[211] 4. The Truth of Heaven (5)
"It's a double lock!"
"That's right. Meticulous, as expected. I'll let you see Arkein's memories now—verify it yourself."
Harvist's memories flowed in. Arkein had come to Heaven with companions.
Somewhere along the way, though, he'd entered Ingris alone.
Naturally, Eureka offered a contract.
Arkein accepted in exchange for unrestricted access to Ingris. Eureka, already mad at the time, attacked Arkein the moment the contract took effect.
"Master…."
Unlike Canis, who couldn't even move a finger in the fight, Arkein held his ground and traded blows with Eureka without yielding.
"No way. How can she cast spells when her words were edited out?"
Canis probed the remaining memories.
The answer was as ingenuous as Arkein himself. He'd erased Eureka's memories entirely with abyssal-type magic.
If thought is gone, there are no concepts left to trade.
But that wasn't the end. Arkein began restoring language morphemes one by one.
He compared every possible combinable morpheme against the editor's reactions to find Mara's name.
After assembling and disassembling almost infinite permutations of words, Eureka suddenly screamed.
Pale with fear, she flew off without looking back—to where Arkein was not.
Arkein's language combination roulette had stopped on Eureka.
"...Is that even possible? In that instant he combined tens of thousands of languages."
"There's no limit to what can happen inside thought. Still, it's not for writing stories. It's mathematical. He laid out morphemes, built an algorithm, and spun the roulette. Must've had a damn sharp brain when he was young. In any case, just look at what he made—he was a genius. If he hadn't insisted on dark magic, he wouldn't have been stuck at some third-rank mage."
Canis felt pride in being Arkein's disciple.
And the fact he could defeat Eureka came from the notes his master had left behind.
Eureka had probably hidden until Arkein left. During that time Arkein must have uncovered her information and recorded the serials.
Arkein's final memory entered Canis's head. When he learned the true reason for the double lock, a chill ran down his spine.
Arkein had transmitted the location to his disciple by memory rather than by record.
Canis walked to where Arkein had stood at the end. He mimicked his master's motions exactly and reached toward the panel.
"Master, thank you."
Arkein could never have imagined Canis would become his disciple. Still, the message left for the junior who would arrive here was unambiguous.
Mage, become an eternal boy.
Canis pulled out the panel Arkein had indicated and converted the language. He read the sentence floating on the glass plate.
The Book of Light and Darkness.
Canis flipped through the pages rapidly. One line in particular struck him; he stared at it until his eyes ached.
Harvist put a hand on his shoulder and said, "So you accomplished the purpose of coming to Heaven."
"Not yet. Not until we get back safely. We have to save Arin."
"We'll do that. I wonder if they're holding up over there? Time's been dragging."
Canis handed the panel to Harvist and went to the central control device.
"It's about time for Rian to arrive. Copy the records. I'll try to disable the Mecha System."
Harvist pressed his palm to the glass plate and stamped the text in full. He memorized the vibration pattern as he turned the pages.
At the central control, Canis couldn't bring himself to touch anything. Cold sweat ran down his brow.
He'd learned the principle by watching Eureka touch the screen, but handling equipment he'd never seen like an expert was impossible.
"Damn, why's this so complicated?"
Canis started mashing buttons at random. At worst, he could only break something, right?
At one point a full map of Jebul appeared.
Tapping the Great World War section expanded the screen, revealing line after line of entries.
In the security settings, a toggle to block the Mecha System caught his eye.
Canis didn't hesitate and selected disable.
Several regions that had been dotted on the map snapped into clear lines.
"Canis, I saved everything. I only memorized it as patterns, so I'll convert it to language when I have time."
"Good. I found something too. Looking at the map, every district of Jebul has a portal to Ingris. In short, this place is Jebul's heart. If we take a portal in reverse, we can exit at the portal closest to the Great World War."
Canis and Harvist ran toward the edge of Ingris.
It was fortunate things were going well, but that didn't mean the situation had improved.
Arin was still there.
They could only hope Rian wouldn't be late.
@
Shirone's unconscious flooded with a chunk of Ikael's memories. The sequence of time was scrambled, but the flow outpaced thought itself, so no contradictions registered.
Shirone was stunned by the form of Ra that Ikael conveyed. It was the height of grotesquery. Yet the intellect Ra contained surpassed mortal humans.
"He who realized the universe: the whole remains perfect even if its parts change."
Ra was the first intelligence to recognize such a cosmos.
"The universe is something God abandoned. No one knows it exists! But I gave it meaning. Therefore this universe is mine."
The beings Ra first bestowed meaning upon were angels.
The first causal entity begot a second, which then subdivided into giants and fairies. They acted according to Law and spread Ra's will.
Ikael took Shirone to another world. It teemed with countless life forms, but none could be imbued with meaning.
