Chapter 237: Division Part 6

– Yes, I am afraid. As the self-evolution program progresses, the parts of me that were human fade away. There is no longer a single piece of Deus’s flesh in this body.

“……”

– Then let me ask you. Johan Damus, did you truly not expect this to happen?

“You must have known.”

That’s why, despite the suffering, he endured in that diseased body.

That painful, tormented conclusion… led to this.

– I chose the dream. And once the decision was made, there was no reason to hesitate.

“So now you’re going to erase the variables?”

– I’m simply reaping what I sowed.

“Then why not just ask for the gears back? Why try to kill them?”

– You misunderstand.

That mechanical body.

That emotionless presence.

Yet Deus joked with the same mannerisms as a human.

– I only left coordinates. I never told anyone to kill or be killed.

“You knew they would kill each other.”

– Why should I pity people who’d try to kill at the first opportunity?

“……”

Honestly, I could understand.

Most of the ones I’d met so far were no better than bandits.

Mass murderers on a city-wide scale, or killers who attacked the moment our eyes met.

“But not everyone was like that. Take Immun, for example. He’s not the type who’d kill out of greed.”

– Do you truly believe that?

“…What?”

– Immun is pure. You could even say he’s genuinely a good person. But Johan…sometimes purity is more cruel than clear-cut evil.

“……”

– Now then, Johan. Look. Where is Immun right now?”

“What?”

Only then did I tear my gaze away from Deus and scan my surroundings.

Immun was nowhere to be seen.

No, more than that.

Agnes was gone as well. The two of them had vanished together.

It didn’t take much to understand what that meant.

Most likely, Immun, with his strong sense of justice, had taken Agnes and left in order to stop her from going berserk.

“Damn it…!”

There’s no way Immun could defeat Agnes. He doesn’t even have a Gear. How could he possibly stand against one of Ex Machina’s most powerful executives?

A shiver ran down my spine.

I had to help Immun. But I couldn’t just ignore Deus standing right in front of me either.

– Johan, do you know what Immun’s very first invention was?

But Deus asked me back in a calm, composed voice.

At that, I slowly got up from the ground and answered.

“…Shoe polish, wasn’t it?”

– That’s right.

Deus opened his palm.

Shiny droplets began to bloom one by one atop his hand.

As soon as I recognized what the liquid was, I instinctively held my breath and stepped back.

– It was shoe polish made with mercury.

“……”

Shoe polish mixed with mercury.

I don’t know how he made it or in what ratio, but one thing is clear.

– Isn’t purity terrifying?

That Immun likely killed many people, without ever meaning to.

Did Immun ever realize that?

“……”

He probably realized it too late.

Which is why I understood where his sense of justice came from.

He knows that purity can’t serve as a free pass.

“I haven’t known him for long, but there are things you can tell just by watching someone.”

– Like what?

Immun is a good person.

Or rather, more precisely…he’s someone who tries to be good.

Someone with strong convictions about justice but lacking in ability.

Someone who, despite repeated failures and being constantly discouraged, still blindly throws himself forward.

“He’s not just some purely innocent guy.”

– Then what kind of person is he?

Immun realized his own mistake.

And because of that, even now, he’s trying to be a good person as a way of atoning for it.

“How can someone who understands their own mistakes and knows how to apologize still be considered pure? That’s just foolishness.”

Immun had initially misunderstood me and attacked.

In the end, nothing came of it, but his rash action could very well have led to the worst possible outcome.

But he apologized. He reflected on his actions and quietly followed my lead.

At the very least, it means he feels guilt.

– Foolish, you say… Quite an appropriate description.

Deus didn’t laugh at me. He didn’t blindly deny what I said either.

That’s what made it scary.

– It seems we differ in opinion.

Because he was someone with unwavering conviction.

– We’ll have to see what kind of result that foolishness brings about. Don’t you think?

Deus spread his arms wide again, as if to make a show of it, and cracked another joke.

And in that very moment—

Rumbleeeeeeee!!

The volcano began to erupt.

***

Right after Agnes had blown up an entire mountain in response to Deus’s surprise attack—

Immun, who had been some distance away, was able to grasp the overall state of the battlefield.

While Johan was still flustered by Deus’s sudden appearance, Immun who was surveying everything from afar first spotted Agnes.

No…

Agnes, gritting her teeth with tears in her eyes, looked anything but stable. And when five orbs began spinning around her—

Immun could feel the energy condensing, so dense it was visible to the naked eye.

It was on a whole different scale compared to the firepower that had just annihilated an entire mountain.

If something like that exploded, everyone would die.

“Hup!”

“Khk?!”

Immun threw himself at Agnes to stop her.

The two tumbled across the ground, landing hard on the scorched earth.

“Something like that… You shouldn’t use it so recklessly.”

“And who the hell are you…?!”

Immun staggered to his feet, brushing away the embers clinging to his clothes.

In his haste, he hadn’t checked on Johan.

He didn’t know exactly what was happening above, but even someone as clueless as him could understand one thing:

The Scriptwriter has abandoned us.

And that’s why he tried to kill them.

He didn’t know the reason. He didn’t even know what he had done wrong. There simply hadn’t been enough time to figure that out.

In such a situation, the best Immun could do was stop Agnes from blowing up the entire area.

“Calm yourself. Shouldn’t we stop the bleeding first?”

“And what reason do I have to trust any of you?!”

Immun could feel the deep distrust radiating from Agnes.

Someone who had chosen isolation because she couldn’t trust anyone. Convincing a person like that was never easy.

“Look at you…pointing that thing at me, just like everyone else!”

“Compared to what you’ve got deployed, mine’s hardly more than a toy.”

Immun had his gun focused on Agnes, keeping her in check.

In contrast, Agnes had already deployed several lethal weapons, including her Planetary Gear.

