episode_0137

“What a mess is this?”

A downpour on the square of Cologne.

Giant craters emerging in all directions.

In the ruined square where buildings have collapsed, Kerne dropped his toolbox with a thud.

A boy covered in blood.

A woman embracing him and sobbing.

And the face of a familiar man.

“You arrived just in time.”

“Why did you call me?”

“I already told you, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, I heard. You need help replacing the engine in the machine…”

“…”

Swish. Swish.

Kerne’s face turned pale with astonishment as he glanced at the boy with a hole in his chest and the shameless man.

“No way!”

“You’re quick to catch on. Yes, that ‘no way’ is correct. We’re in a race against time, so please prepare quickly.”

“No! Hey! Where’s the machine here?”

“Aren’t people a kind of machine as well? It’s just a matter of how sophisticated, delicate, and complex they are.”

“…”

Kerne was at a loss for words.

He thought he was called to help with machine repair.

But when he arrived, instead of a machine, there was a boy with his heart pulled out and lying limp in front of him.

Is the heart also a kind of engine?

Kerne felt his vision blur slowly.

“Are you really going to do this?”

“Yes. Please, Kerne.”

“I don’t think he can hold on much longer…”

Approaching with a stern expression, the saintess cast a barrier around and began to apply magic to the boy.

The gathered golden magic suddenly took the form of a winged angel.

And soon, it began to seep into the boy’s body, starting the miracle of recovery.

The fatal wounds healed, the stagnant blood flow began to circulate again.

He was still unconscious, but it was ambiguous whether he could be considered dead.

Solra blinked, not knowing what was happening right now.

“Saintess! What are you doing right now? Xenon is already dead! Please stop using magic!”

“Not yet. As long as there is a possibility, I can’t stop.”

It was like pouring water into a leaking bucket.

Even if she forcibly healed his body with recovery magic, it was only preventing further damage to the already dead body.

Unless the heart that was pulled out resumes its function…

“No way…”

Solra realized too late.

He realized what the suspicious man, the saintess, and the old man were trying to do.

They were reaching out to the forbidden realm.

“Don’t worry about hygiene and bleeding. Leave it to me. Just think of it as a dead life and relax.”

“Even if you say that… Ugh! I don’t understand! You said the body is also a kind of machine! It’s not wrong!”

Kerne rolled up his sleeves and rummaged through the toolbox.

Taking out several small engines from inside, he estimated the size by holding them against Xenon’s chest.

Selecting a suitable engine, Kerne put on the gloves handed to him by the saintess and began the surgery, or rather, the ‘engine replacement.’

“This… I don’t understand even when I look closely.”

“I’ll teach you. Connect this artery to that one to maintain blood flow…”

The collaboration between the saintess and the engineer began.

While Jill continuously poured magic to stop the bleeding and supply oxygen to the brain and vital organs to prevent damage.

Kerne inserted the engine into the chest, proceeding with the operation to replace the heart.

“This is not the first time I’ve connected organic matter to a machine. I’ve done surgeries on cyborgs before…”

The beginning of the puppet was when he tried to create a doll that could move on its own by assembling the arms and legs of cyborgs.

Kern, who had a rich history of attaching magical prosthetic legs to people who had lost their limbs, was now attempting to replace the organs inside the body, even the heart, for the first time in the world.

No one had ever attempted or dared to try such a thing before.

“How will the body react to this…?”

“We have to suppress it with magic.”

“You would have to cast that magic 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You would die if you made a mistake for even a moment. How would you sleep?”

“Well…”

Jill was at a loss for words.

While it was possible to charge an engine with magic and periodically recharge it to forget about it, suppressing rejection with magic was a different story.

Who could cast magic continuously without a break? Even if it was a simple magic, it would be impossible. Rejection suppression magic belonged to the category of complex magic.

It would be great to have some device that could automatically cast magic.

As Jill pondered this, he suddenly heard a voice.

“Jinbeop.”

“?”

“?”

Turning around, the two people who were seriously contemplating saw a pale-skinned vampire girl standing there.

Crossing her fingers, the girl made a gesture, and a magical symbol was engraved on the engine inside Xenon’s chest.

It evolved from a 0th level tetrahedron shape to a 1st level cube shape.

Mijung, frowning, twisted her hand and made another gesture.

“It’s what the bug did… Just follow along, it’s easy.”

The cube-shaped symbol collapsed into an unstable form and began to distort and change.

Everyone held their breath.

After Mijung focused all her attention, the symbol transformed into a diamond-shaped octahedron.

A 2nd level symbol.

It was the form of Jinbeop that allowed for the practical application of magic.

It was the moment Mijung awakened to the full potential of the magic symbol.

“It’s done. I did it.”

“Here, this is the casting ritual for the magic that suppresses rejection.”

Jill immediately transferred the magic to Mijung through her fingertips.

The magic turned into a magical form in Mijung’s hands and when applied to the symbol, the rejection response of the body to the engine subsided.

“There are quite a few similarities between Jinbeop and magic.”

Watching this, Eugene nodded his head.

Even though they started from the same mana, magic and sorcery seemed completely different.

Jinbeop and magic could share spells without cumbersome conversions.

