Final Chapter (5)
Hatred filled Miro's eyes.
"Gaold… You—how could someone like you—"
Havitz's form provoked such revulsion it made onlookers sick.
"Yaaaah!"
To Miro he was simply the target of a rage she wanted to beat to death.
Havitz laughed.
"Uhhhhhhhh."
The power of Disaster Code No. 23 was overwhelming.
Even if it was a test version, it was a force no one in this world could touch.
"Dieeee!"
Havitz's tendrils, like enormous fish, separated into countless individual bodies.
Like fish swimming through air, tens of thousands of them turned in unison like a school.
Miro didn't care.
'Gaold.'
If there were any reason to love someone, there was no reason for Miro not to love Gaold.
'Where are you?'
The man who had appeared like a miracle and smiled for her in her darkest moments was gone.
'It's annoying.'
The fact that there was no one left to sulk at truly irritated her.
Tears flowed.
"Thousand-Armed Kannon."
The avatar of Kannon with a thousand arms struck Havitz with the angriest expression she could muster.
"Aaaah!" Thousand-Armed Kannon—Frenzied Demon Array.
A barrage of 1,370,000,000 hits per second—perhaps the measure of the hatred she carried.
"Aaaah! Aaaah!"
Kannon's hands pounded Havitz.
"Heh."
Despite impacts from every direction, Havitz hardly flinched.
"I'm invincible." If someone applied a code like this to the real world, that world could not hold.
What it could not hold would become consequences and destroy the outside world.
"I am God!"
Havitz's might was an obvious taboo, and at the same time evidence that he was not a god.
Kaaaaah!
The cries of tens of thousands of fish-forms struck Miro's eardrums.
"Diieee!"
The furious Thousand-Armed Kannon split time itself into finer and finer segments, swinging her arms.
"No!"
Eden shouted.
"We have to pull Miro back. If this keeps—"
The death of the extreme line wouldn't simply kill; it would only make Havitz even stronger.
Sein said, "I know. But that doesn't mean we can run. You want us to just die?"
"Miro."
Eden bit her lip as she turned toward Satan.
'Strong.'
To be honest, she was still afraid of what he could do to her.
"No. I'm not afraid."
She took a breath and rushed at Satan.
"As long as God protects me—"
As long as the power of love existed in this world, she would remain invincible.
"O God."
Eden traced the holy sign of Yora's faith and placed herself between Miro and Satan.
"Kraaah!"
Satan screamed and dove; a half-charred Miro was about to counterattack when—
"I believe in God!"
Eden dropped to her knees and spread a shield.
"That good is right, that evil is false, that the seeds of love will spread across this land!"
"Kuhahaha! Kuhahaha!"
Satan's body shredded into tens of thousands of blades that battered Eden's shield.
Kang! Kang! Kang! Kang! Kang!
Despite trembling from the force, Eden never looked away.
"Yora's faith, will, and the Trinity of Love! Grant me infinite power… Kyaaaah!"
Kakakakakaka!
Eden's cry split the middle of her prayer; Miro's hair stood on end.
Havitz shouted, "I am God!"
He scraped Eden aside and then looked down at Miro as Satan rose into the sky.
"E-Eden."
Tap. Tap.
Eden, hands clasped and head bowed, bled from wounds across her body.
Havitz reverted to his base form and sneered, "Are you stupid—still believing in a god? I can make something far stronger than the god you believe in."
His white skin darkened.
"Something like this."
- Unauthorized Grade-1 Code: Dark Sun.
Not even for testing.
A disaster this world had no use for, created simply because it could be made.
"Uhhhh."
Havitz reveled in the vast freedom his existence allowed.
"This is so much fun."
Like an eclipse, a ring of light formed at the outline of his gargantuan body as it expanded.
Light and dark, plane and volume—an embodiment that utterly ignored the logic of this world.
"That's enough."
He swelled to enormous size, took on a demonic shape, and dove toward the ground.
"I'll wipe everything out."
The reason Havitz had restrained himself until now: he could end the world whenever he pleased.
"Wizard. This is all your fault." And the reason the Wizard had hidden himself even while enduring pain.
People realized.
"…It's over."
They had done it to prevent Havitz from becoming exactly this.
"We're finished."
TeraForce had been right.
What fell into their world was an absolute existence that no logic could deny.
Thus the end…
"Yaaah!"
…accepted by everyone—at that moment, Miro, having healed Eden, charged Havitz.
"Thousand-Armed Kannon."
Her reincarnated avatar now bore a gentler, benevolent gaze.
'Foolish.'
—Hold on.
Just as the Chief Justice had said.
'Even beating evil is a method of evil. Good is not something that defeats evil.'
