Confrontation (3)
"Time remaining until purification: 65,400 hours."
It was a point in time that felt like an aeon after Geopin had fallen into hell.
'An unimaginably vast span of time.'
Shirone felt his head swim.
It was fortunate the Omega was one-thousandth; had he experienced Geopin's time in full, he might have gone mad.
Geopin muttered, "Time really flies."
His body had withered to skin and bone, his face hollow and gaunt.
Yet his mind remained intact, and for that alone Shirone felt a chill.
'It's not like six hundred gyeong of actual time passed.'
Time is a matter of sensation, and hell is a place where those sensations are amplified.
'Intense sensations accelerate the flow of time.'
In other words, the stronger the pain Geopin endured, the faster the purification advanced.
'That's the nature of time.'
Shirone recalled the moment in the no-mind state when he'd decomposed an instant into infinity.
The bizarre signal-patterns he'd seen after digging deeper past each 0.666-second mark.
'Perhaps those were special signals that govern the relativity of time and sensation.'
The truth about time.
'In the end, what the being who made this world wants isn't the punishment of evil but the efficiency of data purification.'
Sadness clouded Shirone's eyes.
'Are the gods indifferent?'
With that same question, Geopin reached the end of hell, stopped by a black wall.
Staring into it, the darkness in the wall felt almost alive, as if it were moving.
"The end of space, huh."
Called a wall, it was actually the entrance to a world of nothingness—a threshold into nonexistence.
It was also the final gate where the emotions of the inner world arrived after purification.
'Ozent Gai.'
Shirone guessed the fate of Rian's eldest brother—the one who had given Shirone the link and then vanished.
'He's gone to an eternal void, but maybe it's not as terrible as I imagined.'
True-voice beings probably wandered hell without even a chance at purification.
"The Wall of Infinity."
When Geopin turned at the voice behind him, an angel with wings as black as shadow approached.
Recognizing him as Lucifer, lord of hell, Geopin lifted the corner of his mouth in a rare smile and raised a hand.
"Come to see me off, are you?"
After fighting for more than six hundred gyeong, Geopin felt detached, as if the others were strangers to him.
Lucifer ignored the joke and looked to the Wall of Infinity.
"Why rush? Hold on for another sixty‑five thousand hours or so, and you'll be purified."
"I can't stand being here another moment."
Of course.
But it wasn't the sort of thing you'd expect from someone who'd calmly endured six hundred gyeong of torment.
Lucifer asked, "Still clinging to vain hope?"
Since falling into hell, Geopin had searched for a way back to the real world but had failed. Unlike traveling through a link, those set for purification could not leave the inner world.
'That's how this world was made.'
Geopin looked back at the Wall of Infinity.
"Hope's not a bad thing. If I can pierce the realm of nothingness, maybe I can return to the real world. If that happens, hell might even go on strike."
From Lucifer's perspective, it was madness.
"Why cling to the real world? Hell's already been devastated because of you. You could be perfectly happy here."
"Yeah, sure. I've spent a lot of time here. A truly long time. But when it's over and you look back…"
Geopin shrugged.
"Even that aeon was no different from an instant."
"Isn't that the truth? Time seems to keep flowing, but when you reach the end of the future…
Only the past remains. All memories compress into a single feeling at zero seconds. How long you lived means nothing."
Because of that—
"Those who cannot transcend the infinite are illusions. Me, you, even your sister…"
Geopin pointed at Lucifer. "Ikael, too."
There had originally been nine archangels.
Eight concepts that formed the world, and the one concept opposing them.
Lucifer, archangel of Chaos.
"Of course Anke Ra didn't make you. You couldn't be born. You're negative energy belonging to a time that never existed, an event that never happened."
He called it being outside the Law.
"In the grand scheme, you and the angels are law's number two. If the angels' concept weakens, chaos grows stronger…
"That doesn't mean you can meet Ikael," Geopin added with a wink.
Lucifer scowled at the jab, but arguing would only cost him.
"So you'll gamble on crossing the Wall of Infinity? Fail and you'll be annihilated for good."
"I don't care."
Geopin's eyes went serious. "Even after six hundred gyeong, what's left is still emptiness. If God is truly indifferent, fine. It means I could become God myself."
That was why he had refused reincarnation like the others and remained as his own signal.
Geopin walked toward the wall.
"Shall we go?"
He would shatter the infinite.
"Wait."
At Lucifer's voice, Geopin turned.
"This isn't exactly a time for goodbyes, is it?"
Lucifer felt a chill at how Geopin could smile even while heading toward annihilation.
"Do you truly believe you can exist? Not as an indifferent god, but as a god who loves this world."
"Hmm. It's not an easy thing to say. The concept of god isn't like that. But if I were a god…"
Geopin looked up. "Would it hurt to plant a bit of hope? Even if it's only a single thread of signal."
Lucifer was silent for a long moment.
