Final Chapter (4)
Adam, who was connected to Richard—more precisely, the Holy Brain—sent a signal to the main body.
"My role is finished. You can cut the power now."
"You sure?"
Even if his body was all machine, Richard asked—his heart was still human.
"I've seen Lilith's whole life. I don't need to stay. I merely fulfilled my duty to this world. At the very least, I wanted to protect what Geffin left behind."
"Will you wake up in the outside world?"
"I don't know. As long as the Missing Link keeps functioning, I won't know until I go check."
"If you wake up, couldn't you help this world? It was the world you cared about, after all."
"Hmm."
The Holy Brain paused to think.
"Honestly, I don't have much confidence. Any good dream gets brushed aside once reality shows up."
"…I suppose."
"What about you? If Shirone wins, there won't be a god in this world."
"Then—well, I guess I'll cut my power off too?"
"You're giving up the chance to become a god?"
"Ha ha." Richard said, "Gods exist for humanity." Adam offered his farewell.
"I must go now."
"All right…"
The output dropped away.
"I hope it was a good dream."
The brain that had held blue electricity dimmed.
Good and Evil, Gong and Ae collided.
"Kyaaaa!"
Under humanity's combined assault, Havitz howled and recoiled.
But his form grew ever stranger.
His lower half melted into the ground and fused with the earth; the black upper torso flowed like a galaxy.
"I will never lose! I will never lose!"
Right, Mother?
The ground tied to Havitz rolled like water and hundreds of hands burst forth.
"Ugh!"
When one of those hands seized Son Yoo-jung, Gaold was slammed into the earth and let out a strangled cry.
"Gaaaaa!"
A wave of unbearable pain surged through; Son Yoo-jung's body began to char.
Gaold frowned.
"This is insane."
His very existence was chaos—worse than when his mind had been in turmoil.
Taesung and Rete entered Richard's private chamber.
"He's going berserk."
Rete, staring at Havitz on the forward display, spoke gravely. "A hidden code is a meta-code. It shouldn't normally apply directly to the main ground. It's the master language that runs processes before a world is realized."
Taesung added, "That's the inner world."
"Yes. Satan is the central controller that oversees the inner world's source. Final approval still rests with the god—the core of the Five Systems—but Havitz is now recklessly abusing godly authority."
"Is that possible?" Richard asked.
"If it's the Illuminati—yes." Taesung said bitterly, "Even as administrator I don't know the realm beyond gods. I can only infer from godly data. This must be a very high-level Illuminati privilege. Otherwise you can't just alter a god's security rules like this."
"Havitz… the Missing Link has been loosened," Rete said.
"It wouldn't be voluntary. Nor was it forced. It didn't synchronize normally. That's an illegal intruder—the Missing Link signal was weak."
Richard watched Satan's battle unfold. "Is he still a child? He's handling the code so clumsily and intuitively."
"Havitz has lived here over forty years, but as the Missing Link weakens his original tendencies surface. A master wouldn't handle it like this, and he wouldn't be doing it for meaning—attacking the world the user is connected to would be a grave crime."
"Could his inexperience be a weakness we can exploit?" Taesung asked.
"Unlikely." Rete shook his head. "Even if clumsy, it's still godly authority. Even a human who understood all Five Systems would find a difference between growing into power and using something already complete. As Terraforce said, the confrontation of Good and Evil will end with Evil's victory. Even if Ae beats Gong and the world survives—"
"Ae and Gong…" Richard trailed off and switched the display.
Shirone and Nane kept four hundred kilometers between them while trading attacks.
A long distance for humans, but with the speed of their shots, it was practically point-blank.
"Tense." Taesung stepped forward. "If Havitz broke godly rules, Nane is the rule itself. That makes Nane right."
"It's complicated," Rete said. "Even if Shirone wins, if Evil triumphs that means suffering for users. In that case, you should disengage them."
"That's why Terraforce exists." Richard rotated the view and Rete went pale.
