EP.62 Obsession
The Abyss, a land where the Earth Mother Goddess declared she would support it no longer. A hell that actually exists in the present world, where even an accidental slip would result in an infinite fall.
Darkness where one cannot see an inch ahead, distant hope, a future that only grows farther from the sky. At the uncertain bottom, things that have sunk without a funeral for a thousand years lump together and glare this way.
A horrific and bizarre land, hundreds of years removed from peace and stability. Such is the place called the Abyss.
‘Why isn't anything going wrong?’
The one who experienced regression, the sole traveler who climbs back up time through death.
Shei was engulfed in anxiety alone amidst the peace.
‘If what the Immortal said is true, something definitely happened here. The instructor tried to kill someone, the King of Beasts roared, the Immortal's flesh was cursed and scattered, an accident massive enough to collapse the Abyss.’
The future she was in was a sewer connected to dozens of drains. Even if one was plugged, untreated sewage would burst from somewhere else, dirtying the world.
Shei was alone, and there were too many variables. Even with a thousand hands, she wouldn't have been able to block them all. The world couldn't withstand the collapsed balance and finally opened the floodgates leading to the apocalypse.
Vicious incidents volunteered as precursors to the terrible tragedies to come. Suddenly appearing monsters devoured people, and entire villages disappeared without leaving a single corpse. The King of Beasts roared facing the apocalypse and ran amok.
At the edge of the apocalypse, Shei struggled to find the origin rather than block it.
The place she arrived at following that trajectory was exactly here, the Abyss.
Inside here, she discovered the Progenitor, the King of Dogs, and the Immortal, who would become the seeds of disaster in the future.
Contrary to expectations, they were peaceful.
‘It's not that nothing happened. However, compared to what will happen later... the situation isn't that bad. Is it because I came here and the past completely changed? Or is an incredibly huge event that will change this situation in an instant about to occur?’
Shei sat on the edge of the prison rooftop and looked down at the yard below.
On the monochrome ground made of concrete, a deep-blonde girl was facing off against a man wearing an instructor uniform.
In front of Aji, who kept flinching as if uncomfortable, the instructor smiled with an unpleasant expression.
“Hehe. Why didn't I think of this until now?”
“Grrrrrr.”
“Kyahahahaha! That's right! I finally found a way, Aji! You are no longer a match for me!”
Just looking at the way he spoke, he was no different from a mastermind, but Shei no longer dwelt on a mere attitude like that. It was because she had been deceived far too many times.
What the shouting instructor pulled out from his embrace was a thin disc made by hammering out steel.
The instructor lifted the disc and wiped under his nose.
“Aah, this is what you call a disc. A round and flat board made considering air resistance! The airtime is several times that of a ball! Keukeukeuk! With this, I no longer need to worry about my shoulder! If I throw it properly once, it can fly for 30 seconds!”
“Grrr! Woof! Woof!”
“Alright, alright. *Sigh*. So impatient. I was trying to show off a bit, but I guess I can't even do that. Now, fetch!”
“Woof!”
He wound his arm back widely and threw the disc. The steel disc spun slowly and flew far away. Aji, who had been waiting for a while, brightened up and chased after it.
The disc, cutting through the wind and floating, did not come down easily. It rose smoothly, and descended even slower than that. Having caught up with the disc in an instant, Aji hopped from below and simply waited for it to fall.
Meanwhile, the instructor flopped down on the spot and laughed loudly.
“Hehehe. This means I can recover enough stamina in the meantime! It's virtually a semi-idle plaything! Kikiki! I am no longer afraid of you!”
“Woof!”
At that moment, Aji leaped into the air and snatched the disc with her mouth. The instructor's face, who was watching, turned dumbfounded.
“Hey, wait a minute. Aji. Jumping to catch it is foul play. I'm saying let's settle this fairly in two dimensions. And what kind of dog jumps 3 meters with a running start? I asked for time to rest, didn't I?”
“Woof!”
“No, ah.”
However, Aji brought the disc back in her mouth, and the instructor stood up with a sigh.
Watching them made her feel foolish for being tense. Even after glaring with all her might, seeing Aji wagging her tail joyfully and the instructor who seemed annoyed yet kept playing with her, only a deflated sigh escaped her mouth.
