Even If It's a Delusion (2)
* * *
The Sein team assigned to assassinate Habitz thundered across the Denan Plain, where the legions of Hell were advancing.
'The timing will be tight.'
A ring of light flared in Sein's eyes, and two massive luminous wheels were born beyond the sky.
"Iron Wheel Eye, Sun–Moon Wheel."
As the two rings drew together and merged, the world began to ripple.
It felt as if space itself was being pushed aside; the landscape ahead rushed in, and Eden drew a breath.
"This is the Iron Wheel Eye."
In a patch of sky as dark as night, only the rings of light spun at a terrifying speed.
"I can do this. With this, we stop Habitz."
A power that controls all physical and mental factors within the rings' radius.
Habitz might survive even if a landslide buried him…
'But what if we manipulate gravity?'
That could shatter his immortality.
Of course, to amplify certain factors, Sein would have to sacrifice his own mind and body.
"That's why I'm on this team."
Eden, a specialist in defensive magic, set the protection priorities clearly.
"Guard the control tower."
As Eden drew up his fighting spirit, Armin approached Kuan, who was running on the opposite side.
"You sure you'll be okay?"
"A swordsman doesn't calculate probabilities."
"No, I mean Shiina."
Kuan's brows twitched.
Olifer Shiina still worked as a teacher in the city of Crea—closer than Shion, distance-wise. Yet Kuan had never gone to see her.
"Why haven't you? This could be the last battle."
"That's an unpleasant question."
Kuan glared at Armin.
"I'll take care of my own business. And you're not the only one worrying about her."
Armin knew about the relationship between Sein and Kaira, a resident of the Ivory Tower, which made him all the more uneasy.
"If this operation fails…"
Kuan said flatly, "The Kingdom of Tormia will be destroyed anyway. Kill Habitz and the war ends. That's it."
Sein pointed forward.
"It's coming."
Indeed, the demon army filled the entire span of the horizon and charged.
"Where's Habitz?"
Meirei no longer needed to plug her ears.
"I can already hear him. Put on the Nemesis rings. Ah—one last confirmation first."
Meirei glanced at the group.
"The eavesdrop target is Habitz. Don't expect it to sound normal."
They understood instantly. Tense, they put on the Nemesis rings forged as bands.
What Meirei heard from Habitz's mind echoed in everyone's heads like a shared hallucination.
Eden's face went pale.
"T-this is…!"
Eavesdropping on a human mind was an alien experience, but he'd lived as a seeker and seen much of humanity's filth—he thought he was prepared.
'This can't be.'
If the sound they were hearing truly originated from inside a human mind…
'This is hell.'
This world had become a crucible of pain so extreme that one could slit one's throat without feeling wronged.
They all wore the same expression; even the cold Kuan squinted one eye.
"No."
Eden, having realized what Habitz craved, shouted to everyone, "We must withdraw!"
Not Habitz himself—but Habitz's thoughts—had to be stopped.
"It's already too late."
Kuan argued they should press their speed, and Sein made a quick decision.
"We push through. We can't solve every problem. Do what we do best."
They could only trust the Tormia forces left among the flower fields and the holy order.
As the ground tremor from the enemy reached them, Sein gave the order.
"Now."
Light burst from the eye under Armin's blindfold and the Stop spell activated.
Time froze within a four-kilometer radius, but they couldn't trap the entire army.
Demons who struck the boundary of the Spirit Zone froze, and the units behind them slammed on their brakes.
"What the—!"
The enormous inertia shoved another force numbering in the millions into the Spirit Zone before it finally dissipated.
"We couldn't trap them all. We have to finish this as fast as possible," Armin said.
Sein darted nimbly between the tightly frozen demons.
'Right now we have no mass. We can't exert physical force.'
In informational terms, they moved at the same speed as the signals entering this world.
"Found him."
Habitz sat astride a frozen horse, hind legs braced, flanked by demon escorts.
Liria pulled several boxwood totems from the drum on her back and leaped forward.
"We have to separate Habitz from his time."
At that moment Sein saw something clearly.
'What is that?'
Something moved in one of Habitz's eyes—an eye that looked empty and waxen, like a doll's.
"A fly?"
The instant he realized, twelve sword-shaped holes opened in the ground and robed figures climbed out.
'Siok.'
He had never seen one with his own eyes, but he'd bet on it.
'So it manifests like this.' The fact that Stop could activate independently of Habitz had already been proven in Shirone's case.
Here began an experiment testing a still-unverified hypothesis.
'Siok is time outside the Law. It isolates Habitz from all events…
Then why is Siok visible now?'
'Because time stopped.'
If Siok could take physical damage, the chance of assassinating Habitz would rise dramatically.
"Kuan."
Just as Sein issued the order, Habitz—at the center of the Siok—moved his lips.
"Stop."
