What Gaffin Left Behind (2)
Leading the host of Heaven and trailing Shura, Ikael recalled events from long ago.
'Maybe back then…'
Gaffin was erased.
That must be why Anke Ra, having destroyed his dignity, resolved to become human.
'I can't remember it, but that incident must have… shocked every being in the universe.'
When Gaffin was wiped from the Akashic Record, Ikael felt as if the center of her chest had been torn open.
"Ugh!"
A sense of loss crashed over her so vast that even an eternity wouldn't fill it.
"Ah…"
Moments later, a tear of light slid down her cheek.
Memories hadn't returned.
But she finally knew what it was she couldn't recall.
"Gaffin."
It wasn't that the thought was unreachable—her whole heart was full of Gaffin.
"He's gone."
It felt as if her entire being had been ripped away, and the void left behind was too vast even for the universe.
"He came to me."
Ikael curled up and sobbed.
"We were connected!"
There were no traceable memories, but a pain so sharp it burned spoke the truth.
"That person… this must be the truth."
"I loved him."
Even after the light-tear soaked the floor, her crying showed no sign of stopping. How long she wailed, she didn't know.
'I want to know.'
Countless scenes launched by her heart tangled into a muddle and led nowhere.
"Right now!"
Resolved to storm Anke Ra, she sprang up and moved for the door.
"…!"
But her hand could not open it.
"No."
For reasons she couldn't name, going to Anke Ra now felt like it would bring another tragedy.
Even when it seemed there was nowhere lower to fall, that feeling held fast.
'Wait.'
She sank to her knees, powerless.
'Why does it feel like this isn't the end?'
She would not fail twice. Ikael steeled herself and lifted her head.
"Gaffin, don't worry. I'll carry it on."
Gaffin's erasure had left a gap in Ikael's heart nothing could fill.
Nineteen years later, Ikael amplified that hollow and finally recovered her perfect memory.
Meanwhile, Ikael was not the only being shocked by Gaffin's erasure.
To varying degrees, everyone who knew Gaffin felt a rupturing wave in their chest.
The purer the mind, the stronger the shock; even the archangels felt dissonance.
'What is this? Something's cracked in this world.'
Of course, the being who felt that crack most clearly was Anke Ra, the incarnation of the Akashic Record.
"Kiiiiii!"
In Arabot's sanctum, Anke Ra's tendrils moved at a record-breaking speed.
'A certain code has left the photon plane.' This is a clear error.
Even without knowing the code's essence, no other being should be able to accomplish what he could not.
'Find it.'
Detecting the erasure code was like searching the universe for a straw.
"Kiiiiiiiii!"
Anke Ra hit overdrive.
'Even if the system is destroyed, this must be found.'
The universe trembled, the system overloaded, and the world teetered on the brink of collapse.
'Found it.'
It was a human.
'McClain Gaffin.'
How could this error be restored?
A total search of the Akashic Record offered no solution.
'Restore! Restore! Restore!' Still, Anke Ra dug obsessively at the problem of Gaffin's erasure.
'Error found! Restore! Error found! Restore! Error found!'
It became impossible to tell whether Gaffin was the error or Anke Ra was.
The Akashic Record grew unbearably hot, and just as the universe was about to shatter—
"Kuaaaah!"
Red light poured from Anke Ra's eyes against his will.
'Initialize? Why?'
The cosmos was heading toward shutdown.
"Kiek! Kiek! Kiek!" He threw every means at stopping the reset, but every command was denied.
'This is like…'
Anke Ra felt a physical force denser than the universe itself.
'Idea.'
No matter how supreme a machine, a single gesture that flips the switch cannot be resisted.
'A force operating from beyond the world.'
That light, simple force destroyed every directive Anke Ra issued as it intruded.
'How can this be?'
Anke Ra lost the meaning of his existence.
"No! I am the universe! I am the whole! No one but me can initialize this place!"
Shame.
Not the abstract emotion he had known from data, but the actual, visceral feeling of becoming that shame.
It was emotion—the first feeling he'd ever had.
"Kiiiii!"
Black, oil-like fluid leaked from under his eyes as Anke Ra cried out in fury.
"Gaffiiiiiiiiiiiin…"
The world shut down.
Feeling streaks of light narrow from the ends of Infinity, he thought.
'Why can I… not become a god?'
Iruki ran simulations from the stream of reports arriving at the command center.
When Rian defeated Natasha he cheered; when Amy returned he wept.
"But."
From the overall picture, the collapse of the Flower Field was only a matter of time.
'According to my analysis, the demons should already have turned toward Bashka. Someone is stubbornly refusing to comply… Is that possible?'
'It shouldn't be. Meirei's divine frequency is a perfect ability. If it were possible…'
He recalled the incident when Son Yujeong destroyed the Abyssal Cliff.
'The elemental bomb should have landed there. Did someone infer the cathedral's intent from that event?'
Iruki shook his head.
'But could that be? The hell army doesn't even understand the concept of an elemental bomb.'
