Chapter 136

Scheme On the other side of the hole in space was a wasteland littered with the three Primary Colors. As Menou looked around, she saw nothing but sand and stone, with no signs of life anywhere. Crystals of color were scattered about randomly; in some places they were modified to imitate the form of living things, with colored clouds of smoke rising from them. It was a world where even places that should be achromatic swirled with color. In this place that lay beyond the hole in space at the center of the northern continent, it was obvious at a glance that this was a far cry from the human world. When Menou took a single step forward, colors broke beneath her feet with a hard cracking sound. These fragile but beautiful fragments were known as Primary Color crystals. Such materials were declared taboo by the Faust and forbidden across the continent, yet here they were just a normal part of the scenery. After all, these fundamental building blocks of the Concept of Primary Colors, which was said to create worlds, were naturally produced here. The Mechanical Society. Primary Color crystals formed as a single color, sometimes turning into gas and mingling with a second. On very rare occasions, the third color was mixed in as well, and the world expanded anew. In this world created by the Human Error of Vessel—which continuously produced conjured soldiers like a natural disaster—even the farthest reaches were filled with color. And amidst all this breathtaking color, one person took a long, loud breath. “Aaaah!” It was a woman with tan skin and stunning proportions. She wore vertically striped slacks and a short jacket, perfectly accenting her glamorous figure. Her name was Ability Control, though she went by her nickname, “Abbie.” While Menou and the others were looking much worse for the wear after the battle in the City of Ruins, Abbie was breathing deeply, her eyes sparkling. “Oh, I haven’t been able to breathe in aaages!” She stretched her arms wide and reached toward the sky, expressing her glee with her whole body. Her childish action, in such stark contrast with her mature appearance, elicited a small snicker from Menou. “Don’t be ridiculous. Surely it wasn’t that bad.” “Yes, exactly.” As Menou tossed her tawny ponytail over her shoulder, a little girl—wearing a white kimono over a dress with three holes in the front—chimed in agreement. “If you went that long without breathing, you’d die. And since you’re unfortunately still with us, that means it wasn’t really that terrible. You’re always so dramatic. It’s like you’re begging for attention.” “You just don’t get it, do you?” Abbie shook her head at the sharp-tongued Maya. “I was just trying to emphasize what a big difference there is. From our point of view, it’s like the world we were in till just now had a whole other food culture, you know? This right here is the taste of home! The air is totally different, I tell you!” Abbie clenched a fist to emphasize her explanation, though Menou and the others still couldn’t tell the difference. It must have been a sense unique to conjured soldiers. “Ah, there’s a little bit of color in the air, but it isn’t harmful to your health, so don’t worry. That means you, li’l sis!” “Yeah, right.” Sahara, the silver-haired girl who’d been covering her mouth and barely breathing since they entered the Mechanical Society, glowered at Abbie. “I inhaled too much color in a place like this once, and it made me go crazy. It’s definitely harmful. You can’t fool me.” As indicated by the habit she wore, Sahara had been a nun, soon to be a proper priestess, just a year ago. She’d joined the front lines of the fight against the Mechanical Society to earn her place in the Faust, but a corruption of her spirit caused her to betray them, attacking Menou and getting the tables turned on her. “Ah-ha-ha. It’s fine, really. The conjured soldier that contaminated the spirits of any human who came in here is gone now. As a general rule, Primary Color conjurings are harmless to the human body. Unlike Original Sin conjurings, which eat away at you nonstop!” Maya’s lips thinned at the unfavorable mention. “I mean, sure. If I wanted to, I could mess with the Primary Colors that accumulate in your body as you breathe and corrupt your spirit, but I’m not going to do that. Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!” Abbie laughed loudly, in higher spirits than usual. Unfortunately, even Menou could tell she’d done nothing to assuage Sahara’s fears. The Primary Triad soldiers who had continuously attacked humanity on the border of the Mechanical Society through the entrance in the eastern part of the continent were gone now. This was one of the nuisances Menou had solved with Abbie’s help a few months earlier, when they were still staying in Grisarika Kingdom. Abbie, who was friendly toward humanity, stretched her arms out under the midnight sun. “Welcome to the Mechanical Society, homeland of my brethren! This is the outer edge of zone thirteen. In other words, we’re at the tip of my domain!” “Mm-hmm.” Maya gave a disinterested hum as she picked one of the Primary Color crystals from the ground. Cupped in her small hand, the pure blue stone transformed under her touch and became a strange little lump of flesh. “Aaagh! What do you think you’re doing?!” “Who, meee? I was just picking up a pretty stone, that’s all.” The unsightly mass writhed in Maya’s hand and transformed into a small monster. Once it was done, Maya promptly picked up another stone. “It would never cross my mind that I can conveniently produce more monsters without having to use any conjurings. …When I think of it that way, maybe this place isn’t so bad.” “Cut it out! Monsters are to us what cancer cells are to humans. Don’t make more weird stuff in heeere!” Abbie’s shriek was no exaggeration this time. Just touching Primary Color materials with a Concept of Original Sin would transform them into monsters. If it went on like this, the monsters would keep multiplying until she couldn’t even maintain the space. It was a rather fatal flaw. “All right, all right. That’s enough of that.” As Maya went on picking up Primary Color crystals despite Abbie’s protests, Sahara hoisted her up to stop her. “Aww, but it’s a perfect chance to secure more sacrifices…” Maya grumbled as her legs were lifted off the ground. The swarm of tiny monsters she’d produced tottered into Maya’s shadow and vanished. Even though Primary Color crystals were materials that could create worlds, they were nothing but easy targets to corrupt—this scene was proof enough of the conjuring compatibility between Colors and Concepts of Original Sin. “You little brat…! Honestly, we’re in no position to waste time fooling around like this, if you ask me. Isn’t that right, li’l Menou?” “Very true…” Abbie was correct. Menou and company had acquired what they needed to get management authority over the “Starhusk,” which was their goal in the northern continent. But at the same time, they’d been chased down and forced to flee to the Mechanical Society. Maya was the one who murmured the name of the person who would no doubt be hot on their heels any moment now. “…Michele.” Just hearing it was enough to send tension through the group. She was Hakua’s direct subordinate, and a deadly threat. They’d gotten into a few skirmishes with her, yet they still couldn’t grasp the full extent of her power. “Yeah, exactly. So let’s hurry up and hit the road!” Sahara raised a fist, insisting that they should flee. Though she was always in a hurry to get as far away from danger as possible, it was a fact that they couldn’t fight Michele head-on. They’d managed to avoid fighting on a level playing field thus far, planning their escape routes where Michele wouldn’t be able to use her full strength. This time, however, the choice to run was more complicated. “Wouldn’t it be better to try to ambush her…?” Maya’s suggestion, the opposite of Sahara’s, made sense, too. In the Mechanical Society, Abbie had the home field advantage. She and her fellow conjured soldiers, products of the Human Error of Vessel, might even be a match for Michele, who was an imitation of Dragon produced by the ancient civilization. Settling things with Michele here and now, rather than dragging out their game of cat and mouse, was certainly an appealing prospect. “An ambush, huh… Yes, the Mechanical Society certainly is your big sister’s turf, and we might even stand a chance of winning if Menou uses her Pure Concept…but we can’t fight and protect this thing at the same time.” Abbie rapped her knuckles on an enormous structure. It was a piece of the environment control tower, a relic of the advanced civilization that existed a thousand years earlier. The tower happened to be their hard-won spoils from the fight in the northern continent to gain control over the Starhusk—one of the Four Major Human Errors. The tower was so large that it was impossible to see the whole thing from this close. Michele was sure to try to destroy the environment control tower. If given half the chance, she would probably prioritize the tower’s destruction over defeating Menou and company. On top of that, they had only just battled with the likes of Genom and Pandæmonium. Given that Michele was likely to be in prime fighting condition, they were at a clear disadvantage. “But how are we supposed to run away if we’re lugging this huge thing around?” “Should