[430] A Chance for Revenge (2)
Shirone and Plu arrived at the Second Command and waited in a room.
Of course, "wait" was the crewman's word; in reality it was little different from being quarantined.
Plu, who had been watching the situation outside, sat down beside Shirone.
"Now tell me. What the hell happened?"
Shirone explained everything that had occurred in Babel's control room.
The Ultima system that unified all signals and transmitted them. The historical records of Babel obtained through that Ultima system.
Plu let out a long breath and fell quiet in thought.
He'd heard the rough outlines of Heaven's history, but this was a completely different matter.
"Could the person whose record was erased from the Babel project be the one involved with the reset?"
McClane Goffin.
Shirone was nearly certain.
Above all, it was staggering that Goffin could be tied to the great sin Ikael had committed.
"Thinking back, Goffin must have had reason to leave this world regardless. That's probably why he chose the complicated route of reset and reconstruction."
"Maybe, but I think it's tied to the Ultima system. How did it work exactly?"
"It's closer to a sensation than a language. Like touching something hot makes you feel heat, or a prick from something sharp makes you feel a sting—signals like that were distinguished into almost infinite categories and streamed in."
"Hmm. I think I get it…"
You could understand it intellectually, but unless you were the recipient there was no way to know the actual feeling.
"In that sense, the Ultima system might be the opposite of the Akashic Record. If the Akashic Record treats the whole as perfect even when parts change, the Ultima system clearly differentiates every part. If all the Gaians had been integrated into the Ultima system, it's no exaggeration to say they could have stood against Anke Ra."
"But conversely, doesn't that mean the fewer the numbers, the weaker the power?"
"Yes. I'm only able to distinguish the meanings of the signals to a limited degree."
Plu disagreed.
"That's actually an excellent ability. It would help a lot even where you don't know the language, and there'll be countless ways to apply it."
"Yes. Provided we get out of here alive."
At Shirone's bitter joke, Plu gave a wry smile.
"Right. By the way, where did Babel go? If it's a weapon to use against Heaven, did it head to Heaven?"
"Could be. In any case, we should report it to Mr. Sein. Something big could unfold."
"Yeah. If the chance comes, let's ask Mr. Gardrak. He really seems to hate being here."
"Clove too."
They both stifled a laugh.
* * *
Heaven's Sixth Thousand, Jebul.
Since Arius entered Drimo, Kariel had not left the Great World War for an instant.
Miro still showed no sign of waking.
It wouldn't be easy.
Even someone well-versed in the human heart, trying to extract only matters concerning Miro from Drimo—where mental energy gathers—was as difficult as releasing fish into the sea and trying to catch the same fish ten years later.
"If Brahmara's on it, she'll manage."
Brahmara was a Mara famed for supreme insight, so Kariel could entrust it.
Still, the shadow on Kariel's beautiful face didn't lift as she stared at the central computation device.
At that moment, data from a category stored long ago flashed on the screen.
The year showed it was information buried so deep that even an angel's memory held it only faintly.
Kariel's eyes lit with curiosity as she probed.
"What is this?"
She stared at the screen so long she tilted her head in incomprehension.
Babel had descended.
When she attempted to track its position, it was confirmed. A red dot flashed on the screen, racing over Purgatory.
"But how?"
Kariel herself had been the one to disrupt Babel's production process in the war against Gaia.
Kariel, archangel of Birth, disliked Uriel's method of destruction.
It was unproductive, irreversible, and foolish.
Instead, she had reworked the algorithms in the Babel program so that Babel would reset any recognized enemy from Heaven into a subject.
That had been a primary reason Gaia's second uprising failed.
"Who activated it?"
Since Goffin's erasure, pure Nephilim no longer existed in Purgatory. That said, there was no reason an angel would break Anke Ra's decree and wake Babel.
Kariel transmitted Babel's data to the screen.
From the moment the program started, the screens Babel searched unfolded in first-person perspective.
A face Kariel knew well appeared.
As Babel approached, the boy's face filled the display.
Babel ultimately judged him non-attackable.
If the boy on the screen was the one Kariel knew, that verdict made utter sense.
"Krkrkr."
A thrill ran through Kariel's soul. From deep in her chest a satisfying laugh burst out.
"Khahahaha! Khahahaha!"
At last, her opportunity had come.
All beings with human blood deserved to die, but Shirone was particularly loathsome.
The human Ikael loved most.
"After seeing this, do you still have the gall to stand proud before me?"
Kariel left the Great World War for the first time in a long while.
The first thing to come to her mind was Ikael's face, drained of color.
Heaven's Seventh Thousand, Arabot.
Arabot, where Anke Ra resided, housed a chamber where the archangel Ikael—once chief among angels—was confined.
When Kariel reached the corridor, she strode forward wearing a triumphant smile.
Of course she had no intention of handing over information about Shirone.
Although his power was sealed, the name Ikael still symbolized glory to angels.
It was premature.
