Book Eater

―Ahhh.

Theo didn’t have a voice. His lips didn’t open. He couldn’t move his fingers or feel the flow of mana through his heart. It was unfathomable for a magician who could cast magic. There was nothing in front of his eyes, and no sound reached his ears. All of his five senses were silenced as he fell into a calm feeling. No, there was nothing.

―Ahh.

It was negative and meaningless. The boundaries of Theo’s consciousness grew increasingly blurry. There was a force around him that couldn’t be resisted. The thirty years of struggle were bearing fruit. He forgot the unimportant memories, like the faces of his classmates at Bergen Academy, the contents of books, the information window of the defective goods he bought from the black market dealer…

―Ah.

Even if they didn’t matter, these memories were part of him. The pillars holding up the brick building started to shake. A page of the book called [Theodore Miller] was torn away. He forgot someone whose name he didn’t know. Then he forgot landscapes and the distances he had walked. There was no room for resistance. As if an eraser was going through his brain, oblivion spread like wildfire as thirty years of life were slowly corroded away.

Ah.

Theodo□ sensed he had forgotten something precious. He had just lost something he shouldn’t have forgotten. It was like a big hole had been punctured in his body. Who was it? When he thought about it, he knew he had forgotten someone. He wanted to scream, but his mouth was forced shut and he couldn’t even wriggle around like an earthworm. 𝘣𝑒𝑑𝑛𝘰𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝘤𝑜𝑚

A fearful sense of futility filled him.

...

As this swamp of nothingness rose to his throat, Theo□□ realized he was the only thing left. Theo□□? No, that wasn't his name. Th□□□. The moment he thought about it again, he lost more letters. Now he was on the brink of losing his name. Then he even forgot the last letter. □□□□.

No, how many syllables were there? Something in the darkness of his body laughed loudly.

.

This was the end. The moment he stepped into the Akashic world, Theodore Miller no longer existed. It was an ending he had prepared for.

The determination of life, the power of a transcendent, wasn’t worth a penny here. It wasn’t a place where life could survive. In this infinite place, a finite consciousness wasn’t recognized. There were many people who came here, but no one went home. This was the truth that every investigator was afraid of.

A single drop of the source could awaken a god’s wisdom. If the density of information at the source was a supernova, then the ego of life was a single cube of sugar. In the case of transcendents like Theo, they might be the tip of an iceberg. However, it didn’t change their ends.

Even Simon Magus, the most powerful figure in the material world, hadn’t been able to bear this infinite wisdom and had melted away.

[······.]

In the myths, there was a superglobal collection of information in which everything in the universe was recorded. If a transcendent obtained it, they could wield omnipotence without distinction between past, present, and future. The Akashic Records, or the Hollow Records was this collection of information that was the last target of those who searched beyond the realm of a god. But only one person had ever reached it.

.

[... No, he didn’t get there.]

He had drowned. The information contained in the Akashic Records, the life of the universe, was overwhelming to any investigator. The same was true for the swordsman who could cut a star with a sword, as well as the apostles who dominated dozens of planets.

No matter how strong they were, how could they bear all of the universe? Numerous transcendents had died due to their arrogance.

[It is a shame.]

It was said that six thousand seven hundred stars must multiply by three thousand to form one world. Multiplying that world by another three thousand would form a great wide world, while multiplying the great wide world another three thousand times would form the cosmos. However, even the cosmos was just dust. It was something that could be calculated. But infinity was beyond calculation. Even if someone managed to reach infinity, it was impossible to maintain their ego. Someone eventually called it nirvana.

[Today, I have increased by ‘one’,]

The sum of the universe, ‘Akashic’, muttered in a dry tone.

[What did you come here hoping to find? Sublimation? Ugly desires? Well, good. No matter what you intended, it is meaningless. Every sullen, cowardly, humble, or arrogant entity becomes a few written letters...]

No one knew. There was an independent self in the information collection, the Akashic Records which recorded the beginning and end of the universe. In retrospect, it wasn't unusual since it was a book containing all the wisdom in the world. It would be more strange if such an existence had no will. Akashic’s white body was like a spirit body, but it couldn’t be observed in any dimension. The form resembled Theodore Miller, because he was the last investigator it saw.

[I will see you.]

Anything that Akashic, the incarnation of omniscience, wanted was achieved. His residence was the middle of the universe, the black hole that would send everything back to naught. He had made it a point to observe the person who had become part of ‘Akashic.’ It was his obligation to any investigators who reached him.

[Theodore Miller.]

Once he recited the name that had disintegrated away, Akashic traveled a few trillion light years to the relevant planet. It had only been ten seconds since Wrath had shaken off Theo. A three kilometer wide metallic sphere was still falling at a speed of ten kilometers per second.

Akashic wondered about the result, and was immediately presented with the answer.

The moment the sphere hit the ground, more than fifty kilometers of the planet would be vaporized and 98.128% of the population exterminated. The civilization would be destroyed beyond all traces, and it would take at least two hundred thousand years for the ecosystem to recover.

