Chapter 3: The Last Nail

Chapter 3: The Last Nail

The Last Nail

Far from the holy land, near the western tip of the continent, stood the Grisarika Kingdom in the east.

In a tower separate from the royal castle, the symbol of the capital, lay a girl.

She was petite and skinny, as if stunted from malnutrition. She was in bed, as was typically the case, with dull blond hair spread on her pillow. Although she was the eldest daughter of the royal family, she made no noticeable contributions because of her poor constitution. This quiet princess cut a stark contrast to Ashuna, who stood out, for better or worse.

A cough racked her form. She looked so frail that an onlooker would fear she might give out at any moment.

“This body…is nearing its limits, too…”

As she whispered to herself for no other to hear, she reached for the fist-sized crystal ball at her bedside.

This was no ordinary orb. It was an ancient relic, a Guiding vessel created in an era that prospered through the use of Pure Concepts. The civilization of a thousand years ago was far more advanced than any modern one, and the surviving vessels of that time were highly prized. Most of them possessed functions that were impossible to reproduce with present technology, so the rarer still-functioning relics went for particularly outrageous prices.

The crystal ball she held could inspect a Pure Concept attached to a soul.

After Orwell died, the Faust’s Inquisitors confiscated many of the Grisarika royal family’s possessions. Losing the materials and personnel used to make the summoning circle was fine, but the girl had seen to it that she never parted from this crystal.

There was a reason that some of the ancient relics discovered the world over still functioned without issue after a thousand years.

In the final years of the ancient civilization, researchers found a conjuring construction that could make materials indestructible, essentially developing their Guiding Force mechanisms into something like perpetual motion machines. This crystal was one such example of that technique.

The previous king of Grisarika was executed for the taboo of summoning an Otherworlder. Undoubtedly, he refused to accept that his death was upon him until the moment before he was beheaded. After all, that Otherworlder summoning had been conducted with the assistance of Orwell, the archbishop of Grisarika Kingdom, and this girl’s express permission.

She was a specter of sorts that haunted the Grisarika royal family. However, she was by no means its protector. The now-dead king would never learn that the bedridden girl saw her blood relatives as expendable pawns.

The battle of succession for the Grisarika Kingdom’s throne was already over. Given that the most conspicuous heir, the youngest princess, Ashuna, was absent, the eldest son was set to claim the crown, as was traditional right. And while the girl’s relatives fought tooth and nail over this, she remained quietly in bed.

A princess who contributed nothing. A barely living decoration. A sleeping beauty who had no duties whatsoever.

Most who knew of her believed she was harmless.

But those who were in on her secret understood better.

For in truth, she was the Guardian who’d controlled Grisarika Kingdom for generations.

“Otherworlders…so pitiful and sinful…”

The young yet emaciated woman spoke in an elderly voice and tone as she toyed with the crystal sphere in her hands.

Of late, she had used it to assess two concepts: Null and Time .

The Faust kept everything about the lost ones who came from another world under extremely strict control. In fact, of the two, the Pure Concept of Null had already been put down. In reality, truly dangerous Pure Concepts—the sort powerful enough to threaten the world—were incredibly rare.

In all of history, only four Human Errors had reached a level of strength that made them impossible to combat, even on a global scale.

Star , to the north, had long since been dyed white and become a husk, presently wandering harmlessly. Evil , sealed by fog in the southern ocean, could destroy humanity by releasing copies of Pandemonium to run rampant. The enormous Dragon , struck low by the Sword of Salt, might have once been able to physically destroy the planet. And Vessel , now in the Mechanical Society in the eastern Wild Frontier, would be terrifying, given near-infinite time.

When a Pure Concept became a Human Error, its power swelled tremendously. However, the concept’s nature and how it interacted with the world were the most important aspects.

Only a few Pure Concepts could affect existence in a fundamental way— Time , for instance.

“…Hrmm.”

Abruptly, the girl pushed her blankets aside and stood.

It was much too quiet outside.

Yes, this tower had been purposefully built in a peaceful area, but silence that almost hurt the ears was abnormal. She walked to the window at a slow shuffle, listlessly leaning on the windowsill to look outside.

The world had stopped.

Every flying bird, falling leaf, and working human in the castle was frozen.