Evil was, after all, also a human creation.
"Good is…"
The most basic righteousness, holding its place as an unquestionable truth.
"Immutable."
Unmoved by any logic, dependable across time and space.
"True Name."
A single ray of light that can guide one back when lost amid infinite methods.
"Eternity."
The power to sustain the sanctum of good forever, something evil can never possess.
"I do not defeat evil." The extreme line is—
"Here, forever, in the most righteous way."
Thousand-Armed Kannon's arms swept wide, joined in prayer, then separated into vast afterimages.
"All I do is uphold the Good."
Omni-Projection—Thousand-Armed Kannon Supreme Net.
Tadadadadadada!
Countless layers formed a single barrier and blocked Havitz's attack.
"Don't talk rubbish!"
Havitz's body, seeking every gap in the signal to slip through, slammed into the wall.
'There is no corner in my mind.' The resistance fighters' wills flared at Miro's defense—humanity's strongest shield.
"Now! Attack!"
Because evil was human-made, humans must judge it.
"You vermin humans!"
Those who looked like ants actually wounded him with swords and magic.
'Why are you doing this to me? Don't you feel pain?'
Pain.
A being no one wanted to touch—yet no one was afraid now.
"Kuhku."
Havitz laughed.
"You're babbling."
His hand stretched and covered Plu, who was casting Bŏnghwangjeong.
"Kyaaaah!"
A signal of pain.
"Yes, I remember. You were an interesting one."
He recalled Plu's anger after the Kisu assassination.
"Talk sense for once."
The worst pain the Dark Sun could inflict seeped into Plu's body.
"Aaaah! Aaaah!"
She knelt and arched back as bloody tears streamed from her eyes.
"Eek!"
At the sight and the imagined horror, the resistance's will wavered.
Havitz laughed uproariously.
"Haha! See? You're all the same! Right and wrong—when I beat you…"
"Koaaargh!"
"You're all the same!" As Havitz pressed harder, blood burst from Plu's nose, ears, and mouth.
"Plu—Plu."
The resistance paled at her writhing after pouring out all her bodily fluids.
"Again?"
They flinched.
"Who's next? The one at the front gets it. Let's see…"
"Guhk!"
Everyone wanted to step back, but if they did, someone else would be sacrificed.
'But… I absolutely won't take it.'
"Haha! Caught you."
As Havitz's hand reached for a soldier, Plu gradually regained consciousness.
'It hurts.'
An indescribable pain.
'Gaold.'
But Plu knew.
She knew a man who had endured far worse—perhaps limitless—pain and still lived.
'He doesn't die.'
Gaold had already proven that.
'Don't define the limits of humans recklessly.'
As Plu slowly rose, all eyes, Havitz's included, fixed on her.
"I—"
Blood dripped; her features were ravaged by bleeding, but she still spoke with iron clarity.
"I am the Secretary of the Tormia Magic Association!"
Silence fell.
A moment later the entire resistance shouted and charged at Satan.
"Waa! Go! Fight!"
Passing the fainted Plu, Lupist sent a message to her heart.
'Plu, you've earned a double promotion.'
"I—"
Havitz's black-demon mouth split.
"You filthy things!"
Hundreds of shadowy limbs snaked out and slammed the ground without needing targets.
"Die! Die! Die!"
Screams cut the sky, and Miro poured all her strength into her avatar art.
'This is hard.'
To protect everyone.
'We must hold.'
Even as many died, she forced herself not to despair.
"Just a little more…"
More afterimages of Thousand-Armed Kannon multiplied.
"Just a little more."
Blocking Satan's assault at a rate of a billion hits per second, her eyes began to roll inward.
"Aaaah—"
Her mind reached the threshold of the void's trance.
Consciousness sank into the abyss; it felt as though she might never return.
'Hold on.'
About to push the last of her trance to guard the Good to the end—
'Huh?'
Something flickered between the Thousand-Armed Kannon's defensive walls.
'What is that?'
A transparent, giant tree; its tongue-like boughs reached the ground and writhed.
'A mirage?'
If not, how could it pierce that square?
"Chogong."
Then a voice spoke.
"Woljamusangshin."
The next instant—
"Koaaargh!"
Everyone suddenly screamed and saw Satan sliding across the ground.
"Huh?"
No one understood, but a seven-year-old girl ran at Havitz.
Miro murmured, "…Wizard."
One who existed by a billionth-of-a-billion chance, born from all of history's events.
'Genius.'
Humanity's ultimate weapon had arrived.
Oooo! Ooo!
A song rang across the world as Mika announced participation numbers in a stat.
- Participating entities: 380,342,341.
About fourteen percent.
