Depths of the Abyss (1)
Kaden threw everything he had into it, but in the end his fist cut only empty air.
"Huh? Empty air?"
His motion halted, and the people in the banquet hall were busy scanning the room in confusion.
"What the—? What's happening?"
It wasn't just Marcus—everyone's positions in the hall had shifted.
Uorin frowned.
"Kugh."
Shirone caught the expression, but assessing the situation came first.
"Could it be that just now—"
"I don't know."
Lupist shook his head.
"Something definitely happened, but I don't know what. Was I standing next to you?"
Shirone pieced his memory together.
'How I got here. I left my room, walked the corridor, and met Lupist…'
When he finished replaying it, a chill ran down his spine.
'It definitely moved.'
He was displaced about three centimeters from where his memory had placed him.
And digging deeper, that was the smallest movement among those whose positions had changed.
'It wasn't forced movement.' If anything moved people, it would be the mind.
'I came here of my own will. Some effect happened that altered my mind.'
It felt as if, like the Sibulsang-Pokmae phenomenon, one of two possible events had been chosen.
So those without the Si-pok sensation would be left with an awkward déjà vu.
Lupist asked, "Can you explain it?"
"I have a guess. But what's incomprehensible is the scale."
The Sibulsang-Pokmae only causes changes where Shirone's actions take effect, but—
'Now everyone's positions shifted. In short, the whole event has been twisted.'
This wasn't a matter of ordinary Si-pok power.
"If the wills of hundreds were twisted at once, that's the result. Who could do this?"
"…Right."
Lupist propped his chin on his hand.
"You're right—it's not teleportation. I'm standing here by my own choice too. But I have no memory of coming here. I was definitely over there."
He pointed to a corner of the hall.
"Flu was beside me, and I was meeting with the Mun Kingdom official. My memory is clear. The problem is, even so, I feel like I came here by my own will."
"That's the point."
Is it possible to accept that your position suddenly changed even though you have no memory of it?
"There's a similar case," Shirone said, recalling a man's face.
"Shagal of the Quick Sword. His life was filled with memories implanted by Ra Enemi. That caused him to become a murderer, and he ended up in hell."
"So in the end, we've all experienced the same kind of phenomenon as Shagal. Different degrees, but analogous."
"Yes. Shagal lost his whole life. In any case, altering the cause to control the result requires authority at an Anke Ra level."
Lupist summarized, "So what happened is an ability that alters minds and quantum signals. And its power…"
His gaze dropped to the floor.
"…was strong enough to shift Yahweh's mind by three centimeters?"
Putting aside how much others had moved, Shirone himself had barely changed position.
Someone whose steps never waver—that even such a being had shifted a little was serious.
Lupist muttered, "The system has changed…"
Shirone thought the same, but this time he kept silent.
'This is definitely an outside-world effect. It's premature to share information.'
Of course, someone already knew, and likely one of them had reached the correct conclusion.
'Uorin.'
When Shirone turned, she was already hurrying out of the banquet hall.
"Still, one question remains."
Lupist asked, "Yes. It's the result of everyone's wills being altered. Minds were twisted and I'm standing here. But if that's the case—"
He pointed at Kaden.
"Why did he swing his fist? If Marcus wasn't in front of him, his right hand shouldn't have moved, right?"
'Yeah, that's odd.'
As Shirone turned, Kaden squinted at his right hand.
'What did I do?'
Kaden retained the memory of Marcus teasing Maya, but he accepted that Marcus wasn't actually there.
'I just imagined it. That guy never actually came to me. So why did I—'
Why did he try to attack Marcus?
'Could anger arise from mere thought? Really?'
His right hand gave no answer.
While everyone shared the confusion, Fermi's cold stare fixed on Kaden.
'So that was it.'
One of the keywords from Apocalypse that hadn't been analyzed yet came to Shirone.
'Prison-break.'
A phenomenon of escaping the prison called the body—leaving no room for error.
Uorin, who had left the banquet hall, was drenched in cold sweat.
'This is impossible. How could this—'
When the people in the hall shifted, her future-vision had been violently warped.
'The future changed.'
The strands of light flickered wildly, blinding, and a tremendous shock struck her brain.
'The system itself… only a god could change that. If it's possible then—'
"Uorin—"
She flinched at the voice.
Shirone was walking quickly down the empty corridor behind her.
"Hmph."
She'd expected him to follow, but part of her was annoyed.
