Chapter 39: Crossing the Boundary Huh? W-Wha... Nightingale blinked rapidly, shuddering awake from his stupor. It didn’t take long for the gravity of the situation to hit him.
"Shit!"
Fortunately, Flaming Rose’s urgent shout from the gateway snapped him back to reality just in time. Unfortunately, it was already too late. In his moment of distraction, his gaze had already crossed paths with several of the countless eyes triggering the manifestation of an unseen force.
The authority of the Black Spire.
In the next micro instant, the myriad of eyes dwelling within the pulsating worldscape began to tremble, then dilate in unison. The entire space warped and the air parted under an invisible weight.
A low, resonant hum reverberated through the atmosphere, like the sound of a thousand whispers bleeding into one another. The walls around him seemed to melt into shadows, coiling into grotesque shapes that stared back with unblinking malice.
Nightingale’s breath caught as he limbs grew heavy, his vision warped, and the ground beneath him rippled like a gaping maw. He could feel something vast and incomprehensible fixing its gaze upon his very soul.
"Damn it...! I looked directly at them."
He gritted his teeth as his knees trembed uncontrollably as if threatening to give out. The invisible weight crushed down on him, holding him in place against his will and pressing against his chest until he could barely breathe.
The eyes blinked once and the world inverted.
And then, the voice came.
[You have invoked the Gaze of the Pale Terror.]
Not good...!! He panicked.
An instinctive chill ran down Nightingale’s spine. But he didn’t even have enough time to run away.
Seconds later, right above his head, the pulsating flesh and the eyes there, resembling a myriad of stars, split open with a sickening tear, releasing a wave of searing pain that rippled through the air. Following that, an agonizing scream echoed, reminiscent of a pregnant woman going through childbirth.
Except the voice held no human light or feminine warmth.
With a tremendous noise, something — or rather, two somethings — within that gaping hole grew simultaneously and merged together uncannily, sticking out like a human tongue before something exploded at the tip. More specifically, it seemed like an explosion of high-voltage electricity occurred at a single point in space and spread outward.
However, rather than bluish-white electricity, the lightning was pitch black.
Though an unscientific description, space itself had seemingly cracked open. Centered at the point where the two forces crossed, pitch-black spatial cracks spread out in every direction to the edges of the worldscape.
Many things came to mind, but it resembled nothing.
Something alive and pulsating swelled up from within the cracks. A beast-like stench drifted out from the monstrous maw formed by the pitch-black fissures.
"Ah."
Nightingale suddenly knew.
This was grounded in neither theory nor logic. Nor was it born of reason or sense. Perhaps it was his primal instincts screaming at him; he knew not what the thing within the gaping maws or the cracks truly was. Yet he understood, with absolute certainty, that to see it — to gaze upon it directly and truthfully — would be enough to annihilate the very being known as Nightingale Vale.
"Ah."
Nightingale trembled.
The cracks spread and spread without end in sight. Even as he sensed the thing within drawing closer, he could not move. He trembled, then trembled again, and truly, he trembled still.
After all, he could not move. His entire body was pinned in place by an unseen, irresistible force.
It felt as though the mysterious entity intended to finish him off in a single instant, for if he were able to see such a thing, he would undoubtedly flee.
But even if he did run with all his might, would it truly matter?
He had already brought ruin upon himself.
From the perspective of another, his death was all but guaranteed. Even Flaming Rose, who had already reached the other side, could only watch in helpless despair. Had it not been for the pristine mask concealing her face, the sheer horror twisting her beautiful features would have been laid bare for all to see.
A crushing sense of inevitability descended upon him. Ultimately, he could do nothing but tremble.
"Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"
And he trembled with delight.
Was he afraid?
Of course he was! Even a Master, or perhaps a Saint, would be utterly annihilated by such an attack!
He was merely a lowly Squire starting his Awakened journey. Nothing in his arsenal could possibly save him from such a certain death. Though his Mythical Origin was of the Divine rank, his Mythic Ability could do nothing more than flatten small objects, hardly an ability that could raise his scores or win the favor of women.
Powerless, he could only wait in morbid anticipation for the attack to descend upon him. At the same time, the young Esper was filled with stubborn determination; the will to survive.
He was definitely not the protagonist of some grand story or fleeting narrative. It was just that he simply didn’t want to meet his demise after experiencing that dreadful memory.
It bothered him. It bothered him so much that he was pissed.
For that reason alone, and truly, he wanted to live! To survive and spite this terrible world that looked down on him! That was why Nightingale faced the unholy maw resembling a virgin’s hymen with a mad smile on his face.
Truly, at that micro instant, something shot from the tip of the outstretched tongue and descended upon him.
Contrary to his expectations, the "thing" that barreled toward him was merely a small ray of light shaped like a needle. Even so, the dark death ray of light radiated a great heat and intensity that it seemed capable of burning the sun.
A demonic radiance that bypassed all bodily defenses and struck directly at the soul of its target.
It could neither be avoided nor blocked. It simply traveled from Point A to Point B. However, even more instantaneous was his [Flatten], which he had already activated the moment before the attack was released from the tongue.
Responding to his will, an invisible force burst forth from his body, flowing outward to meet the needle, and in the next instant, the two forces collided.
The world convulsed.
The moment the two forces met, space itself screamed. The impact didn’t produce an explosion in the ordinary sense — rather, reality folded inward, then bloomed outward like a reversed implosion. The floor beneath Nightingale disintegrated into translucent layers, peeling back to reveal a much deeper void.
The black needle pressed downward relentlessly. Its form warped and bled light, tearing through the invisible plane that separated existence from nonexistence. But the force of [Flatten] resisted, compressing everything within its reach to a single, infinitesimal point.
The two powers fought to define the shape of reality.
"—Tch!"
Nightingale’s teeth gnashed. Every fiber of his being screamed in defiance as the pressure of the clash threatened to crush him from within.
The demonic light fractured the air, distorting it like a shattered mirror. His [Flatten], however, wavered dangerously under the pressure and trembled at the brink of collapse. The sheer pressure of the annihilation strike was overwhelming, far beyond anything his body or mind could withstand.
Even so, [Flatten] was not without merit. Weak as it was, it remained an Ability born from his Divine Mythical Origin, and its authority upon the world could not be dismissed so easily.
Even a change made on a microscopic plane could alter the laws that governed a higher one.
In the end, the two great powers were locked in a tug-of-war, neither yielding nor overpowering the other.
A thunderous vibration tore through the Second Floor’s worldscape. Even the countless eyes above shuddered, recoiling as a blinding pulse of anti-light surged from the epicenter.
And then,
"..."
The collision point abruptly vanished. The death needle disintegrated into a fine mist of darkness, scattering like ashes upon a phantom wind. Then, a dreadful silence fell over the Second Floor.
It was as though nothing had ever happened.
But the aftermath struck him all the same. A delayed shockwave slammed into his body with the weight of a collapsing world and he screamed.