Chapter 11: "The Invader Who Deceives God"
—Gooooooong.
The third bell heavily shook the entire white temple. The clear sound of the bell traveled through the magical circuits spread across the high ceiling and was deeply engraved into the very principles of this world. The absolute system authority incorporated into the kingdom’s foundation. It was the highest-level administrative command that forcibly advanced the ritual’s progress.
At the same time as the heavy reverberation was drawn out.
Pure white silver radiance burst simultaneously from the countless magic circles that filled my field of vision. 〈WAIT〉. The tampering descriptions that had deeply bitten into the spell I constructed silently dispersed into mist. Target restraint. Space lockdown. All the magical circuits that had been flickering and continuously spitting out unpleasant errors were forcibly reverted to the orderly sequences of formulas they should originally have.
「……It has been forcibly released.」
I quietly exhaled the breath I had been holding. As expected‚ that invader had been shaving away the seconds of his own life‚ forcibly maintaining the tampered state. However‚ the superior authority of the third bell overwrote that abnormal loop and initialized the system. I coldly concluded that——
I stopped the gears of my thoughts right there.
（……No.）
Something was different.
I slowly lowered my gaze. Beyond the stone pavement that carried the smell of scorched boiling ink. The boy——Louis‚ the invader——who was spitting blood‚ kneeling on the floor‚ and breathing roughly with his shoulders. He hadn’t moved an inch. He wasn’t adding any new command lines or constructing any new spells.
（……This is strange.）
If he had truly been ‘maintaining’ the spell with his own magical power‚ then this very moment after the third bell forcibly initialized it should have been the greatest opportunity to rewrite the description again. His analytical eye should have already seen the entry point into my magic circle. So why wasn’t he trying to write in another 〈WAIT〉?
My brain cells began rapid computation.
Released spell. Third bell. Administrative authority. Maintenance magic. A single character of tampering.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
My premise had been fundamentally mistaken from the very beginning.
「It can’t be……」
Deep in my chest‚ a small heartbeat jumped for the first time in centuries.
He hadn’t been maintaining the spell with his own magical power. Nor had he been actively transmitting tampering commands to the spell. He had rewritten the very ‘specifications’ of this world——the rules that the spell should absolutely obey——from the foundation with just a single character of description.
That was why the caster’s magical power was unnecessary. That was why no computation to maintain the restraint was needed. The principle that had been rewritten once drove itself into the great contradiction of “stand by‚” and autonomously repeated that command. A permanent loop. A perfectly self-contained circuit. Even if the caster lost consciousness‚ it was a mad clock gear that would continue turning semi-permanently. The worst kind of alteration that no one could undo unless the even higher absolute administrative authority of the third bell directly intervened.
「……So that was it.」
I murmured softly. There was neither anger nor impatience in my voice. The only thing that came to mind was pure respect for the genius who had reached in a single leap the ‘abyss of the world‚’ something even I had not known.
Magic is not merely the technology of beautifully constructing spells. Nor is it the study of correctly understanding the laws that spells obey. It is the blasphemous idea of conveniently rewriting even those universal laws with one’s own crude will. Even I‚ who had simply lived correctly through eternity‚ had never once placed such a thought even outside the bounds of consideration.
I slowly lowered my gaze as I looked down at him.
Louis was still kneeling on the hard floor‚ painfully raising and lowering his shoulders. The tremendous sweat dripping from his forehead. His faintly trembling fingertips. His blood-spitting breaths. That was not magic depletion. Nor was it mental exhaustion from maintenance magic. It was the enormous price of reaching his hand into the realm of the gods——forcibly prying open the principles of the world‚ something originally forbidden to humans——that was burning him up from the inside.
（That’s why……he couldn’t move a single step.）
I finally understood the entire picture. He hadn’t simply been buying time. From the beginning‚ he had been burning his very life as fuel.
The moment I arrived at that truth‚ a strange heat I had never experienced before began to sprout in the frozen region deep in my chest.
