EP.138 The Slanted Ceiling and the Mountain of Smiling Corpses - Conclusion
Jizan was in Shei's hands.
Originally, she should have taken a test, but for some reason, Jizan remained silent instead of showing a mental image. Instead, it held its breath, leaving its weight entirely to the regressor.
She didn't know the reason, but it was a good omen. Shei could lift Jizan now.
"Jizan...!"
Shei sensed victory, but Jiseon didn't seem to think so. She charged forward, reaching out as if to snatch Jizan from Shei's grasp.
However, Shei was not nervous.
In Jiseon's hands, Jizan was a massive force capable of tilting mountains and splitting the earth.
At the same time, it was a counter to Jiseon's very existence. Due to her nature, her own power could never surpass Jizan.
'If this is in my hands, it's a sure win!'
She had to show the difference in their power. So that the one who never falls could give up and despair.
Shei thrust Jizan forward and shouted.
"Jiseon! Stop!"
Jiseon answered with a stomp.
The ground beneath her feet shook. Before the shockwave could reach her, Shei urgently drove Jizan into the ground. The vibrations flowing through the earth were swallowed by Jizan.
However, doing so left her defenseless. Jiseon approached with her upper body wide open.
The only thing she could move right now was Cheonaeng.
'I guess it can't be helped then.'
Shei lowered her stance while gripping Cheonaeng.
'Let's cut her down and calm her.'
Originally, Shei was the last hero of this world. A weapon master who wielded the sword of the sky and the sword of the earth simultaneously. Her skills weren't overwhelmingly superior to others, but there was no one else who could draw out the power of both swords as well as she could.
She overlapped Jizan and Cheonaeng. A thin, sharp single-edged sword was laid atop the pitch-black, heavy double-edged sword. The two swords, so different they could be considered polar opposites, became one like a sword meeting its scabbard.
The weightless sword, Cheonaeng's essence was the soaring sky. A thin single-edged sword forged by compressing space.
The recoil-less sword, Jizan's essence was the firm Mount Tai. A thick club formed by grasping and rolling the earth.
Until now, she had only used Cheonaeng, but the sky needs the earth to stand tall, and the earth changes and flows by the sky.
It would be one thing if Jizan had fallen into the opponent's hands. But if it was gripped in Shei's hands. If both swords had come into the hands of the woman who was humanity's strongest force right before the destruction.
Even if it was a tired and exhausted body.
Victory was decided.
Using Jizan as the scabbard, she overlapped Cheonaeng.
And spewed out the compressed space in an instant.
The recoil-less sword, Jizan was the heaviest cannon in the world. It shot Cheonaeng's majestic power entirely forward.
Cheongigeomgon. True meaning.
Horizon Splitter.
Even parallel lines that seem like they would never meet in a lifetime eventually become one when they reach eternity. At least, that's how it appears.
In that distant, faraway place. There, the sky and the earth meet, drawing a peaceful line. Beautiful, and majestic. A single straight line that must have existed since the very beginning.
That, she splits vertically.
Space was sliced diagonally.
Jiseon's right arm, the pitch-black darkness, the heavy air, even Tantalus. None could withstand the slashing attack that shot up like lightning.
Her ears rang. A sound rushed in from far away in the bottomless pit surrounded by walls on all sides.
The slanted ceiling split apart, and the sky shone through the gap.
As if the sun had just set,
A purple sky briefly visible through the gap. A spreading vivid color only shown right before light turns to darkness.
The sky seen through the briefly opened gap closed as the heaving ceiling sank back down.
"...Hah."
Jiseon staggered backward. Thud, a belated sound came from the pile of corpses.
It was Jiseon's right arm, severed by Cheonaeng.
Leaving its master behind, the rolling right arm stopped, caught on a corpse that happened to pop out.
Exhaling deeply, Shei spoke, hiding the sense of exhaustion washing over her entire body.
"Don't resist, Jiseon. If you swear to stay still, I'll reattach your severed right arm."
In truth, she had no strength left in Cheonaeng, and not even the strength to lift Jizan, which she had driven into the ground.
It was a fight where the shameless side won to begin with. Shei feigned composure and said.
"It was a clean cut, so if you treat it well, it can be reattached as is..."
"Why...!"
Jiseon cried out with a sorrowful face.
"Why, why is the future entirely yours...!"
Shei closed her mouth. Those words were clearly directed at Seonghwangcheong, but it was also a point that pricked at Shei herself.
If Shei hadn't come, Jiseon would have obtained Jizan. And she would have marched alone to question Seonghwangcheong for their sins.
And so, Shei had erased that future.
Although she used the means of regression rather than prophecy or foresight, in this future, Shei had essentially stolen her future.