But she couldn't bear to imagine this entertaining scene alone.
"Let's see that smug face. The initiative's in my hands anyway."
Just before she reached Ikael's door, a rift opened before Kariel and hundreds of panes of glass glittered at varying intensities.
The blurred outline attached to the panes sharpened, the lines faded, and a man's form materialized.
A signal panel capable of carrying specific information.
Ashur, the triangular Mara, blocked Kariel, his eyes as deep as his ink-dark hair.
"What business do you have in Arabot, Angel of Creation?"
"I'm here to see Ikael. She must be inside, right?"
Kariel stepped forward as if she needed no answer. Ashur quickly moved to block her again.
Kariel's face twisted with fury.
"A Mara dares obstruct me?"
She still vividly remembered when Ashur had appeared and pointed his sword just before she captured Shirone.
At the time he had acted under Ikael's orders, so Kariel had let it pass—but she would not forgive it now.
"Ikael does not wish to meet anyone."
"Anyone? A confined angel's quite bold. Move, insignificant Mara."
Kariel shoved Ashur roughly and flung the door wide before anyone could stop her.
There, foremost among angels—resplendent in pure white—Ikael sat demurely on the floor, awaiting Kariel.
"Long time no see, Kariel."
Kariel forced a smile.
Merely standing before Ikael still contracted her halo, but she refused to show weakness today.
"Hah. Sitting on the floor—it's ridiculous. What happened to the authority you once held as chief angel?"
Ikael returned a benevolent smile.
"Your presence has grown very faint. You've always been the sort to focus on one thing and neglect everything else."
Indeed, Kariel's complexion was visibly haggard. The bright, inventive gleam that used to create marvels had dulled.
"What have you been doing in places I don't know about? Anke Ra would have forbidden angelic activity."
"Krkrkr, what can you do about it? You have no power now. You must be dying to know what I'm plotting. No doubt you're going mad with curiosity. But what can you do? You're just a puppet angel with an old reputation."
"You're fretting like a child crying for milk. Tell me—what is it that frightens you?"
Frightened? Me?
Kariel's eyes widened.
"Hahaha! I'm not afraid of anything. I'm even greater than you now! Someone like me would never—!"
Kariel's words cut off.
Ikael began to loosen the ties of her pure-white robe.
She swept aside her collar and slipped a shoulder free; the upper garment slid smoothly down.
A straight neck holding proud shoulders, slender yet powerfully toned arms, a back with not an ounce of fat—Kariel's frozen face could be seen beyond that flawless form.
"Come here, Kariel. You're a clever child. Come into my arms like before and tell me everything. Sleep soundly, and when you wake everything will be all right."
"Uh…"
Dazed, Kariel lunged toward her, then snapped back to himself.
The woman he so despised remained beautiful.
The most perfect body made only of pure white.
No particle, no impurity—purity to the extreme.
He wanted to lie in her arms again, press his cheek to hers and confess everything.
Yes—that alone would have sufficed. The supreme ataraxia.
"That woman… that woman!"
One mere human had defiled her.
"Shut… up——!"
Kariel's halo expanded into a spinning aureole of light.
Everything in the room rattled; Ikael's golden hair fell mournfully across her face.
Kariel advanced, spraying words like a madman.
"Shut up! What right do you have to say such things? You… you—! Ugh!"
Unable to bear the turmoil in his mind, Kariel bowed his head in haste.
His already weakened presence nearly caused his halo to collapse.
"Damn it! Why…!"
Never—swear it, never—had he once desired to possess her or monopolize her.
His reverence was absolutely unlike human lust.
He had once felt absolute happiness simply from seeing that the archangel Ikael existed.
"Foolish humans! Filthy things!"
Why couldn't humans leave something beautiful as it was?
Did they have to possess it? Couldn't they share the beauty?
Everyone wanted Ikael's love. Was their jealousy so fierce that they stole her away?
To Kariel, Ikael was no longer awe-inspiring. She had become a withered flower crushed by base human hands.
"I will not forgive. No—I won't forgive!"
Kariel thrust his face toward the bowed Ikael and whispered.
"Listen well. I will never forget. So I'll do what you hate most. You did what I hate most."
After Kariel left, Ikael buttoned her collar with a composed air and spoke in a small voice.
"Ashur."
At the call, Ashur prostrated himself before her.
His expression was wretched in front of his lord, who had just been insulted by Kariel.
"Your eternal servant answers."
"Investigate what Kariel is plotting."
By the Law of the Vassals, Ashur's power was weakened as much as Ikael's had been sealed, but if it was her wish, there was no reason to refuse. Only—
"The atmosphere in Heaven is growing uneasy. If another incident like today happens…"
Ikael's bright smile made Ashur's words fall flat.
"That will not happen. Do it."
Whatever sins he had committed, Ikael was still Ikael.
A single smile could turn angels and Maras into those willing to lay down their lives.
Ashur bowed silently.
His body split into hundreds of panes of glass and in an instant he vanished.