.

If anything went wrong, it wouldn’t be strange for him to be caught in all sorts of bombardments and found as a corpse, unable to escape.

Of course, if it was the Van Mouser knew, he wouldn’t die from ship bombardments. But it was a situation where a war could break out in the middle of the city, and it wouldn’t be strange.

“…Should I prepare to run away beforehand?”

Mouser, putting down his hammer and standing up, glanced at the bundle he had spread out in the corner of the workshop, falling into deep thought, when at that moment—

KNOCK KNOCK.

The sound of someone knocking on the workshop door was heard.

Mouser rushed to the door as if he had been waiting, flinging it open.

“Lyman, aren’t you terribly late compared to what you…!!”

“Yes.”

A deep, calm voice.

“It’s too late now.”

It was certainly not Lennok’s voice, at least as Mouser remembered it.

“Y-you…!!!”

Mouser involuntarily took a step back, raising his gaze, his eyes wide.

Someone, who naturally followed him into the workshop, asked chillingly.

“I’ve come about Hermes. Where is Lyman?”