C205: Delica Kingdom (1)
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Victor smiled bizarrely at the gun pointed at him.
"Oh Hyo Hyo….You're a quiet customer. Are you a hit man or something?"
Rudger didn't answer that and pulled the trigger right away.
A mana bullet protruding from the gun shot away at Victor's forehead but was blocked by a gold wall soaring in front of Victor's nose and disappeared.
'What?'
Rudger narrowed his eyes in the shadows at the wall that suddenly appeared. It was a wall, but its appearance changed, and it soon turned into a round sphere.
Apparently, it was a very flexible metal.
"Oh Hyo Hyo. Isn't it amazing? This is one of my masterpieces."
Victor opened his arms wide, showing his teeth toward Rudger.
"It's my original Liquid Golem, which combines alchemy, metal conversion, and all kinds of magic!"
Victor said golem, but the way it crawled on the floor was like a lump of pure mucus.
At that moment, the body of the liquid golem trembled and countless tentacles shot long at Rudger.
Rudger immediately backed off, tumbling backwards as many spears fell where he was just standing.
'It's fast and very flexible. Is it fighting by changing its form freely? It means that it is an autonomous golem since it could move like that when the user didn't give any specific instructions.'
Rudger aimed the revolver at Victor to check his conjuncture. Then, as the liquid golem reacted to it, he built a wall around Victor.
It was as Rudger expected. The golem has an order system in place to remove the owner's enemy and protect the owner at the same time.
It was surprising to see such a thing after only looking at the dull steam golem.
'The scientific power of this world is quite different from Earth, but its technology is very advanced.'
He didn't have a clue how high Victor Dreadful's scientific ability was in order to create such a thing. However, considering the existence of Arpa and Betty, the abnormal development of science due to magic may be an unstoppable trend.
Rudger shot a fire spell at the liquid golem and the third tier magic [Fluttering Flame] collided head-on with it.
"It's no use trying to melt it. I've also made sure it's heat-resistant!"
As Victor said, the liquid golem was fine even after being hit by the high heat. Looking closely, a mana circuit could be seen shining on its surface.
'Does it even have resistance to elements? Then I must use the standard method.'
If it's a golem, there's a core.
Dealing a powerful blow to the golem's core was an old way to deal with a golem.
Rudger sensed the golem's mana and vaguely felt the presence of a core but he realized that it would be hard to target it.
'The position of the core keeps changing.'
Unlike other golem cores, the liquid golem core kept moving and that made it difficult to aim for it.
At that moment, shadows fell from the ceiling and landed on both sides of Rudger. As soon as they touched the ground, there was a crack in the floor.
The two hooded beings immediately swung their blades at Rudger but Rudger's body was swallowed by a shadow and soon appeared in a place a little away.
After dodging Rudger was able to confirm the appearance of the attackers from the ceiling.
'Are they automatons?'
What fell from the ceiling were automatons in human form. Although their human figure was not complete the ivory-colored joint dolls had long blades on their arms.
"Huh? It was an inevitable attack, but you avoided it?"
Just as Rudger analyzed Victor, Victor also looked closely at Rudger's magic and behavior patterns.
"Certainly you couldn't move that distance with speed. No. There was no room to escape. Nullify physical attacks? It's not like that. Perhaps?!"
Victor shouted, spitting in his mouth.
"Could it be that you jumped over space?!"
"……."
Rudger stared at Victor with a deep gaze since he noticed this magic just by looking at it once.
'Is it because he has a science-related brain? He has a different sense of analysis.'
Victor shouted in an excited voice to see if his thought was right, even though Rudger didn't answer.
"How did you do it? Let me know, too! Let me know!"
The sight of the middle-aged man shouting as if a child were complaining was quite bizarre. However, unlike the lightness of the action, he was a very dangerous adversary since he saw through Rudger's magic at once.
'I'll be annoyed if I reveal my bottom line while wasting time like this.'
And the two newly appeared automatons were also formidable. Even though that much weight fell sharply from that height, they moved normally.
'Great technical skills beyond common sense, a sharp eye contrary to appearances and a casual nature of conducting inhumane experiments.'
First Order Victor Dreadful was a dangerous man.
'I have to eliminate him now.'
The shadow surrounding Rudger's body burned like a flame. At the same time, his body disappeared as if it were melting into the shadow.
Because he disappeared from view the automaton and liquid golem's reaction stopped for a moment.
"Huh? Where did he go again?"
Rudger appeared behind Victor's back and aimed his heart with a sword stick taken out of the shadow.
The moment he tried to pierce his heart something bright red shot at Rudger.
"……."
Rudger gave up stabbing Victor in the heart and pulled himself back. Otherwise, his waist would have been cut off at once.
Rudger stepped back, and a new uninvited guest appeared between Victor and him.
"Doctor, where are you looking?"
The new man was wearing black full plate armor, had an obsidian-like greatsword on his shoulder and a red mane fluttered over his helmet.
Although the figure itself boasted a sense of intimidation and considerable coolness, at the same time,
'Armor in this day and age?'
In this era, both soldiers and knights were unified with uniforms instead of armor.
There is a special exoskeleton-reinforced armor, but it is mainly for industrial use and is not suitable for combat.
It was also the first time anyone had ever worn a suit of armor so openly.
'Besides, that red slash just now.'
