Chapter 4: “The Pulse of the Abyss or the Sound Beyond Logic”
The deeper we went into the forest‚ the heavier the air sank‚ like lead.
The rustling of leaves that had been audible just moments ago‚ the buzzing of insects—everything suddenly cut off.
—Sound was dead.
Ton‚ ton‚ ton.
Only the rhythm I tapped with my fingertips was the sole “living sound” in this vacuum-like world.
“…This… isn’t a forest anymore‚ is it?”
Rinne muttered in a trembling voice.
The green onion she clutched tightly like a lifeline had lost its fresh green color‚ its tip discoloring into a sickly gray.
“Hey… even my muscles are starting to change color…!”
Cross’s anguished voice rang out.
Looking closer‚ gray mold-like spots had begun to appear on his steel-like forearm.
“Cross… that… isn’t something your soul can fix‚ right?”
“Don’t be ridiculous! I’ll push it back with my soul!!”
Cross tensed his arm. Veins bulged and muscles creaked.
But the gray spots slowly spread‚ as if mocking his will.
“…My muscles… are rejecting my soul (color)…?”
The confidence that was always on his face drained away.
For the first time‚ the “man of soul” revealed a physiological fear.
“Cross… don’t push yourself. This isn’t something on the level of souls or muscles.”
As I said that‚ I stared ahead.
There—“it” sat enthroned.
A gigantic black mass.
A hollow space as if the very fabric of space had been gouged out.
It devoured the surrounding light‚ while thick‚ muddy remnants swirled around it.
“The Abyss of Residue.”
The very lesion of the world pulsed there.
“…That’s… the heart?”
Iris tugged on my sleeve.
Her hand was cold as ice‚ trembling faintly.
The pocket watch throbbed weakly—thump… thump…
Like a small animal trembling before an apex predator.
(…The waveform is broken.
This isn’t the pulse of life.
It devours every sound around it and reproduces nothing but destruction—
the “worst possible rhythm.”)
“Aria…”
Iris looked up at me.
Her eyes trembled with fear—yet carried resolve.
“It’s okay. We’ll… definitely purify it.”
Just as I said that—
THUD…!!
The mass of the heart contracted violently‚ and a gray shockwave shook the world.
Rinne raised her green onion‚ Cross gripped his greatsword again.
The silent abyss slowly opened its mouth.
Sticky shadows seeped from the surface of the black vortex.
“…It’s coming!”
Before I could finish shouting‚ the shadow took the shape of a beast and leapt forward at ground-splitting speed.
Its outline wavered‚ filled with static like the noise of a television screen.
“An afterimage…?”
Rinne gasped.
It had no substance. Yet its killing intent carried mass.
“A soul strike!!”
With a roar‚ Cross swung down his greatsword.
—But.
The blade passed through the beast and sliced empty air.
The next moment‚ the gray spots rapidly invaded Cross’s arm.
“Ghh…!? Again…!”
(Not only do our attacks not work…
Just touching it accelerates the corrosion…!?)
From the beast’s mouth came a shriek—GIIII…!—like fingernails scraping glass.
“Aria‚ use magic…!”
“I am!!”
I raised my pocket watch and deployed the usual construction formula.
But—
CRACK!
The moment the deployed magic formula touched the dissonant sound‚ it shattered like glasswork.
“…You’ve got to be kidding…!? I can’t… build the formula…!”
Snap!
The pocket watch sparked‚ and the blue lens went completely dark.
“Aria!? The device…!”
“It stopped…! The mana circuits are burned out…!”
My mind went blank.
My magic only works with precise calculations and structured formulas.
If that doesn’t work‚ then I’m just a powerless child.
(Can’t… fight…?)
The beast’s afterimage now turned its aim toward Rinne.
“Rinne!!”
She desperately raised her green onion‚ but her knees were shaking with fear.
There was nowhere to run.
“Aria… what do we do…!?”
(Think… think…!
But… I can’t build a formula… logic doesn’t work…!)
Just as my thoughts began to burn out—
“ARIAAAA!! Even a moment is enough‚ I’ll buy you thinking time!!”
Cross shouted and leapt in front of the beast.
Without even his greatsword—just his body.
“Soul—”
He spread both arms and struck a proud stance.
“SOUL POSING!!”
…Huh?
No‚ it was just a pose. Not even an attack.
But—
The beast’s afterimage reacted for a split second to the “incomprehensible movement‚” slightly diverting its trajectory.
Purely illogical action that confused even an unknown enemy.
“Now‚ Aria!! Throw away your soul (logic)! I bought you time beyond reason!!”
“That concept is way too sloppy…! But—!”
That very “sloppiness” gave my mind a brief blank space under extreme pressure.
The short circuit of my thoughts cleared.
(If formulas get destroyed… then…
A method that doesn’t use formulas…?
Something like that… )
“Aria…!”
A trembling voice came from behind me.
When I turned around‚ Iris stood there‚ barely supporting her collapsing body.
Her fingertips had turned white from fear.
Yet the eyes looking at me didn’t waver.
“…I can still sing.”
Those words shattered my frozen thoughts.
I took a breath and held Iris’s hand.
Her fingertips were as cold as ice—and trembling violently.
“Iris… don’t push yourself. Your magic—”
“No. If you’re here‚ Aria‚ I’ll be okay.”
That smile wasn’t the usual sunshine-bright one.
It felt fragile‚ as if it might break if touched—
and yet it believed in me completely.
The beast’s afterimage readied itself again and closed in.
Rinne raised her shield while Cross desperately tried to hold it back‚ but the corrosion was nearly at its limit.
