Shinji Matou At Your Service

Chapter 236: Paradox Spiral

In the unremarkable city of Mifune, there was a highly distinctive building named "Ogawa Apartments."

The reason it was considered special wasn't because it was a luxurious apartment rare in the Mashihama residential area, nor because it was jointly constructed by three companies. It was because of its unique design.

Let's first take a look at the two architects of the apartment: Souren Araya and Touko Aozaki.

There's no need to say much; just these two names are enough to explain the situation.

The apartment complex was formed by merging two adjacent buildings. These two neatly shaped crescent-shaped ten-story structures were built facing each other. If one were to view it from above in a helicopter, one would be surprised to find that the entire apartment complex formed a perfect circle, completely different from the surrounding unremarkable traditional square buildings.

The interior walls of the apartments were uniformly painted in a milky white, extremely clean. Strange shapes were scattered all over the walls, and staring at them for too long could cause dizziness and chest tightness. The lobby was the only space that connected the two buildings. From the second floor and above, one couldn't directly move from the east building to the west building; they had to first return to the central space and then pass through the lobby.

Although the apartments were divided into two separate buildings, the structures of the east and west buildings were identical. However, due to the nature of Ogawa Apartments itself, even the residents of the complex rarely knew about this complete symmetry between the two sides.

Let's extract a few keywords:

-Perfect circle.

-Divided into two from the center.

-Independently on both sides.

-And the script used to write these keywords.

Did you think of any ancient patterns that every person familiar with this script would recognize?

That's right. If you slightly twist the lines, it will become the famous Yin-Yang symbol, also known as the "Supreme Ultimate Symbol" in China.

The Yin-Yang symbol elucidates the most fundamental principle of Taoism—the existence of Taiji, from which the dualities of Yin and Yang originate. In the realm of Western magic, this is referred to as the "Paradox Spiral."

And this is precisely the secret of the Ogawa Apartments. Souren Araya used the entire apartment complex as a foundation to construct another realm, an artificial boundary.

All the families residing in Ogawa Apartments are individuals who have already deteriorated. They were people already on the path to decay, inevitably reaching the end of their lives—death. This was supposed to be a decades-long journey towards the ultimate conclusion, but due to the peculiar environment such as the unchanging scenery surrounding the apartments and the bizarre patterns that oppress the retinas, their decay was accelerated, and they met their demise within a month.

These departed lives were concentrated in the west building of the complex.

The essence of these lives was extracted by Souren Araya, and using these essences, he created corresponding dolls to mimic the departed lives, allowing them to live in the east building, repeating their final day of demise every day.

The east building represents life and Yang, while the west building represents death and Yin. They are symmetrical to each other, forming the dualities of life and death, constituting the Paradox Spiral.

This was a pure experiment. Souren Araya wanted to see if humans could experience a death different from their ultimate demise. Humans are bound to die, but that is merely the predetermined death for each individual.

The so-called final death for a person is only one. A person who dies in a fire, regardless of the specific circumstances, simply dies in a fire. A person killed by their family, regardless of the specific circumstances, is simply killed by their family. They have escaped the predicament of death for the first time, but it is only to embrace the predetermined method of the second, third, and subsequent deaths. This limited way of dying is what we call lifespan.

Although the manner of a person's death is predetermined, if the same ending is repeated thousands of times, there may be errors in the spiral. Even the most subtle accidents, such as being run over by a car on the way to class, are acceptable misfortunes. Nevertheless, the result remains the same. Two hundred uninterrupted repetitions only made Souren Araya realize the fact that the fate of humans cannot be changed.

This is a world that concludes within a single day, known as the "Hounouden Rokujyuyonshou." Although it is not a Reality Marble, it is the manifestation of Souren Araya's mental landscape. It is his incarnation, representing his consciousness and pursuit. His goal has always been to record human deaths, and reaching the source is just a means to that end.

The building itself is a spell, designed to serve as a solid altar for Souren Araya's consciousness.

With powerful magic, the inherent power of the land, and the sacrifices within the boundary, the "Ogawa Apartments" surpass the level of a magic workshop and become a "temple" above that.

Within the temple, the master of the temple can wield mysteries beyond magecraft, exercising powers beyond human reach. That is the realm of "magic."

If the workshop is the magus' arena, then the temple can be said to be an extension of the magus' body, where the impossible becomes possible.

