Face to Face (3)
'Amazing.'
Nane bowed to Shirone. It wasn't surprising—he himself had reached the pinnacle of enlightenment.
What was remarkable was the path Shirone had chosen.
'The heart.'
He had climbed to the edge of the world bearing everyone's hearts with him.
'I see. There was such a path too.'
Like mirror symmetry, they had walked different roads from the start but ended up at the same place.
'I suppose it's right.'
Hexa—the ultimate state a heart could pursue—Nane could only concede it.
'But this is only the beginning.'
Nane's sword-blossom flared even brighter as he began driving Miracle Streams forward.
Imagine anything you wanted.
Nane's blade contained every harmony this world possessed.
'Sermon—Ice.'
All cold concepts formed an almost infinite spectrum and stabbed at Shirone.
'It's not cold.'
Shirone's mind, denying Nane's truth, manifested through the Miracle Stream and destroyed the sermon.
Amy's face was swept by shock.
"My God…"
Every time particles of light collided with conceptual blades, something unbelievable flashed in the sparks.
"What is that?"
Eyes.
Whether human or not was unclear, but innumerable pupils shimmered across their retinas.
"The world is tearing."
Miro said.
"That's as far as humans can understand. Whether it's an error in the universe or something beyond…."
Nade swallowed and said, "What if we step in? The balance is tight—if we break it—"
"Are they idiots?"
Miro nodded toward the angels waiting with grave faces.
"They aren't moving because Nane and Shirone aren't fighting over power."
"Then what are they fighting for?"
"For the definitions of all things." "The world is one, but somehow the perspectives have split into two. That's the problem."
Lupist continued, "If I hit with a hundred tons, how that hundred tons behaves is determined separately by Nane and Shirone. In the end it's meaningless—it becomes whatever they decide."
Miro nodded. "Exactly. Two systems are perfectly interlocked. The definitions descending from inside belong only to those two. Even if I attacked Nane with a ray, Shirone might end up taking the blow."
While they talked, Shirone and Nane's duel surged toward its peak.
'Have you realized this too?'
Nane always asked the questions.
'Then what about this?'
The sermon-blade combined every concept from one end of the universe to the other and fired at Shirone.
'Agape.'
The Miracle Stream flared with terrible light, wrapped around Nane's blade, and shattered it.
Miro's eyebrows trembled. "That was close."
If it could be called a conversation, the two had discussed everything in the universe in a short time.
'And even here it's the same. If there'd been only one, he might have been a god, but because there are two…'
Still human.
'Who will break?'
As Miro cupped her face and watched seriously, the angels' aureoles quivered.
At the same time a murmur ran through the allied forces.
"Uh? Uh—?"
It was an almost imperceptible movement, but the intensity felt like a scream of concentration.
"Sh-Shirone is… he's pushing Nane's forehead back little by little."
'They're not symmetrical.'
As mirror symmetry dissolved and Yahweh and Buddha separated, Nane's face contorted.
"Grrr!"
The sword-blossoms surged like an explosion and the whole of Bashka trembled with a fierce vibration.
'The perspectives are breaking.' It felt as if the world might split in two, but Shirone showed no sign of stopping.
'I will never retreat.'
He narrowed his fierce eyes and took a step forward—then Nane's smile appeared.
"Huh?"
As Shirone set his foot down, Nane stepped back the same distance.
"What… what was that?"
Both the allied forces and heaven's army squinted.
'He withdrew on his own?'
It was so alike that even Shirone couldn't understand the action taken a moment ago.
'I wouldn't have done that.'
If one would step back out of fear of losing, he never would have become an era's Buddha in the first place.
"That was a worthwhile conversation."
Nane's words carried an unsettling edge.
"A conversation? We collided with the world at stake. There were no variables. No—we examined every variable. Whatever you tried, the outcome wouldn't change."
"I know. I lost."
No one spoke it aloud, but heaven's army felt the mood ripple.
'O Buddha—'
The most shocked was Shura.
'I know him. He's not the sort to yield easily. Even if he were Yahweh… could it be?'
One thought flashed through her mind.
'Is it that difficult?'
Nane spoke as he withdrew. "The directions differ but the essence is the same. It's about thinking what humanity needs. I could understand your universal love. No—I truly understand you."
For the first time Nane's gaze left Shirone and turned to someone behind him.
'Amy.'
If he closed the world, Amy would vanish, and so would the love he felt for her.
'Is that the right thing to do?'
Nane was right about everything except one thing; if he convinced himself this too was right, that would be the end.
'It mustn't be so.'
If the sermon wasn't absolute, the Buddha's doctrine would become nothing more than harsh words, not truth.
"I will watch."
When Nane rose into the sky, heaven's army looked up in bewilderment.
"He left?"
Turning their eyes back to the ground, the allied forces were arrayed behind Shirone.