It was a conceptual suspension of time itself. Applying physical providence to a conjuring phenomenon caused by Guiding Force would be absurd.

“I suppose a fifth is to be born, then.”

She’d already dispatched Experion to the holy land. Whatever happened in the Magician’s city, whatever her master the Lord did, it mattered not so long as Ashuna could be retrieved in time.

A thousand years ago, when the flourishing ancient civilization used Pure Concepts to experiment with endless life, there were four survivors.

The Director was granted physical immortality by transplanting the young and feeble Pure Concept of Evil . The Magician was an entity fabricated using the large and powerful Pure Concept of Dragon to forge the ideal Guiding Force construction and give it a physical body. Like the Pure Concept Star , the Astrologer was reborn endlessly, thanks to an indestructible soul.

And the Guardian in Grisarika Kingdom was the result of experiments to use the forever-multiplying Pure Concept of Vessel to form an immortal spirit. She could transfer her consciousness when her physical body perished, though this was limited to members of her own bloodline.

Claiming this form had been a mistake. In its golden age, it was lovely and wonderfully healthy, but now it was in shambles.

She left the window and returned to her bed. That alone was enough to exhaust her strength.

“Ashuna is my precious, beloved next body, after all.”

There was no need to fret over Ashuna. The girl’s puppet, Experion, was there.

If anything, she was more concerned about events to the east.

The horrible Human Error at work there was spreading a dimension of its own providence that would eventually be capable of devouring a person who’d lived for a thousand years by transferring her spirit from one body to the next.

The White Night in the east, and the White Fog in the south.

The two barriers holding different Major Human Errors at bay were slowly cracking. The thousand-year-old cages would surely break with the weight of the World Suspension on top of that.

The Guardian nesting in Grisarika Kingdom lifted her crystal ball as if to read the future.

“And here you could have simply stayed inside until the planet met its end… Oh, how bothersome.”

The girl scowled with resentment for one too similar to herself.

The Mechanical Society stood in the eastern Wild Frontier.

This artificial world, wrapped in the White Night of a midnight sun, escaped the Suspension enacted by the Human Error of Time to continue its usual busy routine.

At the heart of this domain that could not be touched by Time stopping the world, someone groaned “Annoying…”

It kept multiplying, even while all else had frozen.

Hearts, emotions, personalities, spirits, souls, all increasing by the second. They had to keep vomiting it all up, or they’d lose sight of themself. Actually, for all they knew, they’d lost that ages ago. Did what they thought of as a self genuinely belong to them? Maybe their so-called real persona had broken away and become independent amid all this multiplying. They didn’t know. There was no way of knowing. They couldn’t tell if they were male or female, an individual or a colony, a self, or another entirely.

That was how long they’d been multiplying.

For this was a failed experiment that dated back even further than a thousand years.

The test commenced before the library facility called the Star Memory was born. It was an alteration, an attempt to combat the consumption of memories that came with using a Pure Concept.

When someone loses their recollection, their personality perishes, too. The idea was to add more personalities to replace the one destroyed by using a Pure Concept and thus stop the creation of a Human Error.

The experiment was a failure.

Adding more personalities crushed the human mind. The spirit that existed before the personas were heaped on was overwhelmed. Soon, Vessel was beyond control.

The original, still human at the time, had fought desperately to maintain a sense of individuality. By cutting off the new personalities as soon as they were born, the isolated portion became a Human Error and continued to be born. The one stroke of good luck was that each of the separated and multiplying personalities amounted to a very small-scale Human Error.

The three primary colors were generated endlessly from this process.

Taking the form of crystals not unlike ore, they were the soul, spirit, and body of that which continued to multiply.

Red, green, blue—crystals in three colors kept dropping from the original body. The colors of the heart. Every one of them was a Vessel containing the nature of a Human Error.

None amounted to a whole human being individually. They were fragments of what had once been a person. They possessed no destructive power and didn’t produce conceptual distortions. The Pure Concept of Vessel simply expanded the maximum capacity as the original continued to multiply. Each time one Vessel Human Error was born, the world became just the tiniest bit smaller.

Eventually, far too many of the tiny cuttings combined into a personality.

