Karma Chain (4)
The sailors' supplies were nowhere near enough to last a day, but the people had gained confidence.
In some situations, killing someone might be the only way to survive.
Still, at least they were not alone.
It wouldn't last forever, but Shirone smiled contentedly.
"Just for a moment."
If everyone could tend to one another's hearts for even an instant, this world would never be entirely hopeless.
A warm breeze carrying human warmth blew through the dazed crowd.
But from afar—perhaps watching from even higher up—Desika felt displeasure.
"What's that brat?"
As a nation's interior minister, he might have heard Yahweh's name, but recognizing his face was another matter.
The knight leaned in and murmured.
"There are always people like that. Fools who play as tragedy approaches. I'm curious what he'll do when there really is nothing left to share."
Desika snorted.
"He'll probably wail and beg. He doesn't know how hard life is. If a fool like that gets involved, things will get harder."
If people began helping one another, the arrows would naturally be aimed at Desika, who monopolized the food.
"Deal with him."
"...Understood."
The knight bowed coldly and stepped toward Shirone.
"Hey, you."
Shirone looked up.
"Me?"
"Yes, you. I'll let this one slide now, but behavior like this is forbidden from now on."
"I understand you haven't touched the minister's rations."
"That's not the point. Once you start sharing supplies, it ends with everyone dying together. Resources are limited in any world. Any fool would know that."
For the first time, displeasure flashed in Shirone's eyes.
'This is it.'
What truly made him feel sick was—
"Sorry, but giving my share to someone is my choice. I won't follow what you say."
The knight exhaled heavily.
When he looked back at the minister, Desika nodded as if he understood the implication.
"Kid."
With a wet sound the knight drew his sword and pressed the blade deep against the nape of Shirone's neck.
"Do you know where you are?"
Unlike Shirone's nonchalance, Poine's eyes were filled with ruthless malice.
'A worthless creature…'
Just as she thought to twist the knight's neck 180 degrees, Shirone asked.
"Where is this?"
"In the middle of the sea. Supplies are scarce, and we don't know when a huge wave will hit. Killing you would be nothing. In fact, it might even help."
The knight's expression turned cruel.
"You'd make good rations."
The instant the blade slid across a plane beyond normal human sensation and touched Shirone's skin—
"I've decided."
Shirone rose slowly.
Desika's face tightened, but the knight, sword still leveled, froze as if petrified.
'What—?'
Shirone's vision swam; it felt as if his mind had been confined and his body taken from him.
Mind Technique — Confinement.
"Save me! Somebody—!"
His five senses were still alive, but none of it felt like his own experience.
While people watched in puzzlement, Shirone turned to Desika.
"The desire to live is an instinct of living things. I don't want to deny even that."
Desika remained silent.
"But someone still shares even a little. I don't care what you think, but—"
Power flared in Shirone's eyes.
"Do not mock that feeling. Even if it seems foolish, it is also a great survival instinct."
People swallowed hard as Shirone scolded the interior minister and watched Desika closely.
"Hmm."
Desika rested his chin on his hand and asked, "Who are you?" When Shirone didn't answer, he smiled and made an offer.
"You're probably a mage. How about joining me? I'll give you half of my share."
A knight guarding a minister was formidable even by international standards. If someone capable of that had been rendered immobile, persuasion was the next tactic.
"Stupid."
Desika's eyebrows twitched, but Shirone turned away as if he didn't want to waste more time.
"We're in the middle of the sea." Far off, the curl of a wave was rising.
"Save yourselves."
The moment Shirone finished speaking, the sailors rang the alarm bell and hurried to their stations.
"Big wave! Everyone inside!"
The captain himself came out and shouted at them.
"What are you doing! Inside—!" Kukukukukuku!
He stopped mid-shout and turned toward the sea at a sound like eardrums about to burst.
"Damn it."
A wave of a height none of them had ever seen was bearing down as if to swallow the ship.
"Kihehehe! Humans! Humans!"
Amphibious demons immersed in the surge brandished their weapons.
"Save yourselves."
Muttering that, Shirone wrapped Miracle Stream around his whole body and prepared to fight.
"Kruk!"
As if by magic, the knight who'd been deprived of his senses clutched his head and stared at the tsunami.
'…We can't hold it.'
It wasn't a scale humans could handle.
"Minister! This way! We have to run!"
In terms of still protecting the minister to the end, the knight could still claim the honor, but—
"Messiah."
"Leave him."
Shirone already knew what happened to those who lost their hearts in a world that had once ended.
"Uaaaaa!"
Desika and the knight went pale at the sight of the tsunami, now only four hundred meters away—
At that moment dozens of towering columns of water shot up from the ship's stern.
"Kraaaaang!"
With a roar that shook heaven and earth, the sea dragon Kaios rose and met the tsunami.
