“Ohohoho. My, what on earth is going on here?”
Victor Dreadpool chuckled as the alarm blared, announcing intruders.
The laugh escaped him instinctively, but inwardly, he was rattled.
“This place should have been hidden under the strictest secrecy. Even if someone talked, this isn’t somewhere you can simply find.”
And yet—there were intruders.
Which meant that among them was someone possessing an exceptional level of mechanical insight—someone on his own level.
“Ohohoho. How delightful. I didn’t think anyone besides myself could locate this place. Or perhaps... they’re not human at all?”
Victor stroked his beard and glanced over his shoulder.
“For now, I’ve sent out the experimental subjects I’d prepared... but judging by the situation, they won’t last long.”
The specimens he had designed to strike at enemies from within—
even though a considerable time had passed since he had unleashed them, the alarms had yet to cease.
That could only mean one thing:
the experimental subjects had failed to eliminate the intruders.
As if confirming his suspicion, a heavy thud—then another—echoed down the corridor.
Moments later—KRAASH!—the reinforced wall of the secret laboratory exploded inward.
The enemy had found him—deliberately, and with precision.
“What a pity. If only I still had the thing Nikolai and I were developing together, this wouldn’t be happening.”
Even now, the thought pained him. The mechanical god they had failed to complete... if he had been the one to finish it, it would have been glorious—perfect.
But lamenting the past was pointless.
Victor still had far too much to build—and far too much yet to create.
“Well then. Seems I’ll have to deal with the intruder myself.”
BANG!
The door to Victor’s laboratory shattered apart.
Clanking footsteps echoed through the smoke as a massive steel figure stepped inside.
“Oh...?”
As the haze cleared and the silhouette became fully visible, Victor didn’t panic—he marveled, intrigued rather than afraid.
“Impressive. Don’t tell me you built that out of the scrap metal piled outside?”
“You must be Victor Dreadpool. You’ve got the face of a man who’s spent a lifetime cutting people open for experiments.”
“Ohohoho! How remarkable. So the one who found me is a dwarf girl?”
Seridan sat atop the metal giant—
or rather, wore it.
‘It’s just like the Magia Giant models produced in Isla Machina.’
A fusion of steam golem and powered suit—
that was the essence of a Magia Giant.
What Seridan was wearing looked exactly like that—
only slightly modified for her dwarven physique rather than a human mage’s frame.
And considering that the components had been scavenged from the scrap heap by the entrance—
her ability to assemble it on the spot was nothing short of world-class.
‘But how...? Simply fitting the pieces together shouldn’t have been enough to make it function.’
One could perhaps imitate the appearance of a powered suit.
But to make it move—to generate such power—was an entirely different matter.
Victor’s eyes narrowed toward the suit’s chest,
where a faint light pulsed from within.
“And that is... what, exactly?”
“What?”
“You’re using a rather peculiar core. Not a mana stone—something different. Hm. So the unique properties of that core are what allowed you to assemble such a suit on the fly...”
Then realization flashed in Victor’s gaze.
“Ohohoho! Of course! I thought I’d seen something like it before—yes, it’s similar to his!”
A memory surfaced—
Leslie, the First Order.
The Magnetic Core, a crystallization of his metallic magic, looked just like that.
“This one looks even better than Leslie’s. So a more talented mage must’ve built it for you?”
“Who knows. Maybe instead of admiring it, you should worry about keeping your head attached.”
Seridan sneered—but even she couldn’t help being impressed by his quick deduction.
She hadn’t expected him to identify it instantly.
Indeed, the core embedded in her giant suit was not a mana stone, but a Magnetic Core—
the powerful metal cube crafted by Ludger himself.
Through it, she had drawn in the discarded metal and shaped it into the machine she desired.
Her suit wasn’t a mere imitation—it possessed genuine, overwhelming power.
“Ohohoho. I see, I see. But I won’t just stand here and take a beating. Allow me to show you my masterpiece.”
Around Victor, a brass-colored liquid began to slither and writhe.
Its gleaming surface, like molten metal, flowed and gathered—
rising up behind him as a massive amorphous bulk.
A Liquid Golem—a creation born of Victor’s own scientific genius.
Science against science. Engineering against engineering.
Two prodigies at the peak of their crafts collided.
* * *
“So this is the passage we have to enter.”
It was the true inner corridor of the fortress—
the final barrier that none of the other Saint’s bloodline could open.
To unlock it required resonance with divine power—
and Ludger was the only one capable of that.
“First stage of the sealing formula—release.”
A small circular hole formed above Ludger’s head.
It was similar to the ones that had appeared before—but far smaller this time,
barely wide enough for a finger to slip through.
Too small for the gods to sense.
Yet just large enough for their divine power to seep through.
Ludger placed his palm upon the stone door.
The moment divine energy passed from him into the stone—
Rrrrrrumble—
The round stone door rolled aside with a grinding noise.
From the outside, it looked like an ordinary slab of rock,
but once opened, the sight beyond was entirely different.
“A well-kept temple, huh?”
Suruna whistled softly at the view.
It resembled the long-lost sanctuaries of old.
The ceiling’s moss and vines emitted a faint azure glow,
providing ample light to illuminate the chamber.
Ludger and Suruna advanced toward the center of the temple.
They had reached the heart of the Bretus Theocracy—
a place no one else had ever set foot in.
But this wasn’t the end.