They were no more than excess detached material, yet they became sentient beings with greater emotional range than the original.

The Primary Color conjured soldiers.

They were the only nonhuman intelligent life in this world. Unlike the demons from Original Sin Conjurings, which used humans as a base, these were a life-form entirely their own.

They never left the Mechanical Society, always mining the original for materials to build up their world. They separated it into thirteen zones, with the location of the original at the heart. And there were already plans to take development to the next stage. The Three Primary Color beings had no qualms about cutting away the planet itself.

The things the original had created were constructing a world far beyond what that self had imagined.

“Argh, so annoying…”

Even the suspension of time could not halt the accursed multiplication. It went on endlessly like an ever-multiplying perpetual motion machine, hence the name Mechanical Society.

Only the White Night kept the growth separate from the rest of the planet.

White had created the artificial sun back in their heyday, an endlessly rotating alabaster wheel, and now it was on the verge of tumbling down beneath the weight of piled-up time.

It would spill out into the world. If this endless night broke, the weight of the excessive multiplication would bear down on the lands beyond. If that burden that had slowly grown over a millennium suddenly pressed down on the planet, it would create an impact that might knock the world off its axis and upset its rotation.

That was how much the original had multiplied.

However, the Mechanical Society didn’t wish to hurt the planet.

It was all so frustrating. They could do nothing but increase. They couldn’t reduce anything. No matter how much they discharged, the original couldn’t keep up. It kept growing, like the slow expansion of the universe since the big bang.

“Ahh… So annoying…”

This self would continue to multiply until all became one, and it could only complain about the contradictions.

They had reservations toward the world, but no malicious intent. The active threat to the world was far to the south, where a beast lurked in the fog.

“Ah-ha-ha!”

A youthful, innocent giggle echoed.

Fog spread over the ocean from the southernmost tip of the world’s only continent. This was far beyond the southern port town of Libelle. The cherubic voice that danced through the air carried more ill portent than any malicious growl.

The fog strained around the little girl as she giggled, shoulders shaking with glee. The barrier tried to resist the planet’s suspension. Two equally matched concepts clashed and struggled for supremacy. Mist swirled and coiled while all else was frozen in time.

The powerful fog barrier that was unaffected by the previous world regressions faltered.

Cracks had formed already. Pandemonium watched as the mist thinned, finally allowing a glimpse of the blue sky, and her heart soared.

First, she would wreak havoc on the suspended world.

The idea of a monster rampaging while everything was stuck in place was wonderful and very fitting of a B-movie. Even a conjuring strong enough to stop the entire world would be no match for monsters born of the Pure Concept of Evil that had survived the poisonous isolation of a thousand years. The global-scale Time conjuring was far easier to move through than the Ivory barrier that had been made specifically to seal Pandemonium.

Imagine a world crawling with monsters while every village, town, and city was frozen. Surely there were a handful of humans who’d still be able to move for whatever reason in the time-halted world, and those chosen few champions would fight desperately against the monsters.

What a contrived heroic tale. She couldn’t wait to make it a reality.

“Come on! You’re almost there! You can do it, Time !”

She danced and twirled in place, eagerly awaiting all hell breaking loose, as she cheered for the newly born Human Error.

The Human Error that had once been Akari Tokitou stood in a frozen world.

Having become Time itself, she thought only to normalize time.

She had to make the hands of the clock match. The world had strayed off course because of the many regressions. Now that she embodied the concept, she had to force the planet’s time to match hers.

Those who fought against natural time and set the hands of the world’s clock astray…had defied providence for too long.

Time had to be equal for all. Some individuals finding a loophole was unacceptable. If anyone was still moving, she would Suspend them for good.

The facade of the Human Error of Time , trapped in the tuning of the clock, was one such example.

A sound echoed in the frozen world.

Everything was at a standstill.

No wind whispered, no dust stirred. Every living and nonliving thing, solid, liquid, and gas, was locked into the prison of unmoving time formed by the conceptual conjuring.

The world came to a halt.

Master Flare, who Menou had been fighting only a moment before, was no exception.

Yet Menou maintained her consciousness in the world that a tyrannical Human Error had frozen. She tried to turn her head and realized her body was trapped like all else. She couldn’t even blink. Still, her body’s inner workings functioned just fine.

