Chapter. 18. Railed (13)
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Soulmancer Guilder.
A face that appears to be in the late 40s. Hooked nose, pale skin, neatly groomed hair.
Squeak-tap.
“Your job is to help us use soul magic against the Shard Knight Voltaeus.”
For someone who would cut a human corpse and order a nine-year-old to betray him, he looks quite innocent.
“What is soul art?”
characteristic.
“If I can explain it to you in a way you can understand, it is the ability to manipulate and observe the decisions of the dead. “You can think of it as the power to wield the soul.”
The feature is.
“Are you a soul mage?”
“Yes. “The Shard Knight cannot exist without a soul mage, so it can be said that the soul mage is the center of the new power that saved humanity.”
“Recycling the dead left behind in the world. Through the Shard Knight, we take a step forward to the great stage of ‘grand unification’, and in the end, the great soul magician who existed only once in history and the ‘soul guide’ who dealt with all abandoned souls will return through the body of the Shard Knight. That is the soul mage’s secret meaning and reason for existence.”
The characteristic is…..
“That soul guide…?”
“Of course, you are not referring to the great soul mage ‘Aldrich Teldemire’? “All soul magicians are heirs to the lineage of the great soul guide ‘Aldrich Teldemire.’”
Pead deud deuk!
‘He’s so knowledgeable about bullshit that it’s impossible for me, who is acting scared like a 9-year-old, to get over it without saying a word!!’
Ah, what a fucking guy.
‘what? What’s wrong with Aldrich?’
Young Professor Brastall’s baby teeth were being torn apart by the proud answer of self-proclaimed ‘soul magician’ Gilder.
Who is Aldrich? Wasn’t he a warlock and a soul mage who inherited the legacy of his mother, the fallen saint, Mea Maria, who became corrupted because she could not ignore the abandoned dead?
I still remember the moment Aldrich left the party. Even though I have resented my mother for a long time, I understand her. Likewise, isn’t Aldrich unable to ignore the abandoned souls and leaving the party, saying that he will spend the rest of his life guiding them in the right direction?
But what? Will you take over the legacy of the great soul mage ‘soul guide’ Aldrich?
“Here, give me a bone scraper. “The round handle, that’s right.”
North, north, north, north! Bagak! Park, beat!
“It would have been easier if we had caught them alive. “I can vaguely sense the location of the fragments.”
It’s a shame that the people who claim to have inherited Aldrich’s lineage didn’t even dissect the corpse in front of my eyes.
Snap snap!
“Oh, there you are. Please take good care of yourself too. If the things at the entrance to the basement were precious ‘colored fragments’, what is harvested from ordinary people are these ‘colorless fragments’. “Its abilities are weak, but the soul it contains is also weak, so it is easily subordinated to other strong fragments.”
“Hey… you do know that the fragment is the soul of a dead person, right?”
“Why are you asking the obvious? Because the fragment is a soul crystal, only we soul mage can properly handle it. “It is a noble right given only to us soul magicians who have devoted their lives to exploring the mysteries of the soul.”
Those who claim to have inherited Aldrich’s lineage may not be able to guide the souls of the dead, but it is their right to process and manipulate them.
Apparently, Aldrich left to spend the rest of his life serving the lost, but now, 211 years later, he has become a legend and progenitor of spirit magicians, and is revered like an ancestral god.
‘Aldrich. Your school is ruined. ‘It’s not just ruined, it’s completely messed up.’
Write it – haaah.
‘it could be. Well, you can do that. No problem. ‘Arm!’
I can give in a hundred times and understand up to this point.
The fact that the world’s level of pollution has progressed to an extreme means that most of the people who should have originally appeared in the world as good people have appeared as evil people.
To put it bluntly, we have become a world where if you meet three people on the street, one is a robber, one is a swindler, and the other is an arsonist. It’s been 200 years since the world as a whole became evil, so the kids may be getting a little tired of it.
So, I could have just passed by and thought, ‘Oh my, the world is truly amazing~’.
If only the soul mage’s nonsense ended there.
“Great…. grand unification? “What is that?”
