[711] Nineteen Thousand Worlds (5)
Soldier Ant — the Thirteenth Night.
Born in the early days when Queen Ganette founded the colony, he had become a battle master who wiped out thousands of enemy ants.
Now he served as captain of Ganette's personal guard, but since he'd been born loving combat, it wasn't unusual for him to personally investigate the appearance of a new intruder.
The Thirteenth Night strode up and probed Shirone with its antennae.
Even though antennae gathered enormous amounts of information, they were ultimately just an evolutionary refinement of the five senses.
Simply running its antennae over Shirone's body couldn't tell the ant what Shirone was thinking.
"Who are you? Why have you invaded Ganette's colony?"
Through the Ultima system, the Thirteenth Night's pheromones were decoded, but Shirone had no way to convey his intentions.
What should he do?
As he considered it, Shirone found a new solution in the ant's antennal probing.
Perhaps—
Shirone slowly raised both hands as if to show he meant no harm, and when he focused, two tendrils resembling ant antennae extended from Armand's robe.
Micro-World Interface.
Given Armand's functions after connecting to countless systems, communicating even with ants might be possible.
"What is this?"
Alerted by the two tendrils brushing its shoulders, the Thirteenth Night went on guard.
It was breath-stealing.
The ant's killing intent was pure chaos, yet so pristine it felt like watching Nade's magic assimilation.
Having seen something like it before, Shirone stayed calmer and cautiously linked the tendrils to the antennae.
"Hng!"
At a mere touch, the two different systems exchanged information and the Thirteenth Night shuddered.
- New language system detected. Building translation program. Creating and emitting interface.
At Armand's signal the robe swelled and an organic sphere bristling with nerve-like filaments popped out.
- Artificial brain unit (language-translation version).
"What have you done to me?"
The alien sensations along its antennae sent the Thirteenth Night into a burst of murderous rage, and it lunged.
"Wait! Now—!"
When the Thirteenth Night charged at incredible speed and its mandibles crossed like twin blades, Shirone jerked his torso back.
"Not bad!"
Seeing the ant curl into a ball, slash with its claws, and spin, Shirone's eyes widened.
This is Kido's...?
Law of the Earth — Ant Hell.
"Kill! Kill! Slaughter the enemy!"
Many ants sprayed pheromones, but the artificial brain unit parsed the signals separately, so Shirone didn't get overwhelmed.
The problem is this ant.
Space around the spinning Thirteenth Night seemed to be swallowed whole.
Soon the scenery itself experienced Denial and the earth twisted into a tangled illusion like skeins of thread.
Whoa...
Shirone was genuinely impressed at the level this nonhuman body had reached.
The world vibrated up and down and the soil rose all around, cutting off every route Shirone could use to escape.
Nothing truly happened, but the world's Laws announced Movement Zero through Denial.
Choeni Bardo!
A hidden Otherworld opened and Shirone's senses detected another route branching off from this world.
"What's this?"
The Thirteenth Night stopped spinning and tilted its head.
It had blocked movement with the Law of the Earth, yet where it expected to find Shirone he wasn't there.
"I don't want to fight."
Sensing the pheromones, the Thirteenth Night trembled and turned—and Shirone was already standing at its back.
...
Countless ants held their breath and watched. Using its extraordinary insect senses, the Thirteenth Night understood.
"You… you're doing the same thing I am."
The Thirteenth Night didn't know how it had acquired the skill to become one with the earth.
It had only fought countless wars and, by returning enemy ants to the soil, had come to understand something about life.
"Yes. I led the same kind of life as you."
Even if their systems were beneath humankind's, Shirone saw no essential difference.
Nothing is insignificant. People just refuse to look closely.
Recalling Miro's teaching, Shirone addressed the Thirteenth Night politely.
"I come from another world. I want to find a way back to my original world. Please take me to your queen."
"To the queen?"
It was fortunate they could converse, but the queen was elderly and the royals were powerful.
But there is no hostility.
In that instant, the nature of Shirone's incarnation conveyed through the tendrils was the sole basis for trust.
"I cannot grant you an audience with the queen."
Only the top ten ranked among the colony's royal female ants could see the queen.
"You could die. The royals are conservative and regard intruders of another species as unclean."
Shirone thought societies were the same everywhere, but he wasn't worried.
"You're the strong one. I can persuade them."
The Thirteenth Night shook its head.
"You don't understand. They aren't to be persuaded. The royals will someday build a colony—"
The ant's pheromones cut off abruptly.
If it's Merot, she might allow it.
Merot, ranked first among the royals, was a beautiful, noble ant adored by the people.
But the nobles—the male ants—competed fiercely for 'engagement'; if a species with separate sexes were brought in, they wouldn't leave it alone.
"There is one way. Take you as a war slave. In that case the nobles won't care."
It remained dangerous, but Shirone had no other options unless he planned to live here forever.
"Fine. I'll leave your treatment to you. Just get me to the queen."
"...Follow me."
When the Thirteenth Night turned, the worker ants parted left and right as if responding to a single signal.
