Are They Alive?

Rrrrrumble!

The day after they settled the plan to revive Pele, an earthquake struck beneath a damp sky choked with storm clouds.

"Aaah! What's going on!"

Dan Chuyeon staggered.

"An earthquake?"

Mi Soryeong braced a hand against the floor.

"No. This is—!"

Pele's eyes flew wide.

"Kh—!"

She clutched her own body and collapsed.

"Pele. Are you all right?"

"I'm... I'm fine."

She shoved Dan Miryu away as he came near.

"Mauna Loa... collapsed."

Everyone there went still.

"Ms. Mi Soryeong, would you check?"

"One moment."

At my word she was already looking at her phone.

"My god..."

She started a video at once. On the screen, Mauna Loa was coming down in a landslide, and even through a camera the scale of ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it was monstrous.

"So Ilshikgyo made their move."

Fast. Far too fast.

"Mauna Loa is a nest I built with my own hands. It's bound to my divinity."

Pele was hauling a body back together that wanted to scatter.

"The whole of it is gone. Completely."

Her teeth ground.

"The Eclipse God. That bastard absorbed my power."

"Have you weakened badly?"

Pele was a goddess of volcanoes. Damage that volcano, and the shock would be anything but small.

"Yeah. A lot."

The air sank. If ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she had weakened, a red light had just come on over everything that followed.

"Once you're free of the seal, can you recover?"

"I can. It'll take a long time."

A volcano laid down over ages is not raised in a day.

"They've swallowed a major divinity. They'll come for us at once."

"They'll need time to pull themselves together, too... but if they don't care about that, they'll be here immediately."

Pele's gaze thinned.

"Damn it. They're already coming."

"Already? They shouldn't know where we are."

"The moment the Eclipse God saw you, you were marked. Before Mauna Loa fell, I could have hidden you. Not now."

How much time had even passed?

"Pele. Can you contain the fallout of a fight?"

"Inside Kilauea, one way or another."

That would do.

"Mr. Dan Miryu. Ms. Hong Yumin. We go now."

"Ah. One moment."

Dan Miryu asked their patience, slipped the necklace from his neck, and went to Pele.

"This."

"No."

She refused it.

"Give it to the kid."

She pointed at Dan Chuyeon.

"Me?!"

"You heard the plan."

Pele met his eyes.

"You do it."

"What?! I can't! What do I know? Why would I shove myself in!"

Pele picked up the necklace and forced it into his hand.

"Child of Nature, no one else can. You'll handle this stone better than I would."

"Better than a god? How could I..."

He stole a glance at the necklace.

"I have to pour everything into breaking the seal. If I take that stone, it will only ruin my focus."

"B-but..."

"Disciple."

Hong Yumin called to him.

"I know you are shaken. But Pele would not have given it to you without reason, would she? Have confidence."

"This is too sudden..."

"Life does not wait."

She smiled, as if to tell him he could rest easy.

"You need only follow Pele's words. If it proves truly too much, leave it in her hands."

"That's right, Child of Nature. You don't have to worry about a thing."

Pele patted his shoulder.

"If something happens, I'll handle it. You only have to listen for Nature's voice."

"......"

His mouth opened, then closed.

"All right. I'll try."

"Aigoo. Precious thing."

Pele stroked his hair.

"Pele, I'm counting on you."

"Don't worry. Trust your son."

Dan Miryu set a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Keep this place safe."

"...Yes."

Resolve hardened in Dan Chuyeon's eyes.

"Come back safe."

"Krrrng."

Mi Soryeong and San-gun saw us off, and we took the road toward the crater.

"What do you make of our chances?"

Hong Yumin set her long pipe between her lips.

"That depends on what Pele does."

Pele had never once appeared in the original. I had no sense of how strong she was, nor of what the seal was like.

The Stone of Resurrection ought to break a seal, but...

"Haa..."

Dan Miryu sighed.

"Are you worried?"

"...If I am honest, yes."

He glanced back.

"Whether Chuyeon can manage..."

"He will struggle."

Hong Yumin judged her disciple without warmth.

"Chuyeon will be no help at all. Lady Pele must have her reasons for entrusting him, but I am not optimistic."

"...Right."

"And none of us knows how long the unsealing will take."

Smoke scattered away behind her.

"In truth, it means we must be the ones to end Ilshikgyo."

That was the ideal. No one knew when the seal would break, or how, and they could not afford to drag the hours out at leisure.

"Well... it'll work out somehow."