If. If this invader did not burn out here and reached even further ahead. Would the day come when he would reach an unknown principle that even I could not see through?
The uncertain word ‘future’ irrationally shook the gap in my perfect computations for just a brief moment.
However‚ I quietly closed my eyelids once more.
It was not my role to witness that future. I had an absolute mission. To faithfully uphold the contract with the gods. To carry the ritual to its farthest end and eternally maintain the stagnant peace of this kingdom. That alone was my reason for existence.
「……I’m sorry.」
I didn’t even know clearly who that apology was addressed to. I solemnly raised my right hand. The huge geometric array that had been faintly sleeping on the floor quietly‚ yet with absolute pressure‚ began to sharpen its radiance.
Target restraint no longer held meaning. Even pure attack magic could possibly be seen through by his unique analytical eye. In that case——it was time to activate the final preparation I had readied from the beginning.
Multiple layers of silver light rings crawled across the stone pavement and rapidly expanded throughout the entire temple corridor. A wide-area lockdown barrier. The final defensive wall to irreversibly cut off this battlefield‚ including myself the caster‚ from the outside world.
The moment the pale circle of light enveloped me and Louis and tried to sever this space from the world itself——
「Louis———!!」
A young‚ desperately urgent girl’s cry sharply echoed into the depths of the now-silent corridor. A single second before the boundary of the barrier completely melted and closed——a girl violently flipped the hem of her mud- and sweat-stained shrine maiden outfit and leaped inside the silver light wall without hesitation.
——It was Mina.
――ゴォォォォォォン。
The earth-rumbling third bell heavily shook the entire temple. In that instant.
「——っ、ga‚ ha……!」
An intense pain like every cell in my body was being burned away raced from the depths of my brain. Unable to endure it‚ I slammed one knee onto the hard stone pavement. My lungs screamed for oxygen as if they were being torn apart‚ and my vision flickered black and white.
（……It was forcibly released‚ huh.）
〈WAIT〉. The invasive tampering I had forcibly carved into the world’s principles was all initialized at once. The geometric magic circles regained their original pure white‚ and I could see the completely stopped spells beginning to breathe again one after another.
But this didn’t mean it was over.
While forcibly steadying my boiling breaths‚ I sharply glared at only Elise‚ who stood before me‚ with my blood-stained monochrome vision.
（What will she fire next?）
Target restraint? Pure attack magic? Whichever it was‚ the construction of a counter had already been completed in my brain. The entry point was still fully alive. All the third bell’s authority had initialized was the tampering description called 〈WAIT〉. The ‘rift’ itself for slipping into her spell still remained.
Therefore——if it was restraint magic‚ I would overwrite 〈WAIT〉 again. If it was attack magic‚ I would tamper with causality the instant before the chant completed and make the spell explode from within. It was still a fight.
The moment I coldly calculated that——
「……？」
Elise didn’t move a twitch. There was no sign of chanting. No directional magical power. Not even the slightest hint of an attack.
Instead——.
At her feet. The geometric pattern sleeping on the stone pavement began to carry a faint yet ominously powerful light. One line. Then another. Thin paths of light crawled across the temple corridor like the ruthless threads of a spider.
（……This is different.）
That wasn’t an attack spell. Nor was it anything like spatial restraint. I reflexively opened my analytical eye to the limit and forcibly deciphered the spell of that magic circle. Multiple rings. Overlapping absolute fixation spells. Spatial pillars. Complete coordinate specification. Ultra-wide-area deployment.
（This construction pattern is……!）
The worst premonition raced up my spine like an icy thorn.
（A wide-area lockdown barrier……!?）
Moreover‚ it wasn’t a spell being built from scratch here. It was the absolute inviolable barrier that had been installed in this corridor itself from the very beginning‚ both physically and magically.
「Shit——!」
The moment I thought of forcibly rewriting the entry point description‚ everything was already far too late.
Silently. Cruelly without a sound. A huge circle of light enveloped the entire temple corridor. Ceiling. Floor. Left and right walls. Everything on all four sides was being closed into a perfect sealed room.