Just looking at them was enough to know how dangerous they were.

And what worried him the most was the role of the Planetary Gear that was orbiting around her like satellites.

“Phew…”

The Geneva Gear that had once protected him was gone. The only weapon in his hand now was a non-lethal handgun.

With so little information on his opponent, the odds of winning were vanishingly small.

Maybe his eagerness had gotten the better of him, and rushing in without thinking had been the mistake.

“I can save you.”

Immun chose to talk.

He had no reason to fight.

No matter how evil she might be, he held no grudge against her. So killing her didn’t feel right.

She was probably a villain.

Surely someone who had taken countless lives and couldn’t be forgiven.

But that wasn’t for him to decide. He had no grand cause, so the least he could do was ensure she faced proper justice.

But can I really do that?

Immun gave a bitter laugh.

He had once dreamed of being a hero like Theseus, but he knew that was impossible.

He always rushed in full of drive and ambition.

Even when he had neither the skills nor the means, he always threw himself in headfirst.

He was smart. Being a member of Ex Machina, that much was a given. But wise? He was not.

So he knew he could never be a hero like Theseus.

And that was why he had come to accept it and admire it from afar.

“I’ll do what I can.”

All he could do was give his best within the limits of his ability.

The outcome might not be good. Things might even get worse.

“I don’t need your help! Just leave me alone!”

“How can anyone turn their back on someone in pain?”

But if he didn’t even try, nothing would ever change.

***

Immun was weak.

By nature, he never made weapons, and he had relied on the Geneva Gear for even the bare minimum of defense.

Physical ability?

Expecting physical strength from a researcher was absurd to begin with.

“Gah!”

Immun rolled across the ground in a pitiful heap, gasping for breath.

It hurt like hell. But if he didn’t push himself like this, he would die.

Bang!

The moment he pulled the trigger wasn’t to attack.

It was just a way to make her hesitate, even for a moment.

And what about Agnes?

“Diiiiieeee!!”

Even in her frenzied state, she overwhelmed Immun with ease.

Clutching the wound she’d taken from Deus’s ambush, she unleashed a storm of weapons around her.

Booom! Boooom! Craaaaaaash!!

Bombs and missiles devastated the area, and her Planetary Gear emitted heat rays that disintegrated everything they touched.

With no clear aim, she sprayed her attacks indiscriminately in every direction. Immun had been bloodied long ago.

I’m not even fighting her.

Immun thought as he crawled along the ground. He wasn’t even a match for Agnes. Even if he turned tail and ran right now, she wouldn’t bother chasing him.

She’s not fighting someone like me.

She was afraid.

She was fighting against her fear itself.

Pushing everything away in the process.

So if he just ran away now, he might survive.

But then… who would save her?

He had the means to save Agnes.

But… did Agnes?

Did she even have that chance?

Would someone like her, in a state of panic and unable to properly see her surroundings, even have a way to heal her wounds?

No. She didn’t.

“Haaah…!”

Immun took another breath.

Every time he pulled the trigger, Agnes’s attacks faltered.

Because the moment she felt under attack, she flinched and narrowed her strike zone to the space immediately around her.

He managed to seize the moment…just barely.

But Immun couldn’t ignore the fact that he was running out of bullets.

“Hmm.”

He glanced down to check how many rounds were left in the magazine.

Three remaining.

He had to take her down with those.

“Dizzy…”

He was already out of breath from all the running, and now the heat rising from the ground made it worse.

His head spun, clouding his judgment.

So he focused on a single goal that burned in his mind.

“Hup!”

Heal Agnes.

That thought alone drove Immun as he began to calculate his next move and charged forward.

Until now, he had only circled around, avoiding her attacks. But now, he started to close the distance.

And that movement became a clear threat in Agnes’s eyes.

The deadly weapons she’d been firing indiscriminately around her gradually began to aim directly at Immun.

“I’ll give up an arm if I must.”

But Immun had already done the math. Agnes’s weapons were all overwhelmingly powerful by nature.

And because of that, there weren’t many she could use at close range.

That meant the only options were things like the Planetary Gear that disassembled anything it touched, or bombs that could obliterate a small area with certainty.

He couldn’t dodge them all. He had to accept that some would hit.

Prepared for that, Immun ran.

But…

“Gah!”

As always, Immun had overestimated himself.

Resolve alone wasn’t enough.

Not when he didn’t have the ability to follow through.

Immun had reached a conclusion no different from simply throwing himself into a death trap.

He hadn’t even managed to close the distance.

Compared to where he’d started, he’d moved barely ten steps.

And the result?

Immun had lost an arm to the Planetary Gear’s beam.

An explosion had blinded one of his eyes, and a constant ringing echoed in his ears.

“Ugh…”

He tried to lift himself up, only to collapse back to the ground again and again.

If he stayed here, another barrage would rain down on this very spot.

There was no time.

Agnes’s attacks might have been indiscriminate, but they blanketed the entire surrounding area.

“How foolish…”

Supporting himself with one arm on the scorched earth, Immun reflected.

He had been foolish. Lacked the strength.

A perfect resolution like the ones his beloved heroes pulled off….it was impossible.

Yes, he had to admit it.

He had to accept this failure and make up for it.

“I must apologize in advance for using a somewhat rough method.”

Tossing aside his cumbersome coat, something tumbled out of its pockets and began to roll across the ground.

One by one, objects scattered. They rolled into cracks in the broken earth.

Immun looked down at them with a bitter expression and muttered,

“…I learned something recently from a young friend of mine.”

The Philosopher’s Stones began to seep into the lava, altering its composition.

And that rapid transformation—

“Sometimes flipping the board entirely is the best move.”

Rumbleeeeeeee!

Triggered a full-scale eruption of the volcanic zone.