A devil who showed great power.
As soon as Alice became minced meat, I instinctively knew I had to run.
If that huge palm struck down, everyone would die.
The hand popped down from the ceiling when Alice sarcastically joked if she believed in God.
It was as if it was a divine punishment.
A trap whose trigger is being ridiculed?
’Or did God really punish the devil...? No, what am I saying? There’s no way a mechanical arm could be God.’
When the monsters started attacking us, I thought the Institution was trying to use us as human sacrifices.
Because there actually was a case like that.
But when Alice showed her strength, I had hope.
It’s so reassuring to have a devil as an ally instead of an enemy.
I thought that the Institution wasn’t just trying to kill us.
But I changed my mind again.
We might be fucking living sacrifices.
"Mason! Where should we go? The path is split!"
Flavin asks me.
I found another sign in front of the path we passed and told Erta.
"There is a sign. Read the sign!"
"If you believe that God exists, go right. If you don’t believe it, go straight!"
I had to think for a moment.
That sign probably wants us to believe in God.
I knew the intention.
But which way should we choose?
If the giant mechanical arm just now calls itself God, would it be right to please him?
Or should we, as investigators, not be deceived by what might be a trap?
The decision took less than 3 seconds.
Because a giant mechanical arm slammed into the ground behind us.
"...Go straight!"
We went straight.
Then monsters came out of the ground making a hissing sound.
Andrew swatted them away with his body and we fired to keep them in check.
After somehow breaking through and moving forward, there was another sign and a fork in the path.
"Not again!"
"Do you believe in fate? If you believe in it, then go left. If you don’t, then go right!"
This is similar to the previous sign.
The meaning is also similar. I glanced back and said.
"That mechanical arm is slower than I thought. Erta, what do you think?"
"I- I..."
As Erta hesitated, Flavin shouted as if we were running out of time.
"What are you asking? There is no such thing as fate, right?! Even if I’m destined to die, I have no intention of wasting time here!"
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"All right. Let’s go with disagree!"
We ran to the right.
The path was blocked by tangled threads.
Andrew shouted, asking what kind of bullshit joke this was.
However, as he was a cyborg, he took out a sharp weapon from his arm and slashed it.
"It’s fucking tough!"
Then Flavin exclaims.
"Monsters are coming from behind!"
We fired bullets at the chasing monsters while Andrew cut off the threads.
"Not there yet?!"
"I’m cutting quickly, but the thread is too tough!"
"I- I’ll do it. Everyone, cover your eyes and nose!"
Erta removed the special cloth that had been wrapped around her body.
Then her corrosive miasma caused the thin threads to become even thinner and melt.
"That’s it! Just close your eyes and run!"
The tension continued.
In the meantime, this thought occurred to me.
Does this maze have an end?
If the purpose of that mechanical arm is to make us believe in God, wouldn’t it keep us trapped in this maze until we die or believe in it?
I don’t know what the other team members will think.
I asked Flavin, who was as reasonable as she was greedy.
"Flavin. The purpose of that mechanical arm may be to make us believe in God."
"God? Who? The Lord?"
"I don’t know. Maybe that mechanical arm bastard wants to be worshiped as God."
"..."
Flavin rolled her eyes. No, it’s more like she was calculating.
She’d probably be tempted to make a deal with that mechanical arm to survive.
While running, a new sign appears.
"Humans are not perfect, so ultimately they cannot reach a happy ending. Do you agree with this?"
"What on earth does this bastard want? Mason. Are we going to run into disagreement again?"
"..."
Instead of answering, I looked at Flavin.
Because I wanted to hear her opinion.
Flavin knew what I meant and made a suggestion.
"No. Let’s try curry favor."
"What?"
"What if it keeps doing the maze until we agree? Let’s agree!"
Andrew said it couldn’t hurt to try, but he didn’t bet on it.
I agreed with that opinion and told the team.
"Okay. Let’s run on the agree path."
As soon as we took a step into the path, I felt a sensation of floating.
More like the sensation of an elevator going down... Yeah. We’re downstairs...
[Basement Floor 4 - Opportunity]
"...This."
The place we fell into was pure white.
A place that would not be good for the mind to constantly hear the sound of tiny cogs.
