“Behold my Dark Sword. Carve this memory into your very soul.” Veltol raised one arm and opened his hand. “Rampage in the black sky! Vernal!” Darkness oozed from Veltol’s hand as he made the proclamation. It produced a single-edged sword. “It pains me to think I won’t be making full use of it. Hopefully basking in the glory of its mere presence will suffice.” The Demon Lord had summoned the Dark Sword, Vernal, the antithesis of the Hero’s Holy Sword, Ixasorde. Also called the Black Sky’s Demonic Blossom, it was another of Veltol’s soul armaments, forged from his soul. One look was enough to determine that the level and quality of mana it released was much higher than that of the sword Veltol had used moments ago. The mana coming from it jolted the surrounding aether, creating alluring black waves that enveloped the blade. Its shape instilled deep-seated fear in anyone who set eyes upon it. “Oh? Scared, are you?” “…! You monster!” came the pilot’s panicked voice. In mere moments, Veltol got within reach of his opponent. He swung his blade, and the swordwand fell to the floor. He cut the manipulator holding it. The manipulator’s cut surface was scorching red. Liquid aether flew everywhere, and coolant blew like smoke. Veltol sliced the MG’s right knee joint like it was butter, and the Ashed Dawn lost its balance. He moved behind it and made another slash. He cut the inner coolant tube connected to the back exhaust, which made the maintenance system forcefully shut down the machine. While they were crossing swords, Veltol had realized thanks to his Sage Eyes that the armor would stop once that part was cut. Even an MG was no more than a magical gadget—it had its weaknesses. “You put up a good fight. Your only misfortune was facing me in battle,” he told the pilot before swinging the Dark Sword. The black blade once again dissolved into darkness. “Time to make you talk,” he whispered while looking at the stalled MG. “…I have nothing to say to you.” Pop. A hollow sound echoed within the Ashed Dawn. It was the same sound Veltol had heard from the yakuza’s gun earlier. The defeated pilot had killed himself. “……” The rush from defeating such a strong enemy vanished in an instant. Veltol picked up the small box that had fallen just as Takahashi was entering the warehouse. “Takahashi, is this what you were after?” “Yeah, but more importantly—I lost the signal from the MG… D-did you really beat it?” “I did.” “What about the person inside?” “Died by suicide.” “What?!” “I respect his resolve.” “Urgh…” Takahashi looked at the motionless MG and gulped. “Wait, didn’t he chop your head off?” “Indeed he did.” “Don’t you indeed me! That was freakin’ nasty, man!” “To think an individual in this era can be that strong… What a terrifying concept.” “Nope, no way, nuh-uh! You’re terrifying, dude! You freakin’ defeated an MG by yourself!” “Only through what was basically an ambush. I’m not the type to care about how I win, but I don’t find such tactics to be worth bragging about.” “Wow, so modest… But anyways, this thing here…” Takahashi looked at one side of the MG. It was engraved with a symbol of a torch. “Look…it’s IHMI’s logo. So the MG is from their security department? No way the yakuza got their hands on a thing like this. So…could it be IHMI knew about this deal taking place? This is getting sketchy as hell. Shit, I didn’t know the job would be this risky!” “Setting that aside…” “Don’t just set that aside! This is a scandal! The biggest corporation in Shinjuku might have ties to the yakuza!” “It makes no difference to me if some corporation is involved with this yakuza group. Going back to the earlier fight, when that man shot his accomplice—that was your doing, was it not?” “Well, aren’t you a real big shot… Yeah, that was some aether hacking. I hacked his Familia and overwrote the visual information his brain was receiving. Although I guess you didn’t really need my help. Actually, my original plan was to hack the gangsters’ Familias while they were checking out the info I needed. We could’ve stayed in the shadows the whole time.” “Is that so? Sorry for being so hasty.” “Hey, it all worked out in the end. I totally could’ve tripped their Black ICE—that’s a type of firewall. That woulda fried my Familia and nerves. Definitely not a good idea hacking Familias without a game plan.” “So what is this?” Veltol handed her the box. “It’s a mithril memory cube, a kind of external storage unit. My client wants it… Well, the info inside it, to be precise. Let’s take a look at it, then.” “…You don’t think it’s better not knowing the contents?” “Nah, it’s fine. Aren’t you curious? The client definitely knows I’m gonna take a peep. Probably. I