Chapter 12: “The Fourth Bell and the Seraphim’s Assessment”
――Gaaaaaaan!!
From behind‚ the horrific sound of thick steel and an absolute magical barrier colliding and shattering echoed through the white marble temple‚ gouging into its very lungs. The impact made the stone pavement underfoot ripple unnervingly‚ and from the gaps in the soaring ceiling‚ fine dust that had peeled away drifted down like quiet snowfall.
“Guh…!”
While running‚ I couldn’t help but glance back. Deep in the corridor where the wide-area barrier had been pulverized‚ Kyle was fiercely swinging a massive greatsword‚ while Elise coldly intercepted it with pure-white magical arrays. Sparks flew at speeds far beyond human dynamic vision. Each time steel and principle clashed‚ the air itself was torn to shreds‚ and the temple trembled with a death-rattle-like scream.
“――Gooooo!!”
Kyle’s roar‚ as if tearing his throat‚ raced through the dark corridor. Pushed forward by that voice as if forced by his back‚ I tightened my grip on Mina’s slender wrist and desperately dashed down the corridor leading to the innermost altar.
“This way…!”
Mina leaped ahead of me and‚ without hesitation‚ led the way into the darkness. Even as she sprinted desperately through the narrow corridor‚ she repeatedly looked back‚ filled with the anxiety that we might be torn apart. Each time‚ the crushing sounds that mercilessly assaulted our eardrums chased after us.
――Gaaaaaan!! ――Dooooooon!!
The life-or-death struggle of those two‚ shaving away the sparks of their lives against each other‚ grew even more gruesome and intense with every passing second.
I clenched my molars so hard they seemed about to shatter.
(Please…)
(Don’t die‚ Kyle—stay alive)
As if shaking off my own selfish prayer‚ I stared only forward and kicked off the ground. Stopping my feet now would be the worst betrayal of his bloodstained resolve.
Eventually‚ at a crossroads where the corridor branched like a labyrinth into several paths‚ Mina suddenly yanked hard on my arm.
“Wait…!”
Carried by my forward momentum‚ I scraped the soles of my shoes violently against the stone pavement and forced myself to a stop.
“What is it?”
“You mustn’t go that way!”
Mina’s shoulders heaved violently as she struggled for breath in oxygen deprivation‚ stubbornly shaking her head. “The corridor straight ahead is the official path leading to the innermost area. But the guardians of the order‚ hearing that roar earlier‚ have started gathering all at once.”
As if to confirm her ominous prediction‚ from the distant darkness ahead‚ the heavy metallic sounds of steel scraping began to echo unnervingly.
――Clank‚ clank‚ clank…!
Multiple people. No‚ not on the scale of ten or twenty. The security forces throughout the temple were swarming toward us in a massive force‚ as if a beehive had been stirred.
“And besides…”
Mina’s already pale face‚ drained of blood‚ twisted further. “Word that ‘insolent invaders’ are interfering with the sacred ritual has surely already reached the altar side as well.”
I inwardly clicked my tongue in irritation.
(My assumptions were completely too optimistic)
I had focused my thinking too much on the logical steps to defeat Elise. I had left outside my calculations the fact that the temple itself‚ as a massive organization‚ would stand in our way with the brute force of sheer “numbers.”
“So”
Mina pointed sharply at a dark‚ narrow side path‚ cutting off her hesitation. “We’ll use the secret passage that only the attendants who care for the Oracle Maiden know about.”
“A secret passage?”
“It’s a secret delivery entrance that no one normally sets foot in. It connects continuously underground to the back entrance of the main hall.”
I gave a short nod. “Got it. Let’s bet on that.”
“And… Rui. Do you have paper and something to write with?”
Without a word‚ I slipped my hand into my pocket. What I pulled out was a scrap of parchment stained with black boiling ink‚ and a slender quill pen worn from long use. No matter how desperate the line of death I stood on‚ these were my one and only companions‚ always carried close to my body to record the world’s descriptions.
The moment Mina spotted those meager tools‚ despite the extreme situation‚ she suddenly smiled as if ice were melting‚ looking delighted.
“I knew it. —You’re a recorder (Rui) to the core.”
Snatching the quill as if grabbing it‚ she unhesitatingly knelt on the cold stone pavement and began copying a map with unwavering brushstrokes.
One line. Two lines. Three. Surprisingly precise strokes were carved onto the parchment along with her ragged‚ oxygen-starved breathing.
“Here… After turning this corner‚ go right. There are two forks along the way‚ but take the left each time. Climb the hidden stairs at the final dead end‚ and you’ll come out into the main hall.”
In just a few dozen seconds—that tiny amount of time—the key to unraveling the labyrinth was completed on the parchment.
“…Thanks.”
“No‚ go.”
The exact moment I received the map as if snatching it—
“—There were invaders in that sector!?” “No‚ not yet! Search every corner of the corridor thoroughly!!”
