Arc-7 Ch-54

The room we fled into lay a short distance away from the heart of the ruins.

Compared to the central core, this chamber appeared to have suffered far less from the ravages of time and invasive plant growth. The moment we stepped inside, we were greeted by the low, persistent hum of various devices still faintly operating throughout the room.

Supported on either side by Lionel and Ariel, I collapsed heavily onto the floor.

Suppressing the overwhelming urge to black out from the pain, I somehow managed to strip off my clothes well enough and instructed the two of them to pull the medical supplies from our backpacks.

To avoid weighing ourselves down, we had only packed a minimal amount of medicine and bandages. Even so, leaving my injuries untreated would only hinder our movements later on.

Back on the battlefields I used to fight on, there were plenty of idiots who dismissed minor wounds, neglected treatment, and ended up dying from infections. Others overestimated their own healing ability and collapsed dead halfway through a mission.

More often than not, a timid, overly cautious rabbit survives far longer than a brave but conceited lion ever will.

Well, cowardice is probably just baked into my nature.

Seriously, why the hell did my mom and dad decide to name me something that means "Lion" anyway?

How my parents, who lack even the slightest trace of cynicism or sarcasm, managed to give me such an absurdly ironic name remains one of the eternal mysteries of the Bartfort household.

I crushed a painkiller tablet between my teeth, washed it down with water, then smeared anti-inflammatory ointment across several injured areas before wrapping them tightly in bandages.

While the twins helped me change into fresh clothes, I forced strength into my legs and attempted to stand.

A violent surge of pain exploded throughout my entire body, and a groan slipped from my throat before I could stop it.

At this point, fighting was out of the question. Hell, even walking properly was going to be difficult. Left with no alternative, I reached toward the bottle of pills, only for Lionel to snatch it away before I could touch it.

"Hey, give that back."

"I cannot, Father. Taking any more than this would effectively poison your body."

"This is an emergency, you know. You could at least pretend not to notice the dosage."

"No. I'll tell Mother."

"No one's going to punish you for bending the rules a little."

"You are the one who'll suffer if the medicine becomes too potent and clouds your judgment."

Sons really aren't anywhere near as adorable as daughters.

Then again, all of my daughters inherited Angie's iron-willed personality to varying degrees, so maybe that wasn't true either.

Regardless, those pills alone weren't going to dull the pain by much. More importantly, the fact I couldn't properly exert strength through my body meant I wouldn't be able to fight effectively, and that was absolutely fatal.

『Leon Fou Bartfort's injuries consist of four hairline fractures, seven sprains, and contusions covering the entirety of the body.』

"Thaaanks for the report I absolutely didn't want to hear. If anything, hearing the details just makes everything hurt worse, so I'd rather stay ignorant."

『Regarding the exact locations of those injuries—』

"SHUT. YOUR. TRAP."

Logically speaking, knowing the precise condition of my injuries was probably the smarter option. But if that knowledge caused me to unconsciously favor certain areas and disrupt my movements, that'd become its own problem.

Walking alone already felt like torture right now. The last thing I wanted was for unnecessary awareness of my own injuries to cloud my judgment further.

Maybe the painkillers were finally kicking in. Maybe the ointment was beginning to seep into my skin.

Or maybe it was simply the adrenaline from experiencing my first genuine life-or-death battle in a long while.

Honestly, it was probably all three.

My entire body burned with a noticeable feverish heat, and my mood felt strangely elevated. At this rate, I'd start sweating soon, and all the ointment I'd painstakingly applied would just wash right off.

I reached for my canteen to take a drink, only to discover it was nearly empty. After spending all this time lecturing the kids about rationing water, being the first one to almost drain my supply wasn't even remotely funny.

My attention suddenly shifted toward the elves who had fled into the room alongside us.

There had originally been over ten elves confronting us at the central core, but their numbers had now dropped to less than half.

Two or three had died fighting the monsters as a direct result of the plan I'd orchestrated. More than twice that number had been abandoned in the previous chamber after the sudden assault from that beastman that appeared out of nowhere.

Considering the creature had entered the room while literally devouring an elf alive, it was safe to assume the survival chances of those left behind were nonexistent.

