Snow White’s Slumber

by Reki Kawahara

“I do not feel the individual differences between you little warriors as beautiful or despicable or any such thing. At any rate, I cannot go against my orders to destroy you while I am in my first form, so it is pointless to wonder how I feel.”

  “…Oh…”

  “However, I am able to decide whether I like or dislike all things, including you little ones. For instance, the other Four Saints are precious, and I do not care for the Four Gods of the Castle. I like the Twilight stage, but I despise the Hell stage. I can state that the pseudo-Being you are fighting is repulsive, and I believe that the next time I encounter the little warrior who twisted the power of the jeweled crown, The Luminary, that they stole from my domain and then dared to go so far as make me their guard dog after using it on me, I will spend approximately three thousand years evaporating them.”

  Y-you will…huh? Haruyuki thought in a corner of his mind, shuddering. The silver crown that had restrained Metatron’s first form and the knight Enemy he had seen in the Society’s headquarters…That was apparently the effect of The Luminary, one of the Seven Arcs. Which meant The Luminary, said to be missing, was actually in the hands of the Society?

  This bit of information nagged at him still, but right now he needed to focus on Mark II. Staring at Metatron’s face, he asked again, “So then…What’s my sound…?”

  Metatron kept her mouth closed for a while, but then finally spoke in a slightly quieter voice. “At the very least, I do not enjoy this question.”

  “I-I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer—”

  “You must be able to discern it without asking such tiresome questions. Why would I make one who emitted an unpleasant noise my servant for a thousand years?”

  “I-I’m really sorry. Wait. So then, what—?”

  “Aah, really! Do you actually have such leeway as to make this kind of conversation with me?! I only just explained to you the damage from staying too long in the Highest Level!”

  “R-right, you did.”

  What were we talking about again? After thinking a second, he finally remembered. Metatron was talking about the gap between them. The mental wall everyone generated deep in their unconscious mind. This was, in other words… “Um. So then…Is what’s separating you and me the armor of this duel avatar itself?”

  “Aye. Essentially, there is no need for armor or swords in this Highest Level. Because nothing can hurt you here. However, you have produced this same figure as on the Mean Level. As long as you have this awareness, I will not be able to share my own power with you.”

  “B-but I mean, how am I supposed to…?” Haruyuki had already being fighting as Silver Crow for eight months. This figure was the most natural form to take while he was in the Accelerated World. Metatron said it was a manifestation of the mind to try to protect himself, but he had absolutely no awareness of this. “A-and I mean, you—you look the same as when we were in the Unlimited Neutral Field, though. It’s not like I’m the only one creating this gap…,” Haruyuki started muttering.

  Metatron’s brow furrowed into a deep valley, a meter before him. But fortunately, the Archangel did not reprimand him. Instead, she hung her head and said half to herself, “It is indeed just as you say. There is something in me that could be called pride or boastfulness as a Saint, and it is that which is producing this form. But the time has come now to discard such shells. When I loaned you my wings, I made the choice to end a long stagnation.”

  Metatron turned her face up, eyes still closed. Following her lead, Haruyuki also turned his face up. He couldn’t find a speck of light in the jet-black canopy. No; he wasn’t even sure if the sky was there or not. An endless spiritual darkness.

  In a certain sense, the infinite sky was equivalent to a tough prison. Because either way, the fact that he couldn’t go anywhere was the same. And eternal time was equal to one second on a loop. The end was definitely not coming.

  When he had awakened his flight ability and soared through the air of the duel stage for the first time, Haruyuki had felt it. That this world was infinite. But the Purgatory stage of Suginami Area No. 2 that had seemed so endlessly vast then was nothing more than the single smallest section of the Accelerated World. Above it were the Unlimited Neutral Field and the Highest Level, with its three overlapping worlds. Metatron had been held prisoner in an infinite and eternal prison, all without knowing why she had been born or the purpose of her fight.

  Abruptly, a pillar of golden light rose vertically in front of him. Turning his gaze back, he found that the beautiful robe wrapped around Metatron was in the process of soundlessly vanishing. As the hem and sleeves melted into particles of light, the smooth lines of her body were revealed.

