The First Yora (1)
"Cain?"
Iruki and Nade studied the king's face closely at Shirone's words.
He was middle-aged, but his years didn't show—those mischievous eyes made him seem ageless.
'No, that's not the point.'
If he was humanity's first murderer, that was from an age unimaginably distant from theirs.
"How is he still alive?"
"Chronal void."
Shirone said.
"Melkidu's time isn't like reality. It's a world you dig into with the mind."
It wasn't something done once.
"Outside track in reality, then an inside track from that outside track, then the castle, the castle's grand hall, the grand hall's throne… Creating new worlds like that deferred time."
Pena asked, "Is that possible? Can you live forever?"
"Not forever."
Even if you kept digging through the chronal void, an end exists before the concept of Infinity. The first thing Shirone realized was this:
'Labyrinth Andre's 19,000th world.'
The reason the utopia project humans started for immortality failed.
'The chronal-void program Argo couldn't compute Infinity and malfunctioned.'
It gave up on reason and began to farm humans.
"Yes, the chronal void cannot beat Infinity."
Cain said.
"But that's only if Infinity exists. Do you think this universe will last forever? As far as I know, not much time is left." There were five hours left by the law. Shirone asked, "You were waiting?"
From humanity's first to humanity's last.
"It was a long, boring journey. Can you imagine how many stages of chronal void I went through? The world I live in is nothing but this chair. Take one step and it's a higher world—you get one layer closer to reality."
Time would move faster.
"I was there. I waited in the deepest part of the Melkidu I made for today to arrive."
"For what?"
"You want to go to the core, right?" Cain instructed.
"Release them."
When the knights sheathed their swords and stepped back, Curtis rubbed his neck and let out a small breath.
"...I'm sorry."
Curtis had a mountain of things he wanted to hear, but getting to the core was the priority.
Shirone walked up to Cain.
"How do we get a pass to the core?"
"You know—convince me."
"The rules?"
"Ha! How awkward. Usually people pretend to be NPCs and act it out. My disposition is chaos. The rules follow my whim. You don't have to pay crime points. But you get only one chance. If you don't win here, find another way."
Giving them time to think, Cain asked again, "Who'll go?"
Shirone exchanged looks with his friends and turned back.
"I'll do it."
"Good judgment."
The scenery changed, and an endless phase-space for computing a dice duel opened up.
Cain sat as if on empty air and looked down at Shirone's group.
"The rules are simple. Use exactly one die. Throw at the same time. If my roll and your roll show the same number, you win. If they differ, you lose."
Iruki's face hardened.
"At the same time…"
Shirone could, by controlling quantum collapse, make whatever number he wanted appear.
'But not this. Even Cain wouldn't know which number I'm aiming for.'
It was pure chaos.
Seeing Shirone's sour look, Cain grinned.
"Why the face, you who persuaded half of humanity? Wasn't Yahweh the one who mastered hearts?"
They had only one chance.
"Fine."
Shirone agreed without much thought. Eden looked back at him, surprised.
'What are you doing?'
'I'll win anyway.'
Shirone was certain of victory.
'Avatar techniques work here. So Hand of God—the hand skill—will work too.'
All he had to do was see Cain's die, then use the hand skill to change the result.
"Shall we start?"
Cain rolled a seven-sided die in his hand, and Shirone snatched the die in front of him.
A system message sounded.
-For this duel only, counting begins. Count time: 60 seconds. Determination range: the final 1 second. 60, 59...
The count began, and Shirone and Cain did not take their eyes off each other.
-3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1...
The dice flew through the air at the same moment.
'The chance is instantaneous.'
Shirone fixed his eyes and watched each die tumble.
Cain's die stopped at 4, and Shirone's die was rolling toward 3.
'Hand of God.'
The Hand of God snatched Shirone's die and rolled it across the floor once more.
The original event was erased and a new event unfolded before everyone's eyes.
"It's done!"
The moment Shirone was certain, the die came to a stop.
"Huh?"
Nade, who had been staring blankly at the die pointing to 3, muttered, "…We lost?"
It was obvious, but everyone who knew Shirone's ability couldn't understand.
Shirone lifted his head slowly.
Cain wore a meaning-laden smile as the phase-space began to collapse.
Shirone's party took in the Grand Hall's scene with unsettled expressions.
