Read Novel Full Chapter 552
Chapter 552
The Situation Leading to the End First
Author’s note: Happy New Year.
I’m sorry for the very long wait. I’m resuming update. I think this year will be the last year of [Arifureta Tale] but, it’ll please me if we all can have fun together until the curtain closing!
Please, treat me well!
「First I want to ask. How long can you maintain that vortex of light?」
Hajime’s cool-headed gaze was looking straight at Manager Mercurys.
Manager Mercurys was flailing. Like a child throwing tantrum at the toy corner.
After she lost strength in her waist and fell on her butt, she immediately tried to stand up expressionlessly like nothing had happened. However, her legs were shaking and wouldn’t listen to her. She stumbled once again and then trying to stand up somehow.
While that was going on, the white cat that was said to be this world’s great tree’s avatar was looking down on her. Perhaps it was just their imagination, but it felt like it was looking exasperated.
Manager-san gave up on standing up and somehow ended up lying face down.
She borrowed her arm’s strength and struggled to stand up. The way she was shaking all over while crawling on all fours looked exactly like a newly born fawn.
If this place was a ranch, it felt like there would be cheers, Just a bit more! Do your best! You’re gonna be able to stand up in just a bit moree! showering her.
It felt bad to say it but, she looked horribly surreal. And it was even more so due to her expressionless look.
She answered the question while still in such a pathetic state, and acting like nothing had happened as expected.
「Maintain? The formula has been established so we’ll be able to open it again. Your existence is too astonishing that I’ve forgotten to give the command but, we’ll temporarily close――」
「I can’t allow that.」
「……Can I, ask why?」
「Because I don’t trust you guys――people of the world of calamity.」
「……」
Instantly, it felt like time had stopped. It must be because Mercurys had stopped completely still, so still it would make anyone wonder if perhaps even her heartbeat had stopped.
Cold water was suddenly splashed. Or perhaps, suddenly getting slapped on the face. That was the impression this situation gave.
But, even that only lasted for a brief moment.
「……Calamity world, is it. I see. That’s only natural.」
Mercurys quietly muttered only that and quietly stood up. It looked like she had switched mentality and started radiating a cool-headed air.
She brushed the sleeves of her white robe, straightened her collar, and looked back straight at Hajime.
「Maintaining it for several days is within the tolerance level as long as there’s no external impediment. The strengthening interference that you’re doing. It’ll be able to extend that time even further depending on its strength and the potentially preserved time.」
Certainly Hajime was giving reinforcement to the vortex of light――the interworld teleportation gate.
The liquid metal surrounding that vortex of light was for physical protection, and at the same time it was also for suppling magic power and assisting with spatial interference. At the same time, Yue and others must also be performing similar protection and reinforcement from the earth side.
To be honest they didn’t know how much doing that helped, but they thought that would be better than doing nothing.
After all this was a world where the underlying principles of the cosmos had broken. The world was filled with risk of age of god magic not working.
In addition, it was unreasonable to expect them to believe in people of the calamity world just after hearing about them a little from Inaba and Leeman.
In this point, it also made Hajime hesitated with using Crystal Key. Although he had managed to secure an area where it was possible to use age of god magic, the gate Hajime used and the vortex of light were clearly operating with different formula. The energy was also different. Due to those differences, there was no guarantee that there wouldn’t be some kind of negative influence from the calamity world to earth.
And so, if forced to say without sugarcoating it, rather than reinforcing, it would be more accurate to say that they were “interfering so that the only transportation method(gate) that could work without any particular problem at the present wouldn’t get closed without their say so”. Hajime immediately moved to Mercurys’s location after rushing with the battle was also in part to “prevent the gate from closing”. He didn’t say it out loud though.
It seemed their effort was having quite an effect based on what Manager Mercurys said.
「If there’s no problem with the current state of reinforcement, we can keep it up indefinitely.」
「……Indefinitely? What is your tolerable range of energy reserve?」
「Practically infinite.」
「……I see. So you have reached that technological level.」
Manager Mercurys unconsciously sighed. It felt like there was admiration mixing in her voice.
