The Meaning of the Incident (2)
When Shirone and his party reached the Sun's convective layer, a mass of flame coalesced and a phoenix born of the star took shape.
A planetary phoenix was powerful, but a phoenix born of the Sun was on a completely different level.
"Finally, you have come."
Under the phoenix's stellar energy, the Miracle Stream's diameter shrank by a full meter.
"I have been waiting, Ikael." The party received the phoenix's words through Ultima, Idea, and their spirit-forms.
Ikael spoke. "We have come to see Satiel."
"Of course you have. But it's a foolish act. Nothing can stand against the discipline of the Whole."
"You won't know until you try. Even if this universe is destroyed, the heart will remain."
She wanted to believe that.
"...Do as you please. This is your resting place. But humans cannot reach the core. No—how you are even here in the first place is the real question." The phoenix glanced at the man wrapped in light and the naked woman, then erupted in flame.
"Leave!"
Even with the Miracle Stream forming a shield, Shirone felt his head swim.
'Incredible energy.'
Knowing time was short, Amy stepped outside the veil.
A blinding light shot out and her body flared into flame again.
The phoenix's eyes narrowed.
"Mother of Light. How could a human reach the source of the signal? Impossible."
"Go, Ikael."
Amy rose slowly and said, "I'll take care of this place."
After a moment's hesitation, Ikael steeled herself and stepped out of the Miracle Stream's cover.
"Hu!"
Her body went out like a candle, and her spirit-form emerged from the solar flames.
"I'm sorry, Holy Mother of the Sun. I cannot let Satiel be extinguished like this. That is my heart."
The phoenix glared at Amy. "It's pointless. You cannot persuade a god. No being can." Ikael answered only with silence; she bowed and sank into the Sun's core.
"Yes—someone with the Idea of Fire." The phoenix straightened his upper body. "I see you are worthy to rise to Ra. But in the end, you cannot surpass me."
"Is that so?"
Amy's flames swelled until they became the brightest white light, as if about to explode.
Shirone bit his lip.
'Diameter six meters.'
In the Sun's harsh environment, the range of the Heksa she could use would be limited to close quarters.
'All I can do now is wait for an opening.'
At that moment the phoenix swelled to enormous size and dove at Amy like an arrow.
"Be obliterated!"
Their forms began to collapse on impact, and a powerful shockwave swept over Shirone.
Meanwhile, Satiel and Rael, who had seeped into the Sun's core, were pouring out everything they had.
"Krrrgh!"
Every time they tried to reverse the universe's forward motion, their spirit-forms felt as if they were burning away.
"Why..."
Satiel screamed.
"Why do you deny us? Why! Why!"
The divine entity represented by Anke Ra had never shown itself to them.
"For what do we exist?"—for the authority of God.
If humans reached God, cause and effect would be inverted; the roles of creator and created would be reversed.
'Even if that were so... because of one error called Yahweh, what right do you have to change every standard in the universe?
'What are we that you made? What of the noble concept of archangels? The world you created, the rules you set—do you bear no responsibility for your creation?'
God had no heart.
From the perspective of an abstraction, God was a cold entity that removed errors according to its program.
Ikael pierced the duplication layer.
"Satiel."
Being in spirit-form, she could not hide her emotions.
"Stop now. Become human. You—become human, and so will I."
"And the other angels!"
Venom filled Satiel's eyes.
"You always think only of yourself! What about the other angels who have no heart? They'll only be used by humans!"
"Satiel, that—"
"Block her!"
When Rael's spirit-form surged to strike at Ikael, countless signals crossed in chaos.
"I'm sorry, Lady Ikael. I have no choice. I cannot become human like this."
"We'll be crushed in the wheels of the Law if this continues. Only Yahweh can withstand it."
"Hahaha! Of course!" Poison flared in Satiel's eyes. "Gauphin—after doing filthy things with that inferior human! Don't you dare look on us as the same!"
"Satiel, what you're doing isn't for the angels either. You only seek power to take revenge on me—"
"W-what—!"
When Satiel screamed like a wound opening, the Sun's core shook dangerously.
"Yes! I, too, have a heart now. What you took from Gauphin must have been hope and passion, peace and love—
Satiel howled. "What I received was hatred and resentment, anger and betrayal, frustration and shame! That is my heart!"
Rael's spirit-form trembled like a wave.
"Satiel..."
In spirit-form, facts could not be hidden, and Ikael understood Satiel's heart.
'So that's it.'
A heart that didn't want to see her suffer.
'How truly beautiful.'
Ikael was grateful that Satiel could still recall the precious time with Gauphin.
"Satiel is right."
Ikael said, "In my heart live hope, peace, and love. But Satiel's heart contains only the most painful feelings—hatred, resentment, betrayal."
Two completely different kinds of heart, yet—
"It all comes down to the heart." Rael's spirit-form shook with conflict. "The Law divided us into the chosen and the unchosen—me and Satiel. But the heart does not. I have pain too. I have resentment."
The pain of losing the one she loved most.