At this rate‚ everyone…
(…I have to do something.)
The construction formulas are destroyed.
The device is dead.
Logic doesn’t work.
As if cutting through my hesitation‚ Iris gently squeezed my hand again.
“Aria… hey… listen.”
She placed a hand on her chest.
“I was always scared…
that someday my ‘sound’ might stop.”
That confession tightened my chest.
“But… if I’m with you‚ Aria‚
I feel like I can sing… until the end.”
“Iris…”
“So—believe in me.
Make my sound the ‘vessel’ for yours.”
In that moment‚ it felt like the world stopped.
The silence of death. The vortex of dissonance. The pulse of the heart.
As if cutting through all of it—
Pirorin♪
Just one note.
But it was unmistakably a “living sound.”
The gray haze trembled‚ and the beast’s afterimage faltered.
The light overflowing from Iris’s body was different from her usual cute magic.
A brilliance that burned life itself.
“Aria… don’t let go of my hand… okay?”
“I won’t. Never.”
I squeezed her hand tightly.
Ton‚ ton‚ ton.
My fingertips began tracing the rhythm of Iris’s trembling beat.
The pocket watch remained silent.
But something inside me clicked into place.
(I see.
It gets destroyed because I try to force it into the “form” of a magic code.
I don’t need a device.
I’ll link the rhythm I create directly to her heart—the core.)
Not logic.
This is—an instinctive session!
(This… is the true value of our resonance.)
GIIIIIIII…!!
The ear-splitting dissonance rushed in to crush Iris’s light.
“—!”
Her knees nearly collapsed.
I hurriedly caught her.
“Iris!!”
“I-I’m okay… because… you’re here…”
She tried to stay brave‚ but her trembling fingers wouldn’t stop.
The dissonance was trying to shave away the very sound of her life.
If my rhythm faltered‚ her life would end.
Ultimate concentration.
“Iris… follow my lead.”
“Okay… I can hear your sound‚ Aria…”
Iris closed her eyes and clasped my hand to her chest like a prayer.
—Ton‚ ton‚ ton.
The rhythm I tapped overlapped with Iris’s heartbeat and melted together.
Leaving behind logic‚ devices—even fear.
Two sounds ascended into a single piece of music.
Pirorin…♪
That single note was the cry that split the abyssal darkness.
The dissonance wavered.
The black vortex screamed and creaked.
For the first time‚ the world’s “poisoned heart” feared us.
“Aria… here we go…!”
“Yeah. Let it resonate across the whole world!”
From our joined hands‚ golden light exploded.
It was neither blue nor white.
A tone of hope that can only ring at the bottom of despair.
A torrent of light wrapped around our companions.
The deathly spots spreading across Cross’s arm melted away like thawing snow.
Color returned to Rinne’s pale cheeks.
“Aria… the light… it’s warm…!”
“My soul… it’s coming back…!”
The dissonance was overwritten by a melody of purification‚ and the abyss trembled.
The beast’s afterimage couldn’t even cry out before dissolving like mist.
(This is… our ensemble…!
The un-analyzable… Grand Resonance…!)
The world filled with sound.
Golden light flooded the abyss‚ and the poisoned heart—collapsed.
The black vortex unraveled‚ and the gray sky cleared.
The wind blew.
For the first time in a while‚ a “living wind” passed through the forest.
“…Is it over?”
Cross stared at his arm.
The gray spots that had been there were completely gone.
“Cross! Your arm—it’s healed!”
“Oh…! My muscles (my soul)… have returned…!”
“Muscles or soul‚ either way I’m just glad you’re okay…”
I let out a deep breath.
Rinne hugged her green onion—now restored to its original green—and teared up.
“My green onion… thank goodness… I thought something terrible would happen…!”
“I wish you’d worry about yourself first.”
That exasperated exchange brought a little bit of “normal life” back into this hellish place.
But—
“Aria…”
Iris called softly from within my arms.
Her body felt astonishingly light‚ as if she might disappear if I hugged her.
“Iris‚ are you okay? You don’t have to push yourself anymore—”
“No… I’m fine… because… you protected me…”
She smiled as she said that.
But her fingertips—
were trembling faintly.
More strongly than before‚ and irregularly.
“Iris…?”
I gently wrapped her hand in mine.
Even inside the warm golden light‚ only that trembling wouldn’t stop.
(…Why…?
The heart was purified. The residual waveform disappeared.
Then why won’t this trembling stop?)
Iris rested her forehead against my chest and exhaled softly.
“Aria… hey… can you hear it…?”
“Hear what?”
“…My sound… it’s getting… really small…”
It felt like someone had grabbed my heart with bare hands.
Her “sound of life.”
The fate of a short-lived species.
And the reality that my magic had pushed her beyond her limits.
“It’s okay‚ Aria…
Because… I got to sing with you…”
“Don’t say that… like it’s a goodbye…”
“Hehe… sorry… but… I was happy…
Because your sound… and mine… became one…”
Iris’s eyes were endlessly clear.
And that made them painfully cruel now.
(No.
This isn’t the end.
This is where it begins…
This is where our real battle starts.)
I gripped Iris’s cold hand tightly‚ like a prayer.
“I’ll definitely save you.
I will never allow your sound to disappear.”
Iris blinked in surprise—
and then smiled helplessly.
“Yeah… if it’s you‚ Aria… I’m sure…”
Her voice was so faint it melted into the wind.
As vivid color returned to the forest‚
only Iris’s trembling fingertips in my arms—
rang in my chest like a warning bell stronger than any sound in the world.
(I will protect it.
Your sound—I will hold it here.)
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