[199] 1. God's Mercy (4)
The spots struck by the lasers heated up, and the statue began to tremble as if it would shatter at any moment.
"This can't be. How could this happen…!"
The executioner ground his teeth. He couldn't charge Shirone, nor could he stop the statue from being destroyed.
At that moment, a thunderclap sounded from the sky.
Blue arcs of electricity fell in clusters, heating the air around Shirone.
The ground exploded and dust billowed up.
The executioner looked to where the lightning had come from. A flock of fairies was flying in from the square's entrance.
Even from a distance, Shirone spotted the fairy standing in the center of the group at once.
She alone shone with a golden light, and even her made-up face was beautiful.
It was Igrin, head of the Citizen Management Bureau.
Shirone's friends formed a perimeter around him. A tension ran through their blood that hadn't been there when they fought the citizens.
The odd thing was that the opening attack had been electricity.
Electricity is an attribute close to elementals—not something fairies normally wield.
- Who called down that lightning?
- We can't tell yet. There must be a fairy in the flock who manipulates friction.
If you agitate the electric charge in the air by friction, you can call lightning. The arrangement of charges makes the strikes imprecise, so poor accuracy was to be expected.
Rian drew his greatsword and stepped forward.
"Full fairy unit deployed? So they finally decided to show up."
Shirone had expected this. They had violated Heaven's law, so it was normal for an Internal Affairs officer to intervene.
The citizens stepped aside to give Igrin a path.
The fairies flew in formation, proud and composed, and stopped ten meters from Shirone's group.
Shirone saw Peope at the edge of the flock.
Unlike the others, she stared ahead with dull eyes, as if uncertain why she was even there.
Igrin pointed at Shirone's group.
"So it is you—those who masqueraded as Nephilim to enter Heaven. That alone is a grave crime, and now you would even interfere with the sacred Ilhwa Elixir?"
The executioner's expression turned puzzled. Masquerading as Nephilim, not being Nephilim?
But the power the boy had just cast had clearly been angelic. If they weren't Nephilim, how could they have wielded light like that?
"Igrin, are you saying they're heretics? The caster clearly used the power of light."
"Do not be fooled. In the lands of earth there are techniques that imitate light magic. Besides, the others are heretics beyond the need for verification. They tried to deceive even the fairies in that manner."
Canis's gaze hardened.
From Igrin's words, they'd clearly investigated them. And Peope being present despite her low combat ability was proof she'd spilled everything.
"Damn it, I told you I should have left. That fairy betrayed us. She never intended to be loyal from the start."
Peope furrowed her brow.
Betrayal? She'd only followed Igrin's orders in a daze. She hadn't even known they were here until they arrived.
"Hah! Right! I told them everything! You're as good as dead now! You should've known your place!"
Peope had no intention of pleading innocence. She even boasted false confessions to rile them more.
"You didn't betray us."
Shirone said.
"Peope made the right judgment. A fairy like that would have no reason now to undermine her beliefs."
Peope snorted and turned her head. Saying that now only meant she was hurt.
Still, thoughts crowded her mind.
Right judgment. Belief.
Values that had never once been acknowledged by her seniors.
Igrin did not flinch. Living over three thousand years lets one dissect concepts far more finely than humans.
If a human breaks love into a hundred kinds, she could likely separate it into ten thousand.
At that level, every event becomes independent.
Peeking into someone's house does not make you a thief.
Breaking the lock does not necessarily make you a thief.
Even breaking in and taking something does not necessarily make you a thief.
Only when you carry the stolen item out does the concept of thief fully establish itself.
Such cognitive precision is impossible for humans who try to judge the whole by a part.
In that sense, the conversation between Shirone and Peope was merely an independent incident, detached from the present circumstances.
"I am Igrin, head of the Citizen Management Bureau— Igrin, the Authority Fairy. For the crime of posing as Nephilim to enter Heaven as heretics, and for obstructing the sacred Ilhwa Elixir, I strip away all your remaining lifespan."
A crease formed on Shirone's brow.
"Is it always like this? You take a life just because you don't like someone? And the Ilhwa Elixir—why drive citizens to death for that?"
"You were born from giants. Isn't it fitting you return to them?"
"Nonsense. No parent would ask their child to return their flesh."
"Sowing seed into the ground is for the harvest. Creatures die to feed others. You too are bound by this Law."
"Sowing seed is for making new seed. Creatures die to give others opportunity. That's how humans flourish. Lives without meaning are no different from being dead."
Igrin sighed, heavy with worry. Why was that instinct never wrong? It was no coincidence that Miro's face had flashed across Shirone's.
"Typical heresy. A human unworthy of attention. What are you waiting for! Begin the Ilhwa Elixir at once!"
At Igrin's command, the executioner sprang into action as if waiting for that signal.
He flipped a switch and ten glass orbs began to fill with black liquid.
"Damn it! There's no time! We have to stop it now!"
Rian and Tess dashed forward to destroy the statue.
