Black Cloaks (2)
Void, Vice Director of the Fire Resource Management Corporation.
He arrived at the Karma Administration Bureau after being summoned and bowed at Rete's instruction.
"Yes. Yes."
Unlike Monoras, Void handled matters reliably—and he didn't seem greedy at all.
"When you get to Laviette, meet with the Chief Secretary. He's running a bit late… Anyway, after that go to the duke and tell him what I said."
"Understood."
She'd liked, on impulse, to hand over full authority to Void.
'Ugh, that hateful pig.'
But thinking of the humiliation Monoras would suffer softened her resolve.
"Then proceed as I said. Assist the Chief Secretary properly. Don't let there be any mistakes."
"...Yes."
The thought of working with Monoras made the future look bleak, but who else was as capable as Rete?
'I will help you, President.'
To Void, Rete was the most reasonable person in hell and the mother of all demons.
'Monoras is the only one who doesn't know that.'
Void left with a cold look. Rete sighed and smoothed her hair back.
"Phew. I'll just rest my eyes for a moment—"
"President!"
Vivian shouted.
"Classification number 4984! Incident at the Wall of Wailing! Rian is there!"
Rete's sleep vanished and she spun around.
"What is it?"
Before Vivian could explain, the screen showed the Wall of Wailing being blown apart.
"Yahweh."
It hadn't entirely collapsed, but thousands of holes had been torn through it and people were pouring out.
"Has that fool gone mad? If he's going to leave anyway, why wreck the storeroom—what a mess! How much is the loss?"
"It looks like he collided with the Black Cloaks. The losses are huge, but more than that, the system error—"
Vivian pointed at Rian.
"What do we do?" Rete watched the screen intently; color drained from her face.
"Just a little longer!"
Rian, who had been running up the left wall, finally found the top and leapt.
KWA-ANG!
A powerful explosion turned his body; the Wall of Wailing, full of holes like Swiss cheese, came into view.
"Rian!"
Shirone shouted.
"See you at the end!"
Crossing the Wall of Wailing was the only way to reach the Fire Resource Management Corporation.
Spreading his wings, Shirone sprinted to avoid the Black Cloaks, and Rian looked ahead as he ran.
Many more Black Cloaks blocked the path than Shirone had faced.
"Gehenna?"
They were targets for purification.
"O existence bound to the pain of conflagration, you were not meant to enjoy freedom. By what arrogant trick do you break your chains and roam?"
Rian leveled his Daejikdo.
"Because I decided to."
Cause is followed by effect—fate is a code that can't be altered by any trick.
'Is this even possible?'
To the Black Cloaks, the shock felt like the dead returning to life.
"...Purify them."
The Black Cloaks surged like smoke.
"Punish the sinful!"
Their black cloaks rippled like liquid, billowed up like smoke, and flowed through the space.
Black chains shot toward Rian, and a scythe hidden beneath a cloak flashed in an instant.
"Aaaah!"
When Rian's Daejikdo unleashed a single blade of Bujeongbak, the darkness ahead split cleanly down the middle.
- Grrrr! How—
Their unpredictable movements were cut down in one stroke, and the Black Cloaks' alarm level spiked.
"Be careful. This is the pinnacle of a single strike."
Like the zeta function.
Just as you can't find a prime pattern in the infinity of numbers, Rian's rhythm could not yet be defined.
'Definitely a rhythm not of hell. It's so messy even the gods would frown.'
Bujeongbak packed every possible sword form into a single straight line.
'Approach clumsily and you'll be cut to pieces.'
It was a technique of time, not space—its results born of effort, not talent.
"Aaaah!"
Rian slashed and advanced; nothing stood in his way.
The Black Cloaks struggled to stop him, but hands crawled up from the floor.
"Don't go."
An arm that had wrapped his ankle was torn off, yet more hands clung to Rian.
"Now! Finish him quickly!" Wishing him ill and remembering Shirone's words, Rian stomped the ground.
"Move!"
Hands rising along his path rippled like reeds.
Some people tore themselves from the wall and crawled up over Rian's body.
A torso-only man with a dangling spine screamed.
"Don't go! You can't go!"
"Uaaah!"
As Rian tried to shake them off and run, he felt scorching flames surge from his chest.
'Of all times…' Ugh! Gehenna's chains shot out from his sternum and hammered into the Wall of Wailing in every direction.
Woooooo!
A brain-shattering scream rang out.
"Grrrr!"
That cry split into discrete emotions and began to worm into Rian's heart.
- Why are you the only one free? We suffer—why are you happy?
shut up
You are
"Shut up!"
- Let's die together. Let's suffer together.
You're
I can't stand it if you're free.
Gehenna's chains were pulled free.
"Shut your mouth!"
Like a tangle of sweet potato vines, hundreds of people were hauled out in clumps along the chains.
- You're the same as us. You are… one of us.
Their voices penetrated deep into him and woke Rian's hidden nature.
"Ugh!"
Rian clenched his teeth; veins bulged in his neck and blood welled at his eyes.
