Chapter 204: Beauty and the Beast -14

Where the trees gave out and the grassland began.

A memory flickered — that a city, for safety's sake, shoves the trees back a certain distance, leaving a clearing on purpose so that even if a monster comes for it, the thing will be easy to see. More memories glittered past in a rush, like related searches: defensive layouts, examples of walls that are easy to hold. Useless. I set them aside and stood before the Purple Twilight Society, who were hauling in a machine lashed together so haphazardly it looked as if it had been bundled at random.

The people who first founded the Purple Twilight Society were no longer among them. It had begun as a gathering of the ones I met on the ship, but every one of them was already dead. When the great fire broke out in Berne City, some died saving people, and some were trampled under the ones who fled. When the crackdown on the protests in Berne City began, some were marked first and killed as an example, and some died fighting. Some were turned to dust by a shell that never saw them.

And yet the ones at the very front were Harvesters. So long as the machine that made mana impossible to use was here, the only people left with any power were the Harvesters. An upside-down sea was still heaving overhead, and they had come without running. Did that mean there was that much piled up inside them?

"You…"

The Harvester at the front had recognized my face.

"Hello."

One by one they stopped and came toward me. I had thought only the Harvesters would approach, but there were people who weren't Harvesters who recognized my face and came all the same. That surprised me a little.

"Why are you here?"

The Harvester standing before me was, of all people, the one who meant to build a country. He had been stirring them up, preaching that they ought to found a new nation. How was I supposed to answer, here?

I could go on wearing the mask of a good person. Do that, though, and the ones who wanted a religion would make a god of me. I would much rather they made gods of themselves instead, but I didn't see anyone like that. Of course, when you build a cult, the church lasts longer ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠if the god is kept separate from the founder. None of these Harvesters seemed to see that far. Just as Yasle, once the head of a proper faith, had shaped a cult into a more perfect form, the people who have already devoured a religion understand it better. Put the other way, a world where religion has all but collapsed is very likely short of that knowledge. They worship whatever is easiest to worship without a thought, and the moment it no longer suits their hearts, affection flips and turns into nothing but hatred.

Being an object like that is a nuisance. So here, it was better to show them something human.

"I came after Victoria."

It fit Polaris's point of view as well.

"Victoria?"

People murmured.

"Are you saying you'll take Victoria's side?"

I glanced back. Polaris had hold of Victoria, and her face was thick with anger. From the muttering, she was cursing the world — she had only come to find her parents, so why was there so much in the way?

Yes. That was right. Victoria had only come looking for her parents. But I didn't point that out. Instead, I answered like this.

"Yes. I am."

I layered on the image of myself as a selfish person. The moment, as it happened, was perfect for it.

"Why — why! We're the ones who suffered! We sought the truth in Berne City, and they crushed us, calling us a malignant mob! The army attacked the very citizens it was supposed to protect! Now everyone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is an enemy! You were the only one who ever helped us!"

The logic was strange. What they had been through came after I made the Harvesters, didn't it? But the memory of becoming Harvesters in the middle of hard times had stayed with them, and they treated the two as the same thing. So they were asking why I had helped them then, and why I was throwing them away now.

"All of Berne City was ruined by people who don't live in Berne City."

I could have pretended not to know and sent them on their way, but here I opened my mouth. And the company that had to be named first was the one whose name had shown itself the least.

"Pride Industry."

Quietly, through a Harvester's eyes, I looked inside, checking one by one whether anyone moved.

"Gun & Lefu Company."

No one moving here, either? And the last.

"Rocketmobil Company."

The instant the name left me, needles of sharp steel came flying. They drove straight into my chest. More than one of them. I was bristling like a hedgehog.

"Wh-what is that!"

"Who is it!"

"It's this one — grab them!"

"What? They shot from over here too! There's more than one! Find them!"

I reached out a hand ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and calmed Victoria. If I didn't, every human standing here would drown in the water falling from above.

"I—I know how to heal!"

"So do I!"

Two Harvesters came running then, a man and a woman. The people around them stepped aside at the sight, murmuring that these were the ones with the power to heal.

Mm. That was right. But I knew. One of them — the woman — belonged to a company. She sprinted ahead of the man, laid a hand on my chest, and brought her other arm down on it with all her strength.

A wet crack.

"Wh-what is this bitch doing!"

