She had simply seen Accelerator forcefully stomp on the truck’s floor. That was all. But
something like a shockwave radiated from that point and, when it passed through Qliphah
Puzzle 545’s body, the contract with Coronzon—the thing inside her that had been driving
her to act—was mercilessly shredded
She was freed from her bonds.
Did this mean she was free to do as she wished?
Could she really accept that the world had opened up before her?
“Really? Why do you look so shocked?”
“Um, umm, uh, why???”
“Was it called an original grimoire? Whatever it was, you can keep them from functioning
by bringing the energy in the area to the saturation point to obstruct the transfer of power,
right? The basic idea is the same as electrocuting someone by screwing with the
transmission of their nerve signals. I learned how it’s done when it happened to that
Edward Berridge guy. So the rest is all about control. If I keep my output below what
would destroy you, I can remove just the malfunctioning parts.”
“B-but, huh? Aren’t you a little confused? I might be an artificial demon that exists as a
contrast to the Thoth Tarot, but I don’t actually use tarot cards. So you shouldn’t be able
to save me with the same method used on grimoires.”
“Hm?”
He sounded like she had just returned without the drink he had asked for.
The #1 seemed fed up with it all as he responded.
“You hadn’t figured it out? You were created by passing energy through the Qliphoth
according to a special process, so you’re made from a type of energy, right? How is that
any different from the grimoires that suck energy up from the ground or whatever?”
“Ah.”
“Hold on. Isn’t your job to fill in the gaps in my knowledge? Are you screwing with me?”
The logic checked out.
But Qliphah Puzzle 545 could not even hazard a guess at how difficult it would be to
actually do it. It was as reckless as trying to use a giant chainsaw to slice just the shell of
a raw egg without breaking the yolk.
And he had seen through to something not even she had realized about herself.
She had recovered after being defeated, but that was only because she was very similar in
nature to an indestructible grimoire.
This was likely the ultimate technique that not even Aleister Crowley or Samuel Liddell
MacGregor Mathers had even considered as a possibility whether or not they could have
done it.
Yet he was supposed to be an amateur.
Even though he had only just now peered into the other side of the world.
The #1 could not even manage the fundamental act of refining life force into magic power.
Here, he had only manipulated some vectors to bend and gather the thinly distributed
energy that was already there.