「In that case, can I ask you to share your magic power with us first before our talk? We’ll be able to maintain the “rainbow bridge” directly that way rather than doing magical reinforcement like that.」
「Rainbow bridge……」
「Yes, that’s what we call the vortex of light that enable moving between worlds.」
That vortex of light didn’t look like rainbow, and there was a myth at earth about such bridge flashing at the back of Hajime’s mind, but there was something else that had to be prioritized right now so he put that aside and nodded back.
「What should I do?」
Manager Mercury’s gaze turned behind. She was looking at the sapling floating in the air enveloped in pure white light, and the white cat patiently sitting in front it.
「You only need to emit magic power to that spot. This space and the white cat(Holou) will do the rest.」
The white cat was apparently named Holou. No particular emotion could be felt from the gaze quietly staring at Hajime. But, there was the sensation of being observed from it.
「You’re alright with magic power?」
「……Now that you mention it, you were also handling different energy weren’t you. Artificial formation of origin flow……no, let’s put that aside for now. Yes, magic power is just fine.」
Hajime nodded and wordlessly radiated power.
Manager Mercurys’s cheeks twitched. But, she didn’t lose strength in her legs this time. Rather, she was directing a cool-headed gaze of an observer as befitting a scientist toward Hajime.
Meanwhile Hajime was increasing his magic power emission. Crimson light overflowed and dyed the white space.
Pupils vanished from Holou’s eyes and its whole eyes became shining white. At the same time, the light enveloping its body was becoming even brighter. Right after that, crimson torrent flooded all at once toward Holou.
It was like storm growling thunderously. Maybe it was just their imagination but it felt like the space was creaking.
「Tsu, this much power……really just how in the world……」
Manager Mercury’s expression broke. She was gritting her teeth in pain. She was apparently deploying some kind of defensive technique, but even with that she looked like she would fall on her knee any time now.
「But, with this……perhaps, we’ll be able to liberate the human sacrifice.」
「Just now, what did you say?」
Her voice was dyed with relieve and joy, however, the words she faintly said were actually really disquieting. It made Hajime reflexively asked back. His eyes were narrowed dangerously.
「Did you mention human sacrifice?」
「Yes, I did.」
「……」
Manager Mercury looked straight back at him and nodded as though it wasn’t anything to feel guilty about.
Hajime’s gaze wandered at empty air and he looked thoughtful for a bit. His gaze moved to the shining spaling, and then, he muttered 「So it’s like that huh」.
「Oh, looks like you manage to understand to some degree just from that exchange. It seems you have a considerable understanding of the world’s mechanism.」
He had reached a level where he could work with endless energy, so it was no wonder, Manager Mercury thought with acceptance. At the same time, tension slightly left her shoulders seeing Hajime’s calm demeanor, that was exactly like a cool-headed scientist similar to her.
「I thought that you would snap at me like hero-dono.」
「That guy would definitely do that huh.」
A wry unconsciously smile tugged at the corner of his lips, but Hajime immediately shook his head. He jerked his chin toward the sapling for checking his answer.
「That “great tree’s core”……it’s not connected isn’t it. With the World Tree.」
This isolated space, and then the island floating in space and barrier, outside it the world principles were crumbling……
He reached the natural conclusion that could be hypothesized from those.
The “great tree’s core” that was cut off from its home planet, it must be in a state that was unable to receive energy supply from the origin world, the world that was named as the true world Astral by Hajime and co.
Then, where did the vast energy for maintaining that rainbow barrier and teleportation gate came from>
That was obvious. What could produce energy in a world that had nothing was only magic power produced inside the body by life force.
And, lives that existed in the calamity world were limited.
「Human sacrifices……what I felt from you and also the guys at the battlefield is “magic power”. But, the power I felt from the “rainbow bridge” has different quality from magic power, it’s more……yes, it’s an energy that’s closer to element.」
「”World Tree”……and then “element”. Judging from the context……what a coincidence. Your terminology is matching with ours……」
Was it truly a coincidence in the end? Mercurys’s face became thoughtful just for a moment, but she too immediately shook her head. She focused back at the topic that they should talk about right now.
Whether it was the scientist demeanor, and their way of setting the tempo and the pacing of conversation, if Yue and others were present in this place, they might somehow harboured the impression that Hajime and Mercurys were “birds of a feather”.
