The Horrible Truth (6)
Arius muttered.
"Tachyon?"
The darkness blooming inside the Miracle Stream was a signal of nothingness that shouldn't be able to exist in this world.
Shirone's eyes snapped open, and the ominous light of the tachyon flared outward like a sun.
Negative and positive energies annihilated each other, and the black hole began to evaporate.
"Oh—ohhh!"
Through the tearing rifts of darkness, Arius made out a familiar scene.
'The primal psyche of Imir.'
As cracks of light multiplied exponentially, gravity fell away.
Crackle. Crackle.
Noise hissed from the Ultima in Arius's hand.
"Remember."
As the contact with the outside world was cut again, the god's voice grew faint.
"Imaginary time?????? Even so... everything is... consequence... the gods' design..."
The final message dwindled and, at last, the black hole's darkness fully lifted.
"Shirone!"
Miro, Gaold, Sein, and Gangnan waited on the ground, still visible in the distance.
Sein muttered, "What about the Ultima?"
As if answering, Arius offered the Ultima he had extracted from the outside world.
The god fell silent, and the most powerful intelligence coalesced into a phenomenon and crossed into the inner world.
Beyond the universe, bound to five planets and Law number five, Imir awakened.
"Kukukuku."
A bodily sense so vast it had been imperceptible began to return.
"Done."
He felt arms and legs again, fingertips and toes, muscles contracting.
"It's been a long time." The Five Great Stars' planets, which had remained as points smaller than a body, twisted rapidly.
"Wait. I'll crush whatever comes."
The rhythm of power he had been gathering for ages finally reached his mind.
"Waaahhhhh!"
With a roar that spread at blinding speed, Law number five was destroyed.
Imir's Deep Level 1. Shirone felt the simultaneous events that had been blocked rush in all at once.
'I see.'
So much had happened.
The reason other simultaneous events had been cut off after Zhuangzi's Butterfly activated was that the outside-world information Shirone accepted was so alien.
But now the barrier was torn down, and the Shirone in those other simultaneous events also realized the tachyon.
Kukukukuku!
When Imir's Deep Level 1 trembled like an earthquake, Arius shouted, "This is bad! Imir is breaking free."
Shirone felt it too.
"There's no time."
If the King of Giants returned to Shirone's planet, nothing would remain.
"Let's go down."
When Shirone and Arius landed where Gaold's group waited, Miro stepped forward.
"The Ultima?"
Arius—who'd blasphemed a god in the outside world—was a mouse before a cat when facing Miro.
"He—here..."
Watching the blue electricity flicker, Miro finally smiled.
"I told you. I said it would work, didn't I?"
"Ha ha, yes..."
Arius lifted his head, moved, but then blood suddenly poured from his mouth.
"Ugh!"
"Arius!"
Having traveled the outside world together, Shirone was the first to support him.
Miro asked, "What happened?" Arius's face had gone pale and his breath grew faint.
Shirone said, anguished, "He connected to extract the Ultima from the outside world. He put a god's intelligence into a human body..."
There was no neat way to put it, but Miro nodded as if she understood.
"I see."
"Gah!"
Arius spat blood again.
"It's all right."
He sensed his end coming, yet the corners of his mouth lifted in peace.
"Here—take it."
Arius pushed the Ultima into Miro's hands.
Only Shirone here would truly know what he'd done.
'Bigger than risking my life.'
Even after grasping the debt owed to the outside world, he fought to the end for his own heart—Miro.
"What, you expect me to take that?"
Looking down at the dying Arius, Miro spoke coldly.
"You're not seriously saying you'll die over something like this, are you? That's running away. Cut the nonsense and get up."
"Heh heh heh."
Arius laughed.
'I'm a lucky bastard.'
How many humans have ever pierced a god's mind in history?
'But the best part of my career was—'
Seeing Miro's mind.
"Don't worry. I won't regret it. I won't be afraid. Do you think I would betray you?"
A last sluggish spasm of blood welled and spilled.
"I'm sorry."
He wanted a little longer by her side—to preserve the face of the woman who pretended to be cold.
"I… I really must die now." Miro's nostrils tightened faintly.
"Is that so?"
She could not grieve.
There is no blind spot for Thousand-Hand Kannon; she maintained equanimity in any circumstance.
Miro struck the arm offering the Ultima, then sank to her knees beside him.
Burying the dying man's face against her chest, she whispered, "You did well."
Blood-slick, Arius's mouth curled up.
'How strange.'
Arius the tomb robber.
He'd been far from righteous—so much that he bragged about being among the world's top hundred dangerous people.
'How did I end up here?'
He'd never thought about living kindly for humanity's sake.
'It was just… fun.'
Good, evil—labels hardly mattered when living a life.
'Still.'
He was glad to be able to sleep in a sanctuary for the good.
'What will I become after I die? Really… will that world be waiting for me?'
He imagined himself later, laughing bitterly at the thought it had all been a dream.
"Kukuku."
Screw you.
'Even if I live twice—or a hundred times over—I will serve the god Miro.'
