Chapter 197: Reversing Hourglass (5)
Halto gritted his teeth. Teaming up with the enemy to fight the mage he once respected the most.
However, this was the only way. Halto was relieved that this fight would ultimately 'liberate' the Commander.
'Yes. If she receives the blessing of the extra-dimension, I can save the Commander from the oppression of that evil priest of the old gods.'
If that were to happen, they could serve the cause together.
Orthes had no interest in Halto's inner thoughts. He only thought about how to somehow stop the Pope's madness.
The eyes, which had already exceeded the processing limit of the body and were activated, analyzed the Commander's movements. Stealth and teleportation were meaningless. Unless the Pope himself directly exercised his power to interfere, the Commander could not escape Orthes' gaze.
"Right!"
Orthes, who blocked the Commander's scythe with the high-frequency blade and stabbed her in the abdomen, shouted. At the same time, the Commander's figure disappeared. Halto reflexively scattered the torrent of the extra-dimension. The Commander, who appeared on Halto's right, could not avoid the extra-dimensional magic power.
Orthes moved again. He weaves together the magic power of the extra-dimension and the formula of reversal. As the reversal that was trying to resist the extra-dimensional encroachment collapsed, the extra-dimensional magic power invaded the Reliquaries that the Commander wore.
'Is this the enemy's ability!'
Halto was amazed once again. He was grasping all of the Commander's movements and moving one step ahead. The unpredictable attacks using the Reliquaries were quickly dismantled and deciphered like simple repetitive tasks.
The Commander's attacks gradually dulled. It was because the blessing of the extra-dimension and the Reliquaries were resisting each other by burning each other. Accordingly, the energy in the Commander's eyes flickered.
It was a clear sign that the Commander's soul, which had been torn apart by that evil old priest, was trying to return. Halto shouted.
“Commander! Open your eyes! You are now being dominated by the enemy of the world! Break free from the domination of evil!”
Orthes clicked his tongue. Although the Pope was suddenly doing crazy things, in fact, it was Argyrion who was more suitable for the position of a villain plotting to destroy the world.
'Will she come to her senses by doing that?'
If it was the Commander that Halto wanted, the Commander who was 'loyal to the cause', she might open her eyes. But Orthes did not think that was truly the original Commander. Just as the current Commander was the Pope's puppet, the Commander who was encroached upon by the extra-dimension would also be the Mage King's puppet to some extent.
However, what Orthes did not expect was the result of Orthes himself. Originally, Divine Power and the magic power of the extra-dimension must mutually annihilate each other, and must repeatedly kill each other until only one side remains. However, Orthes forcibly tied the two together through formula overwriting.
Because of this, the two formulas that wanted to control the Commander's body fell into a kind of interference state. The extra-dimension was trying to control the Divine Power, and the Divine Power was trying to control the magic power, so the influence on the Commander herself in the middle was reduced.
The Commander broke a very long silence.
"Halto…? You, why?"
A voice mixed with confusion, but familiar to Halto. Halto shouted powerfully.
“Commander, did you open your eyes! I will soon free you from the oppression of the old priest! Join the cause quickly!”
The Commander's expression was strangely distorted. It was an expression that seemed to be contemptuous, and also worried.
“You…. You have become an Eroder.”
“I’m not an Eroder. I just realized the truth.”
“Ah. It wasn’t just me who had my soul stolen, but you as well!”
Halto was stunned by the Commander's reaction. What was he talking about? The extra-dimensional encroachment that dwells in the Commander should have already shown him the truth. Why?
'What the hell is going on?'
Orthes was confused. Something was happening. In a direction that Halto, and perhaps even the Pope, had not anticipated.
***
The Pope confronted Carisia. He knew the name as knowledge.
However, until now, Carisia was not a person to the Pope, but closer to an object. An object that was a creation of The Ten Magical Commandments.
If Hyacinth's Thousand-League Eyes and Prophecy, which he received from Phoibos, were combined with the Pope's own power to manipulate time, the Pope could look into the past through a specific person.
The one-on-one interview with Demos to observe the allegorical process of False God and the Ascension Route was conducted in this way.
The Pope read Demos' memory of acting in Algoth City. It was reference material for resetting the connection to the ascension area of The Ten Magical Commandments. He strengthens the plan by observing the connection points and operating principles of the False God.
But there was a more detestable being than the False God. The reality of the one whom Demos had feared intensely, the person called 'Boss' that Orthes served.
