The battle with Machina Guardian was over. At least that was what everyone thought, when suddenly the remains toppled over and a figure scurried out.
That roused the attention from everyone, and even Christina turned to look at it carefully.
It was something mechanical. Not a Prowler, and not a Protector, some humanoid construct with little to no equipment. But there was something that set it apart from the others, an articulate face that moved clumsily.
Its eyes opened wide and looked around, then after some time its mouth slowly opened.
『WHEN-THE-DARK-MOON-RISES-DARKNESS-WILL-DESCEND-HEROES-WHO-OVERCAME-OUR-STRONGEST-GUARDIAN-WE-DEEM-YOU-WORTHY-OF-INHERITING-OUR-POWER-TAKE-THIS-AND-PREPARE-TO-FEND-OFF-THE-INEVITABLE-INTRUDERS』
The voice sounded distorted with static, like some broken and old speaker. Once it was done, the humanoid construct produced a rectangular metallic plate.
Christina was too confused by it all, so she turned to look at Mira, wondering what to do.
『When the dark moon rises, darkness will descend. Heroes who overcame our strongest Guardian, we deem you worthy of inheriting our power. Take this and prepare to fend off the inevitable intruders.』
Mira had paid more attention to those words than Christina, shocked since this was a completely new event that never happened before. She was also curious what ‘inheriting their power’ meant.
A dark moon, darkness, and intruders. She also had no clue what those referred to, but she hoped the metallic plate held some sort of hint.
『If it’s telling the truth, then it shouldn’t be anything suspicious.』
Suleyman would likely be able to figure something out from it. With that hope in mind, Mira instructed Christina to take it. But she also told her to be careful, just in case.
「Umm, alright, if you let me…」
Following Mira’s orders, Christina very timidly reached out and picked up the metallic plate offered by the humanoid construct.
As soon as she had it, the construct crumbled into pieces of scrap, as if it had fulfilled its duty and had no reason to exist anymore.
The remains fell onto the ground with a loud noise, which scared Christina who was already on edge and she almost dropped the metallic plate.
「Woah…my heart, that’s too much…」
Just barely managing to keep the metallic plate secure, she quickly took deep breaths and tried to act composed. Everyone was looking at her, so she could not afford to ruin her image further after everything that happened.
Then she turned around so she could deliver the metallic plate to Mira, but when she saw Alfina she shrieked a bit. Alfina’s eyes told a very clear message: If that’s enough to scare you, then it’s obvious you need to train more. The other Sisters noticed the tension between the two and looked at Christina with pity, knowing perfectly well how she was feeling.
All the glory of dealing the finishing blow to Machina Guardian vanished the instant she realized she would be subject to rigorous training as soon as they would leave.
「Hmm, I really can’t make heads nor tails out of this. I wonder what this is?」
After sending the large army away, Mira looked at the metallic plate Christina obtained, turning it over many times with much curiosity.
「Those look like some sort of diagram, rather than writing. I’ve never seen an event like that before though, so I have no idea what’s going on.」
Soul Howl also looked at the metallic plate with interest.
The metallic plate was black, and it looked way heavier than it actually was. Its surface was also engraved with multiple shapes, leaving almost no free space between them.
「Maybe it’s some sort of blueprint…or maybe not…」
Mira groaned as she looked at it, unable to come up with a satisfying explanation. According to the humanoid construct, whatever was on it had to be ‘their power’. That collective ‘our’ and ‘we’ likely referred to whoever built the Ancient Underground City.
「There’s plenty of excellent researchers in the castle, right? Just give it to them. I have more important things to take care of.」
It sounded a bit like Soul Howl had lost interest, but it was more appropriate to say that his priorities lay elsewhere. He quickly dismantled the Castle Golem and headed to the final room.
「Hmm…I guess that’s fair.」
Considering it was all so foreign, there was little Mira could still gain from mulling over the metallic plate. She would eventually let Solomon take care of deciphering it, so for now she would focus on the task at hand.
「By the way, we agreed that I can take all the drops, yes? I don’t want to hear you going back on your word later!!」
Mira ran over to the remains of Machina Guardian while verifying that Soul Howl still remembered their agreement, which she would make sure he fulfilled.
「Don’t worry, I won’t say anything. Take it all.」
Soul Howl grimaced a bit with how desperate Mira sounded, but he had so little interest he did not even look at the remains himself.
「Good, good.」
Mira nodded satisfied as she saw Soul Howl walk away, then went straight to work in fishing out Machina Guardian’s loot.
At least that was the plan. Machina Guardian’s remains were very large, and extremely heavy.
「…I should’ve asked for help before I sent him away…」
Mira realized she could have asked Isenfald for help with taking everything apart. This was her first time searching through such a large pile of scrap, so it was expected she would only think of things in hindsight.
Still, that was way too much for her to handle alone, so she quickly summoned a few helpers.
Summoning Magic: Guardian Ash
Summoning Magic: Garm
Summoning Magic: Lox Elephas
Various strong figures appeared out of magic circles in front of Mira. The large gray bear Guardian Ash, the three meter long wolf Garm, and one more that was far bigger than the first two, the giant white elephant Lox Elephas.
「It’s been a while, Lox. You seem to be doing well.」
Lox Elephas was at least seven meters tall, and Mira spoke to him while gently touching his trunk. In response, he coiled his trunk around Mira, making a gentle sound.
Lox Elephas was a giant white elephant that acted as a sacred beast guarding paradise. One time when paradise fell in the hands of evil, Mira went and helped bring things back to normal, and in exchange Lox Elephas formed a summoning contract with Mira. That had happened a long time ago, but Lox Elephas still remembered that.
「Anyway, I brought you here to help me deal with this scrap…」
Mira turned to look at Machina Guardian’s remains, explaining what she wanted to accomplish to the three summons.
「Good job everyone. I knew I could count on your strength, you really helped me a lot here.」
It took them around twenty minutes to finish. It was not a thorough job by any means, but it was enough to examine each of the large pieces. Mira was afraid that they could damage the precious items she wanted to loot if they tried to help further, so she would do the rest. All the thick armor had been removed though, so going through the pieces did not require much strength.
After praising the three summons for their help, Mira sent them away, then plunged into the mountain of scrap to dig for treasure.
「That’s the obvious one to start with!」
Mira quickly decided which item she would try finding first, which she expected to be in the torso. There she began to throw away any piece of metal or contraption that got in her way as she got deeper, and soon enough that red glowing thing came into view.
「Ohh…there it is! It’s actually here!」
Mira took out a large red gem the size of a human head, holding it up in the air as she shouted loudly. That was the crystal that produced Machina Guardian’s special move Ancient Ray. It was called Eye of Apollo, one of the rarest legendary items, and neither Mira nor any of the Nine Wisemen had ever seen one in person.
Only a small percentage of the top players had ever obtained it. To be specific, two of them. The king of Atlantis, and a general from the Nirvana Empire.
And now Mira had also obtained that rare item.
「So this is the legendary Eye of Apollo! Hmhmm…I wonder what I can do with it!」
The Eye of Apollo was categorized as a material. It could be used on tools, magic wares, and weapons obviously. It had a really wide range of uses, all of which had a tremendous effect. She had never been able to obtain a material that was more powerful than it, so she was convinced it would give her a nice powerup, which filled her with excitement.
「I’m just getting started though!」
She carefully stored it in her Item Box, then quickly went to fish for the next loot item she wanted. Her eyes were filled with avarice, which would not let anything valuable pass her by.
She still remembered the list of items Machina Guardian could drop.
