[185] 4. Reversal of the Law (6)
Gadrak found the place he'd been looking for not far away.
It was where the valley had sunk and cracked. The fissure was barely wide enough for a person, and a shaft of light descended through the gap.
"Look here."
Gadrak pointed at the center of the glow. The light was unusually concentrated in that one spot. It looked soft like a snowflake, and up close you could see grains of light swirling inside it.
Shirone peered at it and scratched his head. How to explain this? By the nature of light, its particles shouldn't clump together like that on their own.
The Nor folk thought the same.
Gadrak cupped the particles of light in both hands as if to emphasize how strange it was.
"See how the light gathers only here?"
"Yes. But how is that possible?"
"It's what we call jeong—essence. A jeong has settled here."
"So… the essence is gathering the light?"
"No. The light has lingered so long that an essence settled in it. Essence can settle anywhere—wind, water, even thoughts. As long as those thoughts don't change over a very long time."
Shirone thought it was similar to a mana stone.
If a property pools for an extremely long time, the concept of that property can take on substance.
"If an essence stays in one place long enough, it becomes a spirit. A spirit is, basically… an active essence. It can even contract with humans. If you contract with a light spirit, you can draw light's power whenever and wherever. But finding one is like plucking a star from the sky."
Shirone pointed at the cluster.
"So this light will become a spirit someday?"
"Ha. Probably. Maybe in a thousand years—if it doesn't dissipate first."
A thousand years. Far longer than a human life. The time for a property to become an essence was likely similar. Now Shirone understood why Gadrak compared finding a spirit to plucking a star.
"Anyway, we can use this to reach Nor's refuge. Everyone, gather around here."
"The space is narrow—shouldn't some of us go to the other side?"
"It's fine. Come to think of it, earth-magic in that land doesn't have a wide radius. As long as we have a light spirit, we can scale it up. Like this."
Gadrak grabbed the cluster of light. His fist turned golden and the glow crawled up his arm to his shoulder.
It looked like the light would soon spread across his entire body.
Nature's power is vast, so humans borrowing it can expand their scale as needed.
Only the process seemed to take a while.
When the light still hadn't passed his shoulders after a long time, a puzzled glint flashed across Gadrak's eyes.
"Strange. Why is this taking so long? Usually five minutes is enough."
"Master, could the light spirit be weakened?"
"That's not possible. It worked fine three days ago. For an essence's energy to change takes at least hundreds of years. Unless something is weakening it."
"But that can't be. Only one Law exists here. That's why we use it as a midpoint."
From Clove's words, Gadrak understood. It might be paranoia, but looking for other causes when there's only one correct answer would be an even greater delusion.
"Could it be…? But why?"
The light-essence began to tremble. Then the ground, and finally the whole valley shook as if struck by an earthquake.
"What's happening? What's wrong?"
"Get out of here! It's a Law Vortex Serpent! The essence is being disrupted!"
If the cliff collapsed it would crush them, so Shirone's group scrambled out of the fissure.
From outside, the surrounding area was trembling everywhere. With tremors of that scale, whatever it was had to be close.
But scanning around, there was no snake-like thing to be seen.
"Damn it! Where is it? Where's it coming from?"
Rian drew his greatsword and stepped in front of Shirone.
The mages formed a line and assumed combat stances.
Tess focused her senses and scanned. The tremor on the left differed from the tremor on the right. The creature was rounding the corner on the right.
When the ground shook so violently they had trouble keeping their balance, Tess finally felt the oddness. Sense and reality didn't match. With tremors like this, the thing should already be visible.
"T—there! Over there!"
Shirone pointed with a stunned expression.
On a rock three meters away, a small white creature lay on its four legs in an almost endearing posture.
Could that even be a living thing?
It had no eyes, nose, or mouth. Its shape resembled a salamander, but its surface was slick and looked carved from jade.
None of them had ever seen such a white creature in their lives.
"What is that? The Vortex Serpent?"
"It's not that!"
At Gadrak's shout, Shirone stepped back reflexively. As his view cleared, they finally saw it.
A shadow of the Vortex Serpent stretched across the valley. Unbelievably, it was a shadow large enough to cover the entire cliff face.
Shirone looked back at the rock. The salamander-like creature's body shone intensely.
It was enlarging the shadow with the light from its body.
By the time they realized that, the shadow that had sprung from the cliff had formed a huge maw and lunged.
A veil of darkness blinded them. It was so far beyond reason they didn't even feel like they were being attacked.
As Shirone's group was swallowed by blackness, Gadrak, watching from the fissure, shouted.
"Danger!"
Shirone's Radiant Burst exploded.
The moment the light spread, everyone realized a sharp shadow-claw was almost on top of them.
If they'd been a fraction slower, flesh would have been torn away.
Kiaaaaa!
The Vortex Serpent, ripped by the Radiant Burst, screamed.
It was probably a Harvester-type physiology. A creature without a mouth would have no reason to have vocal organs, after all.
When they regained their bearings, everyone could see the serpent's shadow surging back like storm clouds.
They had stopped the first attack—fortunate.
