Humanity as an Obstacle (4)
"Eat."
Shiina held out the fruit again.
"I protected—"
"Eat! I'm telling you to eat! You have to eat so you'll protect me, right?"
Why am I getting angry?
She threw the fruit and it thudded against Kuan's chest.
'Why does this person have to suffer?'
A motion that defies human sense is proof that the mover has given up being human.
"All because of me!"
What use is love?
If I'd known how Kuan's end would be, I wouldn't have started at all.
'Before he lost his hearing.'
Before he lost his sight, before one arm was cut off...
'It's because of me.'
If she hadn't been there, Kuan at least wouldn't have ruined his life like this.
"Shiina."
Kuan smiled like an idiot.
"Don't... do it..." It sounded as if he was saying it was nothing.
A clown.
Just a clown who deliberately limped, stumbled, and pretended not to see to make people laugh.
"I'm sorry."
Shiina braced herself.
"Don't worry. I don't care what kind of person you are. I'll be by your side."
Only then did Kuan take a handful of fruit.
It hurt Shiina's heart to see him eat so ravenously, as if he'd forgotten all dignity, but she forced a smile.
"That's right."
Once Kuan had something to eat, Shiina turned her attention to the sounds outside the cave.
"Stay here for a moment."
They were already far from the battlefield, but the feeling was too ominous to ignore.
She rose into the sky and surveyed the city.
"My God..."
Torches flickered on every street, and beyond the horizon countless crowds were surging in.
'What's happening?'
It looked as if all of humanity were converging on one place.
'Strange.'
From so high, from tens of kilometers away, she could see something only that vantage could reveal.
'This isn't human movement.'
Even ants—the pinnacle of social evolution—wouldn't form a march like that.
Their voices swelled into one.
—Praise God.
Only one word popped into Shiina's skin-prickled mind.
'Doomsday.'
Demons bursting into reality, humans turned into objects, and what would come next...
Kuuuuuu!
A flaming meteor cut the night and fell.
"Giant."
After Maya's performance ended in a blood festival, heads of state meeting convened.
Fermi, king of Kesia, sat in his private study with a cold face.
'There's nowhere to run.' The human procession that had gathered from all directions was closing in, having sealed Zaive's borders.
'The disappearance of Emotion Sickness means the Otherworld system has been reset. But... the boundary between Hell and reality has vanished, too.'
'Exactly the scenario Satan would want. Can't be helped. The problem is Selbuster.'
Fermi couldn't recover the corrupted data Marsha had mined about the future.
'All I can see is that shadow and light are delayed by a few days. Beyond that, I have no future sight.'
A knock came.
"Your Majesty."
The aide, still under Angel's effects, entered with glazed eyes.
Fermi exhaled softly.
'Emotion Sickness is gone, but cutting it off is still up to each person.'
"Um... about what you mentioned before. The—uh—what was the name again?"
The aide's nerves were frayed, but Fermi forced himself to stay calm.
"Whom are you referring to?"
He hadn't assigned just one or two tasks to his staff; most of them hadn't even reported back.
"Ah—Ranstin. We've located him now."
Fermi shot to his feet.
"What did you say?"
"Uh—Robe Ranstin..." Before the aide could finish, Fermi grabbed him.
"Ugh! M-My lord?"
"You did well. Very well."
The only counter to Selbuster was Gitaru-man, but whether they could reach him in time was uncertain.
'I see hope.'
Fermi remembered Yolga's words.
—Always remember: you still have a choice.
Anger changes nothing; only the calm achieve results.
If Fermi had snapped at his incompetent staff, today's outcome wouldn't exist.
'And even now... choices can still be made.' He calmed himself.
"I believed you could do it. What you've done is tantamount to saving humanity."
Of course that was an exaggeration.
"Haha! I—I'll work even harder from now on! Please trust me!"
Angel's influence lingered, but the aide's eyes were clearer than before.
"Good. Go to the Corona sector now and find the man called Chong. He's a star of the Ivory Tower."
The world's number two in communications ability—no, since Fermi had purchased Rampa's magic, Chong was effectively number one.
'If Chong finds Ranstin, Seongeum will bring him.'
If communications and transport specialists cooperated, they might make it in time.
"This is urgent."
Now full of zeal, the aide nodded and left at once.
Fermi fiddled with a cigarette and looked out the window.
'Is it another wave of humanity?'
Tasks piled up endlessly.
'World leaders are gathered at the temple. If this place is overrun, humanity will lose the will to fight.'
Humanity.
'This sort of thing is that guy's specialty.'
Having passed the burden to Shirone, Fermi lit his cigarette and exhaled a long plume of smoke.
"Phew."
He watched the meteor cut the night.
"How annoying."
It was maddening how precisely the future had matched.
Heh heh heh heh!
It was so vast that Imir could cross the cosmos without trouble.
