Secret History (5)
BOOM—!
A thunderous roar shook heaven and earth. Across the clear blue sky, a great line split open with a sharp crack—crooked and crude, as if a child had scrawled it for fun.
From that single vast stroke, countless smaller lines branched outward like the limbs of a tree, spreading dense as a spider’s web, or like boughs blanketing the heavens.
Crack— crack-crack!
It shattered.
The sky folded itself in half, contracting, bending—and so, bit by bit, it broke apart.
"Th-that…!"
"Aaaaaah!"
"The sky—the sky is falling!!"
The sudden calamity threw the citizens into chaos. Of course it did—the heavens had begun to collapse without warning. Yet the priests and paladins did not take a single step.
They could not move.
Anyone who could sense holy power would have been the same.
That colossal line.
From the vast fissure carved into the sky, divinity poured forth.
Like the roots of a great tree. Like a waterfall cascading with tremendous force.
Behold that mighty power flowing from heaven to earth!
It was an omen.
The beginning of a descent—a fragment of a god. And so they were not permitted even to move, even to blink; they could only stare with eyes wide open.
Crack-crack!
The sky continued to crumble. It tore and stretched, the gap widening, and through that opening something slowly revealed itself.
"Th-those are… stars…?"
"…That’s the Milky Way."
"No—what on earth is that…"
It was countless stars.
Brilliantly shining stars gathered in innumerable numbers into a great swarm—its name was the galaxy, or else the cosmos itself.
Saaaah—
The radiant stars, each flaunting its own light, slowly descended from the sky. Where they passed, glittering trails of light lingered, shining long and leaving their trajectories behind.
"I-it’s the descent of the Sixth God…"
"O God—"
Only then did the people tentatively bow their heads. They lowered their faces, fell to their knees, and welcomed the stars.
The stars swam through the air as if dancing, and at last formed a single vast shape.
From a broad, thick torso, five long columns extended.
It was the shape of a hand.
A vast, immense hand.
The hand of a god.
Antonio’s eyes bulged as if they would pop from his head, and thick tears streamed down. At the end of his life, to receive a god twice—this was the glory of a lifetime.
It would have been right to prostrate himself at once in worship, but the giant hand was slowly approaching him, so he dared to keep his back straight and gaze upon the stars.
Shaaaah—
The hand of stars moved slowly. Its mere existence pressed heavily upon the surrounding air as it drifted with deliberate slowness.
Then, before Antonio, the hand spread wide open—and countless stars wound about his body.
"O-O God!"
Startled by the unfamiliar sensation of his body floating, Antonio thrashed for a moment, but soon realized the stars were holding him and surrendered himself to them.
Antonio’s body slowly rose into the air. Higher and higher. The ground that had supported his feet looked tiny far below, and cold wind cut through his clothes.
In the dizzying heights, he was soaring with starlight.
"Aha, ahahahaha!!"
Even the clouds were beneath him, and God was with him. Antonio burst into great laughter at the infinite freedom and the ecstasy surging up from his very soul. He danced with the stars, and the wind kept time with him.
How could this not be joyous?
Continuing his ecstatic dance with the starlight, he spotted a familiar head of red hair in the distance. The hero Kenis. She too, like Antonio, had entrusted her body to the starlight and was flying through the sky.
"Hero!! Hero!!"
He called out in gladness, but the fierce wind seemed to swallow his voice. The starlight and Antonio continued to rise. Even the clouds had become tiny dots far below, and he wondered if he might keep rising until he became a constellation himself.
If he became a constellation, would that not be the greatest glory of a lifetime? With that idle thought, Antonio forced his eyes wide open, striving to remember everything. Recording all of this for posterity was his duty.
The flight that had seemed about to reach the constellations stopped, and Antonio looked around for a moment.
"Uh, uwaah…! G-Great Priest?"
"Hero! Hahaha, you’ve come."
Kenis, entrusting herself to the starlight, spun round and round without regard for up or down as she approached Antonio’s side. The glad face lasted only a moment.
Thump—!
His heart pounded violently once. That sensation of a soul pulsing. From the depths of his soul it cried out. The One who encompasses that sky, those stars, is coming.
He comes—He is coming!
Thump— thump— thump!
"Ah, aah…!! O G-God!!"
Antonio tried to rise by stepping on the stars flowing beneath his feet. But the stars, soft and flowing like mist, made him fall again and again as he tried to stand.
"Hup…!"
He forced his trembling head to move and bowed it low. Hot tears rolled down the shabby wrinkles around his eyes. Above his head he felt a vast will. It was like a single law—something complete and absolute in itself.
