[463] The Call of Ra (5)
The fallen land of giants, Muspelheim.
Where unquenchable flames stretched to the horizon, the fire giants made their home.
Born of Ilhwa's wine, some among those giants were embodiments of hatred; in their minds burned nothing but a purposeless, unknowable fury.
Amid a battlefield of savage cries and mutual maiming, Kariel walked out with unhurried steps.
They had once been bound under Heaven's chain of command, and they remembered that daring to breathe fire at a beautiful archangel would mean instant annihilation.
Surt, leader of the fire giants, came forward to meet Kariel.
Seven meters tall and clad in armor of flame, his presence matched his stature, yet even he knelt with utmost reverence before the archangel.
"A lowly one humbly greets Lord Kariel."
A wave of searing heat washed over Kariel.
While Imir might be biologically the strongest in Heaven, the fire giants differed from other giants in one peculiar way.
They wielded their own unique magic.
Perhaps it sprang from the unshackled freedom of fiery thought. Among warriors who could rival Imir, Ikael's triangular Mara Ashur was one example; but the strongest swordsman to come out of Purgatory was undeniably Surt.
"There is something I would ask of you."
Surt looked up in surprise.
The fireblade Muspel that he bore belched a massive flame and drove a long furrow into the ground.
An archangel asking a fire giant for aid was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Surt, who secretly dreamed of returning to Heaven.
"Command us anything! We will do it!"
Kariel nodded with satisfaction.
Anke Ra had entrusted full authority to Ikael, and she would halt the war.
If that happened, Kariel's purpose would be undone, and the maimed Ikael would have no way to resist.
But he would come.
'Gaold.'
He would surely come. As long as Miro lived.
'I hate to admit it, but…'
Miro was exceptional.
If humanity held the most outstanding mage, the chance to change Heaven's balance could arrive at any time.
They could not be picky now, when gathering forces.
"Form an elite unit and come to the Second Heaven, Rakia. I will wait in the Hall of Corruption."
"A place most fitting for us."
Fire giants were forbidden from entering Heaven, but by the law's principle the fallen-angel city Rakia was an exception — the very reason Kariel had fled to the Second Heaven.
"There is no time. Depart at once."
Having given his orders, Kariel took flight and headed for Heaven.
It was time to receive a guest.
* * *
"You have nothing to tell me?"
Shirone could not accept Ikael's words.
No — perhaps this really was the truth.
Idle delusion, or the selfish, deeply human hope that he wanted it to be true.
Those impulses might have produced the illusion.
But how to explain the faint, lingering memory in his head, and the way his heart thudded whenever he reached for it?
"Could it be…"
Shirone could not bring himself to say it aloud.
He skirted the subject, fearing he could not bear the sorrow if he heard the same answer again.
"What kind of person was Geffin?"
Thud.
Ikael's sanctified light-form trembled again.
Had the angels seen that, they would have fainted in shock.
Ikael pulled herself together. As Heaven's commander she could not be unraveled in a place meant for ceasefire talks with the rebels.
"Geffin was the last Gaia. After losing the war with Heaven, he left the photon realm, as far as I know. Of course, all information has since been lost."
Shirone knew of Geffin's erasure too.
But how did Ikael retain any memory of him?
There was only one explanation.
Just as humans infer Geffin's existence from his relics, she must have objectified, personal memories of Geffin stored within her.
Impossible for a human who lived barely a hundred years, but this was the Heaven most deeply tied to Geffin.
"Were you close?"
Ikael shook her head. Thinking back made her temples throb.
"No. He was a rigid man. He didn't know compromise. If not for him, Gaia wouldn't have paid such a heavy price."
Her reaction now differed subtly from when Shirone first met her on the journey to Heaven.
Perhaps understandably so. Babel's records depicted Gaia and Heaven as having waged a desperate war for mutual annihilation.
"So you met as enemies."
"We clashed countless times and argued endlessly. He was strong. Even as an archangel I couldn't bring it to a conclusion."
Ikael's lips rose without her meaning to.
Despite recalling combat, a spark of joy gleamed in her eyes.
"Once, there was this—"
Ikael abruptly stopped.
She couldn't recall anything. It felt as if a single black hole had been punched through the chromatic space of her memories.
The moment her gaze fell on that black void, everything within her was sucked toward it; a wrenching pain like a crushing in her chest surged up.
Ikael widened her eyes and bit her lip.
'Not anymore. I will not be underestimated again.'
She amplified her voice and announced to everyone.
"I will change the negotiator. The person responsible, come here."
Shirone grew frantic.
She knew — she had to know — and so she had to speak.
"Why are you deceiving us?"
"What? I am not deceiving anyone."
"You're different from before! There must be a reason you taught me Ataraxia!"
"To check Kariel. Thanks to that, I was able to reclaim the position of High Archangel."
"No. You have to tell me. You owe me that."
"My only responsibility is to Heaven."
"You—"
Shirone sprang to his feet.
Both were skirting the core of the matter and arguing only with force of will.
"You made me—!"
As Shirone moved to shout, the door burst open.
Rebel commander Crud and Gaold arrived with a host of officers after hearing Ikael's message.
"What's happened?"
Plu scanned Shirone the moment he entered the room.
