[V11C17] One Who Knows the Value of Magical Artifacts
Translated by Jodas 11: Envoy of the AbyssWithin the continuously swelling sphere of water and harassed by watery fish, the Primordial Beast was significantly calmer than the humans realized.
Were he any ordinary Werewolf, he would have been torn to shreds all over by the fish and the sphere would have long since been awash with blood.
(I see, the humans are quite clever indeed. They’re going for my breathing, are they?)
Almost every attack would be ineffective against the Primordial Beast, and even a wound dealt to one of his weak spots would recover almost immediately. Poison wouldn’t work either — So why not just submerge him in water and take away his breath? Someone had to come up with the idea, and someone had to work to implement it.
There was the sphere of water that held him in and the fish coming in to attack. If either were insufficient, this attack would amount to nothing. In it, he could feel the breadth of human wisdom, effort, and talents.
Looking at the two young girls who cast this magic, the Primordial Beast was impressed.
(…But alas, what a shame.)
It was true that the Primordial Beast needed to breathe.
However, the humans overlooked something. That being just how long the Primordial Beast could hold his breath. Also, how long they would be able to maintain this magic.
A wolf ran for long stretches in the course of its hunts, so they had particularly deep breaths. And he was the apex of those wolf Monsters. In short, the Primordial Beast could run with his breath held for thirty minutes.
Could those girls keep magic of this caliber going for that long? While surrounded by other Monsters all the while?
The larger the sphere grew, the harder it would be to maintain it. As soon as the caster stopped moving the watery fish, the Primordial Beast would break through the sphere and leap out of there.
The Beast was confident he could withstand it even if they struck the sphere with lightning magic or raised the temperature to boil the water.
So, he chose to stand by and wait to see what the other humans would do. The soldiers deployed in a circle to guard the two girls from the Monsters. The one giving the order must have been that powerful warrior. What excellent leadership.
Outside the sphere, a battle between humans and Monsters commenced. Now that this exceptionally strong warrior was free to act, the human side had an advantage.
However, the moment this sphere of water dissipated, the Primordial Beast would be set free, and the tides of battle would turn.
(…They’re just missing one more trick to stop me. So, what will you do, humans?)
Ten minutes of controlling her fish later, Roswitha started to panic seeing that the Primordial Beast still had yet to come to a stop.
Any ordinary Monster would have long since drowned to death. However, the Beast continued to swim about the sphere with his fearsome fore legs, aiming to break outside. The sphere itself wasn’t terribly strong, and while she was blocking him with her fish, he was slowly wising up to their movements.
The currents whipped up by the fish may have appeared random at first, but Roswitha’s habits ultimately shone through. The Primordial Beast understood that.
For a water-attribute mage to suffocate their enemy, they would obviously have to maintain their magic for long enough.
Roswitha had been deeply familiar with magecraft since she was a little kid, and she knew maintaining spells for long periods of time was a strength of hers. Most likely, she was far and away the best at it among the Apprentices.
…However, that would not be the case for Ella, who had only just learned how to control her mana.
(Ella’s doing better than expected. It’s not easy to keep a ball of water this big going for this long.)
Regardless, she would probably only be able to keep this going for five minutes or so. Drops of sweat already trickled down Ella’s face.
Realizing she had to do something now, Roswitha panicked.
(Come on, drown! Come on, come on… How do you like this!?)
Roswitha gathered a hundred and seventy-seven fish together in one place, targeted at the Primordial Beast.
But, with all of the watery fish in one place, that meant some places now had none.
The Primordial Beast swam inside the sphere of water, intending to break out where there was no longer any fish. He swam fast, too. Just one stroke of his front legs sent him rocketing through the water.
Roswitha rushed to scatter the fish out and interrupt the Beast’s move.
(That was close… If I was just a little slower, he would have broken through for sure.)
If the Primordial Beast could keep moving even after holding his breath for over ten minutes, could it be that he doesn’t need to breathe at all? Her doubts only grew.
Ella groaned in exertion. She was nearing her limit.