Shaaaah—
Starlight flowed gently and raised his body. Unable to control his trembling form, Antonio slowly rose following the guidance of the starlight. With shaking pupils he looked upward.
"Uh, ah… aah…!!"
His breath came short.
There above the sky, among the stars! The most brilliant and vast giant of stars was looking at him!
Eyes like a blazing sun pierced through his soul. Or—were they even eyes? To dare measure a god by human standards and say He had eyes would be arrogance.
Thump— thump— thump—!
He felt the gaze. He was not even permitted to turn his head. Through pupils opened as wide as they could go, Antonio felt that vast will.
He was curious.
God wished to hear his reason.
From the giant of stars came a sublime and holy voice. God spoke in His true voice.
"Old man, why did you do it?"
Ah!
That voice, more magnificent than the trumpets of heaven, sweeter than flowing honey! It burrowed into Antonio’s ears and shook his soul.
A voice that sought only truth, one that could not be defied—Antonio poured out only the sincerity that welled from his soul.
"O Sixth God, who walks with the Eternal Light…!! Please, please hear the words of this old and ugly man…!!"
He poured out the sincerity he had buried deep in his heart. The sincerity he had bound with rope, locked behind iron bars, and wrapped in chains so that no one would know, through all the long years past.
Only after long ages had passed did he bring it forth.
"Th-this is all my unworthiness! If I, if I had been a little wiser, if I had moved a little more shrewdly!! I could have stopped it all beforehand…"
What had gathered dust over the years was neither excuse, nor resentment, nor reproach.
It was regret.
If he had spoken a little more cleverly, if he had looked around a little more carefully and noticed the signs of change—if only he had…
The thought that he might have prevented everything beforehand had tormented him for long years.
"I, we… with that paltry excuse that there was nothing we could do, we covered our own eyes, and simply put a lid over the ugly truth… Outwardly claiming to serve the people, to prevent chaos—upon those shallow pretexts we closed our eyes and pretended not to know…!"
The inadequacy of failing to stop Rofinus and the Pantheon’s madness. The unworthiness of hiding and covering up the truth. The shame of only now confessing it all. Self-loathing, regret, self-reproach, guilt…
All those emotions mixed together like something melting in a furnace, becoming something that could not be put into words. And the hotly congealed lumps told Antonio to bear it all.
To bear all the original sins of the Pantheon.
It was none other than he himself who had so decided.
"Punish me! Please cast my soul into the hottest and lowest pit of fire and burn it for a long time…!! And so punish me!!"
Thus he begged to be punished. The relief of finally pouring everything out—and the self-contempt at feeling that relief.
The stone that had sat deep in his chest was spat out like hot lava through his throat, and he gazed up at God and wept without end.
God looked upon him for a long time. Gazing beyond the soul itself, He watched the man who sobbed without cease.
The brightest stars burned with lofty beauty, illuminating fragments of endless wisdom and knowledge.
Antonio simply waited for his judgment.
Wh-what? Why is he crying?!
On my palm sat an old man and Kenis, cute as little dolls. When I asked the old man why he’d done it back then, he just started bawling and saying something.
Wait—was I that mean about it?
All I did was ask why he’d done it then. In this bewildering situation I looked to Kenelm, who had her eyes closed, concentrating hard on something.
She didn’t look like she had any spare capacity to help me.
Cold sweat started pouring down. The egg had come out at a perfectly normal size, so why were Kenis and the old man so tiny? I had no idea.
…Is it because I thought of them as miniatures?
An unrealistic hypothesis—but this whole situation was divorced from reality. Once I thought of it that way and let everything go, I felt better.
I stared blankly for a moment at the old man bawling his eyes out. He’d been going on about throwing him into hell to burn forever, but from what I was hearing, this old man didn’t seem to have done anything wrong.
The ones who actually did wrong were all dead or had killed themselves. Sending an elderly man to hell would be a rotten thing to do.
Hmm… maybe I should hear Kenis out next.
The purpose of this three-way confrontation was to hear each party’s story.
I’d heard the old man’s account, so now it was time to hear from Kenis, who could be called the direct victim.
I turned my head slightly to look at Kenis. A Kenis the size of a little doll, crouching on my palm. She was a bit cute, so I poked her cheek lightly—and the soft, squishy feel was utterly addictive.
Soft. Soft.
Without realizing it I poked a few more times before I snapped back to my senses. What a woman, owning such devilishly irresistible cheeks.
"Ahem, ahem!! Kenis, what do you think about this matter?"
Since I was a god, after all, I tried to put on a bit of dignity, lower my tone, and speak like a deity.
Didn’t that sound pretty godlike?
"My first sword who received a mission, my hero. I ask you: what do you think?"
Kenis drew a deep breath at the god’s question.