When Fu Hua's voice, long unheard, finally echoed in his ears, who could possibly understand the sense of salvation that washed over Shu?
To hell with that damn salvation!
Shu desperately wanted to turn and see where Fu Hua was. He wanted to use his active perception to find her, believing that if he could just locate her, he might still have a chance to interrupt this second Taixu Sword God.
But Li Sushang's sword had been charging for the better part of the entire match! She had been holding it in even longer than Theresa, whom he had tossed into the sea.
Even though the strike hadn't broken through his defenses, it still pressed down on his head with crushing force, preventing him from even turning.
Two authorities were still assaulting him. Bianka's [Hope] was running rampant inside him, inciting rebellion under the guise of being an "ally." The rest of his defenses were concentrated on his head, resisting Li Sushang's Taixu Sword God.
He had no strength left to stop Fu Hua!
"The extreme of change, the wonder of all things is in words—it cannot be questioned by form!"
The second Taixu Sword God arrived, after all. The second greatsword descending from the sky fused with Li Sushang's the moment they touched.
In that instant, the blinding light that erupted from the illusory greatsword forced everyone to shut their eyes. Only Shu stared in disbelief at the blade's edge, mere inches away, his pupils constricting, his body rigid.
CRACK—
The frozen ocean shattered violently. The sea split down the middle, its two halves falling away to the sides. Beneath the ice, molten lava, melted by the scorching sword, was revealed. The entire sea was transformed by this single strike into two immense, incompatible, and untouchable sheets of ice.
If anyone could still open their eyes on the sea's surface and look towards the horizon, they would see a distinct notch in the curved line of the sea.
And a notch had appeared somewhere else as well... in Shu's mental defenses.
The gap was insignificant. The gap was fleeting. The gap was negligible.
But this gap was enough for the Book of Time to invade his consciousness. The time it took for the gap to close was enough for Seele to turn a page in the open book!
At this moment, the authority of [Memory] was no longer a supporting power, clinging to him from some unknown corner just to affect him for an instant.
At this moment, two Taixu Sword Gods had paved the way for it. Three absolute main forces had pinned him down for it, creating this opportunity that seemed to be the result of exhausting every possibility, every scheme.
But in reality, only Bronya, the supreme commander of this battle, understood that this was the result brought about by 8,128 "IFs"—
An [inevitability]!
No matter what Shu did, no matter what he chose to do, no matter how many tricks he still had hidden up his sleeve, all his "possibilities" had already been enumerated in those 8,128 files.
["You said... I would lose something. What did I lose?"] As the authority of [Memory] flooded his consciousness, Shu somehow managed to precisely capture this single scene from the corner of his churning memories.
What did I lose?
My childhood?
But what does childhood represent? An ideal without substance? Logic that defies reason? Or a perception devoid of truth?
What is it?
Only at this moment did Shu understand what he had truly... "gained."
["The world of adults is a very boring place, you know." In a trance, it was as if someone whispered in his ear. The voice was familiar, yet strangely alien. It seemed to be a weathered old man, yet it also sounded like a youth of twenty-five or twenty-six.
"Why do you say that?" Shu asked in return.
"Because adults just wait to rot in the boring routine of their two-point lives," the voice sneered, as if to itself.
"'Being bound by those around you, dragged into the mire to rot with them, and they name this change, whose end can be seen at a glance—'"
"Growing up."]
What everyone wanted to prove to him wasn't their growth, wasn't their ability to escape his protection...
Their true intention had always been to help Shu find his weakness! Was it his soft-heartedness? His hesitation? Or his overprotective nature?
It was his life, calculated and exhausted by a mere 8,128 documents!
Why could a person... such a powerful person, have only 8,128 documents, only less than two hundred thousand possible futures?!
Otto refused to accept this answer. He had been in contact with Future City's Sequence Zero; he knew what a person's "future" should look like.
He also knew that the probability of "a person's future having only 8,128 documents" was lower than the probability of the "Quantum Cluster Computer" malfunctioning!
But this was the answer of reality, the unchanging answer given by the Quantum Cluster Computer after thirteen repeated calculations—this was Shu's future.
But Otto still didn't believe it.
He had to verify it. Even if it meant deploying all his forces, putting the entire newly established base at risk, Otto had to do everything in his power to verify the authenticity of this data.
He hoped that Shu would slap him hard in the face, that he would beautifully defeat everyone with an unexpected move, that he could easily tear apart the arrangements they had prepared for so long.
He knew that Shu's former world was very different from his current one. This difference appeared in development, history, and even cultural products.
Even if Shu used some ability he had never seen before, perhaps from some anime, or a movie, manga, or novel, he could jump out of the predictions of those 8,128 documents.
As long as he did that, it would prove that the problem was with the quantum technology computer, and not Shu...
But when Shu, just as predicted in an inconspicuous line of those 8,128 documents, left the scepter and the [Vision] authority in the base because all forces had left, Otto knew—he had probably already lost.
And Shu... was also [destined] to lose. No matter how he struggled, he would ultimately lose. He could not escape those 8,128 documents.
Shu's consciousness had become dull, blurred, and chaotic under the washing of the Book of Time.
The [Hope] within him desperately wanted to resist, to drive out all the external forces, but after grabbing them by the collar and asking around, he found that they were all fucking allies!
Am I... going to lose?
Under the washing of memory, the churning memories soon turned into a blank slate. His dull consciousness was left with only this one concept.
All information obtained from the outside world was mercilessly intercepted by [Memory] the moment it entered his brain. Only one piece of information was sent in by [Hope], which was willing to kill a thousand by mistake just to get it through.
The [White Cell] was assembled, but Shu still did not act. He only learned of this concept. Controlled by the Book of Time, he could do nothing but repeatedly ponder the meaning of "White Cell."
White Cell... is it a cell? What is a cell? And what is white?
No... that's not right...
A White Cell seems to be a kind of weapon?
Weapon...
Weapon...
...
Not far away, Rita, who had finally completed the assembly, let out a long sigh. Then, looking at Shu, whose expression had become dazed, she chose to activate the full power of the White Cell without any hesitation, just as planned.
It was as if... Rita, or rather Bronya who had issued the command, didn't care at all that within the attack range of the White Cell, there were three equally exhausted teammates