“So if Gadou had multiple personalities, and you can’t use the Pure Concept of Vessel…are you saying that you’re one of those other personalities?” “…Right. When the original Gadou was summoned to this world and learned about her Pure Concept, she wanted a way to use those abilities without limits because she really liked her power.” This last line was similar to what Maya had told Menou, about how Gadou had been subject to experiments in multiplying and splitting the self. It was a simple exercise in reverse-engineering. If using her powers came at the cost of losing memories until the spirit wore away and the user turned into a Human Error, they decided she would have to replicate herself faster than she was consumed. “…And the first thing she cut away…was me. I’m Ran Gadou’s body… Nothing more.” “Her body?” “That’s right… When Gadou underwent those experiments in splitting the self…she abandoned her own body right away and left me, one of her other personalities, inside.” The body, spirit, and soul were the three components of life. Out of the three, only the body could be replaced. It was only a vessel to store the soul and create the spirit, nothing more. “…She knew her spirit and soul wouldn’t be able to handle all the multiplying personalities, so she held on to the spirit and soul that made her her and cut off everything else to use as storage for the memories that are spent when she uses the Pure Concept.” Gadou’s body smiled weakly. “And I’m…the personality that was left in her body. Then they conducted experiments on me, multiplying the spirit. When Gadou uses her Pure Concept, the memories that have been split off inside me are erased. Ran Gadou uses conjurings to mess with the outside world through my personality and body. The real Gadou, the soul that has the Pure Concept, is totally unharmed. I, the body, am just a relay. Thanks to my spirit being multiplied, my memories keep multiplying and dividing, and on and on forever, heh-heh… It’s the ultimate way to use a Pure Concept… Heh-heh-heh…” “W-wait a second.” Frozen with surprise, Maya finally spoke up. After all, the only Ran Gadou she knew was the one in front of her eyes. “How long has that been going on?!” “How long, you ask…?” “Was it like this when I first met you? Or when you saved me?!” “Maya… You’ve never met the real Ran Gadou. Not once.” Maya was thunderstruck. “I don’t believe it…” “I mean…no one in this world has ever truly met Ran Gadou, except Nono. Gadou has always had multiple personalities. Even back in Japan, she already had three personalities, including me. The original Gadou, me, and one other. I’m just the one who got left in the body.” “Even more of a shut-in than I thought, then. If that’s the case, why did Nono get to meet the real one…?” “Because…Gadou needed the Pure Concept of Star…to make her wish come true.” Menou and Maya looked at each other. It was clear that the “Gadou” in front of them didn’t have the information about the Starhusk activation key that they needed. “So where is the real Gadou… The original personality, I mean?” “…Even deeper.” Gadou pointed down at the floor. “…In a world beyond this dimension of Primary Colors. She’s in a place you can’t reach from the monolith interior unless you go through a subspace… In the space where the source of the Guiding Force lies.” So Ran Gadou was in a space two steps beyond normal reality, even deeper inside. In other words, if Menou and Maya wanted the Starhusk activation key, they would have to make their way to Gadou’s soul. “What do we have to do to get there?” “…You really want to go?” Menou shook her head at the girl who was Gadou’s body. “I have no choice.” “…That really sucks.” Gadou gave Menou a look of sympathy. When Menou met her gaze steadily, she started and hurriedly hid behind Maya again. “…I—I really wouldn’t recommend it. It’s a world of the soul that rejects all matter. Ran Gadou doesn’t want anyone else entering her world.” “I’ll force my way in if I have to. Besides, if you’re Gadou’s body, you must have a Guiding Force connection to the soul, right? You can’t use a conjuring to communicate with her?” “I-if I could…I would have done it by now.” Gadou looked bitter. “That place is…a model of a world, not yet defined. People from the material world can’t get through to it. They get blocked by a concept wall. If you had a huge amount of Guiding Force—like Ryuunosuke, who had the Pure Concept of Dragon—you could connect to that Gadou by force. But I’m just the body… I don’t even have the Pure Concept of Vessel.” “So if I leave my body behind, I can get inside.” Menou calmly overcame the protests of the left-behind Gadou, who smiled ruefully. “If you’re that determined…then I won’t bother trying to talk you out of it. Sit there.” A conjuring formed with Gadou at the center. Maya looked on worriedly but didn’t speak up to stop it. “I’m surprised you’re so willing to help. If what you said