needed to take a look for the original plan to work anyway, so whatever.” Takahashi took out her holodisplay tablet from her jacket pocket, put it on a small, abandoned container, then placed the cube on top. Lines of light ran around the cube’s surface, creating a geometric pattern. The cube expanded from those lines, and the tablet loaded its data. A holographic paper was projected in the air. It was a text file contained in the cube, but nothing was written on it—it was blank. “There’s nothing on here,” Veltol said. “Gotta be encrypted. Gimme a sec.” Takahashi started nimbly typing away at the 3D keyboard displayed in midair. “There we go.” As soon as she pressed ENTER, text appeared on the blank paper. “Is encryption supposed to be breached that easily?” Veltol asked her. “No way. The average hacker would take muuuuch longer. But I’m not your average hacker. Only a genius like me could do this. Now, let’s take a look…” The two of them stared at the paper. “Firewood list…?” Veltol murmured the title. It was written in elvish, along with a list of names, many of which had a check mark beside them. “Hmm? Looks like different people’s names. Dunno any of them, though,” said Takahashi. “Oh well.” “These are…” Unlike Takahashi, Veltol stared at the list with utmost intensity. “What’s up?” “These are…the names of immortals… My subjects…” Myneus Tolkiens. Auge Chevelle. Severnus Sevirenta. Tyke Breaker. Orebell Orbelt. Taras Rod Stan. Raychet Schwenheik. Bawkins Rezendelt. Geryu. Porpule Dawn. Jeriella Sanock… Veltol knew all of them. Ornared and Palmlock, Machina’s retainers, were also listed. Both had a check mark next to their names. “Immortals…?” “Yes…this might be only coincidence…but…” He remembered what Machina had said: The Immortal Hunt proper ended before City War II. Immortals were still disappearing. And their names were on this list. Veltol had a bad feeling. “You don’t think…the Immortal Hunt is still going on behind the scenes?” said Takahashi. “No, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions… Velly, do you have any idea what they mean by ‘firewood’ here?” “Not a clue.” “Hmmm… Doesn’t seem like a simple list of Immortal Hunt survivors. Machina’s name…isn’t on here.” “Is that so…?” He felt relieved. Veltol couldn’t tell at that moment, but his old self wouldn’t have cared this much. He used to be impartial to all immortals. Being thrown in this completely changed world, he too had changed without realizing. “I’ll ask my client what this thing is. Just gimme a sec… Crap, I can’t reach him. He doesn’t usually take unfamiliar calls, so I guess we’ll just have to go straight to his place.” “Very well. I can no longer turn the other cheek. If something is happening to the immortals, it’s my duty as king to take care of it.” Takahashi nodded, and they left for her client’s home. They headed to an upper-class neighborhood near a loop line station, a bit away from Kabukicho Street in Inner Shinjuku, then arrived at one particular high-rise apartment building. Veltol had removed his armament and was once again wearing his tracksuit and coat. “This is one big apartment,” he said. “It’s pricey even for the neighborhood. My client owns the entire thirteenth floor.” “Good on him for making so much money.” “You’d never know it from lookin’ at him, though. He’s pretty famous; anyone even remotely involved in this line of work in Shinjuku knows him. The rest just act like they don’t know him.” “Is it really a good thing for an informant to be well-known? I’m no expert, so forgive me if I’m off the mark.” “I mean…” They reached the entrance as they talked. There was a security guard outpost and an intercom, with a reinforced double-glazed glass door at the back separating the inside from the outside. These luxury apartments were well protected. “Takahashi, I don’t think these doors open for anyone who’s not a tenant.” “Aw, it’s fine. C’mere.” Takahashi didn’t call anyone from the intercom and walked straight to the door. It opened automatically. “Was that also hacking?” Veltol asked. “Heh, this level of security? Piece of cake.” “Wow. So much for keys, then.” “I know, right? Heh-heh-heh. Please, heap on the praise. Nothing I can do about physical security systems, though.” They entered the elevator at the end of the hallway. Veltol took up position in front of the elevator’s panel. “Takahashi.” “Yeah?” “Let me push the buttons.” “Sure, but why?” “I just…like pushing buttons…” “Can’t say I’ve ever seen a demon lord who’s into pushing buttons…” Veltol pressed the button. “Hmm?” He pressed it again and again, but nothing happened. “Is it broken?” “Ah, sorry. You can’t go directly to the thirteenth floor.” Takahashi