[597] The Cube of Time (4)
Time: 2 hours 32 minutes.
Place: Warehouse No. 19.
Warehouse No. 19 of Fate.
If anyone in Istas's upper echelons remembered the records, they would have called it that.
After Hexa killed Rukang, Yolga had been searching for Miro, who had left her post.
"Nothing is over yet."
Miro would find a way.
"She's that kind of person."
Some put Miro and Yolga on the same pedestal, but to Yolga herself Miro had been a younger sister she could respect.
—Ms. Miro will one day save this world.
Even the calm confession of a boy they'd met in the upper levels could be accepted for that reason.
"You're here."
The warehouse door opened and Nickel, captain of the Mars detachment, stepped in.
He had no subordinates with him, but his clothes were soaked in blood.
"Captain Nickel."
"I confirmed the child is dead."
"Yes. If this case ends here, peace will return to humanity."
Unlike Yolga, who had worried only about Miro, Nickel had come with a mission to protect the kingdom.
"You did well."
So there was one more event that had to happen before Nickel could declare the incident concluded.
"It's thanks to the sacrifices of the Mars unit. Without them, none of this would have been possible."
Yolga smiled, but her eyes remained sad.
"...May I ask—there really is no way out?"
There was.
If Gepin had orchestrated all of this, his plan included Miro achieving her goal and returning to the world.
"The coordinates are all scrambled. I don't know if we can find an exit."
If this closed loop completed a full cycle, everyone caught in it would become Istas's phantoms.
"I see."
Nickel, lost in thought, placed a hand on his chest with a grave expression and said, "On behalf of the kingdom, thank you."
Yolga stared into Nickel's eyes for a long moment.
"You're welcome."
But she was not someone who calculated gratitude.
"Rather, I—"
The instant she bowed to Nickel, a dagger plunged into Yolga's heart with a dull thud.
"The royal relic Baekja-do as well. Even you will not survive."
An insidious assassination weapon: the blade melted once inside the body, turning the blood white and congealing it.
She heaved and vomited a pail of blood—those were Yolga's last moments.
"Yolga!"
Edgar struck Nickel's head aside while Mustang caught the collapsing Yolga.
She was already dead.
In that horrific reversal—her comrades' eyes flared with rage.
"You—!"
Nickel's face had already been half obliterated, but, fitting a commander of the Mars detachment, he was still alive.
"Why did you kill her?"
Nine gripped his sword and stepped forward.
"Because she was dangerous. I'm a soldier. I only follow the king's orders."
Yolga's ideology posed a threat to the monarchy.
"You bastard!"
As Edgar moved in to finish Nickel, Mustang—reading Nickel's gaze—shouted, "Stand down!"
Another relic slid from Nickel's grasp: a mana bomb, Expos.
"Long live the Kingdom of Tormia!"
Before Nine's thrown sword could reach him, Expos's glass sphere shattered and a localized magical storm blew out.
The scorching gust that consumed life had been paid for with the blood of countless species and the sacrifices of mages—priceless.
When the dreadful blue light swept away, Yolga's fallen comrades lay sprawled on the floor, their faces distorted in grief.
"...So it has come to this."
The warehouse door opened and Fermi walked in.
Even in the face of his mother's death and the deaths of the uncle and aunt who had doted on him, Fermi remained unshaken.
Coldly, calculated.
He turned toward Warehouse No. 44, where the vault was.
"To bypass time..."
Time: 1 hour 48 minutes.
Place: Association for Paranormal Psychical Science.
Miro returned to Istas through Gepin's gate, cradling Prince Kazra asleep in her arms.
Shirone, following behind, still felt uneasy, but a choice had to be made.
"Shirone, don't overthink it."
Miro said. "Your present is my future. Take the upper levels' secrets back with you. Do what you can there."
At that moment the door opened and Yolga entered.
"She's getting up after all."
Shirone tensed, expecting to meet another copy of himself, but beside Yolga were only her comrades—no duplicates.
"The incident has twisted again."
Then who had sent Yolga here?
"Miro, who is the child you're holding?"
Miro's brows twitched.
"I know. Who on earth...?"
Even if they'd met in a different timeline, this was not something Yolga would ever divulge.
"He is Prince Kazra. Hexa no longer exists in this place. So stop giving up, sister."
"No."
Yolga's gaze fixed on Gepin's gate.
Until the closed loop sealed completely, the dimensions remained connected.
"If it's now, we can reverse it."
"You can't. Not while I'm here."
"Miro, don't call it just a few sacrifices. This denies the value of all humanity. If we cannot choose our future, we will end in ruin."
Yolga's insight spanned a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand years ahead.
"You must not make a history for humankind that relies on a single transcendent being for everything."
"Gepin fought for humanity."
"But he is not our god. Let us choose. That's the only path for humans to become boundless."
"If we cannot stop it now, there is no future. I'll sacrifice everything in Gepin's stead."
No compromise could be reached; Yolga tightened her gaze and said with iron resolve, "I will not allow it."
