The Five Great Systems (1)
Etella pressed hard against her belly.
This was bad.
Given the terrain of the Law, illogical mana would be pouring into this place.
"It's reacting."
Every cry felt like a knife in her abdomen, but the fear that accompanied it was worse.
"At this rate I'll miscarry."
Probably the child of the man who had thrown that follower of virtue—Shagal's disciple—into hell.
She was bewildered.
"I don't know. What am I supposed to do…"
Judgment was still difficult, but the woman's instincts told her to get away from this place.
"For now, all I can do is protect it."
She was ashamed even to say it aloud, but as she forced herself to steel her nerve, Shagal stepped forward.
"Tch! What are you doing?"
Everyone turned to Shagal.
"They're all the same damned things. Ghouls who can't die and just cling to life. I came here to cut these stupid chains. I don't want to waste time in a place like this."
It wasn't a pleasant sight to linger over, so Shirone and the rest fell in behind Shagal.
Only Etella paused a moment longer, drinking in the emotions transmitted through the chains.
On the way up to the twelfth floor, Venistopf explained the Company's system.
"The underworld run by the Company is broadly divided into three categories. First, the Company's branch offices; second, cities where demonkind dwell; and finally the logistics warehouses managed by the Black Steed." Shirone and Rian had experienced all of them.
"The Company is special because, as you saw, it has the Six Brains—the central processors. Emotions are illogical, but not without causality. If reality deals with events, we deal with emotional causality. That's called karma."
Shirone asked, "If you purify the Six Brains, will the true voice be released?"
"Hmm. The underworld would be paralyzed. What happens after that, I don't know. But that's purely hypothetical. In practice, you can't purify the Six Brains."
"Why not?"
"The fetuses that make up the Six Brains are classified as a race called Limbo. They have no karma. Therefore they cannot be purified."
Venistopf raised a finger.
"Not only aborted fetuses become Limbo. The criterion is karma. Children born into the world who don't know logic also lack karma. Those Limbo follow their feeding instinct and slip out into the outside world. You can see them in Baramaon Sector 7."
When Etella and Shagal had fallen into hell, they had seen them in the Grave of Spines.
"Be careful. Their power is weak, but they're cruel—well, you could even say they lack such concepts entirely. The driving force of the Limbo is a single-minded clinging to life."
Shirone asked again, "What if you destroy the Six Brains?"
To understand a target precisely sometimes requires a brutal imagination.
"Limbo, like Siok, is a Law. Even if members disappear, the concept doesn't vanish. If you burned the fetuses, they'd simply be replaced by new Six Brains. Serious errors would occur, but as a systems specialist, I'd advise against it. What Yahweh wants won't happen."
Venistopf emphasized, "Destruction is not a good solution. Especially if many things are connected. Both reality and the underworld would be a mess. Would you take a precision machine and smash it with a hammer on the hope it might be fixed? Sure, it could be repaired, but I think it's far more likely to end up scrap metal. Irreversible." Shirone fell into thought.
'He's not lying. If it weren't true, they wouldn't show the Six Brains so readily. But… I get the feeling they're hiding what really matters.'
It left an enigmatic, unsettling impression.
The moment they reached the twelfth floor, a sound so enormous it scattered their thoughts filled the space.
"Praise Satan!"
It was a coliseum-like auditorium, packed with people across the tenth and eleventh floors.
A demon clutching a microphone rigged with multiple human ears raised its hand and shouted.
"Oho! Oh Satan! Grant us joy! Pleasure! Success!"
His voice rang out, amplified by hundreds of mouths set around the hall.
Those gathered before the altar wept tears of emotion and echoed the demon.
"We believe! We believe in Satan!" Shirone asked, "This is…?"
"This is a Satanist congregation. The worshippers here are humans who have made contracts with Satan."
In other words, living sacrifices.
About six thousand humans were in attendance, and all of them were candidates for Siok.
"Obey! Desire with all your heart! Satan will surely answer!"
Their eagerness was visible; the worshippers raised their hands and cried out.
Each of them wanted something, but to Shirone it all sounded like a cacophony of madness.
The demon extended a hand.
"I can hear you!"
As if by command the noise fell away and the demon's long finger pointed.
"I hear the anguish of a mother who lost a child! A woman named Mari—Mari."
"It's me! It's me!"
A woman clutching the corpse of a newborn began hopping up and down in place.
"Come up. Do you have the courage to obey Satan?"
With tears of gratitude Mari climbed the stage and the demon took the baby's corpse from her.
"This child will live again. Do you believe?"
"Yes! I believe! I… I believe in Satan! If only you save my child…"
"No conditions! Do you believe?"
The woman screamed.
"Yes! I believe!"
"Very well! In the name of Satan…!" The demon hoisted the corpse with both hands and, with all its might, smashed it down.
"Live!"
Thud. The baby's body hit the ground and the worshippers clapped, frenzied.
"Praise the greatness of Satan!"
Shirone felt as if he were watching some vile comedy, but what came next was even more terrifying.
"Ooh! My baby!" Even the mother seized the infant's body and danced with joy.
"Come here, my child."
They kissed the bluish corpse and the whole party shuddered.
Shirone muttered, "What on earth… is this?"
The demon then called up a one-legged soldier and a blind old woman.
"Walk straight!"
The soldier, shouting with rapture, began to cross the stage on his single leg.
He collapsed before taking a single step, but he kept getting back up.
"My body's healed!"
With a heavy thud he fell, then shouted, "See? I can walk properly now! I'll have my revenge, you bastards!"
Then he collapsed again.
"I can see! I can see ahead! My checks! No one will take my checks again!"
The old woman flailed her hands and kept circling in the same small spot.
Shirone ground his teeth.
"…Fanatics."
Rete said, "Exactly. This is how Siok is born. Blind faith so extreme it destroys logic. Hidden codes are a special phenomenon that arise from that contradiction."
She turned her head with a pitying look.
"I don't think they underestimated her. They must have judged that if it was the true voice—if it was her powerful will—she could take Siok's place."
Rete was right.
After sending the worshippers back to their seats, twenty humans came onto the stage.
"These are the leading candidates for Siok." They were not as hysterical as the worshippers, but their conditions were far worse.
"Look, everyone. Thanks to my belief in Satan, I've become rich like this."
Trash kept falling from his pockets as the crowd applauded, and a microphone was handed to a nearby woman.
Her face was horribly disfigured.
"Hello. I'm Mortasinger, one of the final twenty in the Siok selection."
Shirone's eyes widened.
'That person… Mortasinger?'
By Shirone's recollection, she had once been the sort of beauty who could have entered a world pageant.
Even Son Yujeong looked stunned, her face blank at the sight of the friend she had been searching for.
"Y-you…"
The bold, straightforward friend who had traveled heaven and earth with them and caused countless trouble together.
"Hoho! Well, of course you're surprised. My ugly face has become so beautiful, hasn't it?"
But the figure standing there now was a lunatic whose appearance made even a skull look preferable.