The Age of History (4)
"Pak Ji-gyeong."
After finishing his deal with Karatorsa, Geopin slipped into the Other World through Choeuni Bardo.
The realm of ma was as vast as the true cosmos, yet its internal landscape was entirely different.
"This will be a dangerous trip."
The route Geopin chose to return to the planet with Miro required crossing seventy-two hells.
It was the only way to reach her.
"Ma-god Behemos."
Unlike human ma, the ma born from the fallen angels flowed into the Other World and took form there.
Mixed with every possible emotion, it differed from ma born of clear concepts.
"He won't be subjugated."
He bore no horns—the symbol of the mara—and after wandering for ages had settled on Miro's planet.
That was, at least, by the standards of the Other World.
"Long time no see, king of beasts, Behemos."
Before Geopin stood Behemos: a mountain of a body with seven eyes set symmetrically across it.
"Geopin. You came to see me?"
"I crossed seventy-two hells. You never invited me even after I called. Were you dodging me on purpose?"
"…Huh."
Behemos turned his head with a snort and raised fingernails longer than spears to point aside.
"You look like a wreck. Sit. Shall we drink? I fetched a good bottle."
"I've come to ask a favor." Geopin sat on a chair of bone and crossed his legs. Behemos lifted a bottle of liquor he'd acquired from the real world.
"I know. I may be retired, but my authority still carries weight in the Other World."
Behemos had lived so long he'd deliberately cut off the flow of ma and effectively retired.
Now he killed time doing the odd errands low-ranked demons do in the human world.
Still, the demon clans continued to acknowledge Behemos as the elder second only to Lucifer.
"Drink. It's not bad." Behemos tipped the bottle with the tip of a nail. Geopin didn't refuse and took a cup.
"I've had a child."
Behemos paused, then refilled his cup and poured himself more without missing a beat.
"When? As far as I know—"
"Yes, she died. But she didn't die. Ikael and I are still connected."
Behemos downed a quantity that was barely a drop for his size and spoke.
"Agape, right? That thing that makes life from a heart signal?"
The demons hated the word, but retired Behemos showed no restraint.
"Yes. The child's body is already dead, but Agape doesn't need the physical to work. There's one problem, though."
"What problem?"
"She won't be human." Behemos refilled his cup and considered. By his understanding, combining Hexa and Agape could create a human form.
"A problem of the mind?"
Geopin nodded.
"Exactly. Think about me and Ikael—we've reached a higher plane by this world's standards."
"Hah, don't go acting all lofty."
Behemos snorted, but didn't pry further.
"You've watched countless human lives from the Other World, you know it. Humans carry tendencies of good, evil, duty, and love. They can be sad and then laugh, in pain and then be happy. Those experiences blend and shape their perspective—the Idea. But the child about to be born…"
Behemos muttered in a serious tone.
"…has no ma."
"That's it exactly. I am Gaia, who has already formed an integrated mental system, and the child's mother is Ikael, the first concept of this world. There's no room for ma to intervene. So—"
Geopin got to the point.
"I want you to be my child's ma."
Behemos took his gaze off the cup and stared out over the Other World, lost in thought.
"But you know."
Then he pointed back at Geopin.
"Aren't you being a bit perfectionistic? One human without ma wouldn't hurt. That'd be fitting for you and Ikael. No need to cling so hard to some standard model."
"No, it's the opposite. Perfection is Agape, not me. Gaia's integrated mental system was completed through humanity's countless failed experiences. Without those, you can never realize Ultima."
"So the standard disappears."
"Exactly. True good isn't mere kindness; it's the will to suppress the evil inside. True love isn't foolishly dispensing affection; it's the resolve to throw everything away even while knowing it's your duty. If any one of good, evil, duty, or love is missing, humans cannot reach the Idea."
"One who can't understand evil can't realize good?"
"That's it. Only within the cycle of good, evil, duty, and love can we truly approach humanity. At the center of that humanity is the Idea. Philosophy is only a tool. Ultimately it transcends good and evil, duty and love."
Geopin smiled and shrugged.
"Look at us now. I've comprehended everything in this world, and yet I'm here drinking with you—the greatest villain."
Behemos turned his head and set his mouth.
"I will not repent."
"That's why I'm asking you. And… don't you think that request is a little childish now?"
"Hmph."
Behemos swept the bottle beside him into his mouth, chomped down, and crushed it between his teeth.
"So you want me dead. You sent Lucifer away and now you want to bury me too?"
"The time has come. You know that, don't you?"
Behemos fell silent.
Ever since he severed his connection to ma, he had no attachment to living in this world.