is true, doesn’t this go against the original’s wishes?” “…I can’t do anything anyway. And I’m not like the other personality, who ran away from here ages ago. I’m the substitute personality… It’s my job to take on all the pain and suffering in Ran Gadou’s place.” The room broke down, its parts encircling Menou. Gadou’s body must have been using some components of this small room as materials to activate a Primary Color conjuring. “But the truth is, I…I hate the original Ran Gadou. So if you consent, I won’t stop you, even if it means defying her will.” Those were her true feelings after having been subjected to a splitting of her spirit over and over for a thousand years in the original’s place. Guiding Force: Merge Materials—Primary Triad, Primary Color Pseudo-Concept—Invoke [Astral Projection] Menou collapsed on the spot. Maya ran over to her and found her unconscious. “What did you do to Menou?!” “…Exactly what she asked me to do,” Gadou answered quietly. “I left her body here and drove her spirit and soul into the source of this planet…the origin of Guiding Force. That’s…where Ran Gadou is.” “O-oh, is that all…” Maya breathed a sigh of relief. “So Menou’s fine, then.” “N-no… Of course she’s not.” Maya stiffened. “What do you mean?” “That place is…an undefined world,” Gadou explained. “If a single human goes there…they’d just fuse with the endless expanse of Guiding Force and melt away into the world. Besides…the body she left is empty. My split memories might get inside and stick there.” Maya’s breath caught. “Then…why didn’t you tell that to Menou before she left?!” “…You’ll just have to save her, Maya.” “Me?” “All of this world’s conjurings use Guiding Force as their power source. Only Primary Color and Original Sin conjurings…can create their own world.” These weren’t like other conjurings, which used things that already existed to cause various phenomena. Only those two kinds of conjurings could bring forth something that didn’t yet exist anywhere in the world. “Those conjurings can maintain your world…even in an undefined one. With your command of Evil, you can protect her spirit by way of her body here.” Maya clenched her small hand, making a fist. “You’ve got some nerve making demands like that after you abandoned me in the south all those years ago, Gadou.” “…Nngh. I mean, if the Human Error of Evil happened in here, then I wouldn’t be able to do anything…and the original would get caught up in it, too… Besides, those were the original’s orders…” “…But fine, I’ll do it.” “What?” “I said I’ll do it! Just watch me.” “…Okay.” Maya’s shadow spread. A hole opened up in the world. It crept into Menou’s body and used it as a stepping stone into the subspace beyond. “I’ll open up a path for Menou until she finds Gadou in there!” Hooseyard slowly looked around the area. The Commons laborers with no conjuring capacity, who were hired to construct the ceremonial hall, had all fainted without exception. She could hardly blame them. Even the Faust priestesses had fallen into a state of panic under the conjuring they were being exposed to. In Hooseyard’s vision, the world was divided into two layers. There was the blazing battlefield being projected onto her mind and spirit by Guiding Force, and the reality where nothing had changed at all. Hooseyard was sharp enough to see the truth, and more importantly, her conjuring senses were so uniquely honed that she could understand the situation perhaps better than anyone. Thus, she could be aware of both versions of the world at once. “…Ulp. I feel sick.” She covered her mouth, nauseous from what could only be described as conjuring sickness. Hooseyard was the only person there who could escape the effects of the spirit corruption. Yet, as she made her way carefully forward, she was envious of those who had all passed out from the imaginary battlefield that tormented their minds. “The conjured soldiers are behind this, that much is clear. It’s not a physical attack. But if you succeed at a psychic attack like this, there’s no reason not to attack physically at the same time. Why aren’t they raiding us? If they want to destroy the ceremonial hall, this is the perfect chance…” Muttering to herself, Hooseyard walked straight toward her destination. Michele had gone for the source of the conjuring. No doubt the attack on mind and spirit would get worse the closer one came to its source, but Hooseyard never doubted that Michele would emerge victorious. Someone who had such beautifully perfected Guiding Force could never lose. The problem lay with Hooseyard herself. It was this whole situation. She didn’t even have to think about it to know what the enemy was trying to accomplish with such a large-scale spirit corruption. “Oh dear. This just won’t do…” Hooseyard grumbled to herself as she entered the church—the completed heart of the ceremonial hall. It lay at the very center of the ceremonial hall they’d been