Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume4 Phase03 (section)

===Part 20===

It was time to pursue Queen Astaroth Revolver.

Was their best bet to start by heading to the gallery bordering the courtyard which she had likely used as a sniping position?

Bespectacled Hemylina took issue with her fellow dark elf Mamilis.

“By the way, sister elf, how long are you going to hide your ears?”

“Don’t say that. I am a minority.”

“A minority? I am a dark elf and these are half elf bodyguards. At the moment, the long-eared population is in the majority.”

Mamilis Coster blinked before smiling a little.

“Oh.”

She removed them.

With the ruby earrings off, long ears seemed to split her silver hair to stick out on either side.

Another unseen current had shifted.

Perhaps it wasn’t bloody war that truly changed history.

Ultimately, this was an unnecessary war started by a single woman: Queen Astaroth Revolver.

The mood was peaceful enough, but that wasn’t going to last.

“That way,” muttered Ayato as he entered the gallery through the window.

He didn’t need to track her with sorcery hacking.

The grand and gorgeous palace’s hallway was dotted with collapsed and unmoving Royal Guards.

“Damn, that devil!!” cursed Henrietta through clenched teeth.

The corpses and blood stains created a path leading to a large door.

The door was locked by more than ten thick rods made of mana-conducting silver.

They had already been unlocked.

Hemylina carefully investigated around the door.

“It looks like…the security isn’t functioning.”

“For now.”

If the Queen had deactivated it, there was a good chance it was now under her control. They had to assume it might bare its fangs against them whenever she wanted. And they wouldn’t be able to have a prince or maid deactivate the security for them.

Something came into view as they descended some stairs and walked down an underground passageway.

It was around 600 esoule<ref>Approximately 720 meters.</ref> wide and unfathomably deep. The cylindrical space continued down seemingly forever. It was true the palace stood at the top of a multi-leveled city, but was this really part of a building? The scale was just too great.

They descended the spiral staircase for a long, long while.

While descending underground in pursuit of Queen Astaroth Revolver, Ayato came across something enormous. Giant mana-conducting silver hooks and silk cloths were strung up in the cylindrical space, allowing the object to sway in a massive hammock.

It was a bird.

It had a long, skinny neck and a round, fat body.

Like an ostrich, this was a bird that had forgotten how to fly and become specialized in running rapidly on the ground. The result of that bizarre evolution had made it the lord of earth.

The dozing colossus was 500 esoule<ref>Approximately 600 meters.</ref> tall.

If Ayato’s Sorcery Hacker knowledge was accurate…

“The Earth Lord Terracockatrio Gargoy Rocksky…”

Was a massive entrance hidden on the backside of the capital – that is, on the sheer cliff face?

The fact that the Earth Lord was hidden far below showed that the concept of the levels and height hadn’t mattered to Guardeleo. He hadn’t discriminated against the bottom level.

There was no high and low. The entire capital had been a single large city. The fallen king had understood that a solid foundation mattered most.

“King Guardeleo…” muttered Dark Elf Hemylina. “Is this the man I bared my fangs against, leading to the loss of what little time he had left? Damn, and it’s too late to apologize.”

But they didn’t have time for sentiment.

Nothing good would come from provoking the Earth Lord.

Once they quietly reached the bottom of the spiral staircase, they found a group of lit candles. The space resembled a library. Except the bookcases were all lined up along the cylindrical wall, leaving the space in the center open for work desks and glass lab equipment. The few crystal balls atop the tall bookcases were likely used to draw out a large magic circle on the floor.

This was an archive.

The highly specialized techniques behind the swords of succession and maids were used and stored here.

“Ayato.”

A blonde demon waited in the very back.

The group was full of unique people: a mermaid, a dark elf, and a Striker. Not to mention the aide and half elf bodyguards from the Philosommelier Personal Empire.

But she was only looking at one of them.

“I was waiting for you. Hee hee. But it seems I was just a bit faster.”

“Queen…”

Faster with what?

Sneaking into this archive was the devil’s goal.

Perhaps this had been the one place she couldn’t force her way into. When Guardeleo explained the five small graves, he had mentioned the capital being moved. Perhaps she could sneak into the deepest depths of the palace long ago, but after the move, the archive’s security had been altered to keep her out.

So she had caused all this chaos in order to reach this point.

Injuring Emperor Milbert, triggering an intercontinental war, and ending Guardeleo’s life as he protected a younger life had all been for this.

“Why?” asked Dark Elf Mamilis.

The nonhuman girl tried to dredge up the most obvious question.

“Why do you hate humans so much? You may have been physically altered to look like that, but you still started out as human as any of them.”

“Oh? I don’t believe I mentioned being human.”

“My point is-”

“No, I’m ''not'' trying to say I’m no longer human because I had my organs replaced with biological gems.” The bewitching devil laughed and spread her wings wide. “I am talking about ''what kind of body was modified'' to create this one.”

Time froze.

It took a moment for understanding to dawn on them.

