Dr-r-r-r-r-r. The gear bullet spun violently, scraping along the groove as it accelerated rapidly, flying towards my face in the blink of an eye.

Though I could see it, it wasn't as fast as Historia's Qi bullets. Still, if one of those heavy gears hit me, the impact would be massive.

‘Shoulder.’

But my ability is mind reading. I anticipated the target and dodged before it hit. The gear blade swept past where my shoulder had been, leaving a whirl of wind behind.

If it were Historia, her shots would land the moment she fired, and I wouldn’t be able to avoid it. But against Maximilien, who wasn’t a weapons expert, this much was manageable.

‘Dodged one. Impressive... but how about a hundred?’

Wait, what?

Dozens, no—hundreds of gears crawled across Maximilien’s body. The sight looked as if his body was being covered by insects. Gears climbed up to his shoulders, sliding down the contours of his form, then aligned in rows as they reached his wrists. They loaded into his crossbow one after another, accelerating just like before.

Dr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r.

Now, there was no target. He just swung his arm to scatter the gears everywhere. No mind games here, just brute force and indiscriminate shooting. My mind-reading was useless in this situation. Tch. If he’s a technician, he should fight with intricate tactics and trump cards, not this kind of brute force! Instead of fighting an unwinnable battle, I called on my trusty shield.

“Azi!”

“Woof!”

The King of Dogs responded to my call.

Scrambling up the Steel Beetle, Azi rushed toward me with barely a moment to catch his breath. As soon as he reached me, his head snapped around. The incoming gears disappeared into his jaws as if they had been swallowed whole. Each time Azi’s cheeks bulged, a cracking sound echoed. Sparks flew from between his teeth. Even though the gears Maximilien used were at least Level 4 alchemical steel, they were no more than slightly tough chew toys for Azi’s fangs.

No matter how many gears Maximilien shot, he only had two hands. Azi expertly targeted the ones flying toward me, chewing them up with precision.

When the onslaught ended, Azi spat out the final gear and, with his tail stiff, let out a long howl.

“Awoooo!”

The King of Dogs. Humanity’s loyal companion was still by my side. While Azi might not be able to tear apart Maximilien himself, he could at least ensure that I wouldn’t die.

How about that? This is the power of the Human King…

“A half-power that can’t even reveal itself.”

Maximilien muttered under his breath and spread his hands wide.

Rumble, rumble, rumble. The ground trembled beneath my feet. The Steel Beetle shook violently. Azi, startled, began to panic.

“Woof! Woof! The ground is shaking! Earthquake!”

“It’s not an earthquake! The Steel Beetle is shaking!”

“Woof? Beetle?”

“No, wait—it is an earthquake!”

After vaguely answering Azi’s confusion, I searched for the source of the tremor. The Steel Beetle wasn’t moving.

For someone like me, who lacks pure strength, a massive machine like this was a huge problem. Maximilien hadn’t tried it yet, but if the Steel Beetle charged at me, I would be in serious danger. That’s why I had climbed atop the Steel Beetle to prevent Maximilien from controlling it.

“I’m definitely stopping it, so why…?”

Maximilien kindly answered my question.

“The Steel Beetle stores plenty of spare gears for emergencies. It seems you’re unable to control the ones you haven’t touched, but I’m not bound by such limitations.”

I can only control gears I’m in direct contact with. When two gears are meshed together, they act like a single large gear, as they function under the same principle. As long as the gears are connected, I can control them and even use that to attack Maximilien.

But I can’t reach the ones scattered around. They’re beyond my control for now.

Maximilien, however, is not limited by such conditions. He can command them at will. For example, like this.

“Why are these gears moving like this?!”

The source of the shaking quickly revealed itself.

Hundreds, maybe thousands of gears rolled across the side of the Steel Beetle. They weren’t meshed together like normal. Instead, they simply spun and rolled forward like ordinary wheels, without any deliberate control.

It was like a swarm of ants—sheer numbers overwhelming with brute force.

“So, can the King of Dogs save you this time?”

Damn it. I can stop them if I touch them, but there are too many, and they’ll still hit me with the momentum they’ve built up. I have to intercept them before they get close.

In desperation, I yelled,

“Azi! Kick them all away!”

“…Woof.”

Azi looked at me with the dumbest expression ever. Guess that was too much to ask of him. Dogs aren’t equipped to solve this kind of problem. It looks like I’ll have to step in.

I pulled out a card. A clover. It held a single-use spell. My last resort, the final card I’d saved to protect my life.

Magic is irreversible. Unlike tools, magic can’t be recovered once used. When I use the clover, it permanently depletes my resources. Even now, as I prepare to use it, my hands tremble with hesitation.

But it’s better than dying. I can’t take it with me to the grave, after all.

With a burst of mana, I scratched the card. The sealed magic responded to my mana and began to glow. A bluish light shimmered as I held the card between my fingers.

“Set.”

Gun-guk’s formal magic is based on black magic, which uses the body as a medium and a sacrifice. It’s quick and easy to cast but causes damage to the user’s body in exchange for producing useful effects with minimal incantations.

In contrast, there’s white magic, which is a classical form that uses an object imbued with mana to draw a magic circle and produce an effect. It’s elegant but impractical in combat since it requires extracting mana from external sources, making it slow to activate and difficult to use. Moreover, the objects containing mana are expensive, so only those with excessive wealth and time can afford such luxuries.

However, some people value their own bodies more than money, and I’m one of them.

