Chapter 428
Chapter 428
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 428
Chapter Title: The Definition of a Creature (4)
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Plu couldn't understand what Shirone was saying.
“You’ve been here before?”
Babel was a place known as the Angel’s Tomb.
There was no way Shirone, a mere nineteen-year-old, could have visited a place that existed even before the Divine People inhabited Heaven.
“To be honest, I’m not sure…”
“Hmm, like déjà vu?”
Normally, it wouldn't be worth much thought, but considering the steel golems had collapsed right before attacking Shirone, this couldn't be dismissed.
“Let’s go somewhere else for now. It’s too dangerous here.”
“Wait. Are you saying we should just leave that?”
The team member pointed at the electricity above the cone.
Even if it wasn't an electrical spirit, it was too valuable to abandon.
Plu felt the same way, but she had a bad feeling.
The team member who died wasn't unskilled, yet his body had been torn apart by shrapnel before he could even react.
“Shirone, what's your feeling on this?”
Shirone stared intently at the glowing electricity.
It wasn't clear, but a faint sensation washed over him, like a distant memory.
*‘Have I seen that before?’*
As Shirone searched his memories, his lips moved.
“Ultima.”
“Huh? Shirone, what did you say?”
“What?”
Shirone turned his head, a look of surprise on his face.
“You just muttered something. Ultima?”
“Oh? Did I?”
Plu nodded.
She was too meticulous to be mistaken, so it must have been true, but he honestly couldn't remember.
“We should investigate it, just in case.”
“You know it could be dangerous, right?”
“That's exactly why we need to check. The device that controls Babel's traps should be in the control room, too.”
That made sense.
“Alright. But I'll be the one to investigate.”
“Plu, but…”
“Listen to me. This kind of job is for the second-in-command.”
No matter what happened, Shirone had to survive, so Plu took the risk and approached.
She took out Phoenix and gently touched it to the electricity. It crackled and flared up as if angered, but there was no other reaction.
“Hmm, it doesn't seem dangerous.”
As if waiting for that, the team member lunged forward and grabbed the electricity with his bare hands.
“It's mine!”
He was the man tasked by Raysis to keep an eye on Shirone.
He had been given the mission because of his cool-headed nature, but in the face of greed, he was just an ordinary man.
As the electrical energy began to be absorbed through his arm, he became certain it was a spirit and shouted.
“Spirit, form a contract with me!”
A blue light spread through the control room as the spirit's power seeped into the man.
As a vast concept flooded his mind, his eyes rolled back into his head involuntarily.
“Th-This can't be. This is so… immense…”
As he muttered in a state of ecstasy, his head suddenly exploded with a pop.
Shirone and Plu stared in disbelief at the man's now-faceless body.
“Foolish. How could he just bite without even checking?”
It wasn't a lack of patience. The desire of the Nor for spirits was just that strong.
For Shirone and Plu, who could cast magic anytime and anywhere through the Spirit Zone, it was a mentality they could never comprehend.
When Plu glared at the last remaining team member, he shook his head frantically, raising his hands and backing away.
There was nothing more precious than life; it was an excellent choice.
“Shirone, are you still going to do this?”
Plu asked, implying they should stop, but the man's death had only strengthened Shirone's conviction.
“Babel is a place sealed by Henna. And it has existed since before the Divine People were born.”
“Those who entered this place must have been angels or Nephilim. In other words, the Immortal Function is the default setting. The steel golems appeared because someone who wasn't a Nephilim entered.”
Considering the circumstances, Plu also thought there was a high probability that Shirone was right.
Still, she had to warn him.
“Still, be careful. There's always the unexpected.”
Shirone nodded and reached his hand toward the electricity.
There was no stinging sensation; the electricity climbed up his fingertips like a living creature.
“Hah!”
Just then, he heard the sound of wind in his head. It felt as if his skull was being drilled.
Ultima System—A universal integrated information system.
In terms of laws, it was 1. Unique, unary concepts that overlapped with nothing else tore through his mind at nearly the speed of light.
