Demon Realm Hell (1)
As the sea roared and healed its wounds, Shirone looked toward the horizon.
Countless points of starlight glittered at the edge of her vision.
From here they looked like stars, but up close they were an enormous shockfield beyond any simple measurement.
Ikael is fighting.
Angels are powerful because their source is conceptual — their abilities aren't tied to a purpose.
The archangel of destruction simply destroys; the archangel of birth can create anything.
That limitless expansiveness of concept is the angels' strength, but to Shirone, who had comprehended all phenomena, their single weakness had become apparent.
The universe.
Even Uriel cannot destroy what lies outside the universe, and whatever Cariel creates still ends up as something that exists within the universe.
But Ikael was different.
Amplification carried the potential to transcend the universe — Gephin had proved that.
The starlight on the horizon suddenly fanned out like the Milky Way, then at once vanished from sight.
A moment later, cutting across the open sea, Ikael flew toward Shirone.
Her radiant form had dimmed and fatigue lined her face, but her eyes held the tired satisfaction of one who had resolved what needed resolving.
"Ah—!"
When Ikael, having spotted Shirone, accelerated further, the sea tens of meters below split into a V.
Tears of light traced the horizon and receded, and without slowing, Ikael wrapped Shirone in an embrace.
"Ugh!"
Shirone uttered a short cry at the impact that felt like a physical blow, yet the force did not transmit.
Just before colliding with the sea, Ikael drew all inertia into her body and came to a stop.
Shirone's tangible presence filled the hollow in Ikael's heart that had long been pierced — and at that moment an indescribable guilt seized her.
"I'm sorry."
That was Ikael's first word.
"It's not your fault."
Their conversation was still awkward, but the emotion behind their words was genuine.
"No. I killed you long ago, and even after regaining my memory I pretended not to know. I have no right to be a parent."
She said it as if it were unavoidable; the guilt she felt was understandable.
"But you can't keep living like this forever. It's better to let go of the past, isn't it?"
Ikael shook her head firmly.
"There are feelings you can't just brush away. To parents, a child is like that. Don't be careless. To look at you without guilt would be even worse."
"All right."
Shirone, lost in thought, spoke.
"Come over here and sit."
At the unexpected invitation, Ikael blinked, but worrying that even a refusal could hurt Shirone, she quietly complied.
"Like this?"
Shirone looked down at Ikael, who bowed reverently, and raised her hand.
A soft light flowed over Shirone like smoke, gathering into her palm and shining with clear transparency.
This is my first step.
As Shirone placed her palm on Ikael's radiant form, a torrent of thoughts flashed through Ikael's mind.
Nane is right.
In a cold world we can't undo what's been done; we only keep turning pain back.
That is why Nane wants every human to realize the truth and break the chains of vexation.
But—
There was a god with a heart.
That god, sacrificing himself, sent a ray of light from outside the world — hope, a messiah.
Hexa.
If it were Nane—
Denying the cold world entirely, embracing everyone's fury with a heart, he would say this.
"Ikael."
He would want to believe things can be reversed.
"I forgive your sin."
A vast love, without conditions, reasons, or grounds, seeped into Ikael's radiant form.
"Ah—!"
Ikael's shoulders trembled.
It felt as if the whole universe were telling her she was all right, that she was safe from it.
I am truly a happy angel. She had received the ultimate heart, absolute universal love — not from one person, but from two.
"Stand."
After that purification, no guilt remained in Ikael's heart.
Even though it was but a heart, that made Shirone pity Ikael.
"How can you do it? Without payment, without reason, you can forgive everything?"
"I don't know."
Shirone answered honestly.
"Maybe it's because I've become stronger. If so, is it hypocrisy? Maybe I'm only imitating what Gephin taught me. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that I can do it."
Unlike law, the heart can be turned back. The world Shirone looked toward was that kind of place.
As Nane says, reality is painful, and if it had never existed there would have been no vexation from the start...
And yet, because it existed, haven't we met like this?
"I believe there is still something here that won't be extinguished just because the universe closes."
"Very well."
Ikael accepted it.
"What do you want to do? I'll help. I'll fight for the world you want."
Because her sincerity came from true purification, Shirone no longer faltered.
"If Nane claims how righteous humans can be, I want to ask him this."
Shirone looked up at the sky and spoke.
"Do you know how vast the human heart can become?"
When Iruki arrived at Bashuka, the shock had somewhat subsided and preparations were underway.
"Iruki."
Shirone went out to meet him.
Seeing Shirone at the gate — she had been in the carriage with him an hour earlier — felt odd.
"How's the mood?"
"It's calmed a bit. Neither good nor bad."
They had sealed Imir, but two of the Five Great Saints had died and they had lost Valkyrie legate Garcia.
They walked toward the Crettaro palace in Tormia, talking.
"What about allied casualties?"
