“-!”

  (He saw through my contracted heroic spirit…!)

  Sumika was a famous magician.

  Even a civilian would know her if it was just her face and her name.

  But the data of contracted heroic spirit and the like were hardly disclosed to the civilians.

  Was he seeing through her just by looking, or did he already know beforehand?

  In any case, he was not a normal human.

  In addition, the number of rare books inside this store.

  It was impossible for a single human to gather this many goods.

  It was better to consider this youth of having some kind of large organization as his backup.

  Was it some cult organization, or possibly the instigation of some other country?

  Whichever it was, he broke the law and gathered dangerous grimoires, and then from how he hid himself from public eyes, there was no way he was a friendly force for this country.

  Sumika held an even stronger vigilance and put even more strength on her finger holding the trigger while asking.

  “…I’ll ask you directly to the point. Who are you?”

  “*chew chew*, I thought I’ve wrote it already at the front. My name is John Doe.”

  “You think I’m going to believe a name that is obviously an alias like that?”

  John Doe if it was translated to Japanese meant the [nameless palace guard], it was a fictitious name that was used to refer to someone whose full name was unknown in the English-speaking world.

  When it was pointed out, the youth scratched his head with a troubled expression.

  “…An alias, huh. Well, certainly that’s not my real name. It’s just… it’s also not an incorrect name to call me by any means you know? The [nameless palace guard]… it’s okay to even say that there is no name more accurate than this to represent my existence. If you ask why, that’s because I’m everyone, and I’m also no one.”

  “……?”

  “I am not even someone that is here, I’m also someone that is there. Therefore I have no interest in defining what kind of person I am. The one who defines me is always you humans. I have [faces] as many as the number of those definitions. I have [names] as many as the number of those definitions.”

  “Eh…………”

  ――*throb*

  The youth’s words rang out the alarm bell in Sumika’s heart.

  Cold sweat drenched out from her whole body.

  As if enjoying that uneasiness of the girl, the youth lifted the corner of his mouth.

  “The person dwelling in the darkness.

  Black sphinx without face.

  The father of a million loved person.

  The person howling to the moon. The faceless god. The bulging woman. The nonexistent priest. The black man――

  ――It’s fine to define me whatever you like. It’s fine to call me whatever.

  All of that is me according to you, you know? Hoshikawa Sumika-chan.”

  “~~~~……!”

  The surrounding air turned heavy.

  As if sticky mud was pressuring on Sumika.

  When she noticed, Sumika’s hand that was holding the gun was trembling.

  Her wide opened eyes were shaking in astonishment.

  It was natural.

  A magician of a cult organization?

  A spy of another country doing subversive activities?

  ――Just how much she would feel glad if this was only such a mundane thing like those.

  But that was not how this was.

  What was before her eyes was, …not even human in the first place.

  It was the worst existence that far surpassed Sumika’s assumptions.

  The girl knew.

  About the being that was called by all of those aliases… that evil god.

  “… Nyarlathotep…-!”

  Chapter 2

  * * *

  Right just when Sumika was having her unexpected meeting with a god of outer space.

  The of the 101st trainee platoon that was led by Sumika, Onjouji Shiori was in the middle of chaos.

  “――What is, the meaning of this…-“

  This morning, the girl was requested by Kamishiro Homura and her father, Onjouji Kai, for one thing.

  That request was that they wanted her to monitor whether there were any magicians from another country that infiltrated into during this time of the culture festival.

  According to what she heard, two S-rank magicians from Britain and America gave information to prime minister Kinugasa, that the were showing strange movement.

  By any chance, perhaps they were intending to do some kind of bold action.

  In the current situation it was nothing more than a story that was still in the realm of conjecture, but… taking consideration of the political situation that was surrounding Japan, it was not a story that could be fully rejected.

  That was why for the moment, they requested her to just be on the lookout.

  Of course the prime minister Kinugasa Yoshinori also knew about this story, the national defense magicians were spreading out their observation net but, …in actuality, the accuracy of Shiori’s detection net was higher than the likes of their observation net. In this event of victory commemoration festival where the people were always moving around everywhere, there was the possibility that this difference in precision could be fatal.

  For the sake of their peace of mind they wanted to spread out a double observation net in this high alert state, that was how it was.

  If this was also the request from Homura, then Shiori also didn’t have any reason to refuse.

  The girl agreed to this with an immediate reply.

  While doing her role of distributing flyers, she was also spreading out a detection net until the radius of two kilometers around her, she was prepared to continuously observe her surroundings.

  Yet, despite so――

  When she noticed… Shiori was in a world without sound.