“…Brastol sent a child who really knew nothing as a collaborator. “Is this how I can even do my job properly?”
Great unity.
That word must have been a bit annoying. You can’t just skim through it and find out what these guys are doing, right?
Gilder had an annoyed look in his eyes, but he continued to explain that he thought my knowledge of this area would be helpful in the future.
“You know what a suitable person is. “A person who is rarely rejected by a shard that rains endless curses on anyone it touches.”
“Yes… if you are that fit, you can become a Shard Knight.”
“Yes. And that phenomenon also occurs between fragments and crystallized souls.”
“If we consider who is suitable among the fragments, there are cases where the fragments reject or agree with each other…?”
“It’s not at a very ignorant level. It’s exactly what it says. Even the fragments are divided into those that fit together and those that do not. When suitable fragments come into contact, they merge as if they are seeping into the side with slightly greater force. “A Shard Knight is a being who is born by becoming a suitable ‘colored fragment’ for himself, and then becomes stronger by collecting numerous fragments and merging those that are suitable for his fragments.”
Collect fragments…? absorption? Collect them together?
No, wait a minute.
“That’s why everyone is obsessed with collecting debris. “The more you have, the more you can absorb suitable fragments, and the more likely you are to absorb other fragments suitable for those you absorb.”
“Is it okay to touch that like that? “They say you’ll be cursed if you touch it wrong!”
If it were that way, someone with a lot of money and power would sweep it all away in an instant, so I hurriedly asked, and Guilder shook his head with a slightly satisfied expression.
“That’s why our soul mage is essential to the Shard Knight. From something as small as a coughing disease to as big as a curse leading to instant death. “Even the strong Shard Knight cannot touch other fragments without permission, but we soul magicians can read the state of the soul sleeping within the fragments.”
“ah.”
“I see you understand. By keeping one hand in contact with the Shard Knight and the other in contact with the fragment, you can determine whether the fragment likes the target or is expressing aggression. Through these ’emotions’, the Shard Knight is able to know whether the fragment it possesses is suitable for itself or whether it should be stored up and waited for it to be suitable with other fragments of the Shard Knight. Therefore, it is a being that has no choice but to be subordinate to our soul mage. You can’t grow without us. That is why we are the most noble wizards of this era.”
I thought I felt something strong.
Bad premonitions were always wrong.
‘So, doesn’t that mean that the Shard Knight attracts and absorbs fragments like a multi-stage, and with its stronger power, it collects more fragments and merges them into its body? To do that, the soul mage’s fragmented emotions are necessary, right?’
I heard this before somewhere.
[World 4. Welcome to the era of fragment war.]
[Collect more fragments and wield powerful power.]
Soulmancer Guilder’s goal is to approach the moment of ‘great unity’ through the Shard Knight. He said it was secret.
[You preserve the ‘world’ to prevent contaminated data souls from destroying the server.] A
shard knight who collects and merges shards. A soul mage who supports them.
Oh my goodness. Oh my god Aldrich.
“The great unity. The moment when the Shard Knights kill and kill each other again, and the fragments they merged come together as one! It refers to the legendary soul mage and soul guide ‘Aldrich Teldemire’, who is said to have become a conduit for all souls, and descends through a soul colony called the Shard Knight.”
“Then we will be able to escape the limitations of the body and learn the true secrets of life and death!”
“Hey hey-”
“True immortality! You are approaching the secret art of controlling your own soul, the ultimate secret of a soul mage! Escape the painful physical world and leap to a higher level! “For that, we will endure any pain or hardship!!!”
Gilder was so intoxicated by my words that he shouted until the basement rang loudly. It was clearly crazy bullshit, but the other spirit magicians in the basement who were busy were nodding their heads or clapping their hands.
Most people who call themselves soul magicians are like this.
Ah, Aldrich. my friend my colleague He’s a bald, suspicious old warlock addicted to tranquilizers.
‘What on earth did you do in your later years that your children are not only crazy but have become limbs of the system!!!’
A system that collects all data souls and isolates them in 4 World.
Crazy soul magicians who want to merge the fragments into one piece through the Shard Knight and descend on an old man as if it were some kind of pseudo-religious ritual.