It was clear that it was the trail created by swinging the sword.
The sudden interruption and the light treatment of Victor Dreadful didn't feel right.
"Oh Hyo Hyo. Thank you for saving me, Night Verom! You saved my life!"
"It's noisy and unpleasant. Why do I have to clean up the mess of people like you?"
The man called Verom grumbled but didn't take his eyes off Rudger.
'He's a First Order.'
Seeing him treat Victor like that, Verom was also in the same position.
'Two First Orders in one place, huh?'
Did they notice his attack and joined hands?
No, Victor didn't expect Verom to appear.
Rather than trying to deceive Rudger it's more likely that they meet by chance.
Rudger was unlucky.
'I thought one First Order might come, but I didn't think there would be two.'
In addition, Verom appeared to be a close-combat specialist. Furthermore, the blood attack he used is not, by all accounts, available to ordinary knights.
'It's not aura so it must be a special ability, constitution, or something else.'
What he just saw could be all of them but Rudger lacked information. Considering that, it was too risky to fight.
'I can't help it. It's dangerous to fight any more. I'm going to get out of here.'
Verom noticed that, and red eyes shone from the inside of the helmet.
"Are you trying to run away? To think of running away against me, I commend you for your courage."
His old-fashioned way of speaking was out of place in today's world but contrary to his tone, his power was real.
A blood stream began to form on the greatsword held by Verom with both hands. It was fundamentally different from the aura used by knights and it was fired in the shape of a crescent moon following the trajectory of Verom swinging his sword.
'So far?'
Rudger immediately jumped over the space through the shadow as a red attack stirred roughly through the place where he was standing a while ago.
Seeing that everything was swept away, the power alone was outstanding.
"He is a fast and swift man."
Verom murmured and swung the sword several more times. Whenever that happened, a red crescent moon shot across space.
The iron structures were cut off and torn debris flew in all directions.
Unable to withstand the power of the attack, the outer wall of the factory collapsed.
The factory, which was originally in danger, began to shake as if it were going to collapse.
"Ah! Night Verom! What are you doing? There are so many important facilities here, are you going to destroy them all?"
"Be quiet. We have to dispose of this place anyway."
"But there are experimental materials that I haven't collected yet!"
"Experiment data? Are you referring to the bag that black guest is holding right now?"
"What?"
At Verom's point, Victor stared at Rudger with his eyes wide open beyond the goggles.
Rudger, who appeared in the distance, had a briefcase in his hand.
"When the hell?! Night Verom we have to stop him! That's my experiment!"
"Why does he have that important thing?"
"I don't know that! I kept it in the safe!"
"……He robbed the safe in such a short time to get the data?"
As the eyes of the two first orders turned this way, Rudger decided to step down quickly.
Verom then dashed out and rushed toward Rudger.
"I won't miss you!"
This time, he wielded a sword with a determination to catch Rudger but a light exploded inside the shadow surrounding his body.
The explosive light shone brightly inside the factory, and Verom, who thought he would avoid it, had no choice but to cover his eyes with his hands.
"What is this?"
At the same time, his whole body sensed danger and the black armor he was wearing trembled and warned him that something was coming.
Verom stopped the swinging sword and drove it into the ground. Then the blood-colored energy swirled up and surrounded his body.
Victor felt the crisis as well and the liquid golem wrapped his body in a circle like a cocoon and the two automatons stood in front of him
"────!!!."
Soon after, a white flame quickly engulfed the surrounding area.
* * *
Rudger, who was standing on the roof of the building and watching the scene, released [Aether Nocturnus] who surrounded him.
He immediately poured the mana medicine he had prepared into his mouth and recalled the fight a while ago.
'I wish they died in the attack a while ago, but that would be too greedy.'
Before leaving Rudger used his original magic, the Tree of the Sefirot.
Among them, the 8th sefirot was Hod. With the power of Michael, the angel of fire, this high level fire magic creates a huge flame storm along with light and blows up the surrounding area.
It was also the magic he used to blow the entire factory away when he was dealing with the bug brothers in Leathervelk.
The sun-like flame that rises after the pure white brilliance erupts burns anyone who opposes it. However, this time, he used it too fast and less than half of its original power came out.
'Since they both noticed my attack at the end and went into defense.'
It's a pity that he couldn't kill them, but he decided to step down because he achieved his original purpose and they didn't know who he was anyway.
On the contrary, Rudger discovered information about another First Order and profited greatly plus he also stole the experimental data.
Rudger looked through the experimental data he stole.
While avoiding Verom's attack, he went into the place where Moloch came out from and took it.
'Was I lucky?'
The urgent data was surprisingly proper.
'A report on human experiments to manifest the power of beasts in human genes.'
It was also the cause of the werewolf crisis in Leathervelk but it wasn't a big surprise because it was a fact that he already knew. What was important was the next data.
'Development of special gunpowder unaffected by the Silence of Fire.'
Knowing that the terrorists known as the Liberation Army were using the special gunpowder gave Rudger a headache.
There was something similar to this before.
'Three years ago, a secret experiment in the Kingdom of Delica.'
The gunpowder unaffected by magic and the automaton legion.
The moment he saw the data acquired through today's attack and the automatons Victor Dreadful was using, the puzzle was put together.
Three years ago the Black Dawn Society was involved in what happened in the Delica Kingdom .