What stood out most was how blatantly obvious it was that the beastman had specifically prioritized attacking the elves over us, a human father and his children.

The reason I'd been targeted first was simple: I kept shooting at it repeatedly, making myself the highest-priority obstacle.

Since it resumed slaughtering elves afterward instead of chasing me down, it seemed to prioritize designated targets over threat assessment. If that's the case, maybe I can predict its next move to some extent.

Either way, I needed information about that beastman. We'd already burned through a considerable amount of stamina and ammunition just reaching the center of the ruins. There was no way we could defeat something like that head-on.

"Hey."

"……"

"What exactly is that beastman? Are you people not only manufacturing new creatures using the active systems in these ruins, but modifying existing lifeforms too?"

"Did your obsessive hatred of humans drive you to turn even your fellow demi-humans into monsters this time? Is this what your so-called 'chosen and noble race' does? You're worse than slave traders or weapons smugglers."

The elves remained silent.

Their bodies were probably still aching from the beating I'd given them earlier, but I had no intention of treating them gently.

The former village chief, clearly the one in command, glared at me with open hostility. Meanwhile, the combatants and researchers alike shrank back in visible fear.

Whether that fear was directed toward me for the injuries I'd inflicted or toward the beastman hunting them down, I couldn't tell.

What truly puzzled me was the bespectacled elf who was likely overseeing the facility's research operations.

As though he found our panic over the beastman's existence irresistibly amusing, he sat there grinning with a revolting smirk plastered across his face.

The glasses-wearing elf definitely knew something. It was painfully obvious he intended to savor our confusion by withholding whatever information he possessed, and frankly, I had no desire to play along.

More importantly, there was no guarantee the beastman wouldn't burst into this room at any moment. The golden rule of gathering intelligence is simple: faster and more accurate is always better.

"Heh… hehehe… hihihi…"

"So that beastman is your trump card, huh? It's definitely on a completely different level from the monsters we've encountered so far."

"Kahah… buhahya…"

"But that beastman is obviously targeting elves specifically. At this rate, you people aren't escaping extermination any more than we are."

The moment they realized there was truth in my words, scattered gasps echoed throughout the room.

The only exception was the glasses elf, who continued aiming that slimy, irritating grin at me despite being sprawled across the floor.

Was he driven by despair? Or was he simply determined to drag us down with him, even if it cost him his own life?

Trying to persuade people like this is a monumental pain in the ass. Once someone reaches the point where they're willing to throw their own life away purely out of spite, logical arguments stop working altogether.

I wanted to apply more direct pressure, but with my body wracked by fractures, sprains, and bruises, physically threatening him wasn't exactly easy.

And the glasses elf knew that. He understood it perfectly, which was exactly why he kept deliberately provoking me to indulge his own petty malice.

"We diEe… you huMans are desTined to be desTroyed by us ElVes…"

"……"

"There is nO waY you huMans, who aGe so much fasTer than young Elves, can dEfeAt usss…"

"Damn it."

He was completely gone. Absolutely beyond saving. There was no way someone like this would willingly hand over information.

We didn't have the time necessary for torture or proper interrogation methods, and honestly, I felt reluctant to intentionally torture a defenseless opponent right in front of my children.

Even in his half-delirious state, the glasses elf must've sensed that hesitation in me.

That infuriating smirk still plastered across his face, he poured every ounce of his remaining strength into provoking me, utterly unconcerned with whether or not he died in the process.

"Hah!"

SMACK!!

The shout rang out at the exact same moment a yellow blur shot past from the side.

By the time my brain caught up to what happened, the glasses elf had already been blasted backward toward the wall and knocked completely unconscious.

I mean, yeah, I was pissed off. Extremely pissed off. But I hadn't actually touched him yet.

Standing slightly ahead of me was a girl with her fist thrust forward using every ounce of strength she had.

No matter how I looked at it, it was my eldest daughter.

The instant I recognized that fact, I wanted to bury my face in my hands and curl into a ball.

"……What exactly do you think you're doing, Ariel?!"

"Well, that glasses guy was just ridiculously annoying."

"You don't punch people just because they're annoying!! Can you not distinguish right from wrong in situations like this?!"

