IN A DIFFERENT WORLD WITH A SMARTPHONE

Arc 27: The Reverse World

「How about it?」

「Their life wavelengths have stopped. It seems they’ve lost」

「Dang. As I feared, it was probably the same guy who took down Gira」

The gap of space and time. The two are standing in a space of nothingness that ’s isolated from the world.

One is a boy. The other is a girl. Though they look quite alike, there are a little different from a normal older sister and younger brother. If put into words, they are clones, fragments of yet another self.

Among the ruler-classes, they’re unusual twins with one heart.

The ruler-classes are born in a state of a core. After spending a long time repeating a cycle of crystal evolution, they awaken as an individual. Therefore, childhood is unknown to them. Once they awaken, they become an individual with a single personality.

It’s unusual for a ruler-class to be born with two cores. Normally, they continue crystal evaluation to get a second core and awaken as a person with two cores.

Splitting into two bodies during such growth and obtaining a separate personality is an extremely rare occurrence.

The two have crystallized hair covering half of their faces. The girl’s hiding her right side, while the body’s hiding his left side. The eye that’s not concealed is of golden color.

The other facial parts are similar as well. In terms of their bodies, the girl is expected to have some roundness to her body, and as such her chest is swelling out as well.

「When the barrier rips next time, shall we go out an’ play, Leto?」

「We can’t, Luto. It isn’t our turn yet. Furthermore, Yura will be noisy if we do as we please, got it?」

The ruler-class girl rejected the idea of her younger brother (Because each one insists on being the older one, it’s just how she views him though).

The girl’s name is Leto. The boy’s name is Luto. Though both of them are the ruler-class, they are clearly different from other ruler-classes.

Parts of their crystallized bodies are dark gold. This is a proof that they’ve evolved one stage higher from the creatures known as ruler-classes.

「Good grief... How long do we have to stay here like this?」

Luto turns towards a huge egg-formed cocoon floating in the dark background. Occasionally, a high-pitched like resonance comes from the cocoon, much like a heartbeat.

Suddenly, the two felt a little fluctuation of space.

「Oh? What an unusual guest」

Leto calls out to the darkness of a different dimension, to which one ruler-class appears.

A crystallized long hair with deep crimson pair of eyes, this is the tall ruler-class female Nei.

She is the existence that should be said to hold the top position of “Restoration faction”, the group of Frazes which tries to recover their “King”.

Red eyes oozed with anger, she is staring at the core twins while floating a faint smile.

「You bastards... You did a selfish thing again, didn’t you? Why did you send “Gold” to that place?!」

「Oh my, was there a need to give you guys any notice? I believe we’ve already parted ways, haven’t we?」

Leto giggles as if she’s making fool of Nei. Luto next to her also has a smirk on his face.

「Unlike you, we no longer care about something like the core of “King” anymore. We can get strong even without obtaining it」

「I already told you that my purpose wasn’t the power of “king”!」

「Then why don’t you serve the new “King” and continue crossing over the worlds, I wonder? Even if they are absolutely weak, “King” is still a “King”. You could’ve even supported them if you stayed in the crystal world」

「That’s ...!」

Nia is at loss of words. For her there’s no “King” other than “Her”. Acknowledging a new “King” meant throwing “her” away. That was the only thing she was unable to do.

Therefore she rode on Yura’s words and crossed the worlds the method that he devised. They couldn’t cross the worlds without using the power of several ruler-classes, therefore both of them decided not to interfere with each other.

She already noticed that his and Gira’s aim was the “King’s” core, but she couldn’t chase after the “King” without borrowing their power. She gnashed her teeth at this dilemma many times already.

The one was trying to call “King” back home, and the other was trying to become “King”. In any case, it’s clear as day that they would part ways once the “King’s” core was found.

However, Yura headed toward an incomprehensible direction all of sudden. He obtained a mysterious power somewhere and started creating new Frazes. Those things could not be called her brethren anymore.

