Abyss, Girl, and Lies (7)
The instant it happened, Shinryong’s voice reached me, warning that the city was in danger.
From that single moment, I realized she would never arrive in time. So I clenched my teeth, unleashed the divine artifact, and detonated my divine power to illuminate the surroundings. I fought with everything I had to pull Lee Seha, who had been sucked into the pond, back out. In the end, I gripped the artifact tightly, tore through the darkness, and hurled myself into the pond.
“Ugh———!”
In that instant, Lee Seha’s memories flooded into me. The Abyss was wielding darkness to devour her and seize her body. I kicked off harder, pushed past the memories, and broke through the isolated boundary beneath the pond. My entire body was being savagely torn apart by the swirling Abyss, yet I still managed to set foot inside the boundary where she was trapped.
The moment my feet touched that isolated boundary, I swung my fist and hurled the Abyss that was consuming Lee Seha far away.
“You… you’re Niyu!?”
The Abyss, its delicious meal interrupted, recognized me at once. Perhaps I looked even more appetizing than the prey it had already caught, because it tried to erode me first. But my hand still held Shinryong’s divine artifact, brimming with divine power. I read the memories stored within it and manifested a massive greatsword of azure light.
“Lee Seha is not some rookie you can toy with———!!”
I swung the blade mercilessly, beginning our fight. Yet because it wasn’t a fully manifested greatsword, the weight kept shifting. No matter how quickly I struck, I couldn’t land a clean blow on the creature’s weak points as it dodged nimbly. Worse, the Abyss’s malice kept burrowing into my body. Realizing this battlefield was far too disadvantageous for a prolonged battle, I seized the moment when it leaned aside to dodge my attack, snatched up the fallen Lee Seha, and fled toward the surface of the pond.
At the same time, it stretched a hand toward me, firing darkness while screaming.
“You think that pathetic scrap of divine power can seal me again!?”
Of course, I flipped the creature—currently mimicking Lee Seha’s father—the middle finger. I detonated my divine power to scatter the darkness, dealt it a shock, and succeeded in clutching the unconscious Lee Seha tightly as I burst back out of the pond.
“Damn it, wake up, Lee Seha———!!”
Her condition was terrible. As a former spirit, I had Shinryong’s mystery dwelling within me, which let me suppress the erosion to some degree. But Lee Seha was human. She should have only suffered partial erosion around her neck inside the boundary, yet when I looked again after we emerged, the corruption had already swallowed everything from her chin down through her entire upper body.
At this rate, we wouldn’t last until Shinryong arrived. I wouldn’t even have time to hold the thing back. I immediately canceled the greatsword’s manifestation and handed the still-radiating divine artifact to Lee Seha, whose eyes had opened at my desperate cry.
“Your life is not a lie, Lee Seha.”
I slowly approached the creature that was beginning to crawl out of the pond once more.
“I’ll make sure of it…!!”
Perhaps because I had let the Abyss erode me, I could now feel its touch clearly again at my fingertips. To draw it out more surely, I deliberately caught the flying fragments of darkness and allowed them to erode my body further. If the Abyss covered more than seventy percent of me, I would be able to summon it in its complete form.
Back when I had fallen to corruption, when I had floundered in the Abyss with a corrupted body and mind, the thing that had been born beside me and always protected me from the Abyss was this very blade.
“Ugh———!!”
The moment I grasped at empty air, countless horrific memories of those lost days surged through my head. The agony of humans’ endless malice burning the forest flooded my entire body once more. Even my current skin began to scorch black under the fierce black flames that blazed from the greatsword. From the instant I seized the hilt, the sanity I had somehow maintained shattered. When the blade itself tore free, the shattered fragments of the broken sword flew in every direction and stabbed into my arms and legs.
Overwhelmed by the countless waves of erosion, I couldn’t endure the pain and squeezed my eyes shut. Yet I ignited my unyielding will again, snapped my eyes open, and glared at the half-drawn greatsword.
“I am Niyu now———!!”
Even amid that torrent of agony, I refused to let go of myself. I drew the blade that had swallowed all my ugly past whole, yet I refused to return to the corrupted spirit I once was. Inside the maddening pain and the echoes of erosion, I desperately struggled to remember every last memory I shared with Shinryong. With a savage sound like space itself being gnawed apart, I seized the greatsword that tore free from the void with both hands.
“Uaaaaah———!!”
I sliced away the countless tides of malice rushing toward me in a single stroke.
It was a slash powerful enough to cleave even the solid ground in one cut. The air itself tore apart with an explosive roar. The surrounding darkness was carved away, restoring even the faint but certain momentary light. It was a cataclysmic strike.
