Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint - Ch. 301
Maximilien was born in the Fallen Dominion.
In that cursed land where even birth itself was a misfortune, failure to resolve the issues that constantly rose from living there meant certain doom.
Fortunately, even though he had no arms, Maximilien’s talent was extraordinary and he deftly handled the numerous challenges that life threw at him.
Even when the elites of the Fallen Dominion united to execute him, he remained rational and calm.
With the awakening of his Unique Magic, two entire companies crumbled beneath his steel gears and Maximilien calmly left the Fallen Dominion.
However, despite overcoming the greatest crisis of his life, Maximilien felt no satisfaction.
A much larger problem still loomed over him—a monolithic shadow so vast that even the God of Gears himself could not peer past the darkness.
The world Maximilien lived in was far from perfect.
It was like a broken machine filled with discord and malfunctioning parts, creaking and grinding along like a misshapen piece of junk.
But if the world were just a machine, the solution would be simple. Parts could be fixed, inefficient structures could be improved, and broken machinery could be repaired.
But humans were beyond repair.
Humans were illogical.
Blinded by their stupidity, they rejected gears, yet felt envy and jealousy at their efficiency.
Each human understood things differently, even when they were looking at the same object. They attacked each other without reason—just like the fools of the Fallen Dominion.
Defective products with jagged gears were the world’s biggest problem.
Because of them, people like Maximilien, those with “qualifications,” had to live with unnecessary friction.
Thus, Maximilien concluded that humanity needed to be fixed.
But how?
Maximilien had a clear sense of the problem and even a solution, but he lacked the means.
To realize his ideal, he needed to build a society on the scale of a city, possibly even a country.
However, as a vagabond fleeing the Fallen Dominion, he had no resources to accomplish such a feat.
During this time of deep contemplation, the sky suddenly opened and an angel descended upon him.
The angel, who claimed to have been watching Maximilien, made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Why not build a nation?
Maximilien didn’t believe in gods.
After all, they hadn’t given him hands to even pray to them.
But the angel before him wasn’t a god—merely a tool of the Sanctum, tainted by worldly affairs and fallen.
Maximilien didn’t believe in gods, but he did believe in tools.
So, he took the angel’s hand.
The Envoy was a monarch, seated in a position to observe, evaluate, and command everything.
The Camarilla was an executioner—she was the blade closest to the Envoy, a ruthless gardener who pruned the Military State as needed.
And finally, the Warforger was the architect, the grand designer.
The Military State’s various facilities, inventions, and policies arose from the depths of his mind.
From the automaton carriages he designed to the large-scale alchemic steel refinery, there was nothing in the Military State that didn’t bear his mark.
Even the Meta Conveyor Belt, hailed as one of the masterpieces of the Military State, was created by Maximilien’s suggestion.
Originally, the Meta Conveyor Belt was supposed to use millions of gears that would encircle the Military State instead of Earthweave.
Whether that idea was practical was another matter, but his contributions were highly regarded.
Of all the three Star Generals from outside the Military State, Maximilien was the most industrious.
Not only because of his diligence but also because he genuinely enjoyed his work.
To him, the Military State was a vast, intricate toy and a laboratory to test his ideals.
Taking advantage of the chaos that always came with a newly founded country, Maximilien even carried out some rather extreme experiments.
Hatred for the Kingdom, hope blossoming from scorched land, and the extraordinary leadership of the Warlord with the help of the three Star Generals he brought with him led to the great revival of the Military State.
While some people were discarded along the way, there were always more gears to replace them.
It didn’t bother Maximilien much.
Indeed, Maximilien succeeded.
But fundamentally, he failed.
He tried to use humans as parts, yet they refused to behave as expected.
They tried to spring back like coiled wires, even when he told them that escaping meant being discarded.
No matter how much he polished them, defective parts with jagged edges would hide within the machine, causing critical malfunctions at the worst times.
Maximilien could not tolerate such losses.
As long as there were such losses, the perfect machine he sought could never be built.
Unless he “fixed” humanity.
***
“Congratulations, Maximilien. You found me. Creating ground to step on the Abyss and trapping the King of Dogs there— a perfect bait and I fell for it completely.”
Phew, finally.
This guy’s life is flashing before his eyes—took him long enough.
It was a strange way to put it, but Maximilien had indeed been “pierced” by Historia’s bullet and was now on the verge of death.
But he wasn’t dead yet, and he still had the power to kill me with a mere flick of his finger.
I should have finished him off quickly, but Historia had collapsed in exhaustion.
It’s up to me now.
