Chapter 404: Five Thousand Years Ago, and One Thousand Years Ago.
The world sank into panic at the sudden appearance of the crystal monsters.
Crystalline demons that appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and slaughtered people indiscriminately. The world five thousand years ago had a much higher level of magical technology, and people lived a life completely dependent on magic and magical tools.
The species known as Phrase could be called as the natural enemy of such magic civilizations.
Any and all magics were absorbed and neutralized. High regenerative powers, and normal wounds would not stop them for even a single second. Even powerful magic attacks used by things like magitech tanks or flying warships could not do anything to them.
One after another, large cities fell before the horde of lower-class and intermediate-class Phrases, and disappeared together with the light of annihilation unleashed by the advanced- class Phrases.
During that time, Chrome Lanches lived in a small village in the fringes of the United Kingdom of Piraisula.
His was a happy life, with a beloved wife and son he obtained in this world, and the [Black] and [White] Crowns.
In that period, Chrome had been repeating experiments to use the power of [Black] to send his whole family away, from this dangerous world to the world he was born in.
The action cannot be done easily due to the "compensation"; even for the creator of the [Crown]s, the Meister, there are no exceptions. To wield a great power, one must sacrifice something equally severe.
When he came to this world, the compensation was big enough to turn him from an old man back to a youngster. Although years have passed since then, to Chrome who is currently not even thirty, that is still far too heavy a cost. If he carried it out, certain death would be the only result for him.
In order to break through his current predicament, he also tried his hands on developing a new [Crown], but the time left to him is not nearly enough for that.
The Phrase, which had appeared all across the world, had finally broken through the armies of the United Kingdom of Piraisula, and began rampaging across the country.
And finally, the hand of misfortune had reached the village Chrome was living at.
The Phrase that appeared at the village had the figure of a man. It was a male-type ruler-class Phrase, with red eyes, spiky crystalline hair, and a fierce smile on his face.
"Gira… That bastard, he was doing whatever he wants 5000 years ago as well, huh."
I recalled the things that I know about that guy as I listened to Albus' tale. He was the second ruler-class I met after Nei. Arrogant and cruel, he was a ruler-class that loved to fight.
I had defeated that guy somehow back then, but that was with me in my divine form. Although I couldn't draw out as much power back then compared to now, Gira, who was able to fight against me with my divinity released, was definitely not a pushover either.
After he showed up, Gira started murdering the village people. Regardless of their gender or age, he simply killed them all, in a way that looked like he was enjoying a hunt.
Chrome had tried to fight against him using the [Black] and [White] Crowns, but he apparently wasn't able to defeat Gira. Well, it was a tall order for the Crowns to beat him without using their abilities, obviously.
And at last, Gira's bloody hands pointed themselves towards his family.
The instant his wife and son were erased from this world by a particle cannon unleashed by Gira, the abilities of both [Black] and [White] were activated together with Chrome's rampaging emotions.
The powers of [Black] and [White] are similar yet different. When they are used in conjunction, the resulting power would rampage with no way of stopping it.
The main component in the result was apparently [White]'s power. That is, the ability to overwrite phenomena.
However, after merging with a bit of the [Black]'s time-related powers, the rampage produced strange effects on the world.
As a direct result, the [World Barrier] was fixed due to its time being rewound. Due to the aftershock from that, a majority of the Phrases were dragged back into the gap between dimensions, apparently. If I remember correctly, Ende did something to the ruler-class and the advanced-class Phrases instead.
A set of phenomena was cut out from a different world in which "nothing occurred", and that was then put over the current timeline where Chrome's wife and child died.
A storm of contradiction blew over the world. Results were produced even though the process hasn't begun. Nobody had done anything, and yet the end goal was there in front of them.
For a while, the world was enveloped in confusion. However, the threat known as the Phrase was gone. The demons that trampled over two-thirds of this world under their feet had been driven out.
"Oh, so that's why."
Professor Babylon hit her left hand with her right with a *pon* and exclaimed.
"Do you remember something?"
"Well, on the day the Phrases disappeared, I was working on final adjustments of the Frame Gears in a hurry. However, there were strange things happening that day, like parts I was sure I had assembled rolling around on the floor, and checklists I hadn't started on being completed before I knew it. I thought I was becoming tired and went to sleep, though."
"So that was due to the rampage of Albus and Noir's powers?"
"I suppose so. It's like a numeric list of 1, 2, 3, 4 that was scrambled, and on top of that, things that don't belong in the list like 'three' or 'A' were mixed in as well. From an ordered list, it became something like 'D, 5, two, γ' instead. The whole thing is just a huge mess, really."
Randomly replacing things in the current timeline with things from parallel worlds… Is what happened, I guess? That'd sure cause a huge panic, wouldn't it.
