Chapter 167 – Gigantes

“‘Gigantes’?”

Jin and Reinhardt both asked for an explanation for the word they were unaccustomed to hearing.

Judging that the explanation would be long, Reiko once more got close to Ann for Magic Energy synchronization and began explaining instead of Ann.

“During the anti-demon-race war…Anti-demon-race war seems to mean The Great Magic War…the Gigantes was a weapon that was developed in its final moments.”

It seems that at that time, people called it the anti-demon-race war.

“However, the Gigantes was faulty. Because it did not listen at all to what its manufacturers said.”

“So, what kind of weapon is these Gigantes?”

Jin had a somewhat bad feeling about this so he urged her to continue.

“The Gigantes is a giant human-type weapons with overall height of ten meters.”

Hearing that, even Jin was surprised. He didn’t know that such a thing existed. Because it was a weapon developed after the predecessor’s death during the Great Magic War.

“Is it a golem?”

“No. Gigantes is Gigantes.”

“Please describe its features in detail.”

Reinhardt said, his face also pale.

“Gigantes’s shape is similar to a human’s but its shoudlers are wider, legs shorter, and arms thicker and longer. Its height is ten meters, and its weight about 30 tons.”

“What an enormous golem.”

Reinhardt muttered, but Reiko -that is, Ann- denied it.

“No, that’s incorrect. That’s because Gigantes is assembled out of simple rock fragments.”

“Assembled out of rock fragments…”

Jin tried picturing it. He got the feeling that the word ‘golem’ referred to such a creature in his previous world. In the orphanage there had been a single game console and in a game he played on it there had been such a monster.

“There was a something like that in there?”

No one in remembered seeing a giant like that inside the discovered ruins.

“No, Gigantes’s [Core] was supposed to have been sealed.”

“[Core]? Not a [Control Core]?”

Jin thought he might have misheard. A Core was the core devil beasts had.

“A Core. Because Gigantes is an ‘artifical devil beast’.”

“An ‘artificial devil beast’?

Another phrase he hadn’t heard made its appearance.

“Yes. An artificial devil beast made to oppose the devil race.”

“An eye for an eye or something like that, huh.”

Jin crossed his arms and pondered.

Judging from how Reiko is reading her mind, the Automata Ann’s memories don’t seem to be erased after all, he concluded. Most likely, like Reiko’s had, her Control Core must’ve reached the end of its technical life, making the the reading of information unstable. Unreasonably pushing her now could have unfortunate consequences for the ‘lost information’ he had finally attained. That was Jin’s conclusion.

Although despite that, it wasn’t possible to perfectly repair Ann here and now.

Jin urgently began examining the Automata Ann. While Reinhardt assisted him.

Elsa was at her wit’s end when she saw Jin’s expression, and stayed silent to not be on the way.

Her steel skeleton had rusted, several joints had stopped operating, and the leather of some unrecognizable devil beast used as her muscles was torn in countless places.

Her coating of Magical Skin was a composite material but it too had worn out.

Jin judged that it had been nearly 350 years since she had been constructed. Even the Great Magic War had been 300 years ago, she was older than that.

Probably because her materials’ quality was generally worse compared to Reiko’s, so after 350 years they had reached their limits. First of all, he did temporary repairs on the Magi Crystal working as the diaphragm of her vocal apparatus.

Nonetheless, by just pasting together the cracked Magi Crystal with [Fusion], the vocal apparatus that was reaching the end of its life span would break completely in the near future.

“Ann, what was the person who built you like?”

Jin decided to try asking.

“Yes, I was mass-produced and so I do not have a particular creator.”

Her way of talking improved considerably, so she no longer needed Reiko’s help.

“So there was something like a mass production plant, huh.”

“Yes, secretary Automata like me and battle-type golems and such were built in the factory.”

And the foundation of those designs was most likely based on his predecessor’s work, Jin guessed.

“Heyy, Jin, this Ann has an amazing structure, I’ve learned some things!”

Even Reinhardt seemed surprised when he looked at Ann’s structure.

But there was a more pressing problem.

“Now then, please tell me everything you know about Gigantes.”

“Yes. Using the Magic Energy stored in its Core, Gigantes constructs its body from surrounding rock fragments. As long as Magic Energy remains in its Core it can reform endlessly.”

It was rather similar to the golem in the game Jin had played.

“We