Kara no Kyoukai:Chapter05 012
/12 (Spiral Paradox, 9)
The red sun lights up the spiral tower.
Within the orange world confronted by the approach of sunset, Aozaki Touko set foot on the grounds of the mansion.
The brown-dyed, lizard-skin longcoat doesn't suit her thin body. It looked more like armour than clothing.
She looked up at the mansion once, then lifted up the orange bag in one hand and started to walk.
Passing the lawn covered in green grass she enters the mansion.
Constructed of glass, the lobby has been dyed a deep red by the light of the setting sun.
The floor, the wall, and even the column that holds the elevator leading upstairs, they are all as red as if they were inside the sun.
After thinking for a brief moment she changed her destination.
And so she walked to the side that didn't face the elevator, the East side of the lobby.
... Divided in two, this mansion has seperate lobbies on the East and West sides.
She goes to one of those, the lobby on the first floor of the East building.
The lobby is a wide semi-circular space.
The second floor ceiling is clearly visible so it feels like some huge reception hall. Here inside the builing there is no orange light from the setting sun. Only the yellow illumination of the lights shines off the marble floor.
"How surprising. You are very impatient, aren't you."
Highly pitched considering his sex, a man's voice echoes through the lobby.
Touko doesn't say anything in response, and wordlessly lifts her gaze.
The stairway that connects to the second floor by way of its gentle incline. In the centre stands a man in a red coat.
"But that's a delightful thing too. Hurry on in, to my Gehenna (Gehenna: A hill to the Southwest of Jerusalem in Israel. Sometimes called "Hinom's Hill". This names originates from the Hebrew name of "The hill of Hinom's son". The name is sometimes used to represent hell because Canaanites and Jerusalem inhabitants gethered here to burn their children as sacrifices for the god Morroc). I welcome you, greatest of doll-makers."
Laughing joyfully, the mage Cornelius Alba greets her with an overdramatic gesture as if he were an actor on a stage.
"Gehenna(Hell)?"
"Of course.This is the recreation of the altar of fire that was on the hill of Hinom. It's a tool within which we've gathered the concepts from burning, killing, and torturing people (I think my translation of this is a little off). Although unfortunately Morroc who is the owner of this God's Palace (?) is away at the moment. How splendid is it? A twisted dimension of this level should be completely seperated from the physical laws of the outside world. Preparations for opening the path were finished long ago, Aozaki."
The red mage looks down at Touko and speaks confidently.
Contrary to the energetic young man, she keeps her emotions locked away as she replies.
"For Agrippa's direct descendent wallowing in the religion of the Jews, how amusing. That's why you still haven't understood the true nature of this place. Hell? That kind of thing exists somewhere on this Earth at this very moment. If you want to see murder on a scale that the human mind cannot comprehend go to a battlefield. If you wish to see human's dying on a scale you could never believe just go to any starving nations. Something like this isn't Hell. It's merely Purgatory, this."
And, she puts her bag down upon the floor.
Tock, a dry sound.
"A place where eternally tormented souls who committed small crimes and cannot go to heaven or hell reside. That is the true identity of this place. A closed loop where the torture isn't carried out to fulfil some purpose, but where the whole purpose is to torture. In something like this, there isn't any thaumatergical effect --- or at least not for a outsider like you."
The piercing words cause the red mage to twitch and for a spasm to run across his face.
Shenarrows her eyes, as if she was facing the building instead of the youth on the stairway.
"This Taegukdo structure isn't of your doing is it? That's enough so bring Araya out. You aren't competent enough, and there isn't anything that would benefit you in the events that will occur now. I'm not sure what your objectives are, but there aren't any values here that are easy enough for you to understand. I'll say that at least in return for your warning last time."
Touko looks around as if saying, that's all. Without giving the red mage who is standing right in front of her another glance, she looks for someone who isn't even there.
The mage keeps looking at her acting like that.
With eyes full of hatred that looks as if tears could come out at any moment.
"You, were always like that."
That mutterm was something that flowed out because he couldn't take it any longer.
"Yes. You were always like this. You always underestimated me like that. I specialised in Rune before you. I was also the one who was famed as a dollmaker, I alone. But, those feeble minded idiots were fooled by that attitude of yours. Your condescending attitude, it gave them the impression that I was inferior to you. It's obvious if you think about it! I'm the director of Suponheim aren't I? I have spent over 40 years as a mage. So why was it that I had to be below a little girl who had just entered her twenties... !"
His muttering, growing steadily louder it now filled the lobby.
Touko-san stares disinterestedly at this person, who has now abandoned all pretense at friendliness and pours abuse upon her.
"Age isn't important when it comes to academics. It's alright to make yourself look young, Cornelius. But it's because you are so concerned with your outward appearance that the contents don't match up."
