Ch.88The Great Chaos (5)

Arguilion, transformed into a metallic angel. Talo’s smile deepened upon seeing their form.

This was because Talo was an elder of the Silver-Iron Tower.

Even if they had mutated by receiving power from another dimension, if it was metal, it was worth researching. No, perhaps the desire to study it burned even stronger because it was metal originating from another dimension.

The elements of this world had already been thoroughly dissected by the Ten Towers throughout history, so to obtain new research subjects, one had to either create them or bring them from outside the world.

The sample of silver grace used by Arguilion had disappointed the Silver-Iron Tower. Apart from its property of corroding living beings, it had no other special qualities.

Indeed, what utility would the composition of those “angels”—more deeply influenced by the other dimension than silver grace—demonstrate?

Talo checked the calculation progress of his auxiliary brain. 47 percent.

He hoped they would hold out until the spell was complete. If they collapsed before this grand spell was finished, it would only prove they were worthless scrap with no research value.

***

Gunpowder smoke and magical light illuminated the sky. Ortes watched the battle between the two groups with a satisfied smile.

‘This is what a fight should be.’

Not fighting oneself, but making others fight. When I worked as a fixer, it took quite a lot of trial and error to grasp this simple wisdom.

It was easy to orchestrate a battle between Arguilion and the Ten Towers, thanks to the fortunate circumstance that the Tower mage limited his familiar’s automatic tracking targets to “things with magical power.”

The real problem starts here.

How should I stage the ‘end of the battle’?

I need to eliminate at least one side, whether it’s Arguilion or the Ten Towers. Or perhaps both.

If Arguilion survives and returns from this place, they’ll think “the Ten Towers are conducting some suspicious excavation work” and act accordingly.

They’ll likely waste resources trying to find excavation work by the Ten Towers that doesn’t even exist.

Conversely, if information about this scene reaches the Ten Towers, how would they judge it?

‘Arguilion is trying to plunder the ruins of an ancient archmage’—wouldn’t they think something like that?

If so, the Ten Towers would strengthen surveillance on all ancient ruins. That’s not good news for me and Hydra Company.

‘Eliminating both at once carries too much risk. I don’t have high-powered techniques like magic.’

If only I had properly learned how to use fighting energy. The person who taught me something resembling fighting energy skills only showed me the basics of handling abilities and techniques for strengthening the body, saying, “Learning more would be useless for you anyway.”

Well, I don’t even know exactly what ability I possess. From the circumstances, I only know it’s not magical power.

Besides strengthening my body, I can also use it to suppress my eyes, so the time spent learning wasn’t wasted, but…

I made up my mind.

The best option is to eliminate both sides so that accurate information doesn’t reach either headquarters.

If I can’t eliminate everyone and must choose one side, the second-best option is to eliminate the Ten Towers and let Arguilion escape.

I need to gauge when to join the battle.

I observed the fight between the mechanical angels and the magical weapons. At first glance, it seemed advantageous for the group of angels continuously using powerful spells, but I could see that the durability of the “gate” supplying otherworldly mana to the angels was gradually depleting.

‘At this rate, the Ten Towers will win easily.’

Good. I’ll intervene pretending to be on Arguilion’s side.

After taking down the Ten Towers mage, I’ll prepare to eliminate Arguilion when they let their guard down.

If I don’t see an opening, then there’s nothing I can do.

I put on the clothes I had picked up earlier from the Arguilion commander.

***

Talo waved his fingers. The weapons synchronized with his will formed an intricate firing pattern.

The weapon blueprints input from his brain and output through his fingertips were released with various magical formulas embedded within them.

It could be considered a performance demonstration of weapons against Arguilion’s angels. Talo experimented on the angels’ elemental resistances using special ammunition charged with various magical properties.

‘Tougher than I thought.’

The results exceeded expectations. Uniform resistance to all elements and self-healing ability.

The regeneration occurred through principles alien to existing magical engineering. Undoubtedly an ability originating from another dimension.

If the Silver-Iron Tower could replicate that with their power, they would be one step closer to ascension than the other Ten Towers.

