Chapter 123
Chapter 123
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 123
Chapter Title: Liberation and Destruction
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A towering spire, large and small charging stations, and densely packed residential districts.
A black storm wrapped in red lightning swept through them all.
Kwarung! Kwarururung!
In the instant it swept by, even the sturdiest buildings crumpled like paper cups and shattered.
The storm's height was about sixty meters.
Its range expanded and contracted repeatedly from a minimum of one hundred meters to a maximum of three hundred.
It was a disaster that even Psykin technology could not control.
The Overseer.
The storm's true nature was the Overseer himself.
Before the rampage of the absolute being who determined the fate of all Psykins, the vast majority who had lost their reason couldn't even think of the word resistance.
"Run!"
"If you get caught, you'll vanish!"
"Don't go that way! That's the Overseer's path!"
"I-I don't know. I'm just running this way... Gyaaah!"
Countless Psykins were swept up in the storm or crushed under collapsing buildings, losing their existence and scattering.
"Overseer!"
The blue-bandaged Arbiter, who had belatedly regained his senses and rushed to the scene, looked up at the massive storm and shouted.
"Regain your reason, Overseer! At this rate, High City might be destroyed!"
"Arbiter! What in the world is happening?!"
The gray-bandaged security officers responsible for the city's order came rushing in droves and yelled. The Arbiter sat down right there and began desperately rewrapping his torn bandages.
"The Overseer was struck directly by a mental attack from the Ald Dimension."
"No way!"
"Wasn't the Ald Dimension the lower dimension we just connected to?"
"For a lower dimension to do that to the Overseer?!"
The security officers gasped and glanced at each other. The Arbiter recalled Tolrari's signal vanishing from the screen at the last moment and bowed his head.
"Even so... this level of emotional amplification is unprecedented. The timing was just too awful..."
The problem was that the Arbiter himself was the one who had caused that worst possible timing.
Surely Claude hadn't monitored their side in real time to orchestrate this. So all the blame lay with the Arbiter for inviting the Overseer into his space at that moment.
And yet, the Arbiter couldn't help shifting the responsibility to Claude, whom he had never even met face-to-face.
"Claude... you vile demon... because of you, this horrific disaster..."
Kwarung! Kwarurururung!
In that instant, the tower responsible for the city's broadcast network was swept into the black whirlwind and collapsed. The Arbiter looked up with a hollow expression and muttered.
"No. With my power, I can't stop the liberated Overseer... At the very least, I need to liberate my own power too..."
"You mustn't!"
The green-bandaged administrators who arrived late surrounded the Arbiter as if to encircle him.
"Whether by choice or force, you absolutely must not liberate your power, Arbiter."
"Indeed. Aren't you in charge of the final stage of the dimensional invasion?"
"If you liberate now, you won't be able to descend at that moment. You must prepare for the worst-case scenario in the invasion."
"You all..."
The Arbiter looked around at the administrators, who were in far worse shape than himself, and asked.
"So what am I supposed to do? Just watch the Overseer demolish the entire city?"
"The Overseer can't maintain the liberated state forever."
"Exactly. Once he vents some of his rage, he'll come back under the influence of the Bandages of Reason."
Ziiiiing!
In that moment, the black whirlwind concentrated the lightning enveloping it into one mass and unleashed it toward the east.
Kwarung! Kwarurururung!
The target was the factory producing mass-produced battle suits.
In a single strike, the massive factory was engulfed in an even larger red explosion and shattered into pieces.
"Ah..."
The Arbiter stared blankly at the factory debris raining down over the entire city.
"Urgh... of all places, that factory..."
"Steady yourself, Arbiter. It's fine. The production of Flame Bottles for the dimensional invasion is already complete."
"What? B-but the completed Flame Bottles... with the sponsor absent, the invasion forces are still in place, aren't they?"
"A few days ago, we issued orders under the authority of the Arbiter Spire. The completed Flame Bottles have already been sent to the armory."
"All of them?"
"Yes. All of them. And look—the lightning discharge has shrunk the Overseer's size."
Indeed, the storm had noticeably diminished. The Arbiter, finally pulling himself together, nodded and struggled to his feet.
"...That's a relief, at least."
He then bowed his head to the administrators supporting him.
"It was something I should have done myself... Thanks to you, we averted a disaster. Thank you all."
"Not at all, Arbiter. Didn't you receive separate orders from the Overseer?"
"Yes. My obsession with that led to this catastrophe. That damned Claude... No, damn it!"
In an instant, the Arbiter's body swelled up. The administrators hugged him with their entire bodies, forming a human barricade.
"Calm down! You must suppress your emotions!"
"Please, steady yourself! At this rate, you'll be forcibly liberated like the Overseer!"
"No! Look at that! Not that!"
The Arbiter reached out through the cluster of administrators and shouted.
The Overseer, now the storm itself, was gathering the newly enveloping lightning into one mass once more, aiming at a new target.
Zing...
"That building..."
"Gasp!"
"No, that's..."
Thanks to that, even the administrators grasped the severity of the situation.
The storm's target was none other than the Dimensional Arbiter Facility.
Resembling a pyramid in appearance, the facility bore a grandiose name befitting its crucial role.
It was a straw.
Once the dimensional war ended in victory, it was the facility that would pierce the defeated lower dimension with a straw to siphon its dimensional energy.
Not a literal straw, of course—more accurately, a device that generated a special gate to suck in only the dimensional energy.
Siphoning it right now would violate regulations, naturally.
But assuming future victory, they had preemptively inserted a blocked straw midway.