The moment the sphere of water burst, the Primordial Beast would obliterate the humans. Their time limit was fast approaching.
While the Primordial Beast stared down the humans on the West side of campus, the man known as the Chancellor, Kai, made his way to a room on the first floor of the Third Spire, Water Bubble.
(I didn’t expect the Primordial Beast to face such resistance… but either way, I’m sure the Beast is going to win.)
The Primordial Beast’s victory was only a matter of time. In that case, he should be working on his next move.
Kai opened the door to the Management Office’s storeroom.
It was a messy place, filled with countless human tools scattered all over the place. Somewhere that Monsters who cared little for such tools would seldom bother to go.
That made it perfect for him. Perfect to hide away the Ancient Magical Artifacts ‘Ignatius, the Severer’ and ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools.’
Monsters didn’t care for tools, so after they retrieved the Artifacts during the attack, no one would question it when he said “Allow me to take care of them.”
Ancient Magical Artifacts could serve both as weapons and as leverage for negotiations. There was no harm in taking them for himself.
(Where did the Vampire go? He’s a capricious fellow, so there’s no use guessing. The Winter Monster’s off to the North, I guess. There was another Artifact user over there, wasn’t there?)
Kai grabbed the bracelet made of chains, ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools,’ and placed it around his wrist.
Usually, ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ required one to have the ability and training to make contact with the Abyss. But using the power of the ‘Chromatic Garden’ that Kai owned, he could interfere with it to some extent.
As it stood, the most worrying threat was the Thorn Witch’s vines. Those were draining the mana density of the crystal-contaminated Wedge Tower.
To put it another way, if he could just take the Thorn Witch out of the picture, he would only have to eliminate those powerless Apprentices.
(First, I’ll make ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ go berserk and seal the Thorn Witch’s powers… If I could just deal with the Thorn Witch… I can’t let a member of the Roseberg family live after what they did to the Great Witch.)
With anger towards the Rosebergs in his heart, Kai touched the bracelet on his wrist with his fingertips.
But he could not hear the Artifact’s voice.
(…Did I not put enough mana into it?)
Skeptically, Kai looked closer at the bracelet. There was nothing wrong about its appearance. It looked exactly the same as when he first picked it up… But on closer inspection, there was no mana in it at all.
— This was not ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools.’ Far from an Ancient Magical Artifact, this wasn’t even a Magical Device, just a normal accessory.
You’ve got to be kidding me. Kai gasped.
Monsters had no interest in Ancient Magical Artifacts. Each and every one of them would just ignore it. That was why Kai had been able to pick it up and squirrel it away in the first place.
(If it wasn’t a Monster… Could it have been the Daughter of God? No, it can’t. If Fiene picked up an Artifact, the King of Monsters who’s always with her would have seen it. And it’s hard to imagine Fiene coming up with a replica after being locked away for all that time. Who was it? who!? Who could have swapped the Ancient Magical Artifact for a fake…!?)
Of course, there was one other suspect.
One other human who was free to walk about the Wedge Tower after it fell to the Monsters. One human who knew the value of Ancient Magical Artifacts!
— The Hundred-Eyes Witch, Anneliese Röhm.
That woman was known to handle supplies within the Wedge Tower. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine her knowing of the existence of a replica Artifact.
More importantly, she could walk freely about this crystal-contaminated Wedge Tower and exchange the real one for that replica.
(Where is it? Where is the real Artifact!? The Hundred-Eyes Witch never left the Wedge Tower after she had the crystal rivet implanted. If she hid it, it had to have been somewhere on campus, somewhere indoors, probably. ‘Ignatius, the Severer’ is a fairly large sword, so it had to have been somewhere at least that big. I have to suspect it’s behind some kind of lock, but… Could it have been in the Guidance Office where the Hundred-Eyes Witch worked?)
Just as Kai’s mind worked as hard as he could push it to come up with an idea, he heard a girl’s voice from outside.
The headache-inducing voice of a stupid little girl shouted:
“The Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ is active! Everyone, follow Sophie!!”