Along with coarse shouts‚ the footsteps of the soldiers’ crude iron armor rapidly closed in on us. The blood drained completely from Mina’s face‚ and she froze as if turned to ice.
“No time…!”
Suddenly‚ she roughly hooked her fingers on the fasteners of the white novice priestess robe covering her body.
“…Eh?”
My thoughts abruptly froze. The pure white robe Mina had been wearing slid down with a smooth silk sound from her exposed slender shoulders to the floor.
“I already tore the hem earlier‚ but that actually makes it easier to run‚ right?”
“W-what are you doing—you—”
“Rui!”
Mina shouted in a voice sharpened to a keenness I had never heard once in my life before.
“You hurry up and take off that jacket too!”
“No‚ I mean‚ what are you—”
“Hurry!!”
It was a roar that allowed no argument‚ as if slamming her own soul itself. Overwhelmed‚ I hurriedly stripped off the black jacket stained with ink and reeking from the forced release of magical power.
In that instant. Mina snatched it away and without hesitation draped it over her own small body. The ink-stained‚ baggy men’s jacket clumsily enveloped the girl’s body‚ dirtied with sweat and mud. Meanwhile‚ she strongly pressed the white priestess robe she had discarded at her feet against my chest.
“Wear this yourself.”
“Eh…?”
“You head straight for the innermost area through the secret passage!”
“—Are you sane? Then what about you?”
“I’ll be the decoy for you here.”
In those wide-open transparent eyes resided only an absolute resolve to resist the absurdity.
“The order’s guardians are searching for the ‘man in the black jacket.’ So—if I wear your jacket and run straight through from the front…!”
I involuntarily caught my breath.
“If you do something like that… there’s no way you can get away.”
Mina quietly‚ calmly nodded.
“Yeah.”
That all-too-casual affirmation settled in the space as an even more cruel fact.
“But I’ll… buy as much time as I can!”
I lost the next words.
Mina lightly lifted the corner of her lips. It was a smile that seemed about to break under the weight of tears‚ yet kinder than any Madonna I could remember in the world.
“You know… until now‚ I really couldn’t do anything. Even when Erina-chan was suffering so much… all I could do was cry powerlessly beside her.”
She tightly clenched her slightly trembling small fist until her nails dug into her palm.
“So. At least in this moment… I want to be of use to someone for that girl I love so much.”
“—Suspicious person spotted! Around that corner!!”
Finally‚ the guardians’ shouts as they rounded the corridor corner closed in right beside us.
“Hurry‚ Rui…!!”
Mina forcefully pushed back on both my shoulders with her slender hands. “There’s no choice left for you anymore!”
And then she forcibly twisted a cool‚ hard metallic mass into my stiffened palm.
“Even something like this is better than nothing‚ right?”
What was pressed into my hand was the small knife she always used to peel fruit.
No sooner had she finished speaking than she violently flared the ink-stained jacket and kicked off the ground with all her might toward the opposite of the secret passage—toward the death ground where the guardians were swarming.
“It’s the black-jacketed invader from the report!” “Don’t let her escape‚ after herrrrr!!”
Lured by the deceptive bait Mina threw out‚ the iron-armored soldiers unhesitatingly pursued her back and passed by like a raging torrent.
I could only watch as that all-too-small back receded‚ burning it into my retinas. I gripped the pure-white priestess robe pressed against my chest so tightly my fingertips turned white.
The back of my throat burned as if scorched.
I should have said something. Words to stop her‚ insults‚ anything. But any words I could spin now were lighter than feathers and utterly powerless before the life-staking resolve she had left here.
So I merely muttered a single phrase into the darkness that reached no one’s ears.
“…Sorry.”
“—And. Truly‚ thank you.”
Without hesitation‚ I put on the white priestess robe Mina had left at the risk of her life‚ draping it over my head. There were no luxurious ribbons or ornate lace; just a single simple navy line ran thinly at the chest and cuffs to indicate a novice. That pure garment was surprisingly light‚ and—painfully warm in a way far too mismatched for an extreme battlefield.
Now‚ the one wearing this sacred white robe was the lowest and highest invader‚ deceiving the gods and trying to mercilessly smash every description of this world.
I tightly gripped the map in my pocket and the small knife in my hand. I would absolutely not look back. If I glanced behind me now‚ I would surely never be able to face forward and run again.
“—Wait for me.”
Even I didn’t know to whom those words were directed. To Erina waiting in the innermost area? To Mina who had rushed into the death ground? To Kyle bleeding in the corridor? Or to my own soul‚ about to buckle under the weight of absurdity?
Leaving that eternally unanswered question in the darkness‚ I fiercely flared the white robe and—without hesitation leaped into the deepest darkness of the temple. Into the abyss of that stagnant secret passage.
