[Re:write] Episode 49: Analysis of Defeat and the Anti-Phase Score

—Rewrite despair.

[For first-time readers] If you want to grasp the world setting first,
here is the link to the beginning of the story, Episode 1.
👉 Episode 1: The Observer Wakes in the Forest
For work information and summaries, click here.
👉 For first-time readers | Please start Re:write from Episode 1

No one in the inn room at the village of Stonehill at the foot of the mountain spoke immediately.
The unreliable light of the lamp illuminated the faces of the group gathered around the table.

Fatigue.
Frustration.
Something like an unspeakable bitterness hung in the air.

Everyone was still reeling from the defeat they had suffered in the mine.
They had left one of their companions behind in enemy territory.
That fact alone made the air in the room heavy.
It was Kai who spoke first, as expected.

—Let's organize the situation.

His voice was flat. It was the same temperature as always.
However, the lamp flame flickered thinly once.
Kai spread a piece of parchment on the table.
On it were drawn the mine's floor plan, the tunnel branches, and the point where the connection with Undine was severed.
The lines were neat.
But at the very last point, the ink was slightly smudged.

First, let's define the nature of the enemy's attack.

Drake snorted low, his arms still crossed.
The villagers were saying whatever they wanted about curses and grudges.

That is not a curse. At least, not as a phenomenon.
Kai pointed to the depths of the tunnel with the tip of his quill.

The fragments of sensation Undine sent at the end. And the input I received inside the mine. From that, we can infer. The enemy is using a specific 'sound'.
Sound, you say?
It's not necessarily a sound heard by the ears. It could be too high or too low. Or perhaps it's a wave that interferes directly with the connection surface of magic or the soul, rather than hearing.

Light returned to Ellara's eyes.
It wasn't fear.
It was pure intellectual curiosity.

I see. Interference with the information structure, not physical destruction. No wonder armor and shields couldn't block it.

Is this the time to be impressed, glasses?
Drake grimaced.

An invisible attack is too nasty for words. You can't just smash it with a hammer.
If there were a sound you could smash, that wouldn't be a sound, it would be a blunt weapon, you dwarf.
Shut up. Just let me have the feeling of hitting something I can't see.

A feeling won't provide defense.
Kai said briefly.

Drake was silent for a moment, then shrugged.
I know. That's why I'm listening to you.

With those words, the air in the room loosened slightly.
Kai drew a wavy line on the parchment.

"Fear comes from the unknown. If you can grasp its true nature, you can devise countermeasures."
"So, how are you going to counter that invisible sound?"
"By countering it on the same dimension."

Kai drew another wavy line, facing the opposite direction, over the first one.
"Not with a physical shield, but by pitting sound against sound. Wave against wave."

Aria stared at the lines in silence.

"The theory is simple. Imagine ripples. If a wave coming from the right is met by a wave of the same size from the left at the exact opposite timing, what happens?"

Elara started to answer, then closed her mouth.
Her gaze turned to Aria.
Aria thought for a moment, then placed her fingertips to her lips.
"…They would cancel each other out, wouldn't they?"

"Correct."
Kai nodded.

"They offset each other. We generate a wave with the opposite shape to the enemy's attack waveform—that 'song'—and strike it. The two songs interfere with each other and lose their power."

Drake furrowed his brows.
"You mean killing a song with a song?"
"It's a crude way to put it, but close."
"Crude, but easy to understand."

Elara peered at the parchment.
"The problem is how to acquire the enemy's song. To create an anti-phase, you first need the original waveform. You can't invert something if you don't know its shape."

Kai nodded as if he had been waiting for those words.

"I'll leave that to you."
"To me?"
"I want you to consider a way to reproduce the enemy's song. Not a perfect reproduction. A dampened copy will do for starters. Extract only the waveform within a range that can be safely contained."

Elara's expression changed.
Excitement surged through her. But this time, it wasn't lighthearted. Her eyes, fixed on the paper, narrowed and sharpened.

"…I see. A reproduction device, not a recording device. It's dangerous. Extremely dangerous. But it's also necessary."
"Can you do it?"
"I won't say I can. But it's worth considering. The memory of the song you heard. The fragments left by the Undine. The magical reverberations in the mine. If we layer those, we might be able to get at least the outline."
"That's enough."
"It's not enough. Precision is life for an anti-phase. If it's off even slightly, there's a possibility it will amplify it instead of erasing it."

At those words, the atmosphere in the room grew heavy.
Aria's fingertips, still clasped on her lap, turned slightly white.
Kai saw it.
But he said nothing.

"That's why we'll divide it into stages."

Kai placed three marks in the margins of the parchment.
"First stage: Safe reproduction of the enemy's song. Elara will be in charge of this. Second stage: Inversion of the reproduced waveform. Third stage: Deployment via Mist."

"Mist?"
Aria looked up.

Kai's gaze shifted to the small water spirit floating beside her.
"Yes. Mist is the optimal medium for playing the counter-song."

Mist was swaying slightly at Aria's shoulder. Catching the light from the lamp, the inside of its transparent body glowed faintly.

"A human voice is too slow. Instruments are too coarse. A magic circle alone cannot keep up with the changes in the enemy's song."

Kai traced the circle he had drawn on the parchment with his finger.
"I'll have Mist deploy a fog barrier around us. It will be made of water particles so fine they're invisible."