we drop it, then? It’d buy us some time if we leave it here, at least.” “What do you think we fought so hard in the City of Ruins for, exactly…?” “Not to worry. Or don’t you remember who controls this space?” While the group went back and forth over Maya’s concerns, Abbie puffed up her chest smugly. “I’ve got this. Now that we’re rid of those old bastards, the entire Mechanical Society is basically my playground! As long as we’re within this space, I can do almost anything!” “Sorry. I guess I don’t really get what it means for a ‘space’ to belong to someone…” “Oh, right. I guess that doesn’t mean anything to normal humans, huh?” Since Maya could control her Concepts of Original Sin on pure instinct, she didn’t know much about how conjurings worked. Abbie clapped her hands briskly and made no further move to clear up Maya’s confusion. Menou continued the explanation in her stead. “A Primary Triad conjured soldier is essentially a conjured space with a mind of its own, constructed from Primary Color conjurings. So it’s not like this space ‘belongs’ to her—her consciousness dwells within the space itself.” “Wait, does that mean…” Maya wrinkled her nose and pointed at Abbie. “We’re inside of Abbie right now?” “Yes, exactly.” “What? Then who’s this standing in front of us?” “A communicator, or a remote-control terminal of sorts. This Abbie isn’t the real one.” “You got it! I can’t communicate with humans without a body, now can I? So we conjured soldiers use the Primary Color stones in our space to create terminals that connect to our spirits.” Since she was just a vessel, it didn’t matter how many times this Abbie was broken, as she could provide a new body right away. The different “zones” that divided the Mechanical Society really indicated the spaces that were the true bodies of Primary Triad conjured soldiers. “Ahh… So that’s why you’re always a bit cold toward her.” The real Abbie wasn’t actually there, even if you were looking at and talking to her. Maya thought she understood now why Menou might want to keep some distance. The truth was, Menou hadn’t actually trusted Abbie right away. “That’s not true at all. I finally earned li’l Menou’s trust just recently.” “Yes, I suppose you could put it that way…although it’s rather irritating to hear you say it out loud.” “Hey, I’m not irritating! Besides, my li’l sis here isn’t cold to me at all, right? Riiight?” “……” “Li’l sis?!” “Just hurry up and transport us, Abbie. Sahara is just, you know, a little shy. It’s her nature, that’s all.” “Hrmm… All riiight. I’ll move us to the central area, then.” “……” Looking away from Sahara, Abbie reluctantly carried out a conjuring at Menou’s request. Guiding Force: Merge Materials—Primary Triad, Primary Color Pseudo-Concept— Guiding Light appeared from the space surrounding them and carved out a three-dimensional geometric pattern. The very space they inhabited, not the physical form of Abbie in front of them, was constructing a conjuring. Invoke [Zone Thirteen: Connect: Central Zone] The scenery around Menou and the others shifted abruptly. Momo emerged from the Guiding Force tunnel through space just in time to hear Michele, who’d gone ahead of her, clicking her tongue in annoyance. “They got away.” Michele had been Momo’s superior for half a year. Now she cursed the empty view before them. Momo and Michele had pursued Menou through the spatial hole in the northern continent to the Mechanical Society. Looking behind them, Momo could see a circular hole in the middle of the air. As it shone with Guiding Light, a green-haired bespectacled priestess emerged after her: Hooseyard. “Ooh, so this is the Mechanical Society? It’s incredible. What a wonderfully incomplete world!” “How could they have gotten away from us so quicklyyy?” As Hooseyard immediately stooped to pick up a Primary Color crystal and gaze at it, eyes sparkling with curiosity, Momo ignored her and addressed Michele. “Flarette fought Genom Cthulha in the City of Ruins for the sake of getting the environment control tower, which connects to management authority over the Starhusk, I’m suuure of it. They didn’t have nearly enough time to get away from here with that huuuge thing. You don’t want to investigate the possibility that they’re hiding nearbyyy?” “I’m not going to waste time on something that doesn’t merit investigation.” Michele curtly dismissed Momo’s misgivings. “The Mechanical Society is a unique conjured space made of Guiding Force. The laws of physics are much more flexible here than in any ordinary place.” Michele crushed a Primary Color crystal under the toe of her boot and went on. “Don’t try to apply normal logic to a place crafted by the Concepts of Primary Colors. The essence of the