EP.137 The Slanted Ceiling and the Mountain of Grinning Corpses - 9
Jiseon’s hand repeatedly clawed at empty air. I made tiny movements with my fingertips, slipping away from the hands trying to snatch Jijan.
‘Right, left, above.’
Then I went left, right, below. Ah, of course, from my opponent’s perspective.
Her hand either grasped at nothing, struck against Jijan at the wrist, or narrowly missed it. She had suffered defeat after defeat in the battle of wits.
Ah, this was great. A fight where only I kept winning. Now this was a true battle of wits.
‘Then I’ll just grab her hand…!’
After losing the battle of wits repeatedly, Jiseon swung her arm wide and thrust it toward my hand. Since Jijan’s movements began from my hand, she intended to seize it and take Jijan away from me.
“Now, now. That’s cheating.”
Jijan was a sword without recoil. I had merely struck her hand lightly to the side, yet Jiseon’s hand was sent flying away at twice the speed.
There was only one way to seize Jijan: clench your hand at precisely the right moment. If you were too late or too early, your hand would simply be deflected. There was no option to meet it with brute force.
That was why Jiseon was struggling.
Clenching her fists with a grinding sound, Jiseon growled at me.
“…This humble one only played along because I did not wish to harm you, Lord Hughes.”
“I know.”
“Taking up Jijan does not make you invincible, Lord Hughes. Shall we not stop here, before you are hurt any further?”
That was true. At this very moment, Jiseon had more than a dozen plans in her head for turning me into minced meat.
For instance, she could repeatedly slam down the concrete above my head, blow up my foothold, or pull me toward her with another technique like the Spatial Tremor.
No. If she simply resolved to close the distance, I would be finished from the start.
At present, Jijan moved with the slightest twitch of my fingertips, allowing me to dodge somehow or other. But once she came within range, if she moved faster than my hand, my funeral would be held that very day.
It might have been different if I were holding a card, but I was wielding an iron staff. It could not keep up with her speed.
So I had to lure her into a battle of wits governed by rules somehow. I taunted Jiseon as I repeatedly thrust Jijan out toward her.
“Come on, take it. Why can’t you? Did I hide it somewhere, or say I’d never give it to you even if I died? I’m telling you to take it with whatever you’ve got!”
“…Very well.”
Her competitive spirit rising, Jiseon clenched both fists. Was she finally going to use both hands?
‘The hands are a feint. She’ll shake the ground beneath my feet with her qi.’
As she thought that, she raised one foot high. She intended to shake the foothold and send me flying.
If I lost hold of Jijan from the impact, she would be able to take it after undergoing the test.
I was nothing more than an ordinary human. There was nothing special about me.
Even though I was holding Jijan now, it was not because Jijan remembered me and refused to allow anyone else to use its power…. Nothing like that was happening.
Jijan was a keepsake, a tool. I was merely an ordinary person capable of holding it.
Therefore, I absolutely could not let go until all the questions on the test had been answered. Having read her intention, I pretended to evade her hand and hooked Jijan around Jiseon’s leg.
‘Tch!’
No matter how much of an immortal she was, there was no way to withstand the earth itself tripping her. Instead of stomping down, Jiseon stepped on the Jijan I swung at her and leaped.
It was as though I had sent a person flying from the tip of a blade, yet Jijan felt no more weight than a mosquito landing on it. Heh, so this was Jijan. The thought that I had grown stronger was exhilarating.
“That’s right. You won’t fall. You’ll keep going, keep moving forward. You are one who builds things up. One who creates results from fallen ruins. Tending to the dead and commemorating them doesn’t suit you.”
Jiseon landed far away and glared at me with terrifying eyes. Meeting her gaze, I murmured leisurely.
“Trying to eliminate the Abyss was just a way to secure your justification, wasn’t it? You needed a pretext to violate the taboo of refusing the nation’s call. You gained quite a lot of practical benefits while cooperating with the Military State and the Corporation, but because you failed to eliminate the Abyss, you lacked the justification to lead the Earth Mother Religion, didn’t you?”
