[584] In the Name of God (3)
* * *
Shirone sat on his bed after returning to the dormitory.
With tomorrow marking the point where winners and losers would be decided, the burden of reward and consequence rose back to the surface.
Right. I have to do it.
He had to destroy Eden's Absolute Barrier.
But how?
He'd sounded confident in front of his friends, but the answer still eluded him.
I'll find it. If Senior Plue were here, he'd have found a way.
A mage trained to handle every variable. Miro had said that was what made a pro—the highest title a mage could earn.
First, the laser.
If he could keep accumulating energy, Eden's shield would eventually break.
But whatever I think, Eden will think the same.
That was the problem.
This wasn't a scarecrow to fight; the enemy would spare no effort to find answers too.
She'll dodge before the energy builds up. Actually, do I even need to subdue her? What if I force her out of the arena?
He could shove Eden to the far edge of the field with a high-output mass wave, but the counters were little different from those against a laser.
Eden is too light. That's the core issue.
If she were a mountain he could smash her, but Eden flew away like a feather in a gale.
Come to think of it, it was the same in Heaven.
Only after reversing 127 years of causality with Valhalla Action did he gain enough output to annihilate the archangel Paiel.
The memory hollowed Shirone's eyes.
I fought so inefficiently.
It had worked, but his teammates might have still thought him an amateur. Feeling his face flush at past judgments meant he'd grown a little.
The solution is this. Make Eden unable to be pushed by a mass wave. Then Ataraxia will be enough to destroy her.
What if he fixed her in place with Shining Chains and rained Photon Cannons down?
The Shining Chains would snap first.
Stymied, Shirone leaned back and banged the back of his head against the wall.
Even using every trick he had, he couldn't think of a way to break Eden's barrier.
Give up? Ask Iruki for strategy again...?
His head snapped.
No. There must be thousands, tens of thousands of ways. I'm just failing to find any of them.
Coordinates.
He had to find a way to bind Eden to coordinates even while she was exposed to Ataraxia's overwhelming output.
There's no way to fix something to coordinates! No—there is! No—there isn't!
His mind felt wrung like a rag; Shirone tore at the blankets in agony.
How does an object become fixed? Wait—there are no fixed objects, are there? That's the problem from the start. Coordinates are...
His eyes snapped open.
Oh. Ah.
A small sound escaped him as he stared at the ceiling, imagining something.
Time and space.
All the answers are hidden inside the problem itself.
There is no such thing as a problem.
Even in the dusky night, Eden did not return to the dormitory; she prayed deep inside a cave.
As long as you watch over me.
On the final day of the Scramble Royal, her divine power was being strengthened to an unprecedented degree.
She could not afford to lose to Shirone—if only to restore the honor of the Yor order, sullied by Gaold.
She'll definitely come out with a different counter this time. She's smart, after all.
But Eden would not cling only to the name of God.
The reason she was accepted in the Yor order was that her fervent faith was built on rationality. When someone offered her bread, she wouldn't refuse by saying God would feed her—she accepted and acted.
Ataraxia can't destroy the Absolute Barrier. Even if she finds a better way, she can just dodge.
If the answer came from God in the first place, evading an attack wouldn't be a denial of God.
Tomorrow, I will become a true daughter of God. Then I'll go back and erase Gaold's name from the registry.
Eden's prayer echoed through the cave.
It's impossible to bind objects to coordinates.
Shirone was already sitting cross-legged.
As his sequence formula raced at tremendous speed and finally entered the realm of awe, a golden radiance shimmered from his body.
But it can be done. With this, I can do it!
As the radiance—an incarnation of the heavenly seraph—dispersed into particles and swirled like a vortex, everything in the room began to twist as if being wrung out.
* * *
The next morning.
Fermi went to Radum—the shadowed underbelly of Bashka—before returning to school.
It was where Canis and Arin had grown up, but the darkness they experienced there was only the tip of the iceberg.
Not only the Black Revolutionary Group that had recently blown up the Gold Tower, but countless demi-humans were hiding in high-level concealment facilities, planning to overturn the human world—a ticking time bomb in the capital.
Because of that, the eyes watching Fermi were many and dangerous.
"You're an outsider."
A voice reached her the moment she entered an uninhabited alley.
But when Fermi turned, only thick shadows cast by the buildings lay there.
"I'm lost. Where is this?"
"You can't wander into Radum claiming you're lost."
The Radum entrance was garrisoned around the clock by royal forces; access was strictly forbidden.
"Knowing the back door means you know where this is too, right?"
Fermi tossed a gold coin into the shadow.
The coin vanished the instant it slid into the dark.
"Just go. I'm going to be late for my appointment."
"…How much do you have?"
Fermi smiled.
"Who knows? Maybe ten billion gold?"
The shadow fell silent, as if slightly taken aback.
"I might be able to part with one hundred million gold, though."
Shadows flowed down like spilled oil from the surrounding buildings and surrounded Fermi.
Shadowfolk, huh.
They couldn't be seen within the darkness.
"Maybe you really are lost. Or you're a hopeless fool."
