Chapter 86

Chapter Player.4 What He Saw That Day Gods’ Games We Play 1 The Relic City of Ange: It was here that, decades ago, the existence of the ancient magical civilization—which until then had been only rumor—was first proven. They’d had a whole fleet of cities that sailed the skies—but for reasons unknown, they had fallen to the ground one by one, and the magical civilization had faded into legend. Their relics, their ruins, lay here. From ground covered in volcanic ash, the excavation of those ruins continued even now. After more than a full day of travel on the continental railroad, Fay and his teammates arrived at the Relic City, their train pulling into view of an ashen-gray landscape. “It seems very, uh, quiet,” Pearl said. “Quiet? I’d say downright lonely. I thought there would be more crowds,” remarked Nel. The two of them looked this way and that, taking in the city scenery as they walked down a flagstone path. The place was, in a word, old. For one thing, there were no skyscrapers. Nothing that looked like a corporate office or high-rise apartment building, just a lot of weathered structures built of gray brick. A complete change from the polished urban cityscape of Fay’s home base of Ruin. To top it all off, there wasn’t even an Arcane Court branch office here. “I was looking forward to some food tourism,” said Pearl, opening a sightseeing pamphlet. “But this place isn’t known for any particular cuisine. It doesn’t have any famous hotels. Souvenirs are limited to cookies and chocolates with ‘Ange’ written on them. It practically takes all the fun out of a trip!” “This place doesn’t even have any local games?!” Leshea shrieked. She was walking at the head of their group, also studying one of the pamphlets. “You’ve got to be kidding me. It’s the Relic City. They could at least have games that take place in the ruins or something. And there’s not even an Arcane Court branch office… Ugh.” She heaved a sigh. Then she made a half turn, her shoulders slumping. “Let’s go home, Fay.” “Yes, Fay, we should go back.” “Mm-hmm. I see no compelling reason to stay in this place.” Leshea and Pearl agreed, and even Nel nodded, throwing her weight behind the suggestion. “I hate to say it, Master Fay, but I think our trip was wasted. Insofar as your old team leader, Master Chaos, isn’t here, there’s no reason for us to stick around.” “Good point…” As he walked along with the three girls, Fay looked down at the communications device in his hand. The monitor showed the address of his former team leader, Chaos. It was supposed to be a corner on this main street—specifically, the corner they had just passed. Yet all they had seen there was an abandoned house. Chaos had come to this city some six months ago, and it looked like he had already moved on to someplace new. What’s this about, Chaos? You moved all the way out here from Ruin, and you didn’t even stay the better part of a year? Why had he chosen Ange to begin with? This frontier burg without even an Arcane Court branch office? Its lone distinguishing feature was the remains of the ancient magical civilization to be found there. “I guess that’s another lesson in not relying on Chief Secretary Miranda’s info,” Fay said. This was the second time it had let him down. Her hot tip about a red-haired girl six months ago had turned out to be just a rumor, and now Ange was looking like a wild-goose chase, too. “There are still seats available on the train leaving this evening, Master Fay. That would get us back to Ruin late tomorrow night,” Nel suggested. “Yeah. I’d sort of been thinking of this like a sightseeing expedition, but…” Fay looked around the avenue. He saw parents and children—local families—and workers from the excavation site. There wasn’t a single other tourist there. Apparently this place was one big archaeological dig, pure and simple—not somewhere people came for fun. “Okay, let’s start preparing to go ho—” He was interrupted by something that came rocketing down from straight over his head. “Tiny huuumaaan, waaaaaaiiit!” Boom! The thing impacted the street with the force of a meteor, kicking up a blast wind and making a tremendous noise. “Eek!” cried a nearby citizen. “Wh-what happened?! Did gunpowder ignite?!” exclaimed someone else. People who heard the ruckus came running. The thick cloud of dust finally cleared to reveal a gigantic crater. What had hit? A missile? A meteorite? “Nope! It’s mineself!” A silver-haired girl leaped clear out of the crater, which must have been three meters