Chapter 1: The Seventh Wise God
Year 1000 of the Holy Era.
Early in the morning, when the sky was still dim, a huge pillar of fire rose from the red-light district of the capital of Galarc. It was the flame Sendo Takahisa had released to burn down the brothel. The fire was so fierce, it was visible from the castle, and it created a commotion as people wondered what was going on.
Satsuki and the others in the mansion were also roused from their sleep and rushed outside in a hurry. The pillar of fire could be seen from the garden, where Celia, Latifa, Sara, Orphia, Alma, Satsuki, Aki, Masato, Charlotte, Komomo, Gouki, and Kayoko had gathered. They were accompanied by Gouki’s servants—including Sayo and her brother, Shin—and Charlotte’s personal knights, as well as Celia’s mother, Monica, and Liselotte, who just so happened to be staying overnight. Miharu was the only one who wasn’t with them.
The entire group held their breaths as they watched the pillar of fire. The flames eventually died away and disappeared from view, but the silence lingered after.
They were all thinking the same thing: it couldn’t have been a natural phenomenon, as any normal fire couldn’t burn all the way up to the sky as this had. Thus, it had to be an artificial flame.
However, there was a limit to how large a man-made fire could get. Magic that could create a flame this large generally didn’t exist in modern Strahl, and producing something of this scale with spirit arts would be absurd. It would take someone with an enormous amount of latent power to do so—and there was only a select number of people who fulfilled that condition.
“H-Hey, that fire just now...” Masato said hesitantly.
Do you think it was my brother controlling it?
The question of whether Takahisa—who had sneaked out of the castle and vanished—was the culprit behind the phenomenon was on the tip of his tongue, before he swallowed it back down.
What was he trying to burn with a fire like that? Why would he do such a thing? Just the thought of it was terrifying.
“H-Hey, where’d Miharu go?!”
In an attempt to shake off the bad feeling she had, Aki glanced around at her surroundings in search of Miharu. Although they weren’t related by blood, she sought the comfort of the girl she adored like an older sister, but Miharu was nowhere to be seen.
“Wha...?!”
A vast amount of magic essence suddenly appeared in the sky above the castle. The scene was comparable to the shock wave of a bomb radiating from the sky—the air shook with the pressure of the essence, and those who could detect it quickly prepared themselves for battle with panicked expressions on their faces.
“A spirit aura?!”
Sara, Orphia, and Alma all whirled around to look at a corner of the garden. Their contract spirits had probably informed them that a spirit had appeared nearby. Sure enough, Aisha stood where they were looking. She was wearing one of the masks that allowed her to evade the restrictions of a transcendent one.
“Who is that...?” everyone wondered curiously.
Of course they would: Aisha had become a transcendent one along with Rio, so no one could remember her.
Aishia?! Why did you materialize... Never mind. I can see the situation calls for it.
The only exception was Celia, who the rules of god didn’t apply to for some reason. She could remember both Rio and Aishia clearly.
“Everyone, run!” Aishia yelled, flying into the air. Her normally emotionless voice was filled with a strong sense of urgency. “Everyone, we have to get out of here! Hurry...!”
Run now, was what Celia was about to say when she spotted Miharu making her way out the entrance of the mansion.
“Miharu, this way!” Celia shouted.
Her yells drew the attention of the others in the garden, who all looked to Miharu as well. However, Miharu appeared to be half asleep, eyes unfocused as she trudged forward. The sight of her like that made Celia run over in concern. But Miharu merely came to a stop and gazed up at the pressure in the air illuminated by the sunrise.
What’s wrong, Miharu?! Celia drew closer to her.
“Assumo,” Miharu said.
“Huh?” Celia doubted her ears; that word was the same as the start of the ancient magic spell she had obtained just recently.
“Exemplar: Septimum Caelum Vel Persona.”
I knew it! But...
After hearing the rest of Miharu’s words, Celia was convinced, but confused. It was slightly different from the ancient magic spell she had obtained, and Miharu had never obtained any ancient magic spells.
Did that mean this wasn’t the work of an ancient magic spell, but an artifact with sorcery embedded within it? But if so, when did she obtain such a thing? Either way, the light of the complex spell formula soon enveloped Miharu’s body.
