That Name—
What am I supposed to do?
I asked it of myself again.
Did winning matter? No. Did surviving matter? No. Did proving my faith matter? No.
That I could still be myself. That was what mattered.
How long had I spent with that thing? Counting the time meant nothing. Body-time or world-time, my senses had collapsed and broken long ago.
I simply endured, waiting for the moment it drew near, and ignored the swamp of flesh-deep and mind-deep exhaustion while I defined the laws anew. Laws I had handled as easily as breathing. An authority that held the breath of a great existence. Power enough to reign as a god over the human world.
Even Captain Earth would have been no different from an ordinary man before me. I had been able to obtain that much only because I had paid a price to match it.
Before that thing, it was meaningless. I was nothing but a craftsman, building amusement-park rides in real time and offering them up.
I felt no particular emotion. It was not resignation. There was simply nothing left to feel. And still I grumbled like this, because I had been born human. That was a blessing, in one sense, and a misfortune in another. Because I was a person, I had endured this long. Because I was a person, I could not get free.
If humanity had a natural enemy, was this what it looked like? Not a predator skilled at killing humans, but the enemy that understood them better than anything else. On its palm, we danced like puppets.
I would not give up. Despair beckoned from behind me, but a thing like that could be ignored.
I am the First Apostle. A laborer who carries out the will of Heaven, a servant who strives for a better world. Even if these bones rot and fall to pieces, I shall not collapse.
Thud.
I struck the staff. The laws of the world were defined anew.
It had climbed a collapsing world to stand before me, and it waited in silence. Behind it lay countless worlds—used up and thrown away, reduced to playthings. Pitiful worlds. The beings inside them would not even know why they were being extinguished.
Discarded and created. Discarded and created…….
Did it know? That even a world made so simply was not so different from the humans of reality. It knew. It liked them precisely because they were no different from humans. And it knew just as well that no counterfeit, however exquisitely made to resemble the real thing, could ever compare with the genuine article.
Little by little, it seemed to be growing bored. It was still only a drizzle soaking the cloth, but that look would spread like poison. When the poison reached me, I would no longer be able to exist as myself.
I lifted the staff. My arm shuddered. The staff was heavy. The Stone Tablet had taken everything, leaving only the barest scrap of muscle. Was there a single organ left in this flesh that still worked as it should?
I was going out. The resolve and the passion that had burned in me were dying at a terrible speed. The distance between us was closing. That was fine. A matter of several dozen steps.
"The full course I have prepared is more than ample."
"I look forward to it."
The law reconstituted a new world. A world even I could not explain closed around us. Sunlight glittered like a seven-colored rainbow, and the earth rolled in waves. Living things with ruined faces crawled the streets, and unknowable, grotesque phenomena broke out one after another.
I hid myself in a crack in the world. One misstep, and I would be swept in with the rest.
Left alone, it was swallowed by the earth. The instant the world took it in, the world began to break. An indescribable Chaos ate into everything.
I stared straight at the process and repeated it, endlessly, inside myself. I had to endure. Until the moment I could still exist as myself.
On. And on.
I dropped.
"Hah— hah—"
My knees were heavy. This was the limit. I could do no more. The staff, unable to bear the unending expenditure, had shattered. With no price left to offer, there was no law that could hold it. My flesh had dried into a mummy. The flame of life was withering.
"What a shame. You only had to hold on a little longer."
It crouched.
"Look at this."
A window rose before my eyes. It was the Heavenly Road. It was nearly open. Inside the pillar of light, a woman was halfway dead.
"At... last..."
My eyes burned. The moment I had longed for all my life had come.
"It's a little early to be pleased. I'm still here, aren't I?"
"..."
Its words snapped me awake.
"No... matter... who you are... the Heavenly Road..."
"Can't be touched? Is that what you mean?"
It looked into my eyes.
"You want to believe that, don't you?"
"..."
I could not deny it. It was the great work I had waited for my entire life.
"If I wished to, I could. Closing a thing like that is easier than playing in the worlds you made."
"...!"
I bit my lip. Blood welled and spilled. I was not a fool; I understood. It truly could shut the Heavenly Road. A truth without a single speck of falsehood. It was transcendent. Not a god, but GOD. Omniscience and omnipotence were here.
"Stand up. If you don't, this won't be any fun."
No fun. Its interest was slipping away. It hated boredom.
I ground my teeth and barely rose. With nothing to lean on, I seized even its torso.
"See? You can do it."
As if it were not the least displeased, it laughed, clear and bright.
"...This... will be the last, I think."
A flicker of life returned to the voice that had been dying. The Heavenly Road was drawing near. I could not stop here. I offered up even the last of my remaining strength.
Ooooooh—!!!
The Stone Tablet wailed. It seemed to sense the end.
"I hope that last stand is entertaining."
It stepped back a few paces, settling in to watch a final struggle.
Huff. Huff. A few more breaths. A few more, and I would die.
That thing must be banished.
If the Heavenly Road opened, it might withdraw, just as it had said. But the mere existence of a thing like that would doom the world. Even an open Heavenly Road would bring no safety. If anything, it might run even wilder.
I end this...!
Mwoooooooh——!!!
The Stone Tablet twisted my will as it pleased. The thought that I did not want to die flooded my mind. It had caught on to my intent.
I'm sorry. But you're coming with me...!
Ooooooh—!
I offered even the Stone Tablet as a sacrifice. My chest caved in with a crunch. My body collapsed. White lines seamed my flesh, as if shattered pottery had been glued back together.
I gathered into one the laws that could have created dozens of worlds. The law I bestowed was Exile. I would shut that existence out of this world forever.
"Lovely. Go on. Try."
It spread its arms wide. Could it not feel the danger? Or did it see even this as play?
I commit all that I am to this.
"Reach!"
A single law flew. It did not so much as answer. It simply took the blow.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Space shattered. A universe unfolded. The world had been replaced. This was an entirely different cosmos. Beneath my feet lay a blue Earth and a white moon.
I had been dragged along as well, but it did not matter. I had done it!
"Haa."
A breath reached me. Wearing a look of rapture, it bowed its head.
"Thank you. For bringing me here."
What is it saying?
Then the turning Earth caught my eye.
That is...
In the Pacific... something was wrong. Where there should have been nothing, a vast continent lay.
"I didn't think it would work, but it succeeded. This place ought to do."
Its mask stained black. Past black, it was reaching toward something more.
A shudder ran through me. Something had gone wrong. Terribly, utterly wrong.
"You must be tired from playing with me. I'll show a little sincerity of my own."
Aaaah—
A hymn rose. A paean blessing a great god. The ones who sang it were human beings. They came flying up from the Earth. Thousands. Hundreds of millions. Fluttering.
They showed every kind of feeling. They wept, laughed, raged, loved, hated, rejoiced. It did not end with feeling. They performed every kind of feat. Millions of years of culture and history appeared in human hands. War and famine. Happiness and misery. Coupling and jealous passion. Love and friendship. Tragedy and sorrow. A child's heart, and children.
Looked at one by one, they were beautiful stories. Gathered in a single place, they were turmoil itself.
They were Chaos.
Clap. Clap. Clap. Applause filled the universe.
Kyaaaaaaah!!!
A roar of cheers filled the universe. It was not something done for joy. Every one of them was thrashing, desperate to amuse it somehow. A human life was nothing but its toy.
Its mask was slowly becoming a face. Through the warped features, the true thing── descended.
Screams made a song.
It took on form. It defined its own existence anew.
"The first condition. I told you to find out who I am."
That name──
Phantom Thief — Confirmed
???? — Confirmed
■■■■■■■■■ — Confirmed