It was a matter of scale, not speed, and when he returned to physical form the human procession unfolded beneath him.
'What should I do to them?'
Even without a contract with Luber, he didn't intend to forgive the humans who had humiliated him.
'But picking them off one by one would be undignified. A bother, too.'
Imir wanted only combat.
'Ah, yes.'
His fist clenched.
'Let's start with one blow.'
The giant king's target went beyond individuals or humanity—it was the planet itself.
? ? ?
In front of Delta Headquarters' main gates.
—Follow God's will. The southern warriors and the procession kept up their brutal struggle.
"Guard your hearts!"
The southern warriors, feral and ruthless, swung their blades and cut down people, but...
'It never ends.'
The mass of people, coming in endless waves, had swollen into the millions.
"Ugh!"
When people grabbed a warrior and toppled him, countless boots rained down.
"Waaah! Waaah..." Hardened bodies were crushed to pulp.
"It's reached its limit," Entara said.
"Even with Elikia's power, we can't blow them all away. Just holding the gate this long is a miracle." Seriousness showed in Shirone's eyes as well.
"Honestly, what's the point? War is fought to win. If winning means killing all of humanity, can we even call this war?"
Humanity across the world was losing its hearts.
—Follow God's will.
Shirone recalled the last resort.
"I'll reverse it."
"You?"
Tachyon—a superluminal signal.
Just as gods had manipulated the causes behind humans, Shirone could also change their past.
"The multiverse," Shirone said.
"They lost their hearts because they kept endlessly regretting events that bubble up and then vanish. If I change their pasts to create futures they can be satisfied with, maybe they'll regain their hearts."
Entara frowned.
"If you're not mad, explain how that's possible. You say you'll change the past? Fine, suppose such magic exists. But that's the past of all humanity. Even if it's possible, can you accept all their desires?"
That was why Shirone hesitated.
'If I were a god it might be fine... a god has no heart, so if humans want a life, he can simply grant it. But—'
'What about me?...'
Could he do it?
Could he accept requests to ruin other people's lives just so he could pass some test?
'You just have to find a future that satisfies everyone.' Could he ruin lives because he disliked someone's bright smile?
'No one is truly evil from the start. Give them a life where such thoughts never arise.'
Could he really do it?
Huu—
Already on the verge of tears, Shirone steadied himself and walked toward the procession.
"I can do it."
Love.
'What Yorahan showed... an intense self-sacrifice and transcendent rapture that embraced everything.'
Huuu!
The southern warriors fell back, and the procession closed in on Shirone.
—Follow God's will.
O cold god.
"Tachyon."
From the body of the god who had a heart, an aura in which light and darkness mixed murkily spread.
"Th-that's...?"
The moment Entara's eyes widened, the aura swelled so that everyone in the temple could see it.
Causal Manipulation—Uroboros.
In that paradoxical state where time's flow and stasis were mixed, the world turned gray.
—The will of God... will... krrk krrk!
All people made strange mechanical noises and their eyes flared with golden light.
'From now on, it begins.'
Entering the Uroboros state, Shirone saw a different landscape.
The background split like a mosaic, and human bodies unwound like spaghetti strands.
He was racing through imaginary time, so however long it took didn't matter.
In that zero-second, that instant, Shirone perceived all the pasts humans carried.
'No wonder they're losing their hearts.'
Their desires erupted and collided all at once, eroding even the will to live.
'How indifferent.'
God hadn't even intended to understand humans.
'First, avoid the collisions.'
Having become like a god, producing a result that satisfied everyone wasn't impossible.
'We are truly infinite beings.'
What was truly horrific, though, was this—
—As long as I'm happy. As long as I'm superior. I'm right. All of you are wrong!
Me! Me! Me!
To an extent hardly different from gods, humans were just as indifferent to others.
'Why can you only think that way?'
The concept of the self—"I"—might be the most loathsome word in this universe.
'Stop. This is foolish.'
Accepting all their desires is something only a machine could do.
Shirone collapsed to his knees.
'Yeah! Screw it all! Why should I do this for you...!'
Then—sudden self-loathing welled up.
"Ah."
'Am I any different?'
Because the one who judges others is also nothing more than a human like them.
'No matter how loathsome the self is.'
We have no choice but to offer each other a pitiable smile and reach out our hands.
'Let's live together.'
That's the only way to overcome the obstacle called humanity and reach Infinity—
'Love.'
Hot tears streamed down his face.
'I want to be happy. Of course I want to be superior.'
Everyone is an "I."
His jaw lifted. The next moment, humanity's desire—so abundant it could shatter hearts—refluxed in his gut.
"Uwaaahhh!"
As if vomit from the Otherworld poured out, the procession halted.
—Kreeeee! Live... kreeeee!
"Uueeek! Uueeek!"
Emotional vomit.
As the residue of magic poured endlessly from Shirone, voices reached his ears.
—Live... I want to live.