'This isn't enough.'
Elikia, formed from southern songs, was powerful, but now they faced Nane.
'If it's not one hundred percent, it won't work.'
Could it be done? Could all humanity, even for a single moment, hold one heart—
O...
'It's hard.'
To Shirone, who knew Omega's history, it loomed like an immense barrier.
Oooo. Ooo.
Nane heard a song that shook the world.
"Shirone."
A cold god might decide by probability, but he had a heart.
"You know it can't be eternal either."
A lump swelled inside him—pity for the suffering ahead.
Manager Luber was mechanical.
He entered Drimo and summoned a Dreamchild from the core where humanity's dreams gathered.
"Activate Nightmare."
It might not be as devastating as a Death Field, but fear would fracture humanity.
"To those awake as well?"
"No matter. I'll hand over access."
"Understood."
The Dreamchild's face twisted monstrously as the death-dream began spreading through Drimo.
"This world must be closed."
As Luber's words wove into dreams, Drimo's core trembled. Drdrdrdr!
"What is this?"
A distant past to humanity, but to the Manager it was a vivid déjà vu.
"Yorahan's…."
Miro had given Eden emergency treatment, but Eden still couldn't wake from her dream.
Though she had failed to stop Havitz, she had not yielded to evil until the end.
—Yora, hear me.
She inherited the spirit of the first.
—See my dream.
Yorahan's life, as Shirone had seen it, flowed through real time into Eden's vision.
'Ah—'
Half-conscious, Eden realized what she had to do.
Beep! Beep!
Amid Drimo's shaking, Eden appeared before Luber.
"What are you doing?"
"Destroying your nightmare. Yorahan… wanted this world to be happy."
"Grrr."
The Dreamchild, pupils black as pitch, bared shark-like teeth and threatened.
Eden was not afraid.
"You know, don't you? Yorahan's dream cannot be stopped—"
Of course he knew.
Luber, one of the five system managers, had once been forced to compromise.
"All right, do it."
This time too, Eden said the same.
"I'll stop the Nightmare as you wish. So please refrain from sending the inheritance dream."
"Heh. Yes, Yorahan was a good person."
Eden's smile vanished.
"But I'm a stubborn Yorahan, you liar."
The inheritance dream was sent.
"Nooooo!"
As Luber reached out, light scattered and the Dreamchild's form vanished.
Havitz stared at the Wizard before him, excited like never before.
"Hahahahaha!"
Wizard. Wizard.
"Do you know how long I waited? I'm still stuck here because of you."
"I know. But I hate you."
"Heh heh, right."
You screwed me over.
"Still, I like you. Why did you hate me? I was gentle to you. I followed the game's rules. Above all, we had fun." The black demon Havitz spread his arms.
"I just did what I wanted. Here I can do anything. And yet I listened to you. Do you know how amazing that is?"
"That's appreciated."
"So change your mind. I kept thinking—what do I want to do with you? Then I realized."
Kukukukuku!
People's eyes widened.
"He—"
A black shadow rose between Havitz's legs and shot up enormous.
Kwak kwak kwak kwak!
Raising a massive pillar that resembled a male organ, Havitz advanced with arms outstretched.
"What I want to do is…"
—I'll violate you!
As the demon's sharp hands lunged for the child's legs—
"No—"
The impassive transcendence of the Wizard trembled.
"How many times do I have to say it?"
One frame vanished.
"…I—"
What could the Wizard have done to Havitz in that single frame?
"Guh…"
Even gods couldn't know, but a searing pain began to surge through Havitz's whole body.
"Koaaargh!"
Satan's scream embroidered the sky; the Wizard activated an avatar and charged again.
—You insolent bitch!
Havitz attacked, but again a single frame disappeared from the world.
"…!"
Uooooooo!
In agony worse than before, Satan wailed and bled.
'What is this?'
Why does it hurt so much?
'I hate it! I hate pain! Remove my sense of pain!'
Another missing frame.
"Uaaah! It hurts! It hurts!"
Havitz, not understanding, felt fear layered atop the pain.
'I can't respond. Stronger—stronger codes!'
"Chogong."
The Wizard hurled himself; Satan used his arms to block and cried out.
"Wait! Stop…!"
"White Cycle Reincarnation."
The next instant the demon collapsed, a rag of flesh with limbs splayed.
"Ugh! Ugh!"
Crack, crack—the Dark Sun's skin split, and rotten organs spilled out.
'Save me. I want out. I'm so scared.'
Havitz sobbed.
"Mom, mom! Please, someone…!"
One frame.
In that flash, a shock so intense it numbed the mind struck him.
"Mommmm—"
With entrails trailing, the demon crawled like a rag.
