[481] Direct Pointing (3)
Shirone sat in the grass, staring at the lake.
The water was milky white and utterly still, as if it sat at the center of a windless zone.
His eyes were fixed on the horizon reflected on the surface.
- What do you see?
'Ikael.'
The surface at the center of the lake swelled and shifted, resolving into the shape of Ikael.
The pale liquid that had flowed across it vanished, and Ikael's figure rose as if she were really there.
- What do you see?
'Father. Mother.'
Ikael collapsed like a sandcastle melting away, and the Vincents took her place.
'Rian. Amy. Friends.'
The placid surface began to tremble as if struck by a storm.
Countless people's shapes rose on the water—comrades and enemies, those he loved and those he hated—filling it completely.
- What do you see?
The milky liquid gathered into a vast form and became Mirka.
Her extra‑regulatory rule that blocked variables at their source had thoroughly affected him.
But was she really an enemy that could never be defeated?
Marsha's warning—that there is nothing absolute about rules outside the norm—flashed through his mind.
'Who are you?'
Shirone suddenly lifted his head and stared into the air.
Who had been asking him that question all this time?
- In truth, seeing is merely the process of confirming that something is either already there or not.
The voice had no personality, like air itself.
It felt as if a certain piece of reasoning in his mind had taken on the form of a voice and spoken.
The Ultima system.
The one‑dimensional integrated information system that had seeped into Shirone's brain was running in a dormant state.
So the voice he heard was a message from someone who had already left this world—but buried in eternal time, so it sounded as if it were beside him now.
- Truly seeing is to look at something that exists there in its pure state.
'In its pure state.'
The voice asked again.
- What do you see?
Defeat. Feope's betrayal. Plu's safety.
All those emotions surfaced on the water.
No—I'm not actually seeing them. They're illusions born of thought because I wanted to see them, or because I convinced myself I had to.
"What am I… looking at?"
All the shapes on the surface began to wobble and collapse.
"I'm… seeing nothing."
the voice said.
- When you see nothing, only then does everything become visible.
The lake stilled again.
As the surface sank, the white liquid disappeared; the world fragmented into tiny pieces and scattered like cherry blossoms out of sight.
The Ultima system, which had been ghosting through the network in his head, finally organized itself and extended to the tips of his nerves.
At the same time, Shirone's avatar flashed, foreshadowing a change in his mind.
If the blind directionality of cerebral synapses creates concentration, and that concentration manifests into the Spirit Zone, then Shirone's Spirit Zone—now equipped with the Ultima system—was manifesting as something unique and different in temperament.
'This is…'
Direct gaze.
A single sight that looks squarely at the entire world.
The landscape that had been nothing reclaimed its place and unfolded before Shirone's eyes.
The lake remained calm, but to him it now conveyed countless possibilities—shifting and transforming as if alive.
- What do you see?
Shirone answered.
"Ultimate."
As if answering him back, the voice continued.
- That is precisely the Ultima's—
Flash!
A blinding flare struck his brain and Shirone flinched, his eyes flying open.
'What happened?'
A faint memory, like waking from a dream.
Yet the image itself was startlingly clear.
The last remnant in Shirone's memory was hitting his head on a cliff and losing consciousness.
"Huh?"
Coming to, Shirone finally felt hot breath against his lips.
An unfamiliar woman was on top of him, pressing a kiss to his mouth.
His face burst red and he shoved her off in panic.
"What—what is this?"
The woman rolled weakly to the side, breathing painfully, her body exposed.
Shirone hurriedly cast a Shining spell to light the place.
"Feope?"
He could hardly believe he had said it—the little fairy had grown to the size of an adult woman.
But the small dress she'd worn was torn to tatters, and a fairy wing lay beside her—proof that she was Feope.
"Shirone…"
Feope opened her eyes with effort and gave a weak smile.
Reading the emotion in that smile, Shirone's eyes darted in confusion.
Why was she here? What had happened to her?
"What happened, Feope?"
"I'm glad you're safe."
Shirone checked his own body.
All his wounds had been completely healed.
With Adamantine Armor deactivated, such rapid recovery from grievous injury should have been impossible.
There was no doubt she had saved him.
"Why? I— I thought you—"
Feope shook her head.
It didn't matter to her what Shirone thought.
Facing the end of life, what mattered most was something so small it even surprised Feope herself.
"Shirone, how do I look?"
Shirone didn't understand at first, then looked at her body.
The price of detonating her entire lifespan at once had been sudden growth—and the loss of her fairy nature from mental collapse.
"Am I pretty?"
Feope's question was so pure that Shirone found himself speechless.
Realizing there was nothing he could give her but gratitude sent a chill along his spine.
But it was the truth.
You cannot conjure substance out of nothing.
When Shirone remained silent, Feope closed her eyes softly.
