Cold World (1)
A photon signal the Law did not account for.
The great angels watched the situation as Gefin displayed a Siok at superluminal speed.
Metiel's brow furrowed.
"Tch, a mere human."
Gefin had shrugged off Yuriel's destruction and evaded Raiel's light‑speed strike; he could not be easily subdued by brute force.
'It's not over yet.'
She felt a vast current of energy stirring beyond Gefin and moved her brows.
'They only broke down individual concepts.'
Only when the eight great angels' concepts were unified would a world be completed.
"Yaaaaaah!"
Yuriel screamed and charged, spinning the Geukrak‑gon. Gefin twisted and reached out.
'It bounces.'
At the same moment Metiel activated Union.
'Fusion!'
Explosive compounds synthesized onto the rotating Geukrak‑gon, transforming it into a devastating killing weapon.
Gefin smiled with a carved expression.
'Combine concepts…'
The instant the Geukrak‑gon slammed into the Hexa, a colossal blast wiped out the surrounding radius.
"There—!"
All the great angels' gazes shifted at once, and Gefin was slammed into the ground several kilometers away.
KRAAAASH!
Satiel, who had been watching from a distance, flew over at once to check Gefin's condition.
'Metiel's strong fusion.'
As the angel of the opposing concept, she knew how destructive it could be.
'Dead?'
Just as she thought that, the earth trembled and Gefin's upper body slowly rose.
"Ugh—"
He was covered in dust; blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, but there were no fatal wounds.
"You cranked up the difficulty, didn't you?"
If things played out like this, the whole situation shifted.
"Hmm, a combination of eight concepts, eh."
As Gefin, lost in thought, lifted his head, Satiel hurriedly assumed a fighting stance.
"Go on, try to take me—"
Gefin reached out his hand.
"Hey there, pretty angel—want a hand up?" Satiel stared as if stunned while Gefin braced a hand on the ground and strained.
"My legs aren't working. The shock's still in me."
That was the opening.
"Why help?"
Instead of hostility, Satiel relaxed and asked.
"Why ask for aid? We are the ones blocking the Gaians' goal, aren't we?"
They were, after all, the strongest enemy.
"Because I can't do it alone. But if we all join forces, is there anything we can't do?"
"Then why pretend to join us at all!"
Satiel shouted.
"You look down on us! You treat this world as a tool to be used, so why say things like 'come with us'?"
"A tool, huh."
Shaking off the shock, Gefin limped to his feet and brushed dirt from his trousers.
"Do you have any good memories? Something you'd want to keep forever—something precious."
Satiel raised an eyebrow and answered.
"Of course I do."
"Then nothing is insignificant." The holy radiance swelled.
"I was born. Therefore I live. There may be no grand reason for our existence…but—"
Gefin gave a crooked smile.
"It's still real. Like me, like other Gaians, you too have lived."
"Lived…have I?"
Gefin reached out again.
"Life is just one way of living. You're alive, too. So come with us. No matter what the outside world is like, I won't let go."
Satiel's gaze fell on Gefin's hand.
'God is indifferent.'
God must be perfect.
So the world is cold and the Law mechanical, but if a god's heart were to dwell within—
'Nothing is insignificant.'
She thought Gefin would say the same thing.
"That's right."
Feeling the warm light dwelling in the holy radiance, Satiel clasped her hands and smiled brightly.
"You're right."
At that moment the great angels flew in from the opposite sky.
"There!"
Kariel took the lead and expanded his Judgment Halo, and the other great angels layered their concepts.
'Simularch!'
Concepts of amplification, destruction, light, existence, union, and annihilation accreted into a complex spherical mechanism.
'An omnipotent machine that cannot be evaded, cannot be destroyed, and will inevitably annihilate!'
A sphere packed with nearly all the universe's technologies was fired at Gefin.
'This ends it!'
Just as Kariel was certain, Satiel stepped forward, eyes bright, and spun her Judgment Halo.
'Nostalgia!'
Physics collapse.
Cracks spidered across the sphere's surface—thirty thousand fissures—and it began to come apart. Two billion nanomachines disintegrated.
"Grrr!"
Satiel ground her teeth as mechanisms fell to parts, parts to molecules, molecules to atoms.
"Huh?"
As the machine disassembled before him, a cool breeze brushed Gefin's face.
"Satiel!"
Metiel roared in fury.
"How dare you betray us! After siding with a human, can you still call yourself God's servant?"
The omnipotent machine's single weakness was that, while it could not be destroyed, it could be disassembled.
'Damn it! Even if only Satiel's concept had been added—!'
And yet she had sided with Gefin; Metiel fumed.
"It's not too late! Admit your mistake and fight with us, and we'll forgive you."
Satiel smiled.
"Who's forgiving whom?"
Union and disassembly are twin concepts, but Satiel had once been cowed by Metiel's dazzling presence.
"Nothing is insignificant."
Hearing Gefin's words finally steeled her.
'I was not wrong.'
She extended her hand with conviction.