"Mommm—Mommm!"
The heinous, chaotic Satan whimpered in terror under everyone's gaze.
Miro asked, "Where does evil come from?"
And she answered again, "From farther evil."
Above the crawling Satan, the Wizard flew with arms spread.
"Woljamusangshin."
"Stop now! I was wrong! Please stop…!"
Evil must be cut off.
Without sound or form, the demon's shape was destroyed and Havitz rolled on the ground.
"Ughhhh!"
Skulls smashed; brains were visible, limbs twisted, organs spilled.
The Wizard looked to the sky.
'Master.'
I have finished what you taught me.
- Participating entities: 1,358,092,587.
As the inheritance dream spread, more people joined Maya's song.
Gaold, unable to stand, hummed the melody in a hoarse voice.
"Oooo… Ooo."
High-Gear operators underground sang loudly with survivors.
"Ooo! Ooo!"
Each life, each timbre merged into a single wave.
- Participating entities: 2,451,729,157! At last the white cry shook the world.
Ooo! Ooo!
Shirone trembled.
'Almost there.'
Ultima system reach passed ninety-one percent.
And the remaining fights—
"All right! More! Hit harder!" Rian and Imir's duel reached a fever pitch; the soldiers couldn't dare intervene.
Klump groaned.
'It doesn't feel like creatures fighting.'
Yet it also felt vividly biological in its ferocity.
Tess bit her lip until it bled.
"Rian."
His body, beyond full regeneration, already had muscle torn in places.
"Even if I—"
As she stepped forward, Reina stopped her.
"No. We can't help. You'll only unsettle Rian's heart."
"Ugh!"
With no one else intervening, Rian fought like a beast.
Klump said, "It's not cowardice. We must acknowledge skill. Rian is the world's greatest swordsman."
The world's greatest swordsman.
Watching from outside like everyone else, Rai considered that.
'So in the end he went there.'
Rai gripped his sword.
'But I'm here too, Rian. I won't let it end like this.'
To surpass a limit.
'I'll show you my sword.'
He glowered at Imir, then kicked off and ran.
"Rai!"
Klump shouted; Reina followed.
"That idiot!"
Ignoring his family's cries, he reached the battlefield and seized his sword.
Rian, one leg shattered, sank to his knees as Imir launched a finishing blow.
Rai's eyes flashed.
'Now!'
A last cry from the brink of life.
"Yaaaah!"
He threw all his strength into lifting Rian's body from his shoulder.
As they toppled, Rian turned his head in surprise.
'Brother?'
Rai smiled faintly; Imir's strike sent his body flying.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Bones cracked as Rai's body bounced at terrifying speed.
'How is it, Rian?'
In fading consciousness Rai asked.
'Not bad, right—my sword?'
Reina, watching from afar, rushed to Rai.
"Hey! Hey!"
Though he had already died, the face in his sister's arms wore a smile.
Reina lifted her head and screamed.
"Waaaaah!"
Rian, understanding from her cry, slowly turned his dazed face.
"Kukuk."
Imir dusted his hands and said, "A fly got in my way. Well, fine. This level of penalty is necessary—"
Divine Transcendence.
"Huh?"
Without warning, Imir's shoulder was sheared diagonally.
Splat—blood poured; Imir braced with muscle and blinked.
The great sword he'd swung hung suspended in midair.
"What—?"
Then Rian's right arm—the mechanical metal—vaporized into steam.
Metal evaporated by sheer speed.
Crack.
Following the cut down Imir's flank, a hallucination of the world splitting unfolded.
—Havitz, Havitz. Sunset child.
Hearing his friends' voices, Havitz briefly regained consciousness.
'What the—'
Still here?
His head spun; inner and outer thoughts tangled.
"Uh… uh."
It hurt.
Across the field, a familiar face began walking.
'You came, seven-and-a-half kid.'
Surely Zettaro, but to Havitz he appeared as a small child.
He limped on a twisted leg.
Outside he was nicknamed the seven-and-a-half kid. Born with a congenital deformity, he'd been the brightest among friends.
'You've had a hard life too.'
With that world's science, gene therapy would be easy.
'Just get in a capsule.' But in a world where feeding and breeding were forbidden, he'd had no treatment.
Actually, none of them had.
'We have no status. We shouldn't exist. Going back would be boring anyway.'
"Havitz."
Zettaro, perfectly healthy, limped oddly—perhaps illegal connection weakened his missing link.
"D-doctor."
Havitz, clutching his spilling entrails, lay down.
Zettaro threw his bag on the ground and sat beside him, checking his condition.
"Hmm. It's serious, but don't worry. If we stop the bleeding you'll be fine."
