[205] 3. Ra the Eternal (2)
What the hell was that?
There was a barrier between Arabot and here, and the distance was immense. No matter how sharp Ikael's eyesight might be, there was virtually no chance she was watching this place.
"Don't be so disappointed. For angels, 'seeing' isn't the same as a human's 'seeing.' There are different kinds of 'seeing,' and among them, 'beholding' is the ability to see what you want to see. In short, if an angel wishes to see something, she can see it."
It was hard to imagine.
According to Peope, if an angel thought of seeing something, she simply saw it.
Not even the monster with a hundred eyes from a fairy tale tormented princes with such absurd powers.
"It's true. The reason Ikael arrived first after the Ilhwa incident was because she was beholding Shamain. Well… she's still a fallen angel because she's that petty."
Peope criticized Ikael without hesitation—fallen angels of the Second Heaven ranked below even fairies of the Fourth Heaven, after all.
It was a reminder of how far the highest angels could fall when they sinned in Heaven.
"But if they can see whatever they want, doesn't that mean angels know everything about the world?"
"Not necessarily. Deciding what to see is hard. Think about it. Even if you could behold things, could you grasp everything in the world?"
"No. That would be difficult."
I remembered the angel who had visited the Nor shelter.
Gadrak had said the angel could discover this place if she wanted to, but that wouldn't happen.
"No one checks their fingerprints every day."
"Oh? You knew that? That's exactly it. Anyway, if Ikael is beholding this place, she might respond to my voice."
Canis scowled. Mages hated relying on probabilities, and this case leaned too far into hope.
"It's a slim chance. This might be her 'fingerprint' too. And even if she's beholding us, what's to guarantee she'll help?"
"There's no guarantee. I came along to give you the tiniest thread of hope. The one who will be waiting where we're going is Archangel Kariel. Do you understand? There's no way you can beat him even if you die and come back."
I faced the reality. If the one holding my friends was an archangel, we'd need at least an equal-level ally to have any hope of escape.
"Alright. Let's try it your way. I trust you."
Peope clicked her tongue, thinking the Nor people full of doubts as always. Still, she had come because she saw a possibility.
No angel checks her fingerprints every day… but maybe Ikael might. She was said to be benevolent and often looked over her people.
"Then I'll start. Once the conversation begins, don't touch anything. I don't want to commit sacrilege before the archangel."
Peope closed her eyes and concentrated. Her plea spread outward in concentric ripples.
I waited anxiously. Five minutes passed with no noticeable change in Peope.
Was it impossible, then?
The fear of losing the hope of rescuing my friends was greater than the disappointment of failure.
Just as our group sank into despair, Peope's body trembled.
A moment later, hot tears streamed from her closed eyes.
"Ah—Archangel Ikael."
I turned to Peope as if my neck would snap.
It was clear a conversation with Ikael had begun. All sorts of sounds threatened to burst out of me, but I forced myself silent, remembering Peope's warning.
Peope and Ikael spoke for quite a long time. Peope nodded repeatedly and sometimes answered aloud.
"Yes, I understand."
Peope kept her eyes closed a long while, smiling. She seemed unable to come down from the emotion, then suddenly opened her eyes and began to babble excitedly.
"You heard her? You heard her? She accepted my talk! She listened to me!"
"Of course I didn't hear it. What did she say?"
"Ah—Archangel Ikael… she beheld me!"
Peope looked up at the sky with moist, shining eyes. I couldn't bring myself to ask more. I let her ride her wave of emotion until she calmed enough for me to speak.
"So, she said she'll release our friends?"
Peope snapped back to reality. She'd been so overwhelmed by speaking to an archangel that she'd forgotten the most important part.
Her expression drooped a bit.
"No. Ikael said she's sinned and cannot leave her chamber for even a single step."
"What? So we failed in the end?"
Peope forced a bright expression.
"But she will help us. We can enter Arabot. However, there's one condition…"
Peope hesitated and glanced at us. Canis, at the end of his patience, snapped.
"What is it? We don't have time—say it."
"She said she only wants to meet a boy named Shirone alone. But who's Shirone?"
Canis and Rian looked at me.
Peope didn't know any names yet. I had kept my name hidden because I knew names were key to manipulating lifespans—I'd acted to conceal my name thoroughly.
Peope's eyes widened as though surprised by the unanimous gaze pointing to one person.
'So his name is Shirone.'
Until a moment ago Shirone had been just an assemblage of vague concepts in Peope's mind—intangible, abstract, like mist.
But now it was different.
Shirone.
The instant she thought the three syllables, Shirone's actions, thoughts, and feelings integrated into her head.
"She only wants Shirone? Is there some particular reason?"
"I don't know. I wanted to ask, but she seemed reluctant to reveal that."