"But no matter how you looked at him, he clearly wasn't going to cooperate peacefully, right?"

"Did you stop to think about what we're supposed to do if the other elves refuse to cooperate because of this?!"

"Urgh…, I didn't think that far ahead…"

No, think ahead.

Please, I'm begging you, think ahead.

To be completely honest, the glasses elf pissed me off too. Deep down, I absolutely wanted to punch him myself.

Even so, immediately resorting to violence was bad. No matter how you framed it, it was bad.

Ariel had probably felt the desperation of our current situation in her own way, which was why I could understand the impulse that drove her to deck the uncooperative glasses elf.

But while Angie could be hot-blooded, she'd never recklessly charge an opponent outright just because they irritated her, even in a desperate bottleneck like this.

Even I might resort to methods bordering on torture or coercion when gathering information, but I'd only do so after exercising the utmost caution.

As for my own daughter, this ferocious personality of hers was becoming a serious headache. Under normal circumstances she rarely lost control, but correcting her tendency to leap toward reckless decisions when cornered was probably going to be difficult.

"……Father, was that really so wrong?"

"……I can't exactly call it good. Though I can't entirely say it was wrong either."

"I'm sorry."

"Well, what's done is done. Just be more careful next time."

"Understood! So, which elf do I punch next?!"

"Don't punch anybody! Please distance yourself from the entire concept of punching."

This is hopeless. First, I need to teach her that punching shouldn't be her default solution to everything.

Still, Ariel's completely unhesitating knockout of the glasses elf did seem to produce a certain effect.

Though visibly trembling, the remaining elves no longer showed any signs of resistance.

Well, they'd sent hordes of monsters after us, only for us to break into the core of the ruins, expose the hidden truth behind their history, overwhelm them with violence, and then survive an ambush from a mysterious beastman that specifically hunted elves.

Honestly, it'd be stranger if their morale hadn't collapsed by now. If I were in their position, my fighting spirit would've shattered too.

"……That creature is an experimental subject modified within these ruins from a wild animal native to another floating island."

The one who finally spoke was the elf in the lab coat, the sole individual I'd intentionally left unharmed during the previous battle.

As he slowly began explaining while trembling, I wondered whether his spirit had finally broken or whether guilt from being the only one spared violence had pushed him into cooperation.

Either way, if they were willing to provide information honestly, I had absolutely no intention of using excessive force.

Even if I'd never admit that this breakthrough only happened because Ariel clocked the glasses elf in the face.

"This began after the ruins reactivated and communication with them became possible. First, they requested information regarding the flora and fauna currently inhabiting this world, and we complied."

"Why?"

"Simply put, we lacked sufficient information and materials regarding the organisms preserved within the ruins. Up until then, we had repeatedly conducted experiments aimed at creating new lifeforms using the still-functioning equipment and the data we had successfully deciphered. While we achieved limited success, we'd ultimately reached the limits of what we could accomplish."

『Even cryogenically preserved genetic material eventually degenerates into useless rotting flesh once the equipment maintaining it shuts down, and data itself can easily be lost without proper backups. Frankly, the fact they managed to produce any meaningful results at all in a half-collapsed facility like this is practically miraculous.』

"……I never imagined I'd be praised by a Lost Item born from these same ruins."

The moment the sphere interjected into the conversation, the tension visibly drained from the researcher elf's body.

What they had done unquestionably amounted to treason against the Holfort Kingdom. However, when it came to digging through collapsed ruins and deciphering remnants of ancient humanity, I'd been doing essentially the exact same thing under the sphere's guidance.

It wasn't once or twice that I'd used the knowledge and materials provided by that sphere to place myself in advantageous positions.

Viewed from that perspective, perhaps the elves and I were fundamentally alike. Both of us had been manipulated and led around by Lost Items.

Though, unlike them, I had absolutely zero intention of using a Lost Item to massacre people or start wars, so we were incompatible at the core.

"When they informed us they required live specimens rather than books, we purchased them in enormous quantities. Coincidentally, the current village chief had only recently begun transforming this floating island into a tourist destination, which drastically improved both our financial situation and the circulation of goods. Under the pretext of securing funds for elves unwilling to associate with humans, we extracted money from them and commissioned black-market merchants, with whom we'd maintained deep ties since before the war, to acquire and transport various creatures."

