[577] The Monster of Omnipotence (4)
* * *
Scramble Royal, Day 5.
The moment the first Scramble was summoned, Iruki teleported to the nearest coordinates.
Fortunately the Scramble wasn't far, and he blinked into Training Ground No. 2000.
It should've been empty at lunchtime, but someone was waiting for him.
"Eden."
She hadn't shown up at all yesterday.
Iruki had assumed she was up to something, but there was nothing outwardly different about her.
Except for the fierce faith burning in her eyes.
"Did you wait on purpose?"
The weakness of defense magic wasn't just Cancellation; Iruki's magic leaned overwhelmingly toward offense.
Still, meeting her at the first Scramble meant she had a specific purpose.
"I needed to confirm something before meeting Shirone."
'So she's testing me.'
With Hershi's ability, locating someone was easy.
"So… you're taking it?"
Iruki pointed at the Scramble.
"Probably… yes."
"Kikiki!"
Overdrive sparks danced in Iruki's eyes.
'There's a limit to how much you can toy with my pride.'
Cancellation!
By the fifth day there was nothing left to hide, and a flood of data pierced Iruki's mind.
'Do whatever you want.'
There was no need to understand the magic's inner workings. Only a Servant Syndrome could analyze omniscience whole and invert the vector quantities.
"I believe that you exist."
Eden began to undress.
"I believe that God's love dwells within me."
Even as she walked toward him naked, Iruki didn't stop analyzing.
"That that love will dwell in the world again."
'Done!'
As soon as the analysis finished, he cast Cancellation.
"Therefore, beyond belief—"
Eden spread her arms.
"To know that you exist."
Proof of God's existence—Absolute Barrier.
There was no visible effect—just the sight of the naked girl—but Iruki was stunned.
"...Impossible."
"What are you going to do? If you can do something, try it. That's why I came to find you."
Cancellation didn't take.
'The vectors aren't moving.'
Immobility and stillness aren't the same thing.
If it shifted even a little, the magic would be canceled in time, but now change itself was impossible.
'It's not a matter of omniscience.'
Absolute omnipotence.
The extreme perception that transcended belief and felt God had amplified Eden's omnipotence.
Her Spirit Zone clung to her as if vacuum-packed to her body, and that was enough to protect her.
"Then I'll take it."
'I have to stop her.'
Watching Eden stride toward the Scramble, Iruki activated the double Spirit Zone unique to a Servant.
'I have no choice.'
The destructive power of a nuclear-fusion detonation would be unimaginable, but if he couldn't stop Eden here the match would be lost.
'It takes about 11.73 seconds for her to walk to the Scramble.'
Iruki, who had designed a ten-second detonation equation, left his position. Eden reached the Scramble and reached out her hand.
'Nuclear fusion!'
A blinding light gathered where Eden's hand reached, then expanded in an instant and blew the landscape away.
BOOOOM!
At the mountain-like roar, the students turned and Shiina rubbed her temple.
"What was that? An accident?"
It had been such a massive blast that the mountain itself looked altered from afar.
'I made that magic, but damn—that was something else.'
Perched on a branch, Iruki confirmed Training Ground No. 2000 had been blown away without a trace.
The financial loss would be huge, but that could wait.
"Anyway… huh?"
Iruki's eyes widened as he checked where the Scramble had been.
Eden held a card in her hand with not a strand of hair out of place.
A white card.
"One more."
She looked back at Iruki, who was still some distance away.
"The Infinite will be completed today."
"You… do you know how expensive No. 2000 is?"
He'd been the one who'd blown it up, but the grievance slipped out anyway.
"I don't know."
Eden neither raised her voice nor argued.
As long as God protected her, even if the universe were destroyed she would be unharmed.
"I believe that you exist. That your—God's love dwells within me…"
Iruki murmured a prayer as Eden walked away, his voice trailing off weakly.
"We're going to lose this, aren't we?"
* * *
Dorothy trembled, hiding behind a tree.
Even though the Scramble had already been conceded, Prings kept following her.
"Dorothy, where are you? Hiding here?"
Prings brushed aside the undergrowth and Dorothy's shoulder flinched in her secluded spot.
"Not here? Then maybe here?"
A nauseatingly sleazy tone.
'He's belittling me!'
She thought that, but her body wouldn't move.
'Pervert.'
Dorothy imagined what would happen if Prings caught her.
He'd force everything out of her.
Her private secrets—exposed to her family, the horrible memories she'd rather forget—would all be dug up.
"Aha, there you are?"
Dorothy's heart dropped.
"Just kidding. Don't be so tense."
Her legs went weak and trembled.
"Scared to death, aren't you? That's why hide-and-seek's fun. Enjoy it, Dorothy. I'm getting a thrill too."
'I know. He knows where I am.'
Even without entering the Spirit Zone, both had that certainty.
"I can smell it. Dorothy's special scent of frustrated desire."
At the voice only a meter behind her, Dorothy's mind went blank.
"Then, let's meet our princess—"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
At that moment Hershi's recall signal sounded.
Prings, who'd been looking up at the sky, blinked and spoke to the tree Dorothy hid behind.
