The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 124

Battleship Base, living up to its name and legend, was a place where a half-destroyed battleship had been repurposed as a base.

Even with its midsection severed, its size was unbelievably comparable to the Delaiteen grounds.

*Is this one of the gods’ warships…?*

“The commander wishes to see you.”

However, despite having access to the ancient facilities, they apparently couldn’t fully utilize the technology.

The entrance that Frisvia’s subordinate led us to seemed utterly insignificant compared to the base’s grandeur. It was merely a makeshift door attached to a crack in the battleship’s waterline.

“Hmph.”

Beyond the entrance, a meticulously constructed steel space appeared, where Frisvia was waiting for us.

“To think you’d come so willingly. Are you fearless, naive, or plotting something sinister again?”

Frisvia, exuding a mineral-like coldness, was dressed in casual attire, unlike before.

Kasena, who had been blankly exclaiming in awe as we approached the Battleship Base, now seemed overwhelmed by its majesty, momentarily losing her voice.

*What’s that sound…* While I was trying to gauge Frisvia’s intentions, Kasena’s eyes sparkled.

“Are you really Frisvia? I’ve always wanted to meet you!”

“?”

“I’ve read about you in books! About how you analyzed ancient relics and technologies found in Harbardonia and taught them to people!”

“Ah, that.”

Frisvia then let out her signature dreadful laugh, the kind that provoked animosity in others.

“I just needed some money back then. If I casually handed over technologies I no longer needed, foolish humans would fawn over me with sponsorships and support… Hehehe.”

“Huh…?”

As Kasena blinked in bewilderment, I interjected.

“I apologize, but we don’t have time for such talk right now.”

Frisvia stared at me with cold eyes for a moment, then smirked and turned away.

“You’ve come to charm me, just like you charmed the beastmen and the wolves, I presume. I’m a little curious about how you seduced them, though.”

“……”

“If you want to talk, follow me. This isn’t a good place to chat.”

A frustrating impatience spread to every corner of my being, but I had to yield for now. The decision-making power for this negotiation rested with Frisvia, not us.

“Do you believe in gods?”

Frisvia asked abruptly as she stepped onto the iron staircase leading upwards.

“We Aein are so rational that it’s almost tearful, so we don’t believe in gods. Hmph, we only believe in visible science and technology.”

“…?”

“Can you understand the meaning behind us revering and worshiping the Ones Who Came [ancient, highly advanced beings]?”

The iron staircase led to a workshop located on the lower deck, illuminated by lighting far inferior to that of the ship’s structure.

As soon as we entered, goosebumps erupted all over our bodies.

Rows of massive flasks lined the room, filled with an unidentifiable culture medium, each containing humans or beasts.

“The Ones Who Came’s technology is truly unknown, hmph, frightening to the point of inspiring awe. A thousand years? No, perhaps two thousand years ahead of our civilization?”

“…?”

“You’ve likely heard a simplified version of the story, that the gods bestowed the beastmen with the power to confront the Abyss, as if it were a blessing. But the reality is different.”

Frisvia gave a chilling sneer, roughly tapping one of the flasks as if to break it, but not even a crack appeared on its glass surface.

“The beastman race can be described as biological weapons created through bio-experimentation. This was the laboratory where those experiments took place.”

*What on earth…?!*

As I blinked, unable to comprehend, Frisvia gestured towards the row of flasks.

A cold shiver ran down my spine. Like taxidermied specimens, beings with animalistic features grafted onto human bodies writhed within the culture medium.

“So… you’re saying that the Ones Who Came aren’t gods, but beings from a highly advanced civilization?”

“Hehe, they did possess godlike powers, which you call miracles, perhaps. And they also had the technological prowess to match that power. This is the treasure trove of it all.”

Frisvia then passed through what seemed to be the engine room and ascended to the deck via a second iron staircase.

On the deck stood a structure comparable in size to our Bellewyn mansion, not just a bridge. Frisvia said it was the Battleship Base’s control room, which she used as her personal quarters.

As soon as the door opened, a strange yet repulsive stench of chemicals assaulted my nostrils. Kasena gasped and tightly grabbed my arm.

“Sorry, the smell of corpses is a bit strong, isn’t it? Hehehe.”

Frisvia turned to us with a chilling sneer.

There were corpses everywhere… some covered in tarpaulins, others dismembered on dissection tables, their organs removed.

There were beastmen, humans, and just animals, and the gruesome sight was enough to instantly put my entire body on high alert.

“What on earth were you doing here?!”

“Nothing much, hehehehe. I was just experimenting to create biological weapons, just like Karenden did.”

Frisvia began to sequentially don the mechanical armor that was placed in one corner of the room: breastplate, backplate, hip armor, greaves…

“It’s a shame I haven’t succeeded properly. In fact, I haven’t even been able to properly examine even 10% of the technology here.”

“…?”

“But you lured an ancient being here, so now I have to abandon this base? Sending the beastmen here, you must have thought you could use me as you please by doing this, right?”

Frisvia’s tearing smile was filled with barbs so sharp they made my entire body cringe.

“That’s, that’s not it…! It’s, it’s an emergency right now! I thought we should accept any help we can get!”

“Without the other party’s consent? The logic behind your actions doesn’t make any sense. Hmph, then you should have just taken the beastmen to the barrier from the start. Negotiate with the wolves afterward.”