had to push the buttons after all. “First you go to the second floor, then the seventeenth, then back to the fourth, then the top floor, and finally, you push the thirteenth’s button.” “Why the annoying sequence?” “Who knows what goes through that weirdo’s head? He probably figures it works as some sort of security measure.” After the annoying trip all over the building, they finally reached the thirteenth floor. Veltol tried to exit the elevator as soon as its doors opened, but Takahashi stopped him. “Hold up.” “Why?” “My client—his name’s Ejyu. He’s got traps set all over the place. You’ll end up like swiss cheese if you’re not careful.” “I see… Hmm? Wait, that’s not true. There are no traps.” Veltol exited the elevator without a care in the world. It looked so natural that even Takahashi took a moment to react. “Huh? Whoa, heeey! Wait! I told you to wait!” “In fact, all magical and physical traps have already been disarmed.” “What? Lemme do a quick scan… Wow, you’re right. There’s zero mana reaction from this floor. How’d you know?” “Bwa-ha-ha! Who do you take me for? Part of my duties as Demon Lord was constructing and managing dungeons. I can locate traps blindfolded.” “Aha.” They reached one of the apartments without any traps activating. Takahashi buzzed the intercom, but no one answered. “Weird. I thought for sure he’d come out.” “Wait, Takahashi. The door isn’t locked.” “Huh?” Veltol turned the knob, and the door opened. “…Traps disarmed, the door’s unlocked… Something happened here,” said Takahashi. “Indeed. Let’s proceed with caution.” They carefully entered the apartment. Takahashi knew the layout, so she led the way while Veltol covered her rear. “Quite a spacious apartment,” he noted. “Yeah, that’s why it’s so freakin’ expensive.” “I’d like to move to a place like this with Machina once we save up enough money…” They opened the door to the living room. It was big and mostly empty—no carpet, and only a commercial refrigerator to speak of in the kitchen. “Ugh… What’s that smell? It reeks… Just gonna turn off my olfactory senses…” “…This smell…” A dreadful stench that Veltol knew very well permeated the entire room. They stayed alert and stopped in front of the door at the end of the living room. The smell got more and more intense as they approached. “Hey, Ejyu, you home?” Takahashi knocked at the door, but no one answered. Left with no options, she opened it and went inside. Unlike the rest of the barren apartment, this room was basically a pigsty. Bottles left unfinished, empty snack bags all over the floor… The room itself was big, but it felt cramped due to the copious amounts of trash. Most of that claustrophobic feeling came from the giant wall-to-wall display cases filled with an excessive number of anime girl figures—all very neatly organized, but just way too many. There were well over a couple hundred of them. More than impressive, it was frightening. At the other side of the room was a desk and a high-end gaming chair. A man was seated motionless on it. “Ejyu! Found ya. You sleeping?” Takahashi crossed the sea of garbage and put a hand on the chair’s backrest. The body leaning on it immediately tipped over and fell to the floor. “Eek…!” The moment she saw him, Takahashi also collapsed. A swarm of flies rose from the orc. Ejyu was already dead. “H-he’s dead…!” Takahashi frantically crawled over to Veltol and then got to her feet. “Hmm?” Veltol knew Ejyu’s face. He recognized the well-dressed orc. “This man…” “You know him?” “Yes, although I’ve met him only once.” It was the vagabond who gave Veltol a résumé during his job hunt. “Although he was dressed much more shabbily back then. To think that man was Ejyu…” “Yeah…he dresses like a hobo when snooping for intel.” Takahashi was still in shock but managed to stay calm enough to answer. Coming across dead bodies wasn’t particularly uncommon in Shinjuku—more so when working as an aether hacker. Veltol crouched down and examined Ejyu’s corpse. “It seems he’s been dead for four days.” “Bleh…” Veltol gazed unflinchingly at the orc’s maggot-infested wounds and added, “He has two injuries: one to the chest, one to the neck. I assume the magic traps didn’t activate because their user was already dead. Should’ve made them auto-triggered.” Veltol took a look around. “They stabbed through the chair into his heart, then slashed his carotid artery, Familia and all. Based on the wounds and the blood splatter, the weapon was around three torms long.” Three torms was roughly one meter. “How can you tell all that so easily?” Takahashi was perplexed at Veltol’s methodical analysis. “Have you forgotten who you’re speaking to? I’m the immortal Demon Lord.” “Mm-hmm… Weird