Souren Araya's temple is called the "Hounouden Rokujyuyonshou." Here, he has the confidence to fulfill his long-cherished desires. Here, he is confident in repelling any incoming enemies.

Now, the vessels necessary for his long-cherished desires have stepped into the "Hounouden Rokujyuyonshou" under the lure of his pawns and stand before him.

Shiki stared at the tall man who appeared silently within five meters of her. In her eyes, which could see the death of all things, there was an undisguised astonishment. Up until now, without exception, everyone had a line of death. But this man's line was extremely faint.

What surprised Shiki even more was that this man felt very familiar to her.

"I remember you."

"Yes. It has been two years since we last met like this."

Souren Araya's voice was heavy as if he was grasping the listener's brain.

He slowly reached out to touch his temple. On the side of his head, from his forehead to the left, there was a straight scar. It was the deep scar he carved himself on the last night before Shiki fell into a coma.

Even back then, he had targeted Shiki. Everything he has done was for today, to obtain Shiki's body, which is connected to the "Root."

"You are—" Shiki felt a great sense of danger.

"Souren Araya. The one who killed SHIKI!"

Without even moving his eyebrows, Souren Araya asserted.

◇◇◇

The pure moonlight illuminated the Building of Spiral. In this world shrouded in darkness, a red Honda sedan came to a stop in front of the apartment's main entrance.

A young woman with long orange hair stepped out of the car. The brown leather coat she wore, soaked in a lizard-like pattern, did not suit her slender figure. The coat, more like armor than clothing, exuded a sense of protection.

She looked up at the apartment and lifted an orange suitcase with one hand. She walked through the courtyard covered in green fur, entering the interior of the apartment.

The glass-covered lobby was bathed in cool moonlight. Whether it was the floor, the walls, or the elevator column leading to the upper floors, everything seemed hazy. After a brief consideration, she turned around and decided to change her destination. Instead of taking the elevator, she continued walking eastward through the lobby.

At that moment, a rather sharp voice of a man echoed through the lobby.

"Oh, Aozaki! It's been a while. How have you been?" Touko Aozaki raised her gaze. On the staircase sloping towards the second floor, stood a man wearing a red coat and a red top hat. He appeared to be in his early twenties, with dark golden hair and azure eyes, and his features were sharply defined as if carved with a knife.

"As I thought, it's you, Cornelius Alba." Touko's face showed undisguised disgust as she cast a cold glance at the man.

"Don't make that kind of expression. I came here specifically to see you," Alba exaggeratedly spread his arms, displaying a smile filled with goodwill.

"I don't have time to waste with you!" Touko's expression was the complete opposite of Alba's, so cold that it could drip with water.

"I'm truly surprised. So you're this impatient, huh? But this is also a delightful thing. Welcome to my hell, the strongest puppeteer."

Magus Cornelius Alba laughed happily. With theatrical gestures, he performed a deep bow.

"Your hell? With your caliber, you can't come up with an idea to materialize the Taiji diagram."

Impatiently, Touko placed the suitcase on the ground, making a loud thud.

"Enough, call Araya out. I didn't come here to see you today."

After speaking, Touko began to pay attention to her surroundings, completely ignoring the magus who should have been the one to be cautious, and started searching for a non-existent opponent.

Alba just watched her, his eyes filled with murderous intent, as if on the verge of crying.

"You're always like this!"

The words seemed to have burst out uncontrollably.

"Yes, you're always like this, always giving me such low evaluations—it was me, I was the first, clearly I was the one who came first—whether it's studying rune characters or the reputation of a puppeteer. It's so obvious, yet your attitude deceived those low-minded fools. Your belittling attitude made them also think poorly of my abilities. Think about it carefully! I'm the next director of the Sponheim Abbey! I've been studying magecraft for over forty years, and someone like me, why am I always ranked below a girl in her early twenties...!"

When did his words become so impassioned that they echoed throughout the entire lobby? Faced with this opponent who had always pretended to be kind but had now started spreading words of curse, Touko simply looked at him with disinterest.

"Knowledge has nothing to do with age, Cornelius. Although you may look young on the outside, you always only pay attention to appearances, so your inner self falls behind. That's why."

Although it was a calm statement, there was no greater provocation or insult than this. The man in his fifties listened, and his handsome face twisted with hatred.

"I haven't even said what my purpose is yet."

