Humanity's Terminus (3)
Son Yujeong and Mortasinger ran across the System Control Branch's warehouse grounds.
"Move!"
A swarm of black mounts pursuing from the sky hurled their dark chains to the ground.
"Yujeong! Above!"
Before Mortasinger finished the warning, Son Yujeong snapped her two yeois in a blur.
Sparks flew from the clubs as several chains wrapped tight around her arms and legs.
"Kruuu—!"
Feeling her strength drain, smoke puffed from Yujeong's mouth.
'Geunduun!'
She twisted her whole body and pulled her arms back; the black mounts slid down with a long, trailing sound.
- Ugh! H-how...?
Hwa An Geumjeong flared to life and the blood-red club began hammering the black mounts' weak points.
"Think monkeys are easy?"
When the black mounts scattered like smoke, Yujeong let her shoulders drop and drew a ragged breath.
"Haa. Haa."
Mortasinger came closer.
"You alright?"
"Yeah. …No. These things are really strong. Honestly, they're the worst. They don't even feel like they take a proper hit."
It lacked a satisfying bite.
"By the way, did your power vanish too? That Hidden Peace thing—whatever it was."
Before joining the Satan Church, Mortasinger had been an irregularizer who split space like puzzle pieces.
"I'm not sure yet. I shook off Satan's brainwashing, but I don't know what's true."
"I see. Well, think on it slowly. For now, let's go. We need to find a way out of hell."
At the front gate, Son Yujeong couldn't bring herself to take the final step.
"What's wrong? You're not going out?" Yujeong touched the Gingoju.
'You're not going to chant the Gingoju? Really not going to call on it? Are you underestimating my power? Or—'
Richera's face screamed in her head.
"What are you thinking? Just go! If you run far enough, they won't find you!"
"Yujeong."
Mortasinger stepped closer.
"After you fell for Satan's temptation, you went through hell. You ended up like this."
Once free of the brainwashing, a realization had come.
"The only reason you don't deny it is because you once loved that form too much. Of course, to say you have no regrets would be a lie, but you discovered the strength of your heart. Don't lie to your heart. You don't need to ruin everything because of me."
"Molta——?"
That was Mortasinger's pet name.
"I'm not telling you to go back. Nor telling you to leave. Do whatever you want."
"What I want."
For the first time, Son Yujeong looked into her own heart.
Rian leapt down.
"Ugh."
With the great straight sword resting on his shoulder, he strode forward and the demons hastily gave ground.
'Chains of Gehenna.'
One brush and they'd be burned away.
"You okay, Shirone? I heard something weird coming here. What exactly is it?"
Shirone said, "We've got a chance."
"I see. So what do we do now?"
"True Pure Tone."
The explanation was short, but what mattered to Rian was where Shirone was aiming his zero-point.
"Good. Let's go, Shirone."
Lete fired a purifying flame.
"Don't miss!"
Between the dozens of fireballs, demons slipped in and targeted Shirone.
Rian twisted and swung the great straight sword; the purifying flames popped and vanished.
"Ugh..."
The demons' bodies split; their flesh burned to pure ma that soaked into the blade.
"Krughhh!"
Rian purified the ma in an instant, his eyes flashing as he glared forward.
"No!"
When the great straight sword plunged into the ground, bubbles swelled up from the assembly hall's floor.
"Krughhh!" Rian's face contorted, and an explosion rocked the eleventh through thirteenth floors.
The black mounts guarding the warehouse heard the roar and turned toward the office building.
- Bind the sinners.
Shirone and Rian, having leapt from the office building, saw black clouds blotting out the sky.
They were all black mounts.
"Shirone, that's serious."
There was no time to delay—agents and demons were in pursuit from the office building.
"Run!"
While running, Rian asked, "You said we need the True Pure Tone. If we purify with Gehenna's fire, will she really return to reality?"
"It's very possible."
Shirone checked where the black cloud was moving and changed direction.
"If the central processing device is destroyed, calculating purification time will be impossible."
"That won't erase karma, will it?"
"If the system is paralyzed, anything can happen. Like how numbers in a bank account aren't real money—if the banking system collapses, the money evaporates."
"…I see."
While they talked, the black mounts closed to only a few hundred meters ahead.
Escaping the cloud was impossible.
"Shit!"
The black mounts halted at a distance, agents lined up thick behind them.
'Do we have to fight?'
Seeing Shirone and Rian stop, Lete flashed a meaningful smile.
"Black mounts are a program. They can't be purified by Gehenna."
She reached out her hand.
"Grab them."
Rian clenched his teeth; they'd already felt the black mounts' power at the Wailing Wall.
- Foolish sinner.
As the clouded black mounts flew at Rian, there was a loud pop and a hole was blown open.
- KRAAAAA!
The figure who left a searing heat around the hole was Son Yujeong, wreathed in Geunduun smoke.
"Weak ones always cluster together. Makes them so satisfying to beat."