'Messiah.'
If Geopin could actually pull that off…
"I'll send you back to the real world."
Lucifer's unexpected words made Geopin lift an eyebrow playfully.
"Oh? That took some time. Were you itching to say it the whole while?"
"It's not really a method. You can't stop purification by any means. But because of that, I can send you."
Geopin realized. "You're not saying—"
"Yes. In any case, purification will proceed. I'll take your annihilation in your stead. There's no one in hell but me who can substitute for a dataset like yours."
"Hmm."
Propping his chin, Geopin asked, thinking, "You know what kind of pain you're agreeing to, right? It'll be on a different level from what I endured."
"In return… there's a condition."
Geopin snorted. "Knew it."
"If you truly want to give the realm of the void meaning, share that meaning with us."
It couldn't end as a mere signal.
"I get the sentiment, but—"
Geopin looked puzzled. "You're not like humans. You have no links. You're just part of the system that makes this world."
"Ikael."
Lucifer spoke with resolve. "Give her meaning. Not as a mere system component, but give her the meaning of an existence like yours. That's my condition."
"Ikael?"
Of all beings, it had to be that stubborn archangel.
"I thought you hated her?"
In truth, the beginning of the Law— Ikael— and the chaos of Lucifer had never met, like yin and yang that could not join.
For that reason, Lucifer hated and envied Ikael more than anyone.
He still remembered.
At the first moment, born with a smile in a dazzling explosion: the archangel Ikael.
The first feeling he had then was—
'Why was I born so hideous?'
Through the Omega's early memories, Shirone knew how immense Lucifer's rage had been.
'Yin and yang.'
Two extremes split at birth.
Coming back from his reverie, Lucifer spoke with a hollow emotion.
"I was jealous. Born of the same place—why was I so ugly?"
It wasn't appearance but concept.
"Why do I hate Ikael? Why do I see myself as ugly and her as beautiful?"
"Did you realize it, then?"
"Perhaps."
After fighting Geopin for more than six hundred gyeong, Lucifer's heart had changed.
"Because I couldn't have her."
A sad smile crossed Lucifer's face.
"All I could do was hate. But not anymore. If everything is emptiness, and feelings are nothing but signals…
At least I want my last act to be love. Love's better than hatred, isn't it?"
Even while calling her by the same name, Lucifer still felt Ikael was beautiful.
Shirone doubted his senses.
'Love?'
The lord of hell spoke the word love—
At that moment, a line flashed into Shirone's mind: the demon general Igor's last words.
'This is it.' — Not all demons are utterly beyond repentance.
Geopin asked, "What will you do with hell?"
"My disappearance won't make the demons vanish. The reins will pass to humans. I'm curious what kind of hell they'll make…
"If most of the lords are humans like you, this place might not be so bad."
"And if humans fall into depravity?"
"Hah. The one returning to the real world has no need to worry about hell. Human-made rulers will govern this realm. Let's just call them Satans for now."
"Satans."
Humans, please be careful.
"Go. When my purification ends, you'll be able to return to reality. The lord of hell's repentance will only strengthen your Ultima…
An evil gleam flickered in Lucifer's eyes. "Anke Ra is strong."
Geopin nodded. "I know. But I won't be alone. All Gaia will join the attack."
"Ikael will not help you."
Geopin knew how conservative and proud she was.
Lucifer's fangs glittered. "But promises must be kept."
Because the fate of the universe hinged on the bargain, Geopin had no intention of breaking it rashly.
"I'll do my best. Under no circumstances will I abandon Ikael."
Lucifer was finally satisfied. "That'll do." As he closed his eyes and smiled thinking of Ikael, a cold voice spoke.
"Time remaining until purification: 764 hae 1,428 gyeong 9,984 jo 1,298 eok 1,176 man 3,329 hours."
It was the price of repentance.
Geopin left the Wall of Infinity and only disappeared from sight about a day later.
"…How much time is left?"
Lucifer asked the sky.
"Time remaining until purification: 764 hae 1,428 gyeong 9,984 jo 1,298 eok 1,176 man 3,329 hours."
Not a single hour had been cut.
"Heh. So it seems."
In hell, time translated into sensation, and the lord of hell had no reason to feel pain.
"How humiliating."
Lucifer looked up, his expression softening as Ikael's image appeared before him.
'Ah—'
It must have been a love as vast as the distance between nothingness and being.
"If only I could see you once more."
He reached for the woman before him, but there was nothing to grasp.
Tears streaked down Lucifer's face as, for the first time in his life, a beautiful smile spread across it.
"Ikael."
A heart-rending pain surged.
"I love you."
That pain was fully converted into time.
"Uaaaaaaaah!"
Lucifer's body detonated into black ash and was hurled into the Wall of Infinity in an instant.
Only silence remained.
"…Purification has been completed."
A woman's voice murmured softly.