[689] The Eyes of God (1)
Through the cogwheel of the void, incidents multiplied like foam, spreading toward every possible pattern.
One infinite pattern reacting with a single random event was like throwing an astronomical number of pebbles into the sea.
Every conceivable thing happened.
Fighting, dancing, torture, kissing…
Of course, these events weren't actually occurring.
They might have happened, but the more important thing was that Ra Enemi's randomness was gradually dissipating.
As Shirone's pattern count increased, the number of responses Ra Enemi could make declined in proportion.
Some events became impossible from the start, and the bubbles on the cogwheel of the void began to burst.
Until, ultimately, all events disappeared as "things that could never have happened," leaving true movement at zero.
Grasping the shoulder of a Ra Enemi who could not react at all was an exceedingly simple thing.
"Hah, hah."
Shirone breathed roughly and glared at Ra Enemi.
'I've got you. I'll never let go.'
Even if it meant dying on the spot, he would cling on.
'It was a battle of probabilities.'
As Lupist fell into thought, Ra Enemi spoke.
"You finally came, Shirone."
There was no tension in his voice, even in this desperate situation.
Prrriii.
A black shadow passed with a whistling note.
Only after a splash and the spurting of blood did Ra Enemi notice his right arm had been severed.
"Kido."
When Shirone turned his head, Kido stood hunched, one foot slightly lifted, holding Ra Enemi's arm.
"Heh heh. The Speed Killer doesn't make mistakes. From now on I'll comb through your memories to the last detail—"
"Enough. Just eat it already."
Shirone snapped, getting impatient, but to his surprise Ra Enemi watched the scene with a smile.
"Then, go on."
Kido bit into Ra Enemi's arm and began to chew, and for a moment time seemed to slow.
Everyone watched tensely as something slid down Kido's throat with a wet sound.
"Hmm…."
Kido's eyes—waiting for the taste of the incident to register as he stared at the sky—filled with puzzlement.
"Oh?"
And through Nemesis, Ra Enemi's memories poured into everyone.
Shirone's eyes trembled with shock; Ra Enemi tilted his head slightly while watching him.
This was a story.
A behind-the-scenes account of a being born as a perfect accident.
"N-no way…."
Ra Enemi's memory began in a cosmic era beyond human experience.
On some planet lived beings with life.
Their forms, habits, language, and modes of communication were completely different from humans, but that didn't matter much to Shirone's group.
Because he had nothing.
"He's coming out! I can see the head! A little more, come on!"
A newborn, welcomed by all, began a tragic life without giving his family even a second of joy.
"No! No!"
Seeing the newborn, the parents wailed.
The child had been born a mutant, inheriting nothing from either parent.
To be precise, every sense through which their species perceived the world was damaged.
"Why our child? Why did it have to be ours?"
Still, the parents decided to raise the child.
At that point, a chill ran down Shirone's spine.
'This is insane.'
The child could not demand anything; they couldn't even guess what state it was in.
With no visual organs, it had no concept of light.
—Ra Enemi was blind.
With no auditory organs, it could not hear.
—Ra Enemi was deaf.
It could not smell, could not taste, and its nerves were so paralyzed that it could not even sense the movements of its digestive system.
'How could this be?'
Thus the self was trapped in nothingness with no attributes, and it lived a miserable life.
It might have had thoughts, but it was in such a state that it couldn't even recognize them as thoughts.
Time was meaningless: one second in the photon realm stretched to ten thousand, a hundred thousand, even a hundred million years.
"AAAAAAAA!"
Kido, whose head felt like it would explode just from receiving the memory, screamed.
Venezia replayed the memory that had destroyed two of her brains and wept bloody tears.
"Krrr—!"
Even Shirone, whose mental strength surpassed theirs, contorted his face and clung on desperately.
It was suffocating.
So suffocating he felt like he might go mad.
Probably the child's mind had been filled with nothing but that quality of existence.
A hundred million years became a billion, then tens of billions…
In the endless expansion of time, the nature of nothingness, unable to bear the void, began to warp little by little.
"Kyaaa!"
As before, the parents who came to feed the child were horrified and fled when they saw its body twist like a pretzel.
Bone structure crumbled, and organs that had never been needed began to dissolve.
It was becoming a lump of flesh—random, devoid of any functional shape or beauty.
By the time forty years had passed by the photon realm's measure, no one came for it.
"...."
In the silence, the world was simply still.
Time did not exist, so there was no aging.
It was destined to continue forever as an undifferentiated egg holding the concept of nothingness.
Which is why it was a perfect accident.
A signal without motive, intent, or purpose caused a faint ripple in its world.
"...!"
The lump's skin split lengthwise, and for the first time it began to stir.
