Apostasy (4)
Rian stepped into the hut, quickly packed his things, and finished preparing to leave.
"What will you do?"
The Zaib soldiers had withdrawn for now, but once Rian left, the hunters' lives wouldn't be guaranteed.
"There aren't any vampires left."
One of the Lords still hadn't awakened from hibernation, but Genia was confident she wouldn't allow it to be taken.
"I'll gather the hunters and form an extermination squad. I won't leave a single vampire alive in this world."
Only when that was done could Genia and the hunters finally live in peace.
"All right. Be careful."
"You too. It isn't only Zaib that's after you. You might end up fighting the whole world."
Rian smiled confidently. "Doesn't matter. I was prepared for that."
There was no point in saying more after she'd seen his strength with her own eyes—it would only sound like nagging.
Genia hesitated, then called his name softly. They both felt a certainty—though they were each about to walk their separate paths, they would probably never meet again.
"Why not come with us?" Genia mustered her courage. "Come with us. The captain of the Divine Guards said a great war is coming. Why not join forces and fight together?"
Rian shook his head. "There's somewhere I have to go."
Genia remembered what he'd told her earlier. "You said there was someone you truly want to protect. You said that person is far stronger than you."
"Of course. But now I can be the strength they need. And…" Rian glanced toward the sunset. "They must be having a hard time right now."
Unlike Rian, who could throw everything away to become stronger, Shirone had many things he had to protect. Now, as Shirone's sword, it was time for Rian to share that burden.
"The descendants of the True Demon are gone, but there are still countless mages in the world," Rian said, patting his shoulder. "See you on the battlefield."
Those words carried a weight to them; Genia snorted and gave his chest a playful tap. "Try not to smash everything to pieces."
With a nod despite the uncertainty, Rian left the hunters' hideout.
He'd planned to return home... but the place the strongest great-swordsman was headed for was the Ivory Tower.
Heaven.
After the war that had cost countless angels their lives, Anke Ra had withdrawn from view. Supreme authority had been entrusted to the archangel Ikael, but she had kept silence for a very long time.
Then one day Nane's voice reached them.
—I permit the apostasy of all beings.
Angels, maras, fairies, giants, and the living—everyone understood what that could mean for Heaven.
And now, after the war, the White Council—the convocation of archangels—had been summoned for the first time.
In the pure white chamber gathered Ikael, Yuriel, Satiel, and Raiel.
"Exactly half are gone," Yuriel said, and the archangels fell silent.
There were eight fundamental concepts that sustained this world. But now each had lost its exact counterpart. Amplification had lost annihilation; destruction had lost birth; dissolution had lost union; light had been separated from gravity.
"If an archangel is to be resurrected, Anke Ra's power is absolutely necessary," Raiel said. "But Anke Ra is gone. Why summon only half the White Council?"
"Imir broke through the barrier of ice." At Ikael's words the angels' glory-forms stiffened.
"Wasn't there supposed to be a special Law at work?" Satiel asked. The frozen sea of Niflheim was absolute stasis, a place where even souls froze.
"It wasn't a place that could hold Imir in any case," Yuriel replied. "The reason he stayed quiet wasn't because of Anke Ra."
"Because it was meaningless." If there was nothing that could destroy him, Imir had no reason to act.
Raiel looked to Yuriel. "So you mean—meaning has been created?"
"Something is happening. Somewhere not Heaven."
Only Ikael could answer, but she kept her lips tightly sealed.
After a long pause, Satiel finally spoke—and the chamber of the White Council began to tremble.
"What is that?" The archangels' glory-forms expanded into halos as their sharp gazes swept the area.
"He's here." Only Ikael remained composed, though her eyes were colder than usual.
As the tremor intensified, two huge hands suddenly thrust into the White Council's space.
Satiel snapped upright. "Who's there!"
The White Council's chamber had been formed from the purest collective minds of the archangels; no impurity could penetrate it.
"Grrr!" When rough hands pried the chamber open, the angels' glory-forms rocked.
"Who else would it be?" a voice flowed in, and in that instant everyone understood.
"It's me." Imir, king of the giants, tore the chamber open and shoved his massive form inside.
"Ugh!" The wall closed in an instant, but the intrusion of this foreign presence sickened the angels.
"Are you mad, Imir?" The only reason Imir could inflict physical shock on angelic minds was that he was a composite of the Gaians—his power was pure energy, not merely the force of flesh.
