The Sun That Rose at Night (1)
Mika said.
- Solar variation detected. Completion timing of the Shirone Sphere is 0.3 seconds ahead.
Shirone's eyes hardened.
"Got it!"
Whatever Ikael had done, the moment of ending had shifted, even if only imperceptibly.
'Sufficient.'
- Progress: 99.99 percent.
A man-made structure tens of times larger than the sun—the greatest artificial thing in the universe—stood on the verge of being born.
"Hah."
It was a spectacle.
"Satiel!"
Ikael shouted.
'"I'm sorry…" No—that was the thing I should have said.'
'I knew.'
Satiel's feelings for Geopin.
It wasn't that she fretted over it, nor that jealousy had driven her to act first.
'It just happened.'
She had fought furiously, loved recklessly, run from Anke Ra and given birth to a child...
'No.'
Perhaps a corner of her heart had stayed with that person, and that's why she had fled this far.
Ikael cried.
"Satiel."
He should've said it ages ago.
"I'm sorry."
I loved you so much.
- Heh.
Satiel smiled, lovely and calm.
"Ah—"
It was the face Ikael remembered: the kindest, most righteous angel to stand in the White Court.
Her voice seemed to echo even as she vanished.
- Take care.
"Ah—"
Leaving Ikael—who poured out feelings as pure as tears—Satiel set off on a distant path.
From being into nonbeing.
As she merged with the whole universe, Satiel met Shirone.
- Name.
She would have liked one.
Maybe it was the apology Geopin and Ikael offered her.
- Shirone. That's a fine name.
Though her form had dissolved, she wrapped, with her heart, around the back of the boy fighting God.
- You can do it.
Shirone felt it.
A special force surged within a microscopic region imperceptible to humans.
"Go!"
As the Shirone Sphere completed, all the information carried by the photons began to invert.
'God.'
Someone reached out a hand behind Shirone, who stared beyond the universe.
Kitra's face convulsed.
"Beep! Beeeep!"
From the fifty-fifty balance that split the cosmos, the realm of God was collapsing.
- 75 percent! 52 percent! 32 percent!
As Shirone's tachyons shoved aside the god's causality and asserted themselves on reality, the deity regained its senses.
'Impossible! Impossible! Impossible!'
And then Kitra...
'Critical damage detected.'
With a sound like an internal explosion—boom—he was hurled down the corridor.
"Gah, gah, gah…"
Smoke rose from his two scorched eyes and a strange sound came from his throat.
He would be disposed of, but Kitra's damage was not the same as the god's.
- Algorithm adjustment.
The god sought a second change through learning.
- Learning complete.
Why had it failed?
Human.
The god scanned every log where a mind had exerted influence from the beginning to now.
- Cause analysis.
If quantum signals weren't being processed correctly, change the system to a quantum basis.
- Reboot extinction program.
Kitra's lips twitched briefly.
"Hu—man."
The light in his eyes went out soundlessly.
'Goodbye.'
Having bid Shirone farewell with her heart, Satiel continued toward the edge of the universe.
There was no direction.
It was only the endless scattering that happens until existence dissolves.
'Does it feel like sleeping forever?'
No—the subject of that sleep wasn't there; not even a thought brushed the dream. Perfect nothingness.
Satiel was not afraid.
'It's all right.'
She drifted away from the universe.
'Ah.'
The things she learned more clearly as she receded decorated her final moments.
'Were there stars and moons in that distant space?'
'Would love fit into such a vast heart? Infinity—'
In the face of perfect annihilation, a state that lacks even the concept of "nothing," Satiel could laugh.
'It's okay.'
Because Geopin would be there.
Uorin clutched her head.
"Ahhhhh!"
Even with her eyes shut, future images flashed at incredible speed.
Alive, dead, alive, dead, alive, dead.
'What is this? What's happening?'
She didn't understand.
She didn't know Havitz and Kido were slashing at each other nearby, didn't know fountains of blood would erupt.
'Kill Uorin!'
Havitz couldn't perceive Kido.
'Protect Uorin.'
Kido could not perceive Havitz.
This bizarre three-way relationship created by dual vanishings turned every second into a catastrophe for them.
"Grrk!"
Kido staggered.
He couldn't sense the bleeding, but maintaining the vanishing itself was hell.
'I'm going to puke. Why am I doing this? Why do I keep swinging into empty air?'
He couldn't tell who the other was—probably someone using the same ability.
'I can only hold on until the end.'
At that moment Havitz charged.
'Kill Uorin! Kill!'
His sword rebounded off the blade shield Kido had formed.
'Why can't I kill him?'
If Uorin wasn't dead by midnight, the chance of winning "Truth and Falsehood" would drop to zero.
'Meanwhile, the mage still has a chance. Her proposition is that I either love or hate her.'
To prove it, Havitz must either kiss the mage or have his fingers broken.
'He'll probably break them. The outcome will be decided in an instant. She'll be watching for an opening somewhere.'
Given the mage's power—accounting for the missing one frame—there was no room to relax.
"Annoying."