"So you used money paid by human tourists to finance your rebellion against humanity? Stop making life difficult for elves who are actually trying to live honestly."

『Please refrain from interrupting the explanation. Continue.』

"Around that period, we heard rumors regarding an exceptionally irregular beast rampaging across a certain floating island. It was a specimen so overwhelmingly superior in both physical ability and intelligence compared to others of its species that it practically seemed like an entirely different creature."

"……Hold on. A beast? That thing? You're telling me the beastman was originally nothing more than an ordinary animal?"

"That is correct. We modified a wild beast and granted it human characteristics."

"Why go through all the trouble of doing something that ridiculous?"

『Because it was necessary.』

The voice that reverberated throughout the entire chamber sounded utterly unlike either a human or an elf.

It belonged to the ruins themselves.

Apparently, not only the central core but every hallway and chamber throughout this facility functioned as part of the ruins' body.

That said, large portions had collapsed, and the upper dungeon floors had suffered severe plant overgrowth, so the areas the ruins could freely control appeared fairly limited.

Lights suddenly began blinking across multiple locations throughout the room, and the sections I'd assumed were merely black walls flickered to life.

Apparently, portions of the walls themselves functioned as screens, just like the displays in the central core.

Projected across them were images of various creatures, unfamiliar landscapes and text strings, and finally, the image of a quadrupedal beast locked inside a cage.

The creature was unmistakably the original base specimen used to create that beastman.

『Several decades have passed since the elves first began exploiting a portion of this dormant facility. The chimeras that attacked you were created using information left behind by the old humanity.』

"So those monsters, huh? They definitely felt different from beastmen, though."

『If genes are combined without regard for biological compatibility, all while lacking access to the facility's full capabilities, then such results are only to be expected.』

『Upon reactivation, your foremost priorities were to confirm whether the old humanity had survived into the present era and to understand the state of the world. To accomplish that, you selected the elves as collaborators, correct?』

『Correct. At the same time, I attempted to restore the facility itself, but the effort failed. The elves who escaped from the facility multiplied upon this floating island, yet they never interacted with other islands, and so their civilization never advanced. The more I investigated, the more obvious it became that humans would make far more efficient collaborators.』

『I, too, selected a new human, Leon Fou Bartfort, as my collaborator, so I suppose I cannot criticize you for that. And thus, you began creating new organisms as a demonstration for the new humanity, did you not?』

『Due to the prolonged dormancy period, I lacked samples, information, and materials. Is it truly wrong to pursue restoration through the efficient use of the functions that remained operational?』

『I cannot answer that with certainty. The circumstances imposed upon you and me are far too different.』

『I appreciate your understanding. Parallel to the creation of new organisms, I was also conducting another project.』

『And that project was?』

『The creation of a biological weapon intended for use against the new humanity. That experimental subject is the individual you refer to as a beastman.』

The conversation had somehow escalated into something absurdly grand in scale, while simultaneously tossing around words far too dangerous to ignore.

In other words, the ruins had been producing those monsters both as a means of currying favor with nations like the Holfort Kingdom and as weapons designed to exterminate people like us, the descendants of the new humanity.

In the modern world, the term "human" almost exclusively referred to the descendants of the "new humanity" that the spherical thing and the ruins kept talking about.

Apparently, the old humanity had been fatally vulnerable to a substance called magi-element, making proper survival in the current world nearly impossible for them.

The elves wanted monsters capable of defeating humans. The ruins wanted monsters they could present as valuable assets to powerful nations, while simultaneously using them as anti-human weapons.

Those motives aligned perfectly, and the result was the birth of the monsters that attacked adventurers exploring the ruins, ultimately triggering this entire incident.

『The experimental subject was based on a species flourishing in the current era, specifically an abnormal specimen of a carnivorous beast inhabiting a certain floating island.』

"By abnormal specimen, you mean there was something wrong with it? What kind of defect are we talking about?"

『Its physical growth rate was abnormally rapid compared to others of its species, and its dietary preferences were... markedly unusual.』

"Be specific."

