In the west, an orange sunset was shining. The spiral tall buildings bathed in the sunlight formed a long shadow pointing to the east. Aosaki Toko stood outside the garden of the apartment building. The entire city was immersed in the twilight. Her huge brown trench coat did not suit her small figure at all. She wore it more like armor. She held an orange briefcase in one hand and strode through the green leaves of the garden. Before entering the building, she only glanced at the top floor of the upper floor.
The glass wall at the entrance was reflecting the sunset, dyeing the walls and floor beside it a sun-like red. After taking some time to sigh, she walked forward. When she reached the central elevator, she suddenly turned right and walked toward the east hall.
She remembered the last time she had been here, its semicircle shape and the stairs to the second floor reminded her of how big the room was. Here, the intense red outside was nowhere to be found, replaced by flickering yellow lights on the marble floors and cheaply painted walls.
"What a surprise! After all, you are easily provoked, Aizaki.”A man said in a high-profile manner, and this sentence echoed in the hall. Tiko didn't say anything. Instead, he shifted his attention to the center of the scene. A man in a red coat was standing on one of the stairs with a gentle slope. "Of course, this is a surprising comedy. I welcome you, Master Puppet, to my niche.”
Cornelius Alba smiled, showing his teeth, and bowed from the waist in an equally exaggerated manner.
“Gehenna？”Toko raised her eyebrows and asked.
"This is very appropriate, isn't it? This is a place that looks like an ancient valley, where the Baritans once threw their children into the fire. Unfortunately, Moros is not with us now. This is a reality that is such a perfect dividing line with the public consensus, and we have opened up the path of ascension here.”
He looked down at Tiko as he spoke triumphantly, but when she answered, she gave him no room to read.
"Not surprisingly, the descendants of cornelius agrippa were probably jewish. Unlike you, though, I think Agrippa can guess the true purpose of this place. If you want to see the slaughter, wailing and gnashing of teeth that you love so much, I suggest you make a quick stop in Serbia or the Republic of the Cong. Your pathetic action was Turk putting his briefcase on the floor with a dry click. "This place is nothing more than a purgatory. There are no souls here to pass down their legacies. Endless pain is the ultimate goal, not punishment. It's not holy, it's not magic, at least not from someone like you.”
The mage with the red coating only showed a slight muscle twitch on his face. Te Ke looked at A Erba, but also behind him, as if her opponent was not that person, but the building itself.
" Now," Turk continued," let's not pretend that you came up with the idea of Tai Chi. Let's just let Alea show his face. You have nothing to do with what is about to happen. I don't know the real reason you're here, but it probably has nothing to do with any higher arcane goals. I'm just giving you a fair warning in return for your warning.”Please save me."
Toke looked around the wall, looking for an invisible enemy, but she never turned back to look at A Erba. The mage in the red uniform looked at her with a murderous expression, which might be the prelude to tears in his eyes.
"You're always like this," he murmured. "Yes, you're always like this!" The voice was even louder now. "You always look down on me. I learned runes before you, and I learned the art of dolls and puppet performances before you. But, oh, how you fooled those idiots at the Academy into thinking you were better, more creative. But we all know the truth. After all, I'm the heir to the Spangheim Monastery! After 40 years of work, I was awarded a scholarship in the arts. I couldn't even recognize a mage who wasn't even in his teens!”
Somewhere in his long speech, the murmur turned into an excited roar that echoed through the hall. Tiko stared at the man in boredom. He had cleverly abandoned his good points, but he had completely humiliated her.
" You know, age is not a factor in academics," Tōko replied." Don't get me wrong, Cornelius. I think it's okay to spend time looking younger, but you're so focused on it that your art has lost its charm, I think.”She said this calmly, but this was perhaps the most serious insult she had ever done to him. The face that had once looked like a young man was now twisted with hatred, making him return to his proper age.
