Oranides.
That was the name of one of the Hekatonkheires in ancient Greek mythology.
Although it did not possess fifty heads and a hundred arms like the one in legend, this could still be considered a kind of fate.
"Eat it, Oranides!"
Hearing Noah's command, Oranides's consciousness immediately grew excited and launched its erosion toward the consciousness of the large Danger Beast.
Just as the words implied, it was going to "eat" the other side.
'Ah...'
One side was a newly born artificial soul, while the other was a consciousness body closer to lingering resentment.
There was no suspense in the outcome.
Oranides tore the other party's consciousness in half in a single move, then absorbed it completely.
The giant, more than seven meters tall, raised its head and roared. Its voice changed from a wild beast's howl into something deeper and more rational.
A moment later, Oranides, having completely replaced the Teigu's consciousness, knelt on one knee before Noah and lowered its head, performing the etiquette of a knight swearing loyalty to a king.
Looking at the giant before him, Noah nodded in satisfaction. The wills inside Teigu were proud and untamed.
Although he could whip them with methods like Soul Drill and force them to obey, the power a Teigu could display when used that way was worrying.
It could be understood as a rejection caused by his low compatibility with the Teigu.
When he forcefully controlled a Teigu through Soul Drill, his compatibility with the Teigu dropped straight into the negative.
Naturally, there was no way for it to display its proper power like that.
Originally, Noah had not planned to erase and replace Hekatonkheires's consciousness.
But in the previous battle, against Power of Oath, it had been instantly killed even after activating Berserk, and that performance had disappointed him completely.
True, Power of Oath had absorbed energy from the opposing side, and its master had sacrificed himself and the Teigu to activate its trump card.
But that result was also because Hekatonkheires had been forced into action and decided to slack off.
It did not dare openly disobey, fearing the whip, so it played that kind of little trick instead.
As expected of a biological-type Teigu, perhaps.
After all, it had existed for more than a thousand years. Even an insect could learn quite a lot from humans over that much time.
Perhaps its previous dull and stupid appearance had all been an act.
Now, none of that mattered anymore.
Magical Beast Transformation: Hekatonkheires had effectively been destroyed!
Now, there was only Hekatonkheires: Oranides.
"Good. Oranides, now draw the sword."
The giant let out a low rumble, as if saying "yes."
Its powerful body suddenly swelled, and a slit opened across the fully armored face, resembling a mouth as it continued to widen.
Oranides opened its mouth and raised its head toward the sky, while the hilt of a sword slowly emerged.
The giant grabbed the hilt with a reverse grip and drew it out completely, but what emerged was only the hilt.
Only after the hilt was fully pulled out and pointed elsewhere did a spectacular torrent surge from it.
A blade larger than the giant's own body formed from gathering currents, becoming a water-colored sword.
Holding the greatsword, the giant with its entire body covered in armor looked like a holy knight fallen into darkness, emitting suffocating pressure.
Noah used Appraisal.
[Hekatonkheires: Oranides]
・Teigu, biological type
・Traits: Regeneration, Berserk, Artificial Soul, Evolution
・Height: 400 mm, standard operation / 7,760 mm, combat form / 9,985 mm, Berserk form
・Modifications:
Muscle Enhancement: Muscle structure, muscle strength, muscle toughness, muscle load capacity...
Skeletal Enhancement: Replaced with fibers made from Orichalcum material, biomimetic structure, impact resistance, blade resistance, corrosion resistance...
Epidermal Enhancement: Biological shell, strength: 11, thickness: 28.5 mm, regenerative property...
Mental Enhancement: Artificial soul, enhanced analytical ability, enhanced judgment, enhanced reaction speed.
During the time he had followed Bill, Noah had mastered close to ninety percent of the man's research direction.
When used on humans, he felt it was somewhat inhumane, especially since the materials were all children.
But if the target was a "monster," that was another matter.
He had gathered all the techniques obtained from Bill and used every one of them on Hekatonkheires.
He had thought such drastic modification might force it awake, but it turned out he had worried too much.
[Water Element Sword: Focalor]
・Teigu, sword type
・Magic weapon
・Traits: Energy blade, transformation, artificial soul
・Weight: 14 tons
・Length: 0–130 m
・A sword blade capable of unleashing an ultra-high-pressure water jet. It can cut even ancient city walls in two with a single slash. Using it consumes stored water elements.
・Current maximum combat duration: 921 hours
・Remaining water volume: 2,965 gallons
His sleepless effort had received its proper reward.