「Yes, that’s right. It’s more efficient than simply a specific energy. Especially in this world that is conceptually closed off……」
「”Conceptually”. That’s the reason why Amanogawa didn’t……no, couldn’t go back or contact us with the Fairy Key――with the tools that he has on hand huh.」
「Yes, this world has two barriers. The first is the rainbow coloured barrier surrounding the island. And then, the second one can’t be seen by eyes, but it’s a conceptual barrier spreading out to the whole universe.」
「A barrier to maintain world principles and secure a sphere of survival and, a barrier to prevent the breaking down of principles to not spread to other worlds huh.」
「That’s not all but……let’s talk about the barrier later.」
It seemed there was still something lacking in Hajime’s conjecture. But, Manager Mercurys pushed the talk forward. She moved her gaze toward the white cat(Holou) that kept sitting still without even a twitch like an ornament.
「In any case, it’ll be easier for the “rainbow bridge” to work the more energy similar to element there is. This child and the “god tree’s core” are converting magic power to be as close as possible to element in attributes. But, the amount absolutely won’t be sufficient with just the possible amount contained within human.」
「So that’s the reason you call it “human sacrifice” instead of “supply” huh.」
Kouki was enraged, however, he understood that there was no other way that than and gritted his teeth. That was the reason he handed over all the stored magic power in his possession as the least that he could do. That was also the reason why he only used his own magic power in the battle.
「Yes. We’re wringing out magic power directly from souls.」
「Can I imagine it like getting an advance payment of lifespan?」
「I guess. Yes, it’s exactly like that.」
The total amount of magic power that person would produce throughout his lifetime was wrung out in a short time. Imagine it like if normally water kept in a dam was taken out through a faucet for everyday use, in this case that dam was destroyed so all the water would be released all at once.
And, the dam in this equation was the soul.
Perhaps as to be expected from a former goddess. Aularodde also noticed this fact like Hajime. It was when Kouki told them about Hajime’s existence and suggested requesting rescue.
Manager Mercurys looked thoughtful for a bit even as she said.
It was possible to construct a travel method between worlds. However, this world’s great tree, “God Tree” was in a state of not possessing the facilities and formula for establishing interworld travel it once possessed anymore. Therefore there was a need to construct a new teleportation formula that matched with the present situation. There was also a need to specify the coordinate and analyze the transferred magic power so it would take a bit of time.
Yes, “this world’s great tree was practically already lost”.
Then, it was only natural for the former goddess to have a question. How was a world that had no great tree secured the vast amount of magic power required to create the passage to other world?
From there, she doubted, Are you spewing some kind of lie to Kouki-sama?, then she asked Kara to investigate through the minds of the people around.
The result, what she first saw was most likely the shelter. There she found around several thousands of survivors who looked like they had no knowledge about fighting. They were huddling close with each other while looking uneasy about the fighting going on outside.
And then, she also saw several of those survivors getting called. Those people gulped, but then their expressions became resolved and they stood up. They hugged with the people around them with reluctance of parting before leaving the shelter.
Those people’s destination was a space with countless sleeping pods lined up like in an SF movie.
There were people put to sleep inside the pods having their magic power extracted. There were magic circles shining below the pods, from there lines of light ran like circuits and magic power was flowing to somewhere from there. Such sight could be seen.
Of course, the destination was here. This place was the core for maintaining the two barriers. This was also the place to create energy for forming the “rainbow bridge”.
「The survivors, are here to be battery for maintaining this terminated world huh.」
「……」
Manager Mercurys didn’t deny it.
All the survivors must have been offering their life like that this whole time, in order to just barely maintain the two barriers that were preserving this world.
In that case, it was also understandable that they would need even more human sacrifices to form the new interworld teleportation gate that required more vast amount of energy. It was also understandable why Kouki handed all his stored magic power after learning that.
Additionally, this was also the reason why Manager Mercurys was troubled by the “Total War Plan”, because this “role” ――responsibility imposed on the survivors other than “the law technique users in charge of protecting the living sphere” was their main duty.
「Is there any other problem than energy for maintaining the gate’s opening?」
Hajime dispassionately asked what had to be asked without any particular change in his expression. It felt like Manager Mercurys’s eyes loosened up slightly seeing that.