I looked around and noticed someone walking this way.
It didn’t look familiar.
"Ah, you have arrived. The fact that you are here means there is a possibility that our interests align."
The human is dressed in a white robe with gears covering his body.
I couldn’t see his expression because his face was covered, but it seemed like he was smiling based on the tone of his voice.
"Brother. I’m in a very bad mood, so I’m going to ask you this very question: Who are you?"
Andrew asked menacingly, a little unnerved by the unfamiliar surroundings.
"I am the high priest here. I have no name."
"And what is this factory?"
"Hmm... It looks like a factory, but this is a stage. A stage for everyone in the Institution who is watching this in real time."
Flavin frowned at him, as if she didn’t like that answer.
"You seem to want to show us something, but we need to get out of here. Can you show us the exit door? We don’t want to see anything."
"Oh, I can, of course. If you swear to believe in our God."
So the purpose of this factory was to make us believe in God, after all.
While I was thinking to myself, Flavin was about to shout in anger but quickly calmed down and, with the face of a low-ranking civil servant trying to suppress her frustration, spoke.
"Haa, this kind of thing... Umm... Yes, I will. I will serve your machine God, so will you let me go now?"
"I see. Then."
"What are you doing?"
The priest said nothing.
Just when we were about to question his attitude. Suddenly, Flavin screamed.
"Ahh! It’s loud!"
"Flavin, what’s going on?!"
Flavin covered her ears.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!"
"...!"
I approached Flavin to check on her condition.
I realized that there was a strange sound coming from her head.
Just as when you turn up the volume on a jukebox so loud that you can feel the vibrations in the air, Flavin must have been hearing something loud in her head too.
"Aaaaaaaaaah!"
Pop!
Flavin’s skull flew through the air and hit the floor.
Several cogs were stuck in her mangled brain.
Andrew was confused by a mixture of horror and anger.
At this moment, a crudely modulated voice was heard from the ceiling.
[Those who place their faith on a scale, those irreverent ones attempting to bargain with God, shall receive light punishment from the merciful gears.]
"...Fuck."
Even in this situation, I didn’t have the mental strength to pay attention to Andrew’s swearing.
"Well. That’s it. She should have believed more sincerely."
"You son of a bitch!"
When I pointed the gun at the priest, I felt the sensation of falling down again.
[Basement Floor 5 - Twisted Thread]
"We teleported."
This time it was a dark place. However, the light coming from the floor was enough for us to see each other.
"...I don’t think there are any enemies."
As I said those words, I looked down, where light was coming out.
The floor was transparent, so the room below was clearly visible.
"What is that?"
"Probably the sixth floor. It’s full of monsters."
Monsters that were a combination of machines and people were running around screaming.
Among them, I saw one familiar figure.
"It’s Flavin."
Flavin crawled around with her skull missing. I don’t know if she was dead or alive, but since she was screaming, it seemed like she was alive.
...It was better to die.
"Damn it! Honestly, I knew it would be like this! The monsters wear the same battle uniform! How many teams have they sent before us?!"
Andrew started to get angry.
When everyone was dispatched here, we came with our own determination.
But when we actually experienced it, it was too much.
If things continue like this, we will end up like that.
Since we didn’t know what to do in a place full of traps, which could not even be called an expedition, we had nothing to express but despair and anger.
I understood Andrew’s feelings.
"...Why did the higher-ups send us here? We’re just a little unique. How are we going to defeat this monster and that giant mechanical arm...!"
Erta also began to pour out negative emotions. And I also felt those feelings growing stronger.
It was a strange sensation.
Sensing the discord, I deliberately spoke coldly to avoid us being swept away by emotions.
"...I’m just fulfilling my duty."
"What did you say?!"
It was a mistake, and Andrew grabbed me by the collar.
I thought I understood Andrew’s feelings, but he was unusually and excessively agitated.
"Wa- wait a moment. I know I said something depressing, but I wasn’t trying to start a fight."
Just as emotions were escalating, as if it were tangled threads, and I felt an increasing urge to shoot Andrew, Erta stepped in to stop us, alarmed.
"...Alright. Let’s cool down a bit. Phew... So why are we here anyway? What can we do in a place overrun with monsters? What kind of exploration team are we? We’re just sacrificial lambs."
