Chapter 430
Chapter 430
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 430
Chapter Title: An Opportunity for Revenge (2)
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Shirone and Plu arrived at the Second Command and waited in a room.
Of course, "waiting" was the crew member's term; they knew it was practically quarantine.
Plu, who had been observing the situation outside, sat down next to Shirone.
"Alright, tell me. What on earth happened?"
Shirone began by explaining what had occurred in Babel's cockpit.
The Ultima System, which unified and transmitted all signals. And the historical records of Babel obtained through that very system.
Plu let out a deep breath, lost in thought.
Plu had heard a bit about Heaven's history, but this was a completely different story.
"The person whose records were erased from the Babel Project... could it be the one related to the Reset?"
McClaine Guffin.
Shirone was almost certain of it.
What was most shocking was that Guffin was involved in the great sin Ikael had committed.
"Thinking about it now, it seems Guffin had a reason to leave, one unrelated to the affairs of this world. That's probably why he chose the complicated method of resetting and reconstructing."
"That might be true, but I think it has something to do with the Ultima System. How exactly does it work?"
"It's less like a language and more like a feeling. Just as you feel 'hot' when you touch something hot, or 'sharp' when you're pricked by something sharp, signals like that, distinguished in almost infinite ways, come flooding in."
"Hmm, I think I get it, sort of..."
Intellectually, it made sense, but unless one experienced it firsthand, there was no way to truly know the sensation.
"In that sense, I think the Ultima System is the opposite of the Akashic Records. If the Akashic Records' principle is 'the whole is perfect even if a part changes,' the Ultima System clearly distinguishes all the parts. If all Gaians had been integrated through the Ultima System, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they could have stood against Anke La."
"But conversely, doesn't that mean its power weakens as the numbers decrease?"
"Yes. I can only distinguish the meaning of the signals, nothing more."
Plu had a different opinion on that matter.
"That's a really good ability. It'll be a huge help here, where we don't know the language, and its applications in the future are endless."
"Yes. If we make it out of here alive, that is."
Plu gave a bitter smile at Shirone's pointed joke.
"True. By the way, where did Babel go? Since it's a weapon against Heaven, could it have gone there?"
"That's possible. In any case, I think we need to report to Mr. Sein. An unexpected variable could arise."
"Right. Let's find an opportunity and ask Mr. Gadrak. He seemed to really hate being here."
"Clove, too."
The two of them laughed quietly.
* * *
The Sixth Heaven, Zebul.
Ever since Arius entered the Drimo, Kariel had not left the Great World Console for a moment.
Miro still showed no signs of waking.
It would not be an easy task.
Even for one well-versed in the human heart, extracting only the information related to Miro from the Drimo, where mental energies gathered, was as difficult as releasing a fish into the ocean and trying to catch that same fish ten years later.
'Brahma will handle it just fine.'
He was the Mara with the greatest insight among all Mara, so even Kariel could entrust the task to him.
Nevertheless, a shadow lingered on his beautiful face as he gazed at the central processing unit.
Just then, data from a category that had been archived long ago began to blink on the screen.
Checking the date, he saw it was information stored so deep in the archives that it was faint even in the memory of angels.
Kariel's eyes lit up as he investigated out of curiosity.
"This is...?"
Staring at the screen for a long time, Kariel tilted his head in confusion.
Babel had descended.
A location trace confirmed it. A red dot, currently flying at high speed over Purgatory, was displayed.
"But how?"
Kariel himself was the one who had destroyed Babel's production process during the war with Gaia.
Kariel, the Archangel of Birth, did not favor the method of destruction employed by Uriel.
It was unproductive, irreversible, and foolish.
Instead, he had modified the algorithm within the Babel program, re-designating the enemy it recognized from Heaven to its own subjects.
This was the main reason the Second Gaian Rebellion had failed.
"Who activated it?"
After Guffin's erasure, no pure Nephilim existed in Purgatory. And there was no reason for an angel to defy Anke La's message and awaken Babel.
Kariel had Babel's data transmitted and displayed it on the screen.
The view from Babel's sensors, from the moment the program activated, unfolded in a first-person perspective.
A face that Kariel knew well appeared.
As Babel approached, the boy's face was instantly magnified.
Babel ultimately determined it was unable to attack.
If the boy on the screen was the same boy Kariel knew, this was only natural.
"Kukuku."
Kariel felt a tremor in his soul. A triumphant laugh erupted from deep within his chest.
"Khahahahaha! Khahahahaha!"
Finally, his chance had come.
All those with human blood deserved to die, but among them, Shirone was an especially loathsome existence.
The human that Ikael loved most.
"Will she still be able to hold her head high in front of me after seeing this?"
For the first time in a long while, Kariel left the Great World Console.
The first thing that came to his mind was Ikael's pale, horrified face.
The Seventh Heaven, Araboth.
In Araboth, where Anke La resided, there was a room where the Archangel Ikael, once the leader of the angels, was confined.
Arriving in the corridor there, Kariel strode forward, a victorious smile plastered across his face.
Of course, he had no intention of handing over the information about Shirone so easily.
Although her power was sealed, the name Ikael still stood as a symbol of glory to the angels.
It was still too soon.
But just imagining this amusing event by himself was enough to make him itch with anticipation.
'Shall I go see that proud face of hers? After all, I hold all the cards now.'
