Magi Craft Meister

"'Gigantes'?"

Jin and Reinhardt both asked for an explanation for the word they were unaccustomed to hearing.

Judging that the explanation would be long, Reiko once more got close to Ann for Magic Energy synchronization and began explaining instead of Ann.

"During the anti-demon-race war…Anti-demon-race war seems to mean The Great Magic War…the Gigantes was a weapon that was developed in its final moments."

It seems that at that time, people called it the anti-demon-race war.

"However, the Gigantes was faulty. Because it did not listen at all to what its manufacturers said."

"So, what kind of weapon is these Gigantes?"

Jin had a somewhat bad feeling about this so he urged her to continue.

"The Gigantes is a giant human-type weapons with overall height of ten meters."

Hearing that, even Jin was surprised. He didn't know that such a thing existed. Because it was a weapon developed after the predecessor's death during the Great Magic War.

"Is it a golem?"

"No. Gigantes is Gigantes."

"Please describe its features in detail."

Reinhardt said, his face also pale.

"Gigantes's shape is similar to a human's but its shoudlers are wider, legs shorter, and arms thicker and longer. Its height is ten meters, and its weight about 30 tons."

"What an enormous golem."

Reinhardt muttered, but Reiko -that is, Ann- denied it.

"No, that's incorrect. That's because Gigantes is assembled out of simple rock fragments."

"Assembled out of rock fragments…"

Jin tried picturing it. He got the feeling that the word 'golem' referred to such a creature in his previous world. In the orphanage there had been a single game console and in a game he played on it there had been such a monster.

"There was a something like that in there?"

No one in remembered seeing a giant like that inside the discovered ruins.

"No, Gigantes's [Core] was supposed to have been sealed."

"[Core]? Not a [Control Core]?"

Jin thought he might have misheard. A Core was the core devil beasts had.

"A Core. Because Gigantes is an 'artifical devil beast'."

"An 'artificial devil beast'?

Another phrase he hadn't heard made its appearance.

"Yes. An artificial devil beast made to oppose the devil race."

"An eye for an eye or something like that, huh."

Jin crossed his arms and pondered.

Judging from how Reiko is reading her mind, the Automata Ann's memories don't seem to be erased after all, he concluded. Most likely, like Reiko's had, her Control Core must've reached the end of its technical life, making the the reading of information unstable. Unreasonably pushing her now could have unfortunate consequences for the 'lost information' he had finally attained. That was Jin's conclusion.

Although despite that, it wasn't possible to perfectly repair Ann here and now.

Jin urgently began examining the Automata Ann. While Reinhardt assisted him.

Elsa was at her wit's end when she saw Jin's expression, and stayed silent to not be on the way.

Her steel skeleton had rusted, several joints had stopped operating, and the leather of some unrecognizable devil beast used as her muscles was torn in countless places.

Her coating of Magical Skin was a composite material but it too had worn out.

Jin judged that it had been nearly 350 years since she had been constructed. Even the Great Magic War had been 300 years ago, she was older than that.

Probably because her materials' quality was generally worse compared to Reiko's, so after 350 years they had reached their limits. First of all, he did temporary repairs on the Magi Crystal working as the diaphragm of her vocal apparatus.

Nonetheless, by just pasting together the cracked Magi Crystal with [Fusion], the vocal apparatus that was reaching the end of its life span would break completely in the near future.

"Ann, what was the person who built you like?"

Jin decided to try asking.

"Yes, I was mass-produced and so I do not have a particular creator."

Her way of talking improved considerably, so she no longer needed Reiko's help.

"So there was something like a mass production plant, huh."

"Yes, secretary Automata like me and battle-type golems and such were built in the factory."

And the foundation of those designs was most likely based on his predecessor's work, Jin guessed.

"Heyy, Jin, this Ann has an amazing structure, I've learned some things!"

Even Reinhardt seemed surprised when he looked at Ann's structure.

But there was a more pressing problem.

"Now then, please tell me everything you know about Gigantes."

"Yes. Using the Magic Energy stored in its Core, Gigantes constructs its body from surrounding rock fragments. As long as Magic Energy remains in its Core it can reform endlessly."

It was rather similar to the golem in the game Jin had played.

"Well then, was the Core of Gigantes in the room you were in, Ann?"