Who knew what specter stood before him...
'Steal my power?'
There are things you absolutely cannot steal.
'Fate.'
Havitz released the vanishing, closed his eyes, and began to move at will.
"Hehehe!"
'Havitz!'
Kido's eyes snapped open, and as his spear stabbed forward at terrifying speed—
'Huh?'
Havitz evaded with a motion no master could execute, then swung his sword.
Kido realized.
'He didn't dodge.'
There simply had been no one where the spear passed.
Havitz's blade cut deep into Kido's chest and a fountain of blood erupted.
The vanishing broke and Uorin shouted.
"Kido!"
Havitz straightened as if ascending and lifted his greatsword above Uorin.
"Heh heh! Got you!"
Kido charged, but Havitz's blade was already touching Uorin's crown.
'Too late.'
Kido's heart dropped.
Reaper's Dance—Syncopated Concerto.
A shadow flew in faster than Havitz's blade, which was already slicing into Uorin's flesh.
Smack!
With a dull thud, Havitz slammed into the wall, his neck twisted completely around.
Kido was speechless.
"Wh—what?"
Natasha of Gustaf IV had suddenly inserted herself between them and Uorin.
"Get up."
At her words Havitz turned hastily and looked past his own back toward them.
"He... hehehe."
The laugh from a neck turned 180 degrees sent chills even down Uorin's spine.
"S-satan."
The throat area had bulged monstrously; the skin was torn, muscle exposed.
Havitz opened his eyes in madness and rose.
"How did you do it?"
He wondered how Natasha had pierced an unkillable fate and killed him.
"I saw it."
Balkan's severed neck.
And in those dead eyes, a strange memory—maybe an illusion—rose like nostalgia.
"You already know, Havitz." The name himself was unknown.
It seemed some mechanism had erased the name, but the feeling rose like perfume.
- Havitz? Havitz? Let's go.
There had always been four friends who called to me at the gate.
"So? What of it?"
Natasha stepped forward.
"I just wanted to have fun. Balkan, Sumo, Zetar, and me."
"Aren't you doing that now?"
What was she even saying?
As if another personality lived inside her, the words came out on their own.
Natasha was like that too.
"I still don't like killing friends. You broke the rules. Look—you're not even dead."
Havitz turned slowly.
He put both hands to his face, then with a cracking sound spun back to his original spot.
'My laws don't work.'
That proved Natasha was connected as well.
"It's my heart. Die or don't die—I'll do as I please. I'm bored of playing with you."
That, in truth, was what angered him most.
Natasha.
"Reaper's Dance."
Requiem.
Natasha charged, the air exploding, and pounded Havitz's body.
CRACK—CRACK—CRACK—
Each time bone broke and muscle split, Havitz's form grew larger.
"Krahaha! Hit me more! You idiot!" Tearing off his skin, becoming a Satan, he wrapped his arms through the void.
Like meat in a net, Natasha's wrists were seized.
"No—stop."
With a face reddened like blood, Havitz bared his ferocity and flung Natasha away.
"Just die already!"
At that moment, from an unexpected angle, the mage lunged at terrifying speed.
'Planned this from the start?'
An incarnation of the Void God rose from the mage's body and flicked out a long, writhing tongue.
'Damn it!'
Knowing it was futile, Havitz still forced strength into his fingers.
Transspace—Void-World Creation.
One frame vanished from this world.
"Kr—?"
In the next frame, what Havitz had braced for was the feeling of his fingers breaking.
Snap.
What he actually felt was the soft press of the mage's lips against his own.
Even after the mage landed lightly, Havitz wore a dazed expression.
'Why?'
The mage said,
"I win."
Ding. Ding. Ding.
The bells on the ground tolled midnight.
Sanctum time, 11:52.
With eight minutes until midnight, Rian and Imir's fighting spirits burned bright.
"Yes! Yes!"
Every punch brought buildings down; every step shook the earth.
Krrrreee! Krrrreeng!
Soldiers had already retreated hundreds of meters, but even that felt unsafe.
Klump said, "Pull back a bit more; better safe than sorry." Though they were absurdly distant already, no one objected.
'This is not a battle of this world.' The landscape was being cut apart, the air ballooned like a drum, and the terrain reshaped every moment—
'It is the battle of gods.'
When soundless detonations stabbed at their eardrums, they slowly widened the encirclement.
'There's nothing shameful or dishonorable about this.'
Meanwhile, amid the chaotic brawl with no clear advantage, Imir trembled.
'Yes—this is it.'
An enemy who would not fall no matter how much you struck.
Divine Transcendence—Asura Balbalta.
"Grrk!"
And one who returns the shock you struck back at you with far greater force.
"More."
Harder.
A full-power attack brushed Rian's cheek, and his greatsword slammed into Imir's side with a grievous blow.
"Ugh!"
The overwhelming pain made Imir's eyes water.
"...Heh heh."
His entire body felt its cells awaken.
'I'm alive.'
I'm alive.
Overcome with feeling, he clenched both fists and opened his mouth wide.
"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
The king of giants wept.