[512] The Question Left Behind (2)
A twisting that began at her fingertips spread through his whole body.
The seesaw of the Law.
A shock so powerful that the balance painstakingly forged after annihilating the archangels and slaughtering countless angels tilted in an instant and struck Satan's flesh.
The 180 million palms-joined bows dealt by the incarnation of Guan-eum became one Law of Goodness after another, and they shattered Satan's Law.
"Uooooaargh!"
Satan convulsed like a bolt of lightning.
It felt as if someone were wringing him out like laundry; involuntarily, a look of horror and dread carved itself across his face.
"Krrr…."
Trembling all over, Satan barely kept his form as he looked down at Miro.
The incarnation of Guan-eum had vanished, and Miro, still in the selfless void, staggered back to consciousness.
Her face was pale and plastered with sweat as if she had run a great distance.
"Is it over?"
Sein studied Satan's condition with a tense expression.
Guan-eum's Paradise Hall was the sum of all Law that a single human—the greatest prajna in history—could manifest.
If even this couldn't destroy him, then no human would be capable of stopping Satan. That much could be said with certainty.
"Grrrrrk!"
As if fleeing from something, Satan lurched away, toppling the Je-Bul structure as he moved.
"Kweeeeee!"
Then, widening his eyes in surprise, he vomited black things.
From his huge throat a jet of foul black smoke poured like a waterfall, staining the ground with a sickening haze.
"Ugh!"
It wasn't solid matter, but merely touching it felt as if bone were rotting.
"Kak! Kak!"
Having emptied everything from within, Satan exhaled roughly and checked himself.
"Heh heh."
He still perched at the edge of the heavens; the surface seemed impossibly distant.
"Hahahahaha!"
He had endured.
Even perfect chaos felt fear before the incarnation of Guan-eum, but in the end those 180 million Laws of Goodness had not been able to annihilate him.
"I am fear itself! I am evil itself!"
Kuaaaang!
When a gigantic fist slammed down, Arius grabbed Miro and cast the Flicker spell.
But Satan no longer cared about her. Ruthlessly he tore through Heaven and strode for the Ara-Bot spire.
With every kick and blow, swathes of Heaven collapsed into ruin.
"W-what is that?"
Rebels streaming into Ara-Bot screamed as they looked up at Satan.
Kuuuuung!
Where his foot fell, everyone trapped inside was turned into a bloody smear.
"So… is it going to end like this?"
Even the archangels who had watched Guan-eum's blow in stunned silence could not help but feel despair.
- Etella, you must believe.
Except for one person.
- Believe, Etella.
Etella rushed at Satan, who was overturning the world.
"Hrrrgh!"
The world seemed soaked through with evil—
- If everything were evil, we would already be destroyed.
Even if the force of evil could shake them,
- One line of Goodness can hold back a hundred evils.
The desire to be good.
The human heart that is ashamed of evil and proud of goodness.
"Hrrk!"
Etella wept hot tears.
As impossible as it was for evil to claim the world, it was equally unlikely the world would be filled only with Goodness—yet she believed.
Humans could choose.
Someday we would all shake off the terror of Chaos and ascend to a higher plane.
If it took thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of millions of years—fight and fight again, and again—
- As long as we keep Goodness to the end, evil can never rule humanity. So believe.
"I believe, teacher!"
Etella halted and clenched both fists.
Grrrack!
Bone snapped through flesh, but the surge of feeling made pain insignificant and rekindled the will for Goodness.
- The awakening that wakes the world!
"The awakening that wakes the world!"
It comes with a roar.
Karsis Monastery's mightiest shout—the Demon-Slaying Cry.
"Ah…!"
The instant Etella opened her mouth—
Kaaaaaang!
A vast will of Goodness, borne on thunderous sound, crashed down upon Satan.
"Kraaaaaaagh!"
Satan, striding toward Ara-Bot's spire, arced like a drawn bow and screamed.
The Law of evil that had been concentrated by the blow to Miro's Paradise Hall was already shattered into fragments.
As a new will of Goodness surged in, his body began to cleave along those fragments, splitting piece by piece.
His skin reddened like molten rock; parts of his flesh warped and burned away into ash.
"K—kkkk!"
Realizing he could not endure, Satan bared his wicked fangs and glared down at Etella.
"Not bad, human."
Hot air rose like flames from burning logs as Satan's body began to tear upward into the sky.
"This is not your victory. I do not vanish. I will return someday and stain this world with evil."
KuoOOOO!
Satan roared, forcing power into his torso as if to set himself aflame.
A massive pillar of heat rose as the body pulverized into dust, flakes drifting away.
"Satan… has been annihilated."
Satiel, watching from Je-Bul's sky, murmured.
The archangel of light, Reyel, also turned toward Ara-Bot's spire with a grave look.
The great barrier that had blocked Ra's will was gone—that meant a chance to reset the Akashic Record had opened.
"Come, Satiel. The world will be reset soon."
Once a reset is triggered, the world restarts from a powered-off state.
Most beings, unaware a reset has occurred, will merely replay the same sequences along time's flow.
Thus, events that happened before the reset will be repeated in the world after it.
The archangels will be annihilated, Satan will fall to humanity, and most angels will be dealt with by Garas.
'Which events should be preserved?'
