Though his tone suggested humor, what he was saying was terrifying.
“You were destroyed... And then became the Faceless Power? Why were you destroyed?”
“Because we tried to use the Faceless Power in our own world.”
“But then... that means...”
“Correct. The Faceless Power has, at least in theory, no will of its own. But for some reason, it acts to destroy a race. Perhaps this is only because every race hates itself, and desires its own destruction.”
“Does that mean...” Lily felt something cold run down her spine.
The One laughed, as if to say “yes.”
“Hahaha!~ That’s right! It’s going to work to destroy humanity. That’s what it’s doing right now! The Faceless Power is what summoned that asteroid!”
The student council, as well as Nonimora, fell silent.
“But you don’t get anything out of destroying another race! Or do you just want to see destruction?” Lily alone spoke.
The One snorted.
“Haha! Not at all. I’m not Kei Sakura. The Faceless Power is infinitely strong inside a world. But when it’s destroyed that world’s race, it’s ejected from the world. It becomes a vapor, you might say.”
“So if humanity is destroyed...”
“Correct. The Faceless Power will vaporize. And then I will be liberated from this... I’ll finally be at peace, you could say. Of course you realize I don’t like the fact that the minds of my race are being used as a mere power source!”
The One was laughing as if this were the funniest thing in the world. Lily could feel the pit of her stomach turning cold. If this was true, a most terrible fate awaited them. Humanity would be destroyed, become a collective consciousness and then wander the universe, before finally destroying the consciousness of another race.
“What the hell? I refuse to believe that. It’s like a curse...!” Lily howled, not to The One, or to any one in particular. But The One just laughed.
“Hah! That’s right! The whole universe is made of curses! Now that you know this, you can die! Nobody can stop it now!” The One laughed victoriously.
Lily tightened her grip on his throat..
“Don’t you dare laugh...!”
“Gah...” The One’s face changed colors. Even though he was a dog, you could still tell that his face was turning an unhealthy shade of purple and red. You could see blood vessels bulging beneath Lily’s hands as she strangled him.
“If you’re just a mind, you won’t mind dying, will you?”
“Gwahahaha... That’s right... Killing me won’t cause... any problems... for me.” There was a snapping sound as The One’s neck broke, and the dog stopped talking.
“P-President, there may still have been things we could’ve asked him...” Michie said hesitantly, but Lily just glared.
“We’ve learned enough. The origins of mana. The belief of the gods in the Law of Identity. What the imperial family protected all these years. It’s all connected. All that’s left is to figure out what to do with that asteroid.” Lily pointed to the sky, where there was still nothing that could be seen.
”Don’t tell me... we’re all gonna die?” Michie asked uneasily.
○
“I’m not sure it’s ethical, but... we should evacuate. Probably,” Yoshie said calmly, when Lily explained the situation. She was always calm, but it was impressive that she’d kept her cool even in a serious situation like this.
“Evacuate...? To where, exactly?” Yuko asked in a timid voice. She’d gone dead pale.
Everyone else in the command room was panicking. The war situation was getting worse. Marine had sworn to stop the Republic, but their attack wasn’t slowing at all. No, their physical weapons had stopped. But the colorless flames created by the Faceless Power will still raining down on the empire. It was a sign of just how much the Republic people hated the Empire.
“Well, the surface is pretty much done for.” Yoshie said, displaying a simulation of what would happen if the asteroid hit. It showed a huge asteroid smashing through the atmosphere, creating an explosion that sent pieces of the Earth’s crust flying up into the air. The shockwave traveled across the entire Earth, before bursting outward like a volcanic eruption on the other side. It was clear that anything on the Earth’s surface, or several kilometers above it, was done for. And there were barely any people living more than 3 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.
“We don’t have the supplies needed to take anyone to space...” Korone said.
The moon base had been destroyed. The space stations had mostly shut down.
“Hear me out. I’m trying to stay as rational about this as possible. So basically... it would take a long time to explain, but the only person who would really survive would be Keena Soga,” Yoshie said.
“Huh?” Yuko gasped, before falling silent.
Keena leaned toward Yoshie, looking shocked.
“W-Wait... I can’t... What do you mean?”
But Yoshie was calm.
“I told you it would take a long time to explain. First, let’s say that hypothesis I came up with was right. Um... the one about this world being a fiction someone created. If that’s the case, the key is the Law of Identity. And by making sure that the Law of Identity, and the Empress, who can communicate with her and use all these different items survives... we can stop humanity from completely becoming the Faceless Power.”
“But how do we do that? She can’t go alone...” Korone began, but Yoshida cut her off.
“The Swallow’s Cowry Shell is a spaceship and preservation capsule. Her highness can go inside it, enter cold sleep, and then orbit what’s left of the Earth.”
“What...?” Keena couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The followers of Suhara in the command room started to murmur among themselves.
“It’ll buy us about a thousand years, I think,” Yoshie said.
“A thousand years? So what, everybody else is just going to die?” Yuko protested. But Yoshie just nodded calmly.