Fanaticism (4)
At Blitz's suggestion, the eleven apostles who had been listening from behind raised no objections.
From their point of view it was reasonable—either she proved she was ready to die, or she fought all twelve apostles.
"One at a time, in order—attack me." Still, Miro felt a chill. They wouldn't hold back their strikes—
And yet, no one was answered with a counterattack the instant they struck.
"If I refuse… then it's real combat. I'd be trading blows head-on with the twelve apostles.
'I'd honestly like the latter.'"
Regardless of victory or defeat, when would a single mage next get a chance like this?
"But we have to get to the Central Continent right away. This isn't the time for pride."
Having made up her mind, Miro raised both hands.
"All right. Hit me clean. I'll take it." Julu stepped forward.
"Miro."
"Stand back. You know her. She's not the sort to clumsily break the rules just to provoke someone."
Because it was true, Julu dropped his objections and shifted to preparing for the worst.
"Twelve apostles. Once they stood against an archangel. We should at least leave an escape route…."
They'd flown long distances on Kaidra, but they still had enough spirit to cast a force‑meter spell. Whether that would work on the twelve apostles was another question.
"What are you doing? You sang Shirone's song and already learned about universal love or something? Come on in." Blitz turned back.
"Who's going first?"
"I will."
She'd shaved half of her red hair close and wore three piercings on her left lip. Leather tights clung to a voluptuous figure, a long zipper running down her centerline.
Miro watched her.
"Probably… Infercus, the fire dragon.
The dragon who served as the level‑ten final model on Shirone's graduation exam."
How many viewers had called the developer a pervert for picking Infercus as the model?
"Not a pervert. If anything, merciful."
Though she'd taken a human shape, the presence she gave off in person was on a level the simulation couldn't reproduce.
'That monster is going to hit me?'
Infercus leapt down from the rock, paused, and glanced back.
"I'm going first. No complaints?" Phaeton, the blazing dragon, sneered.
"What would you do if there were complaints? You'd complain unless you go first, wouldn't you?" Infercus resumed her steps.
"Exactly why I asked. Better to get it over with now than later."
She approached Miro. "Hurry up. We're both busy."
Miro's lip quivered into the barest smile, and the Thousand‑Hand Guanyin incarnational technique unfolded.
The Guanyin figure rose to the very top of the sky; the twelve apostles looked up.
They were all masters of battle, so one realization dawned on them—
"This is certainly going to be difficult to crack."
The poisonous dragon Poine spoke in the voice of an old woman.
"When you fight an unknown opponent you usually start by feeling them out. You open with what you do best, or you probe for a weak spot. But that Guanyin…
Poine chuckled with delight.
"She doesn't even let you think."
There was no seam to exploit.
Whatever standard you applied, every direction was perfect, and you didn't even get the urge to strike first.
Julu muttered, "Projection of All‑Heavens."
It was the Thousand‑Hand Guanyin's vision, watching all things from the top of the universe.
"Anyway—"
Infercus raised her fist toward Miro.
"Ready?"
When she spread her fingers, a gigantic jet of flame writhed and a blast of heat swept outward as if to sear skin.
Miro inhaled deeply. "It's okay. It's not a breath attack."
There weren't strict rules, but Infercus intended to keep her transformed form.
"Going."
She manipulated a sunlike ball of fire at the sky's peak with her palm and took a step.
"Grrrr!"
Miro's nose scrunched as if the world had flipped; a pillar of fire plunged down from the heavens.
Thirty minutes later.
Where the twelve apostles had stood was no longer a rocky plain.
Layers of soil that had likely accumulated for tens of thousands of years lay exposed. Gangnan and Julu leapt forward.
"Miro!"
The two who arrived were speechless.
Miro knelt on one knee, trembling, her face buried in both arms. Her sleeves were burned away; her arms were smeared with blood, and one foot was buried deep in the ground.
"She's alive."
Gangnan, who had watched every strike the twelve apostles delivered—biting his lip until it bled—shuddered at the sight.
"She survived. She held on."
He'd honestly been annoyed with Miro, but in moments like this he felt a human awe.
"Miro."
Iruki used an honorific after a long time and approached her. At that instant—
"Aaaahhhhh!"
Miro shot to her feet and screamed. "You damned lizard brats! I'll kill every last one of you!"
As she pried the buried foot free and drove off the ground, Gangnan grabbed her waist.
"Hold it! Hold it!"
"Let go! I can't live after being beaten like this! I'll make them pay!"
As she lurched forward, Gangnan could tell by the weight she carried that she was no longer in any state to fight.
'Well, she did nothing but take the blows.'
Trying not to show it, Gangnan checked Miro and saw tears shining at the corners of her eyes.
"Ugh. Damn. It's really humiliating."