Trying to calm himself down, the red magus changed his tone.

"As for me, I don't care about Araya's experiments, nor am I interested in some vortex of origins. It's meaningless to pursue something that may or may not exist. If you want to touch the realm of gods, just pursue the truth. There's no need to trace back to the source."

Alba took a step back, intending to climb the stairs and slowly ascend to the second floor.

"But me... I came to this remote place to kill you, Aozaki!"

With a voice that seemed to strain his throat, Alba laughed loudly and quickly ran up the stairs.

"By the way, you came looking for Shiki Ryougi, right? Unfortunately, you're one step too late. That girl has already reached Araya's place. Is she still struggling on the verge of death? Or has she already been captured by Araya? Well, either way, it has nothing to do with me, and it has nothing to do with you because you're about to die soon!"

The first-floor lobby was already filled with malicious manifestations created by Alba.

Some were humanoid, some were beast-like. Although the surface of their scarred and wart-covered bodies began to dissolve, they immediately reshaped themselves, becoming something even more realistic. Metaphorically speaking, it was like humans or beasts perpetually decaying, simultaneously possessing both ugliness and intricacy.

"Are these slimes?" Touko described the surrounding aberrations with an unprecedented tone of insult and hatred, saying, "In this place, only these things can manifest. Alba, you should consider becoming a film director instead of a magus. With you around, it would save a lot on monster props. But I guess you can only participate in small-scale horror productions, right? How about it? This profession suits you better than being the director!"

She complained while being surrounded by monsters filling the lobby.

Indeed, this situation resembled a horror movie. If we were to point out the differences, crosses or shotguns probably wouldn't be effective against these things. Even though Touko was surrounded and only about two meters away, she remained motionless, reaching into the pocket on her chest and pulling out a shriveled red paper box.

"Only one left, huh? I'll have to ask Shinji to restock for me."

She skillfully lit a cigarette, and the scent of nicotine mixed with the air, slightly easing Touko's sense of desolation. As the strongest puppeteer, she was a true artist. She would admire interesting things and feel uncomfortable when faced with uninteresting ones, resorting to smoking to alleviate the feeling. The aberrations manifested by Alba were just that uninteresting.

"No, it seems you wouldn't make a good director either. The performance is just too lousy. It can't bring any enjoyment to the current guests. Well, strange as it may be, at least the level should be maintained."

Saying that Touko kicked away the suitcase at her feet.

"Come out!" It was an uncompromising, commanding order filled with authority.

In response, the suitcase opened with a click.

Inside the opened lid, there was nothing.

At the same time, a red object surrounded the Grand Magus known as Touko Aozaki.

The red object was a swirling storm, with Touko as the eye of the storm, spinning rapidly. In a matter of seconds, the frenzied force cleared the entire lobby, leaving it empty.

The monsters that had been overflowing in the lobby disappeared without a trace.

The only things that remained were Touko, the tightly closed orange bag, and the cat sitting in front of her.

"What!" Alba couldn't believe his eyes at the sight before him.

The cat was larger than Touko, its entire body red, without any thickness. It was a two-dimensional red cat formed by shadows.

No, it couldn't even be determined if it was a cat. It resembled the shadow of a cat, with eyes resembling Egyptian hieroglyphs only on its head.

"What is that!" Alba looked down at the cat from the second floor.

As the cat's eyes, akin to a painted picture, met his gaze, the cat began to smile, erasing the facial features of its mouth to represent a smile.

"Could this be a nightmare?" Alba couldn't help but swallow his breath.

Touko didn't say a word. The only sound came from an indeterminate source, a chirring sound.

"That's not what I heard! Is it true that your familiar was defeated by your sister?!" Perhaps unable to bear the silence, Alba began to shout.

She only replied with a single sentence: "Who knows?" and then shifted her gaze to the red cat.

"I'm sorry for feeding you something unpleasant, but it will get better from now on. Wait a moment, and it won't be those energy blocks anymore. Instead, it will be real human flesh, with more than enough stored spiritual power. Since he is my classmate, you don't have to worry. I've taught you well before, haven't I? Just eat anyone who is an enemy."

As soon as she finished speaking, the red cat immediately rushed out. It seemed to glide across the marble floor, crossing the hall and heading towards the stairs... Although It says that, the cat's paws didn't move, it still maintained the sitting shadow, only its eyes focused on the red-clothed magus.

