Monster no Goshujin-sama

20. Encounter in the Abyss

Twenty.

Now everything may be over.

Takahiro Mashima has also walked this far.

It has followed with continuous cotton, as has the history of this world.

Both are equal and burned out by strong light.

The circumstances are unknown.

I don't even know how.

It ends abruptly, without knowing what it might be.

I'm sure you'll find it irrational.

You may even learn to be angry.

But the world is like that.

This is reality, this is the world.

That should be a well-known fact from that day when you started walking in this world, when you rolled miserably into a cave.

... So yes.

If you have something you want to protect - you have to change the world.

If you're ready for that, wake up.

Save your people, save the world.

"Sir!

"... Huh!?

I jumped up.

"Hey, what...?

I don't know the situation.

I remained confused, tried to look around, and was hugged.

"Oh. Good, sir. You woke up."

"Salvia......?

Where I woke up, I was hugged from side to side.

Apparently Salvia was crying.

I was flabbergasted as I embraced the embrace indefensibly.

"Is this... my inner world?

The world of lightning.

Or the path itself.

What was in front of me was my own world that no longer just left me with one of the high school grounds.

"What...?

I couldn't help but be confused while Salvia held me in the middle of the school garden.

So is being here, but so is what happened before that.

'Cause I guess so.

Kojiro Nakatsuki, the Explorer's hero, was the enemy.

... To be honest, I don't believe it.

If you think back now, you don't know.

He looked like he was seriously running this pursuit operation.

I felt like I was treating my fellow Explorers with sincerity and trust.

Even we treated ourselves with monsters as companions, in a favorable manner.

Even once, I couldn't feel a lie there.

Yet......

... No.

But the facts are facts.

If we don't admit it there, we can't move on.

……

Breathing consciously, I changed my mind.

In the meantime, I will put my doubts aside.

I don't know why, but Kojiro Nakatsuki was the enemy.

I was attacked by him who showed himself.

Apparently, this one lost consciousness at that time.

That's how I came to my own world......

"... no, wait. But what about 'in the meantime'?

"Sir?

After losing my mind when I was attacked, before I woke up in this world, I felt like I heard something.

- Save your people, save the world.

Is it my fault?

No, but......

"... bad, Salvia. Will you step aside?"

Somehow, I had a hunch.

I asked Salvia to leave, and I stood up.

The inescapable confusion that was just after suddenly dying and waking up in a place I never thought of had subsided in less than ten seconds.

It's not something I can be proud of at all, but it's something I can experience around here.

Nothing was the first time this was dying.

"Gosh, Sama!

"Oh. I know."

Let Asalina snort at you for squeaking.

I looked back.

There was a young man with burnt brown hair who didn't even know his name.

Twice before, he was the mysterious person I had encountered in this world.

However, I soon found out that something was different this time.

Because 'I've got eyes for eyes'.

It was my third encounter and it was my first.

In other words, it was nothing more than that he finally recognized my existence.

And recognizing the other person was also an absolute necessity to establish communication of will.

"Hey."

He looked me in the eye and the young man spoke to me.

"Finally 'connected'. Looks like you made it somehow."

"I hope you feel safe first"

said the youth.

"Time outside is getting better. Neither are your people. [M] Even if we're talking here, we'll be fine for a while."

……

The voice of the youth had something to chill the spine of those who heard it somewhere.

I learned to be vigilant with this before.

But this time it was a little different.

Because I found that the youth were not hostile, although it was the feeling of relief that I remember when I peered into the deep hole at the bottom that I couldn't see.

Perhaps this is a lot less creepy than I felt until the last time I could not communicate with you.

Now I could see them properly and without misunderstanding.

The bottom-cold atmosphere is apparently a property that accompanies the very existence of youth.

My attitude towards this one felt rather sincere.

Nor is the statement that time outside is stopping, perhaps, a lie.

Because I have the feeling that I have some kind of interference in this world, myself.

Apparently, youth are not enemies.

I still don't know what the situation is... but at least, it seemed worth talking about.

I spoke to the youth after I exchanged my gaze with Salvia, who leaned in.

"You talk a lot. It's a lot different than before."

As for this one, it was a natural point, but the young man shook his head to the side.

"No. I haven't changed a thing. What's changed is you."

"... me?

I'm confused when people say things I don't remember.

"What's changed to me?"

"Speaking plainly, you are. I guess I should say that the stage of existence has changed. You approached the core of the world. [M] So this is how you and I can talk."

"... no. Not easy to understand at all. I don't know why."

"No. You know that."

I was assured, I shut my mouth.

Because the strange persuasion to do so was in the words of the youth.

"Even if you can't understand with your head, that soul should know. You yourself, this world, continue to sink deep."

As soon as I was there, I found Salvia, who was listening right beside me, much more breathtaking.

I didn't have a word to deny myself.

I always felt like 'sinking deep' when I came to this world.

This world itself was also 'sinking deeper and deeper'.

"Have you thought about what lies ahead?

It was as if the inquiry would invite us into the abyss.

Where my world sinks.

That's where my abilities come in.

"- There is a vast ocean of people's unconscious mix." Unconscious Sea ". It's called" collective unconsciousness, "if it's your concept of the world."

"'Collective unconsciousness' …?

"People's consciousness is connected deep in unconsciousness. The hierarchy is called 'collective unconsciousness'. See, now you know."

Encouraged to do so, I was turning nature and consciousness outside this world.

Whenever my abilities deepened, this world precipitated.