「Damn it……!」
I sank my consciousness deeper into the still-remaining entry point. Just in time. One more character. One more move. Just——.
The instant the barrier’s boundary completely closed.
「Louis————!!」
A girl’s anguished cry sharply echoed through the corridor. I spun around as if flicked. I saw a single girl violently flipping her mud-covered shrine maiden outfit and running at full speed toward the closing silver light wall.
「Mina——!?」
A single second before the barrier closed completely. She leaped inside the light wall without hesitation and slammed into my chest with that momentum.
「Haa……‚ haa……っ‚ u……!」
With her face buried in my chest‚ she was breathing wildly with her shoulders and trembling all over with her small body. But only her two hands were stubbornly clenched tightly at my chest as if to absolutely never break something precious.
「……I made it……っ」
Mina‚ whose voice was hoarse from oxygen deprivation‚ slowly opened her trembling fingertips from her chest.
On that small palm.
Several painful white hairs that had completely lost the light of reality. Empty shells of refined medicine‚ hollow like fragments of white porcelain. And——the pitifully torn-in-half fragment of a small lemon confection.
「……This is」
I involuntarily caught my breath. Mina looked at them with a face that seemed on the verge of tears.
「Elina-chan……had these things stolen from her all this time.」
That was the only thing she said. She didn’t say anything more. No‚ there was no need for either of us to say anything more. Before words‚ only large tears overflowing from her eyes fell one after another onto the cold stone pavement and soaked in.
「Please……」
「Louis.」
「Save……Elina-chan!」
I quietly nodded.
「Yeah.」
「——I know.」
Hearing that firm reply‚ Mina spun around toward Elise as if flicked.
「Please……! Lady Elise! Please let Louis go to that child!」
A cold silence like a tombstone fell over the space. Elise stood motionless at the center of the barrier. Eventually‚ she coldly declared in an extremely businesslike voice.
「The compensation for the sin once committed by humans must continue to be paid until the day their species meets its end. That is the absolute contract with the gods.」
I scolded my creaking body and slowly stood up. Every cell in my body was still screaming. Even so‚ only my analytical eye was piercing straight through Elise’s core.
「There is no reason for a single girl to bear all of that. If it must be paid‚ then humans as a whole can simply share it little by little.」
Elise quietly shook her head as if pitying me.
「Even if the value of lives is equal‚ the mass as compensation is not. Her soul is a pure compensation equivalent even to a million miscellaneous lives.」
Something deep in my chest made a decisive freezing sound.
「Such a thing……」
I clenched my blood-oozing fist so tightly it felt like it would break.
「Who on earth decided that? Who has the right to do so?」
My voice did not rise. But the heat dwelling within it had already exceeded its limit.
「The world has no right to arbitrarily weigh lives that should be paid and humans that should be sacrificed on a scale and cast them.」
Elise closed her mouth. I stared straight into her transparent eyes and coldly declared.
「I will never accept such a distorted principle‚ even if I die.」
For just a tiny moment. Elise’s glasswork-like eyes showed clear wavering for the first time today.
「……You would deny the principles of the world head-on?」
I slowly lowered my chin.
「No.」
I lowered my gaze to my own hands. The heatless white hair left on Mina’s palm. The empty medicine shell. The pitiful lemon confection. The evidence that had been mere scattered points exploded into computation inside my brain and connected into one——revealing the full picture of the system the church had concealed and its fatal vulnerability.
No matter how perfectly constructed a higher system is‚ it always has a design philosophy.
「Then there is definitely——an escape route.」
Burning those three truths into the back of my retinas‚ I ferociously twisted my lips and quietly murmured.
「……I’ll find it. God’s bug.」
――ゴォォォォォン。
While making the heavy air of the courtyard tremble‚ the reverberation of the third bell slowly receded. I stared fixedly at the only corridor leading to the altar——its abyssal darkness. Beyond the far stone arch‚ faint flickering of magical power and bursting sounds that tore through the frozen air echoed eerily.
