God's Brain (2)
The ground began to tremble.
"What—?"
Geopin's body, which had been dissolving into light, slowly began to re-form into its original shape.
Not enough thrust, he thought.
To break free of the cosmos, the entire Gaia had to be unified in thought.
'Ultima is wavering.' A small number among those who could link to the Idea had voiced opinions different from the whole.
But why?
The luminous, human-shaped Geopin fell into thought and quickly found the answer.
"Is it… Ra?"
Geopin's gaze sharpened and fixed on Ikael.
'Because I protected the archangel.' Even among the Gaian, Geopin's mind—having endured the edge of hell and come back—was clearly different.
'I have to either force it through or convert them. At this rate we won't pierce the universe.'
He could wipe the user codes of dissenters to raise the allocation to one hundred percent.
But if it wasn't sanctioned within the integrated thought, Ultima itself would shatter.
'Lucifer… you've saddled me with a terrible debt.' Geopin understood why Lucifer had been satisfied with only a promise never to harm Ikael.
'It was going to end like this anyway.' The moment to choose had come.
Try to break through the cosmos with a 99.8 percent allocation, or stop to perfect it.
Ultima—
Almost everyone's thoughts converged.
"Damn it!"
As the Idea link weakened and signals returned to normal, the blue sky reappeared.
"Ah—"
Ikael, who had been watching the world close, asked, "What happened?"
"As you see. It failed."
Geopin's displeasure showed plainly; Ikael pressed her lips together.
"What was that tremor just now?" As she checked on her companions, Taeseong manifested on the ground.
"Anke Ra made the decision."
Argones had abandoned humanity, but Taeseong—the celestial who remained as their mother—could not fully forsake them.
"Gaia."
Taeseong approached.
"Argones. He will annihilate those of you who would return this world to nothingness."
The earth shook again. A gargantuan monstrous body revealed part of itself, filling the sky.
"What is that?"
Even from the portion visible below the clouds, it was unmistakably a gigantic sphere.
"Cellbuster."
Taeseong said with a saddened expression.
"Argones will reinitialize all humans."
The monstrous mass split and fragmented into countless spheres that began to fall toward the surface.
"Ugh!"
Geopin threw himself into the air, and Ikael rose high to watch.
"No way…"
Each gray orb unfurled tails many times their own length and began to attack the Gaian.
"I refuse!"
The Ultima system activated and a massive defensive dome repelled the Anticells.
The instant the impact hit, each sphere split into two, doubling both their number and their mass.
"Hold them! They mustn't get through!"
Taeseong moved to Ikael's side.
"We won't be able to stop them."
With every collision against the barrier, the Anticells kept multiplying until they covered the entire dome.
"It's a property of biological signals. If they can't accomplish their objective, Anticell will continue multiplying until it fills the cosmos."
"Fill the cosmos?"
Ikael's expression hardened.
"You, born within a cosmological system, may think biological life insignificant, but true biological power lies in adaptation."
Taeseong's gaze drifted toward the tadpole-like spheres burrowing into the dome.
"Theoretically, Argones can spread biological signals into any cosmological system. Angels are no exception."
Ikael bared her teeth. "An angel giving birth to life? I'd rather annihilate myself than suffer that dishonor."
"I mean a special case. If someone like you could generate biological signals, it would be possible to implant angelic offspring into human bodies."
"I have no interest in that."
Even as they spoke, the Gaian defenses were beginning to split.
"Is the history of the Gaian going to end like this?"
"There is one method."
Taeseong said.
"Ra, Gaia, and Argones independently govern the cosmos, nature, and the biological realm. Even Anke Ra cannot directly trigger the Cellbuster."
"So that's what you meant by a special case."
"It's probably a parity violation against the cosmological order. A special measure to suppress it. If the Gaian give up the will to violate parity, I can intervene."
"But that would—"
Ikael couldn't see it working.
"It would mean surrendering everything the Gaian possess, wouldn't it?" Taeseong knew that too.
So he remained silent, waiting for Geopin's decision.
"This never ends."
Sweat beaded on Geopin's face as he flew around the dome, firing photon cannons.
There seemed to be no way to stop Anticell, which doubled with every attack.
'With the strongest attack…'
Grinding his teeth, Geopin thrust both arms skyward and gathered mass-bearing light like a sun.
"Yaaaah!"
A blinding flash, as if to swallow the world, tore across the dome's location.
"Got it…!"
Geopin's triumphant smile froze.
Every time the mass storm passed through the Anticell swarms, they grew, like a cancer.
'Is there no way to stop them?'
The swarms had reached radii of tens of kilometers; their numbers were astronomical.
The Anticells moved in chaotic formations and took on the shape of Argones' face.
But it didn't last.
The figure that smiled at Geopin dispersed and rained down on the defenses.