It reminded her of the shocked looks of Kouki and co when they heard the situation. It was deep sympathy.
But, that was something unnecessary. Rather, for them it was something that hurt their heart so much they wanted to scream. They weren’t anyone worth having such beautiful emotion directed toward them.
Kouki too must have sensed that. Perhaps he was seeing himself in them.
Either way the battlefield was intensifying and there was also no time to have a leisurely talk so Kouki immediately switched thought at that time and simply handed all his stored magic power before going out to fight.
「The risk of another intrusion of void god like before. And, the risk of the time axis’s flow becoming the same with your world. Only those two risks.」
「Void god?」
「God of the void, void god. I’m talking about those monsters. We’re calling them that here.」
Manager Mercurys explained while inside her heart she nodded, Aa, with a realization.
Hajime didn’t allow the “rainbow bridge” to be turned off wasn’t simply because he was wary of the possibility that it could never be activated again, and the possibility that Mercurys and her people would use the reopening of the gate as negotiation material to demand something.
It was also because he wanted to avoid getting separated from his important people at that gate’s other side for long.
(Important people at faraway place……place to return home……thinking again that’s only natural. And yet for my mind to be unable to immediately reach that thought……as I thought, perhaps my emotions as human are wearing down.)
Her face was expressionless like usual, but she was actually smiling bitterly in her own way.
「The risk of the world principle’s collapse spreading to our world?」
「None. The rainbow colored barrier surrounding this island. We’re calling it the “boundary of the end” or simply “the boundary” but, as long as it doesn’t collapse that won’t happen.」
「The possibility of it’s breaking from this attack?」
「The keystone of the boundary is this “God Tree’s core”. Destruction is impossible unless this is destroyed or there isn’t enough energy to maintain the boundary.」
「Impossible……that’s, because this is not exactly a barrier isn’t it? I see. That’s why it’s a “boundary” huh.」
Manager Mercurys’s eyes widened slightly. For her that was the biggest proof of her astonishment.
As expected it seemed she didn’t expect that Hajime would finish analyzing the true nature of the rainbow colored barrier in so short time, furthermore while also doing battle.
「Y-yes, that’s right. That’s nothing more than us visualizing the boundary line of the limited space the “God Tree’s core” is managing to keep as “regular environment”. That’s why, it has no effect of preventing intrusion, and in the first place it’s not a barrier so the concept of destruction doesn’t apply to it.」
The power of “calamity world’s great tree” that encompassed the whole universe in the past was apparently limited to only several kilometers to the four directions right now.
It was too pitiful to even see. Or perhaps, it ought to be admired for its amazingness for being able to maintain a living sphere the size of an island in a world where the world’s principles had broken down even after it had been reduced into a single sapling.
Considering the many human sacrifices who offered themselves to act as fuel, perhaps it was fine to think that it was the latter.
「This building in the shape like a twisted tower is imitating the great tree right? In order to amplify the power of the “core”. Other than that it’s also doing “time delaying”, no, “time interference” and……emitting something like a radio tower isn’t it? Most likely, it’s related to the other barrier you mentioned just now. This building itself is a giant artifact right?」
「So you have learned that much. You’re really something.」
Manager Mercurys let out a sigh of admiration noticeably this time while muttering 「Artifact……」. It was the word that referred to legendary relic in Tortus, but that must not be the case in the calamity world.
「……I’ve heard a little about that from Inaba and others. That word means relic from ancient time right? Over here object that is endowed with concept magic is called “special grade magic tool”, while object endowed with law technique is “first class magic tool”, and object endowed with magical effect below that is separated to grades of second and further below depending on the effect and quality……as expected it’s necessary for us to compare and adjust our terminology.」
「Yeah, but we can do that later.」
That might be needed for explaining to a third party, but between Hajime and Manager Mercurys they could understand each other for now just using their own conjecture and exchanging gaze to judge the right or wrong of their statement.
And so Hajime lightly waved his hand to postpone the trivial talk for later. That hand was holding the Crystal Key.
「There’s one more thing I want to confirm about travelling between worlds. Will there be a problem if I connect earth with here using this?」
He crossed the “rainbow bridge” without complaint because he suspected the possibility of the teleportation gate having been given some kind of special effect so to not cause any negative influence to both worlds.