She wanted to sharpen her nerves, she wanted to bare the blade of hostility.
But she didn't even feel the will to do so.
‘If I were to pick someone with that kind of influence in this current place, it would only be that instructor.’
Aji, wearing such a bright smile, didn't seem like she would emit such vicious nature. The composed Tirkanjaka didn't seem like she would suddenly go crazy and run amok either.
At the same time, that man... the instructor whose name she still didn't know, didn't seem like he would particularly do anything either.
‘Rather. If nothing happens like this. If someone could plant the certainty that it will be so.’
Then she too could put down all her burdens and have a brief moment of respite.
But the regressor had seen the future. She knew that a tragic event would unfold in this Abyss.
That was why she couldn't be comfortable. She had to be on edge. Even if everyone else was completely relaxed, only she must not.
There could be no rest for one who had seen a terrible future. Even this isolated peace was bound to feel like the precursor to a disaster.
‘Since I've come this far. I need to gain something in this cycle...’
Pulling one knee up, sitting alone on the edge of the rooftop, she quietly watched the disc flying below. The disc, slowly growing larger and smaller with the dog trailing behind it, seemed to symbolize a peaceful daily life. Rising and sinking according to the natural order.
While she was sitting quietly in the uneasy peace.
“Shei. Could you spare me a moment?”
A calm voice spoke to her. Recognizing the owner of the voice, Shei quickly stood up.
The sandalwood coffin, surrounded by a dark red aura, the Progenitor Tirkanjaka was sitting demurely on top of it, draped in a pitch-black parasol. When Shei faced her, Tirkanjaka alighted softly onto the rooftop.
“Tirkanjaka! Uh, long, time? No see? The guy you always kept by your side?”
“Finlay? I left him alone for a moment. Do not worry about him.”
Her tone, which sounded indifferent, was tinged with a subtle coldness. Shei swallowed hard. She needed to build a good relationship with the Progenitor if only for the future, but why was she so oddly frosty every time they met.
Feeling even more complicated, Shei spoke with a cautious attitude.
“What's the matter? You didn't usually look for me. No, that doesn't mean I'm feeling neglected. Just, um, I'm stating a fact... I'm asking because I'm curious!”
Tirkanjaka appropriately cut off Shei's rambling and answered.
“Didn't you say last time? That Intrinsic Magic is more powerful than Standard Magic. You boasted for a long time that an Intrinsic Mageon, which manifests one's own mystery, is overwhelming compared to Standard Magic that anyone can use.”
“Yeah. I did say that.”
“And you said your magic reproduces the energy of the sky. A mystery that uses the energy of that sword as a medium.”
“Y-yeah.”
“Then.”
Tirkanjaka put down the parasol. With a rustle, the darkness scattered in an instant, and Tirkanjaka revealed her pale appearance under the light.
“You should also be able to use lightning. Is that correct?”
“I can, but. Why?”
“Use it on me.”
Even Shei, who had been through everything, couldn't help but express doubt at those words.
“What? Why?”
“Don't ask the reason, just can you do it for me?”
“I need to know what your intention is to help you.”
“...That is true too.”
Muttering something to herself, Tirkanjaka spoke obediently.
“When Toin rose again, do you remember?”
“Ah. That time.”
When the Immortal Rash first opened his eyes. At that time, surely, the instructor applied an electric shock to the Immortal's chest, and the Immortal raised his body.
“Yes. He restarted the heart with the electric shock. If Toin, the Immortal, could do that, I should be able to as well.”
“You're trying to make your heart beat again with an electric shock?”
Shei realized what Tirkanjaka was demanding.
Just as electricity was flowed into Toin's chest to make his heart beat, she was hoping her own heart would be revived too.
Surely, it must be an earnest desire she had harbored for a long time inside the coffin. Knowing that, Shei couldn't help but show difficulty.
“It's a bit hard to say this, but it will be difficult with my power. The foundation of magic is the manifestation of the image one possesses. One magic is one world. Invading and changing someone else's body with it is an extremely difficult task, and one that shouldn't be done. Because it is an act that violates the dignity of others.”