expanding over the past week. The entrance to the church led immediately to the inner sanctum. Inside stood a single blue wolf. Hooseyard could see through its identity at a single glance. A Primary Triad conjured soldier, a terminal created so a spatial life-form could interact with the physical realm. Hooseyard wouldn’t stand a chance against such an opponent in a fight. And there was one other person inside, too. “This is my ceremonial hall, you know.” Hooseyard glared through her glasses at the person who’d led them straight into a trap. “What in the world do you intend to use it for…Ms. Momo?” Her eyes were fixed on her fellow priestess, her junior who had worked alongside them for so long and was now trying to take over the ceremonial hall that could interfere with the Mechanical Society. Hooseyard’s arrival was completely unexpected. Behind the cogwheel frames of her glasses, her eyes glittered as she gazed at Momo. “What the hell is your freakish spirit made out of to resist a psychic attack like this?” Momo spat out an insult that was nothing more than a bluff. Her face was stiff. The mind control attack was built using a portion of the Mechanical Society: a Human Error born of the smallest and most numerous Pure Concept. Indeed, Abbie’s extraordinary efforts had knocked out both the laborers working on the ceremonial hall and the priestesses guarding it. Even the powerful Michele had been cut off from reality. Momo had planned to drag Hooseyard away while she was out of commission by the spirit attack. And yet here she was, approaching, a dangerous glint in her eye. “Hey.” Ginoum expanded his tail. It split open into a mouth, and out tumbled the unconscious Sahara. “I can’t move. I gotta give the ceremonial hall the Guiding Force it needs, and big sis is focused on the spirit corruption conjuring.” He handed Sahara off to Momo. “You deal with it.” Momo’s loss in the holy land flashed through her mind. She had fought Hooseyard’s ceremonial conjurings once before and been soundly defeated. Her odds of winning were even worse with Hooseyard in control of the ceremonial hall. Hooseyard’s skills with such conjurings were unparalleled. “Damn it all. I was going to wait for the right moment to grab you and make you do my bidding…!” Now Momo had no choice but to confront Hooseyard head-on. Momo steeled herself and pulled out her coping saw. “You want to fight?” Hooseyard didn’t seem particularly shaken by the sight of Momo preparing for battle. “I have to say, though, I wish you wouldn’t do this… The conjuring hall was built for Michele, so if you use someone else to provide the power, there’s no telling what might go wrong.” Hooseyard’s eyes lost their focus. “Although…I suppose even I can activate it if it’s just the church part here.” Guiding Force: Connect—Ceremonial Hall, Ceremony Construction Conjuring Circle—Invoke [Guiding Force Circulation] It was a ceremonial conjuring. Guiding Force flowed from Hooseyard’s body and quickly circulated through the entire church, activating the intricately interwoven conjuring circles. The church glowed with faint Guiding Light, took in part of the space of the Mechanical Society, and supplied it to the conjurer. Guiding Light in the Primary Triad gathered in Hooseyard’s palm. This was the worst-case scenario. Momo cursed herself inwardly for assuming she’d be safe because there was no astral vein. Hooseyard spread her spirit into the Concepts of Primary Color around them. This was far more dangerous than using ordinary Guiding Force. In the hands of an exceptionally skilled conjurer, Concepts of Primary Color could be given any attributes imaginable. Hooseyard locked her eyes on Momo. The colored light in her palm obeyed her will, forming delicate beams of light that crisscrossed the room to capture Momo. The beams were fast, and powerful. A red light easily burned through the coping saw in Momo’s hand. “Oh, enough already. Take a look at this, will you!” Momo was left with no choice but to bet on Hooseyard’s inquisitive nature. She hurled the unconscious Sahara at Hooseyard, who caught the girl using her Primary Color beams of light. Her brow furrowed. “What are you trying to do? A Guiding prosthetic isn’t going to distract me, even if I am a researcher who— Hmm?” She couldn’t even finish her denial. “What is this girl? She doesn’t have a Guiding Force flow at all…? But in theory, if such a thing was possible…” Hooseyard gasped. “A perpetual motion machine of the third kind…? No, that’s impossible… It couldn’t be—could it?” “You could tell just by looking?” Momo took the halted attacks to mean her bait was working, and pressed on. “Yes, it’s a perpetual motion machine with Guiding Force. The Guiding Force put into it will circulate in the internal space. I’m sure you know what all that means, don’t you?” Hooseyard gulped audibly. For a researcher, this was quite literally a dream come true. “A completed