"I have never rested for a single moment! I didn't even spare my own life...! Even though I compromised, I have never strayed from the righteous path! Given that, what about them? They killed the Grand Master as they pleased, and even hid that fact, enjoying the prosperous age, pretending to be upright...! We were just struggling to survive...!"
'Uh, um. Her claim back then was real.'
Honestly, she felt sorry, and thought Seonghwangcheong had gone too far.
But what could she do?
Seonghwangcheong wasn't a completely transparent organization. Even Shei, who had been involved with them in big and small ways during her regressions, couldn't definitively say she knew all of their inner workings.
Even so, their will to prevent destruction was the same, so Shei took their side.
"Are you saying all of that is permitted just because you know the future? Nonsense! Because we become the spark of war, our sins can't even be questioned? Ridiculous! Do we just have to submit to a predetermined future...!"
It was a gruesome scream, as if vomiting blood. The regressor moderately empathized with those feelings.
However, she wouldn't regret or grieve over it.
No matter how much she screamed, it was better than the world ending if she had left her alone.
Having poured out her emotions like that, Jiseon murmured as if drained of energy.
"Kill me."
So the regressor scowled.
"No. If you die, the world will turn into a mess."
"Because Seonghwangcheong takes a hit? Because of that, the world will collapse? Are they truly the pillars supporting this world?"
"Because of you! The world turns into a mess because you die!"
The regressor shouted in annoyance.
"Your followers, or the Military Nation citizens. Or the scattered Jimosin followers! They'll either seek revenge for you, or say they can't cooperate anymore! They'll even question why Seonghwangcheong brutally killed such a noble person!"
It wasn't for nothing that Jiseon's death would become the spark of war. For one, she was nominally a brigadier general of the Military Nation, a hero to its citizens, and a figure who could be called the representative of the Jimosin Cult.
"Please, if you're going to die, die quietly alone! If a big shot like you dies like a martyr, from then on, no one will be able to stop it!"
At the regressor's shout, Jiseon sneered and answered.
"...Now, even if I wanted to, it's impossible. I've lost the qualification. The Grand Master... ultimately couldn't acknowledge me, I suppose. I just... a space for us to exist..."
"I don't know about anything else. As for a space for you to exist, I'll create it after I prevent the destruction. So keep your life attached until then."
"Heh heh..."
Jiseon staggered and turned around. Solidifying her severed shoulder with qigong, she slowly made her way up the mountain of corpses.
"You have to take your right arm! I said I'll reattach it!"
"Leave it there."
Jiseon said without even giving a glance.
"It is the path I walked, and what I achieved. I will not turn back. I will not undo it. I do not regret my choice."
"Always so stubborn..."
"And..."
Jiseon murmured with a drained face.
"...Since the Grand Master entrusted the power to you, you inherit that duty, Daejeonsa."
"I told you I'm not Daejeonsa."
Without replying, Jiseon unsteadily climbed the mountain of corpses. Her figure looked exactly like an ascetic wandering in search of hardship.
As Shei watched Jiseon's back,
Rumble. An ominous sound came from above. Shei hurriedly looked up. The slanted ceiling, the land of Tantalus, was screaming.
'Is it going to collapse?'
Just as Shei tensed up and gripped Jizan's handle tightly.
Tirkanjaka burst out from a crack over there, pushing through the concrete floor. Landing at the bottom of the mountain of corpses, Tirkanjaka looked around and shouted.
"Hugh! Where's Hugh?"
Fortunately, it seemed the ceiling wasn't collapsing. Shei let out a sigh of relief and said.
"He was fine when I saw him earlier."
"That's a relief...! Where is he?"
"He threw this Jizan from the top of the mountain earlier, and since I can't see him now, he must have fallen backward. What the hell was that guy doing..."
Deflecting Cheonaeng? Let's say it could be a coincidence.
Seeing through stealth? Let's say it was possible through psychological warfare.
"It was weird from the start. Fixing your heart... and breaking the seal of this relic, Jizan. I don't know if he took Jizan's test or not, but the Jizan he handed over."
In the previous timeline, Shei grabbed Jizan and took a test within its mental image. The moment 300,000 people were buried alive, Jizan was placed before her eyes. The choice made there.
The method Shei chose was simple.
Drawing Jizan, she assaulted the Hegemon.
Although it was a mental image, the Hegemon was a match for ten thousand. No matter what she did, she couldn't win. But the regressor considered it training and challenged the Hegemon until she succeeded.
Eventually, only after the strength of the Hegemon prepared by the mental image was completely exhausted. Jizan, having nothing left to offer, reluctantly lent her its power. She couldn't use the inherent authority of Earth Arts, but it showed perfect performance as a 'weapon'.
