Chapter Seven: The End of the Festival and the Explosion
Thirty Minutes Ago
After the first day of the Love-Duel Festival, Hannya — Fuyuko Shiki — went on to take a nap.
She could’ve gotten more sleep within Infinite Dendrogram, but she chose to sleep in reality because she wanted the second day — and her date with Figaro — to come as soon as possible.
She slept, anxious for that long-awaited moment... and woke up feeling absolutely awful.
“...Why would I have a dream like that now?” During her nap, she’d relived that time when she was betrayed by the man she once loved. She’d seen herself giving her all to him and helping him with everything she had, only for him to cut her off with a single message. She’d seen his face as she found him in Legendaria, grinning like an idiot as he messed around with another woman.
The memories came back to her as a dream, attacking right before her long-awaited moment. It was almost like a red flag, or an alarm bell ringing out.
“Figaro... Vincent isn’t like him.”
I can trust Vincent. ...Can’t I? I mean, he’s so pure. ...We only talked through messages. How can I be sure? We love each other. ...Even though I never confirmed it? Vincent isn’t like him. ...But what do I actually know about Vincent?
Her reason clashed with her emotions, repeating her greatest fear: that she would be betrayed by her beloved again.
“What am I so worried about...? I just need to confirm that he loves me...”
Fuyuko shook off the intrusive voice in the back of her mind and logged in to Infinite Dendrogram.
She appeared at the plaza — the local save point — and immediately noticed that her surroundings were astir. At first, she thought it was just the cheerful festival atmosphere, but it didn’t seem quite right.
“Do you think those two are... you know...?”
“It’s unexpected, but they make for a balanced pair. Maybe they’re a good match.”
“They don’t really seem happy, though...” Many people were chatting with newspapers in hand. Nearby, someone was talking while selling copies of that same paper, and Hannya was curious enough to buy one.
What she saw first was the name of the newspaper — “Kingdom People Times.”
What she saw next was a photo of a bare-chested man, and a woman right next to him.
To the side, there was a large text saying “THE HEAT OF PASSION?! THE DUEL CHAMPION AND THE LEADER OF THE TOP CLAN!” followed by letters in a smaller font, starting with “A teary exchange! Whatever happened between these two...”
The people in the photo were named, too, but Hannya didn’t need that to know who the man was — she couldn’t forget him if she tried.
“...Figaro.” It was none other than her beloved.
The paper said that the photo had been taken last night — which would mean that this happened right after Figaro had told her that he couldn’t dine with her.
He said he didn’t have time for me, Hannya’s mind wrung out one single thought as it gradually went blank.
Who is she? What were they talking about? she wondered.
What am I to him? What did we have between us? she questioned herself.
Then, all the mail they’d exchanged flashed through her mind.
“Oh... I just realized... that he never said... that he loved me.”
King of Berserk, Hannya finally noticed that crushing detail. She realized that her love was an illusion, and the last shreds of her rationality finally fell away.
“As you command, Lady Hannya.” In response to the voice in his Master’s heart, Warden Angel, Sandalphon instantly began to act.
“Form Shift — Prison Tower.” As he appeared out of the crest, he instantly and drastically changed his appearance.
From a living being to an inorganic structure... from a small child to twin towers that reached as high as the sky.
Thus, Sandalphon now stood in the middle of Gideon’s central plaza.
Though the structures were gigantic, reaching an entire kilometel in height, they actually tapered down in volume towards the bottom. A building like that would never stand using conventional means and materials, but such logic didn’t apply to a Superior Embryo.
The towers hadn’t even touched the ground yet. If they weighed as much as they looked, they would smash craters into the ground the moment they landed.
“...AAAAAAAAHHHHH! R-RU... RUN AWAAY!”
“Tch! Dryfe’s at it again?!”
“...Wait, that’s the thing from Valentine’s...” Sandalphon’s sudden appearance left the people dumbfounded for a good moment, then made them scatter in fear. A few Masters tried attacking the towers, but Sandalphon didn’t care. Numerous as they were, the spells and blows could only scratch it at best.
Sandalphon ignored the minor resistance...
“Angeldeath Dominion — Sandalphon.”
...And activated his ultimate skill.
Like a ripple, its effect began to spread with barely anyone noticing until it enveloped all of Gideon.
A few seconds later, screams of fear and confusion drowned the city, spurred by something more than just the two towers in the plaza.
Gideon the City of Duels
“R-Rook! Th-That’s...!” Kasumi cried, unable to hide her fear of the large object in the middle of the city.
Rook stood in front of her and considered the situation.
That fits the description I was given of Miss Hannya’s Sandalphon. Ray said that things were going smoothly on that front, but it looks like something’s changed.
He took out his Telepathy Cuffs to contact Ray and Shu, but then he heard the screams. However, they didn’t come from somewhere off in the city, but from right next to him.