Question.
It was surely a question.
When the split shell opened and eyes were born, an immense light poured in.
—In the beginning there was light.
Then brutal surges of information flooded in, and the nothingness-world filled with presence.
He called this world the universe.
—I exist.
Anke Ra (the Ra of eternal immortality).
As Venezia dropped to her knees, dizzy, Kido vomited up what he had eaten.
'This is—'
Ra Enemi said with a sad smile.
"Yes. This is me."
Kido retched everything up, but from the digested flesh new memories were already being transmitted.
He saw Ra Enemi seated in the dark like a stringless doll.
'This is real!'
Not an incident—this Ra existed somewhere in reality.
"Where are you? Where are you?"
"...."
"Answer me!"
Amid the cascading memories, Shirone clung to his reason and shouted.
Ra Enemi shook his head and stepped back.
"I will become a god."
When all the memories had finally been delivered and Kido grasped Ra Enemi's true intent, he clutched his head and shouted.
"Shirone! It's dangerous!"
Lupist frowned and unfolded Spirit Zone.
'Damn it! So that was the plan!'
The plan was to become Anke Ra again in a human body.
If he could not become a god as an abstract whole, he would transform into the most individual creature and try again.
'So Ra Enemi is—'
An aggregate of all the incidents Anke Ra had lived through since primordial times to become a perfect human.
No. 1. Ra Enemi (age 19): 98.7 percent.
Recalling the figures confirmed in the Ivory Tower test, Shirone felt his hair stand on end.
'He was almost there!'
Venezia had been right.
The Kar value built through incident experience had reached 98.7 percent.
What remained—1.3 percent—could be filled not by incidents but by vivid five-sense memories.
Kido's face twisted as he spun his spear.
'We shouldn't have come here!'
Through Shirone, Shagal, Kido, Meirei, and Venezia—the five—the Kar value of Ra Enemi was heading toward 100 percent.
"Kill him! If he finishes, it's over!"
A perfect human would mean everyone else was wrong by default.
Therefore he would have no right to exist.
"It's been a pleasure, Shirone."
When Ra Enemi stretched out his hand, the veil of air peeled away and the landscape began to tinge red.
The boundary between reality and unreality had become wafer-thin.
As that barrier vanished, a tremendous army appeared.
"How many are there?"
Even at a glance, the army numbered well over a thousand.
Flat-throated, bloated-bellied maw-creatures swept across the landscape in an instant.
"Kyaaak! Kyaaak!"
'Berserk!'
When the veil of light detonated centered on Shirone, the maw-creatures' limbs flew off in all directions.
'Where's Ra Enemi?'
As his body twisted, a blood-red blade came slashing through.
"Gah!"
"Do not trespass in our domain!"
A hoarse voice was interpreted through the Ultima System.
'What now?'
A hulking warrior with horns jutting at right angles from both temples stood there.
"The Lord of Despair, Barshiba."
The scenery peeled away behind Shirone, and Igor revealed himself.
"What's going on—where did this army come from?"
"This world had its own circumstances. I'll handle it."
Igor gripped his azure-flame spear and leapt forward; Barshiba swung his greatsword to meet him.
As Shirone bit his lip watching the mixed battlefield—a maelstrom of friend and foe—another voice came from behind.
"This is dangerous, Hexa."
A gray-skinned creature over three meters tall approached with a gait that seemed awkward by human standards.
"Meirei."
There wasn't really another name to call it.
"Fighting won't help us. Even now, Ra Enemi is collecting sensory data."
"Well then what do we do? Do we have to die?"
"That could be one way. But the Terraforce are a species that guard order. There is something I expect of you."
"And that is?"
"There is one way to temporarily lower Ra Enemi's Kar value. But the backlash to your world would be considerable. I doubt the representative of humanity would approve."
"Who is the representative of humanity?"
"...None."
That was why it had not been disclosed until now.
"Then it's decided here. Hexa, you will be the representative of humanity. And you will approve it."
"I don't have that right. I doubt others would acknowledge me."
"That doesn't matter. This isn't a human matter. It's the Terraforce High Judge's decree. Without the species' representative approving, we never use this method. You have the qualification. Decide."
Shirone looked over the battlefield again.
Everyone was exerting tremendous force to destroy the otherworldly army, yet the numbers still swelled.
'If this keeps up, it's over.'
Making his decision, Shirone turned his head and spoke.
"All right. I'll give my permission."
"Approval registered. Activating now."
Meirei muttered as if communicating with someone, then emitted a terrifying light from her retinas and strode forward.
"I am the High Judge of Terraforce."
Her spear-like hand pointed at the world.
"From now on, I will begin judgment upon all humankind."