episode_0171

Tap, tap, tap.

Only the sound of Mileia’s footsteps and mine walking on the stone floor of the Demon World’s basement echoes in the passage.

We opened the heavy door and entered Calosium, entering an unknown depth.

For a facility this deep, it is understandable that even if the door is closed and left unattended, something inside does not come out.

However, Xavier told me to be careful because there was definitely a monster inside, but so far I haven’t seen a single ant, let alone a monster.

After going inside for a while, a place that appeared to be a full-fledged research facility finally appeared.

There were many passages that branched off like a maze, and each passage had countless rooms with tightly closed doors.

Mileia suddenly stopped and spoke to me.

“There is something.”

Is it a monster inside Calogium?

But unlike Mileia, I felt nothing.

“Do you feel anything?”

“… … You’d better be careful. I don’t know where this is, but I feel like there’s something in the room.”

“This is a research facility. A demonic research facility that studied the demon king’s soul.”

“A place where the devil’s soul was studied… … .”

“In order to find the Demon King Soul extracted from Versella, I thought it was necessary to find out the characteristics of the Demon King Soul itself.”

Mileia nodded at my explanation.

Although he has no expression, I can feel him subtly admiring me.

Will her inability to make proper facial expressions never be corrected in the future?

Could it be that the muscles in my face have degenerated because I have lived with my facial muscles stiffened all my life?

While thinking about these trivial things to relieve tension, I began to look around the rooms of the research facility in earnest.

When I tried to enter the room, Mileia broke the closed door with her sword.

I wonder if there might have been a separate device that could open the door, like the entrance to Calogium.

Since it was not a facility that could be reused anyway and it would be quicker to destroy it, I continued to leave it to Mileia to break through the gate.

The Demon King’s Soul research facility, Calozium, had numerous large and small rooms.

Just by looking at its size, you could tell that this was no ordinary research facility.

It is clear how sincere the demons who created this facility were in their research into the demon king’s soul.

It was somehow eerie to see this place, which was once full of demons studying the demon king’s soul, now empty.

“This is… … .”

After investigating several rooms, I found a place full of old bookshelves.

Inside the bookshelf, there were books and stone tablets that looked very old mixed together.

Could it be that the results obtained while conducting research on the Demon King’s Soul were compiled into a record?

Then this place is exactly what I was looking for.

“Let’s see… … .”

I carefully pulled out a book from the bookshelf and looked at the cover.

A book covered in slightly thick paper without a title… … It looks more like a research journal than a book.

When I tried to turn the first page, the pages crumbled like batter.

“Oh… … .”

Even when I tried to turn the next page, I couldn’t because the paper kept falling apart.

Has it faded away because it’s been so long? The shape remained the same, but it was impossible to check the contents.

The same thing happened when I took out another book from the bookshelf.

The paper here was wrinkled except for the outer cover, and the paper inside was hardened and crumbled to a crisp when touched.

“For now, there is nothing we can do… … .”

I gave up all paper records for now and turned my attention to the collection of stone tablets in one corner of the room.

There were stone slabs about twice the size of my palms combined packed together on the bookshelf.

The thickness of the stone slabs was about the width of a little finger, and although some of the corners were slightly broken, they were all neat rectangles.

The bookshelf with the stone slabs neatly placed on it was also made of stone.

The slabs were uniform in size and tightly packed with almost no gaps, so there was a strange visual satisfaction.

I carefully pulled a slate from the bookshelf.

Unlike other books that crumbled so easily that you couldn’t tell if they were paper or fried snacks, the stone tablet seemed to be in good condition.

“This is… … .”

As expected, something was written on the stone tablet.

I don’t know what the difference is between what was written in the book and what was written on the stone tablet, but I’ll read it first.

To read it… I did… … .

“I have no idea… … .”

We ran into unexpected difficulties.

The inscription on the stone tablet is undoubtedly a record of this Calogium.

But I couldn’t figure out the language it was written in.

Were the languages of humans and demons originally this different?

No, I don’t think there has ever been a time in this world where language was not communicated.

Except for monsters.

“Hey, Mr. Mileia. Can you read this?”

I couldn’t read the writing on the stone tablet at all, so I asked Mileia to help me.

Mileia was alert to the surroundings in preparation for monsters that might suddenly attack.

She came closer to my request and examined the slate I held out.

“This is my first time seeing these letters.”

“Do you have any guesses at all?”

Mileia quietly shakes her head.

This is embarrassing… … Was it even necessary to bring Xaviel?

『All records from Calozium, a demon soul research facility, were written in a language created by improving the ancient demon language.

As the content is the content, it was designed to function as a kind of code to make it difficult to recognize even among the same demons.