  If this had been the Haruyuki of only a little while ago, he might have yanked his hand out of hers. But now, he only felt a sadness that pressed heavy on his chest.

  A Legend-class Enemy with absolute power on par with the Four Gods of the Castle. The polar opposite of mere level-five Haruyuki in every way. But there was one thing they shared: The desire to see the edge of the Accelerated World. The desire to fly faster, farther, ever forward.

  He didn’t need armor anymore, if that was all he wanted. He broke the shell that protected his soul and took a step toward her. He would allow the heart of a precious friend who shared the same dream to touch his own.

  Silver light gently danced up from his body as well. The particles that made up Silver Crow’s armor were melting away. The naked body of his slender avatar was revealed, and then it further transformed into the real-world Haruyuki. The light rising up from their two bodies passed through their firmly linked arms and touched in their palms. Instantly, the circle this made flashed brightly and illuminated the infinite darkness with a ring of light.

  Metatron slowly raised her eyelids and opened them completely for the first time. The golden eyes caught Haruyuki’s squarely, and the jet-black was painted over in a snowy white. Their two bodies melted into light, and just like when he first came to this Highest Level, his sense of sight and hearing and all other sensations disappeared and were lost. But Haruyuki felt it: another heart beating very close to his own.

  The two hearts drew near each other. And touched.

  Haruyuki couldn’t have known this, but in that instant, a change occurred inside the device called the Brain Burst central server—the Main Visualizer. The Brain Burst program raised the clock on the light quantum circuits inside that brain—the true matter of consciousness—and realized a thought speed of one thousand times faster. But this explanation was not the entire truth. Being accelerated was an intracerebral circuit interface that accepted a connection with the Main Visualizer via the Neurolinker. This communication was carried out not through the general-use global net, but rather through the nonpublic, super-high-speed, and high-capacity social camera net. And from accelerated Burst Linkers thought to be using their own dedicated quantum circuit within the Main Visualizer.

  Right now, the quantum circuit with the name Metatron—one of the lights shining especially brightly in the galaxy Haruyuki once saw in “Takumu’s dream”—and Haruyuki’s own dedicated quantum circuit were connected in a new network. This phenomenon resembled the parallel processing that happened with the ISS kit main body and the kit users, but the nature of it was very different.

  In contrast with the ISS kits, which used only negative emotion as the intermediary, the Metatron-Haruyuki network allowed the transmission of every kind of data. Not only thoughts and feelings, but also the power to fight…And even life itself.

  In the pure-white light, Haruyuki heard it.

  “Now, let us return to the Mean Level. It is time to fight our enemy.”

  B-but…

  “It’s all right. Stand and face it unafraid. Silver Crow…I am with you.”

  Okay. Thanks, Metatron. I’ll fight. For my friends. For myself. And for you.

  Time started to flow once more.

  4

  Graaang! A roaring pressure wave hit Haruyuki from all dir
ections. Color was returning to the world: the twilight sky spreading out without edge; the white buildings of the town below, crimson and violet; the shadow of the crater gouged out of the earth; the crimson avatar he held tightly in his arms.

  And the ink-black lance charging from below to swallow the two up.

  He didn’t even have the time to think about the lance, much less dodge it. Haruyuki pulled Niko tightly to him with one hand as he stretched the other out, five fingers splayed.

  And then the mass of nihilistic energy reached Silver Crow’s right hand. If this had been before the shift to the Highest Level, Haruyuki and Niko would have been instantly vaporized. But just as the dark laser was on the verge of touching his palm, it stopped, sparks like lightning shooting off in every direction. It swelled up into a massive sphere and then flipped around. It shrank to a diameter of a mere thirty centimeters, but the energy it contained was not diminished. The incredibly dense ball of nothingness warped the surrounding sky and made his avatar’s armor squeal.

  It’s going to explode!