"You mustn't, Overseer! Destroying the Dimensional Arbiter Facility now... We don't know what problems it might cause in the connected Ald Dimension! This is a clear violation of regulations! The Committee will impose sanctions! Please, you mustn't do this! Return to the Overseer you once were!"
The Arbiter desperately clung to reason and appealed to emotion.
But it was akin to tossing a pebble into the vast ocean. The fully liberated Overseer simply acted on instinct.
And so the compressed lightning fired.
Ziiiiing!
Through an invisible passage connected to the Ald Dimension, one of High City's largest facilities—the Dimensional Arbiter Facility—was destroyed in a single blow.
Kwarung! Kwarurururung!
Black flames soared as if to touch the sky.
"......"
Everyone wrapped in bandages stared in stunned silence.
The entire city lay in ruins, spewing smoke, blanketed in endless dust and ash.
"Uwaaaah!"
"Save me!"
"It's collapsing! Everything's collapsing!"
"Eek! Please! I don't want to die!"
"Get a grip! We don't die!"
"But we vanish! Vanishing means it's over forever!"
Ordinary citizens without Bandages of Reason vented endless frenzy and terror, shrunken to less than half their normal size, wandering the chaotic city like ghosts.
But not everything was hopeless.
"Urgh..."
The black storm, which had contracted in one final strike, suddenly compressed into the now-loose bandages and returned to its original form.
"Overseer!"
The Arbiter and administrators rushed to where the Overseer had fallen. The Overseer, sprawled on the ground, sprang up like a spring and let out a sigh.
"Hoo... That was a massive drain. What a blunder... How much of the energy I'd stockpiled did I just waste?"
"Overseer! Are you alright?!"
The Arbiter, arriving first, dropped to his knees on the bare ground. The Overseer fell silent upon seeing the Arbiter's raggedly torn bandages.
"...Sorry."
"Not at all. Even if I were you, I couldn't have avoided liberating at that moment."
"The city's a mess. Can you report the damage?"
"The area centered on the Arbiter Spire, Sector 3, has been destroyed in a straight line. The battle suit factory was also destroyed in the process, but the completed Flame Bottles have all been sent to the armory."
"That's a blessing. We nearly jeopardized the dimensional invasion."
"Indeed. Though at the end, you, Overseer..."
In that moment, a sword fell from the sky.
Kwang!
A sword as enormous as the Overseer's Spire, the tallest in the city.
Etched on its overwhelming blade were dimensional characters recognizable to all in the Great Game.
-Clear violation of regulations confirmed in the Psyke Dimension.
-Due to interference from the Psyke Dimension's regulatory violation, significant changes occurred in parts of the Ald Dimension's crust.
"My god."
The Overseer sighed after reading that far and asked.
"Don't tell me the Dimensional Arbiter Facility was destroyed? A facility built to be that indestructible?"
"......"
"Damn it! How did this happen?! This is as good as causing an earthquake in the Ald Dimension!"
The Arbiter shook his head, exhaling a sigh that wouldn't come.
"The connected special dimensional gate was probably destroyed along with it... There must have been an earthquake or tsunami in the Ald Dimension. Regrettable, but your liberated power transcended all norms."
"......"
The Overseer ground his nonexistent teeth and continued reading the Committee's notice engraved on the blade.
-Upon investigation, the changes in the Ald Dimension are estimated not to seriously impact that dimension's potential or overall balance.
-Considering this, the sanctions for the Psyke Dimension's regulatory violation are hereby notified.
-The Psyke Dimension will incur a pre-accumulated loss in the event of a Final Duel with the Ald Dimension.
The message ended there.
The Arbiter watched the fading sword and wore a relieved expression.
"At least the sanctions are light. We dodged a bullet—if they'd skipped the invasion stage, it would've been a real disaster."
The late-arriving administrators exchanged glances and nodded in relief as well. But the Overseer's demeanor remained grim.
"...This isn't good."
"Of course it's not ideal. Still, isn't a penalty in the Final Duel better than one in the invasion stage?"
In all the dimensional wars the Psyke Dimension had fought, lower dimensions had blocked the invasion and advanced to the Final Duel only once.
The rest were settled in the invasion stage, with many collapsing even before the first wave.
"What if the Ald Dimension withstands the invasion?"
"...Pardon?"
"If that happens and we go to the Final Duel... We'll be fighting at an extreme disadvantage from then on. We can't afford a single loss."
The Final Duel was a best-of-three series.
Starting with one loss already, they would need to win both remaining matches.
"Even if it comes to that, we have our duelists. The three who've accumulated power solely for the Final Duel over the past few centuries."
The Arbiter said cautiously. The Overseer found it hard to even imagine those duelists losing.
They were that strong.
But in a single decisive match.
In a do-or-die situation where one win was all it took, he couldn't predict what tricks the Ald Dimension might pull.
"If they send Claude out from the start..."
"Overseer, don't worry. No matter how formidable Claude is, he can't defeat a duelist."
"Is that so?"
The Overseer retorted, red lightning crackling over his body once more.
"If he self-destructs or something and claims one win, we're done for. Isn't that right?"
"Overseer, please calm down..."
"So we must prevent it from reaching the Final Duel at any cost. End it in the invasion stage. Understand?"
"Yes. Understood."
For now, he could only bow his head and let the Overseer's rage subside. Clutching the phantom image of Claude's face before him, the Overseer declared.
"Use any means necessary. I don't care if we rack up new penalties for violations or lose our 'special privileges.' Just finish it before then. Got it? We absolutely cannot let it go to the Final Duel! Absolutely!"