Since it used a language that was not originally used, and even improved upon it, deciphering it was of course impossible except for the demons who were conducting research here at the time.

Even Xavier, who had lived for a long time and acquired a lot of knowledge, did not know this language.』

What, doesn’t even Xaviel know?

It seems that the ancient language was modified for research purposes and used as a code… … .

If that’s the case, there’s absolutely no way it can be deciphered.

Was coming here in vain? … .

Even if you look for other records, it is of no use if they are written in the same language.

When I was thinking that and despairing.

I started hearing a narration in my head.

『The contents of this tablet are written about the work of artificially creating a soul similar to the Demon King’s soul in order to amplify the power of the Demon King’s soul.

The demons conducting research at Calogium conducted an experiment by extracting the souls of living demons and injecting them with powerful magical power mixed with the demon king’s magical power.

As a result, it was observed that the soul of an ordinary demon was transformed into a powerful soul that seeks a host, similar to the soul of a demon king.』

The narration… Are you deciphering the stone tablets?

I immediately took out the next slab.

『Researchers at Calozium created many replicas of the Demon King Soul and conducted several experiments to amplify the power of the artificial Demon King Soul.

Because we did not know what terrible things might happen if we conducted an experiment on a real Demon King’s Soul, we instead conducted an experiment on an artificial Demon King’s Soul with similar characteristics.

However, during the experiment, numerous unexpected accidents occurred, such as the disappearance of the artificial demon spirit or runaway.』

While the narration deciphered and summarized the contents of the tablets, I took out several tablets at once and quickly lined them up in front of me.

『The artificial devil soul created in Calogium was much weaker than the real devil soul, but its characteristics were surprisingly similar.

Therefore, when I found a way to amplify the power of the artificial demon king soul, I thought that the method would also work for the real demon king soul.

On this stone tablet, the method of amplifying the Demon King’s soul discovered by Calosium researchers was written in detail.』

You actually performed biological experiments to ensure the Demon King’s survival.

I didn’t think that the demons whose souls were taken out here would have readily agreed to the experiment.

Since they couldn’t experiment with the Demon King’s Soul, they created a replica of the Demon King’s Soul and conducted the experiment.

Just like conducting animal testing before making a drug for use in humans.

The story was that the souls of demons were used as sacrifices before being applied to the demon king.

It was a terrible story, but honestly, it wasn’t something I couldn’t understand.

The demons had been suffering certain defeat from the warrior for a long time.

Just as Versella used every means possible to kill the hero, the previous Demon King would have used any means and methods to survive, although his methods were different.

The Demon King who created this Calogium must have simply found the method through the research of the Demon King’s soul.

『But when the amplified artificial demon soul created in that way was put back into the demon’s body, the body could not withstand it.

First, in order to find out the power of the amplified artificial demon king soul, researchers decided to find a monster that could withstand soul amplification and inject it with the artificial demon king soul.』

thud! thud! thud! thud!

When the narration reached that point, a loud noise suddenly started coming from the passage.

The sound was getting closer and closer to the room we were in.

“Yunoa, something is coming.”

Mileia immediately got into a fighting stance and swung her sword around herself, wrapping the usual blade shield around her.

A moment later, what appeared from the aisle was a monster with an indescribable appearance.

“Monster… … ?”

No, its shape was too strange to be called a monster.

The creatures we call monsters are like wild animals in the demon world.

This means that no matter how strange it looks, it does not go beyond common sense.

However, the monster that appeared before our eyes had a strange appearance.

The appearance is so messed up that it is difficult to say what it resembles.

It looked as if chunks of flesh and skin had been bundled up in a random manner and body parts such as eyes and limbs had been attached using a roulette wheel.

A large, white eye was glaring at us above a lump of flesh dripping with pus.

There was a large hole in the body that I couldn’t tell if it was a mouth or something, and muscular legs were hanging in directions where they shouldn’t be.

The monster, whose mind seemed to be shattered just by looking at it, was entering the room with clear hostility radiating from its entire body.

『Callogium’s Demon King Soul experiment ended up turning several test subjects into twisted monsters.

The souls of these monsters had many characteristics similar to the actual demon souls.

It was also the case that as time passed, the power gradually became stronger.

Although it did not grow in strength as rapidly as the Demon King Soul, the pseudo-Demon King Soul also became stronger over a long period of time.』

Is that terrible monster a demon soul experiment? … .

I couldn’t even imagine what it originally looked like.

“Yunoa, I don’t feel well. Be careful.”

Mileia said as she adjusted her great sword and looked out for the test monster.

Xaviel had advised me to do so, and since that guy was blocking the exit, I had no choice.

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