Although the goals were different, the ultimate goal of unifying the fragments (data souls) was the same.
Perhaps that’s why the system that was so noisy at first suddenly became quiet.
There is no way the machine intelligence would get tired and run out, so it probably means that it gave up persuading me and moved on to another plan.
This is probably an arrangement that has been prepared for quite some time.
‘…Aldrich.’
The appearance of a soul mage who passionately advocates ‘great unity’.
A continent shattered and devastated.
The lost empire and the reappearance of Mute.
‘Was everything we did meaningless?’
I promised myself several times that I would hold on strong.
As I faced a dark world where all traces of myself and my colleagues had disappeared, I couldn’t help but feel weak in my shoulders.
****
“Enough of the basic explanation about the soul mage and the fragments, let’s move on to the plan.”
Regardless of my mood, a flood of things to do came flooding back.
Anyway, what’s important now is their plot against the Rail Ship and Volteus.
“I guess you got the pocket, right?”
“yes.”
“It’s precious, so keep it well. I shared the catalyst from the most powerful of my soul jars. The work itself is not difficult. “I will place the bag close to Volteus, at a distance where I can sense his soul through the catalyst.”
The Brastall family’s plan. First of all, the basic goal was to secure the colored fragment ‘Fragment of Dawn’ owned by Shard Knight Volteus Straug.
“If it’s a colored fragment… it’s a precious fragment that turns a suitable person into a Shard Knight, right?”
“yes. Not the blurry, small, colorless and transparent fragments that come from civilians or low-level mutes, but fragments containing vivid light and unique colors. Unlike colorless fragments, which at best provide little strength, agility, or sensory development, they can grant abilities ranging from near-miraculous to powers known to have been lost in ancient times. “The fragments stored at the entrance to this basement are all colored fragments, but the fragment of Volteus is more special and precious than those.”
“why?”
“Of course, because he is the Lord Slayer who slaughtered the Mute Lord in the subjugation battle.”
There are three types of fragments.
A small, opaque, colorless fragment like the one Guilder had just removed from the corpse. Something rarely found in ordinary people or low-level mutes. Ordinary soul crystals that mostly include small, insignificant, and largely useless powers, such as light strength, endurance, dexterity, dancing, cooking, and running.
Among the two rarely found fragments, a large and colored fragment appears extremely rarely. If a suitable Shard Knight dies, he will remain in that position unconditionally. A noble fragment containing incredible and unpredictable abilities, such as giving someone who has never learned combat the combat ability close to a master or allowing limited use of lost ancient high-level magic.
Three, and finally, the fragmented fragment of the Mute Queen, now called the Lord’s fragment. The power contained in this is so strong that it immediately mutes anyone who touches it, and because it contains a fragment of divine power, it grants the owner a type of power that deviates from common sense. Typically red. All Mute Lords have at least one fragment, and in the ‘subjugation war’ to eliminate Mute’s dungeon and slaughter the Lord, it must be secured and isolated above all else.
It is the third fragment that is now being discussed.
“Five years ago. “The Straug family and the Brastol family declared the subjugation of the dungeon of ‘Lord Kul-Farg the Unholy One’, the dungeon closest to the two fortresses.”
“A huge amount of money was spent, to the point that the two fortress cities were struggling, and not only was all the power that the two fiefdoms could muster mobilized, but they also attracted talented people from the fortified city of Martel across from Straug and the archipelago outside the central island, and fought a major battle.”
Lord Cool-Farg. This is a name that also appeared in the mouth of Volteus. It is said that he killed Kul-Pag with his own hands and gained the reputation of being a Lord Slayer.
After sacrifice, the battle ended in victory and the Mute Lord and the dungeon were eliminated. Since the area blocked by Kul-Pag’s dungeon included a fairly large rocky terrain, the cities on both sides who had secured the site for a new fortress city were effectively benefiting more than making up for their losses.
“The problem is that none of the surviving knights of Kul-Pag’s slayer saw the Lord’s fragments.”