Most prey die from a Vortex Serpent's first strike. Because it traps them in darkness, you can't even see the attack coming.
Amy wiped cold sweat from her brow and asked, "What on earth is that? Is it alive? Is that salamander thing controlling it?"
Gadrak came out of the fissure and said, "No. The Vortex Serpent's true form is the shadow. It has no body. The thing on the rock is just a 'manifestation' its shadow created."
"Where in the world is that possible? A shadow needs a body!"
"That I don't know. We call this a 'Reversal of the Law.' It's an otherworldly species. I don't know where it came from, but it's definitely not from any world we can imagine."
The Vortex Serpent hesitated to approach. Among the humans it had eaten so far, none had emitted light, so caution made sense.
As the manifestation shone, the shadow grew larger. It was like a wild animal puffing itself up in front of a foe.
Shirone realized then: maybe this place wasn't his grave after all.
"It's similar to a wild beast. In its original world it might have been a common predator—cats or rats, something like that. If it were a top predator it wouldn't adopt such defensive behavior."
"Cats? Rats? Are you joking?"
Kanya voiced what everyone thought. But there was one more person besides Shirone who'd grasped the truth.
Kanis.
He watched every motion of the Vortex Serpent with eyes full of wonder.
'It really exists—the world where darkness rules over light.'
Reversal of the Law. Arkein's note had been true.
"Shirone's right. If the rules are inverted, all creatures would exist as shadows. That means the Vortex Serpent itself wasn't necessarily that powerful. Of course, things are different here."
Gadrak scanned the fissure.
As expected, the serpent's Law had been activated, weakening the light essence.
In this state, escape was impossible.
But it wasn't time to give up. The light wave Shirone had used before had been strong enough to force the serpent to back down.
"All right, the immediate danger passed, but stay sharp. Its weakness is light. That's why it doesn't act during the day. I don't know why the Law's skewed, but if we use light magic we have a chance."
Shirone remembered his fight with the Harvester. The lesson from that battle was that darkness doesn't care about shocks. What mattered was the total amount of energy.
When Shirone cast his Photon Cannon, eight photons sprang into irregular positions to his left and right.
All eight flashes slammed into the Vortex Serpent. A terrible scream erupted.
Amy rained down fireballs. Fire, after all, has light, so it should have some effect.
The serpent's shadow caught fire.
But that was only an ant pinching an elephant—utterly negligible. The shadow was enormous to the point of being unfair.
Kanis couldn't even attempt magic. When he tried to use the power of darkness, it only absorbed him.
When like attributes clash, victory is decided by sheer force.
If you can't dominate a darkness greater than your own, you get devoured.
Shirone left his friends' group. If the serpent's veil fell again, things would get truly dangerous.
True to its name, the Vortex Serpent moved by sweeping the space in a wide rotation. When Shirone drove a Photon Cannon into its flank, it writhed in pain and gave chase.
As it suddenly shifted direction, its massive tail swung toward Amy's group.
Clove clutched his head and howled, "Aaagh! It's coming!"
Amy cast Fire Mist. the smoke of flame shielded them, but it wasn't enough to burn the tail.
Just as the tail tried to sweep them away like a broom, Amy added a Fire Wall.
The tail caught fire, but its trajectory didn't change.
Amy bit her lip and increased the firepower. She intended to hold the position, even at the cost of her life.
The tail that had been sweeping toward Amy suddenly veered away, grazing faces as it passed. The serpent had recoiled; it couldn't bear the pain of the flames.
"Shirone!"
Before Amy could catch her breath she screamed.
The Vortex Serpent gaped and swallowed Shirone whole. At the same time the Radiant Burst detonated and the serpent's face split apart.
The Photon Cannon's rapid fire erupted.
Amy estimated it was two hundred shots per minute—something Shirone could easily manage; he'd set the school record on the Speed Gun test.
The rate of fire kept increasing until the line of flashes compressed into a straight beam that pushed the shadow back to the opposite wall.
Shirone had stripped the photons of mass—removing their kinetic impact—so the beam had no blunt force, but it still ate into the serpent's body little by little.
"What kind of magic is that? This is impossible! There's no way that can work!"
Clove couldn't accept the reality unfolding before him, even though it was good their side was winning.
Kanya and Rena were equally stunned.
Unlike the Mecha folk, the Nor can exert great power alone. But none of them had ever seen anything like this, not even in heaven.
Watching Shirone face the feared Vortex Serpent alone was awe-inspiring.
And above all, he was winning. Seeing the serpent flail while stuck to the wall sent a chill through them.
Shirone's flash took on a red tint.
By increasing the Photon Cannon's energy output, he compressed the beam into a single-wavelength laser.
The serpent tried to restore the shadow realm and push the laser back, but that only caused chain explosions that scattered it.
Kiaaaaa!
A ferocious roar.
The Vortex Serpent was afraid.
In its original world it had been a low-level predator. It had passed through a strange tunnel and come to this heaven ten thousand years ago.
With no natural enemies here, it had no reason to evolve—just to live comfortably.
But that comfort was now about to be shattered. By a petty human it had torn apart for fun until now.