"What is that?"
The ship that should have reset human history wavered in flight.
"The Illuminati are aboard," Taesung said. "It looks like they cut the Missing Link in the real world. If so, punishment under user self-regulation is impossible. Of course, if they know the outside world they wouldn't cling to this place—but why stay?"
Richard guessed, "Something remains in this world. In any case, I heard this universe alone among the gods' multiverses is still picking up Geffin's signal."
"We're totally screwed." Rete clutched his head. "This universe is a mess. As one of the Five Systems' managers, I feel ashamed."
"Judgment seems impossible," Richard said. "So the outcome will be decided in the gears of Good, Evil, Gong and Ae. As a system manager, can you predict the final result?"
"Not even gods can compute that," Rete said. "Good, Evil, Gong and Ae are only directions on a compass. Four people who have reached extremes point different ways. What turns at the center is, after all—"
Taesung finished, "the heart."
Where it will head will be decided by humans.
The planet looked like a nucleus wrapped in a cell membrane.
From the anti-cell's outer shell, burning under the sun, enormous gas hissed out.
Shiiiii!
Trillions of organisms burned every second, then split into even more cells; the membrane thickened.
The sunlight, once scattered in the mucilage, grew dimmer.
"Shirone!" under that gray sky.
"Nane!" Yahweh and Buddha flew at over forty mach, locked in an aerial duel.
"Photon Cannon!"
Depending on their arcs their distance ranged from four hundred to twelve hundred kilometers.
"Sermon." At the center tens of thousands of flashes and equivalent light-swords crossed.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Shirone flapped radiant wings and dodged a light-sword streaking from beyond the horizon.
Nane was invisible to the eye, but his sermon spoke in his stead.
"No, Nane. You can't shut things down like this."
"There will be pain. Someone can't take it for you. They might even wish to die."
Shirone had lived that life and understood.
"But you're alive again. Even if it's painful…"
Hand of God—Photon Cannon.
"There can still be happy days!"
A sunlike flare crossed seven hundred kilometers in an instant and struck Nane.
Nane brought his palms together. "Strength! Might! Merit! Truth! Wave! Heat! Pole!" The harmony of his sermons transformed into a massive blade and detonated the Photon Cannon.
"Center! Heat! None! Not! Use! Root!" The vibrating blade split and multiplied with every tremor and fired.
Yes—Nane knew. "You must have had happy moments—seeing a clown's show, holding a lover's hand."
But someone else—
"starved. Was raped! Fell ill! Was murdered for no reason!"
Nane's assault intensified. "Maybe it won't come! Just to feed on that one drop of happiness!"
If sentient beings opened their mouths and waited, enduring all suffering—
"Isn't abandoning greed and desire and embracing the peace of non-self better than the cruel illusion of happiness?" A brutal sermon flew.
Kwak! Kwak! Kwak! Kwahng!
An explosion sounded—likely over Shirone's position, the skies above the Nam Aimonde Republic.
The people of Nam Aimonde watched the raining blades with fear and awe. The sermon-sword shone so bright they couldn't even see it strike Shirone.
"Yahweh." They remembered: in the last regression, Shirone embraced the world's sins with love.
"Huuu." Smoke cleared and Shirone, wrapped in a miracle stream, breathed low. "Nane. Compromise is impossible."
"That isn't for us to decide."
"Kukuku!" Havitz evolved without end.
Death Fields spread everywhere; resistance fighters writhed as they turned to charcoal.
"Uaaaaaa!"
Havitz—his body holding a universe—spread his arms and declared, "I am a god! I can do whatever I want!"
Right, Mother?
If only he weren't a wizard, this irritating world would be smashed to pieces.
"Charge! Don't stop!"
Though facing Havitz was agony, the resistance did not fall back.
"Guh—!" Pain, pain, pain! Between the true and the false, good and evil had already lost their meanings.
"Hold on! Endure! You can win!" Only pain proved this moment true.