'You only show up when you want to.'
Shirone said, "Do you know what happened a moment ago?"
"No. Even if I did, I wouldn't have to explain it to you. We're competitors."
The irony: to win Shirone's favor, one would have to break him.
"God's perspective."
Having relayed secrets of the outside world to Fermi, Uorin had likely heard them.
"Only a god could do this. But I don't know exactly what happened."
"Ha."
Uorin sighed. "Follow me."
When they reached the Kashan district, she glanced around and then entered her room.
"No one will come for thirty-five minutes."
Her future-vision of the corridor showed no trace of any special occurrence during that time.
"In other words, we only have thirty-five minutes. I'll explain briefly. I have some information you gave me, too."
Uorin organized her thoughts. "Twelve nations gathered in the hall. Some, like the Nacheom king, attended, but a few countries didn't come. The culprit is probably one of those absent nations."
"Mun. Nam—south—and…"
Shirone said in a low voice, "Paras."
"Right. If a god's power acted in the hall, Paras—the Pyramid of Truth's country—is a likely candidate. As you guessed, King Kitra probably entered the Pyramid."
"Emotion Sickness seems to have been cured too. The question is how they changed the system."
"The twelve houses of the zodiac."
Uorin raised a finger. "The movement of the stars."
Some people had left the hall; one of them was Jin-gang, emperor of Jincheon.
"Explain."
Cutting to the point, Anchal bowed and spoke.
"The Jincheon Astronomical Agency is investigating. Nothing overtly strange occurred. However—"
"However?"
"The positions of the stars shifted."
Jin-gang's expression soured; Anchal hurried on.
"To say they completely changed would be too much. Perhaps they didn't change at all, but…"
"Explain properly."
Jin-gang's impatience was understandable, but Anchal had no better way to put it.
"As Your Majesty may have felt, some event was suppressed into the realm of delusion. If we treat it as an event that might actually have occurred—"
"You mean the stars' positions differ from before?"
"Yes. Not to the naked eye. The difference is on the order of one over an astronomically large number. But my astronomical gaze deals with the mind, so if something changed, I definitely sense it."
"Hmm. The stars' positions are different."
Jin-gang stroked his beard. "What does that mean?"
"The primordial cosmos."
Uorin continued, "All interactions of atoms since that moment formed the present celestial bodies. Humans—and indeed every being in this universe—are bound by the operation of that Law."
She opened the window.
"Where there's water, there are fish. Where there's sky, there are birds. Ancient humans realized that and called it fate."
Stars twinkled in the night sky.
"Constellations don't have inherent power. They're just the result of how the heavens were arranged. Given the rules set from the beginning, certain people end up living specific lives. Kaden was born under the destiny of the Red Cross star, but—"
Uorin turned.
"To be precise, Kaden's being born that way was determined from the universe's inception, and the pattern of that result is the constellation we see."
A specific pattern made by the stars' positions.
"The Red Cross sits in the southern sky—seven red stars forming a cross. But imagine—if the stars' positions change, what happens then?"
Shirone finally understood. "The Law changes. If the universe's beginning—the primordial cause—differs, the outcomes change too."
"Right. If you move a planet it would be catastrophic. But if the start is different from the outset, there's no sense of incongruity. Human logic is based on causality: I was born, my parents existed, my grandparents existed…"
Uorin spun her hand.
"And once you reach the universe's beginning, human logic ends. Conversely, that's where human logic starts, so any result that springs from there won't seem strange."
"Because it's a result reached by strictly following causality."
That was why everyone believed the altered memories were their own despite differing recollections.
"Yes. Memory errors exist. But that's not all. The shifting of people's positions in the banquet reflects a change on a cosmic scale. The magnitude might be infinitesimal, but Paras is capable of such fine adjustments."
Shirone recalled the leader of the New Humans, Piri.
'Piri said it was only the beginning. But did Fermi know that beginning would be Paras?'
"Shirone, we can't know what Kitra is thinking. What we must do is uncover the outside world's secrets faster than Paras."
"We're exploring the Pyramid of Truth, but it'll take time. We have to finish this before the temple rites are over…"
"There's one more thing."
"Yeah?"
Uorin folded her arms. "In Imir's dream—if quantum signals were blocked, doesn't that mean a connection to the outside world was made?"
Shirone fell silent at her cold analysis.
'Come to think of it…'
Those who entered the dream to loot Ultima—what are they doing now?