There was no telling how strong Ilshikgyo would be after devouring a divinity. Not as strong as when the Eclipse God himself had descended. If he had poured all of that power into a single person, it might have been another matter.

"We finish this before the god arrives."

"Understood."

The Eclipse God would not come easily. Even so, the story had already strayed far from the original. From here, no one knew.

The path ended, and we came out near Halemaumau Crater. Rain was falling, the kind that would not stop easily. The crater's heat was cooling, and in the darkened ring of it every body drew tight.

"They're coming."

I could see it, coming in off the edge of the horizon: a darkness eating its way through the cloud-choked sky, painting the horizon its own color.

"Hngh!"

A sound escaped Hong Yumin.

"What have they done in a single day?"

"...They have become monsters."

Dan Miryu rubbed the gooseflesh along his arm.

"How were they last ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠time?"

"Rabble."

He did not look away.

"Weak. Absurdly weak. The Stone of Resurrection did help turn aside that strange fire."

"We don't have that now."

"No."

Hong Yumin held a talisman out to him.

"A talisman against curses. I cannot say how long it will hold, so fight with care."

"Thank you."

"None for me?"

She ignored me.

"Tsk. Cold."

"Be silent. They are here."

Somewhere in the talking, the darkness had come up to our faces. It broke apart, and a blonde woman stepped out of it—beautiful, and steeped in a decadent allure.

"You're the one from then..."

"We meet again, rotten devil."

Her voice was dark and clinging.

"I have come to keep the words I spoke that day."

"Yes... they were no empty promise."

"I swore them to a god. How could they be false?"

Her eyes flicked to me.

"There is a face I do not know."

"Looked upon by someone so precious, I hardly know what to do with myself."

I greeted her.

"A pleasure. Saintess Aurone of Ilshikgyo."

"...That you know me is unexpected. The information should have been strictly controlled."

"I'm a phantom thief. I know a little of everything."

Decadence still pouring off her, the Saintess smiled a twisted smile.

"A phantom thief... You are nothing like the phantom thief I know."

"Nothing like? I'm an ordinary phantom thief. The kind you can find anywhere."

"Very well. It is of no concern."

Bang!

A black sword rose before her face, burning with black flame.

"Devils. Listen well."

Her hair drank itself black. Her clothes became a dress of black flame, and her eyes caught with the same fire. Black—she was showing Ilshikgyo's sign with her whole body.

"As the Eclipse God's apostle and sword, I grant a final mercy."

The blade turned on us.

"Offer those necks to the Eclipse God, and repent of your sins in hell."

She would hear no objection. It was only a sword pointed our way, and yet my body hung heavy, as if weights had been hung on it. The world around us dyed black. The falling rain vanished.

Beneath the Storm

☾ ECLIPSE ☽

A new sun rose under the clouds.

The Saintess had made an eclipse.

In that moment, this space became a god's domain.

The god's apostle pronounced judgment.

"Answer, devils."

Would they accept the Eclipse God's mercy and suffer for it even in hell, or would they die in misery?

"Quickly."

Not even the earthly immortal. Not even Life's Guardian. Neither could easily open their mouth. They only clenched sweat-slick hands and braced for the instant everything would break. They were feeling a god's power against their skin.

Resist that power, and life itself must feel as if it were draining away.

"Um, Saintess? I have a question."

Into that dead air, I carefully raised a hand. She tipped the sword.

"What."

"There's something I want to know before I die."

"Very well. It is your last road. I permit it."

I threw myself flat before that mercy.

"Thank you, Saintess. May the Morning Star bless you."

"Spare the nonsense and speak."

I wet my lips with my tongue.

"Come to think of it, Saintess—where did the believers who followed you go?"

She stopped dead.

"I was under the impression you didn't come to Hawaii alone."

"So where did they disappear to? Your own knight order. The faithful who were staying in Hawaii."

Her body began to tremble.

"Ah!"

I clapped, as if the answer had only just come to me.

"Don't tell me, Saintess..."

"You sent all of them to the Eclipse God's side?"

"No. Surely not. Saintess, isn't that far too cruel?"

I stepped in close, cocked my head against my shoulder, and looked into her eyes.

"They must have families. People they love."

"However badly you want us dead, to go that far..."

"Do you really think it was the right judgment?"

"Power built on other people's sacrifice—do you call that just?"

"To offer even your own kin. How horrible."

"I don't imagine the Eclipse God would care for it, either."

"Saintess. Say something."