The two archangels hurled themselves back into Je-Bul's ruins.
They chose to save as many angels as possible.
* * *
'Satan has been annihilated!'
Anke Ra, on the highest floor of Ara-Bot's spire, snapped his eyes open.
Satan—an existence outside the Laws that the Akashic Record cannot control—had just vanished.
So if he reset the world now, he could create a new future while preserving Satan's annihilation.
But Ra did not choose a reset.
'He must hear.'
A large eyeball tore free from the surrounding skin and darted left and right.
As the pupil drew afterimages at electric speed and sketched something, a being with wings of light was summoned.
It was the incarnation of Shirone, summoned at the cost of the Valhalla Action.
Anke Ra, looking at Shirone kneeling with her head bowed, rubbed a nerve ganglion stuck to the wall to transmit his voice.
"Do you remember the promise? You swore, wagering humanity's survival, that you would bring me the answer."
"...."
"You have the right and the duty to answer the question Geohin left you."
"...."
Shirone remained silent.
* * *
A thick flash of light struck from the sky.
KWAANG!
Burning the earth into shards beneath him, the archangel of destruction Yuriel landed in a cavalry stance.
Compressing his power in the landing, he launched toward Miro the next instant.
"Wooooo!"
The Geukrakon spun with terrifying speed, scorching the air.
His arrival now was no coincidence.
Satan's annihilation meant Ra's will would soon be triggered.
The world would be initialized, and Ra would in some way conquer humanity again.
'Before that…'
Miro must be erased.
Though Etella had decided Satan's annihilation, Miro had carried out nine-tenths of the role that made it possible.
Whether she lived or died could decide the final outcome; Yuriel judged it advantageous to remove Miro before the reset.
"Walf! Grrrrr!"
Arius charged at Yuriel, exuding the aura of a god.
He was a faithful servant of Miro's faith, but as a grave-robber he stood no chance of stopping the archangel of destruction.
"Kyaang!"
One strike from the Geukrakon sent Arius slamming into the ground, then bouncing up like rubber.
Yuriel ignored him and lunged at Miro.
Though his strength had been greatly drained by striking Satan, he was not an opponent to be underestimated.
Ragnarok—Compulsion.
Kuuuung!
With a judicial wheel unfurled, Yuriel struck Miro and then braked to a halt.
'…As expected, it's Miro.'
Who else in the human realm could be a scale mage capable of stopping Ragnarok's compulsion?
Miro pressed the pact-sealed hand against Yuriel's brow and managed a strained smile.
"Don't come at me like that. There are men lined up, waiting."
"Woooooo!"
Yuriel drew destructive power and shone as if about to explode.
As Miro's smile vanished and she scrambled backwards, Yuriel—now a streak of light—charged.
Chulryeonan—Sun-Moon Light Wheel.
Sein had been containing Yuriel's power, but at best he could only prevent instant death.
"Ugh!"
A tackle to the gut sent a spray of bright red blood from Miro's mouth; she rolled and hit the ground.
"Huh. This is getting tough."
Wiping her bloodied lips and lifting her head, she saw Yuriel bringing the Geukrakon down as if to smash her skull.
Sein shouted and charged.
"Uaaaagh!"
Yuriel suddenly felt his strength draining and looked down.
Sein had bitten his ankle.
"Grrr! Grrrgrr!"
The total sum of elements controlled by the Sun-Moon Light Wheel is always constant.
So Sein was controlling Yuriel's power by shrinking his Spirit Zone to the boundary of his body.
"Pathetic."
Yuriel shook his leg, but Sein clung on like a leech and would not fall.
Bang!
Annoyed, Yuriel stomped and Sein's face struck the earth.
"Krrr…."
His jaw trembled as he still clenched Yuriel's leg.
'Yes. You were right, Gaold. You were right.'
Honor and dignity no longer mattered.
The prestige of being called the strongest mage in the spirit realm on the Black Line was irrelevant.
What truly mattered was throwing one's whole heart into defense.
"Hrrr!"
He had to hold on.
If he could save Miro, he would do anything.
'Damn it! If you're going to do it, hurry up!'
When would the reset happen?
No—perhaps they already lived in a world after a reset?
Even if a reset had occurred, Sein's last task was that he didn't know when it had taken place.
"There is nothing more to expect from humans."
Yuriel spread his wings, rose a few meters, and then plunged down with all his might. Sein, jaw shattered, rolled across the ground.
"Aaaagh!"
Realizing the control over the Sun-Moon Light Wheel had been broken, Yuriel returned to Miro.
He aimed the Geukrakon at the crease between her brows, where exhaustion kept her mouth shut.
"With this, everything ends, Miro. Our victory is complete."
"Stop, Yuriel."
When Yuriel turned, he saw Ikael approaching with a horribly disheveled face.
Turning his gaze back to Miro as if to look away, Ikael said,
"Even you cannot stop what I have become now. Before the reset, I will remove Miro."
"No. It's already too late. Look to the sky."
Yuriel tilted his head toward the heavens.
Though invisible to human eyes, a tremendous energy—detectable to an archangel—was striking down toward Ara-Bot.
'I see…'
Even with Satan gone, if divine punishment fell, Anke Ra could not avoid annihilation.
In the end, even the reset had a time limit.
Time left until Heaven's destruction.
23 seconds.