conjuring space—an entirely new kind of world—exists inside of this thing.” “O-oh, really? However did you make it…?” “Using the soul of a human compatible with both the Primary Color Concepts of Vessel and the Original Sin Concepts of Evil to link the two together. Implementing a perpetual motion machine requires two stable subspaces to exist on top of each other and join as one.” Concepts of Primary Colors and Original Sin both created unique spaces. Linking the two together made it possible to observe a new, empty world. Completely blank, in the truest sense of the word. It was a void where not even Guiding Force existed. By creating zero, infinity would be contained within. That was the nature of a perpetual motion machine. “I’m not the one who made it, by the way. It’s the culmination of nearly a thousand years of obsessive searching by the conjured soldiers. I suppose they wanted a home that badly.” They most likely hadn’t stuck to the straight and narrow in their search for materials, either. It was safe to assume they’d done many human experiments and even crossbreeding, too. No doubt it was Genom Cthulha, the human said to have conquered the Mechanical Society, who came closest to a successful case. And Sahara had proven compatible with the Guiding prosthetic Genom gave her. Abruptly, Hooseyard’s eyes snapped into focus again. Or it might be more accurate to say that she had suddenly stopped caring about anything but the perpetual motion machine. Her gaze burned into Sahara. If left to her own devices, Hooseyard might start trying to dissect her. “O-oh, really? Is that so? Hmm, hmm. So what is it you want me to do, exactly, Ms. Momo?” “Transfer the entirety of the Mechanical Society into that thing, please. That way, Concepts of Primary Color will vanish from this world entirely.” Hooseyard fell silent for a moment. “And what makes you think I would do that?” “Oh, please. There’s no way you wouldn’t do it.” Momo knew without even needing to hear Hooseyard answer. “Because you’re an utterly insufferable researcher.” Hooseyard pouted, looking displeased with the insult. It made it sound like she didn’t have any common sense at all. All the same, a gleeful smile was lighting up her face beyond all hope of hiding it. Wouldn’t any human with a curious mind be willing to cooperate for a shot at something like this? “By the way, this girl is the one with the combination of Original Sin and Primary Color, right? If we put the whole Mechanical Society inside, there’s no telling what harm it might cause to her soul and spirit, much less her body. Are you all right with that?” “Oh, it’s fine. She’s going to become the cornerstone of a new world. I’m sure she’d be delighted to be so special for once in her life.” Momo cast the careless response over her shoulder. She wasn’t especially interested in the still-unconscious Sahara’s safety anyway. When she came to, Menou stood alone, surrounded by Guiding Light. She had a scripture in her left hand and held two daggers. It was a matter of the imagination. Since Menou was currently without a body, she was only putting herself into the shape of a person because that was how she saw herself when she did have a physical form. Truth be told, her five senses were very faint. Or perhaps there was nothing for them to sense at all. The only way to perceive this world was to connect to the Guiding Force and analyze it. Disoriented by the floaty feeling, Menou tried to look from side to side. In stark contrast with the Mechanical Society, which was full of Concepts of Primary Color from the outer brink to the innermost heart, this space was completely empty. If anything, it seemed strange that Menou had a shadow at her feet when there was nowhere for a shadow to be cast. Describing it as a sea of Guiding Light felt the most accurate. There was no matter, no rules, no definition. There was only the slow yet ceaseless flow of the omnipresent power. The flow had no beginning nor end; particles of Guiding Light drifted endlessly in every direction. This must be what happened if Guiding Light was poured into an empty space. Nothing existed but Guiding Light, and there was no way of knowing how large the mysterious space might be. Everything was constructed out of pure power, including Menou’s current form. “That way, perhaps?” With no idea where she was, Menou followed the faint flow of the Guiding Light and pressed onward. It felt like she might melt away into this world if she let her guard down for even a moment. Without the boundary line of a body holding her together, the only things that made Menou herself were her name and her consciousness. Although there didn’t appear to be any ground, she still felt as if there was a solid surface beneath her feet. The Guiding Force that filled the area had a current, similar to that of the earthen or heavenly vein. However, it was far larger—an infinite flow. Occasionally, it