The Handicap Called Human (3)
In an unnamed forest.
"Grrrrr!"
A flaming skeletal swordsman tore through the veil of the Otherworld and crossed into reality.
In his bare bony right hand he held a great blade that the flames couldn't touch.
"Kiiii!"
Like a returning king of the dead from hell, his empty eye sockets fixed on the front as he drove the sword into the ground.
The earth trembled under his godlike-transcendent power. His body gradually reformed and the flames began to die down.
"Uuuugh…"
Rian, whose skin had even regenerated, groaned.
"Oof, that's hot!"
He brushed the remaining embers off with both hands and panted, smoke curling from his body.
"Hah. Hah."
Gehenna's flames were, in reality, an emotion. The fire he'd set before entering the Otherworld had already burned all his clothes away.
"Back to the living, huh?" Rian caught his breath and looked around, but the forest was bleak—he couldn't even tell which country it belonged to.
"Well, Seongeum will come for me, I guess."
He didn't understand the exact mechanics, but her ability was the pinnacle of spatial magic.
Lethe formed from empty air.
"You're a monster, but a monster's still a monster."
She landed lightly and glanced between Rian's body and the great blade planted in the ground.
"You survived a purifying demon-fire and pulled yourself out. I can see why Yahweh would rely on you."
Caught off guard by the unexpected praise, Rian felt awkward.
"It's nothing, really."
"It's not nothing. Withstanding Gehenna's fire means you overcame all the emotions of hell. Some sages among humans even set themselves on fire to reach enlightenment."
They called it a thorough detachment from worldly ties.
"But you went beyond that—you still exist in reality. Your divine transcendence might actually be on par with a god."
Lethe thought that.
'A martial god, Yaksha.'
At this point, there was probably no human who could defeat Rian, who had returned from hell.
Rian planted the great blade and tested its edge.
"Is that so? Maybe I'm stronger, maybe not. Hard to tell without fighting."
"It's a matter of the mind. You won't sense it until you meet someone who pushes you to your limits. But watch your recovery. Restoring the Idea's signal to deny death is a user's loophole—it has limits. If it accumulates, the Idea itself will disappear."
Rian felt it, too.
"How long can I hold out?"
"Hard to measure exactly. Don't you know better than anyone? Roughly speaking…" She trailed off. It wouldn't be long.
"Doesn't matter."
If he could hold out until Shirone achieved her goal, what came after didn't matter.
"And—"
Lethe, who'd been hesitating, finally couldn't hold back.
"Please, for the love of—don't go talking to people so brazenly in that state. I'm not human, but I have a mind program, you know! At least try to cover yourself! It's annoying!"
"Hmm."
"Not 'hmm'—hurry up! Grab some leaves or something and cover yourself!"
'Talkative, isn't she.'
This wasn't the time to idly pick leaves; Imir was coming.
'Can I win against him?'
Rian had grown a lot during his hellish journey, but Imir was still a colossal wall.
Watching Rian lost in thought, Lethe was dumbfounded.
'What kind of human is this?'
Jincheon sector of the Sanctum.
Following the law, when retainers moved Jin-gang's corpse, Anchal approached Seongeum.
"Your Majesty the Emperor."
Entrusted with ruling the empire by Jin-gang's will, Anchal's extreme deference felt awkward.
"Speak freely. You still haven't adjusted, have you?"
"You must, Your Majesty. The fate of Jincheon's people and all humanity rests in your hands."
Seongeum nodded.
"Understood. What should I do first?"
"First—"
Anchal quickly summarized what had happened in reality while Seongeum was in hell.
"A simultaneous incident, then."
The more Seongeum learned about Shirone, the more boundless she seemed.
'My zero step.'
Anchal, who understood the meaning of Seongeum's smile, felt a pang of regret.
'He'd be the perfect match for the princess.'
Seongeum composed her expression and spoke.
"I understand. Now that the simultaneous incidents are over, we need to bring those scattered across the world here."
"Indeed. With lives at stake, Your Majesty's role is crucial."
In wartime terms, Seongeum's ability was the most efficient for transport and supply.
"Understood. I'll go to Rian first." Seongeum closed her eyes and sent out an etheric wave; spatial information was collected.
'There.'
Though quite far away, she folded space and reduced the distance between Rian and herself to zero.
"Then."
The forest unfolded inside the building as Seongeum stepped lightly across the boundary.
One minute later...
"Your Majesty?"
Seongeum returned alone, her face beet-red, and Anchal frowned.
"What happened?"
"Oh—"
Seongeum's voice trembled.
"Bring clothes. The largest you have. Quickly."
Galliante Island.
Deep within Toa Mountain where the Kergo tribe lived, Shirone talked with the autumn party.
"So that's how it is."
Mongin Luber's betrayal, and the revelation that even the caretaker who sided with humanity had acted under divine intent.
Miro didn't care.
"If we're fighting gods anyway, I don't mind how many enemies there are. The problem is we couldn't extract Ultima."
That Arius had risked his life to do it weighed on her.
Shirone said, "There is one method left."
"A method?"
