CHAPTER 7
THE DEUS MACHINA
A force of hundreds of Machina Soldiers marched on the square before Ur-Rognasia Palace. A priest of the Goddess of Void acted as the false leader of this march, followed closely by an angel.
“The kingdom that escaped the invasion of the Voids for so long finally falls today.”
As he stood before the gate to the palace, Nefakess calmly held up a hand. What followed was a blinding flash and a deafening, thunderous roar. The Machina Soldiers meant to guard this kingdom charged the gates.
“How amusing,” Nefakess said with a thin smile.
Whoosh…
Suddenly, an orb of light appeared in the air above.
“Oh. You’ve finally decided to show yourself.” Nefakess spread his arms, greeting the orb. “How nice to meet you, eighth Dark Lord that serves the goddess—Schwertleite Terminate, the Deus Machina.”
“Staff officer of the Dark Lords’ Armies under Azra-Ael—Nefakess Reizaad,” the orb replied with its artificial voice. “You are not recognized as a worthy master.”
Letters ran across the sphere’s surface. This was super-ancient code, created by a civilization that existed ages before the development of sorcery.
“Therefore, you shall be destroyed. Ragva Leite!”
A beam of light shot out of the orb, sweeping across the earth.
Boooom!
Pillars of fire erupted, forming a massive curtain of flame that cut across the plaza. Any Machina Soldiers in its path were instantly vaporized.
“Heh-heh-heh… Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh. Splendid.” The priest cackled, his shape warped by the heat haze formed by the intense flames. He had not budged from where he stood and was even applauding.
“Your power is spectacular, Schwertleite. I’d expect nothing less from one of the Dark Lords.”
“Inexplicable…phenomena…”
Orphic letters ran across Schwertleite’s surface. Nefakess stepped forward slowly, still clapping.
“Must be…eliminated…Ragva Leite.”
Boom!
Schwertleite fired another beam of hellfire, which tore through the ground and eradicated a great many Machina Soldiers. Nefakess continued advancing toward the palace unbothered, however. The force of the explosion blew back his hair, but that was all.
“Trying the same thing over and over won’t change anything, mighty Dark Lord.” Nefakess shook his head in a show of disappointment. “You will never do me harm.”
“Ragva Leite.”
The light orb fired a third beam of destructive fire.
“I told you it was pointless.”
The powerful ray was dispersed effortlessly.
“Inexplicable… Why…?”
“Heh-heh-heh. It took me a bit to figure out the trick… But once I did, I seized control,” said Seraphim, who floated beside Nefakess while wearing a lovely smile.
“Shall I enlighten you?” Nefakess grinned and shrugged. “You might be the Deus Machina, the god of destruction created by an ancient civilization, but your sorcery circuits and core are fundamentally no different from the Machina Soldiers. And this treasure of humanity’s research, this Artificial Elemental, can dominate those circuits. Seraphim here has a fragment of the goddess’s soul, a Trapezohedron, incorporated into her.”
Nefakess produced a small black stone from a crack in reality. “The Goddess of Rebellion was the Deus Machina’s sole master, and Seraphim has her soul integrated into her core, which is why you cannot attack her. And since Seraphim is guarding me, her protection naturally extends to me.”
The glowing letters that ran across the orb of light were being overwritten by another kind of text—code used for controlling magical apparatuses developed by the Phillet Company.
“Schwertleite, the Deus Machina. You never had a soul to begin with. You serve as a tool for the goddess. But I will find a new use for you. You shall become my greatest weapon.”
Nefakess waved a hand through the air, and the Deus Machina floated up above the palace.
“For your first task, show me the way to the Dark Lord slumbering in this kingdom…”
Boom!
A blinding flash of light destroyed Ur-Rognasia Palace.
Just hold on a little longer, Leo!
Riselia kicked her way vertically up the walls. Her crimson dress fluttered in the dark, and her silver locks left particles of mana in the air. Her instincts as an undead minion guided her, telling her where to go. The seal branding her body throbbed hotly.
She could feel it. He was calling for her.
Eventually, Riselia reached a hall that branched in several directions. The place was like a maze.
He must be this way…
Using her Holy Sword’s glowing blade for light, Riselia let her intuition guide her through the maze. Her body, bolstered by mana, sped down the passages. Before long, she spotted a blue light shining at the end of the corridor.
Is that Leo’s staff?
She quickly realized that was wrong. More blue lights rapidly flickered to life.
“What?!”