“Hngh!”
Shirone understood why the man's head had exploded. He felt like his own was about to do the same.
When he opened his Immortal Function, an immense sense of liberation washed over him as the concepts of Ultima flowed out through an infinite channel.
His mind went blank.
He could only feel a single, thin, blue stream of light connecting him to the outside of the channel.
The last remaining team member swallowed hard and approached.
“Wh-What was that spirit?”
Shirone turned his head, a look of surprise on his face.
“Say that again.”
“Ah, I was just wondering what the spirit's attribute was.”
Hearing the man's voice with the drone's translation mode turned off, he was finally certain.
He couldn't make out the pronunciation, but the meaning of the words seeped into his mind on its own.
*‘Who on earth created a system like this?’*
It wasn't just the language of the Divine People. Any symbol in existence could be integrated into a single signal and deciphered.
When Shirone pushed his hand into the cone, the electricity passed through the back of his hand, and the machinery activated.
The flow of information became as clear to read as veins.
“So that was the control device.”
At Plu's words, Shirone nodded, connected to the main circuit, and began to explore Babel.
A bird's-eye view of the massive structure, large enough to be called a castle, appeared in his mind as freely as if he were imagining it.
Thump! Thump!
A wall in the control room opened, revealing a tube-shaped glass pipe.
A red, cylindrical light shot up, spinning rapidly.
“That's the main elevator.”
An elevator operating on the same principle as the one in Arboth instantly transported the three of them 100 meters underground.
“Whoa, this is huge.”
It was a control room so vast it was hard to see the end.
A massive screen, seemingly capable of displaying images ten times their actual size, floated ahead, and next to it stood a conical pillar just like the one in the control room.
Shirone pushed his hand in without hesitation.
*Why did I feel like I'd been here before? Perhaps the answer is in here.*
As he accessed the control room's records with the Ultima System, the screen lit up.
Shirone searched calmly, as if reading a book, but on the screen Plu was watching, all sorts of pages were flipping by, leaving afterimages.
At a certain point, the screen stopped, and strange characters, neither Henna nor the language of the Divine People, slowly appeared.
Only Shirone's pupils moved, following the letters.
Through Ultima's single signal, the meaning was conveyed to him in a way he could understand.
Record: Babel Project
Light Year Omega 133—The first humans, Gaia, overcome all biological obstacles such as gender, disposition, and individuality for the first time since their birth, achieving a unified psychic system.
Omega 187—Gaia attempts to escape the photon system via the Ultima System but fails, blocked by the barrier of Anke La's Akashic Record.
Omega 201—Gaia initiates war with Heaven. The Ultima System and Akashic Record collide.
Omega 387—Anke La attempts the First Reset. Gaia thwarts it with the Ultima System.
Omega 412—Anke La's Second Reset attempt fails.
Omega 666—Gaia is defeated in the final war. The Gaia population decreases by 90 percent.
Omega 689—The First Resistance begins. Gaia analyzes the angels' infinite algorithm and succeeds in manifesting Halos.
Omega 717—Gaia creates a strategic lethal weapon to eliminate Anke La. It is named Babel.
Omega 738—Babel enters mass production.
Omega 777—Gaia is defeated in the Second Resistance.
Omega 799—Gaia's representative (record expunged) proposes the possibility of a second escape from the photon system.
Ultima System approval granted.
Omega 892—(Record expunged) holds talks with Anke La. Negotiations fail.
Omega 927—Anke La dismantles the Ultima System with the Art of Anecdote. The Gaians are separated into Kergo, Nor, and Mecca.
Omega 987—(Record expunged) announces Ikael's (record expunged) to the Divine People.
Great chaos in Heaven.
Omega 999—The last Gaian (record expunged) escapes the photon system.
End of record.
*‘What in the world...’*
Shirone stood with his mouth agape.
It was a file recording the events that transpired between a race of humanity called Gaia and Anke La, before the Divine People were even born.
