Depression (2)
"Damn bastard."
A hard glint shot from the eyes beneath Fried's cross-shaped helm.
Even if time had been rolled back, the events that had occurred didn't simply vanish from his mind.
But, of course, one of the Five Great Stars.
Suppressing his shame and analyzing what had just happened, there were definitely oddities.
The stars and satellites of the Ivory Tower fell silent, alternately staring at Fried and Shirone.
"Fried got hit."
It was an event from a timeline that shouldn't exist, but there was no one so clueless as to be unaware of a fracture in time.
"No, did he really get hit?" The incident snapped back into the proper timeline the moment Fried took that one blow.
As a mage-swordsman, Fried's endurance far eclipsed the other Stars, which only deepened the mystery.
And the answer to that mystery would be known only to the one who'd actually taken Shirone's attack.
"Weird."
The first thing that surfaced in Fried's mind was a deep disquiet.
"Time fracture. I get vibrating the timeline to pull the future into the past... but the photon cannon's trajectory, every variable at the moment Shirone's teleport reached within arm's reach—
Why didn't I dodge?"
Even for a surprise attack, a man who'd mastered both sword and magic to humanity's peak shouldn't have been unable to evade it.
"It wasn't just once."
It felt like another time within time had vibrated.
"The incident where I was hit by that bastard's attack was only one among countless repetitions."
Exactly how many times had the same segment looped?
"No point thinking about what I can't know."
What he'd realized about Shirone was that he could compute future possibilities in an instant.
"He searches the route that reaches the most perfect conclusion— a mage who delivers a strike that cannot be avoided."
That was Shirone.
"But he fires a spell, moves, then fires again. What other variable could possibly come into play?" The variance would be so minute a normal mage couldn't detect it.
Yet that very subtlety made Fried feel a nausea-like unease.
"Sneak attacks don't matter. The annoying thing is—"
In both sword and magic, Fried had never been the one on the receiving end.
"So there's a tiny fissure that can probe the blind spots of my level?"
The fracture of time was one issue, but what irked him most was that Shirone had found a way to ambush him.
"Interesting."
Fried split his lips into a grin, exuding a threatening air.
"Unexpected. I never thought one of the Five Great Stars from the Unified Universe Administration Department would strike first."
The Five Great Stars, who'd guarded the celestial body for generations, usually sat with composed dignity.
"What are you talking about?"
Shirone asked, feigning innocence.
"I didn't do anything at all."
"Krkrkr."
A vein twitched at Fried's temple.
'So that's how you're going to play it.' He'd never planned to follow Shirone's philosophy, but this exchange confirmed it.
"No matter what he thinks, he'll never be able to carry it out."
The atmosphere in the Great Earth Cathedral tightened.
The Stars and satellites from each department glared at one another so fiercely the air seemed to ripple with animosity.
Even though Taeseong was watching from nearby, the Great Assembly lived up to its name.
"Shirone."
Taeseong watched Shirone with unfocused eyes.
The fracture of time pressed on her in a different way from Gaold's fractures, which struck planets directly.
"My head's spinning."
She felt Shirone had vibrated time roughly forty thousand times to make the ambush succeed. Rolling time back was probably done after the attack succeeded, in anticipation of Fried's counter.
"Fried isn't someone who goes down easily either."
In terms of steering the situation, it was very Shirone-like, but his method had been unusually brutal this time.
Minerva examined Shirone.
'No, that read is correct. The group most persistently obstructing us in this Great Assembly is the System Inspection Department. But...
They shouldn't have been able to break Fried this far.'
"Unified Universe Administration Department will speak."
Shirone rose from his seat.
"If demons were born from human evil, then now is precisely the time to purge that evil. I request the cooperation of every department of the Ivory Tower to fight the demons."
"Why fight the demons?" Fried asked, folding his arms.
"The strong prey on the weak—that's the law of all things. If they're strong, why not just hand the world over? What's so great about this world anyway?"
Strength hardened Shirone's gaze.
"If the demons conquer the world, every human nation will be destroyed. Is that the outcome the System Inspection Department wants?"
Fried remained composed.
"You're mistaken. We're not lackeys of any royal family. The system that currently governs the world is just a national framework; if the demons introduce another system, we'll simply manage that system instead."
As long as the system endured, it mattered little who ruled the world.
"Relay the System Inspection Department's opinion to Taeseong. We do not act for the benefit of any particular nation. If the demons are a newly born state, then the present situation is just war—an ordinary war that's always existed and won't disappear."
Minerva bit her lip.
'They're really determined.'
Fried was obnoxious, but within the five departments the System Inspection Department held considerable weight.
"Fried's point does have merit."
Shirone nodded without resisting. "From a systemic perspective, there's no reason this world must belong to humans. But there's one thing I don't understand, so I'll ask."
"Heh heh heh, ask away. I'll make it clear to our little amateur."
