Chapter 226. Path Forward (1)
"Yeah. I won't deny it."
Enoch nodded.
The surface of the Rhodes lake had already begun to thrash wildly, sweeping inward around Enoch.
Before he knew it, the waters of Rhodes were rising through his Inner World with frightening speed — enough to swallow his legs entirely — and he glanced down at them.
"I need your help. Persona."
"Hmm, I wonder what I should do?"
Even as she said that, she smiled softly and snapped her fingers once.
At the same moment, a beautiful olive-colored curtain of light unfurled across the sky of the Inner World.
Like the auroras of a polar region, the feast of green light was draping itself dazzlingly across the sky of the World of Impermanence. Enoch, unconsciously at a loss for words, looked up.
"This is…"
"Since you experienced it firsthand last time, you should recognize it, right?"
Persona, seated high upon the ruin's empty air, shrugged her shoulders.
"This is my Unique Magic. Construction of, and interference with, Inner Worlds. Technically it requires a pact with you first, but I never imagined I'd be using it here."
Enoch tilted his head as he looked up at her.
"Surprising. Last time, I seem to remember you telling me you couldn't use your Unique Magic in this World of Impermanence."
"Oh my. You're going to say that, right now?"
Persona smiled leisurely, brushing her glossy hair back with one hand.
Then she lifted her hand and pointed at the Rhodes lake surface rising up around Enoch's feet.
"That's my answer, Enoch. As you can see, the World of Impermanence has become more chaotic than last time. In that state, isn't it natural that I can also use some degree of my own power?"
Instead of answering, Enoch followed her fingertip and looked down at his feet.
And his eyes widened.
Looking at the lake, there had clearly been a change from a moment ago.
On the surface of the lake — which had been spiraling and surging violently upward — the olive-colored light of Persona's mana had now crystallized like fireflies, rising up and dancing.
Enoch stared blankly at the fantastically beautiful sight of countless crystallized lights floating in the air and reflecting on the water.
The surface of the lake looked as though time itself had stopped, the transparent currents rising into the sky and holding still.
"The erosion… has stopped?"
"Yes. By my Unique Magic, somehow."
Persona smiled gently and nodded.
"Honestly, even with your pact, using my Unique Magic like this is taxing. But when else would I get to interfere with an Inner World this well-constructed?"
Enoch frowned.
"What I just said — 'I need your help' — that was the trigger fulfilling the condition of the pact that lets you use your Unique Magic?"
"Correct. You catch on to magic pretty quickly. Have you ever studied magic theory, perhaps?"
Enoch shook his head.
"Well. I don't know about the rest, but at least I understand that the immediate fire's been put out. Right?"
"Yes, more or less."
Persona, who now had a complex spherical magic circle resembling a celestial orrery floating in one hand, tilted her head to the side with an easy smile.
"Well. The point is, I know the situation is urgent, but for now you can take a moment to calm down. With my Unique Magic built into your Inner World right now, I've slowed time to an extreme. You have enough time for a conversation."
"That's possible?"
"Yes, it's a kind of barrier. It's just a mental-time manipulation leveraging the characteristics of the Inner World, though. Even this, maintaining it is exhausting, I'll have you know."
Mental-time manipulation, he thought.
Enoch nodded slowly.
In terms of analogy, it was similar to how memories were said to rush past in a flash when one faced the crisis of death.
"I understand the concept. The analogy is a bit obscure, though."
"Oh my, is it? Sorry about that."
The dance of olive-colored mana, filling the air above the lake surface like fireflies.
Looking down at it quietly from atop the ruin, Persona smiled softly.
"How about a little gratitude? Enoch."
"You're helping more readily than I expected."
Enoch retorted dryly.
"Did the Empire's Last Sword Saint happen to ask you a favor?"
"Hi, hieeek!! Th, that old man, don't mention him…"
But at that, Persona suddenly made a horrified face and snapped her head back.
"I beg you. Please, don't even speak of that old man in front of me right now… I only escaped his side because you called on me now…"
"What's with that reaction?"
Persona shook her head side to side.
"J, just being next to him is terrifying! That man — he surely wasn't human when he was alive, either. Even standing well away from him, it feels like I could be cut down at any moment. My instincts keep warning me, I can't let my guard down!"
"He's that bad?"
Enoch tilted his head. Since he'd seen her dragged out tucked under the Sword Saint's arm like a piece of luggage the last time, he'd suspected as much, but it seemed some kind of trauma had formed.