The dragon's breath—uttered in draconic words and boasting a twenty-four–hour recharge—erupted.
A colossal volume of water twisted into a knot and slammed into the tsunami, making the sea heave and lifting the ship hundreds of meters into the air.
"Uaaaaa!"
Chaos reigned on deck. Only Shirone and Poine watched as demons fell from the sky.
"Poine, I've decided."
At least they had seen hope.
Miracle Stream condensed fiercely in Shirone's hands and flared into brilliant light.
"Kieeeee!"
The demons swallowed by the light turned to ash and vanished; the people, conversely, felt their hearts purified and were moved to tears.
"Ahhh?????"
The dizzying sensation of falling from the sky was terrifying, but that too was soothed by a comforting warmth.
Hand of God.
A hand of light descended from the sky, cradled the ship, and slowly set it back on the sea's surface.
The storm remained fierce, but as the Hand of God swept around the ship, the waves calmed quickly.
"Th-this can't be..."
Not even Desika, the knight, or those who had relied on them could bring themselves to approach Shirone.
"Yahweh."
News from across the sea said a blond boy fought for the world.
The interior minister even knew the boy's personal and physical details.
"Impossible."
To blame himself for not recognizing him yet, the situation itself defied belief.
'Yahweh here? Why?' The savior of the world couldn't possibly be on a little lifeboat carrying only a few dozen people.
"Desika."
"Yes, sir!"
Desika flattened himself, having grasped the gravity of the situation.
"When you reach the Dionas Kingdom, form a provisional government. People from the Tormia Kingdom will arrive soon. Cooperate with them and help the refugees as much as possible."
Desika wasn't so politically naive as to miss the implications.
"...Understood."
A massive tectonic shift—the world was reorganizing itself around Tormia.
"But there's still a long way to go. If Yahweh lends his strength, land will appear soon—"
Desika flinched when he met Shirone's eyes.
"Ugh!"
No flattery would penetrate the sensation of being struck through the mind.
"If it's only the people on this ship, we could go ashore right away."
Shirone said, turning back.
"We'll all go together."
Those who followed his gaze turned their heads and, dumbfounded, gaped.
Countless ships streaked across the horizon, following the flying Kaios.
The otherworld.
The Valley of Wailing had once been a river of the hottest hellfire in true Hell, but after the spirit realm was sealed, the riverbed dried up and left sheer cliffs hundreds of meters deep.
Etella and Shagal rode the rolling pebbles down to the valley floor.
'I need to find something to eat.'
Falling into Hell in living flesh, they were hungry, but whether they would find food was uncertain.
As Etella looked around to move, a searing pain struck her thigh.
"Ugh!"
She turned mid-step and saw Shagal driving a blade into her thigh.
Etella glared at his sardonic smile and forced herself upright.
"Why do you keep doing this?"
"Is that something you have to ask?"
Shagal pointed at the chain.
"You and I are trapped in the hell of this chain. Pain, emotion, sensation—we share them all through this chain."
As the chain binding them tightened, Etella ground her teeth.
"Ughh."
She tried to endure, but it was an uncontrollable force, and the same applied to Shagal.
When their bodies finally pressed fully together, Etella turned her head away in disgust.
"Listen. This is punishment. You dared to forgive me, so you're paying for it. You'll never be free of me."
There was no reply to give.
He had chosen to remove Shagal from reality himself, so he had to accept the consequences.
"Tormenting you can wait. First, let's find somewhere to rest. We don't know what kinds of demons come out at night."
When Etella shoved Shagal away, the chain lengthened again, but only by about two meters.
Shagal drove his soksa dagger into his own thigh, and Etella in front collapsed with a thud.
Watching her retreating figure, who no longer replied, Shagal thought,
'This is the punishment given to me.'
To torment Etella, he had to hurt his own body first—that was his fate.
'Hm?'
How long had they walked? Shagal's superhuman senses picked up a chilling presence and sent a warning to his brain.
"Stop."
Etella halted belatedly, and illusory soksa blades shimmered around Shagal.
The eerie presence pressed in from the dark at the end of the valley.
Etella's face went pale.
'I can feel it. An untouchable emotion—rage, sacrifice, pain.'
Don't come.
The woman's voice rang inside their heads like thunder, so loud it was deafening.
There's no way Shagal didn't hear what Etella did, but he advanced slowly.
"Heh. Hell's just another place people live, right?"
Because they were linked by the chain, if Shagal went, Etella had no means to stop him.
The deeper they went, the stronger the emotion grew until unbearable terror washed over them.
"What is that?"
They stopped and looked up.
Hundreds of chains were hammered into the cliff faces on both sides, and bound to them was a single woman.
"Oh, don't… come…."
She was the Princess of Jincheon—Jin Seongeum.