Chapter 200: United Under the Same Heavens, Part 6
[Author’s Opening Note: It’s not that I forgot to post. I had an important mission: watching Piyo-san Black and Piyo Sablé come into existence...]
A contract. It's a transfer of benefits. You provide something that one side lacks, and in return, you pay a price. The people of Ruluiath—the people who once lived in this city—handed this city over to Ctarnidd. If so, what did they gain in return?
Sunraku: "If there's an answer, it's gotta be the one thing that's the absolute staple of info sources in exploration games."
Psyger-0: "Th-that is..."
Well, it can only be that one thing.
Sunraku: "Someone's records written on paper. A diary, or experiment logs—that kind of thing."
A classic worldbuilding item, a staple of horror games, notorious for inevitably taking a sinister turn around the halfway point. Usually, it's either a monster escaping or a pandemic breaking out. But for learning what happened here long ago, there's nothing better.
In what seemed to be an office rather than a throne room, our A-Team had succeeded in discovering a single diary. Rust and the others in B-Team had headed for the top floor of the castle.
Sunraku: "Alright... I'm reading it."
『How long has it been since that accursed "Blue" came from beyond the sea? Following the west, the southern city has already been swallowed by the "Blue." The ships carrying the ministers who tried to flee this island were dragged to the ocean floor by a "Blue" greater than the one gnawing at this island. That sight was enough to plunge not only the people, but even we, the royalty, into despair.』
Don’t just throw a whole new plot element at me right off the bat! What the hell is this “Blue”?! ...No, calm down. There are two things we know at this point. At the very least, at the time of the diary's first entry, this island was under some kind of invasion. And that something wasn't Ctarnidd.
『The city has already become the possession of the "Blue." The people swallowed by the "Blue" have their very bodies turned into a part of it. For better or worse, the overly fastidious ministers who had been occupying most of the castle with their entire families and retainers have just evacuated, so we can shelter the people in the castle without any worry. As of this day, the gates of this castle shall never be closed to the people.』
Psyger-0: "From what I can read... he seems like a good person."
Sunraku: "The writing sure gives off a strong 'spineless king who can't stand up to his ministers' vibe, though."
『Even after accounting for the loss of the soldiers who challenged the "Blue" and vanished, becoming a part of it, this castle was able to accommodate all the surviving people. Though the population was originally dozens of times greater... I curse my own powerlessness against the "Blue." The radiance of the glorious crown meant nothing against this calamity.』
I'd initially imagined something like an alien invasion for this "Blue," but it feels distinctly different. Judging by the phrasing of the person writing this—probably the most important person in Ruluiath at the time—the "Blue" is referred to in the singular, not the plural. What comes to mind is a single gigantic entity, or a name for a single conceptual thing... Could it still be Ctarnidd after all?
『The impatience of being slowly cornered. I deeply resent the ministers for taking most of the food stores and boarding the ships. The sight of the food stores, far too meager to feed over a hundred people... Are we truly doomed to die here?』
Sunraku: "This is totally the pattern where they end up wiped out by internal strife."
Psyger-0: "But... there aren't any signs of conflict within the castle..."
From what I can read, the residents, cornered by this "Blue," began a siege. But with the ministers who attempted to escape by ship sinking along with the food they'd taken, it's clear a food crisis was just a matter of time.
『A storm. A terrible storm that seemed to twist everything apart and return it to the sea struck this nation. But I thought... it could never wash away the "Blue" that had taken such deep root in this land.』
Hm? This turn of events...
『Clad in raging weather, it appeared, tearing apart the "Blue" that stretched from the sea. How can I describe that form? The way it violently shook off the beckoning of the "Blue"—which had swallowed people, livestock, even houses—and instead consumed and destroyed it... It was like a dragon with eight heads.』
Sunraku: "This eight-headed dragon is probably Ctarnidd."
Emul: "But Ctarnidd is an octopus, wa?"
Sunraku: "When an octopus that huge swings its tentacles around, I bet it wouldn't be that strange for it to look like an eight-headed dragon."
Emul: "Ah, I see!"
Since it has a head of its own, that makes nine heads... Kuzuryu, Kutoryu, Kuturyu... Cthulhu, get it? Anyway, from this text, hasn't Ctarnidd basically pulled off something messiah-like here?
『For us, in our desperation, even if it would trample us after subduing the "Blue," it was truly a savior, a god. Even as we trembled at the thought of that might turning upon us, we cheered and prayed to the god that shattered the "Blue."』
『And at last, the "Blue" fell silent. The god was victorious. The streets no longer devoured us. The castle gates opened, unprompted by any command. And then we, unprompted by any command, knelt before the god.』
Emul: "Wh-what's next?! I want to know what happens next, wa!"