Fortunately, the feared outcome had not occurred, but the atmosphere was ugly.
Ikael glared at Shirone as if furious, and Shirone clenched both fists, grinding his teeth.
Ikael turned her head in irritation and spoke.
"I admit my error. I do not wish to waste more time. State your demands. Heaven asks only that the war cease."
In an instant, Ikael had resumed the solemn bearing of High Archangel. To Shirone, that was all she was.
Everyone moved to the command-control room and gathered around the round table.
Some stood for lack of chairs — including Shirone and Plu.
Plu wondered why Shirone stared at the wall without even glancing at Ikael. It was odd that Shirone had made a meeting with an archangel a condition in the first place; the world seldom offered situations where an archangel and a man could sit privately and redden their faces together.
Commander Crud spoke.
"Our conditions are these: restore the rebels to Heaven; ban Ilhwa's wine; strip Kergoin of sacramental rights and elect leaders for every race. Those three things."
Ikael's eyes settled calmly.
Why did humans prize equality so much?
Nothing in the world was truly equal. Yet they placed equality as their highest value.
'Because they are weak.'
Yes, weak. Thus this was not domination but mercy shown to the weak.
"I accept. You will no longer suffer from Ilhwa's wine."
"That's not enough."
An officer who had been standing by the wall stepped forward.
He had glared at Ikael with a grim look since they first arrived; he had lost family in the war with Heaven.
"How much damage have you caused us? Now you expect us to pretend it never happened?"
"Debra, control yourself."
Crud tried to restrain him, but Debra could not contain his fury.
"Shouldn't you suffer the same pain? Let one angel represent, apologize, then take their own life! That is my condition!"
Equality.
Ikael nodded. She could not go against the will of Anke Ra.
"Very well. I will accede."
Murmurs ran around the table.
They could forgive Debra for losing his reason, but no one expected Ikael to permit an angel's suicide.
Another officer, watching the reactions, stepped forward.
"Grant us immortality."
His body was ravaged by malignant tumors; he did not have long to live.
"You will die but you won't be erased, right? So killing one angel is nothing. Give us immortality! That is our condition!"
Equality.
After three successive proposals premised on equality, Ikael could no longer hold back.
The room tensed as her gaze turned cold. Then the command-control room shook as if struck by an earthquake.
"How far will your insolence go, humans?"
Chiiiiiing!
Ikael's halo expanded and Ataraxia gathered in an instant.
Gaold pressed down with an air blast and the round table flattened like a pancake.
Ikael, already clear of the area, pierced the ceiling and flew up.
"Damn! After her!"
Ataraxia, Ikael's signature ability, amplifies all kinds of force in existence.
That made it the strongest.
A gentle spring breeze, under Ataraxia, could be magnified into a typhoon that sweeps the world away.
Sein turned the Iron-Wheel Eye and cast Equilibrium, but it was insufficient to reverse Ikael's output.
"Attack! If we fail to restrain her now, it's annihilation!"
Crud glared at the officers who had wrecked the negotiation and then dashed outside.
One could not blame them; Crud himself had been seized, for a fleeting moment, by an almost hopeful emotion.
Ikael was amplifying the water vein that flowed beneath the headquarters.
The magnification was at least twenty thousandfold.
The moment the vein ruptured, everything in the command center would be obliterated.
"As High Archangel, I command—"
Ataraxia shot a brilliant beam skyward.
"Destroy."
The ground shook vertically and cracks opened in the floor.
Steel buildings began to tear like paper, and despair painted human faces.
Gaold's assessment had been exact.
This was not a battle in conventional terms; she was power itself embodied.
- Elimination target: High Archangel Ikael.
Just as a colossal explosion was about to erupt, a black object flew toward Ikael at great speed.
To everyone else it was a blur, but to Ikael it was as if Babel's form had been preserved and presented, perfectly distinct.
It wasn't unavoidable because of speed alone; what made it unavoidable was the black hole punched through her memories.
'What is this? What have I forgotten that would make me lose my mind…'
After what would be ten thousand thoughts by human measure, Babel reached her.
She twisted her body with composure.
At that moment an unknown binding force seized her.
When she snapped her gaze around, she saw Shirone — transformed in his Adamantine Armor — activating Akamai's Antithesis.
'Shirone…?'
Bang!
Babel's fist struck Ikael's face.
Thrown by the brutal impact, Ikael plunged straight down but spread golden wings at the last instant to break her fall.
"Im—impossible…."
The rebels, battle-ready, gaped in astonishment.
Even Gaold was dumbfounded this time.
As Ikael rose from lying to a composed stance, Shirone landed lightly on the ground beside her.
The tentacles of his Adamantine Armor unfurled like peacock feathers, aiming at Ikael, while Akamai's ocular units locked onto her.
'An Antithesis.'
Ikael shrugged to show she had shaken off the binding.
'It could hold a low-rank angel for sure.'
He was undoubtedly much stronger than before.
But what use was that? Nothing in the world was stronger than her.
"Shirone, if you're going to come at me like this—"
Thud!
The ground rumbled and Babel assumed a combat posture beside Shirone.
Ikael's lips twitched in a slight frown.
She found it intensely displeasing that something resembling her protected Shirone.