The Forsaken
Meanwhile, in Eden—a world burned to ash, facing its own apocalypse and death beyond the monitor screen—Aria lay on her bed in a cramped, cell-like room in the infirmary. It was a tiny space, barely enough for privacy, and she stared blankly at the ceiling.
The salty, bizarre taste of canned meat and cookie crumbs still lingered on her tongue. That base, overwhelming flavor had silenced her hunger, but at the same time, it had etched a deep sense of guilt into her soul.
The shame of having touched an offering from a heretical Outer God. Aria squeezed her eyes shut. In the darkness, memories of the glorious, peaceful days of the past came flooding back.
Only a short while ago, the continent of Eden had been radiant. Clerics of every race, including Aria, could communicate directly with the gods they served. These were the beings of the Pantheon, known as the 'Gods of Order.' From racial deities like the Dwarf God of the Forge or the Elven World Tree, to conceptual gods governing justice and abundance, they had always been by the side of mortals.
Aria, too, as a noble saintess of the Order, had communed with Lumen, the God of Light she served.
Her life had been one of kneeling in the sanctuary every morning, receiving the warm oracles of Lumen, and delivering benevolent words to those who served the light.
It was an unquestionable blessing, a perfect daily routine.
In those days, from the kings of the various kingdoms and the highest emperors of the empire to the starving poor in the back alleys, no one denied the existence of the gods.
In a world where oracles descended from temples every weekend and the light of miracles healed the sick, being an atheist was merely treated as the ramblings of a lunatic.
Of course, there were exceptions. The arrogant, insufferable mages of the Magic Tower.
They mocked faith as irrational superstition, going around claiming that gods did not exist, or that even if they did, they were like parasites harmful to us mortals.
Naturally, people loathed those insufferable nerds to the extreme.
It had become such a staple of folk culture that whenever people grew bored during long periods of peace, or when public order was disrupted by things like plagues, they would gather in the square to beat the mages senseless.
It was a peaceful era where seeing a mage or two branded as a heretic and pummeled wasn't even worth mentioning over drinks.
But the summer of the Pantheon, which seemed like it would last forever, ended in such a futile way. There were no signs. Not even a small, or even ambiguous, warning oracle.
One morning, every oracle in the world simply ceased. The presence of the gods, which had wrapped around the souls of all the faithful, was ripped away as if someone had violently torn out the roots of a tree buried deep in the earth.
Eden fell into a panic. Priests and archbishops of every race, including Aria, buried their heads in altars and wept tears of blood, but the heavens remained silent. Miracles vanished, and only a hollow emptiness lingered in the sanctuaries.
Just as people were going mad with extreme anxiety, the oblivious mages of the Magic Tower crossed the line again, acting like trolls stirring up trouble on a message board.
"See! We told you so! The gods have abandoned you!"
The mages, who had crawled out into the square to mock and jeer, were seized by a crowd that had lost its reason to rage. This time, they were truly burned at the stake in the middle of the street—crispy on the outside, moist on the inside.
However, the madness of that day, which covered everything in the stench of burning flesh, was merely the prelude to destruction.
Finally, the most ominous omen descended as a horrific reality. The sky tore open, small stars fell, and bizarre minions of the Outer Gods began to pour out from the rifts in dimensions.
It was a one-sided massacre where the very concept of a defensive battle couldn't even take hold. The sturdy underground fortresses and mines of the Dwarves, which boasted of their resilience, collapsed in a single day.
The vast, lush forests—as large as the sea—that had been cared for by the beautiful and fragrant World Tree, the pride of the Elves, were engulfed in black flames and turned to ash. The wide grasslands of the Beastkin and the massive imperial capitals of the humans were trampled and conquered under the feet of the Outer Gods in an instant.
In the sky flew beings that could only be called demons of the most bizarre forms; on the ground, corrupted beasts swarmed; and in the water, horrific aquatic monsters like the Kappa outside the castle walls lay in wait. There was nowhere left in the world to run.
Rumors reached them that temporary shelters or final fortresses built in the outskirts were still holding out, but even Aria couldn't be sure if they were truly alive.
The only mystery was that these Outer Gods, who possessed such overwhelming power, had not completely eradicated or burned away the mortals of Eden. They had very cunningly left behind, dotting the landscape, a minimum number of refugees, shelters, cities, castles, and villages.
They hadn't finished them off, but left them hanging on the edge of a cliff, as if watching the despair of the tiny mortals like an interesting toy.
'They must intend to use me as a toy.'
Aria gripped the bedsheets tightly. The incomprehensible whims of the Outer Gods. The smooth tin can and clear water that had fallen onto the altar earlier today were clearly a vicious bait, intended to make them submit and use them as puppets for new entertainment.
