Chapter 23 — Anything I Can’t Imagine Can’t Exist in This World
In the end, the star forts never fired their cannons. The weapons lost their light, and as one, the armada fell from the sky. That was, of course, an issue for those standing inside them.
“Hey, Saiz! What happened?!”
On the bridge of one of the star forts, Kyuuzaburou yelled at Saiz, who had collapsed to the floor. Just a minute earlier, he had been bragging that his Ultimate Space Cannons were capable of wiping out a galactic supercluster, but now he was silent and motionless. The large monitor in the room displayed the numerous star forts falling from the sky.
“No way... Did the Great Sage do this?”
Saiz dying was a result of his own actions, so Kyuuzaburou wasn’t especially bothered. However, the result would be him falling from the sky to his death.
“Well, this is a problem. Should I just use my sword?”
But the sword was his last resort. Kyuuzaburou ran to the closest console. It was covered in buttons and levers with no clear purpose. He randomly started hitting and pulling them. The attack had disabled the cannons, but the monitor was still functioning, so it wasn’t like the star fort was completely dead. Kyuuzaburou was hoping he might find something like an emergency escape function. Apparently he was right, as when he pushed a button on a distant part of the console, a beam of light enveloped his body. The next moment, he was standing on the ground. Looking up, he could see he had been deposited immediately below the falling star fort.
“Oh, come on. How is this supposed to be safe?”
He had hoped to appear a bit farther away, but at least he was outside. The land around him seemed to be a grassland that had crystallized.
“Didn’t I hear about somewhere that had turned to crystal before?”
In any other situation, he might have been able to appreciate the haunting beauty of the landscape, but he didn’t have the time for that now.
“Why is there suddenly a samurai here?!”
Hearing a woman’s voice, Kyuuzaburou turned around to see Yogiri Takatou and his partner standing behind him.
“Yo. I don’t think it matters at this point, but I’m not after you. It’s probably a coincidence that we’re both here. Not that I know.”
“Kind of hard to trust anything you say when you’re that vague!” the girl shouted back.
“I don’t really care if you believe me; I don’t have time to talk.”
Saiz’s death and the falling star forts must have been caused by the Great Sage. If that was the case, he must have known that Kyuuzaburou had escaped and that he was here now. The Great Sage would likely show up in pursuit of him.
Sure enough, the Great Sage arrived just as Kyuuzaburou drew his sword. The mask the Great Sage had been wearing before was gone, and a woman had followed him down.
“Wait, are there three of you now?” the Great Sage remarked.
Kyuuzaburou clicked his tongue. “So you’re actually just after Yogiri Takatou?”
This had worked out just fine for him. If he had emerged too far from the Great Sage, he would have had to destroy the world without the Sage present. But if he was going to destroy the world anyway, he preferred to do it in front of the Great Sage. He was looking forward to seeing the look on the face of a man who had styled himself as a god while his world fell apart.
“Ah! You’re one of the players in the Last Boss Quest, aren’t you? Did you come here looking for Yogiri Takatou? In that case, you two go ahead; I’ll wait.”
“I can’t say I really care about him. Either way, I’m putting an end to this world, so it probably makes more sense for me to take you on.”
No matter who he aimed his sword at, one slash would bring an end to the world. It didn’t make much difference who he targeted, so he would rather attack someone who would show more surprise.
“Really? It doesn’t matter to me, I guess,” the Great Sage replied.
“Do you know what this is?” Kyuuzaburou asked, lifting up his sword.
“A katana, right? It’s not particularly better at cutting than any other sword, but for some reason they’re treated as special in this world.”
“You said it. But this sword alone is uniquely sharp. I can’t say there’s anything it’s ever been unable to cut. It’s honestly so good at it, it ends up cutting things I didn’t want to.”
“I see. So you think it’ll be able to cut me too?”
“Lord Mitsuki! That man is telling the truth!” The woman beside the Great Sage began to panic. “That sword is an exception in the Ultimate Ensemble World!”
“So am I, right?”
“True, but...”
“What, are you scared? If you dodge, you lose,” Kyuuzaburou said. Dodging the slash would mean nothing. The world would still be split in two and destroyed. But he wanted to see the Great Sage’s shock when he was cut in two, so he tried to provoke him anyway.
“Sure. I’ll take your challenge,” the Great Sage replied with a bright smile. Kyuuzaburou felt like he would lose his trust in people if the Great Sage dodged it now.
He brought his sword up to rest on his shoulder. After dabbling in all sorts of schools of swordsmanship, this was a style he had developed on his own. That said, there wasn’t much actual technique to it. He was just doing what he thought looked kind of cool.
“All right, let’s do this.” Kyuuzaburou swung the sword in a wide sweep from right to left. It was a huge swing, though still far too distant to actually reach its target. He didn’t know at exactly what point the sword’s special properties began to apply, but as the tip passed by his own side, it started to slice through space itself.