（……It’s started.）
I gripped the hilt of the greatsword in my hand so tightly the metal screamed. If Louis had already headed to the deepest part‚ then the one standing in the way at the gate was undoubtedly the church’s guardian——Elise.
「Lord……Kyle……っ」
At my feet‚ Sasha was still sobbing violently and looking up at me as if clinging. Her face wet with large tears‚ she tightly gripped the hem of her nun outfit with her trembling small fingertips.
「I……don’t know what I should do anymore……っ」
Having spat out all the beautiful lies and shattered the deception of me as the ‘knight of justice’ from the inside‚ she had now returned to being nothing more than a single frightened girl.
I quietly crouched down and gently‚ yet with an unwavering strength‚ placed my palm on her small head.
「Leave the rest to me. From here to that corridor‚ five minutes is more than enough.」
The fact that the third bell had rung meant that the remaining time until the fourth bell announced destruction was probably less than forty minutes. If I could just pull Elise away from the gate‚ Louis would surely reach the altar and rescue Elina from that hell.
「Lord Louis……can he really save Lady Elina……?」
To Sasha’s question trembling with anxiety and fear‚ I nodded without any hesitation.
「I’m just a clumsy man who can only swing a sword. But he’s different.」
In my mind‚ the profile of that twisted magic student who‚ covered in mud‚ bared his fangs arrogantly at the world’s principles floated clearly.
「If he’s seriously heading to the ritual venue……he can ‘break’ this kingdom’s mad system from the inside. ……That alone‚ as frustrating as it is‚ I acknowledge.」
Tears of relief overflowed from Sasha’s round eyes like a dam had broken. Having seen that‚ I strongly turned on my heel.
「——I’m going. Wait here.」
The moment I started running toward the corridor‚ making my silver heavy armor clang——
「——Captain!!」
From the courtyard entrance‚ more than ten kingdom knights rushed in with a clattering cold cacophony. Every one of them had their hands on their sword hilts and stood in my way after sensing my extraordinary killing intent and the abnormal situation.
「Captain‚ that greatsword……where exactly do you intend to go!?」
Without stopping my steps‚ I glared straight at them as they blocked my path.
「Move.」
A low‚ ground-crawling heavy bass. But my former subordinates did not retreat a single step.
「We cannot! Captain‚ we are kingdom knights. Devoting our lives to this country‚ fighting for the people‚ and protecting the kingdom’s justice is how it should be!」
「……Justice‚ huh.」
I laughed softly through my nose in self-mockery.
「I just threw away such a pretty thing into the gutter. I’m no longer a knight of the kingdom.」
In an instant. I raised the greatsword to its limit and slammed a sword skill into the stone pavement before me without hesitation.
——GAAAAN!!
With intense sparks‚ a tremendous shattering sound exploded‚ carving a deeply gouged “single boundary line” between me and the knights.
「That ditch is the boundary line. ……Do not cross to this side any further.」
A quiet yet absolutely pressuring declaration of rejection. The young knights uniformly swallowed their breath and distorted their faces with regret before that boundary line.
「……We have painfully understood Captain’s resolve. In that case……っ!」
Several knights finally drew their swords with pained expressions.
「We too shall resolve ourselves here.」
「……I see. What a shame.」
There was no choice but to cross blades. The moment I braced myself and readied my greatsword again——
「——Wait.」
Forcibly pushing through the line of knights‚ a single man stepped forward right before the boundary line. It was the vice-captain who had always supported me as my right arm and backed this unit.
He looked at me with eyes harboring a tragic resolve‚ then spun around and sharply ordered his subordinates.
「Vice-captain’s order. ——You are not permitted to cross that boundary line at all.」
「Wha……Vice-captain!?」
The vice-captain stopped the suddenly noisy knights with a strict raised hand.
「You will witness the outcome of this matter from here. From this point on……it is the duty of the Captain and myself.」
It was his clumsy yet overly kind breakwater to prevent the young subordinates from being stained as “accomplices of a traitor” or with the infamy of “killing the captain.”