The dome cracked, and Anticell that forced their way in struck the Gaian.
"Argh!"
Geopin saw it clearly.
As if undergoing reverse evolution, the cells devoured themselves and vanished.
'I can't resist.'
Even humanity's strongest, those who had reached Ultima, were ultimately biological. Before the code that destroys the flesh—the vessel that holds consciousness—even the Gaian were helpless.
'I must decide quickly.'
Geopin watched the countless Anticells spreading across the world.
They truly intended to drive humanity to extinction.
"Do not give up!" a Gaian elder's voice rang out. "This was our choice! Surpass infinity! Finding our true selves is the only path!"
Geopin bit his lip.
He knew that with an integrated mental system, the Gaian would not surrender.
'It must stop.'
But Geopin could not bring himself to do it.
'I brought this on.'
A small crack that began with a promise to Lucifer had pushed events to this point.
The Gaian shouted, "Freedom! Selfhood!"
At the moment the black Anticells clawed through Ultima's defenses and assaulted the Gaian—
"I surrender."
Geopin implanted an opinion against the integrated mental system.
KWA-ANG!
Ultima collapsed in an instant and the defensive wall vanished.
"What—!"
The Gaian were more stunned by the collapse of the integrated mind than by the extinction unfolding before them.
"Hah! Hah!"
The Gaian elder watched as the Anticell in front of him froze, motionless—like ice caught mid-flow.
"Why?"
"Why?"
Before Argones, Taeseong stood with arms spread and eyes wide.
"Stop here. You've given up parity violation. Are you really going to annihilate those children?"
"It is Ra's command. Even if they aren't subordinated, this is a matter on a cosmic scale. His judgment comes first."
"And yours?"
"No different. If you violate the cosmos, no life can exist. You, born of Gaia, may hold every life dear, but—"
Argones' gaze turned cold.
"I have a mission to preserve the biological realm. Compared to that mission, a single species is a trivial matter."
"A single species?"
Taeseong repeated the words with sorrow. "It's the name you gave them: Gaia."
"...Sentimental reasoning," Argones replied.
"No. This might be duty. You and I exist to create them."
"And what of us?"
Taeseong could not answer.
"Did we exist merely to make humans? No—we are gods. At least in this cosmos. What do you gain by denying that?"
"To learn the truth—"
Argones cut him off. "Truth? What truth? Opening lids is the truth? Do you really believe that's the real thing? If that too is yet another lie covered by yet another lid—"
Probably so.
"Gaia are just biological beings too. They're one among the many things we made. Why should I care?"
"Because eventually those children will uncover the truth." Taeseong's voice softened. "You know it yourself: foolish, arrogant, prone to evil beyond measure… "
A sad smile touched Taeseong's mouth. "They learn what is wrong and ultimately move in the right direction."
Humanity—
"You are our greatest masterpiece." Taeseong's claim was unanswerable; he had watched the history of Gaia himself.
Why do they deviate from prediction?
Why can't they be stabilized like other life?
"That's why I hate them."
Among Argones' children, only humans were different.
Taeseong answered, "And yet, on the other hand… I am proud."
"Hmph."
Argones' body turned and drifted away, sinking into the earth.
"This is the last chance. Whatever the outcome of the coming war, I will be watching." Freed from the Cellbuster, that alone was a blessing for the Gaian.
"Phew."
Taeseong exhaled after sending Argones away and looked to the distant sky.
"We've passed the worst, for now."
A war between gods and humans was about to begin.
"They'll vanish."
The Anticells that had filled the sky began to converge inward and rapidly diminish.
"What happened? Why?"
The Gaian elder muttered and glanced around, then found Geopin.
"What is the meaning of this?"
Geopin approached and bowed his head. "I'm sorry."
At that moment, all the Gaian who had survived the Cellbuster gave mournful groans.
'I was wrong.'
Geopin's actions had clearly diverged from the collective thought.
"Ultima broke?"
The elder shook his head. "No, it can't be! This is the realm we reached through sacrifice! And you, Geopin—!" As the elder fell silent, the Gaian around him spoke as if they understood.
"Anger won't help. If we fracture here, we'll revert to the old humanity."
A society of clashing, countless opinions.
"I'll take responsibility."
Geopin declared, "For the time being, I will not open my mental link. Then the Ultima system should restore itself to wholeness."
"What do you intend to do?"
Geopin looked up at the sky and exchanged a cold glance with Ikael, who was surveying the surface.
"…I will fight."
An age in which gods and humans coexisted.
Having received Omega's data, Shirone realized this was a singularity.
'Geopin abandoned the Gaian.' From the records read at Babel, the exact course of events remained unclear…
'One thing is certain.'
The Gaian who had remained at humanity's side until the very end was Geopin.