In the unremarkable city of Guanbuzi, there is a very special building called "Ogawa Apartment".
The reason why it is special is not because it is a rare high-end apartment in the Chimihama apartment area, nor because it was jointly built by three companies, but because of its unique design.
Let’s first take a look at the two designers of the apartment: Araya Soren and Aozaki Touko.
There is no need to say more, these two names alone are enough to explain the problem.
This apartment is actually made up of two adjacent apartments, two fairly neat half-moon-shaped ten-story buildings, built facing each other. If you take a helicopter to look down from above, you will be surprised to find that the entire apartment is a standard circle, completely different from the surrounding, featureless traditional square buildings.
The walls inside the apartment are uniformly painted in cream color, extremely clean. There are strange shapes everywhere on the walls, and looking at them for a long time will make you feel dizzy and stuffy. The lobby is the only space that connects the two buildings. If you are above the second floor, you cannot go directly from the east building to the west building. You must first return to the central space and then go through the lobby.
Although it is divided into two independent apartments, the structure of the east and west buildings is exactly the same. However, due to the nature of Ogawa Apartment itself, even the residents of the apartment rarely know the fact that the two sides are completely symmetrical.
Let’s extract a few key words.
Perfect circle.
Split in two from the center.
The two sides are independent of each other.
There are also the words used to write these keywords.
Do you think of any ancient pattern that is familiar to everyone who can write this kind of language
That’s right, if you twist the lines slightly, it will become the Tai Chi diagram known as the “No. 1 Diagram in China”.
The Taiji diagram illustrates the most basic principle of Taoism: the Taiji diagram gives rise to two yin and yang, one yin and one yang. In the Western magic world, this is called the "contradiction spiral".
This is exactly the secret of the Ogawa Apartment. Araya Soren used the entire apartment as a base to build an alien world, a man-made barrier.
The families who move into Ogawa Apartment are all people who have already collapsed. People who are already on the path to collapse will undoubtedly reach the end of their lives - death. This is an ascetic journey that should have taken decades to reach the end, but due to the special environment such as the unchanging scenery around the apartment and the strange patterns that oppress the retina, the collapse is accelerated and the end is reached within a month.
These lost lives were gathered by Araya Soren in the west building of the apartment.
The brains of these lives were taken out by Araya, who used them to imitate the deceased lives to create corresponding dolls, letting them live in the East Building, repeating the last day of the end every day.
The east building represents life and yang, while the west building represents death and yin. They are symmetrical to each other and together form the two adjacent symbols of life and death, forming a spiral of contradiction.
This is a simple experiment. Araya Soren wants to try whether humans can experience a death different from the end.
Everyone will die, but that is just the death that everyone is destined to die.
There is only one final death for a person. A person who dies in a fire is only killed in a fire, and a person who is killed by his family is only killed by his family. The first escape from the dilemma of death is only a way to welcome the second and third deaths. This limited way of death is called life span.
Even though the way a person dies is predetermined, if the same ending is repeated thousands of times, the spiral will have errors. Even if the error is a very small accident, it doesn't matter, and the misfortune of being run over by a car during work is also good - despite this, the result is still the same. Two hundred uninterrupted repetitions only made Araya Soren realize the fact that people's fate cannot be changed.
This is a world that ends in one day, named "Sixty-fourth Floor of the Offering Hall". Although it is not an inherent barrier, it is also the embodiment of Araya Soren's mind image landscape. It is the incarnation of Araya, and also represents Araya's consciousness and pursuit - his purpose has always been to record the death of mankind, and reaching the root is only a means.
The building itself is a spell, an altar designed to make Araya Sōren's consciousness more solid.
The high level of magic power, coupled with the power of the land itself and the lives sacrificed within the barrier, made "Ogawa Apartment" surpass the level of a magic studio and become a "temple" above that.
In the temple, the master of the temple can exercise mysteries beyond magic and wield powers beyond the reach of humans. That is the realm of "magic".
If the studio is the magician's home, then the temple can be said to be an extension of the magician's body, a place where the impossible becomes possible.
