Ch.339339. Destiny (5)
by fnovelpia
“Michelle. I’m here.”
“I thought you’d be late, but Aris came with you too?”
“We met on the way. More importantly.”
As expected, the entire Tembris team was present in the conference room, just as Michelle had announced.
And.
“What is this?”
Senia frowned deeply at the sight of a portion of a monster’s corpse prominently displayed.
No. Perhaps it wasn’t just because of that.
“…Wait, who brought this in?”
“I did. I was hoping you could examine it with your mana sight… Senia?”
“We need to move. Right now. Where on earth did something like this…!”
BANG!
Michelle cut off her words and didn’t add anything more as Senia slammed her hand on the table.
She must have already checked the monster’s interior with her mana sight.
***
‘Where on earth did such a thing…!’
Senia burst out of the conference room, sword in hand, and rushed to the place where Michelle said she had first encountered this monster.
It was an impossible phenomenon. Since such a thing had caught her eye, she couldn’t rest until she confirmed it herself.
Mana sight is the power to see the flow of magical energy. It can read not only the flow of mana in people but also the flow of magical energy in monsters.
External flow. Internal flow. The existence of magic formulas inscribed within. It captures everything from the direction of magical circuits to the moment magic formulas activate.
But Senia had seen it.
‘There’s no heart. It wasn’t in a position where a core would exist either. But… why is magical energy still flowing?’
This monster was both alive and not alive. If asked whether it was dead, she couldn’t answer affirmatively.
For monsters, death means the cessation of magical circuits. Therefore, the magical energy flowing through their physical bodies is essentially proof that their life force remains.
Though paradoxical, it was truly the case. That’s why she was going to check in person—whether this was merely an anomaly or something utterly impossible had occurred.
When Senia arrived shortly after, she realized it wasn’t just an anomaly.
“This is…!”
Viscous liquids clumping together. According to Michelle, there should have been a corpse there, not these liquids.
The sticky fluids squelched as they gathered, soon forming into a single entity and regaining its shape.
CLANG!
When she struck it, the sound of metal hitting solid matter rang out. It was no longer just liquid like before. It was simply a living monster.
“Senia!”
“Senia! Why didn’t you wait for us… Huh?”
“…That’s the monster I dealt with.”
The three people who had followed her also witnessed this bizarre scene. Michelle, who had processed the monster herself and brought back a sample of its corpse, was the most shocked.
The monster maintained its appearance from before its supposed death, with only the part Michelle had taken as a sample missing.
“Let’s deal with this first. Then we can…!”
“No. Don’t touch it.”
Unlike before when they only had a single part, now they might be able to identify its true nature.
Senia raised her sword to parry and then dashed forward alone, just as she had in the conference room.
If they aimed magic at it now, Senia would inevitably get caught in the crossfire, so the three others had to choose to provide support rather than attack.
“Charlotte, Aris. Can you somehow restrict its movement? This time, all three of us will take on defensive wizard roles.”
“Yes!”
“Okay!”
But even a one-sided attempt was fine. They had taken the sample for analysis in the first place, and they had anticipated something like this might happen.
With Junon’s position vacant, rather than being manipulated by an unknown enemy, they needed to obtain even the smallest clue.
Several exchanges occurred between Senia and the monster that had transformed from the writhing liquid. Senia wasn’t just attacking; she seemed to be focusing on reading the flow and identifying its nature through her mana sight.
After a moment.
SLASH-! THUD.
The monster hit the ground with a loud crash and was cut cleanly in two.
By all appearances, it seemed dead.
But it would soon revive. Just like before, it would rise again and attack humans.
Would Senia not know this? Of course she would. The fact that she still cut down the monster with her sword meant that she had finished her analysis.
“Do you remember when these monsters, the ones that turn into liquid and scatter, first appeared?”
“These monsters…”
“Recently, right?”
“Not just recently. Try to recall exactly when they appeared.”
It was a significant question, and Michelle was the first to catch Senia’s intention.
“When Junon fell, right?”
“Yes. And when Junon fell, it was also the day Ashpern emitted a red light and disappeared without a trace.”
“Then… are you saying these are Ashpern’s monsters?”
“No. Although Ashpern had intelligence, it didn’t possess high-level magic or exceptional techniques. Similarly, it wouldn’t have touched a formula that allows them to scatter into liquid and recover like this.”
But there was one suspicious circumstance.
“What about Feltiburugos then?”
“!!!”
“Conventional wisdom didn’t apply. I confirmed and reported that the core was constantly moving… but it’s impossible for us to pinpoint and attack a monster’s core when we don’t know when or where it will move. That’s why Algenib was half-destroyed.”