She then added that we couldn’t explore if there was nothing to explore. I then spoke.
"The Institution has sent exploration teams here several times, and if it is broadcast to them, they will know everything about the situation inside. There are three reasons that can be guessed here. A living sacrifice, an attack, or an experiment."
"..."
Erta and Andrew began to listen to me.
I gave them a rather pessimistic guess.
"A living sacrifice. The only way to prevent monsters from escaping from this factory is to either die here or become an ally. Or believing in a machine God. We were sent here as part of quarantine procedures."
I continued before Andrew got angry and didn’t listen to everything I said.
"The second is attack. In fact, the machine God of the factory chose us, and if we didn’t respond, disaster would occur, so the Institution sent us without any way to do anything. In other words, the Institution has been attacked by the machine God, and we are it’s inevitable victims. In this case, I believe the Institution may have the will to help us..."
"That’s ridiculous."
"I think so too. But I guess it’s inevitable for humans to want to have hope."
"...What about experiment?"
"They tried to eliminate the monsters in this factory that they had not been able to do until now by using Alice. In other words, everything was a test of combat power against the containment entity Alice."
"Then..."
"It’s a failure...!"
"..."
The cute and sweet devil Alice became a pile of meat at the very beginning, so there is no hope left for us.
I prepared to go down to the next floor to do something.
"Do you see that over there? It looks like it’s the path to the next floor. Still, it’s better to go."
Erta and Andrew didn’t respond to what I said. I spoke to convince them.
"Waiting won’t solve the problem. To be quite honest, the Institution won’t send a rescue team. We’ll be the sixty-sixth, just like the phrase we first saw."
"..."
"Erta."
I called Erta, who was particularly anxious. She didn’t hide her anxiety.
"But we, what are we supposed to do downstairs, how are we supposed to survive?"
Downstairs, there are probably more monsters than Alice has ever defeated.
If we continue like this, we will die unless a miracle happens.
Still, we have no choice but to do it. We have to go down to the next floor, even if it means sacrificing one person. Because there’s really nothing else we can do.
"Should I go on a suicide attack? My corpse would be extremely toxic! If I die, at least the lower floors would be cleared out, right? Wouldn’t it?!"
That was valid.
We also have purification equipment, so if Erta dies there, the deadly poison will spread and the monster will melt.
But I didn’t want to sacrifice Erta just for that reason.
Dying in battle while descending is a sacrifice, but sending Erta down to die is tantamount to murder.
"You’re both getting too worked up. You and Andrew."
It felt unnatural.
Emotions and thoughts are reaching extremes.
Is it a characteristic of this floor, or the extreme circumstances?
"...Mason. There’s another sign here in the distance. One of my eyes can see in the dark."
Andrew remained quiet and then said this with an expression full of anger.
"I’m so fucking angry right now. I can’t control it!"
"I know."
"This sign says faith! Rather than go down there and get killed, I will meet the machine God and kill him right now!"
"That’s recklessness, Andrew. Wait!"
Andrew was basically the biggest and strongest of the group.
Because of that, I couldn’t stop him.
He ran towards the darkness and descended another set of stairs.
"..."
Erta and I quietly waited for him.
And after a while, another voice was heard from the ceiling.
[Those who point weapons at God. By becoming servants of God, their sins are forgiven. Your Institution will become my precious servants, and I will grant you eternal life.]
Bang!
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A deformed Andrew fell from the ceiling.
His head and back were bent to places they shouldn’t be and he moved in a bizarre posture.
The mechanical intestines that had replaced his internal organs protruded from his skin and whined menacingly.
"Why is this happening...!"
I grabbed Erta and ran toward the stairs.
Andrew was dozens of times stronger than other monsters. Aiming a gun at him was futile.
"Guns don’t work. Run, Erta! We have to survive somehow. Go downstairs!"
"I don’t want to! Alice told me that it feels like an inexplicable depth! What if there is infinite space?!"
"Don’t judge until you see and hear for yourself! You don’t know yet! We’ve always been chasing an invisible hope. It’s still the same now. Erta! Come on!"
Erta shook off my hand, took off her cloth, and sprayed the poison into Andrew’s eyes.
