[180] 3. Forest of the Profane (5)
Tess's fight was also nearing its end.
Her sabre couldn't break the poison-horn's carapace, but it was perfect for finding the gaps.
Tess jabbed at the seams of the shell to slow its movement, then drove the sabre into the cyclops's eye as a finishing strike. Twisting the blade, she forced the poison-horn to submit at her feet.
When the battle showed no sign of ending, Amy erected a wall of fire around them.
They were beasts without reason; if they fled it would have been the best outcome. Contrary to expectations, one charged straight through the ring of flame.
A bloated Harvester grabbed the poison-horn by the torso and snapped its spine.
Arin let out a sigh of relief that her sympathetic resonance had worked. When she cast mind control on the four poison-horns, two of them trembled under the spell.
The two caught by the mind control turned and began stabbing at their fellows.
With the monsters now tearing each other apart, the party no longer needed to fight.
Rian and Tess, who had cut down the other poison-horns, sheathed their weapons and returned to Shirone.
When Amy lowered the fire wall, the carnage among the beasts was visible. Horns, legs, and jaws were all used to stab one another down—they trampled and ripped at bodies.
Because the numbers were even, Arin's skill at controlling the poison-horns decided the outcome. At first the unfamiliar creatures were hard to manage, but she quickly grasped their patterns and used their long horns to pick them off one by one.
The party watching the fratricidal tragedy rubbed gooseflesh from their arms.
It was especially shocking to Kanya and Rena. Beings that follow the Law turning against it to kill their kin—today the Forest of the Commoners had seen a lot.
Arin, victorious, drew a deep breath.
Mind control itself continuously consumed mental strength, and when you forced others to fight their spirits and resolve bled into you, the mental exhaustion was heavy.
One of the poison-horns under Arin's control turned to face Shirone. Kanya and Rena retreated hastily, but the beasts only assumed a submissive stance.
Arin hesitated over what to do with the remaining poison-horns.
The astonishing success rate of mind control via sympathetic resonance was Arin's unique strength, but it was also a weakness. A high rate of emotional assimilation meant she absorbed the other minds more vividly.
For a mental-type mage who dealt in the minds of the world, it was an almost fated pain.
She wavered, as expected. Even if they were monsters, it was agonizing to end the life of creatures that had fought for her.
Tess—who would be insulted to be called anything but soft-hearted—voiced what Arin felt.
"Can't we just keep them? Even two would be super useful, don't you think?"
"No. We can't waste mental strength on beasts like these. Now that we know resonance works, Arin should focus on it. Keep your mental channel open at all times."
"Hmm, what about releasing them?"
"They'll come back to attack. Worst case, they bring a whole pack."
"I see. Then it's a shame, but we have to kill them. Can't we just make them fight and let them die?"
Tess's clumsy but kind words made Arin press her lips together.
This was different from making poison-horns kill other poison-horns. With such a high assimilation rate, plus the added emotions of allies who had fought alongside them, the conflict was worse.
Rian gripped the haft of his greatsword and said, "Then I'll kill them. Just keep them held."
Canis shook his head.
"No. This is something Arin has to do. If she wants to reach a high rank among mental mages, she can't stay weak forever."
Relying on resonance had its limits. To reach her goal, situations like this couldn't stop her.
Canis wanted Arin to stand firm by his side for a long time.
"Arin, remember when we were dragged into the Magic Association? You promised. Our mentor is gone now. We have to grow strong. This isn't a place to indulge pity."
Arin closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Canis was right. Rely on resonance, or master it? It was a hard question, but one she had to overcome.
She led the poison-horns to the forest's edge. Then she forced them to jab each other in the eyes with their horns.
Two of the poison-horns fell facing one another.
They were still breathing, but unable to move—there was no other way to inflict a fatal wound.
Arin forced a smile.
Watching her, the Harvester remembered the time it had faced her across the glass tube.
People still called her weak for a mage, but compared to when she'd feared everything, she was a completely different person now.
"That's Arin's strength and weakness. She resonates with others' minds too easily, so she can't be cruel. Arkein always lamented that."
"But she's changing. Arin will do fine."
Shirone, who had been sharing Arin's sadness, relaxed at the Harvester and Canis's words. Though she'd chosen a harsh life, she had comrades who would stand with her.
"In any case..."
When Shirone cleared her throat and looked back, the others turned their gazes to Kanya and Rena.
The two women flinched. Six pairs of eyes were now shining with an emotion that didn't fit the situation.
"People."
"Yeah, people. With a sword and shield, too."
"Oh, a sword and shield. I thought I'd lose my mind if I didn't see one. The idea of talking to a giant who rips trees out by the roots was dizzying."
Hearing words they couldn't understand, Kanya stepped in front of her younger sister and shouted, "What are you saying? Who are you people?"
Arin linked to the Spirit Zone and attempted telepathy. When Kanya's mind came through, Arin solidified it and relayed it to Shirone's group.
Shirone spoke as kindly as she could.
"So, um, we came from somewhere else..."
A sharp glare cut her off mid-sentence.
