The Sin That Couldn't Continue (3)
Dong! Dong! Dong!
With each thud of that tens-of-tons mass of muscle, Geopin's skin prickled.
The pulse quickened.
Sound filled the sanctuary so completely there was no empty space left, and then—
Dong!
Silence came with the last reverberation.
"Why me?"
Anke Ra's eyelids moved up and down, opening his eyes into thin slits.
"I am the entirety of this world. I define everything. There is no reason for me to negotiate with you."
"Then define me."
Anke Ra's upper lids drew into a V.
"You cannot define me. Because you don't know. The only thing in this world you don't know is me, isn't it?"
Hexa.
"So stop tormenting innocent ones and settle this between the two of us. If you can swallow me whole, the world will become clear again."
Kkik! Kkik! Kkik!
Nerve endings spread in all directions, colliding and making an eerie cacophony.
He's conflicted, Geopin thought as he watched Anke Ra's pupils repeatedly constrict and dilate.
I'm the challenger, so I'm the disadvantaged one, but Anke Ra has the pride of a god.
Akashic Record and Ultima System.
Let's see who the god really is.
Two laws that pierced the world pressed on each other with furious force.
Ikael, who had pressed her ear to the sanctuary door, blinked.
She knew she couldn't actually hear them, but Geopin's last words lingered oddly in her mind.
"Minds will connect."
She could understand that much.
"He wants me to continue the connection? To whom, exactly? If I were someone who could have a mind connected to me…"
Ikael sighed.
"I hope it resolves well." Even now, across Heaven's broad expanse, angels and Gaians stood tensely opposed.
We can't repeat the same war.
A thought crossed her.
"Or am I… just hoping Geopin won't leave this place?"
There was no right answer.
As the sanctuary's silence lengthened, Ikael's anxiety burned hotter.
"Very well."
Anke Ra decided.
"I will permit access to the Akashic Record. But you will also seep into the whole and lose your independent will."
Geopin nodded without resistance.
"I don't care, as long as you keep the promise. Free every Gaian except me from the photon plane."
Three minutes passed before a reply output.
"I grant permission."
At Anke Ra's speed of thought, it was time enough to count every atom in the universe and still have moments to spare.
"Confident, aren't you?"
"I will dismantle you and return you to the world. Everything will be under my control."
Anke Ra's neural filaments reached for Geopin and wound around both his legs.
By the time they passed his knees, crept up his waist, and reached his neck, Geopin slowly closed his eyes.
This is my only chance. And—
Geopin's eyes snapped open.
—One last gamble!
The instant Anke Ra's nerve terminals pierced his ears, light detonated from Geopin's pupils.
"Uwaaaah!"
The Akashic Record invaded the Ultima System and began sucking up every source.
"Kkigik! Kkigjik!"
Anke Ra's pupils trembled at light-speed as he tried to dismantle Hexa.
"Kkiiieeeeee!"
A thunder of electromagnetic waves tore through the sanctuary and spread across Heaven; the greatest shock struck Ikael.
"Hngh!"
She steadied the trembling light vessel against the door and bent at the waist.
—The scream of Lord Anke Ra.
Even Ikael had never heard anything like it.
Why? What on earth is happening in there?
She wanted to smash the door down, but that wasn't an option for her.
"Kkik! Kkak! Kkiiik!"
Bathed in light inside the sanctuary, Geopin hung connected to the neural terminals, lifted up toward the ceiling.
Anke Ra mobilized every ability.
All authority is mine.
He dominated Geopin's thoughts, will, and mind—everything—but Hexa still would not disassemble.
Why?
Anke Ra's nerves twisted in agony, confused for the first time since his birth.
What on earth is this? Infinity.
No—impossible. No being has ever been granted the property of having no end. If I cannot absorb it…
Then destroy it.
Anke Ra uttered a succession of high-frequency screams and pushed destructive signals into Hexa.
Geopin's body trembled from the shock, but the concept called Hexa didn't even crack.
This can't be.
Even using every concept that existed in the world, Anke Ra could not approach Hexa. Only illusions repeat endlessly. Anke Ra's thought, having circled the universe and returned to its origin, reached Geopin.
Why can't I become a god?
At this moment, Anke Ra's Akashic Record encountered an error for the first time.
No.
An unsolvable error.
God is me. It must begin there.
The universe's greatest problem occurred.
Anke Ra, who oversaw the whole, refused not to solve the error but to accept the problem itself.
"I am everything!"
All concepts Anke Ra had created—orders to every angel—were issued.
"Exterminate the Gaians! Eliminate every error that has occurred in this world!"
Ikael snapped her head up at the voice transmitted through the light vessel.
"What the—?"
War began.
Of course the archangel Ikael should have gone out to the battlefield, but her eyes stayed fixed on the door.
I must know what happened.
Her fingertips trembled.
No. I cannot open it without Lord Anke Ra's consent. It's not within my authority.
Geopin.
As electricity sparked through the light vessel, the voice of Geopin she had heard long ago rose in her memory.
—You must choose for yourself.
Ikael's face crumpled.
"Hnggggh!"
A groan slipped between her teeth and her expression tightened, but at last her hands touched the door.