'Ozent Ra, was it?'
When his second brother had landed a killing stroke, everyone in the sword clan had said,
"Compared to him, Rian has no talent."
"No, worse—he seems to have no understanding of swordsmanship at all."
On his way home from training, Rian had heard their whispers.
"You're so far behind it'll be hard for you to stay in service. If you go off track, you'll become a burden on your brother. Better give up now."
The voices echoed.
- You hated Rai. You must have wanted to kill him. Why does he have what I don't?
"Rai is just Rai."
The person Rian truly wanted to kill—
Three thousand people were dragged behind Rian as he cut down Black Cloaks.
"Aaah!"
As one grabbed the chained, another grabbed him, and the number swelled without end.
He felt the weight—over six tons.
'I won't give up!' He couldn't shake off those clinging to him. There was only one simple thing he could do.
'Move. Two legs…'
It was all any human could do.
'There really are geniuses in this world.'
When he'd lost a real duel to Shirone in the Ozent training hall, Rian realized.
'I will never become like that.'
A feeling he had to accept.
'It's a bit… bitter.'
In a defeat he couldn't even feel toward Rai, Rian had to choose.
'Do what I can.' The things anyone could do.
The voices whispered.
- You must be jealous of Shirone. You just want to be near him because he shines too brightly.
"No."
- Actually, you'd want to kill him. If someone gave you the power to kill Shirone, you'd take it. Because you're jealous.
"Shirone is just Shirone."
The person Rian truly wanted to kill— "Kyaaa! Don't go! Don't go!" As Rian ran fourteen kilometers, a massive lump of people was dragged behind him.
"Let's die together! Let's die together!"
Estimated mass: ninety-four tons.
"Say whatever you want! I will never stop!"
The person Rian truly wanted to kill was—
'Myself.'
All the pain, all the training, all the despair—over them he finally reached the future Ozent Rian.
"Grab him! Grab him! Don't let him escape! Everyone up! Grab him!"
Estimated mass: one hundred eighty-seven tons.
"Keaaah! Bury him here! You will become like us and live as a wall!"
Rian never stopped moving his legs.
'Yes, keep interfering! Beat me as much as you like! No matter how you trample me, even if you pray for my death!'
The future Rian waiting ahead pointed his Daejikdo at the present Rian.
"I will not stop!"
Estimated mass: three hundred and two tons.
Despite the burden, Rian's speed didn't drop; the Black Cloaks continued to fall back.
- Attack. Now we can kill him.
Black Cloaks came from every direction but were swept aside by the single Daejikdo blade honed by Bujeongbak.
"Bring it on! Do whatever you want!" If his acceleration dropped, it would be over.
Feeling the load on the chains growing exponentially, Rian grit his teeth.
"I—"
Every day he grew stronger.
"I am—"
He failed until he could no longer fail.
'Repeat what anyone can do; fill a day with it.'
Compress those days like seconds again…
"I am!"
He leapt across vast swathes of time!
"Yaaah!"
Gehenna's chains heated red and the bodies clinging to him burst into flame.
"Kyahaa! No! No!"
Those who refused to let Rian go hugged the chains with their whole bodies.
"It hurts! It hurts!" The flames were too hot for them to bear the burden he carried.
'It's time!'
The future Rian, as if acknowledging him, nodded and charged.
Rian raised the Daejikdo.
"I will kill you."
This place is mine now.
- Avoid!
As the Black Cloaks watched the chained turn to ash, they scattered.
"Divine Transcendence."
At last the two Rians met and swung their Daejikdos at one another.
....
The future Rian's cut divided everything before him up and down.
- Kieeee! Th-this is…!
Where the Black Cloaks had dissolved like smoke, the end of the Wall of Wailing came into view.
'We've arrived.'
Using his last strength to push off the rooftop, Shirone's voice came from the left.
"Rian!"
He was a wreck, but his face—waving a hand at Rian—was pure and bright.
"Shirone."
My unreachable sun.
'Still.'
Rian smiled at Shirone and turned his head to the wide-open horizon.
'We're running side by side.'
The half-collapsed and burning sections of the Wall of Wailing saw them off.
The Karma Administration Bureau fell silent.
Rete paced with a dazed face, staring at the screen.
"Ah—"
Her head finally cleared, though the pounding headache was no comfort.
"How bad is the damage?" she asked, rubbing the back of her neck. Vivian's face looked a little frightened as she answered.
"About 83 billion Des."
"Oh-ho."
Rete nodded briskly, but once she started moving she couldn't stop.
"Eighty-three billion. Eighty-three billion Des… Let's see—about two duchies gone, right?"
"Yes."
Rete stamped her foot.
"These damned humans! The company's already in a terrible state and they deal me losses like this? Impossible! I'll go myself! Call the Vice Director back!"
Vivian blurted out in haste.
"You should start recovery first. If President Rete is absent in this situation, the company will be paralyzed." Rete's breathing grew rough as she fell into thought, then she howled.
"Does God even exist?"