Anagin Chronicles

Chapter 086. The Dolls (2)

Anagin’s words overflowed with self-esteem to the point of spilling over.

Sphinx was dumbfounded, yet at the same time impressed.

When shamelessness reached this level, it almost felt amusing.

He seemed to deliberately pick only the things that would make one frown, and yet, somehow, he wasn’t that detestable.

If that was a skill, then it was a skill; if it was a talent, then it was a talent.

‘Though that’s not the only reason.’

Sphinx recalled the sight of the door breaking just moments ago… No, the door opening.

When Anagin struck the door with all his might using the hammer, the door opened a beat later.

At first glance, it had looked as if it had been smashed, but with even a little closer inspection, one could tell that wasn’t the case.

Breaking meant cracks forming on the door, those cracks spreading into fractures, and the whole thing shattering to pieces—not two interlocking circular mechanisms coming undone and nails raining down as it disassembled into its components.

The way the door had collapsed just now was closer to being ‘opened’ than ‘destroyed.’

‘Did the door activate from the hammer’s impact?’

Faced with the bizarre phenomenon, Sphinx formed her own hypothesis.

It was a ridiculous guess on the level of “magical tools get fixed if you hit them,” but she wasn’t some barbarian, after all…

‘Then what in the world was it?’

Having never seen a Ruin security device open in such a manner, Sphinx continued to question it, yet she found no clear answer.

Only one thing was certain: it had not opened simply because it was struck with a hammer.

Sphinx briefly considered telling Anagin this fact, but soon decided against it.

With Anagin’s personality, he would surely spout nonsense like, “I hit it so hard that the door got scared and opened on its own.”

As a mage and a scholar, it was the kind of absurdity that irritated Sphinx just to imagine hearing it.

But what irritated her even more was that the absurdity would sound oddly plausible.

Even when Anagin babbled something insane, after traveling with him for only a short while, there were moments when it felt like it could actually be true.

Sphinx found that unbearable.

As if common sense itself were collapsing.

It was a feeling difficult to put into words.

“Pinku Pinku.”

Anagin called out to Sphinx, who had been lost in thought.

Had Anagin noticed that something was strange about the door as well?

“You can land on your own, right?”

“Huh?”

“Let me tidy up the dolls while we’re going down.”

Anagin said this while looking at the dolls of the doll mages falling together with them.

The corpse dolls stitched together from beast carcasses, the golem dolls made of bricks.

Even in the middle of plummeting, Anagin was thinking not about landing, but about taking down her opponents.

* * *

Landing was not particularly difficult for Sphinx.

For Sphinx, whose specialty was wind magic, lifting her own body was, with only slight exaggeration, as easy as breathing.

All the more so in her cat-sized form.

As Anagin had said, Sphinx dropped from his shoulder, buoyed her body with wind, and watched Anagin.

Since they were in free fall, it wouldn’t be easy to move—she found herself slightly curious how Anagin intended to deal with the dolls.

Anagin moved the instant Sphinx let go.

Using the Giant’s Bed as a foothold, he closed in on a corpse doll that was falling and swung his hammer.

The corpse doll, stitched together from the carcasses of several beasts, was struck by the lump of iron and crushed, scattering into fragments.

Its massive size was useless while plummeting.

Anagin then hurled the hammer with all his strength, shattering the brick-made golem at the farthest distance.

He is now empty-handed.

As if it didn’t matter, Anagin used the broken corpse doll as a stepping stone, approached the remaining dolls, and destroyed them one by one.

Punching them apart, tearing them with his hands, piece by piece.

By the time he had destroyed them all, he landed safely in the water pooled below.

Splash! Splash! Splash!

‘Ah, perhaps not entirely safely?’

Sphinx, who was flying with the aid of the wind, thought as she illuminated the surroundings with a sphere of light.

Calling it a landing was questionable—countless fragments were falling along with Anagin from above.

The components that had made up the massive door were so large that even the nails were sizable enough to cause serious injury if one struck their head.

Dozens, hundreds of them rained down together. One wrong step and he could be buried beneath them.

Fortunately, it seemed to be needless worry, as Anagin soon emerged between the pouring river and the falling debris.

Running, with the hammer and the Giant’s Bed slung over both shoulders.

“Finding these was harder than smashing the dolls.”

Anagin had come out late because he had gathered the Giant’s Bed and the hammer.

Maintaining her cat form, Sphinx lightly leapt back onto Anagin’s shoulder.

“Can’t you undo that form now?”

“I can, but I don’t feel like it. This is more comfortable.”

“I might not like it.”

