Infinity (4)
The sight of the bodies tangled together made it feel as if even the dignity of the living had been torn away.
"What is a god?"
The chief asked with a sickly laugh.
"In other words—what does it mean to transcend humanity? What does it mean to be beyond human?"
He lifted a corpse's wrist and, with fond eyes, stared at the flesh.
"They used a strange ability. In a way, that can be called strength."
When the chief let go, the corpse's arm fell limp.
"How fierce were their efforts? To be safer, to gain more. But that isn't godhood."
Nade snapped.
"What does that have to do with committing these acts? You're just a vicious murderer."
"Murderer? Don't try to pin me down with such a crude concept. Not here."
The chief lifted the corpse's eyelid and gazed raptly into the dead pupil.
"Prove to me that I am a god."
Then, with a sudden twist, he began tearing at the corpses with his hands.
Nade's face went pale.
"Ugh!"
"These things," the chief crooned, "cannot resist. Do you know what it feels like to be perfectly safe? Have you ever felt that? I feel it. Even if I do this, even if I keep doing this..."
Electricity crackled up Nade's arms, but Shirone raised his hand and blocked him.
"No one can harm me. Perfect strength. Therefore, the corpses, the flesh, this fragrant blood..."
The chief hauled something up with his hand and snapped it between his teeth; his eyelids trembled.
"...are the treasures the god has given me."
"Enough."
Shirone had had his fill.
"There's one thing I want to hear. Who's behind this? The person they call 'that woman'—where is she now?"
"Puhahaha!" The chief burst into laughter; blood spat from his mouth.
"Behind it? Foolish humans! Who do you think I am? I am a god! Your corpses will be toyed with by my hands here!"
"Even if that's true…"
Nade rolled up his sleeve and stepped forward.
"First, let's give him a taste."
His body wrapped in blue electricity and surged toward the chief, the air around him burning.
Just as five fingers were about to snatch at the chief's face—
"Stop."
A woman's voice sounded from behind, and Nade, unable to resist the command, collapsed weakly to the ground.
Shirone turned and saw the woman who had been imprisoned not long ago standing there.
"Ravika?"
Nade said, but Shirone shook his head.
"No. Different."
There was nothing he could point to, yet the very temperament she gave off had changed.
'What changed was the heart.'
If this was the realm of emotion, then he could already guess who was pulling the strings behind all this.
"Show yourself, Five O'Clock of Prejudice." Iruki—who knew of Shirone—narrowed his eyes with Nade.
"If you mean the Five O'Clock of Prejudice, you mean Siok?"
Ravika smiled faintly. The chief shrugged and stood.
"Kikiki! Didn't I tell you? I am a god!"
Iruki realized who "that woman" really was.
'A being from the other side is emotion manifest in reality. Not a living human—evil that crept into the villagers' hearts.'
Nade tensed and asked, "Siok? Isn't she the guardian of Satan?"
"The concepts of space and time mean nothing here. 0.666 seconds is a moment outside the Law's jurisdiction. If Stop magic is cast, she might reveal herself... but—
Ravika will probably kill herself.
Like the mother of the two siblings brainwashed by the Five O'Clock of Prejudice who drove a blade into her own heart."
"Kakaka! Exactly! This woman's heart-technique is impressive. Still, she cannot beat me."
"You left them on purpose?"
"Didn't you know? Evil wins because goodness is weak. We don't leave it because we can't destroy it—we leave it because we need it. If everything turned evil, where would we find pleasure?"
That, he said, was the essence of evil.
To defeat evil, you needed a sage so far removed from human standards that he matched evil itself.
Ravika spread her arms wide.
"That truth still holds. Look. Before you stands the only righteous person who tried to save this village. Do you think you can kill me?"
There was nothing left to conceal, so Iruki admitted it plainly.
"You couldn't kill me. But that doesn't mean I'm weak."
"What do I care about your thoughts? The important thing is Satan has won again. Poor Yahweh—you will never achieve what you desire. No matter how many demons die, as long as humans are tempted by evil, the war is our victory."
Nade stepped forward.
"You're mistaken about one thing. Yahweh is Shirone. And I'm an extremely emotional, ordinary human."
Blue electricity flared from his body and the cave walls flashed with painful brightness.
"I will kill him, Shirone. Not for you—by my own choice. Don't stop me."
The chief pressed his body against a corpse and cackled.
"Uhehehe! Fools! Still don't understand? The pleasures of the flesh are divine...!"
Iruki's Atomic Bomb detonated.
The chief's body was blown away in a roar, thrown among the corpses until it could not be distinguished from them.
As the deranged Nade leapt forward, Ravika pointed a forefinger.
"Shirone is your enemy."
The moment the words fell, Nade's mind began to change drastically.
"Guh!"
The Five O'Clock of Prejudice.
Once a thing is defined, everyone comes to believe it.
"Shirone is the one who killed your family. Do not be deceived by the one wearing Yahweh's mask."
'No, that can't be.'
Even though the claim made no sense, his mind only magnified the doubt.
"Kill Shirone. Avenge them."
"Shut up! There must have been a reason! If Shirone killed my family... there had to be a reason!"
