Chapter 9-46: Volume 9 - Chapter 46 – Trap
09-46 Trap
“Uhh… Where am I?”
The old man opened his eyes and after looking around asked Machina .
“This… seems to be the headquarters of the Unifiers . ”
Machina replied, and the old man slowly shook his head .
“The Unifiers . …Ah, I remember . I am the top seat of the Unifiers, Joule Rolan . I somehow feel like I’ve been dreaming for a long time . ”
The sock of being hit and lingering between life and death seemed to have cleared his brainwashing, Jin thought through Machina .
“Originally the Unifiers idolized Dinar Kingdom and chased after that ideal . Antagonising fellow countries like this makes me unhappy, it was supposed to be a group about ideological unification . ”
As if convincing himself, Joule Rolan uttered .
“Why did it turn to this…”
Joule was very troubled . Seeing him like that, Machina asked him a question .
“Do you remember what you’ve done?”
Joule nodded .
“Yes . But, how should I say this, it’s as if another person had been doing it . Just why did I make those orders… . ”
After replying Joule was once again troubled .
Jin who was watching the scene through a Magic Screen in Pelican-1 thought that first of all he’d carry onwards, and decided to give orders through Machina .
“Land-71, stay with Joule for a while . Don’t take your eyes off the unconscious Donald either . …Everyone else, be careful of your surroundings . Like Ann said, the ‘Golden Princess of Destruction’ should be hiding somewhere . ”
The ‘Golden Princess of Destruction’ . Joule had a reaction to the words .
“Ah, you must mean Elena? Ah, oh, Elena . Right, it was at her instructions . That’s right, I remember now . Her orders were absolute . She was our queen…”
“So the Golden Princess of Destruction… Elena really was the true mastermind all along . ”
Joule was surprised and looked at Ann who said so .
“You’re an Automata? Blue-haired Automata… We were supposed to have destroyed and scrapped on Elena’s orders all the blue-haired Automata we found from the ruins… So there were still some remaining . ”
“Might you know where this Elena has gone?”
Ann asked and Joule pointed behind the top seat’s chair and,
“If she wasn’t here, then behind there is a secret passage . She probably snuck out through there . ”
He replied . He seemed to have been completely cleared of the brainwashing .
“Alright, Reiko, Ann, Land-70, let’s go . ”
Leaving Land-71 at Joule’s side, the group searched for the secret passage .
They soon found it . They hit the floor and found a hollow spot . Land-70 then found a depression where by putting a finger there and lifting the trapdoor could be easily opened .
Under it were stairs going steeply down . It was nearly totally dark .
“Stairs down, huh . Let’s go in the order with Land-70 first, then Reiko, Ann, and Machina . ”
Jin gave the orders and the group went down the stairs . They kept going straight down an unknown distance .
From a bright place the stairs looked pitch black but in fact there was a dim light inside, and group could continue without any problems .
“I wasn’t aware of a hidden passage like this . It must’ve been built later . And so I don’t know what lies after this . Please be very careful . ”
While climbing the stairs down Ann cautioned, and at that moment . Suddenly the stairs vanished .
Or more accurately the steps turned to a slope, like a playground slide . Naturally the group slipped and fell .
But while the case may have been different if there were humans, no one panicked . Land-70 who was in the front thrust out his arms to the walls and stopped .
Naturally, the following three people collided with Land-70 and stopped .
“A trap, is it . If we were humans then it would’ve been effective, don’t you think?”
“Mh-hm . Land, can you smoothly go down like that while keeping the speed slow?”
Machina asked and Land-70 nodded .
“Yes, Machinsama . It’s a simple task . ”
The group then left braking to Land and once again began descending . They slid down while Land applied strength to his arms to keep the speed down .
“It’s a long way down, isn’t it . We’ve already gone past the height we climbed, don’t you think we’re in the basement now? ”
On top of that the descent was completely straight . The stairway, no, the slide went down at about a 45 degree angle .
Just when they thought they had gone quite a ways underground, the end finally came to sight .
“Land, stop for now . ”
When there was just ten meters left to the end of the stairway, Machina = Jin ordered Land-70 and had him stop for a moment .
“There’s a high chance there’s an another trap . Proceed carefully . ”
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“Yes, Machinsama . ”
Land-70 then once again went downwards, this time at a third of the speed he had used until now . Meanwhile Reiko, Ann, and Machina were all watchful of their surroundings .
Then suddenly they reached the end of the stairway . A single door was there .
Reiko who had the best hearing tried to listen carefully but heard nothing . Reiko tried changing her vision to the infrared spectrum but there were no heat sources near the door .
“Hmm, if it were me what kind of a trap would I lay?”