"I haven't told you why I'm here, have I?”A Erba took a deep breath and regained his composure. " I'm not interested in Araya's little experiment, and I don't agree with him achieving Akasha's goal. It's a mysterious concept that may or may not exist. I see no reason to swim upstream for gnosis and improvement.”He took a step back. "It was my idea to tell you about Shiki Ryōgi. The old man Alaya grabbed the little girl in a dangerous way. I think they turned themselves in around the same time. So, this domain is mine until the structure turns back time and returns it to its previous state. But I don't intend to continue Alaya's work. I don't think you have any idea, but I came to the edge of your world to kill you, Aosaki!”
A Erba hissed her name like a curse that might destroy his ability to speak. He ran to the top of the stairs on the second-floor balcony, and Turk only watched curiously. A strange substance flowed out of the wall. It seemed to be a liquid, sharing the cream-colored color with the wall it was attached to.
"Playing your Turba, huh?" Tōko said with confusion and contempt. The substance seeped through the wall at an astonishing speed and reached the first floor where Tōko was standing in the blind spot. As it approached the floor, it began to combine in different places in different forms: Some of them were human-shaped, some were beast-like, and they were all real. Their surfaces resembled keloids, while the quality of the T Heirs kept changing, with a face here and there, or some almost unrecognizable animal, as if they were appearing in a perfect, if ugly, rotten and unchanging state.
"This isn't the best Turpa I've ever seen in Alba, but it's not entirely surprising. Hey, maybe you could be a stuntman! I mean, of course you'll be limited to biological traits and hammer horror, but it's better than sitting in an old monastery, right?”She shouted at A Erba, even though things were getting closer and closer to her.
Tōko thought that this might be a horror movie. But the problem was not solved with crosses or shotguns. Standing only two meters away from the slowly advancing Turpa, she instinctively reached for the missing pack of cigarettes in her breast pocket. Damn it, that's right, Mikiya had already gotten it. I should have bought some Japanese brands on the way here. Well, we all have to make sacrifices from time to time, even if it's a boring art show like this.
" Think again, Alba. Maybe Hollywood isn't a godsend for you after all," Toko shouted. "Now we have a more sensitive audience. It was time for the creature design studio! Let's see if we can teach you a thing or two!”With an unexpected movement, she kicked away the briefcase she had placed on the floor beside her earlier.
"Get out!" There was a word in her deep voice that contained an authority that could not be rejected. At the mention of this word, the bag opened, showing that it was empty. However, something black formed a tight boundary around Aizaki. It was like a black whirlwind taking a fixed form, and in the calm eyes of the storm, the black object spun non-stop, becoming wider and wider. Its speed made it impossible for her and A Erba to see its true form clearly. In a few seconds, the Turba people had completely disappeared without a trace of mud.
Aizaki Teko was still standing in the center of all this, almost not leaving her original position. Next to her lay an open, empty briefcase…and a cat, quietly relaxing. Alba could only stare at it in a daze. The cat stood taller than Zi. Even though it was sitting, its body was dark and there was no warmth on its surface. The only characteristic of a cat shadow was that it had a pair of eyes, which looked like hieroglyphic characters.
"What exactly is that thing?" said Alba, staring suspiciously at the cat. Their eyes met. Although he and Turk both knew that there were no other obvious features on its " face," he felt that the creature was smiling at him. Alba looked as if the whole world was having a nightmare, but Tiko remained silent. Somewhere, the sound of a stable rhythmic instrument was filled with a lifeless rhythm. "So the rumors I heard were wrong? Your sister, the mage, didn't destroy everything you were familiar with?”he asked incredulously, unable to bear the growing silence.
"Let's not start making slanderous accusations against your sources now, whoever they are.”Then she turned her attention to the outline of the cat next to her, raised a hand, patted it gently, and said in harsh words," Good girl. The next dish is human flesh, which should be much better than the raw turba you just swallowed. This dish was more nutritious. Make yourself at home. After all, he is one of my old friends. Remember how I told you how delicious they were?”
