The Weight of Existence (2)
Just before her consciousness faded, Maya saw a streak of light cross her retina.
'Am I dead?'
She barely had time for the thought before feeling the weight of her body and snapping back to awareness.
"Shirone?"
Perhaps that's who she expected.
But when her vision cleared, Kayden stood before her.
"Are you all right?"
His voice was as gentle as ever, but Maya sensed at once that something had changed.
"Mm. About that… I'm sorry."
Kayden only smiled; then, in an instant, he wiped the smile away and walked toward Constantine.
"Why did you try to kill Maya?"
"Kruuugh!"
His arms had been severed, but divine power stopped any bleeding.
'It's nothing.'
He barely registered the pain.
'Because God exists.'
Proof of the outside world made every value in this reality meaningless.
"Not even death scares me." Before Constantine—who drew divine power by using life as fuel—a rank of golden shields formed.
"The army of God."
Within the Rami Church, the pope was the one spoken of as able to stand against Satan. Habitz might have dismissed it, but Constantine's record in the Demon War was historic.
"Come forth, heretic."
Kayden didn't move.
Like someone standing before a drawn bow, tension radiated from within the shield of light.
'Maybe… a spear.'
His instinct was right.
The moment anything entered the radius, countless spears of light would erupt between the shields and form a honeycomb. That was the power of the Church's strongest.
Kayden said, "You were once respected by the world. Go back and get treated while you still can."
Constantine's eyes softened.
"Heh heh. Young man."
Madness flickered into them; he ground his teeth and took a single step forward.
"There is no home here."
Hundreds of spears of light shot through the shield's slits at incredible speed.
Kayden moved before any of them had advanced ten centimeters.
Magic Sword Technique — Island Bone (Wandering Flash).
Light flashed.
The strikes were so quick and light they snapped at acute angles like lost beams, dozens of times.
"Hah!"
When they finally reached their mark, golden lines painted an elegant pattern across the stage.
"Sorry."
He hadn't wanted to send him off like that.
"The sword was too light."
Constantine's spear had extended only 13.7 centimeters.
"Grrrr—"
Red blood welled from Constantine's body, then separated into dozens of fragments that fell away.
Officials from every nation thought the same thing.
'What kind of monster is that now?'
The prophecies had been wrong, and the kingdom faced another enemy it could scarcely contend with.
"Go back."
Albino rose from his seat.
"A fine finale."
A fitting ending for an apocalypse, wasn't it?
As the murmuring spectators left their seats, Reina turned toward the darkness.
'Rai.'
Thanks to Kayden there had been no disaster, but her younger brother still stood guard.
'He must be badly hurt.'
Reina herself had trained in swordsmanship once and could gauge the shock Rai must have taken.
'Remember this. Whether you're outstanding or not, you're family.'
That was Ozent.
After Reina, thoughtful for her brother, left the annex, Rai slipped quietly back into the darkness.
'Flash.'
There was that level of finesse.
'Cut the fastest. Cut the most discreetly. Cut the most powerfully. Most, most, most.'
When everyone else poured themselves into a single path, what had she been doing?
'Damn it.'
Maybe… the Ozent family's true value was just her, she thought.
Meanwhile, Kayden descended from the stage and walked to where Maya had slipped down toward the audience.
"Maya."
Like when he'd rescued her from the demon Miyo, Kayden's words were predictable.
"I love you."
Maya answered with the line she had prepared.
"Sorry. As I've said before, I'm still not ready—"
"I mean it."
Maya lifted her head.
"I won't run anymore. If you can't accept me, I'll bury it in my heart. It will be hard and painful, but I'll carry it and live."
"Kayden…"
For the first time, his words pierced her heart.
'I'll stake everything.'
As Kayden approached, Maya's thoughts raced in step with her pounding heart.
'What should I do?'
It was time to choose.
'Is this right?'
Being labeled Shirone's substitute or his life-saver would only leave wounds for both of them.
"I—"
The moment she spoke the first word, every memory from the day she met Kayden until now—
'Shirone.'
—gave her certainty.
'Thank you.'
Maya finally smiled and closed her eyes. Kayden kissed her.
Elkiana, seated on the stage, stared with wide eyes.
"You lot are having quite the time."
She only held the expression briefly, then softened into a nostalgic smile.
"Yes, love is a fine thing."
Does fate… truly exist?
Kayden had, for the first time beyond the Red Cross Star's destiny, achieved what he wanted. Whether his breakout came from genuine feeling or simply from a change in the Law—
We were still the universe's lost children, and only God possessed the answer.
"Beep!"
The moment Constantine died, Kittra knelt in a corridor and began emitting strange sounds.
"Beep! Beep! Biiip!"
