Chapter 574 - Insight (2)
Within the heavy atmosphere, only breaths and footsteps resounded faintly,
a space that was nothing short of eerily chilling.
Cain's blue eyes shimmered with magic power as he slowly moved the tip of the demon sword──[Cretima], keeping vigilance in all directions.
"...Too quiet. It feels as though nothing exists in this sector."
Osgar stroked his beard.
"Not just here, it seems the entire laboratory is empty. Well, considering it's wartime, Bohemirn's tower master can't possibly be away from the tower indefinitely. What do you all think?"
"It's clear there's no one hiding nearby. Nor do I sense any concealed traps."
[My conclusion is the same.]
Nothing unusual was caught even in Isabella's Brilliant eyes. Beta's analysis aligned with that. Still, none of them let go of their tension.
They descended a staircase that sloped at an exact forty-five degrees. The moment their feet touched the flat floor, the surroundings grew relatively bright.
"Looks like this is the destination."
Before their eyes unfolded an unofficial, secret place. For an instant, they felt overwhelmed by its grandeur.
How should one put it?
Aside from the spotless cleanliness, free of even a speck of dust, it seemed almost like a magical ruin. Yet, because most of the vast space stood empty, a needless sense of emptiness lingered.
They realized it was a misconception only a few minutes later.
"?!"
As they crossed the passage beneath a massive bridge connecting both sides of the second floor, an enormous magic circle, spanning nearly forty meters in radius, greeted Isabella and her party.
Around its outer rim were multiple installed test tubes.
On the ceiling, countless discs, large and small, etched with magic circles, pointed toward the giant circle inscribed on the floor from every angle.
"...How many magic circles are there?"
Not only were there too many to count, but several contained numerous circles within a single design, making distinction itself difficult.
Even when she visualized their essence with her Brilliant eyes, more than half were impossible to interpret. Isabella's knowledge simply fell short.
It was understandable, for the study of magic circles was a notoriously difficult discipline.
Osgar muttered in awe.
"A laboratory composed almost entirely of magic circles rather than facilities, hm. A place of magical worth beyond measure. I've never seen the like, not even in the Imperial Magic Ministry."
[Recording in real time.]
Beta busily began capturing the scene with a memory golem. Unlike Alpha, who had a memory golem's core embedded in his mini golem body, Beta did not.
"Hmmm, I can't even guess what purpose this serves. Could it be human experimentation?"
"Difficult to say. From what I can judge, it surpasses human boundaries... More rational to borrow the wisdom of divinity in this matter."
"Let's observe for now. We can leave interpretation until we regroup with the archduke."
Each maintained an appropriate distance while surveying the place.
Cain and Osgar searched the second floor, while Isabella and Beta examined the test tubes installed outside the giant circle.
"Extremely dry. No signs of recent use."
[There is no blemish, no residue in this space. From that, it's highly probable any traces left behind were deliberately erased. Determining when it was last used is impossible.]
Speculative, but reasonable.
Judging by how spotless the laboratory was kept, it was unlikely they would have left any remains inside the test tubes unattended.
Isabella soon set that aside and calmly focused on the vast magic circle. Her golden eyes, within which flickered the distorted circle of Defying the Heavens, glimmered.
"...Doesn't seem dangerous."
"Then may I step onto it?"
Cain, who had already finished checking the second floor and returned, sought approval. After some hesitation, Isabella nodded. He took a step forward.
As expected, there was no reaction.
Osgar and Isabella followed Cain onto the circle, continuing their investigation.
"Cain, angle your sword and gently thrust it into that gap. As weakly as possible, just in case."
"Yes, Sage."
The demon sword [Cretima] slowly vanished into a slit within the circle. The walls of the slit curved, leaving the bottom unseen.
Unexpectedly, the depth was considerable.
Thud.
Only after Cain pushed it in almost to his elbow did it reach bottom, where he felt a solid touch along with a faintly slimy sensation.
When he withdrew the sword, something dark crimson clung to its tip.
Human blood.
Though clotted, it wasn't old. Only a few days at most.
"At last, a clue. Though whether it's significant..."
"Wait a moment."
Isabella approached.
"This isn't just blood."
"Hm?"
"It belongs to a Transcendent."
She could see it clearly.
Within the blood lingered an overwhelming presence, unlike anything she had felt before.
Different from the aura of Sandir Paen, whom she had confronted in Daunt and succeeded in partially visualizing.
This belonged to another Transcendent.