The secret passage was eerily silent. The steel clashes that had been splitting my eardrums until moments ago‚ and the magical explosions shaking the temple’s lungs‚ only faintly echoed like distant summer thunder in this abyss separated by multiple thick stone walls.
Fiercely flaring the borrowed white novice priestess robe‚ I simply sprinted through the darkness. The depths of my lungs burned as if scorched. The lethal curse from forcibly releasing the analytical eye of the fourth tier still settled in my limbs like heavy lumps of lead. Even so‚ I absolutely would not stop my feet. If I halted my steps here—at that moment‚ everything would collapse.
(Just a little more…)
I gently placed a hand on my chest. There rested the single map Mina had drawn using her own life as fuel. The corners. The hidden stairs. The secret trapdoor. All of it was recorded with not a single discrepancy‚ like her grief-filled prayer.
“…Thank you.”
The exact moment I muttered that into the darkness—
Ahead in the dark passage. At the dimly lit fork branching toward the main hall and the baptismal chamber‚ a single girl was quietly standing‚ as if she had been there from the beginning.
A white robe reaching near her ankles. But from the waist down‚ a bold slit was deeply carved‚ and her white‚ smooth legs floated eerily in the night darkness. On her slender shoulders perched a familiar glass bird assembled from intricate clockwork mechanisms and thin glass wings‚ its eyes emitting a suspicious light as they stared at me. Ash-gray hair tinged with a faint lavender glow swayed faintly as if possessing will‚ even in the closed space without a breeze. A smile that was somehow detached from reality‚ extremely calm‚ and bottomless.
“—Wait.”
That single voice‚ as clear as glasswork‚ made me feel a strange illusion as if the flow of time in the world itself had frozen.
“…Sera‚ Sensei.”
I scraped the soles of my shoes violently against the stone pavement and forced myself to a stop. My oxygen-starved breathing remained chaotic. Even so‚ I absolutely would not avert the gaze of my retinas from the front.
Sera was simply smiling. The same compassionate‚ gentle smile she had once shown in the corner of the library tower or the infirmary. Yet—the kindness received in this place today alone felt terribly bottomless‚ like the most repulsive thing in the world.
“You’re in quite a hurry‚ aren’t you?”
“If so… let me through.”
I clenched my blood-seeping fist so hard it might break. “Sorry. Right now‚ I don’t have even a second to spare for a long talk with you.”
Sera quietly‚ gently lowered her long lashes and shook her head.
“No. You are now heading even further beyond a decisively wrong answer.”
“Step aside. There’s no room left for debate anymore.”
The words I spun held not a shred of hesitation or stagnation.
“God is still demanding the vessel of life itself from a party from whom the contract’s price has already been fully collected. This is a complete breach of contract. So I—am going to directly correct the specifications of that completely deranged contract.”
Sera still said nothing. Without attempting a rebuttal‚ she simply deeply listened to my words in the silence. But the pressure of that bottomless silence instead violently accelerated my logic.
“Erina has already paid everything. The hair that was full of spring sunlight. The vivid taste that the lemon sweets should have given. The pure fear of approaching death‚ the happiness of cherishing life‚ the precious memories‚ the entirety of her form as a human… all of it!”
My analytical eye‚ tinged with pitch-black anger‚ sharply ignited in the night darkness.
“All the necessary price has already been paid. Then that contract should have ended long ago. If they still demand to devour even the vessel. The one violating the contract is none other than God.”
I declared it all at once. It was a conclusion of deduction with not a single gap in sight‚ far too perfect for me. No matter how many harsh recalculations I repeated in my mind‚ a logical fortress that would never collapse.
However. Sera merely deepened that cruel smile in an extremely calm manner.
“No.”
With just that single word dropped to split the silence. An ominous sense of unease ran through the depths of my chest‚ as if a sharp ice blade had been thrust into it.
“God’s system has never once committed a contract violation.”
“…What?”
Sera began to advance quietly‚ gliding. Her footsteps made not a single sound on the hard stone pavement. As if only an insubstantial shadow were sliding silently across the surface of the cold floor.
“As you say. You have correctly deciphered that contract document itself without a single discrepancy. But—you still do not know the true specifications of ‘settlement’ in this world.”
My brow twitched with discomfort.
“Settlement…?”
“Yes.”
Sera gently nodded her ash-gray head. “What Erina has had taken from her until now. The hair faded to white. The lost sense of taste. The happiness of life‚ the fear of approaching death… All of that is indeed the price God demanded.”
“Then that contract is already—”
“No. Nothing has ended yet.”
Sera interrupted my words quietly‚ but with an absolute mass that allowed no defiance.
“…………”
The air in the closed secret passage froze completely in an instant.
“Because all the prices collected from Erina’s body have not yet been formally delivered to God.”
I could not instantly grasp the true meaning of the words she had spun.
“…What exactly does that mean?”