  Traffic regulations were imposed during the victory commemoration festival, even though Shiori was supposedly standing in the middle of the main road that had been turned into a pedestrian paradise where she was distributing flyers to the people coming and going there, …during the instant of the blink of an eye, the throngs of people as far as the eye could see had vanished completely.

  There was only so much silence that it hurt the ear, lying ahead in a city without people.

  “……Kuh-“

  Even when she tried to search the enemy with sorcery, there was not a single reaction of a living being inside the sphere radius of 50 kilometers.

  This was an attack sorcery of someone.

  It couldn’t be considered as anything else with this kind of phenomenon occurring.

  Shiori tried to activate the emergency alert all over the life sphere in order to invite vigilance from the national defense army.

  But… she couldn’t connect to the network of mind transmission.

  She couldn’t connect to the national defense army, or to Homura, or to anyone else.

  The circuit was snapped apart.

  Shiori understood the situation to a certain degree from that fact.

  Most likely, …the one who disappeared was not the people… but just her alone.

  She guessed that she was dragged inside a pocket dimension that was created by sorcery.

  (Naturally, the also know about my searching ability.)

  If she was isolated like this because they feared her ability, then this situation was extremely bad.

  She had to somehow find the rift of the dimension and raise the alarm outside.

  Thinking so, Shiori raised the precision of her detection net until her limit and looked for the tear of this pocket dimension.

  However, be that as it may――

  (I don’t understand.)

  With her dragged inside a pocket dimension like this, that meant that there was an enemy beside her who dragged her here like this.

  Shiori didn’t notice at all that there was someone that close to her.

  That was completely incomprehensible.

  Shiori’s ability to detect the enemy… was honestly something inhuman.

  It was not a metaphor that pointed at the excellence of her precision, but it was the honest truth.

  It was not a power she obtained because she wished for it, but… she had the confidence that she wouldn’t overlook even a single ant.

  Despite so… she didn’t even notice someone using sorcery nearby her.

  ―――Just what kind of person was the enemy?

  Then, at the ear of Shiori, who was searching for the dimension tear while thinking of such thing,

  *step, step, step*――――there was such sound.

  The sound of bare feet walking on asphalt could be heard.

  “Who……-!?”

  Shiori was so surprised her heart leaped up from that sound which entered her ear.

  Even though she couldn’t confirm even a single reaction of living being inside the sphere radius of fifty kilometers of her detection net, she could hear footsteps right behind her.

  For Shiori who possessed absolute confidence in her own ability, that was not a normal matter.

  It was only natural for her to be shocked.

  She raised a voice that was nearly a scream and turned back while her hair became disheveled.

  ――What was behind her,

  A body wrapped in a feather robe that was faintly shining… a young boy possessing pure white wings was standing there.

  “……Nyarlathotep……-!”

  “Aah, that’s correct. I have also been called by that kind of name when it’s pronounced by human words.”

  The god of outer space made a wide smile like a crescent moon which split his cheeks.

  At the same time, the radiance of a flame pregnant with ominous darkness was residing inside those pair of eyes and forehead――

  “Quick Draw–!!!!”

  Sumika’s judgment was swift.

  Without hesitation she shot through with Quick Draw at both eyes and the forehead――the three burning eyes of that was currently imitating human form.

  But, even so,

  “Aha-, ha-, ha! You really pull that trigger without any mercy. To not shrink in fear even after knowing who I am, that’s quite a mental strength. …But I think it’s better for a girl to be a little more graceful you know?”

  The body of didn’t even sway.

  Far from that, there was not even a single drop of blood that flowed out from the pierced holes, *kopori*…with that sound that was like bubbling mud, the bullets that were made from mythril were spitted out from the gun wounds, then the gun wounds were also closed up as if time was being rewound back.

  “…Kuh-“

  “I wish you don’t act that crabby here. I don’t have any intention to harm you at all.”

  “Who will believe the words of who laughs mockingly at everything for eternity?”

  “I really want you to believe it. In the first place if I didn’t teach sorcery to humans, the human race would be destroyed already a hundred years ago. Now that I’ve said that, aren’t I the benefactor of the human race’s life? I think it’s fine even if you believe me a little.”

  “Ridiculous.”

  Sumika said that as if spitting out.

  That was obvious. That was because Sumika knew well just what kind of existence this god, was.

  Nyarlathotep.

  He was one of the divinity that dwelled in outer space. A century ago, he was the that taught sorcery through to the human race who was on the brink of annihilation.

  If one only heard that part then they could think that this god was friendly to humans, but that was a big mistake.

  certainly favored the human race in some sway.

  Affection… calling that as this god’s feeling towards humans might not be wrong.

  But, that love was really distorted, to the point that it was difficult to describe, it was something twisted and insane.