It would be horrible if he used the Crystal Key to open his own gate and that caused the earth’s principles to break down. That was the natural judgment to make if he wanted to be extremely careful.
As expected it seemed that carefulness was the correct choice.
「Don’t use that.」
Manager Mercurys looked at Hajime with a serious gaze and gave a warning.
「I had mentioned it already but, originally, this world is being isolated using concept magic. It’s so that people of other world won’t carelessly connected to this world and receive the effect of the Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon.」
「……That’s the obvious measure to take.」
「Of course, if it’s you who possess unlimited magic power and special grade magic tool endowed with concept magic then you must be able to forcefully open a path. But, I cannot make any guarantee about what it’ll cause. I don’t even need to tell you what will happen if your coordinate is out of sync even just slightly from inside this barrier, but even if you get it right there’s no telling what kind of influence the Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon surrounding this living sphere will have on it.」
「In short, something like the gate turning off while in the middle of transferring, or the inputted coordinate going out of sync on its own might happen huh.」
「Yes. Originally, travelling between worlds is making use of the connection between fellow “god trees”. We call that connection the “origin flow”. It’s the grand flow that connect not only those worlds, but the whole universe. The “rainbow bridge” is a technology that is riding on that flow.」
So to say, in the calamity world the interworld teleportation was like sailing on the tidal current undersea, and Hajime wanting to go there with his own method would be like throwing an anchor tied with rope toward the destination, and then forcefully swimming there by following the rope.
Furthermore, inside the sea outside of the sea current near the calamity world was chock full with fierce poison called the Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon. That was the image.
Certainly, if it was like that then Hajime could understand how his teleportation method would be affected by the Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon.
「The “God Tree’s core” isn’t directly connected to the “origin flow” anymore. However, the “property of preserving regular environment” is still functioning. By making use of that, we can surpass the effect of the Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon and connect to the “origin flow”. Only barely though.」
This connecting formula must be the “new teleportation formula matching the present situation” that she mentioned before. Hajime realized that while nodding in understanding.
「I see. The hero summoning system that the goddesses use is likely based on that huh.」
「Your “god tree”……」
「We are calling it the King Tree.」
「Yes, the King Tree being alive and well also helped. Because we followed the “origin flow” flowing to your planet. After that, we analysed your first class artifacts――Leeman’s vehicle and the magic power storages hero-dono handed to us to pinpoint your coordinate. You had just emitted absurd amount of power not long ago right? Thanks to that it was really easy for us to pinpoint the coordinate.」
The ”rainbow bridge” manifested at Hajime’s location was apparently because of such reason.
「So in short. There won’t be a problem with me opening my own gate if it’s by following the origin flow to the King Tree as the gate replacement. Can I take it to mean that?」
Manager Mercurys nodded.
Hajime patted his chest in relief inside his mind. Because he had obtained the confirmation of the most important thing he had to check no matter what, which was information related to “securing the method to go back”.
Of course, there was also the possibility of Manager Mercurys giving him a sophisticated lie, so there was no way he could be completely relaxed, and there were also several more things that concerned him, but for the time being, he had obtained information that allowed him to judge that what she said made enough sense.
And so, now he should bring up about those other things――it was when he thought that, the torrent of magic power whirling around Holou settled down. Pupils returned to Holou’s eyes that were completely dyed white before. It seemed that it had managed to absorb enough magic power for maintaining the “rainbow bridge”.
The relieving factor had increased so Hajime’s shoulders slightly relaxed while he stopped emitting magic power. There, *ton* a light pressure pushed on Hajime’s shoulder.
「What……?」
「Eh……Holou?」
Holou had jumped on Hajime’s shoulder. Hajime looked at it in suspicion, while Manager Mercurys’s eyes opened wide again. If her subordinates were here, they must become worried instead wondering if perhaps her mind had fallen ill based on her high frequency of expression change.
It seemed that Holou jumping on Hajime’s shoulder was just that much of an unexpected thing.
Holou was staring fixedly *jii* at Hajime. Hajime also looked back at it. Even though its body was made from light itself, every single one of its fur was delicate and beautiful like real fur.
Its gaze was trying to convey something. It didn’t make a single sound but, somehow there was something that got conveyed.