"God…"
An act of blasphemy from the archangel.
"You can do it."
Pushing the weight of her body with her palms, she opened her eyes and shouted.
"I can choose!"
With a thud, the heavy door swung inward and sight cleared.
"W-what is this?"
Geopin, seized by Anke Ra's neurals, thrashed his limbs while suspended in midair.
Anke Ra spat out sound waves irritably.
"Who permitted access to the sanctuary?"
Ikael was bewildered.
"Great Lord Anke Ra, what is the meaning of this? Why is Geopin—"
"Go. Execute the Gaians."
The certainty that this could not be the result Geopin wanted rooted her feet.
"Explain yourselves! Did Geopin agree to this? Or did someone act disrespectfully at the conference—"
Anke Ra narrowed his eyes; veins bulged and every nerve scraped the air at Mach speed.
"Gaaaaaah! Kkak! Kkak! Kakaka! Kkak kkak! Kkak!"
When the wave produced a dreadful noise, the light vessel exploded into dust with a pop.
For a moment Ikael blanked, then as the light vessel restored she spun and flew toward the scene.
Something is wrong!
Grasping that thought, she dashed with all her strength to the confrontation site.
"Kill them! Annihilate the Gaians!" Countless angels flew through the air, raining bombardments down on the Gaians.
"Wait! This is wrong! They don't even seem to want to fight!" Satiel cried out.
To be able to refuse Anke Ra's order was extraordinary, but more than that, the last words stabbed at her mind.
They don't want to fight?
Looking down, she saw Gaians who hadn't even activated the Ultima System lifting their heads.
What are they thinking?
The moment she met those unwavering eyes despite their kin dying, realization flashed.
This is not Geopin's will. Ataraxia unfolded.
"Stop! Cease your attack! A mistake has occurred! Every angel, return to me!"
No one came back.
"Eliminate them! Humans are an error! Eliminate them!"
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Faced with the angels' merciless bombardment of the surface, Ikael stood dumbfounded.
"Geopin does not want war," the Gaians said in unison.
"Therefore we will not fight either. We will uphold Geopin's will to the very end."
Ikael could not grasp what that meant.
"Do you understand now?"
The Gaians' voices punched directly into the light vessel, cutting through the noise of bombardment.
"Anke Ra is not a god! What god would go back on his own words? Geopin sacrificed himself and taught you this directly!"
Ikael's eyebrows knit and a sob leaked from between her clenched teeth.
"Stop."
The angels paid her no heed.
"Pathetic humans! You do not deserve to exist in this world!"
Ikael let fall a tear of light.
I must stop this by any means. But how?
There is no being who can disobey the law itself—the incarnation of the Akashic Record, Anke Ra.
Satiel.
She finally realized Satiel had not attacked humans.
Geopin's words rose in her mind again.
—I've gotten a little better at putting feeling into sound.
Feeling.
If I shout my heart—if I pour all hearts into one cry…
Might it reach someone?
She threw her body into the Ataraxia expanded to its greatest scale.
Ataraxia—physical plane.
The moment the light vessel passed through the halo, an enormous storm of emotion surged.
"Hnggggh!"
A rapture that felt like the mind would explode.
Moved to pure tears of light, Ikael summoned every ounce of strength and expelled a cry.
"Sto-o-o-o-p!"
The world shook.
Angels' light vessels were pushed along the wave and scattered into smoke.
As their minds were cleanly washed, the angels regained composure and turned to Ikael.
"Arch—Archangel."
Her voice had reached them.
"Stop the war. All of you—listen to me…"
Ikael's light vessel trembled violently, lost power, and began to fall.
"Archangel!"
The angels flew up and caught her. Ikael gave a faint smile and continued softly.
"You must trust me."
With those words she lost consciousness. The angels looked up at the remaining seven archangels.
"Open the Hundred Scriptures," Rayel said.
Metiel frowned.
"What Hundred Scriptures? Lord Anke Ra's command is absolute. We have no choice."
"But it's strange that the Archangel tried to stop them. She is the one who carries out all of Anke Ra's orders." While Metiel fell silent, Satiel stepped forward.
"How about we postpone judgment until the Archangel wakes?"
Yuriel asked, "What about the Gaians? Leaving them like this is dangerous."
Kariel offered, "Take them. I'll manage them. I can make sure they can't do anything reckless."
Kariel's decisively practical stance and his volunteering to personally take charge implied a special purpose.
Human.
He had finally obtained the material that had been the only thing missing from Kariel's life experiments.
Satiel added, "Let's put the war on hold for now. It's unlikely Lord Anke Ra simply reversed his command, and it's unlikely Ikael would defy an order. We can judge later."
Indeed, with only the information they had, many things were incomprehensible.
Paiel looked at Kariel. "Can you take responsibility for this? If trouble breaks out in Heaven, I don't know how I'll react."
"Don't worry. I'll use spatial transfer. I'll isolate them with a Metagate."
The Gaians complied with the angels' demands, and a long procession toward Arabot began.
Angels blew victory trumpets to raise spirits, but the archangels' faces remained grave.
What on earth is happening?
Only Ikael would know what had occurred at the Arabot conference.