Joining the Battle (5)
Amon, half-buried in the rubble, heaved up a boulder the size of a house and revealed himself.
"Kukukuku."
The spot hit by the photon cannon had been crushed inward; bone protruded from the torn flesh around it.
"Detestable Yahweh."
He casually tossed the massive wreckage aside and spread his battered arms.
"Do you know who I am?" Amon's voice rolled grandly through the silence. "I am Hell."
From the first to the tenth.
What made Satan's direct line special was that they were closer to a system than to an individual.
They were called Satan's Ten Great Calamities.
The demons called that calamity the Demon System, the Demon Realm; once the realm opened, the individual's consciousness vanished entirely.
'Does that even matter?'
It becomes a calamity.
"Curse your own foolishness." As the Demon Realm opened, wormlike tendrils writhed up through Amon's skin.
They multiplied at a terrifying rate and swelled his bulk; the demons recoiled in panic and fled.
"The Demon Realm has opened!"
Humanity watched, stunned, not yet grasping the disaster about to strike.
"W-what is that?"
Kururung! Kururung!
Amon's legs took root and then spread outward in all directions, piercing and splitting the ground as they advanced.
Buildings toppled like dominoes, and the main body's growth sped up along with the spreading roots.
Wuorin tilted her head to the sky.
"My gods…"
A tree so vast it could dominate Kashan's capital twisted its black trunk as it grew.
Holes opened along the trunk, and tens of thousands of mouths of every shape and size split open at once.
"Hrooooooo!"
The unearthly sound made Wuorin's shoulders tremble.
'That is definitely… the demon-tree Argantis.'
In Teraje's memories, a demon-tree's descent to the world was from an age so distant it was barely recalled.
An era when dragons and angels were at war.
The demon-tree had destroyed seven ancient nations and sought endless expansion.
No one paid any heed to humanity, walking barely on two legs.
In the end, humans formed the World Allied Forces and, after losing a third of their population, barely managed to repel the calamity.
'Things are different now. But…'
Watching Argantis breach the clouds, it felt like there was no future left.
"O gods."
People who had given up even fleeing sank to their knees and prayed — the only thing they could do.
"Hrooooooo!"
Argantis's cry was dreadful, but Shirone imagined something worse.
'No creature could be this large.'
A planet's energy is finite.
'Therefore…'
Rooted in Kashan's capital, Argantis sucked the land's energy dry.
"O gods, please… guh!" Humans instantly desiccated like mummies and collapsed as their moisture evaporated.
Building foundations turned to sand; the sound of collapse echoed from every direction.
The death toll: roughly twenty thousand.
Worse, the demon-tree, having fed on that nourishment, continued to grow.
"Damn it!"
Shirone spread his radiant wings and surged forward. He couldn't tell what was happening at the Ivory Tower, but the planet's condition was clearly abnormal.
'Angel's Punishment!'
He'd amplified the Radiant Angel's incarnation to its limit, but it wasn't even one one-hundredth the scale of the demon-tree.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Spears of light rained down without pause.
'It won't even budge!'
To Shirone, the base of the demon-tree — twenty kilometers across — looked like nothing but a wall.
"Hrooooooo!"
A second absorption.
Tens of thousands more humans withered into mummies; the ground beneath Kashan's capital crumbled away.
Pfffffff!
A dust cloud the size of the city rose and blocked Shirone's vision.
'If this keeps up, the world ends.' Argantis was one of Satan's Ten Great Calamities — the system corresponding to drought.
'I have to stop it before it's too late!'
Technically, he could learn a countermeasure, but that meant nothing here.
"Kill Yahweh!"
Demonic voices rose from the dust.
Shirone beat his wings of light and pulled back; as the cloud thinned, swarms of flying demons dove in.
'Ataraxia!'
In an instant, the accumulated amplification data drew a huge circle before Shirone's eyes.
Just as the demons readied their spears, a photon cannon pierced through Ataraxia.
"Kiaaaaaa—!"
A blinding flash shot out, sweeping away the demons and slamming into Argantis's trunk.
"Uaaaaaah!"
The amplified beam, driven to maximum output, swept horizontally and gouged a furrow across the demon-tree's bark.
Kwak kwak kwak kwak kwak!
'This isn't enough! Stronger, stronger!'
Explosions from Argantis shook heaven and earth; people curled up and covered their heads.
"Huuuh! Huuuuh!"
It already felt like sinking into hell.
When the photon cannon's flash had traveled roughly ten kilometers, the amplification surge faded.
"Hah! Hah!"
The shockwave carved grooves into trees; one could no longer bear its weight and began to tilt.
"It's falling!"
As the crown leaned about fifteen degrees, black branches spewed from the mouths on its back.
"Kueeeeeee!"
From the side it was falling toward, hundreds of thousands of black branches shot out and braced the weight.
They moved fast, but from Shirone's distant vantage they looked sluggish — which made them all the more revolting.
"Hrooooooo!"
Argantis planted roots as if bracing one hand on the earth and sucked nutrients in again.
As the ground sank further, Aganos the Planetary Body trembled precariously.
"Your Majesty! We must leave now!"
