The chair game for humanity’s salvation has begun.
Of course, at first, everyone tried to remain calm. The leaders of various nations spoke earnestly, declaring that they were rational beings capable of controlling their fear and desire.
However, everyone knew that this was merely lip service.
Equality and fairness can only be tolerated when the rich share without pain. The glaringly obvious number of chairs quickly turned humanity back into beasts.
Great nations possessing Starstone began to monopolize the All-purpose Material.
When pointed out by other countries, they claimed it was merely for the necessary research and for accurate distribution. Whether that was the truth was uncertain. Before this became clear, another nation that criticized their actions declared war.
Once the war began, there was no stopping it. Everyone fought desperately to survive, killing each other over the Starstone that was supposed to be the prize and over Dr. Israilia, who was researching it—killing and killing—until finally, everyone ended up a loser.
The Starstone, which was meant to be a prize, had turned against humanity as Dr. Israilia rebelled.
A declaration of independence by a mere few dozen people from the Israilia Research Institute; at the time, everyone thought it was a joke. Yet, this resistance, along with the new humanity they had created, quickly overwhelmed humanity—Old Humanity.
Of course, there was resistance. Overwhelmed, Old Humanity ironically united under Dr. Israilia’s rebellion and fought back fiercely.
But in the end, victory belonged to the rebels. Through a literal Ark, Israilia and the others departed from the world. They had won.
However, wounds remained.
The battles had been long, with far too many sacrifices and the loss of companions.
And most importantly, scars were left on Dr. Israilia himself, not on his body, but in his heart.
***
At the exact moment abnormal events occurred in both Greyre and Zain, Yuri also encountered anomalies.
“…?”
An abnormality arose right after the wooden roots that Greyre prepared and the terminals he controlled made contact with the God’s amalgam. The light from the God’s amalgam grew intense and ferocious. At first, Yuri thought it might be a phenomenon related to Greyre’s work—but something felt different.
Her intuition, honed through countless brushes with death up to this point, sounded alarm bells. This situation was dangerous—something was wrong—prepare yourself. Words like these flooded her mind.
Of course, Yuri had no knowledge of the work Greyre was doing. While she felt disgust for the issues in his personality, there was no doubt about his top-notch technical skills.
So she didn’t understand what he was doing, nor could she deal with the trouble that arose.
Thus, without hesitation, Yuri prepared the only thing she could—her sword.
“Prepare, trouble is—”
At nearly the same time, a communication came from Greyre. As expected, his voice was tinged with concern. Yuri was neither surprised nor perturbed.
“—It’s coming!”
In the next instant, the wooden roots enveloping the God’s amalgam suddenly turned black and lunged toward Yuri. More specifically, they surged toward the three sleeping behind her.
“[Final]!”
Yuri sliced through all of them with the Ash Flame Sword almost simultaneously.
The brilliance of the sword showed no signs of fatigue. Even when utterly exhausted and physically reaching her limits, there was no hint of decline in her swordsmanship. She had achieved a state akin to that of her master, Zain; no matter how old or fatigued one might be, the action of wielding the sword does not degrade. She had attained such a level.
“Ugh…!”
But pain shot through her shoulder. There were no wounds—just the desperate cries of her bones and muscles announcing their limits. No matter how flawless her techniques were, they were still executed by her own body, which has its boundaries, even for Yuri.
“[Control Device: Star Key] confirmed, recollection in progress.”
“…!?”
Seizing the opportunity in that moment, a creature collected the Star Swords that Diz and Shizuku had been using. Yuri couldn’t stop it. Her body creaked. She could fend off the enemy’s attacks, but continuing to move like this would risk her own body’s destruction. She needed to rest and recover, but she could not let go of her sword.
After all, the anomaly was still happening right before her.
And then she saw the root of that anomaly.
“From the [Waste Hole]…?”
Yuri saw, barely able to distinguish it even with her keen eyesight, the huge eye that had been sitting in the deepest layer—the malignant [Waste Hole]—extending thin black threads that connected to the surrounding “roots.” The roots changed color to black and further stretched their tendrils toward the God’s amalgam.
Strange voices echoed.
“Emergency situation detected. Absence of the Administrator of the [God]. The Administrator must immediately protect the [God].”
“No response; alerting overseer Noah.”
“No response; due to New Contract Zero, activating the ‘Safety Device’ installed in the [Waste Hole].”
