Chapter 35: Arankal

<If a Grand Bander is master at chess, then I’m the one who made chess.>

From Kiladaple, the collector of Six-Horned Pa-Harijans from 500 years ago

…….

Automated machines used to say at least one word before killing someone, such as <Identified unregistered living being>, or <Initiating attack>, or such. But these machines did not do such a thing.

The machines scanned Sian, and as soon as they realized Sian was unregistered, they began attacking him. Their cores, which were made out of top-grade Talic Stones, supplied infinite energy and helped the machines transform it into Bander and Exar.

The <Karmata> that Sian saw before was like a toy compared to these machines. These were much more advanced as they were created by using Talic Stones. Each one of these machines easily matched the strength of the old man with the golden sword.

These were what Sian felt inside the cliff once he arrived here.

As he watched those <Arankals> charging at him, he thought of beating up the man that activated them and Phareon who fled right when these were activated.

But it was somewhat fortunate.

The man that activated these machines committed suicide by reversing internal Bander to avoid being arrested and Phareon fled to his castle. There was no living being within a five-mile radius.

‘I guess I don’t have to kill anyone this time then.’

He sighed as he had to use his power again and unlocked the power from within. Something changed and there was a smile on his face.

Sian dodged the attack and the Arankal’s right hand tore down the wall that it had struck.

‘Wow, these toys are really something,’ Sian thought as he looked at one while he dodging its attack.

The ones that the thief stole that were in his pouch did not interest him. Those were just toys.

But these were different.

He thought about taking these home, but he did not know how to stop or maintain them. Thus, he decided to play with the machines for a while before destroying them.

As he thought, the cores of the Arankals began activating and changed to Exar. The Exar was then supplied into the Arankals’ right eyes and a ray of light fired upon Sian in a straight line.

“Wow… what is this? Haha!”

Sian, who took a hit out of curiosity, laughed in excitement. It wasn’t only the color that was cool. It actually was cold. It was a magic ability capable of freezing the target. If it was a Master and not a Grand Bander that it was fired at, it would have surely destroyed the frozen area.

But it did not affect Sian at all and the Arankals began analyzing Sian to plan for another attack.

The sub-cores of the Arankals located on their spines began shining and they sped up. It was <Acceleration> magic. Not only that, other magic skills were being activated.

<Strengthen> <Extract> <Increase>…

All ten machines were now much stronger than before. Sian laughed in excitement.

An <Arankal>’s main function was to analyze the target.

As it analyzed, it shared the information with other machines that helped them fight the target with more ease. Arankals analyzed Sian from all sides.

[Bander Rating…]

[Movement speed…]

[Damage potential…]

[Acceleration speed…]

[Bander flow rating…]

The Arankals that gathered information on Sian who was dodging their attacks with ease and issued a report.

[Analyzation failed.]

[Lack of information. Unstable physical number. Unstable Bander Rating. Unable to analyze.]

The number that didn’t change, hence the name, physical number, kept changing from within.

Thus, the Arankals were unable to analyze the target.

Thus, the Arankals made a decision.

[Target speculated to be a <Pa-Harijan>]

[Danger Level ‘F’: In need of immediate execution]

[Impossible to subdue the target at present. Changing to Plan-Z]

[Activating <VOID>]

Ra-Banders were rare, but the age of the Empire had Ra-Banders, also known as Pa-Harijans.

Giraine, the Sun Hunter

Kiladaple, the Collector of Six-Horns

Robanutton, the Star Shatterer

Con-Rad, the Son of God

It was a time where warriors were treated poorly compared to Magic Priests. It was a time before Bander was found. During the 300 years of the creation of the Empire, these four Pa-Harijans proved that no one was more powerful than them and they freely roamed the world.

The Empire arduously tried to research them, and with the help of Kiladaple, who protected the Empire from the Six-Horned Harijans, they were able to conduct research on them.

The research went slowly. Kiladaple got bored easily. He ran off to hunt down Harijans and there was not enough knowledge to correctly understand the secret of Pa-Harijans.

It was also because Magic Priests were so powerful that they ignored Bander and did not deeply research it.

The Empire finally discovered a few things about Pa-Harijans and pulled together a report.

The following are a summary of the report.

<When a Pa-Harijan is at a certain level, the physical number and rules are all reset and affects the outside.>

-It resets, but it is not under the Pa-Harijan’s control and it differs from all Pa-Harijans based on its character, environment, and talents.

-The body that is not bound by physical rules transcend the laws of physics.

Pa-Harijans were not bound by the laws of physics. Their bodies represented a separate and different world of their own.

Warriors needed strong muscles and high Bander Ratings to be strong. But the Pa-Harijans did not need them.

Defying physical laws meant that it could destroy a mountain with baby-like arms and crush a castle with just a dustful of Bander.

Magic Priests then began finding ways to subdue these superhuman beings. These beings did not want to be involved in worldly affairs, but it was the Magic Priests’ way of preparing for everything.

The only way that seemed remotely possible was the one stored within <Arankals> labeled as Plan Z.

‘What is this?’

Sian looked at the Arankals as some weird Exar flow started stirring within them. The Exar that spread outward was now being called into one magic rune inside its core.

The Arankals kept attacking Sian, but the Exar that began flowing fiercely from within made them slow down as the cores were getting overloaded.

The Arankals did not care about their overloaded state. They did everything they could to prevent Sian from running away.

Plan-Z was meant to destroy all machines that exercised it anyway. Its job was to hold down the Pa-Harijan until the activation of the magic rune.

[Preparation of Great Magic Rune, complete]

[Activating Top-Grade Magic <VOID>]

Ten Arankal cores exploded at once. The Magic Priests of the Empire speculated it would take at least seven cores to subdue ‘Kiladaple’, and they used ten of them. They were successful in their mission.

The Magic Rune began shining where the core had been destroyed, activating the dimensional twist in front of Sian.