「……You want more?」
『Ni~』 It felt like a small purr like that could be heard. Right after that, magic power flooded out from Hajime.
「! You, are drawing out magic power on your own?」
Holou pushed its nose tip fawningly.
Sly. This kitty cat, was truly sly! Like a real kitty cat!
But, what it was doing was quite heinous. The amount of magic power it was sucking out too.
If it wasn’t unlimited magic power, it wouldn’t be strange for ordinary people to die from emaciation at this level of absorption. It showed no hostility or malice, and it was staring at him must also be its gesture for asking permission. It also must understand that if it was Hajime then there would be no problem with it doing this though……
In fact, it wasn’t any problem to Hajime. And so, even though he sighed he didn’t do anything to shake it off and let it did as it please. In respond Holou started rubbing its face on Hajime’s face as show of gratitude.
「!!? ……P-please allow it. Just Holou alone――catch my drift?」
It seemed she was awfully shaken up. To a degree she reflexively made a joke even though she was thinking to refrain from it after losing the strength in her legs before this.
Sure enough, Hajime sent her a chilly gaze without any word. It made her almost turning into a freshly born fawn again.
「That child had never tried to touch anyone from its own initiative. That’s why, this surprise me a little and makes me jealous.」
「Your true feeling is leaking.」
Hajime-san tried caressing under Holou’s jaw with his fingertip. Holou narrowed its eyes in pleasure. It didn’t do anything like purring or meowing, but it had the air that made one thought that it would definitely do so if it was an actual cat.
「!?」
Manager Mercurys staggered backward. She had the air of someone catching her lover cheating with other woman.
Just as Hajime thought that she took out a handkerchief and started biting it. 「Kiiiih, you adulterer!」 She had the air of someone who was going to say that. In the end it was just the air. She was expressionless so it was plainly scary.
「So, by allow do you mean about it sucking out magic power? It’s not like I’m thinking that it’s acting hostile so you don’t need to worry. Rather than that……can I take this as it absorbing magic power for the “boundary”?」
Thinking normally then it could only be that. Hajime asked for confirmation for his guess. In respond Manager Mercurys nodded while still biting on her handkerchief.
「Moga, mogogo, moga――pardon me. Not only that, most likely it’s trying to wring out even for the portion of the “barrier of fabrication wounded principles”. ……It want to free all of the human sacrifices.」
Hajime narrowed his eyes. He raised three fingers. He once again spoke the question that he wanted to ask at minimum other than the “information related to the teleportation gate” which was the highest priority.
「That too is one of the priority topic I want to confirm. There’re three things that I want to ask at minimum. First, that “barrier of fabrication wounded principles”, it’s the barrier stopping the Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon right? I want to ask about that. Second, about the monsters attacking right now, the true identity of the void gods. Third, about the way to solve the current situation.」
Hajime paused for a beat, then he asked while his eyes glinted like saying that he wouldn’t allow any falsehood.
「I’ve heard a little about the current situation from Inaba and others. They said that if this place fall then the effect of Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon will reach other worlds and the whole universe will meet its ruin as well. They also said that you guys has been continuously looking for the way to the world’s continuous survival for nearly a hundred years.」
「That’s correct.」
「Why didn’t you guys ask for help from other worlds in such situation? ……You mentioned just now. This place is a “conceptually isolated world”. In other words, you couldn’t ask for help even if you want.」
Originally, excluding that pyramid floating object called “traveller”, the calamity world was generally unable to connect to other world.
But, a happening that made that possible occurred.
「The void gods’ attack caused a problem to the energy supply or to the building itself. As the result, this so called ““barrier of fabrication wounded principles” is also tearing at the seam. But as silver lining of a dark cloud if you can call it that, you became able to construct the “rainbow bridge” thanks to that tear.」
There was suddenly time difference between worlds must also due to the same reason. It was the effect of the Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon. The reason the “traveller” started moving at this time perhaps could be found there too. Hajime spoke his conjecture while feeling half convinced of it.
But,
「No.」
Against his prediction, Manager Mercurys shook her head.
Like that the answer that rushed out of her mouth was the worst thing that even Hajime hadn’t predicted. At the same time, it was hopelessly ruinous. It was truly, a danger to the world.