[What a common ending.]

This was his short impression of the situation. Akashic watched emotionlessly as the world neared its destruction. The Seven Sins, an autonomous research group which had been made by external investigators, were responsible for the end of dozens of civilizations every second.

But to honor the end of the investigator called Theodore Miller, Akashic kept watching.

[I am the one who records the end of creation. The weight of all life and death are the same. The truth is to be born and destroyed. It is something I can’t intervene in.]

He wouldn’t do anything even if he could. That would be ignorant, the incompetence of an almighty. It was possible for Akashic to bend a little finger and shake the physical laws of the entire universe, killing all living creatures or saving the dead. However, this action was meaningless. The guardian of the Akashic Records didn’t feel such an impulse.

[Hmm.]

Therefore, he would observe this material world out of respect for the investigator.

[I will bear witness.]

He focused his attention on the planet that the investigator, Theodore Miller, had lived on. Humans, elves, dragons, spirits, elementals… As all life forms in this material world came into view, Akashic penetrated into the reality of the collective. Unlike an omniscient entity, this was the essence of the Akashic Records. The power of recording observations was more familiar to him than any other authority.

Inside it, he found the name of ‘Theo.’

- Theo, where are you? Where are you now? No way... right??

Sylvia Adruncus, who had recently become pregnant, held her belly and thought of Theo. Wrath was already close enough to be seen from the surface. The crimson bearer of the end loomed in the sky as an indisputable proof of their death.

- ... Shouldn’t you return safely, husband? Otherwise, I will be angry.?

Veronica instinctively searched for his whereabouts.

- Ahh, Theo...! This is what you were worried about...!?

Ellenoa belatedly realized why Theo had been so nervous, and she looked up at the flaming meteorite with trembling eyes. Many other people thought about Theo; the hero of the northern continent and the greatest magician on the continents. Despite knowing it was ridiculous, they had faith that he would somehow do something.

- Son, please be safe.?

On the terrace of the mansion, Dennis Miller closed his eyes.

- ...?Sigh, if I knew the end would come today, I wouldn’t have slept last night.?

White Tower Master Orta sighed.

- Dammit, god dammit! I still haven’t gotten married!?

Randolph shouted as he swung his double swords.

[Five seconds left.]

Akashic turned away from Theodore Miller’s acquaintances to Wrath.

A falling meteorite was one of the most common disasters in the universe. The silver sphere would crack the planet like an egg, throwing the boundary of land and sea into disarray. The magma flowing under the crust would explode like a fountain, and the blue sky would be filled with a red light, creating a hellish landscape.

Despite knowing all this, Akashic didn’t stop it. No, he knew he shouldn’t stop it. It was just a disaster occurring to a single civilization that Akashic was attracted to through a whim.

Kukwaaaaaang!

One second before the crash, shock waves ripped through the sky. The air was being compressed by the sphere as darkness covered the sky. The learned and unlearned both knew... This was the end which any religion described in one word—doomsday.

At the very last moment, Akashic’s little finger twitched.

***

――――――――――――――――!!!!

The meteorite was destroyed. Its silver surface was crushed like an egg, and the entity named Planet Buster shattered. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fragments hung in the air for a moment before falling to the ground. But before the fragments reached the ground, they went through an incomprehensible combustion and disappeared without a trace.

This was the futile end of Wrath, the last weapon of the Seven Sins.

[... Hrmm?]

Akashic was surprised that he had destroyed Wrath. He was expressionless, but his tone rose an octave. It was an impossible level of destruction. To think that it had accelerated through the distant universe to the surface of a planet, in order to destroy a meteorite?

Furthermore, it saved the surface of the planet from the debris and restored the torn atmosphere. Akashic wasn’t something to be led by emotions.

[Why?]

This was a common sight in the universe. It was just one planet filled with civilization. He could see a dozen such places if he simply turned his gaze. Had the story of one investigator attracted him? Akashic thoroughly denied this line of reasoning. So, why did he watch Theodore Miller’s planet? As Akashic questioned his actions, the left hand of the omnipotent being gave him the answer.

[―Surprising.]

Akashic nodded. He was surprised. Despite emotions existing in him, he was close to an inanimate object. In this case, he couldn’t help feeling shocked. Theodore Miller…

Yes, it was that name. Knowing that he and ‘Theo’ had been separated, Akashic made a curious expression.

[Answer me. How could you survive inside of me?]

Theodore Miller stood naked but with no injuries. He had returned from death and smiled bitterly.

“I didn’t survive. I died once, without a trace... and then I was reformed. It wasn’t due to my strength. People helped me.”

[Hoh.]

Akashic was honestly intrigued.

[I can easily find out but I want to hear it from your mouth. Can you tell me how it happened?]

“Yes. It is an honor to teach the Akashic Records something.”

It was a feat which would never happen again in the history of the universe.