New Chapter 13.1: “The Crushing Prelude or a Muddy Restart”
Far above the coliseum they looked up at.
The very concept of the sky had been physically ‘deleted’ by a single geometric slash.
The frenzy of tens of thousands of spectators that had shaken the arena just seconds ago. Cheers. Anticipation.
The vulgar heat of humans who kept casting irresponsible prayers into the sky‚ wishing for someone’s victory and dreaming of someone’s salvation—.
All of it was crushed in an instant by the absolute-zero chill that overflowed from the spatial fault.
Sound disappeared.
The air caressing their skin froze‚ and the murmur of the audience seats was severed mid-breath.
Eardrums creaked. Lungs contracted.
An absolute silence as if the world itself had been gripped and crushed by a giant‚ cold hand.
「……ッ、は……」
The exhaled breath shattered into white fragments.
No—it could no longer even be called breath.
The faint remaining “life” heat deep in the lungs‚ the moment it touched the ‘absolute-zero silence (shin……)’ raining down from above‚ was forcibly rewritten into inorganic ice crystals.
「……Lady Aria. The sky… the sky we look up at……」
Liam’s voice trembling with dread as he held up the ‘Shield of the Bell’ beside them.
What his sincere eyes gazed at—hundreds of meters above the ground in the void‚ an unnatural ‘cross-section’ that should not exist there was laid bare.
A stone floor.
Neatly arranged bookshelves.
The cold white light of a magical lamp.
It was the wreckage of the ‘Student Council President’s Office’ located at the pinnacle of the world.
At the same time‚ it was a divine execution platform to force ‘the failures’ like them to kneel below.
“Tch… As tasteless as ever. That idiot president can only prove they’re the ‘correct answer’ through height‚ huh?”
Mark scattered neon-mint sparks from his magical boots ‘Gale’ with a snap and spat out irritably.
But his feet were trembling slightly.
It was inevitable.
The ‘silence’ deployed by Soran Arclight did not merely erase sound.
It crushed the very “possibility” of sound resounding with mathematical formulas.
(……Ah. So it’s finally here. The opening of the dead perfection.)
A sharp pain like being shaved from the inside by an ice razor ran through the fingertips of his right hand.
When he looked down‚ the fingertips peeking from the cuffs of his military uniform had already completely lost any human blood color and were dyed in a transparent ‘white’ that rejected life.
This chill that had crawled up to his forearm resonated eerily with the absolute-zero silence released by Soran‚ grinding down his nerves in an attempt to dismantle his emotions and pain into ‘numerical values’.
It was a quiet and irreversible loss as the entity called “him” was being optimized (updated) into nothing more than a “magical calculation machine” to move the world.
He shook his numb fingertips against the side of his thigh.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Four beats.
He desperately clung to the rhythm of the human called “him”.
From the fault in the sky‚ Soran with his silver hair fluttering coldly descended slowly with steps that even rejected gravity.
Behind him stood the “perfect instruments” that had rejected emotion. Those who played the death requiem to filter out all the world’s dissonance (noise) and lock it into stony silence.
The “bottom of the world (here)” where sand dust danced‚ and the “pinnacle of the world” where only logic was laid bare.
The view of them looking up was painted over with a single color of despair by the ‘Ebony Baton’ Soran raised in the void—the symbol of dead perfection with silver magical circuits deeply embedded within—.
The ‘Orchestra of Absolute Zero’ that descended from the cross-section of the sky.
The moment their feet touched the stone floor of the coliseum‚ a soundless ripple that even rejected physical impact spread out.
From the point where Soran’s polished boots landed‚ pale blue ice spread in a spiderweb pattern‚ dropping the surrounding temperature by several more degrees.
「……Judgment: Convergence of indeterminate elements (noise) confirmed. Initiating scan.」
Elze stepped forward with blue light running behind her silver-rimmed glasses.
When her fingertips struck the hologram in the air like a keyboard‚ countless calculation logs poured down like a waterfall above their heads.
Her cold eyes were not viewing them as “living humans‚” but merely as “numerical values to be analyzed.”
“Survival probability‚ calculation complete. ……0.00%”
I calculated to the 100th decimal place‚ but there is not even the slightest fluctuation.
“President‚ these are not musical scores worthy of salvation‚ but merely ‘calculation lag (lag)’ that should be promptly deleted.”
Only the businesslike‚ utterly cruel declaration quietly sank into the frozen air.