The Pope could also see the memory of the shock and fear that Demos felt the moment he witnessed Carisia. Even the ensuing Demos' reasoning. Demos judged that Orthes had recruited Carisia as a tool of war against the Ten Towers.
The Pope agreed with that judgment. The most disgusting pollutant that the Mage King had tainted the world with was The Ten Magical Commandments, and Carisia, from the very beginning of her existence, was the crystallization of that malicious tool.
Orthes, who must be an existence of the same kind as himself, could not regard that as anything other than a tool.
He shouldn't.
However, Orthes was clearly trying to prevent the purification of the world for Carisia's sake. He could understand that Carisia was fighting to protect Orthes, but that Orthes was fighting for Carisia.
It was an area that the Pope could not understand at all.
A wide range of magic power bombardment that fundamentally blocked the Pope's approach. The Pope, who stopped at a certain distance, expressed his doubts.
"How can you do that?"
At the starting point of this conversation, Carisia recalled the encounter with White Light. White Light degraded Carisia's existence by not responding to the conversation. The Pope was the opposite. Unlike what he said before, attempting to have a conversation meant that he was treating Carisia as an equal person, even unconsciously.
'He's probably quite confused, considering that he's not the type to easily go back on his words.'
The emotional confusion that bloomed on that face, which had been smiling at Orthes, was quite pleasing to see. She was in need of time to recover her magic power anyway. Carisia organized her formulas and accepted the conversation.
"How can I? What are you talking about?"
Carisia opened her mouth with all her sincerity. She threw away the honorifics that she had been maintaining ever since learning from Orthes.
Against White Light, honorifics were appropriate to ridicule her in reverse. But against that madman who suddenly backstabbed them, mockery and satire didn't seem to work, and there was no reason to be polite, even as a formality.
"Shouldn't you also hate Orthes? You, who are a product of The Ten Magical Commandments, have no choice but to reject the incarnation of divinity."
“Well. Me, Orthes?”
Carisia naturally smiled. It was the ferocious smile she had given White Light.
“It’s this world that I hate.”
If Orthes had seen it, it was an expression that he would have been shocked by, saying "White No Name's personality is coming out." Carisia reflected on her past.
The Eleusis phenomenon that connects reality and the virtual world suggested another possibility. The possibility that something virtual can be refined to the limit and realized.
White Light decided to use it.
A simulation of the virtual world using The Ten Magical Commandments. By creating countless virtual worlds with different environments, he attempted to create a 'perfect body' in the midst of that infinite repetition.
The existence corresponding to the 'protagonist' of the virtual world was created using White Light's own factors. Because it was a creation that would ultimately become White Light's body.
He would reach the ultimate magic by imbuing his soul into the final product that appeared at the end of the simulation.
No matter how much of White Light it was, it was a plan that could only fail repeatedly. There were countless variables to test. But White Light's obsession was so great that it reached infinity, and the magic power of The Ten Magical Commandments was inexhaustible despite the endless repetitions.
White Light endlessly repeated the creation and deletion of virtual worlds. He deletes everything except the final result, the protagonist, of one world.
Even if it was data selected in that way, it was discarded if better data was produced in another world. The goal of perfection was in a distant place, so the number of discarded worlds and data was so large that it could not be counted even if astronomical numbers were mobilized.
In one of the worlds that was deleted in that way, the 'protagonist' was tested for survival from the moment of birth. A general setting to utilize the phenomenon of extreme situations awakening magic abilities. The mother was tortured in various ways, and the fetus tried to save the mother with its excellent magical potential.
However, what the fetus could not withstand was the mother's self-denial. The mother, thinking that the pain would continue forever because the fetus was saving her, tried to kill the fetus.
In this way, the fetus gave up on survival. White Light deleted the fetus, which had died due to the mother, and that world without emotion.
It was a child who died without being called a name even once.
And all the virtual deaths and tragedies converged. The purest hatred from the worlds being discarded gathered together and solidified into something that could never be erased.
White Light regarded this as a bug. Since he could not delete it from the virtual world, White Light 'banished' the bug to reality.
This was the first case of realization. Instead of being immediately discarded, it was transported to a secret laboratory on the border of the extra-dimension for use as a sample for research and analysis.
And the bug opened its eyes.
Containing as much hatred as the death experienced by the discarded world. Carrying the anger of a fake world destroyed by the real world.