"I don't think even Chrome Lanches predicted something like a rampage of two Crowns' powers. If he was cautious about that, he would definitely have installed some kind of safety device on them."
If you judge from the results, it can be said that the world was saved thanks to that, though.
There were apparently Phrases that didn't get moved to the gap between dimensions, but the humans probably dealt with them afterwards.
"More importantly… What happened to the person who used that ability, Chrome Lanches?"
Saying that, Yumina looked towards the golem who had become her servant.
"Chrome paid the 'compensation'. The 'compensation' for myself, the white [Crown] Albus, is [Memory]. The overwhelming knowledge he had accumulated over the years and his past, everything in his memories were taken as the necessary 'compensation'."
"Wh…!"
The compensation for the white [Crown] is memories?
Memories are a person's source of knowledge, and past experiences; they are the foundation upon which someone lives.
Albus' power would require the master to lose some sort of memory every time it is used.
Memories are made every day of our lives. And, they're lost from us before we know it as well. Or rather, instead of losing memories, we simply become unable to recall them, I guess? It might be a rather tame 'compensation' now that you think about it.
However, everyone has memories that they absolutely don't want to part with. Family and loved ones, your own dreams, the goals you want to achieve… Things like that can disappear forever as well.
In a way, it's the cruelest 'compensation'. The emotions and feelings you built up over a long period of time might be taken from you in an instant, after all.
Friendship between long-time buddies. Memories and love between loved ones. To have those disappear from your heart, that is something truly frightening.
Fortunately for Chrome, his memories did not disappear immediately. However, each day, like sand falling from the gap between one's fingers, parts and pieces slowly disappeared from his mind.
Although he was able to protect his wife and child, it's only a matter of time before the memories he has with them, as well as his accumulated knowledge, fade from his mind completely.
Furthermore, the contradictions produced by the rampage of [Black] and [White] even came back and affected the golems themselves.
Their contract with Chrome were overwritten such that it "didn't happen". Without a contract with a human, the golems would lose their reason of existence.
Chrome did not establish a contract again with the two [Crown]s.
"I eventually suspended my functions and entered sleep mode. I do not know what happened to Chrome."
Such were Albus' words.
The genius golem engineer, Chrome Lanches; I wonder what happened to him afterwards. The 'compensation' for repairing the world barrier and creating all sorts of contradictions in the world must have been harsh for him.
If he became an invalid just like that after losing all his memories… That's rough. Although, since it's in exchange for protecting his family, he might accept that ending and be content with it.
It'd be good if he was able to obtain new memories and a new happiness while living with his wife and child. In either case, the genius golem engineer Chrome Lanches would disappear, and only a normal man named Chrome would be left, I suppose.
Contradictions abound in the world. However, as humans are adaptable beings, they would add their own interpretations to things that they could not understand, and compromise in their own ways.
From looking at the destroyed towns and cities, and the people who were killed, it is a fact that the Phrase were "there". However, right now, they're not.
And the only person who could've explained that had lost his memory.
"The rampage of the [White] and [Black]… If you think about it, that was a result borne of coincidences, wasn't it. The world really was this close to being destroyed, eh. Now that I think about it, I should give my thanks to you guys, shouldn't I? At least, as someone who had lived in that age, it's something I should do."
Professor Babylon showed a rare meek attitude. I wanted to tell her to stop it since it doesn't suit her, but well, I guess it's better if I don't say that here.
"So now we know what happened 5000 years ago. And then? What happened to you guys after that?"
"I do not know. When I was reactivated, we were bound to a young man who served as our new master. Arthur Ernes Belfast."
Wow, 4000 years just like that?
So we have no idea what Chrome Lanches did with the two golems. Did he seal them away, leave them alone, or perhaps even sold them to someone else…
Since he lost his memories, it wouldn't be weird for him to do any of that. To him, the two golems would've become nothing but two "objects", without anything to be remembered about for him.
When Albus reawakened, it was apparently inside a cave of some sort. Arthur was in front of it, and Noir was standing besides him, already reactivated.
Around them were glittering mountains of treasures, and the body of a lesser dragon, apparently having been defeated by Arthur. It seemed like the two golems were carried to the nest of a dragon.
Noir was reactivated due to a coincidence. Its chest hatch had been opened, and Arthur's blood from one of his wounds gotten during the fight against the dragon had dropped into the G-cube, reactivating it.
And under the instruction of the awakened Noir, Arthur also successfully reactivated Albus.
I don't know whether it is fortunate or not, but Arthur was "compatible" with the two, and thus became their new masters.
Arthur was apparently happy that he managed to obtain such useful artifacts. Well, they're like two knights who would obey his every command and would never grow tired, after all.