「It’s the opposite.」
「Opposite……?」
Manager Mercurys’s gaze fell. Her hands were clenched into fists and trembling slightly, as though feeling of shame was oozing out.
「Most likely, the void gods want to escape.」
「……Escape? Not attacking?」
「Yes, escape. ……That day, since the day the world collapsed, the world had somehow continued to stay alive until now but……it’s already at the limit.」
「……! Don’t tell me, it’s something, like that……?」
Deep creases formed on Hajime’s forehead. The severity of the situation, no, such situation couldn’t possibly be enough to describe this worst situation. The moment he understood that he reflexively pressed one hand on his forehead.
Manager Mercurys’s expression warped dramatically. Her face crumpled from being filled to the brim with grief, along with remorse and guilt.
「It’s not a problem of energy amount. It’s because the “barrier of fabrication wounded principles” isn’t suppressing the Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon fully.」
“Barrier of fabrication wounded principles”――in the past, when the people of the calamity world realized that the collapse of world principles couldn’t be repaired, they created it as their greatest and last resort.
While the universe itself was starting to collapse from the edge, the majority of the surviving mankind was used in the “formula of concept magic creation” to create the barrier.
Yes, it was self-explanatory from the words. In the past the calamity world had established a method to create concept magic arbitrarily.
However, that method was the height of inhumanity.
“Power to meddle with world principle” and “will of utmost limits” were necessary for concept magic.
For the former there was methods to engrave it into brain and soul. But, without trained foundation the method would just produce invalid instantly. It couldn’t be done in a day.
The latter was even more difficult. Something like will of utmost limits that could be produced just because other people told them to do so couldn’t really be called “utmost limits”. The person had to wish for it from the bottom of their heart, from their soul even.
But, it could also be said that those conditions could be cleared if the safety and human right of the people involved were ignored.
Meddling with soul, fabricating memory, rewriting personality, planting fanatical wish, forcing will of utmost limits. And then, forcefully engraving in law technique. Using whatever kind of method so thoroughly it was impossible to recover from.
In the past it was said the calamity world had developed its magical technology to such an advanced degree it accomplished expansion to the stars and for a long while its population had reached to dozens of trillions.
Most of those numbers were swallowed by the Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon and vanished to the void helplessly.
Those who were able to escape to the planet of the God Tree that was the center of the universe which managed to resist the effect of Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon till the end, including the privileged class who had been living there from the start were only around two-odd billion people.
If around 80% of them paid the price that rendered them into invalid, it was possible to manifest a concept magic based on “united wills of utmost limits” in the scale of more than a billion people.
The result, they succeeded in unleashing a concept that ought to be called as “Anti-Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon” to the whole universe of the calamity world.
Using the concept “the principles aren’t collapsing” that was in opposition to the fact that “the principles had collapsed” as the linchpin, a special class magic tool “the barrier tower of fabrication wounded principles”, in other words, this building was endowed with multiple concepts like “all phenomenon won’t spread to outside this universe”, “all phenomenon from other worlds won’t influence this universe”, and others.
It was truly a “barrier that create fabricated principles”.
But, even after being forced to make such sacrifices they still didn’t manage to stop the collapse completely.
「You guys aren’t heading to destruction because of getting attacked. You guys are attacked because the world is heading to destruction……so it’s like that.」
Monsters that could survive even in outer space where world principles had collapsed. But, as expected they couldn’t cross to other world while being inside the Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon.
This place was the only location in this calamity world where power could be used without any problem.
The monsters didn’t immediately teleport but stayed to fight the law technique users wasn’t simply because the people here fought back to not let them go to other world.
「Either they want to get their hand on you guys’ souls as energy source for teleporting, or they have their eyes on the God Tree’s core. Or perhaps both……」
Thinking back at the incident at Detroit, crossing over worlds wasn’t something easy even for these monsters. Especially in this “ locked world”, even though the blockade had become incomplete it was still almost impossible to exceed the effect of Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon and escaped.
In any case.
「Even if by chance you guys manage to completely repel their attacks, the effect of Breaking Down Principles Phenomenon will definitely spread to all worlds in the not faraway future.」
「……Yes.」
「Is there a way to prevent that?」
「……」
Hajime already half understood the answer. If there was a way, Mercurys and others should have been doing that already since a long time ago. Even so he still had to ask the question.
