Chapter 198: The Mercy of God (3)

“Law? Does your law include the crime of murder?”

“Of course. A believer can never harm another believer. If he commits murder, he will be severely punished according to the verdict of the Internal Department.”

“Then what is it that you are doing now? If the crime of murder exists in your law, why do you carry out the Liquor of Anecdotes?”

“I do not understand what you are talking about. Are you really a Nephilim? Do your words not sound like those of a heretic?”

“Whether I am a Nephilim or whatever does not matter. I am someone who does not know the limit of his own life. That is why I can live each day giving my best. But look at them. They are alive, but it is not a real life. How is that different from the murder you mention?”

No voices of reproach or support arose among the believers. However, the atmosphere was becoming more and more tense.

It was a contradiction that any believer must have felt at least once.

The Liquor of Anecdotes certainly seemed irrational. But no one rejected it because the inertia accumulated over hundreds of thousands of years continued to act.

Countless people have become giants through the Liquor of Anecdotes. The fact that it has always been done and that it will continue to be done blocked the judgment of the believers.

“You who deny the Law of Ra, we were born from the giants. The Liquor of Anecdotes is the divine disposition that returns our life. Do you wish your existence to be extinguished forever? If among the believers there is someone who wishes that, let him step forward. I myself will beg that it be done.”

No one stepped forward.

According to what the believers had transmitted since ancient times, the giants created by the Liquor of Anecdotes traveled through Purgatory and then returned to decompose again into individuals.

It is better to live eternally than to die. And if one must inevitably die, at least one wishes to preserve the possibility of returning.

That is life.

Ra dominated life in that way.

Satisfied with the silence of the believers, the executor pointed at Shirone and shouted.

“You are a heretic! Even if you are a Nephilim, you have no right to intervene in the Law! Arrest that man! Let him pay for blaspheming against the sanctity of Ra!”

“Shirone, this has become complicated. We have to retreat now!”

Amy grabbed Shirone’s wrist, but he freed himself and remained where he was.

“No. I will not leave. I have to save Kanya’s mother. I have to save her.”

From the front, more than ten kergoines drew their swords and launched themselves to attack. Using the technique of the giants, they moved with the speed of a cheetah.

Shirone pushed his way into their center. The kergoin at the front raised his sword. The others surrounded him, brandishing their weapons.

At that instant, Shirone’s Fury exploded.

A mantle of light struck the kergoines. The mass contained in the photons was tiny, so at first it only caused numbness, but by lashing twenty times per second, the rebound force transmitted the sensation that the body was going to tear apart.

The kergoines surrounding him were thrown away.

Sliding across the ground, with their buttocks dragging over the earth, they looked at him with eyes full of horror.

“Ne-Nephilim? He really was a Nephilim?”

Light magic had a strong psychological effect. It was a phenomenon that only angels could manifest, and it served to engrave in their minds that Shirone was a Nephilim.

Taking advantage of the momentum, Shirone concentrated the Photon Cannon.

The executor, sensing the danger, stepped in front of the bronze statue. At that moment, a flash shot out from Shirone.

With almost animal reflexes, the executor twisted his body. The flash grazed his side, and he felt as if his entrails were being crushed.

But the pain was a secondary problem.

When the Photon Cannon struck the statue of the giant, a solemn resonance spread, as if a bell had been struck.

The sound waves vibrated throughout the place, and the believers stepped back covering their ears.

Someone was shouting something, but the ringing that remained in their ears was stronger than any voice.

Even so, the statue of the giant remained intact.

The power of the Photon Cannon was enough to dent an iron door, but on the statue there was not the slightest mark.

The eyes of the believers filled with jubilation.

“Oh! Anke Ra! Save us!”

“Do not abandon us! Eternal life, eternal life!”

Seeing that the situation was worsening, Amy stepped forward. She had to take Shirone and get him out of there no matter what.

At that moment, Rian grabbed her shoulder and made her turn around.

“Wait. Shirone has not finished yet.”

“That is not the problem. If we do not escape now, we will have to fight all of them.”

“Then we fight.”

Amy finally turned her head. It had nothing to do with the friendship they had shared until then.

At that moment, Rian was only Shirone’s knight.

“What is wrong with you, Rian? Do you have something to say?”

“Yes. You are acting strangely. What do you intend to achieve by stopping Shirone?”

“Obviously we have to flee! If we become enemies of Heaven, there will be no one to help us.”

“And Kanya’s mother?”

Amy’s heart skipped a beat.

She realized that she was not truly feeling the death of another person.

“Shirone is trying to save Kanya’s mother. Just as he did with Sister Marsha when she was an enemy, just as he did for the students of the magic academy. Then why do you not want to help him? Or do you think that because this is not the world we lived in, we have no responsibility at all for the deaths of the people here?”

“Ah…”

Rian’s analysis was correct.

Because it was a place where different rules and laws were applied, Amy had thought that they did not have to bear the deaths that they themselves had chosen.

“Amy, whether this place is Heaven or anywhere else, what is happening is happening before our eyes. Shirone said that he can save Kanya’s mother. That is why I will fight alongside Shirone.”

Amy scanned the plaza with her gaze. Around Shirone, the mecas armed with Signa and Exd and the nor who wielded ancient magic were surrounding him.

The human mind is not something insignificant. Even if this were Heaven, the truth of life could not change.