"Then are you saying this is the tower master of Bohemirn's blood?"
"Likely, but to be exact, it's half and half. Half is Transcendent, half is human. Mixed together. And... the ratio is changing."
Almost as if alive, the composition was shifting in real time, the Transcendent portion increasing while the human portion diminished.
No, more precisely, the human blood was transforming into Transcendent blood.
[As though it is 'mimicking'. Fascinating.]
Beta tilted its body, showing a hint of curiosity. Truly the younger sibling of Alpha, their behavior was a mirror image.
Still.
Why was the entire place immaculate, except for the blood?
Why was there blood, presumed to be Balrog Bessias's, mixed with human blood?
How was the human blood slowly transforming into that of a Transcendent?
In the end, the abandoned bloodstain pointed to one question.
Just what experiments had been conducted here?
***
The team led by Isabella and the one led by Adrian finished exploring their respective zones and regrouped at Verden's location.
Second team reported first.
"As senior saw in Enette's memory, the left passage was largely used as storage. When we searched deeper inside, we found monsters like demi-humans and aberrant species sealed inside test tubes. In a state of suspended animation."
"We also located the tubes that once contained Enette and other unofficial test subjects, but all were empty. Instead, Alpha discovered a hidden chamber."
[Performed well. Replaying record.]
The mini golem, Alpha, shone with magical light, projecting its memory.
On the wall where rows of test tubes had been set upright, Alpha located a unique magic circle with a scan and manipulated it a few times, revealing a concealed passage.
Not long after entering, they found an artificially carved chamber. Within it were countless magic circles, all deactivated.
'Most were binding types, including top-tier circles, along with unique spells that hindered physical function... a personal prison, meant for a specific individual.'
That individual, of course, being Sandir Paen.
Though he had become physically crippled after his defeat to the Master, the fact remained: he was still a Transcendent being.
Thus, to perform human experiments at will and tamper with his mind, there was no choice but to restrain Sandir completely.
And in the end, failing to inscribe Coercion, they must have struck a secret deal.
With Gluttony's grafting technique, they would restore his ruined body and grant him irretrievable youth, in exchange for allowing his mind to be brainwashed.
Had such an offer been made to Verden or Dahit, they would have rejected it outright. Even if it meant death.
For them, becoming the underling of another Transcendent was utterly unacceptable.
Sandir Paen, however, did not seem to care.
"And we also discovered... numerous human body parts, either used or prepared for use in grafting."
Alpha projected the scene.
Inside several test tubes filled with reddish fluid, heads, torsos, limbs, and organs floated.
"Appalling."
Osgar clicked his tongue. The others reacted in the same way.
Unia, who had been the first to find it, barely suppressed the urge to vomit again. Such raw horror was still unfamiliar to her.
Adrian, catching Verden's gaze, spoke with restrained emotion.
"Our master was not among them."
Whether that was fortunate or tragic, none could say.
That Adrian had not witnessed his master's cold corpse dismantled and treated as grafting material...
That not even ashes remained to offer a funeral...
Then came the turn of the first team.
"The sector we checked was a laboratory."
Discs on the ceiling engraved with various circles, and a massive magic circle deeply carved into the floor.
And beneath it, they had found strange blood and an unknown peculiarity.
Along with the scenes Beta replayed from the memory golem, Isabella gave a detailed report, while Osgar and Cain supplemented with explanations.
"..."
Verden stroked his chin, staring at the enormous magic circle recorded in the report.
Troublesome. Very.
If they were to analyze it in detail, it would take far longer than the study of the spatial teleportation circle that led to the private laboratory.
However, the intent peeking through the giant magic circle was so blatant that discerning its purpose was not difficult.
"Though entangled in complexity, overall it focuses on stability. The ones on the ceiling carry the nature of enhancement and alteration."
"Stability?"
"To speculate roughly, they must have inscribed the ceiling circles onto a subject, destabilizing them, then used the massive circle on the floor to stabilize again. That would be the process. What results this brings about, I cannot say."
Then, who was the subject?
That too was unknown.
Yet there was a part that raised suspicion.
'The Kernadel incident caused by Balrog's orders, recently....'
The fact that they raided a prison and freed every inmate, of all places, could be interpreted as meaning a particular prisoner was their true target.
That very prisoner might be the owner of the blood mixed with Balrog Bessias's, showing bizarre transformation.
'Whatever the experiment is, it's clear Balrog places high importance on it. It may even tie directly to his ideals.'