"Using an object to unite humanity failed, but that doesn't mean Ultima is impossible. If all of humanity joined minds—"
Sein cut in.
"That's idealism. It'd be no different from entering Imir's mental world."
"One thing differs. Tachyon." Miro had seen through it.
"You—"
"Yes. I can't promise success. But it's our only hope."
Gaold asked, "Isn't Imir coming?" Shirone nodded.
"Planet Hexa was destroyed. Given the distances, he should be crossing space by now."
"How long will it take?"
"With the right mindset, even right now." Shirone continued, "But first we must solve the problems before us to reach Ultima. Imir. Selbuster. And the Opats. If humanity becomes an object under the gods' control, mind will disappear from this world."
Kangnan spoke.
"There's a lot I don't fully grasp, but I get the gist. So why not head to the Sanctum now?"
"Seongeum will come for us. I'll finish the simultaneous incidents, too. But before that…"
Shirone glanced back at the temple doors.
"Let's check first."
She couldn't ignore the faint smell of blood seeping through.
Kangnan approached and pushed the stone door, but it didn't budge; it seemed locked from the outside.
"This won't do. Should we break it down?" No sooner had she spoken than Gaold's air gun slammed into the stone door, firing over Kangnan's shoulder.
Bang.
The door didn't move.
Kangnan turned back with a fierce look; Gaold grinned and shrugged.
"Heh, interesting."
Sein said, "Something's off. It's like it's immune to physical force. But is that possible?"
"Maybe the one who sealed it was weak," Kangnan muttered, half in revenge for earlier, though she knew better.
'Gaold couldn't break it…'
It really couldn't be done.
"I'll try."
Shirone walked to the door.
The Miracle Stream transformed into a Hand of God, and a gigantic hand gripped the door.
"Grr!"
Feeling it through her mind, Shirone finally understood the door's nature.
'Obsession. Desire.'
A massive emotion claimed this door to guard.
'I'll tear it out.'
Focusing high-intensity mindpower, the stone door began to crumple with an eerie sound.
It sounded like someone screaming; Kangnan's skin prickled for no reason.
Crack!
Shirone set the squared-off chunk of stone down and surveyed the corridor.
Everyone was dead.
Sein checked the ancient runic seals engraved on the torn edge of the door.
"It's been perfectly sealed. What happened here?"
Miro inspected the bodies.
"Clean cuts. A professional's work. And they died not long ago. At most, within six hours."
"There!" Kangnan pointed; a white shape slipped around the corridor's corner and vanished.
Shirone stamped the ground.
"Wait!"
When she rounded the corner, another white shape rounded it.
'What is that…?!'
Driven by a sudden rush of resolve, Shirone teleported and closed the gap in an instant.
"You! Who—"
But when she saw the figure, Shirone swallowed her words.
A man with a white body, as if plastered in white, stood with his back turned.
His appearance alone was startling, but that wasn't why Shirone hesitated.
'Dangerous.'
Ultima's sense—perhaps the Tachyon signal—was emitting a clear "do not approach" warning.
"Reveal yourself."
Shirone asked again, but the white man seemed to find the question difficult.
"Hm. Who am I?"
From his hands extended a pair of smooth, ivory-like short swords that lengthened and fused to his arms.
He seemed fascinated by even those.
'What on earth is he?'
Just then Gaold's group arrived, striding up.
"Did you kill the tribespeople?"
"Do not approach." Shirone raised her hand to stop them.
Any of them could likely win a fight here, but an uncanny dissonance overrode that.
"I don't know."
The white man, who had seemed focused on something else until now, finally spoke after a long pause.
"I have no name."
Nameless.
'Could it be?'
A flash of memory struck Shirone—an anecdote Armin had told about heaven.
He had said a certain angel and Garas combined, producing an unimaginable being.
'Luckily Kuan cut him down before he grew further.'
Armin had added, "If he'd come a little later, no one could have stopped him."
Then why had the dead returned?
'Damn it.'
Shirone realized.
'When I connected to the outside world.'
This Nameless one was a special caretaker the gods sent into reality to fix errors—a kind of vaccine.
'If Armin's story is true, Nameless absorbs any powerful ability and makes it his own to eliminate opponents.'
A literal genius.
He would make all previous prodigies look fake.
'Still—mimicking a mutation that occurred in reality… do gods lack imagination?'
Of course Shirone's complaint was petty. For a god that had grasped the order of the universe, the notion of "imagination" was meaningless.
Nameless said, "I do not know myself. How I was born, why I am here. What I remember…"
He chose his words carefully, as if pulling something up from deep within.
"Terror at a horrible death."
And a death so thrilling it wiped memory clean…
"A dance of blades."
Nameless's eyes gleamed.
'Yes.'
It was him.
"Kuan."
Ten kilometers from the Sanctum, in a forest, Shiina had gathered some fruit.
"Try some. I've been collecting them all day."
"Shiina."
Kuan said, "I'll protect it. I will… protect it."
Shiina's eyes stung and reddened.
"I… keep it. Shiina…"
The sword genius who once surpassed all human understanding of swordsmanship had become a fool who had lost everything.