'God of Light. Even if they starve me to death, they will not be able to corrupt my soul.'
Aria swore it to herself hundreds of times. Even if her body had succumbed to the canned meat they provided, she vowed that she would never offer her noble faith to those bizarre Outer Gods.
She tried to force her heavy eyelids shut to sleep.
Grrr-
But her empty stomach screamed again, as if to say it could not be satisfied with mere scraps of canned meat and a few crumbs of crackers.
Aria snapped her eyes open. She stared at the ceiling as darkness fell and let out a long, deep sigh.
"Truly... can I hold out?"
Her confident vow was rendered meaningless by a wave of intense skepticism. She didn't fear starving to death herself. But could the young children dying in the next room and the exhausted, sick brothers and sisters endure this extreme agony? She couldn't be sure.
The Gods of Order, whom she had served her entire life, had abandoned them at the most horrific moment. And ironically, it was the unknown Outer God—the one she hated so much—who had put life-sustaining food into their mouths today, even if it was a pitifully small amount, while everyone was drying up and dying from hunger and thirst.
A world gone mad, where the good gods are silent and the evil Outer God provides bread and water. That terrible contradiction was tearing Aria's soul to shreds and scraping at the very bottom of it.
She writhed in agony, remembering another Outer God that had tempted her before. It was the master of those horrific water monsters occupying the river outside the castle walls, the entity known as one of the Seven Calamities.
When was it, exactly? She couldn't even remember the time properly anymore. The journey to flee here, leading the few brothers and sisters who had barely survived, was hell itself.
The monsters that poured out as the sky tore open had no mercy. Bizarre flying beasts that dove through ominous clouds snatched the refugees by their hair and tore them in half in mid-air. On the ground, beasts with tentacles sprang out and tore people's limbs apart.
"Saintess! Don't look back, just run!"
The holy knights and soldiers of the Order, who had once shone brilliantly, willingly threw their lives away to become meat shields in that chaotic hellscape where blood and flesh splattered.
Even as their heavy plate armor was crumpled like paper by the monsters' claws, and their holy swords—which they had thought it disrespectful to even use in daily life—were shattered, they jumped into the monsters' maws with their shining weapons, solely to buy time for Aria and the children to escape. It felt as if it were raining blood from the sky, and the ground was slushy with entrails.
Aria bit her lip, weeping tears of blood. Keeping the knights' dying wish not to look back in her heart, she supported those who couldn't walk and held the children's hands tightly as she ran and ran.
The place they had finally reached, crossing the river via a bridge after treading upon the noble sacrifices of so many, was this old, long-abandoned castle in the middle of the river.
At first, it was bearable. In the middle of the night, they would lower thick ropes outside the castle walls to draw up river water. Even though it was muddy water mixed with impurities, they survived day by day, grateful for the fact that they could at least moisten their throats with that.
But even that small hope was shattered immediately. One day, bizarre water monsters with green scales appeared from the river and surrounded the castle walls layer by layer.
That night, some children, exhausted by thirst, tried to go down the ropes without the nuns knowing to draw river water. And webbed hands that sprang from beneath the surface grabbed the children's ankles and dragged them into the river.
They couldn't even scream. When Aria reached out in horror from atop the castle wall, all that floated to the surface were the empty buckets the children had taken, and water stained deep red with blood.
Since that day, they hadn't even been able to approach the river water. The Outer God of the Seven Calamities had the water monsters control the waterway completely, mocking Aria. Every night, it whispered horrific temptations into her ear, saying that if she became its own 'Maman' and offered her soul, it would give her clear water to drink for the rest of her life.
Aria covered her ears and held out. Fortunately, it rained just in time, and thanks to an old cistern that collected rainwater, they were barely able to sustain their lives. But as if even the heavens had abandoned them, the rain soon stopped, and as of a few days ago, even the rainwater cistern had completely run dry.
Days of drying up and dying without a single drop of water. Just as she was about to bite her tongue and die, a miracle fell onto the altar.
Water, crystal clear, contained in a transparent container. Unlike the master of the disgusting water monsters that demanded her soul or body, the unknown Outer God that had appeared just moments ago had taken only a trivial material thing—a single gold coin—as payment.
Aria curled up on the bed, hugging herself tightly with both arms.
'If the children cry from hunger again tomorrow... what should I do?'
If that Outer God provides clear water and food again, can I refuse it? To save these children, whom the knights sacrificed their lives to protect, will I willingly bow my head to an unknown Outer God and offer my blind faith?
Realizing that her faith was shaking from the very bottom, hot tears flowed from Aria's eyes, soaking the pillowcase already stained with tears and sweat.