And with Jijan in hand, you couldn’t ask for anything more.
So long as they possessed the keepsake that was both the Grand Master’s symbol and the earth’s power itself, the Earth Mother Religion would gather beneath Jiseon.
“And then you can take Jijan to the Holy See and demand that they answer for their crimes. ‘Give us a share! Haven’t you gobbled up plenty until now? Let’s divide the pie and eat together!’ Perfect!”
The attempt itself would be meaningful. It would release the believers’ pent-up resentment and put them on equal footing with the Holy See.
Jiseon slowly rose to her feet.
“…So you truly intend to obstruct me?”
“I’m not obstructing you! I’m telling you to take it!”
“Then.”
The qi that began within Jiseon’s body spread in every direction. With a single step—thud—the ground trembled.
The Shortening of Distance. A technique that extended one’s energy into the earth, then instantly pulled oneself forward. Jiseon charged with sheer recklessness rather than agility, thrusting her fist straight toward me.
Now, if I blocked with Jijan….
‘If I block, I’ll abandon the fist. Even if it breaks, I’ll kick instead.’
Huh?
‘It’s a two-way attack that Jijan’s length can’t stop. I’ll have to answer one of the two with my own body.’
Ah, I really hated this. Why did she keep trying to turn a battle of wits into a battle with bodies? What was a fragile mind-reader like me supposed to do then?
This was barbarism. What else could it be? Just as I was grumbling inwardly—
“Hup!”
Long silver hair and a dress flew before me. Tir, who cast me a briefly resentful look, raised both arms and met Jiseon’s fist with her own.
Somehow feeling that I ought to, I closed my eyes. An excellent choice.
Boom.
A tremendous shockwave spread out, making all the dead corpses jolt.
When I opened my eyes again, the earthen energy that had filled Jiseon’s body and Tir’s vivid red droplets of blood had mingled and spread outward in a circle. The earthen energy sank straight into the ground, while the droplets of blood returned to Tir as though time itself had been reversed.
The two women glared at each other with their fists pressed together at close range. Jiseon spoke first.
“…Foremother. Did you not say you would not attack?”
Tir replied.
“If you do not show hostility first.”
“This humble one has never shown you hostility.”
“Hostility toward him is hostility toward me.”
Tir said it as though it were an obvious fact. Jiseon glanced at me before replying.
“…You have fallen in with a bad man.”
“…I cannot deny it. I concur.”
With those words, their fists collided once more. Tir did not evade. Her eyes filled with blood as she tracked Jiseon’s fist, then struck back head-on.
A pure clash of strength against strength. Another shockwave followed. Tir’s body was pushed slightly backward, but she soon regained her stance and drove herself into Jiseon. Her movements left her vital points completely unguarded.
‘In the battle itself, I have the advantage. The Foremother’s power is clumsy, perhaps because she isn’t accustomed to close combat. But… I’m at a disadvantage.’
Jiseon shifted her plan, casting her gaze once at Tir’s arm, once at her body, and once at her feet.
‘The losses are too great. The exchange doesn’t work. The opponent suffers no damage whatsoever. Besides….’
Below them was a mountain of corpses, above them a concrete earth. Until now, this terrain had favored Jiseon.
But that was only when her opponent was a regressor. If her opponent was Tir, the mountain of corpses below was quite literally a battlefield made for a vampire.
At present, Tir’s Blood Manipulation Art could control only the blood near her own body, but Jiseon did not know that.
And even if she did, the terrain would still favor Tir.
‘It would be faster to shake her off.’
Pretending to throw a punch, Jiseon lowered her body and rushed forward. Pankration. Caught off guard, Tir immediately launched a kick despite her awkward posture. The kick rose at a strange angle, moving as though it had nothing to do with human bones or posture, and was just as fierce as her fist.
