Magi Craft Meister

Magi Craft Meister 565

16　Resolution With The Demons Arc

17-14　Showdown and Conclusion

(You killed so many innocent people right before my eyes… I can’t hesitate anymore.)

While lurking in the ceiling of Nega-Doll 001’s base, the mobile terminal Laozi learned that the “Shundo” clan was completely eradicated by another Ether Stampede. As a result, further observation was meaningless, and so he decided to go for an attack.

(Let’s try with a Laser first.)

Laozi took aim through the thin ceiling board.

Wasting no time, he fired the Laser through the ceiling board.

His aim had been true.

But his only miscalculation was the ceiling board itself, which was made of an unknown metal. He had rushed it a bit too much.

This metal had a melting point of 5,000 degrees Celsius.

Most of the Laser was used up just to penetrate this metal, so when it did connect with Nega-Doll 001, it was at a tenth of its original power.

“Agh!?”

Still, the Laser’s beam connected with Nega-Doll 001’s head and right shoulder.

But that was it. The beam that would have otherwise evaporated half of Nega-Doll 001’s head along with the right half of his body barely managed to cause minor injuries to him instead.

“’Distruzione’!”

Looking at the hole in the ceiling, Nega-Doll 001 guessed his attacker’s location and unleashed an Explosion Magic spell there.

The ceiling board made a roaring sound as it was crushed.

However, Laozi had already moved away the moment he realized his own attack had not produced the desired result.

The ceiling now had a large hole in it, and Nega-Doll 001 followed up with another Explosion Magic spell there.

(Uhh)

Despite being somewhat safe thanks to his Barrier, Laozi still tightened up hjs guard after receiving a blast at a close distance.

(He might have weakened due to age, but looks like he can still put up a fight when he needs to.)

Yet another Explosion Magic spell was unleashed on the ceiling. Seeing it was meaningless to continue to hide any longer, Laozi jumped down.

“You damned INTRUDER.”

Nega-Doll 001’s face was distorted with hatred.

“We meet at last.”

Laozi, however, remained fully composed.

“You’re yet another stupid DOLL who only does as is TOLD.”

Nega-Doll 001’s hatred had also tinted his words, but Laozi remained unfazed.

“It is only natural for me to do My Lord’s bidding, as My Lord created me.”

“Hmph, you all say the SAME.”

Just after saying that, Nega-Doll 001 unleashed yet another one of his Explosion Magic spells.

“‘Distruzione’!”

Laozi dodged it with an astonishingly fast reaction.

Since his Nega-Doll 001’s spells seemed to have been toned down due to the fact that they were indoors, all Laozi had to do to get himself out of the range of his Explosion Magic was to move a bit out of the way. This was a point in favor of Laozi in this battle.

“You wouldn’t want to destroy your own facilities, so you’re attacking options are quite restricted, aren’t they?”

“You insolent DOLL.”

Then, Nega-Doll 001 cast another spell.

“‘Gravita’!”

The gravity of the surroundings had increased tenfold.

“This room can handle this level of gravity without COLLAPSING. But you… even if the gravity doesn’t crush you like a BUG… it will still slow you DOWN.”

“…”

Laozi replied with nothing but silence.

“I’m not so foolish as to waste time with dolls like YOU. FareWELL.”

Nega-Doll 001 then used his Transfer Magic in an attempt to flee. But he didn’t disappear as intended.

“WHY!?”

Laozi had secretly placed Finger Golems all over the room.

And though considerably weak, they were all equipped with Magi Jammers.

They were powerful enough to interfere with the signal of the Nega-Doll 001’s transfer markers.

This would also prevent him from unleashing an Ether Stampede. After all, he wouldn’t be able to escape from it before it detonated.

“This is your DOING.”

Knowing that Laozi had cut off his means of escape, Nega-Doll’s face became even more distorted with hatred, and redoubled his determination to destroy him at any cost.

“‘Distruzione’!”

He went back to his Explosion Magic.

However, Laozi easily dodged that as well. He used his built-in gravity control Magi Device.

“WHAT!?”

