"It's me again! Sparkle! I know i didn't explain much of anything last time I was here, but that was only because we were short on time. Although almost everything about me doesn't matter anyway. Your here to read, right?" We'll I'm the same as you. Just someone who's here to read and enjoy the story! I'm just a reader, who occasional drops a few hints for you to mull over. Clues, or things to think about. I'm no one special. Well then, here's your next entry.
Or maybe everything I'm telling you is a lie. Maybe my dictionary of truth isn't so truthful? Who knows? MUAHAHAAHAAHAAHAH! Whether you believe me or not is up to you."
Delusion:
something that is falsely or delusively believed or propagated
VIII
a persistent false psychotic belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary
Justice
the act of tricking or deceiving someone : the state of being deluded
Morality
something a person believes and wants to be true, when it is actually not true
Ideals of Mas■■■ S■I■■i
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
I'm sure you still have a bunch of questions. Like what the whole point of this dictionary of truth is, or why I even showed up, but like everything the answees will come with time. Just trust me. My only goal in this is to help you see the truth before your fooled just like the rest of them. Or maybe everything I'm telling you is a lie. Maybe my dictionary of truth isn't so truthful? Who knows? MUAHAHAAHAAHAAHAH! Whether you believe me or not is up to you."
That's it for Sparkle! See you next tim-
"As of today, every single move you make matters." Credo began the lesson with a cryptic warning. Everyone was already on their toes and tense from just that. For the entirety of Credo's first week, he spent the time launching surprise tests, putting the class under illusion after illusion, and testing them by making them face similar struggles to the ones that they did when Theta was attacked.
By this point, every single student within the arena was tense and ready to react to one of Credo's surprise challenges at any moment. And his cryptic and intimidating words were not helping to calm anybody down.
"I'm done giving you these tests. I've finished analyzing your combat capabilities." Nobody believed those words. When he saw that not a single person relaxed, he smiled. "Good. You all learn quickly. I guess that's why your students are attending Theta's Grand Magic Academy, right?" He began to pace, shifting his gaze from side to side. "As you all know, in exactly a week from now, a joint training camp will commence between the 7 Grand Magic Academies. It is my responsibility to compile a list of students I believe are qualified enough to participate."
Everyone held their breath. It had been the talk of the town over the weekend, and they were finally going to be let in on how this selection process would work.
"I can see the hunger in your eyes. All of you know this isn't the kind of opportunity you can miss out on. This is your chance to prove yourself while also getting to compare your strengths to those of the rest of the world. However, getting recommended won't be easy." Credo stopped his pacing. He snapped his finger, and a massive holographic screen appeared in the air, displaying a calendar of this whole week.
"Like I said, every single day this week, I will be watching you." I will give a lesson. As well as a small examination. I won't tell you what the examination is, so always stay on your toes. On Friday, you will be given one last final examination on what I consider to be your biggest weakness. After that, I'll make my choices. You'll be alerted via a letter home by Sunday as to whether or not you were selected."
After giving that explanation, Credo snapped his fingers, and the section for Monday on the hologram lit up. "Today, I will talk about how to kill an ability."
Before anyone could even understand it, Credo had begun to lecture. Nobody was prepared for it, and it was even harder to listen to a lecture when you were prepared to have a world-ending test thrown at you at any moment. It didn't help that with the added pressure from the fact that every move you made mattered now.
But Masayoshi Shibai was distracted for a different reason. His mind was occupied with a set of thoughts that replayed through his head every single day. Ever since the siege on Theta Magic Academy and his battle against Wrath, Masayoshi's mind was infected with a parasite. One that fueled itself on internal strife within his one mind. A vicious parasite that took up all the space in his head and left no space for anything else. A ceaseless and infinite parasite that devoured his mind from the inside.
That parasite was the idea of justice.
Not Justice. The Idea of Justice.
No longer could Masayoshi go around and continually preach to others that justice was something that had to exist no matter what. He could no longer justify himself and his own actions. His very claims that he was searching for justice were all lies. That had been laid bare for him to see by none other than a vulgar terrorist.
Wrath. Masayoshi's battle with Wrath was where his own hypocrisy was shown to him in all of its glory. In their fight, Wrath had shown him that his idea of justice was nothing more than an illusion he created because he couldn't accept the truth. What was the term for that?
Delusion.
He was delusional. He had become so obsessed with proving his father wrong that when he had come across the truth, the real answer, he had cast it to the side in order to continue living under the false notion that justice existed. Because at least then he wouldn't have lost. At least then his father's twisted ideals and fucked-up methods wouldn't have been proved right.
But it was always just delusion. It was never real. He only clung to it because he could not accept that.