"By her own judgment, Satiel, great angel of Disassembly, has decided to consider the human's proposition."
Metiel ground her teeth.
"That—"
"Enough."
Ikael cut off the internal strife and looked down at the Gaians filling the ground.
'There's no gap.'
To break the Ultima system they had to restrain Gefin, but Satiel's fusion was essential.
"The eight great angels hold equal standing. You cannot force Satiel's thought back this instant."
Metatron asked,
"Then what do you intend to do?"
"We will convene at the Pentacodex. All angels under my command, return to Arabot immediately."
Ikael's voice spread across the field.
"Today is a ceasefire. Gefin, persuade the Gaians to halt their advance as well."
Gefin turned the Hexa with his fingertip and asked,
"What about the reset?"
He guessed Anke Ra would forgo a reset, but Ikael did not want to say it aloud.
"Whatever happens will be the will of the divine."
The seven great angels withdrew toward Arabot, and Satiel took to the air belatedly.
Gefin asked, "You sure you'll be okay? You'll probably be in a world of trouble."
"Heh. Perhaps." She did not regret it.
"Until next time, splendid human." As Satiel traced a beautiful arc and departed, Gefin scratched his head and turned toward the Gaians.
"Phew. We stopped it for now…but this is going to be a much longer war than I expected."
Valkyrie, a unit under Holy War command.
Following the chief general's orders, Lupist and Plu arrived within two hours and waited before an iron gate that wouldn't open.
Plu, chief secretary of the Magic Association, checked the time.
"The handover must be taking a while."
As he finished speaking, footsteps sounded beyond the deep tunnel and Dante appeared.
Seeing Lupist and Plu, he approached calmly and bowed.
"Sorry I'm late. I'm Dante, Deputy Director of National Intelligence."
Code Black.
Apart from the royal family, Dante was the only person in the Tormia Kingdom allowed access to Black.
"Ah. We've met before, haven't we?"
They had been introduced at a castle event, but had never really talked.
"Yes. Sorry I didn't greet you properly earlier. As you know, security is a sensitive post."
A single conversation with the head of the Magic Association could spawn countless rumors.
"No, it's fine. More importantly…" Lupist began, thinking back to a time before the Red Line graduation exam when students from the five great schools gathered at the Magic Association.
"Ah, yes."
Dante blinked at the unexpected school reference.
"Alpheas School of Magic stands out in my memory. Those students have become professionals and are fighting hard."
'Was he always like this?'
Dante caught the real meaning.
'Iruki.'
Though Shirone was humanity's strongest mage, Iruki's fame was greatest to the public.
"The head of the Magic Association and Code Black. I can guess why the chief general called us. It won't be good news for the kingdom."
It was an unspoken pressure to disclose any knowledge they had.
Dante kept silent.
Experience had taught him that silence was the most perfect way to preserve security.
The iron gate opened and a guide said, "Please enter."
As they walked into the underground bunker, Plu offered his hand to Lupist.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Plu, Chief Secretary of the Magic Association. You're friends with Shirone, right? I'm also very close to him."
"Yes. I've heard a lot."
"Hoho, really? By the way, the intelligence agencies must be swamped. I heard Sion's monks are in Tormia."
Code Black.
'They make a good pair.'
Plu's roundabout manner was exactly the kind of staff Lupist—cold by nature—needed.
With Dante remaining silent, the three reached the back of the bunker without much conversation.
"Come in." Iruki sat on a sofa with a blanket and gave a faint smile.
"I've been waiting."
Dante took Iruki in at a glance.
'He looks even paler.'
Lupist bowed politely.
"I'm Raphael Lupist, head of the Tormia Magic Association. It's an honor."
After Plu and Dante finished their greetings, Iruki offered seats and said to Aromi, "Tea's ready."
It was a signal that no one else was to be admitted.
"We don't have much time. Let's proceed quickly. This is a major operation for humanity. We need the Tormia Kingdom's cooperation."
Iruki quietly laid out the secret strategy.
"Bashka…?"
They planned to obliterate it with elemental bombs.
"How large is the capital's population now?"
Plu swallowed, snapped himself back, and tried to recall.
"About 6.5 million. Wartime movement makes it fluctuate, but that's near the average."
"Six and a half million."
All those lives reduced to ash.
"As you can imagine, security is paramount for this operation. We'll lure the enemies into the capital and annihilate them all at once."
No one disputed the strategy itself, but the idea of the kingdom's capital being destroyed was shocking.
"First, the three of you here can be saved. Intentionally leaving you to die would be a serious personnel loss."
The three said nothing.
"So we want you to make the judgment. After calculations all night, the maximum number we can exclude from this operation while maintaining security is…" Iruki opened both palms.
"One hundred."
One hundred out of 6.5 million.
"Please select one hundred people who must survive Bashka. I will accept no criticism of your choices. Family is fine; people vital to society are fine. If you give me the list now, we will process it."
Lupist looked down at the blank sheet Iruki had offered.
'I see.'
He understood why, even while planning to obliterate the capital, they had not summoned the royal family.