“So these monsters… are also constantly relocating their cores?”
“Look. I’ve cut it down, but it’s still moving.”
Squirm, squirm.
It gurgled as it tried to regain its original form.
“It’s squirming as if it’s not dead. It will probably revive just by absorbing magical energy. Unless we destroy this core. It’s fair to say it has virtually the same formula as Feltiburugos.”
Senia slashed it repeatedly, cutting it into pieces.
Only then did the convergence of liquids lean toward one side—toward the tissue containing the core.
“Perhaps Feltiburugos’s seal was already broken at the time Ashpern died.”
STAB!
Her sword pierced the ground deeply. The monster no longer moved.
A monster with a core. A monster that revives time and again until its core is destroyed. Though they had obtained valuable information, the expressions of the three were grim.
They had finally succeeded in eliminating one monster that could relocate its core. But there were many more.
“We need to find a method. If all those monsters could revive…”
“We might be pushed back before we even face Feltiburugos.”
“Let’s return for now. It will be shocking, but it seems right to convey the facts.”
While a heart in a fixed position could be sufficiently targeted with magic, it was impossible to precisely eliminate the source of a magical circuit that constantly moved through magic.
It was all too obvious that the imperial army would be overwhelmed in a war of attrition against reviving monsters. And relying on Senia’s mana sight to process that volume was equally unreasonable.
Sealing each monster individually would also require an absurdly large amount of power.
With Feltiburugos still to face, they were once again on a time limit.
Meanwhile, Senia picked up the shattered core with her fingers and narrowed her eyes, examining it carefully.
“Senia? Is there something else to check?”
“No. I’m coming now.”
At Michelle’s call, Senia crushed the broken core under her foot before moving. Perhaps, she thought, the solution to Feltiburugos’s formula might be closer than they imagined.
***
‘Oh, I forgot to mention this.’
When she put her hand in her pocket, she found the memo Aris had been carrying. She had said she wouldn’t repeat the same mistake, but it would be a lie to say it didn’t concern her at all.
Senia called Michelle over and asked.
“Michelle. Have you ever sent scouts toward Algenib?”
“Hmm… I sent a search party briefly when we were dealing with Ashpern. We needed to continuously monitor Ashpern’s movements.”
“Any new information from around there?”
“New information. I don’t think we saw anything particularly helpful. Why?”
“Well, you see.”
*rustle*
“Aris received this. It seems her disciples are in Algenib province with the Lachans… and you’re the only one who might have information about that area.”
“I understand what you’re saying. Let me check.”
Michelle carefully examined the memo, tilting her head at first, then pulled out a new sheet of paper.
As Michelle rummaged around for a pen, Senia immediately offered her own and asked.
“Did you find something?”
“…Senia, you and Aris read this as her disciples staying in Algenib with the Lachans, right?”
That seemed like the only way to read it. Senia nodded in affirmation.
But Michelle shook her head.
“Don’t you think the sentence is a bit awkward? It doesn’t make sense that they would just be staying with Lachans in Algenib in this situation.”
“Hm?”
“The stroke might look like it’s drawn this way, but this is characteristic handwriting of children living in Algenib. This doesn’t mean they’re staying together, it means…!”
Michelle gradually restored the memo by adding writing to the torn parts. Now the unnatural writing was cleanly restored. The tiny words visible above the torn phrase and at the top of the rolling paper weren’t just a message for Aris.
“This is… the Lachans…?”
“It seems to be unexpectedly good news!”
The memo contained valuable information about those monsters—information they had discovered even before Tembris.
***
Around the time Tembris discovered crucial information suggesting the disappearance of Ashpern and the revival of Feltiburugos.
Someone opens their eyes, moved by the sincere devotion of a girl whose heart seemed ready to shatter at any moment.
“Oh, did that finger just…?”
It was expected that his eyes would always remain closed. This too might have been an illusion.
But Renias turned her head sharply as she saw the finger twitch again before her eyes.
“Reni…as…”
At the sight of Junon smiling slightly with half-open eyes, Renias unconsciously dropped the wet cloth.
“Brother…? Junon?”
“Yes.”
“…”
Seeing him finally awaken, Renias’s face was covered with tears that suddenly poured out.
Then, with her delicate white hand, she raised a fist and lightly struck the patient who had not yet fully risen.
“Why, why did you make me worry so much! Why?!”
He could barely bring himself to say he was sorry.
His promise to return safely was essentially broken.
But still. He smiled slightly and wiped away her tears with one hand as he spoke.
“I’m sorry, Renias.”
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