Y and I emerge onto a flat-topped rock monolith, surrounded by an illuminated abyss with an intricate web of errors.
My hair sways, pushed by a breeze. I look towards the storm on the horizon.
A sort of nostalgia for that meteorological phenomenon, unique in the history of the Underwasteland. An insoluble mystery of a world so little known to me.
This storm has also changed. Now reduced to a fossil of itself.
The cloud front, the lightning, the ash, the typhoon, and the minor tornadoes... are nothing more than a mass of errors, shaped like a sculpture by the power of the wind.
Sharp, broken, curved shapes and filaments, with prismatic reflections. Inextricable from the calmly expanding plot.
In the darkness of this land, they stand menacing and sublime. Creeping through the coral formations, the whistle of the wind is disappearing.
Creates a sinister decoy. Similar to the last gasps of missing insects. I tremble to focus on this sound.
The hairs stand on end. I feel shivers down my spine.
I am aware that this sound could lead to madness. A sound which is itself an error, capable of corrupting minds.
This is why I rarely leave the house anymore.
There is nothing but madness out of it.
“N, when you're ready, we can start.”
“Yes, sorry… I…” I look away from the tornado. From what it has become.
Only the absence of odor remained unchanged. The only constant in this desolate land.
“Don't worry. This area is sanitized like the house. Preparing it took me some time, but Mircalla will not be able to fuel the surrounding corruption.”
I nod.
Y cleans her ear with the nail of her little finger. The problems of the last attempts come to mind.
[Necromancy]
Mircalla is no longer there. No [Heroine] responds to the call of [Necromancy].
I waver and close my eyes at that thought. It is just a shapeless, hideous mass. An obscene, suffering monster.
Worse than summoning in summoning.
Source of my corruption.
Discovering that the dead I summon are nothing more than puppets is comforting. At least I know I am not wronging the dead they represent, but…
…It is like I feel a connection.
Just as I have a bond with Y. Even though the [Yellow Queen] is nothing more than a puppet. I have an excellent relationship with the dead.
My dead.
“Ready to summon her?” Y winks at me and raises her arm.
Ci-cin.
“Yes.”
I raise my arm in front of me.
[Necromancy]
The dust of the plane rises and swirls in an irrational swarm.
Instead of giving shape to the body, the ash moves chaotically. It piles up and outlines absurd shapes, impossible deformations of what was once a human body.
By thickening, the being manifests itself. Aberrant and similar to the [Devil]. Mircalla has countless limbs. Thin, sprawling, with multiple joints on each limb. A conglomerate of flesh, hair, bones, tissue, and colored errors.
Her green braids form ropes that protrude from her muscle fibers. Her expression is distorted. Monstrously deformed.
Mircalla, the [Heroine] who did not bow to the [Devil], who tamed the legendary devouring sword.
Mircalla is dead.
And this hideous simulacrum is not her.
Is not she!
The Atmosphere-eater comes out disheveled from her back.
Its eyes stare at me. Eyes full of madness.
The sword is alive. The sword is corrupted.
Ci-cin.
A touch on the shoulder. I turn around quickly.
Y puts her hand down and caresses me lightly. Their tails flutter, pointing their heads at the enemy. The [Yellow Queen] giggles.
“Hoho! How bad she is! This time, we'll fix it for good.”
“Pojmcha+éékrm^!éòdajkcn.”
The being writhes, rolling badly on the ground. Her irregular movements, her cries. She reminds me of the [Devil] but, unlike the ancient [Eldritch Entity], Mircalla seems incapacitated and suffering.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Ajiakk! jkdllakkjJ!éé!**è??!”
“Of course, how can you not be thrilled by such words? Hihihi.”
“Y, please…”
Y sighs. “N, come on, you should take this with a little optimism. Just because we have failed so far doesn't mean we will fail now.”
I look down at my feet. My fingers twitched shyly.
“I know. But I struggle to accept it in this state.”
“Why? After all, she's just part of your magic. That is what Immortality cannot remove from you. You are lucky. Cosmic Regeneration would not have defended you from such corruption.”
I raise my head towards the dying being. With some limbs, she tries to reach the hilt of the sword. She tries to pull it from her back, unable to notice that the blade is stuck at her back.
Sigh.
“Compared to last time, which got a lot worse.”
“Wonderful how the System can function despite such distortions.”
“Y…”
“Yes, yes, I understand, okay. First, you should poison her. She still had readable statistics last time.”
I raise my arm to check.
[Scan]
[pa9djjha] 33[ajskkkalkcn]
[?oajkkjsn??sllò@]3333
[Kikshanne872hhha’’??^]33
[sjik][idija]3[29333][3333]333
[3333]33
[33][333]33[333][333][3333]3
…
“This time I'm not anymore. There are a lot of threes.”
“I see. It's amazing how it manages to function despite the out-of-phase values.”
“You call that working?” My tail points to Mircalla.
“The poison lowers the stats; I don't want you to try to sedate her like the other times.”
“No?”
Y shakes her head. “No. I want to try to see what happens by altering the values. These situations create unpredictable outcomes. Before 'operating', I would like to see how she reacts.”
“Are you afraid she might attack us?”
“I don't rule it out. But it may also be that the poison reacts, generating new errors.”
“So?”
“If we can reduce Mircalla to a state of pure coral, removing the sword will be easier. It's the sword you care about, right?”
“Well, yes, but…”
The [Yellow Queen] rubs her ear. “Moreover, in this way, Mircalla will become an external body. We will then use the purified Atmosphere-eater to obliterate it.”
