[506] Wholeheartedness (5)
"Hu."
Gurgle.
As the Spirit Zone surged toward Shirone, the scenery bent inward as if trapped inside a droplet.
"Ha."
Gurgle.
When he exhaled, the Spirit Zone stretched outward toward the world.
Objects around him lengthened like rubber bands, revealing taut tension.
'Breathe in.'
Gurgle.
'Breathe out.'
Gurgle.
The world pulsed in time with Shirone's breathing.
With every beat, his mind—pushed toward an explosion by the Ataraxia corporeal system—was slowly gathered and reformed, regaining its proper shape.
"T-this can't be…"
Ikael trembled with an unnamed emotion.
A human mind resonating with the world's objects was a hallmark of Elysion.
But the complete suppression of an erupting mind came solely from Shirone's unique realization.
This was unmistakably a human's attainment.
'He reached Banya.'
When Ataraxia was first taught a year ago, Shirone had been a novice who hadn't yet delved into the depths of the mind.
Granted, Geumgangtae's mental state was not something a teenage boy could easily master, but Banya was on a completely different plane of mental structure.
By Ikael's standards of a normal human, it was a progression that should have taken at least a thousand years of practice—but he'd leapt past it in an instant.
Gurgle. Gurgle. Gurgle.
The Spirit Zone's contraction and expansion accelerated.
Drdrdrdrdrdr!
As if under centripetal force, its beats hammered the world faster and faster as its size shrank.
Finally, Shirone's eyes snapped open.
Psychic Transcendence — Banya.
As the Spirit Zone vanished, a golden heat shimmer burst from Shirone like a blaze.
The mind he had constructed manifested his avatar in the real world.
'That is…!'
The first thing visible was Armand's avatar.
Armand's essence—merged with Shirone's—appeared not as some monstrous thing but as a sleek armor that gleamed like molten gold.
Brighter still, Shirone's own avatar radiated, and massive wings of light unfurled from both shoulders.
A being who cast aside delusion and recognized a true avatar.
That was Banya.
Hrooooooo!
The instant Banya appeared, a black aura radiated from Faiel and shook the air.
'Banya?'
It was a depth far too great for a human to reach; the possibility hadn't even occurred to most.
It was precisely why Anke Ra had desperately guarded against and tried to prevent Banya.
It was said to be nearly nonexistent in the earthly realms, but among the immortal subjects there were rare few who reached Banya.
Even they were strictly controlled by Anke Ra's will, and they had formed a quasi-resistance community—the Tenro Association that led the Third Thousand Shehahkim.
'Eliminate Banya.'
As Faiel burst forth like black smoke, Ikael, weakened, threw her body between him and Shirone.
Seeing Faiel's face as if drawn into an abyss, she realized the odds were hopeless, but her feet were rooted firmly to the ground.
Kiiiiing!
Just as Faiel tried to pierce Ikael's torso, a golden flash bent across and intercepted him.
Residual images—Shirone's avatar overlaid on his body—cast magic at Faiel.
THUUUUUUM!
A massive glare from the Photon Cannon shoved the area forward.
Solid earth rippled away like waves, and through white radiance Faiel's silhouette fluttered like ash.
"Kruuu!"
From the spot the flash passed, Faiel crossed his hands and groaned.
Because the mind he'd exploded through the Ataraxia corporeal system had concentrated entirely into the avatar, the attack's force was even stronger.
"Faiel! Stop this now! We can't lose an archangel!" Satiel flew in belatedly and shouted, but Faiel's divine light-form already held nothing but Shirone's death.
Hrooooooo!
Faiel's white robes scorched in the heat as his body assimilated into perfect darkness and descended upon Shirone.
No longer an angel; only Faiel's unique will to annihilate. Shirone's avatar began to flicker as it started losing its light.
'I will not forgive you.'
Shirone charged straight into the rolling, deathly darkness.
Ataraxia was impossible to use now.
The concept of amplification still acted upon him.
'I will not forgive you!'
But he still had one more weapon.
Valhalla Action!
As a ring of light unfurled, the trigger that reversed cause and effect activated.
'None of you…'
Shirone ground his teeth.
Ikael's scream, her tears, her pain—
All of it flashed through his mind in an instant and stoked his resolve.
"I will never forgive you!"
As the dying avatar flared anew, the darkness writhed and howled.
Hrooooooo!
An avatar contains the lifetime of a being.
As Arin had once discovered at puberty, Shirone's avatar bore light, and that law of light tore through the law of darkness.
"Kruuuuuu!"
When Shirone thrust his hands forward and charged, the black smoke followed in tails, gathering between his palms.
Moments later the smoke condensed and Faiel's angelic robe-figure re-solidified.
"Kuk! Kukukukuk!"
Even with his throat choked by Shirone, Faiel let out a grotesque laugh.
It was laughter born of incredulity.
'This is Banya.'
A situation unthinkable before today's war.
Who would have predicted that among the eight archangels—one most adept at guiding death—this one would be driven to such a state by a single human?
'But he's still human, after all.'
One corner of Faiel's mouth rose toward his cheek.
