Chapter 194: Reversing Hourglass (2)
"What kind of crazy talk is that?"
Halto asked back, dumbfounded. He was focusing on Orthes with his naked eyes, and on the Pope with his magic power detection.
"Even in a stopped state, your sixth sense as an Eroder would still be alive, wouldn't it? The Pope, that bastard, is unexpected even for me──"
Orthes didn't finish his sentence. A fierce attack followed from behind him. The Commander's scythe swept past the spot where Orthes had been just moments before.
Being able to discern the cloaked state was entirely thanks to the 'eyes'. Orthes' eyes, apart from his physical vision, indiscriminately collect information within their range of influence.
Responding swiftly to the surprise attack from behind, Orthes could sense the Commander retreating again with stealth. Orthes raised the high-frequency blade. He aims it at the Pope.
"You desire the victory of Argyrion, and I desire the victory of Hydra Corporation. But the Pope's victory is not what either of us wants, is it?"
"Wasn't the Commander's corruption the result of your interference?"
"Does that person look like they are on my side right now?"
Halto let the extra-dimensional magic power flow out like water. A slight splashing sound is heard. The Commander was constantly aiming for Orthes' weaknesses.
The Commander's control is with the Pope, not Orthes. He could roughly guess that from the conversation. Orthes and the Pope were once allies, but not anymore.
"The enemy has met a treacherous villain. A correct ending."
"Are you just going to give up on your cause here?"
“…No.”
Halto created another trident with extra-dimensional magic power. As Halto hated the enemy more than anyone else in this world, he could guess the battle aspect that Orthes had drawn.
"I'll take care of the Commander."
Halto said that and at the same time threw the trident he was holding in his right hand at the Pope. The thrown spear wrapped in extra-dimensional magic power flew like a wave, leading the magic power. The cutting edge of a willful tsunami.
The Pope raised his scepter and blocked the attack. Each water droplet stopped in the air, creating a surreal, picture-like spectacle.
Orthes appeared, breaking through the water droplets that did not fall. He held the trident that Halto threw in his left hand.
The barrier of stopped time is broken. The stopped tsunami rushes in all at once. The Pope removed his hand from The Ten Magical Commandments and held his scepter.
"Why are you making such a futile choice, brother?"
Orthes looked at Halto. The attack on the Pope, which was done at the same time as saying, ‘I’ll take care of the Commander.’ It was an effective trick. Orthes responded to Halto’s intentions, hiding himself under the wave of extra-dimensional magic power and rushing forward.
After the surprise attack on the Pope, Halto was fighting fiercely against the Commander. Both have amorphous weapons, and continuous, twisting attacks that aim for each other's blind spots continue.
"I would like to ask. Hydra Corporation’s victory is not just Hydra Corporation’s victory. It is the victory of the entire alliance. Did you want to win alone now that we've come this far?"
“I don’t want victory. I just want the right era.”
Kang!
A blade flew towards the Pope. But it stops in the air. It was because the Pope stopped the atmosphere.
Orthes analyzed the Pope's time stop. The first is the stop applied to these inanimate objects without will. In words, it was time freezing.
The spacetime solidified by the action of divinity could not be broken with any direct attack, but Orthes had a simple solution.
Formula overwriting. Interfering not with the solidified object itself, but with the Holy Incantation that is the cause of solidifying the object. Even if there were no eyes that could observe divinity like Orthes himself, if his instantaneous output of mana control could be equal to the Pope's, he seemed to be able to break this kind of stop.
The problem was the second stop. The paralysis that had descended on this entire space right now.
This was a stop on a conceptual dimension. Not Holy Incantation, but Holy Decree. The encroachment of time. This forced everyone as a law of the world.
Those who had not reached the dignity of the law that the Pope had unfolded could not resist the stop. Conversely, those who were not stopped could freely interfere with the stopped beings.
Those who were not stopped were those who embodied a higher providence than those who were stopped. It was the same principle that higher dimensions can observe and interfere with lower dimensions, but lower dimensions cannot interfere with higher dimensions.
The reason why the Pope did not directly aim at Orthes with his scepter was in the same context.
The Pope could instinctively recognize the divinity in Orthes' eyes. Even the Pope did not know exactly what kind of divinity it was, but it was clear that the dignity of that power was on par with himself, a Primordial God.
Trying to encroach on time would be meaningless. Therefore, the Pope restricted Orthes' movements by freezing parts of the space around Orthes.
Orthes used the extra-dimensional waves to contaminate the Holy Incantation that formed the freezing. Extra-dimensional magic power permeates each and every atmosphere. The Pope realized that the resources consumed by the freezing were gradually increasing.
