Book 5 Chapter 22
Episode 124
Battleship Base, as its name and legends imply, was a place where a half-destroyed battleship had been converted into a base. It was unbelievable that even with its midsection severed, its size was larger than the <Delighten> grounds. Is this the warship of the gods…?
“The Commander wishes to meet you.”
However, even if they could somehow borrow ancient facilities, perhaps they couldn't use the technology itself. The entrance that Frisvia's subordinate guided them to looked utterly shabby compared to the grandeur of the base. It was merely a temporary door fitted into a crack in the battleship's waterline.
“Hmph.”
Beyond the entrance, a space meticulously constructed from steel appeared, where Frisvia was waiting for them.
“To come in so obediently when I told you to… are you fearless, naive, or perhaps concocting another sinister plan?”
Frisvia, with her inorganic cynicism, was dressed in plain clothes, unlike before.
Kasena, who had been absentmindedly exclaiming as they approached the Battleship Base, now seemed to have lost her voice for a moment, perhaps overwhelmed by its majesty. What was that sound…? As I was trying to figure out Frisvia's intentions, Kasena's eyes gleamed brightly.
“Are you, are you really Frisvia? I’ve always wanted to meet you!”
“?”
“I’ve read about you countless times in books! They said you analyzed ancient ruins and technology found in Harvadonia and taught it to people!”
“Ah, that.”
Then Frisvia let out her characteristic horrifying laugh, one that made the listener feel animosity.
“Back then, I needed some money, you see. If I just casually handed over technologies I no longer needed, those foolish humans would prattle on about sponsorships and support, and they'd provide the money… Hehehe.”
“Huh…?”
As Kasena blinked her eyes in confusion, I interrupted the conversation.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t have time for such talk right now.”
Frisvia seemed to gaze at me with cold eyes for a moment, then chuckled through her nose and turned away.
“Of course, you've come to charm me, just like you charmed the beastmen and wolves. I know everything. I'm even a little curious about how you enticed them.”
“……”
“If you want to talk, follow me. This isn't a good place for conversation.”
Frustrating impatience was spreading to every corner of my cells, but for now, I had to yield. The authority to make decisions in this negotiation rested with Frisvia, not us.
“Do you believe in gods?”
Frisvia, placing her foot on the iron staircase leading upwards, asked out of nowhere.
“We beastfolk are so rational it’s almost tear-inducing, you see, we don’t believe in gods. Hmph, all we believe in is visible science and technology.”
“……?”
“Can you understand the meaning behind the fact that we, such beings, revere and worship the <Those Who Came>?”
The iron staircase led to a workshop located on the lower deck, where lighting much inferior to the ship's main structure illuminated the interior. The moment we entered, fine goosebumps broke out all over our bodies. Giant flasks were lined up everywhere, and inside the flasks containing humans or beasts, an unknown culture medium was filled to the brim.
“The technology of the <Those Who Came> is truly unknown, hmph, a terrifying level that inspires awe. A thousand years? No, probably a civilization two thousand years ahead, I'd say?”
“……?”
“You may have briefly heard that the gods bestowed upon the beastmen the power to confront the abyss, as a concept like a blessing, but in reality, that's not the case.”
Frisvia, with a chilling sneer, roughly tapped one of the flasks as if to break it, but not a single crack appeared on its glass surface.
“The beastmen race, you could say, are bio-weapons created through biological experiments. And this was that laboratory.”
What on earth is that…? As I just blinked my eyes, failing to understand, Frisvia gestured with her chin towards the row of flasks over there. A cold shiver ran down my spine. Because inside the culture medium, things that had human bodies combined with animal characteristics were wriggling, much like taxidermied specimens.
“So… are you trying to say that the <Those Who Came> are not actually gods, but beings from a highly advanced civilization?”
“Hehe, it's also true that they possessed godhood, which you call a miracle, probably. And that means they also possessed technology befitting that power. This is that treasure trove.”
Frisvia then passed through a place called the engine room and ascended to the deck via a second iron staircase. On the deck, a structure the size not just of a bridge but comparable to our Bellwynn mansion stood, which Frisvia said she used as her personal room, serving as the Battleship Base's control room. The moment the door opened, the strange yet repulsive stench of chemicals stung my nostrils. Kasena instantly flinched and clutched my arm tightly.
“Sorry, the smell of corpses is a bit strong, isn't it? Hehehe.”
Frisvia turned back to us with a chilling sneer.
There were corpses everywhere… some covered with tarpaulins, and countless others dismembered or with organs extracted on dissection tables. There were beastmen, humans, and mere animals, and the gruesome sight was enough to instantly switch my entire body into battle mode.
“What on earth have you been doing here?!”
“It’s nothing much, hehehehehe. I was just experimenting to try and create bio-weapons, exactly as Karen Den reportedly did.”
Frisvia began sequentially donning the mechanical armor displayed in a corner of the room: breastplate, backplate, lower plate, greaves…
“It's a shame I haven't properly succeeded. In fact, I haven't even been able to properly examine 10% of the technology here.”
“……?”
“But you lured an ancient being here, so now I have to abandon this base? Sending the beastmen here… you must have thought you could use me however you wanted, didn't you?”
Frisvia's tearing smile was filled with a chilling malice that made my whole body shrink.
“No, that’s not it…! Now, it’s an emergency right now! I thought we should accept any help!”
“Without even getting the other party's consent? Your logic doesn't make any sense at all, does it? Hmph, then you should have just taken the beastmen to the barrier from the beginning. And then negotiated with the wolves.”
