Chapter 207: The truth of heaven (1)

Ymir understood that the time granted to him had ended.

As he slowly turned, an indescribable indignation and anger were etched into his eyes.

If Ra said so, then so it was.

But his instinct told him otherwise. He was not perceiving the truth that Ra was hiding.

‘I will have to confirm it with my own eyes.’

Ymir headed toward Jebul, the city of the angels.

***

Upon entering Ikael’s room, Shirone looked around.

It was different from what he had imagined. The scene, with a table, chairs, a bed, and even a carpet, was no different from a place where a human would live.

Even so, it did not feel human.

All the objects were imbued with sunlight. As if isolated from the passage of time, they did not have the slightest flaw.

The sensation of contemplating absolutely perfect objects was truly strange.

It was a refinement impossible to perceive with human eyes.

But anyone who was in that place would feel a purity close to perfection.

Shirone took a spoon from the table and reflected his face in it.

As expected, it was disturbingly clean for being a human creation. It gave him the impression that this must be what in the human world is called a sacred object.

‘Ah, right…’

The most important one, Ikael, was nowhere to be seen. Peophe had clearly said that she could not leave.

Had they been deceived?

An uneasy thought crossed Shirone’s mind, and he began to wander the room aimlessly. As expected, there was no one. Everything was immaculate. It was a perfection close to terror.

Suddenly, a beautiful melody resonated in his ears. Shirone stopped and looked toward a window five meters high.

A clear sound, like that of a harp, came from there.

The vibration of an angel.

As if enchanted, he approached the window.

The sunlight entering through it began to collide with a form.

When he came back to his senses, a woman was sitting on the edge of the window, looking outside.

It was a face of a beauty that no painter could reproduce.

Shirone confirmed that above her head floated a halo of light. Compared to that of the fallen angel Ikasa, it was incomparably brighter and warmer.

When her figure was fully revealed, wings of light sprouted from her back. The enormous wings spread out filled Shirone’s sight with a strange satisfaction.

“Welcome, Shirone.”

Shirone knew it with certainty.

She was the archangel Ikael.

The first entity of causality. The symbol of the nobility that God valued most. A being like that stood before him.

Ikael descended softly to the ground.

Her height, over two meters, was imposing, but it did not hide the warmth she radiated.

It was a feeling difficult to describe. Even calling her beautiful seemed disrespectful.

Was this what goodness would be like when it takes form? If in the space-time of the labyrinth he had understood jin, then Ikael was the embodiment of good.

Despite her mature appearance, Ikael showed a playful expression as she looked around for a place to sit.

But finding no suitable place, she simply dropped down onto the floor.

Shirone looked in confusion as Ikael’s skirt slowly settled as she sat. Then, delicately bringing her calves together, Ikael tapped the floor and gestured for him to come.

“Come, sit here.”

Feeling an irresistible pull, Shirone approached until he was right next to her.

They were so close that their bodies almost touched.

Perhaps she had chosen to sit on the floor because she wanted to observe him from the closest possible distance.

Just as expected, Ikael brought her face closer. Her lips curved slightly as she stared at him.

When Shirone lowered his gaze, unable to hide his embarrassment, she finally spoke.

“I wanted to meet you, Shirone.”

“Huh? You know me?”

Ikael scratched her eyebrow with a somewhat uncomfortable expression.

Her behavior was very human. Even compared to the arrogant fallen angel Ikasa, it was striking.

“Knowing or not knowing is not what matters. What matters is how much you know. But as you know, that is not something that can be explained with words.”

Shirone gathered courage and looked at her face. Their gazes intertwined, and a sensation of unity ran through his body like an electric current.

Then he looked up at the halo. It was the first time he had seen it so closely.

The light floating above her head was truly fascinating.

Realizing he had been staring too long, Shirone quickly came back to his senses.

“Ah, sorry.”

Ikael shook her head as if to say it did not matter.

“The halo is the mind of an angel. Humans enter the Spirit Zone through concentration, but that of angels is outside. This is called Over Spirit.”

After hearing the explanation, the halo seemed even more special. It was as if it constantly maintained a detached form in all directions.

Literally, it was the mind of an angel.

Everything that she was.

Perhaps feeling a bit embarrassed, Ikael added.

“Before, it was even brighter. But I made a mistake, and Ra restricted the power of my light.”

“What sin did you commit?”

As soon as he asked, Shirone hurried to apologize.

“Ah, sorry. I should not ask that…”

“It is fine. Even though I made a mistake, I do not regret it.”

Shirone was surprised to feel relieved. He did not know what she had done, but if she did not regret it, then perhaps it had not been something shameful.

“Um…”

Shirone hesitated.

He knew it was an absurd request. But once the thought arose, he could not let it pass.

“Tell me. You can say anything.”

“May I…?”

“Yes?”

“Can I touch it… just once?”

Ikael blinked, and then, as if she finally understood, let out a laugh.

It was an unexpected request.

There was probably not a single person in all of heaven who would ask to touch the halo of the archangel Ikael.

“Of course. You can touch it.”

“Um… is it not disrespectful? Just in case…”

Ikael shook her head, brushing it off.

Only then did Shirone, relieved, extend his hand.