would form whirlpools, make waves, or even stop still. Nothing had any form, nor any mind. None of the logic Menou knew applied in this undefined world. But somewhere in the midst of this flowing and endless sea of Guiding Force was the person Menou needed to see. And so she kept walking. She relied on the faint sensation of the Guiding Force’s flow to give her direction. As she walked on and on, following a path that might not even have any concept of distance, Guiding Light suddenly swirled at her back. She sensed a dense conjuring being constructed behind her. “…!” Menou whirled around and plunged her dagger into the person’s head. It was a fatal wound, without a doubt. The kind that would kill instantly. And yet the person kept moving. Guiding Force: Connect—Infinite Particles, Pure Concept [Null]—Invoke [Empty-Handed] Menou jumped back. The conjuring directed at her erased a swath of Guiding Light where she had stood. The source of the wicked conjuring was a black-haired boy in a school uniform. Menou’s dagger was sticking out of his head. “Why did you come here now, after all this time?” The fatally injured young man’s voice was resentful. “So you killed me just fine, but you’d save your friend.” The boy whom Menou didn’t recognize dissolved and disappeared. Who was he? What was this phenomenon? As Menou stood there, bewildered, a voice rang out from a different direction. “Oh my, did you forget that poor boy?” The wooden clack of geta sandals echoed. Menou threw a dagger at what she assumed was her enemy, who blocked it with an iron fan. The dagger bounced away, and Menou drew it back to her hand with her Guiding Force thread. “Or perhaps you never knew his name in the first place? Tell me, do you still remember my name in your current state?” The person who appeared this time was a girl in a white kimono. Who in the world was she? Menou searched her memories but came up empty. All that was familiar to her was the kimono, which looked exactly like the one Maya always wore. This unknown girl covered her mouth with her fan and sighed. “What a shame.” Then she spread the fan and flicked her wrist. Guiding Force: Connect—Fan, Crest—Invoke [Wind Blade] The Guiding Force around them turned into sharp blades of air and sliced toward Menou. With a short breath, Menou lunged forward, dodging past the blades of wind and slitting the girl’s throat. “I know I’m hardly one to talk…but you really ought to value your own life a little more, Ms. Menou.” The girl’s human form fell apart and she vanished in the blink of an eye. Menou was starting to catch on. Comprehension dawned as she watched the girl disappear, just like the boy had. The Guiding Force around her was reproducing Menou’s past. It was taking the form of memories that Menou didn’t even have anymore, trying to interfere with her progress. “This space is utterly mystifying.” Menou kept moving, muttering quietly. Perhaps this space could be used as a reference to develop a conjuring that re-created someone’s past. But Menou immediately put that pointless thought aside. Gadou was somewhere in this space. Following the slight sensation of the Guiding Force’s current, Menou resumed her walking. “Do you get it now?” How many selves had she cut down? As Michele fought against the re-creations of her past, she realized the true nature of this conjuring. This was a conjuring that analyzed the target’s spirit. It analyzed the world inside the mind and spirit of the person it possessed and reproduced that spirit world. It extracted and reconstructed everything that made up that person, even things they didn’t remember. The main purpose wasn’t to attack her. No, this conjuring was intended to make Michele remember everything she had experienced over the past thousand years. Michele kept cutting down her own past. Since the battle began, she had experienced so much that she was essentially a different person. The versions of her that had lost faith in Hakua, that had despaired at her own life, that had placed their hopes on others. She’d encountered countless versions of herself and fought them all. And now, the version that came directly before her, an old and withered version of herself, was addressing Michele. “Hakua Shirakami is never going to save anyone ever again.” “…Yeah.” Each time she cut down another one of her selves, she remembered a little more. Despite failing over and over for the past thousand years, she was never able to reflect on those failures. She only carried the hopeful memories of brighter days as she went on living. Long ago, Shirakami had told Michele: “Someday, I’m going to erase Pure Concepts from this world forever.” Michele never believed that future would come. Otherworld summoning was a natural phenomenon caused by the planet and had been established as a conjuring driven by greed. It was human nature to desire power. Michele had seen so much evidence against the idealistic hope