“But she will disappear like this!”
“…and you will no longer be able to summon it. So what?”
I look down again. “Nothing. Nothing. Really. That's fine.”
♦
I walk towards Mircalla. Some of her arms reach out towards me.
Is she begging for help? My help?
Some of these joints jerk suddenly. I have to juggle to avoid being hit or grabbed. So, I stay focused. I do not want to make a spectacle of myself.
My snake-headed tail snakes between those limbs. Overtaking me with its head and insinuating itself between the folds of that body.
[Poisonous bite]
At my tail bite, the monstrosity squirms. She tries to throw herself back but trips over her limbs and topples over.
“Opajjrg^!?éé*jjjakççàà!”
“I don't understand you, sorry.”
Those lifeless, purulent, crystallized eyes. Those disturbing movements.
It may also be true that her character is just a projection of mine... but... seeing her in this state...
I turn towards Y so as not to look at the mess. “Is this, okay?”
“The bite doesn't seem to have any effect.”
“She seems to be in pain to me.”
“Simulate, simulate, it's just a simulation.”
I lower my ears. “Okay. So?”
Y is typing something on her invisible screen. “So, now let's try the technique I'll apply to the System.”
“The one based on the Resetstar?”
Y nods satisfied. “Yes, give me a second while I finish writing the line for the Mircalla adaptation.”
“All right.” I do not understand what you mean, but I have no choice but to trust her.
Y looks up at Mircalla. “As. Open!”
White circles illuminate the area. Symbols in a language I do not understand are inscribed inside them.
From their glow emerges a white grimoire, with golden edges and studs
The object opens and is leafed through in front of Y. She is doing a quick read, scrolling through the pages that follow one another at breakneck speed.
“Stop. Here!”
The grimoire stops leafing through and Y bites her finger. Blue sludge leaks from the wound. She smells of hydrocarbons and probably comes from the [Flare-Oil] necessary for Y to function.
The [Yellow Queen] makes marks on the pages and a bright pillar of light crashes down from deep space.
The target is Mircalla which is crushed to the ground and begins to smoke, burn, and melt.
“Oapkdhh!!?”^^^°”°ç!!!!j”d”
Y yawns as the column of light becomes so bright that I have to look away.
“What is this!?”
“Huh. Magic, of course.”
“I thought you wanted to eliminate the mistake, not her!”
Y exhales annoyed. “You won't believe it, but this is a simple immobilization spell. What is my fault if creatures at the end of time are fragile?”
“So?”
Ci-cin.
“Be patient. Now let's fix it.”
The [Yellow Queen] closes the grimoire and walks towards the pillar of light. This stabilizes and I can go back to looking at it.
Mircalla is crushed to the ground. She is reduced to a corrupt, nauseating pulp, while the sword is intact and stuck in the pile.
“Open.”
Y is in front of the column and starts leafing through the grimoire again.
In a long time, it is the first time I've seen her use this tool. I've always seen her interact with the Invisible Interface and even though she was my ancestor, I did not think she had access to a grimoire.
Who knows what it contains?
Unlike mine, it seems to contain magic. Maybe ways to access capabilities beyond [skills] and [abilities]?
Its six tails wag and intertwine with each other, emitting their typical clangs.
“Should I do something else?”
Y turns towards me. “Be ready to take your sword back. I don't think anything else is needed.”
I nod.
Y returns to bite her regenerated finger. With dark blue blood, she traces new symbols on the pages where the grimoire is open.
They are dense pages of text that she is writing on, covering up the previous layers.
With her free hand, as the book is floating, she types something on her invisible screen.
Nothing seems to happen, but the Atmosphere-eater becomes restless and explodes into a mass of tentacles and hooks.
Y avoids the first attacks with [Dungeon path]
“N, I think it's time you get your sword back!”
“Got it.”
[Dungeon path]
I appear behind Mircalla's remains. The hilt of the sword is the only part perfectly recognizable in the light.
The light column disappears and I grab the hilt.
I pull the sword and it comes back together. Something holds it back. I realize that the glitch-filled goo is resisting as it senselessly reassembles itself.
Body parts mixed with other body parts. Boundaries between clothes, skin, and bones no longer exist. The sword penetrated and entangled in that obscene substance.
“Y, so!?”
“There's not enough energy! More energy is needed to activate the process!”
“I understand. Hide!”
“Go away too! I don't know what effect it would have on Immortality!”
Y disappears into the darkness of [Dungeon path].
I look at the mush one last time.
“Aopduu1’??é!*^èààà!”
Goodbye, the simulacrum of Mircalla. Of all people, you were the most useful puppet I ever had. I hope you can have the oblivion not granted to your real counterpart.
[Red sprite]
A giant red jellyfish. Its tentacles of chaos dye the sky red and purple.
Lightning strikes where I am standing.
I have to get away!
[Dungeon—
It is too late!
Lightning does not hit the target. An anomalous reaction is activated and the energy is converted into a flickering of snow.
The coral mass regresses as if it had retreated into the past. While the Atmosphere-eater veins disappear.
Mircalla reforms to a strange, gelatinous consistency.
I, I feel strange.
This snow.
White snow.
This flickering of the visual field.
…path]
With the Atmosphere-eater in hand, I emerge onto the veranda.
I see the [Red sprite]in the background fade away.
I have to go back there. I am sure the effect has already worn off. I feel strange.
Tired.
Sleepy.
[Dungeon…