In an instant, the black silhouette disappeared, as if it had slid across the marble floor to the foot of the stairs, showing the same haste as the moment before, taking less than ten seconds to reach the first step. Its feet didn't seem to move, or at least it looked like it to the human eye. However, A Erba and Te Ke were the same. They saw that Ricke was not an ordinary person, and mages could not be demoted so easily. Before the shadow cat started moving, A Erba had already begun to weave a spell.
"Unreal shadow, untouchable and invisible, let the light of my art cast you into oblivion!”
Alba calmly recounted his current predicament, reciting the spell that many mages used to decorate the art of weaving-Lorica. Lorika and the expression were the mage's own, determined by his choices and personality, a way of guiding art through the familiar memory in their minds. The goal was a bit like self-hypnosis; forcing oneself into a mental state that increased the effectiveness of spells so that they could better manipulate the laws of the material world. Turk thought it was impressive. In fact, he had reduced the number of five elements Loricas a long time ago. It didn't even take two seconds. I guess he can improve. However, Turk only expressed his appreciation for this and snorted in his direction.
"Let my will become my fist, to knock you down.”
He stretched out his arm and gestured in the direction where the shadow was approaching. He had just reached the foot of the stairs. When it reached the first step, the air rumbled and the hall immediately grew noticeably hotter. A Erba was determined to exist in front of him. He summoned a blue flame pillar that rose and fell like a mirage, consuming the stairs like a geyser. It extended from the floor to the ceiling and soon broke through. It began to snatch the oxygen in the room, and the shadow of climbing the stairs to attack A Erba could no longer be seen. No animal could survive in high temperatures. The temperature was high enough to turn any ordinary solid object into nothingness.
In an instant, the pillar of fire went out, but what Alba saw behind the flames made his blue eyes widen.
"Impossible," he said, for in the middle of the charred staircase was a familiar black, licking itself as if the spell had produced a good feeling. It stared at him for a while before continuing to charge at A Erba. He did not hesitate.
"Here it comes again!"
A Erba repeated the incantation. This time, it was clearly weaker, without Lorika's help. The blue pillar appeared again, but it was no longer blocked. A Erba could almost see the flames passing over its body. When the creature charged at him in a straight, determined path, the flames passed through it.
"Here it comes again!"
The flames appeared and disappeared again. The familiar cat approached its prey.
"Here it comes again!"
The fourth attempt was just as ineffective as the first. The cat was safe on the second floor, it was close to Alba, and it opened by itself, its entire body bigger than a man splitting open from head to toe like a tulip, losing any semblance of a cat. A Erba could see the Turpa people he had placed great hopes on earlier through its interior. He finally realized that this familiar dog was just a mouth, a cat-shaped thing.
“Aga——”
In the face of death, Alba risked one last attempt to weave a spell, but before he could finish, the spell brought him into his mouth, and the hollow grabbed the red coat hanging over his shoulder. Before he was forgotten, the darkness of the shadows was the last thing he could remember.
"Yes."
Lorica's third voice echoed in the hall.
Upon hearing this word, the familiar shadow on A Erba's neck immediately stopped. Even Tōko had a good understanding of the owner of the voice. She had to face it as soon as she heard it. Behind A Erba stood a man. His eyes were always melancholic and stiff, and he was wearing a black coat. He stood motionless, as if he had been watching, but no one could find any trace of his sudden appearance. The man grabbed A Erba with one arm and threw him out rudely, placing him on the ground. This familiar cat, stepping on the strange three-ring geometry, described the perimeter around a person, still like a stone. When the man finally noticed Tiko, she felt the air turn noticeably colder, losing the relaxation from a few seconds ago, even though she thought it was just her imagination. The structure itself seemed to be very tense to welcome its true master.
"Qingqi, you've changed a lot. Has it been that long?”