The divine power of Shinryong that dwelled in this land began to reveal itself as the darkness my slash had swept away lifted, briefly halting our erosion. But the endless darkness soon began to devour even that newly revealed divine power. The momentary azure glow that had sparkled faded helplessly once more.
The malice riding that darkness surged in again, tearing at me once more. Worse, countless streams of malice began to flow persistently from my own greatsword, crawling up my fingertips and burrowing straight into my heart. It spoke to me. Keep going. Keep going. It whispered for me to abandon reason, surrender to instinct, to stop forgiving the humans I had hated so much and devote everything once more to the urge to destroy. Burn everything. Corrode everything. Steal everything.
The grotesque voices pouring endlessly from the blade drove me into overwhelming delirium. I felt as if I would go mad at any second.
“Shut up….”
I stomped the ground hard with my left foot, steadying my staggering body, and shouted.
“I am Niyu… I will not return to who I was that day———!!”
I immediately readjusted my grip on the greatsword and annihilated the surging malice once more. The sharp sound of shaaak rang out several times in every direction. Countless fragments of malice were sliced apart and scattered into darkness. Yet the darkness I had carved away with such effort began to gather again, condensing back into malice. It regained physical form and a humanoid shape, charging at me once more.
Still, I refused to yield. I kept slashing, slowly advancing, resisting the endless echoes of the Abyss to the very end. I cut away the hands that tried to corrupt me by seizing the Abyss, that kept trying to seduce me without pause, and pressed forward.
And then—
“Haa… haaa…!!”
After that bloody struggle, I finally reached the pond again. I was about to throw myself back inside to let the creature taste my greatsword once more, to let it taste the endless burning hatred I still controlled—when a scream rang out.
“Kyaaaaaah———!!”
It was Lee Seha.
“Lee Seha———!!”
The coward had ignored me, already heavily eroded by the Abyss, and instead grabbed Lee Seha from behind as she caught her breath, beginning to devour her. Simply eroding her wouldn’t grant the spiritual power it desired, yet after watching my desperate resistance, it seemed content to simply consume her.
I spun around and leaped toward Lee Seha. I immediately sliced away the humanoid shadow that held her and fully released the divine artifact she had dropped during the ambush. Fortunately, the artifact suppressed the erosion even further, allowing her to protect her own consciousness. I smiled in relief at the sight of her.
But Lee Seha, staring at me, began to look horrified.
“Y-you…! Your body…!”
I tried to reassure her by saying that this much used to be an everyday occurrence for me.
“This much———”
But at that moment, a wet puuuk sound came from my abdomen as something hot gushed out.
“Kyaaaaaah———!!”
“…….”
Before I knew it, my stomach had been pierced by a materialized malice. The moment my bright red blood sprayed everywhere, that was when it happened.
“…Haa.”
My consciousness flickered in fragments. The countless echoes grew faint. At the same time, the Abyss that should have caused my body to collapse instead exploded outward. It erased every malice around me and began slaughtering them mercilessly. My eyes, stained crimson by the blood pouring from me, used the greatsword to stab and shatter not only those tides of malice but everything else in sight.
Deep inside the pond, the Abyss faltered. The darkness it had been spewing endlessly began to hesitate and stop. Even though I had lost consciousness for only an instant, I unconsciously destroyed every trace of darkness and malice around me. Despite the hole in my abdomen, I unconsciously connected the dripping, viscous Abyss to seal the wound. My movements became lighter, more destructive.
“N-Niyu———!!”
The moment Lee Seha’s voice, filled with worry for me, rang out loudly, the echoes once again flooded my head. I regained my senses. The sealed Abyss scattered, and the newly reopened hole in my stomach caused pain to spread through my entire body. I frowned and hunched over sharply.
“Kuh…!!”
Even so, this level of pain was nothing compared to the memories of those days that had returned to me. Having regained my mind, I returned to Lee Seha and continued cutting down the malice that stubbornly targeted only her even while my unconscious self had rampaged wildly.
“Haa… it’s over….”
Now that the situation had deteriorated this far, there was no longer any chance I could handle it with my own strength. Simply cutting away the malice that kept swarming around Lee Seha had already pushed me to my limit. In the end, I let out a sigh.
Seeing me like that, Lee Seha began to sink back into the swamp of despair. Yet when I tried to swing the greatsword once more to protect her, she suddenly reached out and grabbed my hand.
“That’s enough now….”
Hot tears streamed down her face, tears that no longer held any meaning.
“I’m sorry, Niyu….”
In this war that no longer seemed to have any hope, in this situation where we were simply crushed beneath the overwhelming malice of the Abyss, I lowered the greatsword while looking at her as she gave up on everything. Once again the malice surged toward us. The two of us—horribly eroded and crumbling—were seized once more and dragged down into the depths of the pond, beyond that deep boundary.