Miro turned and said, "Guard Gepin's gate."
The moment Yolga's comrades moved, Shirone and Anchal blocked the doorway.
"Is this really the right thing?"
Shirone saw merit in both arguments.
Life was like that; perhaps choice itself was punishment.
"Don't waver. Do what you believe is right."
Gaold had done it, Julu had, Plu had. "That is what makes a mage."
He decided to trust Miro.
For reasons he couldn't explain, Miro did not trap Hexa behind a dimensional wall but returned her to the original world.
That was the only glimmer of hope that guided Shirone.
"It's too late, sister."
Miro levitated Prince Kazra briefly, then set him down in a corner.
"So, are you asking me to try and kill him?"
Now that the swap with Hexa was done, Miro had no reason to risk her life for Prince Kazra.
"That's what sacrifice is."
Light glittered in Miro's eyes and a great manifestation of Kannon—an avatar of boundless compassion—blossomed like nothing Shirone had ever seen.
From Yolga's body the avatar of Saint Maria also rose.
"Even Kannon cannot break my avatar."
"If it's Saint Maria, then maybe."
When Miro crossed her hands, Kannon's two palms multiplied into hundreds of overlapping hands and descended upon the crown of Yolga's head.
"Keep taking the hits, then."
Kukukukukukunk!
As the warehouse shook, Yolga's comrades surged toward Gepin's gate.
"I'll take the woman. Guard the door."
Anchal lured Mustang away, and Edgar and Nine charged in from Shirone's left and right.
With Armand's keen instincts tracking their movements, Shirone drew a long breath.
"Huuuuu!"
The mage's mind—one more opinion added for humanity's future—steadied, no longer wavering.
"Antithesis!"
Shirone's artificial brain's outer shell transformed into the eye of Akamai, and Edgar and Nine—now within striking distance—froze.
"Gk!"
Their will to act was momentarily constrained and the boundary of Shirone's Spirit Zone vanished.
Elysion–Sona Explosion.
Light sprang to life inside Edgar and Nine, swelling rapidly.
"No way!"
No Spirit Zone should be able to manifest phenomena inside a sentient being's body.
But Shirone had erased the mental boundary; he simply cast into the space itself.
"If you get hit by this, you die instantly!"
Any internal explosion of that scale leaves no chance to survive, so Edgar and Nine desperately triggered their schemas and barely broke free of Antithesis.
Even so, they could not avoid the explosive mass wave completely.
Two successive detonations hurled their bodies into the wall.
They escaped internal disintegration, but Edgar's mechanical arm was shattered and Nine suffered severe internal injuries.
Mustang, fighting fiercely with Anchal, glanced at Shirone in disbelief, and Yolga trembled within the form of Saint Maria.
"How...?"
It wasn't because they saw something different.
They were stunned by something all too familiar—something no one could mimic—unfolding before them.
"Gepin's Ultima system?"
Miro shrugged as if it were obvious. "That child is the future Hexa."
Yolga's gaze on Shirone wavered, shaken by the revelation.
* * *
As Lyken changed his behavior after being betrayed by Fermi, Rukang again met death—his lower body crushed—at Miro's hands.
Yolga's kiss had been a bonus.
Leaving Rukang's corpse behind, they set out to find Miro again, and Fermi appeared before them.
Time: 1 hour 10 minutes.
Place: Warehouse No. 65.
"Who are you?"
"A merchant. I caught the scent of money here."
Yolga stared intently at the young man, a nostalgic air about him, then finally smiled.
"Merchants are everywhere."
Mustang said, "He looks like Fermi."
At the blunt observation, Yolga asked, "May I know your name?"
"Coincidentally, my name is Fermi as well."
Fermi scratched his head as he stepped forward. "You must know a Fermi, then?"
"Yes. To me, that person is the most precious."
Fermi secretly bit and tore at the inside of his lower lip.
As long as Yolga did not waver, he must not waver either.
"So, did you find anything worth money?"
Fermi produced from his pocket dozens of .
"Yes, quite a lot. With these, hundreds of billions of gold would come quickly."
Yolga stared at Fermi's smile.
"How long have you been here?"
"There's no clock here. Biologically, it seems like quite some time."
Yolga's question was oddly offbeat but always hit the heart of the matter, so Fermi hastily changed the subject.
"Take these. It's a deal."
He thrust the pouch of objects forward; Yolga accepted it without resistance and examined the contents.
"Good pieces. Replicas."
It was no coincidence that Fermi had chosen to take up to the upper levels.
Although he did not say it, Yolga already knew, and she shook her head with a troubled look.
"You've taken dozens of lives with these. I don't have the means to pay that price."
"I don't need money. I already have more than enough. I'm pretty resourceful, you see."
Yolga smiled, as if pleased.
"Incredible. So what do you want from me?"
"There's one thing I want to ask. Advice from a great mage ought to be worth something."
Yolga tilted her head like a cat. "If it's something I can answer—"
Fermi's smile faded and he asked, "Am I... doing the right thing now?"