Just before he reached Ikael's room, a rift in space opened before Kariel's eyes, and hundreds of glass-like panes shimmered with varying degrees of brightness.
A faint silhouette connected to the panes gradually sharpened until the outlines vanished and the figure of a man materialized.
A Signal, capable of containing unique information within specific panels.
Ikael's third-ranked Mara, Ashur, blocked Kariel's path with eyes as deep as his ink-black hair.
"What brings you to Araboth, O Angel of Creation?"
"I've come to see Ikael. She's inside, I assume?"
As Kariel started walking as if he didn't need an answer, Ashur quickly moved to block his path again.
Kariel's face twisted into a fearsome scowl.
"Is a mere Mara daring to obstruct me?"
He still vividly remembered Ashur appearing and pointing a sword at him just before he could capture Shirone.
He had let it slide back then because Ashur was acting on Ikael's orders, but this time, he would not be so forgiving.
"Lady Ikael does not wish to see anyone."
"Anyone? A confined angel has lofty dreams. Move, you worthless Mara."
Kariel roughly shoved Ashur aside. Then, before he could be stopped, he threw the door open.
Ikael, first among all angels, radiant in pure white, was sitting demurely on the floor, waiting for Kariel.
"It has been a long time, Kariel."
Kariel forced the corners of his mouth into a smile.
His astral body still shrank whenever he stood before Ikael, but today of all days, he didn't want to show any weakness.
"Hmph, what a ridiculous sight, sitting on the floor. Where has the authority of the former leader of the angels gone?"
Ikael gave a benevolent smile.
"Your presence has weakened considerably. Then again, you always were one to lose sight of everything else when you focused on one thing."
Indeed, Kariel's complexion had grown noticeably gaunt. Even the brilliant spark in his eyes, which once created all manner of ingenious things, had dimmed.
"What have you been doing behind my back? La should have forbidden all angelic activity."
"Kukuku, what would you do if you knew? You have no power left. You must be curious about what I'm plotting. No, you must be dying to know. But what can you do? You're nothing but a puppet angel living on past glory."
"Your impatience is like that of a child crying for milk. What is it that makes you so afraid?"
Afraid? Me?
Kariel's eyes widened.
"Hahaha! I'm not afraid of anything. I've even become greater than you! How could someone like me...!"
Kariel's words were cut short.
Ikael began to untie the sash of her pure white robes.
She parted the collar and drew her shoulders in, letting the top slide down.
Over her shoulders that proudly supported a straight neck, her slender yet strong arms, and her perfectly proportioned back without a trace of excess fat, Kariel's frozen face was visible.
"Come here, Kariel. My clever child. Tell me all about it in my arms, just like you used to. Then, after a good night's sleep, everything will be alright."
"Uh..."
Kariel, with a dazed expression, started to run to her before hastily snapping back to his senses.
Ikael, the one he hated so much, was still beautiful.
The most perfect body in the world, composed of nothing but pure white.
The pinnacle of purity, untainted by any particle or impurity!
He wanted to be held in her arms again, to rub his cheek against hers and confess everything.
Yes, that was all it took.
That alone was enough to satisfy everything—the ultimate ataraxia.
'That woman... her!'
A single, mere human had defiled her.
"Sh...uuuuut uuuuuup!"
Kariel's astral body expanded into a halo and began to spin rapidly.
Everything in the room rattled, and Ikael's golden hair fell, mournfully covering her face.
Kariel approached and unleashed a mad torrent of shouts.
"Shut up! Do you have any right to say such things? You... you...! Guh!"
Unable to withstand the turmoil in his mind, Kariel quickly bowed his head.
His already weakened presence was on the verge of causing his astral body to collapse.
'Damn it! Why...!'
Not once, I swear on everything, not a single time, had he ever desired to possess her or have her all to himself.
It was a pure reverence, absolutely different from human desire.
There was a time when he was happy just to gaze upon her, when the mere existence of the Archangel Ikael brought him absolute bliss.
'Foolish humans! Vile creatures!'
Why can't humans just leave beautiful things as they are?
Did they want to possess her that badly? Were they incapable of sharing this beauty with others?
Everyone wants to be loved by Ikael. Were they so jealous that they had to snatch her away?
To Kariel, Ikael was no longer an object of reverence. She was just a wilted flower, plucked by the hand of a worthless human.
'I can't forgive them. No, I won't forgive them!'
Kariel leaned in close to the bowed head of Ikael and whispered.
"Listen closely. I will never forget. So I'm going to do the thing you hate most. Because you did the thing I hate most!"
As Kariel left the room, Ikael, pulling her robes closed with a sad expression, spoke in a small voice.
"Ashur."
At her call, Ashur instantly prostrated himself before her.
Before his master, who had just been insulted by Kariel, his own expression was miserable.
"Your eternal servant answers your call."
"Please investigate what Kariel is plotting."
According to the law of retainers, Ashur's power was weakened to the same extent that Ikael's was sealed, but there was no reason for him to refuse anything she wished. However.
"The current atmosphere in Heaven is unsettling. If something like today were to happen again..."
Ikael rendered Ashur's words moot with a bright smile.
"That won't happen. I'm counting on you."
Whatever sins she had committed, Ikael was still Ikael.
Countless angels and Mara would lay down their lives for just one smile like the one she had just shown.
Ashur bowed his head without a word.
His body shattered into hundreds of glass-like panes and vanished in an instant.