[760] Possibility (2)
"Ugh!"
Only after she'd flown twenty meters did the pain finally register, and Jacy clung desperately to the thinning thread of consciousness.
"Stop! I said stop!"
She tried to apply reverse thrust with Blo-type magic, but her body merely bounced across the ground like a ball, amplifying the agony.
"Kyaaaah!"
She realized for the first time that a person could roll for so long, and so much.
She rolled without end, and there seemed no sign of stopping until some unimaginably distant point in time.
"I'm going to die!"
She would roll herself to death.
When something somewhere cracked with a sickening snap and she felt bone break, an overwhelming force suddenly arrested her.
"Huff! Huff!"
Held in those arms, she looked up at the spinning sky and focused inward.
"Three broken ribs, a fractured wrist, torn ankle ligaments."
After she'd made that assessment, the next thought was what kind of magic could have done this.
"It was just light."
Information about divine particles was fairly well known now, but North Eymond was an exception.
"There are no mages like that here."
If a single blast could fell a third-rank grand mage, the caster would have to be at least a first-rank mage.
"You really trampled him properly. It'll be a useful experience for you too."
Minerva clicked her tongue and breathed a witch's breath onto Jacy's lips.
"Ah…."
For a moment she slipped into ecstasy; when she came to, the pain in her body had vanished without a trace.
"I only patched you up roughly. Don't fight."
Jacy's eyes snapped wide.
"I can't do that! There are still thousands—no, tens of thousands I need to kill…! Ugh!"
A twinge in her ribs made Jacy curl over.
"Anger is beautiful."
Watching her with fond amusement, Minerva changed expression and rose to her feet.
Shirone stood before them.
"What are you doing right now?"
"You know. If you still don't, your level's lacking. North Eymond conducted experiments that threaten humanity."
"So what do you intend to do?"
"As you can see…."
Minerva gestured to the sight of countless demons turning to ash and vanishing.
"I'll wipe them out one by one. Soon North Eymond will vanish from the world map."
Her refusal to entertain compromise meant she'd grasped Igor's true nature as well.
"Garras aside, control of the altar has already changed hands. See those demons? A huge number are pouring out right now. Unless it's a mass slaughter, we won't be able to finish this."
"That's cruel. Innocent people will be caught up in it."
"Of course they will. But minimizing the damage is my duty. And to be blunt…."
Minerva's gaze hardened.
"There isn't a single person in this world whose dying wouldn't be deserved."
"..."
"If you're strong you can choose—good or evil. But the weak have only wickedness as a weapon to become strong. If someone does something monstrous, people fear them. They're afraid of becoming victims themselves."
Minerva pointed her long pipe at Baseto.
"You think he'd be different? Had he been as strong as you, he might've turned out worse than Igor. No one can know."
Shirone had learned what kind of person Minerva was in the Ivory Tower elevator and why she'd become that way from the story of .
Because compromise would be difficult, Shirone spoke.
"Stop the slaughter. From now on I'll handle matters concerning North Eymond."
The one person who least wanted that was, of course, Jacy. Gripping her side, she limped closer to Minerva.
"Were you acquainted?"
If so, that would at least be less awkward.
"Acquainted? Colleagues, you could say."
"What? Colleagues?"
Jacy narrowed her eyes and turned to Shirone, checking where he worked.
"Is he one of the Stars too?"
"Yeah. Awkward. If he were from another Star I'd have chased him off, but he's the same rank as me."
Same rank as Minerva.
"T-Then one of the Five Great Stars?"
"That's right. I'm with the Department of Human Security Enforcement; he's with the Integrated Cosmic Administration. The problem is…."
The Integrated Cosmic Administration had more sway with Taesung.
Unaware of the internal power plays of the Ivory Tower, Jacy only found Shirone intriguing.
"He looks barely twenty…."
Well, Minerva herself wasn't actually over seven hundred in age.
"That's right. He's twenty."
Jacy blinked incredulously at Minerva, but she wasn't joking.
"And the strongest mage among humanity. Or was he ranked second?"
Minerva dropped Nane's name casually and laughed.
"Fine—tie for first."
"Don't be childish and egg them on to fight. I'll handle Nane. Right now the problem is you, Minerva. Nothing will be solved like this."
"Then what will you do?"
"Lift the catastrophe magic right now."
The poisonous gas she'd scattered was killing demons, second-generation demons, and ordinary people alike.
"You've got , don't you?"
Shirone frowned.
"Make a deal. Give me , and I won't hand this case to the Integrated Cosmic Administration."
"I can't do that."
"You'd hand it to Kashan? You're not in a position to be fussing about politics."
"No. I think it would make you suffer more if you keep it."
The poison dissipated.
"Sacrificing yourself for everyone doesn't mean you can save everyone. Neither you nor Nane is a god. And you aren't Gefin. Even if you reach Infinity, it's only a human infinity."