The fragments of the rod are like the seeds that create the mute rod. Since it was unknown when and where another load or dungeon would arise since it disappeared, the two cities dispatched an investigation team that included a priest, but no one could find any traces of Mute. It has truly disappeared.
“Could it be that the fragments of the rod have already been absorbed by someone? Or, since it is an item with great power, they took it separately and hid it to sell…”
“You may not know this, but divine power and Mute’s blood are polar opposites. That’s as solid a truth as Mutt’s hatred of humans. “If someone had absorbed or hidden it, it would never have escaped the priests’ eyes.”
A fragment of the rod that not even the priest could find.
While the leaders of both cities discussed repeatedly to find the missing fragments of the Lord, they came to one conclusion.
『There is only one case where the fragment disappears. It only happened when it was swallowed and merged with another fragment!』
『The colored fragment of one of the surviving Shard Knights absorbed the Lord’s fragment!』
A hypothesis that has never existed before, but the theory has been revived enough.
If there were colored fragments with an absurdly high priority, wouldn’t it be possible to absorb and remove the fragments of the Lord that should have been limited to killing and sealing the Lord?
If so, wouldn’t it be possible for humanity to possess the extraordinary power to devastate an area?
“It is said that these hypotheses, which had been dismissed as nonsense until now, have surfaced due to this subjugation war.”
In the case of colored fragments with strong power, they can merge with other colored fragments, so there is no law that prevents them from being absorbed even if they are Lord fragments.
So, the Shard Knight, the strongest among the Shard Knights who survived the subjugation battle, must have absorbed the Lord’s fragments, right?
The possibility has been raised that the colored fragment ‘Fragment of Dawn’ absorbed by ‘Lord Slayer’ Volteus Straug is the fragment with the greatest potential among the existing colored fragments.
“If the hypothesis is true, the colored fragments of Volteus should not be passed around so carelessly. “There are many cases where Mute Lords have slaughtered Shard Knights and absorbed their precious colored fragments, even more than humans have conquered dungeons and sealed the fragments of Lords.”
“So, they were trying to absorb the fragments of Volteus at the level of the fortress city.”
“right.”
“The only way for a Shard Knight to release the absorbed colored fragments
is through death. “It’s unfortunate for the rail ship, but it’s all for the future of humanity.”
“Hmm….”
A fragment of Volteus that may have the greatest potential among the existing colored fragments.
If everything the soul mage said was true, it was completely understandable that the Brastol family would go to such lengths to secure the fragments of Volteus.
‘…The fortress city of Straug was excluded from this work. It doesn’t seem to have any specific purpose for humanity.’
The head of the house said that if the project was successful, the magic train rail ship would be divided between the Straug family and the fragments of Volteus between the Brastol family. If Straug had known the value of the newly presented Voltaeus, he would never have agreed to such a distribution.
‘The Brastol family not only wants to protect the fragments of Volteus, which have enormous potential, but also wants to wield that power directly.’
The rail ship came to Fardau Fortress here to carry out Brastol’s request.
Considering the preparation process, it can be said that other means of attack were already in place before I, the variable, appeared.
“great. “All I have to do is leave that pouch near Volteus, right?”
“As close as possible. To a place where you can maintain that close distance for at least an hour. “The Shard Knight will sleep well too, so if you can put him in his bed, there wouldn’t be a better location.”
‘First of all, I have to say that I will do it.’
You don’t just have to do it, you have to look like you do it very well.
I don’t know what other means they can use to attack Voltaeus and the railship, but at least they can delay their attack while they think things are going well on the other side.
The delay would give the railship people who had already entered Fortress Fardau time to escape the city.
“What happens if you leave your pockets unattended?”
“As I said, you can cast soul magic on Voltaeus from here.”
“What is soul magic? What kind? “What effect does it have?”
“You don’t need to know that. “You became a member of that group by chance, so all you have to do is take advantage of the opportunity and bring the catalyst to Volteus.”
“But…”
“Stop! “If anything else is needed, I will contact you using magic, so go up and wait patiently.”
“If the plan goes even a little too far, you will know that your honest mouth made a mistake. You know what happens if you mess up something big at the family level, right? “If I turn you into a soulless doll, you won’t be able to hold me guilty of murdering your kin even in the temple.”