The source of the voice couldn't be located.
"This is Radum. Money won't save you here."
The shadows rose and poured toward Fermi.
"Oh?"
A speck of light smaller than dust floated above the palm of Fermi's hand.
"What if it's a 100-million-gold magic?"
Time slowed.
"Wh—at—"
While the shadow's voice uttered two syllables, the wave of light expanded across Radum at incredible speed.
"Kyyaaah!"
The darkness peeled back and a woman's scream rang out.
"Since this is Radum, I've come prepared for anything."
Fermi looked down at the woman clutching twin blades.
Her skin was gray, her ears pointed, her double eyelids pronounced; she sat biting her lip.
"It's my first time seeing a Shadowfolk in person. So this is what you look like. I heard your skin sells for a lot."
"You… how did you…"
The Shadowfolk's skin produces a transparency effect in darkness.
"Shall I peel it off?"
Madness flashed across Fermi's eyes and the Shadowfolk flinched, twisting her upper body back into the dark.
"Run and you'll die."
"Kuk!"
The Shadowfolk froze.
Though they commanded the law of darkness from birth, Fermi's light magic was overwhelmingly powerful—resistance was impossible.
What kind of magic is that?
As expected, Fermi held the small particle of light she'd just cast.
"Fun, isn't it? It's called Big Bang. It was developed by the mage Alpheas to subdue Archmage Arkein."
"Arkein…"
The name of the authority on dark magic, Arkein, was famous even among the Shadowfolk.
He'd waved it off as not that spectacular himself, but since he belonged to the Red Line, the spell had been registered for future disciples.
Of course, I didn't learn it directly.
If someone bought a spell from a practitioner, that was that.
"What do you want?"
"Your concealment facilities are thorough, as the rumors say. Honestly, I'm lost. So—"
Fermi grabbed the woman's wrist, hauled her up, and brought their faces close.
"Ah…."
"Since Shadowfolk are good at reconnaissance, could you guide me? I'll pay."
The Shadowfolk stared at Fermi's impish smile as if in a trance.
What is this human…?
She'd met many humans but had never encountered someone outside the regulations.
* * *
"I'll take Amy. I'll finish it today."
Around noon, Kaiden declared to Hersi as he picked up his cross sword.
If he could retire Amy, it wouldn't be a bad proposal, though it was doubtful she'd let herself be drawn in willingly.
"Even if she refuses, I'll strike Amy."
Realizing she couldn't stop Kaiden, Hersi adjusted her approach to be as helpful to the plan as possible.
"Wait. Hold on."
As Kaiden turned, Hersi held out her hand.
"If you want to hit Amy, there's a condition."
* * *
Iruki and Dorothy paired up and busily moved to collect twelve Scrambles.
Even if retirements occurred, the number of Scrambles summoned remained equal to the original participants, so seventy-two remained.
"Pisho's collection speed is slower than yesterday."
Meaning Pisho was moving with Hersi.
Dorothy, who had expanded the Spirit Zone with Jonah's ability, raised an eyebrow.
"They're coming this way. Collision in three minutes."
Master card.
A random card had been added in real time to Hersi's status, which had been ⓡⓡ.
Three random cards (ⓡⓡⓡ)?
On the first day of the seventh round, when the first Scramble was summoned, counting was impossible. So when three random cards are opened, the chance of black or white is still fifty percent.
Can't read the hand. Need to raise it one more level.
Iruki received a Scramble from Hickory, turned it into a random card, and opened it.
His current hand was ●●●○ (Dictator), and Hersi added another card to try to reach level four.
Again random (ⓡⓡⓡⓡ)?
Iruki and Hersi reached the Scramble's location and, upon spotting each other, simultaneously called "Kang."
What hand is that?
Hersi's status showed ○●○● (Democracy).
Four random cards and Democracy? Damn! That's pure gambling!
Iruki abandoned the Scramble and led Dorothy back into the forest.
Unless it's Eden, specifying cards to make Infinity is suicide. The best bet is to mix in randoms.
Iruki received four Scrambles from Hickory and had four random cards opened; they came up monarchy (○○○●).
As expected, without counting you can't make the Papacy (○○○○).
Iruki held out his hand.
"Give me one more."
He chose a white card and upgraded his hand to ○○●○○ (Emperor).
Of course Hersi's status would be ⓡⓡⓡⓡ○.
From now on, it's a battle of probabilities.
Iruki's lips twitched into a small smile.
* * *
By 2 p.m. the second Scramble was summoned, but Shirone hadn't moved from the forest where he'd been since morning.
He would face Eden in the final round of the Scramble Royal anyway, but there was another reason he couldn't sense the passage of time.
16th stage.
That was the position his sequence formula was currently racing through.
I have to raise it as far as possible.
If he didn't preemptively break his limits, he wouldn't be able to respond to sudden shifts in the fight against Eden.
At one moment the flow of time warped grotesquely, refracting the scenery until shapes were unrecognizable.
A soundless distortion.
...!
...!
All the insects within a five-meter radius, having lost the directionality of time, were releasing panic pheromones.