Shei was fully satisfied with that performance, but...
"The power I feel right now is Earth Arts."
Now, Shei was certain. She would be able to use Jizan's power to its fullest.
She didn't quite know how this happened, though.
"What about that Daoist? What happened to him?"
"I incapacitated him for now. Over there, he's kneeling at the summit..."
Grrrrumble.
Again, an ominous sound came from above. Broken concrete fragments struck their shoulders. Shei clamped her mouth shut and looked up at the ceiling.
"Hey, Tirkanjaka. The ceiling seems a bit strange... For some reason, it looks lower than before."
Rumble.
The ominous premonition became reality.
Cracks ran toward the edge of the ground like galloping horses. Rumble, rumble. A thunder-like sound echoed as lightning-shaped scars were carved into the ceiling. Crumbled concrete poured down like rain, and collapsing debris fell like hail.
The ceiling is collapsing.
Well, Jiseon drew upon it relentlessly, Tirkanjaka rummaged through it, and finally, the technique Shei used split the earth. After causing such a ruckus, it would be weirder for it to be fine.
Shei urgently shouted.
"Tirkanjaka! Catch the falling debris!"
"Supporting this entire land with shadows is impossible! Hugh, where are you? Come to my side quickly...!"
"No! Help me. Let me blow this ceiling away! It'll be better than letting this chunk of land fall...!"
Shei immediately created a stepping cloud and kicked off the ground to stand on it. Then, holding Jizan with both hands, she raised it above her head and pressed it against the gradually sinking ceiling.
"Are you planning to lift the ceiling with that sword? It's impossible!"
"No, I can!"
"...You can? How?"
"This Jizan is a sword with immense weight! Even though it looks like this, it's heavy enough to be comparable to Tantalus!"
"Then how are you holding it?"
Shei didn't do the useless task of explaining her authority.
"That's why this Jizan is so great!"
"They have all sorts of strange swords these days..."
Tirkanjaka murmured as if fascinated. Actually, it was a relic created about 100 years before Tirkanjaka's birth, but no one cared about that fact right now.
"Alright. Now that I can use Earth Arts. I'll lift this entire land! It's possible even now...!"
Glancing around, she heard Nabi and Aji barking in the distance. Rashi and Karis, Nabi and Aji were hugging the opposite wall, relatively safe from the debris.
"I'll take care of the big chunks. Just handle the small ones!"
"Alright!"
As the slanted ceiling sank, most of the lights on the perimeter were cracked, scraped, and shattered. The light gradually disappeared.
In proportion, countless Black Knights rose up in all directions. Darkness gathered beside them, and they all transformed into giant figures.
Shadows vary in size depending on the position of the light. The giant Black Knights, enveloped in shadows three times their body size, caught the falling debris according to their orders. Concrete chunks the size of a person's head slowed down as if submerged in water the moment they touched the shadows.
"Alright, here I go!"
Geongonryu, Earth Pillar.
Just as Shei was about to swing her sword like that, she suddenly stopped her arm.
Jizan's weight was surely like Mount Tai, but it seemed Tantalus's weight was significant even for Mount Tai. An immense weight bore down on the regressor's hands.
Jizan wouldn't advance.
"Ugh...!"
Her exhausted body resisted violently. Her lacking stamina screamed out.
Still, the regressor clenched her teeth and drew out her strength.
Her body didn't move well, but the regressor's qigong showed its worth at times like this.
Cheonbankyeong, the qigong that carves movements into the body and forces it to move even against its will.
Cheonbankyeong, Attack Form. Vertical Slash.
"Eeeeeat!"
The regressor swung her sword, and Jizan resonated with her will.
The land making up Tantalus was built from blessed concrete. It was the result of Earth Arts being inscribed.
That was the reason Jiseon could easily use Earth Arts even though it was concrete.
Therefore, the one holding Jizan could move this Tantalus.
The Grand Master's last remaining sliver of will echoed. Right after.
Vwooooom.
Strictly speaking, it was a feat like flicking a steel door open with a finger. Something absolutely impossible under normal circumstances.
However, the uniqueness of this land, Jizan's power. And Tantalus's design.
Thanks to all of those interlocking, Shei's attempt succeeded. Shei swung Jizan and 'blew away' Tantalus.
The slanted ceiling grew farther and farther away. The faintly flickering lights on the perimeter informed them that this land was rising. The sparkling lights gradually grew smaller.
The terrain soared by the power of a single human. The slanted ceiling moved away, briefly regaining its balance, before tilting to the opposite side this time.
Like that, the land of Tantalus, gradually flipping over, eventually began to topple. The mostly broken artificial lights scattered halos of light and disappeared.
Through that gap, the sky came in.