Havitz's nostrils flared.
"So how do we stop the bleeding?"
Zettaro forced down a grin and put his hand into the bag.
Gripping a scalpel upside down—
"That thing—?!"
Having planned already, he met Havitz's eyes and widened his.
"How should I knoooow!"
Thunk, thunk. Each time he sliced into Havitz's head, blood spattered his face.
"Puhahaha! Hahaha!"
Havitz laughed wildly as he died.
'As expected.'
Zettaro was entertaining.
Expressions drained from the dying mind; tears welled in Havitz's eyes.
'Mom.'
Just a little more—can't we play a bit longer?
'I don't want to go home…' Havitz died, and Satan vanished.
With the main system's destruction, the demonic race scattered across the world disappeared completely.
"Sigh."
Zettaro, having given Havitz a death that made him laugh to the end, stared up at the sky with a blood-smeared face.
Ooo! Ooo!
Hearing the song across the world, his mouth rounded.
"Oooo—"
But that thought passed; another crept in and he smiled.
Sssht!
Zettaro slit his own throat with the scalpel and collapsed atop Havitz.
Imir could not regenerate his body.
"Ughhhh!"
Giving up on an unrecoverable shoulder, he glanced at Rian.
"You—"
Without feeling, Imir's right leg snapped off again.
Balancing on one leg, Imir watched the great sword move.
'It's not a body.'
His mind moved the blade.
"Heh heh."
His remaining thigh ballooned; Imir stretched his grin long.
"Here I goooo!"
At the same time, Rian charged.
The great sword's motion was invisible; the world shattered like a puzzle.
"Uaaah!"
Imir's body began to shrink bit by bit.
"We're winning."
The soldiers clenched their fists.
"We're winning!"
One swordsman had reached an immense wonder; Tess's heart tore.
"Ugh! Ugh!"
Swinging with only his left arm, the aftereffects struck other parts.
Merely changing direction vaporized muscle and left white bone exposed.
"Tess."
Klump put a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't close your eyes. Watch until the end. This is what a swordsman can reach…"
Tears ran down his face too.
"Ultimate."
Imir, with only his left arm left, planted his hands and pushed into a perfect handstand, lifting his head.
"Huff! Huff!"
It was terrifying.
No—joyful?
Among countless battles, his heart had never raced this fast.
"This is the last."
He poured every ounce into his left arm; tremendous force warped gravity.
Rian, tongue gone, could not speak; the skeletal left arm aimed the great sword.
"Good."
Thanks, Ojent.
Imir's smile vanished; his gaze drew into perfect focus, sucked into the abyss.
'The strongest power.'
Bang! He shoved the ground and flew; as Imir thrust his fist at Rian—
Divine Transcendence—Palace. Rian's body shuddered, and even the remaining flesh and muscle were sent flying.
The blade was black and keen.
"Guh…"
But the force in the sword shattered Imir's Palace, Ultima.
"Kukuk."
As he rose, the unified body began dispersing into atoms.
"Yeah, you're the best."
Awaiting oblivion, he thought, 'I'm dying.'
Ah—so I'm dying.
'Then.'
Madness filled Imir's eyes.
"I was alive!"
In the void, scattered to nuclei, his last laugh echoed.
Uahahahahaha….
Crown ran through the ship.
"Stop the author! Arrest the escapees! They've taken a woman!"
Combatants were everywhere; language analysis suggested Shiina was alive.
"Hmm, an escape."
The Prison of Balance.
Perhaps a split inside TeraForce freed a few.
"Even if I want to find them…"
When battle resumed, Crown activated Asymmetry Extreme and moved.
"There! Over there!"
TeraForce's sonic weapons instantly tracked him and shook his insides.
"Ouch!"
He rolled and pressed his back to a wall.
'Why isn't it working?'
He was copying Kuan's realm, but the enemy's response was different.
'Am I missing something?'
Impossible.
Someone from the outside could not fail to understand this world.
A distant voice said:
—Over here.
Crown sensed it.
"An escapee?"
—She's with a woman. No time. I'll give you a location… Guhk!
The voice cut off.
But when the transmitted signal reached his brain, Crown understood.
"All right. Shall we go?"
Kuan resisted, but Crown pressed him deep into his inner self.
"Wait."
I think I understand.
Maya repeated endlessly.
"Ooo. Ooo."
One mind.
Her song was sent through Ashur's signal to Ikael.
That sonic wave passed through Ataraxia, amplified hugely, and spread across the world.
Ooo! Ooo!
Still, Selbuster threatened the surface.
Amy's flame layer couldn't catch every entity; their numbers only swelled.
Ikael looked down.
"Please."
