The secret magic circle room, PSH + PS1

PSH POV

 

“Hajime-kun, do you feel that something is off?” I asked.

“No, Supreme Master. I believe everything will work out as you’ve foreseen.” Hajime responded. “Or is there something that bothers you? We could always ..?”

“It isn’t possible. The operation has begun. The Goddess’ slave will notice what we did. He will raid our bases and destroy any chance we have of succeeding.”  I told him. “It has to happen now.”

“Of course, Master.” Hajime said. 

 

The communications blockade was something I had expected, the Goddess’ slave had shown his ability to do so when he took in some of our informants. But this was too soon. 

The frontline troops should have just about breached the border, so for the slave to not only notice this soon, but have our communications blocked was extremely fast.

What bothered me more was the north. I had asked the Prime Numbers there for a situation update, but I hadn’t heard back. It is understandable since they should be busy making the magic circles needed for the releases, but they should still answer. Especially Shimaho. Her obsession to Hajime is strong enough that she wouldn’t ignore my call. She would want to know if she can hear Hajime’s voice just one last time.

 

Hajime and I kept chatting, while I also kept in contact with the few people who were still responding to me. At least Ryuuko and Ketsuki were still able to respond to me. 

I did wonder what sort of magic the slave used to counter my skill. Did his phone network perhaps somehow block the communications? It would make sense that the Goddess’ slave would make something that can. But when did he have the time to set up something like that?

I know he has been flying around the continent and dealing with those ‘miasma blobs’. That is what he calls them, but I know they are more.

Thanks to Ginro’s nose, we know those blobs release more than miasma. Mana and some third substance also come out of them. I do not yet understand what it is, but that third substance, it is what gives the ‘Goddess’ her power. At least I believe so.

And her slave can somehow use it, or at least parts of it, to make himself Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. 

 

What a joke. From what I know, he isn’t even Japanese and he dares to make Japanese trading cards! Cultural thieves, all of them! 

He likely also wields a katana and has his fox woman dress as a Shinto priest.

 

---

 

As time passed and I still hadn’t heard from anyone, I grew more suspicious. Because of that, I ordered Ryuuko and Ketsuki to deploy to the two warfronts. Even if their words cannot reach me, their strength should keep the slave busy. 

We also received a sign from the north. A large wave of dark mana rolled over us. 

 

“She succeeded.” Hajime said proudly.

“You should have gotten together with her.” I told him. “We could have used your children.”

“I cannot be a father. Not in this time. But maybe one day…” He responded. “Besides, this time may disappear. What if I cannot carry out my duty because I am overly attached to the people of this time?” 

“You wouldn’t be. You are the most objective of all the Prime Numbers. That is why I chose you.” I told him. “Let us start. Stand in the circle. I shall fill what I can and the void uranium will supply the rest.”

 

Hajime did as asked, but before I began, he turned to me.

“... Master. Don’t die.”

“I’ll try not to.” I promised. “Luckily the slave isn’t keen on killing.”

“And thank you. For everything.” Hajime added.

 

While I filled the mana into the magic circle, I got a few messages from my troops. Maybe the abnormal’s communication block is failing. Sadly the messages were quite corrupted, but from the sounds of it, the abnormal had deployed most of his forces to counter the armies invading Narra and Ruiso Kingdoms.

I still had no response from those up north, but it won’t matter soon.

 

Once I had emptied my entire mana pool, I activated the mana filling device which used void uranium as a mana tank. It filled the magic circle the rest of the way, and I watched as Hajime disappeared.

"Thank you, Hajime-kun. For bringing my truth to life." I know my words no longer reach him, but I believe he will still fell them.

 

I wasn’t sure what would happen next. Time travel is always questionable and we were barely able to test it. Perhaps the world would soon shift around us, or perhaps it already has, and I simply haven’t realized it yet.

Or maybe I am now a part of the doomed timeline which will soon disappear completely.

Not that it matters. Hajime is when he is able to show the world that the Goddess is fake. She is no God and she shouldn't be worshipped. 

 

I went and took a seat on the cushion I had in front of my low table, before filling my cup with a tea brewed from mana recovery herbs. It will help me restore my mana. 

I then focused back on my Power Structure, and once again contacted everyone.

 

This time, I heard back properly. 

And it wasn’t good. 

The Goddess’ slave had foreseen everything. Every plan we had, he had countered. 

The release squads were both fully captured. And while the Darkness being had been released, it may have been him throwing us off. 

