Hidden Code (1)
Siok.
When a fanatic who worshipped Satan appeared, Habitz stepped back as if he had nothing to do.
'Siok is human?'
Sein stared at the hoodless woman's face and wondered.
'Why human?'
After all, the concept of Satan was being carried out by a human—Habitz—so it wasn't inherently strange.
Miro handled the extreme line, Nane the orb, Shirone universal love.
If any concept is to manifest as a phenomenon, there has to be hardware. That was the obvious truth.
So Sein's question wasn't a logical error but purely an emotional one.
In short: why even Siok had to be human.
'Because she can choose.'
There's a difference between something made to worship Satan and something that chooses to worship him of its own will.
Fanaticism.
The act of throwing one's heart in by the most dangerous method.
'Even if Siok's will is separate from Habitz's, it's effectively the same as Habitz's will.'
For example, someone wants another person dead.
If they can't do it themselves and hiring someone would leave traces...
'But what if someone else acts on their own?'
Is there anything more efficient than an agent of Satan?
"We don't need to hide any longer."
The eleven remaining Siok who had been covering their faces threw back their hoods at once.
A woman, an old man, a child.
They looked like people you could see anywhere in society.
The woman with a cut on her brow glared at Kuan.
"An attack coming from outside perception. How interesting. I never thought we'd meet anyone else who handles Hidden Codes besides us."
Kuan asked, "Hidden Code?"
"You couldn't know. It's iji—other knowledge from the Otherworld. For you to perceive this world as logical, irrational codes have to be tested. It's a kind of test-mode code. We call them cheats."
Sein didn't understand.
"You'd think this world is logical. But it's not. You're only adapted to the reality code."
She raised a forefinger.
"No matter how absurd an event is in a dream, it still makes sense, right? That's Drimo. Many codes from the Otherworld go into it and get filtered. Only codes that are proven stable are applied to reality. In the end, what you call logic is just rules set by whoever made this world for their convenience."
Sein and the others listened in stunned silence.
"Codes Drimo deems useless for the real world—codes that don't secure stability—are buffered out as Under Coders. There, they combine with discarded pieces of real-world information—"
Sein asked, "And after they combine?"
"They're stored endlessly in a system called Di Abyss."
He'd heard of it from Miro before.
'The terminus of all information.'
He'd been told it was the place where the world's final future, determined from the present state, was implemented.
'Wasn't it said to be like Hell?'
"It's a very interesting place."
Siok's mind had a different take.
"Everything that happens until the world ends is accumulated there. If you study the ruins or records rolling around, you can even tell what happens at a certain point in the future. Go have a look. It's really fun."
Sein shook his head.
"If the present changes, the future changes. If we win, Di Abyss won't be Hell."
"It's all predetermined."
The woman sneered.
"Otherworld, reality, Drimo, Under Coder, Di Abyss. Five systems operate simultaneously in the same timeline. Can you imagine that? What could you possibly change?"
Sein fell silent.
"Listen carefully. Humans are merely tenants using a space called reality. You can't change the future."
"But all systems surely run for the sake of reality. If humans are the users, as you say, then we also have the right to reject this world."
"Hahahaha!"
The woman's manic laughter cut off, and her face went cold.
"There may once have been an era when that was true." There had been a time when humans defined everything.
"But you aren't it. You're not connected. How would a human who doesn't notice a missing link change the Law? Sure, some humans mess with administrator code. But do you think the world will budge because of that?"
When Sein shut his mouth, the woman turned to Kuan.
"In that sense, I'll give you praise. Quite a decent cheat. But we're on a different level."
The blood that had been flowing down her forehead faded, and even the wound from the sword began to blur.
'Healing? No—the wound itself is disappearing.'
Meirei muttered.
"Pride at 1 o'clock."
"Hm?"
As Sein turned, the woman's pulse reached him as an auditory hallucination through Nemesis.
"...No way."
It was an incomprehensible phenomenon.
"Hoho, yes. I'm Pride at 1 o'clock. I handle a Hidden Code that can almost change choices."
"Nonsense."
Kuan spat.
"In my memory, the moment I cut you is still there clearly. My memory doesn't lie."
"That's your thinking. What do I care?"
Pride at 1 o'clock shrugged.
"You still don't get it? The logic you know isn't absolute. This is a cheat you don't know. See? The wound's gone. I regretted it. If I'd leaned back a bit, I wouldn't have been cut. So I changed the choice."
The mental wave spoke the truth.
'Real?'
Pride at 1 o'clock could change a choice she regretted in the past and, via the butterfly effect, output a new result.
'She changes it endlessly.'
That meant every regrettable event in someone's life could be erased, which explained why any decision Habitz made always ended up being right.
'This is dangerous.'
Kuan, who had served as the temple's hitman, felt instinctively how difficult it would be to kill Pride at 1 o'clock.
'We need to make a death that leaves no regret.'
Two obvious methods came to mind.
'Make her take her own life, or drive her into a situation where death is unavoidable.'
In both cases, because no feeling of regret would be triggered, she couldn't change past choices...
'But is that even feasible?'
He didn't think it would be.
