[474] As Far as the Road Behind (1)
Second Heaven, Rakia.
Miro was lost in a thousand thoughts as she watched Gaold walk up to the walls of the Hall of Corruption.
From the moment she'd heard his screams twenty years ago, one possibility had nagged at her: perhaps Gaold would never give up.
'What a stupid man…'
She forced down the urge to curse.
She looked at Gaold's hard muscles under the blood-smeared skin.
A body nothing like his once-skinny frame.
Skin so covered in scars there was no room left for another mark.
A combat-ready physique, forged by endless training for anyone to see.
Was it the contrast that made her feel something like pleasure?
Even with the fate of humanity hanging in the balance, Miro felt like making a joke.
'He's gotten pretty sexy, hasn't he?'
Words she would've thrown out any other time wouldn't leave her mouth now.
Maybe she was even a little angry.
Her eyes cooled to match the feeling.
He really had come.
He'd crushed the fire giants, torn apart countless Mara and fallen angels, and fought his way here.
'But even if he's here…'
What had changed?
Just to have me? To possess me? To lie beside me and hear love whispered only for him?
Any human might do such things, but Gaold had already gone too far. This was the very heart of Heaven's territory, and Kariel had sealed away magic—Miro's value here amounted to nothing more than that.
A powerless hostage, weighed against the lives of humanity as the object of one man's desire.
'And besides…'
Two archangels were here.
Kariel and Yuriel.
Even if Kariel's strength was weakened, paired with Yuriel—the archangel of destruction—there could be no worse combination.
The conclusion was inevitable: even if he'd come, there would be no return.
Gaold would die here, and so would she.
All that would remain was the slaughter of humanity by Heaven's armies.
"Why did you come?" Miro spat, cold.
She could control the fury rising inside, but that only made it more dangerous to give Gaold any of her heart.
Reminding the enemy of the hostage's value would only increase the number of victims.
"You ruined everything. Do you even know what you've done?"
She wanted it so badly.
'Go back. Please, go back now, you idiot!'
Her tone carried a flicker of feeling as she addressed Gaold, who stared upward as if stunned.
"Put it back! You've destroyed everything I spent my life building. So put it back—!"
Thud.
Gaold's eyes went slack and both knees hit the ground.
Nerves along his spine flared; his body convulsed.
After the terrible pain came an utterly indifferent calm.
His head, once bowed as if broken, slowly rose.
A small voice slipped through his cracked lips.
"I'm sorry."
Miro pressed her lips together and fought to hide the shockwave exploding in her chest.
"Sorry. It took too long, didn't it? At first—"
Words tangled with breath as Gaold trembled again.
The twenty years that had been cut off stitched back together, and only his feeling for Miro emerged clearly.
"At first I thought it would be quick, but it kept getting delayed. I wanted to come sooner, but I couldn't—"
Gaold's eyes reddened, and warmth gathered in Miro's own.
Emotions concentrated to the edge of a human limit couldn't be unpacked with mere words.
Even without explanation, the fact that he'd come let her imagine the twenty-year path that had led him here.
Perhaps Gaold realized that too; he stopped explaining and simply lifted his head.
Half his consciousness scattered, his gaze finally returned to normal.
No one knew it, but Miro recognized him as the Gaold from twenty years ago.
"Let's go back, Miro. That's enough… let's go back."
Miro ground her teeth.
She couldn't name the rising feeling inside her.
Anger, grievance, or something else wearing those clothes.
'He must die.'
Her rational mind offered the only way to cut off emotion.
She had to die here.
Everything had already tilted against them, but if there remained even a sliver of hope to prevent a final war—if any of those sent to Heaven could survive and get out of Rakia—then she had to be the one to die.
"I—"
The moment Miro finished her resolve and opened her mouth, a massive radiance burst from the rear of the Hall of Corruption with a flash.
A brutal wave of energy traveled tens of kilometers and reached them, drawing Kariel and Yuriel's heads to it.
The shockwave came from Arabot, where Anke Ra stood.
"Ikael…" Kariel murmured, face creased.
The archangels who controlled the Four Great Powers were in the midst of verifying Ikael's qualification as angel commander.
If the archangels of the Four Great Powers subdued Ikael, it would be to Kariel's advantage as well.
They would act by their own judgment outside the angel commander's authority, and her decision could blend into theirs and be nothing exceptional.
If Ikael defeated the Four Great Powers' archangels, the situation would grow complicated.
She would not tolerate angels running wild, and losing the fire giants might even threaten Kariel.
So Kariel had to hope the archangels of the Four Great Powers would beat Ikael—but she found she couldn't choose.
