[799] Complex (4)
"Kill me."
Mortasinger meant it.
"I'm tired of living with this hideous face. Do whatever you want—just kill me in the end."
It was an ability born from a complex greater than death or pain.
"I won't kill you."
Shirone looked puzzled.
"I know the heart is the real problem. If it were easy to change, no one would suffer. But…"
She was undeniably beautiful.
"It's not that there's no way. I can help you learn to love yourself."
Mortasinger's reply was cold.
"You don't understand. You're beautiful. You've never had to live with a face as ugly as mine."
"You're not ugly."
"Liar."
Shirone shaped a mirror with her Material and held it up.
"Look at your face."
"Kyahhh!"
Mortasinger screamed and turned away; Shirone pressed the mirror closer.
"Look! This is you! What on earth is so hideous about this face?"
"Get away from me! Why do you keep tormenting me!"
If mere catharsis like this would have been enough, she wouldn't have carried out such a brutal terror.
"If you can't accept it, believe someone else. I believe you're beautiful."
"Liar! You're just pitying me!"
"It's not a lie. I'd stake my life on it."
Mortasinger's eyes snapped wide.
"Then die. Die in front of me. Then I'll believe you."
"Fine."
Shirone released the Shining Chain, took Mortasinger's hand, and brought it to his throat.
"I can't commit suicide. So kill me."
Because he had included himself among the objects of his universal love, Shirone could not strangle himself.
To him, suicide carried the same weight as killing all life in the world.
"Hah! You think I can't? Even if you lost your power, breaking a neck like yours is—!"
The Ten-Path Council executive was powerful, and her iron grip tightened around Shirone's windpipe with terrifying force.
Shirone closed his eyes and waited quietly for death.
He didn't expect her to change her mind, nor that anything profound would be realized through this act.
'Just trust.'
That humans are creatures capable of choice.
'No matter how tainted a heart…'
Even if demonic.
'There is no heart that cannot be turned back.'
That was the only hope universal love dared to dream—born from the clash of good and evil, from the emptiness the Buddha realized.
Mortasinger's arm trembled.
'Why? Why go this far—'
It felt like a single, thin shaft of light seeping into a perfectly twisted heart.
"Really, I…"
Mortasinger slowly withdrew her hand.
"Am I… pretty?"
* * *
As Hyega moved, diamonds crystallized in the air and formed a Milky Way.
'I mustn't breathe!'
By the Law, matter would revert to energy; inhaling it first would wreck the lungs.
"Not a bad escape trick."
Marsha, who had dropped her short blade, stepped back and said, "It's already been a hundred seconds, though?"
Hyega snorted, wrapped her whole body in diamond, and charged. Marsha spread both arms.
"Kill if you must."
The outlawed technique "Snatch" had already been erased into catharsis by Shirone, but her resolve was unchanged.
A sharp strike pierced in; Marsha twisted and caught Hyega from behind.
'Let's see who dies.'
As soon as she drew a new short blade from the inside of her thigh, Hyega slashed wildly.
Scabbards multiplied to twelve, and a gas of desire began leaking at a rate of twelve percent per minute.
"Are you prepared to die?!"
Even at point-blank range, she didn't stop producing scabbards while evading Hyega's attack.
'Backing off is the same as dying.'
Hyega understood that now.
'I'll take you first!'
With superb technique, he drove Marsha against the wall and thrust into her abdomen.
"Gah!"
At once Hyega's desire bottomed out and she lost her free will.
"W-why…?"
She had definitely felt a blade strike her stomach.
"Too bad for you."
Marsha, having driven the blade deep, lifted her hem like someone showing off a slim waist and bared her navel.
"What a cowardly trick…"
"A coward?"
Marsha shoved with her shoulder; exhausted, Hyega toppled backward.
"Do you think it's easy to keep this figure at thirty?"
"…"
Watching the stunned Hyega, Marsha turned her head toward the entrance.
"Still not finished? Get out of here."
A towering Boridalma shot tens of meters into the air and activated a formation; massive palm marks thudded onto the ground.
"Damn! That blasted monk!"
Its ironlike strength and wind pressure could almost lift a body; there seemed no way to bring it down except intercepting it.
"I'll try."
The clan's Seik crouched, and the tiger tattoo on his right thigh awakened.
"Qualification of the Fierce Tiger."
He kicked at the sky and a savage roar echoed through the air.
Kraaang!
A shockwave arced around and exploded, creating turbulence near Boridalma.
'Ugh!'
The tiger's side-attack could overlay dozens of rotational vectors on the shockwave.
"Diamond Sutra."
Boridalma thrust both hands to the ground; with a boom he shot even higher.
"Pungryu, Daeryeoknajal."
Folding his hands, he extended them like blades and sent iron-compressed air flying like spears.
Kraaang!
The two techniques met midair in a thunderous collision.
"Hey! Why are you so noisy? What are you doing?"
Marsha, dragging Hyega by the back of the neck, jabbed a finger at Freeman and shouted.
"Wait. Almost got it."
Freeman reloaded a magical cartridge and took aim at Boridalma, finger on the trigger—
"Huh?"
