Chapter 20
“YOU KNOW, they’re laudable people. This is a world full of fantasy and wonder, and they stay inside to work for the betterment of society,” Mira murmured in admiration as she stared at the laboratory’s location on the map. This world contained quite a few hazards, but its wonders far outweighed them. As someone who’d learned that through many adventures, Mira had to admire the goodwill of those who would miss those wonders for the sake of the greater good.
Fortunately, her sympathy on their behalf turned out to be unneeded.
“I don’t think it’s that deep,” Soul Howl replied. “They just prefer research to adventure. I mean, that’s why they ended up famous top-class crafters, right? They might enjoy it even more than you do adventuring.”
If you saw the laboratory workers as people who’d gone into hiding to avoid being used for war, you might pity them. But according to someone who’d actually visited them, it was hardly that tragic.
“Some did it just because they wanted to live in their old environment,” Soul Howl continued. “They made a prototype AC powered by magic stones. Some are researching TVs and video cameras, just because they want to see what TV shows made in a fantasy world would be like.”
Modern Japan had myriad accommodations and environments, and according to Soul Howl, an awful lot of people lived to see those again in this world.
“AC and TV, hm? The two essentials for daily life,” Mira replied, laughing that those were fine goals. She’d always wondered how a certain favorite TV show of hers would end.
***
“By the way, Elder, are you sure you don’t want to pick this up?”
“Hm? Pick what up?”
Soul Howl pointed at the Machina Guardian’s wreckage, but Mira had already stripped its main drops. She cocked her head in confusion.
“Oh, I get it,” Soul Howl muttered. “I meant the corpse itself. That metal’s way harder than average, and the only thing lighter is mithril. Look how much there is. I figure it’s a waste to leave all that. Seems useful as material to me.” He picked up a piece of scrap metal at his feet, examined it, and tossed it at Mira.
She caught the debris scrap and gazed at it for a moment. “You know, I think you’re right!” she exclaimed, as if the scales had fallen from her eyes, and surveyed the wreckage. “Silly me. I was too distracted by the Eye of Apollo…”
Perhaps because her instincts from long ago remained, or perhaps because she’d obtained the Eye of Apollo for the first time, Mira had totally excluded things not on the Machina Guardian’s drop list from her search. Metal couldn’t be taken as material way back when, but now, it was possible to recycle all the metal composing the Machina Guardian’s body.
“This might make a good souvenir for Solomon!”
When it came to military goods and the like, no country could possibly suffer from having too much metal. It even had uses beyond simple weapons and armor, such as in the Accord Cannon and other technomancy-powered arms Solomon had shown off.
One after another, Mira stuffed the Machina Guardian’s plating, parts, and more into her Item Box. Some items were too large to place inside, so she had a dark knight wielding Sanctia cut larger scraps of metal into the perfect size. The metal wasn’t included in the drop table, so they still didn’t know what kind it was. Identifying it would be the first step toward using it.
Although they couldn’t use it right away, it was still a lot of metal. No doubt Solomon would find a good use for it, Mira thought, gathering every last bit. Running a country required lots of metal.
Soul Howl must’ve thought it would be a good gift for Solomon too. “Guess I’ll help you sort it out.”
He began helping her pick it all up, but his legs didn’t take him toward the Machina Guardian’s remains; instead, he headed to the Mechanized Protectors’ carcasses. Those were fine hunks of metal as well.
“Seems useable to me,” he muttered after checking their condition, then made golems to haul the Protectors to Mira. There were dozens, but Soul Howl’s golems made quick work of them.
“Goodness, this is a lot…” Gazing at the growing pile of Protector corpses, Mira worked even harder to recover the metal.
***
After some time, they finished collecting the corpses, including that of the Mechanized Wanderer they’d defeated along the way.
“Thanks, Soul Howl. I can just imagine Solomon’s shock!”
Collecting many tons of metal had been backbreaking work, but when it was all done, Mira was delighted. Frugal as she was, she was happy to recover the metal she’d almost wasted.
“Took longer than I thought…” said poor Soul Howl, who’d naively offered to help. An hour had passed before they knew it. “That’s another item checked off the list… Elder, you said you had something else to do?”
