[504] Wholeheartedness (3)
McKlein Goffin.
The fact that a human had come closest to erasing the Akashic Record in all of heaven's history left deep scars on the angels.
Angels' radiant bodies do not know forgetting, but that being—so long ago it had fossilized under the weight of memory—suddenly surfaced clearly in Paiel's halo.
'It was like that then too.'
As the frozen question thawed in cold remembrance, confusion returned.
Are humans strong, or weak?
Why, when they are driven by base animal desire, do they sometimes reach a supreme spiritual state that transcends that very desire?
Humanity was a creature defined countless times by countless beings, yet no single word had ever been made that could name them perfectly.
Because they are that complex?
'No.'
Paiel thought.
'They are not fixed.'
Humans were always moving toward something, even at this moment.
'Which is precisely why they must be annihilated.'
Paiel's radiant body flared explosively.
The halo ring that had been expanding fast enough to swallow heaven now contracted even faster, collapsing into a single speck and vanishing.
"No!"
Ikael, slicing through the sky, realized what was happening and cried out.
Apateia — Eye of Annihilation.
Paiel's trademark Eye of Annihilation condensed the source concept of extinction; once activated, it was the worst, most terrible technique even archangels avoided.
"Enact the will of the archangel."
The light in Paiel's hooded eyes became perfect circles like halos.
At the centers of the two rings, a deep, clear dot appeared.
The face was ridiculous, but if one looked closely the eyes were unnervingly inhuman and merciless—so much so they inspired awe.
'Strange.'
Shirone couldn't summon the nerve to strike back.
The Paiel he had seen through his direct sight had been only a shell, and the current source concept of annihilation was spreading evenly through Shirone's world.
That was precisely why his radiant form had faded.
—He is shutting the world down.
As Paiel's eyes slowly closed, the colors of the scene that contained Shirone began to pale.
"Kuuh!"
Feeling the annihilation of his avatar, Shirone trembled.
Ah—me.
If I vanish, the universe vanishes.
That was the Eye of Annihilation: an extreme of destruction that closed the world by closing itself.
"Aaaaaah!"
The Eye of Annihilation hadn't even closed halfway, but Shirone writhed in despair.
If he hadn't equipped Armand's avatar by the principle that all is mind, he would already have dissolved into the void.
'I must hold on! If I don't—'
In the end, he would be annihilated.
But all Shirone could do was keep his avatar alive a little longer.
The Eye of Annihilation was pronouncing the end of Shirone's world at an exact time and speed.
A tiny blood vessel burst in his eye and blood trickled from his nose.
He poured every ounce of strength into sustaining the avatar, but whether his eyes would remain open or closed was Paiel's choice alone.
And that was the overwhelming power of an archangel's source concept.
'Damn it…!'
As his presence thinned, even the Spirit Zone could no longer exert influence.
Finally slipping below the level of matter, Shirone's body became translucent.
'Not bad for a Nephilim.'
Paiel's voice spoke directly.
'But now your world will be closed.'
Paiel's eyes drooped as if drowsy.
It was the moment just before Shirone would become completely transparent, as if he had never existed.
"Ghah!"
At that instant, Shirone's avatar flared with intense light.
The Eye of Annihilation flashed open and Shirone's image appeared vividly, as if etched into the landscape.
Only Archangel Ikael could amplify a dying avatar so instantly.
"Shirone!"
"Where do you think you're running!"
Satiel, who had chased after Ikael, grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the ground.
"Ugh!"
Then wedging Ikael between his knees, he bent forward and pressed down on her neck.
As the radiant form spread into a ring and the power of decomposition took effect, Ikael's wings of light weakened and died.
She had spent strength to regain her memories and had just moments before revived Shirone's avatar—she had nothing left to hold out with.
"Ikael! Ugh!"
Shirone tried to spring forward, but the Eye of Annihilation closed again and constricted him.
"Paiel! Kill her! I'll annihilate Ikael!"
The Eye of Annihilation was optimally efficient at erasing a single being, but it had the flaw of scattering Paiel's consciousness across the world, leaving him undefended.
Yet with Satiel blocking Ikael, all of Paiel's disadvantages were nullified.
"Disappear! The shame of angels!"
Satiel's eyes contained the bitter resentment of interminable ages—resentment no human could physically store.
'Because of you, if not for you…!'
"Ughhhh!"
Watching Ikael decompose, Shirone poured his soul into a spell.
"Ikaeeeel!"
Chains of shining light wrapped around Satiel.
Having seen with her own eyes how much Paiel had suffered, Satiel flinched.
But the chains of light gave her no restraint; they simply passed through her body.
"Ugh!"
Shirone clenched his teeth in frustration.
Because the Eye of Annihilation had closed more than halfway, his spell could not properly manifest.
Satiel, briefly showing a look of relief, pressed down on Ikael again with an even harsher glare.
That face she couldn't stand to see.
That face so beautiful she hated!
"I'll ruin you before I annihilate you!"
Judicial Halo — Nostalgia.
Paff paff paff!
Shards of light flew from Ikael's face.
