Ch.152Hydra Corporation General Meeting (2)

While Ortes was meeting with the directors to prepare for the general assembly, Carisia was making her own preparations.

Kaicle. As the creator of the Artificial Ten Commandments, he would likely have a general idea of the plans that Carisia and Ortes were preparing.

Responding to the CEO’s summons, Kaicle arrived shortly thereafter. This was thanks to his modifications to part of the Ether Space deployment device installed at the bottom of Mount Etna, allowing it to connect to the interior of the Hydra Company building.

“Why did you call for me?”

The giant man with a prosthetic eye asked calmly. His life’s research had already reached its final stages, giving him the composure of someone who had fulfilled his dreams with nothing more to wish for.

“You said you created the Artificial Ten Commandments to find ‘clues to ascension.'”

“Yes.”

“And you also had the insight that the Magic King who ascended beyond dimensions and the gods are essentially the same.”

“Yes.”

“Then, assuming the Magic King is a god, his divine aspect would be ‘God of Magic.'”

Kaicle nodded. It was an extremely heretical theory. The Ten Towers had disparaged and driven to extinction the followers of the old gods as superstitious cultists. This was an acknowledgment that their objects of worship and the Magic King were essentially no different.

However, Kaicle had no intention of bending his conclusion. He had achieved some success in using divine power to open a pathway connecting to the dimension of ascension, to the infinite power of metaphysics.

It was a phenomenon similar to one of the two characteristics of the Ten Commandments: “Inexhaustible magical power.” He was not the type to lie about his beliefs, even if it meant being branded a heretic and put to death.

He answered with firm conviction.

“The Magic King… he is a god.”

“In the case where we define a god as a being who can freely access the realm of ascension beyond dimensions.”

Kaicle nodded. At the same time, he wondered. Until now, Carisia had focused more on the results his heretical theory produced rather than the theory itself.

He had been able to research the Artificial Ten Commandments with unparalleled freedom.

Of course, at this point when the Ten Towers were shaking, he was a risk factor as a believer in heretical theories. If Kaicle’s research were leaked outside, the very existence of Etna City would be in danger.

However, he didn’t think Carisia would eliminate him and take possession of only the Artificial Ten Commandments, the result of his research. This was because Ortes existed as an even greater danger than himself.

Since the appearance of the Magic King, everything in this world had at least some magical power dwelling within it. This was the result of the Magic King, as a god, rewriting the principles of the world.

Nevertheless, Ortes, a being who not only had magical power close to zero but clearly did not possess any—

“Director Kaicle.”

“Yes.”

Carisia’s voice broke his contemplation. Carisia slowly declared:

“I’m going to bring down the Ten Towers.”

“…I had somewhat expected that.”

The fact that she had been tacitly accepting the heretical conclusions implied by the Artificial Ten Commandments couldn’t be explained merely by the ambition to become the 11th Tower.

If she were a faithful supporter of the system established by the Ten Towers, she would have considered the very concept of the Artificial Ten Commandments blasphemous, or more explicitly, sacrilegious.

The Ten Towers’ position was that the Magic King was different from superstitious entities like gods, but from the perspective of Kaicle, who had abandoned his membership in the Ten Towers and left of his own accord, the viewpoint of magicians who worshipped the Magic King was qualitatively no different from priests who worshipped gods.

“Then, you must have some connection to the old gods’ order.”

“Oh? I thought you were devoted solely to your research.”

Kaicle nodded.

“Yes. I was devoted solely to research. But I have experience in the Ten Towers. To focus on research there, one needs a certain degree of political sense.”

“Politics. Don’t the Ten Towers claim to be the purest researchers of magic?”

“Those who proclaim purity tend to be the dirtiest. Greasing palms to prevent others from stealing research results, or gaining sponsorship by catching the eye of an elder. With a perspective accustomed to such politics, it’s simple.”

Kaicle discussed the sacred artifacts supplied for developing the Artificial Ten Commandments. There were several artifacts that couldn’t be explained by the directors’ divine investigation duties or Lampades’ improved radar.

The sacred artifacts of the Twelve Apostles that Ortes had personally brought and shown as samples.

“If such powerful sacred artifacts had already been revealed to the world, there would have been records somewhere, so I expected that they were either excavated directly or received from the original owner. Either way, there would necessarily be a relationship with the Order.”

