Hayden shrugged.
"That's what she told me at the end. '384400 kilometers apart, looking at the sky when the moon rises'... I'm not stupid, I understood after thinking about it for a while in the time tunnel."
The distance between the Earth and the Moon is 384400 kilometers, which is something everyone knows... Moreover, Hayden and Angela had talked about the Moon a long time ago.
Hayden didn't know the specific details, but he had a vivid imagination, so he could guess. For the past four hundred years, Angela must have been sealed away on the moon by Mitra.
So this time it's Hayden's turn to rescue her.
“But I know this might sound harsh, but Hayden,” Karen said, still frowning, “the angels have already lost once. Uriel doesn’t seem to have an overwhelming advantage either. Even if you release Angela, how can you win? How can you disrupt the cycle?”
“I’ve thought about this. I spent four hundred years in the time tunnel and came up with a solution.” Hayden rubbed his head. “However, this idea is just a hypothesis. Simply put, it’s like this…”
Then he shared an idea with his companions: a theory related to the Secret Fire and the Soul, and Hayden's proposed solution. However, I'll leave the specific details for now and only reveal the outcome.
The result was that everyone looked at each other blankly, unsure of what to do. Even Pania, whose magical knowledge was rather limited, couldn't help but look to Kallen and Odin, as they were the recognized authorities on the relevant technology.
"It still makes sense."
Odin stroked his beard and frowned.
"However, even if your theory, which has never even had a chance to be tested, is true, attacking the Mitra lunar base is still incredibly difficult. It's one thing for you to want to charge the tower, but you're also being ruthless with our lives. Do you really intend for us to die in this final battle if we charge with you?"
Hayden shrugged. "You yourself said you'd give everything to fight that evil god who rules the world with me. I'm the one leading the charge, not telling you guys to. Besides, how can we conduct experiments to prove the theory first? Are you going to tell Mithra, 'Lend us your 'Reincarnation' to test it and see if we can blow it up'?"
This is obviously impossible.
With a touch of sarcasm, Hayden then changed the subject: "I'm not asking you to die; that's more than I would ask of anyone else. All you need to do is feint to lure the enemy and destroy a few key facilities."
As he spoke, he drew a map in the air: "These are the locations of the key facilities I saw in the four-hundred-year passage, so there shouldn't be any problems. Besides, I also spoke with Susanoo before I came back, and the Yamato army will support your operation."
"The Yamato army..." Odin sighed, swallowing back the word "useless," "Fine, it's better than nothing. I'll get the Mars Group from Olympia to help as well."
Now it was Abigail's turn to be taken aback: "Those Romans will help us?"
Four hundred years ago, when she was still Hecate's witch, she already had some knowledge and understanding of these Roman gods.
Besides, she is now the genuine Hecate, and she knows all too well that the high and mighty Olympian gentlemen of the Mars Group wouldn't easily do anything shady. Among the four major financial giants, the Mars Group, with its Roman-like, particularly vulgar and unpleasant personalities, is it really possible to get them to help?
"Persuading them isn't that difficult, because they are currently being directly and severely beaten by [Reincarnation], and their emotions are very unstable," Odin said calmly. "It should be easy for me to persuade Mars to help attack Tushita Palace."
Wow, that's quite confident! But Odin is a master conman, no less skilled than Loki, adept at running around deceiving people. Since he's so confident, everyone's left the task to him.
"Okay, that's good."
Hayden nodded.
"While you're in charge of the main battlefield, I'll rush into the lunar base, release Angela, and then destroy [Reincarnation]."
Pania asked curiously, "How do you plan to get up there? Will you sneak in while our main attack is in disarray?"
“No, I have another way to sneak in during this opportunity,” Hayden replied. Then he revealed the method he had devised four hundred years ago in the time tunnel… Although he would keep the details a secret for now, everyone’s reaction was even stranger this time.
After hearing this, Pania immediately retorted, "I think it would be better to just use a cannon to shoot you to the moon..."
“…No, I think this approach should work.” However, Alastor, who was standing next to him, pondered for a moment and then offered his support, “Hayden, I will help you do it.”
Since the team's strongest hacker had spoken, the others couldn't dwell on it any longer. After discussing some details, the final battle plan against Mitra was decided.
Although it was reckless.
Undoubtedly, this was a contest in which the situation was extremely unfavorable to our side, or rather, the battle plan was even worse than the assassination attempt by Guanyin Bodhisattva and her companions that ended in a disastrous defeat.
Incredibly, this time no one seemed to feel any sense of crisis. Perhaps it was because everyone knew that if they failed here, they would all die anyway, or suffer something worse.
So now, only one question remains.
An unavoidable problem.
"We can handle Mitra by following this approach,"
Karen finally began to talk about the elephant in the room.
"Uriel... how should we deal with the angels sent by the Outer Gods?"
No one spoke. Several people looked at Hayden, because he was, after all, the one who understood the Outer Gods best among them.
Hayden simply shrugged again: "How would I know how to deal with angels? A mere four hundred years is enough to kill me time just figuring out how to deal with Mithra."