From the ridgeline a violet radiance rose like a sunset, briefly blurring the scene.
"Mortasinger."
* * *
"Of course you're pretty."
Shirone smiled and nodded.
"I'm sincere. I would never lie."
"I'm… pretty?"
She still couldn't believe it, but this was the first time someone had staked their life to guarantee it.
"Come with me. I know someone who can help you trust my words."
If it were Miro and Arius, they could dive into Mortasinger's hell and rescue her.
"Can you forgive me?"
Yahweh does not discriminate against the repentant.
"Nothing's happened yet. From now on you'll fight with us."
Whirrr.
'Really?'
A fly drifted into the forest.
'Really out of this hell—'
Mortasinger tried to take Shirone's offered hand but pulled back, recoiling inward.
"No! There's no way you'd forgive me! This is a trap!"
The moment Shirone's lips opened, the world froze to gray and everything stopped.
"Aaaaaaaah."
A majestic funeral choir sounded from the sky.
"Wh-who are you people?"
Twelve figures, all dressed in black, had formed a circle around Mortasinger.
"Siok—Prison of Time."
A time outside the Law—0.666 seconds.
"Welcome her."
When the Siok turned as one, the colorless world peeled away and a vast lake of molten lava spread out.
"Your suspicion is justified, my child."
The center of the lava bulged and a dolllike form, smeared in blood, emerged.
Atrocity—Satan.
Its voice was like something burning.
"Yahweh deceives you. Only I can give you what you desire."
Invoking Siok from outside the spirit domain was heresy, but at this moment there was no god present in this world.
"What I desire?"
"Behold, my child."
Beside Satan, a mirror rose, reddened as if smeared with oil, and reflected Mortasinger.
"Ah… aaa…."
A mirror that reflected the heart.
The image in the mirror was monstrous beyond words, yet to Mortasinger it was the most beautiful form in the world.
"This is the look I've always wanted!"
"I can give it to you. Worship me. Become the most beautiful woman on earth."
It was a far sweeter offer than Shirone's.
"I'll follow. Please, give me that beauty!"
The funeral chorus swelled.
"…The contract is sealed."
Following the twelve Siok who sank into the ground, Mortasinger too sank as if into a swamp.
"No."
She snapped back to herself and shouted.
'No! That's not me!'
Seeing the monstrous self in the mirror, she struggled, but she could not undo the pact with Satan.
"Save me, Shirone! Rescue me!"
She reached out desperately, but the distance to Shirone's offered hand widened.
"Hahaha! I will take her, Yahweh! I will seize everyone you love!"
Within the time outside the Law, Satan sneered into Shirone's ear.
"As long as the Buddha is absent, the world is mine. Hate-filled Yahweh, writhe in pain for all your days."
Mortasinger's face sank beneath the earth.
"Shirone…"
When the Siok vanished completely, the human-shaped Satan immersed itself in hellfire.
As hell's landscape closed, a vast violet flash spread for a single instant.
0.666 seconds.
"Huh?"
Mortasinger had disappeared as if swallowed; Shirone narrowed his eyes and stood.
"What happened?"
A kidnapping?
'No, not that simple. Even at an unseen speed there should be traces in the mind.'
It would be impossible without stopping time.
'But how? Even stop magic can't affect objects.'
Shirone's eyes widened.
"Satan."
Only an entity outside the Law could deceive Yahweh.
'So atrocity can commit apostasy too?'
It had seized the instant of doubt sprouting in Mortasinger's heart and dragged her into hell.
"Tell Sion."
Using Fly magic, Shirone soared back toward the auditorium.
The fighting had quieted; Boridalma supporting Hyega and Marsha came running together.
"Shirone! What happened?"
"Where's Mortasinger?"
Shirone glanced at Boridalma and explained the situation.
"Taken to Hell?"
"Since Teraforce began allowing apostasy, the demons seem to have changed their methods. She won't be able to get out on her own."
"Hmm."
Boridalma exchanged a look with Hyega.
"Anyway, she's our leader. The Immortals' community will head to Sion. We should be able to find a way there."
"I think the same. But I can't promise they'll accept you."
She said it aloud, but Miro would accept them.
'Because it's the extreme line.'
Shirone looked around, saw there were no casualties, and deactivated Time Vibration.
"Is that it? That was entertaining."
Marsha sounded disappointed, but Shirone—who had seen this hundreds of times—grimaced.
'What happens in Satan's time cannot be meddled with.'
Since that time didn't exist in the Law, even if they went back Mortasinger would no longer be in reality.
"Shirone! Where did you go? I thought I was going to die!"
The beauty-contest participants approached.
"The terrorist was caught. You can proceed with the contest in safety now."
Rangki asked, eyes bright.
"Really? They're really caught?"
Before Shirone could answer, she hugged his neck and squealed.
"Yay! Finally free!"
Other contestants rushed to embrace him in turn.
"Thanks. But I'm sad—what can I do? If I'd been in the waiting room I would've seen a great show."
"No, I'm fine."
He declined gracefully.
(End of Volume 32)