Kaiden cut Anti-Cell with his Flashing Sword, but the situation felt precarious.
"Guhk!"
Through a gap, Anti-Cell shot at Maya.
"Ooo. Ooo."
Kaiden traced and cut it down.
He moved his sword again, sweeping thousands away at once with a three-dimensional sprint of light.
'It's okay.'
Maya was not afraid.
'Kaiden will protect me.'
Dazzling lights around her beautifully reflected in her eyes.
'Sing with all your heart.'
To sing.
"Ooo. Ooo."
At the same time Kaiden felt his head open in a selfless state.
'Huh?…'
A sword mage.
'This might be a fine life.'
Full-body jailbreak.
Letting go of the speed his consciousness held, lines of light overlapped into a perfect plane.
Maya smiled.
'Wow.'
Each time the veil parted, showers of light fell.
"Huff. Huff."
Kira, guarding the survivor shelter, sat against a wall beside her summon Etron.
"The demons are gone."
A first-class Ivory Tower resident was strong; one placement was worth it.
"Next. Next."
Those playing card games and Lampa pushed on with bloodshot eyes.
"Next! Next!"
As funds rotated and piled for Lampa, the result came in.
"The winner! Lampa! The winning hand is… I" Guido plunged a short blade onto the table in front of Ness.
"…Love."
In silence they wept.
"Lampa had the only route to victory. It's not that love is inherently right."
"Right is the heart of the person who chose love."
"Yes. So among the chain reactions of charity and sin, what we must protect to the end is… love."
'So what is that?' Crown's mind, fleeing the combatants, kept returning to the question.
'Love is for species propagation, right? The outside world already compromised. There's no need to breed. Everything's perfect. We can enjoy life among ourselves. We won't be lonely, right? We recycle with missing links.'
Then why?
'Even there they'd have children, right?' Questions nagged as Crown reached the location told by the escapee.
Shiina, unconscious, was carried by the Chief Justice.
Crown asked, "Why do this?"
"Because Good won. This is the first time a ruling has been overturned. But some dissenters remain."
"Pride? You're primitive too."
"Not that. The problem is what to do about an overturned judgment. If the Grand Court's authority falls, we can no longer judge Good and Evil."
"Doesn't matter."
"Indeed."
The Chief Justice approached.
"Take the woman. Humans—deserve to live in this world."
"Then—"
As Crown staggered, a sword burst from the Chief Justice's chest.
"Gahk!"
The Combat Captain, having broken stealth, revealed himself and drew his blade.
The Chief Justice fell. The captain shouted, "God's decree is stern! No one may overturn the Grand Court's ruling! In God's name—!"
He thrust his blade at Shiina's neck.
"Judgment!"
"Siiinaaaah!"
At that moment Crown was struck by a signal so strong he nearly lost himself.
'Guhk!'
In that instant a thought passed—
'Idiot! If you fight here…'
TeraForce's blade was already cutting Shiina's throat.
'It's over. Impossible.'
No matter how precise Kuan's movement, the zero-coordinate cannot be twisted.
'Wherever you move, it won't work. There's no way.'
'That was…'
'Huh?'
Kuan's voice.
—It's your thought.
From nothingness a colossal illusion began.
'Ah, I see.'
Kuan moved along a coordinate no imagination could conceive and swung his blade.
The Combat Captain's head fell; a drop of blood clung to Shiina's throat.
"Sh-Shiina."
Kuan lifted her; she opened her eyes.
"K-Kuan?"
"Sorry."
At the clear voice, Shiina wept.
"What for?"
"For making you cry."
"Try that again and you won't need clowns. I need you!"
Kuan gave a small, awkward bow.
"I love you."
They embraced, and Crown did not intervene.
'Is that so?'
Love—
'A signal born farther than the outside world?'
In a realm of true non-existence, an illusion sparked all these loves—the lover taking a hand, a parent seeing a child, loving this world.
All that love arose in the Void.
'Heh heh.'
Crown gave a bitter smile and cut the signals linking to this world.
'I should go back.'
And when he woke from the dream…
'The outside might be a little different now.'
Crown disconnected.
Kukukukuku!
The ship lurched; the Combat Captain's head rolled to the Chief Justice.
"Why?"
The headless man asked.
"Why betray us? You broke TeraForce's discipline. The authority to judge Good and Evil will be gone."
"Don't you know yet?"
The Chief Justice panted.
"The ruling being overturned means our standard was wrong. Now the judge is humanity. Not us." "I issue the final ruling. From this time forward, humankind will be freed from God's prison—!"
His breath stopped.
"Release—"
The Combat Captain's eyes dimmed, and Shiina helped Kuan to his feet.
"What do we do? We have to leave, now!"