Their surprisingly difficult labor had ended, and Soul Howl had obtained a Chalk Orb fragment. Mira gazed at him. They had both accomplished their goals in the Ancient Underground City, but she’d found a new goal along the way.
“Indeed. I plan to find a way to go deeper.”
Mira hadn’t told Soul Howl many details about Fenrir during the strategy meeting before their big battle, instead focusing on the coming fight. Now that things had settled, she divulged more: the reason Fenrir was in this Ancient Underground City, why he was sealed by Martel’s power, and the mystery held deep within. After explaining those details one after another, Mira told Soul Howl that her next goal was to find what had corrupted Fenrir and driven him to insanity—and, if possible, deal with it once and for all.
“Close to the power of gods, huh?” Soul Howl said as he gazed at the ground below him searchingly. “I don’t know anything about it.” He shrugged, smirking. “Sounds interesting. I’ll help you find it.”
He’d offered to help simply because it interested him. In truth, the prospect of greater mysteries sleeping beneath the already mysterious underground city fascinated him.
But Mira felt he’d offered half out of worry for Fenrir. Soul Howl was the kind of person who couldn’t let something go once he was involved. After all, he’d gone so far for a woman he hated.
She feigned ignorance. “Ooh, really? Much appreciated. I gladly accept your help, then.”
***
This far-too-vast dungeon indeed hid even more secrets below. To investigate the secrets revealed during Mira’s meeting with Fenrir, she and Soul Howl set about a renewed search of the seventh level.
Finding a mysterious area previously unknown to them proved difficult in such a large zone. After searching the whole seventh level for a day, Mira summoned the mansion spirit, in which they made plans for the next day’s search.
“If only we knew what the entrance was like…”
“For real. Going without any hints is rough.”
The seventh level was noticeably unlike the rest of the dungeon. The corridors were all metal, and the walls and ceiling were painted white, with embedded lights that illuminated them to this day. You also needed a key card for many of the doors, which opened and closed automatically.
It was a total science fiction aesthetic. The only fantasy aspect was the skeletons that spawned—which weren’t a threat at all now that the apex necromancer Soul Howl was with Mira.
The duo spent the next day scouring the environment as well. Since a day had passed, new skeletons spawned here and there, but Soul Howl kept them away without issue. That second day ended without them finding any particular clues, but on the third morning, they realized something.
Once they’d finished morning preparations and left the mansion to begin the day’s search, Soul Howl said, “Now that I think about it, this chamber is weird. Why is this the only place skeletons don’t spawn?”
Skeleton spawn points were all over this level, even in the Machina Guardian’s boss chamber. The entire seventh floor was essentially a skeleton spawn spot. The only place they didn’t appear was the Great Temple. Yet skeletons didn’t spawn in this otherwise normal chamber. That was rather strange when one thought about it.
“Hrmm… Now that you mention it, it is odd.”
At a glance, the chamber was the same as anywhere else in the level. Knowing the circumstances, one had to be suspicious. Could it contain secrets?
Now in agreement, Mira and Soul Howl quickly split up and began searching the chamber. However, it was the second-biggest room on this floor after the Machina Guardian’s boss chamber. Seeking an entrance they didn’t know the form of was arduous labor.
The room contained white walls, a white ceiling, a gray floor, and nothing else. It would be easy to tell if there were discrepancies, but after an hour of searching, they found nothing of the sort. The whole room’s construction was uniform, with not so much as an opening or a keyhole.
That caused one possibility to cross Mira’s mind. She’d just recently encountered something quite similar, in fact.
“Could it be…? What if it’s here too?” Mira examined the room’s walls again, this time making sure to feel them with her hands.
***
Twenty minutes after she began her renewed investigation, she heard the Spirit King’s excited voice. “Miss Mira, there!”
The possibility she had hit upon was a divine mineral wall—like what she’d found when searching for Martel—and her hypothesis was right on the mark.
Quickly finding the difference in the wall, the Spirit King added, “Now, let’s investigate it.”
