A Horrible Truth (3)
A village near the Pyramid of Truth.
Most people had become In and left, but a few remained in the village.
"Dad! Dad!"
Eighteen-year-old Arti was ecstatic—the story she'd heard since childhood was finally coming true.
"Dad was right! The pyramid! The Pyramid of Truth is shining so brightly!"
"Arti!"
Her burly father rose to his feet.
"I told you clearly! Don't go near the Pyramid of Truth! That place isn't meant for people!"
"But we're fine. We know the hand seals like you taught. We didn't even leave the village."
"Sigh, I can't stop you, can I? You're making your old man gray."
His wife glanced out the window and spoke.
"It seems the time of the prophecy has come. Dear, shouldn't Arti know now as well?"
"Yes! Uh-huh!"
Their father, lost in thought for a moment, went into a room and brought out an old wooden box.
"Come here."
He sat Arti down, opened the box, and revealed aged parchment documents.
"What's this?"
The daughter sounded a little disappointed. Her father smiled.
"A guild oath."
"A guild?"
He turned toward the window.
"No one knows when the Pyramid of Truth was built. But the ancient pharaoh who founded Parah seemed to know a secret passed down orally. So the pharaoh built his tomb to mirror the Pyramid of Truth exactly. He believed that if he slept there, he might one day be resurrected."
"So he was resurrected?"
"Arti, death is the prerogative of the dead. Eternal sleep, the decay of the body—those are things the living imagine. Resurrection would be no different."
She listened, only half understanding.
"The important thing is the ancient pharaoh knew of a god. That knowledge was probably kept secret. But besides the pharaoh, there were others who knew of that god."
He held up the guild oath.
"The stonemasons who explored the Pyramid of Truth and had to build pyramids identical to it—they formed an ancient stonemasons' guild. This is the secrecy oath of that guild, the Freemasons."
Arti examined the seal stamped at the top of the oath.
"Oho."
Inside a triangle identical to the pyramid, a single iris emitted a brilliant halo.
He continued.
"This is the All-Seeing Eye—also called the Eye of Providence. The god's eye that perceives everything in this world. My father's father's father—going back up the line, our ancestors were the ones who built the pyramid."
"So the hand seals you taught me too?"
"Yes. The ancient stonemasons' guild had mysterious abilities. They seem extinct now, but you never know—somewhere the line may continue. All I know are the hand seals I heard from my grandfather."
That alone made the girl's chest tremble.
"So that's why we didn't leave the village. Everyone else changed strangely, after all."
"That's right. But—"
The interior of the house flashed. The father turned his head.
"I think we have to leave now." As the electricity wrapped around the pyramid struck the sky like lightning, space itself tore.
Arti moved to the window.
"...the All-Seeing Eye."
One single iris regarded the world.
"Aaaaah!"
From inside the pyramid, wrapped entirely in electricity, Rukia was flung out with a pop.
She fell to the floor, convulsing, her eyes trembling as if from shock.
"Rukia! Snap out of it!"
What had she seen?
Once a mind had crossed into the realm of Infinity, there was no ordinary way to bring it back.
"Damn it!"
The group looked up at the ceiling where bolts and tangles of electricity spewed from some mechanism.
The electrified bricks shone like transparent glass, and the god's eye hovered in the sky.
'I've seen that before.'
Shirone told the group.
"I'll go."
Kanis said.
"Come with me. I need to see that one."
"No."
Shirone was firm.
"I'm the only one going. I don't even know what's there; I won't drag anyone else into danger."
"Don't be arrogant. You may be strong, but I have my own fight to fight."
"Kanis."
Shirone soothed him.
"If you go, Arin will insist on going too."
"Leave it to me. If that eye really is a god, maybe we can negotiate."
He'd realized it when they went to the Maika ruins.
'Maybe it was my own delusion, but it definitely tried to convey something. About the Guffin...'
"Shirone."
Kanis said, "If words won't work, grab him by the collar and drag him back."
"All right."
He knew that feeling better than anyone and was grateful Shirone conceded.
"Phew."
Outside.
He had only a vague idea, but this was the first time he faced its true form head-on.
"I'll be right back."
The Miracle Stream wrapped around his body; particles of light like dandelion seeds and he passed through the wall.
Ares watched Shirone materialize outside the pyramid and muttered,
"Right. Make sure you come back."
He couldn't make his unmarried sister a widow, after all.
The members of the catacomb abandoned the enemy before them and charged at Shirone.
"You detestable Yahweh!"
What Shirone intended was obvious.
'Melkidu's Purification.'
In other words, he intended to take upon himself the sins of everyone in this place.
Giyorugi wondered,
'Is he serious?'
If he'd been able to forgive in the first place, the disgusting thing wouldn't have remained like a scab.
"Hypocrite."
Giyorugi's voice gained weight as he stepped forward.
"Do you really think you can do it?"
Evil that is monstrously selfish, pursuing only pleasure and dumping everything on others.
"Ugh—"
Having opened the Immortal Function, Shirone embraced all of Melkidu in his heart.
It was a horrible feeling.
'Evil is evil.'
So hateful, so detestable, so loathsome.
'It's a contradiction.'
Shirone didn't know Yohan, but how could some great forgiveness understand someone's dreams?