"Havitz!" Miro's Thousand-Handed Kannon struck Havitz for 120 million consecutive hits.
Paff-paff-paff-paff-pow!
"Believe in god!" Eden clasped her hands and prayed, spreading a massive protective barrier across the radius.
"This might work!" When Havitz slammed his hands down again, even more powerful pain rippled through the field.
As human screams radiated outward, Gaold lunged.
Do not mock. He stamped the ground; his hair began to blanch.
Do not mock humans. Knowing the vast pain to come, he took another step toward it. The desperate screams of people fighting to survive were, to him, strangely beautiful.
"Uaaaaa!" Miro thought, "Gaold!"
A vast air-press struck the earth and Havitz's face was crushed flat like a shell.
—It hurts! Thud! Thud thud thud! Under the endless air-press Gaongnan bit her lip and teared up.
It must hurt. Life convulsed, thrown into the boiling pot called Good-Evil-Gong-Ae; existence itself flailed.
Pain is nothing… Gaold's eyes had completely flipped. "It's only nociception."
"Don't be ridiculous!" Havitz finally grasped Gaold's nature. That bastard grows stronger the more he hurts—and pain has no limit.
If so—white holes formed in Havitz's eyes and a blinding beam struck the ground.
Pain Code 17 (test version). Hot steam rose; a pain not native to this world detonated.
"Kyaaaaa!" Eden's barrier melted and bubbles formed on people's skin.
Havitz roared, "Did you think you could win?" Because you're right, because you're good, there can be no sacred ground for demons. "Did you think you could beat a god?" Havitz's giant hand gripped Gaold; immense pain assaulted his mind.
"Guh—" The scream that followed was so horrible and desperate it chilled anyone who heard it.
Miro ran, tears in her eyes. "Gaold!" Even the Thousand-Handed Kannon's incarnation shed blood-tears.
Two hundred ten million hits. Three hundred seventy million hits—the number of blows matched the horrendous pain that flowed from the avatar into Miro.
Gaold. Miro thought, Why do we suffer like this? Can't we live like ordinary people? —Miro. Gaold, screaming inside Havitz's grip, thought the same. Living is painful. Each of us carries a burden.
Does that mean it isn't worse than others'? Let's believe that. If you deny even that…
Gaold strained and raised his pain threshold with all his strength.
"Uaaaaa!" What will remain of our lives? Kukukukukuku-kung! Under the insane air-presses, Havitz's body gradually flattened.
"Gruuh—" At last, with a thud, he lay crushed beneath Gaold's feet.
"Grrr…" Resistance fighters—some turned to charcoal—stared blankly.
"Ga—Gaold." Staggering at the center, Gaold convulsed and slowly turned his head. His eyes were vacant; blood gushed from cavities all over his body.
"Hey—" Seeing Miro sniffle without even wiping her tears, he chuckled. "Living long enough, I even get to see you cry over me?"
My idea.
"Gaold—" Miro's heart dropped. Gaold's shot-shaken gaze began to return to its resolved look.
"Hold the rear." Miro's head turned involuntarily; Gaold looked at Havitz. "Want me to tell you why you can't move?"
"Grrr! You—" "To beat me, you have to hurt more than I do." His tone was calm but his face twitched from neural shock.
Miro was terrified. "Gaold, wait."
"It's fine." His body trembled as if about to explode, but Gaold forced a smile. "Pain is lonely." It can't be shared or passed on.
I actually don't know how much I'm hurting either. He'd never measured another's pain—couldn't. One thing's certain: whether strong or weak, those who pursue good carry a heavy sense of responsibility—living while bearing an unbearable burden.
"No! Gaold!" Miro reached out. Gaold slowly closed his eyes, preparing for the end.
So I too— Pain Sense—Infinity.
"It's not that painful." Air Press. When the magic triggered, Gaold's form sank deep into the earth.
At the same time, Taesung suddenly doubled over and clutched his head.
The strongest in history. Rete watched him with a pale face as if foreseeing what would come.
