Chapter 452

Chapter 452

Cain gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands, and a burst of white light erupted.
“Ugh—!”
I shielded my eyes with my hands. The brightness was unbearable. Luckily, the light faded quickly. As soon as I opened my eyes, a curse word jumped out at me.
“What the hell.”
Everything had changed. The place I was standing was no longer a hill overlooking the town.
I was standing in the middle of nowhere, devastated.
Overhead was a starry night sky. Hundreds of millions of celestial bodies seemed to come alive with every breeze.
“—kills.”
I was in pure awe. I had never seen a more brilliant night sky in my life.
It was not the sky I looked up to as a child holding my sister’s hand, nor was it the first parallel world where civilization collapsed after an invasion of giants: the Milky Way flowed as strongly as ever, and the blazing nebulae created a dreamlike atmosphere.
However, it wasn’t the best place for a casual night out.
Whoosh!
A northerly wind slapped me in the face as it slid across the ocean.
“Ugh, shit!”
Your coat swished wildly. I reflexively opened my collar. It was cold enough to freeze my nipples. The sensation was vivid, even though it was obviously fake.
I glanced down and saw black waves crashing beneath my shoes. It felt similar to stepping on the ground, but I couldn’t understand how.
“Holy shit, this is totally real.
The Abyss of Akasha was a different kind of shock. Everything was overwhelmingly realistic.
I moved my gaze along the star-filled horizon. To my surprise, there was land. Dozens of scarlet lights bobbed above the gently rising land like a whale’s back.
“Is that—?”
I narrowed my eyes. It was hard to see, but the arrangement of the lights was artificial.
Village? Tribe?
It was a car that was about to take a step.
“That’s where I’m from.”
“Father.”
The voice came from behind. I turned and saw Cain holding a sword. The longsword in his right hand glowed in the starlight.
“Your father’s hometown?”
“Yes. The place where the First King of the Giants crashed–where I lost everything and started over. I used to go out in my father’s boat to catch fish, and I’d look back toward the village and see this.”
Cain pointed his finger toward the land. As expected, it was the light of torches and authorization.
There was a hint of nostalgia in his eyes as he gazed into the firelight.
“I see why the stars were bright.
It sent a chill down my spine, albeit briefly.
I had no idea how long ago what I was looking at was.
A primeval sky. It must have been before the empire of Dainhar was a tribe, before Navardoze, now called the Mother of Fire, had emerged from her egg. The adventurer’s blood boiled with awe.
Cain said.
“Don’t even think about going there yourself. All I’ve implemented is what you can see from a distance.”
“You know me too well.”
“Well, he’s my father, for one thing. It’s not much help in a fight, but I always make sure I have a view of my home village, because if I don’t, I’ll forget—in fact, I think it’s a net function of the world.”
It was about being able to remember your own memories more clearly and share them with others.
I agreed with him. If I hadn’t entered Cain’s world, I would have never seen a night sky as spectacular as that until I died.
He looked at the star cluster and nodded.
“I think it’s great.”
“I appreciate your empathy, and I’d love to stay and stargaze for a while longer, but you have a mission.”
“Well, I don’t know about that either, honestly, I don’t know yet… can this touristy scenery be as destructive as Akasha’s technology?”
“Of course. I was just about to show you.”
Cain raised his sword. My gaze focused on him again. A pale, white light, like starlight, pulsed inside the longsword.
“Surely the world as it is now is nothing more than a fancy fantasy. In order to defeat the enemy with the world, it is imperative that the world be molded into a weapon.”
“Mugira–does it cause a giant whirlpool? Or monster sharks jumping out of the ocean?”
“That’s not bad, but as you said on the hill, a world user can only be a god in a limited number of places. If you’re going to take the world by storm, you need to be bolder, like—.”
Cain’s gaze fixed on the night sky. The tip of his longsword slowly rose, pointed at the Milky Way. It was as if he were declaring war on the gods.
I stared at the car, wondering what the heck it was going to do. A pure white beam of light shot out from every star in sight. The beam’s target was Cain.
“——!!!”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It was like hundreds of millions of giant silkworms spinning thread at the same time.
In the blink of an eye, every beam of light across the sky was focused on Cain’s sword. The sea turned white. The beam was soon cut off, but the sword that had consumed all the starlight shone with such brilliance that it was impossible to stare at it any longer.
Cain laughed.
“It’s like this.”
What he held was now more like a thunderbolt than a sword.
Cain swung his sword toward the horizon. A straight line stretched from one end of his vision to the other. A moment of silence.
A white line, like the margins of space, opened up and exploded.
Kaaaaaaaaaah!!!
