«…» Luca Brewster glanced down at himself, hastily raised his right hand, and clutched once at the side.
His grey-green eyes deepened, with that motion, into a dark black.
The gold that had been melded into the staircase at once shot out and, in mid-air, fused into a thin suit of armour that fastened itself over Luca Brewster's body.
Luca worked his arms once, testing the effect, and explained:
«The 'Stiano Golden Armour Technique' — the defensive level is comparable to a Sequence 5 'Warden'.»
«Stiano?» Klein asked offhandedly.
Luca answered in the tone of one introducing an eminent historical figure:
«One of the earliest founders of the Mosse Ascetic Order.
«It is said that Emperor Roselle once improved this 'Golden Armour Technique'. I cannot say what effect his version would ultimately bring forth.»
…I can roughly imagine it… perhaps that 'Golden Armour' would come in twelve different styles… Klein muttered a couple of remarks within his own mind, then steered the conversation back to its proper course:
«Have Fenepot and the
Audrey, who had opened her eyes the moment Luca began describing the 'Stiano Golden Armour Technique', checked her impulse to turn her head and, her gaze unaltered, looked at the glittering demigod.
Luca sighed and said:
«Whatever they may have thought before, after tonight they will most certainly formally enter the war.
«Of course, for the moment they should not turn their aim at Loen; the high likelihood is that they will strike one of
After this expression of sentiment, the demigod of the Church of Knowledge said, with sincerity, to Audrey behind her silver-white mask:
«I am not sure what manner of consultation fee I ought to pay?»
Audrey glanced sideways at Mr. «World»:
«He has already paid.»
Luca Brewster thereupon shifted his gaze to Dawn Dantès.
Klein thought for a moment and said:
«Allow me to put a few questions.»
«Please.» At this moment Luca had nothing of the bearing of a demigod-half-man about him; he was rather more like a professor in a lecture room awaiting a pupil's question.
Were he able to strip off that golden armour and don a formal three-piece suit, the resemblance would be all the closer.
Klein, without pausing to think, asked outright:
«What do you know of the contamination originating from underground?»
In his view, what a saint of the Church of Knowledge, renowned for erudition, could know, he himself surely had the tier to bear; and were such a topic unsuitable for «Justice» to hear, he believed Luca would raise the objection — for the man was no mere «bookworm».
Since the discussion of underground contamination arose from the exploration of the sea of collective subconscious within «Grossel's Travels», Audrey had a certain grasp of the subject; just now she did not feel at all that the matter was beyond her, and she awaited the demigod's answer with rapt attention.
Luca knit his brows slightly:
«What I know of it is not much either; it seems that the understanding itself begets contamination.
«Eh, in an ancient text I once came upon this sentence: the higher the Sequence, the more dangerous it becomes to draw near the underground.»
Is that why 'Imaginary Dragon' Angeruwed left so deep a shadow and a certain dread? Audrey at once thought of what was sealed behind that great bronze door within Leveshid, the «City of Miracles».
She at once looked toward Mr. «World» beside her, but discerned not the slightest change of expression upon his face.
Klein, however, had the secret puppet nod gently, telling Lady «Justice» that the inference she had reached was the same as his own.
It made Audrey feel as though she had been carried back to the past — to a time when she was still a low-Sequence walker of the «Audience» pathway, utterly unable to read any useful intelligence from Mr. «World's» expression or gestures.
The higher the Sequence, the greater the threat from things below the earth? That runs counter to common sense… Seeing that Luca could offer no further information, Klein pondered a moment, then said:
«Second question — what do you prophesy concerning this war?»
At the mention of prophecy, Luca Brewster suddenly grew animated:
«At present it is but a beginning; the high point is yet far off.
«Furthermore, a greater destruction springs from the war and yet stands apart from it. What exactly it is, even I do not know.»
The war has only just lifted its curtain… Audrey's heart sank, beyond her power to check.
Springing from the war yet standing apart from it? Is it the godhood-ritual of
«Have you heard of the End-of-the-World Prophecy? What is your reading of it?»
Luca Brewster's expression turned grave in an instant:
«No — this is not a prophecy.
«Everyone with the power of prophecy is most certain that the End of the World is at hand.
«In the sacred scripture given by our God, it is said that the End of the World falls in the year 1368 of the Fifth Epoch.
«Of course, God has also said that there will be a saviour.»
The prophecy of the «
Only a dozen or so years until the End of the World… Audrey, somewhat dazed, turned the demigod's words over in her mind.