Taesung screamed. "Kyaaaaaa!" A massive vibration erupted at a point, and Richard watched a towering pillar of flame unfold on the display.
The maximum threshold this world can give. And the power of magic drawn from that threshold… even Satan was on edge. He must have sung a thousand songs and played even more. Zzzzzt! Zzzzzt zzzzt! Divine transcendence still held, but Lanstin had no more pieces to play.
No repeats were possible. The sect's control would weaken. Still, he endured. The face that surfaced in that final moment was ironic: Panier. Thirty percent of the songs he'd played were composed while working with Panier. He thought he'd never bring that out again—but playing it now wasn't bad; he liked it. He must have known.
Rin could not sing. Her vocal cords—something she had guarded like her life—were completely ruptured and could no longer make sound.
Why did I insist? All those experiences, all those years, made who she was now. If I'd known earlier—
Lanstin's guitar softened and changed. Rin's gaze calmed.
"Oooo. Ooo." Lanstin sang. "Oooo. Ooo." Only eight bars of melody, wordless, but it felt different than before. To his daughter, his wife, Panier, and everyone he had been angry at. "Oooo! Ooo!" A sincere voice conveyed through sound.
When Lanstin's voice rode across the anti-cell, a miracle happened. Many people began to look up at the sky. The music flowed even into deep underground shelters where survivors hid. A song sung with all the heart. Oooo. Ooo.
Panier, who had heard all of Lanstin's music, smiled. Yes—that's your soul. Oooo. Ooo. Panier took a deep drag of his cigarette, looked at the ceiling and muttered, "…Where's the contract again?"
The song ended. Perhaps satisfied, Lanstin dropped the guitar—his other self—onto the ground.
Only the anti-cell's full assault remained. Rin turned calmly; she had already said what needed saying. Words were unnecessary; the two embraced and shared a deep kiss.
Then—kukukukukukukuu! The Cell Buster devastated the surface.
At the Air Press explosion zone, thanks to Taesung's desperate defense, the resistance's losses weren't as great.
Shirone grumbled, "Crazy bastard. You told me not to come near and then tried to blow up a whole city?"
Lupist said, "At least it's certainly the strongest blast in history. If this ends Satan, I'd be happy, but…" Still no change.
"We're in trouble!" Nade and Iruki, fighting demons elsewhere, ran over. "What is it?" "Look at the sky." When the smoke cleared they saw countless anti-cells.
"I see." At that number they wouldn't hold out an hour.
"Iruki!" Fire gathered in the air and Amy's flame-incarnation appeared. "The music stopped! They're going to invade soon."
"We know. But—" "I'll try to hold them." Her body had been burned by the sun; Amy's flames should be effective.
"All of them?" Amy looked up, dizzy. "I can't stop them perfectly. Spread the flame layer thin to make a filter. If we block seven out of ten, we buy time." Iruki nodded. "I'll find a way with Fermi. Keep them holding as long as possible."
"All right." Amy rose and watched cells pour in chain from the poles. "My god." But her incarnation had likewise taken a phoenix from the sun.
"Keep them as far away as possible… and as wide as possible." Her body turned into a curtain of fire and began cloaking the planet.
At the roar of Gaold's blast, Ikael glanced toward the temple. That's an immense force, she thought, considering Taesung's endurance.
Ashur said, "If you want confirmation, I will guard." At that moment the scenery folded and, crossing spatial boundaries, a True Voice manifested.
"Angels, urgent matter." Behind her stood a brown-skinned woman and a sword-bearing man—Maya and Kaiden.
"The Cell Buster will soon invade the surface. We must prepare a countermeasure first." Ikael asked, "Is there a way?"
Maya said, "My friend Fermi—no, anyway, he told me to sing in place of Guitar Man."
"Sing?" Ikael knew the songs that had stopped anti-cell were a kind of magic.
