Editing Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 3 Chapter 3

The foremost leading pack of the Demon Beasts that came rushing were swallowed in one go by the flame wall that burst forth from the ground. The blue light that was released when the Demon Beast vanished from this world was flickering in countless numbers inside the flame.

“Prometheus… {{furigana|Angriff|Charge}}!!”

“Prometheus, {{furigana|Klinge|Blade}}!”

When Lotte commanded, the spearhead part transformed, and a blade was formed.

Transforming from a [lance] to [naginata] , Lotte swung it from the back of the monsters' swarm.

The storm of the electric blade blew violently, sweeping up the swarm of monsters.

Lotte, who was armed with the extensive ranged attack from the new magic she learned, was a demon of annihilation.

Mio was hanging her head down while her breath hadn't recoverd yet.

Lotte’s encouragement was accurate, but Mio was not comforted with that and she kept her head hung down with no sign of looking up. Mio was still hung up from the fight with Beatrix, where she was not useful.

“…Even though I also want to be useful for Kazu-nii, I only keep holding all of you back…”

Through the telepathy magic, Lotte could perceive Mio's feelings.

An uneasy feeling was enveloping the surface of Mio’s heart, like a dark sea.

Because of the feelings of powerlessness against herself, a cold wind of self-loathing was blowing inside her.

Mio, who was usually full of confidence in herself, was whispering weakly.

The small-statured Lotte tiptoed lightly and hugged Mio while patting Mio’s back lightly.

“Kazuki-oniisan is not a calculating person, who will decide to like, or hate you, based on if you are useful in battle or not, right desu? We are not supposed to be people that Kazuki-oniisan gathered for the purpose of creating a strong party desu. We are connected with Kazuki-oniisan by a Bond, people who gathered because we love each other desu. That’s why we can become a strong party desu.”

“…I know, that's obvious. I have been together with Kazu-nii for a long time. But… exposing an unsightly appearance, when I want to show my good points, still made me uneasy…”

“We are comrades who help each other. So let’s do this with the right person in the right place. I'll kick around all the small fry. Mio-oneesan should preserve her strength. Please launch a large barrage at the Boss. Come on, please cheer up. Please cheer up~”

Against Mio, who talked with a sulking tone, Lotte put on a joking air and patted Mio’s back.

Mio, who had a sulky expression, pulled on Lotte’s cheeks with a ‘munyu’.

Even with her cheeks pulled, Lotte still raised a happy voice.

“Lotte, thank you. … About Lotte, I like you somewhat.”

“I love Mio-oneesan so much desu! Then if Mio-oneesan has already collected her feelings, let’s go forward desu!”

“There are Demon Beasts. This place is being turned into a Haunted Ground isn’t it? But if that’s true, then I wonder why this Haunted Ground is not spreading.”

Both of them were heading forward, while slipping through traps at times. Mio suddenly felt doubt.

“Haunted Grounds are something that spread rapidly. That’s why, if left alone, it would encroach onto the Magic Division’s ground, isn’t that right? But the border line of these Haunted Grounds is located perfectly in the middle of the stairs descending to basement.”

“If Mio-oneesan says it, that’s true isn’t it desu?”

“It is controlled by someone. … The Haunted Grounds are not spreading fruther than this. These Haunted Grounds are maintained at ths size. In other words, the Demon Beasts extermination is being carried out periodically. I wonder. Seeing it carefully, the concrete walls and floors are worn-out, but it doesn’t feel old and decaying. Instead, it tells the frequency of the fights, that were carried out here…”

There were a great number of cracks and signs of destruction on the pulsing concrete surroundings, which were turned into the Haunted Grounds. Those signs were almost not found at all in the vicinity of the entrance, but as they advanced, the more they increased.

“To do such troublesome things this far... There must be a reason to preserve this place as Haunted Grounds. What in the world are they doing here?”

At the end of the corridor, Mio and Lotte discovered a door. Thinking about how many traps there were, starting from the trap hole, there was no doubt, that a big secret was hidden beyond this door.

“This is not an adamantite door, is it desu?”