The vice-captain quietly drew his beloved sword and stepped across the boundary line I had drawn‚ alone.
「Here I come!!」
With tremendous spirit‚ the vice-captain charged while clad in his full sword skill. Sharp thrusts‚ slashes carrying mass. Relentless fierce consecutive attacks.
——GAKIN! GIIIN!
I forcibly deflected every single one with the thick belly of my greatsword and closed the distance between us to zero in an instant.
I didn’t swing the greatsword. Instead of killing intent‚ I clenched my left fist so tightly it felt like it would break.
——DOGOO!!
「Ga‚ ha……a……」
My left fist sank deep into the vice-captain’s abdomen. The metal armor let out an unpleasant sound as it crumpled‚ and all the air was forcibly squeezed from his lungs. For just an instant‚ the vice-captain showed a somewhat lonely smile as if entrusting everything——then his consciousness was completely reaped and he collapsed onto the stone pavement.
「Vice-captain……っ!」
On the other side of the boundary line‚ the remaining knights raised pained voices. But not a single one tried to cross that ditch. They too had correctly understood the vice-captain’s life-risking intention and my resolve to part ways‚ and stood frozen.
「……Sorry.」
I dropped a single apology over my shoulder toward the fainted vice-captain and my once-loyal subordinates‚ then ran out once more toward that dark corridor.
（I have to hurry……!）
Elise standing in the way at the gate. And Louis‚ the muddy invader. Those two had terribly bad compatibility in a proper fight. It was clearer than seeing fire that if Louis‚ whose magic power was nearly exhausted‚ faced Elise head-on with her overwhelming power that had the entire kingdom’s systems on her side‚ he would be reduced to ashes in an instant.
（Louis. ——Don’t die. Stay alive‚ you big idiot.）
I gripped the greatsword’s hilt tightly again and leaped into the darkness of the deep corridor leading to the abyss.
Inside the wide-area lockdown barrier‚ it was unnaturally quiet. The golden light wall that completely cut off the outside world enveloped this space in a dome while emitting a faint glow. A faint vibration as if someone was running toward us came from the other side of the wall——but even that was nothing more than distant noise to me now.
No one tried to open their mouth. Mina forgot even to wipe the tears on her cheeks and was trembling her small shoulders. Elise stood quietly‚ staring at me with her transparent eyes without showing a single opening.
Only I lowered my gaze to the cold stone pavement and stared at a single point.
There lay the three pieces of evidence Mina had delivered to me.
A single white hair that had lost its heat. An empty medicine shell resembling a white porcelain fragment. And a lemon confection fragment cruelly torn in half.
「……White hair.」
I gently picked up that white hair with blood-drained fingertips. The proof that the girl’s golden hair‚ which had reflected the fresh spring sunlight‚ had been forcibly converted back into pure magical power and discolored inorganically. This was not just a material remnant.
「——It’s extraction of value.」
A quiet soliloquy leaked from my dry lips. Next‚ I coldly lowered my gaze to the white porcelain medicine shell. A merciless refined drug to mask the intense pain that shaved the soul and to empty the heart itself.
「……Paralysis of the five senses. And maintenance as a symbol.」
I murmured shortly‚ as if spitting out a formula. Finally‚ I picked up the lemon confection broken in half. The yellow wrapping was badly crushed and its corners were bent. It was clear evidence that someone had gripped it tightly again and again‚ as if enduring an unbearable absurdity.
「Mina.」
I called her name softly. Mina wiped her overflowing tears with her sleeve and nodded slightly.
「Elina-chan……had been treasuring it all this time. ……Because she liked Louis.」
Because she liked him. I deliberately repeated that emotional phrase coldly in my brain. No. Something was still decisively catching. She had good feelings for me. Therefore she hadn’t let go. There was no way that was the only reason.
I stared fixedly at the fragment of the lemon confection with its torn wrapping through my analytical eye.
Sweet. Sour. And the slight bitterness of the peel. The taste that a human tongue and body should definitely remember.