“Miharu?!” Satsuki yelled in shock.
But Miharu didn’t even spare her a glance as she looked down at her hands as though to confirm something. Then, with a gleeful grin that was unimaginable for her—
“It worked,” she mumbled to herself smugly.
Celia was speechless as she stared at her.
Miharu looked up and met her gaze, then smiled.
“Now, it’s time to fix the divergent futures,” she said in a tone completely unlike her usual self.
◇ ◇ ◇
A short while ago, in the time between the disappearance of the fire pillar in the red-light district and the appearance of the powerful essence source above Galarc Castle.
The ambassador of the Proxia Empire, Reiss Vulfe, was in the sky above the city. He hovered in place while looking down on the Galarc Castle below. Floating beside him was a transparent orb, several dozens of centimeters in diameter.
Reiss placed a hand against the orb and poured his magic essence into it. After a pause, a complex spell formula unfolded around the orb. This meant the orb was some kind of magic artifact.
The precious parting gift of the Wise Gods, the golem. I wanted to analyze how the official owner registration worked before using it in combat, but alas...
Indeed, the ancient artifact Reiss was about to activate was a golem, created by the Seven Wise Gods long in the past. They were an autonomous mobile weapon of war that only obeyed the orders of the owner they were registered to.
However, Reiss was not its official owner. The golem was protected with a spell formula that prevented them from being activated, which he had circumvented to input his own orders.
Of course, activating it this way came with its own problems: the golem couldn’t be given any new orders once it was activated. To be more precise, while the golem was activated, any attempts to give it new inputs would be perceived as an enemy attack and trigger a fierce counterattack.
Thus, in order to input new orders, the golem had to be deactivated first. That being said, it wasn’t easy for someone who wasn’t the owner to deactivate the golem. Golems were the strongest autonomic combat artifacts designed by the Seven Wise Gods for use in the Divine War. The golems couldn’t deactivate themselves either, so the only choice was to wait for their internally stored essence to run out or deactivate them by defeating them. However...
I cannot defeat an activated golem in my current state. If I’m going to use this, I must be certain it will bury them. The target are the people in the mansion garden, and the highest priority is Celia Claire, followed by the humanoid spirit. If any other threats appear, those should be eliminated too.
Reiss was prepared to discard the golem after activating it. With Rio and Sora absent, this was a once in a lifetime chance to eliminate those in the castle. The strongest present were Aishia and Celia, who had ties to the Wise God Lina, but it was possible there were other threats hidden among them.
I would’ve liked to exclude the hero... But if she gets in the way, there’s no choice but to kill her. I’ll set it to keep damages to the castle and city to a minimum. I’ve got plenty of essence from saving up my magic for a thousand years. Worst comes to worst, the capital will just be erased from the map.
Once he finished inputting his entire order, Reiss removed his hand from the orb. The light of the spell formula faded, and a large amount of magic began to emerge from the orb. It was a sign of the golem activating.
Those on the ground will notice this ridiculous amount of essence soon enough.
The essence that was enough to make the air seem like it was shaking would reach the ground soon.
Just then, a change occurred to the source of the essence. A human-shaped exterior appeared like a materializing spirit. It was a bipedal robot with two arms, measuring roughly two meters tall.
The orb had been the core of this golem. This exterior form was what represented the activated golem.
It stared down at the Galarc Castle below. The sun was yet to rise completely, so the sky was still dim. In addition to this, there was over two kilometers distance to the ground, yet its eerily glowing eyes were able to clearly see the mansion and garden where everyone was gathered. Then, the golem moved its head and looked at Reiss.
Reiss had inputted his orders without being registered as the official owner. In this state, as long as he didn’t attack the golem, the golem shouldn’t register him as an enemy.
Reiss raised his arms in a show of nonresistance and slowly backed away from the golem. The golem then lost interest in him and looked away. Instead, its gaze was fixed on the mansion and its occupants below.
Immediately after, the golem pointed its mechanical right hand towards the mansion. Its magic essence swelled even more, concentrating around its hand.
Then, with a thundering boom, it fired a powerful bombardment of magic essence.
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