After seeing that his eyes were slightly corroded, Erta hid herself into the darkness.
Before she disappeared completely, she gave me a sad look.
"I’m sorry. I don’t have the courage or the will to do that. Thank you for treating me well even though you knew there was poison in my body."
Erta disappeared into the darkness, and I heard her scream a minute later.
If only... If only Erta had lived because I tried to stop her, how great would that have been?
"Damn it!"
"What a pity you can’t even make it to the tenth floor!"
The priest appeared out of nowhere, chuckling and sneering. He was with Erta, who had become one with a machine and was shedding tears.
[Those who turn their backs on God, fleeing and hiding, it is desirable to embrace fear, but that does not amount to reverence, and thus it is merely irreverence. Therefore, I will personally administer a light punishment.]
"...Why are you doing something like this?"
I shot the priest. Then a huge mechanical arm protected him.
"How irredeemable it is to resist until the end."
The priest shook his head and I was forced to move down another floor.
[Basement Floor 8 - Penance]
I wasn’t relaxed enough to figure out what this floor was like.
I held my head and resisted the strange energy that continued to stimulate my brain.
It’s like I’ve become an idiot and I can’t think of anything else.
One by one, the information disappeared from my mind until I was left with only the basic question.
’Why, why am I doing this?’
Why am I here?
Then I saw the gun in my hand.
’Why did I pick up a gun? Why am I enduring this pain?’
I dropped it.
I hear the sound of the gun hitting the floor.
But it seems there was something under it.
Because I simultaneously heard a crash as if glass had broken.
I looked at the floor.
There was a broken mirror.
I saw my blood-soaked appearance in it.
I didn’t remember being soaked in blood, but I dismissed it as a dream.
I feel like this is what I deserved for what I’ve done.
’I look ridiculous, running in search of an unreasonable hope that I can’t see. It’s ugly. I look like a rat soaked in water, no, blood.
That’s what I thought. The heavens confirmed my thoughts.
[Those words are true. By believing in me, you can find immortality and happiness. Why do you strive so hard? Become a cog, and after one rotation, you will find satisfaction in that moment.]
’Why did I try so hard? Even this question is just painful. Yes. It’s not good to be in pain.’
As I finished thinking, a spotlight shone on me.
From a ceiling made of the universe, a pulley emerges and rattles.
A mechanical giant connected to a rope descends from the ceiling and speaks directly.
*black background*
Machine God: You are beginning to understand, child. My joy will be passed on to you. Come closer. Whatever you imagine, I will grant your desires.
Machine Priest: (trembling with joy) Oh...! How holy this is! Another follower is about to join us. Come forth. Let us find happiness in the cold and comforting machines!
Mason takes a step forward toward the Machine God.
Mason: Of course. I don’t know why I struggled so hard to survive. Let’s go together. (suddenly, his legs give out, and he collapses) Thud! *sound of falling down*
Mason: Please, would you take my hand, Machine God?
Machine God: Of course. A hand even without a hand. A leg even without a leg.
The Machine God extends his hand, and Mason reaches out to grasp it.
Mason: You are overflowing with mercy.
Mason:... (stops reaching out and suddenly drops his head to the floor)
Machine Priest: Why do you not take his hand?
Mason silently stares at the floor.
The priest tilts his head in confusion and looks down, seeing a golden mirror reflecting Mason.
Mason: I keep thinking about it. Why did I suffer until now? (staring at the mirror on the floor)
Machine Priest: Do you not realize that the very act of thinking is suffering? How ignorant you are.
Mason: The reason I endured suffering... And carried out my duties in the Institution was. (suddenly stands up, runs, and grabs a gun)
Mason: Because I could kill the monsters that took my wife with my own hands! I was a detective. But I could never understand why my wife died! After joining, I learned, though not completely, the cause of mysterious deaths and many secrets! (aiming the gun at the machine God)
Machine Priest: Blasphemy!
Machine God: Repent.
Mason: This memory cannot be erased! I realized there are things I could only understand by facing pain while working in the Institution. So I don’t want to live thoughtlessly like a cog in a machine!
Machine God: Repent.
*background of a sky filled with ominous dark clouds*
Mason is tied to a guillotine.
Believers who mock him throw tomatoes at him.