Minerva pointed at the battlefield.
"See? There are still countless people dying to demons. You can beat them, but you can't save everyone! Stop pretending to be a shabby god and decide where to focus!"
It was infuriating.
"Nane, Kashan, the altar, humanity, the extremes…! You can't do it all! You can't even protect the local residents right now!"
From across the supply line Verdi and his family shouted.
"Dad! Dad!"
"Verdi!"
Baseto lunged, and demons brandishing terrible weapons chased after the family.
The situation unfolded and was analyzed all at once.
Second-generation demons were slaughtering the garrison, and in the distance Commander Godan of the 48th Military Facility was cutting down workers with a military blade.
"This is reality! Killing them all minimizes damage! So leave it to me and get out!" Minerva said.
"What is reality, then?"
The moment you give up is reality.
"How would you know without trying?"
When Shirone focused, the Spirit Zone expanded to an unimaginable scale and blanketed the military facility.
"Th-This can't be…."
Before Yahweh's spirit, which surpassed human limits, Jacy didn't dare attempt to interfere.
"Quantum superposition!"
One hundred thousandfold.
Shirone's presence multiplied far beyond the numbers from their exploration of Andre's labyrinth, teleporting in every direction.
The flashes spread like explosions, nearly blinding, and countless people experienced a miracle at once.
"Krrrgh!"
The Spirit Zone transmitted a synesthesia—senses fused with time, space, and thought.
That transcendent information analyzed every situation with no margin of error and rescued people who were about to be struck down by demons.
"Damn you, Yahweh! Abominable Yahweh!"
With only the demons being erased, the second-generation demons froze, trembling with fear.
"Aaah…."
Verdi watched thousands of flashes arching through the sky and wept as he gazed up.
He couldn't intellectually analyze it, but the swelling feeling in his chest was the same.
"Sniff! Sniff!"
Everyone was saved.
"My brother told me."
There were many people living treated as less than human inside the 48th Military Facility.
"You are the most valuable person in the world."
As something no one in human history had attempted became real, people began to kneel one by one.
Lights embroidered the sky.
"What is that light?"
While everyone asked the same question, the demons turning to ash shouted.
"Detestable Yahweh! I'll tear apart those you love! I'll watch you weep blood in hell!"
"Die, Yahweh! Be cursed, Yahweh!"
People murmured.
"Yahweh, huh."
A love beyond human reach.
"O Yahweh…."
One hundred thousand flashes left ten million afterimages and covered the heavens until the whole world was filled with light.
Shirone dropped to his knees and breathed raggedly.
"Huff! Huff!"
Watching every demon vanish without exception, Minerva fell into deep thought.
"It's not over yet!"
What remained were a few second-generation demons.
Most were incapacitated by grievous wounds, but Commander Godan, unbowed, charged at Shirone.
"Demon—"
They hated Shirone as naturally as humans hate everything but love; among their emotions was everything but love.
"I'll kill you, wretched…!"
When Minerva reached out, Jet surged at incredible speed and pierced Godan's body.
"Kurgh!"
Jet tore through building after building, and Godan finally slumped.
"...Are you all right?"
Minerva approached Shirone, who was practicing breath control to steady himself.
Shirone silently raised his head.
"You look like you expect me to answer."
"I can do it. You have your kar, but leave this matter to me."
"You saved the 48th Military Facility."
Minerva surveyed the now-peaceful scene.
"Next you save the capital? After that North Eymond, then the continent, the east, the south…."
How far would it go?
"Just because you accomplished something today doesn't mean your kar is fulfilled."
"I know. But…."
Shirone glanced at Verdi, who embraced his family and shed joyful tears.
"That isn't what's important."
If one person could save the whole at the cost of everything—if there were even a one percent chance—
'That's why Nane didn't do it either. But if there's even a one percent possibility…'
Where could there be a better gamble than that?
"Hah, talk of kar when there is none."
Shirone smiled and stood.
"So you'll leave it to me now?"
"What do I care? The Department of Human Security Enforcement does what you order anyway. All we've gained from that is recklessness."
It was the department that killed the most people.
"I'll keep as well."
When Shirone drove the point home, Minerva smirked and turned back.
"You're unbearable. Do you even know how to use it?"
"Huh? Isn't it just… if you put earnest feeling into it, it activates on its own?"
"That might be enough to kill small-time scum, but the target will face this time is on a different scale."
Shirone hadn't heard the news from the cathedral.
"Kashan's empress is watching the extreme evil: Gustav Habitz the Seventeenth. He's the one who became emperor this time."
"The Tri-Emperor system…."
"You've known Uorin, so you'll understand fast. Their cunning isn't ordinary. They'll use countless stratagems to evade the law of ."
"I see."
Shirone also couldn't imagine the emperor dying.
'Indeed. From North Eymond to Gustav's imperial palace, then cutting through countless guards to kill the emperor….'
How would the law have to change to make that possible?