how convincing that sounds… Guess that’s all the explanation I need, then.” “Regardless, for your client to turn up dead right around now…” “Ejyu had a lot of enemies… People from all walks of life despised him.” “No, I don’t think this was done out of spite.” “How so?” “The job’s too clean. There’s no emotion in these cuts.” “Emotion, huh…? You can tell that much?” “That’s right. Blades are the clearest way to express emotion. Had this been done with deep resentment, the wounds, too, would show it. This is a very clinical murder.” “So you mean…it was a hired hit?” “And a highly trained one at that.” “True, no regular assassin would’ve been able to get through all his traps without Ejyu noticing… But it still might be someone with a grudge who’d just hired an assassin, y’know?” “Not at all. If that were the case, why destroy the Familia?” “Couldn’t that be coincidence?” “He wouldn’t have had a neck wound in the first place. Simply destroying the heart is enough to kill a mortal.” “…So they wanted to destroy his Familia’s data?” “That’s it,” Veltol replied with a nod. “Whoever killed him or had him killed wanted to get rid of some data.” “You think that has to do with the job he commissioned me for?” “It’s very likely. When did he submit the request?” “Lemme check the logs… One week ago.” “So that means he died soon after. Now that both the client and his Familia are gone, we only have this list to go by…” “…No, we might have something else,” Takahashi said before starting to rummage through the room. “I don’t think Ejyu had the most critical data stored on his Familia. Seems the perp didn’t look through his stuff, either. Ejyu was as good an aether hacker as he was an informant; I doubt he’d leave any intel that valuable out in the open.” She overturned the display cases and ripped up the carpet. “Familias have to be connected to the aethernet basically all the time, so they’re always at risk of getting hacked. You could even say that it’s the worst place to store important data. The obvious solution is to keep that stuff in external storage.” She checked beneath the desk and opened the drawers. “Gotcha.” Takahashi grabbed the computer hidden in the back of one of the drawers. “What is that?” Veltol asked. “An old laptop, one that’s been heavily modded,” she answered as she sat on the floor and turned the computer on. “The battery’s…not dead, nice. Wait—huh? It’s not password locked…?” Takahashi was puzzled, but she got straight to typing, then browsed and sorted through the most recent files. She opened a folder that had been modified one week earlier, and thousands of files were projected in midair. “The hell? They’re all corrupted? What am I supposed to do now…?” The data was basically useless. “…No, wait, they’re not just broken.” Veltol glanced over her shoulder and shook his head. “Huh? Whaddaya mean?” “Try looking at the files from above. It looks just like a technic’s spell structure. There has to be some meaning hidden in here.” “Ah! Now I see it. A program array, huh… How’d you figure that out so quickly?” “There were plenty of riddles back in ancient times that involved a pile of what looked like meaningless trash that was in fact something meaningful when you saw the full picture.” “In that case…” Takahashi quickly brought up the command window, then started typing at lightning speed. As soon as she pressed ENTER, the thousands of corrupted files disappeared, leaving only a video file behind. She’d restored it by combining the corrupted data. “Bingo! Velly, you were right! Oh, hey, don’cha think that bingo! line was pretty hacker-ish? Like, hell yeah, dude, I’m super legit.” “I have no idea what counts as hacker-ish…” Veltol then muttered the video file’s name: “The Immortal Furnace Project…” He remembered hearing that before. It was in the note Machina’s retainers had left when they disappeared. “Let’s open it,” said Takahashi. “Yeah.” She tapped the file, and the video program opened, taking up the entire display. There was the well-dressed orc—when he was still alive. “Ejyu…” “Hey.” The on-screen Ejyu raised a hand. “If you’re watching this video, then that means I’ve been murdered. Man, I always wanted to say that.” “You dork…” Takahashi chided her old friend with a tinge of sadness in her voice. “I guess whoever’s watching this video’s gotta be Bunny Bones, Bill, Hio, Shar, or maybe even whoever killed me. Not that there’s any point in my murderer watching this video to begin with.” Ejyu’s gentle gaze turned serious. “Let’s cut to the chase… There’s some real gruesome evil behind this city’s growth and prosperity.” The orc continued: “The basis of Shinjuku’s aether reactor, the infrastructure