A wall of water shot into the night sky. The wall of seawater rose so high that it was invisible to the naked eye, and only then did it fall. I was sure the last drops would not fall for another ten minutes, if not longer.
And then the night sea calmed down.
Cain spun the sword once, then spoke.
“For reference, when Akasha destroyed the Wizarding World, I had to use a lot more power than this. He was basically stronger than me. Even if I can’t, I should be able to open up this much of the world so you can escape the Abyss on your own.”
“Well. That sucks.”
“You’re not quite right, but it’ll be fine.”
Cain tapped me on the shoulder.
I looked back at him with a glimmer of hope.
“Do you have any tricks up your sleeve?”
“No. Of course not. But this is a situation where it has to be done, and I’ve done it, and Abel has done it, and my family has done it, and we’ve done it in situations where if I don’t do it, everything is ruined.”
“Hmmm—so you’re saying I should just go ahead and try it.”
“Exactly.”
“I don’t often say this, but can I slap one?”
“I’d appreciate it if you’d bear with me, because it would really break my heart to be assaulted, even by my parallel-world son.”
Cain reached out. I relaxed my fist. I felt like I would have hit him if he’d agreed.
I scratched the back of my head and sighed.
“Haha—okay, I’ll give it a shot.”
“Good posture. Then let’s get right to it. The first step in realizing a world is to flood it with your own image.”
“Flooding your mind?”
“Yes. It’s the same principle as an Auror, but not necessarily the same image. The world you wish to show your enemy is more than your weapons and fleshly vessels can contain.”
Cain closed his eyes with those words.
Once again, a burst of radiance erupted from the sword, spreading out in a wide ripple.
The colors of the night sky became vivid. The stars doubled in brightness, illuminating the ocean. I could almost see the scales rustling.
Cain opened his eyes again.
“—If you’ve already unfolded the image, you can make changes like this. For reference, I thought, ‘I want the stars to be brighter.'”
“Heh heh. Fuck.”
I chuckled to myself. This seemed challenging enough, though not nearly as bad as collecting and wielding starlight. The good news is that I think I know what I’m talking about.
“Yeah. I don’t have anyone to do it anyway.
In a nutshell, I was told to have a damn clear picture in my mind.
More vividly than even I could handle. Like water overflowing from a cup and soaking the entire table.
A tug on the hilt revealed a white holy sword.
“—That’s interesting.
The corner of my mouth twitched upward. I gripped the sack with both hands, like Cain before me.
When I think about it, it’s been a long time since I’ve been excited to learn something. For the first time in a while, I felt the same excitement in my heart as when I was taking classes at Pileon.
The contradictory pleasure wasn’t so bad.
I closed my eyes and began to try the first steps of the world.
“Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
I pictured the sunset as best I could.
It was the only image I could conjure up at the moment. The struggle of the dying sun. The scarlet auror pulling his opponent to him.
My entire body’s mana was ebbing away.
“Kaaaah!”
However, no matter how intense the imagery, I didn’t feel any change.
I was just torturing the hilt of my sword. A beastly roar escaped between clenched teeth. From somewhere, I heard Cain’s voice.
“Enough.”
“Great–yet, not yet!”
“No, no. Please stop. Any more and I’m going to get sick of whatever it is, and it’s not like I’m getting anywhere.”
“What? What does that mean—”
He opened his eyes. I sucked in a breath as my gaze landed on the knife.
The sunset light glinted off the smooth blade. It had poor range, but it felt nothing like an auror’s or a sword’s. Clouds of shards floated in the sunset that surrounded the blade like a moonburst.
“Whoa—whoa, this can’t be—?”
“Yes. It’s the world.”
“This little crab?”
“Every giant sprouted from a tiny seed. He’s my son, but he’s an incredible talent.”
Cain was silent. Judging by his expression, he wasn’t mocking me.
He watched, dumbfounded, at the phenomenon he claimed to be the world. The swath of light surrounding the sword snuffed out like a candle in the wind.
“What the hell?!”
“You were distracted. Let’s try again.”
“Of course you do, I think I know what’s what now.”
I closed my eyes again. I summoned an image and gathered my mana. It didn’t matter anymore, not the cold wind on my flesh, not the relative deprivation of Cain’s killing sting.
It was a must-do situation, and I had to do it.
Cain said.
“Yeah. Very good posture.”
“Kkkkkk—!”
“I will help you with all my might. You must learn the world…”
I was too focused to answer.
A glowing afterglow began to grow.
From beyond the blackness of his eyelids, Cain’s voice rang out once more.
“Let’s give that Akasha or whatever the fuck he is, a good punch in the face.”