[71] At the Summit (5)
The mountain beasts hung from the branches like laundry, torn apart grotesquely. Among them were savage carnivores.
The children who arrived late covered their mouths. The fact that they didn't scream was already proof they'd done what was expected of mountain hunters.
"Altor... what happened? Are you saying the cow-bears did this?"
Martin's voice trembled, and Lumina, unable to bear the sight, turned her head and squeezed her eyes shut. Shirone decided faster than anyone.
"Let's go down. This isn't something we should handle."
"No—go a little further. I need to know what this is."
"Altor! This is serious!"
"That's why I'm saying go! If something like this comes into the mountain, all the game will leave! Then we'll starve!"
"I know that, but it's too dangerous. Let's go down to the town and report it."
"Report it? Have you been hanging out with nobles so long your head's gone soft? Who's going to care about mountain hunters?"
"Idiot, that's exactly why I'm saying this isn't a trivial incident they'll ignore. Look at those animals. Can't you tell how dangerous this is?"
Martin cut in.
"Shi—Shirone. Altor. Look over there."
A thicket of branches rustled and shook. Shirone and Altor both notched arrows and aimed toward the sound.
Sssht. Sssht.
The trembling leaves ratcheted up the tension. Each of the kids drew their own weapon and waited for the mystery to appear. When the killer finally revealed itself, Shirone's and Altor's arrows flew far over its head.
"N—no way..."
Altor, who would normally never be outdone in courage, sounded stricken with fear.
"Grrr."
A hunched, wolflike beast over two meters tall glared at the children. Its chest swelled like bellows while its waist was narrow. Its arms hung to its knees, claws curved like hooks and as long as a human pinky. Its knees bent back and it stood on long, catlike pads—quick and lithe.
Martin could barely choke out a sound.
"Mo—monster."
Evolutionists argue humans and animals derived from a common origin. Monsters, however, came from an entirely different lineage. You couldn't analyze a monster solely by animal traits. They were stronger and more agile than ordinary beasts, and many had intelligence.
'Wolflike appearance, bipedal. It's a Wulk.'
Shirone recalled the books. Wulks lacked verbal language but could express hundreds of emotions by sound, and because they lived in tribes they had social instincts.
With hardy claws, swift mobility, and powerful muscles, they were a balanced type—one of the monsters even hunters hesitated to fight when they gathered in packs.
'Why here? I thought this area had no monsters.'
Only one plausible explanation came to mind: defeated tribes had migrated and these Wulks had drifted in. As if to confirm Shirone's thought, the Wulk's body was scarred in places. Dried blood from many animals clung to its fur; there was no guessing how much it had bled.
The children's ragged breathing stirred Altor's sense of responsibility. As their leader he had to do something.
'It's still a living creature. One shot to the head will kill it.'
Altor drew a deep breath and took aim. The Wulk, aware it was being watched, placidly rested a hand on a tree and observed its prey—proof of reasoning.
'Die, you filthy beast!'
Altor's arrow flew like the wind, but the Wulk merely tilted its head and easily dodged it. Then it made a scoffing sound and scratched its throat.
"Grroorr. Grrooor."
The children were horrified at the creature's reflex to dodge an arrow at such close range. But despair was only beginning.
KRAAASH!
The Wulk smashed a log with raw jaw strength and turned on Altor.
"RAAAAARG!"
"Damn it! Run!"
The moment Altor saw the force that tore the log free, any desire to notch another arrow vanished.
Everyone ran for the summit, but Shirone stayed behind long enough to fire another arrow at the Wulk.
"RAAAAARG!"
Shirone's provocation only enraged the Wulk more, but it bought the children time to escape.
The Wulk leapt with feline grace and struck at Shirone's crown with its claws. At the same instant Shirone flashed and shot up into the air.
"Kreng?"
Shirone, having teleported into the air, looked down at the Wulk. In these deep mountains, chaining teleports was risky.
'Not here. I need to get to the summit.'
Altor supported the exhausted children and ran. Not going downhill was the right choice—coming down in that chaos would have sent them rolling all the way down.
"Hurry! Run faster!"
Having thrown away their gear, the children climbed as if their tongues dragged the ground. Lumina cried out.
"Where's Shirone? I don't see him!"
"He's buying us time! Keep coming!"
Altor urged them up. Worrying about Shirone wouldn't help now. The priority was protecting the children.
"RAAAAARG!"
As the children reached the summit, a howl rose from below. Altor's brow creased. If a monster had come this far it meant Shirone had either fled or died.
"Damn it! There's nowhere to hide!"
The summit was a near-flat clearing that ended in a cliff. The drop was only twenty meters, but there was no time to climb down.
"Altor! The monster's here!"
The Wulk clawed its way up, its muscles gleaming like sunlit stones. Altor, separated from the children, volunteered himself as bait.
"This way! Over here!"
But surrounded by cliffs there was nowhere to flee. Altor turned back in despair. Daily training meant nothing against this monster.
"Damn! I don't know what to do!"
As he raised a fist to fight and die if need be, the Wulk vanished from in front of him.
"Run! Get away!"
Startled, Altor glanced to the side. Invisible though it had been, Shirone was suddenly rolling with the Wulk.
"Wh—what?"
Altor started to rush toward Shirone, but Shirone flashed into light and disappeared again, and Altor froze.
"Wow. Is that—magic?"
The children, seeing teleportation for the first time, were stunned. No matter how fast the Wulk ran, whenever Shirone flared he lost his target.
"RAAAAARG!"
The Wulk's howl rose with frustration. Its anger wasn't purely animal instinct. Thinking all meat tasted the same, it turned and charged the children's position.