In that instant. Deep in my mind‚ there was a click as all the gears of reason meshed together.
「……Taste.」
Mina slowly nodded. The tears that had pooled fell once more and burst on the stone pavement.
「She can’t taste anything anymore……」
With just that one sentence‚ all the puzzle pieces fit together.
I slowly rearranged the three pieces of evidence on the stone pavement. White hair. Medicine shell. Lemon confection. To find the absolute regularity hidden there. To perfectly solve the worst proof problem that no one in the world had been able to solve.
One by one. One by one. I searched for the ‘common element’ at their core.
「——Hair」 Discoloration due to aging……wrong. 「——Medicine」 Life extension for the sacrifice……wrong. 「——Lemon」 Mere loss of taste……that too was wrong.
The common point wasn’t there. It was a more fundamental structure.
I quietly closed my eyelids. Hair dyed completely white. Medicine to kill the heart. Taste that had already been lost. Everything. Everything.
「……Things that were lost.」
I murmured that‚ then immediately shook my head in self-mockery. Wrong. Wrong. Such a lukewarm expression was decisively insufficient. The subject itself was fundamentally wrong.
「She didn’t lose them.」
「——They were ‘made to pay.’」
A cold voice fell into the abyssal depths of the silent barrier. In that instant. Elise’s glasswork eyes wavered ever so slightly but unmistakably.
While coldly catching that faint reaction at the edge of my vision‚ I sank even deeper into the dark sea of thought.
Paid. Compensation. Contract. God. Every contract necessarily has activation conditions. Every contract comes with fulfillment. And every contract should necessarily have——an ending condition built in.
While staring at the three pieces of evidence on the stone pavement‚ I murmured softly as if confirming‚ as if spinning a spell.
「God……」「Contract……」「Compensation……」「Price……」「Fulfillment……」「Completion……」
In my brain‚ the basic magical formulas I had learned as a ten-thousand-year manuscript student transformed into something completely different. This wasn’t magic. It was law. It was contract. Those who fulfilled certain conditions pay the corresponding compensation. The gods correctly receive the offered compensation. Then——where does the contract end?
At the moment when all demanded payments have been completed.
In that instant. The second hand of my thoughts stopped dead.
「……Wait.」
Deep in my chest began to stir with a horrifying premonition.
「Paid……you say……?」
My gaze was drawn back once more to the three pieces of evidence. White hair. Medicine shell. Lemon confection. Emotions. Five senses. Memories——. All of her humanity.
「——It’s already over……?」
In the darkness of my mind‚ the true identity of all the bugs connected into a single line like a flash of light.
「If that’s the case.」
I slowly raised my face. Straight ahead. I stared piercingly at Elise‚ who reigned as the absolute executor of principle.
「What is」
The words naturally spilled from my dry lips.
「God demanding right at this moment?」
The air in the space completely froze. The sound of Mina swallowing her breath faintly echoed. Elise remained as still as a statue.
I scolded my creaking body and slowly stood up. My entire body was screaming from the fourth-tier overload due to excess magic power. Even so‚ only the computational region in my brain was clearer and colder than ever before.
「So that’s how it is.」
At last. I saw the greatest and worst bug in this thousand-year mad world.
「Elise.」
She looked back at me with ghostly stillness.
「God——is committing a contract violation.」
It was the first time. The absolute conviction that had been in Elise’s inorganic outline disappeared.
「…………」
A thick‚ dense silence filled the corridor.
「……What are」
Her beautiful voice faintly trembled.
「What are……you saying?」
I took a single step into her absolute domain.
「If it’s the compensation of the contract. She has already paid everything long ago.」
Then‚ arrogantly‚ I took another step.
「If that’s the case——this contract should have ended long ago.」
I took yet another step‚ as if tearing apart her absolute domain.
「Even so‚ if the world still demands payment up to the vessel of life.」
Without shifting my gaze even a fraction‚ I coldly delivered the final words.
