In the Flower Field (3)
Satiel, having received Anke Ra's orders, came to the place where Ikael was hiding.
"You came. I was worried since there was no word."
There wasn't a trace of doubt in Ikael's smile.
'No—none of them are fools.'
She would already have run every variable through her head, prepared for the worst.
And yet she smiled.
'She trusts me.'
Satiel forced herself to look composed.
"Yes. Sorry I'm late. Actually… I still haven't named it. It feels like a burden."
Ikael's eyes were gentle.
"Heh. It's fine. You're an angel with a kind heart; I'm sure you'll pick a beautiful name."
Satiel could not answer.
"Come in. You're like my sister, you'll be an aunt to our child. I must see my niece or nephew's face."
"Aunt??????"
Heat flooded Satiel's eyes.
Even if she could not share love with Geopin, things could have ended up like that.
'No, that's not what I wanted. I don't want that kind of relationship with Geopin.'
So why were tears coming?
"What are you doing—hurry up and come inside."
The moment she tried to cut her feelings off coldly, even that faint connection became unbearably precious.
'I should've borne it. I should've stayed by their side like this for the rest of my life.'
It was already too late.
"I'm sorry."
Ikael tilted her head at the light tears streaming down Satiel's cheeks.
"Do not forgive me."
A distant roar broke.
The source couldn't yet be seen, but Geopin felt danger from the shockwave alone.
"Dodge!"
Maternal instinct wiped countless thoughts away; Ikael flew in the opposite direction of the sound.
The air resistance alone made her incredibly fast, but she probably still couldn't have avoided it.
If Imir hadn't been aiming at Geopin but at Ikael—
"Found you."
Having spotted Imir, Geopin watched a fist that seemed to tear the fabric of space come barreling in.
'Miracle Stream!'
Golden smoke coiled around Imir's arm and a command that transcended worlds was spoken.
'Stop.'
The two signals collided and the air vibrated, though no one felt the tremor.
The whole world shook.
"Graaah!"
Imir's face contorted, but his eyes shone with rapture at feeling resistance for the first time in his life.
'So this is what it feels like.'
To act.
"Aaaah!"
He roared and thrust his arm out, and a force rushed in that even he could not measure.
The trembling faded, and Imir's fist halted dead in front of Geopin's face.
Imir's arm was bent at roughly twenty degrees.
Had his elbow been fully extended, Geopin's face would have been obliterated.
'He broke through the Miracle Stream.' To have smashed Hexa—the outward-world signal, the Idea's artificial implementation—and come through meant…
"Are you a Gaia?"
There was only one conclusion to draw.
"I am Imir."
Recharging his muscles, Imir planted a foot and surged forward.
"I am the king of the giants!"
Geopin put distance between them.
'Strange.'
Though this was the first time he'd faced such a formidable foe, there was a peculiar nostalgia about Imir.
'…Is that so?'
He realized it in Imir's gaze.
One feeling, yet so deep it could hold ten billion emotions.
"So it's come to this?"
Geopin's eyes burned when he realized Imir was the last Gaia left in the world.
"Sorry."
He stopped retreating and drew his arms in as the Miracle Stream gathered between his palms.
A beam of light streaked toward Imir, who charged at tremendous speed.
'Photon Cannon.'
The near-light-speed mass slammed into Imir's abdomen.
"Ugrrgh!"
Imir clamped his hands around the sphere of light and, by sheer grip, shattered its momentum.
'He caught it?'
No—the problem wasn't that he'd caught it.
If a living body moved at near-light speed, frictional heat should have vaporized it.
Seeing Imir's arm glowing a searing red sent a chill down Geopin's spine.
'A mass beyond comparison to the Photon Cannon…'
Moving at near-light speed, a shockwave with a four-kilometer radius spread outward from Imir.
Satiel, who had stood dazed since Ikael fled, was hurled away in an instant…
"Graaah!"
Everything had been flattened; only Geopin and Imir glared at each other amid the wreckage.
"Odd."
Imir brushed at his stinging abdomen.
Pain brought him exhilaration, but his current trouble wasn't physical.
"I don't like this feeling."
He could become an enemy to everything in this world, but Geopin alone was the exception.
"It's like… self-harm."
Geopin asked, "Do you remember anything from before you were born?"
"Not at all. Still, I can guess. Seeing you, I think I'm right."
"Send me back. I must protect my wife and children."
Imir gazed up at the sky.
"Family, huh."
At this beginning of his existence, he wanted to set things in order.
"I have no family. Never did, never will."
"If you help me, you'll also—" Imir reached out.
"No. Whatever I become, I don't want to care. I just want to fight."
He'd made up his mind, and now only one thing remained.
"If you don't have much time—" Imir stamped the ground.
"Let's end it." With a single strike, the earth collapsed into an endless chasm and a titanic explosion erupted.
