I stopped my forward-moving foot. Just then, an earthquake struck and shook the land. A tremor like a death cry rang beneath my feet.
It wasn't that I stopped because some measly earthquake scared me. If this had been an ordinary earthquake, I would have chatted and laughed while pushing onward even faster. Even ordinary me had that much composure now.
But this earthquake was clearly abnormal.
It was all the more bizarre because it was abnormal. An earthquake, a national-level disaster, being different from usual was certainly not a good thing.
"...Just now."
I wasn't the only one who felt it. The Sword Empress also flinched at the tremor. An expression surfaced on her pale, paper-white face. It was surprising that the first colors to appear were tension and fear.
Perhaps that was because the Sword Empress possessed the highest discernment.
"You feel it, don't you? The earthquake is gathering into a single point."
"What do you mean by that?"
"You don't understand, right? I understand. It's nonsensical, after all."
An earthquake is the propagation of shock generated at a fault line along the earth. Naturally, it spreads outward in all directions from the epicenter.
And yet, all the force that had been flowing through the ground was now reversing towards a single point!
How was that possible? The power of the Earth Mother God? That alone couldn't explain it. The reversal of waves flowing along the earth, this was...
"The God of Waves and the God of Reversal. Already using two powers belonging to celestial gods?"
The speed of adaptation was beyond imagination. It was like a child waking from a long slumber remembering how to steady its own body.
Just what was she trying to do using such power...
"Ah."
I saw it. How that power was being used.
Even though there was still distance measured in kilometers, I could see the world distorting. Storm, earthquake, lightning, heat. All forces existing in the world were converging.
The God of Waves, a deity who had done nothing but sob, drew out its power like thread and wove it into a single skein. The powers originating from different gods were all being combined, using 'Noona' as the medium.
The principles of the world were being crushed. Rules and laws were being redefined solely for one person. Human laws? Morality? Those are things built upon a world already made. To her, they have no meaning whatsoever.
A being who governs principles at will, who changes the world as she pleases.
What is this if not a god?
It wasn't wind, nor storm, nor lightning, but a pure spatial wave that surged. A power that could kill a single person far too easily. Yet my life suffered no harm whatsoever.
Noona had envisioned only Regulus's death.
Only a single sword remained before her. The few fingers holding the sword moved slightly, but they too soon scattered as dust. Regulus, Lord of the Lion Palace, vanished without leaving a trace of his existence in this world.
All that remained was the one sword once called the Woosun Sword.
What could Noona be thinking, having annihilated Regulus? Would she pray for his soul? Or feel pity for him as he continuously faced such cruel walls?
No way. To Noona, Regulus was just one among hundreds of millions. Without giving the scattering dust a single glance, her eyes met mine. And she smiled brightly.
"Little brother!"
She dragged the world itself and placed me right before her.
What was that, just now? The ground I had been standing on moved at high speed. As if I'd stepped onto a conveyor belt, I stood before Noona before I could even resist.
Noona looked exceedingly pleased. It couldn't be because she'd killed Regulus; she was probably just happy to see me.
"You came to find me. So, you've come to be my measuring stick after all?"
"There's no way— Gwaaah!"
Lightning struck before I could even finish speaking. Seeing my body burn from the electricity, Noona covered her mouth.
"Sorry! I had the lightning turned on, I'll turn it off right away!"
Noona slashed her axe to the side. With a click, an invisible line connecting the sky and the earth was severed. Immediately, my bristling hair slowly settled, and the static electricity I'd felt on my skin dissolved into the air and vanished.
"Don't treat such a terrifying thing like turning a light switch on and off..."
"There were a lot of folks clad in iron. I had the lightning on for a while because of them."
"To kill them?"
"I was planning to sweep them away because they were annoying."
Meaning, she had no intention of killing them. She had poured out the lightning, and tens of thousands had died, but that was just the result. Noona was simply annoyed by the humans rushing at her in droves with weapons.
There were still people alive around us. The Imperial soldiers who had thrown away their weapons and armor and lay flat on the ground, bare-bodied, had survived.
Though I'm not sure if those who abandoned their weapons along with their will to fight should still be called Imperial soldiers.
"If you had cast aside your iron, you wouldn't have been hit either."
"I figured I could endure it. It wasn't enough to make me discard my cards. But Noona, what are you doing here?"
"I'm looking for a measuring stick."
"There's no such thing here. Go back."
I spoke firmly.
"What you're looking for is an illusion, Noona. There's no such thing as a measuring stick that judges human actions. It's just reasons people attach to survive, or to pretend they know what they don't understand."
The measuring stick Noona was searching for was a concept I had denied and denied countless times. No matter how deeply I looked into people's hearts, no matter how I measured their sincerity, there was no measuring stick. There is no heaven or hell in this world, no gods or devils. That much, at least, was a clear fact.
"No, little brother. A measuring stick exists. Look."
***
Yet humanity had still not abandoned its measuring stick.