I looked down from the edge of the Steel Beetle.
Its height was about four meters, and the ground below was littered with broken pieces of concrete—too dangerous to just jump down.
If I were in perfect condition, I could use my items and techniques to land gracefully.
But I wasn’t in great shape either.
The “Earth” was the biggest magnet.
I had maximized the magnetic properties of the Eight of Clubs to divert the trajectory of the steel flying at me, but there was one problem.
While I could use magnetism to pull steel toward me, I couldn’t push it away.
In other words, all the flying steel had come straight toward the card I was holding.
Even though I’d wrapped my arm in the Queen of Fabric’s cloak, dozens of blades had grazed me, turning my arm and the cloak into a tattered mess.
If most of the projectiles hadn’t veered off course, I would’ve been skewered.
If one of those spears had hit me directly, I would’ve had to ask Maximilien to make me a prosthetic arm.
It looked like I wouldn’t be using my left hand for a while.
I tightly wrapped the Queen of Fabric around my arm to staunch the bleeding, then carefully descended using the gears like steps.
“I must say. It’s a pity. Your desire was strong and fascinating, but unfortunately, I can’t grant your wish. I am the Human King, the representative of humanity itself, yet I have no strength or authority. Now, the only desire I can fulfill is that of the person standing in front of me.”
Maximilien blinked.
His condition was dire.
A large hole gaped in his chest, exposing blood-soaked gears that had been meticulously arranged inside his body.
Even now, the gears continued to turn, though most were horribly damaged, some crushed to the point where they tore into his flesh with each rotation.
“Your desire is directed at all of humanity, isn’t it? But you can’t convince every single human, so you seek to persuade the Human King instead. That’s why you needed me, right?”
No matter how much he willed it, his muscles wouldn’t respond.
Instead, the gears spread throughout his body and obeyed his will.
Click.
His prosthetic arm forced his mangled body to stand upright.
Despite his muscles screaming and blood flowing uncontrollably, he paid no heed to it, rising through sheer will.
“In fact, you seem more suited to be the Human King than I am. How about taking my place?”
Maximilien spoke, coughing up a frothy mix of blood before forcing out his words.
“If… you can give it, cough… I’ll gladly accept it.”
“Haha, I was joking. You can’t be the king. Even if I could give you the title, you’re not trying to be a king—you’re trying to be a god. A god who remakes humanity as you see fit.”
“How deceitful… but… what you just did… cough, was surely the power of a god. Aren’t you the god here?”
“No. That was the Unique Magic from the Order of Gaia. I told you. I can steal and use others’ Unique Magic.”
“Is that not… what a god do?”
“I said it’s not.”
I waved my bandaged arm up and down.
The sudden movement made blood seep out again.
It was reckless to move like this with such an injury, but what did it matter?
Maximilien forced himself to stand despite his wounds.
Thus I had to show him some effort in return.
“Some Unique Magics do reach the territory of gods. They give names to entities that didn’t exist before, tying them to reality. Once named, these ‘gods’ watch over the world, and humans benefit from their blessings and graces. That’s why some Unique Magics can also be called Divine—as they bring irreversible changes to humanity.”
The creation of Earthweave changed humanity as a whole.
At the bottom of the Abyss, far below where even light and logic could not reach, I had found the memories of the Grandmaster, sealed by the Sanctum.
Before the Grandmaster’s existence, Mother Earth was just a branch of folk belief, but after her arrival, she became a god who responded to humanity’s call.
The Sanctum had sealed this secret, so only the followers of Mother Earth could use her Earthweave, but in the end, it was still a human invention.
“That’s why you’re ordinary, Maximilien. Your gears can’t change humanity.”
Gears, after all, are useful.
They amplify force by several times, or they can create precise movements.
They can convert force into rotation, or vice versa.
Useful—that’s all.
“Your prosthetic arm merely imitates the human arm, just like your Steel Beetle mimics an insect. Launching spears with a gear launcher, pulling a bow with a winch—all these are functions humans already discovered. Mimicry—that’s the essence of your power.”
I struck him where it hurt without mercy.
“Your ability to assemble small gears into something monumental is remarkable. It’s something to be admired. But the gears themselves? You didn’t create those. They’ve already existed. The principles of gears aren’t new to this world—you’ve just mastered them.”
He is a giant standing on the shoulders of other giants.
Great and powerful, yes, but he will never reach the Divine.
He knows that better than anyone.
Even when both of us knew the truth, there were moments when it must be spoken aloud.
This was one of those moments.
“You may be a giant, but you’ll never be a god. Know your place, beast.”