Chapter 63: The Scholar's Key

"They are both trapped!"

I am Erima. My mind is shattering. My two strongest fighters are stuck to a wall of living darkness, and it is devouring them.

"Erima! SHOOT IT!" Kizawa commands, his feet sliding as the wall pulls him and Hachiro closer.

I fire. The heavy obsidian arrow slams into the black silk.

It does not stick. It does not pierce.

It... vanishes.

The silk swallows it whole, like a stone dropped in a pond.

"It... eats projectiles!" I say, my voice numb with horror. "It eats chi! It eats steel!"

We... are dead. We are food.

"The... grimoire..."

A small, chattering voice.

It... is Yogawa.

He... is on his knees, fumbling with the latch of his book. His hands are shaking so badly he cannot open it.

"Yogawa, WHAT?" I snap, nocking another arrow, though I know it is useless.

"It... is MAGIC!" he gasps, his eyes wild with a new, terrifying insight. "His magic... is conceptual! It is Void and Silk! It is chaos!"

He finally rips the book open.

"But... MY magic... is different! It... is HUMAN! It is... LOGIC! It... is GRAMMAR!"

He... is completely insane.

"The King... is chaos! It hates logic! It hates... RULES!"

He slams his hand on an open page, his own blood from his nose smearing the ancient parchment.

He screams at the wall.

"By... the Rule of Three! By... the Law of Identity! That... which is Solid... MUST NOT BE LIQUID! That which is BOUND... MUST BE SEVERED!"

A faint, pale blue light... shines from the grimoire. It is not a light of power. It is a light of *pure, cold concept.

"I... COMMAND... YOU... TO BE... BRITTLE!"

The black silk... stops moving.

It shudders.

It GROANS, a sound like a glacier breaking.

And... it... CRACKS.

It does not melt. It does not dissolve.

It... SHATTERS like obsidian glass.

Kizawa and Hachiro fall backward, ripping their arms free. They are covered in a *black, crumbly dust.

The wall is gone.

Yogawa... is panting, fresh blood pouring from his nose from the sheer mental effort.

"It... worked..." he whispers, and then he faints.