I Became the Servant of the Blind Wicked Woman

To read over 260 fully translated episodes, patreon.com/Denji02

The warning that the Ten Towers had arrived left my mind in disarray.

No, it would be more accurate to say that the bitter disappointment that had filled me suddenly vanished, leaving my mind clear in a strange way.

There was no time to linger in sentimental thoughts. I grabbed my ultrasonic blade.

The instinct to survive blared in my head like a siren at this thunderous disaster. First, let's get a grip on the situation.

'Argyrion and the Ten Towers are here?'

Why are those two showing up together?

Only someone like me could pull off high-level chaos that would bring them together in one place.

Surely another troublemaker following in my footsteps hasn't appeared now. A rival of such caliber would utterly ruin my future plans.

I organized my tangled thoughts.

Let's assume, as the priestess of Pluton speculated, that Adoosiam's core did something that summoned both Argyrion and the Ten Towers.

If this golem sent a distress signal, it's most likely aimed at the Ten Towers—assuming, of course, that the golem isn't aware of the betrayal its creator suffered.

So, did the Ten Towers intervene first, and Argyrion follow?

Argyrion, sensing that a rare situation had drawn out an elder of the Ten Towers, must have detected this emergency through some information network and sent their forces to disrupt the Ten Towers' operation.

'This seems like a plausible scenario….'

If that's the case, Argyrion knows about the Ten Towers, but the Ten Towers don't know about Argyrion's presence.

Before the two factions notice the Divine Cult, if I can make them aware of each other and incite a fight, I can escape this place unscathed.

To execute this plan, I first need to pinpoint the exact location of both factions.

In other words, I have to use my eyes again. Not half-open like when I stole the relic, but fully open.

I've been using my eyes a lot today. I feel like I'm coming down with dry eye syndrome. I should've brought some eye drops.

I opened my eyes.

***

Kore's senses expanded in a peculiar way. It felt like the entire temple had become an organ experiencing a sixth sense, just as a person uses their tongue for taste and eyes for sight.

The chatter of the cult members. The figures of intruders cloaked in concealment magic. The drones maneuvering in the darkness, distorting the flow of air—all of it was perceptible.

Ah—

Kore modulated her voice. No one inside the temple could hear her current voice; it reverberated at a more fundamental level than the physical plane.

It was a matter of reception. In this world, there were numerous channels for communication: vocal, mental telepathy, and even dialogue between souls and spirits.

Within each category, there were layers of "channels." For instance, in terms of physical sound, there are frequencies humans can hear and ultrasonic waves they cannot.

Kore could transmit her voice through all such channels within the temple, but whether people could receive it was a different issue.

Her current voice was transmitted on a channel that only Kore, in resonance with the temple's symbol, could hear. She explored other channels, searching for spiritual links among those possessing divine power.

Then she suddenly sensed something unusual.

Orthes was staring up at the void.

As if he had heard the voice just now.

His piercing eyes were no longer hidden under his eyelids. Those cold, blade-like eyes scanned the empty space before he abruptly dashed off somewhere.

'What on earth…?'

Kore, who was connecting to each member of the Divine Cult one by one, encountered an unfamiliar voice.

"Can you hear me?"

It was Orthes's voice. Yet, Orthes was still running, with no visible conversation partner around him.

"I'll assume you can hear me, Priestess of Pluton."

Even while sprinting, his voice remained steady. As Kore's eyes wavered, Orthes continued his transmission.

"I will draw the attention of those two factions. You should hide the other cult members as best as you can."

It was an absurd response, especially considering that he had just said he would be in serious trouble if discovered by the Ten Towers.

"Currently, the backlash from the spatial magic used by Argyrion and the Ten Towers is still lingering. Even with Proditor's Holy Incantation, trying to teleport could result in getting swept away into an extra dimension. Wait until after their clash has dragged on long enough, then retreat."

What on earth do you want?

"Ah. I'm sorry, but I won't be able to hear you even if you speak."

A blatant dismissal.

Kore tried to find a channel that connected to Orthes but couldn't. She couldn't even guess what channel was compatible with the foreign abilities embedded in his being.

If she transmitted to every channel within the temple at once, her words would reach Orthes, but they would also be overheard by the Ten Towers and Argyrion.

Suppressing her doubts and irritation, Kore composed instructions for the cult members.

The plan involved bypassing the movements of the Ten Towers' drones and the gaze of Argyrion's intruders, guiding everyone to converge at a suitable location for an ambush.

***

Orthes looked up at the ceiling once again. It wasn't a particularly meaningful action. His vision extended far beyond the limitations of physical retinas.

It was more of a habit. He could see various extraordinary fields tracing complex paths as they moved.