From space, it would have looked like a strike of light on the planet's northern hemisphere, like a match being struck.
Kurr-r-r-rung!
The shockwave reached even the heavens, and angels paled before its cataclysmic force.
'This giant is dangerous.'
Uriel turned toward the blast.
'There's no counter. No natural enemy. No measure. He's just strong. His existence is cataclysm.'
Even Geopin, perhaps—
As Uriel swept the battlefield with a glance, she saw in her mind a sea of molten rock where all matter had melted.
Ten meters above that scorching surface, Imir floated in midair.
The artificial gravity he'd created with a simple vibration showed no sign of abating even after ten minutes.
'Geopin, I definitely gave you a chance.'
Just before they closed for a killing blow, Imir had given up attacking.
If Geopin had killed him with his strongest strike, that ending would have been acceptable, Imir thought.
'But he survived. And with that, the nagging unease that had interfered with my resolve was completely gone.'
"I am Imir."
He finally felt like himself.
Geopin, who had driven Imir down to the planet's mantle, spoke before leaving.
"Thank you."
Imir, slowly rising from the lava, revealed his face and snorted.
"We were both uneasy, weren't we? In any case, this will be the worst outcome for you. As long as I exist, you won't be able to accomplish anything."
"That may be true."
Geopin did not deny it.
"But the heart endures without end. Someday someone will appear to replace me. And—"
Geopin's body turned to light and dissolved into the air, as if released.
"I will free my kin from the prison that is you." Imir snapped out of his reverie.
"They will continue," he murmured. Sitting cross-legged in the void and waiting for the external gravity that showed no sign of returning, he propped his chin on his hand and muttered, "I hope so."
Above the mountain peak where Nane sat in meditation, the clouds spun as if a hole had opened in the sky.
Shura, watching, murmured.
"A Buddha with worldly anguish."
No—because it was the Buddha's anguish, it was the last remaining problem in this world.
'That's Amy?' What about her had been so striking?
Since Amy left, Nane had devoted himself without rest to thought.
'It doesn't matter.'
Shura turned away.
'I only want to know the world's secrets. If the Buddha attains enlightenment through this, I would have no regrets.'
Even after deciding that, the sense of not being acknowledged remained.
"Shura."
Nane's voice struck down from the heavens.
"Come to me."
Shura flew straight up the high peak and knelt before Nane.
"You called?"
"I can sense your intent." Shura swallowed his nerves.
"Pardon my boldness, but why Amy?"
The Buddha of the age—the one who expounds the merit of sentient beings—had come to love a human.
Nane uprooted a single flower.
"How can I cast my heart away? I wondered that," he said.
Then, covering the flower gently with his other palm, he continued.
"I praised its color, exalted its fragrance, admired its form, and yet I couldn't truly love it."
He crushed the flower between his palms.
"It was emptiness."
Shura listened in silence.
"No method could change it. Before merit, everything was false. I couldn't love a flower. I thought Shirone, who opposed me, was foolish. Then one day, 'that woman' came to me."
Karmis Amy.
"She only wanted to understand Shirone. She thought that would bring her to perfect merit. And then she understood."
Nane smiled at Shura.
"Love isn't something you fling at someone. Because you threw your heart away, you can't help but love."
When Nane slowly lifted his hand, the crushed flower began to revive.
Shura's face went blank.
'This is??????'
It felt almost like Shirone.
"I throw my heart at this flower. Color, scent, shape—none of that matters. Because I threw myself, whatever this flower is becomes the most beautiful thing to me."
Nane planted the flower back in the soil he had dug.
"This is Shirone. The reason we must exist in a meaningless world."
Shura bowed respectfully.
"So then, have you set your will?"
"I promised Amy I would carry it through. My intent exists only for the suffering of sentient beings."
Nane rose and clasped his hands behind his back.
"But the heart is strange. Right after she left I felt regret. What if I had accepted her offer? I miss her. My heart aches as if it will tear."
Shura was certain.
"O Buddha."
"Yes. I have understood Shirone. I can now see everything from the most objective viewpoint. So I will go out into the world. I will see with my own eyes whether sentient beings need the Buddha or Yahweh, and decide."
Shura sensed the decision that would determine the fate of this world would soon be made.
If Yahweh were right, Nane would gladly help Shirone exterminate the demons.
'If, conversely, the Buddha is right.'
The world would close.
'No one could stop it. Not Yahweh, not the extremes, not even the worst. The end would not be halted. If anyone could…'
A name flashed through Shura's mind.
'Gaold.'
The one who unseated the Buddha.
"Yes."
Nane read Shura's thought and gave a sly smile.
"If anyone can stand against me—me, who seeks to free humans from suffering—it will be a human himself: Gaold."
As if seeing everything laid out, he looked over the world and issued an order.
"Bring Ikael to me."