Chapter 239 Destroyer: I must blow it up today!
A deathly stillness, capable of freezing souls, brutally seized the throat of the entire Axel.
The cheers of relief from the previous second, celebrating their survival, abruptly ceased, like the crow of a chicken whose neck had been snapped.
The wild joy on the adventurers' faces completely froze, and their weapons slipped weakly from their palms, clattering to the ground.
The only sound left was that cold and despairing mechanical voice—
"This unit has stopped moving! Unable to dissipate heat… Unable to dissipate heat…"
Buzz—!
Terrifying heat wildly converged within the destroyer's mountain-like body, and the surrounding air buzzed under the unbearable pressure, with light twisting and deforming!
"Hey, hey, hey! This script isn't right!"
Kazuma clutched his head, letting out a desperate scream in the direction of the destroyer.
"Big bro! If this keeps up, this thing is definitely going to explode!"
"Then find the bomb!"
Clang!
Arthur raised his sword, bringing down a fierce gale of steel. The magic metal, glowing red from the high temperature, was as brittle as paper, and a narrow passage was abruptly opened!
"Detecting external intrusion…"
The eyes of the autonomous golems slumbering within the destroyer suddenly glowed red, awakening from their sleep!
They were stout, tall, and angular, resembling machine soldiers from the last century.
"Kazuma! Take people and stop them, I'll go deal with the source!"
Arthur's voice still echoed in the passage, but he had already swept over the golems on a gust of wind, disappearing into the depths of the mechanical labyrinth.
Kazuma looked at the group of iron lumps, then turned back to look at the stunned adventurers on the city wall, and suddenly raised his arms, shouting.
"Wake up! You idiots!"
"Once the Mobile Fortress explodes, Axel, being so close, will instantly turn to scorched earth! Do you know what that means?!"
His incoherent roar, however, was like a piercing magic spell, instantly igniting the reason of all the male adventurers present!
Fury and a sense of mission burned fiercely in their eyes!
"Brothers! That shop has always taken care of us with its cheap prices, and now is the time to repay them!"
"I remember now! I finally remember why I'm still clinging to this beginner town even though my level is over thirty!"
"Protect Axel! Protect that shop! Protect that smile in our dreams!"
The female adventurers were utterly confused, completely unable to understand what had suddenly gotten into these men, who were acting as if they had gone mad.
But seeing them surge forward like a tide towards the destroyer, they had no time to ponder and could only follow closely behind.
The enraged male adventurers charged into the fortress like hungry wolves. The autonomous golems had barely formed a line before they were overwhelmed by this fanatical wave!
"Use ropes to trip their feet! Once they're down, smash their heads with giant hammers!"
"Warrior classes, hold the front! Rogues, quickly get behind them and dismantle their joints!"
"Where are the mages?! Why are you so slow, haven't you eaten? Start chanting quickly!"
The rookie adventurers, usually a disorganized mess, now displayed astonishing tactical prowess!
They coordinated skillfully and efficiently, disassembling autonomous golems into parts with decisive movements!
Looking at the extremely brutal scene before them, it was truly hard to tell which side was the aggressor.
…
Deep within the fortress, Arthur traversed the steel labyrinth alone.
He pressed straight ahead, following the source of the heatwave, and the autonomous golems that leaped out along the way couldn't even catch his afterimage.
A flash of sword light, and the menacing golem was cut clean in half, futilely trying to repair its broken body on the ground.
Soon, he reached the deepest part of the fortress.
A core control room, sealed by a thick iron door, was right before his eyes.
Arthur directly ignored the password lock beside it. Sword light flashed across, leaving an X-shaped cut on the door.
He kicked hard, and the shattered iron door exploded inwards, accompanied by dust!
Inside the control room, a skeleton wearing a white researcher's robe sat silently in a chair on the central circular platform.
At his feet, countless pipes and magic circuits intertwined, continuously supplying energy to the incandescent red stone on the side.
Arthur focused, sensing the terrifying energy contained within the red stone and the heatwave washing over him, his gaze quickly scanning the entire control room for clues.
Soon, a notebook buried among messy documents caught his attention.
The text in the notebook was not the common language of the world, but the unique language of Japan.
Just as he thought.
To create an unreasonable behemoth like the destroyer in another world, there must have been a mischievous reincarnator behind it.
"[X Month X Day. The higher-ups want me to build a mobile weapon with this budget? Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Protests ignored, resignations rejected, even feigning madness and running naked is useless. This country is probably beyond saving.]"
"[X Month X Day. Today is the deadline, but I've been drinking in self-pity. Just then, my most hated spider crawled onto the design blueprint, and I squashed it with my palm. Hmm! I'll just submit this!]"
The handwriting in the notebook was shaky, and the lines were filled with perfunctoriness and impatience. Arthur frowned and continued to read.
"[X Month X Day. That design blueprint was surprisingly well-received? I only killed a spider, though. Because of this, I became the director of the research institute, yay!]"
"[X Month X Day. They asked me what about the power source? I said it was impossible from the start! If you want a power source, go get that legendary super-rare ore that supposedly burns forever—the corona stone!]"
"[X Month X Day. They actually got it?! Are you kidding me?! I only said that casually because I thought it was impossible to find, and they actually got it! If it doesn't move now, won't I be sentenced to death? Please, you have to move! I beg you!]"
This was less an experimental log and more the ranting diary of a certain researcher.
But there was finally a discovery: the official name of the power source was the corona stone.
"[X Month X Day. Celebration banquet, blacked out, no memory. I only remember lecturing the corona stone… No! I also burned it with a cigarette butt…]"
"[X Month X Day. The mobile weapon is running wild and out of control! The country has been destroyed! Oh no, I'm actually in a damn good mood! Fortunately, there's plenty of food and wine here. Alright, I've decided! I'll spend the rest of my life here!]"
"…Heh heh."
Faced with this utterly absurd truth, Arthur could only let out a light chuckle.
He quickly came to the iron grate and split the obstruction with a single sword stroke!
A rich azure glow covered his palm, and with a soft 'click', he took the corona stone, bright as a great sun, from its pedestal.
After losing its energy core, the mechanical warning sound immediately stopped.
The autonomous golems wandering throughout the fortress also let out a series of grating clicks, falling completely silent.
However, the corona stone in Arthur's hand was extremely restless. Its light grew even more brilliant, and the violent energy within it increased rather than decreased, as if it was about to explode the next second!
Misfortunes never come singly, nor blessings in pairs.
Because of the adventurers' reckless destruction along the way, the long-neglected heat dissipation system was completely declared defunct.
Even without the corona stone's power supply, the terrifying heat accumulated inside the fortress was still wildly surging back in!
The inner walls of the Mobile Fortress's passages glowed red visibly, and a heatwave hot enough to melt refined steel swept out!
"Run! This place is going to turn into an oven!"
The adventurers, realizing something was wrong, rapidly retreated at the shouts of Kazuma and the others.
They scrambled out of the human steamer, greedily breathing the cool, fresh air outside.
"W-what's going on now?! Didn't the alarm stop?!"
Wiz, carrying Megumin on her back, hurried forward, her face pale, her voice trembling with fear.
"It's no use! The heat accumulated inside the Mobile Fortress cannot escape, even if the power source is removed, it has already become a super high-heat bomb itself!"