[764] Lord of Destruction (3)
'They really are monstrous.'
The nanostructure Maraduk commanded was called Soryeok — a cleaner of the otherworld where even microorganisms could not exist.
'A being outside the Law.'
A demon wasn't bound by the Law because it belonged to a psychical realm shaped by humans.
Maraduk's magic, which seemed to ignore physical force, was likewise the power of Soryeok acting from the otherworld.
'If I hadn't blocked it with the dark orb…'
I'd be dead.
"Fuuuuuu!"
As Choeni Bardo's power released, the scene in the otherworld burned away like a sheet of paper set alight.
Maraduk stood solemnly in ruins that would have taken humans at least a month of fighting to create.
"…Excellent judgment."
Shirone glared at Maraduk, but the aftershock from a hundred thousand stacked Quantum Superpositions muddled his mind.
'Getting past this point is truly difficult. Consider this the current limit of what's available.'
The only way to preserve a personality inside a mind spread across Infinity was to drive the Kar value down to the extreme.
'Depth of attainment.'
If Miro or Beron had reached the realm of Yahweh, this wouldn't be all there was.
'Why am I so shallow?'
Even attempting to orchestrate a hundred thousand events was probably beyond the human domain. Shirone felt nothing but regret.
"The only thing that can stop ruin is annihilation."
Maraduk let his sword hang and walked forward.
"Hahahahaha! Hahahahaha!"
His laughter was unbearably unpleasant, but Shirone, still mentally unstable, bought himself a little time.
"Is this Yahweh?"
As the laughter cut off, dreadful black flame rose from Maraduk's body.
"This kind of light…"
Having evaporated his body, Maraduk suddenly appeared before Shirone and swung his sword.
"No demon ever repents."
Shirone couldn't react.
'I'm not steady yet…'
He'd stacked a hundred thousand layers in the dark orb simply because he needed an eight‑meter gravity radius.
'Valhalla Action!'
The more events piled up, the harder they became to control; the concentration of power had to drop.
'Computation impossible!'
Still, this was efficient in Shirone's way.
'Valhalla Action!'
The possibility of perfection.
If you could remove every variable, the fastest, strongest route was to become perfection itself — that was his nature.
'Done!'
Perhaps that was the infinite realm he'd reached.
"Hah! Hah!"
Continuously perfecting and then surpassing that perfection, someone who reached this place had left behind only—
"You employ an interesting Law."
What in the world was it?
"Surely not human."
Maraduk eyed the Valhalla Action circle floating above Shirone's head with interest.
'Computation impossible.'
Because demons stood outside the Law, Valhalla Action could not demand an equal exchange.
'All I could do was dodge.'
Shirone's second computation amounted to nothing more than evasion.
'Even with no special ability, he's just strong.'
What Shirone traded to dodge Maraduk's sword was a grace period of 1.87 seconds, even by his standard.
—Angels who cannot fall.
Minerva's words finally made sense.
'Ataraxia, Valhalla Action. The pinnacle of Law formed from an angel's senses…'
Demons were the antithesis of the Law.
'Hence the chaos.'
Maraduk lunged.
"What do you desire?"
This wasn't something temporal compression could paper over, and Shirone reactivated Valhalla Action.
"Ugh!"
Moving while ignoring time for 16.7 meters demanded as much as 4.3 seconds of leeway.
"Human happiness?"
Maraduk seemed to relish it, coolly pursuing Shirone and throwing himself forward.
'You can't dodge forever!'
Like compound interest, every time Valhalla Action chained, the time Shirone owed grew.
But if he didn't dodge now, Maraduk's sword would cut his throat, so he had no choice but to keep juggling the mounting debt.
"You succeeded, Yahweh."
When Maraduk gathered all the Soryeoks from the otherworld, black smoke rose from his body.
"To feel pity for a demon."
The annihilation magic called the Great Annihilation roared, sweeping away a four‑kilometer radius around Shirone's position.
There was no sound, but an area large enough for a small village vanished completely from the world.
"Ughhh!"
Four kilometers away, Shirone crouched, unable to move.
"Pain and pleasure are senses… but—"
Maraduk closed in in an instant.
"Where does this fantasy called happiness come from?"
Knowing it couldn't be undone, Shirone used Valhalla Action to cast a Quantum Superposition.
Thousands of Shirones moved, but they were not an enemy to be overwhelmed by numbers.
"Squirm all you like…"
Every time Maraduk swung his sword like a madman, countless events were erased.
"You can't find what isn't there, can you?"
Moving faster than Shirone's time sense, Maraduk seized a clone and stabbed Shirone between the brows.
'It's fine. It isn't the original.'
The cold sensation driving into his forehead cut Shirone's life.
"Kraaaah!"
The sharp tip of Jet's spear entered Division Commander Beshum's mouth, pierced the back of his skull, and slammed into the ground.
"Guhaaah…!"
Minerva, who had already taken down three other division commanders, sat back against a collapsed wall, still gripping Jet's staff.
