[497] That Afternoon (5)
"Do…."
Kanya let the word slip out without meaning to.
"Run."
Babel did not answer.
By the Shirone algorithm's priority ordering, it was an instruction it could not follow.
But to Kanya the algorithm no longer mattered.
In the shape of Babel that had been protecting her and Rena, the face of the most precious person she had been forced to send away a year ago overlapped.
'Mother….'
Babel was not a mother.
It could not feel pain because it was not alive, and it had no fear of death because it had no life.
That was utterly different from the mother who never showed her pain and willingly accepted death for her children.
"Run! I don't want help from someone like you!"
And yet why were tears falling?
Her father's death was still indelibly stamped in her mind—so why did her chest ache like this?
"Babel protects Kanya and Rena."
Noise crept into its voice module as the torso cracked and splintered.
"You're the enemy! You killed my dad! You killed my dad! You're not a mother!"
"Babel will pay the price when the war ends."
"No! No, I said no!"
Kanya clung to Babel and sobbed.
The thought that someone—anything—was still protecting her was unbearably unfair and infuriating, and regret flooded her for not having realized it sooner.
As Girishin's attacks grew harsher, Babel's frame trembled more violently.
The red panel set in its eye flickered, and shards of machinery sprayed from its back like strips of human flesh.
It was dying.
Kanya could feel Babel's condition clearly.
"What will happen if you go! I'll kill you! I'll kill you in the most painful way!"
Machines do not die.
They are only disassembled.
Babel decided it must transmit that information, but just before outputting it, it erased the sentence.
"I do not feel pain. However—"
Kanya, streaked with tears and snot, lifted her head.
From Babel's still-cold face, for the first time a clear voice free of noise slipped out.
"Perhaps this is pain."
"Aaaah—aaaahhh."
A grief that felt like it would break her pressed down on Kanya.
"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you until the end."
Babel's red panel flared brilliantly. Like a child, Kanya shook her head and screamed.
"No! Don't! That's an order! Follow my command! I said don't!"
Given an impossible command, Babel searched briefly for an answer, but there was no option that could stop her tears.
Perhaps it was an illusion, but Kanya thought she saw a faint, awkward smile at the corner of Babel's mouth.
—Self-destruct mode engaged. MAP weapon: Babel.
Betting everything on a probability far below 0.1 percent, Babel pushed its output to the maximum.
"Wooooooo!"
As Girishin brought his final blade crashing down onto Babel's shredded back, a flare shot from the glass sphere that served as the MAP weapon's muzzle.
"Damn…!"
The glass orb shattered and the photoelectron cannon burst forth indiscriminately.
The flash scorched the entire rear radius; nothing remained where it passed.
—Target elimination failed.
After receiving the last signal displayed on its central unit, Babel exhausted every method to restart, but utterly smashed as it was, there was nothing it could do.
'Kanya….'
The instant that short name was entered into its computing array, all power to every device was cut, and eternal darkness came.
"No! Get up! You can't be dead! Get up!"
Kanya hugged the torso that was all that remained of Babel and howled. She mourned the machine she had hated most in the world.
* * *
Babel's photoelectron cannon devastated a two-kilometer radius to the rear.
A response speed, destructive power, and range that even the mighty Girishin could not guarantee survival against.
But it was only a hypothesis, and standing on a plateau three kilometers from the battlefield, his expression was grim.
The moment Babel's muzzle drank in light, around a hundred glass plates flashed and shifted space around him.
Signal.
Ikael's triangular Mara—Ashur's power—every giant knew that.
'Ashur. Imir's rival.'
Girishin glared at Ashur with a sour look.
The days when they had vied for Heaven's finest armament were long past, but to him—who still thought Imir the best—Ashur was still a thorn.
"I'm not thanking you. That ambush could have been avoided."
Even as the second-ranked giant, he had no right to be proud when the opponent was the archangel's triangular Mara, but Ashur didn't care.
If that kind of pride mattered, he wouldn't have evacuated Girishin in the first place.
"Don't underestimate Babel's computational power. It was unpredictable. You'll admit that, won't you?"
"Hmph. Whatever. If it died, it died. Running isn't a giant's way."
"No. Any more fighting is pointless. All we can do is minimize losses for the next war."
Girishin frowned.
"What nonsense is that? Victory is right in front of us."
"Still don't know what waits at the end of this war?"
"We just fight. The outcome isn't our concern."
"Then answer this: why hasn't Imir moved yet?"
Girishin fell silent.
Imir's animal instincts had reached a place so far beyond ordinary intuition they could no longer be called mere animal sense.
"Is this… not the end?" Ashur asked, nodding.
"Currently, Satan has descended into Jebul and is annihilating the angels. On the human side, a powerful spell was cast aimed directly at Arabot. Either way, at this rate Heaven will be destroyed."
Girishin's expression finally turned serious.
"But Captain Imir still does not move. Therefore…."
"Yes."
Ashur cut off further explanation; there was no need to say more.