A corner of her heart couldn't accept Ikael being defeated by anyone.
'No. Never.'
Kariel shook her head.
Ikael must be crushed.
Only one person should do it—no one but Kariel.
'I will trample her. I alone have the right to trample her.'
A stronger wave of energy rushed in and swept across Rakia.
* * *
Arabot's high spire trembled from deep within the earth.
Kuuuuung!
Where the wave passed, not a speck of dust remained; everything was immaculate.
It was a purity unseen in the human world.
"Hah, hah."
Ikael crouched on one knee, gasping.
Around her, in perfect cardinal formation, the archangels lay as if dead.
'Strong,' the thought rose simultaneously in the minds of the archangels of the Four Great Powers.
'Truly Heaven's strongest judiciary, Ataraxia.'
Her amplification was unique, operating on a conceptual realm before being and non-being—a limit beyond where intellect can tread.
Even the archangels of the Four Great Powers, each a world-controlling concept, could only leave her at best in a groggy state when all four attacked together.
"Whew. Let this be the end of the verification."
Metatron was the first to push himself up.
"For now, Ikael, you are the angel commander. We will accept that, and leave Shirone's handling entirely to your judgment."
Shirone.
Ikael rose slowly as the name crossed her mind.
Perhaps she could have persuaded them with words alone.
But even if it meant a show of force among angels, she had defended her judgment about Shirone.
Why? What did that boy mean to her?
The other three archangels climbed to their feet.
"We agree with Metatron."
"But as archangels who govern Heaven, we cannot ignore human excesses. We will not go to war by Anke Ra's command, but we will intervene through the Mara."
Ikael did not stop them.
She could not have, and as the angel commander who sided with Heaven, preventing angels from punishing humans made no sense.
"Anke Ra's message only forbade angel activity."
Ikael replied, implicitly affirming, then stressed the point again. The archangels of the Four Great Powers nodded briefly and exchanged glances.
The battles were raging across all six heavens except Arabot.
Each would take one area, and it would be done.
"Then go."
When the four archangels unfurled wings of light, a holy vibration harmonized and shook the world.
Ikael watched them vanish and then turned coldly, heading for Arabot's spire.
There was only one person she had to protect: Anke Ra.
* * *
Kuunng.
Yuriel made the first move.
The moment he leapt from the wall and landed, the landscape seemed to bend and focus on him.
Where he took a step, Gaold retreated the same distance.
Gaold had never once retreated before, so Sein and the others following him could guess the pressure Gaold faced.
'This is how it ends.'
Sein controlled his emotions.
They'd come this far by any means, but the real gatekeeper wasn't the fire giants, the Mara, or the fallen angels.
It was the archangel standing before them.
Gaold had handled his triangular Mara Shiva by sheer extremity of will, but by the laws of followers, Yuriel's might could be expected to far surpass Shiva's.
"Gaold."
"I'll take him."
Gaold, having heard Sein's voice, spoke without taking his eyes off Yuriel.
"Save Miro while you can."
Sein knew it was an impossible plan.
Even if all ten of them charged Yuriel, how much time could they buy? For Gaold to handle him alone was nearly inconceivable.
'But we have to try.'
As Sein and the others steeled themselves, a powerful aura exploded from Yuriel's body.
Nothing but destruction.
If any creature—or any being—were swallowed by that aura, bones would not be left intact. The force completely blocked the gate.
"No one may pass me. Your only choice is to die here."
Gaold said.
"Go."
Julu moved first, the others following.
They might be annihilated on approach, but if they didn't try, there was no way to rescue Miro.
Seven of them scattered left and right and slipped past Yuriel.
'What is—'
Before they could gather their wits, Gangnan smashed the gate with his soles and barreled forward.
Just before plunging into the Hall of Corruption, Sein looked back.
Yuriel continued to stare only at Gaold.
'Was he testing us?'
Sein gritted his teeth at the humiliation, but letting the chance slip would be foolish.
He led everyone into the Hall of Corruption.
Gaold cracked a small smile.
"Showing mercy like a proper archangel?"
Yuriel gave no answer.
Knowing they would die, the humans charged anyway.
That was human nature.
And the most uncanny of those humans was the one standing before him: Gaold.
"What are you dreaming of? You have no hope."
"Hope?"
The air around Gaold's right hand compressed into a sphere.
It was the Vacuum Press that had even withstood Ataraxia's photon cannon.
"Hope is nothing but a delusion born of despair. Humanity isn't moved by hope. It's moved by something far crueller—"
Gaold's body launched like an arrow.
In an instant he reached Yuriel's flank and swung the Vacuum Press with his right hand.
"—despair."