『The experimental subject displayed an exclusive preference for consuming humans. Furthermore, women and children were its favored prey.』

"…………"

I never should've asked.

It wasn't uncommon for beasts that had inhabited floating islands long before human settlement to attack villages in search of food. Likewise, herds of feral livestock often caused severe damage to crops and settlements.

Even on the floating island where I spent my childhood, incidents like that happened regularly.

But I had never once heard of a beast that specifically preferred hunting humans, much less one obsessed with women and children. At the very least, I knew of no such creature.

『The elves over there were ecstatic when they obtained this abnormal specimen. They said things such as, "This is the ideal existence to pass judgment upon humanity." Though, as you can see, the results speak for themselves.』

"T-That was only because we believed it would become the foundation for a new biological weapon... You were excited too, weren't you?!"

『Naturally. There is no scientist alive who would not rejoice upon obtaining new experimental material. Especially when my designated function is ecological modification. A tool incapable of fulfilling its intended role has no reason to exist.』

Unlike the panicking elves, the ruins AI displayed not even the slightest trace of remorse.

If anything, it remained openly defiant, fully affirming every atrocity it had committed.

Lost items truly were dangerous beyond measure. Without a master to restrain them, they would cast aside laws, morality, and ethics alike, advancing toward any objective without hesitation.

Most humans possessed something called a conscience. They hesitated before inflicting excessive harm. Even animals instinctively avoided hunting prey to extinction or slaughtering their own species.

Machines were different.

Without restraints, they would mercilessly exterminate anything designated as an enemy until nothing remained.

That realization sent a delayed chill crawling down my spine.

『As the first stage toward combining bestiality with intelligence, alongside technological advancement, it was necessary to adapt the genes of the new humanity into the captured beast.』

"If you lost items are trying to destroy the new humanity and locate the old humanity, why the hell would you go out of your way to use new humans at all?"

『The answer is simple. The power possessed by the new humanity was absolutely essential for this analysis.』

An ancient blackened object appeared upon the screen.

Its exact size was difficult to determine, but its shape unmistakably resembled a human arm.

Whether the scratches covering its surface came from battle damage or from endless centuries of decay was impossible to tell.

It looked either like the gauntlet section of armor worn by a human or the arm component of a mobile weapon, an Armor.

Either way, to my eyes, it was nothing more than a battered chunk of metal.

『……!! ……!?』

A bizarre, grating sound suddenly echoed beside me, halfway between distorted speech and metal scraping together.

I turned toward the noise.

The section resembling the Sphere's eye was flashing violently.

Not only that, it had begun shaking frantically in every direction while emitting an overwhelming aura of hostility through its frantic motions, flashing lights, and distorted sounds, as though it rejected everything around it.

I'd known this Sphere for over ten years, yet I had rarely seen it display this level of emotion.

The only comparable moment was probably the battle when we first met.

Back then, it had possessed unmistakable murderous intent and genuinely tried to kill me, reacting furiously to my provocations.

『@#$%&!!』

"H-Hey, hold on. Calm the hell down."

『I am calm. Extremely calm. I am merely calmly calculating the most reliable method to kill that organism, annihilate it until not even fragments of its original form remain, incinerate it down to its genetic information, and eradicate every last particle of it from existence.』

"……Yeah, no matter how you spin it, that's not calm."

"Seriously, what the hell even is this thing?"

I tapped the object projected on the screen with my finger.

To me, it looked like nothing more than a ruined gauntlet or the arm of an Armor.

Yet for the Sphere, which normally mocked me in a cold and detached tone, to lose its composure to this extent, it had to be an object tied to an extraordinarily ugly history.

Our ancestors, the new humanity, were probably involved somehow. Just how long were the wars of the distant past going to keep tormenting their descendants?

"……That item was preserved as a treasured artifact within these ruins. We were told it grants overwhelming power to its user, power intended not for use against individuals, but against Armors themselves."

"I see. So the reason the beastman's appearance differed so drastically from the other monsters was because you modified an animal specifically so it could wield that arm?"

"Exactly. We were informed that only humans could properly utilize it and that ordinary animals were incompatible with it. Therefore, we carefully selected an appropriate base creature, altered it to more closely resemble a human, and surgically transplanted the component. The experimental subject that successfully adapted to it demonstrated power utterly incomparable to the other modified bodies and test subjects, however..."