that people would no longer be sacrificed that it was impossible for her to believe in it. Yet Hakua went on believing that such a world was possible. And that was good enough for Michele. “You’re right. We should settle this once and for all.” When she cut down her aged self and regained the last of her memories, the spirit world composed of Concepts of Primary Color broke apart. The battlefield vanished, and the world with the white midnight sun came back into view. There, standing before Michele, was a tan, glamorous conjured soldier. “…Ah-ha-ha, you got through it already, huh?” Abbie had been interfering with Michele’s spirit to turn herself into Michele’s past made manifest and attack her. A true master of Concepts of Primary Color could create entire worlds with enough materials, and this conjuring was her crowning achievement. She’d thrust Michele into the world of her past and forced her to fight her former selves. But that must have come at a high cost. “So? How much of you is left now?” “……” Abbie only smiled in response. She was bluffing, of course. In order to re-create the world of Michele’s past, Abbie had used almost all of the materials she’d been saving up since she was born, pouring it all into this single conjuring. She’d barely even had enough material left to make a proper humanoid terminal. If this Abbie died, she wouldn’t have the strength to make another one. Seeing through to Abbie’s limits, Michele narrowed her eyes. “Why would you go that far? You could’ve just fought me normally and run away.” “…For the kids’ future.” Abbie’s answer was sincere. “They need a home where they can live freely, without stealing from each other or being stolen from. No matter what it takes.” “I see…” Michele turned away. While fighting the spirit attack, she’d gotten far away from the ceremonial hall. Part of Abbie’s aim must have been to keep Michele away from there. Which meant that she was trying to do something there, right now, to make the dream she’d just spoken about come true. “Can’t the Mechanical Society be this so-called home?” “No, it can’t,” Abbie said firmly. “The Mechanical Society is a subspace built on top of the world that exists right now. If the White Night barrier goes away, we’ll end up at war with humans, right? You’re even trying to destroy it yourself.” The barrier that kept the conjured soldiers sealed away also doubled as a breakwater to keep humanity from invading. Things might be peaceful for the moment, but in the long run, it was bound to lead to a battle. “I guess every era has its wars.” Michele sighed heavily and gripped the hilt of her broadsword. Abby, too, readied her fists. Before the battle, she asked a final question of one of the few beings who had lived even longer than her. “Look, don’t you think we’ve lived for too long?” “……” “We don’t die. We have no lifespan. We have no future, yet we still have power. That’s just how we are.” Anyone who achieved a state of immortality was strong without exception. Because of that strength, they could go on living by constantly picking off new buds. If they spotted someone who might one day grow stronger than them, they would pluck that new life, harvest it, and make themselves even bigger. “And so we have to decide for ourselves where we’re going to die. That’s the duty of those of us without a lifespan. Any long-lived being who can’t do that much is just a blight on the world.” “…You’re not wrong.” Guiding Force: Connect—Sword of Judgment, Crest—Double Invoke [Current, Compression] Michele’s sword swept up. Abbie barely jumped out of the way as it carved through the space at her feet. “And I understand why you’ve chosen this as your place to die. But you know, that doesn’t have a damn thing to do with me.” Having recovered a thousand years of memories, Michele also remembered what she had to do. “This isn’t where I’m going to die.” Michele took a battle stance, preparing to crush Abbie so she could achieve her goal. When a ceremonial conjuring activated, Hooseyard’s consciousness sank into the world. Perhaps because this was the Mechanical Society, a subspace, her separated spirit went deeper than ever before. Her soul overcame the barrier of concepts and caught a glimpse of the hidden side of the world. There, she saw an endless sea of Guiding Force. A feeling of rapture spread through her. Behind the surface of the physical realm was a world of Guiding Force. If she let herself drift into that endless expanse, she could become one with the world. The only things keeping her from that temptation were her lingering attachments to the material world. She wanted to talk more with the people she considered friends, to eat lots of delicious food, and to get a good night’s sleep to carry her through the next day. These worldly desires dragged her mind back from the depths, bringing her focus back to the material realm. What mattered most right now was the Guiding