When he touched the halo directly, he felt that it was light and energy. A pleasant sensation ran along the back of his hand.

“It is warm.”

“That is because Shirone is a warm person.”

“Heh…”

It was the first time he had felt so much peace since arriving in heaven. With her, he felt that he did not need to worry about anything in the world.

He wanted to stay by her side forever.

At that moment, Ikael’s hand approached. Surprised, Shirone pulled back, and she, a little nervous, explained herself.

“Ah… it is just that your hair is messy.”

“Haha, I ran a lot. Actually, a lot of things have happened.”

Shirone shook his hair lightly. He had only been surprised because, without being mentally prepared, they had almost ended up touching.

At that instant, Shirone’s eyes widened. It was as if someone had struck his head with a hammer.

How could he have forgotten something like that?

It had completely slipped from his mind that the most important thing still remained.

“Ah! Amy!”

Shirone jumped to his feet.

Only now was he thinking about his friends. That showed how impactful his encounter with Ikael had been.

“Please, help me! My friends were taken! They said something about a Liquor of Life… and that they would use it to make a nephilim be born!”

“Wow… that is serious.”

“They call them heretics and all that, but they are not bad people. No even if they were, I cannot accept that they are captured like this.”

Ikael remained silent for a moment, lost in thought.

“Shirone, do you like your friends? Enough to risk your life?”

“Yes! Of course!”

Ikael nodded, as if that was enough.

“Alright. But, Shirone, if you want to save your friends, there is something you must hear.”

It did not seem like there was anything to hear in a situation like this.

But since they were the words of the archangel Ikael, he could not refuse. Especially because she had said if you want to save your friends.

“What is it that I must hear? What is it?”

“About heaven. And about a woman named Miro.”

Shirone was startled. He did not expect to hear her name come out of Ikael’s mouth.

Adrias Miro.

When he first arrived in heaven, he thought she was just one among many unlockers.

But the more he knew her, the more he understood that she was deeply connected to heaven.

He wanted to know. What kind of person she was.

“Do you know Miro?”

“Yes. I have met her. I like her. Although, of course she probably hates me.”

Shirone was shocked. That Ikael and Miro had met was already surprising. But that Miro hated her was hard to believe. From what he had seen, Ikael was a good angel.

“It will not take long. So would you allow me to comb your hair for a moment?”

Ikael’s halo expanded in the shape of a ring.

An intense light began to rotate over the ring, and in her hand appeared a comb made of light.

Photon shaping.

And moreover, she had created a tool as delicate as light in an instant.

No matter how powerful an angel’s mind was, the nature of light did not change.

It was a tool that could only be created through extremely complex circuits, far beyond the Shining Chain.

Shirone understood that all the answers were in the halo.

Even when he felt that overwhelming presence in Ikasa, it was at the moment when her halo expanded into a ring.

“How did you shape the photons? Does it have to do with the change in your halo?”

“The halo can process an enormous amount of information quickly. This is called halo. It is something similar to the magic circles that humans use. The halo rotates at the speed of light, assembling multiple concepts.”

Ikael explained it using magic circles as an example, but upon hearing it, even comparing them felt almost disrespectful.

It literally assembled concepts at the speed of light.

Not even if dozens of mages worked together could they match the speed of a single halo.

“Then, let us begin. Lie down here, Shirone.”

Ikael pointed to her lap. She seemed unable to resist the urge to comb his hair.

Shirone, thinking that there must also be a reason, obeyed and lay down.

Thinking about it, when would he ever have another opportunity like this?

Lying on the lap of an archangel, looking toward the sky, Ikael began to slide the comb through his hair.

‘Huh…?’

Shirone felt how his consciousness began to blur.

The more the combing progressed, the more he felt that his mind was being extracted in blocks.

He did not want to faint. His friends were in danger. If he lost track of time, everything would be over.

‘No… no…’

Shirone’s eyes slowly closed.

Ikael observed Shirone’s face as he fell asleep, and then lifted her gaze with sadness.

Many thoughts crossed her mind.

And through the comb, they seeped into Shirone’s mind.

As if reading a story to a child, Ikael began to speak with a beautiful voice.

“A long, long time ago…”

***

The Great Hall of the World in Jebul was both Kariel’s laboratory and an observatory that governed the functioning of the world.

Through a special function of the meca system, space had been eliminated, so as long as the security system was active, not only was it impossible to enter, but even to find any trace.

As befitted a place with the title of great hall, it was vast enough to contain the Alpheas Magic Academy.

The overall tone was a dark mechanical blue, and on the semi-spherical ceiling tens of thousands of electrical signals shone.

In the northwest area, a hologram of a globular star cluster slowly expanded.

At the center floated a huge steel sphere more than 30 meters in diameter, with two rings rotating following the orbits of rotation and translation.

Amy and the others were sitting in a row near the cluster, their wrists bound by steel handcuffs.

Ikasa, who had kidnapped the girls, expected to be reinstated as an angel, but in the face of Kariel’s silence, she simply returned to the second heaven.

Since they arrived at that place, that had been the only moment when Amy and the others felt relieved.

In other words, everything else had been unfavorable.

They never imagined that someone at the level of an archangel would go so far as to put handcuffs on them.