"You were bound to be here." Ignoring Yuriel's taunt, Imir looked to Ikael. "You never answered no matter how much I called you." At last Ikael's lips moved. "Why did you summon me?"
"War." Imir stepped closer. "Send me. Can you do it?"
A human organization called Sion still held back Heaven's incursions. Of those defending space-time, the most powerful was Adrias Miro, who had guarded Miro's veils.
"Don't be arrogant, Imir." Ikael's reproach made his brow twitch. "I know what you're thinking. But you cannot start a war for your own private reasons."
"Private reasons, huh." Imir put a hand on Ikael's shoulder. Three angels rose at once to strike him down, but Imir spoke before they could act.
"Isn't that the same for you?" His words landed like a blow. Satiel was the first to let down his hostility; the other two archangels turned toward Ikael.
"Anke Ra's Akashic Record passed to Nane. Heaven must find Nane as soon as possible. Yet you still hesitate to decide."
Ikael had no answer.
'Shirone.' The child imbued with the will of Geopin.
"I know roughly through Suoi. Ikael—you've regained your memory, haven't you?" Anke Ra had erased Ikael's crimes, but the massive amplification had restored all her memories.
"That's why you can't go. Fine. But there's one thing I want to hear. Why did you bear a human child?" Satiel glared at her, hostility coiled in his stare.
'I loved Geopin too.' Ikael no longer even knew who Geopin was, but the longing for him still lingered in her mind.
'But even so, to bear a child is unimaginable.' Angels were concepts—ideas incarnate. There was no reason for beings like them to have a mere human child.
"First, Shirone is not my child," Ikael declared. "The child was already dead at birth. It died the moment it was born. It never even received a name."
"That doesn't mean there was no connection, does it?" Satiel pressed, but Ikael said nothing.
"The reason Anke Ra forbade apostasy… is because no one should know the world's secrets." Ikael raised a finger. "We are concepts, and therefore we are eternal. Humans are material and mortal. They are subject to our rule, and they obey for immortality."
It was Heaven's Law.
"But what if the opposite is true?" Ikael asked.
"The opposite?"
"What if we were created by humans, and humans are the ones who discovered the secret of immortality?"
The archangels' glory-forms trembled.
"We might exist merely for human convenience—mere accessories that sustain this world. If that's the case, what happens?"
The chamber's atmosphere tightened, ready to explode.
"We would become mortal. If the world closes, we become nothing. Conversely…" Ikael looked at them all. "Humans would be the gods."
Satiel sprang to his feet. "What nonsense is that! Those fragile humans gods? They flail about because they hate this world!"
"That's precisely why apostasy is possible."
"What—?" Satiel stepped back.
"Apostasy is an exception to the rules. Some humans ignore specific rules of this world. And that's only possible if there's a world outside."
Longing softened Ikael's expression. "This was Geopin's hypothesis."
Satiel bit his lip. "Geopin."
"I don't know," Ikael said. "I fought Geopin fiercely as a commander. But after hearing him I thought—if that's all it is, just information, do we even have a reason to exist?"
"So you had a child?"
"Just… I wanted to continue," she admitted. Like a Gaian who had left the photon realm.
"But I couldn't." The child had died, and Anke Ra had stripped Ikael of her authority for the transgression.
Snapping out of her memory, Ikael returned to her solemn bearing and addressed them. "Anke Ra never permitted apostasy. Not even until Heaven was on the brink of annihilation."
But now the situation had changed.
"Anke Ra asked Hexa, 'Why can't I become a god?' Hexa's answer was unexpected. Although he came from outside, he seeks to protect this world."
Perhaps because he came from outside, Raiel said, "So Ra chose Nane."
Nane was an existence trying to go from inside to outside.
"At first we waited. We believed he would guide us outward. But he was blocked by Hexa's barrier."
"There's been talk and talk," Imir grunted. "In the end we have to go—either smash humanity completely, or follow Nane out."
"There is Satan there." A being outside the Law. Born from all human chaos that flowed outward, Satan was Heaven's worst adversary.
"But Nane permitted apostasy," Yuriel said. "It won't be as easy as before."
Raiel, who had been quietly listening, turned to Ikael. "It's time to decide. If anyone other than Nane imposes this world, Heaven has no future."
Ikael knew they had to act, but the reason she still hesitated was clear—
'Shirone.'
If she went to the distant regions, conflict with Hexa would be inevitable.
As everyone waited for Ikael's judgment, she closed her eyes and thought. When she opened them, her voice was calm and final.
"Organize an army."
Heaven began to move.