The screams were let out by people that had appeared from seemingly nowhere just ten metels in front of him.
“Huh? What?!” Rook swept Kasumi into his arms and moved away from the panicked crowd. They seemed quite perplexed by the situation, but they were desperate to get as far away from Sandalphon as possible.
As Rook watched them, he considered the situation once more.
Mass teleportation? Is this a skill? Did Sandalphon do this? Rook had been informed about Hannya herself, but he didn’t know anything about her skills because Shu and Figaro didn’t know anything, either. Figaro could’ve asked her, but he’d chosen not to do it because he believed that it would’ve been unfair to know all the cards in the deck of someone he’d eventually duel.
But... How much would a teleportation skill of this scale actually cost? As far as Rook knew, teleportation skills were costly even here in Infinite Dendrogram. For example, Kasumi’s Taijitu’s teleportation was limited to her own monsters, and its cost grew exponentially the farther she tried to teleport them. Then there was Franklin, who had to create monsters solely dedicated to Castling — the short-distance teleportation skill that swapped his and the monster’s places — just to make good use of it. The only skill Rook knew that could go over long distances without much effort was Xunyu’s ultimate skill, but even that was limited to just her limbs.
It was quite obvious this anomaly had been caused by Sandalphon, but if he could teleport that many people at once and also manifest such a gigantic body, he was clearly abnormally powerful.
Since he can do that, he must either have some complex limitations on it, or it isn’t even pure teleportation to begin with... or it could be a mix of both... Reminds me of her Embryo.
Rook remembered one of his past opponents — Hugo and Cyco. Cyco’s La Porte de l’Enfer could instantly kill Masters far more powerful than herself as long as the right conditions were met.
Assuming that that power stems from the “giant-killing” theme Maidens have, this phenomenon most likely has to do with some characteristic common to all Apostles, but... Rook didn’t have enough information to make any assumptions about what it could be, so for now, he focused on analyzing the effect of the skill.
It can’t be literal teleportation because of the high cost, so maybe it’s something else? Like... an illusion?
He first considered that it could be like the stealth-focused Superior Embryo that he’d faced recently, and that what he had seen here might’ve been just a vision of people running around in a panic in some other location.
Rook ordered his coat — Liz — to create thin threads and let them flow in the wind. The threads could physically touch the panicked crowd, making him realize that they were real to Liz, at least.
It’s not sense manipulation. Even a Superior Embryo couldn’t do that on this scale. These people are definitely real. Rook had faced Gerbera and her Alhazred, so he knew that the range of such abilities was limited.
There’s people popping up here and there all over the street... Hm?
He looked at the street ahead, which continued for hundreds of metels, and noticed something.
People were only popping up in certain places. Based on his estimations, it was ten metels ahead, then 110 metels, then 210 — every 100 metels, basically.
Could it be...? Rook made Liz extend her threads in all directions, and she, too, was affected by this phenomenon. However, it was only to the threads that reached past a certain distance.
Rook looked in the direction, calculated the distance, and had an epiphany.
Squares of exactly 100 metels. Leaving one moves you someplace else.
An area split into 100 metel-large squares. That reminded him of what he’d seen right before he saw Sandalphon.
“Kasumi, could you show me your Taijitu agai— Huh?”
“Hhnn...” When Rook spoke to Kasumi, he noticed that she was blushing bright red from head to toe and seemed barely conscious.
His accelerated analysis took him just a little under a minute, but he had been holding Kasumi this entire time, and she was about to explode from embarrassment.
He gave up on asking. She was holding the Taijitu in her hands, so he took a look at it and saw the map of Gideon displayed in the same “sliding block puzzle” state as before. Rook checked it against his memories and realized that the area ten metels to the north had become Gideon’s north gate.
Wanting to test his theory, he walked towards the place people were appearing. He first kicked a pebble before passing, but it rolled by with no problem.
“The utilities haven’t been affected, either, so I suppose it only works on living creatures... and whatever they’re carrying,” he whispered, as he watched the still-clothed people passing by.
“It affects the Taijitu, too... so we can add Embryos to that.” And so, he went against the wave of people and passed through the place where they appeared.
A few steps later, he was no longer in the street from before, but the north gate.
“...So this is how it works.” With the truth finally revealed, Rook contacted Ray and Shu to pass on this information.
A few minutes earlier...
“Labyrinth created — prison complete,” Sandalphon whispered as he opened his eyes — the jewels on the tip of each tower.
Each of them saw different things.
The right jewel saw Gideon as it was before the skill’s activation. The people seen through this one were teleported elsewhere as they moved.
The left jewel saw Gideon scattered in a square tile pattern. The people seen through this one were moving around without any teleportation.
To them, Gideon was currently the same as it appeared to the left jewel.
Just as Rook had assumed, this phenomenon was caused by the special characteristic of Apostles.