It seemed Yura’s goal had shifted away from their “King”. That’s was something she should’ve been happy about, but she couldn’t afford to silently overlook the situation where the species called Fraze were being eroded.

「Well, whatever you want to do with the “King” doesn’t matter to us anymore. Yura doesn’t seem to be interested in it as well. Well, I wonder if the egg will hatch faster if we feed it with the core of “King”?」

「You bastards!」

Nei’s hand extended toward the cackling Luto, which Leto then tightly grasped.

「I was fed up with your “King” supremacy doctrine since long time ago, you know. Say, we are no longer comrades, so there is no need to hold back, right? ... Perhaps it is fine for us to eat you?」

Leto started eroding Nei’s left in her grasp. Nei’s wrist already began fusing with Leto’s hand, and the sensations of it started to disappear as well, she was already unable to move her hand from the wrist up to her fingertips.

A dark, golden radiance was crawling up Nei’s arm. Immediately using her right hand as a sword, she cut off her left hand from the elbow.

With the backward jump, Nei took some distance from the two.

「Oh my, I missed my chance to eat her」

While continuing to fuse with the cut left hand, Leto waved it around. Gradually, Nei’s left hand was being absorbed in Leto’s body as if melting into it.

「Damn...」

Nei has already managed to regenerate her left hand and then hoped towards the dimensional darkness.

This’s the power of “Erosion” that Yura granted to the twins. It’s a dreadful, unusual ability which allows to capture Fraze and consume their power. It’s likely that the applicable targets aren’t limited by advanced-classes, the ruler-classes can be targets as well. If one’s being eroded, there’s no other way than decapitate the corroded part before the “core” is eaten.

Nei was terrified of the thought that the erosion could be near her “core” and not in her hand like just now.

When Luto tried to give chase after Nei who disappeared in the darkness, Leto stopped him.

「Leave her alone. There is absolutely nothing she can do. We should just keep watch after “it” here as we were told」

「Dammit. Aaah. I am bored here, you know. I wonder if the guy who came the other day would come again?」

Luto said so and rolled over while lying down.

「By “that guy”, do you mean Endemuon?」

「Yeah. Didn’t we kill quite a lot of time with him? Well, he was severely beaten in the end so I am not sure whether he is still alive or not」

Floating a broad smile, Luto mutters so. Even though he said “not sure”, Leto was “convinced” that Luto was “convinced” that that half-dead man was still alive. Secrets were meaningless between those twins.

Though they enjoyed Nei’s appearance a little bit, that was the end of it. The boring time will still continue for a while.

The two spent their time talking about mixing in the “golden ones” next time the Frazes find the rip in the world barrier and try to come to the “other” side.

==================================================================

「Ummm... This might be a little bad ~nou...」

The world of gods. In the usual 4.5 mats room, the world god groans as he stares at the image reflected in the four-legged TV in front of him.

「I’ve told you about this already. Isn’t it already unreasonable? You should give up quickly, or it may end up influencing yet another world. Myself would just give it one heavy hit and end it right there, wouldn’t you agree?」

Putting his elbow on the low dining table behind the world god is a man munching a rice cracker.

Though he appears to be sixty years old, his tempered body is swollen with steel-like muscles. That man with black pupils, black hair and unshaved face, is now sipping on the tea in his teacup and munches on another cracker.

「What your 『End it』 means is that this world will 『Come to end』, isn’t it?」

「Of course it is. That’s is the job for myself, the god of destruction」

The destruction god opens his mouth without feeling timid.

There are various worlds which are managed by various gods. Although it’s rare, some worlds among them come off from their guardianship. It’s then the duty of the destruction god to eliminate such worlds.

Exercising the power of God in the worlds are generally not done that often. As an exception, it might be done by gods’ dependents or some fledgling god without much power, but the destruction god is a special existence, and he uses his godly powers to annihilate worlds.

However, unless it’s something serious, the worlds don’t leave the protection of the gods. Thus, the god of destruction rarely exercises his power.

The fact that this god was visiting the world god meant “Something serious” did happen.