It seems it would be very hard to carry super heavy adamantite this far underground.

Then it would be simple to break this door? Lotte materialized a lance in her left hand, then she rammed the spearhead into the keyhole ― she exerted her strength. The keyhole was easily broken, the door opened with a thud.

There was a computer inside the room. As well as a lot of monitors.

In this fairly cramped room, the only notable thing around was that computer. In here, all the things that were performed in remote places were displayed and regulated using the displays. It seems this was the control room of this whole underground facility.

No doubt. That computer was a clue.

Though, that was only if they could boot it up.

“…Sage of Civilization Prometheus. If it’s you, you should be able to do something about this?”

Toward Lotte’s call, the avatar of the young boy Prometheus appeared, “Ho-ho-, I say, I say”, he wandered around the computer with interest.

“This is a computer right? Vast electric signals are being inputted, calculated, outputted… Hmm, hmm, I see. This is what is called a computer huh. Awesome. How revolutionary this is.”

Lotte sat down at the computer desk. Prometheus’s avatar disappeared.

And then Lotte’s arms moved by themselves. Lotte, who was being possessed by Prometheus, had handed over partial control of her physical body.

The computer powered on. The boot sequence was displayed on the connected displays, but what was displayed on the monitor was something Mio had never seen before. It was not an OS which saw widespread use. The OS seemed to be based on encryption, encrypting everthing on the internal drive.

In short, even if they destroyed this computer and carried out only its storage device, it would be difficult to decrypt the encrypted data. They had to break through the security measures within this very room.

Both of Lotte’s arms became the arms of Prometheus. Her fingers were running along the keyboard. It was their first time operating a keyboard, as shown Prometheus’ rather clumsy keyboard strokes.

However, his inputs were accurate.

Towards the sage, who was born in this world with the concept of civilization, Mio was being struck with admiration once again.

A Diva was hacking a computer… This situation is ridiculous.

“Well, somehow I’m using my intuition, or maybe you my sixth sense. Pop that lock. And it’s gone.”

Toward the curious OS, that was demanding a password, Prometheus had easily defeated the security measures taken.

“Oh ho, there's a game here. Minesweeper huh. Is it fine to try it a little? The record time of this computer’s owner is 57 seconds. I want to surpass it without fail.”

Lotte scolded Prometheus. Because their conversation wascarried out using only Lotte’s mouth and voice, it looked completely like a soliloquy.

“Not only booting it up, but accesing the encrpyted data… Oh hoh, looks like it was protected with double layer password protection. Hahhahha, how impertinent. And, it's gone.”

“Hmmmm, furthermore, to read this data thoroughly it seems we need something like a decryption application. That application is not saved on this computer. Looks like it's carried portable storage media. Yosh, how about I create that application starting from now?”

“…I don’t get what you are doing at all, but looks like nothing's impossible for you huh?”

“I cannot create that app from nothing you know? I’m only comprehending the surface of the data and reverse-engineering the application.”

While Mio was being amazed at this sight, Prometheus completed the improvised application with his clumsy typing.

“But I cannot understand why it only asked for authentication in form of a password and an application, without using biometric confirmation. If it asked for that, then it’s all over even for me. … By any chance, perhaps the owner of this computer even has a plan to reconstruct his own body. It’s only a wild guess though, but I don’t know if there is any other reason.”

Mio was shaking Prometheus (Lotte)’s shoulders.

“I didn’t find any map of this underground labyrinth on this computer. It seems the owner of this computer memorized all the structures of this underground labyrinth, so he didn’t need a map. To not have any necessity to share the information, it shows that the ones who use this underground labyrinth is most likely only one person. However, I found a data file of [experiment results]. Looking at the content, the accomplishments of the experiments were carried out at that place that looks like an arena. It seems the tests were using the Demon Beasts as the opponent.”

“Experiments? What kind of experiments? Perhaps we can understand it if we look at the data?”

The terminal screen was changing constantly because of Prometheus’ operating. Mio’s eyes couldn’t follow at all, but Prometheus should be able to naturally read those contents at high speed.

All the data of the computer was duplicated onto this high capacity storage device.