"Soon the will of Ra will activate."
* * *
Second Heaven, Rakia.
In the Hall of Corruption, the object bound both of Kangnan's wrists and left her standing on legs half freed.
's power was limited to drawing strength out, but using the angelic power Hena it fixed her in space.
After a night of torture, Kangnan's condition was pitiful; she had so little strength she could barely hold herself up.
Worst of all was the spiritlessness in her eyes.
Gaold would not come.
It was not resentment but understanding.
He had watched how fiercely Gaold had fought to save Miro; that made his absence comprehensible.
"It's past noon. Looks like he's abandoned you."
Yuriel, arms folded outside the wall, stared past the ruined bridge and said.
Kangnan did not answer.
She already knew—but admitting it out loud was different.
Yuriel slowly turned and regarded Cariel standing beside Kangnan.
'Weaker than before.'
An angel's greatness springs from spirit, and a psychological blow directly diminishes presence.
Although Rael had lifted the stop magic, the humiliation inflicted by humans had further damaged the already-weakened Cariel.
Dark shadows hung beneath his eyes; the handsome face had withered, leaving no trace of archangelic authority.
Whoooosh!
A strong gust blew in from the direction of Arabot.
Sand in the wind stung Kangnan's back like flames against her skin.
'Life… is pain.'
That was what he had said.
Gaold.
"Cariel, begin the execution."
The fallen angel Mauriel approached and asked for permission, but Cariel remained silent.
In his weakened mind after human magic had bested him, his hatred of humans had only deepened.
The question was the source of that hatred.
'When did I… begin to hate humans?'
The doubt Cariel had never allowed himself to consider met exactly with the question Yuriel had always pondered.
'Yes, Cariel. Isn't it strange? Angels are magnificent, but humans are chaotic. Are we truly…'
Truly superior to humans?
Without an answer to that question, Heaven had no future.
So Yuriel had watched Cariel's long struggle until the end, and at last that struggle bore fruit.
"He comes."
All the fallen angels and Maras remaining in Rakia turned toward the plain beyond the walls.
Michea Gaold, who had forced them to see the depths of human desire, was walking slowly.
"W-why…?"
Kangnan stared at Gaold in shock. Even seeing him with her own eyes, she could not believe it.
When Yuriel landed on the ground, Gaold stopped walking.
"Where is Miro?"
"...."
Gaold looked up at Kangnan without answering.
She was supporting herself on her cuffed hands, her clothes torn, numerous wounds scored across her body.
Gaold watched her with an expressionless face for a long moment, then suddenly split his mouth into a crisp smile.
"Kukuku. You took it properly, you mangy dog."
"You…!"
Grinding her teeth and squeezing out the last of her strength, Kangnan shouted.
"You idiot! Why the hell are you here!"
She spoke honestly.
He had come to retrieve Miro—he had raced for her—so why give all that up to come here instead?
"Your tongue's rough. Looks like you can still hold on a bit."
"Go back! Go to Miro! Have you forgotten the price you paid to get here?"
"Yes. I've forgotten."
"…What?"
At how casually he said it, Kangnan went slack with disbelief.
"You've been living until now having forgotten the price you paid to save me."
Kangnan felt her eyes burn; she fought desperately to hold back the sob rising in her throat.
He knew?
She had never spoken of it, never wanted him to know.
That alone was enough for her.
"Fine. Then go back. I'll be okay… please, I'm begging you… go find happiness."
Gaold took another step.
As he neared Yuriel, all the fallen angels swooped in and surrounded him.
Forced to stop again, Gaold looked up at Kangnan and tilted one corner of his mouth.
"Don't be so angry. I'll leave without your whining. But before that, shouldn't you keep your promise?"
Kangnan's lips trembled.
'No. Don't say it.'
"Didn't I tell you I would never leave you again?"
Her heart pounded wildly.
The rare gentle smile on Gaold's face carried an intense, unsettling feeling.
Gaold had not come after abandoning Miro, nor solely to save her.
He intended to purge, once and for all, all the hatred he had accumulated toward the world over twenty years of suffering.
Mauriel sneered as he stepped forward.
"You were told to bring Miro. Do you think you can break that vow and return alive?"
"Hah, this one and that one…."
Gaold bowed his head and let out a soft sigh.
When he looked up again, the kindness was gone—replaced by the mad mage once more.
"This is irritating; it'll drive me insane."
The nightmare from ten years ago, long buried, rose again in Kangnan's mind, draining the color from her face.
"Don't…."
Gaold's eyelids trembled as he stared up at the sky; his pupils slowly began to roll upward.
"Don't…."
Tears poured uncontrollably as Kangnan could no longer hold back and began to wail.
"Please don't… mister."
At the same instant, every hair on Gaold's head stood on end.
'Farewell, damned world.'
Crack!
Every fallen angel that had surrounded Gaold vanished as if evaporated, leaving only a few drops of liquid behind.
Pain.
One hundred million times.
(End of Volume 20)