Chapter 648: Enforcer (5)

The dim stairway leading down to the clock tower’s basement.

Committeemen, their hands bound by thin strands of magical thread, descended the basement stairs in a line.

The sight of the committee members, moving as if being collectively escorted as hostages.

“The truck you were in. It was a cash transport vehicle belonging to the Central Bank near the Core District,” Geldrich Langmuir remarked, observing Lennok, who walked silently at the very back of the line.

“Though it’s an old model, it’s still used around here. Did you sneak into the Core District using that?”

Lennok glanced at Langmuir with amusement before answering.

“To receive and store slush funds in real-time, the internal security around the Financial District is set quite loosely.”

“…What?”

“If you say you’re leaving to pick up cash, no one suspects a thing. I suppose we have the committee members to thank for their tireless efforts in developing the city.”

Though they knew Lennok’s words held no good intent, no one dared to speak carelessly.

Every single one of the plans he spoke of now felt like circumstantial evidence, meticulously prepared for precisely this moment.

He, the master artisan standing before their eyes, had known that such a moment would come.

“…So you knew about the slush funds being received from the clock tower and then sent to the Financial District via a transport vehicle?”

“Committee Member Langmuir!!”

“How dare you spread such baseless rumors!!”

Other committee members, startled, tried to deny it, but Langmuir ignored them and questioned Lennok.

“What is your objective? What do you intend to do by taking us hostage?”

Before answering, Lennok gazed up at the ceiling of the clock tower’s basement stairs, along which they were walking.

“I heard this clock tower is one of the oldest buildings in Machina.”

“….”

“The building itself has long been outdated by Machina’s technology, but it remains in the Core District due to its symbolism… Isn’t it ironic, considering the prestige of the Machine City?”

The other committee members, having endured various hardships to reach their positions, didn’t outwardly waver, but couldn’t hide their tension.

Passing through long, spiral stairs and dim corridors, a thick lever was turned, revealing the clock tower’s engine room.

All sorts of pumps and pistons moved incessantly everywhere, steam and heat mixing to fill the engine room’s interior.

“Hmph…”

Committee members wiped sweat or waved their hands, seemingly breathless from the sudden environmental change.

Langmuir ignored them and turned his gaze towards Lennok, who stood at the very back.

“As you said, it’s an old building, so its power efficiency isn’t good. It’s impossible to find anything here…”

Click!!

At that moment, Lennok abruptly closed the engine room door and locked it from the inside.

What could it mean, for him to take action to prevent anyone, including himself, from leaving the engine room?

“Gasp…!!”

The faces of the other committee members turned pale, and they all backed away, putting distance between themselves and Lennok.

“Lies…!!”

“Damn it, why did we have to come all the way here!”

Instead of responding to their shouts, Lennok raised the blunderbuss he held and aimed it at the committee members.

Before they could react, his finger pulled the trigger, and at the moment the committee members tightly shut their eyes, covering their ears with both hands—

Boom!!

The pumps and pistons, busily moving inside the engine room, simultaneously ceased operation.

“…Huh?”

As the committee members slowly removed their hands from their ears, looking dumbfounded, Lennok spoke.

“Forty-seven large pumps. Eighty medium pistons. Six hundred ninety-three lower insertion pipes and three steam exhaust devices from the Platoon Workshop.”

Lennok lowered the hand holding the blunderbuss and began to walk, surveying his surroundings.

“The output generated within this engine room is excessively large for covering just one clock tower. If power were supplied normally, it wouldn’t be surprising for the internal facilities to overload and break down.”

“W-what?”

“Therefore, isn’t the energy generated in this engine room being used for another function, not for the clock tower?”

At that moment, the engine room floor where Lennok and the committee members stood shook violently and began to sink.

Rumble-rumble-rumble!!

“Ugh!!”

“We’re falling!”

“Q-quick, something to hold onto!”

The committee members stumbled, desperately grabbing onto various handrails throughout the engine room, clinging on.

Their expressions subtly changed as they instinctively gripped the dusty handrails.

“I see. The very fact that handrails were installed in so many places like this…”

Clunk, clunk!!

The engine room, as if it had become an elevator, plunged downwards into the underground, accelerating rapidly.

After a short while, it seemed to stop, then swerved sideways and sped for a long time.

The engine room shook as if hurtling on rails, then ascended again.

“…Hmm?”

Some of the more perceptive committee members tilted their heads, sensing something amiss.

Clunk!!

As the engine room stopped, the door Lennok had locked swung wide open.

The committee members hesitated, then stepped outside, muttering in dismay at the sight before them.

“Wh-what on earth…”

“Such a monstrous idol was hidden in the clock tower?”

In the middle of a gloomy, excavated cavern, the colossal Yimyeonpalbi statue was half-buried amidst mounds of earth.

A devil-like figure with two heads and eight arms.