“Activation complete.”
“Current status of the Ark assessed; damage to the Ark’s surface has reached 80%.”
“External invasion: [Labyrinth]. Underground invasion of the Ark at 70%.”
“Unauthorized use of [Starstone] detected.”
“Connecting to the Purge Mechanism.”
“Connecting.”
“Connecting.”
“Connection failed.”
“Damage to the core of the Purge Mechanism confirmed.”
A strange voice, unlike a human’s, resonated continuously. It was undoubtedly originating from the amalgam, which had now turned into a solid mass of pure black that the roots sought to absorb.
Something terrible was happening. That much was clear.
But Yuri did not move. Against the phenomena occurring in front of her, the means available to her were insufficient. She lacked the knowledge. Even if she had it, she didn’t have the capability to handle the current situation. This was outside her area of expertise. Thus, she steadied herself, remaining calm as she waited for Greyre’s next moves.
She was a “sword.”
The purpose of a sword is to cut down enemies.
“Administrator of the God—[Hero]’s protection management operations beginning.”
“[Final]!”
The glow of the black roots intensified. Simultaneously, the entire lowest layer shook violently, and upon explosion, a flood of roots—along with surrounding blood and flesh—charged toward Diz and the others. Yuri mercilessly cleaved through them.
Perhaps due to the explosion, amidst the deluge of blood, flesh, and bones, Yuri continued to wield her sword, slicing through all the debris falling on Diz and Shizuku.
“Gah!?”
In the midst of it all, a stray pebble struck her master directly, but she’d assume he won’t die from it. In fact, she hoped he’d wake up quickly, so even more debris wouldn’t be a problem.
Explosions erupted continuously from below, and blood rained down, almost as if someone was rampaging even deeper underground—
“—Kyaaaaaahhhhhh!?”
“…What?”
Just as she thought that, someone actually flew out, caught in the explosions.
Yuri was genuinely surprised and instinctively halted her sword, catching the girl—Zero, a True Person. Cradled in her arms, the girl flailed her limbs, perhaps still confused, then noticed she had been caught and widened her eyes upon seeing who had saved her.
“What are you doing?”
“Is that the Heavenly Sword!? Why are you in such a rather revealing outfit!?”
“I see you seem to be enjoying yourself.”
“Ow!?”
She definitely looked composed enough, so when she released her grip, Zero fell from her back and writhed on the ground.
Her original armor had become tattered from the intense battle with Ul, and now she was using Ul’s Ash Flame as makeshift armor, but the exposed skin was slightly more visible compared to when she adorned the Heavenly Sword. The weaker output of the Ash Flame compared to that of the Heavenly Sword was the reason.
In other words, it was all Ul’s fault. If she had complaints, she wished he would hear them.
“Ugh!?”
“Covered in blood—what a stench.”
“Is everyone okay!?”
While mulling over somewhat trivial thoughts, other True Persons began to drop around them. She had known Diz was moving after parting ways, but it seemed like they had been operating quite deep.
Among them was a tall, shadowy man who had descended alongside the True Persons and silently stood beside Yuri.
“Master.”
“Prepare yourself.”
In response to her master Zain’s command, Yuri readied her sword.
“We’ve prevented the worst-case scenario. But this is just the beginning.”
With numerous unknowns surrounding them, including Zain himself, Yuri still had trust in his character. Thus, she was confident that she should follow his commands without question.
The anomaly before her continued. During the recent explosion from below, grotesque masses emerged alongside Zain and the others—disemboweled, organic remnants that the black mass began to absorb.
“Purge mechanism repair starting—determined to be impossible; beginning absorption of stored magic power.”
“—What is the situation?”
“Does it look like I can tell you?”
Yuri did not turn around to respond to her master’s voice from behind her.
Even Yuri wasn’t grasping everything. She was not, but when considering everyone’s fatigue, the phenomena before her, and the overall situation, there was one appropriate word that came to mind.
“It’s hell.”
“Continuing to determine the Ark is at risk of collapse. Spirits frozen in the [Waste Hole] will be thawed.”
The strange voice continued. It seemed unaffected by the changes in the situation or the opponents they faced. Almost as if those matters were far less significant.
Then, as the light intensified to a peak,
“Good morning. Israelia Granstar.”
The peculiar voice called out the name of its creator.
