This Is an Emergency
"A fine sunset."
Another One, fresh from forging a satisfactory alliance with Lucifer, stepped outside and looked around.
This was Lucifer's domain, and a holy ground of Ilshikgyo. For a district hidden so carefully that it appeared on no map, the landscape and the wild country were remarkably pleasant to the eye.
"Even so, Lucifer will have to move the holy ground. To think there would be another uninvited guest besides me."
A being of light sat at the foot of a tree.
Cheep. Cheep.
A bird perched on his shoulder and sang. A fox lay curled upon his knee, and vines sprung from the soil twined about his legs and bound them.
Set against a sky sinking into sunset, keeping the animals for neighbors and simply being there, he might have been a panel cut from a masterpiece. Faceless as he was, he even seemed, for an instant, transcendent.
"Why have you come? You, who so rarely lift that heavy seat of yours. Did you miss your child's face after all this time?"
"……."
The being of light rose. Plants and beasts cried out as if begging him not to go, but when he waved a hand they fled into the forest.
The being of light—great Heaven—fixed his gaze on Another One.
The sunset slowed. Clouds on their way hesitated. Weeds laid themselves on their backs, and the air held its breath.
Nature converged upon him.
The earth breathed in time with his mood.
All peoples beneath Heaven are equal.
I am within you, and you are within me.
Confess the sins you have committed, and beg of me the forgiveness that is due.
Faintly whispering, Heaven's hymn pressed nature itself to demand Another One's submission.
"Taking a rest cure somewhere? Your skill hasn't died."
Heaven's equality bore down upon the impious sinner. Gravity opened its mouth to swallow him, and light dragged his hidden sins into the open, forcing him to face his own evil, to feel the guilt, to beg forgiveness.
Give unto Heaven your sin-laden left hand, and your right.
Sinner, Heaven stands at your side. How dare you commit sin? Yet He is merciful. Repent, and seek forgiveness, before the chance departs.
Then I shall take up your sins and carry them. Therefore love yourself, and love Heaven. Wounded as you are, I shall forgive you.
"Your methods are as irritating as ever. Can't you manage something a little more ordinary? Is that fist just for show? Honestly, I should have brought earplugs."
"If you had a mouth, you might try speaking for yourself. Don't put others to the work. Unpaid labor is no good."
"Quiet."
A wet, grinding crunch.
"……."
Heaven's right hand was wrung out like a washed rag. Twisted dozens of turns from the wrist, it came apart at the level of atoms and turned to dust.
Dust that had been Heaven's body rode away on the air. That dust would flow to the one it was meant to reach.
"Feel like talking now?"
Heaven, who had only ever looked down, looked up at Another One. That trivial difference announced the distance between them as it stood.
"Did you give my child to that child?"
"I did. To me it was nothing but interior decoration for the house. A pity I couldn't include the ability as well. Some wretched phantom thief wiped that clean away."
"You met him."
"I did. Just as you did."
"……."
"What did you talk about? I couldn't steal a look at that part."
Another One could, as a rule, sit where he was and watch the world, but if a god of Heaven's caliber set out to shut him out, there was nothing to be done.
"I felt a certainty."
"A certainty?"
"A certainty that the end can be stopped."
Not the sort of world's end people like to chatter about. The complete end of the world. Termination. A branch that can grow no farther. Heaven had been carrying that on his tongue.
"The Phantom said it. That the child beloved of nature made a gravely wrong decision."
A choice of annihilation, handed down from the source of this world. A fault that could never be undone.
"Did you hear of the Origin from him?"
"A little. Only as it concerned me."
"……."
The stare was blatant. Even a being of that stature was drawn to knowledge of the Origin.
Another One laughed under his breath.
"If you want it that badly, why not go to the Phantom? Confident enough, and there's nothing you couldn't hear."
"…No. I seem to be somewhat disliked."
Heaven hid his greed. It was a truly transcendent strength of will.
"Is that all you came to see me for? A casual showing of the face?"
Another One had no wish to speak with Heaven for long either. He was a singular existence, rare even across the universe, and there was simply no telling what he thought.