It was, in truth, the beginning.
“Hiscliff. You’ve been wandering the continent all this time searching for something, haven’t you?”
Ludger turned silently to Suruna.
“And since you’ve come all the way here, that must mean you’ve gathered everything—the relics scattered across the world.”
“Yeah. You know what they are, don’t you? You saw them once, five hundred years ago.”
Suruna nodded in acknowledgment.
“Right. Back then... it wasn’t meant to be.”
“So you already understand what this relic really is.”
Ludger pulled a pouch from his coat and drew out several fragments.
Seven pieces in total.
When joined, they formed a small, circular disc—
a relic that made Suruna's eyes glisten with nostalgia.
“You must already know who made these.”
“The gods did.”
“Exactly. The relics were crafted by the gods—
trinkets to them, perhaps. But this one is different. This one was forged by many gods together. Their powers all reside within it.”
“So unlike other relics, it was made with a very specific purpose from the start.”
Ludger met Suruna's gaze.
“And you know what that purpose is.”
“I do. And you, who gathered them, probably have an idea too.”
“They’re the key—to break the cage.”
“To break the cage, huh. Considering what Lumensis is trying to do, that fits perfectly.”
Suruna looked around the subterranean temple.
“Ever wondered why the Bretus Theocracy, which knows nothing of machinery or science, hides such a sophisticated mechanism beneath it?”
“I’ve wondered. Even why this space exists under the citadel.”
“This place existed long before the Theocracy itself.
Galaharad’s inner fortress was built for this very function.”
So that was it.
The answer had been simple all along.
“It was created by the gods—long before Bretus ever rose.”
“Right. One god in particular, skilled in crafting things, took great care in designing it. They built this land together, hoping it would never again fall to misfortune.”
“Misfortune?”
“For example—should one god seize absolute authority and twist the world to his own will.”
This place was a safeguard against that.
A contingency for a distant future—
to prevent a single malicious being from remaking the world as they pleased.
“This is, in truth, an altar. And what must be placed upon it... is the relic you hold.”
“So Lumensis already knew this—and built the Theocracy atop the altar to prevent disaster.”
Hiding the key to destruction right under the nation itself.
Who would have imagined such a thing?
“Five hundred years ago—you interfered with the plans of Plante and the Ancient Kingdom because of this, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Using the World Tree’s life force was admirable—but not enough. The relic you hold was always meant to be used here.”
“Then why didn’t you collect it yourself?”
Ludger asked the obvious question.
If Suruna knew its importance, shouldn’t he have been the one to safeguard it?
“I told you. Only those permitted can use it. And me... I may look it, but I’m not human.”
“You could have entrusted it to someone else.”
“To whom? Who would I possibly trust?”
Suruna's smile was faint, almost self-mocking.
“If I had kept it, the relic would never have found its true master. My darkness would have hidden it away from its rightful owner.”
“So I’m the rightful owner, is that it?”
“You’ve come this far, haven’t you?”
There was conviction in his voice.
“When you first touched the ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) fragment—didn’t it react somehow?”
“...”
Ludger’s brow twitched.
That had been more than twenty years ago. He could never forget.
A dry well—cold, damp, shrouded in darkness.
Waiting for death... until he saw that faint glimmer of light.
The moment he reached out and grasped the shard—
he had witnessed the miracle it granted.
“Judging from that reaction, something did happen. What did you see?”
“...Something I have to reclaim.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
It wasn’t a clear answer, but Suruna was satisfied. Ludger wasn’t hiding everything, at least.
“I always believed the relic would find its master on its own. That’s why I never tried to meddle.”
“It could have fallen into Bretus’s hands.”
“It did, actually. The first shard you found came from this very place. But look at how things turned out.”
Suruna spread his arms wide.
“Everything has unfolded as it should. This world isn’t a prison to confine possibility—it’s a place where we can strive toward a freer, better future.”
“For a demon, you sound almost optimistic.”
“And for a human, you’re far too cold. The people of the past—
they were all hopeless romantics, you know.”
“I can’t deny that.”
When Ludger thought of the ways people once tried to master magic—
reckless, foolish, yet filled with wonder—
he couldn’t help but agree.
There had always been passion and idealism in their pursuit of the impossible.
“Lumensis wants to freeze the world into what he remembers as its most beautiful form. That’s what his Order and his followers were for. But when those followers succumbed to their own desires and chose their own paths, Lumensis made his decision.”
“When there was no one left to trust, he decided to intervene in the mortal realm himself.”
“Exactly. And the vessel meant to contain his power and will—
that’s you, Hiscliff.”
Suruna smirked faintly and walked to the center of the altar, raising his head.
The soft glow from the luminous moss above bathed his face in pale light, and in his eyes flickered the reflection of the distant past.
“But before that, Lumensis suffered a heavy blow—betrayed by the one he trusted most. Half his fault, really.”
“The Saintess of Arkenis...”
“Lumensis’s apostles were always human. Perhaps that’s why they were granted two powers.”
One—the Authority of Brainwashing, used by Salecin.
The other—the [Eye of Judgment] possessed by the Saintess.
More precisely—
the power of [Foresight].
“When that girl saw the future, she defied Lumensis’s will—and refused to slay the demon who opposed him. That’s when everything began to unravel.”
As Suruna spoke, the glimmer in his eyes reflected the shadows of a distant, forgotten age.