* * *
In front of the Andre Gate.
Kido, facing the Maga bandits, didn't have a second to catch his breath; lack of oxygen had drained his face pale.
I can't. I can't hold on.
After hundreds of strikes he'd taken one down, but thirty-eight had only become thirty-two—virtually no decrease.
To Kido it felt like they weren't falling at all, and the deputy captain's skill was objectively far superior.
"Break through! Punch a hole in their line!"
All Kido could do was desperately use the terrain at the gate to hold them off.
Blade Hell!
He rolled on the ground and swung his spear, forcing the bandits to step back briefly, but his stamina was running out.
Seeing his rotation slow, the deputy captain drew his sword and charged.
"Now! Kill him!"
"Guh!"
In that life-or-death moment when his neck could be cut, Kido had no choice but to give the gate and fall back.
This is bad. If this happens—
With the bandits taking over the open space, the number of enemies they had to face filled out.
"If you beg and lie down quietly, I'll slit your throat in one stroke."
As the deputy captain approached, sword hanging, Kido felt all his strength drain.
I'm not afraid to die. But—
If Kido died, Shirone would die too.
"I went in because I thought you'd protect me."
His hand on the spear trembled and tears spilled; he'd lost the belief he could hold them off.
"You fought well. Now die."
As Shirone's death loomed, Kido felt fear for the first time in his life.
The thought of Shirone dying filled him with overwhelming terror.
I have to protect him.
The goblin's cold chest held another's life like a huge lump of charcoal burning hot.
It's the heart.
"Please—save Shirone. I'll do anything. Don't kill Shirone. He trusted me."
Tears fell and dampened the earth.
…What a pity.
The deputy captain truly felt pity for Kido.
"If you die, you can forget everything."
Granting the only mercy a man could give, he walked forward and raised his sword.
Water. I want to drink water.
As Shirone's life, swallowed into Kido's chest, flared like a blaze, Kido felt a maddening thirst.
"My throat… my throat…!"
"Die."
Just as the deputy captain brought his sword down, Kido snapped his bloodshot eyes open and jerked his head up.
What the—?
The afterimage of the goblin wavered like heat haze and the surrounding ground began to ripple like waves.
Sensing the change, the captain brought his sword down with lightning speed, and at that same instant—
"Gyaaaaaaa!"
The Denied ground revealed an illusion like a swamp and yanked at the bandits' lower bodies.
Law of the Earth — Earthbound Spirit.
"Damn it! What the hell is this? My feet—!"
As the bandits flailed, feeling themselves falling into an endless bog, the deputy captain shouted.
"Snap out of it! It's just an illusion from the Law!"
Gravity, which should act uniformly, had been scrambled so they felt as if sinking into a bog.
Incredible Axing! How could a goblin do this—!
"Gyaaaaaa!"
Kido straightened and stared up at the ceiling with stunned eyes.
It's filling! It's filling!
A cooling rush swept through his chest that had felt scorched to ash, and he tasted the greatest exhilaration of his life.
The goblin's spirit, once trapped in cycles of feeding and breeding, drew in a heart and in that instant expanded into a vaster world.
This is the heart.
Like parched earth soaking up rain, the heart filled with love and Axing's power surged.
"Create distance!"
The deputy captain and his men barely shook off the Axing, but the sensation of walking through a swamp made immediate recovery impossible.
Whirrr. Whirrr.
At the sound of a pipe, everyone looked up and saw Kido spinning his spear, grinning.
Now I understand, Shirone. About being human.
The pipe stopped. Kido readjusted his grip, extended a hand, and beckoned them forward.
"Have a pleasant journey."
Kido had learned what love was.
* * *
Labyrinth of Paitaros.
Nane stood for a moment at the mouth of the black cave where all the world's tainted energies pooled.
Having reached a state of absolute self-sovereignty, he experienced the world dying and being reborn with each blink of his eyes.
Without me, the universe does not exist.
But was that really all?
If the end were simply to close one's eyes, why do we exist in this world at all?
What began from such meager experiences now faced its finale before the question of the universe's value.
The moment he stepped into the labyrinth's darkness he felt an endless falling.
A Law lowland.
Just standing over the hole where corruption was being sucked down made his self feel as if it were collapsing.
Falling means—
No natural cave could form such a deep pit; only one conclusion was possible.
It's the Otherworld.
At last the falling ceased and a foreign landscape utterly unlike reality spread before him.
Blood-red flames burned without fuel, and scorched metal mesh and girders twisted in complex patterns.
"P-please! Somebody save me! Kyaaah!"
"Uwaaah! Kill me instead! Please, just kill me!"
Even as those terrible screams reached him, Nane's face did not change as he walked on.
In a mindscape, physical death did not mean dissolution.
"No! No!"
Monks and explorers who had entered the labyrinth until now were being subjected to horrors that shattered their identities.
Is this hell?
Basement Level One of Paitaros.
It was the hell of lust—one of the seven sins born of humanity's corrupted Law.