'Got that?'
When Arius's head slumped, Miro finally closed her hand around the Ultima.
"This is the—"
"Give it here."
Imir's voice made everyone turn.
"That's mine." Many rebuttals rose in Shirone's mind, but none escaped his lips.
"Mad."
Imir's face smiled like a demon, the murderous intent palpable as if to overwhelm the world.
Miro handed the Ultima to Shirone.
"Get out. I'll hold him off."
"But—"
"That's our only hope, isn't it? I'll stop Imir. You hurry and convert it into an object."
If they went into Drimo and used Ruber's authority, the Ultima would become a perfect object.
'Can they hold out?'
Miro and Gaold were masters she trusted, but Imir—whose source of power was threatened—was on another level.
He made an offer.
Despite the words, Shirone and the others felt sick.
"It looks like my body will soon regain freedom. When that happens, you won't survive. Someone scarier than me will come."
The ruler of minds—the Super-Ego.
Like Shirone before him, Imir's bound Super-Ego must be weak now.
'But it's different. If Imir regains power...'
Sein asked, "What do you want?"
"If you leave the Ultima as it is, I'll return it to you nicely. Let's settle this in the outside world."
"Hah, how are we supposed to—" Sein cut himself off.
'We have no choice but to trust.' If the universe's strongest Self stooped to pleading lies, that would be a sad thing indeed.
"Decide. Thirty seconds." Kukukukuku!
Deep Level 1 shook violently, and a hand burst through the sky's veil.
Graaahhhhh!
Tearing the heavens with both hands, a giant vast enough to steal their breath came into view.
'Imir's Super-Ego.'
"Twenty seconds."
As Imir counted down, their hearts dropped and they looked to one another.
Even without words, their thoughts were plain.
"Run!"
At Sein's shout, everyone ran without looking back.
Sein felt no shame.
'This is right. Why fight that monster for no gain? Even if we extract the Ultima...'
If they extracted it, Imir's mind would splinter into ten billion pieces.
"It's over. We won."
"Ten seconds."
Imir's eyes slit thin, and the sky-god's Super-Ego raised its fist.
Wherever they ran, a single strike would kill them.
'Is there no way to avoid it...'
Ruber and Monga waited, their gate into Drimo already set.
Shirone held out the Ultima and shouted, "Hurry! There's no time! If you don't convert it into an object—!"
"Five seconds."
Graaahhhhhhh!
The Super-Ego's roar numbed their eardrums. Ruber pointed to the gate and shouted, but—
"...I"
No one could hear.
Atop the Ivory Tower, where the sky was visible.
"Grrr!"
Argones twisted his face and made an unusually violent sound.
"So you finally trespassed?"
By Shirone contacting the outside world, Argones had gained the authority of the End.
"I will annihilate humanity."
As Argones prepared to activate Selbuster, Taeseong forced herself to speak.
"Wait."
"Wait? What are you talking about? No matter how much you love humans, humanity crossed the line."
"No. I can persuade them. Shirone, answer me. Do you really want to fight to the bitter end?"
Shirone, atop the Ivory Tower, now knew the true nature of the Illuminati.
"I only want to protect my world."
"All right."
Taeseong glanced back at Argones.
"Nothing has happened yet. Give us a chance. We can do this, can't we?"
This time she spoke to Shing.
"Stop now. Do you really want Selbuster to activate? Is carrying out your judgment more important than the extinction of all humanity? Trust me. I will act as humanity's representative and protect you."
Shing's face contorted.
"Grrr."
Even she—arguably the most stubbornly subjective person in the world—could not find footing in this moment.
'What on earth do you expect me to do?'
"Shing."
Shirone said, "I obtained the Ultima."
"??? What—?"
"From the outside world, through someone's sacrifice. Humanity can be unified now. We won't have to fight alone anymore."
Was it true?
"As you said, everyone else besides me might be an illusion. But could you trust me? Leave it to me."
"Ughhh..."
Shing's face crumpled.
'Truly remarkable.'
Shirone didn't know, but before the question of humanity's survival, Son Yu-jeong had gone white within ten minutes.
"Integration."
Shing said in a hoarse voice, "We could live together? No longer suspect each other, no longer tremble in fear..."
Shirone looked at her with desperate eyes.
"Yes." Shing remained motionless for a long moment, and everyone on the Ivory Tower waited calmly.
"All right."
At last—Shing's arm that had bound Taeseong slowly began to drop.
"I will trust you."
Her resolve broke.
But Shing's face was peaceful, wearing a pretty smile Shirone had never seen.
'She can make that expression, too.'
Meaningless now, perhaps, but with that the Ivory Tower had regained one of its stars.
Shirone reached out his hand.
"Come. We'll need your help." "Hm."
Just as Shing moved to take his hand, Shirone's eyes widened and his body lurched.
"Hurk!"
"Shi-Shirone?"
Shing couldn't move either. The gaze from the woman who had stabbed Shirone in the back was far too cold.
"How arrogant you are, human."
It was Taeseong.