The name of Araya Souren's temple is "Sixty-fourth Floor of the Offering Hall". Here, he is sure to realize his long-cherished wish; here, he is confident that he can repel all invading enemies.
Now, the two physical forms necessary for his long-cherished wish have been lured by the chess pieces he sent out, stepped into the "Sixty-fourth Floor of the Offering Hall" and came before him.
She stared at the tall man who appeared within five meters of her silently, with surprise in her demonic eyes that could see the death of all things. Everyone who had ever lived had a thread of death without exception. However, for this man, that thread was extremely weak.
What surprised Shi even more was that this man gave her a very familiar feeling.
"I, remember you."
"Yes. It's been two years since we met like this."
Araya Soren's voice was very heavy, as if pinching the brain of the person who heard it.
He slowly reached out and touched his temples. On the side of his head, from the forehead to the left, there was a straight scar. It was a deep scar carved by Ryougi Shiki himself the last night before he fell into a coma.
As early as that time, he had already set his sights on Ryougi Shiki. Everything he did was for today, in order to obtain Ryougi Shiki's body that was connected to the "root".
"You are—" He was as if facing a formidable enemy.
"Araya Souren. The one who killed Shiki."
Without even moving an eyebrow, Araya Soren asserted.
◇◇◇
The bright moonlight illuminated the spiral tower. In this world shrouded in darkness, a red Honda sedan stopped in front of the main entrance of the apartment.
A young woman with long orange hair got out of the car. The leather coat she was wearing, which looked like lizard skin and was dyed brown, was not suitable for her slender figure. The coat did not look like clothing, but rather exuded a sense of armor.
She looked up at the apartment, then picked up the orange suitcase with one hand, walked through the atrium covered with green fur, and entered the apartment.
The glass-covered lobby was stained with a cool moonlight by the bright moon. Whether it was the floor, the walls, or the elevator pillars used to go upstairs, they all exuded a hazy glow. After a little consideration, she turned around and decided to change her destination. Her destination was not the elevator, but the lobby that continued to go east.
At this moment, a rather sharp voice, quite masculine, rang out in the hall.
"Hey, Aozaki! Long time no see, are you feeling well?"
Aozaki Touko raised her eyes. In the middle of the staircase leading to the second floor, there stood a man in a red coat and a red hat. He was in his early twenties, with dark blond hair and blue eyes, and his face looked as if it had been carved with a knife or an axe.
"It's you, Cornelius Aruba." Orange's face showed undisguised disgust as she cast a cold look at the man.
"Don't make that expression. I came here specially to see you." Aruba spread his hands exaggeratedly and gave a kind smile.
"I don't have time to talk nonsense with you!" Orange's expression was completely opposite to Aruba's, so cold that water could drip out of it.
"I'm surprised you're so impatient. But this is also a happy thing. Welcome to my hell, the strongest puppeteer."
The magician Cornelius Aruba smiled happily and bowed deeply with exaggerated movements like in a play.
"Your hell? You can't possibly come up with an idea to materialize the Tai Chi diagram."
Orange impatiently put the suitcase on the ground with a bang.
"Okay, call Araya out, I'm not here to see you today."
After saying that, Orange began to pay attention to his surroundings, completely ignoring the Red Magician who he should pay attention to, and began to look for the non-existent opponent.
The magician just looked at her like that, with murderous eyes that looked like he was about to cry.
"You're always like this!"
It was as if I couldn't help but say this.
"Yes, you always do this, always underestimate me. It's me, I was the first one, I was the first one, whether it's studying runes or the reputation of puppeteer. Even so, your attitude deceived those morons. Your attitude of belittling me made those guys think that my ability is inferior. Think about it carefully and you will understand! I am the next abbot of Schopenheim Abbey! I have been studying magic for more than 40 years, why should I be ranked behind a girl in her twenties...!"
When did his words become so passionate that they echoed throughout the entire hall? Facing this opponent who had abandoned his usual friendly attitude and started to spread curses, Orange just looked at him with a dull look.
"Knowledge has nothing to do with age, Cornelius. Although you look young, you always focus on your appearance, so your inner qualities cannot catch up."
Although it was a calm remark, there is no more provocative insult than this. After hearing this, the handsome face of the young man in his fifties twisted with disgust.
