Chapter 647: Enforcer (4)
“……”
Could Lennok easily comprehend her complex inner world and origins?
How she became an Enforcer of Machina, how she cherished this city, and presided over the Ascension Gate project.
How, after its failure and her banishment, she still wandered like a phantom, joining Pandemonium.
There was no need to force himself to understand or accept it. But…
Click.
Lennok holstered his rifle and slowly withdrew his magical power.
“Lyman…”
Mouser called out to Lennok with a worried expression beside him, but Lennok nodded and asked,
“If I grant your request, what can you offer me?”
She could feign ignorance, pretending not to know what he was talking about, or she could fob him off, telling him to handle Maiya alone.
But instead, Lennok chose to accept Maiya’s proposal right there.
Hermes intended to create a new gate using the entire Machine City, not just the Heart-Star Vault, to summon Transcendants from the Old World.
If the city-wide spatial shifts were merely preliminary work, and simultaneously, people were being dispatched to track Lennok, then, as Maiya said, there wasn’t much time.
Maiya revealing her cards and explaining her terms first likely also stemmed from her belief that they didn’t have much time to negotiate.
Maiya replied,
“Excluding Hermes, I’ll deal with the causality of everything you’ve done in this city.”
“You’ll deal with the causality?”
“I know your real name isn’t Lyman.”
“……”
“I know what you were thinking. You deliberately constructed a flimsy identity, intending to exploit the loopholes. But hasn’t that fact come back to haunt you now?”
Maiya gave a cold laugh.
“Looking back at your past actions, I think I know who you are and what kind of superhuman power you possess… But let’s keep that buried for now.”
Maiya spoke to Lennok, who remained silent.
“The doubts about your identity. The encirclement of this city around you. The military might of this city under martial law. I’ll handle all of it personally.”
Only then did Lennok realize Maiya’s intention, and he smiled.
“…I see. You intended to make a deal with me about this from the very beginning, didn’t you?”
Maiya knew that Lennok had disguised his identity, clashed with Hermes, and immediately after, his Lyman identity was also under suspicion.
That was why Maiya was offering to handle the suspicions and pursuit surrounding Lyman’s identity on Lennok’s behalf.
“If we drag this out any longer, the enforcement agency will pinpoint and surround this workshop.”
Lennok noticed that Maiya’s gaze wasn’t on him, but sweeping over the back of the workshop.
“Decide quickly. If you accept the deal, we’ll start immediately.”
“Good.”
Lennok replied with a smile.
“It would be worth seeing the Machine City’s greatest Enforcer being chased across Machina for once.”
“……”
For a moment, Maiya’s eyes seemed to gleam coldly, but she quickly composed herself.
Escaping the pursuit and suspicions surrounding Lyman, and gaining one more method to deal with Hermes—that was enough.
Though Maiya was acting purely for her own objectives rather than out of goodwill towards Lennok, there was no reason to refuse a deal that benefited both of them.
“If you’ve decided, let’s start right away. First, take care of the Furnace General’s disciple.”
Maiya gestured towards Mouser, then walked out of the workshop without waiting for an answer.
Mouser grumbled, sounding a little intimidated.
“Maiya Lonsdale… She hasn’t changed at all. Still a person so sensitive and sharp it sends shivers down your spine.”
“Do you know her?”
“I saw her a few times at my master’s workshop.”
Mouser sighed, leaned back in his chair, and asked Lennok,
“So, you’re going to work with that outcast to solve this, then? And with that person you mentioned earlier, Artemeyer?”
“……”
“I still don’t quite get it… I don’t understand everything that’s happening in this city right now.”
Mouser wasn’t wrong.
The Old World and Transcendants. The existence of God-Slayers and the Ascension Gate.
Hermes’s objectives and methods were things difficult to confront without a deep understanding of the world’s secrets from beyond destruction.
So, instead of bothering to explain it to Mouser, Lennok got straight to the point.
“While we’re working with Maiya Lonsdale, there’s something else I’d like to ask you.”
“…Now?”
Mouser muttered, dumbfounded, but Lennok immediately pulled open the warehouse door with force.
Rumble!!
Inside the warehouse, the floor was soaked, and metal fragments were scattered everywhere.
Slumped in a corner, as if thrown there, was a massive metal structure, its entire body in tatters, barely maintaining the shape of a bird.
Mouser recognized the sight and his jaw dropped as he turned to Lennok.
“I know a high-level wizard’s skill can reach the heavens… but you managed to salvage the wreckage of a probe in the midst of all that?”
The probe was on the verge of exploding under immense stress.
Even as the probe exploded and he used Feigenbaum’s Eye to escape, Lennok had managed to collect as many Night Raven fragments as possible and flee.
The weight measured through magic showed a pathetic state, with more than half of its original mass torn away compared to before reaching the Seabed Barrier.
Normally, it would be logical to give up on restoration and dispose of it, but Lennok had no intention of abandoning this equipment yet.
“We’ll meticulously salvage the remaining Armadelta Alloy, and then focus on restoring the Night Raven’s form as the primary goal for maintenance.”
“The basic framework is already shattered. Unless you repair it with materials much stronger than the original…”
The moment Lennok touched his sleeve, purple crystals tumbled out from within.
