Ch.83Prologue to Chaos (2)

The silver monster with a unicorn’s head swiftly approached its enemy. The silver instruments that formed its limbs were busily playing.

It wasn’t playing for anyone to hear. In fact, its performance was beyond the range of human hearing.

Like a bat’s ultrasonic waves, sounds beyond the human audible spectrum. The magically tuned ultrasonic waves permeated throughout the great temple, reflecting and returning to the silver monster.

It was magic that detected what was where in advance through sound echoes. Though inaudible to humans, the melody clearly carried curses of decay and dullness.

A transparent ensemble created by the monster. The monster knew it couldn’t defeat the temple intruders with just this level of curse.

However, the monster had no intention of eliminating all intruders alone.

But when its master’s disciples and followers arrived, the enemies would be bewildered to find their strength significantly weakened compared to normal.

That moment of bewilderment would be enough.

The master’s disciples who arrived would unlock its functions, and before the overwhelming magical power, this temple would return to the silence commanded by the master.

Just one thing was problematic—an alien divinity never witnessed even in ancient times.

The monster’s master was wary of unknown mysteries, and that habit was directly passed down to the monster. It planned to launch the best ambush it could manage.

It didn’t matter if it couldn’t neutralize the variable immediately. It only needed to make them waste time being vigilant against ambushes in the darkness.

The scenery around the monster rippled. Its body was no longer silver but ashen gray like the temple walls shrouded in darkness. A perfect mimicry of the surrounding landscape—magic that would be difficult to match even with modern camouflage spells.

The variable had stopped moving in the deepest part of the temple.

There lay the symbol of the great temple, personally destroyed by the master.

What if there was a saint who could restore the destroyed symbol, or someone who could wield holy commands beyond the level of saints?

Pluto’s Great Temple would once again become a rallying point for old enemies, hindering the master’s grand plans.

The monster’s movements became urgent.

The monster, which had melted into the thick darkness,

Found itself facing blue eyes that shone directly at it.

***

How?

That was the monster’s question.

Those eyes were looking at it. The glowing irises stared intensely, fixed on its eye sockets.

There was no flaw in its camouflage. It had erased even its footsteps through its sound-controlling powers. Peering through the darkness would reveal only walls, and listening for footsteps would yield only the sound of wind.

Was this the tracking origin of a priest serving the hunting god? How could they track something they had never seen before?

An instinctual alarm that hadn’t been used for ages began to ring. It needed to either flee or fight immediately.

It interpreted its instinctual fear logically. If it fled, this person would surely alert the other enemies about the anomaly. The master’s enemies would escape as they always had in the past.

If it fought now, it could at least buy time until reinforcements arrived.

“Adusiam, is that correct?”

The monster, Adusiam, trembled.

“I find you quite fascinating.”

The nameless variable spoke softly.

“An ancient golem forged by the Demon King. Created using a mage from before the Ten Towers system. I never imagined I’d see one here.”

Kore was watching the scene.

***

In the deepest underground part of Pluto’s Great Temple. There were four passages leading to that place. While Orthes and Adusiam stood near the eastern and western passages, facing each other, Kore watched their confrontation from the northern passage.

‘From here, I’m in both their blind spots…’

It was certain that the monster hadn’t detected her. This was the effect of Pluto’s holy relic, the “Invisible Helm.”

Invisibility didn’t simply mean visual concealment. It was closer to an ability that hid one’s very existence from the world.

Pluto was the god who governed the underworld. A holy relic symbolizing “invisible death” that strikes suddenly from anywhere.

However, unlike the monster, Utis might be able to see through her holy relic. That’s why Kore carefully hid in the darkness of the passage.

Though she couldn’t see the form of something with magical power, she could sense its presence through the holy relic. It was right in front of Utis.

And Utis spoke. The same casual tone she had heard at the meeting.

“Adusiam, is that correct?”

He knows the name.

No answer came. Utis continued calmly, as if he had expected this.

“I find you quite fascinating. An ancient golem forged by the Demon King.”

Such a thing was in Pluto’s Great Temple? Kore was bewildered but quickly understood the situation. The Demon King was cautious. He must have placed it as a kind of alarm system to alert him if the church resistance attempted to liberate the temple.

What she couldn’t understand was Utis.