She had a point.

Queen Astaroth Revolver’s strength was unusual even compared to the maids like Micah Angelos and Angela Messenger.

“So you’re not like Micha Angelos and the others where a human was given a prototype form of immortality by modifying their body.” Even Ayato was astonished. “Did you start off as a demon? Those wings and tail aren’t fake, are they? You already had them when your body was modified, replacing your organs with biological gems!!”

He had seen all sorts of discrimination against demons.

But being a human or a demon wasn’t enough to determine if someone was good or bad.

Demons had wills of their own, so there were irredeemable villains among them as well.

“Demon Lord Nirvelphany developed a certain sorcery device so that humans and demons could live together. The device allowed demons to hide their wings or horns and live in human society. It was the original form of what are now known as mimic options. But even after giving the human hero a secret push to stop it, a certain someone failed to prevent that invention.”

Because she was nearly immortal, the malice she spoke of reached every last part of this continent’s history and world.

“The Academy Towers were an interesting experiment. They seemingly eliminated their emotions to research the world from an impartial and logical standpoint, but they really did a lot to spread contempt for demons. Because they didn’t hesitate to use demons as lab rats.”

The laughing devil had wanted this even if it meant tormenting her own kind because she wanted opposition more than anything.

Between humans and demons.

She had worked behind the scenes to ensure the two were never referred to by a single term.

“A certain 1st Prince spent a very long time researching a different process for bringing humans and demons together, so I took a similar tack as with the Demon Lord. Ah ha ha. I believe his idea was to allow humans to freely take on the appearance of demons – with wings and tail fins and whatnot. That was supposed to eliminate discrimination. But not even I expected his broken lab equipment to go berserk and turn him into that.”

Dark Elf Mamilis’s eyes widened at this.

“If you’re a demon too, why did you stop them? Demon Lord Nirvelphany didn’t want world domination by demons. She wanted to avoid unnecessary conflict to keep the peace. I mean, she was researching a prototype mimic option. That invention was meant to allow demons and humans to live in harmony!!”

“Harmony? Peace? “Queen Astaroth Revolver made it sound like this should go without saying. “Those are just nice words for stagnation.”

“Wha-?”

“I am, in the end, a weapon. A sorcery gun. I was completely remade into that form to make me immortal. And unused tools fall into disrepair in no time at all. Then I’m nothing more than unexploded ordnance. The only way to maintain myself and improve my functionality is to keep the state of war going. Forever and ever, without a moment’s respite.”

This wasn’t about victory and defeat.

It was all to polish and improve herself as an efficient weapon.

She started real wars for no more than that. And she would preserve that horrific state of affairs forever.

Thus, she was a devil.

A world ruled by such a malicious manager was a true hell.

No matter how many small pieces of benevolence humans and demons stacked up together, she would tear it all down again.

“A revolver is an outdated weapon.”

Her words were plain.

But.

The devil’s ordinarily sweet and bewitching voice was horribly dry for once.

“It has no room for expansion or evolution. It has nothing more than its old, fossilized functional aesthetics. Clinging to this form for so long is a humiliation. But despite having immortality and nearly limitless power, I cannot remove my own basic revolver structure!! No more than a human can stop being a mammal!!!”

So?

What of it?

She wanted to evolve and reject what she was. She wanted to believe there was more she could do. She couldn’t change herself relying on the ordinary methods, so she had decided to rely on the secret documents sealed deep below the royal palace. To break through the strict sorcery security, she had needed to cause unrelated bloodshed as a diversion. She so wanted to evolve away from being an outdated revolver that she had plunged so many people into misfortune and tragedy.

After some thought, Ayato Criminaltrophy spat out a low question.

“Are you kidding me, Queen?”

“Ayato, you abandoned your old self too. You cast off your position as the strongest Forward. People are never satisfied with the power granted to them by heaven. Just as you became a Sorcery Hacker, I want to become something else and enjoy a freedom won with my own strength. That’s about the level of all motives. It’s always those personal reasons that guide the world toward its doom. This isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last!!”

Nothing more needed to be said.

He hadn’t expected to be convinced by her words anyway.

Ayato thrust out his linkage plug sword.

The others followed suit.

Queen Astaroth Revolver spread her arms and even her wings as if to welcome them.

“Wonderful… That is perfect, Ayato.”

With a dull clunk, the devil was suddenly holding a revolver much too large for her slender right hand.

That was where it had all begun for Ayato Criminaltrophy.

“Endless war is what I seek. You may spit on that idea, my beloved, but you have actually been giving me exactly what I want. Ayato, give me a taste of your twisted love. I will analyze the love that is your experience, build a theory based on it, and establish a new form of science. So let us begin a battle – an endless war that continues even after it ends!! Because that is the one and only trigger capable of evolving me as a weapon and breaking me free of the outdated framework of a revolver!! Ayato, I commend you for your hatred. So grant me evolution through all-out war overflowing with love!!!”