「The one violating the contract and causing it to collapse——is God’s system.」
Elise’s eyes shook violently and painfully. That wavering was not mere ordinary fear. It was logical dread at a flaw arising in the universal premise. She was now harboring a fatal distrust toward the very premise she stood on——something she had never once held in her eternity.
「Such a thing……」
The voice that faintly leaked was not directed at me‚ but at her own inner principle. The possibility that the absolute and universal God would violate the contract——that it would make excessive demands——had never once existed in her perfect computational domain as the world’s guardian.
I quietly laughed. It was not a shallow smile of triumph. It was the cold smile of the one and only invader who had reached the very bottom of this thousand-year world’s vulnerability.
「I do not rewrite magic. Nor do I conveniently rewrite the contract’s specifications.」
Quietly. But with unshakable absolute conviction‚ I declared.
「What I do is simply read the contract description that God constructed——correctly‚ and execute it.」
Elise gasped beautifully. Her transparent eyes no longer saw the boy before her as a mere invader. She stared at him with dread as a monster of knowledge who mercilessly pierced the truth of the kingdom’s foundational system.
「You……」
In the silence‚ a fading question fell.
「Do you intend to deceive God?」
I slowly shook my head. Then‚ as if echoing from the bottom of the earth‚ I answered.
「No.」
After a brief pause.
「God——has simply made a fatal misinterpretation of the contract.」
It was that moment of collapse. From outside the supposedly absolute inviolable light wall——.
——DOOOOOOON!!
A tremendous impact sound mercilessly shook the eardrums and violently rocked the entire huge barrier. Elise and I simultaneously turned sharply toward the source of the vibration.
――DOOOOOOON!!
A horrifying heavy bass violently shook the entire silver barrier. The golden light membrane that should have completely cut off the outside world rippled like water and distorted‚ and the isolated space itself creaked as if screaming.
「Kyaa……!」
Mina let out a short scream and involuntarily shrank. In contrast‚ Elise turned toward her own back for the first time. There was not a trace left of the absolute serenity that should have been in her once inorganic outline.
「……Impossible.」
A voice of agitation leaked faintly. On the other side of the barrier‚ massive impacts as if avenging a parent’s death were relentlessly striking the light wall again and again.
「From the outside……with mere physical mass‚ destroying this absolute barrier……not from the inside but from the outside?」
Seeing her narrow her eyes as if staring at an unbelievable absurdity‚ I quietly laughed in the back of my mind.
（——Kyle.）
So he came after all. I had thought that stubborn big idiot would definitely do so.
「What is so funny?」
Elise asked while piercing me with her gaze. I lightly shrugged my shoulders and exhaled the stagnant breath deep in my lungs.
「I really hate that guy.」
It was my honest‚ unadorned true feeling.
「But I was certain it would turn out like this.」
Once more. The isolated world shook as if exploding violently.
――GOOOOOON!!
While staring at the violently flickering light wall‚ I continued speaking.
「There’s no way such pretty-word-covered irrationality could be the ‘justice’ that idiot holds up.」
Elise closed her mouth and stared back at me fixedly.
「I didn’t walk all the way here alone from the beginning.」
That single sentence once again crumbled her premise. Elise quietly lowered her long eyelashes.
「……From the beginning.」 She murmured as if tracing her own computation. 「You had divided the roles from the start?」
I slowly shook my head.
「No.」
Instead of advancing toward the altar’s abyss‚ I coldly lowered my gaze to my own feet——to the magical power lines that solidly formed this barrier. Even without going all the way to the temple’s deepest part‚ this barrier too was completely connected to the kingdom’s huge spiritual vein.
「We didn’t arrange it in advance. Everyone had already understood it deep down. This ritual was simply the trigger. Each of us faced this completely mad system and arrived at the same answer with our own minds. ……That’s all it was.」
Someone burns their life as fuel. Someone discards beautiful justice and draws their sword. Someone sheds tears in the mud.
It wasn’t orders exchanged in advance. It wasn’t a meticulously crafted plan. It was simply the result of each human stepping into this muddy world of their own will‚ carrying the pride they each believed in.