Anagin grumbled as he walked down the straight underground passage.

Even while conversing with Sphinx, Anagin surveyed his surroundings, and Sphinx did the same.

The Ruins were an unknown domain with far more undiscovered than discovered, and observing one’s surroundings was not optional but essential.

Especially this Ruin, which required even greater caution.

It was a Ruin occupied by mages, after all.

As if proving the point, the Ruin exuded an ominous atmosphere.

From the entrance, there had been signs of artificial damage—broken structures, peeled finishes, collapsed supports and ornaments—but as they ventured deeper, an entirely different world unfolded.

A vast corridor, meticulously paved from floor to walls to ceiling.

Though dust had gathered and the marks of time were evident from the lack of human touch, aside from that, it was a corridor built with near-perfect precision.

Though she had never personally explored Ruin before, Sphinx could tell this one was different from the ordinary kind.

Call it instinct, perhaps. In any case, something was different.

Without realizing it, Sphinx hopped down from Anagin’s shoulder and looked around.

It felt as though she might discover something interesting.

“Pinku Pinku.”

“Hm?”

“Get back on my shoulder.”

Half entranced by curiosity as she examined her surroundings, Sphinx was startled.

Anagin telling her to climb onto his shoulder?

That wasn’t like him at all.

So surprised that she forgot to keep observing, Sphinx asked,

“Why all of a sudden?”

Anagin was examining an old bronze statue erected in the middle of the corridor.

Slightly larger than an adult man, the statue stood firmly like a guard, holding a spear.

In particular, the tip of the spear gleamed, sharply honed enough to reflect the light.

Seemingly impressed by the shining spearhead, Anagin stared at its tip as he answered,

“Just feels like that’d be better.”

* * *

Though he couldn’t explain the exact reason, Sphinx did as Anagin said.

In places like this, one was supposed to follow the leader’s orders.

Instead of walking herself, Sphinx climbed onto Anagin’s shoulder and observed the surroundings.

Walking on her own wasn’t bad, but riding on a shoulder wasn’t unpleasant either, so she had no complaints.

“They’re increasing, aren’t they?”

Sphinx spoke from atop Anagin’s shoulder.

The bronze statues that had appeared here and there were becoming more numerous the deeper they went into the corridor.

At a certain point, they were even lined up at regular intervals.

What was interesting was that their armaments had diversified—not just spears, but spear and shield, shield and sword, axes, and more.

For mere decorations, they seemed excessively elaborate.

“Are Ruins usually like this?”

Anagin asked. This was his second Ruin… no, technically his first.

The first one he had visited had been a fake created by the Monster Merchant, so this was effectively his first real Ruin.

Even so, something about this place felt strange.

He had an uneasy premonition that perhaps this wasn’t a Ruin at all, but something else entirely.

‘No, maybe not that far.’

Anagin quickly revised his thoughts.

He had come to find Orichalcum. Ruin or not, all that mattered was whether Orichalcum was here.

Even if it wasn’t, it would mean the fools at Chiron Tower had given faulty information—surely he could at least demand compensation for his trouble.

“I’m not sure either.”

Sphinx replied in an uncertain voice as she examined the bronze statues.

“I’ve never personally explored a Ruin before. But this place does seem unusual. It’s somewhat different from the Ruins I know of.”

She spoke honestly about what she had felt the moment she entered.

This Ruin felt less like a training ground meant to temper practitioners and more like a hidden site.

‘No, in a way, perhaps this is more fitting for a Ruin?’

After all, Ruins originally referred to remnants left behind by ancient humanity.

In any case, while this place exuded a peculiar atmosphere, there didn’t seem to be any trials or immediate dangers.

“Of course, it might just be trying to lull us into complacency.”

“Like this, maybe?”

Anagin asked as he dodged a spear that suddenly thrust out from the side.

The one who had struck was none other than a bronze statue.

The bronze statues lining the corridor.

From the moment he had first seen them, he had felt something vaguely unsettling—but to think they would start moving already…

Several of the rigidly standing bronze statues stepped forward to block Anagin’s path.

Crack… creak…

The bronze statues, abandoned for ages, emitted grotesque sounds like joints being twisted as they slowly began to move.

It was unclear whether they were inherently sluggish or simply stiff from long neglect, but the dust falling from their bodies suggested the latter.

Either way, it didn’t matter.

Clang—!

Anagin briefly considered whether to strike with the Giant’s Bed or the hammer in his hands, then smashed the bronze statue with the hammer.

The still-sluggish statue was dented by the blow.

The ear-splitting metallic clang was a bonus.

That was good news.