All eight arms were securely bound by unknown chains, and its ten eyes were tightly shut.

The statue lay serene, as if asleep, half-buried in the earth.

Yet, its presence was overwhelmingly formidable, even without exerting any power.

As the other committee members faltered and retreated, confronted by the statue’s presence, Lennok approached and touched its forearm.

This is where the coordinates the Doctor mentioned were. Lennok’s eyes gleamed, realizing the forearm’s hardness and material were similar to what he remembered.

The Yimyeonpalbi statue used in the interim settlement. Was this the prototype?

While tracking the assassin of Narcissa, Lennok had encountered a replica similar to the statue the Doctor used.

Didn’t he acquire the Furnace General’s hammer from a Sidesquad agent searching for the Dragon’s Heart, and extract information about the manufacturing method of Armadelta Alloy?

At the time, he didn’t know why a replica of the statue was there; he merely used the statue’s ability and fled.

But only after learning that the Doctor’s name was Artemeyer did he fully understand the true story.

Artemeyer, the designer of the Ascension Gate.

A prototype created by him, who had long researched the Old World in the Machine City, to store information from the Old World.

That was the true identity and origin of the statue existing in this Machine City.

The statue used in Pandemonium’s interim settlement was likely a completed version newly created by the Doctor after he left Machina.

But the original of that statue was still preserved in this Machine City.

And what’s more, in a secret space within the ancient clock tower, where the Ex Machina committee members themselves resided.

Activating the engine room’s hidden function was necessary because the clock tower’s surplus power was being used to maintain this underground cavern.

Lennok had investigated the process using the coordinates provided by the Doctor and successfully found the statue.

Driving the transport truck into the clock tower and taking the committee members hostage was merely a means to access the coordinates the Doctor had indicated.

Even decades after Artemeyer’s name was completely forgotten, the statue he left behind remained here.

Lennok, touching the chains tightly binding the statue’s arm, spoke.

“This was created and installed directly by a Meister-class artisan.”

“…What did you say?”

“It seems a comparable level of authority is required to deactivate its built-in security system.”

Lennok lightly gestured towards the committee members who were timidly backing away.

“You’re saying it requires the authority of Ex Machina?”

“Unbelievable. To think such a monstrous thing was hidden beneath the clock tower…”

Without needing words, everyone understood why Lennok had brought the committee members here as hostages.

The committee members, looking intimidated, hesitated before standing in front of the chains that bound the statue’s eight arms.

They scanned their Tickets on a device embedded next to the sturdy chains and requested the deactivation of the security measures with Ex Machina authority.

As the system approved the authority, the chains binding the statue simultaneously released.

Whoosh…!!

The falling chains kicked up dust, creating a sandstorm that enveloped the committee members above their heads.

“Cough, cough!!”

The committee members, instantly covered in dust, recoiled, and Lennok nodded towards them.

“Would you mind returning to the engine room and waiting?”

“Lyman… do you know what that statue is?” another committee member asked with an anxious expression.

Instead of answering, Lennok smiled faintly.

“The air in this cavern is quite thin due to the incomplete development.”

“What do you mean…?”

“If you don’t return quickly to the engine room, where ventilation is better, you might not last long.”

“…!!”

With just a few words, Lennok sent the committee members back to the engine room on their own accord, then turned his gaze to the statue.

After all, the engine room’s movement function wouldn’t activate unless Lennok returned.

And the engine room, with its relatively good ventilation, would be a suitable place to confine the committee members.

This underground space was hidden hundreds of meters below the clock tower, making it ideal for holding them hostage.

All that remained was to use this statue, located at the coordinates the Doctor provided, to achieve his initial objective.

“Maiya. Are you ready?”

“The statue’s authenticity has been confirmed,” Maiya replied, walking out from behind the statue as if nothing had happened.

“We would have started already if you hadn’t been escorting the committee members in and out of the engine room.”

“Artemeyer provided the location of the hidden statue, but I heard it’s been decades since he left Machina,” Lennok calmly responded to Maiya’s words.

“There was a possibility that someone might have become aware of the statue’s existence and taken measures. In fact, didn’t one of the Meisters discover it and chain it up?”

Maiya’s eyes sharpened, immediately understanding Lennok’s words.

“I see. You thought that if enough Ex Machina committee members were gathered, any security barrier could be easily overcome?”

“The Meister who placed the chains discovered the statue but couldn’t find a way to remove it from inside the clock tower, where the Machine-Headed Faction committee members reside,” Lennok said, looking at the chains scattered around.

“So it seems they placed chains that could only be removed by those with the same authority, intending to research the statue later.”

The fact that a replica of the statue was used among Sidesquad agents suggests that Lennok wasn’t the only one to discover this prototype.

Perhaps some of the Machine-Headed committee members whom Lennok just sent back to the engine room as hostages were aware of this statue’s existence.