'Sacrifice.'
Like Rukia had.
'If you love, you can sacrifice. You can give your life. But why must I—'
Even the devil must be embraced?
Confronted with that contradiction, his heart darkened with a murky rage.
"Die, Yahweh!"
As the catacomb members charged, lightning struck around Shirone.
"Judgment of the Thunder God."
Nade, who had manifested an avatar of the Thunder God Rebirth, glared at them with a terrifying face.
"If you come near, I'll kill you."
Eden approached, supporting Iruki.
"Something's wrong."
The Spirit Zone, which ought to have spread infinitely, was instead collapsing inward.
Iruki said, "It's caught in a logical contradiction. It can't swallow Melkidu. At this rate it'll be tainted by evil instead."
Shirone's heart was screaming.
'Why?'
Was I really a hypocrite?
'I don't know. They do nothing. It's always me who has to sacrifice. I bear it, I forgive, I, I, I—'
Shirone forced himself to stop thinking.
"Ah."
Havitz said, "You'll spend your life cleaning up trash on your own, you idiot."
'I see.'
There was only one reason to forgive evil.
'One.'
Because it is good.
"Ugh!"
Shirone's face was sullen, yet the Spirit Zone rapidly spread into Infinity once more.
"No! Don't! Stop!"
The demonic members of the catacomb, sensing a different temperament, dropped to their knees and clutched their heads.
'Really?'
Giyorugi couldn't believe it.
'With a perfect good entirely free of evil, reaching the pinnacle of that good... forgiveness?'
An integration of good and love.
'Yes.'
Shirone's gaze landed on Giyorugi.
'I blame no one. I'm not wronged. I do it because I can.'
With not a trace of evil left, Shirone was no hypocrite—he was genuine goodness.
So drop the pretense.
'Really... let's forgive it all.'
With extreme sacrifice, he embraced everything. The Spirit Zone spread at an incredible speed.
Kukukukuku!
As Melkidu's systems were purified, the whole island with the Hall of Evil began to tremble.
Plink. Plink.
Fragments fell over Curtis and Fena.
The moment Shirone's heart traveled through the Spirit Zone to them, an immense forgiveness was felt.
Fena asked, "What happens to us now?"
"I don't know."
Curtis turned his head.
"It's not our choice."
For a while the two were silent, then they exchanged wry smiles and bumped fists.
The Hall of Evil.
Cain sat in Lilith's chamber and looked up at the portrait with a calm face.
Kukukukuku!
Even as a lifetime of achievements disappeared, his mind lingered only on the past.
Tears fell silently.
"Mother."
He tried to smile, but only the corners of his mouth moved.
"I was wrong."
The Hall of Evil collapsed.
"Ugh! Ugh!"
As the purifying light grew stronger, members of the catacomb wept openly.
"Yahweh. Save us, save us..."
Never before had any—no single human—truly forgiven evil with sincerity.
"Grant us salvation."
In that great catharsis, demons evaporated, and Nade stared at the increasingly transparent Shirone.
"He'll come back."
"Of course. He's the Infinite Mage."
At that moment, the only one among the demons left, Giyorugi, opened the Devil's Bible.
"Satan Revelation. Chapter 32."
The last page.
"And Satan said, 'Fear not the good. All are but hypocrites—raise the forces of evil.'"
"That bastard to the end!"
As Nade moved to intervene, Eden stopped him.
"Wait."
Giyorugi's voice was calm.
"The hypocrites will persecute you. Prepare for the temple. Seize victory by evil's methods."
Is that so, Yahweh?
"Do not be persuaded. Do not try to persuade. There is no mercy for those who abandoned us."
Could we become you as well?
If all humanity were to form a perfectly righteous, integrated mental system—
"Dry up the seeds of good."
We, too, would no longer be evil, ugly, or disgusting.
"Erase the name of goodness."
Merely human thoughts: things a person can feel, sometimes joy, sometimes the most beautiful and happiest things in life...
Emotions.
"Remember, my children."
Can they be saved?
"As long as even one good thing remains in this world—"
Thud.
Giyorugi closed the Devil's Bible, calmly shut his eyes, and waited for extinction.
"There is no sanctuary for the devil."
In a blinding flash, Melkidu vanished.
And at the same time...
Shirone's consciousness, running toward the true tone in the otherworld, spun.
"Guh!"
On the razor's edge between reality and the other side, in the state of Choe-eni Bardo, the integration of emotions hit him like a physical blow.
Half the shock, but even that alone was powerful enough to make one lose their mind.
'No. If I go just a bit further...'
With the Wailing Valley on the horizon in his sight, Shirone collapsed onto the ground.
Black steeds filled the sky and swooped down.
—Now! Bind Yahweh!
Countless chains ensnared Shirone, black clouds covering the earth.
Kraaaaah!
With a flash, the tangled black curtain tore apart with a long rip.
"Phew!"
Rian appeared, cradling Shirone with his left arm, a greatsword held in a battle-ready stance.
"Hey, Shirone. What happened all of a sudden?"
There was no answer, but his eyelids twitched as if he were fighting something.
Yahweh's mind was integrating good, evil, and love—but that was something Rian could not know.
"...What's going on?"
A scream echoed from the Wailing Valley.