Measure of Longing (4)
With his angelic wings trembling in the gust, Uriel raised an arm to shield his face and asked, "The result?"
No answer.
On the wind‑swept plain, Ikael and Gevin still stared each other down.
"Hah. Hah."
Gevin's hair, like spun steel, bristled sharply, and the spark of combat flickered in his eyes.
Uriel said, "…How vast is the human heart?"
The anger of Anke Ra that Gevin had swallowed was an emotion vast enough to obliterate the world.
"He's almost digested it."
The aftereffects hadn't entirely worn off, but the earlier stillness recalled Gevin at the peak of his power.
No — even beyond that.
Across endless ages of defiance against the gods, his mind had been honed without end.
"He swapped Hexa for Halo. As a result, the Ultima System's function fell below ten percent. But… Gevin McClain."
"Maybe we should have killed him back then. The real danger isn't the Ultima System — it's Gevin."
A single human whose influence could turn Heaven's gains into a marginal loss.
"That's hindsight. And the true outcome hasn't come yet. If the Babel Tower falls, Gevin will be isolated. The Gaia will vanish from the world."
Uriel fell silent at that, but he couldn't shake a grim thought.
Could it be true? Even if the Gaia are annihilated, if Gevin is left unrestrained—
It will reconnect someday.
Thinking of a pitch‑black future beyond the angels' sight made Ikael's role crucial.
"Let's go too. We have to end the war." The archangels hurled themselves toward the battlefield where angels and Babel stood locked.
Ikael had no time to survey the heavens.
"Answer me." Gevin shot back coldly.
"What are you always asking about?"
The fever of that long‑ago kiss remained for both as a memory that transcended time, but—
"About Babel."
They were not only lovers in memory; as representatives of angels and Gaia, they were also enemies who had laid waste to each other's camps.
"Why do you care? Whatever that piece of machinery looks like, you can just smash it."
"Answer me!"
The Ikael of old would have complied.
"Why me? What am I to you? How are you defining me in your heart?"
Not until she understood his heart.
"And you?"
Ikael fell silent.
"This time I'll ask. Why do you ask? What is the answer you really want to hear?"
The answer she wanted to hear.
What words did she hope would come from Gevin's mouth?
"I don't know."
Ikael let her arm fall weakly and said, "Then you tell me."
Through Hexa she had grasped the nature of his heart, but she lacked the courage to offer her own.
"Don't try to find it in me. There's no single right answer in the heart. You have to choose for yourself."
A paradox: because you can choose anything, you can end up choosing nothing.
KRAAAA!
The sound of the Babel Tower collapsing rolled across the plain, but Ikael and Gevin did not avert their gazes.
"Humanity has been defeated."
The archangels pierced the severely weakened Ultima System and began slaughtering the Gaia.
"You're the only one left. You're the only Gaia we can't annihilate."
The collapse of the Babel Tower. In Omega 777, humanity was defeated by the gods.
"Is it over?"
Perhaps.
But as long as the Gaia called Gevin remained, they could not surrender.
When Gevin turned without a word, Ikael reached out her hand.
"Come with me."
It felt as if he would never return.
"There's nowhere for you to hide. The angels will find you and kill you wherever you go. I'll protect you."
Maybe she had fought so fiercely to find the courage to say those words.
"This one's rather good. You've started to put some feeling into your voice."
Gevin tilted his head and smiled.
"But it's still not enough."
Before Ikael could reply, Gevin activated Miracle Stream and vanished.
"Archangel."
The archangels arrived.
"Are you all right?" Seeing her garments of light in tatters made the fierceness of the fight obvious.
In Ikael's halo, Gevin's last words echoed endlessly.
Not enough?
The reason she couldn't cast her heart.
How am I defining Gevin?
Until she gained certainty about that, her words would never reach him.
"Oh, Archangel who led us to victory."
Kariel dropped to one knee and begged, "Grant me the spoils of Babel. I will analyze their technology and create life. I will follow the angels and praise Anke Ra."
The image of Gevin making flowers bloom with Hexa had inspired Kariel, the Archangel of Birth.
"Follow the angels and praise Anke Ra?"
They would later be called Nephilim.
Is that even possible? Could a being with a heart follow something blindly?
"…Do as you wish." Ikael knew how meaningless it was to judge what she hadn't experienced.
Don't you realize it even now?
She'd thought she would be all right, but when Gevin disappeared, it felt as if a hollow had opened in her chest.
He's gone. He's nowhere.
She scanned the entire planet without exception, but it was as if he'd evaporated — there wasn't even a trace.
Where could he have gone?
A cold wind seeped into Ikael's hollowed heart.
Ancient city: Eden.
Adam and Lilith, who boarded the Ark to escape the Small Purification, began a new life on a small planet.
Their infinite lifespans were inherited, and the Gaia flourished swiftly.
"Another peaceful day." From a high place in the city, Adam's gaze over the landscape was gentle.
Lilith smiled. "There's nothing more joyful than watching the children live happily."
The only words Gevin had left before departing Heaven were a plea to love one another.
There were temptations, but Adam loved Lilith, and Lilith loved only Adam.
So the citizens of Eden could regard the two as true parents.
"Huh?"