It was both plaintive and relieved—there would be no lingering regrets at the end.
"Don't look, Shirone."
Feope made her last wish.
"Please… don't look."
Her body began to shrink rapidly. The aftershock of burning through her lifetime had arrived.
"Fe—Feope…"
Shirone watched Feope's transformation in a daze.
Now the size of a fairy, Feope's face was lined with wrinkles; the once toned body had lost its muscle, leaving only gaunt bones.
Beside her lay a wing that finally matched her size, but the other wing that had fallen was already drained of life and sliding toward decay.
"Feope! Feope!"
Shirone scooped her up and shouted.
Her body, spent of life, did not move.
She must not die like this.
Realizing that in the face of her stillness, Shirone brought Feope closer to his own face.
She was breathing faintly.
'She's still alive.'
But how could he save her?
"There is nowhere left to flee, foolish human."
At Mirka's voice resonating outside the cave, Shirone grabbed Armand with one hand and sprang to his feet.
Beyond the curtain of light at the cave mouth, Mirka and a host of fairies completely blocked the exit.
Shirone stepped forward slowly, holding Feope without a trace of fear.
Only after he came outside did he understand why the fairies had pulled back.
An enormous army had taken control of the surroundings.
There was no way to escape.
Having reached that conclusion, Mirka looked sadly at Feope in Shirone's arms.
"Foolish one. I told you in detail what it costs to love a human."
There had been times in history when a fairy loved a human.
But those stories always ended in misery.
Fairies are pure; humans are selfish.
No matter how passionately the love burned, human greed never ended, and eventually the fairy would be drained to death.
"She's still alive. How can we restore Feope?"
That was why Shirone had calmly entered the encirclement.
"Human, submit and accept our will. If you do, I will take responsibility and restore Feope's life."
"What method?" Shirone asked.
Seeing his unyielding gaze, Mirka answered coldly.
"There is only one in Heaven who can restore a fairy whose lifespan has expired. The archangel Ikael."
The moment Shirone heard it, he felt the truth of it.
She was the very embodiment of amplification.
If it were Ikael, she could amplify Feope's faint essence and return her to her original state.
"All right."
"A wise choice. Hand Feope over to us and—"
"Adamantine Armor."
Shirone gripped the hilt of Armand and activated his Adamantine Armor.
In an instant a bio‑organic robe wrapped him, and an artificial brain module bearing Akamai's Eye rose above his head.
The fairies tensed and took battle stances.
Though Mirka had defeated him, Shirone had downed many fairies and was a dangerous opponent.
But Mirka, already certain there were no variables left in a contest with Shirone, curled her lip in derision.
"You have a fine weapon. No doubt it let your paltry talents reach this far. But without it, you are just a weak human."
Having already been overwhelmed by the strength of his avatar, it no longer mattered what techniques he used or what functions he had.
The scariest thing about a world without variables is that it is the razor edge of truth.
Without answering, Shirone placed Feope inside a pocket he made in Armand's robe near his heart and sheltered her with the minerals from his IV.
If he wanted to reach Ikael as quickly as possible, he would have to fight through them.
Realizing Shirone had no intention of surrendering, Mirka raised her hand, her face contorted with rage.
"Kill him. Make him pay for blaspheming Heaven."
The fairies waiting around surged toward Shirone at terrifying speed.
At the same time, Shirone fixed his gaze on the front.
Spells of unknown attributes rained in from all directions; the fairies moved like a whirlwind through the storm—but Shirone ignored it all.
When you see nothing, everything becomes visible.
Shirone's Direct Gaze activated, and the boundary of his Spirit Zone began to blur.
Mirka, a supreme‑class being, was the first to sense the change.
"What is that…?"
The presence of the Spirit Zone was fading. It began to dissolve into the world itself until its border vanished.
KWA KWA KWA KWA!
When Shirone opened his eyes wide, dozens of photon cannons struck down diagonally from disparate positions.
They came from angles impossible unless Shirone was firing them from the air.
Taken off guard by an attack pattern they hadn't expected, the fairies charging from the flanks were exposed and thrown to the ground by a cascade of light.
"What? How are they casting magic—!"
Shirone produced photon cannons from every direction and fired.
The torrent of light ran wild like a net, indiscriminately bombarding the fairies.
All the while, the fairies could only stare around in stunned confusion, unable to find the origin point of the magic.
There was no central point where the magic manifested.
Shirone's mind, harmonized with the world, reached a perfect state of omnipotence, and the clustered photon cannons turned and swept the enemies away like a school of anchovies cutting through the sea.
"Ugh!"
Mirka scrambled out of the blast radius.
Though the annihilation of the first wave sent to subdue Shirone was shocking, what rose first in her mind was an ancient record.
"This is the Gaian—"
The Spirit Zone used by those who wield the Ultima system—the Elysion—had been reborn across the ages.