Activation (4)
It felt grotesque, like Habitz.
"No—the disgust this kid gives is far stronger. It's so alien it makes my stomach turn."
It was like seeing a fifth-dimensional creature.
"I don't even know what that would be, but if it existed, this is the feeling. I can understand Habitz's state now."
Valkan glanced back at Natasha.
"Can you catch it?"
Natasha took the silent cue and moved, unfolding the Reaper's Martial Art and closing in behind the Wizard.
"I'll snap its arm."
But the child was already gone.
"Fast?"
No. That wasn't it.
It had no eyelids, so there were no blind spots, yet it felt like blinking.
"A blink. That kind of feeling?"
In the inertia of hyper-speed, as Natasha twisted her body, something appeared in front of her—
Hrooooooo!
A fetus-like face as long as a tree stuck out a tongue and sobbed.
The sight was chilling, but that sensation vanished along with the form.
"This is it!"
The true nature of the blink feeling.
"The moment it disappears… the world closes and opens once, and the Wizard is suddenly somewhere else."
"What a nuisance."
Thinking a strike was necessary, Natasha activated "Reaper's Martial Art—Combat Machine."
The God of Impermanence roared again.
Hroooooo!
"What a dreadful dissonance."
No matter whether time sped up or slowed, the God of Impermanence's motion stayed the same.
"No. There's the same motion nested inside the motion."
A fractal structure.
Remove any part of the movement and the same overall motion repeats.
"This strange vibration dominates the area."
Hroooooooo!
As the fetus's long tongue quivered, Natasha's fist shot out.
"Hro—"
The sensation snapped like a severed line and the God of Impermanence's form seeped into the air.
"When it becomes perfectly still—"
The moment the dissonance vanished, the world lost exactly one frame.
Blink.
After that frame was omitted, the scene Natasha saw was inverted.
"Huh?"
Using a fine schema to assess the state…
"A hip throw?"
The Wizard grabbed Natasha at the waist and threw his weight with everything he had.
"Ugh—ugh—!"
Thrown by inertia, Natasha reflexively flung her arm up.
Even after she rolled to lessen the impact, her body bounced like a ball and skidded across the casino floor.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
She rolled twenty meters, then crouched and put on the brakes.
"Phew."
A sigh of admiration.
"That one frame is really tricky. Once it triggers you can't do anything. It's nothingness for me."
Hroooooooo!
The God of Impermanence stuck its tongue out again; Natasha cocked her head and madness shone in her eyes.
"Reaper's Martial Art—"
"Stop."
Valkan said.
"That's enough. There's no point fighting each other."
"We?"
Though Natasha and the Wizard's clash had lasted only an instant, it was enough. Valkan turned to the Wizard and asked, "Habitz… is he dead?"
Whoever sent this person, they were a combat weapon designed to counter all of Habitz's abilities.
The Wizard shook her head.
"No."
"Why?"
Valkan, who knew better than anyone what Habitz was, was puzzled.
The child gave off that kind of feeling.
"…Because I'm weak."
Smodo and Zettaro mulled over the reply as Natasha returned to her place.
Sensing the casino crowd's attention, Valkan stepped in front of the Wizard and said, "Seems like we should talk."
Habitz arrived at Delta headquarters about an hour before midnight.
News that he'd stopped by the casino had already reached intelligence agencies across nations.
The officials wore uneasy expressions.
"What on earth did he do? Rebecca came away unharmed, so there must've been another reason."
No one knew what happened during the roughly six-hour blackout after he left the casino.
And those six hours—
"Kekeke."
Every second that would've been unbearably dull instead had completely excited Habitz's mind.
"This is fun."
Wena, the Wizard.
All the inventive outcomes she produced in combat thrilled him.
"I can't tell what she's thinking. I can't even predict a second ahead of that woman. Who is she?"
He had been so absorbed by the Wizard that he didn't notice Delta's knights charging in.
"Hey! Habitz! Stop!" They hadn't used vanishing, but his mana alone nearly suffocated them.
"Ah??????"
Habitz snapped back to his senses and turned his head to find dozens of knights arrayed before him.
Rage burned in the Satan's eyes, and the knights' instincts screamed.
"Ugh! If you plan to fight—!"
"Sorry."
As if nothing had happened, the anger left Habitz and he gave a sideways smile.
"I thought this was Kaskan Sector."
He could've used vanishing, but he didn't want to poke Woorin's temper now.
"From now on, be careful."
No one wanted a straight-up duel, so the situation dissipated hollowly.
Habitz headed straight for Woorin.
"Hey! Where were you!"
The voice that tore out as the door opened was loud, but Woorin's inner sense felt different.
Habitz grinned.
"Congrats. You hit the jackpot. Is the real assassination war starting?"
Woorin sighed. "Where did you go?"
"Just… got some air. What's to worry? I'll come when you need me."
If Satan's law applied, that would be certain—but this time, Woorin wasn't so sure.
"The feeling's different."
With futures blocked, the Habitz Woorin sensed with her instinct wasn't pure chaos.
