Grand Premise (4)
Even through the haze clouding her mind, Miro could clearly see Gaold's gaunt face.
Even though he must be enduring far worse pain than she was, his eyes were startlingly alive.
"How…?"
All the assumptions she'd held in her head shattered, and for the first time Miro realized.
"How did you live like this?"
She was afraid to even breathe, and yet he had borne this agony for twenty years. It was impossible to believe.
From Gaold's words, Miro understood that the emotion sickness had no effect on him at all.
And that meant the pain Gaold normally felt was beyond imagining.
"Just hold on a little longer. Don't try to fight the pain, don't try to avoid it—just accept it."
Miro simply let herself go.
She forgot the thought of breathing and entrusted the basics of life to nature's order.
The intensity of the pain didn't change, but her attitude toward it relaxed considerably.
A voice rang from the dais where Adolf XIII stood.
"Uuuuu! I am trash! I am a worthless creature! I am the scum of the world!"
It seemed the king had finally relinquished his authority.
That also meant Adolf XIII's personality had been completely transformed.
"Please save me. I'm a pitiful thing. Please…"
Crawling on the floor, weeping and snot-faced, there was no trace of royal dignity left in him.
The people in the plaza still writhed in pain.
Pain bred baseless rage, and acts of violence broke out in places.
Some had broken noses; some lay trampled on the ground, blood pouring from their heads.
Surprisingly, most of those who'd been beaten had come to their senses because the emotion sickness's torment had vanished.
"The body."
Humans treasure their bodies; by destroying them they could blunt the symptoms.
Miro bit her lip.
"Insane…"
Only now did she understand why Paimon had boasted so loudly, why Havitz coveted Meirai's power.
"This disease is hell."
What made emotion sickness terrifying was that it corrupts not only the body but the mind and heart as well.
Someone shouted, "Hit it! Then it won't hurt!"
Learning by experience was fastest, and another proposal spread through the plaza.
"Morality is gone."
Destroying the body helped, but so did abandoning the role of law-abiding citizen.
The plaza quickly erupted into a brawl.
"Yaaah! Die! I hope you die!"
Pain paralyzed thought; if it erased the immediate suffering, people would do anything.
They were like beasts, and Shirone watched the scene with mournful eyes.
"This is Havitz's world."
This wasn't tragedy yet.
You could survive for a while by giving up certain things, but how long would it hold?
"To survive, you must keep killing. At first it's others, then friends, family, even yourself…
As time passes, horrors far worse than mere beating will be committed."
"Enough."
Pony finally succeeded.
When her friends turned away, she stood on the dais, gritting her teeth with a broken index finger.
Kangnan said to Miro, "Break yours, too."
Miro shook her head. "It's useless."
Wasn't the first thing they'd abandoned to reach that absolute purity their own selves?
"I'll do it."
Shirone, thinking the moment had ripened, raised his arms and activated Miracle Stream.
Radiant light gathered above his crown and spread out into countless particles.
"Arrgh! This is annoying! I'll kill them all!"
The citizens in the plaza couldn't see the light.
All they saw were the hateful faces around them and a world soaked in blood.
When Lupist, who had appeared on the dais, cast his spell, a massive iron column slammed into the center of the square.
Kuuung!
The ground trembled with the thunderous impact, and at last the citizens, terrified, halted.
"Haa. Haa."
A sliver of reason returned; they realized they weren't completely incapable of stopping.
"How—?"
Most of them must have killed something without meaning to, but those who hadn't were equally bewildered.
Gaold said, "You did something dangerous."
If Hexa controlled the citizens' minds, it could temporarily ease the emotion sickness.
"Pain is proof that a creature is alive. You can't just paralyze it like that."
"We had no choice."
If the system requires continual killing to maintain the state, forcibly removing pain only raises the threshold.
That was why Shirone had waited for people to remove their pain voluntarily.
"There will be greater agony in the second wave. But Miro, you have no other way."
Miro stuck out her tongue with hollow eyes. "Yeah. Thanks. Honestly, I feel like I can keep going."
Pony came down from the dais and showed her bent index finger.
"The threshold for action is a problem too. If my brain accepted that my index finger was broken, then I've already 'killed' it. Next time, even if I break the other index finger, I won't revert to incubation."
Nade asked, "What about breaking the middle finger?"
"That's ambiguous. Even if it's a different type, it's still 'one finger.' Breaking two at once might work, but we'd need precise data to stretch it as long as possible."
Shirone nodded. "We'll need a lot of information. I'll take this to the World Health Organization. Seriel will help. Blitz, go ahead and lay the groundwork for quantum transmission."
