Chapter 12.5 "Observation Record: The Disappearance of the Boundary Line"
The Boundary Observation Post‚ located at the northern end of the kingdom along the former border.
What awaited us after we stepped down from the carriage was not a skin-piercing cold wind. It was an eerie‚ viscous "silence" that clung heavily to our eardrums.
「……This is awful. It’s completely refusing to process visual information as mathematical formulas.」
Kotone nervously pushed up the bridge of her silver-rimmed glasses and furrowed her brow deeply.
Her gaze was fixed ahead—on what had once been a lush‚ green forest zone‚ now deeply swallowed by a "gray layer" that had been stripped of the very concept of color itself.
The gray slime spreading like mud had transformed the trees into elaborate stone statues‚ not even allowing a single leaf to sway in the wind.
「Tap‚ tap‚ tap‚ tap.」
My right hand‚ which had unconsciously tried to drum out the rhythm of survival against my thigh‚ had already completely abandoned all sensation.
Starting from the fingertips‚ an absolute-zero "white" had now crept all the way up past my wrist.
It resonated uncannily with the surrounding deathly landscape‚ quietly yet surely trying to peel my very existence away from the category of "human."
「Hey‚ Aria! If you keep spacing out‚ you’ll end up dyed in that weird gray too!」
Rinne’s angry shout from behind forcefully yanked my freezing consciousness back into the real world.
She was clad in heavy gear like a snow expedition‚ clutching a massive insulated canteen like a lifeline while kicking the gray mud at her feet in disgust.
「Mark‚ what’s the situation up ahead? Is the physical boundary line still there?」
「Huh? The boundary line? That stupidly huge fence has rotted and fallen right into the gray 'mud.' ……Ugh‚ damn it‚ the air’s so heavy my boots won’t even turn properly.」
Mark emerged from the mist‚ scattering neon-mint sparks.
Every time his magic boots "Gale" scraped the ground‚ the surrounding gray mist was physically "refracted (canceled)‚" producing a grating friction sound. The spatial density here was so abnormal that even he—who should have been able to dash through silently—was forced to make noise.
「Liam‚ what about the results of the sonic survey using your shield?」
「……Not good. Even when I ring the bell‚ this mist absorbs all the echoes and 'rejects' them. ……It’s as if the world itself has forgotten that sound can resonate at all.」
Liam planted his "Bell Shield" into the ground and shook his head with a pained expression.
Soran’s invoked "Absolute-Zero Silence." It seemed to have taken root here at the edge of the land as a dominant natural phenomenon.
At that moment‚ the surrounding temperature dropped sharply and violently.
It was not mere cold. It was the "Breath of Remnants‚" where magical power crystallized and stole the very concept of heat from the atmosphere.
「……Everyone‚ take shelter in that observation hut! Direct contact with this mist is dangerous!」
We rushed into the half-collapsed stone observation hut.
A tiny space of about one and a half tatami mats—barely enough for one adult to stay in. Four of us crowded inside‚ inevitably pressing our shoulders‚ knees‚ and even our breaths against one another.
「Ugh…… It’s cold……」
I involuntarily let out a groan-like sound.
The residual chill from the whitened area on my right hand overpowered even the heat of the "Ancient Heart Fragment (Artifact)" sewn into the lining of my jacket‚ grinding my nerves from the inside.
「Come on‚ show it to me already!」
Rinne‚ who was right beside me‚ forcibly grabbed my right hand and pulled it into her thick cold-resistant cloak.
「Rinne‚ it’s cramped in here…… If you do this‚ you’ll end up affected by the cold too.」
「Shut up. If you break down‚ who’s going to complain about my soup!」
Beneath the cloak‚ she wrapped my deathly pale right hand tightly in both of hers.
——An astonishing heat.
The raw body temperature flowing from her palms‚ so vivid I could almost feel her heartbeat‚ forcibly summoned the sensation of "life" back into my frozen fingertips as pain.
In the cramped space‚ the soft lines of her body were pressed tightly against the left side of mine.
The clean scent of soap and the violent aroma of five-fold miso lingering on her clothes assaulted my nostrils at point-blank range.
Her slightly flushed cheeks from concentration and her warm breath brushed against my neck.
（……Close.）
The awkward yet steady and powerful heartbeat transmitted from her chest.