"You can stop them too?" Maya shook her head. "No. But the gods hate this incident. Fermi said he saw future data. Of course the future he knew seems to have changed now."
Ikael looked over the battlefield and thought of Uriel. Whatever she did, Uriel's will would follow. "Would helping those fighting now be less useful than helping that side?"
"Yes. Only Ikael can do this." "—What?" Maya fixed her gaze. "Amplify the song. Make it spread across the world."
When the explosion's smoke cleared, the resistance saw what floated in the sky and despaired.
—Kuhahahaha! It wasn't the grotesque old form but a white silhouette with pale skin like an anonymous shade. "They call it a base type." "Doesn't it get scratched?" Despair enough, but the strong—Miro among them—recognized it at a glance. It's stronger.
—Know this, insects. What kind of being am I? I am everything possible—Havitz spread his arms and fishlike eyes flowed across his pale flesh. Disaster Code 23 (test version). His body monstrously bulged and became a loathsome beast covered in tens of thousands of eyes.
"You bastard!" In the next instant Miro's eyes burned with hatred and she ran alone.
When the True Voice's space connected—Demonic Sword Machine—Visem. Kaiden's blade sliced space at tremendous speed and cut down nearby anti-cells. "Hurry!" Unlike Guitar Man, Kaiden could only widen the radius with a thin blade. The two who once sang to the whole world had vanished without trace.
Thank you. Maya instinctively found where they'd sung from. Ikael touched her shoulder. "Begin. I don't know much about songs, but if your heart can be conveyed, it will help."
Maya nodded and closed her eyes. Kaiden's battle, Ashur's transport preparations—all receded into distance. In perfect focus she began to voice her whole heart.
Oooo. Ooo. It was Guitar Man's last piece.
Buddha and Yahweh's duel accelerated. Their flight paths swept many nations—Tormia, Kazra, Ferris, Baiden, Zaive and the deserts of Kasha.
"Yahweh." Whenever a flash passed, people came outside and looked up. Somewhere a voice sang. Oooo. Ooo. The melody was the same, but the voice was a much softer female one than before.
"She sings well." Those nearby agreed. "Nice song." Soon someone shyly started humming. "Oooo… Ooo." One by one they joined; before long the whole street was singing. Ten became a hundred, a hundred became a thousand. Oooo! Ooo! Tormia, Kazra, Baiden—Jincheon, Nambang, Iron, Kesia, Yakma, Pharas, and more.
Voices erupted worldwide and Shirone and Nane looked down to the ground. What is this? The two realized at once: the future-data of the erased apocalypse—the song of all humankind. Back then the gods had put humanity to despair; now the Baron problem had been resolved. The future can change. Shirone clenched his fist. If everyone decides not to fight, it will happen like magic.
It sounds easy, but humanity had never achieved it in all history. Oooo! Ooo!
Mika reported, "Ultima System detection possible. Integration rate two percent. Participant count: 54,067,984."
"Sir! Sir!" Kangnan, who hadn't fled during the blast, searched for Gaold. At the crater's center he was writhing. "Sir!" Seeing all his limbs broken, Kangnan twisted. "Get people—!"
"I dreamed." Gaold sounded calm. "I was with her. It was a happy dream. We built a cabin in the woods—I'd hunt and she'd cook. There was a wolf that came hunting with us; I really liked that beast."
Kangnan smiled. "…A lovely dream."
"When I woke it felt empty. I missed that dream. But I can't indulge that." Gaold looked at Kangnan. "If this is a dream, I'll just long for this place again. Whether it's dream or reality, live the moment you're in as best you can."
Kangnan nodded through tears. "Yes." Autoplastic mutation. Perhaps the reason he endured so many shocks wasn't superhuman will. Maybe he'd live decades more, or maybe it would end in minutes—but even with a single second left, he'd live it fully.
"Thank you." Kangnan was satisfied. "Don't worry." Having registered infinite nociception, Gaold felt what ordinary people feel. "Now it doesn't hurt." For the first time the air tasted sweet.