-This is Meirei. From now on I'll be eavesdropping on the pulses of all twelve Siok. Memorize them precisely.
Siok charged.
"For the pleasure of Satan!"
Sein, Armin, and Meirei couldn't move because each was using their own magic to block Habitz's Law.
"Absolute Barrier!"
When Eden cast a shield, the Siok scattered, and Liria amplified Kuan's Law.
Kuan's image vanished from Siok's perception.
'I can't rush in recklessly.'
Meanwhile, through Nemesis, the names and Hidden Codes of the Siok reverberated in Sein's mind.
Sein stored Pride at 1 o'clock in his head.
'A woman with a fierce expression and sharp intensity. She can change regretted choices from the past, and because the process is ignored, she's essentially a cheat.'
The next pulse hit.
'Balding-headed man. Defiance at 2 o'clock. Hidden Code: wins across all kinds of probabilities?'
Habitz came to mind first.
Since Siok's abilities were derived from Satan's chaos, it made sense.
"Kuan! Kill 1 o'clock!"
Siok wouldn't be able to find Kuan anyway, so he shouted at full force.
'Pride at 1 o'clock—the one who can reverse past choices—must be eliminated first. Kill even one of them and Siok will have a hole.'
At least for now.
"Foolish!"
A woman in her mid-thirties with owl-like wide eyes and prominent cheekbones shouted.
"Why should we kill Pride at 1 o'clock? Do you hate first place or something? How can you command a battle with paranoid thinking? Therefore you are trash!"
Sein had no rebuttal.
'Why?'
When he realized he had no way to refute her, he heard the pulse Meirei had tapped into.
'Obstinacy at 3 o'clock. Hidden Code: wins against every kind of rebuttal.'
Specific information followed.
'...Because no matter what argument is presented, you can't break her logic. Damn, where does crap like this even come from?'
Sein, a logician, tried to raise the stakes and counter her code.
"Among the three we've analyzed, the one with the greatest impact on combat is 1 o'clock. Understood? I don't form strategy based on paranoia."
"Ugh, I don't care! Annoying! Your face is weird and your voice too! The conclusion is—you're wrong!"
The cheat took effect.
The logical links that composed Sein's thought were destroyed, a violent dizziness of anger rising in him.
"Arrrgh!"
There was a fire inside, but with the reality of logic gone, he couldn't refute.
'So that's a Hidden Code.'
That you can't change the past, that syllogisms hold, that probability is mathematical—those propositions are still human thoughts. They're rules set for administrators' convenience.
From the vantage outside the universe, however the world functions, it's fine.
"You went silent all of a sudden? Well, you're full of contradictions. Meanwhile, I based my claims solely on facts. Therefore you're an idiot!"
"...Shut up."
"Shut up? Shut up what? Slap your own face!"
It felt like the right thing to do, and Sein bowed his head and gritted his teeth in defeat.
'Damn it! Why can't I win?'
While everyone else held their tongues, Obstinacy at 3 o'clock laughed with delight.
"Gahahaha! Of course your life is a failure since you don't worship Satan! Satan only! Oh, Satan—!"
As Sein ignored her and straightened his head, another mental wave surged.
'Sloth at 4 o'clock.'
An old man whose cheek flesh hung sullenly, and his Hidden Code revealed itself shortly after.
Things you don't want to happen simply don't happen.
'Damn it.'
Cold sweat ran down Sein's back.
'So Habitz and Siok have been dodging the Law this way all along. Then do we kill 4 o'clock first and then 1 o'clock? Or maybe 2 o'clock depending on the case... wait.'
'But Kuan wounded 1 o'clock.'
If extremes of asymmetry are also cheats, then Siok hadn't perfectly countered everything after all.
"Liria—"
Sein, about to give a vocal order, realized Obstinacy at 3 o'clock's effect and used Nemesis.
-Liria, look for an opening and suddenly amplify Kuan's Law. The wider the range, the better.
Liria nodded, planting her boxwood staff in the ground as she watched the battlefield.
At that moment, a plump woman wearing an expression full of resentment shouted.
"That woman is a traitor!"
"What?"
Everyone turned to Liria.
"What nonsense—"
Liria, frowning and shouting, froze when she met the eyes of comrades focusing on her.
"Why—what's wrong?"
Meirei had eavesdropped on the pulse of the woman who'd shouted a moment ago.
'Prejudice at 5 o'clock. Hidden Code: everyone believes it.'
'Unbelievable.' To Sein it was an overwhelmingly powerful code—one that could make people want to believe even the most absurd claim that a good person was a murderer.
"Wait! Why would I betray you?" His head knew the answer.
'Right, there's no reason for her to betray anyone. She belongs to Sion and is a nun who hates evil.'
But cheats aren't reality's logic.
Once each person's mind received the Hidden Code, doubt multiplied endlessly in their heads.
'Is her life guaranteed? Or has she made a pact with evil to gain higher renown...'
Anything could be suspected.
'Now that I think about it, Liria once left the room alone a month ago. Yes, her tone was odd then.'
A lifetime together—the smallest suspicion can split even an old married couple. That was the tragedy of the human species.