God's Brain (3)
Omega Year 201.
Hundreds of angels and thousands of Gaians filled the sky.
Every time the Judicial Halo flashed, the Law trembled, and the Gaians' violence battered the surface.
"Ooooooooo!"
At the same moment, a golden radiance lit the eyes of the Gaians.
'Ultima System.'
As the quantum signals of three hundred million beings merged into one, the world's veil was stripped away.
"What the—?!"
A current of light as vast as the Milky Way swung wide and surged into the angels' formation.
"Attack!"
Angels beat their wings of light and hurled themselves at the signal with all their force.
KRAAAASH!
Shockwaves larger than planets rippled through space, and the White Dome of the archangels' councilroom shuddered.
"Damnable humans!" Metiel, Archangel of Union, bared her white teeth.
"How long will we just wait? Why don't we step in and smash them?"
Her pure face and waist‑length blonde hair belied eyes full of killing intent.
Kariel, Archangel of Birth, spoke up.
"I agree. If we stay like this they'll regroup before we can even attempt a reset."
While Geffin pursued his own course, the Gaians were also reinforcing Ultima.
To prevent another cosmic rupture, Anke Ra concluded the only option was initialization.
"Wait a little longer. If the reset succeeds, the futures in which the Gaians exist will vanish."
They would redesign the universe from its origin to prevent this from happening again.
WHOOOOOM!
As the White Dome trembled again, Satiel, Archangel of Dissolution, raised an elegant brow.
"Still, it's incredible. It's hard to believe this is human power."
Union and Dissolution are sister concepts.
So Satiel's appearance, like Metiel's, was heavenly beauty—only her hair was short and her eyes innocently large.
Metatron, Archangel of Existence, warned her.
"Guard your thoughts, Satiel. Does one of archangel rank praise lowly creatures?"
Satiel puckered her lips.
"You must admit what's true. You know, once you disassemble any being, they all become the same, right?"
Metiel showed displeasure.
"So are we the same then? Of course not. Your thinking is childish. You won't be able to rule humanity that way."
"F‑fine."
Satiel hurriedly bowed her head.
Born with the concept of Dissolution, she treated all things equally—precisely why Metiel, the embodiment of individuality, found her difficult.
As the atmosphere fell quiet and the archangels kept their silence, Ikael spoke.
"The angels' line of defense has collapsed."
Her eyes carried the authority of an archangel, hardened by countless battles against the Gaians.
"That bad?"
White vapor, milky as cream, seeped from Uriel, Archangel of Destruction, and dissolved into the White Dome.
"I will go out. Today I will destroy Ultima."
"No. Everyone goes."
If even a sliver of a crack formed in Ultima, Anke Ra would reinitialize the world.
'That they cannot even approach means the Gaians' minds surpass the angelic forces.'
Only an all‑out sortie would do.
"Must I go myself?"
Paiel, Archangel of Annihilation, refused to accept that things had been driven this far.
'Paiel.'
As Shirone skimmed Omega's records, he took note of the archangel he had personally destroyed.
'He was truly strong.'
It had taken more than 127 years of Valhalla Action to pay the cost and defeat him. Even accounting for the time debt, it was chilling that less than five years had passed since then.
"Everyone, mobilize."
Ikael warned Paiel.
"Do not presume the enemy, Paiel. That is precisely why we now pay the price."
"I recognize the enemy."
Ultima was strong.
"What I doubt is why Geffin saved you."
The tale of Geffin flying in to block Ikael the moment a photon cannon was fired had circulated among the angels.
"Saved? Even if he hadn't stepped in, I would not have been harmed by such an attack. And Anke Ra has already disciplined me sufficiently for failing to stop the Gaians. This is not your place to question."
After Anke Ra's stern rebuke, Ikael's resolve had only hardened.
In any case, the angel commander was Ikael; Paiel had no grounds left to argue.
"My command is Anke Ra's command. All archangels, heed me. Deploy at once and stop the Gaians."
"We obey."
All eight archangels slipped through the White Dome's gates at once and vanished.
"Strike! Drive them back harder!"
Lightning split the sky into thousands and slammed vertically into the mass of Gaians.
"Weak."
From two kilometers above the ground, Myshin smirked as he watched electricity scatter in every direction.
As the eldest and representative of the Gaians, heled their host against the angelic legions with leadership rivaling Geffin's.
"This will do." He pointed forward with two fingers, and the minds of the Gaians unified.
"Lightning."
KRACKK‑KRRRRRASH!
When the world opened and lightning struck, the angels' screams rose.
"Aaahhh!"
Before the energy of the rupture, even conceptual beings like angels saw their radiant bodies crack.
"Heh, reset, huh."
Amid the crowd surging toward Anke Ra, someone perched on a rock and puffed on a cigarette.