And like that, the two golems served Arthur for around 10 years. Arthur, who was a prince when he found them, eventually became king, and was hailed as a wise monarch. During that time, Belfast was still a small country with a multitude of magic beasts living near its borders; together with the two [Crown]s, he went about subjugating those magic beasts and expanded the territory of Belfast.
"Hee. So that means, the current Belfast owes at least a part of its existence to Albus and Noir as well, doesn't it?"
"We were only followers of Arthur, nothing more."
Everyone has their own stories, I guess. Oh, it's a golem in this case instead of a person, though.
However, dark clouds soon began gathering over Belfast.
The trigger was when Arthur accidentally activated [Black]'s ability. The things [Black] can do includes summoning things from a parallel world and spacetime manipulation. The act of using that power created a small crack in the world barrier.
As "compensation", Arthur lost a few years of his life and became younger; however, he was about to pay a much harsher "compensation" in the near future.
The Phrases had appeared in the world after breaking through the crack in the world barrier.
It's not like 5000 years ago when the barrier was broken. Only around a thousand lower- classes managed to invade, but unluckily, two intermediate-classes also managed to mix into that group.
The Belfast army tried to stand up against the Phrases that appeared in the capital.
However, the knights and soldiers all fell before the unfamiliar crystal demons, and the capital was soon enveloped in flames.
While they can defeat the lower-classes somehow with several dozen people, they couldn't do anything to the intermediate-classes.
It took Albus and Noir all they had just to suppress them and maintain a stalemate.
In this situation, Arthur made a decision. He would push the two intermediate-classes back into the gap between dimensions using [Black]'s ability. If he can't defeat them, then he just has to banish them from this world.
The move succeeded in the end. However, they had made one big mistake. The instant before they managed to banish the two intermediate-classes, the latter launched their particle cannons towards the city.
In the spur of the moment, Arthur used [White]'s ability to defend against that. He tried to cancel the attack using the power to overwrite phenomena. At that moment, both [Black] and [White]'s abilities were active, and mixed with each other. As a result, another rampage occurred.
"I do not know what happened afterwards. My functions were suspended immediately after."
The things Albus could remember were only the sight of Noir being sucked into the gap between dimensions, and itself being blown away into a lake, apparently.
"Un… I guess after that, Noir crossed dimensions and drifted to our world? Maybe the fact that Noir has no memories had something to do with how it drifted in the gap between dimensions for thousands of years?"
"It's not an impossible talk. The flow of time there is different from here, after all. If we were to make a comparison, while Chrome and Touya-kun crossed the dimensional ocean with a ship or by flying, Noir went to the other side by letting itself drift away on the waves. That'd obviously take way longer."
Dr. Elka and Professor Babylon sank into thought. I turned my eyes to the descendant of Arthur, standing next to me.
"Was Arthur fine after that, I wonder?"
"He was there on the royal family's records, so I guess… The fact that the two golems weren't recorded in Belfast's history probably had something to do with the rampage of their powers that time."
Well, a part of the correct records did remain, like the Arkana tribe's relics in the underground of the old capital.
It's only a guess, but Arthur himself probably had his memories of the [Crown]s removed as part of the "compensation". Without triggering contradictions all over the world like 5000 years ago, the effects were probably limited to within Belfast. I guess you can call it falsifying history?
"Whew, feels good to finally know about all this after so long. It's unfortunate that Chrome Lanches' knowledge wasn't left behind, though."
The professor said something like that, but I personally felt that this is fine as well. If the golem engineer Chrome continued to live as he is, he might've produced [Crown]s even more dangerous than what we have now.
A contract with a [Crown] which seeks compensation from its master is very much like a contract with a devil, after all.
"… Don't ever make a true master contract with Albus, Yumina."
"I don't know if I'm 'compatible' yet, and I won't do it anyway… Are you worried?"
"Obviously. Like I'll allow something like using your memories as 'compensation'."
When I said that, Yumina giggled. Eh, I'm being pretty serious here, you know. No way I'll let something like Yumina forgetting all about us happen.
If something like that happened, I'll return her to normal with all my power even if that means borrowing the power of the gods… Wait?
Could the "compensation" not apply to Yumina since she's a god's dependant? There was that case where Kousuke ojii and myself weren't affected when the "reset" happened.
No matter how genius Chrome might've been, I don't think he had reached the realm of divinity yet.
Well, I obviously wouldn't test it out just because it might not work. On the off chance it did, I wouldn't forgive myself.
I held Yumina's hand with my own, and she gently curled her fingers around my own.
"… Don't you flirt in front of me."
I can feel Norn's exasperated eyes on me, but I'll just ignore them.
Author Notes:
I had actually wanted to write a "Past Arc" where Touya gets involved in a time slip and conversed with Chrome and Arthur among other people, but since it would get too long, I decided to present the necessary information to you in a more concise manner like this.