The Meaning of the Incident (1)
Strange phenomena centered on pyramids scattered across the world were being reported to the temple.
Euntara, leader of the southern tribal confederation, said, "Divine intervention."
"The pyramid anomalies are driving people's emotions to the extreme. Powerful mana will spill into the Otherworld, and it will affect every system."
Euntara's face was grave. "The world will boil like a cauldron. All these incidents will coalesce into one—before humanity can."
The unification of the Law would mean the victory of the gods.
"How about reclaiming Elikia? If we used that power to strike Jaive, perhaps—"
He chuckled and sipped his tea. "That's exactly why we can't. You're trying to fix things without even knowing what the problem is."
When asked what could be done with Elikia's power, Shirone answered simply. "Nothing."
After a long pause, Shirone raised his head. "We will do nothing."
It sounded oddly deflating at first, but as Euntara mulled it over, realization dawned on him. This was the answer he had been seeking.
"How arrogant it is to think a single human can change the world," Euntara said. "Yahweh isn't a creed. It's just a great wind — it does what it can."
"So you let it be?"
"There is no perfect way—this or that. In any plan someone will be sacrificed, someone will rage."
Unification was impossible. "Elikia may be one, but Yahweh manifests wherever it acts. If you force priorities, the power will be corrupted. I think Elikia has gone to its owner."
"Will his wish come true?"
Euntara sipped his tea and fell into thought. 'Countless incidents are overlapping. Everyone is trying to fulfill their own desire. Is God saying… He can turn even the human heart into Law?'
He lifted his head. "I don't know. What's clear is that all the events to come will operate toward a single purpose. When we finally reach the end, the result that remains will be… human, or divine?"
"The end is in sight."
Euntara forced himself to ignore that the unification of the Law was progressing faster than the unification of humanity.
Corona Kingdom.
Shirone snapped awake. "Ugh—!"
He sat bolt upright and looked around; he was in a military tent with a campfire burning. 'What happened?'
Shirone, flung from the Ivory Tower with Baal, had landed in Hueig-occupied territory. He remembered Minerva appearing just before the demons overwhelmed him and saving him.
"You're awake?" Minerva asked, lifting the tent flap as she entered.
"What happened?"
"You lost consciousness as we reached the hideout. You were in real danger." The shock had been so severe that even Shirone's willpower couldn't keep him conscious.
"We don't have time. We have to save Taeseong."
Minerva said nothing.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"See for yourself."
The moment Shirone followed her out of the tent, he felt a jolt of shock. Only a hundred meters ahead, demons and Corona soldiers were locked in combat.
"We've been completely pushed back. We're losing the war." Shirone recognized Stars of the Ivory Tower among the soldiers and couldn't believe it. "Why…?"
"It happened suddenly. It hasn't even been twenty minutes. The demons feel unbelievably stronger."
Shirone's mind snapped into focus. As if some anesthetic had worn off, concentrating his consciousness linked the simultaneous incidents. 'Pyramids.' Events overlap according to the heart.
"Mika."
_Yes.
'How many people have been affected by the pyramids?'
- 83,002,873 people. Twenty-eight of them just reached death routes a moment ago.
Far more powerful than Elikia. 'These are things happening under the gods' intent. What that intent is, I can't say. But…' Now it was the demons' world.
"Shirone, you have to get out now. If the Stars of the Ivory Tower are destroyed here, there's no future."
"They're targeting Taeseong. Without his intellect, the definitions of good and evil will vanish."
The Ivory Tower would be even worse off. "Anyway, run for now. Corona's soldiers will buy some time. You should leave—"
Shirone shook his head. "No. There is nowhere left to run. The mana of the Otherworld will spill into reality." Not even the True Sound could stop it.
"First, we have to take out the demons here and then go to the Ivory Tower. Saving Taeseong is the top priority."
"Easier said than done. Those guys seem to have advanced by two ranks in felt power. A common soldier now has the strength of a company commander; some battalion commanders are as strong as division commanders."
"I'll do it. They're not that numerous; we can hold them off for now."
"But you're wounded."
Shirone grinned and launched himself toward the battlefield, glancing back at Minerva. "You look a lot prettier."
Minerva wasn't one to blush at a compliment, but this time her face flushed. The world's Laws had shifted, and she, too, had escaped the fate of a witch. "Kid… it's not like your looks changed much," she muttered, though he seemed kinder than before.
'That doesn't change anything.' A bitter smile touched Minerva's lips as she pushed off the ground and chased after Shirone. 'I'm a killer.' Even if the Law changed, she believed she must take responsibility for her life.
Meanwhile, Shirone heading for the front finally felt the full force of the demons. 'They're overwhelming us.'
Corona's soldiers were falling, and the Stars of the Ivory Tower struggled valiantly. Mini of the Unified Cosmos Administration—ranked Twelve—cast Scale magic and enlarged her body.
"Those bastards!" She shot up—ten iter, fifty, a hundred—and slammed her fist into the ground.
Kuuuuung!
The impact rattled the earth, but demons immediately crawled up her arm. "Get off! Filthy things!" She tried to brush them away like ants, but the demons tore into her flesh at once.
"Argh!" At that moment, the light of Miracle Stream engulfed the demons and hurled them to the ground. Mini's face brightened as she looked down at the battlefield.