Naming this weapon after Focalor, the legendary demon god said to be capable of raising tsunamis, could not be more fitting, because the amount of water stored inside this sword was enough to create an abnormally massive tsunami or trigger a flood even somewhere without any water.
If this sword were destroyed above the Imperial Capital, the enormous volume of water crashing down might wipe the entire city out in an instant.
It could be called a "Heaven-Fallen Flood."
Of course, that was only theoretically feasible.
He was not the kind of person who would exterminate an entire city on a passing whim.
"That's enough, Oranides."
Noah called the giant's name, and the giant understood his intent.
It stuffed the sword back into its mouth, then rapidly shrank into a miniature form only forty centimeters tall.
In the past, when Hekatonkheires shrank, its appearance had been like a white plush pet dog.
Now, after various modifications, its appearance had changed slightly as well.
Black patterns had appeared over the originally pure white parts, making it look as if it had gone somewhere to get tattoos.
At the same time, its gaze was no longer so foolish.
On the contrary, it had become extremely sharp, like the difference between a child and a warrior.
Compared to Oranides, Focalor's artificial soul was not as lively.
For now, it could only accept simple commands and was unable to communicate like Oranides.
Because most of his energy had been invested into Oranides, Focalor's intelligence level had not reached Noah's expectations.
However, as a weapon, its intelligence had already surpassed Teigu by far.
It could even perform autonomous defense and self-directed attacks, though the prerequisite was that it had Noah's command.
What Focalor currently lacked was a self.
To make artificial souls "learn," all he needed to do was let them devour souls. But low-quality souls would not work. Eating those would contaminate them instead.
For example, if he let them eat the soul of some degenerate whose head was full of lust, gambling, and drugs, then the artificial soul would also grow in that direction.
That was something Noah did not want to see.
Ideally...
If he had to say it, then the souls of warriors were still the best.
As weapons, devouring the souls of brave warriors was the most compatible choice.
Come to think of it, the Imperial Capital's prison held quite a few warriors dissatisfied with the Empire's current brutal rule.
Every one of them was sentenced to death and was merely being held together for the time being.
Those people's souls would be excellent feed for Oranides and Focalor.
He would need the Minister's help with this matter.
Conveniently, by this time, Suzuka should also have reported what happened earlier.
After thinking it over, Noah decided to go directly to the Minister, so he called over the estate's butler and had him prepare a carriage.
Once he boarded the carriage, Noah closed his eyes and rested.
He had not gotten proper rest recently.
Even with his Endurance approaching the limit of Lv.2, mental fatigue was still unavoidable.
Listening to the noise of the wheels was even more annoying than the physical jolting.
So he simply blocked out the sound and shrank Weaver's domain until it only covered the area around himself.
He did not know how long the carriage had traveled like that, but its speed gradually slowed, then finally came to a stop.
Noah opened his slightly tired eyes and looked outside the carriage.
He had thought they had reached the city gate and needed to undergo inspection, but all he saw was forest.
He frowned slightly, released the soundless barrier, and expanded Weaver's domain again.
Six life responses immediately appeared in his perception.
...
What had happened in just this short while?
There were people even on the roof and beneath the carriage. The entire carriage had already been surrounded.
With some confusion, Noah opened the carriage door and stepped down with a relaxed expression.
This immediately startled those people.
Especially the butler.
When he leaned out and saw Noah getting down from the carriage, he directly cried out in shock, "Impossible! How are you not unconscious?"
Seeing the man's terrified expression, Noah blinked.
After using Appraisal, he finally understood.
"So you secretly used sleeping poison. I really am a little tired, i actually didn't notice it."
Noah pinched the bridge of his nose, mocking himself in a tone that sounded somewhat annoyed.
Since he carried a poison-type Teigu, he should have been sensitive to the presence of poison, yet he had overlooked it.
"Stop talking nonsense! I'm asking why you didn't fall unconscious! Did you notice something ahead of time?" the butler questioned sharply.
At the same time, five figures swiftly emerged from beneath the carriage, from the roof, and from the other side of the road.
After appearing, they immediately surrounded Noah and each moved a hand toward their weapon.
Facing the question, Noah looked innocent.
"Sorry, but your poison was too bad, It had no effect on me at all."
"Hah?" The butler stared at Noah in disbelief, feeling humiliated.
