On the Brink (1)
The laser that passed through Ataraxia pierced the upper atmosphere and transmitted information to a point six thousand kilometers above the surface.
The force produced when a mass of over ten tons struck the ground was enough to level a city.
Even Shirone, the developer of magic, had only ever cast it once—and that was in Heaven. That alone proved how dangerous the spell was.
"What on earth is he trying to do?"
Watching Shirone launch the laser, Minerva tilted her head.
The impact when Divine Punishment struck would be beyond any human's ability to withstand.
"So in the end, it's the same thing, huh?"
Shirone focused every nerve on the sky.
"If it can't be controlled, it isn't magic."
It was just another calamity.
That was why Shirone, despite its unprecedented destructive power, had never used it—until now.
"This time it's different."
Because of the information accumulated from space, a single spear now tilted toward the ground. The difference this time was a seeker—three-legged, tripod-shaped—mounted at the spear's midpoint.
Three laser beams shot from the seeker.
"There it is!"
Minerva, riding her jet above the clouds, confirmed the laser cutting down through the atmosphere.
"A laser guidance system."
Looking down, she saw a red dot on top of Argantis, which lay helpless under the Law.
"The mental drain must be enormous."
Launching it was only a trigger; that wasn't the problem.
To attach a seeker to Divine Punishment, however, the Spirit Zone had to be active six thousand kilometers above the ground.
It was literally a last strike on the line.
"But with this, precision targeting is possible. If it hits properly, we can limit the damage."
Now the only variable was time.
By her calculation, Divine Punishment would take at least ten minutes to reach the surface.
If Argantis broke free before then, precision targeting would be lost and the capital would be destroyed.
"Can Sing do it?" Sing had said about five minutes.
But if she threw away pride and dignity and rushed in, she could probably buy a few more minutes.
"Still, it's tight."
Minerva swung the nose of her jet and dove straight down.
"Shirone's defenseless."
When he hit the ground, Shirone stared up at the sky with his eyes rolled back.
Each time he fine-tuned the seeker's laser, the half-visible pupils trembled left and right.
The world's smallest strategic weapon.
A bitter smile tugged at Minerva's lips.
"…Lucky he's a decent man." After all, he was still human at heart.
Until he completed the spell, nothing could disturb him.
"Grab Yahweh!"
Legion Commander Amon had become a disaster, but the demon units led by the brigade commanders were still intact.
Whether they knew about Divine Punishment or not, they naturally charged the one they hated most—Yahweh.
"Come."
Demonic beasts over four meters tall surged forward, blocking the view like a wall.
"You bastards."
Minerva's eyes widened and her body shifted into the naked form of a young girl.
Her pale skin was a map of wounds and bruises; rope burns scored her so clearly it looked as if flesh had been scraped away.
"Kraaaargh!"
As the beasts dug in their claws, the girl-illusion vanished and she spilled the pheromones of a witch.
"Uuuugh…"
The demons, frozen by a fear older than the witch, were hit as fire erupted from the jet.
Propelled by thrust, the jet swung in a full arc and smashed the demons' faces in the same direction.
"Wasn't it fun to toy with them?" Minerva drew hard on her long pipe and blew smoke ahead.
Disaster magic: the Walking Dead.
The maddened demons tore into each other, and the tide of attack flipped outward.
"Kyahahaha! Die! Die!"
When she slammed the jet down and crushed demon skulls, her true nature showed.
Fried, running across a roof, clicked his tongue.
"She's a real scrapper." At least he'd figured out what Shirone was doing.
"This feels wrong."
Fried looked up at Argantis, which writhed grotesquely while bound by the Law.
"A tree, of all things…"
Just as a man on the roof formed blue lightning in his right hand and launched himself upward—
"Please! Help us!"
A scream rose from below.
A family surrounded by demons clung to one another and sobbed.
"Hmph. Humans."
If they died, they died.
"Life's hard. Do you know how much I had to shit myself to get here? You don't? Then just die."
A demon's voice said it plainly.
"Kuhahaha! The woman's mine!"
"Mom! Mom!"
They heard the daughter's voice too.
"Darling! Aaaah! You bastards!" As the sounds faded, Fried shot into the air.
Thoughts crowded into him.
"Damn."
Fried's face twisted.
"This'll make me lose it!"
Just before a spear could pierce the husband who'd stood in front of his wife, a flurry of blade strikes—faster than sound—cut through the air.
"Huh?"
Demons whose necks were sliced fell instantly, and the family looked up, stunned.
Fried stood there, annoyed.
"…This is why I hate coming down." Humans—no, people like this—had become something else entirely.
"Kuhahaha! Still got a herald of justice left? You'll regret this!" The brigade commander barked, and dozens of demons leveled spears at Fried.
"Please! Save us! Please, our family…"
Fried looked at their daughter with a bitter expression.
"A herald of justice, my ass. Life and death are each person's own. Who do you think you're saving?"
He pushed the man coldly aside and stepped toward the demons.
"Still—leave families out of it. Do you think I'd enjoy taking your daughter and torturing her?"
"Huh? Daughter?"
