Face to Face (2)
'I can see.'
The world, which had been saturated with Agape's signal, began to regain its colors.
Miro, who had descended to the surface, swept her gaze around.
The city of Bashka, which had once teemed with demons, was now desolately empty as if nothing had happened.
"Auu. Auu."
Even those with a high concentration of demonic energy—stronger demons—were half-melted and crawling on the ground.
'Half of them are gone.'
Judging by population density, at least sixty million demons had been annihilated.
Bashka itself was almost completely wiped out.
The only demons left alive were those beyond Agape's range, outside Bashka's walls.
'But the important thing is…'
All the people in the city, aside from the demons, had not suffered a single injury.
"They lived."
The citizens who had come to their senses sprang to their feet.
"We're alive! We're alive!"
Only when their shouts rose to the sky did the group truly feel the reality.
'Shirone…'
Always a welcome face, but now his return made hearts race as if someone had come back from the dead.
"Whew."
Shirone, who had finally descended to the surface, took a long breath and, smiling, looked around at everyone.
"Hello?"
Even that casual greeting was enough to bring tears to people's eyes.
"Shi—"
Just as Amy opened her mouth and stepped forward—
"Shirone!"
Nade, who had cast Spark, closed the distance in an instant and pulled Shirone into a hug.
"You bastard! What the hell happened? You could at least tell us!"
"Sorry. There were circumstances."
Nade knew Shirone too well to want a long explanation.
"Haah, really… I never doubted you'd come. Iruki planned, I prepared, and Shirone always solves problems."
"I honestly thought you were dead."
When the elemental bomb's timer dropped below ten seconds, my heart was in my throat.
Nade suddenly spoke up. "We have to tell Iruki. He's in a situation where every minute and second matters. If we're careless—"
"It's fine. Iruki knows."
"Huh?"
It was impossible that Shirone would have gone to the temple first if he'd known about the elemental bomb.
'That's not his sort of thing.'
He's the kind to have his priorities pulled by urgency. But that too is just human common sense—no one can fix two crises at once.
"Shirone."
Shirone turned at Rian's voice.
"Rian."
No fuss. In this horrible battlefield, she must have been the only one he could forget for a while and keep fighting.
Whether from pride in that fact or something else, Rian smiled and nudged Amy's back.
"Ah."
Nade had beaten her to it, but Rian's chest fluttered with relief nonetheless.
'Am I ready to meet Shirone?'
Having done everything possible, warm hope had faded, leaving only cold reality.
At the moment when everything had to be faced—
'Shirone…'
He looked almost inhuman.
"You've grown stronger, Amy."
It sounded like consolation, and the first emotion Amy felt was unease.
"I worked hard. I joined the Valkyries, got special training from Master Garcia, and… I tried to list as many things as I could."
"I risked my life to fight alongside you, wandering the battlefield. I nearly—"
She could barely bring herself to step closer to Shirone.
"I almost died, but—"
As Amy painfully stifled her sorrow, Shirone spoke while looking at her.
"I'm sorry."
He meant it.
"I hurt you. I shouldn't have said those things. I was the worst boyfriend."
"What are you—"
Amy forced strength into her trembling lips.
"What do you mean worst? You did your best. It's because I'm weak that I couldn't fight beside you—"
"No."
Shirone shook his head.
"I was the weak one." Those around them waited for Shirone's first sincere confession from this new plane.
"Because I was weak, I said those awful things. You must have suffered as much as I did, and I made you shoulder my pain too." The Ultima System is possible because all beings possess hearts.
"So…"
Trying to imagine the wounds Amy had borne, Shirone continued.
"Fight with me. Whatever the outcome, I will never leave your side."
Their friends smiled as Amy's shoulders trembled with emotion.
…Huu
Amy clenched her fists and nodded.
'I won't cry.'
Until this war is over with everyone, she wouldn't shed a single tear.
Meanwhile, the heavenly army watching outside Bashka's walls was briefly stunned.
Satiel, in particular, had felt something close to terror since Agape's light erupted.
'What is this?'
It was certainly a type of hexa, but the sensation was unlike anything she had experienced.
'Is this included in Gev's erasure?'
She felt it was different, because it lacked the particular disgust.
'In the end, it's something I don't know. But also… something I do know.'
Having attempted memory restoration countless times, the only reasonable inference for her was one possibility.
'If it is Gev itself.'
If Agape hadn't experienced it but it was related to Gev, the contradiction would be resolved.
'So if that light is Gev…'
Satiel's gaze turned to Ikael, but Ikael's expression remained cold and unreadable.
'Why?'
If Ikael had recovered her memories, she should have reacted shockingly to that light.
'Could it be she hasn't regained them?' Satiel, who had been scrutinizing Ikael, shook her head fiercely.
'No, it's the opposite of normal. Even I, whose memories aren't restored, felt a psychic rupture.'