Of course, when he had first received the Sword Saint's killing intent through the initial inheritance, Enoch had felt something similar.
But thinking about it more, he felt that at some point, the man's killing intent had stopped being properly felt.
"Honestly, I don't really get it."
Persona folded her arms under her chest with a thoroughly exasperated expression.
"You're a swordsman who even projects the same Unique Mana onto his sword. I'm a mage, so I don't know all the details, but isn't it because you're at a similar level of mastery? That you don't get crushed by his pressure, I mean."
"Well, I'm not sure about that."
Enoch smiled wryly and turned his head aside.
But Persona, as if she hadn't had a single outlet for her pent-up grievances until now, sharpened her glare and planted a hand on her hip.
"And on top of that! That old man. Why does he talk so much?! It would be so much better if he were more taciturn!"
"Ah…"
Right. That was true.
Persona pressed her forehead with the expression of someone nursing a headache and grumbled.
"Every time he watches you pull off something great in the World of Impermanence, he rambles on and on beside me about things I don't even want to hear!! And I just have to keep listening next to him! Do you have any idea what an ordeal that is?! Honestly, I'd like to demand some improvement in my treatment!"
Instead of answering, Enoch crossed his arms as naturally as he could and looked away.
"Wouldn't know. But well… seems he's enjoying himself in his own way. That's a relief."
"Enoch. You just looked away, didn't you? Right?!"
Enoch lightly ignored Persona, who had shed her earlier composure and was now complaining at him with a teary face.
"Regardless, I'm grateful. I hadn't expected you to help so suddenly."
"No need to thank me. Since things have ended up this way, I'd already planned to cooperate with you. Honestly speaking, it doesn't matter anymore what happens to me in this world."
"Come to think of it, you said something similar before. What exactly do you mean by that?"
Persona held the white mask, fashioned with a weeping expression, between her slender fingers and tapped lightly at its surface.
"Hmm, it's hard to put into words, but if I had to find a similar comparison… let's see."
She lifted her finger as if searching for a suitable metaphor and tapped idly at the air.
"How about this — once the play is entirely over and the actors have finished their curtain call, I'm now lying back on the living-room couch, enjoying the show you're putting on."
"I've heard something similar before."
"Listen well. I said it twice because it's important."
Persona glanced down at Enoch.
"Because I'm going to keep watching you from here on out, too. You're sharp, so you know what I'm saying, right?"
"You'll help me, so in exchange provide the entertainment?"
Persona smiled brightly.
"Exactly. Good guess."
"It seemed obvious."
Whatever happened to Enoch was truly a matter of indifference to her — so for her to help this readily, there was only one reason he could think of.
Whether Persona had some other scheme, he didn't know, but at least that one thing was clear.
"I can't allow the Direct Lineage who defeated my Lord Tantalus to die face-down in a place like this."
Persona looked down at Enoch directly with a meaningful gaze.
"Besides, don't you have things you need to do too? There's no need for a long discussion — I think this has established our relationship well enough."
Enoch shook his head.
"Even if you're here in my Inner World, I still can't trust you. To be more precise, questions remain."
"Hm. Questions, I see."
Persona put her hand to her lips and chuckled softly.
"The truth is, I must be a kind of impurity as far as you're concerned. Right? And that's why you don't understand why I'm helping you."
"Yeah. What's your purpose?"
"Hmm, purpose."
"At first I thought you were simply being kept in check by the Emperor's Supreme Sword, and thus under control. But not anymore. If you had refused to help me in this situation, even the Sword Saint would have had no way to force your hand."
Enoch stared at her with cool eyes.
"Calling you out this time was effectively my request. That you obediently answered it can only mean you have some intention of cooperating with me."
"That's true enough."
Enoch tilted his head.
"Why would you help me in the first place, when I'm the one who killed the Tantalus you served so faithfully? You watched me shoot Tantalus dead in this Inner World with your own eyes, didn't you?"
Persona clenched the hand propped against the ruin into a fist and lowered her face. Her narrow eyes, visible through her bangs, sharpened further.
"Well, you're not wrong. I genuinely hate you. But quite apart from that — Enoch, you don't know a thing about Lord Tantalus."
"What?"
"If I told you I'm following the conclusions of Lord Tantalus's research… would you believe me?"
"Research results."
Enoch recalled the memories of the past.
Thinking about it, Ixion too, and Tantalus before him, had spoken as if there were some connection between them, Enoch, and the Book of Gnosis.