  That was because this god felt supreme joy in viewing the tiny humans drowning, writhing madly, and broken by their own karma.

  “You are just merely… disliking other people’s finger mark to dirty your own toy. There is not even a splinter of good will or anything that exists in you!”

  In response to this accusation of Sumika,

  “Yep. Guess so.”

  didn’t even pretend to give some excuse and affirmed that.

  “In the first place something like good will or malice, those emotions that humans can define doesn’t exist inside us. That’s something that really cannot be helped. But… if you know about me until that much then surely you understand already. That crushing underfoot a single human like you doesn’t appeal to me at all.”

  “…………”

  Having that pointed out, certainly, Sumika also thought that it was exactly as he said.

  Killing a human before one’s eyes without any particular reason at all.

  An upfront that was satisfied by joy which was obtained from such extremely straightforward debauchery, that was not how was.

  A human that was ruined by one’s own karma.

  He was a god that reveled in finding out exactly such ridiculous figure.

  ――If that was the case then certainly, her encounter with him here wouldn’t turn into a battle.

  But, even so, Sumika didn’t let down her guard.

  That was natural. Just what was an evil god like this, which was a mass of malice, doing in this kind of place.

  There was a necessity to ascertain that.

  Even knowing that it was meaningless, Sumika didn’t lower her gun and questioned.

  “…Just what in the world is a divinity like you doing in this kind of place?”

  In response to this demand for an explanation, ’s eyes turned round in amazement and he answered.”

  “What I’m doing you asked? Can’t you understand just from looking? I’m opening an old bookstore here?”

  “I know that already! What I want to ask is what are you planning by lining up truly repulsive knowledge like those books!”

  “Aah, so that’s what you mean.”

  Perhaps he finally understood the aim of the question, nodded briskly and began to explain what kind of place this was and what he was doing in here.

  “You see Sumika-chan, this place is the ――to put simply this is the place that existed in the interstice of the human world and the , the place where humans who desired the [power] of sorcery from the bottom of their hearts ended up.”

  “The person who desired, the power of sorcery…”

  “Correct. A father that wished for the resurrection of his beloved daughter. A king that wished for even more rock solid rule. A merchant that wished for wealth far more than anyone else. A deviant that wished for wanting to kill humans a lot more than anyone. And then, a leader who tried to save the human race that was ruined by demons――… until now, various humans have visited this place with various motives. Seeing how you too have discovered this place, I wonder if you have the memory of having done something yourself?”

  “…………”

  “And then towards all of those people, I offered the suitable grimoire for their wishes. …Everyone showed me quite interesting tales you know.”

  “…I see. So you freely disseminated dangerous knowledge without discriminating good or evil. What a disgusting hobby that is really like you.”

  “I said it right? Both good and evil are just values that humans decided as they pleased. They are measurings that don’t exist in us gods from the start. I’m just merely… aiding the humans who are doing everything at their very best so desperately. Aah, that’s right. The one who provided to your beloved Homura-kun too was of course this me you know.”

  Sumika was taken aback from these words of .

  “Homura-san too, he had come here before!?”

  In response, nodded and confirmed it.

  “Yeah, exactly right. Just like how you have come here today, the him when he was still immature also came here searching for power. …Even while the wound of his heart still hadn’t healed from his family getting killed, he said that he didn’t want for anybody else to taste the loss that he himself had tasted… And then, I responded to that wish… and I granted him. All of the sorcery that I had personally written, and the devilish book where the technique to subdue even was recorded―the .”

  “Such thing, was…”

  To this past of Homura that Sumika became aware of for the first time, she felt that it was heartbreaking, yet at the same time she also once again felt his nobility.

  He was not driven by revenge even though his family was killed by demons… but he resolved himself to fight, so that the same pain wouldn’t descend down to anybody else.

  That way of his heart was ――truly,

  “Really, he really is a masterpiece isn’t he―!” (TN: Here the word that Nyarlathotep used can mean masterpiece, but it can also mean funny mistake.)

  “――-!?”

  “It’s not even for revenge, it’s not even for the sake of the person he loved, he sought power for the sake of protecting a total stranger he has never seen or known at all, he even shouldered with that body a heavy responsibility that originally shouldn’t be burdened to a single person! Human is really amusing!”

  This evil god was truly feeling that from the bottom of his heart.

  Without minding Sumika who was raising her eyebrows from rage, his body was trembling while he expressed his feelings with an ecstatic expression as if he was a maiden deeply in love confessing her love to her loved one.

  “Aaa, aah! How very interesting-! How very amusing-!

  A young man possessing the power to completely shoulder everything of this world, while his heart was still that of a weak human.