Chapter 110

Chapter Epilogue The Beast Within the Beast Gods’ Games We Play 1 At Arcane Court headquarters, on the second floor of the north tower… The hallway of rainbow-colored stained glass was so utterly silent that the very air seemed frozen. Down this hall was the room that had been provided for the exclusive use of headquarters’ most famous team—namely, Mind Over Matter. Tap, tap. The silence was shattered by the sound of shoes on the floor, so loud and so bold it was, well, downright inconsiderate. And they were coming closer… “Chaos.” At a word from the girl standing before the door to the room, Chaos halted, and the sound of footsteps ceased. “You certainly like to talk,” she said, gazing up at him with jade-green eyes. She played with her light lavender hair with one hand and regarded him with resentment. “Why did you tell them?” “I said I would handle the explanations, and that’s what I did. Okay, so I let slip a bit more than I meant to a couple of times, but it’s all within parameters.” His expression was completely serious. Not for a moment did Chaos think of himself as having betrayed the girl. “I decided this was the best way.” “You deliberately lost so that you could tell them that story?” “There aren’t that many people out there who can win a game against Fay. I gave it my all.” “……” The girl fell silent. The girl who, three thousand years before, had gone from a human to a god. At length, she said, “I didn’t… I don’t want my past known by any other human. I’ve never told anyone. Not even my father.” “Speaking of the chairman, how’s he doing?” She paused for a long moment before replying, “……I believe he’s regained consciousness. I was just about to go see him.” The two of them had just happened to cross paths—Chaos returning to the room and Heleneia leaving it. “I leave the room in your capable hands. Without you there, nobody cleans it,” she said. “Heleneia,” he said, just as they passed each other, the instant their bodies aligned. “I just wondered, once he knew what I know, whether he would come to the same conclusion. It’s just another game.” “It’s not a game,” the girl said with a feeble smile. “That’s a gamble.” She sounded sad. “In a wager, the side that loses grieves. In a game, the winner and loser both get to have fun.” “Then let me ask you—can you smile while you play?” “………” The girl walked by him without another word. There was no sound of footsteps as she went. Was that because she was so light and delicate, or because she was half-god? She disappeared down the hallway. “I wish you could smile,” Chaos said, though the girl had vanished. “When was it that you stopped being able to say ‘Let’s play again,’ whether you won or lost?” On the first floor of the north tower of Arcane Court headquarters… Fay and the others, their faces drawn, rushed down the hallway, hardly noticing the stained glass that depicted gods whose names they didn’t know. “A-are you sure this is all right? I mean, talking to Heleneia?” Pearl asked, looking around anxiously. “Steel your nerves, Pearl. We’re apostles. As people who are attempting the gods’ games, we can’t stay quiet about what we know of her intentions,” said Nel, who jogged along beside her. Her fists were balled, and she, too, looked nervous. “Master Chaos didn’t say it, but I’ll bet her divine teammates were behind what happened in Lucemia, too. Isn’t that right, Chief Secretary Miranda?” “It would make sense,” the chief secretary replied without slowing down. As she walked, she consulted a small liquid crystal display device. “Let’s see…take a right up here, I think.” The device showed a map of headquarters. The room belonging to Mind Over Matter was not far away. “I have to wonder if young miss Heleneia and her companions will actually be in there. They’re gods, after all. I get the feeling they don’t have meetings or training like an ordinary team. Chaos himself is probably the only one who knows where all of them are at any given time.” “He’s supposed to be their coach, right?” Fay said. It was only just earlier that he had learned that Chaos was indeed the coach of Mind Over Matter—they’d discovered it when they looked into Chaos after he left. He’s attached to Heleneia’s team. That fact alone would make it seem like he would be on her side. But Fay couldn’t tell. The tone in Chaos’s voice as he’d spoken of the ancient magical