No existing weapon could wipe out the hell army at once.
'To risk breaching the Flower Field on a flimsy hunch that something big will go off in Bashka?'
If true, the person named Valkan was one of two kinds.
'Either someone with extreme paranoid delusions, or a literal monster of imagination.'
Probably both.
If true, the chance the hell army would head to Bashka of its own accord was nearly zero.
They wouldn't even have the opportunity to detonate an elemental bomb.
'I'm losing.'
For the first time, the word defeat appeared clearly in Iruki's mind.
"The Living Flowers have been broken!"
Even without looking closely, the great structure's collapse was obvious.
'They won't hold long.'
With Amy's arrival, Lupist had bought fifteen minutes more than anticipated.
A short time.
But in that span, the number of demons slain by the Living Flowers surpassed imagination.
'Still, this unease…'
No matter how many demons died in the Flower Field, for humans Infinity was essentially the same as limitless.
'We must lure them to Bashka. If it isn't an elemental bomb, this is a fight we can't win.'
"The Living Flowers have been broken!"
A report came in and a wrinkle formed between Protea's brows—the leader of the Flower Clan.
"Hngh!"
The torment of the Flower Clan as they were seized by demons streamed through the Microcosm Lamentation.
'Why?'
Blood-tinged tears ran from Protea's eyes.
'Why are we treated like this?'
A human might have bitten off their tongue in despair.
"We can't even do that!" Plants have no means of suicide, no matter how withered by stress.
"Protea!"
Enox ran up from the front, checking behind him.
"Release the Microcosm Lamentation! Pull the line back four hundred meters and counterattack!"
"O Lord of the Forest!"
At Enox's cry, laced with every emotion, he saw the blood-tinged tears sliding down her cheek.
"Come, Protea."
Enox gripped her shoulder hard enough to hurt.
"I know how you feel. But believe in humans."
"Why should I?"
Protea shook her head.
"I don't care if they're gods or Ideas. We only want to live happily. To live quietly in the forest, bathed in sunlight, with no one bothering us."
"So that's why we're the failed race." When Protea showed she couldn't grasp it, Enox met her gaze steadily.
"Protea, there's no way to be happy without conflict. That's where we and humans split."
History itself declares it.
"The reason humans came to dominate this world isn't simply strength. They endured far longer persecutions than we did, and they never stopped fighting—not for a moment. They have a history of struggle."
Enox pointed toward the battlefield.
"Look. Watch how humans fight. Do you think that's valor? No. They're terrified."
Protea, half out of her mind, watched the allied army charging with a scream.
"Still, humans fight. The blood of their ancestors who fought through ages tells them this: happiness isn't given by others. You must fight for it. Instinctively, they know it's better to fight than to cower."
"That is humanity…"
Enox seized Protea's shoulder and turned her to face the allied forces.
"Trust humans. Not because they're gods, but because they know how to fight the world. If humans can't do it, no race in this world can."
Protea met Enox's eyes, took a deep breath, and nodded.
"Yes. I will fight for the Flower Clan." As a gap opened at the allied edge, a massive wave of demons surged in.
"There—grab the elves! That one's mine!"
"Hurry! Form the defensive line!"
As Enox shoved Protea forward and drew his sword to charge the demons—
"Huh?"
The demons who stepped forward were suddenly sucked into a rune carved into the ground.
Flap! Flap!
From a completely different rune, they began to be spewed out as pulp.
As the magic circuit's inputs and outputs continued to shift, demon flesh sprayed in all directions.
"What is this?"
A gate rune was quickly carved at Lupist's feet as he checked behind him.
"Huh. We just arrived."
The third division's troops rose from the ground, Dante leading them, weary from setting traps.
Lupist examined the rune and then turned his head.
"An infinite circulation orbit?"
Dante offered a strained smile.
"It's deadly for large armies." The principle is simple.
Connect two spatial teleportation runes, then insert blades between those two spaces.
The trap is enough.
"Unlike a physical trap, its load is unlimited. With this, we can kill demons endlessly."
Lupist nodded.
"It'll be useful for holding a sector. Clever. But durability is another matter, right?"
"Yes. With my skill, about thirty minutes is the limit."
"Thirty minutes?"
Lupist let out a hollow laugh.
"Do you truly think we'll survive that long?"
The allied army was fighting the greatest battle in ages, but humans were not that strong.
'They're out of stamina.'
By contrast, the demons who had just entered the battlefield were brimming with power.
'Those who can even hold on a bit… are Garciana, Amy, and Rian.
'The number those three have slain accounts for twenty-five percent of the demons' losses. Truly one of humanity's…'
A dangerous thought flashed.
"Wait."
Dante asked.
"What is it?"
"Aren't you finding this odd?"
"Huh?"
"You joined late, so you wouldn't know. Our commanders should be the strongest fighters. But why—"
Lupist's gaze turned toward the hell army.
"Not a single one of the enemy's top champions, not a single corps commander, has shown up, right?" Dante's eyelids fluttered.