In the Flower Garden (4)
Imir couldn't annihilate Geopin, but merely delaying Geopin's movements for so long meant the plan's original purpose had been fulfilled.
On the day the tragedy began, Ikael fled with the child cradled in her arms.
Anke Ra used the Akashic Record to strip Ikael of her powers, and countless angels and Maras descended.
Ashur, Rete, Ramus.
Ikael's three principal guardians fought fiercely, but with her powers gone there was no way to hold out.
Two Maras were destroyed in the brutal clash, and only Ashurma survived—gravely wounded.
Ikael and the child were locked in heaven's prison, and not long after the execution date was set.
The throng gathered in the square pointed and shouted at Ikael.
"Punish the fallen angel! Pain! Annihilation!"
Humbled before those she once ruled, Ikael thought only of her child.
"Please! Kill me instead—just spare the child, our child!"
The Maras jeered.
"Shut up! What kind of angel are you? Noble spirit? You reek of filth!"
Shirone wept.
'Ikael.'
Even though this was the second time she'd seen it, the moment she saw Ikael wail she couldn't hold back her feelings.
Everyone's eyes were full of contempt.
"Kill her! Kill the fallen creature!"
Kariel, above all, glared at Ikael with a look that was closer to loathing than mere disdain.
'She bore a human child?'
How that could even be possible was something no one wanted to understand.
'The archangel we once held most sacred… harbored beastly desire.'
"Please, please—only the child… I beg you."
Ikael turned to the archangels with a pleading face, but they all averted their eyes.
Only Kariel met her gaze, and his aureole trembled violently.
'Why would you do such a thing?'
Why on earth?
Why would the most powerful, pure, beloved angel need such a lump of flesh?
'Then what am I? Ikael, what are we angels to you?'
To varying degrees, every angel thought the same thing.
"Wah—wah."
The child sobbed mournfully.
It looked like an animal instinct sensing death, but Shirone knew the truth.
The child was simply responding to Ikael's voice.
"Begin the execution!"
Odiel, angel of punishment, sent forward a triangular Mara wielding a massive axe.
When the flame that spewed from its nostrils touched the child, Ikael lost her composure.
"No! Stop! Aaaah! Aaaah!"
Her amplification had been sealed, but her screams tore across the heavens.
"Ugh—" In a corner of the sanctuary, Satiel, cowering and abandoned, heard the sound and clutched his head.
"Argh! Argh!"
Every time Ikael screamed, the halo around Shirone felt as if it were cracking into pieces.
"How long are you going to whine?"
Metiel, archangel of Conjunction, entered.
Seeing Satiel curled up and half-crazed, his expression turned harsh at once.
"Isn't this what you wanted? And now you act weak? Do you even feel guilty?"
"Leave."
Satiel's voice was ice-cold, but Metiel only grew angrier.
"You're not fit to be an archangel. Too weak. You used to follow Ikael so devoutly, then you betray her and play the victim. What kind of angel are you—"
Metiel fell silent.
Satiel had risen, and a deadly light burned in his eyes that silenced him.
"What did you say? Say it again. I'll kill you."
"Did I do wrong? No—it's Ikael who sinned. She bore a human child. Yes, I did what an angel must do. Anke Ra even praised me. So what?"
Satiel found a way to free himself from pain.
"Yes—humans are the problem. Those worthless lumps of flesh that spoil the world."
Satiel's gaze, cold as law, was absolute in its contempt.
"All right."
Metiel had no choice but to answer that way.
Push Satiel any further and they might break angelic taboos.
"Behead her!"
At the shout, the triangular Mara's axe severed the child's neck.
"Aaaah! Aaaah!"
Ikael, half-mad, let out a howl that even the archangels found unbearable.
"My baby! Our baby!"
Weeping tears like blood, Ikael contorted her face and screamed.
"You cursed things!"
Her madness had another dimension; even the archangels and the crowd turned to look at her.
"What sin did I commit? Open the Baekgyeong! I will reveal everything myself!"
"Baekgyeong? Haha, do you still think you're an archangel?"
Stung by the Maras' mockery, Ikael's eyes blazed as she continued.
"I am innocent! The sin isn't mine but Anke Ra's! I will expose everything he did!"
'She's completely lost it.'
Every angel thought so.
"Listen carefully! Anke Ra is not god! At the talks with Geopin—"
Time stopped.
Memories began to vanish from every mind, angels included.
At that moment Shirone understood.
'When I first met Ikael in heaven.'
She had been imprisoned in Arabot for a grave sin, yet everyone had forgotten what that sin had been.
'Ikael's sin wasn't hers.'
What Anke Ra truly wanted to erase was his own sin—breaking his promise to Geopin.
'God broke a promise. Lied.'
Was there a clearer sign that this world was unstable?
Because of Geopin, things had already gone to their worst, and Anke Ra couldn't perform a full reset.