「If it continues like this, the worst scenario is that world will become unreachable for you. I don’t really mind that, but there shouldn’t be that many troubles if I terminate it before that happens, right?」

「I understand that, but... I left this for Touya-kun, umm... look, that one」

「Touya? Aah, the one Jii-san said to be his dependant, that newcomer god. Are you entrusting it to that guy? Isn’t it too much?」

The destruction god frowns. No one knows what might happen in an unstable world. He believes that it might be a little harsh to leave such a world to a fledgling god. Much less to a god without any title, or an apprentice god.

「It should probably be fine. If everything goes well, I think there won’t be a need for you to crush it, even if it does leave my protection」

「It seems you value him a lot. Well, I don’t mind it if you say so. However, will they really be fine? Those two (・・) worlds」

The destruction god looks over the world god’s shoulder at the TV. Two worlds are lined up there like a mirror match, but one could see the part which isolates their centers is distorted.

「An evil god was born, right?」

「It did, by consuming a subordinate god. It is an unusual case, nothing like that ever happened before」

「『A god eater』, huh?」

The destruction god crushed the rice cracker with his teeth.

「Usually, this is where we send a sacred treasure or dispatch an angel to the ground, but since it’s here where I sent Touya-Kun by a chance, I decided to entrust it to him」

“Heave-ho” the world god sits down on the cushion.

「Considering all that, it looks like the overseers have descended without giving it much thought」

「It’ also their first vacation in tens of thousands of years. I also went down, and it was quite enjoyable, you know?」

「What’s that? it looks like you had fun. Shall I also go down then?」

「Stop it. The world will be destroyed if you descend into the world」

The metaphor was not trifling, it was a fact. Therefore, the world god intervened to stop the suggestion of the destruction god.

「So, is that it? If this problem is settled without a problem, do you intend on leaving that world to this new face called Touya-kun or something?」

「Little by little, I guess. Of course, I will give up if the person himself refuses. He is still too much unreliable as a god, but then...he will get the knack of it once he trains for two-three thousands years」

「It would be good if he does before I will have to break it though」

The distortion between the two worlds is bringing about strange changes. Whether it was planned and done intentionally or the gods or not, once the destruction god believes that annihilating everything in one swoop and making a reset is the best solution.

「Let’s wait with the destruction for the time being. I believe it would be better to isolate those worlds for now and explain everything to this Touya」

「That’s right....... I will talk to him about it when I see him next time. I would like to see the changes for a little more. Perhaps the distortion would settle without any incident」

「I wonder about that」

Both of them know the possibility of that is considerably low. The destruction god thinks it would be fine to reset the worlds after breaking them down if things go south, so he doesn’t particularly object to the plan.

If you think about it very carefully, there are six gods down there, even if they underwent humanification. In addition, there is an apprentice god. If they gather together, they might be able to do something.

It’s often the case where a god defeat an evil god, an evil dragon or magic beast after they undergo the process of turning into a human.

「However, how many tens of thousands of years have it been since a human became a god?」

「Let’s se-e-e, I don’t remember. The chance to become a god and the like is so multifarious, people are so different even among themselves after all」

「Though I think it is unusual to become a god by a so-called a mistake of the god of the worlds」

「You are noisy」

The world god looked sullen at the evil smile of the destruction god.

He believed it himself that it was an unusual mistake to make. However, since it happened, he believed that might have been just one more destiny. For the world god, Mochizuki Touya was like a grandchild which he was happy to encounter.

「By the way, I didn’t see the god of martial arts recently, where is that fellow?」

「Aah, they said something about finding a worthy disciple......」

The two gods started a small talk across the low dining table. In the TV screen behind them, a distortion was slowly coiling into a whirlpool, as if something was coming out at the centers of the two worlds...

TL: Airsblue

TLC: greujnik

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(TLC: I will be posting a link to the drive with all previous chapters (in various states of readibility) in our discord server in the near future, so if you still need them, come to the server and wait for the announcement).