"Yes, I am. I wish it could last longer."
The man known as Soren Alaya descended from the blackened steps. Ashes were still falling from the ceiling and landing on his shoulders, while Toko's familiar body seemed to be wrapped in a spell. He was still standing on the first step of the stairs, forcing Tiko to tilt his head slightly upward to face him.
"A Erba crossed the line. I was going to let this experiment pass without you knowing. This encounter was a strange coincidence, but it was probably inevitable.”
" Ah, coincidence," Tōko sighed." It's a convenient word we use to blind ourselves from the sacred and mysterious game of fate.”She slowly retreated to the wall, talking as she fought for time. Seren was different from A Erba. Although their art facilities might have similar reviews, Salem Araya had the home-field advantage in his sanctuary. Even if she retreated, she would keep her attention forward, paying attention to any opportunity she could take advantage of, even if she knew that Araya was doing the same.
"Then tell me, what happened to your Schrodinger residence?”She pondered. "You already know that killing a large group of people to establish the resonance of death to reach the origin has been proven impossible in the past, right?”
"I know history. But I also know a truth that you don't know. I was also blinded by the success that pure numbers seemed to bring. If there are enough people, I will meet a soul, and I can grab it and pass through the threshold, following it back to the spiral of origin. But I was rejected, because I focused on numbers, not the way of death. Therefore, I studied death. Just as the hexagrams in the Book of Changes stipulated, I could distinguish sixty-four ways of death, and every resident of this realm corresponded to these sixty-four ways of death. What I have here is a miniature version of the universe. I witnessed their pain and recorded its meaning. Perhaps as time passed, reality and my will would change them. The sixty-four hexagrams would turn into eight, then into four, then into two extremes, namely Reggie, and finally into Akasha, the Great Origin.”
"Buddy, Araya, the whole process of molding things into a whole is consuming your energy. You are obsessed with your arcane arts and have missed the true meaning of Regis Polarity: Opposition was not because of conflict, but because of vitality. Opposites defined each other, which was why they were not a whole. You value the authenticity of the child's death so much, so much that you forget the life that gives them value. Look at yourself! What you did to Saint Peter and the Book of Life will only destroy you.”
"It doesn't matter if I die or not. Now, only by reaching the starting point for my purpose can I be driven.”His words were full of confidence and unwavering. He truly believed in his responsibility.
This building, along with the self-sustaining spiral of death and rebirth, had existed outside of the consensus for so long that it had become its own independent reality. Toke believed that this place was his temple, an extension of him. His connection with the temple was so close that it yielded to his will. The whole place was filled with the resonance of hatred, and the people here could no longer express their hatred. This was disgusting. Araya was making it stronger every day, and every time it died, it had no chance to pass the threshold.
The silence of lovers, family, father and mother, and the silent march of time.
The malicious deaths of lovers, family, friends, and colleagues, as well as the conflicting hatred towards strangers.
A Erba was right about one thing: All of this, all of the convergence of the decaying energy, all of the magic power released from the land by this building, all of the death, was a huge altar, with a terrifying symmetrical framework, all for Araya's crazy dream. Toko finally realized that this was far beyond the scope of simple tricks that art could provide, but it also entered the realm of legendary witchcraft, pure magic, and the product of true gnosis that mortals could not reach. For the first time, she doubted herself.
"If there was no consensus among humans to tear it apart, how could this matter exist? It should have happened by now. At this point, deterrence should have already played a role, using individuals as its agents to trigger events that would lead to your downfall in some way. Why isn't there anyone?" Tōko asked curiously.
"Haven't you asked yourself why you're in this city? How did a man find out that she had robbed that house? Why would a woman stumble clumsily in this building on her deathbed? I have conducted this experiment as discreetly as possible, but here we have evidence that deterrence is working against me. I've tried to find a way but, as I've realized, it's all temporary. I don't have the ability to do so." For the first time, there was a hint of disappointment in his tone. He focused his attention on Dick and saw nothing but her. "Once anyone realizes that their strength is no less than that of any animal, they will think that they are inferior to animals. People pursue perfection, but it is denied by consensus. This contradiction forms the theme of our lives: Survival was to climb to higher heights, and rejecting missions was just to survive.