It overlapped with the inorganic "tap-tap" rhythm I had been drumming with my fingertips‚ gradually melting together with heat.
It was the complete opposite of the deathly (gray) silence dominating outside the hut——a muddy‚ hot‚ and terribly soft mass of reality that could never be defined by magical theory (logic).
「……Aria. I absolutely won’t let you go over there (into the abyss)‚ okay?」
The strength with which Rinne gripped my hand grew even firmer.
That faint tremor‚ carrying the premonition of salty tears‚ became a salvation that connected to the deepest part of my soul far more deeply than any advanced magical calculation.
But outside the hut.
The sound of Iris’s life being shaved away and the world being repainted into the "correct answer" was mercilessly ticking away inside the lens of the pocket watch.
『86 Days 19 Hours 59 Minutes』
「……Get ready. There’s something out there beyond the mist waiting for our 'sound.'」
I tried to quietly pull my right hand—slightly thawed by Rinne’s body heat—away from her palm‚ suppressing the reluctance.
The faint numbness remaining in my fingertips only made the surrounding "death" stand out more vividly.
It was then that the "abnormality" dominating this tiny space suddenly burned into my retinas.
（……Something’s wrong. Something is missing.）
The soot-stained stone walls‚ our breaths‚ Rinne’s warmth.
All of it should have existed‚ yet on the "sonic map (sonar)" drawn by my brain‚ even the interior of the hut was being processed as a "gray blank."
At the edge of my vision.
The surface of the stone wall I was leaning against began to silently turn "white‚" as if breathing.
「Everyone‚ get down！！」
At the same time as my scream‚ the hut’s "boundary (wall)" shattered soundlessly like glasswork.
「……Aria‚ look at this……」
Rinne pointed with a trembling fingertip at the old wooden table inside the observation hut.
On it sat two plates with soup still poured in them. One could almost imagine steam rising‚ yet from the rims of the plates to the ingredients inside‚ everything was equally coated in a 'gray' layer and grotesquely petrified.
On the floor lay a toppled chair and a 'half-written parchment (report)' smeared in gray mud.
There were no signs of a struggle. Their modest daily lives had simply been "rejected (canceled)" as "impurities" by Soran’s theory at a single moment.
「……Let’s go. Beyond the mist‚ there’s a dissonance (bug) starving to devour our 'sound.'」
I quietly but firmly clenched my right hand—slightly thawed by Rinne’s body heat—and transformed it into a "weapon" to wield the baton.
「……If it’s a sound that has fallen into the abyss and broken‚ I’ll coldly 'tune (end)' it with these hands.」
I pushed open the heavy door of the observation hut.
In an instant‚ the heat that Rinne had desperately warmed for me was devoured in a single gulp by the cold air like a starving beast. Outside‚ it had lost even more color than a few minutes ago‚ with dense 'gray mist' painting over everything.
「……This feels disgusting. It’s as if the air itself is rejecting the very act of 'flowing.'」
Kotone muttered uncomfortably from behind.
This mist was no longer a mere meteorological phenomenon. The "magical remnants"—the world’s waste—were writhing with a clear will to stagnate‚ trying to reject our lives.
「Tap‚ tap‚ tap‚ tap.」
I moved my paralyzed fingertips against my thigh‚ picking up the faint 'tremor' transmitted from the ground.
In this far north where the concept of vision had died‚ the only way left for us to prove our existence was to redefine the world as "sound."
「……Ten o’clock direction‚ distance fifteen. It’s coming.」
「Heh‚ finally showing up. ……Liam! Don’t space out！！」
Mark scattered neon-mint sparks from his magic boots "Gale" and took a step into the zero-visibility realm of death.
「Understood！！ ……Ring out‚ 'Bell Heart (Core)'！」
Liam planted his shield into the earth and let out a heavy bell tone.
But the sound did not return. The sonic survey (sonar) that should have revealed the outlines of obstacles was 'rejected' by the mist itself and scattered into the infinite abyss.
「……Lord Aria! The sound is being swallowed before it can even 'reflect'！ This mist itself is rejecting our sound……！」
「Don’t panic‚ Liam. ……If reflection won’t work‚ we’ll just 'slam' our sound directly into its heart.」
I danced my white‚ sensationless fingertips in the air‚ forcibly yet precisely weaving together a chantless construction formula.