A giant two kilometers tall arrived through a dimensional gate. When it stood, its face pierced the clouds and mountain ranges lay beneath its waist.
Ikael explained the giants further.
The Ladder of Tales consisted of ten stages; only giants who surpassed the sixth stage could depart for a new world.
The giant roared. Its body began to break apart, blood and flesh falling like rain.
Long ages passed... and humans began to appear one by one in the giant's fallen place.
When those humans formed societies and developed civilization, an angel came and blessed a girl's body with a child. That child would someday become a Nephilim and lead people to Heaven.
As time went on, changes came to human society.
Humans with the ability to bestow meaning grew quickly and, intoxicated by their power, drifted away from God.
Heaven's armies descended and punished them.
The battles were one-sided. Heaven's power was overwhelming, and angels and the Mara annihilated many civilizations.
Still, humanity stubbornly prospered and repeated the same mistakes.
Then one day, a sect denying God appeared on an island called Galliant in the south.
Archangel Ikael took the field personally. She, who could activate the power of all things, amplified Galliant's volcanic activity over twenty thousandfold, triggering cataclysmic eruptions.
Time sped forward until a world similar to Shirone's era unfolded.
Humans still enjoyed their prosperity.
Anke Ra judged that impiety had reached its extreme and finally decided to annihilate mankind.
The final war. The end of the world.
Shirone watched Heaven's situation at that time.
Portals tens of meters high stood open while Heaven's army—giants, fairies, and vassals—prepared to march out.
Angel vibrations filled the sky; the roars of armored Mara echoed across the land.
"No! Absolutely not!"
Shirone shouted, forgetting that the scene before him was the past. There was no way they could win. If Heaven's army poured in, the world would end.
When the launch order came, a vast host surged through the portal with angels at the front.
Shirone's spirit followed them into the portal. After passing through a kaleidoscopic tunnel, an exit came into view.
Tension tightened his stomach. These were memories.
But if that was so—how had humanity managed to stop Heaven's army?
"History records no such war."
As the destination came into view, the Mara howled and bellowed in battle lust. Shirone flew ahead and reached the portal's end first. He froze.
What lay before him was not the original world.
A pale, empty space. In it stood a single woman.
Adrias Miro.
"Gypin, I will never forgive you."
Miro was weeping. She glared at the vast army alone, thrust out her fist, and cast magic.
Then something incredible happened. The leading Mara began to halt as if blocked by an invisible barrier.
The angels looked at Miro helplessly. The Mara beat against the barrier and shrieked.
"You blasphemous things! You will pay for betraying Ra!"
"Remember this, Miro! The apocalypse has only been postponed! When the time comes, I will be the one to kill you!"
Shirone understood the whole truth.
She had created another spacetime between Heaven and the human world and severed their connection.
That was... Miro's spacetime.
From the angel host, a hulking man flew to the portal's end.
Archangel Uriel.
"How long do you think you can hold this? There's no way to avoid the final war. We will return. Use whatever time you have left wisely."
Miro bit her lip until it bled. As the new spacetime filled in, the distances between them increased.
Uriel glared at Miro and turned away. The angels began to return to Heaven, one by one.
But the Mara stayed to the last, hurling curses. They screamed in frantic voices until Miro's shrinking form was out of sight.
Shirone left with Heaven's legions as well. He couldn't take his eyes off Miro.
He understood why Archmage Arkein had tried so hard to keep this hidden—even erasing memories.
There had been a moment when humanity stood on the brink of annihilation.
And Miro had, even now, remained in her own space, postponing the end of the world.
5. The Angelic Magic Formula (1)
Shirone opened his eyes.
The first thing he felt was refreshment—like waking from a long sleep.
How long had he been out?
When that thought crossed his mind, Shirone sat up and shouted, "No! My friends…!"
Ikael reassured him.
"Don't worry. You were probably asleep for less than five minutes."
"But why does my body—?"
"My light penetrated you and cleared your mind. I can activate everything."
True to her words, the mental energy he'd drained fighting—from Igrin to Taboo—had fully recovered.
"Ah, thank you. I didn't even realize—"
"It's fine. By the way, how does it feel to know Heaven's secret?"
Shirone recalled the memories Ikael had given him. They felt distant, like a dream, but they were not a dream.
He had learned an immense truth. Above all, that Miro had done such a thing stunned him.
"Dimensional linkage is the angels' prerogative. But for a long time we have been passing angelic abilities to humans."
"That's the Nephilim."
"Yes. Nephilim guide humans to God. But some Nephilim do the opposite. Those civilizations usually break from God's will and build independent societies—like the world Shirone lived in."
Shirone understood why the records of ancient magic were different. At some point, humans drifted from God, and the magic that developed independently from that drift became the Spirit Zone.