Why was Menou still aware while caught in a Time conjuring powerful enough to stop the entire world?

There was only one possible explanation: the Guiding Force connection between Menou and Akari.

The link that temporarily allowed them to essentially merge souls gave Time a significant effect on Menou. When Akari became a Human Error, the concept of Time overflowed and threatened to infect Menou, ironically allowing her to escape the World Suspension conjuring.

So if she allowed it to take even more hold over her…

Menou drew the Pure Concept further into herself. She suspected her memories might fade immediately, but the Pure Concept that spilled from Akari’s soul to Menou simply existed as it was.

Menou wrapped the concept of Time around herself. The conjuring manipulation, which required intense concentration, felt surprisingly similar to using Guiding Enhancement.

The act was akin to changing her essence. Menou let her nature, once blanched white and never tainted, be dyed by the colors that she pulled from Akari.

She went on doing this for longer than could be counted.

Of course, not a single second passed for the world. While everything else remained suspended, Menou’s body regained its freedom.

The concept of Time colored Menou’s flesh.

She was careful not to let the Pure Concept’s effects extend to her body. Instinctually, she could tell she wouldn’t lose any memories, so long as she refrained from using a Pure Concept conjuring.

Finally, she managed to take a step forward. The air felt incredibly heavy. The salt was like hard ice when her foot came down on the ground. Yet where Menou planted her boot, the grains trembled slightly.

Slowly, numbly, Menou walked through the time-stopped world.

She intuited that the phenomenon around her wasn’t limited to this area.

The entire world had stopped.

Time was frozen for everything.

Akari had used Suspension before, but never on such a massive scale. Previously, it only stopped time for the person struck by the Guiding Light she shot from a finger. It was a powerful conjuring, of course, but its range was limited.

This conjuring used the same Pure Concept, but on an entirely different scale.

Akari’s Pure Concept was out of control. She’d become a Human Error. Her memories, personality, and humanity were gone.

Menou had to accept this horrible reality. She keenly regretted separating from Akari, even if it was only temporary.

They’d only just shared and supplemented her memories. Someone must have interfered, causing Akari to lose control, and Menou would make them pay. She was going to find the culprit and punish them, and nothing would stop her.

As she made this vow, Menou continued recovering her ability to move in the frozen time.

There was something else she had to do before she could hunt down the mastermind, so she kept pushing forward, using her anger and regret as fuel.

“Akari…”

It was like dragging herself forward through mud. Menou trudged onward through the dense air, forcing herself ahead.

When she managed to call the girl’s name, Akari reacted at last. The expressionless Human Error pointed a finger at Menou.

She was obviously about to attack.

Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Human Suspension]

It happened in an instant.

The Pure Concept of Time landed a perfect hit on Menou’s shoulder. It was a concept conjuring that increased the power of Suspension by limiting it to human targets. Menou didn’t fight its effects. She absorbed the Pure Concept properties trying to influence her body and let them become part of her. The Time conjuring attached to her faded as though drained.

Menou’s nature became a shade closer to the Pure Concept’s.

While she managed to avoid suspension, Menou’s mind wasn’t completely intact. Her thoughts stalled to the point of sluggishness. A deep fatigue filled her body and reduced her strength by nearly half.

“…?”

The Human Error that looked like Akari tilted her head, perhaps noticing that her conjuring hadn’t entirely worked. Different Pure Concepts canceled each other out, but she didn’t seem to understand that her own concept was being wielded against her.

Menou’s movements in suspended reality were slow. Akari didn’t react, even though she likely could have dealt with this anomaly in multiple ways. Menou could only guess why she didn’t respond. It was a mistake to expect logic from a Human Error anyway. Just as Pandæmonium acted on the whims of Evil itself, Akari was kept motionless because the hands of Time directed her that way.

She had truly become a Human Error.

Even as the situation cast her into despair, Menou still had a shred of hope.

Akari’s memories lived within Menou.

She’d received all of them during their mutual Guiding Force connection before they came to the land of salt. If she could reconnect their souls again, Menou could send those memories from her spirit back into Akari. Surely, that would return Akari to her senses.

Knowing deep down that she was probably being overly optimistic, Menou pushed on anyhow.

Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Fracture]

This time, likely because the suspension hadn’t worked to her liking, Akari used a more direct attack that affected space itself. Menou couldn’t move well enough in the frozen time to dodge it entirely. The best she could do was lean out of the way.

An impact like being struck by a hammer knocked her backward. It collided with her shoulder. Curiously, it was the exact spot where she’d been injured in the battle with Master Flare in the holy land a few days ago. The nearly healed wound was opened again, accompanied by a spray of blood.

Menou certainly wasn’t unharmed, but if Akari’s conjuring had struck with full force, she would’ve lost her entire arm.

Perhaps, even as a Human Error, Akari unconsciously held back against Menou. No, it couldn’t be anything so romantic. The true answer was likely that the Time conjuring had a lessened effect on Menou.

Akari seemed to mechanically note that it was more effective than Suspension . She fired more shots in succession.

Menou’s stomach, thighs, face, arms, and sides were all hit. Each blow sent a powerful impact rippling through her.

It didn’t matter, though. Menou kept dragging herself forward. Why let an attack that merely inflicted pain stop her? Blood dripped from her shoulder, but that wasn’t an issue. It wasn’t enough blood loss for her to lose consciousness. She could keep going.

Menou’s blood stood out starkly on the white salt below. Her feet dragged through it, creating a crimson path behind her. She refused to yield, and a grating crunch accompanied each step.

Menou and Akari were linked. Everything would be fine. She told herself only what she wanted to hear.

Eventually, she was close enough to reach out and touch Akari.

The girl’s face was utterly blank, bereft of her usual constantly changing expressions. There was no indication of sanity in her round eyes, no vitality in her soft, sweet face and body. It was clear that no human emotion remained. This Akari was no different from the ticking clock that floated above them.

The Akari that beamed when she saw Menou was no more.

And since Akari wouldn’t smile, Menou forced herself to grin at her instead.

“You idiot… This isn’t like you at all…”

Normally, Akari would have puffed up her cheeks at the word “idiot” and declared that Menou was being mean. The exchange that had become customary on their shared journey together was gone.

That made it painfully obvious that Menou’s words weren’t reaching Akari.

Menou bit her lip.

She’d known, of course. After a Pure Concept went out of control, the person wouldn’t come back, no matter what anyone said to them. No matter how close a family member, friend, or lover had been, they never got through to a Human Error.

It was pure vanity to hope she might accomplish something no one else had.

So Menou pushed nearer and embraced Akari.

There was no reaction. The Human Error that was once Akari didn’t return the gesture, instead standing with her arms hanging limply at her sides. She wasn’t even attacking with conjurings anymore.

Nothing changed. That was a given.

No human touch could restore a Human Error. If this problem could be solved with sentiments and emotions, Executioners wouldn’t target Otherworlders, and Menou would never have needed to kill them.

“Why did it have to end up this way…?”

Her journey with Akari had been fun, despite the difficulties on the way.

Upon seeing the countless ways Akari had relived their time together, Menou felt the full force of her emotions. She’d finally found what was most important to her through the Guiding Force connection that allowed them to know one another fully. And she’d challenged Master Flare to separate herself from her old way of life. And now it had come to this.

Menou couldn’t make any hopes and dreams come true after all, it seemed.

Was this divine punishment for her grievous sins?

The moment Menou realized how precious this person was to her, she stood to lose her in the worst possible way. Menou fell into despair, with only the barest thread of salvation dangling above. She even felt as if fate itself was telling her that she deserved to suffer for having taken so many innocent lives.

Villains were supposed to suffer. She knew that, whether she wanted to or not. It was only fitting for them to be punished. Menou’s crimes were so severe that even being killed by each of the lost ones she’d murdered wouldn’t be enough.

But even if that was what she deserved…

“Don’t drag Akari into it…!”

Her anger came out in a cry. Suddenly, she was blinded with rage. The blood rushed to her head, and she gnashed her teeth.

Akari had been caught in Menou’s murder and villainy. That was true enough. Menou couldn’t argue with that. However, she couldn’t accept that a good person like Akari was being punished alongside her. She refused to consider that fair treatment.

They were friends.