" Those mages who have ascended to the Source do not have the will for power, but are given power through the decisive attributes that Entropy has imposed upon our reality. When a man talks about abilities, he is really talking about fate, the pre-determined decisions, abilities, and choices that shape our lives. We humans have inherited the potential for ascension and have fallen deeply into this material world. Our natures are scattered and diverse, separated from the power we were born with. Thus, I realized that although I might not have the ability to stop this deterrence and realize the path to the Spiral of Origin, I only needed to find one person among the many who could do it. All I need is an empty soul, whose nature connects it to the indescribable 'soul'. It took me many years-"
"But you found her. Her name is Xiang Qingxia Ruiji." Tōko simply wanted to know if the Regis knew what it meant to have a dangerous descendant in their family, and if it could really become one. "Then, you used Kirie Fujō and Asagami Fujino as bait to lure Xiang Qingxia in, but she didn't attract your scent. You took two broken mirrors and made her realize what she was. There is no better teacher than experience. However, you don't know Xiang Qingxia's game plan. What could it be? Bring Xiang Qingxia here?" Come back from the dead? Or did you kidnap her for a social call?”
"What I did two years ago was only to activate the destiny that I created for Xiang Qingxia. A solution had appeared. She doesn't need that body. I'll accept it for my own purposes.”
" Wait a minute, don't tell me you want to transfer your soul…" Turk's voice gradually faded away. His index finger was connected to an invisible point in the air until she finally understood. Araya felt that there was no need to answer, believing that it was obvious. Finally, Turk said," You're sick, do you know that? But since you're still here, I think Xiang Qingxia will be fine. I don't think it's bad to ask you if you're giving her back to me.”
"If this is your wish, then come and claim her.”
"I think this is a duel. I don't think I'm that kind of violent person. I think, when I decided to take her in, this was what I had to face.”
"I don't think it's a bad way to ask if you'd like to do it with me?”Araya pleaded, even though his hostile attitude did not change at all. Turk smiled slyly and replied, politely lowering his head and closing his amber eyes, as if she had just made a regrettable but necessary decision. " I understand," Araya continued. "I thought that was your answer. Unfortunately, this was necessary. There was a time when we were all driven to find the source. I really miss that part of you.”Araya took a step forward, and with the sound of it echoing on the marble floor, he finally reached the first floor. "You are different from the other mages in the academy. Ambitious. Perhaps even as obsessed as any capable philosopher. Yours is the material path, while mine is the spiritual path. I even think that in our pursuit of our goals in life, you will be the first. But you gave up your destiny. If you don't even bring yourself as a mage, we won't be like this anymore. This confused me. If it wasn't for the sake of advancement, what else would we mages need to learn and master? Why should he care about this meaningless self-exile in this country?”Only his eyes conveyed his anger and frustration, but he remained silent about everything around him.
Turk shrugged and smiled. "This is nothing special. I'm just tired of the whole universe game, full of contradictions. The more you learn, the dumber you seem to realize. As you know what people say, the clearest path to ascension is an empty mind, but if that were the case, you wouldn't even realize it.”The beginning was the spiral of origin? Yes, shit like this. I accepted it and moved on. You didn't. But it seems to be the biggest difference." She sighed as she spoke the last sentence. The confession seemed even more depressing. Now they stood together, looking at each other as equals.
"Then you've fallen into a lie," said Araya, and his voice took on the tone of all the regret he could muster. "However, this does not answer why you are here.”
