Measure of Desperation (3)
Ikael stared for a long time at the Hexa spinning in front of her.
"What are you going to do?"
"As you see. I'm going to plant the Hexa in your mind. Of course you'll have to accept it."
An angel's mind was a radiant core.
"And after I accept it?"
"You'll come to know me. And I will come to know you through the Hexa."
Ikael twisted the corner of her mouth.
For a noble angel to be penetrated by a human felt, in some way, obscene.
'But—'
If that human mind was the Hexa.
"If I accept the Hexa, will I be able to reach the same plane as you?"
Gepin shook his head.
"Understanding is a process of extracting and reconstructing from known information. The Hexa lies outside the Law."
"That's what I mean. If I can't handle the Hexa anyway, why go through this?"
"Some realizations…"
Gepin chose his words carefully.
"There are things whose process you only grasp after reaching the result. If you can't obtain them yourself, blind faith is one way. You have nothing to lose, right? It looks like madness now, but when the whole process is over you'll see I'm right."
Ikael, too, had reached a high plane of mind and understood him.
'Belief is a different matter.' If she were honest, after eons of war there had been no real doubt about Gepin's character.
'It just… feels wrong.'
Was it fear, or was it a thrill?
"Again, you have nothing to lose, right? I'm already groggy. If you don't like it, you can kill me afterward."
"All right."
Ikael nodded.
"But if you try any tricks, don't expect mercy then."
"Leave it to me."
Gepin smiled and reached out. Hesitating, Ikael bowed her head.
The moment the Hexa pushed into the radiant core—
"—Ugh!"
Ikael's eyes flew wide.
The sensation of the Hexa's information melting into the furnace of her mind and integrating as one—
'Impossible!'
It was a shock of ecstasy unlike any pleasure in Ikael's life.
'We become one.'
It felt as if she had conquered everything about Gepin, and at the same time as if everything about her had been conquered by him.
'No. We mustn't do this.'
Her resistance to the enemy's philosophy faded; even if he were wrong, she felt like accepting everything.
"Aah…"
Gepin's life flooded in at once.
'How much he must have suffered.'
What enraged him, what made him sorrowful—even the things that couldn't be put into words, all of it.
'He intends to swallow me whole.'
Clinging to the last thread of reason, Ikael desperately tried to drive Gepin out.
'I don't want this. I don't want to be like this. If this continues, I won't be able to hate you.'
She had come to understand Gepin.
"Stop—!"
As Ikael strained to break away, Gepin wrapped his arms around her waist and held her.
"It's okay."
Slowly rising, he pressed his face to Ikael's lips.
"Leave it to me."
As if that were all there was to say, Ikael stood dazed and immobile.
When Gepin's lips touched hers, something opened, and something hot entered.
"...I—"
Like a lightning strike, Ikael shivered.
'What is this? What is this? What is this?'
Acts of living creatures she had never known in her angelic body threw her into panic.
'Wet, revolting.'
It was unbearably repulsive, yet part of her wanted to continue that grotesque contact…
'You bastard.'
There was a small part of that feeling.
How long had it lasted? She didn't know, but some unspoken threshold had clearly been crossed.
By the time Gepin's hand reached Ikael's chest, the integration was already complete.
"Get off me!"
Startled, Ikael shoved with both hands and sent Gepin's torso crashing to the ground.
"Ow!"
Gepin, wincing, winked at the panting Ikael.
"You wanted it too, didn't you?"
"What are you doing!"
Only when the process ended and her mind returned did she realize what had happened.
"How dare you commit such a disgusting act. How dare you humiliate the archangel? I'll kill you right now."
Ikael raised her hand.
"Disgusting," Gepin said.
"Bodies rubbing together, saliva mixing with saliva, organs losing even their original meanings…
This is what it means to be a living thing."
"But that's our life. If we don't do that, nothing continues."
"Why should I care about your circumstances? Angels are noble by nature, pure and absolute."
"How was it?" Gepin asked. "Did you really hate it?"
The truth was—
'I don't know.'
The memory remained, but the image in it felt like a stranger.
"That was because you dominated my mind… If you mean to say it wasn't entirely unpleasant—"
Gepin cut her off.
"That proves you have a heart."
Ikael's radiant core trembled.
"A heart?"
"Yes. The Hexa is heart. It makes even the vilest act feel beautiful, every flaw appear perfect. That's why it's omnipotent, and that's why—"
Gepin spoke with conviction.
"The world doesn't have to be perfect. A god who's indifferent isn't truly a god."
It didn't have to be cold.
Watching Ikael bow her head and fall into thought, Gepin continued, "Now you'll understand me. You—born from photon signals—have a heart too. That means you're not different. We can go further."
Ikael shook her head.
"This is confusing."
There was no denying the possibility that any concept could be integrated into a heart.