"In any case."
Time was tight.
"I already know everything, so skip the explanations. The Moon Kingdom's ritual, Satsu—can you reinforce it?"
"We can. The Pyrotechnics Company's System Control Division can manage Karma. But the psychic domain is closed. You'd have to send Siok to handle it."
"So I'm asking. There's one hour until midnight. Can you pull it off?" Woorin knew how dangerous it was to ask Satan for a favor.
"All right. I'll do it."
Surprisingly, Habitz agreed without much interest.
"I have a favor to ask, too."
"Hm?"
Woorin blinked.
As with Under Coder and High Gear, time in the Apocalypse differed from reality.
"Mining. It's a brutal job."
They'd been mining for over half a month, but finding anything meaningful was hard.
"It's still okay," Marsha said. "Searching for keywords from a specific timeframe is like digging up fossils. Once you find an event from that era, a lot of info will follow."
The Operator propped his chin. "Hmm, it'd be good to find a place with layered eras—like a museum, a government archive, or a comparable database," Number Seven said.
"The problem is Yukus; we can't see ahead because of it. The air stratum hasn't emerged for seventeen hours."
The mining team aboard the giant drill Extra watched the cockpit displays.
The laser drill's view of boring through Yukus repeated endlessly.
Impatient, the Operator grumbled, "Isn't the vehicle too slow?"
"You kidding? Do you think it's easy to go forty kilometers an hour while cutting through rock? It's made from Titan alloy specially produced by Metal Genome. The engine—"
"Creepy, so shut up. It's all our big brother's imaginary company anyway," Number Seven pouted.
"Tch! This kind of realism becomes the motif for luxury goods—you don't know anything—"
Their small talk lasted about thirty minutes when Extra's hull suddenly rocked violently.
"What's that?"
"Forward speed increased. Resistance is dropping. We'll break through soon."
Everyone's eyes went to the screen as the stubborn chalky layer vanished in an instant.
"It's out!"
Cheers died quickly as tremendous gravitational acceleration yanked Extra down.
"Uaaah! Uaaah!"
They'd been through this several times, but the fear never got easier.
"Wait."
Shirone stepped out and grabbed Extra with Hand of God.
"Phew."
From that vantage, he could see a small town with a military facility.
"A government agency."
Shirone's eyes brightened. He flew toward a tall spire and landed Extra there.
"Looks like some kind of monument."
The mining team searched the area and returned.
"This is a war veterans' memorial. The bodies seem interred elsewhere, but their belongings should be here. Let's check."
They opened an iron door in the ground and descended into an underground archive packed with thousands of shelves.
Shirone looked at things at random.
"Identification tags. Family photos. Notebooks. Diaries…"
As his gaze scanned, it stopped on one item.
"Huh?"
A toy pyramid.
After a quick look down the corridor, Shirone took a pyramid that fit in his hand.
It was hollow and light; when he shook it, paper rattled inside.
"A note."
He opened the base lid and unfolded a twice-folded paper; a precise, drawn eye stared back.
"The all-seeing eye…"
The god that watches everything.
When he matched the note to the pyramid's upper section, the lines aligned perfectly.
"Shirone! Over here!"
Hearing Marsha, Shirone pocketed the pyramid and ran to her.
"What is it?"
"Found it."
Marsha held a thick, moldy book.
"An ancient occult manual."
Shirone decoded it with Ultima, while Marsha referenced the illustrations.
"I was skimming and this popped up…"
The page she opened showed the temple's mark and the flags of the twelve participating nations.
"The Moon Kingdom's ritual, Satsu. Presumed used for royal assassination. The one who died then was—"
Shirone snapped the book shut.
"What time is it in the real world?"
The bell tolled midnight.
If the solemn chime rippled across the capital, households would extinguish their lights—
"Kyaaaah!"
Four kilometers away, inside a cave, that sound instead awakened a spirit.
"Your Highness! Take cover!"
The geomancer, his essence of resentment tearing through even the barrier, retreated with the diviners toward the entrance, dragging Munryong with them.
"No way…"
A woman's apparition slashed her face with her fingernails, flashing like electricity.
The shaman leapt.
"O wronged soul! Spirit wandering the nine heavens! Your resentment must be released. Your resentment must be eased!"
The spirit glared at the fallen portraits of kings scattered on the floor and howled with fury.
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you all! The living—I'll kill every one of you!"
"This is so vivid. This is… too much."
The diviner's face went pale, but the dragon Munryong didn't even twitch an eyebrow.
"What are you doing? Shoot."
Triggers were pulled and the diviners sliced the final barrier with longswords.
"Go! Go forth! Your resentment—ugh! Your vengeful resentment…! Ugh, waaaaah!"
As the blood-spattered shaman collapsed, white, frost-like particles spewed from the entrance.
"Hmph!"
Munryong stared straight at the face of the spirit flying toward him and said, "I am king."
Aaaaah...
The essence of resentment that escaped the cave became a faint, haunting scream across the night sky.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Twelve bell chimes rang out.