The mages scrambled to set up spell markers and the solidified Beelze cubes as the arrival of King Jack encroached.

“Treat those cubes with special care! They were made purely from Beelze Particles making them incredibly valuable to any respectable mage.” Rent, an alchemist mage who had been taught by an esteemed colleague, was leading the operation stationed in the very throne room where the king would sit and grant audience to varying individuals. The cubes in question numbered at six with two being a gentle blue; another two being a violent, dark red; and the last two being a lime-green. “Please finish up with those markers soon, I believe the King will be arriving with the artifacts very soon,” Rent ordered to a group of squatting mages.

“Yes sir!” Responded the mages. Just as the finishing touches were made to the markers and the mages–save for Rent–made their way out of the throne room, King Jack along with an entourage of both his personal guard and other nobles and esteemed individuals entered the throne room. As the guard dispersed across the throne room the King approached Rent with two distorted shapes covered in cloth.

“The spell is ready for use, Your Grace,” Rent explained to King Jack as he bowed towards him.

“Thank you, Rent, here are the artifacts you requested,” King Jack responded as he handed Rent the distortion of cloth.

“Your Grace…I thank you for doing this, I know that this is a risk for the entire Kingdom but I assure you I will make the most of the royal family’s treasured legendary weapons,” Rent reassured the King as he removed the cloth from the weapons and laid them down in the center of the Beelze cubes that were formatted in the shape of a circle. As the King sat down onto his throne, waiting for Rent to begin the spell, one of the nobles that had come to observe spoke up.

“Oi! What’ve we even come here for anyway?” The noble questioned.

“Hm? Did you come here without knowing?” Rent questioned back.

“Indeed, the agreement for the use of both of the legendary weapons ‘Liquidation’ and ‘Hornkin’ included all of us being present when they were to be used. So, what is this… eh, contraption, if you will.” The weapons Liquidation and Hornkin are two incredibly rare magically-enhanced weapons referred to as ‘Nerve Weapons.’ This name comes from the fact that these weapons have had Nerve Beelze Particles infused into them allowing any individual to utilize spells with these weapons. However, these two weapons are even more unique from normal Nerve Weapons as they are the results of an experiment to have Nerve Weapons inherit attributes from Monsters. Liquidation is a sword that has, despite its plain appearance, inherited the attributes of a slime, allowing the sword to stretch and mold in accordance to the user’s will. Hornkin is a halberd that has successfully inherited the attributes of a demon, allowing it to exude powerful pure magic and giving it its fierce purple and pink sheen.

“Well, this ‘contraption’ as you call it is part of an ancient spell to bring forth souls from another world. However, back when it was first invented the spell could never be put to full use since the information of the souls would be quickly extracted by the Beelzes surrounding them, causing unnecessary deaths. However, seeing as how the Inverted Towers have begun their rise once more, our Liege, King Jack the second, has put me in charge of creating powerful homunculi akin to Gloria the Unforgotten and for such a thing I believe our only choice would be to create intelligent homunculi.” In an instant, one of the nobles hurriedly spoke up.

“Wait! You can’t do that, those things are already monsters and now you want to give them the same intelligence as us?!”

“Worry not,” Rent kept his composure despite the sudden outburst and answered the noble’s concerns, “I will be transferring the soul of a human into the body of these homunculi, not granting the vessel itself a consciousness. However, if we want these homunculi to put an end to all of the Inverted Towers across the world, then we need them to be capable of both conquering the Towers, but also defending themselves against human adversaries; so, I came to the answer of using the fabled Liquidation and Hornkin to further empower these homunculi, granting them the attributes these weapons have inherited.” This explanation caused an even greater outburst, this time including all of the nobles present.

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“Please!” King Jack spoke up from his throne, “Quiet down. I understand where such outrage stems from, after all these weapons are essentially heirlooms to the entire kingdom, being only granted to our greatest knights to fell our greatest foes. However, now our foes are that of the ancient Inverted Towers that once threatened the entire world, before suddenly stopping all at once centuries ago. For this immeasurable foe, we need something equally immeasurable, so I requested Rent, who was taught by none other than Amar himself, to either find or create me powerful warriors capable of being both the world’s sword and shield against the monsters that crawl up from the Towers.” One of the nobles attempted to debate the King’s choice.

“B-But Your Gra-”

“Do you think whatever soldiers you have under your command can even reach the twentieth floor of the Tower?” King Jack quickly shut down the noble’s counterargument, “I know that nobody in this kingdom has the power to stop the Tower that exists within our borders, after all the only individual capable of stopping the Tower was Gloria who perished after merely repelling Reed and now what are we to do? Sit and send our infantry into the maw of the Tower only to be subject to an unnecessary bloodbath? This is the only way we can overcome the Towers. We must give up everything for this. If we hold onto even one coin of copper, we will fall before the might of the fully ascended Towers.” The silence after Jack stopped was long and only broken by Jack once more speaking up, “Rent, please continue with the summoning.”

“Yes, Your Grace,” Rent responded. Rent stood parallel, facing the throne that Jack sat upon as he began the incantation. “Heed my will and bring it forth, gluttonous forces of the unseen. Extend your reach past this realm and into that of the unknown, and drag the will of those in wait down to the same ground by which we trek on.” The incantation prompted a flurry of magic-enthused wind as a magic circle formed, assimilating all of the markers with it as it surrounded both the weapons and the Beelze cubes. Once the magic circle was completed, the Beelze cubes began to float in unison before slowly separating into smaller cubes and then into a vapor that slowly swirled to an epicenter near the roof of the throne room directly above the weapons. Then, accompanied by a blue flash, a beam of blue light took up the center of the magic circle and stretched out into the clouds above. The beam fluctuated with magical energy as it absorbed the power from Liquidation and Hornkin, however as the spell continued the clouds above began to enclose onto the beam of light. The clouds darkened as it gathered into one mass, accompanied with blue flashes breaking through the haze of the cloud. The beam of light began to fluctuate more and more as it began to absorb information from Beelze Particles surrounding it, until it crossed a tipping point. The once blue, thin beam burst into a golden beam that engulfed the entirety of the magic circle as it continued abnormally fluctuating with magical energy. This unexpected reaction prompted the silent panic of both the nobles and King and the guards stationed throughout the throne room to remove their swords from their sheaths. Quickly, King Jack spoke up.

“What is this Rent?! Is this the proper procedure?!”

“No, Your Grace! I am unsure what is happening, but if I release this spell now we may encounter unwanted consequences!” Rent answered in a swift yell.

“Then do not stop!” King Jack ordered.

“Yes, Your Grace!” The clouds above reacted in tandem with the golden beam of light, expanding and exhibiting brighter and more radiant bursts of color as it continued. Branches of electric-like magic began to connect between the clouds and the beam of light, becoming more and more violent as the beam penetrated further into the sky. Four nodes stemmed out of the beam before launching themselves off into the distance like a boulder being launched by a trebuchet. Shortly after, the beam of light dissipated like dandelion fluff being dragged away by the wind. As though it was never there, but its effects were apparent by the burn marks on the floor and the gaping hole in the roof of the throne room.

“W-What just happened?” One of the nobles questioned, soon followed by another of the nobles.

“Where are the weapons?! You mage, what did you do with them?!”

“It…It would seem that they were absorbed by the spell…” Rent quietly responded.

“Would this mean that the spell succeeded?” King Jack asked Rent.

“It is a possibility, but who knows where the homunculi are then.” Rent answered.

“Then we will send out search parties as soon as possible.” King Jack concluded before having the guards escort the nobles out of the throne room.