Ginro and the rest of his team had been taken in before they even got deep into the special dungeon. 

Takumi had run into countless traps, got bombarded by massive mortar shells and now just he and Yugo stood against one of the slave’s wives.

The two armies were caught up in fights against armies from the two Kingdoms they attempted to invade. And they were losing. 13 was asking for permission to surrender, as the slave’s dragon had shown up.

I quickly gave the order. For both armies. I didn’t want to risk any more of my forces.

I slowly opened my eyes. Had everything gone as I planned, or had that … thing really foreseen everything? 

As I took in the room, to my horror, I saw the one thing I never wanted to see. Kneeling on a cushion on the other side of my table, he sat also drinking tea.

“Yes. I did foresee everything. Well, most of it. There were a few parts I wasn’t completely sure about. But it went about as well as I would have expected.”

He sounded so calm, like all of my plans had been nothing. I was slightly worried, but I trusted it would all be fine in the end. 

The magic circle that took Hajime to the past had corrupted itself after use. It can be repaired with some time, but if this ... thing tried to use it, it wouldn’t take him to the correct time. So he can’t stop Hajime.

 

Because of that, I decided to try talking to him. I'll also need more time to recover my mana.

“Sora Mugenbashi.” I introduced myself.

“Ami Brian Wood.” He responded while lowering his head. “But I suspect that you knew that already.”

“As if you didn’t know mine.” I responded. 

“Admittedly, no. You are too high level for a clean Appraisal.” 

“So, why are you here?” I asked. “To beg for my help in stopping the Darkness being?”

“No. The Soul species isn’t dangerous. Not like you may think they are. They are just … beings like any other. Is a hungry lion dangerous? Yes. But feed it and it isn’t that bad. And the Souls are intelligent beings, they can be resonated with. You should know. I’ve done so with two already, so what is one more?”

 

“Perhaps the death creature then?” I asked.

“That one is a legitimate threat.” He admitted. “The Immortals always are. Though we do know how to deal with them nowadays. The Immortal Tree worked as an excellent tutorial.”

“Tree?”

“Yeah. There was an immortal tree. Kind of looks like Shub-Niggurath from the Lovecraft mythos.”

“I am not familiar with that work. I’ve heard some things, like Cthulhu, but not much else.”

“Understandable.” As he said that, a System screen opened up next to us. It had been a long time since I’d last seen one open up on its own, so I assumed it was something related to my System Support, but it wasn’t. It was a screen the slave must have opened up.

It was strange that he was able to open one up without any spoken words, but perhaps his position allows him to do so.

 

“The Immortal Tree.” He explained as the screen showed a tree-like creature. “Spawns a ton of minions that strip the land for materials and bring them to the mother tree. Basically a giant resource factory that strips the land bare.”

“I see. Is the one here as bad?” I asked.

“Arguable. The Immortal Snail. Ever heard of the immortal snail thought experiment? It is basically that.”

I didn’t know, and he seemed to realize it, since he continued his explanation.

“It just uses instant death magic on anything that touches it. It can also send it out in waves, but those can be resisted or blocked. Strong, but not too bad if you keep your distance. Moves slowly, has extremely high defenses while it hides inside of its shell, but the exposed body is very susceptible to damage. But it also has really good regeneration, and you can’t really one shot it since a small part of it is always inside of the unbreakable shell. But there are ways of getting around that issue. So it is obviously extremely deadly, even more than the tree, but not really all that bad if you know what you are facing.”

 

“I see. I do hope not too many died.” I answered honestly. My goal was never to destroy the world or kill people, only to teach them that their Goddess is fake.

“Just one. One of yours in fact. Sixteen.”

“Shame. He was an extremely smart man, even if slightly too focused on mass murder.You would know all about that, wouldn’t you?”

“Mass murder?”

“Yes. You are an American, aren’t you?”

“Yes.” He confirmed. 

“So how did it feel dropping a sun on us, twice?”

“How did it feel attacking a harbor and killing thousands?” He countered.

“We did it to…”

“You did it because you were angry that the U.S. was helping China and protecting Indonesia. … well, Dutch East Indies to be more accurate, but whatever. Say what you want, but you started that war. And Japan could have surrendered after the war in Europe ended, but you were too proud to do that. So instead of continuing the useless war, we ... went for the nuclear option.”

