[773] The Doubt of Emptiness (3)
* * *
Beneath Kaidra, the monstrous bird that crossed the Pacific, countless sun-reflected starlights shimmered and rolled.
Zulu sat in the cockpit steering their course, and Kangnan and Gaold faced each other, seated along the bird's hollowed spine.
Breaking the long silence, Kangnan spoke.
"Don't be too disappointed."
Zulu glanced over quietly, but Gaold only closed his eyes and sank into meditation.
Putting aside a clumsy attempt at comfort, Kangnan revealed her true feelings.
"No, if they're monks, they're monks — how can they just reject us?"
They had stopped by Sion, but the answer had been that access was impossible. In the end, they'd had to turn back without even seeing Miro's face.
"If the Law's balance says so, it can't be helped."
"Hmph. Then what about Armin or Kuan? Even if it's Sion, an armed force is necessary."
Given Gaold's group's abilities, Sion should have welcomed them with open arms.
'That's why it's all the more baffling.'
Armin had brushed it off by saying Miro was away, but whatever had happened there could not have occurred without her orders.
"It's not because of balance."
When Gaold opened his eyes, Kangnan asked, "Then why?"
"Because meeting me is awkward."
Kangnan's eyes narrowed.
"You're joking, right? Even if I'd been snubbed, I was the former head of the Tormia Mage Association — did I really get turned away at the door?"
Gaold looked out over the wide sea.
"It's awkward to see her face. After all the fighting in heaven… Besides, I owe her a debt."
"What are you talking about?" Zulu asked.
"Miro asked Gaold to sleep with her."
Kangnan's head snapped around as if it might break.
"What? When on earth?"
"When you were taken after crossing the Togye Gate. They had a huge fight. Even the great Miro was emotional then."
She was the one who had saved his life.
"So, and…?"
"She didn't. Gaold went to rescue you, and Miro said she'd sleep with him once he came back safe. And now…"
Gaold had come back.
"Wait, does that even make sense? The greatest spiritual seeker of humanity would reject us for something like that?"
Zulu shrugged.
"Whether coincidence or not, it's true Miro is avoiding Gaold. If it weren't so…"
Kangnan looked at Gaold.
'Still… even now, she's avoiding Miro.'
Whether hell or reality, to Gaold the world had always been the same — nothing but unbearable pain.
And yet he returned for one reason: because Miro lived here.
* * *
Nane and Shura climbed the highest peak of the Eastern Zhongtian range, hidden by clouds.
'There…'
The Gate of Gefin stood there.
'Raise the army of heaven and end the war.'
Teraforce protected the order of the cosmos, but it was still part of a system shaped by Anke Ra's will. If Nane personally led angels to attack humanity, even Teraforce would have no grounds to interfere.
'Ra is everything.'
Since Beron's death the immortals' community had taken an independent course, but the army of heaven remained formidable.
'Perhaps this is the end.'
Feeling the world's ending approaching, Shura recalled Beron's last words before he died.
—Live.
'I wonder. Is there anything eternal in this world?'
Eternity was necessarily unreachable; therefore it belonged to the realm of faith, not fact.
Shura could not understand faith.
'I'll think a little more.'
He grumbled about the difficult task Beron had left him, and they reached a shrine where twelve gates stood.
At the far end, a cave exuded a mysterious aura. Nane lit a torch and entered.
"The Gate of Gefin."
A huge iron sphere engraved with henna floated near a ceiling as high as the summit.
"Open, gate of heaven."
Nane's sermon activated and a steel-colored sword shot up vertically to embed itself deep in the iron sphere.
The sphere split into fragments and a dark orb formed, drawing the iron shards inward.
"Come on. To heaven."
The cave trembled violently.
"Danger!"
Shura warned, but Nane watched the way the dimensional passage contorted with interest.
"So you blocked one dimension with another."
"Huh?"
As Shura questioned, the dimensional passage spat out fragments and rapidly reassembled into the original orb.
"Blocking dimension with dimension."
Nane turned toward the exit and asked, "Was this your doing?"
Shura frowned when she saw a group blocking the exit.
"Miro."
Miro sat on the back of Arius, who crouched like a dog, and Sion's chief of staff, Sein, stood by her side.
"How did you get here?"
Miro rose and said, "Why ask that now? You opened the inner world, so the next target would naturally be heaven. But it won't be easy. I've studied this path a lot."
As Shura snorted to retort, Nane took a step forward and asked first.
"Seeker, do you defy my will?"
Miro considered Nane's first impression.
'This one is the current Buddha.'
One who had traversed every teaching and every contrary apostle and finally awakened to what is right.
'Is that the gaze that pierces the universe?'
A thin body draped in tatters with a hood; tattoos densely covering face and arms — likely the whole body.
'But…'
If she felt a resemblance to Shirone, would that be strange?
"The word 'defy' grates on my ears. As long as neither side gives up, this fight won't end."
Sadness clouded Nane's eyes.
"So I intend to finish it."
"No."
The avatar of Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara flared.
"Give up, Nane. You must give up."