The lightning had stopped. The survivors rose to their feet one by one. They were the ones who had protected themselves with energy arts, those shielded by mages' defensive magic, and those who had used their wits to burrow underground.
The Imperial Army was routed, but not yet annihilated. Thanks to the efforts of a few competent commanders, some still maintained order.
The Southern Commander was also a competent commander, and unfortunately, he was still alive.
*'We cannot win. But we cannot retreat like this either. If we retreat now, she will head straight for the Empire. She is a being who can annihilate a legion with a mere gesture. We must stop her from entering the capital at all costs.'*
The Southern Commander recalled what he had to do. And he instinctively knew that this task was his alone. He was the supreme commander, and he was still alive.
Exceptionally skilled warriors and mages were assigned as his escorts. They had survived for this moment, to be used to the very end. If he had to do it, he would.
His time to resolve himself was short. The Southern Commander stepped forward bare-bodied before the Human King.
"Human King. I keenly understand your strength. It is our defeat."
If they had been defeated, they could have simply run away with their tails between their legs. Yet he pointlessly stepped forward and tried to do something. Unaware that this very struggle would only provoke Noona further.
"However, from now on, the Empire will not confront you head-on either. We will form guerrilla units to attack and harass your territory, slowing your advance."
It was utterly meaningless. Noona wouldn't care much even if her territory was attacked.
What if she did care? Then she would simply move far faster than the Empire's guerrilla units to intercept them. No, she might not even move. She might annihilate them all from where she stands.
They still hadn't abandoned their common sense. Or perhaps they chose not to.
Pitifully, the Southern Commander scattered hollow words that no one had any interest in.
"If you have subjects, then we request negotiations!"
*'I must buy time like this somehow. Delaying her right now is my duty. What comes after, I can only entrust to the Grand Duke Tae and the Grand Duke Sang!'*
***
Despite his desperate efforts, Noona merely listened to the Southern Commander's words with her ears.
"Look, little brother. Everyone has a measuring stick. Pathetically weak and fragile as they are, they try to deny me with their own measuring sticks."
"It's because they're stupid."
"If everyone is stupid, then that too is a characteristic, isn't it? Something I should probably have. But I don't have it."
Conscience and morality, common sense and justice. Can we truly say these things don't exist in humans? If they truly didn't exist, then why do billions of humans act according to them?
Just as a bird builds its nest and a rabbit digs its burrow, if humans erect measuring sticks, isn't that also a characteristic?
"It would make everything so easy if you became my measuring stick. Still haven't changed your mind?"
Noona spoke as if throwing a tantrum, but this was something I couldn't agree to. I shook my head.
"I don't want to. I can't."
"I just don't understand why you keep refusing."
"I don't want to be anyone's measuring stick either. Besides, I think measuring sticks don't even exist. So how could I possibly become one?"
Noona is by no means stupid. She shows a thoughtless, innocent smile, but she's probably smarter than anyone in this world.
The reason someone like Noona wanders looking for a measuring stick is because she knows better than anyone that it doesn't exist.
"Liar. You definitely have a measuring stick."
But the problem is that I do possess Noona's measuring stick.
At least, the problem is that Noona believes so. Even though I'm the one constantly denying it.
"Why won't you share it with me?"
"I hate measuring sticks."
***
"Human King!"
A loud shout rang out. I heard it, Noona heard it, and even the excluded Southern Commander heard that voice.
Far away, a fully armed battalion was holding unarmed civilians as captives. They were the followers who had accompanied Noona. The followers who had anticipated Noona's victory were terrified by the overwhelmingly surreal triumph, and while they stood dazed, they were captured as hostages by an Imperial ambush.
The head of the Special Forces gasped for breath, panting heavily.
*'We can't face her head-on. The Southern Commander will surely change the directive to guerrilla warfare. If so, I will strike at the enemy's weak point first and take hostages! It's an arbitrary decision, but it's the correct answer!'*
He had changed his judgment in that short moment and executed the suppression operation perfectly. They were the Imperial Army, after all. If their opponent hadn't been Noona, they would have won long ago.
*'If necessary, even if I have to kill them all! I'll stop the Human King!'*
Tens of thousands had already died. For them, pushed to desperation, attacking and executing unresisting civilians was nothing at all.
The Special Forces were specialists in such operations. For the sake of the Empire, they could laugh while burning down a village or two.
"Their lives are in our hands. Withdraw your power and come to negotiate! Otherwise, I will kill your people as a warning!"
But they didn't know.
That among Noona's followers, there was an existence far too dangerous to take as a hostage.
"Do not test your Lord, arrogant rebels."
Ivy vines grew out and entangled the Imperial soldiers. The ivy, which had swollen in an instant, coiled around their legs and torsos, winding like a snake, then squeezed them with tremendous force until they burst. Hundreds of Imperial soldiers died instantly, pouring red blood from every orifice. The ivy bloomed on their graves, bearing blood-red fruit.
A small, green-haired girl wearing antlers on her head murmured.
"Even if all of them were to die, it would be not even a slight stain upon our Lord. Yet the fact that you believed so is blasphemy in itself."