I'll shatter it—her authority, her beauty, the hateful memories—disassemble them all!
"Ahhh!"
Bang!
A dull impact struck Satiel's temple.
'Huh?'
Realizing belatedly that her body was being pushed back, Satiel dragged herself along the ground to regain her balance.
A puzzled expression crept into her eyes as she turned her head.
Though she had been ambushed, few in heaven could shove an archangel's body with such force.
"Kariel? Why are you—?"
Kariel stood there with an excited look.
Satiel knew his hatred was not much different from her own.
'Then why?'
Even Ikael, though rescued, looked at Kariel as if at a loss for words.
Kariel understood their feelings.
To be honest, he himself did not know why he had attacked Satiel.
'What have I done?'
He had flown here intending to annihilate Ikael—come to end, with his own hand, the one who had thrown herself away for a mere human.
Perhaps his mental strength had weakened.
The moment he saw Satiel's Nostalgia, his radiant form shook violently, and after that he could not remember.
Kariel slowly turned his gaze and met Ikael's eyes.
Though his will was not whole, he had ultimately saved her.
Ikael, the one he hated.
But what Kariel felt now was clearly expectation.
'Hearts are contradictory, is that it?'
Woorin nodded.
'Yes. In truth, altruism is a serious flaw when judged by the universe's prime principle, survival of the fittest. So what is altruism? It is merely another self-love of the altruistic self—like someone who loves another so much they delude themselves into thinking they deserve to hate them.'
Kando thought.
Do I… hate Woorin?
"Aaaaaaah!"
At Shirone's scream, every angel's gaze turned to him.
They were not merely paying attention to one human's cry.
Shirone's slackened spirit, spread out like a wave, had been swept away and was collapsing—losing form and falling apart.
"Shirone!"
Ikael ran past Kariel toward Shirone.
At the tail end of an explosive amplification—if it wasn't stopped here, Shirone's mind would be torn to shreds and never return to its original state.
"Kuuh!"
Shirone clutched his head and writhed in pain.
Thoughts were being ripped apart as if his brain itself were torn.
It was a brutality on a different order from the exhilaration of opening Immortal Function.
"No! Not yet!"
He tried desperately to hold his focus, but his spirit had already swelled beyond control.
Ikael squeezed out her last strength and activated Ataraxia.
She had no choice but to amplify the avatar's power once more to postpone the explosion.
It was like pouring water into a cracked jar, but she did not hesitate.
If she could buy even five minutes—just a little—she would give up everything to save Shirone.
'Why…'
Kariel stood dazed, watching Ikael pass.
Was she ignoring him?
"Paiel! Kill Shirone!"
Satiel lunged savagely and shouted.
The more Ikael defended Shirone, the greater Satiel's fury became.
'It should have been mine! All of that should have been mine!'
Seeing Satiel move to strike Ikael from behind, Kariel snapped back to his senses.
Judicial Halo — Simularch.
Like cheese leaking from a compressed leather pouch, countless mechanical parts burst through space and began to assemble.
Chararararara!
After completing 36,000 processes in an instant, a device appeared the size of a human bronze shield with eight blades like a shuriken.
Simularch—spins without stopping; the faster it spins, the stronger it becomes; the stronger it becomes, the harder it gets; the harder it gets, the faster it spins.
It was a crude name for something made by the archangel of creation, but the situation was desperate.
Nostalgia — Physics Collapse.
Confronted with a mechanism beyond human intelligence, Satiel widened her eyes and activated her ability.
The weapon trembled, then its finished form decomposed into mechanisms, mechanisms into components, components into parts.
The speed was so great it looked like an explosion without flame or sound.
At the level of fine parts, the weapon passed beyond Satiel and then dispersed—alloy to mineral, mineral to molecule, molecule to atom—and vanished.
'Hmph. Do you think you can beat me?'
Kariel had never fought Satiel before, but he had no expectation of losing to one of the archangels weakest in combat.
"…"
When Ikael stepped in front of Shirone, Paiel finally abandoned maintaining the Eye of Annihilation.
'What a sight, Commander of Angels.'
He disliked this messy tangle among the archangels.
The same thing as before was happening again.
Shirone. And Goffin.
Once the variable of a human intervened, everything turned to chaos.
'Time to finish this.'
Thunk!
Paiel stamped the ground and shot up into the sky.
Kuuuuung!
He descended, trampling Kariel—who had been fighting Satiel—and landed on the ground atop him.
"Ka-Kariel?"
Kariel lay half-buried in the earth with his spine broken; Satiel, who had been fighting fiercely until then, could only relax her expression and step back.
In truth, she harbored no personal ill will toward him. In fact, she had once felt comradeship with him in their shared hostility toward Ikael.
"An angel who has lost authority has no value."
Leaving those words behind, Paiel departed—and only then did the sight of Kariel's shattered body fully register.
"Kariel… are you all right?"
Satiel stepped forward to check and looked at him with puzzlement.
Perhaps it had been so long she could no longer read him.
Kariel, staring up at the sky, wore a peaceful smile Satiel had never seen before.
As if everything had once been happy then...