[744] The Great Purifier (4)
* * *
When lightning-like flashes struck the 3,599 altars scattered across the world, the earth shook violently.
As Nane's will seeped in and red light began leaking from the brick seams, occupying forces in every country fell into chaos.
"Commander! The altar is about to open!"
The aide shouted, but the commander checked the map one last time and then slid his sword back into its sheath.
"This is strange."
According to the Temple's guide prepared by the Three Sovereign Orders, the Seven Royal Houses, and the Two Kings' Armies, there should have been twenty-three more hours before the altars opened.
"No—should that be expected?"
The altars, stacked tens of meters high, had been erected so quickly the kingdoms had no time to intervene.
History remade in a single day.
Countless kingdoms had tried to destroy them; all that came back was annihilation.
In the end, the matter had fallen into the Temple's hands.
"But the Temple isn't transnational. In the end they'll act in their own national interest."
The aide reported.
"Urgent intelligence indicates the Iron Kingdom made a final attempt to destroy an altar but failed. We have evidence that an elite unit was wiped out last night."
It was none other than an elite detachment of the Seven Royal Houses.
"Report to the kingdom. Current time: 14:47. The altars are opening earlier than expected."
Similar reports were surely pouring in from other nations, and the final rally point would be the Temple.
"Understood."
As the altars' bricks seemed to lose their gravity and disintegrate, an ominous light began to spread.
"W-what is that?"
Where the light bathed the land, the scenery warped, revealing a horrible world of entrails, muscle, and bone.
"Arus! De Mehah!"
As the veil was torn away, beings with melted, sealed eyelids and jagged, nail-like teeth burst forth.
The Arus of the otherworld—demons whose name meant loneliness, creatures that used scent to devour everything around them.
"Ahhh! Run!"
The light from the altar rapidly swallowed the unit; with Arus appearing at close range, the soldiers lost the will to fight.
"Damn it! All units, fall back! Pull them to the 'Guideline'!"
The Temple issued response protocols to the nations, and their measured safe radius was two kilometers.
'Too late. They'll control it completely within thirty minutes.'
Demons were overrunning the world.
* * *
Sadness rose in Shirone's eyes as he looked down at the planet from the Earth Temple.
"In the end…."
This had happened because he had failed to stop it.
"It opened earlier than expected. Amita's decision made Nane impatient."
Just as humanity could read Nane's intentions, Nane watched human movements with the same clarity.
"Nane pities life and didn't want to delay. She aimed for a perfect moment without any chance of counterattack."
"An acceleration of enlightenment."
"Yes. By my calculations, if the Kar value extends beyond ten million decimal places, even you, Shirone, will struggle to stop it."
A one-percent difference at the ten-millionth decimal place is nearly nothing, but in the ultimate domain it becomes a tremendous gulf.
"And it takes roughly forty-eight hours to reach that. The Temple probably predicted it, but I don't think they properly factored in the Council of Ten."
Amita's presence was evident—she could advance the Buddha's appointed time by over twenty hours.
"How long will it take?"
The thousands of red dots across the continents were growing so fast they could be seen with the naked eye.
If they looked that quick from space, imagining what people on the ground were enduring sent chills through him.
"That red light is the Spirit Zone. It erases the veil between the otherworld and the real world. In about a day it'll cover the entire planet and then some."
"Is there any way to stop it?"
Taeseong shook his head.
"It's not something you can smash physically. It isn't matter; it's a system."
"The Akashic Records, then."
"Yes. Only an entity with the highest authority can manipulate the Akashic Records directly. Put biologically, it's a tenth sense—a law that operates from a formless state."
Anke Ra was a being with that tenth sense, and that authority had now passed completely to Nane.
"When the altars were built, Lubber once tried to enter Ra Enemi's dream. But Lubber himself was a product of the Akashic Records. He was erased the moment he connected."
He was simply outmatched in authority.
"Therefore, to destroy an altar, only Nane—who inherited Anke Ra's dream—could do it herself…."
Nane had already destroyed one altar in the Iron Kingdom.
"There's no choice but to infiltrate and introduce a concept absent from the Akashic Records to corrupt and destroy it."
"…So I have to do it."
"Yes. You, Shirone, are the only one currently detached from the whole. So this is the first mission for you. Seal the altars."
Shirone thought of the 3,599 altars.
"I can't make the time. By the time the seals finish, there won't be anyone left alive."
"They will buy you time."
When Shirone looked puzzled, Taeseong projected the vast frozen continent across the ceiling of the Earth Temple.
"These are people you know."
As the Spirit Zone's radius expanded rapidly, six hundred eighty thousand people died worldwide within ten minutes.
They were only hidden behind a veil; the otherworld and the real world shared the same space, and that was the problem.
Palace walls, ancient weapons, any concealment—none of it mattered. In that situation…
"We approve the Sion Project."