When the incomprehensible words suddenly became understandable, Kanya's tension spiked. Above all, the shapes of the lips and the language didn't match.
"What did you do? Is this magic? Are you Nor people?"
"Nor people? What's that?"
Instead of answering, Kanya extended her right arm. A drone flew down from the sky. A beetle-shaped device settled on her wrist, unfolded like a staircase, and clicked into place as a gauntlet.
"Language decode."
Light flared across the back of the gauntlet.
"Say that again."
"What do you mean?"
That was enough. Kanya bent her arm and checked the gauntlet.
No data. Unable to decode.
After checking the drone's info, she pulled out the Arc. When she pulled the handle, a red dot marked Shirone's brow.
"W-what are you doing all of a sudden?"
Shirone, who had been watching from the trees, knew how powerful the Arc was.
Thrown into this without explanation, she was flustered. This was not the normal reaction when humans unexpectedly encountered one another in a monster-haunted place.
"Rena! These aren't subjects! We have to fight!"
"Ha, but sister... they did save our lives."
"Now I get it. This is why the poison-horns came here. They disturbed the forest's Law."
When Rena heard that, she couldn't help moving. Reluctant emotion showed on her face, but she still took up Signa and Xed and readied herself.
"You'd better tell the truth, if you don't want your head on the Arc. What did you do in this forest? Who are you people?"
There was no good way to explain who they were. Frustrated, Shirone could only shout back.
"We're people too!"
"How am I supposed to believe that? You don't speak the subjects' language! You're not heretics either!"
"Anyway, we can communicate. Isn't that enough?"
Kanya frowned. Strangely, Shirone's words had some weight.
"Then let's settle it by talking. If we can talk, we can find a peaceful way instead of waving those weird weapons around."
"Peace? Saying 'peace' in the Forest of the Commoners—you're really suspicious."
"Forest of the Commoners?"
"Looks like that's what this forest's called."
After Arin explained, silence fell.
The standoff continued for a while.
Shirone could have subdued Kanya if she chose to, but she hated fighting.
They were human. They could communicate. If Kanya let down her hostility, Shirone could learn a great deal about this world.
At that moment Rena looked up at the sky.
The drone patrolling overhead projected its feed into her retina: more than twenty poison-horns were gathering five hundred meters away.
"Sis, it's bad. Poison-horns."
Only then did Kanya snap back to reality. With the forest's Law out of balance, staying here any longer would be suicide.
The unknown strangers gave no sign of wanting to fight. She couldn't be sure, but from the skill they'd shown in beating the poison-horns, they could probably handle themselves.
"Follow me for now. We'll get out of here and talk."
Kanya transformed the gauntlet back into its insect form, sent it flying into the sky, checked the poison-horns' positions, picked a direction, and plunged deeper into the woods.
Shirone's group followed without complaint. Amy said they were heading away from the city.
4. Reversal of the Law (1)
Kanya led them into a valley where jungle and rocky ground mixed.
Cliffs hemmed them in, leaving only the sky visible. Walking along the bottom of the V-shaped valley, Shirone could sense how long this world had endured.
As they went, they exchanged names with Kanya's party.
Kanya still couldn't fully trust them, but she accepted that they had no intent to fight.
"This is the Valley of the Whirlwind Serpent. The Law's different here, so you shouldn't run into anything too dangerous."
"The biggest danger is Shirone getting hit by that weird weapon, right?"
Rian's joke made Kanya narrow her eyes. She seemed more concerned about what had happened in the forest than anyone—if anyone was about to blow up, it was probably her.
Suspecting Shirone was the leader, she jabbed a finger and demanded, "What are you really? Coming from another world—does that even make sense?"
"But it's true. Believe it or not, that's the only way to explain it. Now you explain. What kind of place is this world? Like that giant we knocked down."
"Giant? Did you just say giant?"
"Yeah, a giant."
"So you say you killed a giant!"
"No—I didn't kill it. What happened was..."
Before Shirone could finish, Kanya grabbed her by the collar and shouted, "How could you kill a giant, you idiot! Giants are Law-keepers! It was you who killed the giant, and that's why the poison-horns went wild!"
Amy shook off Kanya's hand. She had kept her temper to gather information, but she wouldn't tolerate someone treating a friend roughly.
"I said we didn't kill it! And the giant attacked first!"
"Of course it did! It was our fault for breaking the Law! The Forest of the Commoners is a place humans mustn't enter!"
Shirone stepped between the two growling women.
"We don't even understand what you're saying. Okay? We really did come from somewhere else."
Kanya stood dumbfounded. Nothing Shirone said persuaded her, but the impossibility made it feel true.
"You mean to say... you really came from another place?"
"I told you already. Yes."
"No—that's not what I meant, um..."
Kanya's expression turned grave.
It was only an anecdote she'd heard as a child, but she remembered tales of human lands governed by heaven's rule.
They were descendants of the subjects, pitiful folk who could not feel the presence of a god. Thus they did not enjoy immortality and suffered as mortals until their lives ended.