"All right."
Blitz bowed, shot into the sky, and vanished beyond the horizon.
Amy said, "Pony, you don't have to think only in physical terms. You can't give up the king, but many concepts are negotiable. If another wave comes, give up me—give up the concept of 'friend.'"
"I can't."
Pony shook her head resolutely. "I'd rather my body be smashed. I'll never do that."
"But how will you endure…?" Iruki said.
"Pony's right. The danger with emotion sickness is that the threshold keeps rising. You might cut ties with Amy, but what about next? The same method won't work. Eventually you'll have to go beyond severing ties and inflict harm, and if that continues…
You'll have to kill."
The thought of that future, not yet arrived, made everyone's skin crawl. Silence fell.
Nade looked up at the sky. "What happens now? To us, and to this world?"
No one could answer.
"Ohhh, Yahweh."
By the time their brief emergency meeting ended, all the citizens were approaching Shirone.
"Your light saved us again. Protect us. We never want to go through that again."
They fell to their knees and cried out.
"Lord Shirone! Stay in our homes! Let us bask in your light forever!"
"You can't mean it! You're going to monopolize that light! I've got three mouths to feed!"
Hearing hands trembling as people drew near from all directions, Shirone felt breathless.
"Let's set up a schedule so everyone gets the light! That's the fairest!"
"Nonsense! How many people are there? Who can rotate that? Make a specific place and gather there! Build a church here!"
Shirone couldn't answer them.
"This is what happens."
Gaold said, "They don't think there are people outside Bashka. Everyone's own pain comes first. Whether you hand them an apple or a strawberry—if you free all humanity from pain, they'll accept it because you give them both. But if you can't, they'll endlessly covet you."
Sein said, "The first wave was at a level where you could give up one of many things. So agape—the strength of the heart—wasn't that great. But people's thresholds will keep rising, and Hexa's power has limits."
Shirone's solo Ultima System couldn't save all of humanity.
"There's a positive side," Miro observed, catching even small details. "Seeing them made me realize the Demon Realm's opening actually makes integrating with the Ultima System easier. The more people suffer, the more their faith in you grows."
"How ironic. Evil strengthening virtue."
Miro nodded at Sein's words. "The cycle of good and evil's interplay. Maybe this is humanity's last lap. Which spokes break and which remain—I don't know yet."
"Let's go back."
Under Pony's orders, soldiers kept the citizens at bay as Shirone turned.
"We have to close the Demon Realm as soon as possible."
They mass-teleported to the palace.
Pony's first command was to promote all palace staff.
"Most of the senior administrators relinquished their positions. There aren't nearly enough people to handle the work."
They could try rehiring, but there were no applicants.
"By this hour I declare martial law. Ban all citizens from going out except palace staff. The key is to minimize the disturbances expected in the second wave."
After dealing with urgent matters, Pony asked Shirone, "How's the WHO? Did you reach them?"
"Yeah, I just arrived. I'm talking with Seriel now. I'll relay information as it comes in."
Even those who'd experienced it firsthand couldn't yet set a clear standard for emotion sickness.
Sein said, "That's not the only problem. Five Demon Realms have opened across the world, including this central continent. A Demon Realm installs a new system into reality's system. To solve this, we must remove the root."
Shirone already knew the answer.
"The Other World."
"Yes. The Demon Realm's system pulls the laws of the Other World into reality. So if we can completely purify that hell, the Demon Realm will naturally vanish."
Sein added, "After Imir's spirit, now the Other World? Who will go there?"
Hands shot up, but Nade pushed hardest. "Me! I won't let anyone else! Shirone, I'm going!"
Tae-seong shook his head. "No. That won't do. The Other World isn't a place anyone can enter. It was possible for Shirone because he opened agape, but for a five-senses being to fall into hell requires a special method."
"What is it? I can do it too."
"You die."
"The Other World is where extreme emotions of reality gather. To go there while alive you must either make a pact with Satan or possess emotions so extreme that reality can't accept them."
"Emotions so extreme reality can't accept?"
"Yes. Like Shirone's universal love, you must reach an extreme of some feeling. Death is the most common and easiest way, but there are special cases. Those are called sins—those who sink into evil. Siok is probably such a case."
Iruki propped her chin on her hand. "That's a problem. We can't pile up sins, and we can't die."
"Yes. That's why I'm asking." Tae-seong turned his head. "Rian, only you can fight in Hell alongside Shirone. Stop the Demon Realm."
"Huh?!"
Everyone realized.
Only Rian—because of his power to restore ideas—could experience Hell while still alive.