Chapter 218: The Garden of Sinners Episode 5: Paradox Spiral! (Part 16)
After leaving Ogawa Apartments, Touko and Mikiya returned to the office.
But the moment they stepped inside, the phone rang.
Touko picked it up, listened silently for a moment… and her expression hardened.
Without saying a word, she grabbed her coat, turned to Mikiya—who was still a little dazed from earlier—and motioned for him to follow.
"We're going."
"Where to?"
"Don't ask."
She tossed something into his hands—a small charm-like item.
"When we get there, stand by the wall. Don't move. Don't speak. Ignore everything and everyone. If you do that, they won't even notice you're there."
Before he could ask anything else, she was already out the door.
They arrived at a nondescript location not long after, and there, waiting for them, was the man in the crimson coat—Araya Souren.
"Yo, Aozaki," he said with a smug grin. "I've got the Taiji in my hands now."
Even the ever-composed Touko couldn't help but falter at his words. Her eyes widened slightly, and she muttered under her breath:
"You put a Taiji inside the Taiji? I can understand the obsession with reaching the Root... but doing something like this will definitely trigger the Counter Force. No magus has ever been able to control it. Are you planning to destroy yourself?"
Araya only laughed, unbothered.
"Counter Force? Oh, that troublesome thing won't be interfering this time. I'm not carving a new path—I'm simply walking a road that was always meant to exist. Still, caution is always wise... especially with a 'specimen' like Ryougi."
Mikiya's eyes snapped open at that name.
"What did you do to Shiki?!"
Araya seemed genuinely surprised to see him. But the smile never left his face.
Touko, now icy-calm, stepped forward.
"Is that all you came to say? I appreciate the effort of informing me in person, truly. But aren't you worried I'll report this to the Association?"
Araya chuckled darkly.
"Please. You'd never do that. And even if you did, those fools would take six days to get here. By then, I'll have already summoned a new world—one straight out of the scriptures."
He turned away, waving over his shoulder.
"Well then, farewell. You'll want to prepare yourself, won't you? I look forward to our next meeting… the sooner the better."
As Araya vanished into the shadows, Mikiya turned to Touko, his voice tight with worry.
"Is he saying… Shiki's been taken?"
Touko nodded solemnly. And for once, her voice betrayed a sliver of emotion.
"She's alive. That much I'm sure of. When he said 'in my hands,' it meant she's still breathing."
"Then we need to save her. Now."
But Touko's voice turned stern.
"Wait. Why is it that every time something involves Shiki, you lose all sense of reason?"
She looked him straight in the eye.
"This is dangerous. Extremely dangerous. And this time, you don't have a role to play. A fight between magi… can only be resolved by magi."
With that, she began preparing her tools and quickly departed, leaving Mikiya behind with no choice but to stay.
Left alone in the quiet office, time dragged by slowly.
Mikiya tried to wait.
He really did.
But the anxiety gnawed at him. The silence pressed against his ears. And finally, unable to bear it any longer—
He left.
…
After a long stretch of steady, introspective storytelling, The Garden of Sinners was once again ramping up the tension.
The audience, who had finally begun to relax again, now found themselves on edge. The atmosphere in the theater shifted sharply, anticipation creeping back into the air.
Even the nobles gathered at the Duke's estate—many of whom had voiced loud opinions or criticisms earlier—were now struck silent. Not a single word escaped their lips as they stared at the screen, eyes wide and breath held.
The suspense had gripped them all.
Back in the projection room, Edward and the others watched with bated breath. No one dared speak. No one dared blink.
Everyone knew—
The real storm was coming.
As the conversation between Touko and Araya Souren concluded on screen, one viewer in the audience furrowed her brow at a particular term that had caught her attention.
"Counter Force…?" Arcueid murmured, her crimson eyes narrowing slightly. "What kind of concept is that?"
Her curiosity wasn't lost on Edward, who calmly offered an explanation.
"In simple terms, the Counter Force is split into two types—Alaya and Gaia. Or rather, the Human Counter Force and the Planetary Counter Force. Though... I'm not sure how familiar you are with planetary theory."
"Hmph. You mages aren't the only ones who know a thing or two." Arcueid gave a prideful smile, clearly unbothered. "Of course I know the world humans live on is a massive sphere. Don't underestimate me."
And she was right. In this era—an age where magic had pushed the boundaries of knowledge far beyond what was once thought possible—it was already common knowledge among high-level mages that the world was a planet. A spherical celestial body hurtling through the void.
Of course, such knowledge wasn't widely distributed. It held little practical value for most, and no one had ever actually left the planet to confirm it firsthand. As such, only a select few mages—primarily researchers from the Tower—ever truly understood the theory in depth.
As for Edward, being a transmigrator from another world, he had once assumed that his knowledge surpassed everyone else's.
That illusion had shattered quickly.
The sheer depth of magical theory, the sophistication of arcane science… it all surpassed his modern Earth education. In fact, there were mages in this world whose understanding had long left him in the dust.
So, seeing Arcueid take the idea so casually in stride, Edward simply took a breath, gathered his thoughts, and explained further.
"So, yeah. There are two kinds of Counter Force: one from the planet, one from humanity itself."
"Two kinds…" Arcueid echoed thoughtfully.
"Right. The Planetary Counter Force—or Gaia—is easy to understand. The planet doesn't want to die. So whenever humanity does something that threatens its survival, Gaia creates ways to stop it. It's basically the planet's own immune system."
"As for the Human Counter Force—Alaya—it comes from the collective will of humanity. The unconscious desire of all humans to survive as a species. When someone does something that could potentially cause humanity's extinction, Alaya responds by sending out a 'correction agent' to eliminate the threat."
"And since magi are the most likely to create extinction-level disasters, they're naturally seen as the number-one threat. If a magus produces something too dangerous, both Counter Forces might send their agents to eliminate them."
The surrounding onlookers—nobles, mages, scholars—were stunned.
None of them had expected such a colossal concept to be lurking behind the narrative.
The idea that a planet could actively defend itself, or that humanity's unconscious will could manifest as a self-preservation system… was almost science fiction. Even thinking about it gave them chills.
And yet, it made perfect sense in a world shaped by magic.
Meanwhile, Arcueid nodded in understanding.
"I see… so in this world, those things are the Counter Force's agents?"
"Things?" Edward tilted his head. "What do you mean by 'those'?"
"Oh, nothing." She brushed it off with a smile, before her gaze sharpened again. "But tell me this—what kind of beings do these Counter Forces send to eliminate their targets?"
Edward thought for a moment.
"Gaia—the Planetary Counter Force—tends to send monsters, or sometimes True Ancestors… um, not you, of course. I mean the fictional ones in the story."
"Is that so?"
Arcueid didn't press the matter, but her eyes glinted with a mysterious light. She didn't say a word—but something within her had stirred.
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