Chapter 728: 21-40 The Imitations

21: Maritime Transport and Ruins Arc (Year 3457–3458)

January 15th, 10:00 AM.

“My Lord, an emergency situation has arisen.”

Jin looked up from his workbench at the sound of Laokun’s voice echoing through the workshop.

Reinhardt and Elsa, who had been staying over, were also present and sharpened their focus at the grim tone.

“What in the world happened?”

“Yes, My Lord. The ancient Leonard Kingdom investigation task force is in dire straits.”

“What did you say?!”

“…Is Fritz-niisama in danger too?”

“Yes. Please look at the display.”

An image materialized across the Magic Screen, captured from high altitude by the surveillance drone, Sky-21.

“W-What on earth is that?”

“We hypothesize that it is a type of magical organism, though the exact details remain unknown.”

“W-What is going on?!”

The sudden eruption of earth behind them caught everyone completely off guard. Spinning around in a panic, their eyes locked onto a pack of translucent Rock Wolves.

No, it was more accurate to call them “things” shaped like Rock Wolves.

“A-Are those…”

“Rock Wolves? No, that’s impossible!”

Though their silhouettes perfectly mirrored the monstrous beasts, the surface of their bodies was devoid of any fur. Instead, a slimy, unnatural sheen covered their entire forms.

Eighteen of these simulated Rock Wolves broke through the scattered soil, baring their glistening fangs.

“…It can’t be…!”

Every knight present instantly recognized that foul texture. It was identical to the mysterious semi-fluid substance they had just examined.

“Laokun, what are those things?” Elsa asked, her eyes pinned to the Magic Screen. Having not been privy to the timeline of the expedition’s findings, her confusion was entirely natural.

“This is merely a hypothesis, but…”

Laokun, who had maintained continuous surveillance over the ruins, began with a concise summary of the events leading up to the crisis.

“I see. So they emptied the contents of those recovered vessels into a single pit.”

“Correct, My Lady. And then they buried everything within that same hole. In doing so, they inadvertently combined the separate components stored within the vessels.”

Hearing Laokun’s analysis, a sudden realization struck Jin.

“Could those materials be… from the era of the Magi War?”

“Yes, My Lord. I am inclined to agree. It is highly probable that we are looking at an incomplete weapon left over from the Magi War.”

Once, a catastrophic magical weapon known as the ‘Gigas’ had plagued the land—a monster engineered to absorb ambient mana from its surroundings and convert it into raw self-sustaining energy.

Laokun deduced that the contents sealed away in this remote outpost belonged to a similar class of experimental weaponry.

Though the conclusion was drawn from incomplete historical data, Jin found the reasoning to be incredibly sound.

“Too valuable to destroy, yet far too hazardous to deploy. In an act of desperation, they sealed the components deep within a subterranean vault on the frontier, leaving behind warning tablets to deter future generations.”

“Hmm. And as the centuries rolled by, the knowledge of what was actually entombed was lost to time, and the warning tablets were scattered and destroyed…”

“Yes, My Lord. That is the exact sequence of events I have inferred.”

However, uncovering the origin of the monsters did nothing to resolve the immediate crisis unfolding on the ground.

Jin checked with Anne just in case, but even her extensive archives held no record of this specific experiment.

A base protoplasmic semi-fluid. A highly corrosive acid akin to concentrated vitriol. A collection of dull gray stones. And finally, the fresh carcasses of the slaughtered Rock Wolves.

By dumping all of these variables into a single enclosed pit, the task force had unintentionally cultivated a pack of grotesque chimeras mimicking the apex predators.

“If they had thrown human casualties into that pit instead of wolves…”

“The result would likely mirror the host.”

If this truly was a bioweapon forged during the Magi War, it was entirely within its design parameters to absorb the corpses of the fallen and assemble autonomous constructs in their image.

“If that’s the case, then those gray stones must be the linchpin.”

“The probability is exceedingly high, My Lord. They likely serve as the control cores—or rather, the magi-cores that dictate the entity’s functionality.”

Just as Jin and Laokun finalized their hypothesis, a sharp cry cut through the workshop.

“Fritz-niisama!”

Elsa’s voice verged on a frantic scream.

“Whoa!”

The movements of the simulated Rock Wolves were noticeably slower than the flesh-and-blood originals.

However, the moment a vanguard knight drove his blade into a lunging chimera, the steel began to disintegrate before his eyes.

Though the weapon did not vanish into thin air instantly, the width of the blade was immediately reduced by a third, the fine cutting edge utterly liquefied by the contact.

“The creatures have completely absorbed the corrosive fluid… We cannot afford to touch them carelessly!”

Fritz-dono’s face went completely pale as he witnessed the structural failure of the weapon.

“Even Goliath will be dissolved if it attempts to grapple with them…”

With physical contact completely ruled out and conventional swords rendered useless, their only remaining avenue of offense was magic.

“Wind Cutter!”

Fritz-dono unleashed a mid-tier wind spell, but the entities’ semi-fluid biology proved to be an absolute counter. The moment the invisible gale sliced through the creatures’ bodies, the translucent matter fluidly recombined, healing the damage instantly.

“Anyone capable of casting fire-attribute offensive magic, unleash your spells now!”

Leaping backward to open the distance, Fritz-dono barked instructions that echoed across the panicked lines.

“Fire Bullet!”

Responding to the command, an Egeria mage unleashed a mid-tier fire spell. The projectile flew true, striking a simulated Rock Wolf dead center.

Yet, an attack of that caliber was nowhere near enough to neutralize the chimera. Although half of its gelatinous torso vaporized under the intense heat, the translucent fluid surged forward in the next breath, restoring its original form.

While its overall physical mass had visibly shrunk from the evaporation, it had sustained no decisive structural damage.

The sight of the endless regeneration began to crush the knights’ morale.

End of 728