"You look resentful."
At the mocking tone, Shirone's face contorted.
Even now Valhalla Action waited to receive an input of consequence, but no matter how he considered it, there was no obvious way to annihilate Faiel.
"Yes. That is your limit."
Even Faiel had to acknowledge Shirone's talent.
Ataraxia—the archangel's power; Valhalla Action—the angel's ability; the functions of the demon-sword Armand, which absorbed traits of Purgatory's strongest species and, through the principle of "all is mind," strengthened the avatar; the Immortal Function's mighty mental strength; magic born from the Unlocker's revelation.
On top of that, he'd absorbed Geumgangtae's mental state and even the Gaian mind, Elysion.
And finally, he had pulled out his own true avatar by reaching Banya.
Too many realms, powers, and techniques for a single human to have mastered—yet they had merged and, pushed to extremes by a massive Ataraxia trigger, produced this result.
Yet even that was insufficient to completely annihilate Faiel.
If Ataraxia was an archangel's prowess, Apatheia was an ability of equal magnitude.
What the offset between amplification and annihilation had achieved was only to bring an archangel to his knees once.
Even if he could be subdued, the archangel's ultimate shield of annihilation made it impossible for Shirone to excise Faiel completely.
"That's what humans are. A rather chilling flail, but flailing nonetheless."
As if to smooth out his wounded pride, Faiel shouted in a voice that seemed like it would shred.
"No matter how much heart you pour in, you won't reach an angel's mind!"
Faced with the archangel's apathetic excitement, Shirone's gaze chilled as if to absolute zero.
"No."
Shirone's golden avatar expanded further, completely covering his body.
"Not yet."
Valhalla Action spun up again.
Glaring a terrifying radiance from his eyes, Shirone ground his molars and input the result.
'I need more powerful force.'
Valhalla Action accepted Shirone's endless desire without filtration.
'Stronger! More! More! More!'
As the Akashic Record mediated his desire, the causal-exchange result finally emerged.
A force Shirone was convinced would be sufficient to erase Faiel.
The price to borrow that result was a staggering 127 years, 9 months, 17 days, 43 minutes, 5 seconds.
An inefficient cost that would make one vomit blood.
This arose because hastening an action is wholly different from hastening a future state. Movement from A to B yields a roughly fixed time, whereas strengthening the mind is never proportional to time.
Countless variables—potential, effort, training method, recovery—obstruct power amplification, and the interest on time compounded like usury to a degree even a vicious loan shark would balk at.
An equivalent exchange of desire and possibility.
Faced with a result that would require sacrificing his life to borrow, Shirone was resolute.
'I don't care.'
With Shirone's approval, Valhalla Action began to invert cause and effect.
"I don't care—if it means I can erase you."
He threw everything Faiel—even Faiel's overlooking of an entire life—had failed to count on.
In other words: Shirone's wholeheartedness.
Valhalla Action — Photon Cannon.
Kuaaaarrrrang!
A blinding flare detonated before Shirone.
From afar, beyond Heaven, the flare might have stretched like a beam, but to those watching up close it felt like a massive wall pushing forward.
"Kruuuuuuk!"
With his neck still grasped, Faiel raised both hands to shield his face.
But before that astronomical mass spewing forth at tremendous speed—no archangel could be immune.
Hrooooooo!
First his left arm was torn away, then the right arm and both legs were ripped off in succession.
As his form was dismantled, the dark essence that comprised him spun like a writhing dragon, but it was only a moment.
Before a hundred meters had been pushed, Faiel had already become a pinch of dust and vanished into nothingness at the edge of the world.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Photon Cannon fired from the central Arabot in Heaven, extending toward the fairy city Makonom.
From there it tore through countless districts, punched through Heaven's outer wall, and disappeared into Purgatory.
"Fa-Faiel…?"
Satiel shuddered.
Within the trail of the beam that had sliced Heaven, there was not the slightest trace of Faiel's presence.
A human had annihilated an archangel.
A being so low in rank that humans were treated as civilians had trampled the highest of Heaven.
'I see. So that is the will of Ra…'
Satiel finally understood what Metiel had tried to say in his last moments.
'Humanity has clawed its way right up to our throat.'
There was a time when even Mara were worshipped as gods by humans. Everything that happened in Heaven was their myth.
But now that myth's curtain was being drawn back.
'Satan.'
Satiel snapped to attention and looked back toward Gebul.
With Faiel's annihilation, the law of evil would have strengthened.
"We must find Reael!"
Karyel would be obliterated, and Ikael was already combat-ineffective.
They needed to gather as many angels as possible to at least prevent the situation from worsening.
'Until Ra's will activates…!'
Having decided, Satiel glanced at Ikael for a moment, then spread her wings of light and took flight.
Kuruurrrrung.
As if to prove her thought, structures in distant Gebul could be seen cracking, breaking, and collapsing.
"A damn demon…!"
Something caught Satiel's eye and a flash of killing intent lit her features.
From the cloudlike gray smoke, a massive lump of red flesh towered forth—the arch-enemy of Metiel.