A method of eroding long-term combat capabilities. The Pope realized that Orthes was truly familiar with ‘fighting’. There is a reason why Demos admired him.
He lightly tapped his scepter. The end of the scepter was bent, and a black blade that seemed to dye even the dawn black appeared.
It was in the form of a scythe.
Orthes scoffed after seeing the information in his eyes. The Adamas (ἀδάμας) Scythe. A legendary weapon that one of the Primordial Gods used to stab his father in ancient mythology.
It was a recreation of that with Holy Decree.
"Isn't that too much? I'm just a mass-produced product!"
"Well, I can give you as many as you want if we join hands."
A reply in a gentle tone. Originally, it was Orthes' specialty to embarrass the opponent, but not this time. A question naturally popped out because he was so dumbfounded.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes. I don't want to fight my brother."
"You keep saying 'brother, brother', and I say this again and again, but my family, including my parents, are not in this world."
"Ah. I don't have any either."
I'm going crazy. Orthes let out a scoff. The Pope did not laugh. He continued in a serious tone.
“Don’t you get misunderstood a lot? Also, aren’t other people’s memories of you strangely faint?”
“…What?”
“You and I, brother, are not welcome beings in this world. After the Mage King dirtied our world with his providence, beings with divinity came to be rejected. He made the unconsciousness of all things think of us as 'beings that go against providence'.”
The Pope explained calmly. The Mage King had engraved a new law so that the world itself would reject the owners of divinity. Like square snow falling. Treated like phenomena that should never exist in the natural world.
Something fearful and eerie. The enemy of the world.
“Originally, the supernatural power called magic power did not exist in this world. It was only after the Mage King contaminated the essence of mana, the totality or primitive form of supernatural powers, that he could derive the concept of magic power from mana. Magic power itself is a pollutant like radiation.”
Was that what he meant when he said ‘this whole world is contaminated’? Orthes found a clue to the Pope’s enigmatic words and actions. Perhaps taking Orthes’ hesitation for something else, the Pope's smile deepened.
“It seems that you have lived a similar life to mine. Brother.”
“…Then you can’t handle magic power?”
“Hm? What are you talking about?”
The Pope asked back in a sincere voice.
“Divinity is the power that exists above all supernatural powers. The Mage King also has his own divinity, but there is no reason why divinity and magic power should be mutually exclusive, is there?"
Ah, damn it. What the fuck am I?
Orthes' mind became complicated. There is no reason why divinity and magic power should be mutually exclusive, but why can't I interfere with magic power at all?
A sigh escaped on its own. Anyway, now was not the time to worry about his self-identity. Orthes grabbed the high-frequency blade.
Enmity soaked into actions rather than words. The Pope also no longer tried to persuade with words.
He swung the scythe at a speed that was inversely proportional to his leisurely tone. The scythe that tore through the space was about to spring from inside Orthes’ skin and sever his heart.
──!
But it didn't happen. The attempt to directly penetrate the inside of Orthes' body returned to nothing as the space's cracks collapsed brilliantly.
"Indeed, it is not possible to interfere inside a being with equal dignity in this way. I have no choice but to stab from the outside."
What the fuck just happened? Orthes was dumbfounded.
Is such a ridiculous attack possible?
It was an attack that could only kill those who were not able to regenerate perfectly even if their internal organs were messed up, like an Eroder like Halto, or those who could replace their body with machines and replace the parts.
The Pope swung the scythe wildly. He was dozens of steps away from Orthes, but the blade of the scythe freely crossed the space without being restricted by distance.
Orthes felt something was strange. The attack was too inefficiently large. He could see the trajectory of the slash that seemed to extend from the ground to the end of the sky. The target is not himself either. Movements that seem to block the Pope's own front. A few attacks aimed at Orthes could be easily defended.
'Even if it's impossible inside the body, it would be much more efficient to teleport the blade as close as possible to the vitals, right?'
It was the moment when Orthes put aside his doubts and ran towards the Pope. Everything visible to the 'eyes' was dyed red. He immediately activates the magic engraving drive. A gust of wind pushed Orthes’ body backwards.
At that very moment, the previous hacking began to regenerate as it was. Black lines were drawn, one line, two lines, and then the entire space was covered in black.
The lacerated atmosphere screamed. The countless number of black lines became black walls, then began to return to lines again.
The Pope’s smile could be seen beyond the scattered black lines.
***
Tick.
At the end of the black gauntlet, the index finger twitched.