“Your expectations are correct. Some were directly excavated, and some sacred artifacts were transferred from the original owner… the Divine Name Order. They are useful allies under the premise of opposing the Ten Towers.”

A plan to overthrow the Ten Towers system using the old gods’ order and the Artificial Ten Commandments. An ordinary magician would be terrified just hearing about it and would try to report this terrible plan, but…

“Then, what is the role of the Artificial Ten Commandments in this plan? To offset the Ten Commandments?”

Kaicle was no ordinary magician.

“That’s the extent of the role I expect right now. I also have some uses still in the planning stages.”

Carisia didn’t bother to explain that one use was as a magical bomb. For now, it was sufficient that only Ortes knew about that plan.

“I am satisfied knowing that my methodology for approaching ascension was not wrong. If you defeat the Ten Towers and obtain the Ten Commandments, the path toward ascension will be illuminated more clearly.”

Kaicle’s remaining biological eye gleamed with determination.

“I’ve always wanted to see what would happen when all Ten Commandments are gathered in one place.”

“So you’re willing to bet on Hydra Company.”

“Haven’t I already bet everything?”

Carisia nodded. According to the plan, the Ten Commandments were indeed scheduled to be gathered in one place. Although they were also scheduled to all explode there.

“Very well, Director Kaicle. Now that the Artificial Ten Commandments are essentially complete, I would like to give you a new task.”

A sheet of paper was passed from Carisia to Kaicle. The fact that it wasn’t information transmitted via hologram, email, or other Ether Space methods implied that this document needed to be thoroughly destroyed without leaving any trace.

Carisia’s proposal discussed the differences between extradimensional beings and gods. Even assuming that extradimensional beings and gods were qualitatively identical, there was one difference within this world.

That was the world’s resistance. Extradimensional beings had to face the resistance of what was called the world wall or dimensional wall whenever they attempted to interfere.

The reason most extradimensional rifts automatically repair themselves is because the world itself rejects them. Gods were exceptions to this resistance.

“In terms of the power they bestow, the magical power from other dimensions and divine power are fundamentally the same in their mechanism. However, while complex procedures are needed to bring extradimensional magical power into our world, that’s not the case with divine power.”

“I’ve never thought about it from this perspective, but it’s an interesting topic. The difference between ascended beings who face the world’s resistance and those who don’t.”

Kaicle slowly read through Carisia’s hypothesis. The topic was artificially implementing the world’s resistance against ascended beings.

In other words, it was close to the subject of artificial world wall formation magic. If such magic were perfected, dealing with extradimensional threats would become considerably easier.

However, the target of Carisia’s proposal was not extradimensional beings.

“I want to devise a means to invoke the world’s resistance against ‘magical power’ itself, not extradimensional magical power.”

“…”

Carisia was conceptualizing magic that destroys magic. Magic that reconfigures the principle by which the world wall excludes extradimensional things to apply to magical power.

“The name is, well…”

Anti-Magic Field.

After reading Carisia’s proposal, Kaicle used magic to cleanly incinerate the paper. It was a terrifying magic even just to imagine.

If Carisia’s concept could be fully realized, no magician would be able to use magic within the anti-magic field.

This would apply to Carisia herself as well, but…

She had Ortes.

The perhaps world’s only perfect non-magic user, existing outside the principles that the Magic King had overlaid on the world.

“…There’s one thing I’d like to ask.”

Carisia tilted her head. With this simple permission, Kaicle carefully selected his words.

“What exactly is Divine Investigation Director Ortes?”

It was a question impossible to resolve. It wasn’t difficult to guess his real position within Hydra Company. He was probably a representative of the Divine Name Order or someone of equivalent status, serving as a plenipotentiary ambassador coordinating the cooperative relationship with Hydra Company.

However, as far as Kaicle knew, even a priest couldn’t exist without magical power in this era.

Unbeknownst to Kaicle himself, Kine, who handled both magic and sacred arts, was living proof of Kaicle’s theory. Since the Magic King’s ascension in 2074, magical power had permeated the entire world.

A thin smile formed on Carisia’s lips. With truly lighthearted certainty that allowed no disagreement, Carisia said:

“I don’t know either.”