「……0.00%‚ huh. That’s quite a generous number. In my calculations‚ I thought it would be a bit more ‘desperate’.”
He replied while strongly pressing his numb forearm with the fingertips of his white-gloved hand.
A sensation as if his throat had frozen solid. Each word he spat out became a sharp ice shard that wounded the inside of his mouth.
“Bravado only increases theoretical loss‚ Aria.”
Soran‚ with his silver hair flowing coldly‚ raised the corner of his mouth while looking at his ‘white’-dyed fingertips.
His left arm‚ geometrically bound by silver threads from Celes. He raised it as if showing off the ultimate finished product.
“Your dissonance is a fatal bug that disrupts the harmony of the world. That ‘heat (noise)’ with no room for salvation…….
I’ll wipe it away cleanly with my absolute zero‚ without leaving a single drop of condensation.
……Look at these perfect ‘parts’ standing beside me.”
Soran’s baton pointed into the void.
Zephyr‚ cloaked in localized ‘vacuum’ and melting into the darkness.
Waldt‚ whose lower body was completely fused with the marble floor.
They stood there without even a single breath‚ merely as cold ‘weapons’.
“Parts‚ huh… President‚ you’ve collected quite a tasteless set of model kits. From where I’m standing‚ they just look like ‘motionless stone statues’ though.”
Mark laughed fearlessly through his nose‚ scattering mint-colored sparks from his magical boots ‘Gale’.
However‚ his gaze did not waver for even an instant from Zephyr’s ‘vacuum’.
Extreme tension where even one step forward would rewrite causality.
“Mark’s right! I’ll smash those soulless dolls to pieces with the dissonance from my muscles!!”
Cross spun his greatsword grandly and shattered the stagnant air with physical mass.
In response to that wild roar‚ Ignis standing beside Soran transformed his stone right arm into a spear and directed eyes that had rejected all emotion.
“Muscle movement‚ heat‚ roars…… All of it is output dissipation‚ a waste of energy. I’ll freeze that ‘heat’ of yours along my shortest path.”
Cold sparks trickled from the tip of Ignis’s spear.
「……Miss Elze‚ your ‘100% correct answer’ seems rather clouded‚ doesn’t it?”
Kotone pushed up her silver-rimmed glasses with her fingertips and forcibly linked her device to Elze’s monitor.
Behind her‚ the “rejected data” she had once picked up from the trash bin unfolded as golden waveforms.
“The heat of the ‘undefined frames’ your calculator overlooked…….
That is an invitation to the 0.01% ‘significant difference’ that overturns theoretical despair.
I’ll pick it up for you—the last hope left in your ‘trash bin’.”
「……Noise only needs to be canceled.
Miss Kotone‚ my logic will not allow even a second of delay for your ‘trash picking’.”
Elze’s glasses glowed with inorganic white light‚ repelling Kotone’s provocation.
The conductor and the analyst glaring at each other.
And their respective mirror-image orchestra members.
The theory of the sky and the pragmatism of the bottom of the earth.
The completely opposite killing intent emitted by the two orchestras was creaking the very air in the center of the coliseum.
The ‘absolute-zero silence’ deployed by Soran was freezing each individual alveolus white.
The number ‘0.00%’ declared by Elze was not mere prediction. It was a “fixed future” anchored in this space‚ bearing down on their shoulders as inescapable pressure.
「……Hii‚ ah……」
Liam’s ‘Shield of the Bell’ let out a scream-like creak in response to its owner’s trembling.
Mark’s magical boots had even forgotten to scatter sparks and had sunk into the depths of silence.
Sensation in his fingertips was fading.
Even his heartbeat was slowly freezing.
Thought was stopping.
His magical circuits‚ confronted with an overly pure “correct answer‚” were about to choose to shut themselves down.
(……Ah‚ it’s cold. At this rate‚ maybe it would be better to just turn into stone—)
(Powan… Aria‚ it’s okay. You have so many reliable comrades with you…)
Iris?
Just as his consciousness was about to be sucked into the silver-white void—
“――How long are you going to keep making that ghostly face!!”
A violent ‘sound’ slammed into his eardrums.
Rinne forcibly pried open Soran’s silence with raw “heat” and “smell‚” slamming a huge insulated thermos right in front of his eyes.
“Ri-Rinne…? This isn’t the time for—”
“Shut up! All this talk about despair and survival probability is just because you’re hungry! Here‚ you guys drink too!!”