While he analyzed the wall, Mira called, “Soul Howl, this way! This wall over here!”
“Huh? You find something?” Soul Howl looked up from his concentrated wall-poking, ran over, and looked at the wall Mira was touching. “Uh, what about it? I don’t see anything special.”
His confusion was obvious. The color and texture were the same as the other walls, and he didn’t see hidden switches or anything.
“Go on, Spirit King,” Mira said, smugly watching for Soul Howl’s reaction. He was sure to be surprised if the wall suddenly disappeared.
However, things didn’t go as planned. Rather than seeing the divine mineral wall open up, Mira next heard the Spirit King’s surprised voice. “This is surprising. The composition differs from the mineral on the way to Martel’s home.”
According to him, the wall Mira was touching was different from the last one—in other words, from the divine mineral made by the Trinity’s power.
“What…?”
Something other than the Trinity had created this wall. Last time, Mira had been surprised by the Trinity’s involvement, but she was even more amazed now that something else was involved. The city’s mysteries grew ever deeper.
While Mira stood there stunned, Soul Howl stared at the wall and sighed, “Uh… So, what do we do, Elder? Just wait?”
According to the Spirit King, though the Trinity hadn’t created this divine mineral wall, its foundation was the same. Once he analyzed it, he’d get through it just fine.
“Hrmm… Well, you see…” Mira had missed the ideal timing for surprising her friend. Now they did have to wait, since it would take the Spirit King five or six minutes to analyze the divine mineral. That forced Mira to spill the beans.
***
Before long, the Spirit King finished his analysis, and the divine mineral door opened.
Seeing that, Soul Howl muttered in admiration, “Ooh, that’s how they hide it? Incredible. Now, what’s behind the door?”
He stepped inside, and Mira silently followed. Behind the door, a long, long staircase extended far below. It occasionally turned 180 degrees, but always continued downward.
It was all black, with only white handrails, and was plainly no ordinary staircase. It even had perfectly divided upstairs and downstairs paths. It almost looked like it’d turn into an escalator if someone just found the button to turn it on.
The now-motionless stairs continued down one, no, two hundred meters, until Mira and Soul Howl finally reached the bottom.
“It’s…a door,” Mira said.
“Yeah. Looks high-tech. But it’s a door, no doubt.”
The airtight door in the metal wall looked like it might have been used in a nuclear bomb shelter. It was made of thick, heavy metal, and was closed tight to keep inside and outside well separated.
“Okay. How do we open it?” Soul Howl asked.
Though dusty and old, the door still did its job well. No amount of pushing or pulling budged it.
“Another difficult riddle even now, hm?” Mira mused.
She and Soul Howl started brushing away the dust. When they did, they saw a few phrases:
Currently in lockdown.
Research Building Manager and Director:
Isurugi Touko
Security Level: 5
Moreover, all the text was in Japanese again.
“Hrmm. ‘Isurugi Touko’… This place seems connected to the real world, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. It felt like that before we came here too.”
Beyond the door, there might be more to help the diary tie this world to modern Japan. They felt especially sure of that when they saw the director’s Japanese name.
The existence of Japanese in this world had been a mystery since the beginning, but now wasn’t the time to focus on that. The pair kept their attention on the security level the door displayed. That was something they’d seen on the seventh level.
“Anyway, what do you make of this?” Mira asked her companion.
“Let’s try it and find out,” he replied, wasting no time.
He took out a single card—one of the authentication keys you could obtain on the seventh level. They were necessary to get through secure areas, so Mira naturally had one as well, though getting one took time and effort.
Soul Howl put the authentication key on the panel as a test. In no time, there was a response. After a beep, the panel glowed slightly, and the color changed from red to green.
Instantly, the door made a loud noise. A few more seconds later…
“Ooh…it opened!”
“You never know if you don’t try.”
Seemingly an extension of the seventh level, this door used the same security as those above. Fully unlocked, the door slowly yet surely began to open.
“Now…what hides within?” Soul Howl immediately stepped forth. Air they’d never felt before flowed behind the door. It was as crisp as a forest in winter, but also stale and artificial, like someone’s home.