of one of the biggest cities in the world—this reactor that powers all of our lives—is drenched in disgusting lies. Behind this city’s development lie many sacrifices that were hidden from the public. The current city of Shinjuku is built atop the lives of the innocent.” “This…strangely doesn’t sound like just some conspiracy theory…,” said Takahashi. “They use Alnaeth’s immortals as fuel, burning their souls like firewood to turn them into aether… They feed them to the aether reactor through the Immortal Furnace, and that’s where the city’s mana and electricity comes from. All of us—we’ve all been feeding off other peoples’ deaths. I get that there’s always gonna be sacrifices in the name of city development and technological advancement, but I just can’t overlook a thing like this.” “The Immortal Furnace…,” Veltol whispered in a low, icy tone. “The aether reactor’s supposed to draw from the aether lines that run from the planet’s core all the way to the surface. The resulting mana and electricity’s then used to supply the city.” Veltol already knew the basic gist of the aether reactor, since he’d looked it up on the aethernet. “Normally, small cities build their reactors on top of spots where three or more aether lines overlap. Obviously, it’s much cheaper to do that than build three different reactors on top of three independent lines; plus, the overlap makes pumping more efficient.” “Whoa, I never really noticed until now, but one good thing about Ejyu was that he’d always explain this sort of thing when needed,” said Takahashi. “In order to generate enough electricity for a city as big as Shinjuku with just one aether reactor, you’d need to build it on top of an overlap of ten aether lines. According to public records, there are thirteen lines below Shinjuku.” However… “Those records are falsified. Not that I think anyone out there would trust the public information on this city.” “Yep,” Takahashi agreed. “The truth isn’t worth a damn when you have a huge corporation holding power.” “The geological survey held before the First City War concluded that Shinjuku’s aether lines were lacking, and in fact, below the area where the reactor is now, there’s only two of them overlapping. That was enough to support the city’s size back then, but with its current population—not to mention the factories’ output—getting enough energy from just two lines is impossible. And then once the Immortal Hunt was over, the data was mysteriously modified to say there’s thirteen lines under Shinjuku. Aether lines don’t multiply, which means the documents were very clearly falsified.” Veltol and Takahashi silently listened to Ejyu’s explanation. “So the question now is: Where are they getting enough energy to power Shinjuku if there’s just two lines? We get electricity everywhere inside the cryotolerance zone, so they’re definitely compensating for it somehow. But that contradicts the prewar survey.” The answer was… “The Immortal Furnace?” Ejyu continued, as if replying to Veltol: “The current reactor was made by repairing and remodeling the previous world’s Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, but the actual construction work started by the end of City War I, and it only started functioning right before City War II.” Ejyu took a deep breath. “Truth is, the Immortal Furnace Project was the cornerstone of the reactor’s construction. They decided to supplement the insufficient aether with the Immortal Furnace and use that energy to power the city. There’s evidence that they hired Shinjuku citizens to construct the reactor’s shallower areas and foreigners, low-income earners, and the unemployed for the deeper sections closer to the aether lines. And in those depths is where the Immortal Furnace was built. There’s also no record of the workers who built it. Most of that data was destroyed.” “Th-then those people they used to build the Immortal Furnace…,” Takahashi stammered. “Yes—it’s highly likely they were disposed of,” said Veltol. “Schemes this enormous only work if as few people know about it as possible. That’s how this remained secret until now.” “Like I said at the beginning, they use immortals as fuel and their souls as firewood to generate aether in one big ritual magic facility. What’s alarming is the efficiency. Even a million mortal souls isn’t enough to power a city, but immortals are different. A single soul from these borderline divine beings generates aether en masse. The Shinjuku metropolis can subsist on just one immortal soul—and the more powerful the soul, the longer that fuel lasts.” “…” Veltol’s expression had lost all emotion except for the quiet anger burning in his eyes. “They literally call the