Mason struggles to free himself from his predicament.
Machine Believer: Hahaha! You look like an ant thrown into gasoline as you struggle!
Mason: Shut up! (struggling) Isn’t this strange? You’ve got a lump of scrap metal in your head instead of a brain. You idiots are laughing, even though your clothes are on fire as if you’ve taken anesthetics! It’s you who should be on this guillotine!
The followers laugh maniacally as they prepare to execute him.
A heavy and sharp piece of metal falls toward his neck, and Mason is executed just like that.
Alice: Stop.
Mason: Alice?
*background where gloomy dark clouds begin to disappear and sunlight shines sparsely*
Machine Priest: What, shouldn’t you have been expelled?
Mason: Isn’t she dead?
Alice: More explanation later. Let’s end this play for now. (Lifts up her skirt slightly with both hands, raises her leg, and then stomps the floor with her foot.)
Bang! *sound of impact as the floor collapses*
...
POV Switch - Alice
"It uses a strange and enormous power."
I glared at the giant mechanical arm and the priest. Yes. You got me really good.
The priest pointed at me and shouted in disbelief.
"Nonsense! It’s impossible to interfere with the stage."
"Alice..."
I roughly explained it to Mason, who was still in a daze. Honestly, I don’t know either.
"I was exiled. I don’t know what you saw, but it was probably a trick. I was trapped in a black space, unable to move even through the mirror. For some reason, after I heard you shouting, I was drawn here by something."
"Then the others..."
I couldn’t look Mason in the eye.
Because what had happened to them was real.
"...Sorry."
I apologized to him. Mason nodded his head with a sad face.
"You, you! You blasphemous devil! How did you get onto the stage?! How is it even possible to destroy it..."
The priest thought for a moment and seemed to realize something.
"...Yes. You are the seventh! One of the devils in the story created by Mephisto Pheles! Devils who are not gods but dare to influence the stage from behind the scenes!"
"Mephisto?"
"Don’t pretend not to know!"
"Haa..."
This guy can’t be communicated either.
"...But that’s ridiculous. Even a devil can’t push back the power of a god. Unless they’re equal to it."
"...Whatever it is, your stage is destroyed. I’m not sure about your powers, but it seems like they are activated by forcibly showing that play to the people of the Institution, right? The play just now. And the Institution that is very far away from here. I can feel a faint connection between the two. Somehow, you substitute the content of the play and apply it to a crisis that will befall the Institution..."
I hesitantly ramble on about the power of the machine God.
He cut me off as if it was blasphemous for me to even mention his power.
"Enough. Enough! Our God has warned us. His power over the threads of fate is enough to bring disaster upon you, but he chose to convey his message in the form of a play. What happens if one does not believe in God, and what happens when one acts disrespectfully towards God."
The priest spoke eloquently, but what I understood was this.
"In the end, you pushed people into the abyss of suffering in the play and manipulated fate so that everyone who was forced to watch it would suffer the same fate, didn’t you? Well, it seems the Institution has a troublesome enemy."
The High Priest, unable to contain his anger, kicked the ground.
I mocked the priest, asking him if he could kick God’s abode like that.
The priest grabbed the back of his neck, angry.
"Alice..."
Mason wanted to warn me that provoking him wasn’t a good idea, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved as a faint smile crept onto my lips.
The Machine God, who had been silently watching the scene, suddenly slammed his fist down on the high priest as he became more agitated.
Seeing this, Mason shouted at me.
"Alice!"
"I have no intention of just staying still. I will protect you. That is the minimum reward for not giving up until the end."
I hugged Mason and jumped.
Again, a shock strong enough to collapse the floor was transmitted through the air to me.
I created a mirror in the air and summoned a monster.
"Out of control."
[It’s an emergency! It’s an emergency!] 𝚏𝚛ee𝐰𝗲𝚋n𝐨𝘃𝗲l.𝐜𝐨m
A monster wearing a prison uniform laughs.
However, the gears that made up the machine God only briefly malfunctioned and had no significant impact.
’It’s less effective... So it said it was a god?’
"Excessive emotions."
[I’m depressed... I’m depressed...]
A masked monster with a gloomy expression uses its powers.
Thud!!
But the mechanical God’s other arm slammed down on both monsters.