To Miro, who saw the whole with no corners, the highest place was everywhere. In the stage of Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara that contemplates all places, Arius gladly lowered himself to bolster its presence.
"Woof! Grrr!"
Shura wrapped herself around Nane from behind.
"Pathetic mortal you are."
Assuming a serpent's traits, her tongue — red as blood — slithered out long to mock Miro's party.
"How dare you threaten a Buddha?"
Sein's iron-wheel gaze spun rapidly.
'False god, Shura.'
Even she, who denied everything in the world, could not deny Nane's rightness.
'Their realms match Miro's. We should leave Nane to Miro and pincer Arius.'
As if thinking the same, Arius rose.
"Leave it to me."
Miro could not answer.
'No spell even makes a scratch. It's orthodox to quickly subdue them with a powerful Axing.'
Even if Buddha were right, a transformation technique that twists the Law would still bite.
"We need a private word."
At Nane's command, Shura stepped away and headed for the exit, and Arius and Sein turned their bodies too.
"Miro, be careful."
Even if she didn't win, if Miro died here the balance of the world would tip rapidly.
"I know."
Of course Miro knew, but she couldn't expect to survive while trying to kill them.
'I have to bet my life.'
When Sein, Arius, and Shura left the cave, Nane stepped a little closer.
"A truly benevolent avatar."
Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara was also an aspect of Buddha.
"But your era has passed. Now put everything in my hands and wake from your dream."
A deafening blast sounded outside the cave.
'They've started on that side.'
At that moment, numbers and sequences unfurled at tremendous speed in Miro's mind, which had cleared of all other thought.
"Buddha, if you are truly merciful…"
The avatar of Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara rose to the cave's ceiling and unfurled thousands of arms like a fan.
"Could you not even embrace their dreams?"
The question of emptiness.
At the instant Nane's head tilted, the Avalokiteshvara unleashed its Axing.
'I cannot cry.'
The palms of Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara traced huge arcs and flew in from Nane's left and right.
'I cannot weep for their dreams.'
As time compressed, the number of afterimages multiplied.
'Because I created those dreams.'
Conversely, the more afterimages there are, the faster one can reach a single instant.
'I am the one who must close them.'
An incredible speed.
In the end, those afterimages felt real because the impact of a single strike was measured as the sum of all instances.
'Strike!'
That kind of Axing.
'I can—absolutely—no—evade—this…'
Within time's division another division formed, and Miro's thoughts slowed without limit.
'Die—'
The universe stopped.
Looking up at Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara's palms, which now had no afterimages, Nane thought about compassion for dreams.
'Mercy for dreams…'
Drdrdrdrdr!
When Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara suddenly trembled, Nane's eyes, snapping out of thought, registered something odd.
'It's faster now.'
Paaaah!
The pressure from the palms colliding blew the cave ceiling away.
Through the dust, Miro clicked her tongue.
"Tch! It missed!"
By a hair's breadth, Nane had launched himself out through the cave ceiling and now hovered above, looking down at Miro.
"Is that the spirit that protects the world?"
Nane's tongue flicked.
"Sermon — Mind-Web."
Thousands of swords formed a net, covering the ascending Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara that had burst from the cave.
'A sealing of the avatar technique?'
As the Law was nullified and Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara struggled, Nane pointed at Miro.
"One who holds the Buddha's mind."
A sword born at his fingertip began to spin.
"I am Buddha."
The sword spun at incomprehensible speed and drove into the spot where Miro stood. A second later, the peak warped and twisted like a coiled spring — creak!
Kugugugugug!
Amid the mountain's collapse the center exploded, and Miro emerged between the flying rocks.
"All right! Let's finish this — you and me!"
As Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara swelled without end and tore the Mind-Web, Nane's eyes shone.
"Prajnaparamita."
Pure Land.
An avatar larger than a planet produced afterimages of over two hundred million arms to press in on Nane.
'Can this even be avoided?'
If he could jump out of the star, yes — but Nane, inheriting Anke Ra's system, would not tolerate breaking the rules.
"Sermon. Open."
Crossing his arms in an X, two swords formed at Nane's fingertips and spun around wildly.
Centered on that circle, the world expanded and the twin bodies of Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara compressed it from both sides.
"Krrrrr!"
Like crushing a huge ball with both hands to burst it, the air trembled and the ground shook.
"I won't run."
Miro steeled herself for death.
"I'll put everything on the line and fight."
She was one who gave, not one who kept the game going.
"Samadhi—"
Miro's consciousness was sucked into the void, and as Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara's speed soared the air compressed.
With a sound as if iron were being crumpled, the three who had been fighting on the opposite peak turned their heads.
'Samadhi? How stupid.'
They had ultimately done it.
"No!"
The moment Shura shouted, the Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara that covered the sky clapped its palms together.
"…!"
Ears failed to receive the sound; nerves went numb and the world went black.
With no sensation, consciousness drifted away.
'Damn! Shock!'
Specialized in the mental domain, they each leveraged their faculties to protect their minds.
'Miro—!'
Uncertain whether she stood or lay, broken or whole, Sein prayed.
'Just stay alive.'
The echoes of the great roar shook Zhongtian.