The expression of conflict disappeared from Amy’s face.

“I also trust Shirone. Come on, Rian.”

When Amy rushed forward, her friends immediately followed her.

A flash shone in the place where the believers surrounded Shirone, and more than a dozen people were thrown outward. Shirone appeared after unleashing his Fury, and Amy leaned against his back as she asked:

“Are you alright? You are not injured?”

“Yes. Signa and Exd are weak at long range, and ancient magic seems to be mostly wind-type. It is also weak. I think they are worse than Clove.”

From Heaven’s perspective, Purgatory was hell.

No matter how mediocre Clove was, he was still a magician who traveled through the relentless Purgatory, so he could be considered of a higher level than those here.

Shirone’s group resisted the attacks of the believers from their respective positions.

The problem was that they could not counterattack freely. If casualties arose while they tried to persuade them, the situation could worsen even more.

“Tsk, how annoying.”

Kanis placed his hand on the ground and launched Shadow Wall.

From the surface of the shadow that rose like a wall, sharp spikes sprouted.

The meca stepped forward with Exd raised to block, but they also had no clear way to attack.

— Shirone, we cannot hold out forever. You have to decide now.

Shirone’s thoughts became complex. In reality, there was a way to end the battle without continuing to fight.

Shining.

If he unleashed an intense light that momentarily blocked the enemy’s vision, the combat atmosphere would immediately cool down.

‘But will Shining be enough?’

The biggest problem was that it was broad daylight. No matter how much he increased the intensity, he could not surpass the sunlight.

The reason it was difficult to create a light stronger than the sun lay in the vibratory nature of light.

He had to increase to the maximum the number of photons in a given surface, but vibrating light had limits of compression.

‘How can I increase the intensity?’

At that instant, Shirone’s eyes shone.

He could not stop the vibration of light. But perhaps he could emit a light more intense than the sun.

— Close your eyes! I am going to launch Shining!

Shirone stopped and entered his Spirit Zone. The particles of light began to gather rapidly.

His friends closed their eyes, but Kanis, who maintained the defensive barrier, looked at Shirone.

‘What is that? Why does the light look like that?’

The light accumulating around Shirone was much dimmer than that of a normal Shining. That it was weak meant he had reduced its luminescence. In other words, he was suppressing the vibration somehow.

‘He unified the polarization direction.’

Some particles vibrate vertically and others horizontally. Shirone applied gravity to the photons to unify the direction of their vibration.

The result was astonishing. A number of photons naturally impossible was concentrating in a single point.

Being more stabilized than normal photons, the color of the light was close to gray.

When Shining began to emit white light, it reached a density dozens of times higher than usual.

— Now!

Shirone tightly closed his eyes and released the control of the photons. The particles of light scattered in all directions like runaway colts.

The white light that seemed to devour the world reached 300,000 lumens. More than twice as intense as looking directly at the midday sun.

Without seeing, Shirone knew that the magic had succeeded.

The intensity was such that even with his eyes closed he could vaguely distinguish shadows.

‘It worked! It really worked!’

Divine particles were the central principle of the magic that Shirone dominated.

Photon Cannon, based on mass. Laser, based on energy. And now, Shining Impact, which compressed photons to provoke an explosion of flash.

By surpassing the intensity of natural light, it was a non-lethal magic capable of neutralizing living organisms regardless of time or place.

Even after the light disappeared, the believers kept their eyes closed. They leaned backward just in case and covered their faces with their arms.

Silence fell.

Shirone’s group opened their eyes first, and then the believers began to open them, looking around cautiously.

“Ne-Nephilim. He is a Nephilim.”

When someone murmured that, the meca began to drop their weapons one after another.

Shining Impact had achieved more than stopping the battle.

Not even by making a contract with the spirit of light would it be possible to create a light more intense than the sun.

And if someone capable of doing it existed, without a doubt it would be an angel who handled the power of light.

Tess wiped the sweat running beneath her chin.

“Huff. Shirone, what kind of magic was that? I thought I was going to go blind.”

Although she said it jokingly, she was sincere. Never in her life had she felt such intense light.

Rian approached while sheathing his great sword.

“In any case, you have already neutralized the enemies. Now all that remains is to stop the Liquor of Anecdotes?”

“It will not be easy. Unlike the other believers, the kergoines are not wavering.”

Just as Amy said, the executor and those in charge of the ritual were looking at Shirone with stern eyes.

Of course they had also been intimidated by the power of Shining Impact.

But if they considered it the power of a Nephilim, there was no reason for them to suffer a psychological blow.

For those who only followed Ra, inferior laws were not frightening.

“Do you think you will come out unharmed after doing this, Nephilim? You have disturbed the sacred Law of Ra. If the Internal Department moves, your life will also end today.”

“Try it if you can. Not even I know the limit of my life. You cannot decide it at your whim.”

The executor frowned.

He wanted to decapitate him on the spot, but honestly he had no intention of fighting.

He had dedicated his entire life to reaching those 187 years. Eternal life was within his reach. He could not end here.

A reddish aura formed in Shirone’s palm.

Now that the believers were frightened, it was the last opportunity. Instead of provoking more anger with a Photon Cannon, he planned to destroy it with certainty using a laser.

A crimson beam projected toward the statue, and the believers stepped back in horror.

But no one launched another attack.

If Shirone was a Nephilim, he was not someone the believers could do anything against by themselves.