Primary Color conjurings born of the Pure Concept of Vessel is to create and control an alternate dimension. In fact, the ‘Chamber’ of the individual who held the Pure Concept of Vessel was an entirely separate world. From a conjuring perspective, it was practically a work of art.” “Chamber…?” “Your own personal conjured space… Wouldn’t that be so wonderful…” While Momo seemed puzzled, the ever-scholarly Hooseyard sounded downright dreamy at the notion. “Since you can determine the laws of physics within a conjured space using Guiding Force, it would theoretically be possible to make a world that operates under whatever principles its creator prefers.” With humanity’s level of conjuring technology, conjured spaces were little more than an armchair theory, unobtainable as of yet. Virtually all that was known about them was that they were used in the era of the ancient civilization. And since Momo was primarily interested in battle, this was all a foreign concept to her. Hooseyard took that as her cue to start speaking so quickly that Momo couldn’t get a word in edgewise if she wanted to. “I do have a working theory on how to make a small-scale space, but since the Concept of Primary Colors is considered taboo, we can’t experiment… A long time ago, I tried to submit a thesis about it, and Elcami got ever so angry with me.” “Whoever that is, they were right to be angry,” Michele snapped. “An individual shouldn’t be researching such things. When a conjuring deals in subspaces, there’s no telling what might happen if it goes wrong.” “You think so…? I still reached a point where I was quite sure it would work…” “No wonder she was angry, if you reached a point you weren’t supposed to aim for in the first place.” Priestesses of the Faust were supposed to crack down on taboo, not research it. As Momo wondered drily about the scholarly priestess’s sense of ethics, Hooseyard sent Guiding Force into her glasses-shaped Guiding Vessel. Guiding Force: Connect—Glasses, Crest—Invoke [Guiding Force Vision] The conjuring allowed her to see Guiding Force on levels that were normally invisible to the naked eye. Still wearing the glasses as they glowed with Guiding Light, Hooseyard looked around the area, then abruptly fixed her gaze on one spot. “Right there.” Hooseyard pointed at an area of swirling color indistinguishable from the rest. “There’s a sign that space has been split apart there. They must have cut this area off. Now it’s just a subspace unattached to any conjured soldier’s space.” “I see. I’ve no doubt you’re correct.” Michele nodded coolly. She trusted Hooseyard’s expertise in Guiding Force. If it had to do with the field of conjuring, she was willing to take Hooseyard’s word at face value, no questions asked. Momo squinted in the direction Hooseyard indicated, but still didn’t see anything. It was just a mess of colors, like the rest of this place. “I don’t know how you spotted that. Those glasses are downright freaky.” “Tee-hee, Ms. Momo, you’re so… Hmmm? ‘Freaky’ doesn’t seem like the right word, does it? Here, try putting these on, Ms. Momo. Then you’ll be able to see it, too! Go on, try it!” “…No, I still don’t see a damn thing.” Even when Momo put on the glasses at Hooseyard’s behest, she still couldn’t tell where space had supposedly been split. It was hard enough to make out the flow of Guiding Force in a space full of Primary Color materials floating around in evaporated form. Unlike the normal world, where “Power” only flowed naturally in the astral veins, the Mechanical Society had Guiding Force throughout the atmosphere. All “Guiding Force Vision” accomplished was filling Momo’s vision with bright, twinkling lights. “Really…? Later, I’ll teach you all about the differences in the nature and flow of Guiding Force in this place. You have a real knack for it, so I’m sure you’ll be able to recognize the basics within three days or so!” “I can’t think of anything I’d rather do less, thank you. Why would I ever need to hone such a uselessly specific ability? It’s wasting all your time on things like this that makes you such a weirdo.” “What? No, no. I’m still perfectly normal compared to you or Michele, you know…” “Be quiet and put that knowledge and intuition of yours to work. So you’re saying the conjured soldier that goes by ‘Abbie’ altered space in that area and moved them somewhere else, correct?” “Altering space… Can conjured soldiers really do that?” Momo returned the glasses to Hooseyard as she reacted to Michele’s words in surprise. “As long as they have a solid grasp of the functions of Primary Color-based spaces, they can do so within that space. See, those Primary Triad conjured soldiers are spaces here in the Mechanical Society