"You've gone too far to realize it now. Let me tell you, this isn't all about Xiang Qingxia. This girl is actually a mystery that even I can't solve. She found her way out." Toko briefly accepted the idea of becoming someone who was unknowingly influenced by deterrence, but she quickly dismissed the idea. She thinks that I'm not a hero, but that's not important. The only thing she accepted was her own life, a life built from coincidences and intersecting paths that might never happen, and even if she lived in such a repetitive place, her determination was only out of a desire to protect it.
"Araya, you must think that I'm weak. Maybe you're right. I have always thought that the lonely saint was an ideal, an individual with the power of wisdom, lonely and lonely. But I know I'll never really make it, all the guilt and baggage is in my closet. The mages built their hymns to seal themselves off, thinking that the elves were above the rabble, but still maintained control over their former humans in tiny but noticeable ways. They toiled with their ars magna, a great work, the last key to their labor, but for what? An abstract dream to improve? For a false feeling of being better? What about the world where these 'enlightened' tyrants are guiding our journey in material matters? Was it you? You think you are pure and mortals are impure. Nonsense. You close your eyes and look at the blood on your hands, which brands you as a criminal and a disgrace, while at the same time calling yourself "special" and the true savior of this fading reality. I used to be like you, but then I became wise. Face it, Araya. Mages, because we are weak people, their obsession with ascension and the delusion of aero is delightful.”
The black-robed mage felt that it was appropriate not to speak. This was the best time for him to ponder. He would only continue to move forward step by step until he said," Even if you are right, there is no turning back that can bring me closer to the starting point every moment. Your actions and opposition force me to acknowledge you as the will of deterrence. In the end, Aosaki, lies have tempered your ambition. Disappointingly, you are still a human.”
Tōko pointed out that the reality inside the building had changed significantly with Araya's ideology. From a distance, the mages ended their long conversation, filling in the void of each other's years of absence with two final statements, recited almost like a prayer, a hymn with traditional weight.
"What are you looking for, Araya?"
"True wisdom."
"Where are you looking for it, Araya?”
"Other than me, there is no other place.”
His footsteps stopped near the center of the hall, and together they began the opening remarks of a game that was designed to erase each other from the world.
Tōko placed a foot on her collapsed briefcase and carefully studied how Alaya would launch an attack. Behind him, the black cat that she was familiar with was in a state of complete stagnation, unable to defeat the magic of Alaya's ward. Tōko remembered it, as well as the parts it formed, all of which were Terras that Alaya named after phrases and traditional men: Pufferfish, Kong, Dhakasu, Tai Teng, Cheji, and Ken. Together, they formed a powerful ward that surrounded the space around him, preventing the movement of anyone who could not overcome their magic. Usually, such wards could not be moved, and a simple border was established, but somehow he found a way to violate this rule, and thus became a new target. He was an out-and-out enemy, hindering any effort to fight him in close combat, not to mention his other skills in dealing with projectiles.
Unlike Alba, Toko and Araya had never combined their art of manipulating and shaping things to force them to achieve their goal of attack. However, even in Toko's favorite runic art, there was a way. Toke only needed to write " sōwilō ", a fire rune, and she could mold it into reality. Usually, if she wanted to, she could write in the air from a distance, but any mage could find it and stop it. In order for it to work, she needed to approach and write directly on Alaya's body, but Alaya's ward rejected her choice.
Toko cursed her for her artistic petrification at this critical moment, but as far as she knew, Araya was in a similar position, unless he had learned a thing or two in the years they had been apart. She chose to make dolls as a metaphor for her advancement, while he chose to study death. Apart from that, Toko knew that the skills that Alaya could bring had to be tolerated even if there was no art, because even he had seen his share in the war. Knowing this, Turk had no choice but to defend, trying to lure him into the trap she had set up here.
Araya moved. He extended his left arm toward Toko, palm out, like a man shouting at someone on the distant horizon, his hand twitching slightly.