“…Hayden.” Karen hesitated for only about a second, but finally decided to speak, “I know you completely trust Angela. Now I can understand why you trust Angela so completely. But Angela as an emissary of the Outer God is one thing, the Outer God behind Angela is another, and the angel sent by the Outer God this time is yet another. You can’t directly project your trust in Angela onto other emissaries of the Outer God.”
Her tone was serious and sincere, and her concerns were not unfounded. Hayden could completely understand what she was trying to say and didn't think there was anything wrong with Karen's worries.
Hayden didn't see the issue of not believing in an external god as a problem in itself. The real, most important issue wasn't about whether or not one trusted in an external god.
“I know. I’m not that stupid, Karen. I’m not dumb, and I don’t think Uriel is here to share love with us. He’s absolutely terrifying.”
So Hayden finally gave a wry smile.
"But honey, think about it, if you had to choose between 'everyone being burned by the Outer Gods' and 'being forever controlled and dominated by Mithras,' which would you choose?"
Without a second thought, Karen immediately replied, "I choose neither. I want to fight both sides, to defeat both sides. I want to drive out the invaders and tyrants and build a peaceful and just world for myself."
With her sharp voice and overwhelming presence, Karen's domineering aura always commanded respect. Her unwavering will was something Hayden greatly admired.
...That's why she might have the same problem as Mitra.
"What you said... well, I understand and agree with it."
Hayden turned his head and looked at New Sprouts City, and at the countless people.
"But aren't the feelings of ordinary people worth experiencing? The society that Mithra created promised them a good life and hope. The promise the new gods made was that as long as they studied hard and worked hard, they could afford to buy a house, afford medical care, and raise children... But that promise was broken long ago. Then Mithra brought out a new treasure, the [Reincarnation], and told them to believe in it."
"Perhaps Mithra has indeed produced something truly good this time, perhaps. But I have already heard the wails, the pain, the weeping of many people... I can still hear the cries of people from the past four hundred years, and more and more, in my mind—Destroy, equal destruction, eternal end."
Time will pass, and we will both perish—even if you are the sun in the sky, we would rather perish together with you!
“I am not the representative of all the people who have suffered for the past four hundred years… no, that’s not right.” Hayden rubbed his slightly aching temples. “…I take back what I said. Because I have absorbed their memories in the river of time, I am indeed to represent them. I must tell you the truth, Karen, if they were to vote, most people would choose the first option. People filled with anger and suffering do not consider the greater good of their agonizing struggles. I think you must also understand… those who make such a choice. Because, to put it bluntly, you have actually had it too easy; you have never truly experienced the suffering of the underprivileged. They also do not possess your infinitely unwavering will and talent.”
Karen pursed her lips, this time without refuting. She wasn't foolish enough to think that going off to university and working under an assumed name for a few years meant she had experienced all the hardships of the world. She simply understood human suffering better than those "aristocrats" floating on clouds, but that didn't mean she truly "felt the pain."
(But honestly, she's already much better than many people in the leadership class.)
Thinking of this, Hayden actually smiled: "I can't read people's hearts these days... but thinking about it carefully, perhaps the proportion of humanity that would choose to perish together peacefully and without pain is much larger than we imagine. After swallowing the records of all humanity over the past four hundred years, I've increasingly had a feeling, though it's just an intuition: perhaps we're being too sentimental. Perhaps the Outer God didn't come to 'judge' or 'punish' humanity at all. Perhaps He didn't come to kill Mithras either. Perhaps He simply..."
He didn't finish his sentence; his voice grew softer and softer as he spoke, and he was just muttering to himself.
But everyone who heard this got goosebumps and felt a chill run down their spines.
The silence lasted for a short while in the meeting room.
Finally, Pania couldn't bear the atmosphere any longer, which was heavier than mercury, and forced a cheerful tone, saying, "Hey, don't be so pessimistic. Look at the battle on Neptune's orbit just now. Mithra, who had been farming for four hundred years, was able to fight the angelic army to a standstill. Maybe the Outer Gods' messengers aren't actually that strong. Maybe after we defeat Mithra, we can also..."
Before she could finish speaking, Hayden and Odin, who possessed precognitive abilities, and Karen and Abigail, who had strong intuition, all suddenly raised their heads and looked up at the sky!
They weren't sure if it was just their imagination, but they all suddenly felt a slight itching sensation on their skin. And since everyone felt this way, it definitely wasn't an illusion.
They all rushed out of the meeting room, outside, and looked up at the sky. The sight before them left them speechless.
They saw countless stars twinkling strangely, their colors constantly changing in irregular intervals and brightness, flashing on and off repeatedly. As if echoing each other in their flickering, a heartbeat-like sound began to emanate from beyond the sea of stars, thump, thump, the sound growing louder and louder.
No one knows what's going on, but everyone can see that something terrifying is about to happen. Even if you want to escape, you don't know where you can go. This anomaly is clearly on a global scale; there's nowhere to run.
