[735] Two Perspectives (4)
* * *
Labyrinth Andre—World No. 1.
Shirone's body began to radiate the light of a gigantic cross, and that radiance spread outward into the world.
It was a sacrifice to restore the countless beings erased when history was twisted.
'Lives that have passed, and lives yet to be born.'
All of them are precious.
Watching Shirone gradually dissolve into light, the great dragon Karatorsa lowered his body.
"Because of you, we will exist."
Countless dragons that had hovered in the sky descended behind Karatorsa and mirrored his posture.
"Because of you, we will exist."
Mitochondria Eve wept.
"Shirone…."
With this, history would be set right again, and she could one day become the empire's empress.
"Remember this light, Blitz."
Karatorsa told Blitz as he drank in the particles of light filling the sky.
"This is life."
Blitz didn't answer, but the memory would remain unaltered in his mind and endure through the ages.
Labyrinth Andre—World No. 283.
When the divine punishment struck, the bodies of the army ants that had invaded the Kingdom of Ganet were smashed to pieces.
"Ma—mage."
Merot trembled her antennae in fear, and Shirone stroked her.
"It's okay. There's nothing to be afraid of."
This world was someone's dream.
For that reason, Shirone could, even now, close her eyes and turn away from everything.
'But….'
If the desire for happiness itself were an illusion, what reason would there be to be born into this world at all?
"Everything will be fine."
Taking Merot with her, Shirone headed for the queen's chamber—the ruler of Ganet.
"The Thirteenth Night…!"
At the entrance Merot cried out.
"No one may approach!"
Rolling across the floor as it manifested, the Thirteenth Night—already missing half of its six legs—shouted.
"Yes, I know."
Shirone regarded the Thirteenth Night fondly as it fought a desperate battle against the powerful army ants.
To the Thirteenth Night, Ganet was only one among many individuals with similar biological information, but….
"That's why they exist."
We love what resembles us, and so we will forever reach outward into a broader world.
"Kraaah!"
The Thirteenth Night's scream echoed through the cave as it was surrounded by army ants.
Locked in the queen's chamber, Ganet trembled before the deaths of her children.
'Pain. Horrible pain.'
Still, we would continue the endless cycle of feeding and breeding and press on in search of happiness.
'Yes—this is how it should be.'
"Mother! Mother!"
Merot unleashed a burst of angry pheromones and rushed in as the Thirteenth Night, crushed by the ants, shouted.
"Don't come! Get out of here!"
Merot had the duty to escape the colony and found a new one.
Shirone understood all their hearts.
'The lives of lesser creatures are no different.'
Immortal Function.
When Shirone's body shone with intense light, the ants filling the cave simultaneously stopped fighting.
"This is…."
It was the light of life.
* * *
"Wh-what is that?"
Nineteen thousand crosses filled Andre's Labyrinth, and Kido looked around with a terrified expression.
"What happened? Why all of a sudden?"
The truly worrying thing was that Shirone's body inside the labyrinth was shining in that same form.
Seongeum finally realized.
'Could it be that she was surveying every world of Andre?'
If Shirone ruled time as she dominated space, it wasn't impossible.
But the thought that she had gone beyond her own affairs while drifting through nineteen thousand worlds was terrifying the more she considered it.
"This is going to collapse!"
If the entrances to so many worlds exploded simultaneously, the cave's foundation would soon give way.
'No—worse than that.'
Remembering why this place was called the Prison of Space-Time, time and space would be jumbled together.
"Get out of the way!"
Seongeum widened her eyes and was about to cast an ether wave when—
"Prison of Space-Time."
Nane murmured casually.
'The nineteen thousand worlds McClane Geffin defined.'
Nane had devoured Anke Ra's dream, but when it came to Geffin, only vague conjecture was possible.
'They're being reintegrated.'
Nane stepped forward into an impossible situation without fully grasping Geffin's intent.
"What dream are you having?"
He could not help but ask.
"In this nightmare where only dreadful oblivion awaits, what hope do you clutch?"
Nane slowly reached out his hand.
"You are wrong."
Sermon—End.
A red sword, containing the concept that could destroy a universe, pierced the ceiling and plunged toward the ground at light speed.
It was so fast—a vertical flash connecting earth and sky—that reaction was impossible.
"Ugh!"
Yet Kido's groan was audible because Nane's truth did not penetrate the ground.
"How?"
Nane's Sermon—End trembled as if something blocked it just above the surface.
Seongeum turned her head slowly.
"Shirone."
Her eyes filled with tears as she looked at Shirone's body, becoming as transparent as clear water.
"To the last moment…."
If Nane's karga had been perfect, there would have been no life in this universe capable of denying his truth.
But the fact that the End had not been driven home meant there was still another opinion refusing Nane's enlightenment.