If he were to spend time interrogating them and extracting their true intentions, it wouldn’t be difficult to uncover its history, but…

“There’s no time. For now, I’ll investigate Ex Machina’s involvement with the statue separately later,” Lennok said, lightly tapping his wrist.

“I managed to duplicate two of the committee members’ Tickets during the transfer in the engine room. They’ll be blocked after one use, but they should allow us to pass through even the highest security barrier twice.”

Had it not been for the route the Doctor provided, he wouldn’t have been able to get such a chokehold on the Machine-Headed committee members so easily.

While it wasn’t a situation to kill the committee members or hold them indefinitely, Lennok didn’t simply let them go.

In the confined environment of the engine room and the unstable situation, he had managed to pierce through the distracted committee members’ consciousness and secretly duplicate their poorly guarded Tickets.

At the same time, if any unforeseen security devices appeared while raising the statue, he intended to use the committee members as a shield.

“You even managed to duplicate the Ex Machina committee members’ Tickets in that time… Good,” Maiya muttered with an impassive face, nodding slightly.

“You’re even more perceptive than I thought. Let’s start right away.”

“The problem is, I don’t really know what this statue is used for. From now on, you’ll have to figure that out yourself.”

Of course, Lennok knew what abilities the statue possessed, having participated in the interim settlement, but here he subtly distanced himself.

Since he wasn’t here under the identity of Victor, there was no reason to reveal that he knew about the Doctor or the statue.

Maiya, despite knowing Lennok wasn’t just an ordinary artisan, didn’t pry into his true identity in detail.

This wasn’t because she had no inkling of who Lyman truly was; on the contrary, it was likely because she had a strong suspicion.

Does she know about Adamant Thunder and pretend not to, or does she just not care?

Lennok’s eyes deepened as he watched Maiya’s back as she approached the statue.

Either way, it was clear that Lennok didn’t need to pretend to know the statue’s abilities at this point.

Here, he could only follow Maiya’s judgment, based on the Doctor’s advice.

Lennok thought so and preemptively gave Maiya a hint, feigning ignorance.

“If this statue was created directly by Artemeyer, it’s highly likely to be a medium connected to the Old World.”

“That’s right. If you’ve seen beyond the door in the Heart-Star Vault, you’d know.”

Having seen beyond the door under the identity of Lyman, it would be strange if he couldn’t even make this much of a guess.

Maiya also nodded naturally and stepped onto the statue’s palm.

“To be precise, it’s a storage device for trading and storing memories and information from the Old World in the form of equivalent exchange, based on the Law of Equivalent Productivity.”

“….”

“The Doctor had conceptualized this object a very long time ago, but he only truly completed it after the project had concluded.”

“The failure of the Ascension Gate project?”

Whoosh…!!

As Lennok overtly mentioned that phrase, Maiya’s aura momentarily sharpened to an eerie degree.

But Victor knew this fact, while Lyman did not. It was an issue that needed to be addressed, even if it meant a clear act.

Maiya, who had been staring down at Lennok with a chilling gaze, slowly nodded.

“…Only after completely concluding one failure did the Doctor return to his original conceptualization.”

“….”

“Only he knows what Artemeyer was thinking when he ultimately abandoned his name, cast aside everything he had, and left the city.”

Clang!!

Maiya drew a short sword from her embrace and smiled coldly.

“But it’s a lie to say he left no lingering attachments whatsoever. If he had, he wouldn’t have hidden the prototype of the statue here in perfect condition.”

Maiya, stepping onto the statue’s palm without hesitation, slowly began to channel her magic.

Lennok watched Maiya’s actions from behind with inner interest.

The Doctor’s statue, in principle, exchanged information of equivalent value in return for offering information or artifacts from the Old World.

Hadn’t Lennok himself acquired the manufacturing method of Armadelta Alloy using a replica of the statue?

The Doctor providing the coordinates where this statue was hidden was effectively a hint for him to use it to obtain necessary information.

It was certainly interesting to see what Maiya would offer as a price for a trade with the statue at this point.

Maiya didn’t stand out much during the interim settlement. Though it seemed she achieved some results…

During the interim settlement in the satellite city of Bailuts, Maiya seemed content with merely fulfilling her quota and didn’t show much interest in the trade itself.

However, in matters directly related to the Machine City, Machina, she wouldn’t hesitate to offer important information as a price.

Lennok was inwardly curious what information Maiya would offer to find a way to stop Hermes.

The moment Lennok was waiting for Maiya to speak, after she had ascended onto the statue’s palm and channeled her magic—

Maiya took a light step forward and instantly walked up the statue’s arm.

“…Hmm?”

Before Lennok could utter a word at the unexpected movement—

Slash!!

Maiya, swinging her gleaming short sword, immediately severed the statue’s neck.