Lud, Sven and Meitzer headed for the Verne 1 launch facility to stop the Saint. Those remaining behind collected Daian and Marissa, took the surviving noncombatants, and headed for the submarine moored in the port.
“This elevator is connected to the underground launch facility.” Sven led the other two using a map of the facility. “It should take about five minutes to reach the bottom.”
The gondola sank deeper underground, clunking and rattling.
“Oh, Meitzer, are you hungry?” Lud removed a bundle from his breast pocket. “Have a bite to eat.”
It was a baked sweet... No, it was like bread baked into a biscuit shape.
“This bread keeps a long time.”
“You’re a baker through and through.”
When taking the field during war, Lud hadn’t prepared guns or knives, but bread.
“Is this hostia—like the sacramental host?”
It was a type of bread that existed in Europea for generations.
“No... Well, not exactly. I wanted to make a hard bread without yeast, so maybe it turned out like altar bread.”
It was called flatbread, or non-leavened bread. Tockerbrot had once become home to a stray kitten. They had named it Eris, and since cats can’t eat bread containing yeast, Lud had gone through a process of trial and error to make unleavened bread.
“It has raisins on top. It’s also highly nutritious, so it’s perfect for a packed meal.”
Because they are so nutritious, the military used raisins for many years.
“Yeah, I’ll have some. I see... Raisins? Those used to be called rezan.”
Holding the hostia, Meitzer wore a nostalgic look.
“In ancient Europea, rezan supposedly meant the ‘blessings of God.’”
The rezanium reactors using the ore with that name were the key to progress.
“Meitzer, there’s still something I want to ask you.”
“Can’t it wait?” Meitzer tried to put off Sven’s question, but she shook her head.
“At least let me ask before we get there.”
“Well, if it’s important... What’s your question?”
“You said you’re my father, but you also said you’re God’s avatar. So what exactly are you?”
Sven found it hard to believe Meitzer was deceiving her. Her heart rather than her reason told her so.
“You... Both of you witnessed the Saint’s memory of the destruction of the European Empire, didn’t you?”
God was incensed at the people of the empire for killing the woman he loved, so he annihilated everything, even destroying and then scattering himself.
“The people of the imperial capital numbered ten million. With the surrounding Shepherds, maybe a billion human beings disappeared in an instant.”
“Who were the Shepherds?” Lud asked.
“Shepherd was slang in the imperial capital. As the people outside continued to wait for an opening to reside in the imperial capital, the residents of the capital likened them to shepherds watching sheep all day, so it was derogatory.” Meitzer explained and then continued.
“The Saint fell in love with a young man who was a Shepherd, fled the imperial capital, and was killed. In exchange for his own destruction, God resurrected the two.”
“Yes, I’ve understood that much. But in that story, you don’t appear as the Devil.”
There was something mysterious about Meitzer that Sven couldn’t understand.
“The people of Europea use ‘Devil’ as a metaphor for the Shepherd, because he tried to steal the girl who was an offering to God.”
“Wait a second. Then...”
Meitzer was the Shepherd?
“No, Sven. I’m not the Shepherd. I was just made in his image.”
“Huh? Um...”
Sven couldn’t respond, because she didn’t understand what he meant by “made.”
“God regretted his action. He had destroyed the world in a fit of anger and needed to help the survivors recover. He duplicated his ego, placed it inside a synthetic human he had created in the likeness of the Shepherd, and sent it into the ravaged world as his representative.”
That was the truth behind the fable of the Saint and Devil that remained today. They were not human but were beings created to restore the world God destroyed.
“I was allowed to wield the power of rezanium, the power of God, to repair the devastation, but...”
Then Meitzer stopped. The gondola had reached the underground launch facility. The space was so vast that it could have contained the entire facility above ground. The launch pad was in the center, with Verne 1 standing like a steeple.
“This is our stop. Shall we go?”
“Wait. I still haven’t heard the important part!”
She still didn’t know how Meitzer was her father.
“I’m a copy of God and a copy of the Shepherd, so I’m a double replica. You’re a recreation of the Saint. Or rather, you’re a recreation of the child of the Saint and Shepherd.”
“What?!”
“The remains of the Saint that Daian recovered were from the moment she was giving birth. It consisted of the Saint’s blood as well as the blood of her daughter. There’s your answer.”
“So that’s what happened?”
Sven was flooded with an indescribable longing. She knew it was a yearning for her father engraved on her soul’s data.
But...
Sven wasn’t entirely convinced.
Is that really all?
She felt an inexplicable trepidation.
“Yes, you’re both imitations. You’re shams. Fakes!” The Saint’s voice rang out.
The three braced themselves, but she didn’t appear.
“Langart! Fall back!”
Meitzer noticed it a moment before the others. He sensed the invisible blades the Saint wielded. He shoved Lud aside, but...
“Agh?!”
Instead, the blades struck Meitzer. His body split in two and he collapsed.
“That’s one down!!”
The Saint had been hiding in the shadow of the launch pad, and she stepped forward.
“I knew you would come!! I’ll finish you off before you can rewrite the flight program!!”
She moved awkwardly for one whose body looked so delicate. She deployed her invisible blades. Her strength was impossible to withstand, but...
“I see... In that case...”
Sven gathered her breath and searched in her mind for the invisible blades.
“Show them!!”
As soon as she uttered the words, the blades—which looked like whips or scythes—appeared in space.
“What?!”
The Saint was surprised, but quickly grasped how this had happened. The power of the blades was derived from rezanium. Because of God’s blessing, Sven could control rezanium.
Even if Sven can’t completely take control, she took my stealth function! How dare she?!
Sensing Sven had moved one step closer, the Saint lost her smug smile.
“So you can see it! But can you defend against it?!”
Summoning her stubbornness and tenacity, the Saint offered a joyous grin and aimed her blades at Sven. It was a four-way attack from above, below, left and right, all at once. Sven’s only retreat would be backwards. The Saint could then launch a strike into Sven’s left breast and dig out her rezanium reactor. That would seal the Saint’s victory. However, that attack was blocked.
“Graaah!!”
Lud drove back the four blades. He wasn’t barehanded, of course. He held Toolman’s katana.
“That’s...”
“We haven’t come unprepared either!”
Lud held the magnificent sword that had severed even the metal arm of the humanoid Hunter Unit Rebecca. It was strong enough to stand against the Saint’s blades.
“Wow, Master! You’ve learned swordplay as well?!”
It was a measure of Lud’s skill that he could wield the katana, and Sven was surprised.
“Actually, I’m better with a knife.” Lud answered with a wry smile. As a soldier, he was accustomed to using a knife, but he had also learned swordsmanship. “Suzuka taught me how to use it but that was a long time ago.”
Suzuka was Yamato’s military attaché and Lud’s bujutsu instructor. Sven understood why Suzuka had found Lud so endearing. It was probably because he was a serious and hardworking student. They were only together a short time, but he had demonstrated the ability to handle the sword so she had taken a liking to him.
“Master... you’re very versatile!”
Sven remembered how Lud became a baker who took pride in his delicious products after a few years of practice. He had made some questionable life choices in the past, but he was capable of almost anything.