Ch.85The Great Chaos (2)

“What… What have you done!”

…?

I couldn’t help but be bewildered by the sudden anger of Pluto’s priestess. Surely she wasn’t going to claim that golem was temple property and demand compensation.

“Please calm yourself, Priestess. I haven’t done anything.”

I spread my clasped hands wide apart—the traditional gesture showing I’m unarmed. I add a peaceful smile to create a benevolent impression.

“As you can see, I merely defeated an intruder.”

“Intruder…?”

Pluto’s priestess muttered vacantly. I have no idea what shocked her so much.

Could she have used her sacred art to look into my soul’s origin? Did she see Earth and this world’s original novel, and that’s why she’s so shocked?

“Priestess. Did you perhaps see something?”

“What?”

“In my soul. What did you see?”

As expected of a professional. She successfully traced my soul’s origin, something I couldn’t find despite years of struggling.

Now I understood her fussy, aggressive reaction earlier.

It would be devastating to learn that your fate was entirely prophesied in some internet novel—or as they’d call it here, an Ether Net novel.

But no. The original story has already been twisted beyond recognition. It’s more accurate to say the novel was based on this world rather than this world being based on the novel.

I was preparing some comforting words like “Prophecies don’t determine everything. Our lives are more than mere records,” when a thunderbolt of news struck me.

“No. I wasn’t talking about your soul.”

“…Pardon?”

Disappointment, followed by a deeper emptiness.

Inflated hope. And the void left in its place. A bitter feeling I can’t quite describe fills that void instead.

I thought I’d completely given up on returning home after years of struggle, but apparently some unabandoned expectations remained.

I have a warm home, food to eat, and money to sustain myself now.

At the same time, I’m overwhelmed by the pressure of this world that could face an apocalypse at any moment, and the weight of these damned eyes.

I suddenly wanted to lie down and stretch out on my bed in the room next to Carissiane’s.

I quickly managed my expression. It wouldn’t be professional to take out my frustration on a business partner just because my personal matters went awry.

My smile probably disappeared for about 2-3 seconds, but I hope she didn’t notice in the darkness.

“Then what did you mean by what you just said?”

“Argyrion has come.”

“What?”

Ah. Is it because that golem Adusiam was silver-colored?

When I think of silver, I think of Argyrion’s Silver Order. Did she mistake Adusiam for some premium product of the Silver Order? Did Adusiam send a distress signal to Argyrion because I didn’t dispose of it quickly enough, revealing the Great Temple’s location?

It was a situation ripe for misunderstanding. Why did it have to be silver? I feel wronged.

If Adusiam had tried to send a signal somewhere, I would have dealt with it faster. Or I would have used a spell override to block it preemptively.

This was quite an awkward misunderstanding. I needed to clear it up immediately.

“I don’t know why Argyrion has arrived here, but it has nothing to do with m—”

“And a mage from the Ten Towers.”

“What?”

***

“Judging by the size of the ability field, it’s at least an Elder. Perfect! We need a representative of the Divine Light Order for a proper confrontation!”

Kore shouted wildly. With a Ten Towers Elder present, retreat without casualties was impossible.

Kore, the only one in the Divine Light Order’s temple reclamation team who could detect intruders in advance. Utis, who had perfectly captured Kore’s attention and stalled for time until now.

This was a well-laid trap. Both Argyrion and the Ten Towers considered the Divine Light Order targets for extermination.

If Utis was who she thought he was, this was an exquisitely calculated operation.

The strategy Utis presented to the Divine Light Order had two parts: “Weaken Argyrion through the Divine Light Order” and “Leave Argyrion’s disposal to the Ten Towers.”

He also told other orders he would give them “sacred artifacts he had collected.” This seemed to strengthen the Divine Light Order, but the key was that he had collected them.

Meaning he could control what sacred artifacts the Divine Light Order obtained.

However, the reclamation of Pluto’s Temple must have been unexpected for Utis.

The Divine Light Order was becoming much stronger than Utis had anticipated. To maintain the balance of power as he planned, some pruning was necessary.

By exposing them to a two-pronged attack from a Ten Towers Elder and Argyrion, creating a situation where a major order representative had to be sacrificed.

“The overly strengthened Divine Light Order will be appropriately weakened, and the Ten Towers will think Argyrion has joined hands with heretics. Truly cunning…!”

Kore shouted, deliberately provoking and venting her anger.

To minimize casualties in this place, it would be right for her to die. Her time as a spirit in this world wouldn’t be long, but it would be enough to stall the outside enemies and reveal the truth to other order members.