In the end, it was evidence that they were fundamentally the same.

“To operate Jinbeop, you need magical energy. If you connect an adapter that converts mana into magic to Jinbeop… How can you connect this to Jinbeop? It’s a combination of a magic symbol made of invisible magic and a machine! It’s insane! We can only go through trial and error!”

“Hurry up. My magical energy is running out…”

A fierce race against time began.

While the engine to replace the heart and the sorcery to suppress rejection were all prepared, connecting them all was by no means a simple task.

“If we release the magic, will the gravitational force in Jinbeop absorb the surrounding magic? Then if we connect it like this… Good!”

After numerous trials and errors, the vascular junction was finally completed.

After connecting the adapter that supplied magic to Jinbeop, Kern, swallowing hard, started the engine.

Vroom!

The engine started with a powerful sound.

As the engine periodically thudded like a beating heart, it began to circulate blood without any backflow, pumping it out straight away.

“It’s a success…”

“Ugh!”

Kern’s voice trembled as he stepped back.

Jill enhanced the strength of the magic, beginning to repair the hole in the chest.

Reattaching the broken ribs and covering the engine.

New flesh sprouted over it, connecting the torn muscles.

In no time, Zennon’s chest, now looking unscathed as if it had never been pierced, was covered.

Upon seeing this, Solara let out a sigh and burst into tears.

“Ah…”

Beyond magical exhaustion, Jill, who had squeezed the magic to its limit, lost balance as blood trickled from his nose.

Thud.

A familiar hand caught her, supporting her.

As the barrier disappeared and the moonlight poured in again, Jill closed her eyes, feeling warmer than ever before.

“Rest well. You did a great job.”

“Yeah…”

She saved a life.

While there was a sense of accomplishment, Jill felt that one word was even more precious.

She was not hated by Eugene.

She gained that assurance.

Only then could Jill finally relax and allow herself to faint.

“Zennon! Zennon! Open your eyes!”

“…”

Bringing her ear to Zennon’s chest, Solara shouted frantically.

Clearly, the heart, or rather the engine, was beating strongly.

The surgery was successful.

But that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be any side effects.

Perhaps Zennon might never wake up.

Not knowing what went wrong or how to fix it.

Just endlessly praying.

For Zennon to open his eyes without any problems…

“Nuna…?”

“…”

And finally, a boiling voice escaped Zennon’s cracked lips.

Looking somewhat exhausted, Zennon was clearly breathing on his own, with lively eyes shining.

Looking around in disbelief as if not believing it himself, Zennon wandered around.

Solara stopped crying, momentarily overwhelmed with joy, and hugged her precious younger brother tightly.

“Oh! Thank goodness! Oh!”

Solara’s wailing echoed.

The fierce downpour stopped.

The dark clouds that covered Kurnell had dispersed, letting in the sunlight that shone down on the two.

Zennon’s life was saved.

Everything was finally over.

And soon after, the main base of the Holy Knights arrived in Kurnell to begin the cleanup.

“Is this the person? The one who impersonated Cardinal Nicholas? Then arrest him. Take him away.”

“No! This person is innocent!”

“Commander Solara. Don’t you know you’re also a subject of investigation? Ignore the commander’s words and take him away quickly.”

“Let me say something. This person is innocent. Cardinal Nicholas has been dead for a long time. The one moving his body was an evil spirit. Instead of arresting him, we should respectfully request him to be a witness for the investigation.”

“Even the Deputy Mayor…”

Solara’s defense was of no use.

Thanks to Cornelia’s defense, I could remove the handcuffs.

Since the case was so complex and confusing, I decided to cooperate with the Holy Knights to help clarify the facts.

Speculating that a necromancer like Luna took possession of Cardinal’s body and sacrificed over 500 bodies in the underground of the cathedral to resurrect a spider monster without any clues was quite difficult.

For now, I kept quiet about Solara.

If it was revealed that he had collaborated with the enemies, it would be a betrayal punishable by life imprisonment.

It was deemed wasteful to leave such a monster in prison.

Of course, if he couldn’t bear the guilt and ended up destroying himself, it would be pointless.

After roughly finishing the investigation into the facts.

When it was revealed that I had protected the saintess, defeated Luna’s puppets, and saved Xenon, the stance of the Holy Knights changed drastically.

I had started off as a mere witness, but somehow I had been elevated to the status of a key informant.

Whenever they found something they didn’t know or something strange, they would bring it to me and question me with reverence.

“Thank you once again… What was your name?”

“Michael Jackson.”

“Mr. Jackson.”

“It’s a combined name.”

“Ah, Mr. Jackson. But we found a survivor in the rain tunnel.”

“A survivor?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

A survivor?

There was no one alive inside the rain tunnel.

I had even torn apart all the dead bodies.

I was puzzled, but I followed them to the location they were guiding me to.

“This is the child.”

“This is…”

There, a naked girl wrapped in a blanket was drinking warm cocoa while blowing on it.

Long black hair that almost touched her hips.

And golden eyes.

My brows furrowed involuntarily.

This kid…

“Hey, are you Kali?”

“Huh?”

She looked exactly like Kali.

More accurately, she resembled the female form attached to Kali’s spider body.