I couldn't raise any counterarguments, so I had no choice but to shut my mouth. Because it was true that such a thought lay at the base of my judgment…
“It’s a good thing Alakish is dead. Hmph, if he were still clinging to you, claiming to protect you, I wouldn’t have been able to vent my anger.”
“What did you say?”
“Hmph, hehe, hehehehehe, you didn’t know? No, actually, you knew but were denying it, weren’t you? Humans really aren’t rational, are they?”
Frisvia's lips, already stretched into a glare, widened further, seeming to tear all the way to her ears, as she stared straight at me, my face drained of color.
“What, what nonsense are you talking about! Alakish isn't dead! He's alive!”
Ignoring Kasena, who was vehemently protesting, Frisvia continued to stare at me.
“Human kid, why do you think he gave you that basket? Hmm?”
“That, that was… because he thought it would be a distraction… because we had to fight with all our strength.”
“Hehehehehe, Alakish has never once separated that dragon egg from his body. For 20 years, ever since I came here. But he gave it to you, someone he'd only just met?”
He looked at me with eyes as endlessly deep and pitch-black as a cavern, without blinking once. Those eyes, invisible tentacles seemed to crawl out from those eyes and constrict my windpipe… I couldn't, I couldn't breathe.
“He judged that he couldn't win. He was certain he would die here. Hmph, they say true dragons see the future with a prophetic intuition.”
“……”
“Why are you pretending to despair? Hehehehehe, you knew it too, didn’t you?”
My chest ached and throbbed, and my breathing naturally began to quicken. Alakish's smile I saw at the very end… and the ominous premonition that kept raising its head in my mind, yet I forcibly ignored… The basket with the dragon egg on my back felt indescribably heavy, weighing me down.
“Or what, were you pretending not to know because you didn't want to admit you abandoned him?”
Kasena suddenly grabbed Frisvia's wrist, who had approached and was holding my chin, forcing me to meet her gaze.
“One, just one more time, say that nonsense about Alakish being dead… I won't let you get away with it, I won't let you get away with it!”
Frisvia released my chin and looked back at Kasena, who was half on the verge of tears, as if intrigued.
“You won't let me get away with it, how won't you let me get away with it? I'd really like to see. I'm genuinely curious.”
As Frisvia donned her optical helmet, the gears of her mechanical armor clicked into place as if resonating with it, and a fierce jet of steam burst out. Then… my heart trembled violently from an overwhelming sensation that made all the muscles and bones in my body tingle.
The overt killing intent emanating from the Platinum Rank 1, meaning the second strongest existing adventurer, was something Kasena could not handle.
“Show me everything you can. That way, you won't have any regrets after you die.”
“What…?”
“It’s about time you caught on, isn't it? Hehe, I'm going to break your necks here. It's been a really long time since I've been this angry.”
That was the moment when the vague anxiety and doubt I had felt since entering this place became a reality… Kasena and I stepped back almost simultaneously.
Not good.
Really not good.
I'm not afraid of fighting Frisvia. Even though I don't have certainty of winning… the problem is that there's a real enemy elsewhere.
“You are Emitsa's descendant, aren't you? Hmph, the genes of someone Karen Den treasured, I'd really like to take a good look at the inner workings.”
As a bizarre weapon shaped like an arrowhead sprang out from the wrist part of Frisvia's mechanical armor, cold sweat streamed down my face.
What is that?
What kind of weapon is she using?
If you don't know what weapon your opponent is using, you're forced to improvise countermeasures. But Frisvia knows we're mages, meaning she knows how to counter us.
“The weaker one first.”
Thud, with the sound of the deck's copper plate bending, Frisvia rushed in so fast she left an afterimage and attacked Kasena's face.
*Crackle────!*
However, that deadly touch was repelled by a furiously roaring electric shock, unfolding as a bluish force field.
“Young lady!”
It was due to the electric barrier Rain had constructed with beastmen at that very moment; Rain immediately pulled Kasena back and hurled a fireball.
“Hmm?”
Instead of dodging the fireball, Frisvia struck it with some equipment mounted on her gauntlet… My eyes widened.
What is that?
The fireball exploded feebly upon impact with the gauntlet, which had dozens of small cogs rotating. It merely left black soot on the surface; there was no effective hit.
“This is the first mage who has reacted to my speed.”
Damn it, there's no time for this… It was at that moment, when the suffocatingly fierce back-and-forth of a single exchange was about to transition to the next.
- Warning, Warning, user's danger detected.
Just as I thought I heard the eerily archaic, mechanical voice of a woman, *thump-thump*, *thump-thump*… red emergency lights lit up on the control room ceiling.
- Engine activation, defensive control systems engaged.
It was the moment the Battleship Base, which had been dormant in this snowy field for an eternity since the Age of Gods, awakened. Over a long table Frisvia had been using as a dissection table, about a hundred windows appeared, capable of perfectly monitoring the entire 360 degrees outside the base. It looked familiar; I recalled seeing the exact same thing in Backbone's command and control room…
- Insufficient electro-geopositioning power to activate the engine. Please link the astrometry core.
At that moment, a blinding black light burst from a corner of my chest, piercing through my fur clothing, and simultaneously an unbearable heat was felt. Startled, I pulled it out… it was the Black Yanglin. Immediately after, Kasena did something similar to me and then stared at me blankly. Watching Frisvia look at this whole situation with bewilderment, I made a judgment amidst a trace of trepidation.
Now is the time.
It's now or never.
If there's a chance to draw this powerful enemy in as a strong ally, it's only now.
“Let’s make a deal, Frisvia.”