"Aaaah!"
The pale-faced children scattered. Only the softhearted Lumina stood frozen, unable to flee.
"Lumina! Run!"
"A...ah..."
Shirone reached out toward the Wulk and combined Photon Output with Omniscience and Omnipotence. But Lumina stood outside the Spirit Zone's radius.
'Damn! I can't reach her.'
Shirone switched the Zone from omnidirectional to a targeted cross shape. When the Zone took a cruciform shape, Shirone finally registered the Wulk in his synesthesia.
'Photon Output!'
Light flashed and struck the Wulk's eyes. The sudden glare made it cover its face and howl.
"He's done it! Shirone's taken it out!"
The beam's spectacle made the children think the Wulk's face had been smashed. But Shirone, knowing Photon Output had no physical force, ran at the Wulk shouting.
"Lumina! Run now! There's no time!"
Lumina scrambled to her feet, but her legs had already frozen and she collapsed like a log. Realizing Shirone's magic had no physical force, the children stamped their feet in panic.
"What do we do? It just shoots light, doesn't it?"
"RAAAAARG!"
The Wulk, having its vision restored, pounced on Lumina. Its hooked claw snagged her hair tie; the elastic snapped and her hair came undone. At that moment Shirone grabbed the Wulk's waist and teleported. The flash shot skyward, and from that height they began to plummet toward the cliff below.
"Shirone! No!"
"RAAAAARG!"
Every time the Wulk struggled, Shirone repeated the teleport. Setting teleportation toward the ground was a dangerous maneuver even banned at school, but he had no choice if he wanted to hold the Wulk's mind.
'What do I do? What do I do here?'
Even if they fell, the Wulk wouldn't die. In a photonized state it had no mass, so the fall after teleportation would have zero impact energy. And if Shirone gave up his magic and they fell, he couldn't restrain the Wulk's thrashing.
'Mass. I need mass...!'
A chill ran over Shirone. He felt a powerful, unprecedented epiphany—shards of thoughts flashed through his mind: the world's beginning, gauge symmetry, a whirlpool circling a bed. Mass isn't force. It's the power of an existence that opens the activity of the universe. A fissure that breaks symmetry.
The lack he felt when compressing his infinite domain back into human consciousness had caused this vision.
A dissonance between Omniscience and Omnipotence.
The missing fragment's name was gravity.
Once Omniscience took form, Omnipotence—previously making itself known only through nightmares—snapped precisely into place. The conditions for the spell were satisfied, and Shirone photonized the Wulk and dropped it.
"Kraa...!"
Before the scream even finished, the Wulk's body hit the ground and rebounded with a hollow thud.
Shirone landed in a Rainbow Drop and stared at the Wulk.
It was instantaneous death. The photonized Wulk's bones had shattered on impact because the light had mass.
"Hah. Hah."
Matter isn't born with mass. There's another element that imparts and removes mass from matter.
An unknown particle imperceptible to humans.
That was the Omniscience Shirone had realized in the Infinite Domain, and the reason gauge symmetry had appeared broken.
"I've got it. I finally figured it out."
Shirone clenched both fists. He trembled with emotion; his chest swelled as if he might cry.
Kyaaaah!
At that moment screams rose from above the cliff. Shirone snapped back to calm and looked up.
"No way...?"
Wulks were social creatures. Even if a tribe was defeated, a lone Wulk traveling by itself was unlikely.
"No!"
Shirone teleported up to the cliff. When he arrived he froze, as did Altor and the others. Dozens of Wulks ringed them. The entire tribe had moved as one.
'I underestimated their social cohesion.'
He could hear the children's whimpers.
"W-what do we do? We're all dead, aren't we?"
"I never even got married. I don't want to die like this."
Shirone didn't want to die either. And now he had at least the minimal weapon to fight the Wulks.
"It's okay, kids. I'll handle this somehow."
"What are you going to do? Run—please. You can magic your way out."
"It's fine. This time I won't be breaking the rules."
Shirone walked toward the pack.
"Shirone! It's dangerous!"
Altor called, but Shirone ignored him. He simply reviewed his revelation and glared at the Wulks.
The silver-furred Wulk that looked like the chieftain sneered and nodded, and a right-arm–type Wulk lunged forward.
"RAAAAARG!"
Shirone concentrated photons in his palm.
'This isn't enough. More... more...'
The light in his hand paled until it flared into a dazzling white that burned the eyes. All the while the Wulk closed the distance at speed.
Shirone measured the gap and focused on altering the nature of the photons in his hand. As the children's screams reached a pitch, the Wulk arrived and slashed with its claws.
Shirone was suddenly shoved back a meter—he'd used a short-range teleport to create space—then he opened his eyes and cast.
'Now!'
He hurled the compressed photons. The pale flare slammed into the Wulk's abdomen. The photons, compacted into a crushing sphere, shoved the Wulk back and then streamed out as a golden streak.
"RAAAAARG!"
The Wulk screamed and flew. It collided with other Wulks and tumbled down the mountainside.
The children's eyes widened at the impossible sight.
"N-no way. Did you see that? That huge monster flew tens of meters!"
"How could that be? Is that... magic?"
The chieftain Wulk sniffed and drew its nose in contempt. Its intelligence was considerable; human words slipped out.
"Ma... ge... mage..."
Dozens of Wulk eyes fixed on Shirone. But Shirone stared only at the chieftain.
He felt he could win.
The mass contained in the photons was tiny, but at near-light speed the momentum delivered a shock far beyond expectation.
And this—this was the Unlocker's magic that only Shirone could wield:
the Photon Cannon.
(End of Volume 3)