Noncomputable! Noncomputable! Noncomputable! Noncomputable!
No imaginary function he substituted could yield the desired result.
"Beep beep."
He scanned an infinity of universes.
In negative time, a universe's birth and death happen in an instant, so computation time was zero.
"Biiiiip."
The probability value—the end of this universe—was transmitted into Kittra's mind.
99.9999999999… percent.
"Beep…"
The sound stuttered.
If he were human, he'd have trusted that overwhelming rate and pushed forward. But a god has no heart to trust.
"Beep. Beep."
Repeated calculations still wouldn't produce a full 100 percent, so the root split into two branches.
1. Repeat computations within the current system until 100 percent is reached.
2. Learn and change the system.
Two paths to the concept of perfection.
Execute.
Kittra's eyes flashed with blue electricity as he calculated both cases simultaneously.
"Biiiiip!"
Was it the scream of a god, or merely a system alarm?
"Biiiiip!"
One thing was clear: the god of the outside world couldn't put feeling into sound.
The Green Ocean.
As the Twelve Apostles and the Heavenly Angels fought fiercely, the tide turned sharply.
Blitz's eyes snapped open.
'We will win.'
With the fairies reduced to fewer than half their numbers, the elite few began to shine.
'The power asymmetry is worsening. At this rate the fairies will soon be annihilated.'
The tiny beings enforcing Heaven's Law would later appear only in fairy tales.
At the same time, the elves' hideout lay in ruins.
"Fight! That's not Erin!"
The Crown, riding inside Erin's body, was killing elves at nearly one per second.
"Haha."
Erin laughed coldly.
"This is almost too easy."
Enox, leader of the elves, asked, "Who are you?"
"Don't you know?"
The Crown spread its arms and advanced.
"It's me, Erin."
Enox's face twisted, but his legs remained rooted.
'Victory doesn't matter.'
It was a fight over who would go extinct first.
"Protea."
Enox called to the Flamefolk chieftain.
"Take as many as you can and run. Even one more survivor means a future."
Only a few dozen elves and Flamefolk remained.
'They're annoyingly long-lived.' What had they done across those long ages instead of thinking about reproduction?
'Sing, praise nature, hold debates.'
Enox realized.
'Is that so?'
From a species perspective, humans' absurdly short lives, their ravenous lust, their insatiable greed—
'Sometimes I pitied them.'
But that very nature let humans endure and advance through countless crises.
"Protea."
Enox gripped his sword and shouted, "Go!"
Moved by the force in his shout, Protea surrendered to extreme passivity and cried, "Follow me!"
At the same instant, Enox charged Erin.
"Estacion!"
Thousands of razor winds swept outward, and blood spurted from Enox's neck.
"No!"
Somehow, Erin—now distant—brushed blood from his blade and pursued the Flamefolk.
Looking up at the sky, Enox thought, 'Strong.'
He vaguely sensed this was neither elf nor fairy.
'A third race.'
There was no regret.
'The strong survive; that is nature.'
With a thud, his torso collapsed. Red blood spread fast and slow where he had fallen.
'Yahweh.'
At the end of life, what remained was…
'Save the Flamefolk.' Only faith.
The Crown wiped blood from his cheek.
'A draw, then?'
By now the fairies were likely annihilated too, but he was no longer a fairy.
"You're the last one, then."
The Crown approached Protea.
"Since this is a historic moment, say a word. Speak your tribe's will."
"…You've made a grave mistake. The Flamefolk are this world's only hope. You will regret this."
"Record it."
With a single stroke, Protea's head fell.
"As the futile struggle of an extinct species."
Thus the species war ended, leaving a third humanity rather than elves or fairies.
"I am superior."
What the Crown sought was control of humanity from the highest reaches of the human world.
'That is the Illuminati's destiny.'
A control tower balancing between god and man.
"Time to head to the holy war, I suppose."
He didn't know there was barely an hour left until humanity's end.
If he learned, would the Crown side with God or with humanity?
"Because I will rule the world."
Although the jailbreak had broken perfection, God's victory chance still stood at 99.99 percent.
Son Yoojung, who had opened the way for Lethe, sat dazed in the wasteland and didn't move.
Her hair had gone white from making the choice that decided the universe's fate.
"Yoojung."
Mortasinger laid a hand on her shoulder.
"You made the right choice. Yahweh said it—everyone has their own righteousness."
"No."
Son Yoojung shook her head.
"It wasn't righteousness. I couldn't bear it. I couldn't decide that my choice would erase the universe. So I handed it over to Yahweh."
"Yoojung…"
She turned away, choking back tears.
"How do you bear it?"
When she had to choose, she realized what Shirone had been carrying.
"How can Yahweh bear that weight—the responsibility for all those beings, something even death cannot atone for?"