Akari cared deeply about Menou. She valued Menou. She accepted her and told her that her beliefs hadn’t been in vain.

Thanks to Akari, Menou finally chose to pursue a way of life that would permit her to live.

Guiding Force: Connect—

To take back everything that was so precious to her, Menou sent Guiding Force through every point of contact with Akari to hopefully send the girl’s memories back to her…

S?T?i?K???Pure Concept [Time]—

Menou was struck silent.

Akari was no longer there.

Menou was looking at her, touching her, but the person in Menou’s arms wasn’t Akari at all. It was like a bottomless pit devouring the planet. Her body, spirit, and soul—the Pure Concept had overwritten all three components of life. A world of power that extended farther than the scattered stars of the galaxy. The memories Menou tried to share through their Guiding Force connection were consumed by the World Suspension conjuring, devoured without a trace.

The concept of Time bared its fangs through their link and even sought to attack Menou’s memories.

“Ah!”

Menou fought off the force that threatened to eat her consciousness and make her disappear, barely managing to drag herself back into her own body.

She took a single, staggering step away.

Was it really over?

Menou couldn’t look Akari in the face, instead hanging her head, knowing that if she saw that sterile expression, she would be crushed by undeniable reality.

Her last chance at salvation was snuffed. Menou’s hope became anguish, and weakness showed on her face.

As the planet’s concept of Time , Akari was now one with the temporal axis of the world. And the many regressions had left this planet off course.

The Human Error in front of Menou was trying to correct the inconsistencies and make the hands of the clock match by stopping time for the entire world.

Even now that Akari had been overtaken by her Pure Concept and become a Human Error, her Guiding Force link with Menou yet remained. Thus, Akari was adrift somewhere in the galaxy-like vastness of the infinite concept of Time .

Still, Menou couldn’t sense Akari’s feelings, and the Guiding Force connection she’d hoped to use was now only a path for the Pure Concept of Time to invade Menou’s soul. What would happen if the Pure Concept swallowed Menou, too? If the memories she’d inherited from Akari were destroyed, Menou would lose herself and her only means of bringing Akari back as well. Then there would be two bodies consumed by the Pure Concept of Time .

The long hand and the short hand together.

An irrational sentence came to her mind. The wordplay bordered on a non sequitur, yet for some reason, it seemed to point toward the truth.

Her plans in shambles, Menou glanced back toward the way she’d come.

The world was still frozen, and the only path in the white expanse was Menou’s, dyed red from her dripping blood.

This was why she kept living. Her red-stained course stopped upon meeting Akari.

Could she really not take a single step beyond this?

Menou had been dreaming.

She dreamed of a life with Akari where they both survived. There were no secrets between them, thanks to their Guiding Force connection. If one smiled, the other would be happy, and that happiness would be shared with the other equally. Menou knew about all of the journeys Akari had repeated, and Akari knew about Menou’s past as an Executioner.

That allowed them to accept each other.

She had chosen a path that would permit them to continue living together, and she could continue talking with Akari as a friend.

It was a dream so foolish that Menou might have laughed had someone else suggested it, and she’d been too embarrassed to admit it to Akari. Now it would never come true.

From the moment Menou realized she wasn’t alone, she felt they could make their wish a reality together.

And as soon as she started to believe in this, Menou was filled with so much anticipation that she thought herself capable of the impossible.

Yet maybe she’d been correct the first time: Someone who took the life of another lost all rights to have their dream come true.

Was it impossible? Menou couldn’t do it alone, but what about someone else? What about Momo, Sahara, Ashuna, Manon, or even…Master Flare?

“Ahh…”

An idea took form.

Menou had found inspiration, a new approach. This possible solution sparkled like a supernova. The answer arose, more vivid than any Primary Color, and Menou shuddered.

Her hands shook with fear. A shiver ran down her spine at the sinfulness of her own mind’s suggestion.

She’d been fighting Master Flare so she wouldn’t have to do such things… However, there was no clear alternative.

“…Ah-ha-ha.”

Menou laughed at herself bitterly as she sank to the ground.

Landing on her knees, she dug her fingers into the ground like a child.

The land beneath had once been an entire continent. How had it turned into salt? Why was this infinite expanse isolated so far from everything else? The half-formed notion that had flitted through Menou’s mind when Master Flare activated a conditional conjuring was now connected, complete.