This seemed to be the end.
We had failed to protect the human world from the Abyss. The gatekeeper Shinryong, her loyal servant, and the Abyss hunter would all perish miserably here. It seemed that was how it would end….
……Yet a smile still lingered on my lips.
In truth, I had not lowered the greatsword and allowed myself to be dragged away because I had given up in that final moment. There was another reason I had set the blade down. There was another reason I had relaxed my strength, let the malice seize me, and allowed myself to be pulled into the depths beyond the pond.
“No matter how much you struggle, you can’t kill me, Niyu~”
Completely unaware of that, the will of the Abyss—now mimicking Shinryong—knelt and tried to violate me. It couldn’t read the atmosphere at all. Convinced it had devoured everything and won the war, it was gloating triumphantly. I kept my head bowed, barely holding back the laughter that threatened to burst out, then slowly lifted my gaze and showed it a smile brimming with ecstasy.
“Why are you grinning?”
At the creature’s puzzled question, I felt the warm azure pulse coming from my burning heart along with the smile that kept dripping uncontrollably from my face.
You must have realized where I am by now.
There’s no need to doubt. Just come and take me.
“Didn’t you find it strange that you couldn’t sense anything about the city?”
So I told it about the things it had forgotten. The creature looked down at me as if I were pathetic. Still believing it had won, it laughed at me and slowly covered my body with darkness in a leisurely manner.
“That was originally meant to bind the Divine Dragon——”
Watching it answer so casually, completely unaware, I grinned and shouted.
“Do you know how much time you wasted on me?”
In that instant, the foolish will of the Abyss finally realized it had lost track of Shinryong’s location. The moment its relaxed expression completely collapsed and it urgently reached toward me in panic, that final fleeting moment arrived. The instant the Abyss tried to seize my body and break the seal completely to emerge outside. The very moment its fingertips were about to touch me.
With only about a centimeter of distance left. An incredibly short, fleeting instant.
The moment its fingertips were a single finger’s width from my face—
“Niyu.”
Finally, from behind me, her calm voice rang out. At the same time, the will of the Abyss before my eyes began to writhe in agony as a massive pillar of divine power poured down, setting its entire body ablaze. It struggled desperately to maintain its horribly twisted form as it was scorched by that enormous power. Yet I leaned my body against the impossibly gentle azure divine power before me and slowly lost consciousness.
“Sorry I’m late.”
While I bought time, Shinryong had resealed all eight sealing spheres that were under attack in the forest and returned. I gave her the brightest, freshest smile I could manage.
“Shinryong….”
But I had expended too much strength. I began to collapse helplessly. My fading consciousness sank away, and I lost awareness not long after. The greatsword I had gripped until the very end even while restrained slipped from my hand and clattered to the ground. The moment it touched the floor, it shattered into pieces and vanished, sublimating into the lingering echoes of darkness.
Shinryong caught me as I staggered and began to fall, pulling me tightly into her arms. She hurriedly examined my body, quickly treating the hole in my abdomen first. Then she began to inspect the Abyss that clung to me like glue.
“You worked so hard, Niyu….”
Her hands began to tremble badly as she gently stroked the Abyss that had pressed itself so tightly it was almost impossible to remove. Before my consciousness was completely severed in her embrace, I took her worried hand in mine and spoke calmly.
“I still remember….”
So please don’t worry. I was still here, unchanged. The thing you feared would never happen.
“I’m Niyu….”
Because the me who still remains here… made sure of it.
“Niyu….”
At that moment, Shinryong clenched her trembling fist to steady herself, then poured a vast amount of divine power into my heart. The Abyss that had been burrowing into my body gradually stopped its erosion and was finally completely halted. Watching my corruption cease, Shinryong laid me down gently with a hardened expression. Her two horns began to burn quietly. She wrapped her entire body in the boiling divine power, gathered the raging energy, and rose from my side where I lay peacefully.
She looked at the will of the Abyss—which had been caught by that impossible scale of divine power, unable to flee, and was suffering in place—with eyes burning with murderous intent. Then she stretched out her fingertips, violently gathered the boiling divine power, and reached toward the Abyss. Once enough divine power had gathered, she swung her arm roughly. Chains of sealing shot out from every direction and began to wrap around it. The creature’s body was soon horribly twisted and bound by the chains.
“Niyuuuuuuuu———!!”
The will of the Abyss, now wrapped in even stronger sealing chains than before, screamed my name in a wretched voice.
“I will definitely, definitely take it all back———!!”
Right before it was sealed, it spat out its final death cry.
“Everything of yours again———!!!”