The instant Adam sensed something, the Gaia looked up with startled faces.
The sky tore open and a blinding light poured down.
"Ah—ah."
Adam trembled with emotion, tears welling in his eyes.
"Beloved Adam."
At that unforgettable voice, Adam finally fell to his knees and sobbed.
"You have come. You've finally come."
Lilith joined him and knelt, but reverence‑born fear outweighed joy.
Why?
After waiting a long time with no sign of Gevin, Adam could no longer hold back.
"Please come down. I built this beautiful city to fulfill your will. What happened to the others? Have you… become a god?"
After a long pause, Gevin spoke. "I will take your children."
"What?"
Adam asked in confusion; Lilith stared up, eyes wide.
"W‑what do you mean? You're taking my children, the citizens of Eden, where…?"
"No!"
Lilith sprang to her feet. "Absolutely not. This is everything Adam and I built with our lives. We started alone, and across eternal ages we prospered like this—"
"I understand."
At Adam's voice, Lilith turned.
"My love."
Sadness filled Adam's eyes, but more than that was a resolute light.
"If that is your will, then take them. There must be a reason."
As his words ended, light concentrated at Eden's center and a massive stone gate formed.
The gate dissolved into a sphere of light. Lilith cried out to the sky, "No! Absolutely not!"
"My love! You know what that being is to the Gaia! If we hadn't escaped the Small Purification, we wouldn't be here!"
"Do it if you must! But you can't take my children! I won't let you send them back to that dreadful place!"
Gevin said nothing.
"We will go, Mother."
When Lilith turned, every Gaia on the ground was emitting light from their eyes.
"You all…"
"We grew up hearing that tale since childhood. You really exist. You always said it as if by habit — that someday we would all become gods."
"No."
Lilith shook her head. "They are my children."
As tears ran down her cheeks, her mind began to disengage from the Ultima System.
"My love…"
Was a mother's heart greater than the whole?
Adam could only watch.
Everyone except Lilith thought the same, and the Gaia looked to the sky and said, "We will fight too."
Thus Gevin revived the Ultima System and seized another chance to break free from the photon realm.
It was the incident of Omega 799.
Heaven, Omega 892.
In Heaven, from which the Gaia had vanished, many collaborative creations of Argones and Taeseong had sprung forth.
Beings called celestial species crossed over, and among them were creatures with singular intelligences.
Only humans did not appear.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" At Jebul, established after the Gaia's disappearance, Kariel's irritation shook the heavens.
"Why isn't it working!"
Watching Kariel lose his temper had become one of Uriel's recent pleasures.
"Aren't you stupider than humans?" Uriel teased.
"Shut up! Look at the Grand World Project I made! It's far superior to the Babel Tower!"
Kariel snapped, staring at the dead specimen of a celestial species on the lab table.
The Nephilim aren't being born.
The dream of creating a new humanity infused with angelic power had hit a wall.
"…We need humans."
Uriel folded his arms. "Then it's impossible. There aren't any here. Not even a species resembling humans is being born."
The phrase 'fear of humans' was taboo, but the shock the Gaia dealt Heaven had been that great.
"Ha."
Uriel noticed Kariel's radiance visibly dim.
Even the Archangel of Birth, pouring nearly all his mental power into the effort, couldn't make it happen. What on earth is Gevin—
Then the Grand World Project trembled.
"What the—!"
Kariel shot to the screen, checked the data, and widened his eyes. "Th‑this is…!"
Ha.
Ikael sat in the archangel chamber of Jebul, chin propped on her hand, and sighed.
It's been happening more often lately.
Her triangular Mara Ashur stood behind her with a worried expression.
The war is over.
Peace had come to Heaven, but the hollow in her chest still hadn't healed.
"Sorry. I must look pathetic, right?"
Ashur bowed. "Don't say that. If Ikael were pathetic, the entire cosmos would fall into despair."
At the cutting joke, Ikael let out a short laugh — and then sirens wailed throughout Jebul.
—Warning! Abnormal Law detected. Total Kar amount: 16,843,900,000. Kar level: 100%.
Ashur lifted her head and Ikael sprang up.
"One hundred percent?"
It was a level of righteousness identical to the Law.
—Analyzing peculiarity. Suspected: Ultima System. Estimating. Certainty. Fact. Highest defense level: Aegis Mode activated.
The eight archangels across Jebul — and every angel under them — widened their eyes and cried out.
"Whaaaat?"
With a crash the walls of Jebul shattered, and Ikael shot away like a streak of light.
"Archangel!"
Ashur chased after her, but this Ikael now moved at a speed only light itself could follow.
Where is it? Where?
Her amplified senses swept the planet, and at last a pillar of light came into view.
Idea.
As countless pillars of light pierced the sky, a voice drifted up from the ground. A man stood there, smiling with bared fangs.
"Well, it's been a while."
"How have you been? Bored without me?" Gevin put a forefinger to his eyebrow in a mock salute, and Ikael felt a lump in her throat.
But then the corner of her mouth lifted, and her eyes flashed sharp as she knitted her brow.
"Yeah."
She probably smiled.
The place that had remained unfilled even after endless ages no longer felt the chill.
To be continued in the next volume.