Soon, her fingertips nudged against a brittle lump. As soon as she felt it, she knew for sure.

This…was the only option left.

Her hands went still.

Menou steadied her resolve. Her mind was resolute. The girl before her had lost all semblance of the Akari Menou had known. Yet Akari was inside her somewhere.

“Listen, Akari.”

Knowing this might be the end, Menou spoke carefully, fighting off a flood of emotions.

“If this fails…you know.”

Menou had shared memories with Akari through their Guiding Force connection. As a result, she knew everything that had happened to the other girl.

The incident in the ceremonial hall in Garm, for instance.

When Menou and Akari were separated and the ceremonial conjuring Blanch activated, its white liquid resisted Akari’s Suspension conjuring.

Since Pure Concepts were taboo, this phenomenon rarely occurred, but the collision between two Pure Concepts nullified both of their conjurings.

“If it doesn’t work…I’ll take responsibility.”

Menou dug out the lump she’d found in the ground, pinching it delicately between her fingers. She handled the little object delicately, as though it were a poison that could slay a human with a single drop.

Master Flare making a point of destroying the Sword of Salt right in front of Menou before their battle was odd. At the time, Menou assumed it was a performance to rattle her nerves, but it was much more.

“So don’t worry.”

Full of caution, care, fear, and determination, Menou pulled the object out of the ground with all her might.

A spray of salt erupted. A small blade emerged from the tiny fractures.

White and brittle—the Sword of Salt.

Menou had watched the weapon shatter. The part of it sticking from the ground had been broken to pieces, and those fragments were deliberately stomped into dust. Menou had watched the ancient sword, protected for a thousand years, be destroyed.

It had been thrust into the land of salt, and everything aboveground was smashed and melted into the water. However, this meant the tip of the blade had remained stuck underground.

The sword fragment moved smoothly in Menou’s hand. It was far lighter in the air than Menou, who was still partly limited by the effects of the Suspension . It cut through Time itself, even without Menou’s help. The Sword of Salt resisted and rent all concepts. Menou had never handled it before, but she understood that the blade’s effects were unstoppable.

As an Executioner, Menou had sought out this blade to kill Akari, who was otherwise invincible, thanks to her ability to regress time.

“It’ll be fine.”

Brandishing the blade that could cut through any Pure Concept, Menou made a vow.

“No matter what happens…”

She wielded the deadly weapon not to kill but to make one last move to let Akari live.

That said, this was definitely a gamble, for this blade was too strong.

If Menou made the slightest mistake handling it and injured herself, there would be no saving her. Still, she leveled that unspeakably dangerous blade at her very first friend.

“No matter what anyone says or does…”

There was no point in hesitating. She’d made this decision long ago.

Menou had resolved to survive with Akari, but she’d sworn to be the one to kill her friend if she ever became a Human Error that would destroy the world.

She’d promised that the two of them would continue living together.

“From here on out, no matter what Time may bring…”

If the worst came to pass, and she had to break that oath, the least she could do was die with her instead.

“…I’ll always be your friend, Akari.”

Menou drove the tip of the Sword of Salt into Akari’s chest, with all her feelings behind the thrust.

Ah, this might not work.

When she felt what happened next, Menou nearly resigned herself.

The Sword of Salt cut in far too easily.

Had she missed the mark? Menou drew her hand back halfway in despair, and the blade in Akari’s chest went motionless.

The blade stopped, held by static time.

It worked. Menou nearly rejoiced, then stared in shock.

Akari’s chest was transforming into salt. Her knees buckled, and she crouched, as though the weight of it were unbearable.

Apparently, it had been too reckless a wish.

The blood drained from Menou’s face. However, the salt was progressing very slowly. The Suspension was affecting its strength, although not enough to halt it completely.

The Human Error of Time grasped the blade with both hands but did not pull it out. There was no point now that the transformation had begun. It had already spread a finger joint’s length past the part of her chest that had been initially affected.

Menou squeezed her eyes shut, unwilling to watch.

She didn’t wish to see it.

How could she watch Akari turn to salt?

But she felt it was her duty.

She had to witness the fate she’d brought upon Akari.