Elise slowly closed her eyelids and let out a faint breath.
「……So that was it.」
In her voice mingled faint understanding and‚ for the first time in her eternity‚ envy toward the irrational existence called ‘humans.’
「You did not blindly believe in your comrades. You had already correctly understood the answers that the distorted existence called humans would arrive at.」
I deliberately did not reply.
I slowly knelt and crouched down toward the light pattern wriggling at my feet. In my bug-filled vision that had forcibly released up to the fourth tier‚ the beautiful golden barrier had long since scattered like mist. What I saw was the deepest part of those vast magical power lines. A single thin conduit leading directly to the root description God had carved into the world’s principles. In the madly rushing torrent of magical power‚ only one place had a terribly unnatural joint that caught my eye.
「……Found it.」
I murmured the certainty of victory softly. From this entry point‚ I could directly interfere with that contract God had made.
「——Stop it!!」
Elise sharply cried out. The executor of principle‚ for the first time in her long history‚ bared raw emotion mixed with dread.
「Beyond that……っ! It is a realm humans must never touch!」
「Whether I’m human or not doesn’t matter to me right now.」
I forcibly thrust my fingertips‚ which were violently trembling from the overload‚ into the barrier’s magical power line.
「With my own extremely personal ego——I will now invade God.」
——KA.
In an instant‚ the world inverted.
White. White. Overwhelming white. The vision that should have been sunk in monochrome was filled entirely with a torrent of light intense enough to burn the retinas. Countless characters. Tens of millions of magical formulas. Complexly intertwined contractual language. Conditionals. Logical branches. Exception handling. The full picture of the huge computational structure supporting this world itself violently flowed into my brain through the terminal barrier in an instant.
「……I see. So that’s why no one in the world could read it until now.」
Amid the boiling-brain-like intense pain‚ a ferocious smile involuntarily leaked out.
「But I can read it. ……I can understand everything.」
The moment the starting point of the worst bug was completely identified.
（The starting point is the great vessel at the ritual altar!）
「The barrier will break soon. Run‚ Mina!」
——PARIIIIIIN!!
With a high-pitched shattering sound that seemed to burst the eardrums‚ the wide-area lockdown barrier that had boasted absolute invincibility shattered into countless glass fragments.
On the other side of the dazzlingly scattering light remnants. Kyle stood breathing roughly‚ his battered silver heavy armor painfully creaking‚ greatsword swung grandly.
「……っ!」
Elise‚ whose barrier had been forcibly broken through‚ immediately raised her staff.
「——I won’t let you go!」
The instant pure white restraint magic began converging toward me and Mina‚ a savage silver flash carrying tremendous mass cut in before Elise’s eyes.
——GAAAAN!!
The thick belly of the greatsword forcibly struck down the torrent of magical power Elise released head-on.
「Your opponent is me‚ guardian of the world’s principles——!」
「Kyle……っ!」
「Go‚ Louis——!!」
Kyle stood blocking Elise’s path and roared fiercely toward me over his shoulder.
「I won’t let you through here even if it costs my life!」
That reliable back was no longer a fake “picture-perfect knight of justice.” It was the back of a single man in the mud‚ covered in mud and blood‚ swinging his blade solely to open the path for his friend.
「……Don’t die‚ Kyle.」
I spat shortly and scolded my limit-reaching body to stand. I strongly grabbed the thin arm of Mina‚ who had been trembling with tears beside me.
「Don’t stop‚ Mina.」
「Yeah……!」
Behind us‚ the tremendous roar of light sorcery and steel greatsword clashing struck our eardrums. Mina and I finally kicked off at full speed into the opened abyss——the corridor leading to the deepest altar where Elina waited.
（——Wait for me‚ Elina.）
Amid the white scenery flowing like a storm‚ an arrogant and cold smile rose to my lips.
（Right now——）
（I’ll personally persuade that completely mad God.）
Chapter 11 『The Invader Who Deceives God』 Complete
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