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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
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Chapter 130: Artificial Island, Ivemir (7)
In the grand scale of war, morale is crucial.
In small-scale skirmishes like battles, momentum is key.
So, the beginning must always be dazzling.
“Breath of Frost.”
A gust of wind formed above his head and swept through the corridors on both sides.
At the same time, the movements of the approaching “things” visibly slowed.
The moment the three, who had their backs against one another, exchanged glances, Oscar shouted.
“Killian!”
The one among them with the best close combat skills—a close combat specialist.
Hearing the call, Killian Lockwood dashed forward without a moment’s hesitation.
“Song of the Wolf.”
With claws of magic glowing in both hands, he mercilessly tore through the slowed creatures’ necks.
Dodging the incoming spells and running along the corridor walls, Killian moved like a beast.
“Impressive!”
“...Save the admiration and just fight.”
Veronica brusquely responded to Fran’s exclamation and quickly formed hand signs.
“Twin Embrace.”
Four massive hands of wind emerged from the walls, each grabbing two or three of the “things” and lifting them off the ground.
Seeing this, Fran’s eyes lit up as he shouted.
“Hold them right there!”
With a swift and determined expression, Fran drew a whip from his waist and lashed forward.
Snap!
The “things” struck by the dance of steel instantly dissolved into smoke.
Watching this, Oscar couldn’t help but let a grin creep onto his lips.
‘Not bad.’
Their teamwork was surprisingly effective.
It wasn’t just words—they were beginning to feel like actual comrades.
Not to be outdone, he fired off a barrage of Wind Bullets, reducing the enemy’s numbers.
“Huff, huff.”
“Pant, pant.”
After about 20 minutes, the corridor, once packed with “things,” was now clear of any traces of them.
As the four caught their breaths, looking at each other, a chilling voice echoed.
“Don’t celebrate too soon, guests of the White Tower.”
Click, click.
From the same doors, an identical number of “things” poured into the corridor once more.
Oscar’s face stiffened as he saw this.
‘...What?’
He had thought these creatures were fragmented monsters.
Fragmented monsters are those that split themselves apart, with each fragment’s destruction harming the main body.
‘We took out so many of them. It only makes sense we’d have inflicted some damage…’
But this didn’t feel right. It was clear—there was no damage to the enemy.
No, worse yet, he felt as though the enemy was quite satisfied, having drained their stamina.
The others seemed to notice the same.
“Oscar, something’s off here.”
“Even if those things are fake, they’re way too intact.”
“...So you feel it too.”
If this continued, it would turn into an endless war of attrition.
Realizing this, Oscar quickly made a decision.
“Change of plans. Let’s head to the first floor and figure out a way out.”
“Got it.”
Killian, without any stubbornness, seemed pleased with Oscar’s swift judgment.
Veronica followed up with a question.
“Which direction do we push through? To your side or the one I’m facing?”
“...Neither.”
Fighting them would only waste energy.
The best option was to escape as quickly as possible.
“Jet Spiral.”
With a snap of his fingers, the wind before him began spinning rapidly.
One rotation, two rotations—the increasing speed created a vortex that plunged downward.
Crack-crack-crack!
The high-pressure spiral of air tore through the floor like a drill.
“Jump!”
Oscar shouted as he leaped into the large hole he’d just created.
Crash! Crack!
The spiraling wind carved through the corridor floors, creating a path straight to the first floor.
The four of them quickly landed, but the “things” began falling through the hole after them.
“Heeheehee.”
“Keekeeekee!”
The sight of dozens of the creatures descending with wide, twisted grins was pure terror.
“Oscar!”
“Don’t worry.”
Oscar’s confident reply came as he crossed his arms and spun them.
The Jet Spiral reversed course.
The vortex of wind began moving upward, retracing its destructive path.
Fwoosh! Hiss!
“Kyahhh!”
“Grrrk…!”
The falling creatures disintegrated into smoke upon contact with the spiraling wind.
Watching the satisfying sight, Oscar sprinted toward the entrance.
‘If we can just escape this artificial island and wait one more day…’
He could rendezvous with the imperial forces.
As his hand gripped the large door handle leading outside—
“—Not so fast. Since you’ve come all this way, take your time and enjoy yourselves.”
“...!?”
A voice echoed from the door, and a powerful surge of mana blew Oscar backward.
Crash!
Oscar flew back at least 10 meters, tumbling across the ground.
“Oscar!”
The other three rushed to his side.
“Are you okay?”
“Nothing’s broken, right?”
“Damn it…”
Oscar, supported and helped upright, squinted at the door with a frown.
Kilian, gazing in the same direction, asked,
"Mana repulsion, huh. Is it impossible to neutralize it or force our way through?"
