In Chaos We Are Conceivable

“So… she wasn’t able to stop you after all….”

“That sounds like you expected her to fall short,” I replied, seeing the other version of myself again.

I had no idea how much time had passed in the other place, but the Architect had not moved from his spot from before. I had seen that expression on his face several times, often staring back at me in the mirror – it was that of a guessed outcome, a disappointment when low expectations had come to fruition.

“What can I say? I thrive on practicality.”

“Practicality is only what you limit yourself to. My friends have taught me that,” I said, rebuking that attitude with a hint of disgust.

I could look back now and see that I only made such a face when I wanted self-relief. It was a magic charm that dismissed half-hearted attempts as something that “couldn’t be helped.”

But the truth was…

I could have put down my indulgences and tried a little bit harder.

I could have made an attempt to reach out and really help someone.

I could have promised myself to keep whatever mistake in mind, so that I wouldn’t repeat it the next time.

The god before me was still stuck in the past. He didn’t grow up because he wasn’t human. His desires, along with any mistakes that came from him, persisted throughout the ages. Because of that, I clenched my knife and walked forward, knowing that such a thing shouldn’t continue.

“Not going to wait for your friends?” the Architect asked, amused.

“They’ll be along shortly. I have faith in them, unlike you.”

The god before me suddenly disappeared, causing me to go on full alert. A flicker of movement appeared on my right, just in time for me to block it. The force of the blow was so strong that it knocked my arm away. The scenery spun before me as I tried to resist. Fortunately, I regained my step, grinding the momentum to a halt by dispersing it through the rest of my body.

However, a dull ache rang through my arm at where it was struck. It was like taking one of Saki’s blows head on, the surprise attack coming at me with Ludmila’s speed. I wasn’t shocked by this, as I knew full well that the Architect had claimed the powers of the other gods. I had nowhere to run or hide as he disappeared again and connected this time with a punch to my gut.

Reflexively, my body tried to counter instead of block. The knife shaved away at a veil of mana over him, but it stopped dead on his upper arm for a moment before his aura was replenished. His mana recovered instantly while his body felt nothing, a combination of Lamps’ and the Sun twins’ powers.

The knife in my left hand drew forward, but this time, the Architect was expecting it. A hand wrapped around my wrist, and soon, my body was tossed into the air. Pain erupted from my back as the hard ground, several meters away, slammed against it. Picking up a boulder, he didn’t even look as he heaved it up into the air; he didn’t need to see at all for it to land on its intended target, knocking the wind out of me.

Pushing the boulder off, the air stung as it refilled my lungs.

“That’s the thing about friends… they have to actually be here for them to be of any help,” the Architect teased at their absence. “And even if you stall for time, there is no guarantee that they will overcome their counterparts.”

I bounced back to my feet, shrugging off the injuries. Having the Essence of Life was pretty nifty as long as I could endure the pain.

“I would like to say that I ‘could do this all day’, but it would be rather pointless to have you just treating me like a punching bag.”

In response, I got another punch right to the face, knocking me clean out of a ring if I had been standing in one. Before I hit the ground, a roundhouse kick caught me in the torso, bouncing me just over the ground. My body crashed into a slab of rock that just happened to be there. And when I could manage to look up, several spears of earth collided into my body, pinning me like a picture on the wall.

The Architect was showing off all of his stolen powers, making it seem like any resistance against him was futile.

He took his time to walk right up to me, admiring his handwork.

“If only you had taken the route of claiming their powers for yourself, then you ‘might’ have had a chance against me.”

Sistina had given me a similar option at the very start of the journey. I could have taken everyone’s powers, all for the sake of being strong enough, but that would have made me no different than the Architect. It was conceited to think that I deserved them more than anyone else. If we couldn’t save the world together, then it might as well not have been worth saving at all.

“Hey now… I’ve gone through too much crap to be fed the ‘they’ll only disappoint you’ spiel. Besides, having to fight myself this way isn’t giving me any self-confidence that I could just become another you and hope to be equals, so why not bet it all on my companions and pray that they’ll tip the scale?”

The Architect’s expression changed again, back to the look of disappointment that he had before.

“Very well. I wasn’t anticipating that you would change your mind. The apple has fallen too far from the tree to sprout a new seed.”

The Architect brought out a knife for the first time in our fight. White mana glowed ominously around it, showing that he was now serious. I could instinctively feel that it would cut through everything that he intended. I had run out of time to stall by talking.

But as the white knife swept towards me, I suddenly felt myself get pulled back, slab of rock and all. The scenery changed abruptly as I was now looking up at the sky, face to face with a person in a mechanical suit staring down at me.