deep. She twirled in midair, so vigorously that her T-shirt—a grotesquely overdone thing with the word Undefeated emblazoned on it—rolled up to her midriff. Then she landed squarely in front of Fay. “Uroboros?” he asked. “Tiny Human! Looks like I win our game of tag!” “I didn’t know we were playing tag. But anyway, don’t tell me you came here all the way from Ruin?” “Sure did! You sneaked out while I was sleeping, so I had to chase you!” This, incidentally, was a misunderstanding. They hadn’t sneaked out while Uroboros was sleeping; she’d simply been snoozing so soundly that they’d been completely unsuccessful in every attempt to wake her up. “I mean, you said you didn’t care about human investigations,” Fay reminded her. “Uh-huh. Hey, where are we anyway? Ooh, wait! Could this be…?” Uroboros looked around, taking it all in. The explosion occasioned by her landing had, miraculously, not resulted in any casualties, but it had attracted a crowd of dozens of onlookers. “Master Fay…I think they’re starting to look at us, too,” Nel said. “Fay, uh, we should probably move,” Pearl added. Uroboros’s sharp ears picked up their whispered conversation. “Don’t like it here?” She clapped her hands. “Then accept mine invitation!” “““What?””” the others chorused. “Here we go!” Before Fay knew what was happening, Uroboros had grabbed his hand. Then he felt himself rising into the air, and then there was a shock that rattled his brain as everything before him went white. The next thing he knew, he felt himself hitting the ground, hard. “Ouch!” Fay cried. “Hmm? What’s wrong, Tiny Human?” “I think I might have crushed my pelvis… What did you just— Huh?!” Fay realized he wasn’t standing on the main street anymore. Had they flown through the sky or simply jumped through space? “Oh, I know where this is! It’s the excavation site on the edge of the city, isn’t it?!” Pearl said, promptly producing her pamphlet. It bore a photo on a two-page spread, which she compared to the worksite in front of them, looking from one to the other. “I knew it! It says that the area on the western edge of the Relic City of Ange has yielded a whole range of relics from the ancient magical civilization. She brought us right to the dig, Fay!” “That’s what this is?” he asked. It was a sprawling site covered in ash. There was a faded golden altar, as well as stone pillars engraved with characters in a language that obviously belonged to no living tongue. Several of the pillars were broken in half, but some were still complete. The most striking thing there, however, was the massive wall of black stone that towered directly in front of them. It was a long rectangle, like a painted scroll. Like the pillars, it was crammed with unfamiliar letters. “Could this be…?” Leshea looked up at the wall, then took a step closer. She smiled, almost nostalgic. “‘We—humans and gods—of their fellowship are proof.’ This is the language of the ancient magical civilization. I thought I recognized it.” “Huh! Is that what this is?” Fay couldn’t read the characters carved into the black stele, but if Leshea, herself a living fossil from the time of the magical civilization, said that’s what they were, he believed her. “Uroboros? Why’d you bring us here?” “Hee hee! I can see you have questions, Tiny Human.” Uroboros sounded downright pleased. “Well, I am undefeated, after all. It occurred to me that I made a promise to this one god a while back. And this would be the perfect place to meet them.” “Huh?” “There’s someone I want you to meet, Tiny Human. I might just call them right now.” Someone she wanted him to meet? Fay couldn’t imagine who. Leshea, Nel, and Pearl looked equally puzzled. At that moment, Uroboros said, “It might take them a while, so you humans can just play the time away!” “…Hmm?” “…Huh?” “…Fweh?” “…What?” Poof. Uroboros patted the ash-covered ground. The moment she did so, a huge ring that glowed with silver light appeared at the feet of Fay and his companions. A ring in the shape of a snake eating its own tail. It was the ring of Uroboros, a symbol of infinity, the beginning and the end becoming one. The area encompassed by the ring became translucent even as they watched, a shower of rainbow light playing over it. “This is—!” “It’s the same light from the Divine Gates?!” A profound power, a sacrament, connected the human world to the superior spiritual realm as easily as that. By the time they realized what had happened, Fay and the others were diving through Uroboros’s ring into the world of the gods.