He said angrily, "Damn it, you dare look down on me? Hmph, fine. In any case, there's no one around to protect you now, and the Minister's eyes are not here either. I advise you to obediently cooperate and come with us. Otherwise..."
"I see. So this is an invitation to visit."
Noah used Appraisal on the butler and discovered that the man before him was actually in a "charmed" state.
Someone capable of doing such a thing was most likely a Teigu user.
However, to know which faction the person behind this belonged to, he would need deeper contact.
"Get back into the carriage. Don't do anything strange," the butler threatened.
Noah looked at the five people surrounding him and found that they were wrapped up tightly, with even their eyes covered by tactical goggles.
But he was very familiar with those tactical goggles.
Because they were a kind of equipment mass-produced by the Science Division.
Since production was not high, they could not be distributed on a large scale.
The private soldiers in the Minister's estate had equipment like this.
Judging from this point, the other party was definitely someone from the Empire, and their status was not particularly low.
'Hm... what should i do?'
'Killing these people would be simple.'
If he used Soul Corridor slightly, learning who stood behind them would not be difficult either.
For some reason, because of this incident, Noah felt the sleepiness from earlier fly away completely.
This seemed a little interesting.
Without saying anything, after thinking for two seconds, Noah simply returned to the carriage.
And the butler actually followed him inside.
He took out a strip of silk cloth and said, "Although I don't know why it didn't work on you, the place we're going next isn't somewhere you can know. Use this to blindfold yourself. Don't play tricks."
Noah looked at him, thinking that he was rather cautious.
Unfortunately, it was useless.
He cooperatively blindfolded himself with the silk, then closed his eyes and resumed resting just as before.
In reality, however, his "eyes" had already arrived directly above.
High in the sky, Black Nightmare slowly followed the carriage, bringing its entire route under surveillance.
The butler and the others knew nothing about this.
They deliberately took several detours and even changed the carriage's color midway before driving it into the upper district.
By now, the carriage had completely changed its appearance, and black curtains had been installed over its windows.
This kind of carriage was usually used by the women of wealthy households to prevent people outside from peeking inside.
"Oh, a general's estate?"
Although his eyes were blindfolded, the images transmitted back by Black Nightmare allowed him to see even more clearly than usual.
After entering the estate, the carriage circled around once, then actually entered an underground passage.
With that, Black Nightmare could no longer continue monitoring.
After all, while it had a wide field of vision, it did not have the ability to see through walls.
But since they had gone underground, that meant they had reached the destination.
The carriage came to a complete stop.
Just as he expected, the butler opened the carriage door and said to him, "Get down."
Noah pulled off the cloth covering his eyes and got out of the carriage.
He examined the surroundings and found that torches were still being used for lighting here.
One had to know that the Science Division used electric lights.
From this point alone, it was almost possible to determine that the person behind this was a relatively stubborn conservative.
Following the butler deeper inside, Noah saw quite a few weapon stores here.
Combined with the fact that this was a general's estate, he felt that this was clearly preparation for rebellion.
Privately stockpiling weapons, and right beneath the royal capital at that—this was a serious problem.
Noah casually left several Explosive Flame formulas in the passage.
The butler did not notice any of Noah's actions.
If needed later, Noah would only need a single thought to make these formulas explode and collapse the entire underground passage.
From the perspective of modern architecture, this underground base was a complete shoddy construction project.
Presumably, its owner had been afraid of attracting attention and had prioritized secrecy, so he had not dared to use a proper construction team to build this secret underground base.
After turning left and right, they finally arrived at a space that looked relatively presentable.
This place had been decorated somewhat, with furniture such as sofas placed inside.
Once they arrived here, the butler suddenly collapsed onto the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
Noah used Appraisal and found that he was merely unconscious.
He stepped over the butler's body and sat down on a high-class sofa as if he owned the place. He did not act like an outsider at all.
He even picked up a famous wine from the liquor cabinet and poured himself a full glass, then drank the entire thing down in one go in a way that looked less like tasting and more like quenching thirst.
In any case, he did not care whether it was poisoned or not.
Because of the poison-type Teigu, he was nearly immune to all poisons.
Even if one had an effect, he could separate it out with Weaver.
And in truth, all of his actions were being watched by the person behind the scenes.
It was just that every step he took was unexpected, leaving that person speechless.
Why was this guy so casual?
He was even eating and drinking without asking.
'My wine!'
Bang!
The door was kicked open, and a masked man walked out from inside while shouting, "You bastard! That's the highest-grade grape wine! How can you waste it like that?!"