"Phew."
Blood trickled from her lips; her clothes hung in tatters, revealing flesh beneath.
With Jet lodged in his mouth, Beshum croaked, "…Strong."
Even a demon couldn't call him merely human.
"He's not just strong."
Minerva tore the cloth at her waist and held the bleeding shoulder, saying, "He just fights well."
"…"
Beshum, chewing that over, turned his gaze to the fight between Shirone and Maraduk.
"Why don't you kill him?"
"I will. When I feel like it."
"Is that an excuse?"
"An excuse?"
Beshum's jaw dropped as his mouth twisted.
"You plan to spare his life because you've done your duty? You think even our corps leaders couldn't beat him?"
Minerva's eyes bored into Maraduk.
"…I won't deny it."
There was no need to risk her life unnecessarily.
"But to be honest, it makes me uneasy. Just… when I look at that kid."
"Yahweh's annoying, isn't he."
Minerva laughed.
"Hahaha! Right. Life's just about the dead dying and the living surviving, isn't it? In another sense he's just obsessed with cleanliness."
"You like him."
Minerva rested her forehead against Jet and peered down.
"Why do you think that?"
"There are only two kinds of people who deny Yahweh: those who hate him utterly, and those who love him utterly."
"You don't think it's the former?"
"It amounts to the same thing."
Why did demons hate Yahweh?
"Heh, look at you, corps leader."
Minerva twirled Jet and Beshum trembled in agony.
"Ughhh…"
Letting go of Jet, Minerva put a pipe to her mouth.
"At first, everyone wants perfection."
Savoring the receding pain, Beshum rolled his eyes to the sky.
"Anyone can line up pencils neatly. Then they think—beautiful."
Minerva's pipe drew a shape in the air.
"That's how the journey to perfection begins. You build a house, add floors, and think: I must be happy; my life must have no flaws."
The drawing dissolved into smoke and collapsed.
"Then one day you suddenly ask: can I really become perfect?"
"Humans are foolish."
"Right. The thirst for perfection remains while the self disappears. You could just give up a little and live."
Minerva looked back at Shirone.
"If you think a world with zero pain could exist, that's obsession."
The two thousand four hundred fifty‑eighth Shirone, stabbed by Maraduk's sword, died writhing.
'It's fine. I'm not the original.'
In truth, they all were Shirone.
"That's why I get angry. Yahweh's love for the whole is noble, but—"
Minerva's cigarette smoke unfurled long.
"Shirone, where are you in that whole?"
Having cut down every Shirone, Maraduk finally grabbed the original's throat and lifted him up.
"Kekeke, pathetic Yahweh."
Minerva shook her head.
"That's why you can't win."
Universal love that can't love the self is arrogance toward sacrifice.
"Because you cling to perfection, everything collapses into impossibility."
Shirone was strong, but not a good fighter.
"Take Lawslaying, punish the wicked, save the world, close the altar, and do it with zero sacrifice…"
She liked that kind of Shirone.
"But let it go."
The filth no saint could hide seemed to stand equal before Shirone.
"It doesn't matter, right? Even if everyone dies today."
That's why she favored Shirone a little more than Nane.
"It's not your fault, Shirone."
But if he couldn't realize it, Minerva thought it might be time to hand the world to Nane. She looked down at Beshum.
"May you be reborn in paradise…"
He was already dead.
"Kuhahaha! Kuhahahaha!"
Maraduk, clutching Shirone's lifeline in both hands, erupted in triumphant laughter.
A cruel demonic temperament showed through, at odds with his handsome face.
"To see Yahweh's crying face."
Bound by the debt of Valhalla Action and on the verge of suffocating, hot tears streamed from Shirone's eyes.
'I'm sorry, everyone…'
He hadn't protected the world.
'Because of me… because I was weak…'
People would shed blood‑hot tears in pain, just as Jayci had lost her husband.
"A final last word? I'll record it in demon history so it can never be erased."
Amy.
At the mention of a last word, the first face that surfaced in Shirone's mind was Amy's.
'I miss you.'
She was the only person Shirone loved more.
'I should have listened to you then…'
If only he hadn't ignored the voice in the dream that cried for him not to go.
"Record it like this."
At the end of his patience, Maraduk said, "Yahweh could not even make a sound."
Shirone shivered and raised his head.
"The reason I learned universal love is…"
Why he loved all existence.
"Because I do not want a single person to disappear."
A vibration beyond reach ran through the arm that gripped Shirone's throat.
"Die! Detestable thing!"
Maraduk pushed with all his might as if to snap his neck, but a greater force shoved his fingers aside.
"T‑This…!"
Shirone's body began to glow, radiating a presence incomparable to any Quantum Superposition.
"Right, Shirone. If you truly want to save the world with Yahweh's light…."
Watching from afar, Minerva murmured, "You must transcend Manman."
The ninth sense a living being could reach — resonance — was awakening in Shirone's body.