"...It seems difficult."
Oscar had also tried to neutralize it the moment he sensed the mana repulsion.
However, the sheer magnitude of the mana was far beyond what a single individual could resist.
'Even if we combined the mana of all four of us here, we couldn’t break through.'
Feeling the immense power of their opponent's mana, Oscar bit his lip tightly.
He quickly retrieved a map from his coat and spread it out on the floor.
"What are you doing now?"
"I need to find something."
The contact with the opponent's overwhelming mana had only been momentary.
But in that fleeting moment, Oscar had grasped where the roots of the mana were anchored.
'It was definitely further below this place.'
That meant the opponent’s true form might be located somewhere underground on this artificial island.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
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If escaping was impossible, they would inevitably have to fight.
And if a fight was unavoidable, targeting the core was their only option.
'There’s no end to dealing with those endless fake human replicas anyway.'
In the end, finding the "core" of that thing became their top priority.
Hearing his explanation, the other three scanned the underground area on the map over his shoulder.
"Ah, could it be here?"
Fran suddenly stretched out a finger and pointed to a spot on the map.
[Artificial Intelligence Control Room]
"…Artificial intelligence? What’s that?"
Hearing the unfamiliar term, Oscar blinked and asked.
Fran explained.
"What? You don’t know? It’s the ultimate goal of the Magic Tower through magical engineering."
"I’m asking, what is it?"
"Literally. It’s an artificial intelligence system that can perform tasks on behalf of humans."
"…But this facility was built over 200 years ago."
Naturally, magical engineering didn’t exist back then.
But why would there be an Artificial Intelligence Control Room here, something that shouldn’t even conceptually exist yet?
Even Fran couldn’t respond to that mystery, simply shrugging his shoulders.
"No idea. Maybe... the term 'artificial intelligence' existed in the past but referred to something entirely different?"
"Something different?"
An artificial intelligence capable of performing tasks in place of humans.
Mulling over what could potentially fit that description, Oscar muttered involuntarily.
"…Homunculus."
"Homunculus? What’s that? Is that magical engineering too?"
This time, Fran turned the question back at him.
"No. That’s not magical engineering but a product of alchemy—a kind of artificially created living being."
"What? They could make something like that back in the day? How come I’ve never heard of it?"
"…Because it’s research that was strictly prohibited long before the Empire was founded."
Creating a homunculus required one essential ingredient: the soul of a human.
In other words, the creation of homunculi was an experiment involving the artificial processing of human souls to produce living entities.
'Could it be that this artificial island’s entire management system was entrusted to a homunculus…?'
If that were true, it would explain a lot.
The fact that it could eavesdrop on their conversations unilaterally, and that the massive, overwhelming mana was rooted in the island's underground.
'That insane emperor.'
Oscar barely restrained himself from hurling curses at the emperor from more than 200 years ago.
If you created something like that through forbidden research, shouldn’t you have at least properly disposed of it afterward?
More importantly, how many human souls had been sacrificed to manage an entire island?
With a beautifully contorted face, Oscar spoke grimly.
"Let’s revise our plan again."
"Again? Wasn’t the plan to escape?"
"That’s not realistic anymore."
"…We haven’t tried escaping through other towers or the central hall yet."
"It’ll be the same everywhere."
Oscar glanced at the door that had just repelled him.
"The magic repulsion isn’t imbued in the door or the walls themselves. It’s something that thing used momentarily."
"Does that mean…?"
"It means if it wanted to, it could do the same even if we opened a bathroom door."
In short, escape routes didn’t matter.
If it decided not to let them leave, there was no way out.
Veronica crossed her arms and asked cautiously.
"So, what’s the revised plan?"
"If we can’t escape, we need to eliminate the source."
Tap, tap.
Oscar tapped the spot labeled [Artificial Intelligence Control Room] with his finger and looked at the others.
"The target is to destroy the homunculus—or whatever equivalent entity is presumed to be here."
"…Can we do it on our own?"
"It’ll be tough. But escaping is impossible, and hiding is even less viable."
The entire artificial island was essentially that thing’s domain.
Anything on this island could potentially become its eyes and ears.
In other words, there was no place they could safely hide.
"If we’re going to do it, we have to try while we still have some strength and mana left."
The longer they delayed, the exponentially lower their chances of success would become.
It was already difficult enough for mages to maintain their peak performance when hungry, fatigued, and sleep-deprived.
'Especially for these kids who have never even experienced war—it’ll be even harder.'
Which only meant Oscar had to carry more of the burden himself.
Standing up slowly, he tucked the map back into his coat and declared,
"Let’s go."
To the basement.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
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