"We can undo it. Here it's possible. Let Satiel go."
"No! Rael, absolutely not!" What was she afraid of? Satiel shook her head like a half-mad thing.
"Satiel won't yield."
"I will stop the change in the Law. I'll help. I can't lose Satiel."
Unable to deny the truth, Rael loosened her hold as if resigning.
"No! Don't come! I would rather perish than share one mind with you!"
Satiel fought with everything she had, but Ikael ultimately merged with her spirit.
With the three archangels sharing a single mind, Ataraxia activated.
"Gah!"
The concepts of dissolution and light amplified tremendously, and the Sun's core rocked violently.
"Ah... aaah."
Satiel, unable to refuse the sense of stability, had no choice but to accept.
'I know.'
Only Ikael deserved the rank of archangel commander.
'I know. It's not that Gauphin was taken from me. From the start, Gauphin loved Ikael. But... what am I? Now I have nothing. There isn't even anyone left to resent.'
"I'm sorry."
Ikael said, "I monopolized it. I took everything you wanted."
"You—"
As Satiel tried to push Ikael's spirit away, a shocking signal washed through.
"Gauphin..."
Lies were impossible.
"He was always grateful to you. And he was sorry. He couldn't love you. He hurt you."
Satiel burst into tears.
He was not gone.
"Gauphin did not resent you. If it hadn't been you, our love wouldn't have been possible. He even always worried about you."
Uncontrollable sobs broke free.
'I, I—'
Even without a body, even having left the photon realm, Gauphin still lived here.
"Now, focus, Satiel."
Though she had no form in spirit, Satiel felt Ikael embrace her from behind.
"We will carry this through."
"Gah!"
Hatred hadn't wholly vanished, but she had no intention of pulling away.
'Now.'
Amplification, light, and dissolution—three massive concepts shook the Sun's interior.
The Zodiac Twelve at Delta Headquarters.
With only a small black hole left, Kitra immediately sensed the shift in forward motion.
"Still interfering to the end."
As the Law of God neared completion, an irritation grew.
Of course, it was merely an emotional matter—an archangel could not overturn God's decision.
"They call it physics, do they not?" The creatures of the worlds had devised countless formulas just to exist.
"O creatures, answer me. Is there ever a case where one plus one does not equal two? There is not. For God has decreed it so. Therefore, whatever you do..."
Kitra spread her arms. "I am omnipotent, omniscient, absolute."
As the black hole doubled in size, pyramids across the worlds began to glow.
The radius where incidents overlapped began to widen.
Shirone, blown along by the shockwave from Amy's phoenix, felt a chill.
'The Sun's Law is changing rapidly.' That was the sense.
As information about simultaneous events flooded across space-time, the true scope of the situation became clear.
'Kitra.'
With the pyramids as a focal point, the magnetic field expanded and human desire intensified.
'The stronger it grows, the stronger the heart becomes. If this continues, humanity will truly be finished.'
Even Yahweh, who had reached the pinnacle of heart, stood at a stature comparable to the Sun's Law.
'How do we stop it?'
Shirone considered what he could do and weighed the feasibility.
'Fifty–fifty.'
Truthfully... he wasn't confident.
'No one has ever tried this. No—this will probably affect simultaneous events too.'
It was that dangerous and monumental, but humanity had nowhere else to retreat.
'Just hold on a little longer, Mother.' Shirone cheered Ikael in his heart and sped away from the Sun as fast as he could.
Meanwhile, Amy and the phoenix, battered by the powerful solar wind, halted their duel.
"You have incurred the wrath of God," the phoenix said. "Give up, human. Changing the Law set by God is impossible. No matter how—"
The phoenix snapped its neck back toward space as if it might break.
"Huh?"
The enormous mass and the true identity of that powerful Law were at a distance the eye could not reach.
Amy murmured, "Shirone?"
"No, no way. How could a human alter such a colossal Law... this is impossible."
What the source of the signal perceived at that moment was not some quantum fluctuation but a clear photon signal.
Shirone's eyes widened.
"Huuuu!"
Thanks to pulling away from the Sun, the mental power he'd gained concentrated between his two palms.
'Material.'
Block the Law of God with a Law.
......
Matter poured from between his open hands and began combining at incredible speed.
A machine the size of a planetary nation was assembled without end.
"Uuuuu! Uuuuu!"
Linked at superluminal speeds, it began to wrap the Sun's equator like a gargantuan band.
The phoenix roared, "You dare wrap the whole Sun? How dare a mere human!"
Of course, even the Fifth-Dimensional Archive's intellect could not match outside-world technology.
"Waaaah!" If they could realize a stellar-scale construct, even current tech could manipulate the Law.
"My God..."
Even Amy was left speechless as the unprecedented construction took its first step.
"Mika."
■ Construction progress: 0.00002 percent.
The plans in the tesseract described a colossal artificial structure that would control stellar energy one hundred percent.
'Alright. Let's see who wins to the end.'
They called it the Shirone Sphere.