"Hershi's calling. You're alive, Dorothy. How do you feel? So relieved you could die, right? Huh? Huh?"
"...."
"If you beg, she'll let you go. Beg—crying and all."
'Huuuu…'
Dorothy clenched her trembling jaw desperately.
"...See you next time, miss."
The roar of spatial teleportation filled the air and Dorothy collapsed forward.
"Gah! Gah!"
Relief lasted only a moment before unbearable misery washed over her whole body.
"What… am I doing here?"
Hickory watched Dorothy's falling tears.
* * *
'Religion (○○○).'
Eden already had three cards.
"One in the first round each time. Well, there was nothing we could do."
Iruki fell into thought.
How to stop her?
As long as her omnipotence overwhelmingly outclassed him, Cancellation was useless.
'If I could wedge in just 0.1 percent…'
He didn't need to pine for what he couldn't have, so he considered a second option.
'External force, in the end.'
If he stretched the detonation equation for the nuclear fusion to about a minute, it might be possible.
'Should I wait for that? No—if I guide it and it goes off, the backlash would be terrible.'
This was a problem on a different scale from No. 2000 being blown away; there could be casualties.
"First I should gather opinions. Send a recall signal—"
At that moment Dorothy pushed through the thicket and appeared.
"Dorothy? What's wrong?"
She had no reason to come to Iruki—her role was to gather allied Scrambles.
"Sorry. I want to quit."
"What happened?"
"I'll pay the price. I'll repay everything however I can. So please stop."
Dorothy's tears made Iruki stand up; he sensed the seriousness.
"Tell me first. I need to know what happened to decide."
"Prings scares me."
Sitting beneath the tree, Dorothy told him what she'd endured from Prings over two days.
"...I see. But we can plan to avoid meeting him."
"It's not that kind of problem."
For the first time Dorothy opened up about herself.
"I'm pathetic. While my friends were busy with diplomacy class and politics class, I was under the covers with weird fantasies. Is there a God? Is there an afterlife? Where did we come from? I collected data, I even made a game by myself..."
A sad smile curved Dorothy's mouth.
"When I was little everyone said it was interesting. But now, when I say things like that, do you know what I hear most often?"
Iruki waited.
"What are you going to do with your life?"
As if possessed by the words of others, Dorothy poured them out.
"Become a mage? Isn't being a public official more practical? Have you thought about how much you'll earn a year? If you're serious, you can't keep being like this, right?"
Anger filled Dorothy's eyes.
"What do I care! Screw that!"
Fantasy was the only reality that made her happy.
"These thoughts are important to us too. Someone has to think that way. So why do people look at them with contempt?"
Iruki realized why she'd been chosen.
"Of course. They're afraid of you."
"Afraid of me?"
"I felt the same. They all grow up out of fear of remaining a child. Then they realize."
Iruki raised a finger.
"That 'adulthood' is utterly useless."
"..."
"There are no adults in the world. Only children and children pretending to be adults. They do it because they're equally afraid—that's how they cope."
Iruki patted Hickory's shoulder.
"But you made this. You're fighting the graduating class with a tin puppet full of wild imaginings. Only the final hurdle remains. If you become a mage—"
Iruki helped Dorothy to her feet.
"If you become a mage you won't have to be afraid of anything."
"A mage..."
"Right. Let's win Scramble Royal."
Leaving reward and cost aside, this was a match he desperately wanted to win.
"But Prings is vicious."
"Just avoid filth. Everyone has secrets they want to hide. Me too."
"What secret is that?"
"Huh?"
Iruki shook his head, looking at Dorothy.
"It's a secret because you don't want to tell it."
"But I told you. It won't be fair unless you tell me too."
"Well..."
Iruki puckered his lips and said, "You were in my dream the other night."
Dorothy blinked, covered her mouth, and laughed.
"Hahaha! What's that supposed to mean?"
* * *
Halfway through Day 5, darkness began to fall.
Nade, her face covered as she infiltrated the girls' advanced dormitory, squeezed her eyes shut and slipped into the laundry room.
"Eek!"
The expected scream burst out, but she had no intention of stopping.
'Of all places...!'
A Scramble's light gleamed from a basket of underwear.
"Move! Move!"
Nade shoved past the underclassmen and rifled through the basket like a starving beast.
"Pervert!"
"Who's the pervert!"
By the time she left the laundry with the collected Scramble, girls lay sprawled across the hallway.
"Catch her! She's a panty thief!"
Nade's flushed face shouted, "I'm Fermi! Fermi from the graduating class!"
"Shut up, Nade!"
She was officially a graduating student now, but that wouldn't earn her any respect for being a panty thief.
"Damn it! I'll make you all pay!"
After that pointless shout she exited the dorm, slipped the random card into her coat, and panted.
"Whew, at least I got one."
With Pisho sweeping up Scrambles with insect magic and Eden destroying Scrambles via absolute defense, a single card was precious.
"Gotta hurry and get praise. Right?"
Just as she lunged toward her friends, Shining magic flared up repeatedly in the sky.
Counting the number and tempo of the flashes, Nade muttered, "A distress signal?"