In that instant——.
From beyond the mist that stole sound‚ stole light‚ and tried to end all "rhythm‚" 'it' quietly revealed itself.
——Grind‚ grrrind…….
It was the ruined form of what had once been the survey team members who had gathered around soup in that hut.
Their entire bodies were painted in inorganic gray like stone statues‚ and from a single 'mouth'—a crack running down the center of their faces—gray slime dripped viscously.
「Gi‚ gigi…… Shi‚ n……」
The mutated observer raised its arm at an unnatural angle.
Its joints snapped backward with a grotesque crack‚ as if forcibly "optimized" by a cold mathematical formula. With that single physiology-defying preliminary motion‚ the surrounding temperature was physically stolen away by several more degrees.
「Hey‚ hey……！ What the hell is with that joint bending? It’s like it was forcibly folded by a bloodless formula！」
Cross—unusually—let his voice tremble with dread. But he did not retreat a single step. Instead‚ as if rousing his own 'wall of flesh' that creaked with fear‚ he slammed his thick arm firmly against the back of Liam’s huge shield in the vanguard.
「……My latissimus dorsi is showing an unprecedented rejection reaction‚ screaming 'That thing isn’t a living creature‚ it’s just a creepy part'……！ But the more unknown it is‚ the more it’s the time for my soul (my soul) that doesn’t rely on logic！ Liam‚ I’ll support you—don’t retreat even a millimeter！！」
「Cross‚ stop talking unnecessarily. You’ll get ash in your lungs.」
Kotone calmly flicked the empty monitor in midair with trembling fingertips.
「……Analysis complete. Those things are walking remnant contamination (biohazard) that use the surrounding 'heat' and 'sound' as power sources. ……But‚ Aria！」
Kotone’s eyes behind her soot-stained silver-rimmed glasses burned with the same—no‚ an even greater—combative light filled with obsession as when she had found the 'Heart Fragment' at the bottom of the waste bin. She sharply flicked the aerial monitor.
「This is the coordinate that Soran abandoned as an 'error'！ Look‚ my eyes (monitor) can see it clearly…… the ugly 'condensation (fissure)' clinging to the underside of his perfect silence (formula)！ The combat data (noise) we gather in this gray mud will become the 0.01% 'practical benefit' that gouges out that gap！」
「……Yeah‚ I know. I won’t give it even a single minute to absorb.」
Pushed forward by Kotone’s words‚ I forcibly channeled the amber heat sewn into my left chest toward the white fingertips of my right hand.
My vision flipped from monochrome to a madly pulsating 'golden score.'
「Mark‚ wait one beat then jump to six o’clock！ Liam‚ fix the bell sound onto Mark’s trajectory！」
「Got it‚ Conductor！！」
Mark kicked off the ground with an explosive sound. The neon-mint sparks burned through the stagnant mist for a single instant.
「……Multi-magic deployment: 'Severing Quarter Notes (Staccato)'！」
The moment I sliced through the emptiness with my baton‚ the mathematical formulas defining space were rewritten‚ and layered vacuum blades precisely severed the limbs of the aberrations.
There was no escape. The "tuned sound" from Liam’s shield fixed the surrounding causality‚ hammering even the aftershocks of purification mercilessly into the targets.
「……Ugh‚ gah……」
——Pleasure and intense pain.
Every time I succeeded in conducting magic‚ the 'white' on my right hand accelerated its erosion‚ trying to coldly crush my heartbeat as it crept upward.
Each time I swung the baton once‚ the numbers inside the pocket watch’s lens cruelly shaved away another second‚ mocking me.
I glanced up at the roof of the observation hut. There‚ in an inviolable domain that even the gray mist avoided‚ sat Nagi.
Every time I burned my life to purify this stagnation‚ the 'blue blood' running down her neck became cruelly clearer and more transparent. While I felt relief that her intense pain was easing‚ I swallowed the throat-burning‚ unpleasant certainty that "every time her pain clears‚ Iris’s life is surely being carried farther away beyond the sky."
She was simply observing coldly as the 'key'—me—wore itself down to open the door.
And my own heart was trying to transform itself into a "cold machine" capable of enduring that gaze and the guilt.
『86 Days 19 Hours 58 Minutes 10 Seconds』
「Aria！ Don’t stop！ There’s an even bigger 'silence' crawling out from deeper inside！！」
A massive earth rumble that crushed the eardrums echoed from beyond the mist.
