All History (4)
While Gaphin spent forty thousand years in the lotus, Heaven developed the elixir of life and Nephilim became active across the cosmos.
Beings in which an angel's spirit had lodged in a human body.
Driven by an instinctive search for the truth of life, they eventually came to recognize the existence of Heaven through the Immortal Function.
Countless stargates were installed on planets, and in that age angels, under Anke Ra's orders, guided humans toward a life path.
Some humans passed through the gates into Heaven.
Among those humans were the ancestors of the Smille line.
"Kariel! A rebellion signal detected on Planet 13 of the 64th system in the Alphacross galaxy!"
"Pathetic things..."
Not every Nephilim had been brought to the light.
Humans were stubbornly subjective; some denied Anke Ra and even declared themselves gods.
'No matter how faded, they're descendants of Gaia after all.'
Heaven's armies were dispatched.
Countless humans were destroyed, and the one who distinguished himself most was Imir, King of the Giants.
'Too strong.'
He had been created as a biological weapon to subdue Gaphin, but the problem was he was beyond what even the universe could handle.
- Deviation will not be tolerated.
By Anke Ra's command, Imir was sealed away in Niflheim, Heaven's thickest ice zone.
"Hmph. What a pack of snails."
As long as Gaphin didn't attack Heaven again, it seemed unlikely Imir would ever return to the world.
Then one day an incident occurred.
One human broke through Heaven's wall and stormed in.
The man whose name would be recorded in history with a weight comparable to the Gaia Rebellion was Ozent Smille.
When Heaven's walls were breached, Anke Ra remained indifferent.
'The world is stable.'
Though Hexa and Gaphin still lingered outside the Akashic Record, Heaven's power was far too great for them to accomplish anything.
- Eliminate them. Strip from existence anyone who defies the will of God.
Anke Ra issued the grand-sounding order and, though he felt nothing, was satisfied that Heaven's system functioned perfectly.
'Hm?'
Anke Ra's eyes snapped open; his pupils chinged as they vibrated.
'What is this?'
The wall of the First Heaven, Shamain, had been pierced.
Since mortals lived there, it wasn't wholly strange, but the speed was unnerving.
Ching! Ching!
His pupils shook violently and Anke Ra's nerves bristled.
The breach had even reached Rakia, the Second Heaven where the fallen angels dwelt.
Although their power had been sealed, those beings were still angels with radiant bodies.
'Why so fast?'
No simulation could find any proximate lifeform.
At last Anke Ra opened the Akashic Record and checked the world's logs with his infallible senses…
'Human?'
He discovered a human whose form was already collapsing.
'Guest code: Ozent.'
Those who had attained incarnation arts in the Third Heaven and the sprites born in the core of the Fourth Heaven were overwhelmed and torn through.
"Kiiiiii!"
As his lower systems were shattered, Anke Ra's nerves released a howl.
'Why? Why?'
The first strike against Heaven's wall might, in the vast universe, have been the sort of trivial shock that could occur once in an eon. But the data arriving in less than an hour showed metrics hard to believe belonged to a mere human.
"Human!"
Ozent, now in a yaksha body, smashed through the giants and toppled the wall of the Fifth Heaven.
Anke Ra held on stubbornly.
'It's not Gaphin. It's not a Gaia-born. It's just a human.'
Yet it was terrifyingly fast—approaching Gaia-born levels.
'They can't be connected.'
If anyone could become Gaia-born, Anke Ra would be forced to purge all humans again.
'So I will watch.' He meant to gamble, as if waiting for Gaphin to come negotiate.
'Entering the Sixth Heaven, Jebul.'
Because those angels there held the highest status in the universe, Ozent's momentum weakened.
'Have we got him?'
It wasn't weakened enough to be sure, so they waited for conclusive data.
'No.'
An anomaly not recorded in this world—an imprint absent from the Akashic Record—struck the Great World War.
'Idea!'
It followed immediately.
"No!"
The horrific incident stored in the database forced Anke Ra into an extreme choice.
Someone had ripped the entire Great World War out and transferred it wholesale to a planet in space.
Moments later, a signal of the Idea was detected far from Heaven.
'At least it's contained for now.'
But it could not be left alone.
If Ozent contacted Gaphin, the Ultima System would once again poke its head into this world.
"Come, Imir."
At that command, Imir broke through Arabot's walls and drew near.
He arrived with a few leaps; one could imagine from the logs what the ground looked like where he had landed.
"Hmph."
Imir snorted rather than bowed.
A grudge from being sealed in Niflheim remained.
"Imir, Heaven has..."
"I know. Something came." Imir's senses were forged from the insight of ten billion Gaia-born.
"You called me, so God must have been anxious."
Why did Imir speak so curtly to Anke Ra?
For a moment Anke Ra indulged in the illogical thought that, though Gaia-born had vanished, their spirit might remain.
"Show respect. Indiscretion will not be tolerated."
Imir dropped to one knee.
"I accept your command."
"Remove him. That is your only duty."
When no reply came, Anke Ra added, "Don't you want to find a reason for your existence?"
At last Imir answered.
"You know how many disappointments I've faced. Don't expect this to be different."
Being the strongest—overwhelmingly stronger than the second strongest—
'Means having no reason to exist.' He had fought countless battles, but in the end everything crumbled beneath Imir's hand.
Ashur, Sun Wukong, Zeus, Behemoth—all differed only in degree and could not fill his lack.
'They've all grown old. The only decent one left is Ashur.'
"A human who wields the heart."
Anke Ra's pride stung, but Imir took the bait.