“Cutting it a little close, you know!” I yelled in his face.

“A successful entrepreneur knows exactly when to make the most impact, thereby producing the greatest amount of gratitude.”

“You’re already a CEO of a whole country, what more gratitude could I even offer you?!”

The face plate parted, revealing the man named Lamps Magellan smirking at my outburst.

“Sometimes, a simple conversation without the airs is all that is needed. Sorry for teasing you.”

Lamps had summoned a portal behind me, pulling the rock slab that I was stuck to in as well. With his metal fist, a loud smash of the rock freed me. He was wearing the battle suit that I confronted him not long ago. The inexhaustible mana that he possessed served to power all of its functions. It was everything that he wanted to create and then some.

“Watch out!” he cried as he jetted away with me in tow, just in time for the Architect to come barreling in.

I watched as our opponent flung more magic towards us. In a hurry, I coated my knife with a layer of purple mana, cutting down the spells with a hiss as they dissipated. Lamps shot beams of light to help trim down the numbers.

“Did you have to be the first one to come back to help me?” I asked, almost jokingly.

“It couldn’t be helped that the chap that I drew life from is a rather reasonable fellow. It only took 69 lines of dialogue to convince him of our purpose. He gave it a stamp of approval before unceremoniously walking off into the light.”

“Was that… purposeful?”

“Unfortunately, no. I had aimed for 42, but a gap in understanding led to sidetracking before returning to the main topic. The fact that they aren’t so familiar with Resonance Stones.”

“You told them what we were planning?!”

Lamps waved a finger at me.

“Enemy or not. ‘Secrets’ can be effective depending on the way they are told. Can’t be a tech giant without knowing the ‘when’ and how’….”

I felt like smacking myself. But then again, Lamps had managed to arrive before anyone else. There was a method to his madness… as long as one could tolerate the madness.

We took another hard turn as the Architect popped up in front of us again, this time using a portal. Lamps instantly made a portal of his own, taking us through it and out of range before we were attacked.

Minutes passed as we continued to weave in and out of portals, playing dimensional cat and mouse. Admittedly, Lamps was probably the best person to partner up with for this occasion. He could see the flow of mana as a portal formed, before the Architect was able to warp with them. That gave us the advantage as we could telegraph his appearances.

Still, we weren’t getting anywhere at this rate…

“Energy signatures have popped up. Some have made their return,” Lamps announced.

And as soon as he said that, a blur whizzed by us. All we were able to see was the Architect getting slapped right as he exited a portal, so hard that fell back and tumbled to the ground with a crash. A moment later, two figures put on the brakes and appeared before us – Ludmila with a visibly shaken Saki, who looked like a wet towel that had been snapped in the wind. That wasn’t far from the truth as she had the ‘fear sweats’ while being dragged along by the speedy Ludmila. Saki had just barely enough sense to lash out as they passed right by the Architect.

“Sorry that we are late. I had to learn to parkour on the spot,” Ludmila said.

“Hnnyaaruuraaaburgaaaa…”

Saki’s eyes were still spinning from going light-speed to zero in an instant. It took her several more moments for the ground to feel stable enough for her to stand on her own.

I gave the two of them a big hug.

“Alright! Two more victories in the bag!”

That celebration was cut short as more portals spawned right next to us. It seemed like the Architect tried to spice it up by making us guess which one he would pop out of. Since multiple ones formed at the same time, Lamps could no longer tell which one to target.

But then, shots of magic collided into them, distorting their casting and making them disappear. Those shots came from the magic guns that Chrys wielded. I whipped around, looking to see where the girl could be, but then, I felt someone plop right on top of my shoulders.

“Well, this feels kind of nice too, for a change.”

The weight of a girl, not that small anymore, caused me to nearly topple over, before I corrected myself and looked up at the whimsical elven girl. Her normal ride wasn’t around, so she had hopped onto my shoulders, even though she was no longer the child that I was used to seeing. And shouldering for that matter.

One by one, the others trickled back to the battlefield, causing more trouble for the Architect. He had wondered if they would all come back, and indeed, they did. He had to deal with another that was just as swift and another that was just as strong. Magic flew in the air as gunshots combined with ice javelins.

The Architect watched as his attacks soon became deflected by strong defenses and parries, the newcomers joining back in to tear down the attacks that we could only run away from before. And occasionally, the strange cry of “Here comes the Kou Train!!!” ripped through the area.

The battlefield turned into chaos as my companions returned. But it was only chaos in respect to the Architect. We were all used to it. We had waded through the mess that was called ‘life’, finding each other within it.

That was something that the Architect couldn’t handle. That made us all different from him. It gave us the hope we needed to overcome the will of a god.