In other words, the research results Persona was speaking of now were likely connected to the Book of Gnosis Tantalus had been researching. That thought crossed Enoch's mind with the force of certainty.
Persona shrugged lightly.
"No need to overthink it. I'm your collaborator, aren't I?"
She touched a finger to her lips and smiled coyly through the gap.
"Whatever the reason, I'm actually helping you right now. Even my magic can only be used through a pact with you. I'm a safer woman than you think, you know? Young Master."
Enoch nodded slowly.
It was as Persona herself had said. Unless he granted her permission, she was in the position of a complete bystander. It was safe to assume there was no way she could pose a threat to him.
Of course, questions remained about her motives for helping him, but at the very least, she wasn't hiding some scheme to bring harm upon him.
"You're right. That's not inaccurate."
"Right?"
Persona beamed and lightly crossed her arms.
"So. I'm not exactly in a position to demand a contract, but — wouldn't it be better for you too, if I stayed in the frame of mind of wanting to keep helping you from here on? Show me something interesting."
"……"
Enoch nodded.
Come to think of it, the Empire's Last Sword Saint had also said something about looking forward to his exploits.
Imagining the two of them — Persona and the Emperor's Supreme Sword — sitting side by side and enjoying his performances together, Enoch shook his head with a touch of exasperation.
"That's explanation enough. Understood."
"Oh my, you got my metaphor. I'm delighted, Enoch."
Enoch let out a small sigh.
"Honestly, I didn't think I'd be on the hook for providing entertainment to my Inner World residents and handling their working conditions, too."
Persona listlessly propped her chin on the back of her hand and exhaled a deep sigh.
"Hmph, at least do that much. Putting up with that old man's nagging here is more of a trial than you might think. Honestly, I'd rather just bite off my tongue and die right here."
"Dying here — your jokes have gotten bleaker than before."
"That's how tedious this place is. My only joy here is watching you, you know. I'm literally watching you until you're worn to nothing. Hmm, that last line was a bit too girlish of me, wasn't it?"
Persona said that and laughed merrily. Then she glanced down at him.
"Ah! Enoch, come to think of it, last night that pretty Dragoon girl and you had quite the sweet atmosphere, didn't you?"
"Alicia, you mean?"
So she'd watched that too. Enoch stared at her with a somewhat sour look. Persona nodded and beamed.
"Yes. Very sugary."
"……"
"How about it? Want your older sister to teach you the secret to winning a girl's heart? Between that and the silver-haired maid too — with so many attractive girls overflowing around you, isn't that a tempting offer?"
"You even make nonsense entertaining."
When Enoch cut her off flatly, Persona laughed and shrugged.
"Oh my, is it really not so? But the girls around you. For it to be my misreading alone…"
The 10th Rank Black Mage trailed off there and began twirling a strand of her long hair around one finger.
"No, forget it. Pay no mind to what I just said. Me interfering directly in the entertainment I'm enjoying here would ruin the fun."
"……At this point, it really sounds like you're just enjoying yourself."
"Well. That wouldn't be wrong either, would it?"
Persona shrugged and laughed. Watching her, Enoch let out a small sigh.
"I've been reduced to a pure spectacle, haven't I."
"Don't be so downcast. It's not as if only one or two interesting things are happening around you. And as I said before, since there are so many pretty girls near you, I'm looking forward to 'that kind of thing' happening too, you see."
"That kind of thing? What on earth…"
"Oh, come on. Isn't it obvious?"
Persona wore her usual teasing look and smiled softly at him.
"Ah. Enoch, this older sister is looking forward to the day you keep all those pretty girls in a harem and use that 'Black Magic of the Night' everyone gossips about."
At Persona's bombshell declaration, Enoch tilted his head with an exasperated expression.
"……I didn't know your tastes ran like that."
"Hmm. A little unexpected? Even though I'm not alive anymore, surprisingly the dopamine that comes from watching something entertaining is pretty addictive. Probably from memory or habit, I suppose?"
Persona let out a teasing laugh.
Watching her playful, mischievous face, Enoch gave a sour smile.
"Hearing someone say they're dead, while breathing perfectly well right in front of me, is strange."
"Hmm, depends on how you think about it. Even I can't say for sure whether I died here. I just have a faint memory of having done so."
"……"
As Enoch lost words at the conversation veering off the rails, Persona shrugged her shoulders.
"Oh, right. This is just something I'm saying as your faithful viewer. That face of yours — if you tried to use it, you'd have quite the destructive power with a honey trap, you know? I can vouch for it. My aesthetic sense is pretty high."