“Please imagine the remittance system of the Royal Bank in your mind.”
It was an all-too-material analogy‚ far removed from the kingdom’s ancient traditional magic.
“When you transfer gold coins to a certain account. The moment the procedure is done‚ the balance in your hands is indeed deducted and decreases. …But until the funds are fully credited to the recipient’s account‚ there is always a processing time lag‚ right?”
The gears of my thoughts locked in place with the worst dissonant noise.
“What Erina has lost until now is merely being temporarily stored in a provisional deposit area that serves as the relay point in order to complete the settlement to God.”
“The true settlement is executed”
Sera quietly closed her eyelids as if filled with deep sorrow.
“—at the exact moment she offers her own life itself. The temporarily held price and the mass of the vessel that is her life completely mesh‚ and are remitted all at once to God’s domain.”
“…………”
In my mind. The rebellious logic I had perfectly assembled without a single gap collapsed miserably with a clattering sound‚ like a sandcastle.
(Such… such an unreasonable specification…)
“—Nowhere was such a description found…!”
A blood-mixed‚ oxygen-starved shout echoed emptily through the closed corridor. Sera quietly received that passion and answered matter-of-factly.
“In that vast contract document. It has been clearly stated from the beginning.”
“Rui. You had not yet read all of it. Among the abyss of tens of thousands of repulsive descriptions‚ that single page hidden… you simply could not find it.”
Thud. An impact ran through the softest region in the depths of my chest‚ as if a massive gravestone had been dropped with full force.
“…Then”
I muttered in a voice trembling as if it were not my own.
“That contract continuing since the mythic age… was not wrong in any way‚ is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes.”
It was an all-too-cold‚ absolute declaration harboring universal truth.
A viscous‚ dense silence began to fill the secret passage. No one tried to spin words anymore. Only the sound of cold groundwater droplets seeping from the gaps in the thick stone walls‚ drip‚ drip‚ at regular‚ cold intervals‚ simply scraped away our silence into emptiness.
I clenched my blood-seeping fist as tightly as possible. Nails dug mercilessly into my palm‚ and the lukewarm heat of blood gradually wet my fingertips.
Tightly. So tightly it might break.
“…Even so”
From the very bottom of my lungs gasping in oxygen deprivation‚ I finally squeezed out a rusted voice.
“Even so—such circumstances of the world have nothing to do with me right now.”
Slowly‚ I raised my face. In the blood-seeping monotone vision‚ my analytical eye still held neither the shadow of despair nor the light of resignation.
“If the specification is like that‚ then that settlement process itself—I’ll rewrite it by force with these hands.”
The moment I declared that arrogant insolence. Sera’s smile‚ which had been as calm as a frozen lake surface—distorted just slightly‚ taking on a bottomless depth like an abyss.
“I see…”
“As expected‚ a person like you. Even when standing on the brink of despair‚ you still choose that way.”
There was not a trace of disappointment or exasperation mixed in that voice. Sera quietly averted her gaze to the glass bird and matter-of-factly lined up counterarguments‚ as if reading out the calculation results of a determined future inorganically.
“If you forcibly alter God’s settlement system with those arrogant fingertips‚ the contract that has continued for a thousand years itself will become unfulfilled‚ and the world will face collapse. All the humanity that was not settled will indeed be refunded to her body. But—at the same time”
“All of the great original sin that humanity should have continued to pay over these several thousand years will revert to unpaid status.”
Sera stared straight at me with cold eyes that seemed to seal off every escape route.
“The interest on that great sin that was defaulted on will return as forced execution in the name of a maximal catastrophe‚ equally as an unprecedented absurdity upon this world‚ upon all the people.”
“…………”
I could no longer say anything back. Still wearing the mismatched white priestess robe Mina had left‚ I could only stand rooted to the spot at the bottom of the lightless secret passage.
The stagnant cold air of the secret passage suddenly began to carry a heterogeneous fragrance.
At first‚ it was only a faint lingering scent. A nostalgic‚ extremely calm‚ and somehow lonely aroma‚ like a spring breeze that had blown through a distant foreign flower field.
—Lavender.
But that fragrance increased in density with physical mass every second. With each breath‚ even the cells deep in my lungs were filled with that scent‚ and the vision of my analytical eye‚ which had been sinking into monotone‚ seemed forcibly dyed in a transparent lavender glow.
“…Why”
I glared as if piercing the “infirmary teacher” standing before me. “Why do you know such things?” Dry voice tinged with impatience and shudder that could no longer be hidden. “The specifications of the contract. God’s settlement system. The reason the world will face destruction… You speak as if you’ve seen it all from beginning to end with these eyes.”
Sera quietly‚ simply smiled extremely calmly. That smile was no different from everyday life. Yet only those transparent eyes were quietly gazing at “the far end of eternity” decisively different from us humans as a race.
“Yes.”