It took less than ten seconds from the first-floor hall where Touko was to the second-floor platform where Alba was, but Alba, who reacted promptly, was not an ordinary person after all. He was a magus.

"Go away, shadow. It is impossible to touch the thing without visibility. For the darkness, it is impossible to see the thing without touch. The question is prohibited. The answer is simple. I have the flame in my hand. Ah, the hand——"

Disappear! Phantom, I shall turn the tangible into intangible; forget! Darkness, the intangible shall be untouchable; there is no doubt, the answer is obvious; in my left hand, I hold the light, in my right hand, I hold the truth!

Alba calmed down and chanted the spell at a speed close to the limit.

For magecraft, the spell is nothing more than a self-suggestion. Wind magecraft is the same as a weapon; the performance and power it possesses are determined from the beginning. It doesn't matter which magus uses it; its effectiveness won't change. However, the chanting can make it different. Chanting spells is to discover the magecraft engraved within oneself, and that content can deeply reflect the nature of the magus. Apart from containing fixed keywords necessary to discover that magecraft, the details of the chanting are also based on the preferences of individual magicians. Magus who like exaggeration, affectation, and self-indulgence tend to have long chants. However, it is a fact that the longer the chanting, the greater the power. The stronger the self-suggestion, the higher the ability derived from oneself can be elevated.

From this perspective, Alba's chanting can be considered excellent. It is neither exaggerated nor overly long. Using the minimum amount of rhyme and including words that uplift his spirits, the pronunciation of the chanting doesn't even take two seconds. This fact made Touko go, "Wow~," feeling impressed.

Although the young man named Alba likes to use chants with unnecessary length and many useless phrases, it seems that he has grown considerably over the past few years.

The combination of chanting spells, form, speed, and the connection to the physical world's action circuit is surprisingly agile. If his chanting is simply viewed from the perspective of magecraft that destroys objects, it is undoubtedly a top-notch technique.

"I, therefore, will defeat you securely——!"

I am the truth of all things. Before me, you will inevitably bring about your destruction!

Alba extended his hand. When the red cat arrived at the first step of the stairs, the atmosphere trembled slightly, and the stairs immediately burst into flames.

Like a mirage rising from the ground, a blue sea of fire devoured the stairs completely. In just a few seconds, flames emerged from the stairs, pierced through the second-floor floor, and disappeared into the ceiling, resembling intermittent geysers in a volcanic zone.

In an instant, the sea of fire deprived the hall of oxygen, leaving only the red cat incinerated from this world. It was only natural.

The magical flames, exceeding a temperature of a thousand degrees Celsius, could turn any creature into gas, as if it were melting butter. The process of turning into a liquid took less than a thousandth of a second.

However, Alba saw it. He saw the strange form of a red cat that unexpectedly appeared after the flames burned out.

"Impossible!!!"

His emerald green eyes stared at the stairs.

The red cat sadly licked its fading red body, then suddenly turned its gaze to the red-clothed magus. The strange red object rushed forward once again.

Alba didn't even have the luxury of seeing through the true form of the red cat.

"Repeat...!" Aruba repeated his magecraft with a sharp, tearing voice. "Repeat" means "to repeat," and by repeating the magecraft used previously with this word, Alba showcased the pinnacle of his chanting technique. It was with this skill that he became a top-class magus.

The stairs ignited once again, but this time the red cat did not stop. Perhaps it had become accustomed to the flames, as it charged straight towards the magician.

"Repeat!" The sea of flames erupted once more, then disappeared. The red cat climbed the stairs.

"Repeat!" The fourth burst of flames also came to an end.

After reaching the second floor, the red cat immediately approached Alba and opened its mouth wide. Its body, as large as a person, began to expand from its feet. If there were a hinge on top of its head, it would resemble an open treasure chest.

With no thickness, it seemed that strange residues, like muddy clay, stuck to the flat interior of the red cat's body. Alba finally realized that it was merely a cat-like appearance, but in reality, it was a creature with only a mouth.

"Repeat—" The terror before his death made him utter the final incantation repeatedly.

But before that, the body of the red cat, resembling the jaws of a shark, engulfed the magus. Starting from the red coat, everything was swallowed whole.

"If you don't stand in my way, you can live for two more days— but in the end, I will kill you because you have touched a forbidden taboo."

This was the last sentence Alba heard before losing consciousness.

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