[631] What Truly Matters (1)
Fire Mist heated the air, and Fire Strike rained down toward Pisho.
'I can't cast insect magic anyway!'
Because Pisho dealt with living creatures, Amy's effectiveness was limited in the area filled with poisonous gas.
'One thing's bothering me…'
The grotesque insect form where Pisho's right arm should have been.
'A parasite?'
If the gas-mask insect on his face filtered the gas, the insect attached to his body might endure it too.
"There's no use, Amy."
Pisho didn't flinch despite taking several Fire Strikes.
'I've never seen an ability like this before.'
If it was a creature parasitizing the body, there would be no problem with an embodiment check.
'Then I'll cut it off!'
Kieeeee!
Pisho's arm stretched out and Argones snapped its jaws open, lunging forward.
"This is nothing!"
It was an easy dodge for a schema user. Amy closed in on Pisho and slammed her arm down onto his.
Her blow had the force to break bone, but to her surprise there was no bone—only a squishy resistance.
'What the hell is this?'
As the wet, uncanny sensation registered, Pisho seized Amy with his other hand.
'You trying to grapple me?'
Amy twisted her legs to add rotational force and struck up into Pisho's abdomen. There was a thud as her fist sank into his belly.
The sickening feel made her skin crawl, but Amy kept a cold, decisive thought.
'I have to burst the heart!'
Her hand probed through the abdomen and closed around Pisho's heart, but all she felt again was that same soft, wet texture.
"I am no longer human."
The moment Pisho spoke without emotion, Argones bit the nape of Amy's neck.
"Ugh!"
"Don't be afraid. You passed the test."
The fist that had been inside his belly slid back out, and Amy's expression went blank.
"As my faithful servant."
The alien lifeform Argones.
First reported to academia 230 years ago, this organism is believed to have arrived on a meteor from beyond the solar system and boasts such vigorous vitality that it can survive atmospheric entry.
It kneads the host's cells and transforms the body into a completely different biological substance while leaving the outward appearance intact, so researchers estimate a significant number of humans may be infected with Argones.
"You… you…."
Amy struggled to move her frozen tongue.
"Impressive. You retained consciousness even while infected."
Argones parasitizing a host send pilot insects into other organisms to infiltrate and seize control of their central nervous systems.
'No. They've taken control.'
She kept trying to back up her autobiographical memory, but her body wouldn't obey.
"Don't struggle. You'll only make it worse for yourself."
Like a child blindly trusting its mother, Amy's body obeyed Pisho's commands.
"What… did you do to my body?"
When Pisho raised his right arm, the blob that had been mashed like dough gradually returned to a human shape.
"Lifespan is ultimately just a function born of cellular evolution. Argones, which has no set average lifespan, assimilates with the host's body and maintains biological activity indefinitely."
It was a kind of immortality.
"But that's only in theory."
Pisho lowered his arm with a sigh.
"A human whose cell division has stopped will keep accumulating errors, and I, too, will one day become a vegetative husk covered in cancerous cells."
That was the fate of a human who accepted Argones.
"Don't worry. You won't become a monster like me. When the test is over, I'll extract it."
"Just… to… pass a test…."
"You simply donated your body for the advancement of biology. After the graduation exam, you'll be sent to isolation."
Someday the cancer might spread to the brain and burn everything away, yet Pisho's intellectual curiosity outweighed that outcome.
"Let's go, Amy."
Driven by a genetic impulse to obey, Amy slowly turned and followed behind Pisho.
* * *
"Shirone…."
Shirone knelt before Maya, who was sobbing with tears and snot, and touched her forehead.
"It's too hard… I want it to stop…."
Although the world revered mages, Maya—who had lived among them—felt sick at the very word "magic."
"They're all insane. If I stay any longer I'll go mad."
Shirone knew this world wasn't bearable for an ordinary mind.
"We don't have much time left. Just a little longer…."
"I can't. The tribe, my siblings—none of it comes to mind anymore."
Maya squeezed her eyes shut and sobbed.
"I just… wanted to love you… a little longer…."
Maya wouldn't last.
"One last… song… I'll try… my best…."
Watching Maya's limbs convulse, Shirone made his decision.
"Let's get out, Maya."
The combination of Luman's anthill and the fjord's toxic gas would sap competitors' mental strength, so the situation wasn't bad for Shirone.
'I can't love you, but…'
Focusing his partially restored composure, the incarnation of the Radiant Angel flared and its spear aimed outward.
"Elysion!"
His direct sight pierced the anti-magic and locked on to Luman's position outside the anthill.
"I'll give you one more chance."
Avatar Technique — Angel's Punishment.
A spear of light repeatedly pierced the nest's inner walls and burst out of the anthill; Luman's eyes widened.
"What the—!"
By the time he shouted, the flash had already passed through his torso.
"Ugh!"
-Participant number 16. You have been ejected from the 2000 System.
When Luman lost consciousness, the anthill collapsed as if shredded and the trapped contestants quickly looked around.
'Damn, I hit Luman. If only we'd held out a little longer.'
If they'd dragged it out another ten minutes, someone would have been eliminated and graduation would have been easy.
'Maya! What about Maya?'