civilization and told Heleneia’s story had hardly sounded like he held much sympathy for her. Really, there wasn’t even any need for him to tell us. If he was really on Heleneia’s side, he would have just kept his mouth shut. Even now, as he raced down the hallway, her words bubbled up in Fay’s mind. “Fay. Do you like games?” “There are countless human games in this world. Why, then, should one be uniquely devoted to the gods’ games?” Maybe that was true. Humans could play human games and still survive. And yet… “Hey, Leshea?” “Hmm?” “My conclusion from hearing Chaos’s story…” Fay spoke to the former god who behind him without turning around, looking straight ahead the whole time. “…is that I want to talk to her.” “Isn’t that why we’re going there?” “The more perspectives and ideas I have, the better. But this ideal world that she’s trying to bring into being, it’s…” “Wrong?” “A waste, I think.” They went from the first floor to the second, up a flight of stairs bathed in light. At the top, they found another hallway of rainbow-colored stained glass, just like the one below. At the far end of it was a heavy pair of double doors. “D-do you think Heleneia and the others are in there?” Pearl asked, placing a hand to her chest and taking a deep breath. “Are you sure they won’t get angry at us for just dropping in? I mean, we don’t even know if they’re there—it might be locked, and maybe they won’t open it? M-maybe we should knock first…” “Oh, they’ll open!” “Leshea?! Waaaiiit!” There was a great screech of metal as, at a single blow from Leshea, the huge, heavy doors flew open. “Leshea, what are you doing?!” Pearl cried. “They’ll be thrilled to see us! The gods always have way too much time to kill, anyway… Huh?” Leshea looked around and blinked. Beyond the doors was a round room, quite different from an ordinary meeting room. There were no tables or chairs, and the whole thing was painted white. Between that and the oppressive silence that blanketed the room, it seemed downright inhospitable toward humans—let alone welcoming. “It’s deserted. Not that we didn’t know that was a possibility. I’d sort of hoped at least Chaos would be here, though,” Miranda said, looking at the ceiling. Or rather, at where the ceiling would have been, had there been one. They couldn’t tell if the room had never had a ceiling, or if it had been removed—all they saw overhead was a blue so deep that it looked like it could swallow them up, and it was streaked with long wisps of clouds. Then there was the sunlight that poured into the room, washing over them. “Maybe young miss Heleneia was worried about the chairman’s health and went to the medical office. We could try there next.” “No! Mew mustn’t!” With a great gust of wind, a voice and an aura of some kind descended from above, where the chief secretary had just been looking. Thump! A red-haired girl dropped down from the sky, performing a somersault before landing in the middle of the room and immediately pressing her hands to her skirt frantically. “Yeep! The air pressure lifted my skirt! If my dear Heleneia saw that, she’d be angry—‘Shameful!’ she’d say!” It was the girl who went by “Nibel.” How could they forget her? Not long before, she’d nearly blown the humans away with just the force of her gaze… But where had all that menace gone? “Urh… Presentation, presentation!” For some reason, she was patting her crimson hair with one hand while she tried to neaten her skirt with the other. She seemed to have hardly even noticed Fay and the others right in front of her. “Uh, Fay? This god doesn’t seem very, uh, godlike, huh?” “If you really think about it, maybe she does. She’s very whimsical and…willful…” As Fay and the others watched in befuddlement, the young woman finally finished straightening her outfit. “Phew!” she said, putting a hand to her forehead in satisfaction. “Wait, meowhat?! Mew there!” “Ah. Finally noticed us?” “I know what mew’re here for! Mew want to find Heleneia, who went to clean the chairman’s room, and Chaos, who’s in the administrative office. You can’t fool meow!” “……” The room was silent. Fay and the others didn’t speak. Nibel, evidently not expecting this, gave them a probing look. “Why won’t mew say anything?” “Oh, it’s nothing… We were just processing the fact that Heleneia isn’t in the medical office at all, but in the chairman’s room.” “And Chaos