Jin pondered inside Pelican-1 .
Meanwhile Land-70 touched the door .
At the same time Jin suddenly understood a possibility .
“This is bad! Everyone, watch out above!”
Before Jin had finished saying so through Machina’s mouth, a noise could be heard up from the stairs, nay, the slope .
“Boulders!”
Reiko who had noticed the noise first looked up and shouted . Yes, an avalanche of rock was coming down the slope . The door was a dummy . The moment the door was touched, a trap generated boulders .
“Planning to bury us alive!?”
The length of the slope going down was over 50 meters . Enough rock to fill it to capacity slid down .
“[Barrier] . ”
“[Barrier] . ”
Reiko used the pendant, Ann used the ring .
The magical barriers hidden in them completely protected them from the rockfall .
But like this they couldn’t move . Unlike humans they had no worry of suffocation, but there was no way they could stay like this forever .
“Hmm, ways to remove all this rock quickly… There’s only one, huh . ”
Machina = Jin came to a conclusion .
“Reiko, I’ll explain to you the procedure to listen carefully . First take away the Mana Tank inside Machina that’s for emergency use . ”
“Yes . ”
The Mana Tank was a Magi Device for the purpose of running problem-free even in regions with a low concentration of Ether . Reiko was the other one who had one of them .
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Reiko took out the Mana Tank from inside Machina . It was made out of Magi Crystals of all attributes . Even in the darkness it glittered with the colors of a rainbow .
In this place the concentration of Ether was plentiful so Machina who had an Ether Converter didn’t stop running .
“Alright, bury it in the rock that slid down . It’ll be hard . ”
“Yes . ”
With the [Barrier] on she couldn’t smash the rock, as the person inside couldn’t even directly touch the rock .
Now it was important to temporarily disable the Barrier and quickly set the Magi Crystal in the rock .
While doing so someone had to prop up the rock that was about to fall down, but Reiko and Land-70 had plenty strength to support the rockfall and they managed to do it .
This was of course because the strength the two had was immense, but also because the friction of the rocks stuffed in the narrow passage helped .
Ann watched over Reiko and Land-70 while being prepared to activate the [Barrier] if by any chance it was needed .
While supporting the rocks with her right hand, Reiko plunged the Magi Crystal in her left hand into a crevice in the rocks .
Then she and Ann again activated the [Barrier]s . Everything had been done without a hitch .
“Alright, that went well, didn’t it . Now the finishing touch . Reiko, on my mark use [Mana Explosion] on the Magi Crystal buried inside . ”
“Yes . ”
Jin then, just in case, had the allied forces in the fortress evacuate . The resistance had fallen apart so getting out was possible in minutes . Of course Land-71 and Joule and the unconscious Donald left too .
He also ordered for the other prisoners who had been rendered unconscious elsewhere taken out .
“Okay, wait a little longer… Alright, now!”
“[Mana Explosion] . ”
Reiko’s strongest offensive magic exploded .
The Mana Crystal used as the Mana Tank was a lump of Mana, so to speak .
If that was made to explode then what would happen? The area around Reiko was sealed by an indestructible barrier . The pathway was straight .
The answer was soon apparent .
The Magi Crystal with a potential over ten times higher than that of the Core of Hekantokheires –which was once defeated in the mountains north of Kaina Village– detonated .
The mass of rock filling the long sloping path was all blown upwards towards the exit .
It turned into a rock cannonball and burst out all at once .
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With its force it blew through the roof of the control room on the top floor and flew outside .
“Ooh, it was stronger than I thought, huh . ”
Jin, who was looking at the scene from Pelican-1, saw a part of the rock plateau crack and admired the debris flying from there to a height of over 50 meters .
“W-w-h-what!? What is it this time?”
The ‘Golden Princess of Destruction’ Elena had escaped to a room behind a hidden door prepared in advance at the exact midpoint of the slope that had originally been a staircase . She had been feeling relieved when she had successfully had the people chasing her fall into the trap .
That very moment she felt a tremor that was as if it had shaken the whole fort .
She looked at the Magic Screen that was still intact and saw rock fragments shooting out like cannonballs from a hole in the rock plateau serving as the roof of the fort .
“What! What is this! Don’t tell me this was also done by that monster!?”
Elena’s shouting echoed .
“Machinsama, that went well, didn’t it?”
Ann also felt admiration . And Reiko, after cancelling the [Barrier] she was listening carefully .
“I heard a voice from the middle of the slope . ”
“I see, so there was a hidden room or a passage on the way . Alright, let’s climb back up . ”
The sloped path had been damaged quite a lot by the shock and had become rough, so climbing it wasn’t inconvenient .
The group then climbed up easily and finally found the hidden door .
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