The 31st Piece Turns the Tables

Episode 575

“Does it mean that words lead to destiny?…”

“I’m not sure.”

“It would be more plausible to say it was the magic of fate rather than words.”

“….”

Ting-!

Asmodon flicked his seal.

“That’s why I gave it a name. The name of this seal. “It is the seal of fate.”

“Oh, that’s pretty good.”

“Wait a minute, but if words are servants of fate… does that mean that what I say to someone controls that person’s fate?”

“Not really. First of all, unless you are given overwhelming magical power, you cannot bring about such a phenomenon and only slightly fix your fate.”

“It’s difficult, it’s difficult.”

Sigh…

Asmodon explained with a smile.

“Still, what you have to be careful about is if you misuse the power of fate.”

“What kind of tillage is that?”

“If you use it on yourself.”

“… ah.”

“If you don’t believe in yourself and break down from within, your fate will get closer to you.”

“… Really?”

“I haven’t even done an experiment, but if all the previous hypotheses were correct, this one is also correct. Well, this one also needs massive magical power or something equivalent to it.”

Yuriko said excitedly.

“Has this revealed a clue to the roots of magic? “The magic…”

“… I won’t reveal it.”

“… uh?”

Asmodon shook his head at Yuriko’s words.

“Yuriko, don’t you know what it means that fate exists?”

“… ah!”

I can’t be sure.

However, if you know that even the shadow of fate definitely exists.

“Can people find meaning in their lives?”

“….”

“Yuriko.”

“Definitely… up to that point…”

“Haha… don’t take it too seriously. “Because my thoughts can always change.”

Yuriko stepped forward and said.

“This time I’ll show you what I discovered.”

“Am I so excited? Compared to what you discovered, my discovery is so huge that it must be overwhelming. Ha ha ha ha ha!”

Asmodon laughs humorously.

If Yuriko had been obsessed with an inferiority complex, she would not have been able to accept that smile comfortably.

However, since we were friends before we were mage, it was a joke worth laughing at.

And Yuriko was a genius comparable to Asmodon.

“This place is narrow, let’s go underground.”

“…is it that much?”

“Okay, Nier, follow me too. “I’ll show you something fun.”

“huh!”

Asmodon’s laboratory extended underground. And the underground laboratory had a high ceiling that was several times higher than the ground level, and the space was also vast.

Usually, risky experiments were conducted here.

Tuk.

A mysterious sphere placed on the floor.

“uh? That…”

“Yes, it’s something left behind by my father and Sir Berik.”

“… Did you interpret the research records?”

“The research records were a mess. “I approached it in a similar way, but I had a hard time finding a new answer because the technique was calculated incorrectly from the beginning.”

“What on earth did you find that makes you have such a long tongue…”

Pajik-!

It’s a joke!

Yuriko’s eyes burned with magic.

Even though he is human, he has tremendous magical power.

Whoa…

a sphere comes to mind.

Pajijijik…

Pajijijijik-!

“This is…”

Asmodon’s expression hardened.

Dangerous.

Cracking…

Gradually, the power emitted by the sphere grew.

“Stop it, Yuriko. “Who are you…”

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”

I’m going to take a look at it!

The sphere opens.

Like the moon reflected in a lake, a haze is formed that heads somewhere.

“Haa… haa….”

“… tell me, Yuriko. What’s this?”

Yuriko spoke after catching her breath.

“It is the materialization of time.”

“… It’s a lie, right?”

“Time is everything in here.”

“….”

“Using this, I can touch and see time.”

“… I don’t understand.”

“I also evaluated the magic you showed me that way earlier.”

A bizarre incident committed by two genius magicians who appeared in the same era after the first magician, Ur.

Yuriko laughed.

“If you had a glimpse of fate.”

Sigh…

“I stole time.”

Fatalist and time thief.

The two were caught up in the anxiety and excitement that today’s simple demonstration would create something else.

* * *

Yuriko cleaned up her personal lab.

A fake research plan was received with a huge budget from the Magic Council of the Kagon Council.

It was a vague excitement that I might find something worth risking my life on.

There is no time to persuade and convince.

We only need time to reach the light.

Life was too short to live like that.

Because I wasn’t sure how long the inspiration would continue.

“Yuriko, did you check what you put away there?”

“I saw you in the morning.”

Asmodon’s laboratory was now his laboratory.

they have grown up

Nier, the laboratory’s treasure.

Nier’s mental world was vast.

I devoured the knowledge surprisingly quickly.

Once I learned something, I never forgot it and recalled it without much difficulty.

The lifespan is unknown because it was not received from the already dead Puo, but the two thought that with this power, they might be able to rule the world someday.

Architectural style history morals and ethics.

Law, culture, thought and economy.

Endless knowledge seeped into Nier.

Knowledge inevitably breeds corruption.

It sows the seeds of distorted views and stubborn prejudice.

But Nierh didn’t have that.

He was a cute dragon who accepted knowledge as knowledge and monopolized the love of Yuriko and Asmodon.

“You know, Yuriko.”

“huh.”

Gooooooo…

“Can we take a look inside this?”

“It’s possible, unless you actually go in.”

“How is this possible without actually going in?”

“We’re throwing something that resonates with us at a time that isn’t too far away.”

“Wow, that’s a really rotten idea.”

“Are you fine?”

This materialized time was given a name by both.

Horus, Gate of Time.

That is the name of this bizarre artifact.

“But intervening in such a vast area of time could distort the entire axis of space and time. “Time and space are not yet separable in my realm.”

“Then what happens?”

“Even if you send something to a set time coordinate, that something may fall in a completely wrong place at the wrong time.”

“oh! It’s gonna be fun!”

“… you.”

“huh?”

“You think the same as me?”

The two mages were confused as to what was at work: madness or curiosity.