Eighteen minutes and forty-two seconds after the altar opened, representatives of the Three Sovereign Orders, the Seven Royal Houses, and the Two Kings' Armies gathered at the Temple and signed the papers.
Those documents fell into the hands of the Valkyrie's greatest information mage and crossed the continent at light speed.
"Ms. Miro, approval has been granted."
They were sent to the Eternal Reflector Armin and reached Miro, the representative of Sion.
"It's too late! Damn politicians!"
They needed support from forty-eight countries to operate the sanctum of the Lawkeepers.
"Let's begin. The longer we delay, the worse the damage."
Miro nodded at Kuan's words, fixed her gaze on Nane beyond the Antarctic, and spoke.
"We will gather everyone's will. From now on we will shrink the Spirit Zone's domain as much as possible."
As torches flared atop the seven hundred totems arranged behind her in two rows, the frozen land flamed like a blaze.
Ancient silence.
"...."
Between the two rows of pillars stretching toward the continent, thirty-seven thousand Lawkeepers from nations around the world stood densely arrayed.
Looking up at Miro's face filling the ceiling of the Earth Temple, Shirone felt his chest tighten.
'They haven't given up.'
Beron was gone, but countless people still opposed Nane.
"Did you plan this, Ms. Miro?"
"Yes. It seems that when Anke Ra reset the world for the third time, only she foresaw this."
The Hexa Gahin created to block world resets—and the one who carried that Hexa forward—was Miro.
"Of course Istas's memories were erased with Gahin, but the circuit of insight remained."
Anke Ra had sought godhood, but repeated resets alone could never surpass the whole.
"Only a being that can close itself is a god."
In the end, Miro's worry had been right.
"The stronger the resistance, the more the world will suffer, but this has bought us time."
Taeseong looked back at Miro.
"She's defended the world from the Army of Heaven for twenty years. In defense, she's unquestionably humanity's strongest. Even Nane won't find this easy."
Shirone clenched his fists.
'I can still fight.'
He knew it because it was Adrias Miro.
"Humanity is not your exclusive possession, Nane."
With the incarnation of the Thousand-Handed Kannon filling the Antarctic sky, Miro lifted both hands.
"Ooooooooo."
As if conducting the Law itself, her gestures drew the many monks seated behind her into concentrated ritual.
Leaders of nine hundred eighty-four sects—the Yor New Faith, the Karthis Monastery, the monks of the Eastern Mid-Heaven Tower known as the Ivory Tower of the Ascetic Path—were all assembled.
'They represent almost all the good that exists in the world.'
Nane may not be purely evil.
"But defining that is our task."
To tip the scales of the Law, it was fitting to call Nane evil.
'It's shrinking.'
Shirone watched from space as the Spirit Zone's domain contracted rapidly.
'This is Adrias Miro.'
She was the master who had taught Shirone the meaning of life.
"Push a little harder!"
At Miro's command, the Lawkeepers moved in flawless unison and strengthened their individual wills.
At the same time, the torches on the seven hundred totems exploded into pillars of flame.
The heat burned away even the Antarctic cold, though those already in samadhi felt none of it.
'A monstrous will.'
Miro's eyes hardened with ferocity.
'How can this be in a human body…'
By the Law's balance they were inevitably set against Nane, yet the will was so powerful it inspired awe.
'Yes, you are the closest to a god. Devour it all!'
The totem flames gradually began to wane.
'Honestly, this is unfair!'
The terror of the Spirit Zone was that it tore down the barrier between the otherworld and the real world that shared the same space.
Human defenses lost their meaning, so Sion Project's ground objective was to reduce the Spirit Zone's domain to less than one kilometer.
'The boundary must not collapse.'
If it were merely a hole, then even if demons invaded, the war could still be fought in human territory on human terms.
"Damn it!"
Suddenly a curse slipped from Miro's lips.
'Demons are not good.'
That is why they are called demons, but they are also beings born from humanity's own underside.
"Ms. Miro, you must forgive them."
As Miro's mind wavered at the edge of concentration, Armin hurriedly spoke up.
"If you break down, it's over."
Armin's voice sounded like it came from a distant place.
'When the world wiped out the Adrias family I didn't waver. But this…'
It felt unbearably unfair.
'Why must suffering fall to the good?'
Armin shouted.
"Pull yourself together! Shirone has already absolved everyone of their sins. This is the one chance you earned!"
"Ughhhhhhh!"
Miro's numerical sequence, which had plateaued, surged again at terrifying speed.
'Shirone, how could you forgive?'
As wondrous as Nane's deed was, Shirone's compassion was no less miraculous.
'I won't let my disciple surpass me!'
When Miro's sequence surpassed 10^64 and entered the realm of the unfathomable, the totems' flames pierced the sky.
"We will never yield."
As if rewinding time, the Spirit Zone's domain shrank toward the point where it had first arisen.
Spirit Zone radius: 17.4 kilometers.