Riselia stopped in her tracks and readied her Bloody Sword to attack. Looking around, she realized she was in a spacious, dome-shaped chamber. It was even larger and more expansive than the underground mausoleum from earlier, and the whole place was filled with flickering blue lights—countless eyes of spiderlike monsters covered in prismatic, metallic carapaces.
“Are these Voids?!”
Riselia got the feeling that wasn’t the case. The miasma that accompanied Voids was absent. The creatures felt closer to Void Simulators. The unidentified mechanical enemies all raised their tails at once.
“Move!” a voice shouted in her head.
Riselia jolted and jumped away.
Boom!
The machines fired scorching blasts that burned the spot where Riselia had been standing.
“…?!”
Having narrowly escaped, Riselia produced wings of mana and kicked off the wall to glide away. She swung the Bloody Sword down from midair.
“Windy Blood!”
A scythe-shaped blade of blood crashed down upon the metallic spiders. Riselia wasted no time charging into their broken formation.
“Don’t get in my way!”
Her Holy Sword ripped through the constructs.
“These are Machina Soldiers—sorcerous weapons used by the Deus Machina.”
“…Sorcerous weapons?” Riselia asked the voice speaking to her mind as she brandished the Bloody Sword. “You mean these things aren’t alive?”
“Yes, except… Something’s off. They look like they’re running amok.”
“They do? Hold on, who are you?!” Riselia kicked a Machina Soldier away. For all her efforts, the enemy’s numbers weren’t decreasing. In fact, it looked like they were swarming faster than she could whittle their numbers down.
Where do they keep coming from?!
She looked around the hall and spotted parts of a wall crumbling away and turning into spiders, which hopped off and climbed down.
“You can’t be serious!”
Only now did she realize all of this chamber’s “walls” were made up of those mechanical spiders.
I guess I fell into their nest.
Blasts came for Riselia from every direction and angle, forcing her to dive behind destroyed Machina Soldiers for cover. Were it not for the True Ancestor’s Dress bolstering her defenses, she likely would’ve been killed.
If this continues, I’ll run out of mana…
Her gaze went to a nearby corridor, but she was already surrounded.
“Force your way through.”
“I can’t! Not when there’s this many of them!” Riselia shot back at the voice’s reckless command.
More spiders came to life and climbed off the walls than she could destroy.
“True. As you are now, you’ll run out of mana halfway through.”
The Machina Soldiers surrounding her all charged their blasts at the same time.
“Move!”
Riselia tried to create a mana barrier on reflex, but she couldn’t make it in time.
“Fine, I’ll lend you my strength.”
Blood gushed from Riselia’s chest. The red gemstone broach—the Dragon Blood from Leonis—shattered.
Blinding crimson filled the area.
“What?” Riselia whispered, her ice-blue eyes wide with disbelief.
The splattered blood billowed around her like a storm. Radiance exploded into flame, and a thundering rumble shook the hall. However, Riselia didn’t have a single burn on her body. Instead, her silver hair shone, dancing in the raging wind.
A dragon took shape from the fire to shield Riselia.
“A dragon made of blood…?” Riselia whispered in disbelief.
“Not just any dragon,” the voice corrected her. “The blood of the Dragon Lord.”
At last, Riselia remembered who the voice belonged to. “Wait, is that you, Veira?!”
“No. I’m a vestige of the Dragon Lord’s will, lingering within her blood. You can think of me as a double of hers.”
Riselia wasn’t certain what that meant, but apparently, this wasn’t Veira herself.
“You’re still an amateur, so I’ll lend you my strength just this once.” The blood dragon raised its head with pride, even in the face of swarming Machina Soldiers. “Now put the blood of the strongest of all dragons to good use!”
“I will!” Riselia held up the Bloody Sword and slashed at her enemies. “Hyaaaah!”
The blood dragon roared in answer and began devouring the Machina Soldiers with all the intensity of raging hellfire.
“Lord Magnus.”
“I know. She’s close.”
Leonis rode the black wolf through the Archsage’s labyrinth of knowledge. He heard the sounds of combat nearby, and the seal indicated his minion wasn’t far.
Leonis fired explosive offensive spells while Blackas’s jaws crushed the Machina Soldiers’ heads.
“Blackas, she’s past that wall!”
“Understood.”
Blackas leaped and dived into his own shadow cast against the wall. The moment he and Leonis emerged on the other side…
“Hyaaaaah!”
Whoosh!
…a crimson blade missed them by a hair.
“Whoa?!” Leonis exclaimed.
“Huh?! Leo?!” Riselia stood before him with a dumbfounded look.
“M-Miss Selia, are you all right?” Leonis sighed, relieved that she was unharmed and that he hadn’t been cut in half.
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