Still, it didn’t stop.

Because he was a mage.

The desire for knowledge destroys all values.

Asmodon said:

“Actually, the reason I brought this up is because one of the time coordinates keeps bothering me.”

“Oh, I felt it too.”

“A time that strangely matches Kagon’s energy! Did you feel it too?”

“huh.”

“Perhaps… isn’t that time fate?”

“… I want to deny it, but I’m upset that I can’t because there’s nothing for sure.”

Asmodon stroked his chin and said:

“It is a time that is bound to us by fate… The people who live there may be….”

“They are either another us or…”

“So, isn’t it God?”

“God exists?”

“Ha ha ha ha ha! “We have confirmed that time and fate exist, so how is it possible that God doesn’t exist?”

“… Isn’t that wrong?”

Madness seeps in.

“Let’s check.”

“Okay, I have no choice but to check.”

The existence of God.

That they exist.

“What good would it be to empathize with us?”

Asmodon said in response to Yuriko’s words.

“Doppelganger experiment!”

“that? “You failed completely.”

“I failed to turn the monster doppelganger into a human. Instead, the homunculus was created using that theory.”

“Homunculus…”

Forcibly inserting a cloned personality into artificially created bones and flesh.

Although it was no different from a cloned human, it was a technology that had already been commercialized due to the nature of Kagon, who threw away ethics for the sake of the development of magic.

However, only half of the personalities are cloned.

Since there were restrictions on the homunculus itself, it was impossible to go any further than that.

“… Let’s lift the restrictions. “There is nothing we can do to increase the probability of response.”

“And what if you become conscious?”

“We have to seal the consciousness and throw it into the maze.”

“That’s murder.”

“If you don’t wake up, there will be no victims. “Have you ever killed someone?”

“… I’ve killed quite a few people.”

A mage could not always do clean work. They had to do anything for Khagon.

“Our goal is not to create perfect humans. We need a signal to check how long this time continues. ah! “Wait… then…”

Asmodon hesitated.

“We might grow old and die before we reach the designated space-time coordinates…”

“That can’t be possible. You can adjust the time value to reach there. If the coordinates are not wrong, it will arrive someday, right? If the ‘event’ of arrival definitely occurs….”

It means that it will arrive someday.

“That means we can make it arrive tomorrow.”

“Then the last one! “Let’s just decide on this.”

“What?”

“… whose personality should I use among the two?”

“Of course….”

Another thing that kills oneself.

I hesitate.

“… let me do it.”

This is the meaning of Yuriko.

“Everything happened because I became a mage.”

“… Is that so?”

“So I have to take responsibility.”

“… do not do that. “I will do my best.”

…

Yuriko and Asmodon 32 years old.

Ugh…

Yuriko’s personality was planted in a pre-made young life.

A seal shone on one cheek of the young life.

It is a seal of fate created by Asmodon.

He carved a new seal on the homunculus in addition to the one he had.

“Let’s say goodbye.”

“Shouldn’t we at least give it a name?”

“Um… Is that so?”

“okay. Baby, your name is… um… ah! “I remembered!”

“What?”

“What did we do this morning?”

“It snowed, right? I went outside. What else… ah….”

“What do you think? “It’s the perfect name, right?”

“… I see.”

Asmodon and Yuriko spoke together.

“From now on, your name is Snowman. Please take care of me!”

“I’ll take care of you!”

“Okay… are you ready?”

“send!”

Fajieeeeeeek-!

The homunculus rises and disappears into the maze.

Life goes somewhere through the gate of time.

A day has passed.

And a year has passed.

Yuriko and Asmodon 33 years old.

The two climbed the huge clock tower in the Kagon Council plaza.

Sometimes the two spent time here.

I came here whenever I felt frustrated.

All my anxiety disappeared due to the really nice scenery.

The sight of the developed magic empire chilled their hearts.

“It’s a failure.”

“… Well, there is no mage who succeeds in all research.”

“….”

“Yuriko?”

“You know, Asmodon. “I have strange dreams sometimes these days.”

“okay? dream?”

Yuriko tilted her head.

“Sometimes I dream of someone looking down on me.”

“It must be very unpleasant.”

“Ha… It must be because the research went wrong.”

“Should I squander all my research funds in one night and jump into the maze?”

“Arthur you’re going to die. “No, you will feel that it is better to die.”

“…is it that much?”

“It’s being torn into thousands, tens of thousands, or even more pieces. Only when everything about you dies within it will you meet true death…”

“Well, if it’s that complicated, let’s just die comfortably.”

Sigh

…

Yuriko, who was laughing brightly, suddenly grabbed her head.

“Uuuuuu….”

“Yuriko? what’s the matter?”

– Hasn’t the power of the Mutani family become too strong?

– I think I need some training.

– for a moment! There’s my horse there. Let’s postpone it until after my horse dies!

– … Then it’s too late.

A solemn voice seeps into my head.

“Aaaah!”

Yuriko is foaming at the mouth and panting.

“Yuriko!”

Flutter…

Yuriko was about to fall down the railing.

Faaaaaaaaaaa!

Asmodon grabbed his arm.

“Yuriko! “Don’t let go!”

“Huh… Huh….”

Yuriko was hanging on the railing and holding Asmodon’s hand.

He said, looking at the sky beyond the clock tower.

“Who are you…”

“What are you talking about…”

Yuriko began to see it in her eyes.

An old man wearing a snowman mask is moving a piece that looks exactly like Yuriko on the game board.

The old man muttered.

– Don’t fall! Yuriko!

“Since when… since when…”

It took control of my life.

“Since when…”

Cause and effect are mixed in chaos.

The collapse of Kagon’s timeline.

The snowman survived.

A being that could not even be a human survived and became Yuriko’s god.

The snowman muttered.

– We have to run away quickly….