Enoch grimaced and turned his eyes away.
"Calling your own aesthetic sense high, saying it yourself sounds a bit questionable."
"What's the harm? I'm only going to be here anyway. I can speak freely with no concern of embarrassing myself elsewhere."
Persona swept her long hair back over her shoulder with a single flip and spoke nonchalantly.
"Besides, there's a fair amount of truth to what I said."
"Truth?"
"Oh my, didn't you know? I told you before that your face is quite my type. And seeing you charm that young nun Lily so effortlessly, you must have some awareness of it."
"……"
Persona smiled sultrily.
"Well, whatever the case, I'm looking forward to your exploits in that area too, you know? I quite enjoy the scenes where you seduce the pretty girls. Watching girls enchanted by an expressionless, handsome young man, with their hearts being toyed with — it's quite amusing."
"I've thought so for a while now, but you really do have bad tastes."
"Fufu, as I said before. Surely no worse than the Empire or the Main Houses?"
Sitting atop the ruin's debris, she stretched out languorously and swung her pale legs — extending down from beneath her skirt — idly in the air.
"Mm~. Anyway, whatever it is, get to making more bold moves faster. You have such powerful strength, why not go a bit wild?"
"Go wild?"
"Yes. Why not recover quickly and take out that Victoria army jackass — Shepherd or whatever his name is — while you're at it? According to that old man, normally you could match up to a 9th Rank."
"……What do you take me for."
"Fufu, joking. Though from the viewer's perspective in here, that would certainly be far more entertaining. Still, watching you move according to your own judgment is more interesting."
Enoch shook his head dryly.
"Let's stop the idle talk and get to the point."
"Ah, gladly, Oh God~ of This World."
She placed a hand over her chest and bowed theatrically.
"Well. As you said, it was fun meeting again after so long, but the situation doesn't really call for a long chat, so I'll cut to it."
Looking up at the World of Impermanence, now wreathed in mana-light like an aurora, Persona spoke.
"As you can see, I was able to pause your inheritance once, by my own power. Just once."
"Once."
"Yes. It's a somewhat different method from what that old man — the so-called Empire's Last Sword Saint — used last time."
Enoch frowned.
It clearly wasn't a joke.
Persona, still gazing down at him, gave a small smile as if she'd caught on.
"From here on, if you relax even a little, your mind will waver and the World of Impermanence will end up being filled with this lake of Rhodes. Of course, if your mental strength weakens enough for the Sword Saint to overpower you, that's the end too."
Enoch tilted his head without expression.
"Too long. Just the main point."
"Simple. In other words, I can only block this as long as your mental strength — Enoch's — holds out against the erosion of memory through this inheritance. It'll be a razor-thin contest against the Sword Saint's memory."
Persona smiled coldly and tilted her head.
"Well. It's already a miracle in the first place that with a half-hollow mental strength — when you don't even know yourself — you've maintained your self against the Sword Saint's mind."
Then she gave a heavy sigh and glanced at him with an "As I might have expected from someone who manifested Unique Mana, it really is unreasonable," muttered.
"You really do piss me off, Enoch."
"Now what?"
"Somehow, the more I watch you, the more the Unique Magic I used to take pride in starts to look pathetic. Anyway, this much you understand, right? This is a stopgap."
"I suspected. Aside from side effects, is a complete solution — like stopping the inheritance outright — not possible?"
"Of course not. You know it too, don't you? Last time, even when the Empire's Last Sword Saint himself halted the inheritance, and that's why this time you called me instead of that old man. That's the reason."
Enoch nodded silently.
It was true.
Last time during the inheritance, the Empire's Last Sword Saint had, without question, stopped the inheritance for him.
But that had been interrupting an inheritance that hadn't progressed very far.
Now, with 'synchronization' with the Sword Saint of the Waves already underway — practically by accident — even if the Sword Saint forcefully severed the connection in the World of Impermanence as before, the inheritance would continue.
That was why this time he had called not the Sword Saint, but Persona — the original owner of the magic gear that helped control the Inner World itself.
She shrugged her shoulders.
"Anyway, being a stopgap, this pause won't last very long. That's all I have to say."
Enoch nodded.
"That's enough. But if it won't last long — roughly how many days will it hold?"
"Days? Fufufu, wrong question. Enoch."
She lifted a single finger beside her eye and waggled it.
"The pause of the inheritance isn't something I decide. To be exact, it isn't me — it's up to you."
"Up to me?"