She affirmed shortly and matter-of-factly.
“Because I have been watching over it all along.”
“…Exactly what?”
“—The successive generations of Oracle Maidens.”
The lavender fragrance bloomed madly dense enough to erode the principles of the closed space. On the surface of the passage that had been nothing but cold stone walls‚ ancient geometric emblems of the divine age began to light up one after another with a faint lavender glow.
“For hundreds of years. No‚ transcending thousands of years of eternity. At the bottom of that cold baptismal chamber‚ the successive Oracle Maidens had their souls scraped away‚ prayed‚ shed tears of blood‚ forgot the shape of smiles… and finally‚ as empty vessels that had become completely hollow‚ the backs of them walking toward God’s altar.”
Sera quietly closed her eyelids as if cherishing her own child.
“I. Have been watching over it all along with both my eyes.”
I completely lost my words. In the voice my analytical eye captured from her‚ there was not a shred of deception or exaggeration. The weight of immeasurable years and the bottomless deep quietude that only one who had seen off the end of hundreds‚ no‚ thousands of living human souls possessed overflowed from that slender outline.
“You are…”
“—Exactly what are you?”
To the question that seemed to test my soul. Sera slowly placed a slender hand on her own chest. High-quality pure-white fabric. An immaculate white robe that emitted a faint pearl-like luster with every movement‚ the symbol of her peaceful daily life. She quietly‚ and without hesitation‚ untied the fingertips she had placed on that sash.
Softly.
The disguised garment that had continued to maintain a somewhat fragile outline as a human woman smoothly slid down to the floor‚ simply following gravity.
In that exposed instant.
—Ka.
An overwhelming white light‚ as if the midsummer sun had been forcibly pressed directly onto the retinas‚ filled everything in the closed secret passage with midday brightness.
“…Ah‚ aa…!”
I involuntarily covered my face with both hands and let out a crushed groan from the back of my throat. Into the retinas of my analytical eye‚ which had been continuously released to the extreme of the fourth tier‚ an enormous volume of conceptual information far transcending the processing limits of the brain poured in as a violent great flood torrent.
Light. Magical power. Principle. Or divinity. No‚ none of those could fully describe it. Something positioned more at the root of the world‚ pure and absolute “mass of concept.” The coordinates of space themselves were being forcibly reconstructed centered on her as a singularity.
Countless optical magical arrays vividly floated up into the void. One sheet. Another. Highly advanced and precise geometric patterns layered over and over‚ solemnly enveloping her body like a massive computational domain.
At that divine center. Sera‚ still with an immaculate body clad in dazzling particles of light‚ quietly opened her eyelids.
From the ends of her back‚ pure-white wings solemnly spread. One pair. Two pairs. Three pairs— Total‚ six. Each one emitted a soft polar light like clouds of the dawn announcing the world’s sunrise‚ and slowly beat the abyss of darkness as if harboring life. Above her head‚ a golden halo drawing a perfect true circle floated solemnly without sound.
The exact moment that inviolable‚ complete beautiful figure‚ as if having gained physical mass from a religious painting and manifested in this present world‚ painted over all of my vision. My analytical eye began scattering noisy error codes in my mind and screaming madly.
(The world’s descriptions… I can’t read a single one…!?)
In my monotone vision‚ all the formulas constituting her as an absolute existence caused unpleasant character corruption and dissipated. I could not even attempt analysis as formulas. Conversion into basic mathematical equations was not permitted. My computational domain itself‚ honed as a hacker‚ was being declared insufficient authority by the world’s higher system and rejected without a trace.
“Analysis… impossible…?”
The fourth tier. These insolent eyes that had even viewed the absolute principles of this world as character strings and rewritten them as if they belonged to me. For the first time in my life‚ before the “absolute singularity that is absolutely not permitted to be deciphered‚” they had fallen into miserable functional failure.
Sera simply continued smiling. The form of that smile was despairingly calm.
“Sera”
“That is merely a convenient name that humans attached to the system that is me.”
A lavender fragrance that equally forgave and enveloped everything gently drifted through the world.
“God calls me”
Just a single beat of pause. She showed a lonely smile‚ as if quietly letting the endless solitude brought by thousands of years of eternity seep into the depths of those eyes.
“—a Seraphim.”
An eerie‚ complete silence. All physical sound waves vanished from the world. I froze in place‚ even forgetting to draw oxygen into my lungs.
“I. In that cold baptismal chamber‚ am the one who assesses the mass of the prices humans continue to pay‚ correctly records their value in the eternal ledger‚ and stamps the final approval seal on the contract document.”
The six pure-white wings swayed quietly and solemnly in sync with her breathing. With each beat‚ residual light like stardust spilled from each feather and vanished as if melting just before touching the cold stone pavement.