When the brigade commander glanced around, his subordinates shook their heads and shrugged.
"We don't have anything like that." But Fried did.
He was a man who loved his sword, a father who bickered with his mage-wife every day.
"That's why you don't know," Fried said, gripping his sword's hilt hard.
"Just how far a human can go."
"Kill him."
As the demons lunged, Fried swung his sword and a gale ripped out.
Like something thrown into the void, each streak of light cleaved demons as it passed.
"Useless pieces of filth."
In short order Fried cleared the immediate threat, then brushed the blood from his blade while the family bowed.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!" They couldn't just leave them.
But then how many other families were dying right now?
"It's really hard. That's why I hate you, Shirone."
Why live so complicatedly?
"But—"
When Shirone looked him square in the eye and ignited his spirit, a single emotion flickered through Fried's mind.
"I wish my son would grow up like you."
He would have been proud.
"Damn."
Wiping his eyes, Fried checked Argantis again.
It was still bound by the Law, but far more active than before.
"…That thing's shitting itself too."
Sing drew a long breath, clenched her teeth, and stared at Argantis.
"That's an illusion!"
Not the true body.
"Only I am real. The thinking me. The existing me. Everything else bound by the Law—"
Her bracelet, the Law relic Jinjon, vibrated and pressed down the demon's will.
"Kneel before me!" Argantis roared and thrashed, and blood rose in Sing's face.
"I can't let go yet!"
The five minutes Shirone had mentioned had already passed.
"Sing."
Amanta's voice came.
When the world ring, grown to twenty meters across, spun rapidly, the humans around it began to vanish one by one.
Sing didn't look away; she asked, "How many did you save?"
"At least as many as the confirmed dead," Amanta answered. "I don't know how large the Terraformers' shelter is, though."
That would be enough.
"What about Shirone? If this continues, my Law will be twisted too."
"He's going to cast the spell that fired the Arabot. It's supposed to take a while. He's groggy from the laser guidance, too."
"So that's it?"
Sing's face hardened.
"I'll release the Law in thirty seconds. The shockwave will be massive. Evacuate those near the demon tree first."
"What are you going to do?"
"We can't make time otherwise. The point is to strike the demon tree directly."
Amanta nodded.
"Do that."
From the moment the world ring moved away, Sing began counting.
When her count hit thirty, she released the Law that had been crushing Argantis.
Hrooooooo!
As if spewing out all the rage it had held, the demon tree's black branches fluttered like seaweed.
The air tore as if whipped; buildings in the area were swept away.
"You don't have to stop everything!"
Sing formed hand signs at speed.
As her hands moved, afterimages trailing, thousands of collars sprang up from Argantis's roots.
"Just hold the core!" The strongest demon-extermination golden magic: Demon-Exterminating Three-Thousand Worlds. Rings that coiled endlessly along the trunk swelled into thick branches.
They held the trunk as if two hands gripped an arm.
"Now we can hold it!"
But small branches Demon-Exterminating Three-Thousand Worlds hadn't seized rained furious attacks down onto the ground.
"Damn it!"
Fried stepped in front of the family and hacked the branches away.
Though tiny compared to the main body, each stem was more than enough to pierce a house.
"Uwaaah! Mister! Mister!"
After Fried cut dozens of branches, the ground began to tremble.
"What now?"
Woooooo!
Argantis, starved of nutrients for so long, could no longer sustain its enormous body.
"I want to eat!"
Ten thousand mouths emitted a sound.
"I want to eat! Give me food… gurgghhh!"
From mouths beneath the demon tree, a torrent of acidic sludge gushed out.
The instant it hit the ground, toxic gas rose.
"Goddamn it…!"
It was flowing back up.
Like a leaky bottle, green liquid kept spurting along the trunk.
"If that keeps rising…"
The moment the refluxing liquid reached the top, an acid downpour comparable to a volcanic eruption would fall.
"Aaaaaaaagh!"
Families clamped cloths over their faces as toxic gas swept by.
"Get inside the house!"
As he shielded them, roots crept up the buildings, twisting together like ropes and surging forward.
"Mister!"
When he looked back, the roots had sharpened into awl-like points and were almost upon them.
Kraaaaaaang!
Startled by the thunderous noise, the family squeezed their eyes shut, then slowly opened them.
"Hah, these things are real…"
Fried raised his sword and, frowning, cleaved through a root with a heavy thud.
Amanta's voice came down from above.
"The situation's gotten worse."
Glancing up, Fried began stripping pieces of Oshinjang armor from his body as he spoke.
"I'll handle this. Take the family with you."
"How are you going to do that?"
"It's spraying its guts everywhere, so I'll plug the hole. I'll burn my way up with lightning."
"Can you do it? It's pretty high."
Fried looked back as if she'd asked the dumbest question.
"Can't you see I've taken my armor off?" His body was honed to the extreme. Amanta spun the world ring as she said,
"Hurry. Something massive is falling."
"So what of it?"
Fried gripped his sword and charged at Argantis at a speed that rivaled flying.
He'd already switched modes.
A mode that activates when the guy you really want to beat the hell out of shows up.