The Gates of Heaven

Shirone couldn't sleep until dawn.

The next morning, Shirone and his companions descended into the underground of the temple. Chief Kadum led the way, followed by Hashid and Mahatu.

Amy thought this must be the secret space of the ruins that even the Spirit Zone couldn't explore.

When they reached the lowest level, a straight passageway stretched out, bearing traces of a volcanic eruption. Gems embedded along the walls guided their path.

Opening the iron gate, they entered a cavern. Priests stood along the walls, and in the center, a solitary stone gate stood alone. The gate, unconnected to anything, made the existence of Heaven undeniable.

Shirone approached the gate.

The Gate of Gephin. Reborn by McClain Gephin, an Unlocker from 250 years ago, it was the entrance to Heaven. A red orb was embedded in the center, with vertical cracks radiating from it.

Before coming here, Shirone had finalized a contract with Kadum. His request was simple: go to the Angel's Archive, Ingris, and deliver the will of Kergo's chief, Kadum.

The Angel's Archive? Kadum had said it wasn't a journey to reach God, so it wouldn't be difficult, but Shirone couldn't help but feel it was an impossible task.

Shirone exchanged glances with his friends. They could return. Maybe. Once the decision was made, there was no choice but to think positively.

When Amy nodded, Shirone placed his hand on the orb at the center of the gate.

Taking a deep breath, he activated the Immortal Function. The moment he did, a white flash erupted from the orb.

"Oh, ohhh!"

A voice filled with awe echoed. Even Mahatu, from the anti-angel faction, knelt and chanted "Anke La."

Shirone focused more power.

Contrary to his initial thoughts, it wasn't just a simple stone wall. The scratches on the gate, which he thought were marks of time, began to glow red, revealing indecipherable magical runes.

As the magic took effect, the stone wall began to crumble into dice-sized cubes.

The fragments, defying gravity, disintegrated into fine powder and were absorbed into the light.

A white radiance burst from the gate, engulfing Shirone.

"The Gate of Gephin has opened! Praise the angels!"

The priests prostrated themselves, chanting "Anke La."

Shirone couldn't hear their voices. All he could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat as he was enveloped in the light.

For the first time, he felt fear. It was just one step, but it was an eternal distance. He didn't want to move.

A strong, warm hand gripped his shoulder. It was Rian.

Right, he wasn't alone. Rian would never give up, no matter the situation.

Tess's precision, Amy's cleverness, Canis's defense, and Arin's mental strength. Even Harvest was now a reliable ally.

Wasn't this a great party? His tension eased slightly.

Shirone stepped through the gate.

As Shirone's party left the altar, the white radiance coalesced into gray particles, and the stone wall began to restore itself.

The floating cubes reassembled themselves, and the magical runes lost their glow.

Where the stone wall had closed, no one remained.

The cavern was silent.

Shirone gritted his teeth. A dazzling array of lights raced around him.

What awaited at the end of this? Or was there even an end? The blinding light didn't fade even when he closed his eyes.

It was as if his vision had expanded like a cannonball fired from a barrel.

The party's feelings were the same. They only hoped it wasn't a world of burning sulfur.

The first impression wasn't bad. The air was clear and cool. But the moment they realized where they were, screams erupted.

How foolish to think they'd emerge on the ground just because the Gate of Gephin was on the ground.

They were floating high above the clouds. So high that they could see the ends of the ocean.

The mages tried to teleport, but it was futile. Still under the influence of the Gate of Gephin, they fell faster than freefall.

The ocean receded, and a lush forest came into view.

Shirone spotted a city at the center of the forest. It was identical to what he had seen in Miro's spacetime.

The city was surrounded by two concentric circles, with the inner circle divided into six sectors like a pie.

Mechanical insects resembling ladybugs flew above the city. For a moment, Shirone thought they looked like human brains.

As their altitude dropped, the city disappeared from view, and they crashed into the forest. Breaking through the canopy, they saw the ground. If they hit it, they'd die instantly.

They tried to use magic, but it was impossible. Only when the gravel on the ground was within reach did the Gate of Gephin release them.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The outskirts of Heaven. Purgatory.

Shirone didn't even have time to look around before rubbing his head. He had fallen headfirst, so his head should have been smashed.

For a moment, he thought he had lost consciousness, but when he came to, he was standing on both feet, unharmed.