In an instant the Siok was drawn underground and the Stop magic dominated the space again.
"Why?"
Before Sein could process it, Liria threw her totems to the ground.
At the same moment the Stop released, twenty totems formed a huge circle around Habitz.
"Now!"
When Liria clasped her hands, the totems trembled and burrowed into the earth.
As the ground shook, the surface of the Siok smoothed like a mirror and reflected a landscape.
But it wasn't the Denan Plain; it was a vast wasteland strewn with reddish-brown rock.
'Law of space. Yojigyeong!'
As Sein's group closed in on Habitz, the Law's jin, Yojigyeong, began to flip as if on an axis.
"Enemies! Kill them!"
The demons realized too late and charged, but the jin had already been set upright.
Still, gravity pulled down at their feet, and to Sein and the others it looked as if the entire world had inverted.
"Satan! Satan is—"
As Yojigyeong turned 180 degrees, demons crossed through the empty void as if passing through one another.
"Damn it! What the hell is happening!"
No demon knew what had occurred during this frozen time.
"Commander! Commander!"
Paimon remained the overall commander, but the human messenger reported the situation to Valkan.
"It's serious! Lord Habitz has left formation! He's fallen into some kind of trap."
Valkan stroked his jaw.
"Hmm."
"Should we pursue?"
"No. Leave him."
"What?"
"Habitz moves by desire. He doesn't calculate things in his head. You can't hold back what can't be held. And…"
Valkan lifted one corner of his mouth.
"Perhaps that's the natural order." To Habitz, the only thing visible was a wasteland whose horizon met the sky.
Even if he escaped this place alive, it was a spot where he would die of thirst and hunger.
"What are you people?"
Habitz asked the Sein group surrounding him, but none answered.
His choice had been that shocking.
'I know what chaos is.'
But why would he come here—where Siok might be prevented from manifesting—just for this?
"Why?"
Sein finally asked, unable to hold it in. "Why did you summon the Siok? What's the reason?"
"Because I felt like it."
Habitz twirled his mustache and said, "This looked more fun."
It was the answer they had expected, but it confirmed something.
'As long as Meirei is here, information is perfectly controlled. There's no way she knows about the elemental bomb.'
A predetermined future.
'If following us out of the space is Habitz's only chance to live…?'
If he chose a Law that would let him get as far from Bashka as possible…
'Are our judgments right—or wrong?'
Habitz's innate ability and the breadth of the predetermined future struck them anew.
"Meirei."
Kuan said quietly. "Eavesdrop."
For some reason Habitz's mental voice had gone silent to everyone.
Eden turned his head and saw Meirei's face pale like a ghost.
Her expression remained blank, but even her skin tone revealed her state.
"Meirei, let us hear it." If Habitz activated Vanishing, they had to react immediately.
"I can't."
Meirei said coldly.
There was no way she'd make a unilateral decision in front of the assassination target Habitz—so the only reason she had blocked eavesdropping, even against Sein's orders, was one thing: she believed it would almost certainly lead to total mission failure.
Sein said, "Meirei, if you don't do it, we die."
"If you want to watch our comrades die without knowing why, then do as you please," she replied.
It was half a consent, but Meirei's nose bridge scrunched in distaste.
"You don't know what I'm babbling about, do you?"
Habitz let his longsword hang and stepped closer.
"Now then—who shall I kill first?"
A chill of murderous intent washed over them. Meirei shut her eyes and shouted, "I'll open it!"
As if a clogged hole had been cleared, Habitz's mental voice burst into the ears of Sein's group.
A wave of malice.
"Kyahhh!"
Liria screamed first; Armin and Sein flinched from the shock.
'Damn it! You should've warned us!'
Meirei had warned them—yet Habitz's mind exceeded their worst imaginings.
"What's wrong?"
Habitz first aimed at Eden.
"It's as if you're reacting to knowing something."
"A-ah, aagh…"
As Habitz neared, Eden's legs trembled with dizziness.
'Calm down. I am Yora now. It's different from when I was a follower of the Yora faith.'
Eden's faith in virtue was renowned even in Shion. He was the kind of defender whose belief in his god let him stand unflinching even under bombardment.
"Ughhh."
But now he was just a man sunk in fear, collapsing awkwardly onto his rear.
"What's wrong?"
Habitz asked.
"Are you afraid of me?"
You're no different from me.
True fear didn't come from outside pressing in, but from rising within.
A murderer slaughtering people and tearing off limbs doesn't create fear—unless he does it to me.
'No. I am a messenger of God.'
Tears streamed from Eden's eyes in fear.
He had thought he had purged all the evil lodged in his mind—but some foulness remained.
'I can't win. Never…' The terror Habitz provoked touched the essence of humanity and the roots of life itself.
'A beam.'
Only Miro—the flawless crystallization—could respond to the voice of Satan.