Chapter 102 - The Ruins of Malaka (2)
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Alon and Evan set out for the Ruins of Malaka with Riyan’s party.
“My lord... Doesn’t it seem to get more humid the farther in we go?”
“It does.”
Alon nodded as he watched Evan grimace in obvious discomfort.
‘I knew this place was humid, but I never imagined it would be this bad. It’s awful.’
Concealing his discomfort, Alon absently fingered his clothes. The fabric felt damp beneath his fingertips.
‘... I need to finish my business and get out as quickly as possible.’
His particular dislike of humidity made haste all the more urgent.
How long had they been walking?
“Let’s rest for a moment.”
They had reached the halfway point before he knew it.
As they rested, Alon spoke with Riyan and learned why she and her companions were heading for the Ruins of Malaka.
“... Malaka is a magical ruin?”
Magical ruins.
The ruins discovered in Ronovelli came in all sorts of forms: treasure ruins, heirloom ruins, knowledge ruins, and more.
Among them, magical ruins were treasure troves for mages, containing magical objects used during the forgotten age of the gods.
There was just one problem.
‘... I don’t remember the game describing it as that kind of ruin.’
When playing Psychedelia, he had visited this place hundreds of times to obtain artifacts found only in the jungle, just as he had in Laxas. He still vividly remembered playing the minigame.
“It hasn’t been confirmed yet. We only know there’s a possibility.”
“Is there any evidence?”
“Using maps drawn by explorers, we found that the layout of the Ruins of Malaka closely resembles certain features of several recently discovered magical ruins.”
This was new information even to him.
“I knew about the Ruins of Malaka, but it’s rather intriguing that they might be magical ruins.”
“Isn’t it? If it weren’t for Theon, I probably would have thought they were ordinary ruins, just as the reports at camp said. He’s the one who discovered this.”
At her words, Alon looked toward Theon, who was resting some distance away.
“?”
Their eyes had clearly met, yet Theon turned his head away as though he hadn’t been looking in their direction. Alon’s puzzlement lasted only a moment.
“... Then are artifacts from a forgotten age lying dormant in the Ruins of Malaka?”
Riyan tilted her head at his next question.
“Hmm, I think that’s unlikely. When the explorers and mages first discovered the ruins, they said there was nothing there. Even if we find anything, it will probably just be material for academic study.”
Alon nodded at her explanation, and this time she asked a question.
“But what brings you to the ruins, my lord?”
He briefly considered telling her, then answered indirectly.
“An acquaintance asked me to.”
“Asked you?”
“Yes. They asked me to visit the Ruins of Malaka and return.”
Riyan’s expression grew a little odd, but she seemed to realize that he had no intention of elaborating and asked no more questions.
Grateful for her consideration, Alon continued.
“Still, is it all right to share information like that so freely? I knew nothing about it.”
“Pardon? Ah—”
Riyan nodded, apparently understanding what he meant.
“It’s fine. There are certainly similarities to magical ruins, but the chances of Malaka actually being one are extremely low, and the chances of finding an artifact are practically nonexistent. Besides, even if we find material for academic study, it’ll be presented to the scholarly society anyway, so there’s no point keeping it secret.”
Once Riyan finished, Alon asked, “I see. Then you came here to determine whether the Ruins of Malaka are magical ruins?”
“Exactly. The Red Magic Tower excels at interpretation, and the Green Magic Tower at detection, so we decided to work together.”
That was how Alon learned the circumstances behind the formation of this magical expedition.
“Then you’ll leave as soon as this expedition is over.”
“Hmm, probably, unless we explore the new uncharted area to the north this time.”
“... The uncharted area to the north.”
Alon murmured without thinking. He knew what a hellish place that northern territory was.
‘... That should become the territory of the Hundred Demons, one of the Four Great Factions.’
The Hundred Demons, one of the Four Great Factions.
In the middle-to-late stages of Psychedelia—when the Five Great Sins were rampaging in earnest—these factions, together with the Sins descending one after another, were the chief culprits in turning the allied kingdoms’ already-doomed train into a morning rush-hour express to destruction.
Whether it was their members or their bosses, every faction was difficult enough to make him swear a blue streak. In particular, the Hundred Demons’ boss, the King of Aberrations, still raised his blood pressure just thinking about it.
“It might be best to avoid exploring the uncharted area to the north if you can.”
“Why is that?”
“An acquaintance told me it was somewhat dangerous.”
According to the setting, the Four Great Factions, like the Outer Gods, would not go out of their way to rampage unless the Five Great Sins awakened and descended.
Alon offered the advice out of goodwill.
“Let’s get moving again!”
He rose, leaving a bewildered Riyan behind.
‘... I don’t need to worry, do I?’
The sudden thought of Deus made him a little uneasy, but he soon started walking.
It was a damp morning filled with discomfort...
####
How much time had passed since then?
By the time the overcast sky made it difficult to judge the hour from where the sun should have been, the party arrived at the Temple of Malaka.
“Let’s go straight in.”
Knowing the Ruins of Malaka were not dangerous, the mages began heading inside without waiting for anyone else, leaving the mercenaries and guide behind.
“Are we going in too?”
“Yes.”
Alon, who had been studying the structure’s resemblance to an ancient pyramid, also moved forward with Evan.