That the indomitable Miro cried in rage yet held out to the end—her reason was, ultimately, humanity.
"So that's the ultimate reason."
He'd resented Miro for not understanding Gaold's heart, but now he suddenly thought, 'Because she's that kind of woman.' Maybe Gaold would endure terrible pain to help her.
Gangnan said softly, "Let's head to the Central Continent."
"…So that's decided."
Iruki, who had been staring blankly at Miro's report, only came to his senses after a while and spoke.
"So you're late because you let the twelve apostles each land a blow?"
"Yeah. I tried to hurry, but every part of me aches. Guess I'm getting old." Miro feigned pain, then changed her expression. "Anyway, I heard. An elemental bomb. True to Shirone's friend—she thought up a pretty slick strategy."
A shadow passed over Iruki's face. "If Shirone had known, he would've been furious."
Miro didn't deny it.
"Do you regret that choice now?"
"No. I'll do it. I've already steeled myself."
Miro nodded.
"Good. Anyway, it's the only way to beat evil, right? Humanity's strength was devastated by the world war. Let's put it all on this. I'll help, too."
She could talk about terrible sacrifice so easily because she herself was included among the possible sacrifices.
"There's one suspicious part, though."
Iruki pointed at the battlefield map.
"As long as Meirei exists, no information leaks. The Mudeunryong's log is transmitted only to Shirone. Until then it rests in eternal slumber—no one can read it."
"Hm. And?"
"We're proceeding with the plan. But there's… a resistance, so to speak. That kind of response."
Iruki clenched his index finger in his other hand.
"It feels like the pulse of a vessel—something is beating inside the enemy ranks."
"You mean they noticed?"
"Not exactly, but it's unsettling. Habitz has two possible routes. One bypasses Tormia and goes straight; the other detours to strike Bashka. Straight is convenient; detouring gives them the toy called Bashka. I think a small shock will make Hell's army turn toward Bashka. But the turn feels smaller than expected."
"Subtle, then. If you give a shock, there's backlash, but they don't outright refuse to go to Bashka?"
"Yes. If you see an army as one organism, the current feeling is closer to internal conflict. It might be a split of opinion, or a few may have intuited something and only a minority knows."
"Then now's the time. The more suspicious they are, the harder it is to lure them."
Iruki was glad Miro didn't need an explanation.
"Here."
His baton tapped north of the flowerbed.
"Create a shockwave here. You have to bend them by at least eleven degrees."
Miro snorted. "You're speaking metaphorically?"
"Yes."
It wasn't a strategy that could truly be described by angles.
"Simple and intuitive. Got it. With Julu, Gangnan and me, we can shift more than eleven degrees."
Miro rose.
"All right, do your best."
Watching Miro's back, Iruki asked, "Why?"
Miro turned, but the answer came only after a little while.
"Nobody says anything, right?"
"You hate evil. But good people die too. Why? Because there's no way? Because you will die, too?"
"You'd grasp at straws."
Iruki's eyes trembled. "You'd want to hear at least something resembling a correct answer—even if it's the words of a madman. Or you'd rather be harshly criticized."
Miro walked as if on a stroll. "But no one talks to you. All that surrounds you is the silence of stillness."
Iruki bowed his head slowly.
"And that is my answer."
When he lifted his face again, Miro looked at him with pity.
"I was the same. When the twenty‑member committee convened, most people were silent."
Only Gaold shouted endlessly.
"It felt bitter and cruel. People looked like monsters. But after twenty years trapped behind dimensional walls, I suddenly thought: maybe back then humanity was quiet for the first time."
Silence.
"Unpleasant as it is to admit, some problems have no answers. Believing every problem has a solution is human arrogance. Back then, humanity's reason had gone pale before questions with no answers."
Miro smiled, as if letting go of past sorrow.
"There was nothing to blame or to rage at from the start. If I'd refused the committee's decision, things would have flowed the same. Would humanity have been annihilated then? No one knows. It's just the past now."
Miro kissed the crown of Iruki's head.
"You stand alone now at the threshold of an unknown world no one's ever set foot in. It's painful, but there's no need to be afraid. Wherever you go a path will form, and people will gather along it to open a new world. So I, as one of humanity—
Stepping back, Miro kissed her index and middle fingers and held them out to Iruki.
"I will be silent about your choice."
Iruki's fists clenched on their own. "Thank you."
That someone who had already walked into the unknown existed in the world was a tremendous blessing.
"Remember. Right now you are the owner of the world."
The door closed. Iruki calmly shut his eyes.
Miro's silence did not mean support, opposition, or neutrality.
'It is the right to choose that belongs only to you.'
Whatever he chose, he would be first, and from that a new future would be born.
"Phew."
With his overheated mind cooling for a moment, Iruki finally managed a three‑minute nap for the first time in a long while.