[439] The Day of the Full Moon (3)
With the external artificial brain activated, the time for Ataraxia to take effect sped up to more than twice what it had been.
Staring down the radiant five-colored halo aimed ahead, Shirone cast a spell.
"Photon Cannon!"
As the photons compressed and trembled like they were about to explode, Ikaasa appeared before him.
"Ugh!"
When the fist drove into his solar plexus, Armand bit down on it, but he couldn't completely cancel the shockwave.
An equivalent exchange of cause and effect.
Valhalla Action simply inverts potential and kinetic energy, but for beings bound by time it is an uncompromising, unadaptable trick.
"How dare you—!"
Ikaasa unleashed Valhalla Action's ultra–high-speed successive strikes, and Shirone swung Armand's tendril to deflect the blows.
When the Photon Cannon fired at point-blank range, Ikaasa evaded with dazzling weaving.
In a fight where hand-to-hand and magic unfolded at once, the surviving rebels dared not interfere.
"That's a Nephilim…"
A human was matching an angel blow for blow.
Even a fallen angel was supposed to be untouchable to the faithful.
For the cultists, it was as shocking as having a long-held belief shattered.
"This can't be!"
Ikaasa couldn't accept the reality either.
A year ago humans couldn't move a finger—yet here was one empowered by the Full Moon standing toe-to-toe with her.
"You filthy insect!"
Ikaasa poured into the coordinate where Shirone stood the most devastating sequence of strikes she could muster.
As the afterimages of fists formed a gigantic wall and surged like a tidal wave, Shirone took an extreme defensive stance.
The Ultima System activated instantly, twisting Armand's robe along Shirone's body and thickening it.
A fist-shaped pattern stamped itself across Shirone's entire form.
"Krrrgh!"
The attack was so fast Shirone could think of nothing but defense.
But once this storm passed, an opening would come.
"As expected, a target with a will has limits. If I can just hold—"
Pressed back by Ikaasa's final barrage, Shirone endured bone-crushing pain and concentrated Ataraxia.
The prediction was accurate: having accelerated the result with Valhalla Action, Ikaasa was frozen, unable even to twitch.
"But it's delicate. Can I time it right?"
There was no choice.
Given angelic durability, this was the only way to end it with a single strike.
Watching Ataraxia rapidly accumulate, Ikaasa felt like a condemned prisoner on the scaffold.
"This is dangerous."
Ikaasa's signature danger.
If the process completed before Valhalla Action returned, the mere completion—regardless of raw power—could well plunge her into a ruinous state.
"6 seconds. 5 seconds. 4 seconds."
Ataraxia versus Valhalla Action.
It was a race to see which would complete the angel's effect first.
"Now. Deploy."
When Leicis, watching from the underground command, gave the order, every living creature on the surface abruptly froze.
'What is this?'
Sensing the sudden change, Plu strained to lift her gaze.
A huge pupil swept across the ground as if an eye were observing everything.
Biological weapon—the True Akamai.
The Antithesis reversed the Law.
As if tightened with a rope, Ikaasa hunched her shoulders and screamed.
"Ugh! Th-this…!"
No matter that she was a fallen angel—this was an absurdly powerful restraint.
Even mid-ranked angels might faint under such Law; the Full Moon's power alone wouldn't hold against it.
If Ikaasa could be bound, the others were beyond hope.
The only one showing any active movement was Shirone, holding on by mind-transcendence.
Even Armand's robe couldn't withstand it; it disassembled in reverse order of being equipped and turned into a magic sword.
A researcher watching from the underground called up, "All subjects are bound. What shall we do?"
Leicis tore off the commander's mask.
With the materials assembled, the rebels on the surface were nothing more than meat unworthy of use.
"Lock the troops up and bring Shirone, Plu, and the angel to me. Prepare Ilhwa's Elixir immediately."
Leicis' lieutenants moved at once.
While Ilhwa's Elixir was being prepared, Shirone, Plu, and Ikaasa were caged.
Of course, the true prison was the True Akamai looming outside the bars, watching them.
Plu ground her teeth.
She hadn't expected Leicis to act while an angel had breached the surface.
'No—it's that weapon. How did she make something like that?'
The three who had been fighting fiercely moments ago were suddenly cellmates.
Plu glared viciously at Ikaasa, who had ruined everything, but emotion was a luxury. First she transmitted the necessary information to Shirone.
Leicis had been strengthening herself through biological experiments; Shirone had been chosen as the material, and Garas and Plu were being used to mass-produce clones—that was the gist.
Even the angel Ikaasa found the idea absurd.
"Lowly creatures trying to become gods? Fools."
It was paradoxical coming from the angel of desire, but Shirone's contempt was no different.
"You were cloning me? What the hell…"
Just then the door opened and Leicis entered.
"Hoho, an angel and a Nephilim. What a delectable food store. No, perhaps decadent is more fitting?"
Ikaasa bared her teeth and shouted.
"Pathetic human! Do you understand the fate of those who oppose angels?"
"Hahaha! And who is it that's locked inside a cage made by those pathetic humans?"
Leicis opened the bars without fear, sat before Ikaasa, and stroked her chin.
A ferocious fallen angel—yet in form, undeniably angelic.
"Truly beautiful. Perfect for a body."