Something seemed to be unraveling, yet... unfortunately, the information gained from Teams One and Two was all there was. To be honest, it was ambiguous.
They lacked decisive clues, unable to conclude anything firmly.
At that moment, Isabella spoke.
"By the way, this place feels awfully empty. Much smaller than the other zones, too. Was there truly nothing here?"
"No."
Whooong.
As if waiting for the moment, Verden laid his magic-imbued hand on a rectangular object──an artifact──and activated it.
***
The surging mana instantly passed through a process of shaping, constructing form.
What appeared was a world map spanning the entire continent.
"...This is, almost unbelievably precise. Aside from unexplored regions and a few exceptions, the rest of the terrain is depicted in great detail. Even territorial boundaries are marked clearly."
"You can tell at a glance, Sage?"
"How many years did I spend in the Arnak Empire? Of course I recognize it. Especially the central West Continent, I know it completely."
With Osgar's certainty, the three-dimensional map's reliability rose.
Adrian asked.
"A map of the entire continent, with every geographical feature... but, my lord, scattered across it are peculiar markings. What are those?"
"At first, I thought they merely indicated the powers existing across the continent. But upon closer observation, no."
Verden stretched both hands toward the map. The map responded.
The manipulation resembled that of the [Hourglass of Perpetuity], symbol of Black Hour and vessel of its knowledge, so mastering it came quickly.
"As you see, these symbols are not independent, each belongs to a category. Bohemirn Tower is blue, the others red. And they differ in shape and size, representing their factions. In that sense, look here at this blue symbol."
He widened the gap between his hands, enlarging the region where Black Hour and the West Continent's Tower Alliance were at war.
Outside the frontlines lay several symbols of Bohemirn Tower, and further east, the largest blue marking.
"Where would this be?"
Alpha raised a hand.
[Correct. The location of Bohemirn Tower's unofficial laboratory.]
Indeed.
The very site Verden and Elder Hiram had obliterated completely.
Whooong.
He manipulated the map again.
This time he fixed it on the border where the northern and western continents met.
"To the north, there are more symbols of Bohemirn Tower, identical in size to the one just shown. As far as I know, there are no cities or even villages there, nowhere suitable to establish a tower branch."
"You mean there's another unofficial laboratory there."
"Exactly. The probability that they are conducting those reinforcement experiments is very, very high."
Verden stressed the point.
In other words, they had found Bohemirn Tower's hidden large-scale clandestine laboratories. This alone was a major harvest.
But it was not over yet.
"There is something stranger still."
He shifted the map's focus to the East Continent, pointing to the Principality of Riviant.
Though Bohemirn Tower had no branch there, a small blue symbol appeared, not in a human settlement, but deep in nature.
"West Continent and East Continent, both far from Bohemirn Tower geographically. Strange places to set up, yet such solitary markings appear in more than one nation."
Verden displayed them one by one, countries in the same state as the principality.
Osgar stroked his beard.
"The common trait being, all can be classed as small, weak nations. What do you think the tower master of Bohemirn is scheming?"
"Two possibilities. Either planning some act of terror against those nations, like Daunt and Kernadel...."
Verden narrowed his eyes.
"Or turning the rulers of those states into his thralls."
"Thralls?"
"I've already informed you about Coercion, so you all know its danger. Once inscribed upon the flesh, the victim is forced to obey the caster's command, and now it has even advanced to seize the mind entirely."
There was no method more efficient, more secretive, more certain to control others.
But.
"Until now, Balrog has refrained, treating Coercion with utmost caution. He applied it only to unofficial test subjects and internal personnel. One reason. For fear that a Transcendent, or someone of special ability, might discover it."
"Which means..."
"If my guess is correct, Balrog has overcome the old flaw of Coercion."
Unia frowned.
"So what, Bohemirn Tower is going to brainwash the leaders of nations wholesale, and aim to dominate the continent?"
"Or perhaps, he needs the world itself to fulfill his goal."
Whichever it was, the fact that it meant interference with the world made them all swallow hard. All but two golems and one man.
Strength gathered in Verden's hand.
'At last, certainty.'
Now he knew how to annihilate Bohemirn Tower in one stroke. All that remained was to put thought into action.
"Let us return to the Grand Hall, before anyone comes back here."
"Huh? We're not destroying this place?"
"Provoking Balrog's caution would only hinder us. We can erase this later."
Verden extinguished the map.
"Two mornings from now, summon the forces of Black Hour and the Society to the Grand Hall."
He turned his back.
"Prepare for all-out war."