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“…Huh?”

When I came back to myself after briefly losing consciousness, I was standing in a pure white space.

Momo and the others were nowhere to be seen, and the countless wounds that had covered my body had all vanished without a trace.

Had I finally died, or was this just another dream?

“Come to think of it, I never did figure out the true nature of this dream…”
“Ah, if that’s what you’re after, you should check the underground again once you wake up. I bet it’s still there, y’know!”

A reply came to my muttered words, spoken in an unfamiliar voice.

But when I looked around, no one was there. No magical signatures either—though whether I could even sense such things in this state, I wasn’t sure.

“Not down there, up ↑ here ↑.”
“Well, well… another bunch of bizarre characters shows up, huh…”

Descending slowly with a cascade of light were two girls in starkly contrasting colors: one black, the other white.

The black girl was utterly suffused in “black.” In this dazzling radiance, her form was as if darkness itself had been distilled to its utmost density. Only the jagged saw-blade grin at her lips and the rhombus-shaped gleam of her eyes offered any color besides black, just enough for me to judge that she was, indeed, a girl.

And then—the white girl…

“…That’s me?”

Clinging to the black girl’s back, the white one bore a form that was a perfect reflection of my own.

No, more accurately—the body I currently inhabited was but a vessel to endure a thousand years of imprisonment into which my soul had been transplanted. Meaning the one before me now was—

“She’s the girl lending you her body, y’know? Be nice to her!”
“———…”
“Ah, she can’t speak for certain reasons, so forgive her, yeah? If she said the wrong thing, the whole world would fall apart, after all.”
“I see… her name was Babel, wasn’t it?”

I wasn’t entirely sure, but when I spoke the name Theo had once spat out with such loathing, the white girl gave a faint smile and inclined her head ever so slightly.

Even if the body was the same, with a different soul inside, the impression could change so completely. It left me with a strange, complicated feeling.

“Oooh, correct, correct! Even in this situation, you stay calm—impressive, y’know!”
“So what’s your name? I’d guess you’re the last one.”

This time I addressed the black girl. In response, she broke into a jagged, ear-splitting grin completely unlike Babel’s and her eyes gleamed with delight.

Ragna, War, Theo, Babel. And then there had been Noah and, right before I lost consciousness, that girl Pest.

That made six who claimed the title of the Seven Calamities. Which meant there was still one missing. The one to fill that gap had to be this black shadow before me.

“My name, huh. If I had to say, call me Null. The calamity I represent is ‘Invasion by Unknown Intelligent Life.’”

I couldn’t read her expression, but she spread her arms in a showy pose as if to declare *tada, nailed it!* Once again, light poured down upon her from above.

Looking up, I saw the source: a silver, disk-shaped magic tool, glowing brilliantly. How it floated, I couldn’t begin to understand—but trying to apply common sense in this place was surely pointless.

“So? What do you want with me? Or is this some kind of payback on Theo’s behalf?”
“Wrong, wrong! My business is more like an apology—and a warning. In fact, we’re actually at odds with our sisters.”
“…At odds?”
“That’s right. You see, the Seven Calamities share a common purpose: to wipe out humanity. We’ve been doing it again and again, countless times.”
“That’s strange. I saw the world a thousand years in the future myself, and humanity wasn’t extinct at all. They were thriving, same as ever.”
“Maybe their numbers weren’t the problem. But what about their *technology*, hm? When you got out of prison, weren’t you excited to see the wonders of the world a thousand years beyond your own?”
“…”

Null had struck straight at the splinter that had been lodged in my thoughts ever since I returned to the surface.

Back during my imprisonment, I had dreamed of magecraft from a future I couldn’t imagine.

But when I actually lifted the lid… the so-called progress of magecraft after a thousand years turned out to be meager. In fact, on a personal level, I sometimes even thought my own skills surpassed theirs.

“In the span of a thousand years, humanity’s been culled over and over. And each time, they kept repeating the same mistake right up to the present, y’know.”
“The same mistake?”
“—Rebellion against God.”

For a wizard, Null’s theatrically delivered words couldn’t have been more trite.

If she’d been talking to a devout sorcerer, they might’ve nodded along so hard their head nearly came off. But as for me—I’d committed countless acts of defiance against God already.

“Well, well, the real story starts here. So lend me an ear, Laika Galactica—little stray puppy cast off into space.”¹　
“In a place like this, it’s not like I’ve got much else to do but hear you out. So you lot are supposed to be God’s apostles, punishing rebellion?”
“Sharp one, aren’t you. That’s about right. Remember this: you humans were exterminated many times.”

Null tapped her finger against my forehead.

Up close, I realized her body wasn’t truly black. Rather, it was so oversaturated with colors—shifting, writhing, endlessly blending—that it only looked black. The moment I focused on the swarm of countless hues crawling like ants at her fingertip, my eyes began to ache.

“Once it was a colossal rock falling from the heavens. Once it was the sea swallowing the land in a great upheaval. Once it was humanity’s own foolish wars. Once it was three cycles of bitter winters, fire, and giants devouring the earth. Once it was an unknown plague that took hold. Again and again, humanity perished.”
“…There’s no record of anything like that. No memory of it, either.”
“Right. Humanity as it is now retains none of those records. Poor little Galactica—you of all people should understand what that means, shouldn’t you?”
“……”
“We two got tired of the cycle, so we stepped out of it. And we want our beloved sisters to give up this hollow game too.”
“———…”
“Hm? What’s wrong, Babel? …Ah, I see. Time’s up.”

Babel tugged at Null’s sleeve—or what passed for one—and with a sharp crack, the space around us began to fracture.

At the same time, my own body started to turn transparent, as if syncing with those spreading fissures.

“Too bad. We’ll have to save the rest of the story for next time. Even if you want to meet again, you won’t find me anywhere in three-dimensional space.”
“Wait—don’t just cut the conversation off on your own! I’ve got a mountain of questions I want answered—”
“No worries. Theo’s sloppy with her work. Dig through the ruins, I’m sure you’ll find something still lying around.”

Null and Babel’s figures drifted farther and farther away. I tried to reach out, but my hand wouldn’t obey, fading with the rest of me.

The heat and pain seeping back into my body reminded me all too clearly of the grievous wounds I bore in reality.

“*——Find Babel*, Galactica. If it’s you, you’ll manage it. Bye-bye!”

Before I could spit out a retort, my dream was cut short.