Ch.226Outside. The Faceless Fixer’s Closing Ceremony (4)

“Well, I don’t think anyone (Ουτις) did it.”

Outis. A word meaning “no one.” Polyphemus took the word at face value.

“Outis? There are hundreds of guys using that alias in this border region!”

He’s not getting it. As Ortes smiled helplessly, Polyphemus’s expression hardened coldly.

“…It was you.”

“Pardon?”

“You were that ‘no one.'”

“Oh, come on.”

Polyphemus raised the multi-purpose tool in his right hand. It was a brutish implement that looked like a combination of a hatchet and pickaxe.

Originally, it was a tool used to break apart extra-dimensional relic fragments to collect samples. Since it was designed to be used on metal and rock, it could easily cut through much more fragile human bone and flesh.

In fact, one of the uses for this multi-tool included performing “emergency excision” to forcibly stop malfunctioning enchantware during extra-dimensional exploration.

This meant it was designed with the assumption it might be used on people. In other words, Polyphemus using the multi-tool as a sculpting knife to make Galatea more beautiful was an appropriate use.

It was also appropriate as a tool to make Galatea experience the dangers of the world, since she was unaware of the greed and threats directed at her.

Reading these thoughts from Polyphemus, Ortes sighed.

‘He’s completely lost his mind. It’s a wonder he hasn’t clashed with other Solvers until now.’

Ortes resolved to expose that guy’s true nature on the Ether Network as soon as the request was over. Hearing the sigh, Polyphemus pointed the sharply honed blade of the multi-purpose tool at Ortes and strode toward him.

Nevertheless, Ortes didn’t take any particular countermeasures. His relaxed attitude was so casual that even Polyphemus, whose eyes were gleaming with obsession for Galatea, felt something was off.

The most profound incomprehensibility of the border region. The most terrible doomsayer wouldn’t accept death so easily.

“What are you thinking?”

“What am I thinking? Nothing special. My body is completely bound so I can’t move, so I’m just waiting for the end with peace of mind.”

A lie. The device restraining Ortes now is certainly sturdy. However, it’s not the kind of device that would prevent escape if magic were used.

Although there are secondary restraint devices like electric shocks prepared to prevent magical escape, it’s clearly strange that he’s not even attempting to escape in the first place.

Isn’t he too calm for someone awaiting execution? Polyphemus suddenly felt fear.

This man was knowledgeable enough about extra-dimensional borderlands to somehow discover the hidden relic protecting Galatea and take her away from him.

This very place was reached by following the route that man had shown him. Polyphemus frowned.

‘Is he planning something?’

Perhaps he’s calculated the cycle of extra-dimensional tidal waves and plans to wait it out inside the sand bike, which is much safer than outside.

Polyphemus paced around, not daring to approach.

In fact, Ortes was freeing himself using the most primitive method. A cutting tool hidden between his sleeve cuffs. It was a tool used to cut ropes during extra-dimensional relic exploration.

‘This really doesn’t cut well…’

With his eyes open, he could clearly see how the rope was binding his wrists. The problem was the rope’s strength.

He was pretending to be cryptic to confuse Polyphemus, but if the man suddenly shouted “You’re wasting oxygen by being alive!” and unleashed magic, Ortes would have to gamble with his survival.

‘Damn psychopath.’

Snap.

The high-carbon steel alloy wire finally broke. At that very moment, Ortes sprang to his feet. He awakened his inner ability using the method Old Man Hector had taught him. A kick infused with blue light shattered the glass window into pieces.

His freed hand grabbed a high-frequency blade.

“You! How without magic!”

“Hard work never betrays, right?”

Polyphemus’s magic gun spat fire. But Ortes had already read the trajectory of the bullets.

Ortes ran out without even looking back, and though Polyphemus fired several times, he only grazed the man’s shadow.

Ortes, now engulfed in the biting wind of the extra-dimensional realm, was visible only as a silhouette.

“Come out! I said come out!”

“Stop chasing me and just go back safely! You should have the city coordinates saved, right?”

At Ortes’s mockery, Polyphemus gritted his teeth. He shouted in rage.

“Do you think you can avoid me in the city?”

“My, do you think you’ll be able to see me in the city?”

It was a chilling warning. Although Ortes had disbanded his “cult,” they hadn’t left. A warning that cult followers hiding in every shadow of the city would target Polyphemus.

A declaration that he would die without ever seeing Ortes again.

“Then I’ll have to end this here!”

Hearing the growling voice, Ortes closed his eyes in exasperation. He had planned to successfully complete this request, receive payment, and leave the city—even this world. What misunderstanding had that guy fallen into now?

He couldn’t guarantee success in future requests if he directly confronted a Solver of that level. So instead of immediate retaliation, he had intended to cut ties with a “let’s never see each other again” and head to his destination.