Triangle leader Mara Ashur asked Ikael, "What shall we do?"
With the Buddha abandoning the front, command effectively passed to the archangel.
Rayel spoke, "Allow us to sortie. As you just saw, Nane is not Anke Ra. We have a duty to continue the god's maintenance and to rule them. I will do it." No words came from Ikael, who had locked eyes with Shirone.
Satiel bristled. 'If she's regained her memory, she won't permit a war against humans.'
"Archangel."
Just as Ashur was about to ask again, Imir sprang off the ground.
"That's enough."
He closed the distance in an instant and slammed his fist toward Shirone's face.
"I'll settle this."
The Miracle Stream wrapped around Imir's arm and a strange resistance surged in.
"Kukuku!"
An unforgettable resistance.
"Yaaaah!"
A puff of luminous smoke exploded and the blast pushed Shirone backward.
"Whew!"
He had experienced it before as Omega, but taking it without Gopin was a world of difference.
"A jab—a feint."
Rian cut in front of Imir, slamming both palms into the ground and charging.
"You're facing me." As the great saber swung wide, cleaving the air, Imir's pupils flashed.
'This is…?'
A beastlike impulse surged and Imir's body, aimed at Shirone, twisted violently.
"Kuhahahaha!"
He raised one arm to shield his face and charged—only for the great saber to crash into his forearm.
The moment the sensation of impact registered, every hair on his head stood on end from the pain.
'Yes! This is it!'
Drunk on the heat of battle, Imir twisted his waist and thrust his fist.
"Come on, Ojen—"
At the same time the colossal incarnation of the Thousand-Armed Kannon rose up and struck Imir thousands of times from both sides.
"Explode."
With the final blow Imir's body slid four meters to the side.
'Four meters?'
Miro smiled wryly. 'I meant to send him four kilometers.'
With Imir having opened the offensive, the giants charged as if they had been waiting.
"Tch! Those ones!"
Ashur grumbled, but they lived and died at Imir's command.
Miro formed a hand-sign and said, "They fight. Prepare."
As the allied forces charged heaven's army, the angels had no choice but to move.
Only Shirone kept his eyes on the situation.
'This is disadvantageous.'
Unlike the allied forces, which relied on a few individuals, heaven's army were all divine beings.
Had it not been for Miro's defenses, Bashka might already have been blown away.
'We have to do it.'
Only Hexa could manage it.
"Whew."
Shirone took a deep breath and drew Miracle Streams between his hands.
'It's still hopelessly insufficient.'
But the longer the melee in Bashka went on, the more humans suffered.
"Hand of God."
As if answering a signal above Shirone, the clouds opened and a colossal hole split the sky.
"What's that?"
The angels' faces drained of color.
"Block it!"
A massive cluster of light in the shape of a hand plunged down from the heavens, and the archangels charged.
The fastest was Rayel.
'Accelerator!'
Rayel dashed at light speed, braked within the flash, and thrust his fist—
'Huh?'
A blond boy moving at the same velocity cut in from the side.
'Who is that?'
In his feverish eyes two magic circles assembled at light speed.
'Guanlong—'
At that instant the boy's fist smashed into Rayel's face.
'Phaeton?'
Bang—
The archangel's body slammed into the ground, gouging a furrow as it skidded endlessly away.
"Kuhahaha! Long time no see!"
Before Rayel's momentum had even faded, Phaeton caught up and rained blows with his small fist.
"You missed me? Huh? Did you miss me?"
Rayel's legs, his upper body buried in the earth, flailed like a fish.
When the stunned angels finally snapped back and turned to rush—
"No!"
The Hand of God crushed down across Bashka and curled its fingers like shovels.
'It's sifting heaven's army out.'
Like a filter, heaven's entire army stuck to the light fist rising to the sky.
"Yaaah!" As Shirone swung his arm, the Hand of God flung them all away.
Countless angels activated judicial aureoles, but law could not stop this force.
"Uaaaaah!"
Angels, mara, fairies, and giants were sent flying like sand, and the allied forces watched with wide eyes.
"…What is that?"
Shirone exhaled roughly as he looked back for an explanation.
"Hah. Hah."
He wasn't pleased with the outcome.
'The Ultima system is too weak. It only ejects them from the frontline. It didn't even fling them into the universe.'
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
From the sounds of the breaches, some elements had already broken through Hexa's power and been expelled.
'I need more ideas.'
As Shirone pondered, the Hand of God folded into a chin-resting pose.
Amid everyone's baffled staring, Phaeton dusted his pants and walked forward.
"You're slow as ever…"
Booms rang through the air one after another and eleven figures appeared around Shirone in perfect formation.
They glared at Phaeton as if they would devour him, then immediately dropped to one knee and bowed.
"Messiah."