But since it was still a heart—
"I don't know what I'm supposed to do or how."
Nothing was clear.
'What do I feel about this human? Do I hate him? Or…'
The sensation of drifting alone on a vast ocean was something Ikael had never experienced.
Gepin understood.
"That alone is enough." He knew what it meant for an angel—even the first archangel—to lose her bearings.
"I'm not telling you to act now. You couldn't, even if I ordered it. If you're confused, that is your heart. Just accept it."
Ikael had only just taken her first step; she couldn't grasp everything yet.
But one thing was clear.
'Humans—'
Could they be this free?
'Gaians.'
And the only race that, at the largest scale, had synthesized all that freedom.
"I will fight."
Ikael rose slowly.
"If, as you say, I must only accept it, then my heart still dwells in the world of Law. That will do, won't it?"
"Of course."
Even if nothing seemed to have changed outwardly, everything had changed.
"Hmph."
Once the possibility of choice exists, doubt is born.
As Ikael took to the sky and prepared to leave, she glanced down at Gepin and said, "Take care of your body."
When her wings of light beat beyond the horizon, Gepin finally relaxed.
"Phew."
Holding his right hand before his face, he twitched his fingertips as if savoring the sensation from moments ago.
"This is maddening."
Then he covered his eyes with that hand, letting the heat cool.
'Lucifer…'
His own heart was unsettled, too.
Omega transmitted every event contained in beginning and end to Shirone.
What humanity now experienced was but a sliver—a fraction of one percent—of Omega's saga.
'There was a vast myth.'
Having mentally integrated with Ikael, Gepin analyzed the angel's infinite algorithm.
Unable to abandon the Ultima System, the Gaians and Gepin implanted a halo into a machine.
The result was Anke Ra—the strategic killing weapon designed to slay gods, Babel.
In Omega year 738, humanity built factories to mass-produce Babels and called them Babel Towers.
"O arrogant humans."
In Omega year 777, Anke Ra ordered every angel mobilized to destroy the Babels.
The primal concepts that compose the world and the countless Maras derived from them attacked the Babel Towers.
Watching the fast-flying black angels, Satiel bit her lip.
'She looks like Ikael. No—she is Ikael.'
It had long been known that Gepin and Ikael had struck some sort of bargain in the past.
So it made sense that Babel took Ikael's form, but still Satiel wondered whether it truly was so.
'If there was something between the archangel and Gepin…'
Ikael's voice reached them.
"Why do you look like that, Satiel? Your radiant core trembles."
Turning, Satiel found Ikael had approached unnoticed, calmly surveying the battlefield.
"Why…?"
Satiel couldn't help asking. "Does the Babel really take the archangel's form? Is this an enemy trick, or—?"
"What are you implying?" Ikael asked coldly. "Are you doubting me, who erased countless Gaians from this world?"
"N-no."
Babel threatened the gods, yet Ikael, having grasped the Hexa's essence, had neutralized the Hand of God.
'Yes, it was a simple bargain.' The Gaians' Ultima System had been weakened to its worst state.
It was undeniably Ikael's achievement.
"Fight!"
At Gepin's shout, the light of the Miracle Stream spread rapidly across the field.
"If we stop this, we'll win!"
As the angels' individual concepts were destroyed by the Miracle Stream, the sortie rate of Babels increased dramatically.
Babel Towers as tall as an Arabot. Some Maras were larger, but Babels functioned much like angels.
"We might be pushed back."
Whether he heard Uriel or not, Ikael's previously indifferent face flashed with anger.
"I'll go."
Opening Ataraxia and descending to the ground, hundreds of Babels flew at her.
"Pathetic little prank!"
Each time she swatted one aside or kicked one, metal shrieked and Babel scrap rained down.
She showed no expression, but her feelings were tangled.
'Enough with the mockery.' After destroying all the fakes that looked like her, she landed and shouted, "Gepin!"
Gepin, who had been fighting fiercely, turned as if answering her voice.
As his eyes flared, his body seemed to evaporate.
Pwoooom!
When their bodies collided, the shockwave compressed the air into a massive sphere.
In that near-vacuum, intermittent bursts of white photonic light were all that could be seen.
To the two fighting at hyperspeed, the outside world's time seemed to stop.
Their fists crossed and slammed faces; both Ikael and Gepin were thrown back the same distance.
"Ugh—!"
Gepin's gaze stretched along his arc of motion.
'Answer me, Gepin.'
Watching him, Ikael planted her more-than-two-meter lithe frame and clenched both fists.
'Is this mockery? Or—'
What meaning did she represent to Gepin?
"Ikael!"
With a cry, Gepin charged; Ikael gritted her teeth and leapt after him.
"Answer me!"
On impact, the explosively expanding air rolled tens of tons of rock like fallen leaves and spread outward.