Igrin raised her hand and directed the fairies.
"Attack! Do not let them approach—no matter what!"
Shirone's party readied for combat.
Arin left only the party channel open and severed other telepathic links. Igrin's psychic resonance spread through everyone, so there was no need for translation.
The firing spirits began the preemptive strike. When one reached out, the air tore open like a hole.
Small, hard spheres of compressed air pelted Shirone's group.
They didn't pierce flesh, but they were invisible and so numerous that they overwhelmed.
"Fall back!"
Canis raised a Shadow Wall. The air bullets struck its surface like hail.
At that instant, a sharp sound rose from the sky.
The friction spirit generated static and called down lightning, but the Harvester intercepted it.
Lightning struck again and again, flashing brilliantly, but it had no effect on the magical creatures.
"Heh heh heh! This is delightful. A new kind of massage magic?"
Amy, leaning against the Shadow Wall, conjured a Jack-o'-lantern on her palm.
The sphere of fire that shot into the sky multiplied into dozens and began indiscriminately bombarding the front.
Because Amy's Jack-o'-lanterns had the innate trait of bogus flames, only three were true fire. But when you can't tell which are real, those under attack can't help but feel fear.
As Amy's bombardment scattered the fairies, Canis finally lowered the Shadow Wall.
With the newfound visibility, Arin quickly pinpointed the fairies' positions and proposed a plan over the mental channel.
- If the fairies are primarily psychic beings, I have a method. I can trap them with a mental shock.
Shirone found it plausible.
Magic-versus-magic has affinities, but if you strike the mind directly, even fairies would have no recourse.
- Can you do it? There are so many of them.
- I'll cast a wide-area mental shock. It will drain a lot of power, but I can manage it once. Lure them in. Center it on me—twenty-meter radius.
It would be difficult to herd them all, but if they could get even half, the tide of battle could turn.
"Good! Let's scatter!"
They broke into individual combat.
The fairies' powers were no joke. Perhaps expecting battle, most were specialized for combat.
But if the enemies were strong, that actually helped the luring tactic.
"Huh? Huh?"
Amid a battlefield of every kind of magic, only Peope flitted about confused.
It was her first real fight, and the spells flying past were on a whole different level.
A flash approached Peope.
Startled, she raised both hands to prepare to use the Narin ability.
Shirone reflexively readied his photon cannon.
When they finally saw each other's faces, their pupils flickered.
Peope bit her lip, unable to decide. Shirone canceled the photon cannon and turned away.
Peope watched him with puzzled eyes, but he said nothing and charged another fairy.
Peope's head drooped sullenly.
- Arin! I can't do more! This is my limit!
Because the fairies could fly, corralling them was almost impossible.
But the mages in Shirone's party were also exceptional movers, and they managed to lure more than half into the area.
- That's enough!
Movement is the combination of time and space.
The moment a fairy entered the area—less than a second—was the only timing Arin could cast her magic.
Arin crouched and pressed her hands to the ground. Her shadow spread like a sinkhole, and five fairies sensed the crisis and flung themselves away.
But it was already too late.
A mental shock burst with a bang and soil splattered into the air.
The fairies, losing their bearings, faltered; their wings stilled as if they'd inhaled pesticide, then they plummeted.
With half their forces gone, the remaining fairies' morale collapsed and they screamed as they fled.
While the Harvester swatted and chased them away, Rian and Tess broke through Kergoin's encirclement and succeeded in resetting the switch to its original position.
The liquid—about a third filled—was sucked back into the tank and the level in the glass orbs fell.
Those targeted let out sighs of relief.
But even that was a kind of torment. A sliver of hope is almost another name for absolute despair.
"Shirone! Now! Blast the statue with your laser!"
Shirone was already prepared.
If the statue was destroyed, the Ilhwa Elixir would stop. With the fairies in ruins, no one could interfere now.
As Shirone's laser flared red, Igrin's voice poured across the battlefield.
"By divine subordination, I command: those without worldly authority, kneel before me."
When the spoken command ended, something astonishing happened.
As if the world had been dimmed, all the humans dropped to their knees. Shirone's party was no exception.
Shirone went down hard; he was bewildered. He tried to stand, planting strength into his legs, but his body felt as heavy as an elephant.
Voices poured into the mental channel.
- What's happening? We can't stand up.
- She said she was the Authority Fairy. What does that have to do with authority?
- This isn't simple magic. This is outside the regulations.
Even to Shirone, the result could not have happened unless it was extrajudicial.
Then how had it been triggered?
It wasn't a mere spoken command. Merely saying words cannot force hundreds to kneel.
Unlike Shirone's group, the citizens didn't even resist. They merely looked up at Igrin with eyes full of awe.
Igrin strolled through the citizens and approached the statue. Then she herself flipped the switch.
As the glass orbs began to fill with liquid again, those targeted squeezed their eyes shut.
Somewhere, the sobbing of family members could be heard.