Tess checked her body and asked, "Are we alive? Or are we dead?"

"We're alive, I think. I'm hungry, so…"

Rian's comment about being hungry even in this situation showed his boldness, but in reality, he was trying to reassure Tess.

"Maybe we didn't fall from the sky."

Shirone explained using his expertise.

"It's like spatial teleportation. We just came here through a tunnel, and the space folded, showing us various landscapes."

In the end, it was spatial teleportation. But the distance traveled was beyond common sense, causing strange phenomena.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The party looked around. Trees with long leaves blocked the sky.

From above, it seemed there would be no gaps, but light squeezed through the smallest cracks, illuminating the world. Moss and mushrooms grew in the shade, and the ground felt damp.

Yet, it didn't feel like their original world.

The secret to the timeless feeling lay in the size of the rocks.

The age of a space can be determined by the weathering of rocks. But here, the rocks varied in size. There were small pebbles, but also countless boulders as large as houses. Unless someone had moved them, this was impossible.

"Maybe the materials here are different. For example, they might have durability that prevents them from eroding over time."

Canis's words made sense.

Ancient relics were made of minerals that didn't exist in their world. And the fact that they were ancient relics meant they were from a time before history. If these were from Heaven, the rocks that had endured eternal ages were living proof.

"So, is this Heaven?"

"Let's check the Spirit Zone first."

At Amy's suggestion, everyone checked their ability to cast magic. The Spirit Zone was an omnipotent domain, but there was a fear that their abilities might be disrupted in a world physically separated from their own.

Fortunately, magic worked normally.

"So, this is Heaven? Well, now that we've seen it, should we go back?"

Everyone looked at Tess. Not expecting such attention, she awkwardly waved her hand.

"Ahaha, just kidding."

"No. I was seriously considering it too."

If even Rian was saying this, it was clear how tense everyone else was.

As if to prove this, Shirone's party hadn't moved a single step from where they had arrived.

Shirone took a small but significant step forward and said, "Let's move. Whether we fell from the sky or the space folded, we saw a city, right? Let's head there. At least there's civilization."

Where there's civilization, there's law. Of course, whether that law aligned with common sense was unknown, but it was a more realistic decision than spending the night in a forest where anything could jump out.

"But how do we find the city? We don't know the direction."

"I can do that."

Amy's eyes turned red. Reading the information stored in her self-image memory, she pointed in the direction Rian was standing.

"Based on the coordinates, the city should be that way."

Amy's self-image memory perfectly restored specific moments. Even after flying astronomical distances, it was the same.

This was based on the fact that her ability wasn't mathematical. Just as a compass points north regardless of space, she had a kind of magnet that could find the center despite any variables.

As they followed Amy, the party didn't miss the sounds in the scenery. They heard insects and birds, but for some reason, they couldn't see them.

Realizing this was a phenomenon they couldn't overlook, they stopped walking. Just then, they heard the sound of grass rustling in the forest.

Tess, with her sharp senses, drew her saber and turned. Rian stood beside her, gripping the hilt of his greatsword.

"What is it, Tess?"

"I don't know. Someone's approaching."

Amy asked with a tense expression, "Are you sure it's someone? Not something?"

Tess couldn't answer. The breathing sounded human, but she couldn't be sure.

There was no guarantee that people lived here.

As the tension in the party reached its limit, wondering what kind of monster might jump out, the sound of rustling grass grew closer and faster.

Tess was certain it was coming straight for them.

The mages entered the Spirit Zone, and Rian drew his greatsword, ready to swing it the moment something emerged from the forest.

As Rian took a deep breath and waited, he frowned.

Based on the frequency of the sound, the thing should have arrived by now. But only the sound persisted, and the opponent hadn't shown itself.

"Rian, it's better to step back."

Tess's voice trembled.

The only possibility she could think of was that the sound was coming from much farther away than expected.

As Rian, still in his sword stance, stepped back, the ground shook with a thud! thud!

Finally, the thing burst through the underbrush.

"What… what is that?"

Shirone looked up. As far as he could tilt his head.

It was a giant.

An eight-meter-tall giant. It was mostly naked, with scraps of cloth hanging here and there.

Its beard reached its chest, and its face was wrinkled grotesquely. In contrast, its body was as robust as a youth's.

Tess, strategically looking for a weak point, checked its groin. It was flat. Though its face and chest looked male, it had no genitals.