An ordinary human would have been swallowed by that despairing environmental noise (noise) that painted over everything.
But my 'score'—honed to the extreme—did not miss the decisive dissonance of Rinne’s faint scream slipping through the gaps of that overwhelming rumble.
The most important‚ most awkward 'sound' that kept me anchored to the real world.
As the conductor who had become the Maestro of Death‚ I could not possibly lose sight of it.
The roar like an earth tremor shook the gray mist as if it possessed physical mass.
At the edge of my vision‚ Kotone’s deployed analysis monitor scattered sparks from overload‚ and the orderly geometric formulas were painted over with blood-red error codes.
「……Unmeasurable. Aria‚ the entity deeper in the mist is on a completely different scale from normal mutants. This——it’s the Lord of the Dump that has swollen by sucking up the 'silence' of the entire surrounding area！！」
Kotone pushed up the bridge of her soot-stained glasses and hurriedly activated the backup system with trembling fingertips.
What emerged from beyond the mist was a gigantic "gray mass" the size of a three-story school building. It was a nightmarish patchwork giant god‚ using the wreckage of a magic golem once installed for the observation post’s defense as its core and indiscriminately incorporating the surrounding dead trees and remnants.
「Gigi…… Gigigigigigi！！」
The giant god swung down an arm like a great tree without hesitation.
A blow of "stagnant mass" that left sound behind and gave no room to dodge.
「Lord Aria‚ step back！ My shield——exists to stop this blow along with the prayers of the village I couldn’t save that day！！」
Liam leaped into the heart of the storm.
He planted the 'Bell Shield' vertically into the earth and poured his entire magical power—his soul’s chorus—into the 'Bell Heart (Core)' at its center.
——GOOOOOOOOOOON……！！
The heavy bell tone became a physical barrier that caught the giant god’s arm and scattered the shockwave that creaked the atmosphere in all directions.
「Heh‚ enduring is something even a 'well-behaved metronome' can do. ……Hey‚ metronome！ Use that echo as the 'rail' for my acceleration！！」
Mark violently scattered neon-mint sparks from his magic boots "Gale" and mercilessly kicked the surface of Liam’s shield.
Mark‚ who had perfectly synchronized his own acceleration cycle with the microscopic vibrations of the sound waves from the shield‚ glided through the air at an angle that mocked gravity and inertia‚ closing in on the giant god’s torso.
「As you wish！！ Lord Mark‚ I will sacrifice my bell to that speed！！」
Liam struck his shield even harder‚ explosively propelling Mark’s back with "sound waves."
Mark’s whirlwind—with its friction coefficient rewritten to zero—physically burned through the giant god’s thick gray outer shell with a high-pitched scraping sound.
「Aria‚ just look ahead！！ I’ll defend your back (conductor’s platform) with my life！！」
Rinne’s shout burst with definite heat behind Aria.
She held the massive insulated canteen like a shield and stood firm to protect Aria from the spilling 'gray dust.'
That extremely human‚ clumsy determination blew 'life’s' color into the conductor’s platform with enough force to temporarily make the "deathly white" clinging to Aria’s fingertips forgotten.
Rinne’s shout echoed from behind.
There was no time to turn around‚ but the sound of a small magical beast’s skull that had been closing in from behind being crushed with a dull thud by the now-empty giant insulated canteen—nothing more than a lump of iron‚ a mass of everyday life—reached me.
Her awkward yet desperately earnest defense through "practical benefit." Its weight forcibly anchored my consciousness‚ which had nearly been dragged into the abyss‚ back to the real world.
「……Yeah‚ I’m counting on you. Sync all circuits with my 'rhythm (tap-tap).'」
I forcibly channeled the amber heat from the 'Ancient Heart Fragment' in my left chest toward the white fingertips of my right hand.
A sharp numbness as if my brain were being gouged by blades of ice. Color peeled from my vision‚ and instead the world was repainted with golden magical waveforms—the 'correct score' guided by Iris’s lingering echoes sleeping in the depths.
「Cross！ Eight o’clock direction—the mist at the giant god’s feet is thick. Use your 'soul' to physically sweep the air there！」
「You got it！！ Been waiting for this‚ Conductor！！ Behold the 'Soul Wave (My Soul Wave)' unleashed by my latissimus dorsi from the best seat！！」
Cross swung his silver claymore grandly and slammed it into the ground with all his might.