“Didn't Toin rise with the magic he used?”
“That's Level 0, Phenomenon-class Mageon. It's an extremely trivial magic that only invokes phenomena that originally existed in the world. If the true meaning of magic is to change the world, Level 0 Mageon is the technique furthest from magic. With that, you can only raise those who can be raised.”
Shei calmly finished her explanation. Thinking that this much would be a polite rejection.
No matter how mystical magic may seem, its limits were clear. Shei hoped that her rejection wouldn't be taken as an expression of annoyance.
Unfortunately, the vampire was familiar with such expressions. At this level, it was almost no different from direct wording.
“I know that too. It is near impossible for my heart to beat again. I also understand your feeling of not wanting to touch a futile task.”
Fearing a misunderstanding, the regressor hastily protested.
“N-no! I'm just, afraid you'll be hurt!”
“Pain is not much of a problem. I have lived for 1,200 years and endured all kinds of pain... Of course, that might not have been real pain either.”
Tirkanjaka, who smiled self-deprecatingly, approached Shei. As if she wouldn't resist, she spread her arms and let them hang limply.
“Please, Shei. Even if your magic brings only pain, if it is real pain, I will gladly accept it. I too do not believe my heart will be revived with this. I just want to feel it.”
Tirkanjaka was stubborn, and Shei was flustered.
She didn't understand why she wanted to be struck by lightning of all things, but if she asked this earnestly, she couldn't refuse. The one enduring the pain would be Tirkanjaka anyway.
It wasn't even dangerous for Tirkanjaka. Shei's magic was powerful, but that was only at the level of a Magic Swordsman. If she were to be endangered by this level of power, Tirkanjaka wouldn't have survived until now.
“Ugh. It doesn't seem like there will be a big problem, but...”
After a long period of deliberation, Shei took out the Cheoneung she had kept floating above her head.
Cheoneung, Shei was swinging it like a sword, but its essence was an extremely compressed space. This was why it had no weight or thickness. Cheoneung, which pried open space and sliced it off, was sharper than any sword in the world.
Shei shook Cheoneung in the air, infused it with magical power, and explained.
“My magic uses Cheoneung as a medium. Since the medium is such a powerful object, it has the disadvantage of clearly possessing the sky attribute, but since the sky itself contains countless phenomena, I can reproduce all of them if I just prepare.”
Wind flowed out from Cheoneung. The compressed space was released and began to expand its presence. A space that suddenly swelled up. As the air, which had grown cold while expanding its body, touched the skin, the water vapor, which had been shivering from the cold, clung to it as soon as it met the warmth of the skin.
Of course, vampire skin was an exception. Their bodies were as cold as the swollen air.
“Wind, Cloud, Rain, Dew, Frost, Snow, Thunder, and Lightning. The wind creates clouds, the clouds bring rain, and the dew springs from the ground and forms on the grass blades. An ordinary daily life soaked by invisible tiny water droplets.”
And after that.
The air fluctuated ominously.
A wind vibrating as if seized by fear. The space, having noticed the precursor of the ominous omen, scattered in a commotion.
In the midst of it, Shei's hair stirred. Not because of the wind, but a tingling, regular movement like a heartbeat.
Shei tightly gripped Cheoneung and released her magical power. The magic power spreading from her entire body surged up, flew into the air, and gathered in one place.
Its shape exactly resembled a cloud. In the Abyss where no sky existed, a piece of cloud floated like a still life painting.
“Frost, snowflakes, and thunderbolts. They are twisted abnormalities. If the water droplets neglect their role as messengers, the conflict between the earth and the sky reaches its extreme and drops the twisted things. What I will summon is a roar. A majestic rebuke the sky inflicts upon the world.”
Lightning flashed from the pitch-black dark clouds flowing out of Cheoneung. The cloud, containing immense power, slowly headed over Tirkanjaka's head. While her clothes and hair rose, feeling the ominous precursor, Tirkanjaka only looked ahead without saying a word.
“Tell me if it hurts. I'll stop.”
Tirkanjaka did not answer. Shei let out a deep sigh and inscribed the magic into the world.
“Heavenly Sword Qi, Thunderbird.”
Immediately after, the lightning flashed.