The Absent Being (1)
Eitra, who had scattered Breath and Life Healing across the Bashka battlefield, landed beside Miro and the others.
"Huuh."
Her twin braids back in place and looking like a cute girl again, she wiped sweat from her brow and smiled.
"Hehe, I should get praised by the Messiah."
Miro stepped forward.
"That's an ultra-fast activation."
"Yeah. It raises life force by about two hundred thousand times."
"Two hundred thousand..."
Just imagining the number, it seemed any wound short of death could be healed.
"Pretty effective, right? And it boosts the immune system, so it can cure disease and poison, too."
Miro spoke earnestly.
"Invincible, then?"
"In a sense. But—"
Eitra's eyes dimmed as she glanced toward a corner of the city.
Among those reveling in victory, some still couldn't smile.
Those who had lost family, those driven mad by terror, those who had suffered unspeakable things at the hands of demons.
Not to the extent of Tae-seong, but Eitra felt a maternal ache at their misery.
"You can't heal the wounded mind."
"If it's the White Dragon, couldn't she do it?"
The white dragon Asraiker handled the information of souls.
"Probably not. Her ecstatic aura might make them feel better for a while, but it can't erase scars etched into the mind."
It would be no different from taking drugs to forget pain.
"I see."
Miro changed the subject.
"I heard there's a recharge time?"
"For Life Healing it's one hundred hours. Among the Twelve Apostles, mine is the longest."
"A hundred hours. About four days, then?"
Eitra understood the true meaning behind Miro's question.
"Yes. It's definitely awkward to time in combat. Still, the Messiah told us to use it freely if needed. Don't worry about efficiency when saving lives." It was such a Shirone-like sentiment, and Miro agreed.
"But four days is—"
Miro's eyes widened and her head snapped around; where her gaze landed, a bolt of lightning struck.
"Blitz?"
Eitra tilted her head, but Blitz was too tense to answer.
"It's coming."
"Coming? What is?"
A roar rose from Bashka's ramparts, and Miro's pupils went cold.
"Already?"
The army of Heaven the Hand of God had scattered across the world was returning.
'They must have flown thousands of kilometers.'
If Hexa is the mind's ultimate effect, the stronger one is, the farther they would have been flung.
'Then who arrived first?'
Ironically—
"Khahahaha!"
The one even Heaven's forces regarded as the strongest had announced himself.
"Come out!"
When Imir's voice rolled through the air, glass shattered in every building across Bashka.
Miro spat a curse and cast Mass Teleport, bringing their group forward.
At the ramparts, Garcia's allied troops were already swarming Imir like a mob.
"Is this some pathetic prank?"
As Imir spun and threw jabs, allied soldiers' heads burst one after another.
"Garcia!"
Even after hearing Miro, Garcia kept his gaze fixed on Imir.
He was furious.
'Why?'
To see the one who had wiped out the demon army exchanging blows with allied soldiers—
'Is he mocking us?'
No, it didn't feel like mockery.
Imir simply looked like he was enjoying the situation, enjoying the fight.
"Come on! We are humanity's guardians!" The allied soldiers, drunk on blood, charged Imir as if they had forgotten fear.
And with each strike—strike—strike from Imir, bodies exploded without fail.
.....
Garcia's nostrils flared.
"Ughhhhh!"
He was angry for no reason, and his fury felt greater than meeting the murderer of one's parents.
"Wait!"
Garcia ignored Miro's shout; Miro clicked her tongue and hurried to follow.
Beside her, the fey representative Enochs came up.
"Let's coordinate."
They had all felt the same vague, rising unease.
'Hellfire!'
Garcia's flame magic erupted; Enochs drove wind into it.
Ancient wind-spirit magic slashed Imir, and over that the Thousand-Armed strikes poured down like a frenzy.
Dust mushroomed and then scattered with a bang, like an explosion.
'No recoil?'
Imir, who had expanded the air with near-sonic vibrations, strolled through the fallen allied corpses.
"Then come at me."
At that moment, Garcia, Enochs, and even Miro took a step back.
Rian fixed his eyes on Imir.
'I don't understand.'
He'd synchronized once before with Imir's throw, but this feeling was new.
'I can't sense anything.'
He wasn't especially skilled at judging power, but he could usually tell strong from weak.
From Imir there was no sense of strength, no weakness, no fear, no murderous intent—no hostility at all.
"Ah??????"
Anger flared in Rian as well.
'So that's it.'
Just as one cannot see something very far away, none of them could sense Imir.
"Heh heh heh, what are you doing? Hurry up and attack!"
As Imir drew nearer, the retreating fighters' minds all converged on the same thought.
'Why does something like this exist?'
They were furious because Imir's mere existence denied them.
'Imir should not exist. Because—
If you acknowledge him, everything else loses the right to exist.'
"Pff!"
Seeing them widen the distance, Imir looked up at the sky and exhaled.
"I know what you're afraid of."
When he looked forward again, his eyes held one percent expectation and ninety-nine percent emptiness.