That one cold statement, it was a provocative insult like no other to the other mage.
The face of the handsome young man whose age has passed fifty contorts with hatred.
"--- Haven't I explained my objective yet?"
With a strained calmness, the red mage changes the flow of the conversation.
"You know, I don't care what happens to an useless thing like Araya's experiment. To tell you the truth I don't have any interest in the Maelstrom of Origins. Chasing after something that may or may not exist, it's nonsense. If you wish to intrude upon the domain of God all you have to do is devote yourself to Gnosis (Gnosis: Complete knowledge of this universe. The word comes from the Greek and can be translated as understanding, awareness, or wisdom. But because of the complicated religious and other entwined meanings implied by the word it is normally referred to as Gnosis). There's no reason to go upstream."
He falls back one step. As if to get to the 2nd flor, little by little he climbs the stairs.
"It was my own decision to tell you about Ryougi Shiki. Araya lost his life while capturing Ryougi Shiki. That fight was a draw. Following that this ward became mine. But you know, I have no intention of continuing his experiment. It's obvious as to why. You see, Aozaki, the only reason I came a god forsaken country like this was because I thought I could kill you!"
Laughing so wildly as to make you worry that he may hurt his throat, the mage leaps up the stairs.
She can only watch calmly as the mage goes up to the 2nd floor.
Because... the 1st floor lobby was already full of things that could have been the realisation of the mage's ill will.
At that time, her words contained more scorn and hatred than ever before as she spoke.
"--- Slimes, is it."
Aozaki quickly described the plasmous forms that were filling the space around her.
But the things that were spreading out from the lobby walls weren't so simple as that. The cream coloured mucus dripped down from the wall and quickly took on a shape.
Some took a human shape, others took the shapes of beasts.
Their faces looked like Keloid (Keloid: a growth upon the body formed by a tissue swelling up and becoming hard. Normally they swell up flat and many are red and have a shiny surface) and kept melting away, but these things that kept rebuilding themselves looked very real. If you were to take an example they were like real animals and humans who rotted away for eternity, existences that were both disgusting and elaborate at the same time.
"To think that you could only realise these sort of things in a place like this. Alba, it would be better for you to switch to being a film director rather than continue as a mage. If it was you there would be no reason to worry about the budget for preparing special effects. Of course, you would have to specialise in cheap horror movies, but it would still be a much more suitable job for you than a director."
Surrounded by the objects that had filled the lobby, she muttered.
Certainly, this scene was reminiscent of a horror movie. If you were to point out a difference, it would only be that crosses and holy bullets had no effect against these things.
And so, although the slime-like objects had surrounded her on all sides but for a 1 metre gap around her, she didn't bat a eyelash as she reached for the pocket inside her suit.
... Chit, she clicks her tongue. Now that she thought about it she had entrusted Mikiya with her cigarettes, Touko was slightly regretful. If she had known things were going to turn out like this she would have bought some Japanese brands at least, she muttered to herself.
She hadn't expected such a boring outcome in her wildest dreams. How could she withstand this without smoking one cigarette at least ---.
"No, you couldn't even be a director. Your presentation is too clumsy. Audiences these days won't be satisfied with just this. I suppose there's no helping it, I'll give you an example. Alba, If you are going to put forward a mystery, you will have to maintain this level at least."
Tock, she kicked the bag beside her feet with the ends of her toes.
"--- Come out."
An order full of authority, disallowing refusal.
In response to that the bag opens. Clunk, and the bag opens up like a tulip but there is nothing inside.
At the same time --- some black thing starts spinning around the mage called Aozaki Touko.
The black thing was a hurricane with a body.
With Touko as the eye of the storm, it spins round and round and round at a high speed.
That was a force which could drive one crazy.
Within a few seconds there is nothing in the lobby. Not a body or a shadow remained of the things that had flowed out of the walls. The only things there were Aozaki Touko and her closed bag. And the cat sitting in front of her.
"--- What."
Stunned, Alba could only look upon all this.
The cat is bigger than Touko. Its body is night black, but does not possess any thickness. A flat black cat made from shadow. No, he can't even tell if it is a cat. A shadow that resembled a cat, upon its head region is a eye that looked like an Egyption heiroglyph.
"What, is that --- ?"
From the 2nd floor, he looked down at the cat.
His gaze meets the cat's drawing-like eyes. When they did --- erasing the space where its mouth should have gone, the cat gives him a broad smile.
Was he having a nightmare, Alba swallows his breath.
Touko doesn't say anything.
The only noise is a scratchy chkchkchk noise coming from somewhere.
"That's not right, was the story that you lost your familiar to your sister only a lie ... !"
As if he couldn't stand the silence, Alba shouts.
She only replied with a 'I wonder' before shifting her glance to the black cat.
