Chapter 733: Carving a Name on Blank Paper with Colorless Ink

There are times when I mistakenly think I've covered more distance across the sky and along walls than I have on the actual ground in this game called ShanFro.

I'm sure that's not actually the case, but I've become so accustomed to sprinting while falling that it creates that kind of illusion.

Plummeting through the empty void down to the bottom of the Great Severing Scar—which had been carved open by 【Zend-Avesta】 twisting and devouring the light—I push forward, applying even more acceleration to my falling speed.

The speed at which a person falls is much faster than you'd imagine, but I use vision enhancement to delay my perception and gauge the timing.

"Don't bite your tongue, Rei-shi!"

"Hweah."

I kick off the wall as if it were the floor to accelerate, and then kick the wall as an actual wall to decelerate. While decelerating during a vertical sprint is far more difficult compared to accelerating, right now—with my abundance of gravity-altering and mid-air skills—I can manage it somehow, even if recast time issues mean I can only use them once.

"Alright, safe landing!"

"Faxt."

No loss to my HP. I'm honestly impressed with myself for managing to land with zero damage while carrying a package like Rei-shi... but it seems we can't afford to just relax. As I set the carried Rei-shi down, it appears that a maneuver that would make even a roller coaster turn pale has left Rei-shi's legs trembling like a newborn fawn.

"...That was a bit rough, was it too much after all?"

"Wai... wait... ah, eh, ih..."

Rei-shi's movements suddenly freeze.

"Hmph... there is absolutely, no problem... at all."

"Doing a Kyogoku impression?"

"Hufyuuh... I-I'm fine. I've calmed down."

While giving a questioning stare at Rei-shi—who regained her composure with a gesture remarkably similar to a certain someone acting cocky and pretentious for some reason—I surveyed the depths of the scar we had arrived at.

Even though it's called the Great Severing Scar, at the end of the day it's just like a slightly small valley; the depth is insane, but the actual width isn't all that impressive. At a glance... maybe 100 meters?

"So, this is the 'Scar'."

I could see it the moment we landed at the bottom, and precisely because I could see it, I had to force my landing adjustments just a bit to ensure we absolutely didn't touch the obviously dangerous thing.

Because the irregularly erupting light and heat was quelled by Rei-shi's 【Zend-Avesta】, we were able to visually confirm what was carved into the deep layers of the Great Severing Scar.

"Magma...?"

"I don't feel any heat, but that doesn't change the fact that touching it is a terrible idea."

A scar means this land is the side that had it inflicted upon them, and naturally, there is a side that inflicted the scar. And that is the Old Continent itself... the work of the continent-class super-massive monster known as the Genesis Beast Aether.

And the blow from the White God against the Black God has bitten deeply into this land, remaining exactly as a white scar... A substance resembling magma or mud, stretched out exactly in the shape of the Great Severing Scar.

"It's half-liquid, so it looks like you can fulfill the condition to 'immerse' it."

"That's, true... However, it's possible this might turn into a battle... maybe."

"Seriously?"

...I see, a battle occurred the first time Rei-shi got involved with this sword. Given that, it wouldn't be strange for a similar battle to occur this time as well, or so she says.

"...There probably won't be a battle, though."

"Why is that?"

"The area is way too narrow and way too long."

I can't state it as an absolute fact, but a terrain with a length of 100 meters and a width of barely 10 meters is a bit too slender for a combat area... Furthermore, the majority of the ground in this place is covered in this white scar that screams 'poison floor'. It's simply too restrictive to move around in for a combat zone.

If it were to happen, it would be something like the enemy and the player starting from opposite ends and closing in while shooting at each other.

I've frequently done visual measurements whenever the thought crosses my mind, and basically, in this game, battles occur in areas with a minimum secured space of 20 by 20 meters. So it's hard to imagine a frantic melee combat breaking out on a stage like this.