"For example—things like that. I don't want to die. I don't want to be erased. I want my thoughts to continue."
Imir's steps halted.
"But that desire exists because he felt life. I, on the other hand, feel nothing."
Humans couldn't sense Imir; likewise, Imir couldn't properly sense the universe.
"It was thrilling."
The most vivid memory in Imir's mind was the blow Ozent had struck.
Even now, thinking of that moment made the gap where a tooth had been throb sharp.
"You promised me. You promised you'd return."
Imir's gaze moved to the blue-haired swordsman standing behind Miro.
"Keep your promise." Rian, uncharacteristically lost in thought, paused for a long moment.
At last he moved, and Miro said, "Do it together. You can't take him alone."
"I am aware."
It would be foolish to let pride decide against an enemy that didn't even register fear.
"But we can't fall back. There's no other route." Rian, having already moved past Imir, took the lead.
"This is the destination."
Miro knew.
She knew how much courage it would take to step into the space only two meters from Imir.
"It was thrilling earlier."
Imir said, "But that thrill was from meeting Ozent. To satisfy me now, that won't be enough."
"Don't worry."
The Great Straight was drawn at a speed too fast to see.
"I'll fight you until I die."
A horizon split the scenery; Imir stood at the center where the world divided up and down.
As the shock ran along the Great Straight embedded in Imir's forearm, Rian's right elbow burst.
"Gruuuuh!"
Denai's advantage was ignoring inertia.
With his sword pressed against Imir's arm, Rian twisted his upper body with every ounce of conviction.
"Arghhhhh!"
As the Law warped and the world twisted, Imir's body began to be shoved back.
"Hehehe."
Imir's shoulders trembled; he split his lips into a wicked grin and thrust his torso forward.
"This is ridiculous."
At the same time his other forearm rose and struck Rian with terrifying speed.
Rian staggered and planted the Great Straight to defend; the fist struck the blade.
A shockwave detonated.
With the brain unable to perceive time, all standards of fast and slow vanished.
'Sleepy.'
Through half-closed lids he saw thousands of Tesses spinning and laughing.
'I want to sleep...'
But his eyes wouldn't close.
'I want to close them. I'm so tired. Why can't I lie down? You can't sleep standing up.'
Rian waited calmly.
'I should go home. Reina doesn't seem to be at the palace. Should I take Shirone with me?'
Still, the next moment didn't come.
'Bored.'
With nothing left to think about, Rian started counting from one for no reason.
'...two thousand three hundred twenty-one, two thousand three hundred twenty-two.'
How long had it been?
"Uaaah! Uaaah! Uaaah!" Rian intuited it.
Perhaps this state of timelessness would last forever.
"Move! I said move!" His brain had forgotten time.
'You can't escape.'
The thought of being forced to relive this instant endlessly terrified him.
"Hahahaha! Hahahaha! Hahahaha!" Tess's countless faces, necks and heads filling the sky, burst into maniacal laughter.
There was a Tess within Tess's mouth, and another Tess within that one's mouth, and another within that one...
'I'm going mad.'
What held Rian trapped in time?
'Obsession.'
Even though his body, mind, and heart were broken and he had no strength left,
'he still wanted to accomplish something here.'
An immutable Idea bound Rian at the midpoint between life and death.
The universe brimmed with Tess's faces and seemed about to explode from her laughter.
'Ah??????'
At the peak of that madness, Rian finally understood the true meaning of what Ozent had told him.
'I—how far will I go to reach where I want to be?
How much will I give up?
A happy life, the woman I love, my lifespan, my body.
'I gave up being human.'
If even that couldn't get him there, perhaps only one choice remained.
Either abandon the obsession, or strip everything away from it.
'Push forward!'
With spirit returning to his eyes, time at last accelerated toward the future.
'So that's how it was.'
As Imir's fist struck the intact Great Straight, Rian's body tore apart up to eight-tenths.
'It doesn't matter.'
The single resolve to strike had taken hold of the Great Straight, and a shock flashed in Imir's eyes.
'What is this now?'
Even as Rian's body flew apart like mush, the Great Straight was retracting.
'What remains?'
What lingered where the body had been?
'Obsession.'
A chilling obsession.
When Imir realized it, he clearly saw the illusion of someone crouched, drawing the Great Straight inward.
'Ozent.'
An unforgettable mastery poured through him, making every hair stand on end.
The bodyless Rian gritted his teeth.
'Benda!'
Divine Transcendence — Union with the Divine Sword.
At a speed far beyond biological limits, the Great Straight cleaved the air.
If it had been an ordinary sword, frictional heat would have melted the metal before it cut halfway... but—
'This is my conviction.'
The Idea does not break.
The shock raced faster than sound could catch, and in that instant of silence Imir threw his weight into arching his torso backward.
'What?'
He was sure he'd dodged.
But when he looked back, countless Great Straights were surging through every space.
'He destroyed my perception.'
Natasha called it Bujeongbak.
The next instant, the air exploded with a deafening roar.
There was no doubt—this was heresy.