Feel what lies ahead, what lies deep.

"... Ugh!?

- As soon as possible, a fear I had never felt before struck my whole body.

The skull took away, the illusion as if the cerebromedulla had been zeroed out.

At this moment, I become aware that my own existence has' loosened up '.

Fear ran into the crisis of rooted existence, and consciousness was about to be blown away.

"Sir!?

"Sama!?

The alarmed and panicked voice rose.

If you noticed, I was poking my knee.

Keep your hands on the ground to barely prevent you from fainting.

"Ugh..."

Cold sweat erupts even if I just remember.

Indeed, that was a sea of chaos and unconsciousness.

Not good or bad, but in that vast ocean, human consciousness was equal to a drop of ink.

I'm quickly diluted and I don't have anything of my own.

As I tried to connect my consciousness, Salvia, with her shoulders, hung up.

"What do you...!

Yelling at the youth.

It was a rare killer for a calm girlfriend.

However, the youth did not look like they were willing or willing to do so.

"Rest assured. Nothing would have happened. If you just look, it's not supposed to be dangerous."

On the contrary, I looked back at her with a familiar eye somewhere.

"Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to come down here and talk to me in the first place. Well, he was a little early in his case, but it doesn't change him to be a qualified person. I'm fine with that."

"You..."

I asked a young man without malice, biting to death the fear that threatened his existence.

"You, what?"

Even exchanging words can't be the kind of person who has finally been able to do so by coming down close to the 'sea of unconsciousness', which can be called 'the nucleus of the world' and 'collective unconsciousness', is an ordinary being.

"Oh. I guess it's time to answer that question"

The young man named himself.

"I am the first brave man. He's the administrator of this world now."

"... the first brave man?

I could not hide my surprise at the unexpected identity of the mysterious figure.

First brave man.

It should have been someone who put together a mechanism to find out the truth about this world and maintain the world to this day.

Thousands of years ago, he is a great man in the legend.

"Hey, wait a minute. How come the first brave men are still alive?

Asked unswallowed, the youth returned calmly.

"You know I've changed the way the world is. I am also a 'connector'. But, you know, I don't have enough talent or time. I got caught in an unconscious ocean when I connected."

Taunted was the end of a first generation of brave men never touched by legend.

"The plan went crazy because of it. I was going to make the management of the" cornerstones of the world "flexible in keeping with the times. I was taken into the world before I set up the system for it, and I could only leave my knowledge fragmented. On the contrary, the end of my absence and the loss of my strength scattered the knowledge necessary in the tough battle. I had some insurance, but I wasn't ready yet because of the accidents, and most of them didn't work"

The way this world works, though quite stable, is hard to say that it is a stone's throw.

Harrisons, the Cathedral Church, desperately had to maintain the world.

But it seems that the way those worlds worked was also unintentional to the first brave men who created it.

"It just wasn't all bad. Until recently, I became the administrator of the world where I was vacant, and I was able to make contact with you."

"To me...?

"Yes, I am."

The first brave man nodded deeply.

"At present, the world is in an unsolved crisis"

"You mean Kojiro Nakazaki?... Did you say 'Connector' or something? So do you."

"That's right. 'Connectors', in some cases, can be a terrible disaster. That should no longer be called the King of Disasters."

"..." The King of Disasters ""

If you're the first 'connector', you probably understand the threat.

The first brave warrior told him violently.

"Equals one giant 'cornerstone of the world' independent of 'connectors'. To be more precise," The Founding Stone of the World "is a magical tool that has given us the same power as" Connectors ". Now I can't be on my own because of the" cornerstone of the world "and my law laid there, but if the" cornerstone of the world "were to be in the hands of Kojiro Nakatsuka or destroyed, the world would soon be a toy of the" King of Disasters "" "

"A toy..."

"I'm not saying anything big. That's all I have."

The language of the youth, which laid down the way this world was, was heavy.

"Shall I put it more plainly?" King of Disasters "will be the god of this world. There's nothing 'connectors' can't do. If we don't even think about the balance of the world and the damage that people do."

"... be God, because?

My spine popped.

Much remains to be known, but "Connector" and "Voice from Heaven" are considered to be in the same person, or cooperative relationship, than it is likely that "Voice from Heaven" was the one who was manipulating the Divine Palace Superior.

So much so that Kudo called it "The Pleasant Seeker of Destruction."

It's not something I've figured out what happens when someone like that can do whatever they want with the world.

At least, I didn't think I'd think about the balance of the world or the damage to people.

"Can't you do something about it"

No, you can't.

Absolutely, Kojiro Nakatsuki must be stopped.

For the sake of the world and, more importantly, for the sake of our companions to live.

But who can sum up the existence of even God?

"If you're the same 'connector', can't you do something about Kojiro Nakatsuki?"

"Unfortunately, I can't"

I asked my only thought, but the first brave man shook his head to the side.

"Originally, you're just a man who became an administrator in an accident. Hard to say I had enough power in my life, and since I was taken in by the unconscious ocean, I have also used my powers to keep myself. It can't be a big deal."

"Oh no..."

Returning was a desperate answer.

But the first brave men continued to do the same.

"But there are others who can fight the 'King of Disasters'"

"Is that true!?

I asked in momentum.

"Tell me. I'll do anything."

If it were to avert a future in which our companions would be torn to ruin, there would have been no lies whatsoever in the words spoken.

"Who the hell..."

"Don't you see?

That's what he asked me, and I shut my mouth.

Because the first brave man looked straight at me - only at me.