But no matter how different its power might have been, it fell within Jiseon’s calculations.
Sssht—Jiseon’s skin tore, and blood flowed. At the same time, Jiseon seized Tir’s supporting foot and the mass of corpses beneath it.
Then she hurled them straight upward.
“Eek!”
There was no way Tir could withstand being thrown together with the ground itself.
Whoosh. Tir’s figure flew toward the ceiling, looking almost as if she were falling upside down toward Tantalus. A heavy impact rang out with a thud.
After sending Tir flying, Jiseon strode toward me.
“Where do you think you’re going? Stop!”
At that moment, a wave of fresh blood battered her entire body from behind. Tir, who had flown away with the corpses, had instead fired the blood within them at Jiseon’s undefended back.
Kwagwagwang! Red fists poured down like cannon fire against her shoulders, back, and legs. Energy fired through the Blood Manipulation Art. The mountain of corpses exploded again and again, gouging out a pit.
Struck by the brutal barrage, Jiseon groaned. Her earring trembled violently, then crackled and shattered.
‘…I can’t confront Jijan while leaving my rear unguarded! I need more time!’
Using the funeral she had conducted in advance to briefly recover her strength, Jiseon clicked her tongue and spun around. Then she thrust both hands into the air as if opening a door and pulled them apart. At the same time, an ominous creaking sound came from her fingertips.
Tantalus opened.
Crack. Tantalus split apart on both sides, opened its maw, and swallowed Tir. Having read Jiseon’s intention, Tir hurriedly swung both hands, but Earth Arts were faster. In an instant, Tir’s body disappeared into the depths of Tantalus.
Rumble, rumble. She was merely out of sight; inside, she was still tearing through the concrete and trying to emerge. But even for Tir, swimming through the earth was a first, so it seemed she would need a little time.
Having temporarily neutralized Tir, Jiseon looked at me while panting. There was now nothing between her and me.
“Now, no one remains to protect you.”
That was true. Since she was right, I nodded.
“You’re right. At last, it’s time for the final test.”
“Graaah!”
Just then, the regressor emerged from below, tearing through a heap of concrete with a shout. She had recovered after collapsing once and was not in perfect condition, but her eyes still blazed brightly.
“Just hold on a little longer!”
With the enemies continuing to increase, Jiseon grew frantic. As she rapidly approached me, she said,
“This humble one has no time to take your test. Hand it over.”
‘Now, I have no idea if I’ll survive.’
Jiseon charged with enough force to kill me if necessary. At that moment, Rallion, whom Tir had kept in reserve as her final bulwark, stepped in front of me.
Aji had tormented him, Nabi had tormented him, and now Jiseon was next. Rallion had every reason to protest this cruel lineup, yet he charged without fear.
While Jiseon was briefly held up by Rallion, I pulled Jijan far back instead of running away.
“No. You’re not the one taking the test.”
There was no test for Jiseon to take. She would simply advance through her own strength.
The one who had to take the test now was—
I turned my head and glanced at the Grand Master’s corpse, kneeling while nailed to the cross. Whether it was an illusion or reality, something glittering seemed to fall from the kneeling corpse.
“Well then. It’s time to take the test you’ve been postponing, Grand Master.”
I could not read the corpse’s thoughts. I did not know whether that was a tear or merely an optical illusion.
But Jijan would have to answer.
Jiseon smashed through Rallion’s torso. Through the spray of blood, our eyes met. Just before I threw Jijan, Jiseon’s eyes widened.
‘No way, is he going to throw it? Now?’
Correct.
‘Where?’
Somewhere between Jiseon and the regressor.
‘Why all of a sudden?’
Because of the test I had been putting off.
I grinned and hurled Jijan far away.
Round and round. The pitch-black rod, resembling both a staff and a sword, flew through the air. Who could have expected such a small rod to carry the weight of a mountain? Even an object that extraordinary traced a trajectory no different from an ordinary staff when flying through the sky.