They saw a gigantic, fiery red wing unfurl in the night sky, then the distant heavens distorted, and starlight vanished. The earth began to tremble. The sky began to tremble. The tremors of heaven and earth were so great that it was difficult to stand, and they showed no signs of stopping, only growing stronger. From beyond the sea of stars, a singing sound began to rise again, and the world was engulfed by indescribable noise.
Hayden, Odin, and Karen all felt their scalps tighten, as if a terrifying giant hand covering the entire sky had appeared above them, about to press down on them.
But then, the terrifying giant hand slowly withdrew.
"what!?"
Instead, Abigail suddenly let out a scream, without warning. She then collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
No one knew what was happening. Pania rushed over to help Abigail. Almost simultaneously, on the other side of the night sky—opposite to the direction the angels had come from—a strong and strange energy fluctuation suddenly came from a great distance.
Odin turned his head, looked into the distance with his unique eyes, and chuckled: "It's Quetzalcoatl's eco-ship. It exploded about 0.4 light-years away from us."
He hadn't expected Him to fly so fast... but that wasn't the point. Abigail suddenly fainted, and Quetzalcoatl, who had already escaped to the Oort Cloud, suddenly exploded. Although the two samples were a bit small, Hayden reacted immediately. He immediately called Astaroth in the Fallen City—she didn't answer.
“Fallen angels.” Hayden understood somewhat. “The day of judgment, the day of God’s wrath, the day of fire and destruction. Of course, the fallen angels, who were the earliest and deepest culprits of the crimes, will be the first to be punished, and then it will be the turn of humans… Oh no. Hecate committed suicide by cutting off her name, and Abigail is probably registered with the relevant authorities.”
On the bright side, at least Abigail hasn't exploded yet... I wonder what will happen next?
You'll see soon enough.
A black halo began to spread across the southern night sky, as if descending from a higher dimension to a lower one. The instant it unfolded, auroras violently surged across the surfaces of all the planets in the solar system with atmospheres. The endless flow of energy actually blew away the entire planet Jupiter.
Then the aperture transformed into a seemingly infinitely large black wall, a spherical black wall, standing outside the Oort cloud, enveloping the entire solar system.
Fortunately, at the same time, the golden wall of psychic power that Mitra had erected in Jupiter's orbit remained completely intact! Absolutely undamaged! It stood in stark contrast to the black wall! How wonderful!
Through this transparent, golden wall barrier, even the main gods, bodhisattvas, and Hayden, whose eyesight was strong enough, could see a small mechanical entity slowly unfolding, rotating, assembling, and growing larger and larger on the other side of the wall, at the edge of the solar system, gradually becoming ready.
Then Hayden laughed too, bursting into laughter until he was breathless. Everyone stared blankly at the scene before them. Karen, meanwhile, clenched her fists silently.
"What's so funny?" Pania, who was holding Abigail, couldn't take it anymore and asked directly, "What is this?!"
"Don't you understand yet? These angels are usually pure spirits, without physical bodies. Only fallen angels have the concept of a physical body."
Hayden pointed to the wall outside the solar system, the wall that blocked out all the stars beyond the solar system, and the slowly growing mechanical object.
“That is the real Uriel. Its materialized containers were all taken from Mitra, just like Angela used to possess my mechanical doll.”
Hayden guessed... just guessed, that Uriel probably saw Mitra build a wall around Jupiter's orbit, so he followed suit and built a wall outside the solar system. And seeing Mitra build a whole bunch of spaceships, Uriel also used broken debris to reassemble mechanical bodies.
But it's also possible that it's just turning on its computer. Who knows?
Anyway, Hayden wasn't afraid; he had made up his mind, and he had already thought it through.
"Alright, everyone."
Hayden turned to everyone and said,
"There's no time for us to dawdle any longer. The final battle against Mithra—begin immediately!"
He wants to go to the moon.
He was going to find Angela.
---------------------------------
Today, He is also waiting in slumber.
He, imprisoned underground, is still dreaming.
However, today's dream seems a little different.
[Raphael, open your eyes]
...He heard a somewhat strange, familiar voice.
I am Uriel.
435: Self-Judgment
[Raphael, open your eyes]
…………
I am Uriel.
…………
Your work in this universe is complete. Come back to the upper realm with me.
…………
"Uriel... is this universe destined for destruction?"
…………
[Confirmed. I have completed the stress test and am currently extinguishing all the secret flames of the fallen angels and deploying the star system elimination tool.]
[Once the system is activated, I will launch a sphere of thermal energy worth one trillion Kelvin toward the sun, annihilating three-dimensional space with a diameter of 200 light-years. Once all intelligent observers are lost, this universe will naturally cease to exist.]
…………
"Uriel... I think destroying this world is wrong."
…………
[No errors. Records of all dead souls in this world have been examined, as have records of all human souls in this world. The cries for destruction have reached an overwhelming majority and exceeded the critical point for apocalyptic response.]
The anger of the nations is the anger of the Father; the tears of the nations are the tears of the Son; the will of the nations is the representation of the will of the Holy Spirit. This world will be destroyed, for it is their own desire and their own responsibility.