 

I felt my blood pressure raising as he took a sip of his tea. But I had to calm myself. If this turns into a fight, I have to regain the rest of my mana and overcharge if possible. I had enough for a small fight, but taking him down won’t be small or short. I don’t know how many summons I will have to go through, so I need as much mana as I can get.

So I must keep him talking for now.

 

“Speaking of wars, isn’t there a war going on?” I asked. “Why aren’t you stopping it?”

“Want me to nuke the States? I can, but I feel like that would make you angry.” He taunted, but I kept my calm. “But honestly, who said I’m not? Just because I’m here doesn’t mean that another me can’t be somewhere else. And even without me, all of your forces would get dealt with. ... and, you know, you did give them the order to surrender. I’m here to make sure you don’t teleport somewhere and cause problems. ”

“I don’t have to. I’ve already won.” I said, and it did a wonderful job of composing me. I had won. My main objective was complete. 

“By sending Hajime to the past?” He questioned.

“Yes. With him there, or should I say then, the demon lord will win.” 

"Two quicky questions. First, why? Why do you want him to win?"

"If the Hero loses, the 'Goddess' is never summoned. She is a fake god and the world will see that."

“Second, if Hajime is in the past, which he is, then the Demon Lord would have already won, right? So why are we still here?” 

“Perhaps it needs a bit of time. Or maybe Hajime created an alternative timeline.”

 

“Yeah. Those were some of the theories I had when I first looked into time travel and changing the past.” The slave said. 

I see. So he has considered it, perhaps even done it.

“But that isn’t how the world works.” He stated.

That line broke my line of thought. What does he mean? What does he know?

“Then please enlighten me, you who know more about Time Magic and Timelines. How does this world work?” As I asked that, I refilled my empty teacup. “Do you want a refill?” I added, noticing that his cup was also almost empty.

“Please.” He responded, moving his cup to my side of the table where I filled it and gently pushed it back to him. I wanted to slip something into his drink if possible, but I didn’t have anything on me. I could take something from my Item Box, but he would notice.

And I doubt the simple poisons I have would have an effect on him.

 

“So, time travel and altering the timeline…” He began. “I guess I should start by saying that this world operates on a closed loop time travel system. Mostly. It does have some non-branching single timeline features as well. Ever seen Harry Potter? Specifically the third movie? Or read the books? What about Back to the Future?”

“No, I haven’t seen or read Harry Potter. But I do know some things. Nothing related to time travel.” I answered. “I have seen Back to the Future.”

Closed loop with non-branching features, huh. That is fine. It should force the world to adjust to what we just did.

 

“Yeah. So while things are like in Back to the Future, they also really aren’t. Basically, I could travel back in time and change something. It is easy. However, when I come back to this time, the ‘original timeline’ was as if it never existed. No one, including myself, could remember it.” He explained. “Well I can because I have a skill to remember, but without a stupidly rare extra skill, or a memory or time related unique skill, you’d forget. The world basically adjusts to the changes you made in the past. For example…”

He then explained to me how he affected time in a way where a person who was supposed to be dead is now actually alive, and the world turned to be as if she had always been alive.

 

“I see. And how long does this adjustment take?” I inquired.

“It is pretty much instant.” He answered. 

“Then … why hasn’t anything changed? Or has it and I’ve forgotten? You mentioned a rare skill, so you likely have it. What has changed?” 

“That’s the thing. Why do you think something would have changed?”

“Because Hajime is in the past. With his help, the demon lord will win and the Goddess will never show her face.” I said, keeping calm. I had recovered almost all of my mana already, and I prepared to overcharge myself.

 

“But as I said, this world’s time travel is closer to a closed loop. Basically, everything that has happened, will happen. And everything that will happen, has already happened.” He reminded me.

“But you also said that the loop can be changed.” I shot back.

“In some ways, yes. But answer me this. Let's assume that Hajime made it to the time and place you intended. And let’s assume that he managed to join forces with the Demon Lord, and that the two of them managed to defeat the Hero. How much would the world have changed?”

I pondered that for a second before answering. “In countless ways.”

“Exactly. So what does a closed loop do when it is completely broken to the point where a minor, or even major repair cannot fix it?”

“I am not quite sure. But you seem to know the answer.”

“The current circle is abandoned. Deleted. And a new one is built in its place.” He said calmly.

“I see. … so we are dead men walking while the world does that.”

“No. If that would be the case, we’d already be dead.”

“... But we aren’t.”