I couldn’t argue, so I had no choice but to shut my mouth. It was true that such thoughts were at the base of my judgment…

“It’s a relief Alakish is dead. Hmph, if he was still sticking by your side to protect you, I wouldn’t have been able to vent my anger.”

“What did you say?”

“Hmph, hehe, hehehehe, you didn’t know? No, actually, you knew but were just denying it, weren’t you? Humans really aren’t rational.”

Frisvia stared straight at me, her lips stretching into an even longer tear, now seemingly reaching her ears, as the blood drained from my face.

“What, what nonsense are you spouting! Alakish isn’t dead! He’s alive!”

Ignoring Kasena’s vehement protest, Frisvia continued to stare at me.

“Human brat, why do you think he gave you that basket? Huh?”

“Th, that’s… because he thought it would be a hindrance… because we need to fight with all our strength.”

“Hehehehehe, Alakish has never taken that dragon egg away from his body. Not once in the 20 years since I came here. But he gave it to you, whom he’s only known for a short time?”

She stares at me without blinking, her eyes as endlessly deep and black as a well. Those eyes… it felt like invisible tentacles were crawling out of those eyes, strangling my breath… I can’t, I can’t breathe.

“He judged that he couldn’t win. He was certain that he would die here. Hmph, true dragons are said to see the future through their instincts of fate.”

“……”

“Why are you pretending to be in despair? Hehehehehe, you actually knew it, didn’t you?”

My chest throbbed and ached, and my breathing naturally began to quicken.

The last smile I saw on Alakish’s face… and the ominous premonition that kept raising its head in my mind, but I forcibly ignored it…

The basket with the dragon egg on my back felt unbearably heavy.

“Or what, were you pretending not to know because you didn’t want to admit that you abandoned him?”

Kasena grabbed Frisvia’s wrist, who had already come close and was forcibly making eye contact with me, her hand gripping my chin.

“If you, if you say that Alakish is dead one more time, that ridiculous nonsense… I won’t let you get away with it, I won’t let you get away with it!”

Frisvia released my chin and turned to Kasena, who was half-crying, with an interested look.

“You won’t let me get away with it? How won’t you let me get away with it? I’d like to see it. I’m really asking out of curiosity.”

As Frisvia put on her optical helmet, the gears of the mechanical armor meshed with a clattering sound, and fierce steam burst out.

Then… my heart fluttered with an overwhelming sense of dread that made the muscles and bones in my entire body tingle.

The blatant bloodlust emanating from the number one platinum ranker, the second strongest adventurer in existence, was something Kasena couldn’t handle.

“Show me everything you can. That way, you won’t have any regrets after you die.”

“What…?”

“It’s about time you realized it, isn’t it? Hehe, I’m going to break your necks here. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this angry.”

That was the moment when the vague unease and suspicion I had felt since entering this place became a reality… Kasena and I stepped back almost simultaneously.

*This isn’t good.*

*This really isn’t good.*

It’s not that I’m afraid of fighting Frisvia. Even though I’m not sure I can win… the problem is that the real enemy is someone else.

“You’re a descendant of Emissa, aren’t you? Hmph, the genes of the being Karenden cherished, I’d like to take a good look at that flesh.”

Cold sweat poured down as a bizarre weapon shaped like an arrowhead popped out from the wrist of the mechanical armor Frisvia was wearing.

*What is it?*

*What kind of weapon is she using?*

If you don’t know what weapon the opponent is using, you have no choice but to improvise your response. But Frisvia knows we’re mages, meaning she knows how to deal with us.

“Let’s start with the weaker one first.”

*Thud,* with the sound of the deck’s copper plate buckling, Frisvia dashed forward so fast she left afterimages, covering Kasena’s face.

Pajijijijik────!

However, that touch of death was deflected by a fierce, howling electric shock that spread out as a blue force field.

“Milady!”

It was Rain’s electric barrier, constructed as a beastman, that had done it, and Rain immediately pulled Kasena back and launched a fireball.

“Hmph?”

Instead of dodging the fireball, Frisvia struck it with some kind of equipment attached to her gauntlet… My eyes widened.

*What, that?*

The fireball exploded weakly upon colliding with the gauntlet, which had dozens of small rotating gears. It only left black soot on the surface, with no effective hit.

“You’re the first mage to react to my speed.”

*Damn it, there’s no time for this…* Just as the fierce back-and-forth of this exchange was about to move on to the next, it happened.

– Warning, warning, user risk detected.

A strangely archaic, gothic female mechanical voice was heard, and then, *guung, guung…* red emergency lights lit up on the control room’s ceiling.

– Activating the engine, operating the defense control equipment.

It was the moment when the Battleship Base, which had been slumbering in this snowfield for an eternity since the age of the gods, awakened.

Hundreds of windows floated above the long table that Frisvia had been using as a dissection table, allowing for perfect surveillance of the base’s exterior in 360 degrees.

It looked familiar, and it seemed like there was definitely the same thing in the Backbone’s command and control room…

– The electric field positioning power to activate the engine is insufficient. Please link the celestial navigation core.

At that moment, a dazzling black light burst out from one corner of my chest, piercing through my fur coat, and at the same time, I felt an unbearable heat.

Startled, I pulled it out… it was the Black Yang Scale. Almost at the same time, Kasena did the same and stared blankly at me.

While watching Frisvia look at all this with a puzzled expression, I made a decision amidst a tremor of excitement.

*Now.*

*It’s only now.*

If there’s a chance to bring this formidable enemy over to our side as a reliable ally, it’s only now.

“Let’s make a deal, Frisvia.”