“The great sin that the human species once committed. The enormous mass of interest spanning those several thousand years. The screams of the successive generations of girls who were forced to pay. The fleeting lives that should be saved in the future world at the end of those unreasonable sacrifices. I coldly place all those absurd values on the scales and correctly assess them. …That alone is the reason for my existence.”
I could not move even a single step with my stiffened body. What was emitted from her complete form was not vulgar hostility. Nor shallow killing intent. Yet only the survival instinct carved into my body continued sounding noisy alarms in my mind‚ ringing madly.
(—I can’t win)
Different from any existence I had read about in the ancient books of the library tower until now. It was neither a demon king bringing absolute destruction nor a noble hero saving the world. This “world’s system” itself was merely standing there borrowing the face of a beautiful woman for convenience—an absolute and absurd dimensional isolation.
“Rui”
Quietly swaying the six pure-white wings‚ the Seraphim called my name.
“I shall answer all of those insolent questions you hold.”
That resonance—was endlessly‚ infinitely compassionate‚ as if a mother equally forgiving all the sins her child had committed were gently speaking to a child lost in a maze.
“God—truly exists in this world.”
The lavender fragrance gently blew through the boundary between the two of us‚ as if blessing my pitiful soul one last time.
I bit my lips tightly‚ so tightly that the taste of blood gradually spread in my mouth. The transcendent being reigning before me was no longer a blood-circulating human. A perfect proxy existing only to execute absolute principle‚ against whom my shallow alterations would never work from the start.
Even so. Even if rejected by the world itself. Only the “ego of rebellion” fiercely burning in the deepest dark struggle at the bottom of my chest—still had not wavered even a single millimeter.
A deep‚ all-too-deep‚ complete silence descended into the abyss of the temple.
Before the Seraphim with six dazzling pure-white wings spread‚ I stood rooted with only a powerless human body. My analytical eye‚ continuously forcibly released to the fourth tier‚ still repeated unpleasant flickering deep in the retinas from intense overload.
Unreadable. Unable to analyze as formulas. Not even permitted to reduce to universal mathematical equations. Only the absolute singularity that was her standing before me seemed irreversibly severed from all descriptions of this world‚ coldly rejecting every shallow human understanding.
Even so. From the depths of my chest‚ only the viscous flame of rebellion finally would not disappear.
“…Not yet.”
Forcibly swallowing the lukewarm taste of blood spreading in my mouth‚ I muttered small with dry lips.
“…Nothing is over yet.”
Sera stared straight at me with ghost-like quietude.
“You. Even so‚ will still challenge the system that is God.”
“Of course.”
Without a moment’s delay‚ I answered immediately. “Whether the opponent is God‚ a heavenly existence‚ or the governing structure of the world itself. That cannot become a reason for me to abandon Erina—not even a single millimeter.”
Sera lowered her long lashes a little lonely as if seeping with the solitude of eternity‚ yet somehow happily.
“…Is that so.”
The dense lavender fragrance quietly‚ gently swayed the closed space. Each time the six wings on her back pulsed‚ soft pure particles of light spilled and vanished as if melting just before touching the cold floor.
“No one can simply stop this merciless ritual. It is also impossible to directly nullify that ancient contract humanity exchanged with God. But—”
There‚ for the first time. The Seraphim who should have been matter-of-factly executing universal principle showed a somewhat mischievous smile at the corner of her lips‚ like a blood-circulating human.
“‘Who’”
“‘How’”
“pays that enormous price spanning several thousand years… is something that none other than humans themselves decide.”
With discomfort and impatience that understanding could not catch up to‚ my brow furrowed strongly.
“…Exactly what are you saying?”
Sera did not try to answer my question directly. Instead‚ crunch‚ one step. Another step. Slightly swaying the halo above her head‚ she quietly closed the distance to me with sacred and inviolable steps.
Close. Each time my lungs repeated breathing seeking oxygen‚ the dense lavender fragrance filled every corner of my brain even more strongly.
Eventually she stopped her steps at my chest‚ softly and affectionately swayed the six feathers on her back‚ and stretched on her tiptoes a little as if whispering a secret to a child.
“Rui”
A voice mixed with breath‚ all too small as if whispering by the ear.
“Just one thing. As an auditor‚ I will inform you in advance of the result of my ‘final assessment.’”
In that instant. All physical sound waves completely vanished from the world.
Sera’s thin peach-colored‚ fresh lips moved only faintly. A voice so small it reached no one’s eardrums. The sweetest and most cruel “God’s secret” in this world‚ not even brushed by the wind shaking the courtyard. Only those words of judgment fell quietly straight into the darkness at the bottom of my chest.
『――――――――――――』
『――――――――――――――――――』
『――――――――――――――――――――――――』
….
….
The gears of my thoughts completely stopped in an instant. From the depths of my overworked lungs‚ even the heat of boiling breath vanished into emptiness.