Rinne casually hurled countless ‘Miso Sub-Thermos’ like grenades behind her.
She grabbed his collar forcefully and pressed the largest main cup—now a high-viscosity black hole that had lost all dignity as liquid—against his mouth.
“Wait… mgh… fu… guu…!?”
Lava-like heat and near-lethal salt content slammed directly down his throat.
The extreme heat and thickness caused the cold air accumulated in his lungs to evaporate instantly‚ and sparks flashed in his vision.
“Rinne‚ this is… way too thick……”
“Just drink it! There’s still more!”
Rinne pulled his escaping shoulders toward her with all her strength.
Naturally‚ her burning body heat pressed against his left side through the military uniform.
……Close.
Rinne’s face peering at him with a desperate expression.
Her flushed cheeks.
Her sweaty collarbone peeking white from her disheveled collar due to the intense movement.
The clumsy scent of soap.
The burning smell of miso.
They filled his nasal cavity with heat and forcibly dragged his senses—on the verge of being eroded by absolute zero—back to reality.
「……っ‚ Rinne‚ really……”
「……I won’t let you go. As long as you remember this taste‚ I absolutely won’t let you go to the ‘other side’.”
A whisper-like yet desperate breath brushed against his neck.
The quick heartbeat transmitted from her pressed chest.
That “messy pulsation of life” undefined by any magical theory forcibly and cruelly vividly rebooted his white-frozen magical circuits.
「……Gehoh‚ gofu! ……I-it’s spicy…!? What is this‚ it feels like my tongue cells are being directly ‘constructed’……！」
When he turned around while coughing‚ a horrific hellish scene was spreading.
While he was distracted by Rinne’s heat‚ Liam‚ Mark‚ and Cross who had reflexively caught the ‘Miso Sub-Thermos’ she threw were writhing with bright red faces‚ burned by the lethal salt content.
“H-Horrible… This isn’t soup. ……It’s just ‘liquid violence’……！”
Mark’s eyes were teary‚ but the neon-mint glow had returned to them.
Cross’s muscles had also resumed eerie throbbing‚ perhaps overreacting to the excessive salt.
“Stop complaining! That stinging pain is proof that you’re all still alive!!”
Rinne shouldered the empty thermos and boldly flipped off Soran’s group on the high ground.
The pungent miso aroma that stung the nose and her angry voice.
That “imperfect mass of reality” literally smashed Soran’s absolute-zero sanctuary to pieces.
「……Lady Rinne‚ thank you. ……Thanks to you‚ I’ve woken up.”
Liam readjusted his shield. There was no longer any hesitation in the heavy rumble it produced.
(……Ah‚ really. It’s so salty……)
The violent heat remaining in his mouth.
He tightly clenched his white‚ transparent fingertips and once again savored the weight of the ‘Ancient Heart Fragment (Artifact)’ in his left chest that Rinne had sewn in to anchor him to the present world.
Survival probability‚ 0.00%.
……Ah.
Such a clever number is nothing but an error in the face of this miso’s heat.
The violent salt remaining on his tongue re-burned his numb nerves with the pain called “survival.”
「……っ‚ Fuu. Finally‚ I can get air into my lungs again. Rinne‚ I’m grateful‚ but next time please make it… well‚ not a lethal concentration.”
He wiped his mouth and regulated his rough breathing.
At the edge of his vision‚ the miso steam that had punched a hole in the absolute-zero silence sparked small flames every time it touched Soran’s barrier.
“If you have the energy to complain‚ then spin up your calculator‚ Conductor. ……Now then‚ it’s time for the 0.01% ‘significant difference’ we’ve earned.”
Kotone placed her fingertips on the silver-rimmed frame as if accelerating her thoughts and adjusted its position.
In sync with her‚ several hologram monitors unfolded before his eyes.
There‚ the bright red warning log that Analyst Elze had discarded as “condensation” and Zephyr had trashed with his vacuum—was vividly reconstructed as golden waveforms.
“This… is the heat of the undefined frames that Elze rejected?”
“Yes. To those elites‚ it’s just noise that dirties their 100% correct answer. But for our muddy ensemble—it’s the coordinate to turn Soran’s score‚ system structure and all‚ into a ‘bug’.”
Kotone sharply flicked the “blank frame” on the monitor.
Soran’s theory was a precision clockwork that allowed not even the slightest deviation.
Therefore‚ the moment an unexpected ‘heat’ was mixed in‚ its overly perfect serial circuit harbored the fragility of self-destructing when unable to process the error.