is in the administrative office, is he? Maybe we should go there, then,” said Miranda. “Meeeooowwwhhh nooooo!” the crimson-haired god yowled, clutching her head. It was the most pathetic scream Fay had heard from any of the gods he had met. “Heleneia said she doesn’t want to see you guys! And instead of helping her, I gave her location away!” “Honestly, we thought it might be a trap,” Fay said. “Hah! What purrfect fools. There isn’t a god around who would tell a lie!” “So it’s true?” “………” This time Nibel managed to keep her mouth shut, but instead, big, fat tears started rolling down her cheeks. It was, it seemed, a fact that gods didn’t tell lies. “Change of plans! I’ll revert to the original strategy and buy time by distracting mew with a game! Chaos can say he thinks I just want to also play with Fay if he wants, but so what if I do?!” “Huh? Hold on, I need to talk to Heleneia—” “Behold my form!” Boom! The girl’s flame-red hair shivered—but no sooner had they registered this than it literally burst into flames in a shower of sparks and heat. The girl Nibel became a whirling storm of fire. Within the flames, the silhouette of what looked like a girl rapidly grew in size before assuming the shape of a four-legged beast. “I am the Great Beast, Nibelung!” The beast’s forepaws emerged from the fire. Each one was bigger than a century-old tree. Then they saw a head like a lion’s and a body covered in rippling muscles—a great beast wreathed in conflagration. “Of all Arises, the Great Beast offered the cornerstone of Superhuman abilities.” “What?!” Nel beheld the god in a beast’s body and trembled. “That can’t be! That ditzy god was a creature like this?!” “I’m starting to feel very, very glad I have a magical Arise!” Pearl added. “Guh?” The towering, lionlike god looked distinctly displeased. “Meow’ll never forgive you for that!” The Great Beast Nibelung opened her great crimson jaws. She was many times larger than even the Sleeping Lion that they’d battled in the Labyrinth of Lucemia, her mouth like a chasm that spread from ear to ear. Then she leaped at them. “I cordially invite mew—to my stomach!” “What no waaaaaiiiiit!” “I swear I’m not tastyyyyy!” They didn’t have so much as a chance to fight back before she swallowed them all in one gulp, and they found themselves tumbling headfirst down the lightless tunnel of her stomach. “Wait…! A tunnel?!” Fay exclaimed before, as if in answer, a light appeared at the end of it. As they plummeted toward it, the light expanded, as if to pull them in… Elements: The Enclosed Ritual Site of Blood and Fire VS The Origin Beast, Nibelung Let the games begin. Elements—the superior spiritual realm. This world could take on a myriad of appearances depending on the deity who ruled it. Now they had dived into it through the “door” of the Great Beast Nibelung’s mouth, and when they arrived, they discovered… …a village. A small hamlet, surrounded by picturesque green pastures. There were log cottages with smoke puffing out of the chimneys, and the air was full of what smelled like baking bread. As they looked around, they saw children playing merrily. “…Idyllic,” remarked Nel. “…Yes, very peaceful,” Leshea agreed. “…This village looks like it doesn’t have a care in the world,” said Pearl. “…When I’m old, I’d sure like to find a place like this to spend my golden years,” Miranda commented. “Yeah… It’s almost enough to trick you into letting your guard down,” said Fay. As each of them offered their individual appraisals of the situation, something appeared overhead. “Hellooo! And welcome, thank you all for coming!” “We are the meeps who live in our divine ruler Nibelung’s demesne. We’re here to help you have a pleasant and proper gaming experience.” It was a pair of twin meeps, both bright red. The color was presumably to match that of the Great Beast. “Huh? If you’re meeps, then is this a proper god’s game?” “But of course!” “Our divine ruler has been waiting so long for you to visit. This game has been in the works for some five hundred years, and now it will finally be revealed!” “That’s too long to work on something!” Pearl yelped. “Behold!” The two meeps turned toward each other and shared a high-five; they mirrored each other perfectly. There couldn’t have been 0.001 seconds’ difference in their rhythm or timing. “The murder mystery ‘Everything Goes Red’ shall now begin!”