The man who had come running screamed in horror, but the woman couldn't say a word. No — no one there could make a sound. She was already dead. A cylinder as thick as two fingers came down out of the sky and ran her through from the crown of her head, and with a ripping crunch part of her body was torn away into the water. Head, heart, every organ destroyed. Instant death.

"I kept telling myself to wait, to just see — how many times does Belle have to die? Again and again and again, why do you people only ever grab at someone else's ankles! Am I asking for so much? I just want to see if Mom and Dad are safe, so why do you keep stopping me!"

Everything Victoria had been packing down inside her burst out as if a dam had given way. Polaris stared at her, startled, and the people who heard it looked at Victoria with faces that said they had never expected this.

But there was a problem. Victoria's cry wasn't something she had spat out just to feel better.

It was the sound of the last levee breaking. A voice sticky with hatred seeped into the air that had gone quiet. At those words, the eyes of anyone who felt the omen turned to Victoria, and she glared back at them with a look of utter ruin. A few looked up at the sky, like people who had only now, barely, realized what had been hanging over them.

But it was far too late.

The sea poured down onto the earth.

But no one died on the spot. The Harvesters of the Purple Twilight Society weren't complete fools. They had come to pick a fight with Victoria because they still had a chance even if the water filling the sky came down. They were confident they could kill her.

The thing they had thought, until now, was only a machine for turning mana into useless mana began to shine. A purple barrier wrapped the people against the falling water, and once it covered them the water couldn't pierce it and streamed off to the sides. Not every magic leans too hard on physics. There is strange magic, too, the kind that turns up in old fairy tales. Unless the liquid was made by magic, plain water seemed difficult to break through. Like the sea that stands up beside you in a faded memory — when you part ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the ocean and walk the seabed to cross it — a wall of water stood before me now. And inside the water, purple spheres glowed like a bunch of grapes dropped on the floor.

Then the outside of those purple spheres turned into a pure-white solid. They were freezing. Water that had failed to pierce the barrier froze where it was and spun out white cocoons like sea urchins. A flash flared around the cocoons, and they exploded.

No. It wasn't a bomb. It wasn't some power exploding, either. A great mass of gas was being made, and it expanded.

Mm. That was right. Electrolyze water and you get oxygen and hydrogen. The electricity makes it explode again, but what comes of it is water all the same, and the gas rises. That was what the place at the very front was doing. Several purple barriers had appeared. Some places were holding on the barrier alone, and others, like the one right in front of me, were using their own abilities to stop the water that had come pouring down.

Not everyone was safe. When the barriers formed, there were several warmths of people caught by a hair on the outside of them, swept out into the flood, and drowned. It was no different from a massacre, so I thought Polaris might stop it. But Polaris, too, watched the sea crashed down in front of us with a cold face. Stuck to that expression was something like relief — relief that the people who were meant to die had died.

Victoria glared at the people trapped in the sea with eyes full of killing intent.

Yes. That was right. Even a superpower has limits. When Harvesters fought one another in the first world, their abilities had limits too, and in the later days what mattered was how you applied them to a fight. Some worked them into martial arts, some grafted them onto magic, and some changed the ground around them and roamed all over. This was probably somewhere near Victoria's limit.

So I went to her.

No — I was about to. Victoria raised both hands and took a stance as if she were wringing a throat.

And like a curse, Victoria muttered. With every word the water turned black and murky enough to show against the lights scattered here and there. Or else it was being compressed still further.

A grating creak. The purple semicircles buckled, and the glowing phenomena around them stopped, as if there were no longer any space left in which to do a thing. At last a black wall appeared before me. The density had risen so high that the light from inside could no longer be seen.

Then the wall began to turn, slowly. Just barely in front of me it shrieked, cut from the toes upward into bands the height of a knee — the lowest turning left, the one above it right, the next left again, and the one above that, right…

Like being ground up in a blender. With a roar one hardly ever gets to hear, the height kept shrinking.

I rushed to Victoria and caught both her arms. I knew how grotesque it looked — someone moving around perfectly fine with several great spikes driven through their chest!

"Stop!"

But the sound behind me didn't cease. So I struck Victoria across both cheeks. The Harvesters I had worked so hard to make were being ruined! Warmth was a fine thing, yes, but there were people now making things out of the memories I had put in them, and I did not want all that progress evaporating at this late hour!

"Stop, Victoria! Just how many are you planning to kill! This isn't the sort of thing that pains me, and they'll have understood by now, so stop!"