Era of History (1)
Through the Stargate installed at the temple, Ikael and Ashur arrived at the seventh planet.
A blue sky like heaven—only everything was smaller.
From Galliant Island, looking down on Mount Toa, dark-skinned, solidly muscled natives—shorter than the heavenly Kergo—were fighting fiercely.
"Stand down, licentious heretics! We are priests who carry out the will of God!"
Most of the angel faction were gaunt and unfocused, while the anti-angel faction stared like predators and were physically strong.
"Fools! We can't entrust the future to you who chew hallucinogens while the tribe starves! From now on, we will rule!"
Ikael propped her chin on her hand.
"Hmm."
Anke Ra demanded no material tribute from her people.
But sacrifice mattered when testing the faith of humans on distant planets.
The angel faction held lavish annual offerings and used the hallucinogen Ruf to feel God's presence in their bodies.
'Good people,' they thought. Believe in God.
Then Anke Ra would guide them to heaven and grant eternal life.
The anti-angel faction, however, put living first.
They warned of Ruf's addiction and argued that the money spent on offerings should feed the starving tribes.
"How arrogant."
Ikael's cold dismissal was unmistakably the voice of God's messenger.
Ataraxia unfolded, and the luminous halo that blanketed the sky amplified her words.
"Humans, hear me!"
At that thunderous sound—like the sky itself speaking—everyone looked up.
"Th—that is…"
Even some among the angel faction, devout though they were, couldn't tell if what they saw was a hallucination or reality.
It didn't matter.
"A messenger of God, a messenger of God has come!" The angel faction fell flat in worship.
"Licentious heretics persecute us! Look upon us with favor!"
The anti-angel faction, whose hard-won victory was about to be ruined, scowled.
"Damn—an angel?"
Kergo had lore of Anke Ra, since he came from heaven.
But only the Nephilim could pass through heaven's gates, and an angel appearing in person was unheard of.
Ikael continued.
"Cease this fighting and repent at once. If you do not, God will punish you."
The angel faction sprang up, raising their arms and shouting toward the anti-angel faction as if to show their favor.
"Waaah! Waaah!" They were ecstatic. Their God—whom they had worshiped even at the cost of life—had answered.
"Punish?"
The anti-angel leader's face twisted with fury.
"What did we do wrong? Is living a sin? Is wanting to protect our families a sin?"
"It is a sin."
Ikael answered firmly.
"Enough of your nonsense!"
The anti-angel leader hurled his spear, but Ikael was too high above them.
"You were nowhere to be seen while the tribes starved, and now you call us sinners? My wife killed herself from a Ruf overdose! My comrade's child is dead! Is that God's will?"
"It is."
Anke Ra only maintained the system so humans could use the world.
"How could you possibly fathom the deep will of God?"
They did not know what sacrifices heaven had paid to regain its present stability, nor how dangerous it was for humans to deny God.
"He who denies God cannot remain in this world. But he who follows God shall receive eternal life."
"Keep your eternal life—give it to the dogs!" A burly middle-aged man with a thick beard sobbed.
"Who said anyone wants to live forever! Bring back my son! I don't care if I die right now—just—my son… sniff!"
Ashur glanced at Ikael, who gave no reply, and noticed her fist trembling.
The muscular man pleaded miserably.
"Please—just save my son. Why must that child die? Punish me instead. Whatever you must do, do it to me. Why our son…"
Ikael's eyelids fluttered, and the great Ataraxia wavered as if it might collapse.
'Why?'
She could not hold on.
'Why does it hurt so much?'
Within the chest of the great archangel—where no wound had ever reached—there surged a pain as if it transcended the universe.
"Ikael."
As Ashur voiced his concern—
"Shut up."
Ikael bit her lip and spoke.
Even in a low voice her words shook the heavens, and her eyes brimmed with an unnameable rage.
"All is the will of God." She hated that the only phrase she could force out, as if drilled into her, was this helpless line.
"The will of God?"
The anti-angel leader shouted back.
"What on earth is the will of God? He's supposed to be great! Omniscient, omnipotent! He could give us eternal life!"
Hot tears streamed from the leader's eyes.
"I lost someone I loved! My heart aches! I'm going mad! How heartless must this God be to do this to us?"
All of the anti-angel faction stood, weapons raised.
"You can't even spare us one tear, one shred of pity!" The instant those emotions reached Ikael it felt like being struck by a cannon; her upper body snapped backward.
"Ugh!"
Ataraxia cracked, and the returning holy radiance trembled violently.
'What is this?'
A wound in the deepest part of her mind itched.
A craving so fierce it would scrape to the bone, cut flesh until it bled—anything to touch it—
'No!'
Ikael gritted her teeth.
'I am a noble archangel.' As Ataraxia flared again, Galliant Island shook.
Ataraxia amplified volcanic activity twenty thousandfold; tremendous lava burst from Mount Toa's crater.
"Oh—God!"
Drunk on the hallucination, the angel faction worshipped the sky, while the anti-angel faction panicked.
Before Ashur could fully discern Ikael's intention, he used Signal to evacuate the angel faction.
'Mission first,' he thought.
Everything was buried under searing lava; ash fell from the sky like heavy snow.
It was an easy task.
But there were no tears in Ikael's eyes as she punished the humans and withdrew.
Stop—
'Huuuu! Huuuu!'