"Uh… we've got a bit of a bad situation here."

Arin spoke. Tess, who had left the scouting to Rian, turned and asked, "What's wrong? Is there a worse situation than this?"

"I don't know what a worse situation would be, but this is a first for me."

Shirone also turned to look at Arin. How was her Clairvoyance perceiving the giant?

"I can't read its emotions. Whether it's angry, laughing, or sad. Everything's a mess."

The most surprised was Canis. Harvest, materialized behind him, also tilted his head as he observed the giant.

"Arin… can't read its emotions?"

That couldn't be. Theoretically, it was impossible.

Clairvoyance's ability was to bring out the characteristics of all things in the world on an equal footing.

If it were like Sakiri from the Magic Association, who could block emotions, at least that kind of Clairvoyance should be visible.

The fact that the giant's emotions couldn't be read was clearly bizarre.

"Those who come to Purgatory… Deniers of God…"

They couldn't understand the giant's words. It didn't seem like they could find a translator either. The only person they could rely on was Arin.

But she shook her head again.

"I don't know. I can't decipher it."

Not only Clairvoyance, but even telepathy didn't work. Arin was as good as blind. Unable to read even the opponent's expression, she borrowed Canis's eyes.

"Canis, does that giant seem hostile?"

"It seems so."

Could Arin, specialized in mental sensing, not even detect killing intent? Even with the Metagate, the reason they had ventured into this unknown world was because they trusted Arin's abilities.

Without Arin, it was impossible. Amy, perhaps thinking the same, left the final judgment to her.

"Arin, what should we do now?"

"What should we do? Obviously, we should run!"

As Arin quickly ran away, Amy was stunned.

Canis chased after her, and the others began to retreat.

Amy, who was the slowest to react, turned to look at the giant. It had uprooted a nearly two-meter-tall sapling and was chasing them.

"Graaaah!"

The giant's roar was like a sonic cannon. Amy, in a daze, finally leaped away.

The roots of the sapling swung by the giant grazed her collar.

"It's big, so it won't be able to catch up! We just need to run!"

"You should've said that earlier!"

Amy, who had caught up to Arin using Schema, shouted. Fortunately, she had dodged the attack, but if she had been even a little slower, her back would have been split open.

"Sorry! I didn't expect this either."

Arin didn't avoid responsibility.

Now that they were in Heaven, they were a team. As a non-combat mage, her role was to discern the enemy's tendencies and objectively analyze the situation to relay it to the leader. With that function paralyzed, all she could say was sorry.

Since they were a community of fate, no one blamed Arin. But the future was worrisome.

Arin's mental abilities were a tremendous advantage. It was too early to conclude that they wouldn't work just because of one giant, but the journey had already gone awry from the start.

As the ground shook, Shirone looked back. Thinking that being big meant being slow was a miscalculation. The giant was right on their heels.

Through Arin's mental channel, Tess's voice was heard.

Shirone, give us orders. Shouldn't we just teleport away?

That's dangerous. We still don't know where we are. If we encounter a greater danger, we'll be wiped out.

But we can't keep running, can we? Honestly, I can't even see what's around us right now.

…You're right. Then let's fight here. The giant seems to be the first order of business.

When Shirone chose the combat route, Rian and Tess darted toward the giant.

With Shirone at the center, Amy and Canis took positions on either side, while Arin supported from the rear.

Rian, true to his role as a vanguard knight, attempted the first attack.

Fighting an eight-meter-tall enemy had many unpredictable variables. Attacks from above were hard to predict, and the only targetable area was below the knees.

Rian aimed for the Achilles tendon.

As the greatsword swung, the giant swung a log. The weapons collided mid-swing, and the log was torn apart as if it had been sliced.

It wasn't a clean cut. The giant's strength was so overwhelming that Rian's weapon was destroyed.

The impact sent Rian flying three meters. He barely landed, but his legs dragged on the ground.

Feeling a spasm in his right arm, he gripped the blade of his greatsword with his left hand and took a combat stance.

The giant's strength was immense. But what was more surprising was its speed.

"How is this possible? It defies the laws of physics."

An eight-meter-tall creature would need hundreds of times more muscle strength than a human to support its body.

Just standing was astonishing, but its combat movements rivaled those of a beast.

"Heretics… must be punished!"