「……I’m sorry.」
A voice that sounded like it would fade into nothingness even now weakly resounded. Dark shadow fell inside her eyes. It was the shadow people called “despair”.
「……How long?」
「Without your help, it’ll take around ten years regardless of these attacks. At the fastest it will be within a few years. Of course, that time range is based on the original time axis――the time flow of your world.」
「My help? I see, magic power huh. If from here on I continue to supply infinite magic power……」
「The output of the barrier itself will rise to incomparable level from before. But, it won’t solve the problem at the fundamental level. We cannot avoid the end with just increasing the power output.」
Manager Mercurys stared at Holou who was still greedily absorbing magic power even now. She looked thoughtful for a bit and,
「Even so……I’ll have to recalculate it for the accurate timeline but……at the very least we’ll be able to last for around a hundred years.」
She spoke the remaining time until the end came.
Hajime looked like he wanted to spit as he said 「Just that much huh」.
That was the lifetime of a single person. Perhaps that was enough time to spend the a life for the last time before the end. But, the images of his family flashed at the back of his mind, and then his promise with Yue and others.
What would happen to the children, and then their children’s children who would be born in the future?
「Unacceptable.」
It felt like the air crackled from that voice. Manager Mercurys’s face snapped up as though she had just gotten slapped.
Mercurys and her people had the technology level that enabled them to meddle with not only principles but even concepts. There was no way they were just wringing their hands uselessly while buying time with the sacrifice of the survivors. There was no doubt that they had been doing research day in, day out with desperation to save the world.
Even so they couldn’t find a way. Hajime understood that fact, even so, there was no despair in his eyes.
「There’s always a way, no matter when, no matter what kind of situation.」
He had lived until now like that. Even when he fell to the bottom of abyss, even when he was facing the god who ruled the world, he always found a way to survive without fail.
Considering the future, there was only a hundred years. But, if there was a hundred years of time for taking back the future……
That was enough. There was no reason to despair or giving up.
「You guys too are still not giving up. You aren’t allowing yourself to give up.」
That was why, they were opposing the attacks from the void gods so desperately.
That was why, they desperately connected a path toward the “demon god” who Inaba and others told them was their hope.
「It looks like, it’s not a simple situation that can be solved with just murdering the enemies. Just the “minimum information” isn’t enough at all. Tell me everything, from the beginning till the end.」
His gaze wasn’t the cool-headed gaze of an observation. This gaze was containing the light of will and heat like when looking up at the sun.
Manager Mercurys unconsciously gulped. She was feeling even more overwhelmed than when she felt that weird and mighty atmosphere.
「I’ll also tell you. What the people of other worlds had built up until now during the thousands, or perhaps even tens of thousands of years that you guys had protected, everything that I know.」
This was the world where that Ehito was born.
It seemed that it was also the residents of this world who broke the hell world.
Naturally there were things that he wanted to say about those. He also hadn’t fully trusted them by all means.
But, Hajime swallowed all that and offered his hand.
In his eyes, there was not even a speck of doubt toward his own words. He believed it from his heart. That this situation could be overcome no matter what.
Unconsciously, Manager Mercurys took a step forward.
She staggered, as though she had finally found light at the end of her wandering all this time inside pitch black darkness.
「……Thank you.」
She was expressionless like usual. But, somehow it felt like her face was crying and laughing.
Manager Mercurys took Hajime’s hand with a slightly trembling voice. She firmly, and strongly gripped that hand to cling on it no matter how shameful the act was.
「Please I ask you to lend us your hand. God of another world.」
Hajime shrugged and simply shook her hand strongly back.
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At the end of the distant universe, in a darkness where there wasn’t a single star, there was something.
Its figure wasn’t clear. But, it was a powerful existence that felt like the height of foreignness.
It suddenly pulsed fiercely. It raised a wordless shriek.
As though it had sensed something significant that determined destiny.
AN: Thank you very much for reading this every time.
Thank you very much too for the thoughts, opinions, and reports about misspelling and omitted words.
Next chapter will be Yue side who remained at earth. However, the exposition chapter will continue for a bit more……
I’m sorry that the plain story is coming in succession right at the start of the year but, please give me mercy for a while.
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