And he still couldn't accept it. He couldn't accept the cruelty that both Wrath and his father used. They could only justify that cruelty by claiming that the world was a place of suffering without justice. If justice didn't exist, then there was no point. This whole war, everything. There would be no reason to try and stop it. No reason to oppose it. There would be no reason to debate as to whether or not the riots around the world have just cause. There would be no reason to try to understand one another, to try to come to peace, or to stop senseless slaughter and genocide. There would be no reason to try. If justice didn't exist, there wouldn't be a need for any thought besides
'Blow your enemies to dust.'
But Masayoshi could not, would not, and would never buy that. He could not accept the fact that the world was a place of suffering, where justice could not be found.
But he could not prove justice was real either. He could reject the ideas of others however much he wanted, but at the end of the day, if he could not prove where justice lay, on what side, and with what methods, then it was nothing more than baseless delusion.
And there was a thought in Masayoshi's mind. One that told him maybe he wasn't the right person for the job. He was a hypocrite, a murderer. He was just like his pathetic father. If anyone was going to locate true justice, it would never be him.
But just like he couldn't accept the idea that justice wasn't real, he couldn't accept this either. He's already obsessed. There was no point in trying to deny that now.
The words that Wrath had shared with him during their battle stuck with him even to that moment. As he was pinned down and beaten. Punched again and again. Wrath had said to him,
"Something in your past led you to become obsessed with Justice!" You spent the rest of your life searching, chasing, stumbling after the answer to your question, refusing to accept that any other possibility was true!" "Unable to find your answer but too obsessed to let go, you kept searching. You threw everything to the side and justified it by saying once you found your answer, it would all be worth it! You've spent your entire life fighting against who you really are! What you really are!
Do you know how I know? Because that was me. Before the witch blessed me with the power to make a means to an end. I can create the justice I want. Can you say the same?"
Those words at the end stuck with him more than anything. Wrath had said that with the power the witch had given him, the 'delusion,' he had been able to create his own justice.
That was the final straw. Wrath had the power to create his own justice, no matter how twisted and dystopian it was. Masayoshi could not say the same.
If you can't find justice, then you have to create it yourself. He thought to himself.
But Masayoshi did not have the power to create it himself. So that left him here. Obsessed with something that he could never find and didn't have the power to realize via his own hands.
"Hey! Hey! Masayoshi, pay attention, dude. What's going on? It's seriously not like you to zone out this badly." Masayoshi was brought back to reality by Nova waving her hand in front of his face. He shook his head slightly before glancing at her.
"Sorry, I was just lost in thought."
"Clearly. Dude, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were high, or faded, maybe even drunk." Masayoshi wanted to laugh at that joke. He would have normally laughed at that joke before pretending it wasn't funny. But now, something inside of him stopped. A wrongness. A feeling that something was out of place. He didn't know what it was.
He was going to turn back to the lecture when Nova grabbed his arm. He turned back to look at her. She had a confused expression on her face, mixed with a bit of concern. "You know, you've been acting weird ever since the attack. I understood at first. We were all shocked, roughed up by it. But, for you to still look like that. It's unlike you, Masayoshi. I noticed it in the battle as well. You're usually the calm one. The composed one telling everyone else to keep their head. But back then, and right now.... Nova didn't finish her sentence, and she didn't need to.
Her words stung. He knew she didn't mean them like that, but they stung anyways. She was basically saying that the image his friends had built up of him was one of someone who was always calm, composed, and unemotional.
Just like my father trained me to be.
He felt a sudden urge to throw up, and he began to laugh a bit.
Nova's eyes widened as she watched him.
Realizing what he was doing, he shook it off. "I'm fine." I'll be back to normal in a bit. I just needed some time to...think, about things." He gave a dismissive answer.
Nova stared at him for a few seconds longer. "You know, you can talk to us if you need to. Me, Erika, Raiden, any of us. We're your friends, after all. And it's better to handle things that you can't crack on your own with the help of others. We saw that during the siege. Had we not worked together, no doubt we would have lost to Wrath. No doubt Theta would have been overtaken by the Fangless Python."
Masayoshi nodded at her words. Although internally he was thinking to himself, "There's no way I could come to you guys for that." I-I can't let you see what the true me is like.
"Just saying, handling things alone never works out. If you need it, ask for help." Nova smiled at him.
"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind." Masayoshi gave his best attempt at a smile back.
They both then turned their attention back towards Credo. However, Masayoshi had already missed a majority of the lecture, and now Credo was wrapping up.