"You sure about that? Your child—if I'm pulled out for any reason, I could tear the thing apart."
"If possible…"
Geopin grinned.
"Make it hurt as much as you can."
"Guh-huh-huh-huh."
Behemos's vast body trembled as he refilled both their cups. "Call me when the time comes. For the first and last time, I'll go to meet you." The cups clinked.
Back in the heavens, Geopin went to the place where he had dreamed a newlywed life with Ikael.
The scene was grisly.
Memories of those days resurfaced and tore at Geopin's heart—yet the ache was threaded with happiness.
"So this is where I chose."
It was the place where Ikael had held their newborn and worn the happiest smile in the world.
A Hexa's hexagon rose on Geopin's palm and dissolved into a smoke of light.
Ikael's tears, long kept, shone clear and drifted before his eyes.
"The odds are fifty–fifty."
This was not a technical matter.
Agape, a kind of Hexa, is a miraculous power that combines hearts to create life.
If Ikael didn't love Geopin, the two signals would never have joined.
"Even if she doesn't remember me, it'll be fine."
They were linked by the heart.
"So, Ikael."
When Geopin spread his arms, Ikael's tears contained in the Miracle Stream rose into the sky.
"I love you."
The greatest love in the universe—Agape.
The Miracle Stream exploded in a cross and bridged the ends of the cosmos.
The instant miracle played out endlessly in Shirone's sight through Geopin's view.
"Ah—!"
Light literally filled the universe, and life condensed at a speed no mind could perceive.
Geopin's feeling as he looked up at the white radiance floating in the sky washed through her.
"Ikael."
Agape's success was clear proof that she still loved him.
"Thank you."
He had thrown himself completely in; she had given everything in return.
"Our child."
Tears welling, Geopin watched a special shadow forming within the white light.
This is Hexa.
The Omega transmission ended.
As Shirone savored the circumstances of her own birth, Karatorsa's voice came.
"All the information you've received so far are events from the first universe. And now—"
A new Omega flowed in.
"What's this?"
It was a log replaying occurrences for each time the universe had been reinitialized.
'Amazing.'
To human comprehension it was an enormous amount of data, but against the whole universe the changed events were less than 0.1 percent.
'Even with Geopin erased, it almost perfectly preserved the original history.'
After the reset, Anke Ra had spared no means to erase his own error.
The battles of angels who followed his will and the apostles who kept time echoed through the eleventh sense.
"Phew."
With a sigh from the great-winged dragon, all of Omega's records finally transferred to Shirone.
Karatorsa lowered himself and rested his chin on the floor as if he had no strength left to lift it.
Shirone waited.
Only after a long while did Karatorsa raise his head and speak.
"While transmitting the Akashic Record's logs, I could do nothing. Not only because I physically could not—but because if they fell into some other being's hands, the balance of the universe could tilt abruptly."
Shirone understood.
How immense that responsibility had been.
And the relief Karatorsa must feel in this moment.
"From now on, whoever oversees this world, the age of gods will come to an end. It will either be closed or continue. That is what Geopin defined as Omega 999 years."
It was an age of apocalypse.
"And the logs I can pass on end here. History is, after all, what has already passed." Shirone—that is, Hexa—did not appear in the Omega.
"If you were to receive logs from after your birth, they would no longer be your life. You couldn't remain who you are now."
Shirone had reached Ultima through countless torments and awakenings.
But if she knew those logs, the basis for her judgments would collapse. In other words, her plane would be broken.
If she learned all the events and hearts of the many people she had met,
'I could no longer see the world from my present perspective.'
That was enough.
The deep repository of knowledge had transformed into a perfect five-dimensional cube.
Everything in the universe was contained within.
Because it accepted particle interactions wholesale, the formulas and definitions of scholarship were unnecessary.
Shirone held out her palm.
When you imagine something—
The five-dimensional cube, an integration of spacetime, rotated and located what was needed within infinite volume.
The time it takes is—
None.
Inside the five-dimensional cube, time is a manipulable physical quantity.
"Fuse that power with Hexa."
A hexagonal light rose from Shirone's palm and chimed as it split.
"If you throw your whole heart into it—"
The smoke of light spun and became flowers that grew on her palm—species found on no planet.
Karatorsa stared as Shirone slowly lifted her hand.
The flowers that flew into the void shattered into tens of thousands of lights and poured down like a fountain.
Multicolored blossoms bloomed on the hard floor, and the cave quickly filled with their scent.
Shirone smiled and said, "Miracles happen."
The brain of a god.
That was the principle behind the Miracle Stream.