"This is..."
In that single instant, everyone in the world seemed to sense something. Ignoring whatever they were doing, they turned their heads and stared blankly in one direction.
In that direction, dazzling yet gentle light spread like a tide, bathing everyone within it.
It was as though people were looking at a sun that had suddenly begun shining in the darkness of night, leaving them able only to stare in a daze.
One after another, their hearts trembled.
"Clang..."
A soldier fighting on the battlefield seemed to feel as though he had lost his reason to fight, and the weapon in his hand fell to the ground.
"Ah..."
Espers, magicians, and all manner of beings involuntarily let out trembling sounds, as though in reverence for a life about to be born.
"Could it be..."
Over the English Channel, the people of England battling France seemed to realize whom this light had come from. Queen Elizabeth, Princess Limea, Princess Vivian, and the members of the Amakusa-Style Church all gasped sharply.
"..."
Inside the Building with No Windows in Academy City's Seventh District, a man who looked human yet also like a Saint, suspended upside down inside a life-support device and clad in surgical garments, suddenly opened his eyes.
No one knew what had happened again.
Yet everyone understood one thing.
A being that stood above humanity had been born.
No.
Perhaps he was someone who stood even above God.
The world rejoiced at his birth.
Heaven and earth offered their respect for his arrival.
—"Star of Bethlehem."
The appearance of that star likewise signified the birth of the Son of God into the world.
Right Fire intended to use that legend to accomplish the miracle of saving the world.
But now, at this very moment, upon the ritual ground known