Nega-Doll grimaced, unable to comprehend what just happened.

Then Laozi took this chance to throw himself at Nega-Doll 001.

“Gwaaah!”

Due to the difference in body sizes, Nega-Doll 001 was sent flying towards the other side of the room, where he crashed into the wall and fell to the floor afterwards.

Laozi’s assumption that Nega-Doll 001’s physical abilities were not a big concern had been correct.

“I’ll settle this right here and right now, so My Lord doesn’t have to dirty his own hands.”

Then, Laozi fired another Laser.0

With nothing to stand between the powerful beam and himself, Nega-Doll 001 couldn’t resist the full force of Laozi’s Laser and his upper body disintegrated instantly as a result. Laozi couldn’t help but think that his end had been rather disappointing.

“…I hope this settles things once and for all.”

Nega-Doll 001 wasn’t a living creature, after all. He was an homunculus created by Magi Engineering.

Even though his upper body was gone, there was no telling what would happen next. Therefore, Laozi fired yet another Laser to get rid of the rest of his body.

“…”

Laozi remained on alert for a while. While still motionless, he recalled the Finger Golems he had scattered throughout the room.

In the meantime, he was in constant vigilance, checking for any fluctuations in magical power.

This was important just in case there was some kind of timed mechanism that could unleash an Ether Stampede in place.

Thirty minutes passed…

“Nothing seems to be happening. I had thought that maybe Nega-Doll 001 had something prepared in case he fell in combat, but it seems there was nothing for me to worry about after all.”

Thus Nega-Doll 001 had disappeared from this world.

Back in Hourai Island, Laojun sent Lands 41 to 50 and Smiths 91 to 100 over to Laozi’s location via transfer machine. This was so that he could gain total control of Nega-Doll 001’s base and to collect as much data as possible from it.

His biggest concern at the moment was this other person Nega-Doll 001 frequently contacted.

“Maybe he’s a subordinate, or another Nega-Doll like him…”

He wanted to find out this person’s true identity as soon as possible.

The reinforcements sent by Laojun arrived after a few minutes. Half of them were dedicated to disabling any traps that could have been left behind, while the other half was in charge of analyzing the equipment in the facility.

The Lands and Smiths formed groups of five each and worked under Laozi’s direction.

“The ceiling here is also made of an unknown metal. This place may be just like the “Soaring Ship”.

This metal had been capable of withstanding Laozi’s Laser for a certain amount of time.

“It might be done like this so that this facility can reenter the atmosphere.”

Laojun remembered their satellite launch attempt, where they determined that a melting point of 5,000 degrees Celsius was very convenient for vessels to withstand the high temperatures that they would be subject to when reentering the atmosphere.

“Shall we collect everything after our analysis is done?”

He turned to the current status of the facility’s equipment analysis.

Smith 91 had just removed the cover of a certain device.

“This is probably some sort of communication device.”

Although it was a product of an unknown Magi Technology, it turned out to be a communication device, since it shared some similarities with a Mana Comm.

Functionally speaking, it was more similar to a Mana Phone than a Mana Comm. It seemed to be connected only to a specific partner. In this case, it also seemed this device could be used to determine the coordinates of the device it was connected to.

“What else is there… Ah, we’ve come across a few of these before, huh?”

There were some monitors that emitted a light outside the normal visible range for humans. Laozi was relieved to see that there was nothing -and no one- on the other end of any of these 10 “windows”.

Another thirty minutes went by…

Each Magi Machine was being analyzed one after another. Even though they didn’t know how these Magi Machines worked, Laozi and the others managed to determine what about 70% of them were used for.

“Be careful not to touch anything we don’t fully understand. Let’s go through each Magi Machine thoroughly before looking into the next one.”

By that time, about half of the traps still remaining in the facility had been successfully disarmed.

“So far so good, huh?”

Unlike his usual self, Laozi seemed quite relieved. At that moment…

The communication device activated itself.

The unknown person that had been in touch with Nega-Doll 001 was calling in.

“…This is No. 13. Did something happen, 001?”