"—I haven't told you what my purpose is yet."
Trying to calm himself down, the red magician changed his words.
"I don't care about Araya's experiment, and I have no interest in the Root Vortex. It's meaningless to pursue something that we don't know whether it exists or not. If you want to touch the realm of God, you only need to pursue the truth. There is no need to trace the origin."
Aruba took a step back and walked slowly up, intending to climb to the second floor.
"I came to this remote place just to kill you, Aozaki!"
The magician ran up the stairs quickly, laughing loudly as if his throat was broken.
"Oh, you are here to find the 'Liang Yi' in this 'Tai Chi', right? Unfortunately, you are a step too late. The girl has already reached Araya. Is she struggling to death? Or has she been captured by Araya? Anyway, it has nothing to do with me or you, because you are going to die soon."
The lobby on the first floor was completely filled with manifestations of the magician's malice.
Some are humanoid, some are beastoid, and although the scars and warts on the surface begin to dissolve, their appearance immediately reshapes, and there is nothing more real than that. Metaphorically speaking, it is like a human or beast that is always decaying, something that is both ugly and exquisite.
"Are these slimes?" Orange described the surrounding aliens with an unprecedented insult and disgust. "These are the only things that can be manifested here. Aruba, you should really switch from being a magician to being a film director. With you here, we can save a lot of money on monster props. However, you can probably only specialize in some small-scale horror works, right? What do you think? Compared to the dean, this profession is more suitable for you!"
She complained as she was surrounded by monsters that filled the hall.
Indeed, this situation was very similar to a horror movie. The only difference was that a cross or a shotgun would be ineffective against these things. Even though she was surrounded to a distance of only about two meters, she still reached into her chest pocket without moving her eyebrows and pulled out a shrunken red paper box.
"There's only one left. I should ask Shinji to restock it for me."
She lit the cigarette skillfully, and the smell of nicotine made Orange feel a little better. As the strongest puppeteer, she is an artist. She will admire interesting things, but feel uncomfortable when she sees boring things, and has to smoke to relieve it. The alien that Aruba manifested is such a boring thing.
"No, it seems that you can't be the supervisor anymore. The performance is really bad. This level can't entertain the current guests. There is no way. Speaking of weirdness, at least this level should be maintained."
As he spoke, Orange kicked the suitcase at his feet away.
"Come out!" It was a majestic order that allowed no refusal.
In response, the suitcase opened with a click.
There was nothing inside the opened box.
At the same time, a black object surrounded the magician named Aozaki Touko.
The black object was a typhoon with a body, and it was spinning at high speed with the orange as its eye. In a few seconds, the hall was empty due to its crazy momentum.
The monsters that kept overflowing from the hall disappeared without a trace.
The only things that still existed were Aozaki Touko, the closed bag, and the cat sitting in front of him.
"What!" Aruba never dreamed that it would be such a scene.
The cat is bigger than an orange. Its body is completely black and has no so-called thickness. It is a flat black cat made up of shadows.
No, it was impossible to tell if it was a cat. It looked like the shadow of a cat, but the head had eyes that looked like Egyptian hieroglyphs.
"What is that!" Aruba looked down at the cat from the second floor.
When you look into the cat's painted eyes, the cat begins to smile, erasing the mouth part of its face to express its smile.
"Am I watching a nightmare?" Aruba couldn't help but swallow.
Orange said nothing. There was only a chirping sound coming from somewhere.
"That's different from what I heard! Could it be that the rumor that your familiar was defeated by your sister is false?"
Perhaps unable to endure the silence, Aruba began to shout.
She simply replied, "Who knows?" and turned her attention to the black cat.
"I'm sorry for making you eat something unpalatable, but it will be much better next time. What you eat next is not energy blocks, but real human flesh, and the storage capacity of spiritual energy is also sufficient. Because he is my classmate, you don't have to worry. I have taught you well before, you can eat any enemy."
As soon as she finished speaking, the black cat rushed out. It seemed to be gliding on the marble floor, running across the hall to the stairs... Even so, the cat's feet did not move, and it remained sitting in the shadow, only its eyes rushed towards the red magician.