" SHUKU," he recited. He clenched Lorika's palm with his heavy weight and clenched his fist in time. At the same time, Turk was repelled by a sudden force. The magic coat she used to protect herself from the attack tore in a visible pattern around her center of gravity. The attack caused her to kneel on one knee. It only took a few minutes for Toko to understand what Araya had done: He controlled the space she occupied, distorted the distance, created a tear, and crushed the air she stood on. She was surprised; even space was now in his grasp. The influence of architecture and his will on the region must have helped him easily forge such an art.
" Damn it," Turk coughed, and a few drops of precious blood spilled from her lips. She forcefully swallowed the remaining blood clots in her throat. "How many bones did I spend on that one?”Now, she was envious of Xiang Qingxia's physical endurance. She didn't have time to know how badly her body had been hurt, but she knew that her coat was the first to bear the brunt, but that was all. If he did it again, everything would be over.
"Let's go!" she ordered, her own Lorika carrying magic. The familiar shadow was moving, reacting to it. It seemed that it could finally pass through Alaya's ward and show its resting state. This was a carefully designed action. Turk could almost feel the relief it felt when she gave the order to attack.
"What--" Araya let us skip a little surprise and turned his head to respond. When there was only a slight distance between him and the people he was familiar with, Araya successfully performed the same trick twice, crushing the space in front of his raised hand to welcome the incoming attacker. Before the familiar shadow fell on the deer, however, in space, it avoided and changed its flight direction, leading itself toward the ceiling, where its cat paws landed, hanging upside down regardless of ordinary gravity.
" Enough," Araya announced confidently. He raised his other hand and pointed it at the ceiling before anyone familiar with it could see it, predicting where it would go. When the shadow landed, Araya had already weaved his art. The spell had crushed the part of the ceiling, and so had the cat. He watched as the shadow seemed to fold and then disappear, probably crushed. The spell had left a small gap in the ceiling where the cat had been.
"Your car has been disposed of, and the king has been inspected. Didn't you say that a mage who relied too much on his chess piece would lose the battle if his chess piece was destroyed?”Araya mocked. He turned his attention to Toko, his arm still outstretched, his palm open. Toke showed a dissatisfied expression.
"I'm touched that you still remember this. I walked into your little magic trap-a building, just to reminisce. How did you lose to a little guy with such strength?”
"If I hadn't been so careful, I wouldn't have captured her alive. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't need such protection.”
"Araya, I didn't know you had the courage to chase after a girl's corpse.”She leaned an arm heavily against the wall beside her. "I swear, you and A Erba don't have the suspense of a movie. Let me tell you what to do. First of all, monsters shouldn't talk. Secondly, don't explain what it is. Third, it won't die."
The last sentence made Araya's face flash for a moment, then he looked back. Sure enough, a familiar cat was hanging above the hole in the ceiling. Its credibility was not obviously damaged.
"Shu Ku!" Araya stretched out his arm and aimed the spell at someone familiar as quickly as he could, but it was no use. The familiar person cleverly avoided the spell because it jumped out of the path and flew toward the black-robed mage. The familiar figure flew up like a released arrow, its body spread open, the same shape as the mouth that swallowed A Erba. After a while, Alaya returned. Before being swallowed, there was only a faint breath from Alaya's lips, which could be a sign of surprise. Araya was split into two by the creature's chin. All that was left was Araya's shoulders and head, flung aside by the threefold shadow, crashing into the stairs and rolling down in a low, dull motion. In the last moment before Tōkoobs spoke to himself, he noticed the vague expression of horror on his face.
"Mages really should read some of Clausewitz's and their code. Araya, this is how you launch a surprise attack.”She pushed open the wall and began to approach her enemy.
Until she heard a cruel creaking sound. At first she attributed it to some distant place, at least until crimson blood flowed from her lips, coughing and vomiting. As her vision gradually blurred, she looked down and saw an arm clearly extending out of her body. At first, she knew nothing about this matter, but she soon realized that the arm covered in thick blood was a man's arm, and the hand that was holding it was holding a heart.