He strongly gripped the inner lining of his left chest over his jacket.
What transmitted to his palm was a distorted yet above all sturdy cloth texture.
The ‘small pocket’ that Rinne had sewn with her clumsy fingers.
——Thump.
The ‘Ancient Heart Fragment (Artifact)’ stored there responded to his “white”-frozen rhythm and released a strong amber residual heat.
The muddy pulsation spreading from the center of his chest was holding back at the water’s edge the sense of loss in his right hand that was trying to transform into a magical calculation machine.
It was his only ‘wedge’ to reject assimilation into the system.
(……That’s right. We never sought the correct answer from the beginning.)
This worthless pragmatism that Soran called “trash” and Elze dismissed as “lag.”
The overly heavy miso soup Rinne brought.
Liam’s heavy shield that carried the prayers of his hometown.
The sparks of friction Mark sought.
All of it was their fangs of rebellion to smash the beautiful theory (logic) with heat and mass.
「……Heh‚ so we’re going to mess up that perfect score with a bug picked up from the bottom of the trash bin.
It’s the most fitting strategy for us‚ Conductor!”
Mark scattered neon-mint sparks from his magical boots ‘Gale’ and bared his fangs ferociously.
「……Yeah. Defense (receiving) is over.
From now on‚ I’ll shift all circuits to parallel processing of ‘simultaneous pronunciation (parallel attack)’.
I’ll hammer the noisiest possible dissonance right into Soran’s throat‚ one note at a time.”
The “white” of his right hand gained heat‚ and the frozen baton transformed into a blade carrying clear murderous intent.
Survival probability‚ 0.00%——.
Bring it on.
We’ll steal that formula of despair 1% at a time with our own hands and rewrite it with pragmatism.
The opening bell that directly shook the entire atmosphere of the coliseum rang out.
It was not the clear‚ serene tone Soran desired.
It was the heat exhaled by tens of thousands of spectators mixed with the merciless aroma of the “five-fold miso” they had brought in—the most unrefined and… beloved sound.
「……Let’s go. To carve our sound that will bug the world from its very foundation.”
He gripped his right hand so tightly that his fingertips creaked.
The joints dyed completely “white” complained of pain as if stabbed by ice blades‚ but strangely it wasn’t unpleasant.
The heart fragment in his left chest pulsed with amber heat in time with his heartbeat.
The definite “life” mass lingering in the back of his throat—the ‘liquid violence’ that Rinne had forcefully shoved in—was still pushing his back even now.
“Aria‚ hurry up and go! While that ridiculously high salt content is still spinning your brain‚ give that idiot president a good surprise!”
Rinne slapped his back with a shock far too merciless to call encouragement.
「……Yeah.
This saltiness is the taste of our ‘salvation’‚ huh.”
The cross-section of the sky.
Soran standing at the edge swung down his ebony baton like a death sentence.
「……Unnecessary residual heat detected. Noisy ones‚ your unsightly struggle ends here. I’ll sweep it all clean with silence‚ without leaving a single drop of condensation.”
Absolute-zero arrogant mockery pouring down from above.
There was no longer any fear in the eyes of the orchestra members staring directly at it.
Only a ferocious gleam to overturn the world.
“President‚ the time for your clever score is over. Make sure you don’t get left behind by our acceleration (noise)!!”
Mark laughed ferociously.
His magical boots ‘Gale’ exploded with neon-mint flashes.
“My shield no longer fears ‘silence (shin)’. Resound——‘Heart of the Bell (Core)’!!”
A tremendous low bass.
The large sound wave released by Liam’s shield shattered the absolute-zero air head-on.
“Full orchestra of muscles (my soul)‚ it’s showtime!!”
Along with the sound of his greatsword cutting the wind‚ Cross’s wild roar violently shook the coliseum.
“Aria‚ let’s smash the wall of 0.04% survival probability and make the face of the 100% correct answer (Soran) bright red.”
Kotone showed a ferocious smile as an analyst behind her silver-rimmed glasses.
He stepped into the center of the shining coliseum‚ the battlefield where despair and frenzy swirled.
His field of vision was being repainted with a golden score.
「……Let’s gift them the noisiest‚ dirtiest‚ and most heart-shaking dissonance in the world.”
Twisting shudder into joy‚ he thrust these pure white transparent fingertips toward the sky (Soran).
Chapter 13.1 Complete
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