Maidens were known to excel at giant-killing. Apostles also had a unique theme to their powers. This theme could only be described as “domination” — the opposite of the Maiden-type Embryo tendency to focus their power to defeat overwhelming odds. Apostles, by contrast, spread their power out, claimed a part of the world as their own, and rewrote its rules for their own benefit.
Some might think of Kaguya, but her night was merely an overlay she painted onto the world. Apostles, on the other hand, marked an area as their own, controlled it, and changed it at will.
Sandalphon affected the laws of movement within the ten kilometels he dominated. This ultimate skill rewrote the spatial connection for every 100 metels, but only for living beings and their possessions. It shuffled the world around Sandalphon into what his left jewel saw.
This power was based on Judaic writings — specifically, the archangel that imprisoned other angels.
Besides Sandalphon himself, only very few people could perceive this scrambled world. To most, this city would become a prison that merely happened to look like a very familiar place.
This was the power Hannya had desired — the power to never let RockPanther get away from her. She’d already used it to corner him. He’d frantically ran around, crying and pissing himself, but she’d eventually crushed him.
This time, she was using it on someone else.
“Optical Search — Over Gladiator, Figaro.” Sandalphon slowly walked and looked in every possible direction to find the target.
He was merely walking through his scattered world, but to others, it appeared as though the two massive towers were teleporting.
This was also how it had suddenly appeared behind Figaro when they’d first met.
At the top of Sandalphon stood Hannya, not saying a word as she glared at the city below. There were many emotions in her eyes, but all of them were overwhelmed by grief, rage, and insanity.
“Lady Hannya. I have finished transforming and setting up the Angeldeath Dominion. I am now searching for the target.”
Sandalphon received no response, but he knew his Master well enough to expect this.
There were two stages to Hannya’s rampages.
The first was indiscriminate rage. She would be angry from the bottom of her heart, but she would lack a clear target, so she would simply lash out at those who closely resembled the source of her ire, screaming out her emotions while doing so.
That was how she had been most of the time while searching for RockPanther — the man who’d dumped her in real life.
The second stage was a pure destructive urge. She wouldn’t say a word, and nothing — neither power nor words — would be able to stop her until she found her target and the fire in her heart was finally extinguished.
This was how she had been when she’d found RockPanther in Legendaria.
Sandalphon knew full well that the second stage was far more terrifying than the first.
After all — in this state, she didn’t care about anything. She would be focused solely on letting her anger out on her target and completely lose all consideration for her surroundings — which she still had in the first stage, however meager. Being Hannya’s weapon, Sandalphon knew better than anyone that the lack of tian casualties back when she’d crushed RockPanther in Legendaria had been pure luck.
Needless to say, she’d been in the second stage of anger back then.
This city will probably be wiped off the map, Sandalphon thought. Figaro wasn’t like RockPanther — not as an individual, but as a fighter. He was powerful even by Superior standards, and Sandalphon believed that Gideon would fall before he would be defeated.
...I have no say in this. I must do as Lady Hannya desires.
Once, Kaguya had told Nemesis that Apostles were “products of a sense of duty.”
That was simply the truth. Apostles always strived to be merely tools meant to fulfill whatever their Masters desired, and never argued against them or raised any objection.
The title of “Apostle” was most apt indeed, and this one knew that everything would end the moment Figaro appeared.
Prism Rider, Ray Starling
“Can Miss Eldritch go one day without being a nuisance?!” I roared as I rode Silver around Gideon’s skies.
In my hand, I held a newspaper — the likely cause of this happening.
I’d picked it up at the inn where I was staying, thought “This can’t be good,” and this whole thing started happening the very next moment.
“...I can understand why she blew up, though,” said Nemesis. “The man who refused to dine with her went on to meet another woman with his shirt off. Fuel on the fire. Truly.”
“And I’m pretty damn sure this wasn’t Figaro’s intention at all!” Then again, this was certainly not what Miss Eldritch or the newspaper company wanted either, but that didn’t change what was going on right now.
[Reiji, how’s it going up there? You gettin’ close to the legs?] Shu asked using his Telepathy Cuffs.
[No! The scenery just changes as I fly around! I can’t get to her even from here!]
[Well, Rook said that the local space’s split into a bunch of 100 metel squares and scattered into a huge mess. Hannya’s movin’ around, too. Meeting her is a matter of pure luck. Rook and the Superior Killer aren’t doing too well, either.]
The spatial scramble seemed to work no matter how high up you were. I saw some people flying around on tamed monsters, and they all seemed as lost as I was.
[...Have you found Miss Eldritch yet?] I asked.
[Nope. She might not even be online,] Shu replied.
Miss Eldritch and her Lunar Society’s swarm tactics and debuffs might’ve been able to help, but it didn’t seem like we could rely on that.
...You caused this, damn it! Where are you?!
[What about Xunyu?]
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