Well, the golem we encountered when I went searching for the Magical Energy Operation Unit forced a battle in an incredibly narrow corridor, so if they want to spawn something, it's not like they strictly refuse to ignore the rules.

"I'll stay on guard just in case, so Rei-shi, you..."

"Understood, I will try."

Rei-shi began walking quietly, her leg encased in the Armor of Twin Reason taking a step into the white scar. No changes so far; however, since it's clearly something disastrous if I were to touch it, I certainly wasn't going to step in recklessly... just a tiny bit, just my tiptoe...

Bzzt!!!

"Owouch!?"

"Sunraku-kun!?"

What the!? My HP just dropped with ridiculous speed!! Ah, no wait, I recognize that static-electricity-like sensation just now, it's that thing from when the Scars repel something... So it really is a "touch it and you're dead" type of thing, taking half my HP from a single tiptoe touch!?

"No, wait, the Reversed Position effect... does that mean normally it deals 100% damage just from touching it...?"

T-That's way too much of an instant-death gimmick... Normally, this thing deals 200% damage.

They're demanding the same level of tension as falling off a cliff in a game where you control a character with no swimming animation.

"Yeah, you definitely can't touch it without the equipment."

"...I am going in."

Rei-shi, who had reached the center of the pure white scar that completely ignored the textures at the bottom of the dim fissure, was already sunk into the "white" up to her thighs.

However, as she slowly plunged the Sword of Taiji—which she had been carrying on her shoulder—into it, the intertwined white and black sword that was clearly about the same size as the female avatar Rei-shi sank deep down... and then, some kind of window appeared before Rei-shi.

"How is it?!"

"───The one who speaks the myth. The one who bears and wears the myth."

Eh, what? Sudden poetry?

"───Two gods in the sky I looked up to. Singing signs of ruin, holding aloft fragments of the myth, yet remaining far from the truth."

It seems she has to chant it; Rei-shi continued chanting what was presumably not an existing incantation, reading off the window acting as a cue card.

"───Spell the truth, show the answer. I, the one who raises the blank monumental sword. I, the colorless blood filling the vessel."

The "scar" Rei-shi had sunk her legs into began to swirl as if it were a spring or a bog. The vortex, which looked like a bathtub after the plug was pulled, did not drain downwards but rather seemed to be sucked into the armor and sword centering around Rei-shi.

"───Intersecting destiny, branching destiny. My body, my destination takes the wind of the beginning at my back, standing at the vanguard of choice."

The white gathering toward Rei-shi covered the surface of the armor as if clinging to it. It was as if skin was being plastered over the Armor of Twin Reason, which could easily be described as armor made of meat... I hate to say it, but Rei-shi's appearance, which had boasted a splatter-esque, grotesque look, was transforming into an inorganic armored form.

However, the color was neither white nor black, but gray. Rei-shi, in an armored form that had become an ambiguous, dull gray shell, slowly pulled out the sword she had sunk into the scar.

"───Yet to swear, yet to pledge, yet unable. Yet, I declare. My body shall become kindred, and inherit the source of the beginning."

What was drawn out had already transformed into something completely different from the "Sword of Taiji".

It was just as if she were wielding a blank stone monument with a grip attached as a sword...

"I-It's finished..."

"Ah... can you see out of that?"

"U-Um, yes. The visibility is perfectly clear."

Pushing aside the substance that was neither liquid nor solid with a splash, Rei-shi emerged from the white scar—which inflicts 100% damage just by touching it—completely unscathed.

In response to my innocent question, the right cheek barely exposed from the smooth, blankfaceless mask covering three-quarters of her face showed a twitching, wry smile.

---

Author's Afterword

Sword of TaijiParadox: "Eh."

Armor of Twin Reason: "Is my screen time already over?"

Sword of BranchingAporias: "Unfortunately..."

Armor of Twin Inscription: "Since you weren't the final forms, you'll just have to accept it as destiny."