He observed the alien extra-dimensional field of Argyrion and the orderly magical fields typical of high-ranking mages embedded within the small flying devices deployed by the Ten Towers.

The cult members were moving with military precision, as if following some kind of divine revelation.

Not merely moving—they were positioning themselves at chokepoints ideal for ambushes, preparing to annihilate their enemies.

'As expected. I wondered what strange descriptions had been added to the temple all of a sudden.'

As Orthes made his way toward the Ten Towers with his eyes wide open, he noticed that the temple's descriptions had suddenly changed to include a bizarre annotation, distinct from typical materials, creators, or blessings of the Holy Incantations.

Though partially garbled, the decipherable parts read something like "Eyes, ears, and mouth of the Apostle."

Orthes guessed that the change in description was connected to the relic he had handed over to the priestess of Pluton and began refining his plan.

'Anyway, my face is a public commodity. It's used often, forgotten easily. One or two more times won't make a difference.'

He knew that even cameras operated by magic couldn't properly capture his face. He was confident that even if Argyrion's operatives had body cameras, they wouldn't be able to capture his face clearly.

'The problem is that Argyrion might realize an old enemy is still alive.'

Orthes weighed the risks and returns. Argyrion's leadership, having tried to kill him and Carisia only to end up stranded in an extra dimension, had likely already suspected their old adversaries might still be alive.

Surely Argyrion and Blasphemia wouldn't be sharing information.

Within Blasphemia, they already believed the target of the Golden Desert operation had been dealt with. The evidence had been arranged to support that conclusion. The elder dispatched from the Ten Towers had no interest in underlings' operations, and even if he knew about the Golden Desert operation, he wouldn't know Orthes was still alive.

In conclusion, Argyrion's suspicions might solidify into certainty, but Blasphemia and the Ten Towers wouldn't learn of Orthes's survival.

'Showing my face won't be an issue.'

Unless Carisia, who was closely associated with the White Light, showed up, the elder of the Ten Towers wouldn't bother with someone like Orthes, who lacked inherent magic power. Orthes resolved to once again employ the disruptive tactics he had used when being pursued by Blasphemia.

***

Thalo began to maneuver his drones more aggressively.

Apart from the left arm that had already found its first host, his remaining three limbs quietly slithered, searching for their next targets.

'Hmm, has Argyrion only just started excavating?'

The inside of the ruins was unexpectedly quiet. While Argyrion forces were visible entering from other directions, there were no signs of the ancient relic that had sent out the signal or the excavators themselves.

'The signal must have been sent when the ruins' barrier was breached. Luckily, the contamination from Eroder magic isn't extensive.'

Thalo's alloyed frame trembled with excitement at the prospect of witnessing the Mage King's wondrous craftsmanship in its purest preservation.

He shifted his attention to the Argyrion units that the other three drones had latched onto.

Typically, after seizing control of a body, the next step would be to extract memories from the brain, but the extradimensional influence had mutated the Erorder's brains, making them unreadable.

Moreover, since the brains had already been torn apart, memory extraction was impossible. Thalo had formed the liquid spirit metal as an artificial brain of sorts to control the Erorder's body, but mismatches kept occurring due to the non-human structure of their nervous systems.

An Argyrion operative, noticing the strange behavior of his companion, inquired.

"What's wrong? Did you sense a curse?"

"Nothing at all."

Oops. My voice cracked.

The suspicious Argyrion operative's hand began to charge with magic. Thalo grinned as he manipulated the liquid metal.

With a soft hissing sound, the body of the operative hosting Thalo's left arm exploded. From his torn torso, instead of bodily fluids, liquid metal gushed forth.

"What the—?!"

The liquid metal clinging to the Argyrion bodies transformed its structure into jag

ged gears. The swarm of spirit nanomachines, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, moved in perfect unison, grinding the victims' bodies to pieces.

Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack!

In an instant, the liquid metal shredded magical fields, protective suits, and flesh alike. Those who managed to scream were the lucky ones. Those who faced the metal directly lost their vocal cords first and fell silent.

Screams echoed throughout the temple. Unfortunately, any hope of covert tracking was now gone.

From this point on, it was a hunt.

The liquid metal stored within the other three previously infiltrated drones was all released. Visually, it appeared as no more than a few dozen liters of transparent fluid.

Thalo issued his command. Grind everything that possesses magic.

He diverted his attention away from the drones he had set in motion and began preparing a spell.

A secret art of the Grand Magi, potent enough to bring down Argyrion no matter how they resisted.

***

Kore watched as water seemed to devour people. A writhing mass of liquid advancing forward.

One stream was on a collision course directly with Orthes, who was attempting to ascend to the surface. Before Kore could even warn him, the water brushed against Orthes's ankle.

And nothing happened.

"…?"

To read over 260 fully translated episodes, patreon.com/Denji02