Such a thing. Such an immeasurably valuable final assessment that would deceive the principles of the world entirely. In this absurdity-filled dominion of God‚ was it truly recognized?
In my astonishment‚ I stared straight back into Sera’s transparent eyes that seemed to see through everything. She gently‚ deeply nodded as if forgiving all of my insolent agitation.
“I—with God’s scales‚ correctly assessed that mass. And… with all my authority as an auditor‚ formally approved it.”
“…………”
For just a single moment. In the extreme instant when the world’s time truly stopped its steps. I quietly closed my own heavy eyelids.
Think. Hesitate. —No‚ wrong. I had not hesitated even a single second. I had merely confirmed. At the bottom of this mire‚ what form my foolish soul was burning in.
And.
As I deeply exhaled‚ from my distorted mouth‚ a naturally ferocious smile spilled out.
“…Kuh‚ haha”
Slightly sounding the back of my throat. Slightly shaking my trembling shoulders‚ I laughed madly.
“Something like that”
With the smile plastered on‚ I shook my head sideways as if exasperated by the sheer ridiculousness.
“…No need to think. From the beginning‚ there’s only one answer.”
Slowly‚ I raised my face. Beyond the blood-seeping monotone vision. The arrogant heat residing in my bug-filled eyes was now clad in the light of absolute invasion that not even God’s system was permitted to violate.
“My answer is”
“—decided long ago.”
In the depths of the retinas‚ not a speck of hesitation remained. No fear of death. Not even a speck of reluctance to throw my own existence itself onto the board existed.
Seeing the face of the boy who had shaken off all of that‚ Sera smiled as if cherishing her own child‚ and deeply‚ deeply relieved.
“Yes.”
“I believed that a person like you—would absolutely say that.”
She raised a slender index finger like white porcelain and gently pressed it against her own thin peach-colored‚ moist lips.
“But. The adorable secret pact just now… if God finds out‚ I’ll be severely scolded as an auditor.”
She knitted her brows in an eight shape as if troubled‚ mischievously. That innocent gesture was no longer the six-winged Seraphim overseeing the world’s causality—but the kind neighborhood older sister who had always calmly listened to my trivial complaints in the corner of the library tower or the infirmary.
Despite being on the brink of desolate despair‚ I couldn’t help but let a small burst of laughter out from the back of my throat.
“Even the heavenly auditor-sama—has endless behind-the-scenes hardships‚ huh.”
“Yes. Caught between a stubborn God and greedy humans. It’s truly tough every day‚ you know?”
The two of us‚ for just a brief moment‚ met each other’s gazes straight on and quietly laughed with lowered voices.
The embodiment of absolute principle and the single insolent invader from the underside of the world. Two souls that should never have been permitted to intersect shared‚ just once—the most beautiful and most immoral “betrayal against God” in this world.
The quiet time flowing in that closed secret passage was nothing more than a momentary amnesty that God had miraculously granted us until the next bell of destruction rang through the kingdom’s abyss.
After sharing that deep‚ all-too-deep immoral secret‚ a brief silence lay in the closed secret passage.
The dense lavender fragrance that had filled the space‚ and the divine polar light of the six wings that had dominated the world until moments ago‚ now gradually vanished as if melting into the original cold quietude. The Seraphim was staring intently at me with calm eyes that seemed to see through everything.
“…Rui”
An extremely quiet voice‚ clear like the sound of a bell.
“Finally‚ just one thing. There is something I must convey to you.”
Without a word‚ I briefly drew my chin and nodded. Sera slowly directed her ghost-like gaze toward the innermost part of the secret passage. The dimly lit fork branching in two. One was the path to the main ritual hall indicated by the map Mina had drawn using her own life as fuel. And the other was the dark passage continuing to that gloomy baptismal chamber‚ where the cold stone pavement stretched endlessly deep.
“Erina-san—is no longer inside the main hall.”
In my astonishment‚ I couldn’t help but widen both eyes.
“…What?”
“Her vessel. Has already advanced further beyond.”
The fingertip Sera quietly pointed. In the darkness at the innermost of the dark passage continuing to the baptismal chamber‚ dimly but surely‚ an otherworldly white glow not of this present world was eerily swaying.
“The path of no return that only Oracle Maidens who have completed the final baptism are permitted to set foot on. A path opened solely for offering their pure bodies and souls to the great God. We in the heavens call that worst shortcut—”
A single beat of cruel silence dominated the corridor.
“—the ‘Road to the Spirit World (Wedding Road).’”
Wedding Road. Just hearing that name with an absurdly sweet resonance‚ the depths of my chest tightened as if being torn with a grinding sound.
A wedding. Originally the most beautiful bride who should be blessed by all people. Yet the bride‚ without even a garment to wrap around her single body—in this country is blessed by no one‚ seen off by no one. She is made to walk the darkness alone solely to offer her life to the cold system called God. I felt intense disgust at that all-too-cruel‚ extremely bad-taste name.