As he entered the ruins, where long years of moisture had left thick moss between the stones, Alon suddenly recalled Critenia Siyan’s words.
‘... I’ll understand the reason here, will I?’
To be honest, he still had no idea what Siyan intended by sending him here. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t guess even the slightest reason.
‘What could it be?’
As he pondered the question...
“Oh. It’s a little cooler in here.”
Evan’s remark finally prompted Alon to take in the interior.
“...”
There was nothing here. Quite literally nothing.
All he could see were moss-covered stones. A stone platform in the center could easily accommodate about a hundred people, but aside from that, it was merely an enormous empty space.
For a ruin, it looked remarkably underwhelming.
‘... What am I supposed to learn here?’
Alon recalled Siyan’s words once more as he looked around the empty ruins, which offered nothing but a little relief from the heat outside.
Then his gaze slowly rose.
“?”
He saw writing there.
It looked like a series of drawings, yet his mind clearly recognized it as writing, and he understood it as naturally as anything.
Intrigued, Alon remembered having a similar experience with a stone tablet in the ruins where the dragonkin lived.
‘The Shadow Dragon’s Egg.’
Though the lettering had clearly worn away with age, he could still recognize and read it distinctly.
“Fixation...?”
He murmured what appeared to be a phrase written beneath it.
BOOM!
An enormous sound came from far away, as though something had slammed shut.
CRUNCH!
Then he heard the heavy sound of flesh being crushed.
####
‘As I thought, even if the layout is similar, there’s almost no chance these are magical ruins.’
Riyan had been looking around the empty ruins just moments earlier when the sudden sound of tearing flesh made her turn.
“!?”
One of the Green Magic Tower mages who had entered with her lay collapsed, his head burst open.
CRUNCH! CRUNCH!
BZZZZZZ!
Grotesquely enormous insects were devouring the mage’s corpse.
“Urgh—!”
“Wh-what are those!?”
“What the fuck—”
At the sight, one of the mages gagged, unable to stomach the revulsion. Others screamed.
But soon, every one of them began preparing magic against the grotesque insects gradually emerging throughout the vast ruins.
‘Why are jungle mutants here?!’
Riyan could make no sense of the situation either, but she nevertheless tried to prepare a spell.
Then she realized something horrifying.
‘Why won’t my magic...!?’
Her magic would not take form.
As the insects slowly gathered around them, Riyan tried to cast again with mounting urgency, but her magic still refused to manifest.
‘My mana is dispersing...!?’
Horrified, she realized that the instant she released mana to arrange it, it slipped out of her control and dispersed into the air.
“Hah...”
At the same time, someone sighed. The mages, Riyan included, turned toward the sound.
“That took ten years off my life.”
Theon stood tall among the insects.
“Theon...?”
Riyan spoke his name in disbelief.
Standing before the Green Magic Tower mage’s corpse, Theon smiled broadly.
“You look like you don’t understand.”
Riyan’s face hardened at his unmistakably mocking expression.
“... Do you even know what you’re doing?”
“Oh, are you going to lecture me? Sorry, but spare me. I’ve heard it so often I’m sick of it. And don’t worry. I know exactly what I’m about to do. You’re the one who doesn’t seem to know.”
“What?”
Theon snickered at her question.
“If you knew what I was going to do, you wouldn’t be able to look so calm.”
He drew an inky-black staff from inside his clothes and gave it a light wave.
At once, a mosquito-like insect that had been eating the mage’s corpse drove its sharp proboscis into the body’s chest and tore out the heart.
Blood sprayed from the extracted heart. Theon pulled it off the insect’s proboscis and threw it into the middle of the arena.
The still-beating heart began staining the vast arena with blood.
At the sight, Riyan tried once more to cast a spell.
“Oh, I wouldn’t bother. Now that the ‘trial’ has begun, you can’t use magic inside these ruins.”
“A trial?”
“That’s right. A trial to determine whether you’re qualified to take what these magical ruins hold.”
Theon shrugged nonchalantly.
“Let me say this first: I have nothing against any of you. I only brought you along because I needed the hearts of at least ten mages. According to that guy, anything other than a mage’s heart is useless.”
Theon poured out his words with a cheerful expression, as though his silence up until now had been a lie.
“Still, I honestly got a fright at the very end. Marquis Pallatio is a mage, so I didn’t mind him coming, but having that monster of a Sword of Callivan along was a bit much.”
“...”
“I was wondering how I could hold out until Marquis Pallatio left, you know? But since you’ve let me conduct the trial on the very first day, I’m unbelievably grateful.”
Theon looked at Alon with blatant mockery, but only for a moment.
“Well, then, let’s say goodbye. I’ll put your hearts to good use.”
As he waved his inky-black staff, the mutants spread their wings and began to rise.
‘Is this... the end?’
No matter how many times Riyan released mana to form a spell, it dispersed with disheartening ease. Just as despair spread across her face—
CRACKLE!
At the sharp sound, Riyan’s gaze turned toward one spot.
And then—
“!”
She saw magic shining brightly before Alon’s outstretched hand, his index and middle fingers pressed together.
The mages, who had been sunk in despair, stared at the light as if entranced.
“!?”
Theon’s smiling expression shifted from amusement to confusion, then from confusion to horror.
“Fixation.”
Alon, who had already discovered the sole answer to using magic in this space, recited the phrase.