The Five O'Clock of Prejudice was taken aback.
'Huh—he's holding out? Even if Shirone actually killed his family, he can still restrain himself—that's what this means...'
Iruki, too, looked displeased with Shirone but showed no intention of striking.
"Heh. What touching friendship."
Ravika's smile twisted.
"Kill him! Shirone brutally slaughtered your family! He even laughed while doing it!"
"AAAAAAH!"
As the lightning of rage began to explode, Shirone spoke.
"Nade, you don't have to hold on. I'll stop him. This isn't your true feeling. It's that woman's ability."
"No—no!"
Nade's face contorted like a demon.
"Even if it's a devil's trick, even if you killed my family—if you smiled while killing them..."
Each word only stoked his fury.
"Even so..."
The terrifying half of Nade's face slowly softened and tears began to fall.
"No, Shirone? You're lying, right?"
The Five O'Clock of Prejudice.
Shirone's eyes sharpened with murderous intent.
'I want to kill him.'
The only reason he didn't act was the one chance Nade might give him.
Even the Five O'Clock of Prejudice finally grasped the situation's seriousness.
'The Hidden Code isn't triggering? No, that can't be. Even the most extraordinary heart-technique...
Controlling the most uncontrollable emotion—rage—this far is astonishing.'
"Hey? Hey? Hey?"
At that moment Nade's body began to tremble and his pupils rolled upward.
'It's coming, it's coming!'
Thought drained away; the lightning of rage shattered the cave ceiling and surged upward.
"KRAAAA—!"
An avatar of fury.
The electric incarnation of his wrath roared, clawing at everyone in the chamber.
"Hok!"
Shirone caught a clear gleam in Ravika's eyes and seized the moment.
'Now!'
Stop.
Time stopped. From Ravika stepped a woman in a black robe.
"Yaaah!"
Gathering all the pent-up force, Shirone's Hand of God seized the Five O'Clock of Prejudice and lifted it up.
A hole blew open in the deep cave and the sky became visible—the Hidden Code was released.
Nade, already stripped of reason, was flung outside. Iruki, who had regained himself, shouted.
"Shirone! I'll take care of this!"
"Please!"
Shirone flew out of the cave and saw the Five O'Clock of Prejudice descending into deep shadow.
"I'll kill you."
When the Hand of God smashed into the ground, the mountain trembled.
Nade's electric incarnation slammed into the earth, electrifying the surroundings in an instant.
Thousands of bolts flowed back like a spectacle; plants turned to ash in a heartbeat.
"Hah! Hah!"
Even after coming to his senses, Nade trembled with rage at the Five O'Clock of Prejudice.
"Damn it! Bastards...!"
Shirone ran up beside him.
"Nade, are you all right?"
"Yeah, sorry. I got carried away."
"No. Thanks to you we cut the casualties. Ravika will be okay too."
Nade scanned the scene.
"Are they dead? No—could they have been killed?"
"In those 0.666 seconds of reality, Siok was in a life-god state. If it connected properly, survival was unlikely."
Iruki approached with survivors.
"How are they?"
"As you can see."
More effective than a hundred words was the landscape, scorched and wrecked.
Ravika sank to her knees, weeping.
"Ah, God Yor. I fell to the temptation of evil. Punish me."
Shirone put a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't blame yourself. That woman is the strongest evil—even Yor would struggle against her. You did your best."
"What about my husband and our child?"
Shirone chose his words carefully.
"Your prayers were answered. Your husband managed to take the child and leave the village."
A phrase—'I am king'—tinged his thoughts, but there was no need to say it aloud.
Iruki pointed toward the village entrance.
"Shirone, look."
A long line of torches approached, the clank of armor audible.
About eighty soldiers in silvery armor closed in on Shirone and the others.
"Stand down!"
The mounted captain halted his troops and removed a helm that covered the lower half of his face.
She was a blonde woman with a sharp nose.
"What are you people?"
Her tone was hostile, and the torchlight flashed along the greatsword leveled at Shirone's brow.
"To think there are still people in a place filled with the aura of evil. Identify yourselves quickly, or—"
Nade, still hot with adrenaline, flicked the blade with a finger and stepped forward.
"And who are you to start pointing swords around?"
The soldiers drew their blades.
"Will you not step back? How dare you threaten a paladin of the Rami Church!"
Shirone's eyes widened.
"Huh? The Rami Church?"
The world's largest religion—and the only one with a pope.
"That's right! The Pope himself sent this holy expedition to purge evil from the world! Kneel at once!"
The woman raised a hand.
"No—wait. The tremors and lightning just now—those were surely caused by the evil dwelling in this mountain. Where did it go?"
Nade pointed down the slope.
"If that's the case, then probably—"
As the soldiers followed his finger, their faces suddenly drained of color.
"Pa—Paladin, look over there."
"Why such a fuss? Tch."
The woman frowned and turned, but the sight left her speechless too.
"What… is that?"
On the blackened scorched earth, the terrain itself had been reshaped—there was a fistprint pressed into the ground, the land gouged as if struck by a colossal blow.