Its voice vanished completely the instant the countless chains that poured down from all around it clattered and bound its limbs. The darkness that had settled everywhere began to lift, and the voice that had been echoing inside my head finally fell silent. Seha’s parents… they all disappeared as well.
“Seha.”
But for some reason, right in front of where Shinryong stood, in front of the bundle of chains where the creature had been sealed, she made a light gesture. A pure white light suddenly burst forth with dazzling brightness, creating a small door that seemed to lead somewhere beyond the boundary.
Beyond that door of light, a single figure called out to Lee Seha in a voice full of sorrow. He stood quietly beyond it, watching us.
“Seha… Seha, it really is you….”
Lee Seha, who had been lying down in relief now that the situation was safely over and feeling the divine power ease the pain of erosion, suddenly looked up in shock. The middle-aged man slowly walked out of the pouring light so his face could be seen clearly.
“A-ah… Father… Dad….”
He looked at Lee Seha with a sorrowful face for a long time.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Seha….”
He spoke to her in a voice that was truly, truly heartbreaking. When Shinryong, standing beside him, quietly said that time was short, the man continued in an urgent yet deeply sincere voice.
“Your dad… was such an inadequate person. I left you behind and went first… and ended up making things like this….”
Lee Seha’s eroded body was so heavy that she remained seated, yet she still tried desperately to stand and run to her real father, whose mind was intact. But she failed to move her legs and collapsed onto the floor. Unable to do anything, she shook her head again and again at her father’s words from within the light and burst into heavy tears.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t love you all this time, Seha… I wanted to stay by your side forever. I’m sorry….”
At her father’s continuing voice, Lee Seha could no longer hold back. She pounded the floor and began to sob violently.
“It will be difficult now, Seha… but this time, live healthily and happily for a long time… and if you are born as our daughter again in the next life, then at that time….”
When Shinryong finally spoke in a heavy voice, saying that time was almost up, Lee Seha somehow forced her broken body to kick off the ground. Even though she only staggered and stumbled, she ran.
Her father caught her with trembling hands and embraced her as if he never wanted to let go again. As if he never wanted to leave her behind like he had before. He held her tightly with loving hands.
“This time, I will protect you even if I have to offer the entire world…!!”
In the end, he could not hold back his tears and wept together with Lee Seha. Her father patted her back again and again as she sobbed desperately, repeatedly calling out for her dad.
“I’m truly, truly sorry, Seha… I’m so sorry, Seha…!”
The moment he saw Shinryong slowly take hold of Lee Seha’s shoulders to pull her away—
“It is time.”
Looking at Shinryong as she began to separate Lee Seha from him, he quietly whispered his thanks for being allowed to see his daughter even for a short while.
“I love you, Seha… I loved you so much that I would not have regretted trading you for the entire world….”
With those final words, he was sucked back into the pure white light.
“Even without us… you grew up so well… thank you, Seha———.”
“Dad! Daaaaaad———!!”
Still held by Shinryong, Lee Seha reached out with both hands, flailing wildly, trying to catch her father as he began to disappear, turning into sparkling particles of light. She twisted her whole body like a madwoman… and wailed until her throat felt like it would tear.
“Aaaaaah!! Aaaaah, Daaaaad, Daaaaaaaad———!!”
Shinryong held Lee Seha’s shoulders and stood there for a long time. I wonder what she was thinking as she quietly watched over her. Her horns had grown cold again, and her tail hung limply toward the floor. But even now, it was easy to understand her thoughts. In the end, we too had shared similar experiences and carried similar wounds, yet we still wanted to see a bright tomorrow and continued to live on. We were beings who held the exact same heart.
The fact that Shinryong also shed a few tears while standing there was something only I knew. Even though I had lost consciousness, I had been able to watch the entire situation from the boundary beneath this pond connected to the room where the Abyss was sealed. No one else would have known.
“Hic… hic….”
By the time Lee Seha finally stopped crying, Shinryong brought us out of the pond and returned with everyone to the courtyard. She gathered me and Lee Seha—both already half-dead from the Abyss’s erosion—in one place. She wrapped divine power around one hand and carefully peeled away every last bit of the corruption that clung to our bodies.
Only then did warmth return. I regained consciousness and slowly opened my eyes. I looked at Shinryong and smiled.
Now I understood what she had been hiding from me. Why she had wanted to keep me out of the fight against the Abyss so badly. Why she had not wanted to expose me to such danger. I had discovered the clue down there.
But I had no desire to speak of it. I had immediately realized why she wanted to hide it so much, and I was not so shocked by the matter that I felt the need to scratch at the scab and reveal the truth. I simply looked at the person who had only ever loved me and smiled.