Right before the explosion of light, I threw the card. The clover-six card soared through the air, landing amidst the approaching gears. For a moment, the card spun in place, as if defying the gears.

But a single card, even one made of alchemical steel, was too fragile to resist the onslaught of gears. The disparity in power was too great. The spinning card was soon buried beneath the tidal wave of metal.

Now.

I extended my finger and spoke the activation word.

“Aquus Ritter!”

The spell contained within the clover-six was an enhanced version of Gun-guk’s condensation magic.

It gathered water from the surrounding air, responding to the mana in the atmosphere. Ordinary condensation magic would only produce enough water to quench one’s thirst at best, but my custom version was far more forceful. It could even crystallize vapor into ice.

With a flash of light, a white storm erupted. The mana spread out like a spider’s web, pulling in water from all directions. In an instant, ice crystals formed, ensnaring the rolling gears.

The magic was potent enough to freeze a human solid. Using it to bind the gears was troublesome, even for Maximilien.

As expected, Maximilien seemed slightly flustered.

“Magic? Impossible…!”

...Though it wasn’t quite the reaction I anticipated.

’Just with that?’

The sound of ice being scraped echoed from all directions. Despite being covered in ice, the gears continued to turn. They clawed and gnawed at the ice blocking their path. Shards of ice glittered in the air.

It wasn’t long before most of the gears had broken through the frozen terrain.

My magic had only bought me about three seconds. Even that was thanks to the gears slipping and skidding on the ice.

Maximilien, hiding his disappointment, shouted,

“Is that your hidden trump card? Magic? Surely you know that magic cannot surpass unique magic!”

As if I didn’t know! I used magic because that’s all I have! There’s nothing "unique" about the Human King, right?!

Tch, it seems tricks won’t work against a Yukjangseong. I’ll have to be content with the three seconds I gained. In that time, I bolted away, leaving the rear to Azi.

“Azi, handle the rest!”

“Woof! Grr! Woof!”

I heard pained yelps from behind, but I pretended not to notice. Azi was busy snatching up gears like they were rats, though occasionally he’d yelp when hit by a gear from Maximilien. But I didn’t see it, so I had no idea what was happening.

The biggest threat to me was the gears Maximilien fired, so I prioritized getting out of their line of fire. Reaching the edge, I flung myself over and clung to the side.

As I took a breath of relief, I heard the ticking of gears. Looking up, I saw dozens of gears following me along the ledge.

Azi, you useless mutt! You missed a few!

“Tch! Persistent, aren’t you?”

The gears rained down on me. Even though they were simply falling by their weight, they were still a pain to deal with. They hurt, sure, but the bigger issue was that if I fell from here, the Steel Beetle would fall back under Maximilien’s control.

I couldn’t let that happen. If Maximilien regained control of the Steel Beetle, not even Azi would be able to hold him off.

Running along the ledge’s jagged surface, I dodged the falling gears. I narrowly avoided them, but a few got caught in my cloak, pulling me backward. As my balance faltered, more gears came rolling toward me.

In a hurry, I reached out and grabbed a gear.

A fast-spinning gear was essentially a shuriken. Grabbing it barehanded would shred my fingers. In fact, the gears had already wrapped themselves around my cloak.

Before the teeth of the gear could tear into me, I used Maximilien’s unique magic to stop its rotation. As soon as my hand touched it, the raging gear stilled, wrapping itself calmly around my palm.

Though I had stopped the rotation, I couldn’t cancel the momentum it had gathered before. My arm throbbed from the impact, as if I had just caught a fast-moving ball with my bare hands.

“I can control the rotation, but not the momentum... The concept of gears applies only to rotation, not other forces? It seems irrational, but…”

Of course, it's irrational—it’s unique magic! Tch. Compared to unique magic, my mind-reading feels like nothing. Couldn’t someone give me a better ability...?

Wait. Concepts... Maybe I can use this.

I fiddled with the gear. I considered tossing it away but figured it would just keep coming after me. Grumbling, I stuck the gear into the nearest crack in the wall. The gear quieted down, and I kept dodging or grabbing others as I ran.

As I fled, I heard Maximilien’s thoughts from above.

’The King of Dogs is certainly troublesome. Though he doesn’t attack me, he’s meticulously destroying each gear. And when I make contact, the Human King counters me. If I avoid contact, the King of Dogs blocks me. Annoying.’

So I’m not the only one who’s annoyed. That’s a small comfort.

’Without the Steel Beetle, I can’t properly suppress the King of Beasts, and yet the Human King has sealed the Steel Beetle... Is the King of Beasts always this much of a nuisance... Wait, the King of Beasts?’

Perhaps the one piece that could solve this puzzle. Maximilien finally thought of it.

The King of Cats, Nabi.

“The King of Cats!”

You’re a bit late to realize, Maximilien.

I hadn’t forgotten Nabi from the start.

“Nabi’s not coming.”

Thud, thud.

The sound of boots with metal heels echoed on the concrete floor. The slow, slightly dragging rhythm of metal striking the dry ground reverberated around us.

Long, pitch-black hair swayed behind the figure. Her expression was languid, her steps strangely weak as she approached.

Her eyes, dull with exhaustion and stress, but in this moment, she was probably the happiest she’d ever been.

“Hoo…”

Historia exhaled a long puff of smoke from the special cigarette held in her lips. Not an ordinary one, but a special blend made from the leaves of the World Tree.

With a hazy, blissful expression, Historia muttered,

“This is good… My arm doesn’t hurt, and my head feels so clear. It’s like I’m filling up with energy again…”