Gaia, having achieved an integrated information system, created an ancient weapon called Babel, capable of killing Anke La.
But it was a history that told of their defeat in the final war, after which they were separated into three races: the Kergo, the Nor, and the Mecca.
The entire period seemed to be divided by percentages, so there was no way to know how long a ‘year’ was, but one thing was certain.
The last remaining Gaian, the one listed on the screen as (record expunged), was the one who left this record.
*‘There are two types of expunged records. One is the Gaian's name, and the other is the great sin Ikael was said to have committed.’*
The screen reset.
A single sentence, likely inscribed by the last Gaian, blinked on the screen.
Beyond Infinity.
As Shirone stared intently at it, Plu couldn't hold back any longer and approached him.
“What is it? Why are you staring so hard at something you can't even read?”
Shirone shook his head. The team member's presence made him reluctant to reveal anything about the Ultima System.
“I'll tell you later. There's something we need to check first. Follow me.”
He operated the control device, and an iron wall opened, revealing a path.
Babel was at the end of that path. The ultimate weapon created by the first humans to kill a god.
*‘What does it look like?’*
Passing through the corridor, they came to a chamber shaped like a womb.
A single beam of light shone down like a spotlight, illuminating something humanoid kneeling on the ground.
It was a female figure made of a sleek, glossy black metal, with numerous cables descending from the ceiling connected to it.
The team member's face turned pale.
“I-It's an angel…”
“No. It's Babel.”
Plu asked.
“Babel?”
“Babel isn't the name of this place. It's a type of ancient weapon that mimics the abilities of an angel.”
“What are you talking about? You've been saying strange things this whole time. Explain yourself properly…”
Vweeeeeee!
The chamber's systems activated, and power began to flow.
Through the Ultima System, he could feel the electricity being supplied to Babel through dozens of cables.
Since they were in an area of constant lightning strikes, there was no issue with the power supply, but even so, the output was immense.
Having absorbed the entire structure's power, Babel's body began to vibrate intensely.
It was truly like a fetus, having absorbed all its mother's nutrients through the womb, finally being born into the world.
Babel's slender, delicate neck straightened, and its kneeling legs rose as if in zero gravity.
Over two meters tall, with a slim figure, its blue wings expanded, revealing a beautiful face.
It was a face terribly similar to someone Shirone knew.
“Ikael?”
A red light flickered on in Babel's eyes, and a blindingly bright white halo began to rotate above its head, emitting a high-frequency sound close to a roar.
“Sh-Shirone. Let's get out of here.”
Plu's shoulders trembled.
The claim that it mimicked an angel was no exaggeration; she could feel a power that surpassed imagination.
*‘The Chairman was planning to fight something like this?’*
Babel, floating about a meter in the air, took in the sight of the three people standing on the ground.
-Babel program activated. Applying Kariel algorithm.
-Primary objective: Eliminate intruders.
Fzzt!
Babel's form dissolved into a tangle of electricity and vanished. Simultaneously, a knife-hand, sharp as a blade, stopped dead in front of Shirone's face.
Only after hearing the clear, ringing sound from its fingertips did Shirone realize his situation.
The arm was perfectly still as if fixed in space, and only Babel's face slowly approached to examine Shirone.
-Warning! Warning!
-Higher algorithm registers attack as impossible.
-Cause analysis: Gaia Code Number 2 detected. Searching for Ultima System application. Application confirmed.
-Result: Absolute inviolable target.
Babel, which had been meeting Shirone's gaze, slowly withdrew its hand and stepped back with a metallic clank.
-Re-applying Kariel algorithm.
-Secondary objective: Eliminate all Divine People.
Kiiiiiiiing!
As the halo spun, Babel's body floated lightly into the air.
Just as the three terrified people looked up, electricity wrapped around Babel's body, and with a tremendous roar, it shot up through the ceiling.
“Hngh!”
Steadying themselves in the shaking room, the three could only stare blankly at the clean, circular hole pierced through the ceiling.
The Black Angel Descends.