It took less than ten seconds to get from the first-floor lobby where Orange was to the second-floor platform where Aruba was. However, Aruba, who reacted in time, was no ordinary person. He was a magician after all.
"Go away the shadow. It is impossible to touch the thing whiot visible. Fet the dark is impossible to see the thing whiot touched. The question is prohidited. The answer is simple. I have the flame i hand. Ahi hand—"
Vanish, phantom, I will make the visible invisible; forget, darkness, the invisible will be untouchable; there is no question, the answer is obvious; in my left hand I hold the light, in my right hand I hold the truth.
Aruba calmed down and chanted the spell at a speed close to his limit.
For magic, spells are nothing more than self-suggestions given to individuals. The magic of the wind is the same as a weapon. The power of the performance is determined from the beginning. No matter which magician uses it, the effectiveness will not change. However, chanting can make it different. Chanting spells is to discover the magic engraved in one's body. That content can deeply express the nature of the magician. In addition to containing fixed keywords necessary to discover the magic, the details of the chanting are also based on the preferences of each magician. Magicians who like to exaggerate, be pretentious, and easily indulge themselves often chant very long. However, it is also true that the power will increase as the chanting increases. The stronger the suggestion given to oneself, the ability guided from oneself can also be improved.
In this respect, Aruba's chant was excellent, not exaggerated nor too long, using minimal rhyme and words that made her spirits rise, and the pronunciation of the chant took less than two seconds. This fact made Orange sigh in admiration.
Although the young man named Aruba likes to chant longer than necessary and uses a lot of useless text, it seems that he has indeed grown a lot in the past few years.
The combination and speed of the spell chanting, the circuit connection that makes the material world move, are surprisingly skillful. If his chanting is simply viewed from the perspective of magic that destroys objects, it is definitely a first-class technique.
"I aherefore, you will be defeated securely!"
I am the truth of all things, and before me, you will eventually destroy yourself!
Aruba stretched out one hand. When the black cat reached the first step of the stairs, the atmosphere shook slightly—and the stairs immediately caught fire.
Like a mirage rising from the ground, the blue sea of fire engulfed the stairs. In just a few seconds, the flames appeared from the stairs, penetrated the floor of the second floor, and disappeared into the ceiling. It was like a geyser in a volcanic area.
In just a moment, the sea of fire that took away the oxygen in the hall burned the black cat out of this world. This was natural.
The magical flames that were over a thousand degrees Celsius could transform any animal from solid to gas like butter. The process of turning into liquid took less than a thousandth of a second.
But Aruba saw it. He saw the strange black cat that unexpectedly appeared after the flames burned out.
"impossible!!!"
The emerald eyes stared at the stairs.
The black cat licked its own lightened black body with pity, and suddenly turned its gaze to the red magician. The strange black object scurried away again.
Aruba didn't even have the time to see through the black cat's true form.
"Repeat...!" Aruba repeated his magic tricks with a sharp voice. "Repeat" means "repeat", and repeating the magic tricks used last time with this word is the pinnacle of Aruba's chanting skills. It is with this skill that he became a first-class magician.
The staircase caught fire again, but this time the black cat did not stop. Perhaps it was used to the flames, and it rushed straight towards the magician.
"Repeat!" The sea of fire sprayed up again, and then disappeared. The black cat climbed up the stairs.
"Repeat!" The fourth flame also ended in failure.
When the black cat reached the second floor, it immediately approached Aruba and opened its mouth. The cat's body, which was as big as a human, opened widely from the soles of its feet. If a hinge was added to the top of its head, it would look like an open treasure chest.
There was no thickness, probably because the alien debris that had just been swallowed by the flat black cat stuck to it like a mud class. Aruba finally realized that it only looked like a cat, but was actually a creature with only a mouth.
"Repeat—" The terror before death made him repeat the last spell.
But before that, the black cat's body, like the jaws of a shark, clamped down on the magician, swallowing up everything from his red coat.
"If you don't get in my way, you can live two more days - but you will still be killed by me in the end because you have touched a taboo that should not be touched."
Those were the last words Aruba heard before he lost consciousness.