  Clutching the still-unconscious Niko to his chest, Haruyuki gritted his teeth. The fact that he was able to stop the laser with one hand was probably because the strength of his armor had been boosted up to the same level as Metatron’s main body. But the nihilistic attack of Mark II’s main armaments brought about a massive explosion when it made a direct hit and annihilated everything within the effective range—a diameter of 150 meters across. No matter how much stronger his armor was now, his health gauge had been cut down to a mere 5 percent. He highly doubted this would take him through to the other side of an explosion with enough energy to instantly erase the indestructible school building.

  But then.

  It’s all right. I will protect you.

  An imposing, powerful voice echoed in his mind, just like the first time he’d had contact with Metatron.

  Instantly, his health gauge was completely recovered, all the way to the right edge. And more than that: Six additional gauges appeared below it. If this was the number of gauges of Metatron’s second form, then she had an overwhelming endurance, surpassing even that of the five bars of Suzaku.

  When Haruyuki shifted to hold Scarlet Rain more securely, the wings on his back—all three sets—wrapped tightly around them both. And then the negative Incarnate energy—collapsed to the extreme, a black hole—exploded at zero range.

  All light and sound was lost. But the darkness that swallowed Haruyuki was the polar opposite of the silence of the Highest Level—a muddled hatred. This will itself, trying to destroy anything and everything, turned into a torrent of particles to assault his avatar. Tossed about like a small bird in a raging storm, Haruyuki desperately kept his body curled up and tried to protect both Niko and himself. The armor he’d gained from Metatron’s divine protection just barely withstood the raging dark energy, but it could not prevent the nihilistic damage permeating deep down to the naked body of the avatar inside. The seven-tiered health gauge began to drop with relentless ferocity.

  At the same time, Haruyuki was assaulted by a fierce pain, like he was being pierced by hundreds of needles of ice, and he gritted his teeth as hard as he could. He earnestly suppressed the cries that rose up in his throat; after all, Metatron was probably feeling the same pain. Even if she was an Enemy of the highest order, praised as one of the Four Saints, at a glance, she was a serene lady, and if Metatron could withstand this, then Haruyuki couldn’t exactly sit here screaming.

  In seconds, the seventh tier of his health gauge was drained, quickly followed by the sixth and the fifth. The force started to slow with the fourth tier, and then finally stopped at nearly carving away the third. The pain radiating through him gradually weakened and eventually faded away entirely. It seemed that Niko, in his arms, was also somehow safe.

  In the steadily fading darkness, Haruyuki let out the breath he’d been holding in a long sigh. “That was close…I can’t believe it took five tiers of the gauge…”

  “If I were the one fighting,” the Archangel’s voice replied immediately in his mind, “I wouldn’t have taken a direct hit to start with.”

  “I—I guess not. But now that we’ve made it through the laser, we’re good. He can’t fire again for another sixty seconds, so we’ll settle this before—”

  “Ascend!!” Metatron’s sharp voice shouted.

  Reflexively, Haruyuki tried to shoot upward. But unfortunately, all his wings were wrapped around his body to protect Niko. He started to move a breath too late.

  An enormous shadow plunged through the scattering darkness and appeared directly above him to charge at him with terrifying speed. The Armor of Catastrophe, Mark II. But they were five hundred meters off the ground.

  It flew?! How?! It doesn’t have the power of flight!! Haruyuki’s shock turned to fear the instant he saw the inky flames gushing from the back of the massive body.

  The basis for Mark II was the four Enhanced Armaments he’d stolen from the Red King. The center was the cockpit. Arms equipped with laser guns. Legs to support the super-massive weight. And the thruster blocks on its back.

  Just as her nickname, Immobile Fortress, indicated, Niko stubbornly refused to move while Invincible was deployed. But it wasn’t that she couldn’t move. She didn’t have the same mobility as in Dreadnought mode, but if she went full throttle with her thrusters in Invincible mode, she could make the enormous steel bulk charge for a short time.

  Mark II should have dropped back to the earth after Haruyuki’s Light Speed pulled it up into the heavens, but now it was clear that it had boosted the propulsive force of the thrusters with Incarnate energy and flown. Was this another technique it had developed on the fly?

