Singularity (1)
How much time had passed?
The woman who had been nursing gently shoved Havitz away and said, "It hurts. Stop now."
Havitz slowly parted his mouth; his face was slick with cold sweat.
"Hah."
The breast milk tasted sweet and a little fishy, but Havitz's mind had gone utterly blank.
What filled the ten-minute hole in his memory was the tremor of rest.
This is the beginning.
The woman's milk seemed to contain every kind of pleasure a human could devise.
"Do you want to be a baby?"
At the woman's question, Havitz lifted his head.
What did he want to become?
The world had given him many names, but in truth there was no defined self in his head.
All he had were tangled thoughts and the variations of those thoughts, punctuated by occasional jolts of pleasure.
"This is chaos."
He was like an aborted infant.
A barely formed thing that lived as a child in its parents' memory despite never having been born.
A point where every contradiction remained unresolved and compressed.
Natasha understood Havitz.
If she took the torment of the moment when one discovers two children drowned and amplified that feeling to infinity—would it become Havitz? And now he had awakened.
"Wah. Wah."
Havitz cried like a baby.
The woman's performance of innocence, her dry-faced act, was so utterly contrived it made the skin crawl.
This is chaos.
Realizing he could be nothing, Havitz defined himself as that nothing.
I am Satan.
? ? ?
Seventeen kilometers from Havitz, in a village.
Demons had swept through first and thieves had looted what remained; the village echoed with the ragged breaths of those waiting for death.
"Ugh."
A woman whose left leg had been severed crawled across the ground, blood gushing.
"Baby."
Where she reached lay a child pierced through by an arrow.
"Mommy, it hurts."
Tears welled in the woman's eyes. Watching that horrific sight were Nane and Shura.
"It's okay, little one."
She stroked her child's head and tried to bite down on her grief, but the devastation was impossible to hold back.
"If I die—"
She clamped her teeth together, trying to bear it, but the despair burst out of her.
"If I die, it'll be all right."
Nane closed his lips firmly. The woman's wail rent the air.
"Waaaah! Waaaah!"
The woman, screaming beside her dying child, finally succumbed to hemorrhage and died.
Nane quietly closed his eyes and put his hands together.
"May you be reborn into paradise."
Shura said, "Let's go back. We're not here to fight demons."
It was strange—Nane, who had been hiding in the mountains to cultivate, suddenly proposed going out into the world.
"No. There's nothing left to do by sitting still. Let's take another look at the world."
"What are you two?"
A massive shadow loomed out of the black.
They were demons who had broken away from their force during the war, each bearing wounds.
Shura braced for a fight.
"Stand down, if you don't want to die."
"Kukukuku, how absurd. You think we'd be afraid just because your spiritual domain was closed?"
Nane asked, puzzled, "Spiritual domain… closed?"
It had been only a day; Nane hadn't heard the rumors about Seongeum.
"None of your business. Be quiet and make yourselves useful as our venting targets."
Nane had no interest in the demons.
The demons laughed among themselves.
"Puhahaha! What did you say just now? Are you insane?"
"Tell us, little human, not to commit evil? You dare lecture us—"
Their faces froze all at once.
"Ma-Master—!"
Shura, pale, turned and saw the trembling heat of light rising from Nane's body.
"B-Buddha…"
It wasn't that he hadn't realized. If he chose to, Nane could become Buddha again and smash the world.
"I said to leave."
As Nane's eyes opened wide, the demons scattered in every direction before they could even scream.
Once the foes had vanished, the overwhelming presence that had seemed capable of ripping the world apart faded as if it had never been.
"Master, why do you restrain yourself?"
"Not yet the time."
Enlightenment doesn't change the world by itself.
"I want to understand Shirone's thoughts a little more. If, from the Buddha's perspective, his compassion that even pities and loves the demons remains unshaken, then it will truly be right."
If the Buddha's vantage—universal love—remains unshaken even when viewing the world from that realm, then it becomes genuinely correct.
"One extreme cannot uphold the whole. Shirone must think as I do as well."
Those who insisted on their own extremes were all passing through a singularity.
Once they'd made a full revolution like that… whatever it became, it would end.
The morning sun rose.
Through the spatial distortion of Gusta Pro, Jincheon's army poured in and stood dumbfounded at the scene before them.
What on earth is this…
Everywhere they looked, piles of demon corpses lay heaped up.
Is this some kind of disaster?
Buildings lay collapsed as if a natural catastrophe had passed through.
"It's Yahweh's power. Maybe our presence wasn't even necessary."
Oryongjang realized something new.
"Princess."
Seongeum's sacrifice had raised Jincheon's morale, but the one she had truly wanted to lean on was Shirone.
So she had spent a day with him… his eyes reddened.
"No, we can't just stand here. This is the position the noblest of Jincheon gave us. We will win."
Jincheon's army turned and marched toward the capital.
From the distant horizon, like a sudden downpour, came the screams of demons.
Shirone did not run anymore.