Sunraku: "You're getting way too into this. We're gathering intel, you know... And Rei-shi, what exactly is that hand, fidgeting and reaching for the next page?"
Psyger-0: "A-ahaha..."
『The god, indeed, answered our words. The god spoke: My name is Ctarnidd, the one who sits in the deep abyss... Not a god, but one who wields godlike power. In return for saving us, the god desired this land.』
Sunraku: "If this turns out to be a massive setup from the start, I'm gonna laugh."
Psyger-0: "S-surely not..."
Well, that possibility seems slim. Ctarnidd has no need for such roundabout methods. Why he did something like saving the people living on this island is another matter, but at the very least, he seems to have possessed the intelligence to demand compensation.
『The god desired this country... Ruluia, without us. A small child among the people, with the reckless courage of ignorance, posed a question to the god. "Are you going to drive us out?" The god did not grow angry, and answered. This land is already unfit for human habitation. The "Blue" that has seeped into the very earth even in death—the god called it the "Crazed Horde of Blue"—will one day revive and consume all once more. Therefore, the god will take this entire island back to the bottom of the sea. If you accept the fate of destruction, you may live here as you please.』
...What is this? Hasn't this completely entered the "Ctarnidd is actually a good guy" route? And it seems the "Blue" is radiating an aura of being far more dangerous than I'd thought.
『It is unlikely that anyone will ever read this diary. But I shall leave it in this castle. This is proof that a nation called Ruluia once existed, and the remnants of my reign as its king. We will depart this island with the surviving people. The time to set sail is near. We shall offer our eternal gratitude to the god. This castle has already been made into a keystone by the god. The cornerstone monument that rests in the throne room is the new ruler of Ruluia, and I have transferred the authority of the king, along with my oath, to it.』
This is it. This is undoubtedly the event flag. The cornerstone placed in the throne room. According to whichever it was, the king or queen writing this, it's some kind of keystone that turned the island upside down. No matter how you look at it, this has to be it. I can't shake the feeling it's the type of gimmick you really, really shouldn't touch, but something that supports the inversion ability that physically flipped Ruluiath—once called Ruluia—upside down. Taking some kind of action on this is clearly the key to revealing Ctarnidd's true form.
Sunraku: "So, the problem is what we do with this so-called cornerstone."
Akitsu Akane: "Do we break it?"
Psyger-0: "No, there might be... some other way..."
The diary... dammit, it ends here. I knew it, but it won't spoon-feed us everything from start to finish.
Sunraku: "Our destination's set. Let's regroup with Rust and the others and head to the throne room."
Sunraku: "We've got results over here. What about your side?"
Rust: "...We've got results, too."
Before we knew it, the Operation Defeat Ctarnidd had stretched past midnight, approaching three in the morning. Everyone had prepared for tonight, but there's no denying the air of fatigue hanging over us.
Sunraku: "Taking a break might not be a bad idea... but first, let's swap intel. A-Team found a diary in what looked like an office. The gist is records from when this island was above the sea, and that there's something called a 'cornerstone' in the throne room."
Rust: "...B-Team encountered a monster on the top floor of this castle. We defeated it, and it dropped this."
Rust pointed to her head, and upon it sat a shabby-looking crown. The craftsmanship itself was quite fine, but combined with the empty sockets where jewels must have once been set, the shabbiness was particularly striking.
Sunraku: "I can't imagine... it's unrelated. But for now, let's take a break. We found a few rooms with beds during our search. Let's rest for about an hour, including logging out."
We'll still have time after that to investigate the throne room and have our showdown with Ctarnidd.
"The Crazed Horde of Blue" Its true identity is a plankton-type monster, a colonial lifeform that possesses a unified consciousness. It has an extremely troublesome nature: the "Blue" is capable of parasitizing inorganic matter. It then attacks any organic matter—that is, living creatures—that approach the parasitized object, instantly completing the process of predation, digestion, and multiplication. The sight is such that prey devoured by the "blue" appears as though their very bodies are transforming into the "Blue" in the blink of an eye. By having its multiplication speed outpace its death speed, it is even capable of operating on land. If left unchecked, it could have potentially devoured an entire continent within a few years.
The wave of calamity, born in secret, was annihilated by an inhuman being. It was not an act of goodwill, nor of malice. It was───