"--- I fed you some nasty things. But this next one should taste a bit better. Real human flesh instead of these chunks of ether (Ether: The substance called the fifth element within the Association. Melting into the four great elements, it becomes the medium that is essential to form a shape. Within that whole it has no shape, but without this substance no magecraft can be achieved). It should also have plenty of spiritual nutritional value. There's no need to go easy because he's my old schoolmate. I always told you didn't I? That enemies are for eating."
Instantly, the black cat starts running.
Crossing the marble floor as if it were sliding along, it runs up the stairs. ... Even so the cat's feet do not move. Only its eye moves as its sitting shadow races towards the red coated human.
To get from the 1st floor lobby where Touko was to the 2nd floor stairwell where Alba was, it probably hadn't taken 10 seconds.
But, Alba wasn't some normal person to allow such a thing.
He was a mage.
"Go away the shadow.
It is impossible to touch the thing which are not visible.
Forget the darkness.
It is impossible to see the thing which are not touched.
The question is prohibited.
The answer is simple.
I have the flame in the left hand.
And I have everything in the right hand ---."
Carefully, but with a speed which approached the human limits, Alba encants his spell.
--- Spells, within the realm of mages they were nothing more than suggestions aimed at oneself.
There is a magecraft for causing wind to blow. Just like a certain type of weapon, this was a power which had an ability that was determined from the start. No matter what mage used it its effect would not change. Only, the incantation was different.
The incantations called spells were for the purpose of activating the magecraft that one's body had become familiar with. It's contents showed the nature of the mage. That was because as long as you kept the necessary meanings and keywords for the activation of that particular piece of magecraft, the details of the incantation could be changed to suit the user's fancy.
The incantations of a narcissistic and pompous mage who easily got infatuated with themselves was long. But it was also true that the more meaning you put into the spell, the more powerful was the final effect. This was because the stronger the suggestion you put upon yourself, the stronger the ability you pulled out from yourself would be.
Taken in that light Alba's incantation could be said to be outstanding. Not too long, holding the minimum required contents, and putting a phrase to fix his mind on top of that, the speaking of the incantation itself doesn't even take 2 seconds.
At that fact Touko let out an exclamation of surprise, and admired the performance.
The younger Alba had liked to use incantations that had been wasteful and longer then necessary, but it seemed that in the last few years he had definitely developed.
His method and speed of forming the incantation, and his way of connecting his circuits in order to manipulate the physical world is remarkably precise.
This incantation, in the realm of magecrafts that were designed to purely destroy things, was definitely first class.
"I am the order. Therefore,
you will be defeated securely --- !"
Alba puts foward one arm.
The instant that the black cat stepped onto the first of the steps, the air wavered faintly --- then the stairway erupted into flame.
Like a wavering mirage rising up into the sky, a sea of blue flames fills the stairway.
In a matter of seconds, the top of the flames that emerged from the stairs themselves have burnt through the second floor and disappear into the ceiling.
It looked like a geyser in some geothermal hotspot.
Sucking dry all the oxygen in the lobby in an instant, the sea of flame instantly erased the black cat from the world. That was only to be expected too. These thaumatergical flames that were well over a 1000 degrees Celsius, any animal that entered them would soon be melted like butter and turn from a solid to a gas. Passing through the liquid stage wouldn't have taken the time required for a comma.
But, Alba saw it.
The impossible shape of the black cat, suddenly appearing once all the flames had burnt themselves out.
"--- That can't be right."
Blue eyes stare at the stairs.
The black cat licked it thin black body as if it that last spell had been unsatisfactory, then shifted its gaze to the red mage.
The black monster resumes its charge.
Alba didn't even have the time to try and puzzle out the cat's nature.
"Repeat ... !"
With a tearing sharpness Alba repeated his spell.
The stairs erupted into flames. But this time the cat didn't even stop. It raced straight towards the mage as if saying it had already gotten used to this kind of fire.
"Repeat!"
Once again the sea of flame roars up, and disappears.
The cat was already nearing the top of the stairs.
"Repeat!"
The fourth conflagration ended meaninglessly as well.
Once the black cat reached the second floor, it went up to Alba and opened up its mouth. The body of the cat which was as big as a man, it opened up from its head to toe. As if opening up a treasure chest with the crown of its head as a lid.
Inside of the flat, planar cat the corpses of the protoplasmic creatures it had swallowed earlier are pasted like mud.
Alba realised only then. That this thing was only taking the shape of a cat, and that it was an organism that only had a mouth.
"Repeat --- !"
With death in front of his eyes terror makes him repeat his final spell.
But before that, the shark's mouth in the body of a cat closes down upon the mage. When it swallowed him whole with his red coat, Alba lost consciousness.