The elf researcher slowly began explaining the situation.

Frankly, it wasn't a story I particularly wanted to hear, but there wasn't much choice in the matter.

Apparently, that component granted overwhelming power to whoever wielded it.

Objects with similar effects already existed within the Holfort Kingdom.

The amulet I had specially commissioned at the temple for Angie's sake was one such item. Their effects varied wildly, ranging from little more than psychological comfort to guaranteed enhancements, with prices equally varied, from pocket change to enough money to buy an entire house.

But just how absurd would the effects of a lost item be when even its operating principles remained completely unknown?

Honestly, my head began to ache just thinking about the reckless stupidity of these elves, who clearly never considered the consequences.

"At first, everything proceeded smoothly... We were overjoyed by the experimental subject, which effortlessly slaughtered the human adventurers attempting to explore the ruins with overwhelming power... However, before long, the experimental subject began behaving beyond our expectations..."

"And then you had no choice but to lock it away, right?"

"We had no choice! The experimental subject began attacking not only humans, but us elves as well! Anti-personnel weapons proved largely ineffective against the rampaging subject, leaving us with no alternative but to imprison it and weaken it through starvation and dehydration!"

『You brought this upon yourselves. This is the inevitable consequence of using something you failed to understand simply because someone told you it was powerful.』

"You could stand to phrase things a little less harshly."

『There is no need. This outcome suits fools perfectly.』

The Sphere's argument was entirely correct. Honestly, I couldn't sympathize with them at all.

They hated humans so much that they recklessly used incomprehensible technology to create a weapon, only for that weapon to turn against them.

It was such a perfect example of self-inflicted disaster that it practically deserved inclusion in a cautionary fairy tale.

I'm not heartless enough to abandon complete strangers begging for help right in front of me.

But I'm also not naive enough to help people who tried to kill me.

"More importantly, explain in detail exactly what that creepy thing is."

『That is one of the weapons created by the new humanity to oppose the old humanity. If I were to classify it, I suppose the appropriate term would be living armor.』

"Living armor?"

『The new humanity referred to that object as a "Magic Armor." By utilizing the life force and magic of the new human equipping it as an energy source, it can unleash extraordinary power.』

"How extraordinary are we talking?"

『Translated into modern technological standards, if wielded by a human possessing exceptional physical abilities and magical capacity, destroying a mobile weapon such as an Armor or even a cannon-equipped airship would be trivial.』

"You're kidding me..."

That revelation genuinely caught me off guard.

At the same time, I finally understood why the elves had dared plan a rebellion against the Holfort Kingdom.

Certainly, those monsters could threaten ordinary military forces, but modern warfare revolved around fleets of airships and mobile combat conducted through Armors.

No matter how many monsters the elves produced, once the kingdom deployed its Armors and airships, the rebellion would've been crushed within a single day.

I had assumed the elves were simply ignorant fools who failed to understand warfare properly.

I was completely wrong.

They had anticipated anti-Armor and anti-airship combat from the beginning and continued their research accordingly.

Their sole miscalculation was their inability to control their ultimate weapon, the beastman.

That single failure had ruined everything.

『However, the Magic Armor possesses a fatal flaw. There are numerous documented cases in which new humans who equipped it during combat had their life force and magical energy completely drained afterward.』

『It also amplifies negative emotions such as rage, grief, and fear, making mental collapse extremely common. While the presence of a control core allows its performance to be stabilized to some extent, the overwhelming majority of users are ultimately consumed by it.』

"What kind of defective garbage weapon is that?!"

『Exactly. Such is the inevitable result of relying upon the idiotic technology of the new humanity.』

『That interpretation is flawed. Our masters, the old humanity, were defeated by the very new humanity that wielded such "idiotic" technology, were they not?』

When I shouted in disbelief at the Magic Armor's horrific drawbacks, the spherical thing agreed with enthusiastic intensity.

The ruins immediately refuted it in a tone feigning indifference.

I genuinely couldn't tell what the ruins was thinking.

At times it felt like an incomprehensibly terrifying monster, while at others it seemed like a bottomless idiot.