A hulking, lupine figure—the Gaians' battle captain, Leo.
"Anke Ra. What a pathetic dream," he muttered, exhaling white smoke as a woman with iron‑gray hair to her ankles passed by.
"Hey! Everyone's moving and you're just— you became captain and then you bail."
"Aw, would anyone notice if I skipped one?"
"If everyone thought that, who would step forward? Get up now."
They bickered, but both had already reached the same conclusion.
"That was delicious."
Leo flicked his cigarette away, shoved a hand in his pocket, and walked up beside the woman.
"Penny, if you're free tonight—"
A piercing scream cut him off like a tearing sound.
"Pathetic humans!"
Where the Gaians' gaze fell, an angel of feral countenance glared.
"How dare you defy God's command! A great catastrophe will befall you!"
Leo's expression turned cold.
"What's with that angel?" Penny asked.
"Ikasada. Angel of Desire."
She could reverse causality with a Judicial Halo Valhalla Action and intended annihilation.
"Go, angels! Will you let our world be taken by these lowly creatures?"
Seeing the change in the angels' eyes, Ikasada dove toward the surface.
"Glorious Anke Ra!"
Black‑and‑white data clustered in her halo as a colossal output surged forth.
'We will never be taken!'
Winners become gods.
Losers fall into an abyss of existence far beyond mere slavery.
"Die, humans!"
Shirone thought.
'Impossible. Even if you reverse causality, you can't produce a result that simply rips away life.'
He understood because they used the same Judicial Halo; once he'd grasped the null pattern, it became clear.
'Because the codes differ.'
This world consists of a photon code as the physical substrate and the mind that inhabits it—the quantum code.
'Time belongs to the photon code. The agent that triggers action—the will—belongs to the quantum code.'
Thus the photon code cannot access the quantum code.
'Kill them! Even one!'
Only Ikasada's emotion was genuine.
The future she dragged in for that end was all the fist she could throw until her own body shattered.
"This world is ours!"
Leo's brow twitched.
"...You're under a grave mistake."
He raised his shoulders and clenched his fist. Three hundred million Gaians' eyes flared at once.
At the same instant, Ikasada activated her Valhalla Action.
"Dieeeee!"
Causality reversed, and countless surges of causal force pounded the surface.
"This world of yours?"
Leo dropped his center of gravity and readied a right uppercut aimed at the sky.
"No—this is what we use."
The world's signals couldn't influence the mind, but—
"Divine Transcendence."
An extreme manifestation of will imprinted itself on the world's signal and produced a powerful phenomenon.
"Instant Strike!"
A spear of will warped the landscape and shattered the Valhalla Action's shockwave.
"What—?!"
When space folded over itself, time ceased to matter.
The will of Divine Transcendence pierced Ikasada's torso while she wore a vacant expression.
"Aaahhh!"
With her upper body all that remained, she plummeted, and the wings of the angels following her froze in place.
"We can't win." The angels trembled, their radiant bodies shaking as fear leaked from their voices.
"Now you know?"
Three hundred million voices spoke in unison and shattered the angels' wavering.
"We are one."
Three hundred million sound waves resonated together, stretching as if time itself had slowed.
"Over there—"
Where the angels had pointed, more than a hundred million Gaians were merging with the main force.
"With integrated thought."
The formations crossed without even brushing one another's lapels, and the angels ground their teeth at the sight.
"Beings with distinct individualities."
The Gaians halted and struck four hundred million unique, never‑repeated poses.
"We are the universe."
Lines of Gaians in units of at least a hundred million approached from every direction.
"We are the truth."
Every eye blazed, vertical flashes shooting from their bodies and connecting to the sky.
"That—that is human—"
The final evolved form of society achieved by the users.
"Sniff. Sniff."
Ikasada, left with only her upper body, watched the rows of Gaians pass and wept.
Friends chatting as they walked, a child smiling brightly while holding a parent's hand.
Their actions differed, but the golden radiance in their eyes carried the same emotion.
"No."
We are the masters.
"No! Never! I am God! I am a noble angel!"
Some Gaians who had been passing by casually stopped and turned to look at Ikasada.
"Ugh."
Confronted by a Gaian's gaze, Ikasada froze in terror.
And then she realized.
'Good and evil, merit and love—none of that matters.'
If the Gaians call evil good, then it is good; if they call merit love, then it is love.
'Because they are everything.'
If every being looks at a black stone and calls it white, what color is the stone?
—Is it the Akashic Record or the Ultima System?
'Humans define it.'
So if the child she met eyes with decided to slaughter her mercilessly...
'That would also be truth.'
The child, who had been expected to judge her with fear, only snorted and walked on.
"Sob!"
Ikasada buried her face in the ground and howled.
"Aaaah! Aaaah!" The moment she was defined as a lowly creature, cracks began to spread across her radiant body.