“Ugh.”
A firm and strong attitude.
I wanted to find out a little more, but Gilder didn’t seem to have any intention of divulging any information other than the background of the work and my duties.
‘We have to find out. Only by digging up one more thing can we prevent uncertain variables.’
A bigger deal than you think. April World tasted better than I expected.
As someone who only had talent and no direct ability, I had no power to control the situation if a variable occurred. All that is possible now is to convey information to powerful colleagues so that they can block the variables.
In a situation where we don’t know when and where uncertain variables may arise, what could be more valuable than information about the enemy’s base?
If I couldn’t find a guilder, I had to find it somewhere else.
Swish!
‘center. ‘Colored fragment storage box.’
’12 o’clock to 3 o’clock. ‘Fragment recovery and body disposal area.’
‘….4 o’clock. Paper and quill on the desk. Beeswax used to close letters.’
Select places in your field of vision that may contain information.
‘Five people wearing hoods. Guard eight.’
‘My weight. I’m a bit taller than average, so there’s a slight error at 30kg. ‘Can’t stagger a lightly armed adult male.’
‘But if you’re a wizard whose motor skills are close to 0, it’s about 5 inches tall…’
The desk I was aiming for. Among the wizards wandering around, there was one with ink smudges on his wrists and sleeves.
I approached secretly, using my small stature carefully…
Kwa-dang-tang-tang!
“Shit! “What the hell!”
Let’s go!
“I’m sorry! “It was dark inside and I crashed into it!”
“Damn it, you damn bastard…! “Precious data got mixed up!”
“sorry! sorry!”
The soul mage suddenly hit the crook of his knee and fell, his hands fluttering and scattering the documents on the table.
“Get that organized! “I’ll help you clean up!”
A hand hurriedly picking up paper with the face of a crying child. But those eyes were frantically scanning the floor.
‘You can’t take even one. ‘If it’s discovered that it’s gone, it’s clear that I, the outsider who caused the commotion, will be a suspect.’
‘There’s no need to read everything. curse. Only those related to curses or magic. Records of magic leave traces just by writing down words.’
Thump, thump, thump, thud
….Tak-
“What are you doing!” “Don’t sit still and give it to me!”
“This is….”
One of the records that was constantly turned over. There was a faint trace of magic left behind.
[Activated by the soul jar’s catalyst. It creates a crack in the target’s world of consciousness and destroys the fragments of memories -]
“Why are you so dazed? “Give it to me!”
“Uh oh-!”
Sigh!
The target is Voltaeus. Fragment… What are you doing?
There was an important explanation behind it, but the record was taken away before I could see it.
‘Soul jar catalyst. Cracks in consciousness. Exploring the memories of the fragments – what the heck. First of all, I’ve got some keywords.’
Although it is not satisfactory, I have obtained enough information for someone who knows soul magic to specify the spell.
A sudden commotion drew attention to me. If I continued my activities here, I might arouse suspicion, so I thought I should end my search in the basement at this point.
‘Voltheus is also a Shard Knight. There were Shard Knights on the rail ship, excluding Voltaeus, so they must also know a soul mage.’
‘The family that rules the entire city has not recovered from the damage yet. A chase is difficult, let alone an all-out war.’
‘We must pretend to stumble as much as possible and increase the distance while the enemy moves passively to deceive us.’
All that’s left is to share what we found out and escape carefully…
And one more thing.
Crack-dud-
thud!
As I left the heavily closed basement door behind me, a staircase vaguely smelling of blood appeared.
“We should meet Voltaeus first.”
It remained to hear the story of Volteus himself.
In the end, where did the fragments of the rod go?
Has it really been swallowed up by the colored fragments owned by Volteus, as is assumed here?
Or did it disappear for another reason?
Or else…
‘One of the survivors has already become a mute lord and used some method to deceive the priests.’
The steps going up the dark stairs were heavy.
‘April World is a world where most of the people you meet are villains.’
Sadly, I haven’t had enough time or experience with Voltaeus and the Railship people to fully trust them.
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