Mouser’s eyes widened slightly as he immediately recognized the mineral’s identity.
“…Graya Ore?”
“I brought a little of the ore that was being mined near the Seabed Barrier. They say it’s known for its hardness.”
Lennok picked one up and smiled faintly.
“Wouldn’t this be quite suitable material for the Night Raven’s new hull?”
Machina’s Core District.
Inside Dangsa Street, where the Ex Machina Supreme Council members resided.
In the lobby of the soaring clock tower, members of the Machine-Headed Faction were gathered, looking at screens together.
There were at least eight different video feeds displayed on the lobby wall screens.
All of them constantly changed, showing different parts of the city, rapidly switching views and observing the situation.
[Moving to the northwest outskirts of the lower-level workshop district.]
[Reorganization into the inland region of the rock salt production zone.]
[Biotechnology research district coordinates fixed.]
Thump-thump-thump!!!
Various regions of the Machine City violently shaking, transforming, moving, and colliding across the screens.
The committee members watching the screens gulped down whiskey, as if their throats were parched.
“…I’m not sure if it was right to entrust this matter to Committee Member Hermes. I know there was a problem with the Heart-Star Vault, but wasn’t he too hasty in handling it?”
“What else could we do?”
Another committee member quickly responded to the muttered complaint, as if waiting for it.
“There are hardly any people left who looked beyond the Gate and returned unharmed. And yet, Hermes, a member of Ex Machina, is still continuing his research.”
“……”
“When it comes to matters related to the Seabed Barrier, his say is naturally the strongest. Moreover, if several Meisters died and an accident occurred in the Heart-Star Vault…”
Since there was concrete circumstantial evidence, Ex Machina couldn’t refuse his demands.
Furthermore, Hermes was one of the very few researchers who had consistently achieved results in Gate research until this incident.
Since he, who usually never commented on Machina’s power, made such a demand, it was natural for its weight to be even greater.
“So… has that artisan Lyman been apprehended?”
“We haven’t heard from the Sidesquad agents for an hour. Communications seem to be completely cut off.”
“Then, as Committee Member Hermes said, it’s highly probable that Lyman is involved.”
A heavy silence fell over the spacious lobby.
“We might have to consider the worst-case scenario.”
“What are you talking about? He’s just a powerless artisan. On the contrary, we should capture him as quickly as possible before things go wrong…!!”
“Committee Member Langmuir…? Where are you going?”
Langmuir ignored the other committee members calling him and quickly strode away.
Langmuir was the one who had introduced Lyman to the Meister selection ceremony.
Having intended to hold him accountable for the selection results but instead getting himself caught, he knew very well how dangerous Lyman was.
He wasn’t someone who could be explained simply as an artisan with unusually good dexterity and keen intuition.
His ability to create the bizarrely powerful combat automaton, Night Raven. His audacity to brazenly invade Langmuir’s mansion to settle things.
His secretive and precise skill, having committed such acts without leaving any trace for anyone to pick up on.
Perhaps even Lyman being identified as a suspect now was something he had deliberately orchestrated himself.
Having reached that conclusion, Langmuir had no intention of lingering around for another moment.
“Call the driver and have the car ready. We’re leaving the Core District immediately!!”
“Understood.”
The moment he quickly gave instructions to his attendant waiting outside and pulled out his phone from his pocket.
Boom!!
A shockwave reverberated, making the entire building Langmuir stood in tremble.
“Wha—what?!”
“It’s an attack!! Ex Machina is under attack!!”
The other committee members, startled, rushed out, shouting, and as bodyguards and escorts hurriedly surrounded the members, drawing their respective equipment and gripping them tightly,
Vroom!!
The building wall was cut away as if it were paper, then vanished into dust.
Beyond it, an old truck rumbled and drove inside.
The truck, its wheels calmly rolling, stopped in front of the committee members, and someone casually poked their head out of the window.
“Committee Member Langmuir. It’s been a while.”
Langmuir’s face immediately paled as he recognized the person.
“Ly-Lyman…”
“How dare a mere artisan…!!”
“Do you even know where you are!!!”
The Ex Machina bodyguards moved to blast Lennok and the truck with firearms and bladed weapons, but Lennok didn’t even look at them, raising the long trumpet-gun he held.
Kiiiing!!
The moment he pulled the trigger of the trumpet-gun, the scene beyond the muzzle shimmered like a heat haze.
A strange ringing in their ears, and simultaneously, the bodyguards rolled their eyes back and collapsed.
“Gurgle…”
A fight that ended with unsettling ease. An overwhelming result where even the minimal premise of exchanging blows wasn’t established.
The committee members swallowed hard as they realized dark red blood was profusely flowing from the bodyguards’ ears.
Holding the long trumpet-gun, Lennok, who was gripping the steering wheel, looked at Langmuir and smiled.
“I thought you would have run away by now. Did you miss me or something?”
“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Well, that’s fine. Just come over here for now. There’s somewhere you need to go with me.”
At that, another committee member yelled,
“Go? Go where? After suddenly doing this in the Core District…!!”
“It seems you still don’t quite understand.”
Lennok leaned against the truck’s driver’s window, waving the trumpet-gun in his hand.
“All the committee members gathered here. I’m kidnapping them.”