‘Nice pass… except that was way too close! Throw it straight!’
The regressor saw it and ran toward its landing point, while Jiseon immediately kicked off the ground as well.
‘Even if she catches it, she’ll have to take the test! She won’t be able to use it right away! But as someone who wields Earth Arts, I can—!’
No, how many times do I have to say it?
You’re not the one taking the test.
-Grand Master, was this truly what you should have done…?
The cross trembled. It seemed that a voice ringing from its end was speaking to me.
Without even turning my head, I answered.
“Yes. Choose. It’s easy this time, isn’t it? All you have to do is choose the person who will wield your power.”
-Ah…. In the end, even after death, I was unable to escape.
“You didn’t fail to escape. You left it behind. If you hadn’t wanted to leave a trace, you wouldn’t have left a keepsake behind either.”
—You are cruel. Truly cruel….
Jizan trembled as she flew away. Below her, the regressor and Jiseon were rushing toward her. Jiseon, racing upward from below, was slightly closer.
If she did not move now, Jiseon would take possession of it. She would embark on an endless struggle for the revival of the Earth Mother Goddess Religion. And in the end, she would revive it. Even if she herself might die in the process.
By comparison, the regressor—
—Truly, you say that girl saw the future. That she intends to stand against the King of Sin?
“Whether you believe it or not is up to you. It’s a future that isn’t guaranteed, unlike what you heard from the Prophet—one that can change in any number of ways.”
In the end, the choice she had postponed came once again.
Would she entrust it to the Prophet, who dreamed of something better, and bury it?
Or would she move forward, even if it meant staining her entire body bright red with blood?
—Ah. You are truly cruel.
The Grand Master of the past had made a choice that was no choice at all. She had hesitated, been killed by the Prophet, and fallen into the abyss, losing even the opportunity to choose.
—And yet… even if this truly is a mistake that will come in the future—
In the end, she had been unable to bury the Overlord’s hundred thousand soldiers. She had merely continued to be driven onward.
If she had possessed the resolve to bury the Overlord’s hundred thousand soldiers by her own will, the history of the world might have been different.
But if she had been that kind of person, she would not have grieved at the sight of three hundred thousand deaths.
—I… am saddened by death. I fear corpses. I hate the predetermined destruction, hate it terribly. I would rather see a single small flower blooming on a grave than a splendid royal palace built upon blood-soaked earth.
With a clack, Jizan twisted the trajectory of her flight.
Both Jiseon’s eyes and the regressor’s widened. This small yet unmistakable intention—this irrational movement that could be explained by nothing but Jizan’s own will.
—Not for their sake… but for the sake of my own weak self.
In the end, the side Jizan chose was—
The regressor.
—I shall bury death. In the embrace of the Earth Mother Goddess.
With that resolve as her final act, the cross piercing the Grand Master’s abdomen began to crumble from its base.
The treasure of the Holy See that had fixed time in place was disappearing. As if unraveling, strand by strand, the time that had been wound taut until now, the sharp edges of the cross-shaped wedge rapidly rusted and withered away before time.
Feeling her traces receding, I murmured,
“Farewell, Chorine. The first Earth Sorcerer and the last Interrer. And one human being who could not bring herself to become a god. Your will was retroactively carried back together with your sin. Thanks to the choice you made now, your past self has let go of her lingering regret and reclaimed her sin.”
The resentment left unresolved back then, the choice left unmade, had been fulfilled today. Now she would be able to rest in peace.
“You could not become the death of the hundred thousand soldiers, but you were a good Interrer who comforted the souls of three hundred thousand prisoners. May you rest peacefully in the embrace of the Earth Mother Goddess.”
—Thank you….
And so, the Grand Master’s consciousness, gradually sinking into twilight, disappeared beyond the horizon.
The unfinished story was completed beyond the confines of time.