"Hearts?"
Gaphin came to mind.
"Go. Perhaps there you will find a reason to exist."
'Is that all?'
Thoughtful, Imir turned.
"Allow me passage."
"…Prove you are the King of Giants."
At Anke Ra's voice, Imir's coordinates vanished across the expanse of space.
On the planet where Shirone would later live, the greatest combat in the universe unfolded.
His name was Ozent.
He was the first human besides Gaphin to make Imir feel alive. But he sacrificed himself to save Smille.
Imir felt pity, but he knew Anke Ra had been right.
'He found a reason to exist.'
They would meet again someday.
When Anke Ra returned to Arabot, a barb had crept into his voice.
"You left some leeway."
"You said eliminating Ozent was all that was required, didn't you?"
For now, yes.
"What reward do you desire? If you refuse to be trapped in Niflheim—"
"No."
Imir shook his head.
"There is no prison that can hold me. You know that, don't you?"
"I will not fight anymore. Not until I feel like it."
"You have proven you are King of Giants. You will have many tasks ahead."
When Imir extended his forefinger, the nail lengthened like liquid and slid down to the ground.
"I'll leave you at least one fingernail..."
The forefinger's nail detached, and a fragment born beside the main body approached Anke Ra.
"I will handle all duties. Give the order."
Heaven's expansion was accelerating; Imir would face countless foes.
'One fingernail?'
It would probably be enough.
Who knew how many times he would fragment; it would hold until the main body awoke. Imir's core left Arabot and fell asleep once more in the deepest part of Niflheim.
The Suoi who symbiotically lived with him gathered gladly and brought news of the world.
"Humph."
Licking the hollow left by a molar he'd left in the far reaches of space, Imir laughed.
'I will be watching. Let's see how far it goes.'
Ozent Smille.
Knowledge is recorded in history.
At this point, Shirone had absorbed almost the entire history of the universe.
'The spine of knowledge.'
The grand project that began in the Ozent family's great library was drawing toward its end.
The repository of knowledge deep within Shirone had expanded into the fourth dimension, freeing it from spatial limits.
'When I first started, I thought all knowledge was connected.'
Eventually even time combined with space, transforming it into a fifth-dimensional multiversal cube.
'It was the opposite.' If Arius ever dove back into the depths, he would grasp only that fact.
'All knowledge was born from one.' A god.
And finally, with a god's brain, Shirone stood at the end of history.
Omega Year 999.
Heaven enjoyed an unprecedented heyday.
Everything was peaceful; at this rate, on some planet they would model Anke Ra and create a new world through a communal system.
But, as always, the problem was humanity.
"Why!"
Seven archangels around the Table of a Hundred Debates argued heatedly.
"Why do they conspire rebellion on every planet? Is it a fad? We gave them everything—eternal life, the paradise they seek—everything!"
"Because they're human."
Satiel spoke venomously.
"The mistake was making the elixir of life in the first place. Do you trust humans? They're creatures that always want to overthrow gods. They can't stand someone above them."
Kariel snapped.
"There's nothing wrong with my elixir of life. Haven't countless races followed Anke Ra already?"
"Authority."
Uriel said bluntly.
"There is no authority."
"Are you saying I'm lacking?"
"That's not what I mean. I mean we are imperfect. We ourselves."
All eyes turned toward the empty seat of the angelic commander.
"Ikael."
The reason Anke Ra couldn't reset was because he could not give Gaphin a second chance.
In the end, he had to excise parts of the incident, and the aftereffects were worse the higher a being's mental acuity.
'There's definitely something. Even if no vivid memories remain, you can infer from the blank shapes formed in their radiant bodies.
'Like having birthed a human child, for example.'
Kariel shook his head.
That such illogical thoughts surfaced was likely another aftereffect of the memory erasure.
Still, the blankness felt filthy.
Uriel said, "We need Ikael. Without the Table being perfect, our authority won't hold."
At present, Ikael had lost all her powers and was being punished on Arabot's spire.
Her punishment was to fly to a planet that had rebelled and destroy its civilization.
Only then would Ikael regain her strength, and the archangels did not understand why that was a punishment.
Not even Ikael fully understood.
She only knew...
'Why am I like this?'
Every time she returned from killing humans she could not hold back her tears.
'Gaphin.'
It had been since that secret meeting one night that nobody in Heaven noticed.
'If only, once more, if only I could see him again.'
A knock sounded.
"Come in."
Ashur opened the door carefully and entered, faltering over his words.
"Is it a mission?"
"Yes. I'm sorry." He had watched Ikael's returning tears countless times after missions and could not remain silent.
"It's not Ashur's fault. Punishing those who rebel against Anke Ra is the commander's duty."
Ikael drew a deep breath and smiled.
"All right. Where is it?"
"Planet in the Seventh Solar System of the Oregon galaxy. The Kergo race settled there fifteen hundred years ago, but recently there have been signs they deny God."
"Kergo. That's unexpected. Their faith has been remarkable even among Heaven's three loyal peoples."
"It's a distant province of Kergo, where the gods don't remain. The farther humans are from their gods, the farther their hearts drift. At this rate Heaven's expansion project will fail."
Ikael nodded firmly.
"Fine. I will go myself to punish them and restore divinity. Seventh Solar System, you said?"
"Yes. The seventh planet of the Seventh Solar System. It's a volcanic island in the sea, so it shouldn't take long."
"Hmm? A volcanic island."
Ashur opened the door for her and said, "The natives are called the Galliant."
To be continued in the next volume.