Through the rent opening Mortasinger arrived, and Son Yujeong strode in.
"Yahweh, you."
Her yeoi pointed at Shirone.
"Why didn't you chant the Gingoju? Are you looking down on me? Don't you need my help?"
"Yes."
Yujeong's eyebrows twitched.
"There's someone who needs your help more than I do. Fight for that person."
The monkey's long canines bared.
"Shut up. Whether you're Buddha or God, you spout nothing but sweet words. And when I need you, you'll be called anyway. Wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, you'll chant the Gingoju—"
"Why did you come?"
Shirone wasn't fooled by idle words meant to hide sincerity.
"If you've already decided, why come and ask me?"
"You—!"
At that moment the black mounts launched their chains.
'Hidden Peace!'
Mortasinger activated an irregularization; the scenery split into ninety-eight zones.
"Done!"
Regaining magic proved she had broken free from Satan's brainwashing.
Like turning a cube, the black mounts' positions shifted and their chains fired off in different directions.
Mortasinger shouted as he turned to Shirone, "We'll take this side! Go!"
'Some realization.'
It had to be the firm conviction gained from experiencing both extremes.
While Rian fought the agents, Shirone turned his gaze to Son Yujeong.
"Well done. You saved Mortasinger."
"...I didn't."
"Yes. Reason eventually rediscovers righteousness. But your role was the most important."
"What do you expect me to do with that?"
Yujeong slammed her yeoi down and shouted, "I'm not Mortasinger! I don't know math, magic, or science—nothing!"
Shirone smiled wryly.
"Neither do I."
"Understanding the world is called knowledge, but all the places you arrive at by knowing are… ultimately ignorance. Because this world began from nothing."
Shirone stepped closer.
"To know that something is unknowable is wisdom. Not clinging to dogma, listening to many voices, and being able to change yourself."
Just like Mortasinger.
"You are an uncut gem. That's why the one I sent here is you. Open the door to your heart. Entrust yourself to all possibilities. And if, after that, you can still make a choice, then that will be true righteousness."
"True righteousness? Open my heart? Is it that easy? If I consider every possibility, does that make it right to kill people or wreck the world?"
"Yes."
Shirone spoke with conviction. "If you had truly opened your heart and genuinely entrusted yourself to every possibility—
He pressed his index finger to the Gingoju.
"You would never make such a choice."
With a ringing snap the Gingoju broke, but Yujeong was already dazed.
'Not choosing…?'
What is right?
Countless people throughout history had poured out words about righteousness.
'Righteousness is—
Sit quietly in an empty room, close your eyes, and look at your heart.
"Just what is right."
We already know it.
We're simply too tired of reality's horrors, sickened by human cruelty, and deliberately turn away.
"Son Yujeong."
Shirone said, "You saved one person from hell. There's no reason to bind you anymore."
Yujeong ran her hand over the spot where the Gingoju had been, then lifted her head and took Shirone in.
'Yahweh and Buddha.'
How had two who looked so alike diverged? A fire lit in Yujeong's eyes.
"Kiiiiii!"
She flashed past Shirone like lightning and struck an agent with her yeoi.
"Ughk!"
As if sound had been erased until now, the noises of battle flooded back.
"Go."
Yujeong said, turning her back to them, "Whatever you do, it's a problem if these guys come along. I'll handle them—you're leaving."
"Please. Rian, go!"
As Shirone launched himself, Lete screamed, "Grab Yahweh!"
"Mortasinger!" Yujeong shouted.
As if waiting, Mortasinger used an irregularization to move the two of them far away.
"Damn! What the hell—?"
By the time the puzzle-like space snapped back, Yahweh had already left the branch.
"Chase!"
Agents who received the order barely rose ten centimeters before their faces were crushed.
A hollow cylindrical depression filled with the ghost of a yeoi, then the sound of meat being minced followed.
In an instant the bodies of dozens of struck agents were twisted out of shape.
"Guhhh..."
One agent collapsed with a thud as Yujeong exhaled steam and faced Lete.
"Where do you think you're going? I was just getting warmed up."
Lete smiled coldly. "Hah. Either way, there's only one place you'll go. I'll tear your limbs off and chase you."
"You think you can? You know monkeys don't break even under a mountain."
Yujeong's body, having linked the two yeois before her, burst into golden flame.
"Pasahayonjeong—breaking evil and revealing the right—that's the true righteousness I pursue."
'I'm sorry. I won't ever be broken again.'
As the severed parts vanished and the two yeois were reborn as one, Lete furrowed her brow.
'Jecheondae-seong.'
Long ago, creating an energy just like this, it hurled hell into ruin—
Yujeong's face contorted like a fiend.
"Kiiiiii!"
As shards of light scattered, holes began opening all over Lete's torso.
'That crazy monkey—!'
A beam of light pierced Lete's left eye as she staggered back at incredible speed.