“You ought to be a little more cautious,” Mira warned the necromancer, who’d stepped in without hesitation despite not knowing what was within. But curiosity spurred her to follow anyway.
Behind the door, yet another staircase led downward. How far down did it go, exactly? They continued to descend, still wishing they could find a button to turn the stairs into an escalator.
The walls were metal until now, but eventually, a different scene unfolded.
“Goodness, this is… Well, it fits the description ‘secret research facility,’” Mira murmured.
The seventh level and the path leading here had already been science fiction chic, but the research building itself went so far beyond those that they seemed primitive. The walls and ceiling ahead were made of a transparent material, giving them a view of the space beyond. It was like a research institute right out of a sci-fi flick.
A cylindrical hole went straight down, seemingly hundreds of meters—perhaps even a kilometer—deep. Everything within its circumference was some kind of facility. All the inner walls were transparent, and the lighting still worked, making the view from the stairs spectacular.
The stairs extended to a pillar in the center of the cylindrical hole. As Soul Howl and Mira reached the floor above it, they gave their frank impressions.
“Man…it looks like our tower ten thousand years in the future.”
“I…see the similarity.”
It was constructed just like the Linked Silver Towers. Mira and Soul Howl knew what the modern world was like, so they quickly understood what the central pillar was—an elevator. The place they’d reached was an elevator bay.
The space inside the pillar seemed about fifty meters in diameter. They could see remnants of rest areas and even shops here and there. Passages also extended from the elevator bay to the circle around it. From the top floor, they saw countless passages below. It seemed people had used this elevator to traverse the facility long ago.
“Still, it’s bigger than I expected. Searching this facility seems like backbreaking work…” They’d come to ascertain the mysterious force that had corrupted Fenrir, but the area’s size made Mira hesitate.
“Agreed. It looks harder to search than the whole seventh level. I guess that goes to show how much they were researching.” A quick look confirmed that this research building’s total area was greater than the seventh level’s. Their first order of business, Soul Howl added, was to figure out what had been researched here.
“Indeed. Even if we found that a research project here caused Fenrir’s corruption, that’ll mean nothing until we know exactly which project.” They still didn’t know whether there was a causal relationship between those things, but based on what they saw here, that seemed likely.
“Ridiculous…”
“Ridiculous, indeed…”
Surveying the facility from the elevator bay, Soul Howl and Mira shuddered at the difficulty of the task before them.
But if they never started, they would never be done. What was hidden in this research building? What research had been performed there? They decided to split up and investigate the facility in halves: one the top half, and one the bottom half.
Mira, in charge of the latter, tried pressing the button to summon the elevator. When it began to move, she was delighted. “Ooh, this still works too. How useful.”
Meanwhile, Soul Howl looked uneasy. “Are you sure that’s safe? There’s no way it’s been maintained.” His caution was realistic and reasonable. The elevator hadn’t undergone maintenance in hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. Common sense dictated that it shouldn’t even work anymore.
“Oh, I’m sure it’s fine. The stuff on the seventh level worked adequately. One or two elevators can’t be that bad.” Though it shouldn’t have worked, it had, so Mira optimistically assumed things would be okay.
The elevator arrived, and the door opened. After Soul Howl checked inside it, his unease turned to relief. “Ooh, it’s the electromagnetic-rail kind. Yeah, I guess this should be fine,” he said. “See you in three hours, then.” He turned to the passage that led to the encircling research building.
“Worrywart,” said Mira. Soul Howl hadn’t changed in that regard.
Watching him as he left, she entered the elevator and pushed the B100F button. The elevator interior was so clean, one had to wonder if it had really been sealed for hundreds to thousands of years.
“Hrmm… Yes, I think this will work just fine.”
The electromagnetic-rail elevator descended quietly, without making any concerning noises. It used linear motor technology, so no wire was attached to the ceiling for it to hang from. Therefore, even if the elevator broke and began to fall along the way, Mira could simply use Air Step to escape danger. Soul Howl had seen that, which was exactly why he finally let her use it.
After a quiet, minute-long elevator ride, Mira arrived at the one hundredth underground floor.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login