That he had survived with his head high among the countless Creator Gods who had died was proof enough. His foundation had collapsed entirely, and after a miserable defeat at Another One's hands he had been reduced to an old man in the back room—but his influence, and his ability, could not be dismissed.
The world was comparatively peaceful now. Heaven had not weakened by much. If he stepped to the fore at this moment, even Another One would have to give serious thought to disposing of him.
Crackle. Snap.
Blue sparks leapt from the back of his hand. At that uncanny timing, Another One clicked his tongue inwardly.
"Will you make whole again the Forever you divided?"
Heaven put the question. Too neat for a coincidence.
"I'll have to complete it. That's why I divided it."
Another One clenched his fist. The rebellious stimulus quieted for a moment.
"Space, Life, and Death have already shown themselves to the world, and Mind is due to appear. Record will have no choice but to crawl out on its own."
A foreordained result. Only the moment had been brought forward.
"Because of a variable beyond all imagination—the one who came from the Origin."
"Do you truly believe that is all?"
Heaven tilted his head.
"Is there more besides that?"
"Much. A very great deal."
Another One shut his mouth. Heaven took the universe above into his eyes.
"From the moment this universe began, we were nothing but players performing a fixed part. The moment free will was granted came only when he arrived."
"…What did you see?"
Another One's expression turned grim. Heaven's form warped, as if static had crawled into it.
"From the first impression I thought it excessive, the way you fancy you know everything. Today it is worse."
"I did not see. I was not worthy of it. I was merely permitted."
The nape of Another One's neck prickled.
Something was wrong. Something.
Heaven was trying to tell him something.
Why?
Why convey his will to an enemy?
He felt foul. He had thought everything rested upon his palm. Had he, in truth, been standing on someone else's?
"It seems there is something wrong with me."
"Every clue has already been given to you."
"Would it kill you to say it plainly?"
"……."
"Damn it. This isn't even mocking someone."
Another One braced his chin on his hand.
Since his meeting with the Phantom, he had entered into worry for the first time.
Heaven had said every clue was already given. Where was he to begin? With the Phantom, of course—the starting point of the whole affair.
The Phantom had come from the Origin. How he had come was unknown. Even why he had come was unknown. He had simply arrived, at some moment. It was truly awkward, not knowing why a noble being of the Origin would come to a place this shabby.
The Origin could not be touched lightly. It was so alluring a place that one wrong step could call down ruin, and its inhabitant all the more so. The right course was to ignore the Origin.
The Origin…
"…………………."
Wait.
Wait. Wait.
The Origin must not be touched.
"Damn."
So that was it. That was why—!
He ransacked his own mind. He flung open the library of memory and searched, searched like a man gone mad, all the way back to the day he was born.
…….
Nothing.
It did not exist.
I—
I had no memory of ever obtaining knowledge of the Origin.
He seized Heaven by the neck. He could not govern his strength. A crack split the throat of the being of light with a long, creaking snap.
"Did you know?"
"I was permitted to know."
"What's the purpose? Why make me aware of this!"
"Who can say. It may be something like pity. You are special, and so you would be too late."
"Stow the nonsense, Heaven! Before I grant you an eternity of agony—!"
Snap!
Heaven's neck broke.
The head that rolled away worked its mouth, fumbling.
"Continue your charge. Complete Forever, and stand against him."
Crunch!
Another One crushed Heaven's head.
The world, which had been flowing slowly, returned to what it had been. The light of sunset vanished without a trace, and the moon rose.
"……."
Another One stared at the moon in silence.
The sparks that had begun on the back of his hand had by now invaded as far as his arm. It was the signal that he ought to return, and still he stood blank.
Then, as if to call him back to himself, something tapped inside his head. A disposable telepathy, the kind used in an emergency.
"It's me."
Anastasia's voice reached him, sounding as if she had only just come to herself.
"What is it?"
"Confirmed?"
"…I'll be there shortly."
Another One turned on his heel.
The curiosity that had filled his head was gone now, without a trace.
Only the moon shone on the place he had left.