DOOOOOOOOOOON！！
A violent physical shockwave that completely ignored logic blew the heavy‚ viscous gray mist covering the surroundings away in a circle.
In just a few seconds‚ on the other side of the mist‚ the giant god’s core—the petrified remains of the observation device—bared its ugly full form.
「……Kotone‚ give me the vulnerability coordinates！」
「Identified！ Coordinates (322‚ 105)—only there is the magical conductivity causing a fatal bug！ Smash it now‚ Aria！」
Kotone slammed her blood-stained fingertips onto the keyboard and forcibly wrote the final targeting into my 'golden score.'
I swung my white‚ translucent fingertips down with my very soul toward the final note (finale) that would end this nightmare.
「——Full Override！！」
Chantless multi-magic deployment: 'Severing Quarter Notes (Staccato).'
The absolute-zero 'white' that burned my life overflowed from my already numb wrist as a lethal torrent.
Mark’s emerald gale‚ Liam’s steel-colored bell tone‚ and Cross’s blood-like impact—all the dissonances were woven by my baton into a single "white spear" that pierced deep and mercilessly into the giant god’s core—its exposed weak point.
——With a crack‚ the world split.
……DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON！！！
A quiet yet destructive explosion that left sound behind.
The Lord of the Dump disintegrated from within‚ and the heavy mist that had dominated the land temporarily cleared as if the magic had been undone.
Beyond the opened view——on the top of the observation tower overlooking the collapsing giant god’s remains stood Nagi.
The price I paid for purifying this massive stagnation by burning a lethal amount of life. The 'blue blood' running down her neck had become even more cruelly transparent‚ as if savoring the pleasure of pain relief.
Her jade-colored eyes simply observed coldly the wear of the key—me—as the wind blew through.
As the price of victory‚ the pocket watch on my chest emitted heat hot enough to burn my skin and mercilessly rewrote the numbers.
『86 Days 18 Hours 00 Minutes』
「……Gah…… ha……！！」
Two whole hours of life spilled into the void as if the bottom of an hourglass had been pulled out.
I dropped to my knees and coughed violently‚ trying to expel the cold "deathly chill" that had accumulated in my lungs.
（……Two hours‚ huh.）
I gripped the 'Ancient Heart Fragment' sewn into my left chest tightly with my numb right hand.
If Kotone hadn’t picked this 'wedge of practicality' up from the bottom of the trash can and Rinne hadn’t sewn it in through the night‚ that single strike would have easily devoured several days’ worth of Iris’s life.
The clumsy practicality piled up by the imperfect orchestra members had become a solid mass that held back the burning of her life at the very brink.
「……Aria！ Are you okay！？ Come on‚ pull yourself together！！」
Rinne’s warm hand slapped my back firmly as she ran up.
My trembling consciousness was always anchored to this world not by formulas or theories‚ but by the heat of this clumsy palm.
We could still resist Soran’s perfect silence with this muddy ensemble.
With the giant god’s collapse‚ the unnatural stagnation that had covered the observation post had scattered like a lie.
While coughing violently as if spitting out the cold 'ash' clinging to the depths of my lungs‚ I looked up at the top of the observation tower where Nagi had been looking down earlier. But there were no longer any jade-colored eyes or transparent blue blood there.
Her phantom-like elusiveness—or rather‚ her cold indifference to the wear of our lives—was something I could never get used to no matter how many times I experienced it.
「Aria‚ don’t push yourself. You’ve inhaled too much vaporized remnant directly.」
Kotone supported my shoulder and forcibly tore the hem of her lab coat to cover my mouth. Her fingertips‚ too‚ could not hide their trembling from calculation overload.
With the mist cleared‚ what was exposed in the twilight was the miserable remains of the former 'Boundary Observation Post.'
The entire building was covered in gray slime symbolizing death‚ and the window glass had been brutally shattered from the inside by petrified plants. We stepped into the half-destroyed interior of the observation post‚ drawn by the sterile despair that did not even smell of death.
「……No survivors. No—the biological responses themselves have been 'rejected (canceled).'」
Kotone’s deployed analysis monitor coldly continued to display the number "0."