themselves—they just take on other forms outside it. I hear they were fighting over control of those spaces for a long time, but they must’ve settled it by now.” During her explanation, Michele turned her gaze upward. She analyzed the situation and the best path forward, quickly reaching a conclusion. “…For now, we’re going back.” “Back to the northern continent, you meeean? We’re not going to chase after them?” “Chasing a conjured soldier around in the Mechanical Society is an exercise in futility. Maybe if we’d caught them while they were still carrying the environment control tower, but we’ve missed that chance.” Even though they’d nearly caught Menou and company by the tail, she didn’t hesitate to declare it a lost cause to chase them further. Since their targets had something to protect, they were bound to stop sooner or later. But they’d already holed themselves up somewhere. No doubt they had fled all the way to the central area, the source of the Mechanical Society where the Vessel still remained. “I see… Well, if that’s what my darling Michele wants, then that’s what we’ll dooo!” “Obviously. Besides, do you have any idea how pointless it is to keep crushing terminals of a conjured soldier that exists as an entirely separate space?” Michele spat with obvious displeasure. She knew from experience that battling an opponent who controlled a conjured space was essentially like fighting an entire “world,” albeit a small one. “So if we return from the Mechanical Society to the heart of the northern continent, what’s our next step, hmmm?” “What would you do?” Michele countered. It was a test. Sensing this, Momo thought about her plan carefully. “The simplest approach would be Concepts of Original Sin. We summon simple demons and monsters, send them in, and destroy allll the materials here.” “There are three problems with that.” Michele immediately listed the flaws in Momo’s plan. “One—if we use Primary Colors as fodder to make too many monsters, we won’t be able to handle them. Two—even with a natural advantage, it would still require considerable sacrifices for an Original Sin conjuring large enough to deal with this scale of Primary Colors. And the biggest issue…” Michele raised a third finger. “Lady Maya is with them. It would be foolish to oppose her with Concepts of Original Sin.” Maya. While the girl might look like the weakest of Menou’s party, she was actually the most dangerous, being a former part of one of the Four Major Human Errors: Pandæmonium. And although she wasn’t much of a fighter in this state, there was a very real danger that she could turn back into Pandæmonium if handled improperly. The Pure Concept of Evil had already consumed the southern islands and swelled in size. If it devoured the Mechanical Society on top of that, the number of monsters in this world could grow large enough to overwhelm what was left of civilization on the continent. Which would spell destruction for all of humanity. “So what about an approach that’s not so simple?” “Well, it would take a lot of time and effort…but we could build a railroad track up to the entrance of the Mechanical Society and transport enough materials in to build a ceremonial hall, nooo?” “Correct. Brute force is ineffective when your opponent is space itself. It requires considerable preparation.” Michele turned on her heel, apparently satisfied with Momo’s response. She strode briskly toward the Guiding Force hole that led back to the northern continent. “You’ll take the lead on the preparations, Momo.” “Yes, ma’aaam. You can count on meee.” They would prepare for a massive conjuring ceremony. Both of them turned to look at Hooseyard. “This is your time to shine, then. Give it all you’ve got, Hooseyard.” “Who…?” Hooseyard pointed at herself, blinking. “Me?” Their opponents would probably use a large-scale conjuring to attack them. That was Menou’s prediction for what would happen when Michele and company came to the Mechanical Society and failed to find them. It was certainly what Menou would do in their shoes. Michele knew that Menou was in league with the Primary Triad conjured soldiers who controlled the Mechanical Society. And, having fought against Abbie before, Michele wouldn’t waste time crushing the conjured soldiers who only served as remote-control terminals. A conjured soldier’s true nature was that of a living dimension, a spatial life-form with a mind of its own. This wasn’t the kind of thing you could fight by swinging a sword around. Yes, Michele’s power was so terrifying that she might be able to cause real damage with strength alone, but she was also smart and sensible. If there was a correct path to take, she would take it, not attempt to find a way around it.