"Lady Odaeseong!" Her satellite, Ariana, suddenly appeared between Mini's breasts.
"Here, here! Get in quickly!" Shirone said with an embarrassed smile.
"Next time."
"Oh my!" The joke ended there, and Shirone, eyes narrowed, dove back into the fray.
"Stand back."
Mini stepped back tens of meters in a single bound and a Hand of God rose in the air. On the palm of light, a Photon Cannon materialized.
"Yahweh! Kill Yahweh!"
"Kurahahaha! I've grown stronger! Now I can kill your loathsome self—!"
A beam of direct light struck. The shockwave born with the roar sent demons flying outward in concentric circles.
"Whooo." It was terrifyingly powerful as always, but these demons were different.
From within a huge crater, countless surviving demons lifted their faces. 'Is that all?'
"Yahweh, I'll kill you."
Shirone closed his eyes at the sight of demons clawing themselves out of the dirt. "Huu." When he opened his eyes again—
"You'll die—"
An enormous sphere of light unlike anything before filled the sky. "No, no!" Like dawn breaking, the horizon of the Hueig-occupied territory swelled with bright light.
"Advance! Charge!"
A blizzard lay around the Ivory Tower, but the strengthened demons charged unimpeded. Around two hundred thousand demons swarmed, the weakest now possessing the strength of former company commanders. They were breaching a narrow entrance, and Taeseong and Shing remained unmoving.
The four-star residents assisting Shing, Umji and Yangji, sensed the lower levels' situation. "Lord Shing, it's dangerous like this."
Stars from the Law Department and the Balance Department guarded, but the demons' power was too overwhelming. Taeseong said, "Shing, end this misunderstanding now. At this rate the Ivory Tower will fall."
Shing also knew. 'Shirone, do you think the same?' As long as Shing did not move, Taeseong too could not be swayed by the power of the Law.
"Why?" Taeseong asked.
"You can achieve nothing. What binds me is an unjustified obsession."
"Right." The Stars and residents had lent their will, but in the end it was Shing who would carry it through. "I may be wrong. I won't deny that. But I know: if I step down here, there's no one who can take my place."
If he was right… 'If 99.99 percent are wrong and I'm right. If everything ends the moment I change my mind.' Shing said, "Let's die together, Taeseong. I am already prepared."
Sadness clouded Taeseong's eyes. "Push up! Overwhelm them with numbers!"
The demons were staging a show of force against the Ivory Tower from the 23rd floor. Arte swung his fan and a massive gale pushed the demons back like an iron wall. "Ugh!" But Arte's mental reserves, casting spell after spell, were nearing their limit.
"I can't hold for more than ten minutes. If we don't do something in that time, the Ivory Tower will be overturned."
"Idiots! More demons will flood in soon! You are defeated!" Losses and victories in war are commonplace, but this defeat carried grave weight for humanity. 'Evil is no longer clearly evil.' Arte gritted his teeth.
The air on the 23rd floor spun sharply and shredded the demons' flesh. At that moment, Arte felt his magic and his mind split in two. "Ugh!" As he staggered, an immense sword-force scratched the ground and surged forward. Heukgangshi pulled Arte aside, and a crack cleft the wall the full height of the 23rd floor.
Where the demons turned in bewilderment, First Legion Commander Baal walked in. "Commander!" Watching the army kneel before him, Heukgangshi bit his lip. 'Dammit.' In a situation where company commanders had become division commanders, what would a legion commander be now?
"Stand aside." Baal told the Stars of the Ivory Tower. "Open the path. You cannot defeat me. I will settle this with Taeseong."
Tanjura asked, "Do you think we'll step aside?"
"Do you think I'm blackmailing you with your lives? Not at all. This is the last chance. It's the final chance I can compromise without opening the Demon Realm."
If Baal opened the Demon Realm, humanity wouldn't only lose the Tower—mankind as a whole would perish. Yet Baal's threat only hardened the Stars' resolve.
"Reason will not yield to blackmail. Whether humanity perishes or the universe is destroyed—" Tanjura lunged. "What is right is right for that reason." A hundred punishments for one. "Denying right is a crime. Death."
Baal was bound by the Law, and Daeho, rushing in from the flank, cast a cleaver. "Kukuku." The next moment everyone saw Tanjura's and Daeho's bodies cleaved in two. "Reason is dead." Baal, his blade hanging at his side, asked the Stars who were covering their mouths, "Will you refute that?"
Shirone flew like a meteor from the Hueig-occupied area and opened his eyes wide. Demons swarmed like a sea around the Ivory Tower. Minerva approached on a jet. "The entrance is blocked!"
The demons' durability was different now; brute force had its limits. 'Taeseong, hold on a little longer.' Shirone unfurled the Judicial Halo Ataraxia, activated his physical system, and plunged toward the ground.
"That madman!" As Minerva changed direction, Shirone fell into the middle of the demons.
"What, what is—?" Demons who realized he was a Yahweh bared their fangs confidently, but—
"Huuuu." Seeing Shirone's face breathing light, they turned pale. "Move aside." He hadn't addressed anyone in particular, but the demons felt as if the world itself were tearing apart left and right.