'If he reset, Geopin would get another chance.' So he chose to erase only a specific incident from the Akashic Record.
Erasing it this way would create rifts in the whole, but leaving it intact would destroy everything.
Shirone stroked Ikael's sleeping face with a mix of pity and reverence.
'Forget.'
Perhaps this was the only rest possible.
The humans whose memories were erased continued their busy lives as before.
The angels, too, carried out their duties dutifully despite the hollowness left in their recollection.
'I have sinned.'
Only Ikael remained trapped in Arabot's chamber, never stepping out.
'I gave Anke Ra an unhealable wound.'
All that remained for her was guilt.
'What sin could it have been?'
The other archangels were tracking the last Gaia, McClane Geopin.
If even one specimen remained, the complete dismantling of the Ultima system would be impossible.
'Geopin. I should know, but I can't remember.'
The knowledge that had filled her aureole was gone, leaving only a feeling.
They fought, quarreled, shouted.
'That feeling.'
Yet on the other hand—
'Were we… happy?'
It made little sense.
The only thing Shirone could guess was that she had known him for an exceedingly long time.
'I'm not an archangel commander anyway. No need to worry until I atone for my sin.'
On a night with a crescent moon, Ikael rose from her bed.
"Who's there?"
Beyond a curtain of darkness untouched by moonlight stood a human as tall as an angel.
"It's me."
The moment she saw Geopin's face, Ikael went still.
"A Gaia? How are you here?"
As Ikael tried to rise, Geopin smiled and reached out a hand.
"It's okay. Just sit."
Like a spell, she found herself filled with a quiet desire to remain seated.
"Sorry. It's all my fault. I couldn't keep my promise."
Geopin knelt on one knee and took Ikael's wrist; Ikael hastily pushed her hand away.
If the one before her was the only Gaia, there was no need to ask a name.
"Geopin, where do you think you're going? I'll catch you and hand you over to Anke Ra this instant."
At that cold voice, Geopin's heart sank.
'You are my everything.' She wanted to shout that they loved each other, that they were bound wholeheartedly.
Geopin wiped her tears and spoke.
"I came to say goodbye."
Only Geopin knew how much Ikael grieved the loss of the child.
'You don't have to remember. Forget forever.'
If forgetting would ease Ikael's pain, Geopin was willing to go.
"You mean you'll abandon your life?"
Ikael, not understanding, asked as if the thought had only then occurred to her.
"No—why would you say that to me?"
Geopin could not hold back.
"Because I love you."
"Nonsense! Is this all some trick to humiliate me? Even now you—hng?"
Ikael, furious, stopped mid-sentence when she felt something running down her cheek.
"Why?"
Light tears streamed like a waterfall.
Geopin watched and smiled sadly, eyes wet.
"Memories may vanish, but emotions remain."
That was the heart.
"So even if you can't remember, you won't be left without sorrow. I'll take your heart with me."
Ikael's tear hovered in the air and settled onto Geopin's palm.
"Emotions remain?"
Ikael was still confused.
'Why won't the tears stop? Why does it hurt so much? What did I even do with this human…?'
"No need to struggle. As long as a heart remains, one day you'll understand everything. And then…"
Geopin stroked Ikael's cheek.
"Don't be sad."
She rose and softly kissed the aureole; Ikael shuddered.
'This feeling. This touch.'
It was unmistakable.
Not merely familiar, but as if it had warmed her a thousand times through a lifetime.
"Take care, Ikael."
Geopin's body turned to light and vanished; Ikael could only watch.
Silence fell over the room again.
"Ah… ahhh."
As if something in her mind had broken, Ikael's tears didn't stop all night.
Geopin fled to avoid the archangels' pursuit and landed where the Ark of Sojeonghwa had come ashore.
Shirone's planet.
'It's changed a lot.'
Humans born from the bodies of giants looked different from Geopin, but their lives followed similar paths.
They must also be descendants of the Gaia.
'Still primitive, then.'
Some settlements had formed early civilizations, but reaching the truth was distant.
Turning her back on civilized zones—where endless, bloody wars were waged for wealth—Geopin strode through the planet's wilderness.
'This isn't the time to intervene.'
Even if she revealed the world's secrets to them, nothing would change.
"What should I do now?" The civilized areas were tiny; Geopin walked the wilds and thought.
She had sealed Ikael's heart with a hex, but the loss of the child still cut deep.
"It's hollow."
Perhaps that was the world.
Needing time to reflect, Geopin stopped for the first time.
She crossed the surface of a vast lake on foot and sat, legs folded, on a lotus.
"All right, I'll be taking refuge for a while. Please look after me."
Though it was only a plant that could neither hear nor speak, it was her only companion.
"My heart is badly wounded. No one to lament to."
Going back through time, Geopin recalled when it all began.
"A very long time ago, there was a race called the Gaia."
It was a tale spanning forty thousand years.