The sage, who shook his curly hair and raised his head, did not look at Lin Yiyan with slightly moist eyes, and replied in a somewhat nostalgic tone, "In ancient times, most of the monsters and monsters lived in the forests and wilderness of the human world. You should be familiar with these, right? ”

That is...... Named Monster, right? But...... Shamilles spoke, and there was emotion...... She doesn't have a Fluct Light, ......? ”

"No...... To paraphrase the world you're in, it's like an NPC. She does not exist in the Light-Cube, but is stored in a corner of the Main Visualizer and assigned as part of the system of the Micro Analog Thinking Engine. In the distant past, there were many large beasts, ancient trees, giant rocks, and other objects in the human world that could be answered in general terms like her. However, they are all gone. Half of it was wiped out by the Knights of Integration, and the other half was used as a resource by the Administrator. ”

"I see...... Like the guardian dragon that turned into bones in the caverns of the northern mountains......"

"That's right. The old body felt that this was too ruthless, so he protected the newly generated AIs as much as possible. Although most of the sensory sharing terminals driven by the old body are small active units without thinking devices, there are also AI that have been protected in this way and have been entrusted with the task by me. After all, these guys have super high stats, and their small form factor makes them almost unharmed. This is also the reason why you hide in your clothes, and no matter how much you mess around, you will not be harmed. ”

"But, but...... But. Lin Yiyan's eyes suddenly focused on Charmille's remains lying in Cardinal's palm, and he held back his tears to prevent them from falling, and continued to ask, "Charmille's words...... And action, which is no longer at the level of simulated AI. She...... Saved me. Sacrificed his life for me. Why...... Why, there is such a thing......"

"It should have been said before that this child has lived for fifty years. During this time, she became acquainted with many human beings, including me, and grew herself. And it has been two years since I followed you...... We've spent so much time together, even without Fluct Light—"

Cardinal's voice suddenly increased, pausing before he could say the rest of the word.

"Even if the essence is nothing more than the accumulation of input and output signals, there is a true heart in it. That's right, sometimes love - you'll never understand, Adminsitrator, Emptiness! ”

With a fierce shout, the eyes of the sage of the secluded world finally looked straight at the enemy of two hundred years. Floating high in the distance, silently staring at the supreme ruler below, he did not answer immediately. His intertwined hands covered his mouth, and the eyes of the mirror shone with a mysterious light.

According to what I heard from Cardinal in the library, the Administrator abandoned almost all of his feelings by operating his Fluct Light in order to prevent betrayal by the self-correcting sub-process that had become the basis of Cardinal's current Cardinal System when it merged with the true Cardinal System program. Since she was divided into two, there was no danger that her body would be controlled by the sub-process, so her feelings became useless to her, and there was no need to repair them.

Because of this, I imagine that the Administrator should be the kind of person who handles tasks mechanically and does things very procedurally. However, when I saw her on the top floor of the cathedral, she was far from what I had imagined. The contempt for Chuderkin, the smile that teased us, those expressions did not seem to be fake.

And now too-

The silver-haired girl with silver eyes covered her mouth with her hands let out a pearl-like laugh and narrowed her eyes.

Scold. Hehe.

For the Administrator, Cardinal's sharp accusations were nothing more than a breeze in the air. I saw her shrug her slender shoulders and laugh again.

It wasn't long before a short, but confirmed the correctness of his previous fears, came out of the mouth of the High Priest.

"I knew you were coming."

Heh, hehehe.

"If you torture these children, you'll come out of that smelly cavern one day. That's your limit, little one. I prepared chess pieces to fight against me, but I couldn't throw them away as pawns, and I was really incorrigible as a human being. ”

Sure enough—

Just as Lin Yiyan feared, the purpose of the Administrator to push Lin Yiyan and them to the brink of death was to lure Cardinal out of the Great Library of Isolation from the world. In other words, even in this situation, she still has a way to ensure victory.

Yet—the Colossus of the Sword as the ultimate weapon is nearly destroyed, and Yugeo and I are more or less able to fight. Alice also seemed to have regained consciousness, and was holding the ground with one hand, trying to stand up.

Cardinal and Administrator, who are on the same page, will definitely end up in a tie if they go head-to-head, so there is no problem in making a judgment that the situation is extremely favorable to this side.