Shirone curled his lips in disgust.
"Why do this? No matter how strong you get with these inhuman experiments, you'll only become a monster."
"A monster…"
Leicis recalled Satan's words from long ago.
"Form is merely function. To give it aesthetic meaning is the work of inferior humans. Therefore strength itself is beauty."
Her cheekbones twisted as she took on a monstrous visage.
Her eyes narrowed to slits, her nose jutted like a beast's, and her mouth split toward her ears.
Flames kindled in the serpent-like eyes and the surroundings shimmered like heat haze.
When the memory-vision displaying images from her recollection activated, Shirone felt as if he were standing in a laboratory.
In the central Fusix Machine lay the carcasses of the Antithesis Akamai, the devouring Kuzen, the Infinite Cell Proliferator Kenser, the True Maized Galtomic, and the armored mineral Lingar—each laid out separately.
"How do you like it? These are the creatures that will usher me into the flesh of a god."
Shirone curled his lips in disgust.
"You think you can become a god with that trash?"
"Mortality for a creature is not inevitable. Death is merely a function a living thing selects. If it is for a single perfect individual, death can be removed as a mere phenomenon. In the two remaining slots you and the angel will be merged. I will combine all of this into one and become the world's god."
"You're insane."
Hatred flared in Plu's eyes.
She had watched Leicis' clone mass-production from start to finish.
"Hoho, you are the kind of filth that couldn't even permeate my body. Think as you like and wait to die."
Leicis left the words and walked out.
Soon researchers would drag Shirone and Ikaasa into the Fusix Machine.
There was no flaw in Anke Ra's Ilhwa's Elixir.
Even an angel like Ikaasa, mixed into the plasm, would be helplessly dissolved into black liquid.
Plu forced herself, but the True Akamai's bonds were so powerful she couldn't even move a finger.
"This is bad. If we stay like this, we'll all die."
Ikaasa sneered.
"A mayfly lecturing on death. How amusing."
"Haha, is that so? Come to think of it, angels live long lives, right? It must be vexing to face annihilation."
Ikaasa shut her mouth.
It was true—so long as the Akashic Record existed, there was no absolute death—but annihilation was one of the most repulsive fates even for angels.
"There is one way."
"A way?"
Shirone turned his head with difficulty and asked.
Just being able to move within the True Akamai's bonds gave Ikaasa a sense of how strong Shirone's avatar was.
"Of course. Do you think a noble angel would simply submit to a human-made creature?"
Plu said, "You're being subjected right now. What's the method?"
Ikaasa pondered briefly, then spoke.
Still, she couldn't shake the sense that the numbers didn't add up.
"Destroy the creature with Valhalla Action. In other words, pull the result of destruction forward and use it first."
"That's odd. If that's possible, why are we bound?"
Plu asked. Shirone answered.
"The cost is too high."
Ikaasa no longer hid it.
"Right. Judging by the binding force, it would cost at least the equivalent of eight hours' worth of power. If I destroy it, I'll be incapacitated for eight hours."
"Eight hours…"
A binding that demanded eight hours of an angel's labor—even though Ikaasa once toppled mountains in under thirty minutes—showed how enormous this restraint was.
It was possible because the Antithesis acted against the Law rather than by brute force, yet it revealed the creature's terrible strength.
Shirone understood why Ikaasa hesitated.
"I will definitely save you. So free us."
"Hmph. Why should I trust a human's words?"
"You have to. If we stay like this we'll all die."
Ikaasa's face twisted in irritation.
"Even if it were me, what would change if you went out? There won't be just one or two of these creatures. You'll just get captured again and brought back here."
"That's my plan."
Plu said, "Garas is held in the underground labs. We'll unleash him here. This place will be a garden for them."
"Hmm."
Ikaasa considered the idea carefully.
Garas, king of proliferation, was the worst creature even she knew well.
'Use Garas to eliminate this abomination? If we can free him, it's not impossible.'
"Ikaasa."
Shirone, having raised himself through mind-transcendence, moved slowly and met Ikaasa's eyes.
"I will come back to rescue you. Release us."
The human desire to live was tenacious.
It was the reason Anke Ra had to control humans, and why Ikaasa had become a fallen angel.
"Hmph, don't compare me to a mayfly. Death does not frighten me. It only irritates me."
"But even you…"
Ikaasa cut him off.
"Fine. I'll let you go."
When Shirone looked surprised, Ikaasa snorted disdainfully.
"Not for your sake. There's no other way, and I want to see the woman who challenges angelic authority crushed."
"I'll definitely come back and save you. Wait."
Ikaasa closed her eyes instead of answering.
As her holy light-body expanded, the Valhalla Action field began to accumulate on the halo.
'The binding is far stronger than expected.'
Valhalla's computation returned a result: 9 hours and 43 seconds.
That was the time it would take Ikaasa, using her avatar's power, to destroy the Akamai.
'But then again, mid-ranking angels are hard to bind.'
A small consolation—if she had never fallen, she wouldn't have been so easily subdued.
'To think I'd be leaning on humans…'
Ikaasa inhaled deeply and her eyes snapped open.
Valhalla Action!
"Kyaaaaaaaa!"
The True Akamai unleashed a monstrous howl through its mass.
A massive focal impulse darted like light, and the flabby body withered and shriveled.