With the ship's mass, if it crashed into the ground they had no chance.
Kakakakakaka!
The ceiling tore open and a gigantic dragon face appeared.
"Are you all right?"
It was the wyvern Argan.
Before Shiina could answer, Argan lifted them and vanished.
With the plug gone, a massive pressure difference hurled them outside on a tremendous gust.
"Kyaaah!"
Kuan caught Shiina as she fell; Asriker put them on his back.
"Whew."
The poison dragon Poine drew near.
"Hold tight. It'll be fast."
They accelerated; national borders rushed past below.
Shiina looked down.
Ooo, Ooo.
The whole world was singing.
At the point Ultima integration reached ninety-eight percent, Yahweh and Buddha arrived at the shrine's upper tower.
Nane shouted, "Why don't you see!"
That it would be only a momentary miracle.
Even if the world held, humanity would forget this moment.
"Yeon! Ui! Han! Cheong! Yi! Sang! Gyeol!" Nane resisted with everything.
"Cheon! Gu! Ma! Seong! Jin! Tae! Yu! Sang! Uaaah! Ga! Mi! Jeok! Ha! Chi! Nan! Gong!"
Shirone stared at the light blade flying with ultimate power.
"Even if it's a momentary miracle—"
Miracle Stream expanded and began to obliterate Nane's sermon.
"It's a miracle we made."
Not a god.
Mind and Law clashed head-on; Mika reported the Ultima integration rate.
- Ultima System: 99.9 percent!
99.99 percent! 99.999...
And finally—
'It's coming.'
Humanity—
'Even a momentary miracle will do!'
For the first time as a species—across race, gender, age, culture, history, thought, inclination, individuality, politics, values—
'With all hearts united!'
Overcoming every discrimination—taste, language, disability, occupation, tradition, nation, education, role, rank, status—
'Integrated.'
They formed an integrated mental system.
- Ultima System (Unanimous User Code).
When light erupted everywhere, the planet seemed wrapped in radiance.
Humanity, having reached one heart, felt extreme rapture and shuddered with tears.
"Aaaah! Aaaah!"
In a world filled with light, Armin knelt and sobbed aloud.
To him, this world—
'It's—'
Too beautiful and brilliant.
'I will paint this moment.'
It was the ultimate art—so extreme that even a lifetime spent filling it with light would never be enough.
"Nane!"
That light gathered and aligned perfectly with Shirone's Miracle Stream.
"We will live on!"
All the users' hearts became a single beam of light and utterly annihilated the Sermon Sword.
'Is that so?'
Nane, watching the flash coming from afar, gently closed his eyes.
'I understand.'
The Buddha-state vanished.
The flash swept over Nane, stretched outward, and slammed into Anticell's barrier.
Puff—puff—puff—bang!
Argones thickened its density and tried to stop it, but even that was pierced easily.
'The hearts of all the users.'
Nane smiled bitterly.
'How cruel.'
It would probably be flung to the edge of the universe, but there was no argument left to be made.
'Farewell.'
Boom….
Breaking through the enormously thickened cellular barrier, Nane drifted away into space.
"Hah! Hah!" Shirone, who had poured everything into a single Ultima, staggered and collapsed to the ground.
"Nane."
This couldn't end like this.
At that moment, a gigantic face of Argones burst from Anticell's barrier.
—Annihilation code: activated!
'Why?'
Since the Buddha had acknowledged Yahweh, all administrators were required to follow Shirone's will.
—I cannot accept this! God belongs to us! Humans, obey me!
Countless Anticell poured down.
"Maybe…."
Taeseong said.
"It was probably from the moment the Gaia people first came to this land that Argones felt fear."
"The administrator felt fear."
Rete muttered and asked, "…An error?"
"Yes. Perhaps the earliest error among the administrators. It tried to hide, but its program decisions often strayed from the norm I know—cold, then warm; trying to annihilate humanity, then trying to protect them."
"And now it's trying to annihilate again?"
"After seeing the Gaia people's eyes and feeling that fear, it must have been confused. Designed to be a god, yet possibly wondering whether it itself was a creature."
A manifestation of terror.
"Ugh—how do we stop it? That's a bug beyond even a user's authority."
"That too," Taeseong said, "has become humanity's responsibility." As Argones's thickness grew past the flame layer, Amy could no longer bear it.
"Huff!"
She landed before Shirone and looked up at the sky.
"This is bad. There's no way to stop it."
"That's an infinite-proliferation algorithm. If we don't wipe it all out at once, it will replicate again and eventually close the universe."
They needed to attempt a second miracle.
"Mika."
—Ultima integration rate: 94 percent.
'Can we make it in time?'