Cain spoke.
"I won."
Shirone wasn't foolish enough to assume victory was automatic.
"How did you do it?"
"When you live at the dawn of human history, you hear many stories. Is that the Gaia people's ability that survives as myth? The moment I was certain the die would show 4, my certainty becomes Law, and you think you can change it. Truly… it may be called a miracle."
"You mean you weren't certain?"
If you'd had your eyes closed, maybe, but to control your heart that thoroughly would be to reach Yahweh's level.
Cain laughed.
"You're overestimating me. I'm the first murderer. That level is impossible for me."
"Then…"
Only one hypothesis remained for Shirone.
"Right. Manipulation."
-Warning. Main system data has been corrupted by an unknown code. Rapid recovery executing. A major system error may occur.
"What—what is that?"
Screams echoed from outside the castle.
"A global message?"
Cain said, "I changed the system parameters. Some users will lose out, some will gain."
In other words, it was a mess. Iruki asked, "Did you go that far because you didn't want to send us to the core? What's there?"
"No."
Cain stood.
"I will send you to the core. The reason I manipulated things is simply that I want to enforce my sense of justice."
"What?"
"The efficiency of evil."
Cain stepped beyond the end of the chronal void.
"In Melkidu, countless users throw themselves at entering the core. I made it that way. They treat this system as an immutable principle—as a god…
Is the system perfect?
"Rules are nothing. Change a single parameter and everything changes. Even the heart you so trust. Your heart desperately wanted the die to be 4, but it turned up 3."
The system governs the heart.
"So you killed?" "You broke the rules to get what you wanted, even to that extent?"
A flash of sorrow crossed Cain's eyes, but it soon turned playful again.
"Yes, I'm evil. No, more precisely, call me a scholar who studies evil. Why shouldn't killing be allowed? Step outside the rules and it's far easier and faster to get what you want. Look—it's convenient to come in through the back door."
Cain argued.
"Humans must eat. We must mate and reproduce. To eat, we may kill other species; with our own kind we compete. In that process some lose and some win. Some pair with the ones they love; others are abandoned. Envy and jealousy, selfishness and desire. No system can contain all that."
If it could, that would be Ultima.
"Then why create Melkidu?" Cain fell silent.
"If you're so confident, why not just live as a murderer? No need to prove you're right. Should I say it? You already know."
Shirone said, "No logic can make a sanctuary for evil."
Silence followed.
Heh.
Cain lifted his head and barked a laugh.
"Kuhahaha! What, you actually remember that? Now that I think of it, I might have said it. It's so long ago my memory's a blur."
"You would remember. If you didn't, you wouldn't have endured countless ages here." Shirone added, "Now I see. Why you made Melkidu. Not to justify evil—quite the opposite."
"What nonsense?"
The mirth drained from Cain's face.
"You wanted to erase yourself. What you did. That one mistake that disappointed those you loved, that terrible memory of losing everything." A sob came.
"Huuu."
Curtis sank to his knees and, voice breaking, began to speak.
"I even thought of dying. I didn't come here because I valued my life. I couldn't bear the thought of seeing my daughter in the afterlife, so I'd rather it had never happened…"
From his tears Pena guessed much.
'Was that so?'
So you too… were a wreck.
Shirone turned to Cain.
"Through the Omega records I learned about you. And what your mother, Mitochondrial Eve, did."
Cain said nothing.
"That you're a scholar who studies evil proves you view evil critically. Send us to the core. At least let you know one thing you wanted to verify across all human history."
In an atmosphere that felt like lips would seal for eternity.
"...Thus saith the Lord."
Cain murmured.
"Agrippa—why do you weep? Agrippa said, 'The woman I love has married my brother.'"
It was Agrippa's Codex, chapter three.
"O lost lamb, distance yourself from jealousy and despair. Kill your brother and take his wife."
He reached the final verse.
"I will be with you. You will not need to pay a price to get what you desire. Take and steal whatever you please. A refuge for murderers…" Cain slowly raised his gaze and said,
"Melkidu."
At the same moment, the Grand Hall's scene began to shatter like glass and a fierce wind blew.
Outside the scene was all darkness, but it felt as if it moved at the speed of light.
"What is this?"
Finally the darkness cleared, revealing a sunlit, dense forest in reality—
Melkidu's core materialized.