“The true settlement of the price is executed at the terminus of that path of no return. Therefore… Rui‚ the place you truly should head to is not that main hall.”
I pulled out a single parchment from my pocket. The life-staking map that Mina had copied with those trembling fingertips. But only the path to the main hall was recorded there. That was natural. As a mere novice priestess‚ she had no way of knowing the existence of the despair gaping further in the depths.
“…I see.”
I tightly‚ yet carefully so as not to tear it‚ gripped that clumsy map.
“From here on. It’s no longer just a story inside the temple.”
Sera smiled faintly with Madonna-like compassion.
“Yes. From here on‚ it is no longer the human world.”
Having quietly declared that‚ she gently extended a slender fingertip toward the six pure-white wings on her own back. From among the flock of feathers emitting tens of millions of polar lights‚ just one. She unhesitatingly plucked a feather whiter than eternal snow‚ harboring a softer light than moonlight.
That white feather‚ without showing the slightest sign of causing her pain‚ fluttered elegantly down onto her slender palm while clad in faint lavender particles of light. Sera gently held it out before my eyes.
“Take this with you.”
I cautiously received that sacred feather. Lighter even than down. Yet—the moment it touched my stiffened palm‚ a horrific and warm torrent of magical power‚ as if the frozen blood were violently boiling‚ flowed violently deep into my body.
“Only those who harbor that Seraphim’s feather are permitted to pass through the door to the spirit world severed from the present world. Please‚ never let go of it.”
I nodded firmly.
“…Thank you.”
Sera showed a human-like affectionate smile‚ a little embarrassed as she had in the infirmary.
“If thanks‚ not to me. Please properly convey it directly to Erina-san’s own ears.”
At the warmth of those words‚ my stubbornly stiffened cheeks also naturally relaxed a little.
“—Of course. That’s the plan.”
The exact moment the two of us exchanged such wordless trust—
――Goooooooooon……!!
The fourth bell rang fiercely‚ as if tearing all the causality of this world. The dimensional pressure of the sound was different from before. A repulsive heavy bass that violently shattered the eardrums‚ as if the stars themselves had trembled in despair toward destruction. Multiple thick stone walls groaned like earth tremors‚ and the air of the ceiling itself waved unpleasantly. The entire white marble temple began creaking with unpleasant sounds‚ like announcing the second hand of annihilation.
Sera’s calm expression tightened in an instant into the absolute coldness of a Seraphim overseeing universal principle.
“—It has begun. The final stage of the settlement to God.”
She slowly directed her gaze toward the road to the spirit world where that otherworldly light swayed. In those true-silver eyes‚ neither ordinary sadness nor impatience was mixed. Only the endlessly quiet and heavy resolve of one who had continued watching over the repeated cruel massacres across thousands of years of eternity lay there.
“Rui. —You no longer have even a second of leeway left.”
I gripped the Seraphim’s feather in my hand so tightly it might break. The pure white-silver glow residing in it quietly spilled from the gaps of my bloodstained fingers‚ like a single thread of life.
Suddenly‚ I glanced back. There stood the absolute mediator who simply correctly stood on God’s side—the Seraphim. And yet. At the very end‚ she smiled compassionately‚ truly so small it seemed about to vanish. As just a single powerless woman deceiving the world.
“—Take care.”
Only that single phrase was dropped.
I no longer answered anything. Spinning any more words was unnecessary before the beautiful betrayal we had committed.
Turning on my heel‚ I kicked off the ground all at once toward the road to the spirit world where that otherworldly light swayed. The white feather tightly gripped in my hand increased its faint glow as if pulsing in response to my boiling heartbeat.
As if guided by that sacred light—I saw the massive white marble door that had been stubbornly tightly closed for a thousand years at the innermost of the passage open by itself with an eerie‚ heavy sound. An overwhelming torrent of light that mercilessly burned the retinas overflowed like a raging current into the abyss of the dark secret passage.
Beyond that door‚ only a cold and overwhelming silence completely isolated from the human world stretched infinitely.
The path of no return directly connected to God’s domain. The lonely and cold sacrificial path that only chosen Oracle Maidens were permitted to walk. Into that absolute sanctuary that no one could invade.
A single‚ supremely arrogant invader‚ without being permitted or blessed by anyone‚ defiantly stepped in with mud-covered feet.
“—Wait for me.”
Fiercely flaring the white robe entrusted by Mina‚ I muttered small but with absolute conviction in the back of my throat.
“Erina”
I unhesitatingly leaped my body into the abyss of overwhelming light dyeing the front in midday brightness.
Behind me. Only the residual echo of the world’s end announced by that fourth bell continued ringing heavily‚ endlessly‚ endlessly throughout the entire white marble temple.
Chapter 12: “The Fourth Bell and the Seraphim’s Assessment” Complete
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