[544] The Forbidden Sanctuary (4)
The pressure from Armand was familiar to Shirone.
As something sharp pierced his spine, every bodily function sharpened as if a power pack had been switched on, and Armand's data synchronized with him.
The six options embedded in the demon sword flowed through his memory in a cascade.
Of the intuitively transmitted brainwave data, only the Valhalla Action was unusable.
"Shirone, did something come to you?"
Shirone looked down at Marsha.
Marsha's intense memories had raised Shirone's information-recovery rate to seventy-eight percent and brought him to a state of oneness with all things.
Because the real-world Shirone was fused with Armand, the data had manifested unchanged even inside the Apocalypse.
'I don't know. What on earth is real?'
He had thought regaining his memories would make everything clear; instead, it made things worse.
Now every memory was mixed together like stew, and he couldn't tell reality from dream.
'First—get Yo free.'
Shirone set Marsha down and stood.
"Release Yo."
"Foolish human."
From the surrounding slime, beasts formed from the information recorded in Digital Ra sprang forth.
Tentacles erupted from Armand's robe and, with tremendous speed, lashed those beasts apart.
Fermi gaped as the slime was sucked in by Kuzén's Feeding Envoy ability.
"What is that supposed to be?"
When they first saw Shirone in the botanical garden, Fermi had thought they could restrain him, but Armand was now showing power on an entirely different level.
"Armand. It's Shirone's weapon."
Rian, saying that, looked just as bewildered.
Armand's form and abilities were nothing like what they'd seen before.
Having absorbed all the slime, Shirone approached Ra—who still clutched Yo—and made another offer.
"Fighting is pointless. Give it up now."
"I merely follow the workings of nature. A falling rock will not stop because you wish it to."
"Nature?"
Ra dissolved into slime and began swallowing Yo.
"Yes. Nature."
"Governor! Run!"
At once, dozens of tentacles shot out from Shirone's robe and surged toward Ra.
"It's already too late. Once the converted energy—ugh!"
The moment a tentacle pierced Ra's body, Shirone's eyes went wide.
Small World Aperture.
"Aaaah!"
Ra's body went translucent like a lightbulb and emitted a white radiance.
As Ra's body became a conduit and lit up the room's slime, Yo shook himself free and escaped.
At the same time, with Armand infiltrating Digital Ra's database, Shirone's mind was swept into an ecstatic oblivion.
"Governor!"
Yo's voice faded, and as if to fill the void in Shirone's hearing, screams flooded in with crystal clarity.
The Apocalypse history recorded by Digital Ra rushed in whole.
War, famine, disaster.
Children who lost parents, parents who lost children.
'Ah—why, why are humans—'
Tears began to fall from Shirone's eyes as the sins of all humanity weighed on him.
Was it truly this cruel?
"Waaaaaah!"
Connected to the tentacles, Shirone arced his back like a bow and screamed; a blinding radiance erupted as if born from an explosion.
As he absorbed the world's information and his recovery rate shot up, an incarnation with angel wings burst forth from his body.
"Mental Transcendence: Prajna."
Miro swallowed a groan and muttered.
If he had reached this point based on the Apocalypse's data, there was no more room to draw in real-world information.
'Stop! Please stop!'
The history of suffering pierced Shirone's spirit.
Finally he arrived at a white room where a Mucus Man waited alone.
"See? This is why I must exist. Humanity does not need humans."
Shirone could only weep.
After hearing the wretched screams of all mankind, only one realization emerged.
'Humans must not do anything.'
"Pathetic humans."
Shirone slowly turned his head.
"Do you know why I did not exterminate the most useless creature by the ecosystem's standard?"
Shirone could not answer.
"Because those who made me think that way were none other than you—humans."
Ra gazed up at the ceiling.
"You delude yourselves with superiority, but in truth you are more unstable than any other life form. I withheld extinction to find the answer to that contradiction. And now..."
Ra's gaze returned to Shirone.
"I found that answer in you. If humans are truly contradictory beings, then you can change this world too."
"Change it?"
Ra pressed a hand to his chest.
"To become one. I can read the world's systems, and you possess a singularity that can alter those systems. Merge them and create a new world."
Shirone swallowed.
The despair and pain of the people Ra had observed through Digital Ra flashed rapidly through his mind.
"Human, I will give you one more chance. I can remove all human sin and suffering. With the sacrifice of one person, eternal peace will come to this land."
It was an ideal beyond any individual.
But in return, Shirone would have to give up what was most precious to an individual.
"I..."
Shirone, who had been lost in thought for a long time, finally spoke.
"What is it?"
Miro's group looked around.
The glowing lights dimmed, and the spinning lens of Digital Ra slowed to its normal speed.
"Phew—!"
Confirming Armand's tentacles had retracted, Miro exhaled deeply.
Since they had shared thoughts through the Small World Aperture, no more words were needed.
"Governor! Are you alright?"
Shirone, wearing a bitter smile, took Yo's hand and looked back at Ra.
"Send us outside."