That the holy radiance showed no tremor meant she was deliberately controlling her mind.
'She's alive, then.'
Ikael looked down at the scene where the demons had vanished and millions of humans had been saved.
"Are you relieved?"
Nane's question made Ikael turn her head.
"I don't have any special feelings toward humans…"
"Someone once said that speech without heart is only a shell." When Ikael fell silent, Shura stepped forward. "How do you feel, Buddha? Many demons have died and humans have survived."
Nane—
"I opened the realm of spirits."
He looked down quietly at the citizens who had been given back a chance at life.
"I called the demons, and in return many humans suffered. Do you think that's cruel?"
"You're happy they survived? Of course I am. But demons are the spirit of that age. They're not alien corpses from somewhere else."
Nane pinched the bridge of his nose with a sad expression.
"When did humans start suffering and fearing because of mere demons?"
Shura could not answer.
"Did I open hell? No, I opened an age. Even before the realm of spirits opened, someone had to endure those terrible pains. Now they've taken shape and engulfed everyone. Among those rejoicing over there, how many will be spared responsibility for the hell of this age?"
"But humans originally—"
"There was a time."
Nane, who had swallowed Anke Ra's dream, knew of a humanity that existed long ago.
"A humanity so strong it had nothing to fear from the spirit of an age."
The archangels nodded.
'That's right.' In Heaven's history, demons had never once held truly overwhelming power.
'The Gaia people fought the gods. There was no foothold for demons against their conviction.'
They had no fear of what they carried within themselves.
"Therefore, I still cannot decide on the necessity of my existence."
Nane said, "I will go and hear it for myself."
The heavenly army that had crossed Bashka's walls landed on the street where Shirone stood.
Separated by a single block, the Yahweh of the Age and the Buddha of the Age faced one another.
One by one the sounds faded, and finally a silence without even a breath settled.
Nade swallowed dryly.
'My heart's going to burst.'
Just looking at those arrayed behind Nane conveyed an overwhelming presence.
'So that's an archangel. Is that Ikael Shirone spoke of? She's probably already—'
"Don't be tense."
Miro put a hand on Nade's shoulder.
"You won't know until you try. We're not exactly pushovers either. Including you, of course."
The smile eased his nerves.
"Ah—"
Only then did the faces of those guarding Shirone come fully into view, and chill ran through the watchers.
'And me.'
Nade, the self-proclaimed strongest electric mage.
'I'll finish this fight.'
As he flashed his eyes and looked forward, Shirone stepped out alone.
"Hey, you—?!"
Shirone turned and gave a teasing grin.
"I'll be back."
Only then did Nade notice Nane stepping forward alone from the heavenly ranks.
Each step the Yahweh and the Buddha took toward one another felt like an aeon.
Dante, watching intently, let out a short laugh.
'Brings back memories.'
At the Magic Academy, in the two-thousandth grand battle, Shirone and Dante had walked like that.
'We never failed, did we?'
Two people who had only known winning faced off, and Dante lost.
'That loss…'
In a way it was a relief, because it freed him from the compulsion to always win and let him savor life.
'But you still carry it.'
As afterimages of blades rose around Nane, Shirone manifested a hexagonal hexa.
'Go.'
Dante urged Shirone with his gaze.
'There's the world's end.'
Shirone shattered the hexa into golden smoke, and Nane's swordfire rose like thorns; they met, forehead to forehead.
As the two stared at each other, every onlooker had the same thought.
'They resemble each other.'
Though Shirone's pure features and Nane's tattooed face were never the same… it was as if the left and right had been reversed in a mirror—two identical people.
"What lies on the other side of the mirror?" Miro asked. "If so, which of them is the real one?"
Nane's swordfire bristled like barbs, and simultaneously the Miracle Stream split and surged.
Kukukukukukuku!
Every time the swordfire—its afterimages numbering in the thousands—was wrapped in the smoke of light, it made viewers' eyes swim.
"The moment the first step is taken, the fight begins."
They were only blocking each other's path; neither had ever stopped walking.
'I will break through.'
Shirone ground his teeth and scowled, and without fail Nane made the same expression.
'What is necessary?'
Billions' worth of concepts asking that question—and all their harmonies—assaulted Shirone in the form of blades.
'There is no must.'
As the Miracle Stream coiled around Nane's sword, all those concepts scattered like delusions.
'Not so cold. That's the heart.'
As hexa and swordfire crashed with a roar, no one in either camp dared to intervene.
'Like colliding equals.'
Even merely facing each other felt as if the law of the world were tearing apart.
"The world is only one, anyway."
Miro said. "What remains for two people who have perfectly defined that world is only a difference of perspective—like a mirror. But the problem is, nobody knows who stands inside the mirror. And because both are perfect, neither can ever be shattered."
Sein asked, "Then what happens?"
"Therefore what breaks will be the perspective. The moment the mirror shatters, they will realize it themselves."
Who will fall into shards.