They returned to the mirror again.
’It doesn’t work at all. This time, I’m not going to try something cheap.’
I landed on the floor and created a large mirror.
"Can you broadcast?"
A monster with a huge body appears after hearing my request.
It had a body made of junk and a scythe for an arm.
In his other arm, he was holding an umbrella as big as his body.
[Crackling*... Crackling*...]
The monster’s radio head beeps. I understood what it meant.
"It’s been a while. I thought you might be somewhere in the mirror too. We were enemies back then, but you’ll help me this time, right?"
The monster, once the Radio Head Demon, nods his head.
[Broadcast. It’s broadcast time. Residents, we’re expecting acid rain, so may you melt to death. The lump of scrap metal, throw it in the trash. Alice and the human will be lucky.]
Radio Head Demon started broadcasting.
Then acid rain falls.
Mason and I were able to avoid the rain thanks to the power of luck mentioned on the broadcast.
"Let’s go!"
I grabbed Mason’s arm, summoned the monster of ornithophobia, and took to the sky.1
I was planning on breaking the ceiling and going out like this.
"What’s wrong? Isn’t it working?"
It wasn’t strange for Mason to think that way.
The acid rain had dissolved the priest and the mechanical God’s body was rusting.
"He’s not such a soft opponent!"
[The weather will clear up, and that worthless pile of junk will collapse with even the slightest shock, no different from a heap of stones.]
Then the rain stopped. There is no way that the machine God, who controls the threads of fate, could not stop a single rain.
And since it even pressed down on the power of the radio demon, which used a similar power, it was obvious who had the superiority in ability.
[Disaster alert! Beware of impact!]
The machine God swung his right arm at the monster.
Bang!
Radio Head tried to defend himself with the huge umbrella, but it only held up once and then broke.
Radio demon’s massive body is pushed away by the impact.
[It is a pointless resistance.]
[The train is arriving. Passengers, please take one step forward and get hit and die.]
[Foolish.]
Twenty trains rushed to the machine God on their own tracks.
But with a wave of his hand, the trains derailed, leaving only a small scratch on his body.
The machine God grabbed the head of the Radio demon and broke it with strength.
[Broadcast ends... Have a happy day.]
This. I could feel that the Radio demon had returned to the mirror with irreparable wounds.
Now the machine God will actively follow us. I asked Mason.
"I can’t think of a way to defeat this guy with his strange powers. I’m in a hurry. Mason, does anyone live around here?"
"This place is a remote area in the Great Plains. There are no people within three-hundred kilometers except this building."
"Then that’s it!"
I created a mirror and called out monsters who specialized in finding humans.
"Please help me find people!"
The monsters found all the humans in this place and informed me.
"Good!"
I created mirrors at the coordinates provided and visited them one by one. When I appear in the created mirror, the Institution’s agents are shocked and startled.
"What?!"
I grabbed the person and pushed him into the mirror.
"There is no time to explain!"
In that way, I pushed all the humans I found into the mirror and summoned the monster of ornithophobia again to fly into the sky.
"What on earth are you thinking!"
Bang bang bang!
From underground, I hear the earth shake as the mechanical God chases us.
You can only think of it as an ignorant power. I told Mason what I was curious about.
"...I’m going to shoot the same thing you guys shot at me!"
"What on earth is that?"
"Nuclear missiles."
"What?"
Don’t look at me like I’m a crazy bitch, Mason.
It’s the only way I can think of.
That thing can probably manipulate the thread of fate to deflect the Institution’s long-range weapons. If it is not shot at this distance, it will not hit.
"Are you out of your mind?!"
"Were you guys in your right minds when you fired that just to kill one person?! And I’m only shooting four out of eight!"
I created a large mirror.
Four of the nuclear missiles I had locked away in the mirror came pouring out.
I tried to get Mason into the mirror before it exploded.
At this moment, the machine God popped out of the ground and spoke to me.
[You may be my enemy, but you are truly remarkable, little devil. However, know that this form is merely a necessity; my fragmented minds are ever close to you.]
"..."
[Will you be able to protect them next time?]
I took Mason with me and walked outside to the mirror.
The machine God’s last words were probably referring to the children.
I bit my lip.
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