The sound wasn’t coming from a single direction.

It was coming from all around.

From beneath his feet, from deep within the earth!

KLANG... KLANG... RUMBLE—

It was the sound of tens of thousands of gears, stirring back to life after eons of slumber.

The entire Ancient Golem Factory began to vibrate faintly.

As if a colossal beast of steel, asleep for a millennium, was slowly awakening.

But to Allen, it sounded no different from death’s tolling bell.

Allen decisively activated the Flash Scroll he had been clutching tightly in his hand.

The life-saving trump card, worth five hundred Magic Stones, instantly dissolved into a swirl of distorted light that enveloped him completely.

SWISH!

Space warped for a moment.

The next second, Allen’s figure had already left the secret chamber. Without a backward glance, he continued to sprint for the exit.

At the same time, he issued a command through his Spiritual Power network:

"All units! Full-speed retreat!"

The one-armed PX-0 followed behind Allen with heavy strides. The other Spider Slayers abandoned the parts they were sorting and retreated toward the factory entrance like a receding tide.

Just as Allen’s foot was about to cross the threshold of the Golem Factory’s main gate, something strange happened!

In the center of the factory, in the open space he had used as a dumping ground for his spoils, a black metal obelisk he had seen while scavenging but ignored due to its lack of Magic Power fluctuations, suddenly lit up.

An invisible wave began to emanate slowly from the obelisk.

The expression on the rapidly sprinting Allen’s face changed abruptly.

He felt the Magic Power inside his body suddenly become as heavy and sluggish as mercury, difficult to command.

[DSeek! Ambient Magic Power activity is rapidly decreasing... Magic Power inertness at 10%... 20%... 50%!]

[Assessment: Anti-Magic Field-like effect generating! Factory area is no longer suitable for spellcasting!]

An Anti-Magic Field! The nightmarish environment that Wizards hated most!

In such an environment, unless one was a Bloodline Wizard specializing in physical enhancement, other Wizards were no different from toothless tigers.

Allen and his legion of Mechanical Bodies ran out of the factory gates. Feeling the surrounding Magic Power become active again, he couldn’t help but feel a wave of lingering fear.

If he had hesitated for even a moment just now, he would have been like a fish in a barrel, unable to even activate his Flash Scroll!

ZAP! ZAP!

Without any warning, two familiar rays of energy suddenly blasted toward the towering PX-0!

It happened so suddenly that PX-0 had no time to assume a defensive stance. Two small holes were instantly melted into its back armor.

Allen whipped his head around.

At the factory entrance, the two Spider Slayers responsible for covering the rear staggered out.

Their movements seemed strange, as stiff as string puppets.

"Under attack!"

"Target identified: Friendly unit, Spider Slayer 04, 05."

"Logical conflict! Requesting command!"

PX-0 couldn’t understand why its comrades-in-arms would suddenly turn on it.

Master Mercer’s warning flashed through Allen’s mind.

"The moment you discover any ’inexplicable, bizarre behavior’ from your Golems... immediately, right away, sever the connection!"

"They no longer belong to you."

’That’s... a logical virus!’

’It’s that Anti-Magic Field! The field is mixed with a logical virus capable of tampering with their Control Cores!’

He didn’t dare try to regain control through his spiritual link; his master’s warning still echoed in his ears.

"All units, lock onto the two rogue machines at the factory entrance! Concentrate fire and destroy them!"

The twelve Spider Slayers that had escaped with him didn’t hesitate for a second, instantly aiming their cannons at their two "comrades" at the factory entrance.

Their mechanical bodies were pierced, torn apart, and burst into showers of sparks under the concentrated fire, quickly becoming a pile of scrap metal billowing black smoke.

"Xiong Da!" Allen, still uneasy, ordered, "Finish them with another shot! Melt them into molten iron!"

Allen’s command was unhesitating.

Although PX-0’s logic was in disarray, it had no choice but to execute the command from Allen, its highest-authority user.

The "Divine Punishment" main cannon on its chest began to charge.

The thick beam of destruction erupted forth once more.

The two wrecks were utterly obliterated in the explosion, leaving not even a scrap behind.

’Good... good thing I ran fast!’

Allen broke out in a cold sweat. If he and all his Golems had stayed in that field a moment longer and PX-0 had also turned, he probably would have met his end here today.

’This is no place to linger.’

"Back to the academy!"

The airship landed in the academy square. Allen didn’t return to his own workshop, instead heading straight for Master Mercer’s office.

Inside the office, Master Mercer was sitting at his desk, studying the mechanical parts laid out before him.

Seeing Allen enter with a grave expression, he looked up and raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Back so soon? A good haul?"

"Master."

Allen skipped the pleasantries, his voice tinged with lingering fear. "I think... I may have found the logical virus."

Mercer’s hand froze.

"Where?"

"The Ancient Golem Factory." Allen recounted his experience in detail, from finding the notebook to hearing the gears, and then to the obelisk’s activation and the Golems’ betrayal.

He was very thorough, not even omitting the obelisk’s color or the sensation of the wave it emitted.

Mercer listened quietly, his expression growing more and more serious as Allen spoke.

When Allen finished, Mercer finally spoke.

"You did very well."

"To decisively abandon the infected units under those circumstances, and to not attempt to re-establish a link—your response was correct."

This praise, however, did little to ease Allen’s tension.

"Master, that obelisk... and the ’Mechanical Realm’ mentioned in the notebook... what are they, exactly?"

This was what he was most concerned about. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

The most terrifying enemy is an unknown one.

Mercer was silent for a moment, seemingly organizing his thoughts.

"Have you ever heard of a ’meme’?" he asked in return.

Allen nodded. He had a vague understanding of the concept from the internet in his past life, and in this world, Master Mercer had also mentioned it before—it was a Legendary Witchcraft of the Mind School.

"A logical virus is a type of meme that targets ’Mechanical Bodies’."

Mercer continued slowly, "And that obelisk—we call it a ’Logical Beacon.’ It’s a base station for transmitting the meme."

"As for the ’Mechanical Realm’ you mentioned... the logical virus flows from there."

Mercer’s gaze grew complicated, even revealing a hint of... apprehension.

"It is a real plane of existence, a world composed of pure physical laws and absolute logic. There is no life, no emotion, not even Magic Power—only cold gears, precise programs, and eternal operation."

"That plane seems to be conscious... It has been ’expanding’ since two epochs ago."

"It continuously ’watches’ our Magic Worlds, searching for Mechanical Bodies with sufficiently high logical purity. Then, through a ’Logical Beacon,’ it extends an invitation to assimilate them, making them a part of the Mechanical Realm."

"Several such incidents still occur each year in the planes governed by Wizards. However, that’s a headache for the powerful. It is said the Mystic Code Council has already taken measures to deal with it."

Mercer concluded, "For now, the Mechanical Realm poses almost no threat to other schools, but it is a great enemy to our School of Alchemy. However, you don’t need to worry too much. As long as your Golems still have souls, they won’t draw its attention."

"I will handle what comes next. Since your Level 3 Golem is complete, you should focus on your training and advance to an Official Wizard."