On the office desk sat a half-drunk coffee that had forgotten warmth and hardened like stone‚ and the uniform hanging on the wall had also been stripped of its fabric texture and turned into a gray sculpture.
「Hey‚ Aria. ……Look at this. This one alone hasn’t lost to the 'gray' yet.」
Mark pointed to the wreckage of a sturdy anti-magic safe lying in the corner of the room.
Wedged in the gap of the warped door as if defying rejection was an old leather-bound notebook.
I turned the pages with trembling fingertips.
There‚ dated‚ were the all-too-quiet final writings of the observers who had believed in salvation until the very end.
『Month X‚ Day X. Confirmed retreat of the boundary line. Rescue request sent to the academy‚ but the student council president replied‚ “That area is a strategic rejection target as the defense cost is not justified.” ……It seems we have already been declared dead on the formula.』
（……The date overlaps with the period when Iris’s remaining life began to be counted. Since Soran took control as 'student council president‚' his selection and discarding of the world has accelerated with cruel efficiency.）
「Strategic…… rejection……」
Liam muttered the words as if tracing them until they bled.
His large palm creaked the edge of his shield with uncontrollable anger.
Soran’s cold voice that had abandoned Cross Village and Liam’s hometown that day seemed to ooze out from between the lines of this notebook like black grease.
『Month X‚ Day X. The mist has encroached even inside the building. My colleague’s arm has begun turning gray. But we will not stop recording. If the theory calls us “trash‚” then at the bottom of this trash can we will keep beating out our sound (beat) as humans until the very end.』
On the final page.
In a trembling‚ messy handwriting‚ a single powerful line had been scrawled.
『——The world has not yet stopped ringing.』
Each and every character struck my chest as the muddy cry of "practicality."
The blood-filled trajectory of those who had been cut away as errors from Soran’s perfect score and who had struggled to prove their own "existence" until the end.
（……If we do not pick up this 'sound from the bottom of the trash can‚' the very proof that they lived will remain eternally rejected inside that silence.）
I had no time to stop and regret that I could not save them. As the one transforming into the Maestro of Death‚ all I had to do was take the muddy dissonance (noise) they left behind into my baton and slam it into that 'absolute-zero silence.'
「Tap‚ tap‚ tap‚ tap……」
I pressed my right hand—now white up to near the elbow—firmly against my chest where the amber heat glowed.
「Aria. ……It’s not just the ninety days (Iris) you’re carrying on your back‚ right？」
Rinne looked straight into my eyes and spoke.
Her gaze carried a cruelly warm light that would never allow me to become a "machine."
Rinne gently placed her hand on my back.
The raw heat transmitted from her palm connected the ice-cold "duty" inside me to a blood-filled "resolve."
「……Yeah. My baton…… can no longer allow even a single second’s delay.」
Just as I was about to quietly close the notebook‚ Kotone’s slender hand snatched it from the side.
「Yes‚ exactly. ……This is the weight of reality (error log) that Soran declared 'does not exist.' I will thoroughly analyze this muddy record (noise) he rejected and show exactly where to strike it into his perfect score. ……As our 0.01% 'practical benefit.'」
We nodded deeply and silently at her fearless smile.
I once again gazed at the red numbers glowing on the pocket watch at my chest.
——The "counterattack rest" entrusted to us by those swallowed by silence outside the boundary line.
The next melody to fill that slight blank had already been decided.
We left the frozen observation post and stepped toward the next stage swirling with frenzy and lightning.
Notebook in hand‚ we stepped back outside the half-destroyed observation post.
The mist had completely cleared‚ and the twilight coldly illuminated the vast land. But what awaited beyond the removal of vision’s shackles was a sight far from hope.
「……No way. The outer perimeter fence that was so sturdy is gone without a trace.」
Kotone was rendered speechless as she captured the scene outside with her own eyes rather than through the analysis monitor.
The massive magic-iron protective wall that had once separated the kingdom from the outside world had now been swallowed by a layer of gray mud and vanished without a trace. The boundary line itself had been unilaterally pushed back "inward" by several kilometers.
But she immediately hugged the notebook in her arms—the 'proof of survival (error log)'—tightly as if protecting something fragile. Then she rekindled the ferocious obsession of an analyst behind her soot-stained glasses.