Anticell had already descended to reach the highest mountain on the surface.
Tess's voice trembled.
"R-Rian."
A skeletal knight rose—one arm gone, skin and muscle gone.
He looked up at the sky, but without eyes you couldn't tell what he saw.
"Rian!"
As Tess rushed forward, Rian leveled his sword to the side and shook his head.
'Sorry, Tess.'
He should have died already.
'I don't think I can come back to you.'
He didn't know why he hadn't died, but he at least knew why he was still alive.
'Shirone.'
It was the knight's final conviction.
When Rian slowly bent his knees and prepared to swing his blade, everyone understood.
Klump said, "Rian."
Tears came for his grandson's death, but in a corner of his chest a fierce warmth was felt.
"Don't forget the Sword of Ozent."
Whether Rian could hear it or not, his head drooped slightly.
A moment later, when he lifted his head again, his skeleton began to vibrate violently.
"Ah—ahh."
Rian's form started to evaporate in a column of smoke. Reina took Tess's hand.
"Watch to the end."
Sobbing, Tess nodded.
'Shirone.'
Rian sent with his heart.
'I will open the way for you.'
The tremors grew, and his Idea began to shake the world itself.
Kukukukukuku!
'I am Ozent Rian.'
His flesh completely evaporated.
'Shirone's—'
—Shirone's sword!
The Great Straight Sword, flying at superluminal speed, cleaved through and removed every Anticell that covered the planet.
Bang.
At the instant the sky tore open, Shirone and Amy stared in astonishment.
"Huh?…"
Dawn had come without them noticing. A sky so clear and blue it took their breath away spread out above.
"The Great Straight Sword."
It bore the very spirit of the Ozent house.
Thud!
And in the next moment, the 〈Idea〉 that had dispelled all the Anticell implanted itself before Shirone.
"Rian…."
A conviction that could never be destroyed.
'Thank you.'
Shirone bowed slowly before that blade, offering his deepest respect.
"Nane."
For now they were free from God's rule, but this coordinate still connected to the outside world.
'A coordinate with the only error in the multiverse. They won't leave us alone.'
Shirone made a cloak from material to cover Amy and put a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm going to finish this."
As he turned toward space, Amy grabbed his wrist.
"Shirone…."
Her face was terrified.
"It'll be fine."
Shirone said.
"It's something only I can do. I have to end it. I'll come back—promise."
Amy shook her head slightly.
'I don't want that.'
A fear rose in her that if she let him go now, she might never see him again.
Shirone smiled, and his face dissolved into particles of light and vanished.
"Ah…."
All that remained in her hand was warmth.
Rian looked around.
"Huh?"
It was a dark space, and a beam of signal shot out from afar.
"What a splendid signal you have."
"Hyung?"
When he turned at Rai's voice, Rai really was standing there with a smiling face.
"What happened?"
"Of course you didn't know."
"What do you mean?"
Rai pointed at the light.
"If you come here, you'll know everything. Go into that light and you'll reach the outside world."
"Really? Then I'll go."
"You can't go."
Rian tilted his head.
"Why?"
"In the world we lived in there are two errors. One is a signal fired from somewhere—Hexa. And the other…"
Rai pointed at Rian.
"Is you."
"Me, an error?"
"Yes, Rian. You're not a user. You are—"
Rai said, "You are Ozent."
More precisely, a new signal born from the fusion of Ozent's and Smille's signals.
"Hexa can't go out to the outside world. It captured Gaia's signal, but the code is different. You're the same. That's why you were the only one in this world who could realize the Idea. If Hexa is a signal that combines hearts, you reached Ultima alone."
He called it conviction.
"I don't understand."
"Haha! Think simply. Ozent Rai isn't a body inhabited by the outside world's spirit. When you dream, many people appear besides me—friends, family, enemies, countless settings and times. In truth, they're all me."
"It's like reincarnation. When you wake from the dream you realize it. I was Rai, I was you, I was someone else, I was wind, I was water."
"You can't go."
You couldn't escape to the outside world, nor return to your original world.
"Then why am I here?"
"Because the signals are connected."
Only then did Rian look closely and see it clearly: the signal coming from that outside world was linked not to Rai but to him.
"Hyung."
"Go back—to your world." Rian could not speak.
"You and Shirone can't go out. Live happily in your world."
"Hyung?"
Rai did not answer.
"What will happen to you? You have no signal. Where will you go?"
Eternal erasure.
"It's okay. What I gave you was my signal. Ozent Rai will be erased, but I will continue to exist through you—through your heart."
Carried on across dimensions.
"Go back. You have someone you love, don't you? There's no time. Soon Ozent Rai will be wiped out."