Elara narrowed her eyes behind her glasses.
"…Are you going to use that fog to catch the enemy's song?"

"That's right."
Kai nodded.

"The fog will catch the enemy's song. It will read the vibrations and instantly convert them into an anti-phase. It will make each individual particle vibrate in the opposite direction."
"So, you take the hit, then erase it."
"That's the idea."

Drake crossed his arms again.
"In other words, we're going to take one hit."
"The fog will take the hit. Not us."
"And if the fog can't hold up?"
"It will collapse."

It was a short answer.
The air in the room grew a little heavier.
Aria gently pulled Mist, who had been on her lap, closer. The edges of its transparent body trembled slightly as they caught the light from the lamp.
Kai saw this.
But he said nothing.

"That is why, Aria, I need you."
"Me…"
"You won't be hearing the enemy's song directly. You won't be taking on the pain directly either."

Kai returned his gaze to Mist.
"The fog will be the first to take the hit. Mist's particles will be shaken by the enemy's song. You will feel those vibrations through Mist."

Aria's fingertips rested quietly on her lap.
"…We will be sharing the sensation, then."
"Yes. But you won't have to take it head-on."

Kai tapped the circle he had drawn on the parchment.
"The fog will take the hit. Mist will convert it. You will support the center so it doesn't collapse."

Aria looked at Mist.
Its small, watery body was swaying as it caught the lamp's light.

"So that Mist doesn't fall apart."
"Exactly."
"…I understand."

Her voice was soft.
But it did not waver.

"I will support it."

Elara ran her quill across the paper.

"The problem is the reference waveform for the inversion. If we can't replicate the enemy's song even once, the barrier won't be able to react. Kai, we'll use the memory of the song you heard and the fragments Undine left behind."
"Is it possible?"

"I wouldn't call it safe."
Elara answered immediately.

"Playing the enemy's song as it is is out of the question. First, we'll create an ultra-thin replica. We'll extract something closer to a shadow than a sound. We need a box. A box to trap the song. A box that won't let it echo, won't let it leak, and will allow only us to read its outline."
"Can you make it?"
"We have no choice but to make it."

The tip of the quill scratched thinly against the parchment.
"They have Undine on their side."

The moment that name was mentioned, the temperature in the room refused to return to normal.

Drake lowered his voice.
"...So they're alive."

Kai did not answer immediately.
He was looking at the ink smudges on the parchment.

"There is no evidence of annihilation. The final connection was not a disconnection. A murky echo remained."

"In other words,"
Ellara said.

"They are captured. Or perhaps, ensnared."
"That is highly likely."
"How much time do we have?"
"Not much."

That was the only answer.
Aria tightened her grip on Mist.

"Let's go save them."
Her voice was soft.
But she did not back down.

"Undine is left all alone."

Kai nodded.
"We will rescue them. To do that, we must eliminate the reason we lost."

"This time, we'll stop them before they can make us listen to their song."
Drake said.

"We won't stop them."
Kai looked down at the two wavy lines on the parchment.

"We will erase them."

It was a short statement.
No one in the room made it sound any lighter.
Just then, there was a small sound of rustling fabric from under the table.
Mimi was peeking out from behind the chair. Whether she had been awake or had just woken up, he didn't know. She looked up at Kai with sleepy eyes and tilted her head slightly.

"...Big Brother Kai?"

Kai knelt down.
"What is it?"

"We won't lose this time, right?"

It was a simple question.
There were no theories, waveforms, or devices in the room.
It just reached straight into the center of his chest.

Kai looked into Mimi's eyes.
"We won't lose."

After a brief pause, he corrected himself.

"We will never lose again."

Mimi nodded, as if satisfied by that.
"Yeah."

She returned to the shadows of her chair and pulled a small blanket over herself.
No one laughed.
No one cried.
Kai stood up and drew the final line on the parchment. The path to the mine. Beyond that, the point where the Undine's signal had cut off. The flame of the lamp flickered thinly over the map.

"Tomorrow, we begin preparations."

Elara nodded.
"I will design a reproduction device. To safely contain the enemy's song."

Drake shouldered his warhammer.
"I'll remap the tunnels. The collapsed paths, the remaining ones, all of them."

Aria held Mist close to her chest.
"I will practice with Mist. To make sure I don't disturb the fog."

Kai looked at everyone.
"We have one goal. To bring the Undine back."

There was no reply.
Instead, each of them began to move.
The sound of a quill scratching paper. The sound of the warhammer's metal fittings clinking. The small sound of Mist stirring the water. Outside the inn, the night wind pushed against the shutters.
Before long, the light spilled out of the windows.
The village paths were dark, and the shadows of the houses sank low. Only the small window of the inn remained in the night.

Further away.

The roofs of Stonehill overlapped in black, and behind them lay the mountains of the mine.
The abandoned mine on the mountainside sat silent, its mouth closed tight on this moonless night.

To read the continuation/background

Click here for the link to the beginning of the story, Chapter 1
👉　Chapter 1: The Observer Wakes in the Forest
Click here for work information and summaries
👉　For first-time readers | Please start 'Re:write' from Chapter 1

👉 Click here for a summary of the story of the novel 'Re:write' so far.

Click here for my self-introduction article.
It also includes summaries of each work and links to magazines. 👇