"They haven't been officially tallied yet. The army command will announce it soon."
When they reached the palace where Poni waited, Amy and Naid ran up and hugged Iruki.
"Iruki."
As they comforted one another, Shirone asked Minerva.
"How is Lord Taisung?"
"He hasn't awakened yet. Of course not — he concentrated all of Gaia's power into the five planets. Even if that held back Imir, we shouldn't expect more help from Taisung."
A shadow passed over Shirone's face.
"Above all, the Demon Realm is the problem. We've located most of the legion commanders, but it won't be easy."
Minerva noticed immediately.
I see. Shirone isn't only here.
Right now Shirone was struggling across the worlds where the Twelve Apostles had first taken positions.
What experiences is she having?
She might be battling a demon legion commander, or wiping the tears of a child who'd lost family.
Maybe both.
It would take a circuitry of thought beyond human limits.
If there were a god, that god's mind might share a logic structure similar to Shirone's.
Catching Shirone smile, Minerva looked away as if stung.
"In any case, the reason Lord Taisung came to Bashuka is that the Demon Realm is no longer safe. He wanted to meet Rian in person."
"Me?"
Rian pointed to himself.
"Yes, you. The demon remnants still number too many to ignore. And the legion commanders who can open the Demon Realm are still active. This is probably about countermeasures."
"Hmm."
As Rian pondered what those measures might be, Gaold suddenly began coughing blood.
"Cough! Cough!"
Only a little blood came up, but it seemed there wasn't much left to bring up, and it was pitiful.
Minerva, who had been tending him, turned to Miro and snapped, "Hey, you take over. I'm sick of this."
Miro stared at Gaold hunched on the floor, spitting, then turned away.
"Hmph."
Kangnan walked to a corner, leaning his back against the wall as if not wanting to be involved, and his eyes widened.
"That's the real thing!"
Sein put a hand on Kangnan's shoulder.
"Alright. We'll take him."
When Sein hoisted one of Gaold's arms over his shoulder, Kangnan came up on the other side and straightened him.
"Rest a bit. I'll take you to the room where Zulu is."
Zulu had also been driven to the brink of life and death by Imir's attack.
Gaold, dragging his legs, headed for the door and didn't lift his head until he left the hall.
Miro, following that cold sight, muttered nervously once the door closed.
"I'm sick of this, seriously."
Since reaching the flawless image of omnipresent projection, Gaold's pain could no longer shock her.
It's over now. No matter how much you cling to me, only you will suffer.
She was only angry.
"I'll go rest too. Dismiss for today; we'll talk in detail tomorrow."
Even though crises were unfolding across worlds, no one objected.
The Demon War, Havitz's assassination, the collapse of the Flower Field, the elemental bomb, the Heavenly Army, the sealing of Imir...
All of it had happened in the span of a single day — it was unbelievable.
Tired.
Everyone's eyes were hollow.
Twenty-one kilometers north of Bashuka, the allied corpses shuddered.
After the sound of teeth grinding, a corpse toppled and Paimon crawled out from under the earth.
"Gauuuurgh!"
Dirt mixed with mucus spewed from her throat like an endless fountain.
"Hah! Hah!"
Her face, thrashing to free her buried body, was unrecognizable. Her eyes were gone, her nose rotted, and the only moving joint left was her jaw.
"Kaaak! Kaaak!"
Still, as the demons' supreme commander she refused to stop; shaking her neck relentlessly, her body began to free itself.
Soil fell from beneath a belly swollen a hundred times its original size.
"It's done. It's done."
Paimon had been sent the farthest by the direct hit of Shirone's agape, arriving at this spot 120 meters underground by maximizing every ounce of momentum.
She had instinctively moved to somewhere she could avoid the light the moment it began to dissolve her.
She couldn't remember it clearly.
"Damn YHWH!"
If demons also sprang from the human heart, then Shirone's agape — her universal love — had the power to purify the demons' extreme emotions into their most stable state.
Truly lethal.
She had been reduced to a torso with no limbs, and having eaten dirt her belly was about to burst.
"Guk! Guk!"
She spat dirt several times; it would have been easier to tear open her belly skin and pull herself out.
"Heh heh."
Once she felt slightly better, Paimon laughed maniacally at the night sky.
After all, she had survived.
"I won! YHWH!"
Her plan had been disrupted, but soon the legion commanders scattered across the continents would open the Demon Realm.
"We have won."
Her body began to rot and mutate into a massive pathogen.
The disease that started here would ride the wind to the southwest and, before long, infect the entire world.
"O Satan."
With her thick eyelids melting, she squinted at the moonlight and whispered.
"Lead the world into despair."
Paimon's corpse dispersed like smoke and became a formless reaper that flew toward Bashuka.
The disease was called Emotion Sickness (or Emotion scale) — an unprecedented catastrophe that acted on specific states of the brain to trigger horrific tragedies.