Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?

Past Arc ㉒

To sacrifice Sariel in order to allow the planet to survive. There were people who approved of that. There were people who were against that. The world is split into two camps, but the overwhelming majority were in favour. Even if they have feelings of guilt for repaying the kindness that was received with ingratitude, with the way things are going now they could only die together with the planet. That being the case, people would want to survive, by ignoring such feelings of guilt. Even amongst the people who were against it, there was only a tiny few who were actually willing to take action in order to speak up and protect Sariel.

In practice, the tiny few who actually took action were from the Sariel Society, who were suppressed. They rejected the demand to hand over Sariel, forming an intense opposition. Even so, the Dazdoldia army was sent out and due to that they were suppressed. Under the orders of the President Dustin who had fully resolved himself, they took tough measures. But due to the President’s conscience, so that there would be no deaths, non-lethal equipment was used. In addition, the Sariel Society stuck to non-lethal forms of opposition. They were originally a charitable organisation. They saved people out of kindness, and would never want to harm others. For that very reason, due to their beliefs, while they opposed with all their might they also clearly avoided anything that could kill others. Faced with that noble spirit, the Dazdoldia army’s morale had sunk remarkably. Everyone in the Dazdoldia army was aware that what they were doing was shameless. However, they had no alternative but to keep on attacking the way they were. If the Sariel Society hadn’t stuck to non-lethal methods, the army wouldn’t have hesitated to annihilate them. President Dustin was fully prepared to carry out such terrible actions. In the end, the Sariel Society’s refusal to kill is what saved their own lives.

When the Dazdoldia army broke into the place where Sariel was, she was surrounded by children clinging to her. With children completely surrounding her, as if they were playing a game of peas in a pod, it was as though they were restraining Sariel. In actual fact, the children were restraining Sariel. Because they understood that if they didn’t, then Sariel would leave.

「If you try to remove us by force then we shall bite our tongues and die. No matter what, if you are going to go then do it after killing us.」

Giving that threat to Sariel, the children clinging to her made themselves hostages to restrain her. The children knew. They knew that if they didn’t restrain her, then Sariel would willingly sacrifice herself. Or rather, that she would even take the initiative to do so. Therefore, they restrained her. They knew that Sariel wouldn’t be able to move when faced with their threat.

For the children, particularly for the older children, they knew that it was a futile struggle that could achieve nothing more than buying some time. Even the younger children were somewhat aware of that. Even so, they had no other option. To the children, it didn’t matter that she was called the Goddess or a saviour, it didn’t matter that the dragons cursed her as being a stray angel who couldn’t see the big picture, and neither did it matter if they were scored as fools by bystanders. From the children’s point of view, Sariel wasn’t such an exaggerated person – she was simply their mother who was kind but had a bit of difficulty expressing her emotions. That’s all they wanted.

The soldiers pulled off the screaming and crying children from Sariel. No matter how much the children insulted them, bit them, scratched them, the soldiers did not resist, but even so they were relentlessly pulled off from Sariel. Finally, when the last one was pulled off, Sariel was taken away by the soldiers.

「Everyone. Please live happily. But in peace.」

Those few words were all she left them with.

Sariel readily agreed to sacrifice herself by converting herself into energy for the planet.

「That is my mission.」

That’s what she said. When Sariel said that to the President, he bowed his head as deeply as he could.

Finally, the day arrived. Until that day, Potimas had been kept restrained, forced to develop equipment without any say in the matter. To prevent him from doing anything strange, he was strictly monitored as well. Potimas developed the equipment he was told to, improving his equipment for converting living beings into MA Energy to be able to convert Sariel into MA Energy. The strict monitoring was so that he couldn’t sneakily add anything to the equipment. Thus, with Potimas being restrained and his life held in the hands of others, there was no way that he wouldn’t do as he was told. The President had discerned that Potimas’s objective was immortality. He knew that since Potimas held his own life more dearly than anything else, he would have no choice but to cooperate.

At least, that would be the case if it was the real Potimas.

The Potimas held by the country of Dazdoldia, was not the real one. It was clone of Potimas. Before Potimas had begun investigations into magecraft, Potimas had investigated whether it was possible to achieve immortality with cloning technology. From there, he was able to create human clones. However, that wasn’t what Potimas had been seeking. The created clone was simply a physical clone. While it was a genetically identical existence, it wasn’t Potimas himself. It was simply a different person having the same appearance as Potimas. If combined with his techniques to transplant the brain, it could be used as a spare body, but it wouldn’t achieve immortality itself. Even if the body is changed, the brain itself would still be deteriorating and soon or later his life would end.

However, this cloning technique was of great use for future research. Potimas mass produced clones of himself and had those clones research immortality. The ability of the clones was no different to Potimas himself. Of course, they couldn’t gain his accumulated experience and knowledge in a day. However, while there were huge problems with his character, there is no doubt that Potimas was a genius, and there was also no doubt that his clones were also superior. Also, that problematic character was dealt with by the original. To the original they were simply pawns in order to further his research and they were not himself nor did they have the same thoughts. The clones were instilled with knowledge in order to further the research and were only granted a mechanical self-conscious that was lacking an ego. Unlike the original they had no fear of death.

The truth behind the “Potimas” that was held by the country of Dazdoldia, was that it was simply one of those clones. The original had sent it out. The original Potimas had only one objective. Which was to get his hands on Sariel’s power. If dragons could be considered monsters that were a symbol of death, then she would easily be an even greater monster. If Potimas could get his hands of Sariel’s power, then he would have nothing to fear.

However, Potimas himself didn’t have the capacity to hold that energy. Based on his repeated experiments with human evolution, it was determined that a human body could not tolerate being supplied with an excess of energy. The human body could only accept a quantity of energy that would improve the physical ability a bit and extend the lifespan somewhat. If the energy of a god could be absorbed as is, then it would have been better, but that was impossible. Therefore, Potimas decided to get hold of Sariel’s energy for a different reason. Namely, the weapon of model that would be called the Gloria Ω in the future. A weapon smeared in blood, by creating a receptacle for a large quantity of souls from his own clones.

For MA Energy, unless it is converted into electric power or the like then it is impossible to store it for a long period of time. However, the efficiency of that conversion was extremely bad. To properly gain hold of Sariel’s power, it was necessary to store it as MA Energy. For that very reason, something to act as a receptacle was needed, namely a container for the soul. Potimas created clones of himself for that reason. Sariel’s power would then be poured into those receptacles.

There was nothing sneakily added to the equipment created by the clone. It was certainly the case that he had utilised the knowledge that Potimas possessed to create equipment that could decompose Sariel and pour that power into the planet. But, that was simply in a way such that as the energy was poured into the planet it could also be extracted by someone else. Potimas intended to collect that energy, and flee from the planet. So long as he could get hold of Sariel’s power, there was nothing to be afraid of. Then, he would have no attachments remaining to this almost broken planet. He would set off into space, and simply take his time to research immortality.

And so, Sariel stepped into the equipment. While the President and others were watching over her, the decomposition of Sariel began, and that energy was poured into the planet. Then Potimas would seize that energy. Or at least, that’s what should have happened.

The moment that Sariel stepped into the equipment, the world was transformed.