Shirone looked Fried squarely in the eye.
"You said your department could manage the demons' system, but I don't think your department has that capability."
The eight Stars of the System Inspection Department glared with a different murderous light in each eye.
"What an insolent bastard..."
Fried's face contorted.
"Putting on airs because you have one trick no one else can do ends here. There are plenty of ways to kill scum like you."
Shirone answered calmly.
"Oh yeah? What are they?" Fried's mouth hung open for a long moment, then his shoulders heaved.
"Krkrkr. Krkrkrkr."
His body vanished from sight, and the ground where he'd been sitting caved in a semicircle.
"Damn it...!"
The Great Earth Cathedral shook with a thud as Fried, sword drawn, reappeared right in front of Shirone.
"Damn! This again!"
Seeing Shirone's afterimage twist into a counterattack stance made Fried nauseous all over again.
"Time must have vibrated already."
It was the second time, and the feeling was indescribably filthy.
"But can he find a gap this time?"
If it were the same kind of sneak attack, maybe—but he was confident there were no openings against someone prepared for a pitched battle.
"Rewind all you want."
No matter what, the only outcome that would be decided was the event where Shirone's head came off.
"If I win now, it's one win apiece. However—"
Fried's blade sliced at a speed that flowed the limits of the Law.
"My one win will be your death!"
Then, at the midpoint where sword and magic met, a wheel began to spin rapidly.
"The World Wheel? Damn!"
The wheel itself wasn't inherently overpowering.
But to circulate an external force and maintain absolute balance, raw strength wasn't necessary.
KRAAANG!
As power whirled around the World Wheel, Shirone and Fried were flung in opposite directions.
"Ugh!"
Standing where the two had been glaring, Amanta held the World Wheel spinning between her palms.
"Stop. This is a meaningless fight," Fried ground out.
"Meaningless? You must've heard that brat talking down to me, didn't you?"
"You're both wrong." Amanta turned to Taeseong and spoke.
"Shirone centers on humanity; Fried centers on systems. Both of you failed by not preventing today's incident. Allow me to use the World Wheel now."
Taeseong asked, "To what extent can balance be adjusted?"
"It can reduce the demon population to under thirty percent at the cost of annihilating eighty percent of humanity."
Minerva protested.
"Eighty percent of humanity? Are you kidding?"
"It didn't have to be this extreme. If you'd listened when I first proposed turning the World Wheel, humanity would have suffered only thirty percent casualties."
Shirone objected.
"Thirty percent is still a huge number."
"Yes. But that thirty percent is already gone. They're all dead." Amanta's voice was clinical. "Do you understand? I once tolerated your idealism, even if it wasn't voluntary. But it cost a greater sacrifice. Face reality."
"A word from me." From the outermost edge of the Great Earth Cathedral came a voice like a blade—cold and sharp.
It was Sing, the Law Department's Great Star.
Her black hair was tightly bound above her crown; her pale face was harshly beautiful.
"Wait. My words aren't finished..." As Fried prepared to step forward, Sing's right hand moved gently to the side.
'What, what is that?'
Shirone's eyes widened.
As if she were an insect, everyone except Sing felt reduced to dust underfoot.
'An enormous Law.'
Minerva ground her teeth.
'Sing of the Law Department. If Fried's annoying, this woman is truly terrifying.'
Sing spoke.
"There is no standard in the Law. If I grow stronger, others become weaker. Therefore, it would be helpful to state my view, which lacks any fixed standard."
Taeseong asked, "What is your view?"
"...I also question whether humanity is a value that should be so highly respected."
Fried curled a half-smile while Shirone's brow deepened.
Minerva sighed.
'Of course, Shirone. Everyone gathered here has reached humanity's highest heights.'
The Five Great Stars—those titled Stars.
'Their common trait is... that many humans have hurt them.'
'In truth, you know how terrible humans are. That's why you're going mad.'
The reason the Five Great Stars shared this depression was that it didn't feel like fighting together.
"There are no humankind values in this world. It's just human, human, human."
According to Sing's doctrine, humans are solitary beings dropped into places created by others.
"Honestly, I don't understand. I find it hard to believe there are several humans in this world. Only I am truly human; everyone else is an illusion."
Everyone but me is a doll.
Even if you applied the whole world to Sing's words, there'd be no one to refute her.
"Therefore, I am the only human in this universe. I fight to cultivate a world that belongs solely to me. I have no desire to concern myself with the suffering of illusions."
Shirone's face went pale.
'What kind of life must she have led to think this way?'
Yet that very philosophy was the driving force allowing Sing to manipulate the Law to extremes.
"So I tried, as much as possible, to conform to the will of that illusion called Fried..."
Sing, vast and towering, looked across the wide floor at Shirone and gave a faint smile.
"The illusion called Shirone is rather unique, too."
'What on earth is she?'
He couldn't analyze the woman called Sing.