immortals fed into the Furnace firewood. From what I could gather, the first immortal killed in this project was one of the Six Dark Peers of ancient times, the Duke of the Karmic Sword, Zenol. An important character in Alnaeth’s history who served the Demon Lord Veltol.” “Zenol…” Veltol reminisced about his vassal. Zenol was as loyal as Machina—one of his proud warriors. Veltol trusted him deeply. Had Zenol been similarly gifted in magic like Machina or Ralsheen of the Blue Storm, Veltol would have also taught him how to activate Methenoel. “The Immortal Hunt that took place after City War I was just an excuse to gather firewood for the Immortal Furnace. IHMI located immortals in various cities and rounded ’em up in exchange for weapons and technology.” “…This totally sounds like a bunch of made-up crap or some nutjob’s aethernet ramblings, but when it’s coming from someone as reliable as Ejyu…,” Takahashi commented as she looked at the data being shown in the video. “You might be asking why I was investigating this in the first place, and the answer’s simple: revenge. I was looking for leads on an immortal friend of mine who mysteriously disappeared, and that’s when I came across IHMI’s old database and salvaged some remains of the Immortal Furnace Project’s records.” “Mysteriously disappeared…,” Veltol repeated. “Just like Machina’s companions…” “Then, just three months ago, an IHMI assassin found me as I was gathering intel. I managed to escape somehow, but they beefed up their security, and I couldn’t keep on snooping. That’s why I hired my hacker bud to do some of the work, since I’d learned that IHMI was selling a list of immortals to the yakuza. The firewood’s running out, and soon the Immortal Furnace might stop working. IHMI had to covertly resume the long-finished Immortal Hunt.” “So my job was getting that list,” said Takahashi. “Indeed.” “Once the souls in the Immortal Furnace have burned up, the aether supply’s gonna run dry. That’s basically a death sentence for Shinjuku. So although I want to expose IHMI’s heinous crimes, I can’t simply repudiate the Furnace altogether. I’m benefiting from it, too, as are all the people living in this city. Hate to say it, but I’m neither arrogant nor strong enough to get my revenge if it means getting rid of everything that supports my lifestyle and everyone else’s.” Ejyu sounded deeply remorseful. Veltol could tell that the orc had reached this decision after much, much thought. “But I still think this whole thing’s wrong. Nothing can justify sacrificing innocent lives. I only hope my fellow hackers can get to this video from the hints I left. This huge scandal could tear IHMI down. I’ve got all this data collected and stored in my PC. You can make it public or keep it hidden; it’s up to you. Sorry for leaving this much responsibility on you.” Lastly, he said in a jokey tone: “But hey, I doubt anyone can solve this once-in-a-lifetime predicament. Unless they’re literally that legendary Demon Lord who ruled the immortals, or some shit like that.” Neither Takahashi nor Veltol spoke for a while after the video ended. They couldn’t. “I’ve always identified with immortals more than most. I know the prejudice against them is wrong, that they’re not all bad people. Sacrificing them to power the city is just…” Takahashi’s voice was hoarse. “…It’s just not okay, man. We’ve gotta do something…” “What do you suggest? Shall we put this on the aethernet?” “But—” “Then IHMI would most likely come after you, like they did with Ejyu. They might erase the info before anyone sees it. And even if you did make it public and shut down the Immortal Furnace, there’s no guarantee that the citizens of Shinjuku would be any safer.” “…B-but…” Takahashi looked down, and her shoulders trembled. Veltol then put a hand on them to soothe her. “This is a problem among us immortals. It’s my responsibility as Demon Lord to do something about it. You don’t have to worry. Leave all decisions to me.” “Okay…” “What about the body, then?” “I’d feel bad just leaving him here, but there’s nothing we can do. It’s probably best to report it to the City Guard.” “That sounds like a good idea. Now, I have to tell Machina about this.” “Yeah… Although I bet she’ll take it pretty hard, too…” Veltol called Machina through the aether. “Machina, can you hear me?” But there was no answer. An awful sensation welled up in his chest, as though there were a heavy piece of lead buried within. He had no proof that anything was wrong. There was nothing to go by. But this ominous feeling was proof enough. “Machina…?” His words were empty. No matter how many times he called her name, she didn’t respond.
Chapter 10
24 min read