  Finally spreading his wings, Haruyuki tried to thrust away the incoming giant, but he was slow to gain speed. Although he’d had no choice, because he’d used his wings as armor, they had been minutely scratched by particles of darkness.

  Directly below, Mark II’s massive arm drew near. Was it trying to grab him again? But its talons were clenched shut. If it was just a simple punch, then it couldn’t break Haruyuki’s armor the way he was now. Take it with his feet and use the reaction to ascend—

  Zwannng! The heavy vibration echoed through the air, and a jet-black aura cloaked the steely fist. The other ISS kit Incarnate technique, Dark Blow. Its power would far surpass even the earlier Dark Shot.

  “No! Evade!!” Metatron shouted.

  “Nngh……!!”

  Haruyuki flapped his injured wings with every ounce of strength he had. But the massive ball of darkness emitted a powerful gravity and tried to pull him back toward it. If he took a direct hit, he would inevitably be knocked out of existence, under the divine protection of an Archangel or not.

  Beyond the shutter protecting Mark II’s lone eye, a light shone reddish-black, mixed with every possible negative emotion. Haruyuki heard a faint moaning.

  Deelooroo…Rip. Crush. Erase. Smash. Break. Break. Break-break-break-break-break-break.

  A moaning that sounded like a curse.

  I will not allow it. A bracing voice cut through the unearthly chant. Silver Crow is my companion of a thousand years. I will not allow such an abominable power to break him!

  Haruyuki turned his palm toward the inky vortex charging him and unconsciously added his own voice to Metatron’s powerful cry.

  ““Trisagion!!””

  The six wings on his back caught the eternal twilight and flashed brilliantly as a pure-white beam gushed from his palm.

  Darkness and light collided, and the color disappeared from the world once more. Above the border where the two opposing affinity energies fought against each other: white. Below: black. In this world of extreme monochrome, Haruyuki felt one thing very keenly.

  Metatron was converting her very existence into energy. As proof of this, even though Haruyuki himself was not taking any damage, the remaining two tiers of his health gauge were dropping before his eyes. She had to do this to produce a li
ght powerful enough to counteract Mark II’s Dark Blow.

  After Metatron had been moved from her dungeon, her superpowerful laser attack, Trisagion, had turned Midtown Tower into an impenetrable fortress. The source of that energy was the light of the sun absorbed through her wings. But in contrast with the wings of Metatron’s first form, a massive body that covered the sky, the Metatron Wings on Haruyuki’s back had been shrunk to match his avatar’s size. Metatron was supplying the missing energy by transforming her own self into light.

  No, Metatron! You’ll disappear!! Haruyuki prayed, lost to himself. But the laser emitted from his right hand actually grew brighter. The border between light and dark was steadily pushed downward.

  But abruptly, he heard a calm voice in his mind.

  “This is acceptable. The time since I encountered you at that tower where I was bound has been so fruitful as to be incomparable with the rest of my eight thousand years of life.

  “I have spoken with you at length; seen much; learned much. And I realized something very precious. Or perhaps something more important than the reason this world exists.”

  Metatron’s voice was fading bit by bit into transparency.

  “What did you realize?” Haruyuki asked, desperately trying to maintain their connection.

  “Given who you are, perhaps you realized this long ago,” the voice replied lightly with a hint of laughter. “It’s…the fact that you little warriors and we Beings are exactly the same in nature. Only the vessel differs…We are souls who think the same way, suffer the same way, and seek the same way.”

  Metatron’s answer brought a sudden surge of tears to his eyes. In his blurred field of view, his health gauge continued to drop relentlessly. The last tier was cut in half, into the yellow. Finally, red. When it returned to Haruyuki’s original 5 percent, Metatron would disappear.

  “That’s…,” Haruyuki murmured as particles of light touched the bare cheeks of his avatar beneath his cracked goggles. Well, of course we are. I mean, you and me, we met, we talked, we made a promise…We said we’d see the end of the world together. We’d break into the Castle together, charge the Shrine of the Eight Divines, and touch The Fluctuating Light.