The fact that a guardian created directly by the Demon King was stationed at the Great Temple was information unknown even to the priestesses of the Pluto church.

No, it was strange that someone from the People of the Gods would know this. The Demon King would have placed that golem as a guardian after the siege that took the Great Temple.

Who would have been by the Demon King’s side when he defeated the church’s greatest resistance?

Only the Demon King’s disciples. The founders of the current Ten Towers.

Kore shook her head. Utis being a spy from the Ten Towers was the worst-case scenario among her suspicions.

At the same time, it was also the least likely possibility. If he had been a Ten Towers spy, there had been too many opportunities to scheme the divine church’s annihilation.

‘Utis said he operated within Blasphemia.’

He might have obtained information about that golem from Blasphemia. While Pluto’s Great Temple was sealed by special methods that even the Ten Towers couldn’t undo, if Blasphemia had investigated other temples with similar golems, it wasn’t an impossible story.

“Created using a mage from before the Ten Towers system. I never imagined I’d see one here.”

There was something chilling about how calmly he recited Adusiam’s creation details.

“Since I can see you clearly, why don’t you come out?”

Kore flinched. Utis’s gaze was still directed toward where Adusiam was. Yet why did those words feel like they were aimed at her?

A resonant boom echoed through the darkness. It was magic.

It was an action that couldn’t be detected by ears or eyes. Only through the faint disturbance in the ability field could one barely guess that magic had been activated.

Facing this invisible attack, Utis merely tilted his head slightly.

Psssssh…

The temple wall hit by the attack crumbled to dust. Utis nodded and said:

“A compressed sonic projectile? A principle that vibrates at the target material’s natural frequency upon impact, instantly pulverizing it. This seems closer to modern thinking than ancient magic. Are you sure you’re a golem manufactured tens of centuries ago?”

Utis raised his sword. Kore enhanced her vision to discern shapes in the darkness. While the golem itself wasn’t visible, she could track its movement trajectory through the dust and debris it stirred up.

And what that trajectory meant was clear.

Adusiam was being chased by Utis.

For some reason, the sonic projectiles Utis had described couldn’t damage his sword. Utis was pressuring Adusiam with peculiar swordsmanship, interfering with the trajectory of the sonic projectiles.

The deflected sonic projectiles always flew to where Adusiam’s ability field was felt. Killed by one’s own magic.

It seemed like deliberate mockery. Kore felt that Adusiam’s current situation overlapped with her own moments of frustration when she kept finding empty rooms while pursuing Utis.

But this was far more persistent than her case. Not moving from his spot, just swinging his sword to turn attacks back against their source.

A persistence that seemed to say: I’ll crush you with your own magic. Like showing the difference in hierarchy to a dog that dares bare its teeth at its master…

***

I adjusted the output control device of my high-frequency blade.

It was fortunate that the magic he used was a projectile of compressed sound waves. If he had been the reckless type who thought, “I use sound waves, so I’ll charge at the speed of sound!” it would have been more troublesome.

The construction principle of the sonic projectile magic itself was simple. Pulverization using natural vibration frequency.

And my sword was a high-frequency blade. A tool that enhanced cutting power through ultra-vibration. By adjusting the ultra-vibration output at the right timing, I could appropriately offset the vibration pulverization of the sonic projectiles.

With creatures like this, getting too close is more dangerous.

Adusiam fired sonic projectiles using the instruments in its body. In other words, if it was willing to risk self-destruction, it could emit sound waves from its entire body the moment I approached.

There was no reason to do something as stupid as getting caught in the opponent’s self-destruction.

I calmly deflected the sonic projectiles while thinking about how to take this thing back to Hydra Saro.

According to the information my eyes showed me, Adusiam’s higher functions were currently locked.

This was also why I didn’t try to smash it immediately upon recognizing it. For this creature to unlock its higher functions, it would need permission from its creator or their proxy, but the Demon King who could unlock Adusiam’s functions no longer exists.

In other words, if this creature’s “functions became unlockable,” it would mean the Demon King had returned.

‘I should take it back and modify it into a Demon King appearance alarm.’

***

A silver flash appeared in front of Pluto’s Great Temple. From the gaping void, figures wearing camouflaged combat uniforms began to emerge.

“A comrade’s rescue signal was transmitted from here?”

Arguilion had arrived.