Her heart.
It was then that she finally realized. A voice whispered in her ear from behind.
"You're right. Insight can be found in the most unlikely places.”His voice was filled with grief, regret, and hatred. Without a doubt, it was Seren Araya's voice.
Blood flowed out of Tōko's mouth in the narrow stream. She asked," That…is a puppet, isn't it? A bait-"
"Yes." Araya hugged her tightly, his eyes focused on her heart.
"But you are real. The anger in his heart was irrefutable. It was so beautiful that it was almost indestructible.”However, he easily crushed the heart with his hand and watched the blood ooze from his fingers. "I guessed the trick from someone you know. It didn't come out of the briefcase, did it? It's just a projection."
The briefcase then collapsed, and the art that had once concealed its essence was now gone. In its place was a projector that still made a sound when it clanged to the floor.
" Clever," he commented. "An artifact made of raw materials, projecting a tangible creature. No wonder my artistic effects aren't as good now. It was foolish of me not to have seen it sooner.”
Toke did not waste his last breath to answer him. Only questions came to her mouth. Questions about her former friends and murderers.
"I didn't…finish it ahead of time. The last question, Araya, what do you want?”
"I don't want it."
They asked the same question, faced with the same answer that had troubled them for years, and this familiarity somehow gave Tiko the willpower to smile one last time. Every breath was accompanied by blood blooming in the air.
I don't desire it. Turk remembered these words. It didn't seem to be a long time ago. At that time, she was still a university cub, and Alicia was just like that. When a master asked the same question to the assembled novices, they mentioned strange and fantastical dreams of glory and discovery. However, Alea expressed her different thoughts. I don't desire it. Even though the newbies thought that this was a sign of his lack of greed and laughed, Tōko did not find anything to take lightly in his answer. There was only a vague sense of fear. It was right that he didn't desire it. He saw ascension as a mission, surpassing the insignificant holy ambitions of other mages and entering into something more personal hidden deep in his heart: De ep and the persistent hatred of the human nature.
"Araya…there's one last piece of advice you need to know.”
"I'm listening. Hurry up, you still have a few precious seconds.”
"You don't know what you want to kill through this experiment.”The only remaining strength that Turk had was directed at her speech. Her mouth was trembling, and her speech was a little blurry. " Bombing the Akashic records means that you must destroy the deterrent force, the common consensus of the human will, and the balance of the world's internal environment.”
"So what?"
Toko's sobs and coughs filled the air, but she said her next sentence as clearly as possible,""Think carefully about which two forces you are fighting.”
"Of course it's a joke. I had long accepted the conflict between my consciousness and the unconscious will of humanity.
"This is the tune of about six billion people. Do you think you control them all until they die? Do you think your beliefs will win?”
" Yes," he answered without hesitation or exaggeration. Toko believed that the worst thing was that Araya might really be able to do it. Although he knew his task was difficult, his confidence in his declaration also showed this point. The last hope she had was weak, but she still believed in it. This was a pure power of contradiction that could break his path of arrogance in a way that even he himself could not explain.
"I pity you, Araya."
"Why?" he asked, but before he could get an answer, Turk's life finally ended in front of him, leaving behind a worthless shell. Araya thought it was a shame to let her brain rot like the rest of her body. Perhaps it was best to preserve it. Then, he would study it. He pulled out the arm that had passed through Turk's body and placed it on his head. His other hand grabbed the dead man's face tightly and twisted it gently. With the creaking of bones, he cut off the head and let the body fall lazily to the floor.
With one hand holding his head, he retreated to the wall that Turk had leaned against before, the wall from which he had come. Despite Turk's best efforts, she had never fully understood the building and its genius design. This was beyond the scope of Araya's will. His example filled every space from floor to ceiling with flesh and blood. Entering the wall was like water meeting water, and he disappeared.
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