The Meaning of the Incident (3)
Imir's mind, Deep Layer 1.5.
"Live."
Gangnan said.
"You don't have to stay by my side. Do whatever you want. I will never let you despair."
What Imir's Ultima—the ten billion eyes—realized when it penetrated Layer 1.5 was this.
'He's a man who has lived a life I can't even imagine.'
Gaold's abnormal endurance, and the obsession he had for Miro.
'Sein must feel the same.'
Now that Miro had chosen Gaold, the father-daughter bond was only a formality.
The Sein family moved into Gangnan's house.
"So they were here."
After crushing the Tamo organization, business at the market had been steady, but they'd closed up shop.
'Spot the difference.'
The line between dream and reality had become clear. All that remained was a choice.
"I've decided to live here."
Gangnan said.
"I thought it over a long time and came to this conclusion. I realized how painful reality is. I'm going to live here."
Sein couldn't argue.
While Arius whimpered, Miro approached Gaold at the dining table.
"You doing okay?"
He had only briefly tasted the pain of reality, but Gaold had been in shock for a while.
"...Yeah."
"Since Gangnan and Dad gave their blessing, it's over now, right? Good. You got yourself a pretty little bride like me."
"Little bride."
Gaold, still holding a cigarette between his lips, asked, "You're not going to ask my opinion?"
"What would there be to ask? I already know how relentless you are. Why—don't you like it?" If it had been anyone else, it would have been awkward for Miro to know Gaold in reality.
"Ah, I get it. You mean I'd drive you crazy if you had to wait until I was an adult, right?"
Gaold stubbed out his cigarette.
"Don't be ridiculous, kid. If you knew how I've lived, you'd just keep your mouth shut."
Miro knew too.
She knew he had endured twenty years in a hell of excruciating sensation.
'Yes. This is the right thing.'
By Miro's compromise, the world became whole, and Imir would not be able to penetrate it.
Sein asked, "By the way… what about Shirone?"
Since that day Shirone had sunk into sleep and seemed to lie as if dead.
Monga, standing beside Ruber, said, "We tried every method, but nothing worked. Maybe we could approach a dream within a dream..."
"There was a condition."
Ruber said, "The fact that even the dreamkeeper cannot read the dream—that only applies if the dreamkeeper approved it, doesn't it?"
Gangnan asked, "They approved it?"
"A long time ago... I once accepted the offer of a man now called the First Yora.
"The condition was simple. He had something he wanted to pass on to someone who shared the same ideal. They called it a transmission dream. It might revive a will through that dream, but… it's uncertain."
"When will he wake?"
"No one knows. Time doesn't matter in dreams. It's about how much information gets processed. When the transmission dream's data finishes sending, the dream within the dream ends."
At that moment Shirone suddenly arched his back like a bow and trembled in both arms.
"Odaeseong—!"
Monga checked him, but there was no consciousness.
"What's happening?"
Ruber watched Shirone convulsing as if seizing, his face grave.
'Odaeseong in the dream isn't affected by simultaneous events. So what's being affected is—'
the magic sword Armand.
The ability consolidated under the name Material was exerting strong influence in reality.
"A seizure?"
What sort of force was this that made the master lose consciousness and yet suffer so terribly?
Ruber looked up at the sky of the Layer 1.5 world.
'What are you doing?'
Glaring at the sun, Shirone gritted his teeth.
"Ughhh!"
A tremendous amount of Material poured from between his splayed palms.
The substance transcended human knowledge and could survive even the harshest conditions of space.
'I can't finish it at once. First, the ring-shaped framework that will encircle the sun's diameter...'
- Construction progress: 0.00134 percent.
The work's efficiency equaled roughly 64 billion man-months, yet even reaching one percent seemed distant.
'I have to do it.'
If the divine Law were enforced, this universe would end as just one bubble among many.
A solar wind struck.
"Guh!"
The Law twisted again, and the repercussions were registered immediately through simultaneous events.
'It's okay. Mother will buy time.'
If he could finish it within that span.
As Material's output ramped up, the boundary from which matter spewed glowed a fierce red.
Machines assembled at light speed and streaked through space.
The effects of the final adjustments struck the Pyramid of Truth in the Paras Kingdom directly.
As the wall inscriptions were replaced by new concepts, the Baptism of Humanity surged once more.
"No! No! This can't be!"
Glen, a priest of the Rami Church, clung to his sanity with every ounce of strength as it threatened to unravel.
Glen's cause.
He had dismissed Rukia as a mere memory, but to Glen she had been the event that altered the course of his life.
Born to poverty, Glen had endured hardship from childhood.
The first light came when his parents embraced the Rami Church.
By luck he entered the monastery, and there he met Rukia's family.
"Hello. I'm Rukia."
"Uh… yeah. I'm Glen. Nice to meet you."
The two seventeen-year-olds opened up quickly, but their parents' situations were more complicated.