"I want to live."
The life force Shirone was spreading was preventing Nane from reaching perfection.
Tears ran down Seongeum's cheek.
"I was foolish."
Strong and weak alike—everything was just a roll of the dice while life's reincarnation spun on.
So Shirone willingly sacrificed herself for life itself, preventing the annihilation of the universe.
"No."
Seongeum shook her head, choking on her words.
"You mustn't go like this, Shirone."
Though she used radiant will to block Nane's truth, Shirone would ultimately diffuse into Infinity.
"You are wrong, Shirone."
When Nane pressed his palm down, the Sermon—End began to writhe toward the ground with terrible force.
"Grrr—!"
At the same time, the cross-light Shirone radiated intensified, but that only hastened the extinction.
"You cannot save a world with a momentary hope."
If loving something could erase the world's suffering, Nane would have given his body away thousands of times.
"Human emotions, once gone, are nothing but a mirage. Who will remember you?"
Being alive is so self-evident to life that no one would memorialize Shirone.
"Seen from afar, each pushes their burden onto another, passing pain along."
They reincarnate endlessly and therefore all suffer.
"I will sever it."
As Shirone's spirit thinned, Nane's Sermon—End drove downward with dreadful certainty.
"Is it over…."
When Mungyeong muttered with a pale face, Shirone's voice—now dispersed like smoke—was heard.
"Even if life has no meaning, I will protect life to the end in this nightmare."
"Why? In a world that ends if you close your eyes, why endure pain and continue to exist?"
"There is no reason."
Isn't loving enough?
"We…."
When Shirone's body—now perfectly dispersed as light—vanished, her voice lingered through the space like an auditory hallucination.
—Because we exist without reason.
"No! Shirone!"
Seongeum rushed and clawed at the space where the light had spread, but she grasped nothing.
"No reason?"
The presence that had blocked Nane was gone, yet he did not bring the Sermon—End fully down.
"Shirone, is that what you call a truth more than any I know…?"
It was the derivation of an unacceptable result.
"Is that enlightenment? Is that truly Geffin's intent? To live without reason, die without reason, breed without reason, eat without reason?"
No answer returned.
For Nane it was maddening, but to all who knew Shirone it was a crushing sorrow.
Kido lowered his head.
"Is it over now?"
"No."
Rian, however, still burned with fighting spirit and stared at the empty air where Shirone had been.
"She can't have disappeared like this."
A yaksha's will is strong enough to deny reality, but denial alone could not resurrect Shirone.
"Give it up. Shirone has become Infinity."
Seongeum looked around at the transparent air enclosing them with sorrowful eyes.
She was everywhere and nowhere—a vast consciousness that had seamlessly infused the world.
Nane said, "Do not grieve. This too is but a dream; why should you exist and bear sorrow?"
Placing his hand on the hilt of Sermon—End, Nane pressed down with all his weight.
"This ends it."
Anyone witnessing the universe's end would reel; Mungyeong squeezed his eyes shut.
"Why…."
Nane's voice sounded. As they watched, the sword of doom slowly slid upward, pushed back by something beneath Nane's palm.
"Why can I not carry it through?"
Nane's karga was still imperfect.
"Is there still something left that denies my truth?"
"Rian! There—!"
Kido pointed ahead; faint particles of light were gathering one by one.
"It's not over."
World No. 2940 popped and exploded, and yet more particles began to cluster.
Then World No. 8765 exploded, then World 32, 10837, 8546, 4109….
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!
As the nineteen thousand worlds were simultaneously liberated, the swarms of light began to take on human shapes.
Seongeum said in a trembling voice, "It isn't just one."
The Immortal Function that began in the Samadhi of the Void was breaking apart each world and climbing back.
Kido cried, tears streaming down his face, "Shiroooone!"
Light has no will.
So the fact that mere photons could assemble precisely into Shirone's form could only be explained because—
"Hexa."
There was no causal agent.
"Grrrr—!"
The consciousness that had been spread across Infinity reformed into a body, and Shirone made a pained face.
"She's back! Shirone is back!"
For those who had waited, it was joyous news, but for Shirone the process of descending from a sublime consciousness to a living organism was agonizing.
'Feeding and breeding.'
However, having experienced it before, the process of installing a living system was smoother than before.
"Nane, your sympathy for the world isn't wrong. But we will exist to the end."
Seeing Shirone's clear gaze, Seongeum trembled as if she could hardly comprehend it.
"Th-that's impossible. That is…."
It was impossible.
Seongeum, another unlocker who knew better than anyone that a consciousness spread into Infinity couldn't return, stared in shock.
'No—there's only one way….'
Seongeum fixed her gaze on Shirone as she recalled the single method.
The Infinite Mage.