"Now, you may wonder why being able to completely neutralize an ability is so important, so I'll give you an example that hits close to home. Of the people who besieged Theta Magic Academy, there were five who possessed special abilities beyond that of just stringing together magic sequences to create abilities. We also noticed that these five all had marks, or parts of their bodies that had been given up. It seems like in return for whatever they used to gain these abilities, they had to give up a portion or part of themselves."
The entire arena was silent as he spoke.
"Where they got those abilities from is unimportant at that moment. However, what is important is their actual abilities. These abilities weren't just like regular magic sequences put together to create the illusion of it working in one way, like most magical abilities are. Instead, these abilities were one set function that completely broke the laws of magic and reality themselves. The Mages Association has decided to call these abilities 'delusions."
Credo took a pause, and a chilling silence overtook the entire arena. Now the phenomenon they couldn't explain had a name. Delusions. Giving up one part of your body for power that violated the laws of magic and reality.
"From what we gathered from witness testimony and our own research, these abilities do not require the processing of sequences. More than that, their effect on the physical world is more than that which can be achieved with magic. I will explain these abilities now." He snapped his fingers, and the hologram screen changed to display the five attackers, as well as a description of their abilities.
"Wrath had the ability to wipe things from existence completely. That was deduced by a student here, and it fell in line perfectly with all of the confusions we had at his other scenes of attack prior to this." He glanced at Masayoshi when he said that. "The girl in pink had the ability to put people under some sort of mind control that stripped them of their wills. Aergia, the girl in the hoodie who reaped the most lives, had the ability to send out slashes by cutting the air in such a way that it created a rift of dead space, which obliterated anything in its path. The man in the black suit had the ability to place people and things inside of a pocket dimension of his. After he was defeated, his ability was released, and people and things that went missing years ago suddenly turned back up. His ability was one of the most dangerous by far, second only to the White Knight of Pride. His ability literally put him in a domain above people he deemed lesser than him."
Discussion sparked as everybody reacted to the true nature of these abilities. Masayoshi himself was shocked. How had they even won going up against that?
"If I may ask, who ended up defeating Pride?" How?" Alice asked. She was unable to comprehend how someone on a different plane was able to be defeated. She seemed hesitant to ask her question. It seemed she still didn't trust Credo.
"I would explain it if I could. However, I think it's better if you ask the person who did it. They're in this room right now." Everyone went silent. Credo pointed in front of him.
Directly at Raiden, who was standing a few feet to the side of him.
"Huh?"
"Well then, Chisaki?" How did you do it?"
Every single eye in the room turned to him, and Masayoshi could see that Raiden was not prepared to deal with this. Masayoshi did a silent prayer for him.
"Well, then spill it." How do you beat a guy who's in a higher dimension than you? I want details. The exact method you used to not just hurt, but defeat this man who was said to have been untouchable. Go as in-depth as possible—" Alice adjusted her glasses and had a notebook in hand as she began to rush towards where Raiden was standing.
"I-I, I don't really think-y- you" He was completely unable to formulate a sentence under the pressure.
However, at that moment, the bell rang.
Everyone froze as a silence descended over the class. Credo broke that silence. "I didn't get to give you your examination yet." How about this? The first person, or group, to catch Chisaki and make him talk, I will bump up in my list of recommendations. Chisaki, if you manage to avoid being kidnapped until the end of the school day, you get the same reward."
There was a brief second of pause as people digested what Credo had said.
And then all hell broke loose as students burst out of the arena, tracking down Raiden, who had sprinted out of there as quickly as he could.
Next to Masayoshi, Erika grabbed Nova's hand, pulling her out of the arena. "Come on, Nova, Masayoshi! We've got a bounty to hunt!"
However, Masayoshi didn't move. Eventually it was only him and Credo in the arena. But Masayoshi wasn't focused on the red-haired teacher. Instead, his gaze was locked onto a figure that stood tall in the distance.
Dressed paladin style, from head to toe in a shimmering silver armor that glowed and shone like a star in the sun. Along with the beautiful armor, the knight had a long gold blade decorated in shining gems on their side. From out of their helmet there was long, flowing white hair that was carried by the wind. And the knight rode a majestic white steed, as pure and white as snow.
It felt like he was staring at a fading painting.
Something too beautiful to be real. At that moment the knight began to remove their helmet.
When Masayoshi blinked, the image was gone. He stood there in awe for a long time. When he finally turned around to leave, still shocked by what he had seen, Credo spoke out to him.
"You know. Sometimes the ability to think, the ability to ponder, is a cancer." Credo's vermillion red eyes and multiple pupils were trained on Masayoshi's back. "At times, thinking is what causes you to make the wrong decision and take the wrong path."
"Emanator of ■■■■■■■. What will you do? Will you follow your gut and trust what you believe? Or will you think, and think, and think yourself into a path of no return?"