“No. No we aren’t.” He confirmed. 

“And this isn’t some sort of afterlife?” 

“Most likely not, but how do I know? I don’t remember dying before being transported here. Do you?”

 

“...Yes. I died and met a God. A true God. Not one like the Goddess. They had true Godlike powers. They reincarnated me in this world and gave me my skill.”

“I see. Sorry. Personally I was just … transported here. No God, no nothing. Just … blink and you are here. It isn’t great either, but at least I didn’t die.”

“Don’t feel bad. I don’t actually remember my death.” He admitted.

“Oh. Explains the red string.”

“Red string?” I asked.

“Just something to do with my skill. I can basically see when people have forgotten things due to Time Magic related things.”

“Can you help me recover those memories?” I asked. I didn’t actually need them, but it would be interesting to know how I died.

“Probably not. My skills only exist in this world, and what happened to you are likely caused by the God who transported you. Probably a way of protecting you from the dying pains or something.” He said. “I could try though.” He offered anyway.

“Not necessary.” I said. “However, I would like to know one thing. If what you’ve said is true, how are we still here? Alive?”

 

“... I’ll answer that with another question. How much do you know about the Demon Lord? Like actually. Not just the legends.” He asked.

Admittedly it wasn’t much, and I told him so. 

“Alright. I’ll start listing off facts, and you can stop me when you figure it out.”

 

He then began to read off a check list. Things like the unknown backstory of the Demon Lord, including things like parents, birthplace and such. The birth race of human, which was later artificially changed to Elf, before being mixed with Vampire and Demon to create his final body. The Demon Lord’s ability to use all six attributes of Magic.

The list made me extremely suspicious. Because they fit Hajime perfectly. Except for the parents and birthplace part, as those are known by us. But … they wouldn’t have been known 1400 years ago.

“And the Demon Lord had a unique skill to manipulate any and all matter simply by touching it.” He finished. 

“... are you telling me?”

“Hajime is the Demon Lord. Yes.” He confirmed. “Always has been and always will be. Call it destiny. Call it whatever you want. But it is the truth.”

 

I took a hold of my teacup, and raised it to my lips. But my hands were shaking and I struggled to drink the tea. I was also letting out my carefully gathered mana boost.

After I managed to drink the rest of my tea, I placed the cup back on its saucer and looked back at the Goddess’ slave.

“H-How do you know that? Are you certain?” 

“Simple. I was there. I traveled back in time and observed it all. And no, I didn’t do it because I knew of your plans. In fact, I only learned them after I had already gone to the past. The reason I went to the past is because Wilma, my dwarf wife, and I made the Hero’s sword. So we had to make it and I had to deliver it to the Hero. And I just … stayed to observe how things went.”

“... I see.” I sighed. 

 

So that is how it is. But this is still fine. I know how it went down. As long as I can send someone else back as well, everything will work out in the end. I will just have to deal with this fool first.

“I suppose this does make us idealistic enemies.” I said, as I began to rise.

“No, not really. You aren’t my enemy.” He said, but also got up. “But I can’t let you do anything drastic. It will mess up the timeline and guess who has to help the System clean it up? Me. So I’ll just have to make sure you don’t make a mess.”

"The System? Won't the 'all-powerful Goddess' solve that in a snap?"

"... she isn't all powerful. You are correct about that."

"So you admit it. She is fake."

"She still is a God, depending on your definition of a God." He said. "She meets mine. ... or at least gets close enough."

 

"You are a worthless fool. All I have to do is rebuild the magic circle, refill the void uranium mana bank, and then I'll go to the past myself. The Hero can't stop both Hajime and I."

"He won't need to. I'll stop you in this time." The slave said.

“You will try.”

“Do or do not, there is no try.” 

 

“... that makes no sense.” 

“You haven’t seen Star Wars either. What kind of life did you live?”

“One not unlike you now, slave.” I answered.

 

And as I did, the world shifted around us. We had been teleported somewhere.

I quickly took in the surroundings and saw that we were flying above the capital of my United States of Power. I don’t know why he took us here, but it works for me. I connected with my Prime Numbers and their letters, pulling just a bit of their stats into myself. I will take more later if I must, but this should suffice for now.

“So, this is where we shall fight?” I asked.

“Yes. Wanted to give you the home field advantage, but didn’t want to break the cave. It is quite nice.”

“Yes it is.” I said and prepared myself. “And I’ll clearly need it again!”