An annoyingly persistent problem had attached itself to him.

‘Whatever. He’ll probably collapse on his own after chasing me for a while.’

Ortes hadn’t left coordinate interpretation formulas inside the sand bike. His eyes were more accurate than the navigation device’s calculations anyway.

Unless Polyphemus had separately interpreted the coordinates for the destination, judging by the atmosphere so far, he was too focused on misdirected vengeance against Ortes to concentrate on the request.

By the time he reached the destination, Polyphemus would either have given up and returned, or become lost in the extra-dimensional borderlands.

Muttering that he really wanted to go home, Ortes disappeared into the sandstorm.

Polyphemus gritted his teeth and followed.

***

“What is this…?”

One of the five Solvers who received the Ten Towers’ request, Aktion, muttered in bewilderment.

Before his eyes was Polyphemus.

More precisely, Polyphemus collapsed with his heart pierced through.

Aktion reviewed the situation up until now. He had rejected Ortes’s proposal and departed an hour earlier. He had been slowly navigating the sand desert, adjusting for the coordinates provided by the client and the contamination caused by extra-dimensional influence.

Clearly, until the middle of the journey, the extra-dimensional contamination had only been getting worse, forcing him to stop several times to recalculate his route. But suddenly, at some point, space itself began to fluctuate as if pulling him in.

Wondering if it was a precursor to an extra-dimensional overflow, he recalculated using different correction formulas several times, but the source of that strange gravitational pull was indeed the request’s destination point. Aktion moved his sand bike along the flow of gravity, like a sailing ship riding a current.

And as soon as he arrived at the “laboratory” beyond the extra-dimensional veil, a light flashed.

Aktion hurriedly headed toward the source of the light, and there was Polyphemus.

“I warned him so much…”

After Ortes’s gathering, Polyphemus had shown somewhat strange behavior, hinting at accompanying Ortes. Aktion had discreetly approached Polyphemus and warned him against it. Nothing good could come from getting involved with a doomsayer.

“No… it wasn’t him…”

Polyphemus muttered with his body growing cold.

“If not him, then who?”

“No one (Ουτις) did it. Suddenly, flashing…”

Polyphemus’s life ceased. His heart was already gone, ensuring death; his enchantware and magic power had merely been artificially prolonging his life. The fate that had been postponed arrived as the residual magic power was exhausted.

Aktion shook his head and looked at the wounds remaining on Polyphemus’s body.

Despite the heart being missing, there was no noticeable bleeding. There were no bloodstains around the corpse either. Examining the cross-section of the chest, there were traces of burns that seemed to have been seared by something extremely hot.

‘Was it a sniper using an optical weapon? No. To generate enough output to penetrate the defenses of a magician of Polyphemus’s caliber would require a large-caliber weapon. They wouldn’t have transported equipment of that size here. It must be Ortes’s own magic.’

So Ortes’s secret trump card that he hadn’t revealed to anyone was light magic.

On the surface, he claimed he “couldn’t use magic.” Of course, with all those artifacts he wore, it was impossible that he couldn’t use magic.

A beam fired by a magician who had mastered light attribute magic to the extreme would have truly lethal power due to its speed and force.

Aktion swallowed hard and hid behind Polyphemus’s sand bike for cover.

Then he connected to Polyphemus’s corpse to check the black box. He needed to understand the circumstances more accurately.

The video information to check was from this morning until now. It was a record of over ten hours, but using neural acceleration, he could check it in just a few seconds.

‘About 5 seconds should do it.’

Contrary to expectations, Aktion disconnected after just over 2 seconds.

In Polyphemus’s memory, Ortes, despite being bound all over, smiled and murmured:

‘Well, I don’t think anyone (Ουτις) did it.’

It was an answer to the questioning about his missing lover’s whereabouts. And Polyphemus said he was killed by “no one” before dying.

Aktion couldn’t even guess what trick Ortes had pulled to elicit such an answer.

‘I shouldn’t get involved any further.’

He was a Solver who had survived for a long time, and he knew well when to flee in order to survive.

Now was precisely that time.

***

Entering the interior of the destination, Ortes sighed.

Whatever security devices this crazy laboratory had installed, killer beams periodically flashed and fired in all directions.

And there were also unpredictable beams fired irregularly between the beam firing cycles.

If he didn’t have eyes that could read the precursors of all magic, he would have died dozens of times over.

‘That psycho should have tired himself out and gone back, so it should be safe, but I hope the other Solvers don’t end up dead.’

Ortes decided to leave a memo by scratching the wall with his high-frequency blade.

A brief analysis of the cycle and angles at which the beams were fired.

Adding that there were unpredictable attacks fired irregularly, so be extremely careful.

The output was extraordinary, so he recommended retreating instead—a concise message.