Canis thought that was for the best. With time pressing, it was more efficient to focus on separate tasks than to move as a group.
"Then Shirone, you go meet Ikael. Without her help, escape seems impossible."
"What will you do?"
"We'll go to Jebul. Traveling from the Seventh Heaven to the Sixth should be a free pass. We'll head to where Amy is first. If needed, we can stall for time."
It was the best strategy they could devise under the circumstances.
With the plan set, I looked at Peope: I wanted her to let me into Arabot.
But Peope didn't know how either.
As she stammered, trying to come up with an excuse, the surroundings were suddenly bathed in bright light.
Peope clutched her hands in rapture.
"Ah… Archangel Ikael."
A vast light swallowed us.
Where the light had been drawn toward the point and vanished, nothing remained.
@
Seventh Heaven Arabot.
My heart trembled as I looked around. We had arrived at the holiest place in Heaven.
The spire's top was hidden by clouds. Peope had said that Anke Ra stayed out there at the end.
Her voice trembled as she explained.
"To be in the place where God's throne is… I've never had a more glorious day in my life."
"You've only been alive for a year anyway," Canis scoffed.
Peope shot him a glare.
"One year or a hundred, age doesn't matter. This isn't a place you get to just because you live long."
"But isn't it too quiet for that? They say God lives here, but there isn't even a guard."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"No, I mean—if God is here, why is nobody guarding him?"
Peope froze and stared at Canis with a blank expression, as if someone had told her that one plus one equals window.
"Are you serious? Ra protects us. How could we possibly guard God?"
I realized belatedly and nodded.
Ah. Ra wasn't the kind of king humans speak of.
If he were a cosmic absolute, the notion that someone guards him would diminish his divinity.
Arriving at the spire, we prepared to split for our missions.
Ikael wanted to meet Shirone alone. To recover Amy's group we needed the archangel's help, so Rian and Canis had no complaints about the exclusion.
Peope, who had the duty of guiding me to Ikael's chamber, passed along the memory she had received from Igirin to Canis and Rian.
A rough map of Jebul etched itself into their minds.
"The women are at the Grand World Hall at the eastern edge. That's where Kariel resides."
Canis traced Igirin's memories to find the Grand World Hall's location. Even by teleportation it was a long distance. But distance wasn't the real problem.
"Note this: you can't just enter the Grand World Hall. It governs the movements of worlds and is surrounded by top-level security."
"Security? You mean obstacles?"
"If it were that simple, it'd be laughable. In short, the Grand World Hall isn't in Jebul."
"Don't be annoying—explain it so we understand."
"Some technologies of the Mecha system can alter information about specific spaces. In other words, they sent it to another dimension. To enter the Grand World Hall, we must first disable the Mecha system."
"How do we disable it?"
"If you look at Jebul's map, there's a portal to Ingris. It's the place that controls all of Heaven's information; we could disable the Mecha system from there."
"Ingris?"
It was a place I'd heard about when contracting with Chief Kergo. Kadum had once asked me to deliver his will to Ingris, but I hadn't cared at the time. I had received nothing, so I had no obligation to fulfill the contract.
Given how things turned out, refusing their hospitality now felt like a wise decision.
But for Canis, Ingris meant something else.
It was the reason he came to Heaven even at the cost of abandoning the Metagate, and the place likely to contain the knowledge that allowed Arkein to rise to Archmage.
As he analyzed notes left by his master, Canis had focused on mythology.
If Heaven had influenced humanity for ages, those records would be woven into myth rather than history.
In studying old texts, he had found a place that appeared across different myths.
That place was Ingris.
A hall of knowledge said to record all the world's secrets.
"I'll take care of that. While Rian goes to the Grand World Hall, I'll disable the Mecha system. It should buy us some time."
That was putting it mildly—it was practically sending himself into the lion's den.
But Rian believed that was exactly the kind of thing she did best.
"I'm in. We'll head to Jebul now. Shirone, you must find a way."
"Okay. You all be careful. I'll get there as fast as I can."
With no time to watch them leave, I entered the spire.
Inside stretched a vast chamber with no pillars. The floor was glassy and immaculate, without so much as a speck of dust.
Peope led me to a corner of the spire based on Igirin's memories.
"Huh? Why is there nothing here?"
According to the memory there should have been an elevator here, but there was no visible device anywhere.
At that moment, light seeped from a crack in the floor and a blinding flash erupted.
When I looked around, the scenery had already changed.
We had arrived at a place of corridors like a fish's backbone. Walkways branched off every ten meters to both sides, and at the end of each corridor stood gilded iron doors.
Peope turned to me in front of one of the doors.
"This is Ikael's domain from here on. As I promised, I cannot enter. Angels can communicate with all beings, so I won't be needed. Just in case, I'll send you the map of Jebul."