The world itself was coming apart. The woman jumped in front of the blade as if to protect the Great Sage, stretching out her hands to create a barrier. But there was no way a barrier like that would save them. The blade was already slicing through space itself and therefore had no issue passing through the barrier and the woman herself. Her face twisted in shock. She had known full well what the sword was, but it seemed she still hadn’t fully believed in its power before seeing it for herself.
The Great Sage lifted his left hand to intercept the sword, no doubt intending to block it. But what was attacking him wasn’t just a sword blade; it was a phenomenon splitting apart space itself. There was no way to defend against it, no one who had ever come close. As huge of a deal it was for this particular world, this was all exactly what Kyuuzaburou had expected, and he had no reason to believe it would be any different this time.
So when the spatial tear stopped at the Great Sage’s hand, Kyuuzaburou was incredibly surprised. He had long since lost track of how long he had lived, how many worlds he had destroyed. Destroying worlds was as natural as breathing to him. He never imagined someone would be able to defend against him.
“Very nice. You look like you don’t believe your eyes. I imagine you were hoping to see that look on my face, but I enjoy it quite a bit too. I guess I shouldn’t just leave things like this hanging around, though.”
The tear in space began to mend. Even the woman who had been sliced in two returned to normal. It was like time was rewinding just for everything the sword had touched.
“What the...hell... How did you do that?!”
“It’s pretty simple. This world is a dream that I’m seeing. You and your sword are nothing more than parts of my imagination. So even if it looks like you’re destroying the world on the surface, you can’t actually get to the core of it. It would be weird if you, no more than a character in my dream, could destroy the dream itself, right?”
“There’s no way that’s true. How many worlds do you think I’ve traveled through? Ten thousand doesn’t even come close. A hundred million might be getting there. Are you telling me those were all a dream?! There’s no way that’s possible!”
Though he had entirely forgotten most of them, he knew full well that he had experienced countless worlds. Even the ones he remembered defied counting. He couldn’t believe all of that had been part of the Great Sage’s dream.
“If you’ve experienced so many worlds, you must know about the five-minute world theory, right?” the Great Sage said.
“Ha ha ha... You can’t argue against a theory like that, I guess.” The theory that the world had suddenly popped into existence five minutes prior was one that was impossible to refute. Even if one appealed to memories prior to the point of the world’s origin, the theory could easily posit that those memories had come into existence at the same time.
“All of your memories and experiences are part of my dream.”
“Like hell they are! You expect me to believe you made me?!”
“Taken to the extreme you could say that, but I didn’t really have any direct influence on you. I let this whole world develop randomly. The only influence I had was setting up the initial options for the random number generator. Your life is still yours. You appearing before me here today is no more than a coincidence. I didn’t plan it out in the least.”
Kyuuzaburou wanted to believe it was all a lie, all nonsense. If he believed the Great Sage’s words, there was no chance of ever beating him. Everything would rest in the palm of his hand.
But the moment Kyuuzaburou’s sword had been stopped—that weapon he had so much faith in, whose power was so immense as to be like a curse—he couldn’t help but find the Great Sage’s words to be believable.
So did that mean he needed to accept he was just a fleeting, transient existence himself? There was no way he could do that. Once he accepted that fact, his whole sense of being would be shaken. His entire identity would collapse. No matter what he witnessed, he couldn’t accept that fact.
“Th-That’s right! You mentioned an exception earlier, didn’t you?! That means my power works in every world! An exception is something that operates the same, no matter how different the laws of the individual world are!”
“Yeah. But even if you’re right about that, it doesn’t give you any proof that you aren’t a part of my dream.”
No matter what excuses Kyuuzaburou tried to make, the fact was that his attack had failed. If he wanted to prove the Great Sage to be a liar, he needed to do so with actions.
Kyuuzaburou roared, rushing forward, grasping for the one small ray of hope he could still see. If the blade of his sword made physical contact, it might just work. His only option was to cling to that vague, uncertain notion. The woman beside him started to move, but the Great Sage stopped her. Kyuuzaburou brought his sword down on him with a downward slash aimed at his forehead. The Great Sage made no effort to dodge or to defend himself. The blade struck...and shattered. The top half of the sword snapped off and flew away, and at the same time, Kyuuzaburou’s heart broke.
“Sorry. I would have liked to get cut in two for you, but I just can’t imagine that happening. And anything I can’t imagine can’t exist in this world.”
Kyuuzaburou fell to his knees. He knew now that he had no chance at winning.
“Is that all? I won’t kill you or anything, so you’re free to do what you like.” Having lost all interest in Kyuuzaburou, the Great Sage turned his attention to Yogiri.
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