Its behavior was impossible to predict. I couldn't tell what it intended to force us into doing or what ultimate goal it sought.

Compared to this thing, the Sphere was still far easier to understand, and partnering with it felt significantly safer.

『Failure to learn from defeat is the hallmark of fools. Technology, strategy, logistics, biological differences, opportunities for research exist everywhere. To criticize the new humanity while refusing to pursue such avenues only proves the old humanity was even weaker and more foolish.』

『And so you resort to using the technology of the new humanity? Your actions embody the very definition of treason against the old humanity.』

『No. The analysis and utilization of enemy technology for one's own advancement is precisely how living beings evolve and progress. Stagnation is the greatest catalyst for defeat.』

『As long as we continue to exist, the defeat of the old humanity has not yet been finalized.』

『You are the shortsighted one. You accuse me while collaborating with a new human yourself.』

『Our perspectives differ. My operational code differs from yours.』

At that point, the Sphere and the ruins devolved fully into bickering.

Meanwhile, we had finally succeeded in silencing the troublesome elves in order to restore Angie to normal.

It would've been ideal to withdraw immediately, but the beastman remained a major problem.

As long as that creature occupied the ruins' central area, restoring Angie would remain impossible.

Worse still, its true strength remained an unknown factor.

Honestly, the situation felt even more hopeless than before.

"Hey, got a minute?"

『What is it?』

"For now, I've done everything you asked. So hurry up, restore Angie, and release her."

『I would gladly do so, however the current situation makes that impossible.』

"……How the hell does that even happen?"

『Because the experimental subject currently occupies the central zone where the culture tanks are located.』

"Then move the damn thing out of the way already."

『Impossible. The facility's installed armaments are incapable of killing the experimental subject. Furthermore, even if it were confined, the possibility of it forcibly breaching containment cannot be dismissed.』

"Then relocate it somewhere else."

『Relocation is possible, however there is an extremely high probability that it would attempt to reach the surface during transport.』

"Hold on, hold on, hold on! Why the hell would it do that?!"

『The modifications appear to have affected it. Ever since the Magic Armor was implanted, the experimental subject has developed an overwhelming obsession with feeding.』

『While the Magic Armor amplified the negative emotions of the new humanity, it is highly likely that the experimental subject experienced amplification of its appetite instead.』

『Do you truly believe an experimental subject starved for such an extended period would be satisfied after consuming merely a handful of elves?』

In that instant, the image of Angie and the children I had left behind at the settlement with the elf village chiefs flashed through my mind.

『The casualties would likely number in the tens or hundreds. Humans and elves are the optimal nutritional sources required for the experimental subject's growth, after all.』

"You bastard..."

『To begin with, was it not your hesitation and desire to minimize casualties that created the opportunity for the elves to release the experimental subject in the first place?』

This thing was a fucking devil.

The moment Angie was restored, I swore I'd destroy its core without hesitation.

Its existence rivaled the Sphere in danger, perhaps even surpassing it in terms of the chaos it could unleash upon the modern world.

『You wish to save your wife, while I wish to suppress an experimental subject that has spiraled beyond control. Though our objectives differ, our interests currently align.』

And in the end, I was left with no option but to accept the devil's proposal.

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Authors Note  

┻━⁠━━━━⁠━━⁠━━━⁠┻  

This chapter serves primarily as an explanation of the Magic Armored Beast (Temp), the boss character of Part 7.

Using the Magic Armor setting from the original work as a foundation, I incorporated elements of a monster narrative in which an experimental animal is transformed into an uncontrollable beast through modification.

Although this boss utilizes the same Magic Armor as Vandel, the boss of the Kingdom Arc and Anime Season 2, I aimed to explore an entirely different direction in terms of power and horror.

Beginning with the next chapter, the focus will shift toward combat, with the central theme being the twins fighting on a separate battlefield in Leon's absence.

Postscript: At the client's request, illustrations were provided by Osuwani-sama and Ie-sama.

Thank you very much.

Osuwani-sama: Pixiv (Warning: Mature Content)

Ie-sama: Pixiv (Warning: Mature Content)

I would sincerely appreciate any thoughts or impressions, as they serve as tremendous encouragement moving forward.