prosthetic attached to that Sahara girl. Hidden in that object was a function that could be called an ark. A perpetual motion machine. By stacking two subspaces together, it created a stable, endless space. This Guiding prosthetic was really just an entrance, and now Hooseyard had to create a path to the completed world inside the mechanical arm. The ceremonial hall she had created could interfere with the Mechanical Society. But instead of dismantling and destroying its Guiding Force, as was originally the plan, she poured it all into the empty space. It was essentially the act of creating a new world. The void took on life. New existence flowed into the once-empty world. Hooseyard’s cheeks flushed with intoxication. Her heart rang out an alarm bell. Her eyes watched the mystery unfold with intense concentration. Everything around her began to vanish. The Primary Colors that were born in this world fell away into a new one. And thus, a world with entirely new rules came into being. “Well done.” Momo’s voice reached Hooseyard’s ears as if from a great distance. The ceremony was a success. The blue wolf who had provided the Guiding power source for the conjuring—the terminal of a Primary Triad conjured soldier—fell apart. No doubt his main body, too, would soon flow into the newly made world. She’d created a stream for the Mechanical Society to pour into Sahara’s Guiding prosthetic. It would take some time yet, but soon every last trace of the space called the Mechanical Society, including the Primary Triad conjured soldiers, would end up inside. “Phew… What are you going to do now, Ms. Momo?” “Who, me?” Momo was already walking out of the church. She’d fulfilled her promise to Abbie to create a home for the conjured soldiers of the Mechanical Society. “I’m going to do what must be done.” Abbie’s driving motive was revenge. Ability Control, zone thirteen of the Mechanical Society. The spatial life-form known as Abbie was the thirteenth Primary Triad conjured soldier to be born. When she first came into existence, Abbie wasn’t familiar with battle. She had only just developed a mind of her own. Since her space was adjacent to the central zone of the Mechanical Society, Primary Color materials were provided for her in seemingly endless supply. The monolith in the shape of a “school” endlessly produced materials, and Abbie consumed them, quickly growing. She had no concept of theft, either. So when lost humans wandered in, she gave them water and provided food they could eat, and eventually her space became a small paradise where many humans and conjured soldiers lived in harmony. Abbie loved her little world. She never hesitated to give to the other beings that existed inside her space. A hundred years. That’s how long her paradise stayed in operation. So she had no idea—that if you prosper, others will take from you. It was an older conjured soldier who attacked. It sent a terminal to serve as its hands and feet and cut down Abbie’s paradise, slaughtering the people who tried to resist. And, of course, it took the human bodies away as materials, too. Abbie tried to fight back with a terminal of her own, which she wasn’t used to using. The attacker easily brought her down and dismantled the terminal. It was only then that Abbie learned the real reason that there were so few Primary Color conjured soldiers. They were being destroyed. The other admins killed them all. The moment a new conjured soldier was born, it was broken down, eroded until its consciousness was destroyed, and then consumed. Abbie kept resisting. By the time she had learned how to fight, there was nothing left in the place that had once been her paradise. Which was why her real motive was revenge. She protected the younger Primary Triad conjured soldiers and stored up power. She sent her terminals out to ensure the older conjured soldiers wouldn’t get any stronger than they were. It was all so she could one day eliminate the eldest conjured soldiers. That was her one and only goal. When exactly did that change? When did she start harboring the wish that her younger siblings wouldn’t have to go through what she did? “…!” Abbie’s body was knocked backward. She’d guarded herself against Michele’s powerful attack, but was blown away in the process. She didn’t stand a chance of winning against Michele in close combat, but she didn’t have enough materials to make more conjured soldiers to fight on her behalf, either. And now that Michele had a thousand years’ worth of memories, there would be no meddling with her mind and spirit. Worst of all, if this terminal was destroyed, Abbie would be virtually empty. Without any materials left, she might not be able to maintain her conscious self anymore. Yet even in the face of defeat, Abbie smiled fearlessly. “Ah-ha-ha, too bad…” At some point, her hopes for the kids’ future had overtaken her thirst for revenge. She wanted better for Ginoum and her