It had always happened, but this time it was worse.
'It hurts. It hurts so much I can't bear it.'
Only Anke Ra's cold gaze could dull her suffering.
'Oh God. What dreadful sin have I committed? What monstrous sin could deserve this suffering?'
Anke Ra's voice did not return.
Two hundred and fifty years later, a human came to the ash-covered Galliant Island.
His hair was like steel and he towered in height, yet he introduced himself as human.
"MacKline Geffin?"
Kergo was wary at first, but after seeing the Nephilim's power his attitude changed completely.
After God's punishment, the angel faction's prestige had shot skyward.
Geffin surveyed the still-ruined civilization.
"Pitiful."
It had been Ikael's doing.
"My wife does get terrifying when she's angry," Geffin remarked.
Not knowing how to take the comment, the young chieftain Kang dropped to his knees.
"A messenger of God—your orders are our command."
At that moment Shirone felt a strange stirring.
'That man will be the future Kadum.'
Seeing in Omega the person she had once seen meant the present was drawing closer.
"The eruption was long ago, but this place is still backward. Poor." Kang bowed as Geffin spoke.
"Is there a problem? We only praise God's greatness. Everything is His will."
"...Yes."
After a long silence, Geffin finished circling the island and turned back.
"Gather people. It's time to work."
"Huh?"
Kang blinked.
"We'll restore this place. People have to live somehow, right?"
Geffin dug into the ground and uncovered ruins buried by ash.
Every ten meters he advanced he found human bones, and the natives murmured prayers to God.
'Found it.'
Deep within the ruins, a red orb that gave off its own light shone.
"What is that?"
"A coordinate recorder."
It was likely a component of the Stargate the natives had used when they first arrived.
"A signal device that tells the location of this place in space."
As long as such a signal device remained here, heaven's armies could descend at any time.
'This will be the last one.' The number of signal devices Geffin had found on this planet so far was seventy-three.
When light poured from Geffin's body, Kergo's people knelt and bowed.
"Oh, Anke Ra! Look upon us!"
Miracle Stream activated; earth vanished and a vast space opened in an instant.
"This… this is incredible!"
"We'll make a gate here."
Kang asked in awe, "A gate—do you mean the gate to heaven that was lost in the eruption?"
"Yes." Geffin was rebuilding not to reconnect with heaven but to build a shield.
He would reverse-engineer heaven's coordinates and erect an interdimensional wall no method could penetrate.
The Miracle Stream swallowed the signal device, transmuted matter, and became a massive stone gate.
Later it would be called Geffin's Gate.
'I installed seventy-three gates on this planet. That should be enough to form a dimensional wall.'
Kang asked, "Messenger of God, does this mean we can go to heaven now?"
"You need the Key of Infinity to open this gate. Remember: do not deface any gate engraved with Geffin's name."
"We'll engrave it on steel."
Since the arrival of the human Ojent, Anke Ra's caution toward humans had reached a peak.
'The heaven expansion project must be considered a failure,' Geffin thought.
From his investigations, countless human civilizations had vanished from space, and soon this place might be next.
'We'll start here.'
Leaving Galliant, Geffin looked down at the planet from a height where its entire diameter fit in his sight.
Small, but cozy.
It was the perfect starting point to carry forward the bond between him and Ikael.
"Humans, the end of Omega draws near."
Raising both hands, Geffin activated every gate bearing his name across the planet.
"Grow strong."
Pillars of light shot up across the continents.
"Pursue what is right. Do not repeat mistakes. Remember that all beings have hearts."
The columns of light converged at Geffin's hands as he clenched his fist.
With a snap the space rippled and an intangible energy spread over the whole planet.
A dimensional wall.
'I cannot rely on this forever.'
To finish one last task before departing, Geffin descended again to the human world.
Within Omega's flow, Shirone found a place her senses recognized.
"The Kingdom of Tormia."
The city of Creas, home to her alma mater, the Alpheas School of Magic.
"Oh—how dare you come without notice!"
The head of the Creas Mage Association branch came running, flustered.
The greatest mage in the world, MacKline Geffin, had arrived; it could have warranted the whole staff in attendance.
"Don't make a fuss. I want this handled quietly."
"Yes, of course!"
Even a king would bow.
Geffin sat on the sofa and sipped his coffee.
"A few days ago I stopped by the cathedral and heard an interesting tale. There's a student at the school with astonishing talent."
Thinking of the Three Emperor Spheres, the Seven Kings, the Second Lord—the branch head quickly found the answer he wanted.
"Ah, the Alpheas School of Magic. Yes. For the first time in the school's history, a student passed the seven-stage survival test."
Geffin set his cup down.
"May I… see that child? Preferably without anyone knowing."
Two days later, someone knocked at a shabby inn where no one knew Geffin was staying.
Looking out the window, Geffin drew the curtain and turned.
"Come in."
A faint murmur from outside the door carried.
"Not even strangers, and speaking informally—how rude."
It wasn't a remark meant for him, but Geffin's ears did not miss it.
Smirking, he opened the door.
"Excuse me. I heard someone very high up is looking for me… oh?"
A woman still bearing traces of girlhood blinked at Geffin's inhuman appearance.
"Miro of the Adrias family?"
"Yes, that's me, but—"
The first impression Miro made on Geffin was relayed through Shirone's suspicions.
Still green.