"I do not know. That's because I wasn't given any more information about it."

That was all the information, and Reinhardt put it all together into a guess.

"Anyway, somewhere in the ancient ruins was the Core of Gigantes, and because of some vital reason it activated and came alive. Then it crushed the nearby cabin of Rucall underfoot."

That seemed to be the gist of things. The important thing right now was not to determine the root cause but the locations of Gigantes. They were also worried about Rucall.

Although it was too late now, they regretted they had foolishly left the ruins wide open. However there was nothing to do about their negligence any more.

"Hmm, you said it was faulty and didn't listen to what its manufacturers said? How did it turn out?"

Reinhardt asked hoping that the answer was just it didn't do as it was told, but that wish didn't come true.

"Yes, it turned out that once activated, it didn't made no distinction between friend and foe and attacked."

The worst case. Cold sweat trickled down Reinhardt's back.

"And because of that, its only way of use was throwing the Core right in the middle of enemies. "

It stands to reason that it was somewhat usable in situations where it had no allies around it.

"Are there any principles or anything like that behind how it moves, or rampages, or maybe attacks?"

Suddenly a question like that came to Jin's mind and he tried asking.

"Yes, for some reason it goes towards high places."

For some reason Jin remembered the saying 'Only idiots, smoke, and goats rise to high places'. As Gigantes wasn't smoke or a goat, then it must be…

"So that means that after crushing Rucall's cabin, it climbed up the mountain."

Reinhardt crossed his arms and thought.

"The question is what are we going to do. Will we leave it be, or try to do something by ourselves? Or tell the proper authorities?"

"We're responsible for letting it out. If there's anything we can do, I want to do it."

Jin's opinion was to exterminate it themselves. Well, with Reiko it probably wouldn't be a big problem, and Reinhardt also agreed.

"If we waste time then the damage may increase, so."

Then they began the talk about who would participate in chasing down Gigantes, and Elsa said she also wanted to come.

"I want to go too because you didn't take me with you into the ruins."

"No, it's not a leisure trip, it'll be dangerous."

Reinhardt tried persuading her but still she didn't listen.

"Elsa, neither me or Reinhardt want to expose you to danger. So please just stay here. I beg you."

Jin clapped his hands together in front of his face and bowed like he was praying. The gesture was unknown to Elsa but she could still understand Jin's feelings.

"…Okay. Today is Jin-kun's birthday, so I'll listen to him."

"Thanks, Elsa."

Finally Elsa agreed. Besides, currently Elsa was wearing a skirt. It wasn't suited for mountain climbing.

Jin and Reinhardt put their preparations in order. Although the preparations were only walking sticks for mountain climbing, rope, and water.

They made the sticks from wood. That kind of handiwork was their strongest point.

"Now then, we'll be going."

"Take care. You both."

"Reinhardt-sama, Jin-dono, be careful. You mustn't overdo it."

The butler Claude saw them off along with Elsa, then Jin and Reinhardt headed towards the mountain. Accompanying them was Reiko. This time she was holding 'Peach Blossom'.

Ann was house-sitting with Elsa and Claude. It seemed like if Ann was about to do something like mountain climbing right now, she'd fall into pieces.

With Reiko in the lead, Jin's group continued while looking for the paths that seemed easy to walk.

"*Gasp*…*Pant*"

"*Wheeze* *Wheeze*"

Jin and Reinhardt were both bad at mountain climbing. Reiko jumped from rock to rock up the mountain as if it was the most natural thing, then came back down, advising them like,

"Father, the path leading right seems to be the easiest to ascend"

Or,

"The rock there is brittle, so please be careful."

After roughly 30 minutes of climbing there was a relatively flat terrace, and they decided to take a breather. They both drank the water they brought and breathed in deep.

"Ahh, I knew it but this really is intense."

"Yeah, in my home country I climbed a few mountains too, but this is my first time on a rocky mountain like this."

They had a conversation like that, but they couldn't stay resting forever and the two again began the climb.

When they encountered a crag that seemed impossible to climb, Reiko cut the rock to pieces with the Peach Blossom in her hand, making footholds. Thanks to that in an hour the summit was in sight.

"Ooh, there's the summit."

At that moment, Reiko who had climbed up near the summit gave a signal.

"Father, there is a large footprint here. The target maybe nearby."