“I must commend your efforts, but alas.”

Talo raised his right hand.

In his field of vision, a message appeared: calculation complete.

“This is the limit of those who are not of the Ten Towers.”

The grand spell Talo had been preparing activated. Spatial Alchemy.

The limitations of the Silver-Iron Tower were synonymous with the limitations of the elements they could manipulate. True to their name of Silver-Iron, their magical world was dedicated to metals.

Their methods for handling organic matter itself were inherently limited.

Even if they learned magic from Earth Tower or Green Wood to circumvent these limitations, it would be meaningless since they couldn’t reach the extreme with Silver-Iron magic.

But mages were those who sought loopholes in the world’s rules rather than accepting the limitations set by the world. The Silver-Iron Tower devised various means to concentrate metallic elements.

Creating elements with magical power, gathering elements from within the earth, or lastly…

Transmuting existing substances into metal.

Talo intended to alchemically transform the entire bodies of his research subjects, except for their hearts and brains.

Alchemy, originally a procedure for transforming substances to create gold, had evolved in this era into an extremely powerful offensive magic.

By isolating a specific space from reality through a barrier, everything within is transmuted into silver-iron. Spatial Alchemy, which converts everything in sight into silver-iron as long as the caster’s magical power permits, could be considered the essence of the Silver-Iron Tower.

And so the world began to turn silver.

The dim wilderness under starlight gradually brightened. Reflective light, returning the radiance of the stars. It was like watching the surface of the world being painted silver.

Even the bodies of the angels, silver angels not touching the ground, were slowly changing color. The blinding luster originating from another dimension was being consumed by the color of weapons refined for war.

The bodies of the silver angels gradually began to stiffen. Their limbs grew heavier from the extremities. They could feel control of their metal-transmuting joints passing to Talo.

For now, the blessing power surging from the “gate” was offsetting the effects of the Spatial Alchemy, but if the gate closed, they would instantly lose control of their bodies.

To overcome this situation, one of them would have to become a new gate. It was a moment when Arguilion’s angels were preparing for another martyrdom.

A high-frequency blade drawing a dark trajectory sliced off Talo’s right hand.

“You greedy Ten Towers scum! I can feel the base nature of the lowly Ten Towers! Comrades, rise up!”

***

Talo, with his right hand severed, felt both curiosity and bewilderment.

For him, the body was fundamentally consumable, so it was simple to alchemically create another arm to replace the severed one. Therefore, Talo wasn’t bewildered by the destruction of his body itself.

Why couldn’t he sense an enemy within his barrier?

Why wasn’t that person subject to the alchemy?

There was fundamentally only one reason why Spatial Alchemy wouldn’t work: using one’s own ability to offset the alchemical interference.

The principle was the same whether one had a completely controlled domain like a barrier similar to Spatial Alchemy, or simply continuously infused ability into one’s body to defend against magical intrusion.

If they possessed a perfect substance immune to alchemy, that would be different, but such things existed only in the secret vaults of the Silver-Iron Tower.

Therefore, it was clear that this new intruder had endured massive ability consumption to attack.

‘To cut my floating arm without any equipment or magical precursors. Was there someone in Arguilion who could use fighting energy?’

Arguilion was equally bewildered.

Was this new support sent from headquarters?

They might not have heard communications from headquarters due to the barrier deployed by the Ten Towers mage. However, the problem was the intruder’s expression “greedy scum.”

Arguilion’s arrival at the ruins was not to target any relics sleeping inside.

They had come in response to a distress signal from a comrade.

Naturally, they could only interpret the fact that the Ten Towers were lying in ambush at the ruins as an extension of this.

They believed the Ten Towers had either imitated Arguilion’s distress signal or tortured their comrade to obtain the signal and used it to set a trap.

They hadn’t considered the relics inside the ruins from the beginning.

There was something seriously off about that person’s statement.

Therefore, it was a natural consequence that the angels aimed their weapons at the unidentified person who approached wearing Arguilion combat gear.

“The cause.”

“What?”

He doesn’t know the password.

“Kill him!”

***

What went wrong?

It should have been a perfect plan…?!