What Sol was taking issue with was IX taking what he had said about himself and generalizing it to apply to the entire human race.
“The way I think is just that: the way I think. Which is why I have no intention of changing.” Sol was determined to stick to his guns even if it led to his death and, in turn, the destruction of the world. After having been given such overwhelming strength, there wasn’t a chance he would give up on his dream for some sanctimonious cause like saving the world and spend the majority of his life sleeping like IX was doing. The choice that IX had made most certainly wasn’t one that everyone else would, but someone who would generalize at the drop of a hat sounded exactly like the kind of person who would expect the rest of the world to share his views.
In the first place, Sol highly doubted the self-proclaimed Game Master he had met would stand for such a development. He thought it very likely that, should his group lose to IX after truly throwing everything they had at him, they would find a lifeline that had been prepared for them on the other side. This ability that he was unconsciously developing to think from a meta point of view was going to give him a very big leg up in future encounters with beings from outside this world, but that was neither here nor there at the moment.
IX lowered his eyes ruefully and said, like a teacher to a disappointing student, “Ah, so you’re trying to argue that not all humans are a lost cause. Many in the past have championed that rhetoric.”
He was misinterpreting Sol’s words as a heroic protest, an impassioned “Humans can change! They can surprise you with the potential they hold!” directed at a transcendental being who was passing judgment on humanity based on a dry, bare-bones understanding of the species’ history.
There was nothing wrong with that. Any group with a member who used to be an enemy but had managed to overcome their anger and despair and move on to fight for the sake of the world could serve as an example of the human ability to change. However, once again, generalization did this narrative no favors. It was down to each person to change or not, which was in no way representative of humanity as a whole. Regardless of the moral direction of that change, it was down to each person to change or not.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. If it was up to me, I would trim the number down to the bare minimum.” With his worldview, Sol had no interest in using his power to become mankind’s savior or leader. He would be satisfied if he had enough allies to fill Garlaige. What he wanted to “trim down” was the number of those he acknowledged as companions, but that didn’t mean he was going to actively seek out and wipe out those who did not fit the criteria.
“Uh...number of what?” asked IX.
“Hm? People, of course.”
“What?!”
Since Sol wasn’t clearly expressing himself, it sounded like he had just declared his intention to massacre everyone not on his side. The matter-of-fact way in which he voiced it understandably alarmed IX, whose duty as a Ward was to protect the world.
“I don’t really care about nonhuman concerns either, like the animals or the natural environment. Not even the planet itself, to be frank. And I care a lot less about my so-called responsibility to the future of mankind than how my friends and I can live happily in the here and now.”
Sol felt this was a good opportunity to make his stance clear, since IX had so boldly introduced the Wards as those charged with saving this world. What he was saying would have perturbed anyone who was educated, not just the Wards. Many of the masses subscribed to the idea that humans were superior to all life and had a duty to guide everything toward improvement.
“See now, that way of thinking is—”
“If you mean to call me an enemy of the world, I won’t argue it.” Sol chuckled. “You are well within your rights to eliminate me. That said, I simply cannot bring myself to sacrifice my dreams and the happy life I’m enjoying with my companions for some cause I neither understand nor am invested in.”
There was no end to the number of people who espoused pretty ideals, but humans still starved to death in winter, slums kept cropping up, and refugees never found a place they could settle down in. On the contrary, what was the norm was people squabbling over habitable land and countries waging war on each other. And that was despite there being countless individuals living in the lap of luxury.
Again and again, those in power all insisted that reality was removed from ideals and that there simply wasn’t anything that could be done about it. In fact, it wasn’t just them. The same was true of the so-called middle class, who could save many of the downtrodden by being even a little bit frugal.
Sol wasn’t really out to censure such people. He was one of them, after all. What he wanted was to merely use the enormous power that had fallen into his lap for himself and those important to him. He felt no obligation to attempt, as a complete layman, what actual heads of state had failed to accomplish. In so many words, he considered the whole noblesse oblige matter to not be his problem.
“Who the hell do you think you are?!”
“Honestly, even I don’t know.”
IX’s anger was justified for one who was supposed to protect the world, but it failed to move Sol at all. No matter what anyone said, he was not going to yield on this point and therefore saw no purpose in being offended. Since he had the strength to insist on his way, he would hold to it until something that could actually stop him appeared.
“I’m not here to mock righteousness or justice,” said Sol. “Everyone derives strength from different motivations. But if two people are determined to push through something they can’t compromise on, the only way to do so is with their fists. Don’t you agree?”
“You’ve let your borrowed power get to your head!”
Even as he spoke, IX felt his own words coming back to bite him a little. It was true that the source of Player was different from that of his perfected version of Unlimited Sword Glint, but the two were the same in that they had each been bestowed on their user. He had put in the effort to master his ability, but at the end of the day, it was as much a borrowed power as Player was.
Moreover, the girls now standing protectively in front of Sol and the three monsters were not just being coerced through Player. They acknowledged him and chose to serve him of their own will, and they were ready to put themselves in harm’s way to protect him. Of course, they had a vested interest in him, as their powers also came from Player. Even so, it was clear they reciprocated his feelings and cared far more about him than vague causes like “everyone” and “the world.”
They were all using borrowed power to protect the relationships they had built up, and that was pretty noble on the spectrum of what people used power for. After all, power existed for people to achieve what they wanted, be it to seize, protect, or destroy.
“I don’t deny that what I have is borrowed. However, I think how someone uses their power is far more important than where it came from. After all, there are many forms of power. Words can be power. So can character, beauty, and of course, money. Whatever it is, if it can make someone else back down, it is undoubtedly a form of power.”
Sol looked right into IX’s eyes. “Your words, however, hold no power over me. And I imagine the same goes for you in hearing my words. Which is why...”
He lifted his right hand from Luna’s head and regained the freedom of his left hand from Aina’noa, then deployed countless display windows all around himself. After talking this long despite being at such loggerheads with each other, one thing was now clear.
“We both have no choice but to resort to the most obvious form of power—violence.”
Any further words would be unseemly. It was time to make a stand.