Led by Pungjang, Wuorin shot into the sky and shuddered at the scene below.
The whole city was drying out.
"Huuuh!"
On the empty Great Earth Temple, the planetary body knelt and wrapped its arms around itself.
Every time the planet's energy was drained it felt like dozens of syringes drawing its blood.
'I can't let this continue. I must stop it.'
As Gaia's avatar, she could interrupt the planet's energy circulation.
But stopping a giant planet's engine was a last resort.
Restarting the cycle would take time, and meanwhile countless places would rot.
'It's easy to destroy, hard to restore. We can hold on a little longer.' The planetary body's shoulders twitched.
"Uaaaaaah!"
This time the suction doubled; the planet's energy was drawn out even faster.
"Hurry, hurry…" The planetary body checked the ground with a haggard face; four of the Five Great Stars were charging in fast.
As demons fell to Fried's strikes, Kashan's capital came into view.
No — could it still be called a human city?
"Damn it! That's supposed to be a legion commander?" Civilization was gone; only a huge, charred tree stood crookedly.
Running beside Fried, Minerva rode her jet and said, "No, it's a phenomenon. A calamity — the demon system you said didn't matter, Fried."
Fried ground his teeth.
"…I know, stop nagging."
Amanta, sitting cross-legged on the World Wheel, spoke up.
"With Buddha absent, that thing's running wild. So what do we do? It's a bit much to handle by force."
Indeed, unless Nane could preach, there seemed no easy way out.
"What else can we do? We try. First join Shirone, then figure it out."
"There is a way." Shing approached, dozens of afterimages trailing like a tail, keeping the stance she'd held.
"With my Law I can temporarily suppress the demon-tree's growth. Then we seal off the capital and blow it up."
"Blow up the city? Where will we get the firepower?"
Amanta objected.
"The World Wheel. If we sacrifice the city's population, the firepower will be enough."
"Shirone won't allow that," Fried said.
"If Argantis grows any larger it'll be a worse problem. Some sacrifices may be unavoidable. They're dying anyway, aren't they?"
"It's not a question of numbers." The Five Great Stars fell silent as Shing spoke.
"I'll try to persuade Shirone. If he won't listen, we'll have to split up and fight."
When they finally broke into the city, a hellscape of an entirely different order opened before them.
"Goaaargh!"
People withered by the moment; rooftops and the sky swarmed with demons.
"Shirone!" Minerva boosted the jet and flew up.
"Minerva!" Shirone, fighting alone, turned toward her with a weary face.
"How is it?"
"No matter how much we pour down on it, it's useless. Even if we wound it, it absorbs the nutrients and heals."
Minerva checked Shing.
"There's one option. We land briefly and—"
"I know what you mean." Shirone kept his eyes on Argantis. "But that won't stop it like this. No, we can't beat the demons that way."
"Now's not the time to argue."
"Listen."
At Shirone's words, Minerva fell silent and leaned in.
From the countless mouths across Argantis came whispering voices.
"I want to eat. I want more."
"I'll eat it. I'll be the one to grow. I won't give it to anyone. Me, me, me!"
Hearing the many voices buried in the screams, Minerva swallowed hard.
"It's a demon born of human hatred. If we turn the World Wheel and destroy the city, that monster will vanish — but the hatred of the humans sacrificed here will become another demon and bring a greater calamity."
"I agree." Shing stepped closer.
"But if we fail to stop it now, the cost will be even higher. This is the best choice."
Shirone bit his lip.
"There are ways to destroy the city without sacrificing humans." He looked at Shing. "How long can it hold?"
"At its current size… about five minutes, maybe?"
Fried shouted as he hacked the huge roots exposed on the ground with his sword.
"Do whatever it takes, fast! It's still growing!"
There was no time for second thoughts.
"Leave it to me. I'll try." Shirone and Minerva descended to the ground while Shing stared at Argantis.
"…An illusion, huh." Seeing the demon-tree that had made imagined size into reality, she slowly raised her hand.
"I forbid dryness. I forbid devouring. I forbid digestion. I forbid activity. I forbid freedom."
Shing's Law began to press down on Argantis's own Law.
"Hrooooooo!"
Crack. Crack.
Cut off from its nourishment, the huge branches writhed and snapped like rupturing bones.
"Therefore—" Shing thrust the bracelet on her wrist forward. "I forbid all of you."
Law—enact.
"Kraaaaaa!" The hideous screams that erupted from Argantis's mouths stunned many.
"Gruuuuh."
Law is a kind of seesaw.
As Argantis thrashed, a faint crease of effort appeared on Shing's face.
Minerva checked the situation while fighting demons.
'At least we bought some time. But how the hell do we stop that monster—' Her eyes widened when she looked at Shirone.
'Ataraxia!'
Shirone had raised a huge magic circle overhead and was frowning as he calculated something.
"No way—"
Shirone's eyes snapped open.
'Here!'
A massive crimson beam shot up at the speed of light, pierced the sky, and extended into space.
As mass condensed at high altitude, a gray spear of about ten tons began to form.
"Shining Spear!"
Gaold called it God's Punishment.