「……No. I will engrave even this despairing disappearance (scene) into my monitor as 'condensation' in Soran’s formula. I will turn this error caused by his perfectionism into the starting point of a counterattack without fail.」
「Tap‚ tap‚ tap‚ tap.」
I sank my white‚ translucent right hand deeply into the amber (artifact) heat at my chest.
There was no longer any sensation in my fingertips. But precisely because of that‚ the rhythm my heart beat out was now the most trustworthy 'sound' I had.
I faintly moved the paralyzed fingertips of my right hand against my thigh‚ chewing the despair implied by that disappearance as a physical rhythm.
The whitening that had only reached my wrist had now crept up to the middle of my forearm as the price of the earlier 'full override.' An abnormal 'white' as transparent as ice craft that completely rejected life activity.
This eerily cold sensation made me wonder whether even if Rinne thrust the hottest soup at me‚ it would no longer reach the core of my arm——such a bone-chilling anxiety brushed my chest.
It had not disappeared. The world’s silence had simply "rejected (canceled)" that much area.
「……Hey‚ Aria. Don’t make such a gloomy face. If the boundary’s gone‚ we’ll just draw a new line ourselves‚ right？」
Mark scattered neon-mint sparks from his magic boots "Gale" and laughed fearlessly through his nose. His words were as rough as ever‚ but the violent heat of those sparks alone barely kept the chilled air of the observation post connected.
「That’s right‚ Lord Aria. My shield is not yet broken. The range where this bell’s sound reaches is precisely the 'boundary' we must protect！！」
Liam readjusted his heavy shield on his back and firmly‚ proudly planted his feet on the ground.
Muddy‚ clumsy resonance of practicality.
Yet within that dissonance (ensemble)‚ I felt a definite sign of counterattack.
「Aria！ Here‚ finish the last miso soup even if you have to force it down！ It’s the gasoline to keep going！！」
Rinne thrust a steaming cup right under my nose.
The intense miso aroma and her angry shout dragged me back down from the lonely peak called "conductor" to become a member of this "imperfect orchestra" once again.
……Yeah‚ I know.
As long as this warmth burns my throat‚ I will not sink into silence with despair.
Rinne forcibly scooped up the thick miso left at the bottom with a spoon and thrust it at my mouth.
Violent saltiness. The heat that felt like a direct punch to the stomach forcibly anchored my consciousness—which had nearly been dragged into the abyss—back to the muddy 'life.'
「……It was a good ensemble. But the world will not wait for your growth.」
Suddenly‚ the shadow sitting on the window frame spoke with a voice like a cold bell.
It was Nagi‚ who should have vanished from the top of the observation tower earlier.
She quietly looked down with jade-colored eyes at the vast 'gray void' that had been "rejected" several kilometers beyond the window.
「Nagi. ……You were watching？」
「……Yeah. The moment when the imperfect key once again understands the depth of the sin it bears.」
Nagi soundlessly descended to the floor and walked to my side with a death-god-like gait.
On her white neck‚ the 'blue blood' running there had drawn even closer to transparency as the cruel price for my earlier death struggle with the giant god—where I had shaved away Iris’s life and purified the world.
The more her intense pain eased‚ the closer Iris’s heartbeat drew to death. That ugly balance was thrust before us as an undeniable reality.
「……Nagi. We will not stop anymore. No matter who refuses to forgive us‚ no matter how much we are scorned.」
I turned that vow into flesh and blood at the back of my throat where the heat of the miso still remained.
「I’m looking forward to it. But time is about to run out at the bottom of the hourglass.」
As if in response to Nagi’s words‚ the pocket watch emitted heat hot enough to burn my skin and mercilessly rewrote the numbers with a cruel sound.
『86 Days 16 Hours 00 Minutes』
（……Iris.）
I had consumed another two hours of your time—even after defeating the giant god‚ I spent it continuing to 'observe' this despairing state of the boundary.
But we will never forget.
The faint voices of the people who vanished into this gray abyss‚ voices that not even Soran’s formulas could record.
While chewing on the heat of the 'Ancient Heart Fragment' overlapping my left chest and the clumsy warmth of the miso burning my throat.
I continued to carve a definite rhythm of rebellion (beat) toward the "absolute-zero silence" looking down on us from beyond the night sky.
——With an unending dissonance lodged in my heart (score).
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