In other words, the Administrator should have stopped and watched at least the moment Cardinal appeared and began to attack with all his might. So why did she sit back and watch the Colossus be destroyed, Lin Yiyan and Alice successfully recovered, and let Lin Yiyan and Cardinal have those brief conversations?

Cardinal should have the same question as me. But there was still no wavering in her expression.

"Hmm. I haven't seen you for a while, but you're still a little human. Isn't it that you've been practicing smiling in the mirror for 200 years? Hearing such harsh words, the Administrator still just smiled.

"Ah, isn't it strange that little one speaks in this way? When you were brought to me two hundred years ago, your heart trembled. That's right, Lijelis-chan. ”

"Don't call the old man by that name, Quenella! The old man's name is Cardinal, and it's a program that exists only to destroy you. ”

"Hehe, too. My name is Administrator, the person who manages everything. I'm sorry for being a little late to say hello, little one. After all, it took some time to prepare the technique to welcome you. ”

The Administrator, who had said this haughtily, slowly raised his right hand.

The soft fingers stretched out twitched as if they wanted to hold something invisible. The porcelain-like cheeks that have never changed color until now emit a faint red light, and the silver pupils also contain a poignant brilliance. I sensed that the High Priest had finally gathered his spirit, and there was a shudder behind him that seemed to be pierced by countless ice needles.

Dministrator's slender right hand clenched immediately.

At the same time -

Click!! Countless hard cracking sounds rang out violently from all directions around them. It felt like all the glass walls around the room had shattered.

However, in reality, this is not the case. It was the other end of the window that shattered - the sea of dark clouds, the twinkling stars above, and the entire night sky with a faint glow of blue-white moon.

Lin Yiyan could only watch blankly as the world turned into countless flat fragments flying apart, clashing with each other and shattering the falling scene. On the other side of the glittering fragment exists a sight that can only be described as 'non-existent'.

In the darkness, where there was neither light nor depth, there was a marbled purple texture that slowly distorted. That is, if you look at it for a long time, even your own spirit will be sucked into the void, a completely empty world.

Although the colors and aesthetics were completely different, I still remembered for a moment that it was a similar scene that I had seen. It was the white light I had seen in the past when the floating city of Ain Grant collapsed, enveloping and extinguishing the sunset. Could it be that this Under orld will also completely collapse and disappear as well!? Whether it's the human world, the Dark Territory, the villages, or the streets...... And the people who live here, are they not immune?

What pulled me back from a strong panic was Cardinal's voice, which was a little surprised, but still calm, "You guy...... Let's isolate the address. ”

What - what does this mean?

Lin Yiyan, who was puzzled, couldn't take his eyes off the Administrator, only to see the silver-haired girl gently put down her right hand and responded softly, "...... It was indeed my mistake two hundred years ago to let you escape, little one. I'm the one who set that stinking cave into a discontinuous address, right? So, I've learned from this failure. As long as I lure you out, I'll lock it off from my side and turn this place into a cage for cats with rat-hunting mouses. ”

After saying this, the High Priest, as if trying to stir up the atmosphere, stretched out his left hand and snapped his fingers. Then, with a much quieter sound of destruction, the charred brown door that stood behind shattered. The pieces scattered in the air were broken down into smaller pieces and vanished. In addition, the ring that should have been on the floor to mark the location of the lifting plate is gone.

Standing beside the lifting plate, with a blank expression, Yugeo stepped out with his right foot and stepped on the blanket several times. After that, his eyes moved up to look at Lin Yiyan, and his head shook slightly.

That is to say-

The Administrator is not destroying the world outside the window, but the connection between the world and the top level of the cathedral.

Even if you try to destroy the windows and ceiling of this room, you won't be able to go forward. Because there's no room to move around at all. It's perfect as a means of locking up someone in the virtual space - and it's a technique that only people with managerial privileges can use. In comparison, the prison area set up in the Black Iron Palace on the first floor of the old Iron, is simply pediatric.

The Administrator didn't waste the minutes that had elapsed since Cardinal's appearance, but instead used it for the massive scale of the procedure.

However. If the continuity of space is completely cut off, that is-

"This analogy is still a bit inaccurate." Cardinal, who had noticed the same question one step earlier than Lin Yiyan, replied in a low voice, "Although it is easy to cut off, it is difficult to reconnect. In other words, you're locked up here completely. In this case, can you still determine which side is the cat and which side is the mouse? After all, there are four of us, and you're alone. If you underestimate these young people, you're very wrong, Cuñera. ”