If Nane had closed the world… Seongeum might not have fallen into hell to suffer forever.
I thought I could bear it…
I thought others could bear it too.
I do not know pain.
If the world were saved by the spirit of universal love, everyone would be happy—but Seongeum could not be brought back.
Destroy it.
As Shirone strode forward, blinding waves of light spread endlessly from him.
God-particles reaching near-light speeds swept up everything around.
"Argh! Run!"
Demons occupying the city near the capital, Pamelion, scattered in every direction.
They had once regarded Yahweh with disdain, but before Shirone they could do nothing but scream in terror.
"Run! Run—"
Time seemed to slow almost to a stop.
Light particles pierced endlessly into the backs of the demons filling the streets.
Before any conventional explosion could occur, huge bodies disintegrated into dust, followed by a shockwave.
Kukukukukukuku!
Like a flood, light filled every road and swept everything away.
"Wow, scary."
In the chaos where no one could look back, one person alone watched Shirone.
Her raven hair hung to her waist; her face was angelically pure.
She was Merania, commander of the Second Legion of the hellish army.
Yahweh is very angry.
Even the light particles that assaulted at incomprehensible speed wouldn't come near her.
"What should we do, Commander? We're all going to die like this, aren't we?"
A low-ranking demon, with no official title, clung to her side.
"Leave it be. When a gentle one is angry, you have to coax and soothe them until the anger passes."
That was why she saw meaning even in the deaths of tens of millions of demons.
"And if the anger doesn't pass?"
Even to Merania, Shirone's wrath was a nightmare capable of ending the world.
"Then…"
A faint smile lifted her lips.
"I'll even go and beg myself."
"Run! Hurry!"
Near Marsak of the Yellow Fortress, Rian cut through demons and shepherded people to safety.
Shirone wouldn't care about humans.
Only with that resolve could one give up on Yahweh.
It wasn't contempt for life—compared to Seongeum trapped in eternal hell, death would be a kind of rest.
"Go! Hurry!"
As Rian carved through the demons, civilians in the capital fled, shrieking.
There were simply too many people.
They had fought through the night for more than twelve hours, yet many still remained.
KWAANG!
Among the battlefield's myriad screams, a particularly grating boom rang out.
Rian turned toward the sound and saw a towering, black-haired figure.
The man's grotesque grin clamped down on Rian's breath.
"Brother?"
The solid, reliable image from before was gone, but the distinctive Ozent look remained.
"Long time, Rian."
The eldest son, Ozent Gai.
Rian, who had left home long ago and had even lost track of his eldest brother, dropped his polearm in shock.
"How are you here?" Shirone had not said anything about Gai.
"As you can see, I rose. I'm Commander-in-Chief Gustaf."
Before Rian could make sense of it, demons charged from behind Gai.
"There! Kill—!"
Without turning back, Gai's single stroke cleaved dozens of demons in two.
What a savage slash.
Ozent's swordwind was straightforward and true; even Raizo, a genius of technique, left no unpleasant aftertaste when struck. But Gai's blow carried a brutality as if he'd cut with a saw rather than a blade.
"How did you end up like this? Have you been living as a spy here all this time?"
"A spy?"
Gai shrugged.
"As you see, I'm Commander-in-Chief Gustaf. The hellish army isn't exactly under my authority, though." He strode toward the bewildered Rian.
"How's the family?"
Rian couldn't answer.
"Is grandfather healthy? Rai's always so capable, and Reina—so fierce—will she even be able to get married?"
"Brother, I—"
Before Rian could finish, Gai raised his sword high and drove it into the ground.
"My dear little brother."
He opened his arms and pulled Rian into a rough embrace, rubbing his bristly cheek.
"I missed you."
They were family.
"Brother."
Rian dropped his polearm and hugged him back.
"I missed you too. How did things come to this? Come home. The family is waiting."
Gai loosened his grip on Rian's shoulder.
"You've grown sturdy. You couldn't reach my waist before; now you're nearly as big as me."
Rian, desperate, pleaded again.
"Brother, come home with me."
Gai smiled and shook his head.
"I can't do that."
"Why? Why not? No matter what you did, the family can shoulder it together."
"It isn't guilt. If that had remained, I couldn't have come this far."
"Then what is it?"
"The ultimate of the sword. To reach it I threw everything away. And Rian…"
Killing intent rose from Gai's body.
"You too."
Gai seized the sword planted in the ground and swung it at Rian's throat.
He meant it.
Rian bent his torso, and as he snatched up the fallen polearm he swung it up in a wide arc.
"Uchaa."
Gai, having opened the distance, winked and said, "Good reaction. Of course. Even an older brother, if he reads the killing intent, should come out like that."
"I'm a knight too. This leaves me no choice but to fight."
"I know. A knight of Maha. I heard you're strong."
As Rian fell silent and watched, the scenery around Gai warped.
"What is this…?"
"Yes, foolish little brother."
Gai's eyes glittered with madness as he said, "The blood of Ozent Smile isn't yours alone."