It was a missionary day for the monastery.
"Glen, ma'am. Thank you for coming despite being busy. May the grace of Lord Cria be with you."
Rukia's mother, a priest, was kind to everyone, and Glen's mother liked her.
"Thank you. It's what we should do."
Even then Glen and Rukia worked together to evangelize the villagers.
Rukia's mother smiled.
"You two are always together. It's lovely to see. Glen is such an outstanding young man."
Those words should never have reached him.
'That wasn't the time to hear that.' Since no parent dislikes praise of their child, Glen's mother brightened.
"Rukia is so kind and steady. They say she's a candidate for the next high priestess at the monastery."
"No, she wouldn't—"
"I hope good things come for Glen and Rukia too. Maybe someday, if they grow up and… if they end up together..."
The sentence died there.
Glen saw a flash of anger in the usually mild Rukia's mother's eyes.
"Oh, I was presumptuous..."
"Glen's mother, don't say such things again. Even among the faithful, please keep decency."
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
Unable to watch his mother bow any longer, Glen turned away.
"Glen, what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing? Your face is full of rage. Did I do something wrong?"
"Rukia."
Glen clenched his fist.
"I'm not well. I'll go inside and rest." Time dulled the feeling, but the wound carved into Glen's heart never healed.
"No!"
Glen grabbed his head.
"You planned to take Rukia for something as trivial as that? I… I loved her truly!"
Love—the beautiful word.
"Why tempt me like that! Do you think such a thing could sway me? I'm a priest of the Rami Church!"
How much do we ignore simply because it sounds beautiful?
"God, look upon me! Drive this devil's guile from me!"
As Glen prayed, he heard a hallucination.
Glen, Glen.
"I believe in God. Save me."
There is no devil.
"Wah! Have mercy on me... Ugh! I entrust everything to you..."
Isn't that the result of what you did?
"Ahhhh! Ahhhh!"
Glen buried his face in the dirt; fluids ran from his eyes, nose, and mouth.
It was night when he returned to the monastery.
"Glen, what's the matter? You haven't said anything since. Tell me."
"Go away! Just leave me alone!" Glen shouted.
"...Okay. We'll talk tomorrow. Good night." As Rukia left, Glen swept everything in his room clean.
"You bastards!"
His anger had not subsided.
"Yeah, we're poor. It must be disgusting that a guy like me would take your daughter. But you know what? Rukia likes me. If I wanted to, I could—!"
Glen lifted his chin.
"I could ruin her right now. Make it so she never even dreams of becoming a high priestess..."
"No!"
At the moment Glen shouted, the characters on the nearby wall began to glow.
"You bastard! Why are you doing this to me! I really loved her! I was so angry then...!"
Then events began to overlap.
"Argh!"
He banged his head against the wall but did not die; that was the last of Glen's pride.
"Hrggh! Hrggh!"
Despite having many choices, his life only frayed further.
"Ughhh!"
Glen finally realized.
'I'm disappearing.'
From a human being to merely a person.
As if his skull were splitting, a familiar voice came from down the corridor.
"Glen!"
Rukia came running.
"Glen! There you are! Do you know how long I looked for you—!"
"Graaa!"
Glen let out a monstrous cry, leapt up, and clamped his hands around Rukia's throat.
"Die! Just die!"
"G-Glen..."
Lying on the floor and looking up, Glen's face had contorted into something animalistic.
"You didn't love me! You regretted it! You only accepted me that night because you had no choice!"
"No."
Because Rukia had also received the Baptism of Humanity, she understood what Glen was saying.
"You were so young! You were just scared! I love you now! I really do, Glen!"
"Die!"
As he tightened his grip, Rukia held him.
'The right hand of God.'
It could stir and change a human heart like water, but it caught almost nothing.
'He's lost his heart.'
"Die! Die! Die!"
Glen put his full weight into his hands, and she had no choice but to use a last resort.
'The left hand of the devil.'
In an instant, simply grabbing his shoulders twisted Glen's body like a pretzel.
Glen collapsed to his side and writhed in pain as Rukia checked him again.
"Glen! Are you okay? Snap out of it!"
"Ughhh..."
As his body contorted and he groaned, footsteps came from the darkness behind.
"Mr. Euphra."
When Rukia turned, she saw the great-sword wielder Euphra approaching with unfocused eyes.
He slowly raised his blade and said, "Everything is as the gods intend...
"A human who has lost cause becomes nothing more than an OPART—merely an artifact.
"God awaits us!"
Just as his sword swung to cut Rukia's head, a mass of light flew in from the side.
Euphra slammed into the wall with a thud, and Shirone stepped out from the corner.
"Rukia! Are you okay?"
"Ah..."
At the sight of Shirone's eyes, filled with human feeling, tears streamed down her face.
"Yahweh."
A heart unshaken by the Law.