Kaiden thought only of Maya and looked baffled when he found her in Shirone's arms.
"Why…?"
Iruki, on the other hand, quickly grasped the situation.
"So that's what happened."
Shirone had eliminated Luman to save Maya.
'A plainly emotional decision. If emotional decisions are a privilege of the strong, then there's nothing more to argue…'
He'd wanted to graduate together, so of course he felt disappointed.
'Are you sure this was okay? This time you clearly made a bad move.'
Shirone gently set Maya down.
"That's all I can do."
"Shirone…."
Iruki couldn't analyze as precisely as some, but she could sense Shirone had sacrificed something.
"Hold on a little longer. Don't leave yourself with regrets."
That alone made Maya feel like she had everything.
"Phew, I'm tired."
Shirone cracked his neck and walked toward the other contestants, slowly raising a hand to signal them to attack.
At the same moment, Kaiden lunged forward with his cross-sword raised.
'I couldn't protect Maya!'
Just as Shirone braced to take the strike, Kaiden surged past him and ran to Maya's side.
"Taha!"
He blocked the path in front of Maya and twisted his body to bring his blade up, and Richard's metal arm clanged as it was knocked aside.
"Damn!"
With only four more eliminations needed to guarantee graduation, targeting Maya made sense. Richard disliked Kaiden's decision to break that logic.
"You don't even care about the test? You're insane."
"Don't lecture me."
No one wanted to be called crazy by a man who'd rebuilt thirty-five percent of his body.
'If only Maya could be happy…!'
Jealousy had long since been transcended.
'I don't mind being miserable!'
Magic Sword Unit — Mega Tornado.
Richard, thrown into the air by a gust, immediately regained his balance and used his mechanical eye to lock on to Maya.
'Eliminate Maya first!'
A flamestone installed in his frame spat fire. Kaiden swung his cross-sword at the blaze.
"Yaaaaah!"
A gust of cold snuffed the flames, and Richard's right arm rotated forty-five degrees to equip another attribute.
'Yes, that's it!'
Meanwhile, the others concentrated their attacks on Shirone.
'His reaction speed has definitely slowed! We're winning!'
Scouts analyzed that Shirone was too exhausted even to open a Force Dimension.
"Since Luman's defeat, his mental strength has dropped to four percent. This will end here."
Baikal felt pity as well.
"A price for emotional decisions. That's why mages must be cold."
Having abandoned her sniper specialty, Amy blinked her red eyes rapidly and unleashed a torrent of close-range attacks.
'Is she being controlled by something?'
Her inability to back up her autobiographical memory at a normal rate deepened that suspicion, and then Amy spoke.
"Stupid Shirone."
"What?"
Because control of her body had been taken, her thoughts burst out aloud against her will.
"You value Maya more than the graduation test?"
"That's…!"
Shirone stepped back as the blunt remark chilled him; Iruki clicked her tongue and swooped in.
"You brought this on yourself. Why did you pity her?"
A chain of Atomic Bomb explosions assaulted Shirone, and Sabina rained Wind Cutters into the blasts.
"Ughhhh!"
Even maintaining Shibulsangpokmae had become burdensome as his mental strength continued to fall.
"Waaaaaaa!"
The crowd's cheers rose louder than usual when Shirone, who had dominated the competition until now, found himself on the brink of elimination.
"How sadistic…."
Baikal said.
"Like pornography."
Elizabeth couldn't deny it.
"Watching geniuses who devoted their lives to a single path hit their limits and collapse—what could be more entertaining?"
As scouts, they had watched countless competitions.
"Talent, effort, or wealth—if everyone gave up a little, humanity could be happy right now. But history never saw that happen. Sometimes it feels not that people refuse to do it, but that they can't."
"On the other hand, that very competitiveness pushed humanity forward."
"Of course. What I want to say is…"
What she really wanted to know was this.
"If everyone were happy, why would progress be necessary?"
What are we fighting for, after all?
"Of course I climbed to this position through competition. That's why decision number 27 was the worst. Sometimes you simply lose sight of what truly matters."
'This isn't right!'
Amy, eyes blazing red, snapped free of the parasite's mental control and sprayed Fire Strike in all directions.
'Was there a place it couldn't reach?'
From Amy's mind she sensed a deeper domain the parasite's control hadn't touched.
'How dare you shame me?'
Having entered Il-Do, Amy heated her cells with the Flame Locus, and Elizabeth shouted.
"Her body temperature has exceeded forty-two degrees! This is dangerous!"
'They're trying to extract the pilot insect.'
Because it had already adapted to the human environment, forcing the heat up rapidly would drive it out—but it would very likely kill the host.
'But she might die. Is that really what you want?'
'Come out! Get out of my body!'
Even in her daze, her autobiographical memory located the pilot insect that had seized the central nervous system and focused heat there.
Seriel sprang up and yelled.
"Amy! You can't do that!"
A human fever can kill bacteria, but to drive out a parasite you would very likely have to accept death.
'Even if it humiliates Shirone—.'
Crimson light erupted like an explosion.
"I will do this by my own will!"
The flesh at the back of Amy's neck bulged, then popped, and a single insect shot out.