Noona is overwhelmingly powerful, but the power of the gods isn't hers alone to wield. Nevida is also a god. A being capable of taking on a nation single-handedly.
Though she seemed to have shrunk somewhat, her menace was no less than Noona's. Nevida prostrated herself before Noona and spoke.
"My Lord, your humble servant could not contain her anger and presumptuously executed them on her own. Please do not forgive your servant's impertinent actions."
"No. You did well, Nevida. It seemed like they were trying to force a measuring stick onto me."
The Empire's system is meticulous and effective. It places humans in their respective positions, grants them ranks, and moves a colossal organization. A system built over a thousand years through countless trials and errors. If only their opponent hadn't been 'Noona,' they wouldn't have been defeated so miserably.
However, their common sense is so entrenched that they try to apply it to others. They try to judge others by their own framework.
This isn't a trait unique to the Empire. Every civilization, every country does the same. But because the Empire is the most powerful, its framework can't help but be the most prominent.
That's why Noona came to the Empire. To obtain that framework.
"Everyone else has that kind of measuring stick, and they try to force it on me too. So shouldn't I be allowed to have one as well?"
"No. You shouldn't. Especially not you, Noona. Absolutely not."
"Why?"
"Because you're far too strong. The measuring stick you would hold would become a fair, equal, and absolute measuring stick for everyone."
"Is that bad?"
"It's bad. I hate measuring sticks, and I live for the thrill of breaking them. How much would I hate it if such a measuring stick existed?"
My sister murmured, her face showing pure curiosity.
"But why do you have a standard?"
The Southern Army Commander, having heard the conversation between my sister and me after the special forces were annihilated, only now accepted the situation. My sister understood that this was beyond her common sense.
That is a walking disaster. Because he is the king of humans, his way of dealing with humans is different. His common sense, the empire he has protected, everything will crumble in an instant.
"...I do not know what you seek, but you will gain nothing from the empire."
The Southern Army Commander drew his sword with trembling hands. The soldiers guarding his side numbered merely a hundred or so. Woefully insufficient to face my sister. Compared to when he first led thirty thousand elite troops, it was endlessly pathetic.
"All of you, raise your weapons."
But the Southern Army Commander, and the elite troops he had brought, were all soldiers of the empire. They were those who fought against all manner of crises to protect the empire.
None fled from what was certain death.
"The Imperial Army does not lose. The empire will remember our deaths. Even dead and ascended to the heavens, we shall watch over the empire's future and sleep."
The Southern Army Commander resisted to the very end with his own standard. He did not even ride a horse but charged barehanded towards my sister.
"If it is a standard you wish to see, I will show you! Long live His Majesty the Emperor!"
"Long live His Majesty the Emperor!"
One hundred imperial soldiers also charged, following the Southern Army Commander. The intent was less about winning, and more about showing someone. To whom, I wonder, was he trying to show it?
The empire? My sister? Or perhaps, God?
"Do not fear death! We shall stand beside the Heavenly God! There shall be divine protection!"
[There shall be divine protection.]
The Southern Army Commander's words echoed twice. Beneath them was the clear and gentle voice of a maiden.
The moment the voice ended, the scenery changed.
Upon the plain where war had raged moments before, a beautiful garden appeared like a mirage. A pure white sanctuary where water flowing from a sacred statue mercifully moistened the earth, and grass flowers and vines grew in harmony. It was as if someone had painted a picture onto the empty land.
Within the abruptly appearing scenery, a girl who had been lying asleep on a chair opened her eyes.
Her jet-black hair cascaded long enough to touch the ground. Her snow-white skin seemed to hold a holy light. Her transparent and clear eyes beheld all creation, and her benevolent smile held sacredness.
The Saintess of Heaven, Meiel.
The one who had become so.
The prophet who slumbered in the deepest part of the Holy See foresaw this moment with open eyes. And simultaneously, the Saintess of Heaven appeared here.
"...Saintess?"
The moment one looks, sacredness is conveyed. If that is not a saintess, then what is it?
Rustle. Small, white bare feet stepped onto the earth. Not a speck of soil or dust clung to them. As if the world's profanity could not defile her.
"The Saintess has come...."
"Perhaps we...."
"Now we are saved!"
Hope, faith, belief, earnestness. The Saintess of Heaven, standing on this land receiving all this adoration and envy.
She was smiling a gentle and clear smile, filled with joy like one who had fulfilled a long-cherished wish.
[King of humans, who has only now found a standard. What you desire, we possess it.]
It is a grave matter. Yet it was inevitable.
The standard my sister seeks. The very basic morals and common sense shared by all humans since ancient times.
The Holy See was a group that had protected precisely that.
[The greatest civilization, the highest place, where we have prepared a throne for the King.]
Therein lies the standard my sister seeks. The Saintess of Heaven showed my sister what she had prepared solely for this moment.
[Take the standard into your hands and be reborn as the King of humans, of civilization, of divinity.]