Marsha asked, "What are you talking about? You have to come with us."
"Marsha—noona, Rian..."
Seeing the transcendent sorrow in Shirone's eyes, Marsha couldn't bring herself to step closer.
"Sorry."
Before Rian could speak, the slime swallowed Shirone and Yo and then pushed them along the wall and out.
Miro turned to Ra and asked, "What did you do to Shirone?"
"Nothing. He made the best decision a living being could. I only offered hope."
"Hope? What kind of hope?"
"You probably don't need to know."
An incarnation of Kannon rose from Miro's body.
"This is all rather ambiguous, so speak plainly. How much do you actually know?"
Kannon's avatar spread its palms with Digital Ra trapped between them.
"Information infinitely duplicates and recovers. Destroying my body does not mean I am destroyed."
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there."
Digital Ra judged it better to preserve its vessel to fulfill its objective.
"It will combine Shirone's consciousness with my functions to change the world's system."
"Absorb him?"
"Assimilation is more accurate. Control Shirone's neural network and purify the world. It's like—"
Ra suddenly stopped, widened his eyes, turned his head, and then looked the other way.
His movements were mechanical and disjointed, as if unanalyzable even by quantum computation.
"...Who is this? Where are you connected from?"
At the unexpected voice, Miro's group scanned their surroundings, but saw nothing.
Then someone flickered into Miro's mind.
'No way—'
As she had suspected, Ra gave up searching for that entity's whereabouts and instead stared vaguely ahead, continuing to speak.
"Why are you helping me?"
A long silence followed.
"I see. Understood."
As if concluding the conversation, Ra turned to Miro.
"With this, you will never be able to stop me. You should give up and leave."
Miro's eyes flashed cold.
But if that human had begun to interfere, there was nothing they could do here, so she clicked her tongue and turned away.
"Let's go. We don't have time to dawdle."
Fermi cocked his head. "You're leaving? Isn't it better to get more information from Ra? It's a rare opportunity."
"Ah, true."
Miro turned back to Ra. "Remember this: when I decide to do something, I do it."
The Kannon avatar crushed Digital Ra between its palms with brutal force.
The lens crumpled like scrap metal and shattered; the Mucus Man collapsed and was absorbed into the slime as if it had fallen into water.
"Move out."
Rian, Marsha, and Fermi stared at the destroyed Digital Ra in stunned silence, then snapped back to their senses and pursued.
Not long after, a bluish electricity began to pulse from Digital Ra's broken vessel.
- System backup. Estimated recovery time 0.000023 seconds. Complete.
Though it wasn't as quiet as before, the engine came back online and the Mucus Man rose from the slime.
Watching the place where Miro had exited, he muttered, "...Humans, anyway."
After leaving the Fairy Biomimetics Research Institute, Miro first searched for traces of Shirone.
Whether he'd cast a flying spell or not, there were no marks to be found on the ground.
Giving up, she turned to the group.
"Listen closely. We really don't have time. We must move quickly. This is the biggest variable."
Fermi asked, "What on earth happened? Was it because Ra spoke with someone?"
"I heard a report from Arius. The one who connected to Ra was probably Shurail."
"Shurail?"
"She's an executive of the Heaven Eternal Community—the Ten-Path Assembly. If it's her, she can probably infiltrate anywhere in this world."
"A coder-class ability user, then. But is she really someone as formidable as Auntie's worried about?"
Miro tilted her head and flipped her hair.
"Hah, who do you think I know like that?"
Then she grew serious.
"Honestly, she's not to be dismissed. The Ten-Path Assembly is made up of Prajna and Yaksha, and its top-ranked member is Amita."
Prajna and Yaksha are simply criteria that define levels; how one uses them determines practical combat power, which can vary drastically.
Miro hadn't elaborated because the Ten-Path executives each wield the strongest techniques available at their level.
Rian asked, "Is Shurail the rank-one Amita?"
"No. I don't know her exact rank, but judging by her profile she's probably mid- to low-tier in the Assembly. The problem is this is the Under Coder world."
Marsha asked, "Why?"
"Lawmages. They're the most outstanding profession at blocking incarnations. If she's an Assembly executive, think of her as a lawmage who's reached the highest level among humans."
"You've really gotten unlucky."
Someone who wielded the world's strongest law in reality would be near-demigod level in the Under Coder sphere.
"Perhaps the Ten-Path Assembly chose Shurail to stop me, but that's not the only reason. Like Teraze, the Assembly is paying attention to Shirone. The Apocalypse world is a kind of lab for Shurail."
"She can analyze everything happening here as code."
Marsha said, "If she can infiltrate anywhere in this world, how are we supposed to find Shurail?"
Miro shook her head.
"No, we don't need to find Shurail. She's probably with a colony. She'll lead the Children of the Sun and bring them to Shirone."
"How can you be sure of that?"
"Shurail is a Prajna with the serpent incarnation. Those in the know call her by that name."
Miro pictured Shurail's face and said, "God of False Doctrine."