Utis stroked his chin, deep in thought.

‘Was the provocation too obvious…?’

He must have fought more priests than anyone during the Mythic Age. Of course he would know that Pluto’s priest could leave behind a spirit.

“Hmm. I admit that circumstances might make me look like a Blasphemia spy.”

“What?”

‘You’re saying that now?’

Kore wasn’t merely suspecting Utis of being a Blasphemia witch hunter.

Something much greater, something almost unspeakable.

Part of the ‘Vanished Mage.’

Like a shed skin left behind when the Mage ascended, or a fragment of a fallen soul…

‘If it were the Vanished Mage’s full power, there would be no need for such schemes.’

“But Priestess, I am someone who would be in real trouble if discovered by the Ten Towers. Please believe me.”

“What do you—”

“As a token of faith, I’ll reveal my name to your order. You said the precision of the soul-viewing sacred art increases with more clues, right? My name is Ortes. Please see whether my soul’s color is closer to yours or the Ten Towers.”

Kore reflexively used her sacred art. But what she saw remained the same.

Blue radiance.

‘No. It seems even brighter…?’

She tried to say something, but was pushed back by Ortes’s imposing stride.

“Ah. Before going up, take the sacred artifact in the center of the room. It will help.”

Ortes spoke rapidly, then turned away. After cutting Adusiam into pieces and leaving only its core, Ortes quickly gathered it and ran out.

‘What’s going on?’

The situation was completely incomprehensible. Why would he leave without neutralizing her?

He clearly had some purpose. Some grand plan she couldn’t yet fathom.

After deliberating dozens of times in a brief moment, Kore decided to follow Ortes’s instruction. Though the trap was obvious, she needed to throw herself into it to understand his purpose.

In the deepest darkness of Pluto’s Great Temple lay a shattered blade.

Kore could immediately recognize it. Though damaged and destroyed, the divine power swirling within belonged to Pluto.

It was the Great Temple’s symbol, Pluto’s Great Scythe.

“Why this?”

She sensed no curse.

The power remaining in the shattered symbol was like dust compared to its original state, but even so, she could access the temple’s core authority through it. The power to change the current situation was in Kore’s hands.

Beyond simply escaping the Ten Towers’ pursuers…

Kore suppressed her increasingly complex thoughts. Wasn’t the survival of the Divine Light Order what mattered most right now?

Even if Ortes had some ulterior motive, she had to use this symbol now.

The broken blade of the Great Scythe. Kore cut her palm. The divinity within the blood-soaked dark blade resonated with Kore’s divine power.

All levels of the temple began to appear simultaneously before her eyes.

***

Talo, Elder of the Silver Iron Magic Tower, launched his limbs. The 360-degree cameras mounted on his limbs transmitted multi-layered detection images, including thermal infrared, directly to Talo’s brain.

Reserve enchantware floating around him attached to the empty spaces. These were combat enchantware, different from the reconnaissance enchantware he had just launched.

Talo reflected on the urgent message he had received moments ago.

“The legacy of the old king has summoned us… Huh.”

It was amusing. Both that a relic of the Magic King remained, and that this relic had asked for help from its master’s assassins.

“But interesting. The Magic King left behind artifacts other than the Ten Commandments.”

Talo’s left arm, autonomously exploring the temple interior, detected a life form. His arm, transformed into something resembling a glove, stealthily approached and attached itself to someone’s unfortunate hand.

The built-in liquefied spirit-intelligent metal was injected. In an instant, the liquid metal spread throughout the victim’s body via the bloodstream, allowing Talo to control the victim’s entire body.

That’s when Talo sensed something unusual.

In response to the liquid metal, the ‘brain’ began to attack.

The cerebral cortex rose up like a flesh golem, trying to crush the liquid metal.

But it was futile. Why else would it be called “liquid”? The liquefied metal easily escaped the brain’s compression attack and sharpened itself into an awl-like form.

The brain was quickly torn apart before the spirit-intelligent metal commanded by Talo. Talo couldn’t hide his smile.

“Haha! Corruptors? How interesting!”

A structure clearly beyond human despite its human appearance. Corruptors steeped in extra-dimensional influence. Corruptors secretly excavating ruins instead of engaging in spontaneous destruction?

It was clearly Argyrion, Blasphemia’s troublemaker.

“Those poor fellows have come all the way here… Argyrion, already at a disadvantage, can’t afford to invest manpower in excavating insignificant artifacts. Do they believe some secret weapon that could reverse the war situation is sleeping in these ruins?”

It was a pity.

Whatever artifact slept in these ruins, it would fall into his hands.