other siblings. She didn’t want them to start fighting against the humans, whose lives didn’t even last a hundred years. “I’ve already…fulfilled Star’s prophecy.” Guiding Force: Connect—Sword of Judgment, Crest—Invoke [Current] The flowing water from Michele’s broadsword caught Abbie’s leg, and she dropped to one knee. Michele wouldn’t miss an opening like that. She kicked through the water she’d produced to send Abbie flying again. As her body bounced almost comically across the ground, Abbie thought of her paradise from days gone by. She never wanted to know battle. She didn’t want anything stolen from her. So she didn’t want to steal anything from others, either. That was why Abbie wished for a new world. A literal new world, where she and the other conjured soldiers could live in peace. “I see, so it was Lady Nono? I knew this seemed too elaborate for even you and Momo to concoct alone. What kind of prophecy did she give you?” Michele stood over Abbie, who was lying on the ground. Since she had known the real Nono Hoshizaki long ago, she was naturally interested in what [Star] had predicted. Momo had been told of a future where Menou gave over her body to Akari. And Abbie had learned that the perpetual motion machine would be completed. “An arc.” She stood up unsteadily and smiled. That was the way to reach a new world where they could live without stealing from one another. When she left the Mechanical Society, met Momo, and heard Nono Hoshizaki’s prophecy, Abbie resolved to use up every last part of herself. This battle was her destiny, and the end of her lifespan. Abbie sent her mind back to her real body. By now, the space that comprised Abbie’s actual self was terribly small. The only part that she hadn’t sacrificed for the spirit conjuring to attack Michele was the place that had once held her paradise. Now a lone girl floated there. She was adorable, with a bit of a babyish face. Due to the Sword of Salt that was stuck into her there, the center of her chest had slightly turned into salt. For the past half a year, this girl had been carefully enshrined in the ruins of the paradise that Abbie had so lovingly preserved. When she learned that this person was precious to Momo’s most precious person, Abbie decided in turn to keep the girl in her most precious place. When she met Menou, she was truly glad that she had treasured the girl so, even though Abbie had never once spoken with her. Now a single blue butterfly was resting on the girl’s somewhat unruly black hair. Abbie had needed to analyze the girl’s body in order to craft a Guiding vessel to give to Momo. All that was left now was to return the girl. But at this point, Abbie didn’t have enough energy left to transfer this girl from her own space to Momo’s suitcase. She was beginning to panic, fearing she wouldn’t be able to fulfill her promise to Momo. Then the world started to change. “Ah…!” This world that had been locked behind the curtain of the White Night was flowing into a certain point. It was at the heart of the ceremonial hall that Michele and company created. The subspace of the Mechanical Society was disappearing, turning back into normal space. What remained was a wasteland. It was a barren expanse of stone and sand, where nothing had been able to grow due to overlapping with the Mechanical Society for so many years. Abbie’s dream had been realized at last. All of the other conjured soldiers except for her, all of the space that made up the Mechanical Society, had departed for a new world. A single tear trickled from her eye. With one last burst of strength, Abbie wiped the droplet from her cheek. She focused all her consciousness on the blue teardrop. Guiding Force: Merge Materials—Primary Blue Stone, Primary Color Pseudo-Concept [Blue]—Invoke [Paradise: Connect: Box] She’d managed to invoke the conjuring she needed to complete her promise to Momo. “Good for you.” Michele’s blade closed in on her. “You’ve won.” Abbie smiled at the blessing from her enemy even as she accepted her blade. Menou was fighting an elderly Archbishop. She used scripture conjurings with terrifying precision. Menou just barely managed to win by using her Pure Concept. Her breathing was ragged. “You really should just give up. Isn’t it painful? Even if you keep going, your friends will just die, and you’ll be left alone.” The old woman, a dagger plunged into her chest, gave her a sympathetic look. “You poor thing.” With one last pitying glance, the elderly woman disappeared. She had been a powerful foe, so powerful that Menou could scarcely believe she’d won. Her conjuring abilities far exceeded Menou’s. It was painfully clear how many more years of experience she had in battle. Menou had to wonder how she had beaten this enemy before, when she didn’t have a Pure Concept. Many strong enemies had appeared since she first came to this space, but that woman was the strongest yet.
Chapter 143
35 min read