Compared to their total number, only a few were moving, and aside from being somewhat sturdy, they weren’t particularly threatening.

“As trials go, this is pretty underwhelming.”

“It feels more like a security mechanism than a trial.”

Sphinx muttered, as though something had clicked.

Instead of asking what she meant, Anagin destroyed the moving bronze statues first.

With the Giant’s Bed slung over one shoulder, he wielded only the hammer to smash them apart.

It wasn’t difficult.

The statues themselves weren’t very fast. One solid strike with the hammer knocked them down, and a finishing blow crushed them.

They weren’t as durable as expected either—once half-collapsed, they were effectively incapacitated.

Of course, if he had swung the Giant’s Bed, he could have finished them twice as fast, but he didn’t. The reason being—

“What do you mean by security mechanism?”

“Just what it sounds like. It likely scales with the number of intruders—”

—Shhk!

In the middle of Sphinx’s explanation, an arrow shot rapidly toward Anagin from behind.

Judging by its speed, it wasn’t ordinary. Energy(Γι) had been infused into it to enhance both velocity and power.

And from the ominous gleam around its tip, it appeared to be poisoned as well.

A combination clearly meant to end it in a single strike by exploiting an opening.

Anagin raised the Giant’s Bed like a shield and blocked the lethal arrow.

When he turned his head, he saw a crossbowman whose invisibility spell had just dispelled, along with multiple practitioners—and a massive worm-like creature.

Impressive.

To approach like that while concealing their presence, dragging something like that along.

Had Anagin not been accustomed to his master’s ambushes, he might not have noticed.

“That’s a Burrowing Worm.”

Sphinx identified the grotesque creature.

And not just that.

“The one holding the crossbow is Anosis, that one is Bagurus…”

She listed the names of those who had ambushed Anagin one by one.

All of them were the ones Makon had explained—those who had allied with the miscellaneous doll mage Neiron.

“Then that’s Neiron?”

Anagin pointed at the Burrowing Worm.

“I thought he was a damned human. Who knew he was a monster.”

Recalling the Monster Merchant, Anagin drew his conclusion.

Neiron wasn’t a person—he was a worm.

“This is my interspatial doll, you idiot.”

Neiron’s voice echoed from the maw of the Burrowing Worm.

At present, Neiron was inside the Burrowing Worm, which he had modified into both an Interspatial Bag and a doll.

Ordinarily, living humans could not enter an Interspatial Bag, but a skilled doll mage could alter one to contain living beings.

It was also why they hadn’t been swept away by the flood Anagin had caused.

The moment the flood had surged in, Neiron had ordered his subordinates to deal with Anagin, then retreated with his allies into the Burrowing Worm doll.

“That’s cowardly.”

Said the very Anagin who had caused the flood, shamelessly.

It was to the point where it felt like steel plates must be laid beneath the skin of his face.

“So why’d you attack me?”

His tone suggested he was the innocent party, leaving Neiron’s side speechless.

He had destroyed a dam and caused that chaos, and now he was asking why they attacked?

One had to wonder whether he possessed any conscience at all.

“You got into the Ruin thanks to me, so let’s call it even?”

Without a shred of conscience, Anagin casually suggested they overlook the matter.

Yes, they had suffered because of him—but they had also entered the Ruin for free thanks to him.

It was absurd nonsense.

Yet not entirely nonsense.

“……”

At the very least, Neiron—who had been stuck helplessly before the sealed entrance—knew it couldn’t be dismissed outright.

The door blocking the Ruin’s entrance had been more than sturdy; it had been bound by powerful magic.

Magic of such high level that even Neiron couldn’t dispel it. It was so formidable that even bypassing it had been impossible.

And yet that man had dismantled it.

When he struck it with a hammer, the magic upon the door had unraveled.

He couldn’t explain why, but he couldn’t deny that the door had opened because of Anagin.

Of course…

“What’s that got to do with us?”

At Neiron’s words from inside the Burrowing Worm, his allied practitioners prepared for battle.

The crossbowman reloaded and infused another bolt with Energy(Γι), while the others gathered Energy or prepared blessings.

As if deeming that insufficient, Neiron had the Burrowing Worm disgorge additional dolls from within its belly.

A two-headed wolf doll, a Minotauros doll with its hands replaced by a mace and an axe, a granite-carved stone doll—they filled the corridor.

They intended to use the corridor’s narrow terrain and superior numbers to eliminate Anagin.

Just as Neiron’s side was about to move—

Thud!

The bronze statues that had stood motionless until now all began to move at once.

Seeing this, Sphinx muttered quietly,

"Just as I thought."