Chapter 56
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: No Different from the Abyss
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I was no different from the Abyss.
"...Esira?"
I had good reason for not immediately concluding it was her.
Because it wasn't the Esira from my childhood.
Though it did resemble the Esira from the game, somewhat.
A namesake? Or an illusion conjured by the Abyss.
Since I'd been in the Abyss's clutches right up until arriving here, the latter seemed far more likely.
The Abyss always preyed on people's weakest spots. In fact, I'd already been duped by a fake Esira.
Thanks to Asrania's body, I kept up a calm facade on the outside.
I quickly analyzed the situation.
First, they couldn't see me.
Second, physical contact was impossible.
I was a thoroughly excluded observer.
'What the hell is going on?'
No matter how hard I wracked my brain, comprehending the current situation was beyond me. It far exceeded the bounds of my understanding.
Right then.
The child Esira toddled over from behind me.
I figured she'd pass right by, but she slowed her steps in front of me and stopped. She tilted her head up and stared straight at me.
A hollow laugh mingled with a sigh escaped me naturally.
"...Abyss."
I gazed down at the monster masquerading as a child, my eyes devoid of emotion.
"What trick is this now?"
I was starting to wonder what scheme it had in mind—what secrets lay tangled between Asrania and this Abyss.
Wasn't fooling me with a fake Esira and killing me off enough?
"Showing me this peaceful scene... planning to gift me some despair?"
To shatter me, it'd conjured such a cruel illusion.
The chances of returning to Esira's side were now slim to none.
This radiant world unfolding before my eyes...
Hell mocking me, perhaps.
The fake Esira's lips parted.
I'd expected mockery—a taunt about a future I'd never see again.
"...I'm sorry."
The Abyss, speaking through Esira's voice, bowed her head. Her shoulders trembled visibly. Her gaze dropped to the ground.
Just like a child who'd sinned, begging forgiveness.
Too convincing. All the more revolting.
"Sorry?"
I stepped forward, peering down at the crown of her head.
If I'd had a greatsword in hand, would I have crushed that skull in one blow?
Or would I still hesitate, unable to strike this fake Esira?
Even knowing it was fake, facing down Esira to cut her was something else entirely.
"Uttering such loathsome words now, of all times."
Anger boiled hot within me, yet strangely, my gut felt ice-cold.
"Rummaging through my memories, borrowing the face of someone precious to me. Toying with me like that... you monster."
I seized her chin and forced her face up. My grip worked on this fake Esira.
I wanted to make her confess it all again, from her own mouth.
"Quite the novel approach."
This, at least, was sincere. No ordinary monster could stage a scene like this.
"Scare tactics failed, so now you're trying to stir up guilt? Hoping I'd be touched by this pathetic charade and shed tears?"
Tears welled up in the child's eyes.
As I watched the act, tears poised to trail down her cheeks, I swallowed the rising disgust.
"Don't apologize. Don't you dare utter 'sorry' with that face, from those lips."
The Abyss said nothing. She merely stared at me, her expression fragile, as if it might crumble any second.
I didn't look away.
That upward gaze, brimming with heartbreak—it was convincingly pitiful.
"Mock me instead. Mangle me, ridicule my wretched, homeless state. That's a role far more fitting for a monster like you."
Even as I bellowed, the child only worked her lips silently. It didn't matter. Whatever lay at the end of this illusion.
I had zero intention of falling for such obvious deceit.
Undeterred by my razor-sharp killing intent, the paradise breeze blew gently.
Carried on the flower-scented wind came a tender voice that clawed at my heart.
In the heart of the flower field stood others.
A slightly more mature Esira, and Asrania gazing at her with affection.
They were immersed in a brilliant moment—the polar opposite of the hell I endured.
"Asrania, why the long face again? Anyone would think you were dragged out here against your will."
The illusory Esira poked Asrania's side playfully, laughing.
Asrania pulled a face of distaste, but it didn't seem genuine.
"It's not that. The weather's just too perfect—hard to get used to."
"Tch, liar. You've been overdoing it behind my back, haven't you? How's the wound?"
"This is nothing. Don't worry about it."
"Liar. I know you've been diving into nothing but dangerous spots lately. I'm seriously worried sick."
They truly seemed like inseparable friends.
I clenched my teeth until my jaw ached.
I roughly released the fake Esira's chin.
"...Ha."
At first, bewilderment. But in the end, fury welled up.
As if rubbing it in to me—the one left alone, unable to protect a thing.
The hitherto silent fake Esira finally spoke.
"...This is the past."
"The past."
"A tale from ages ago, one Mom doesn't remember."
I wanted to snap at her for still calling her 'Mom.'
But she seemed poised to say more, so I held back.
"The past? Trying to beguile me with such a flimsy word."
I let out a scoff.
"Some phantasm you pilfered from my memories and molded at whim. You thought I'd swallow it whole if you blinded my eyes and ears?"
"No... please, believe me..."
The child looked up at me, eyes brimming with a mix of injustice and sorrow.
Tears fell in fat drops.
The Abyss creature, repeatedly clenching and unclenching her fists.
As if steeling herself for something momentous, she bit her lip.
"...Then."
The child drew something from her bosom and offered it.
A stone glowing with red light.
Blood Cell.
"Hold this."
"Why give this to me?"
The child seized my hand and forced the stone into it. Unlike her icy fingers, the stone radiated an eerily intense heat.
"If I'm deceiving you... if you want to kill me. Shatter it anytime."
"What?"
The child met my gaze unflinchingly. She drew even closer, continuing cautiously.
"I am the Blood Cell itself. Breaking it would burst my heart. I'd die too."
The unforeseen words furrowed my brow instinctively.
Handing her own lifeline right into my grasp.
The Abyss excelled at cunning, but this approach...
"Putting your life up as collateral."
I rolled the red gem between my fingers. It felt neither cold nor hot, yet beneath my palm, it pulsed faintly like a heartbeat.
"Yes. So... please, just watch till the end."
It was desperate.
Too earnest to pass for mere acting.
I glanced back and forth between the child and the Blood Cell.
It could be a trap. And considering the Blood Cell's power, all the more suspicious.
Perhaps by now, I'd resigned myself.
What more was there to lose?
I tightened my grip on the Blood Cell.
I heard the child swallow hard.
"Fine. I'll hold onto your life for a while."
At my response, she exhaled in relief.
I turned to the two, leaning affectionately under the sunlight.
"Mom and Esira were close. That's your proof."
I shifted my gaze, then back to the child.
"If it's an old tale, does that mean we reincarnated?"
"No."
The fake Esira stated firmly.
"Mom didn't die. Only Esira reincarnated."
A detail never revealed even in the original story.
'Then, in the game... what relation brings Asrania and Esira together?'
As questions piled upon questions, the child waved her hand.
"Nothing more to see here."
In an instant, the blinding sunlight winked out.
"What I want to show is next."
The flower scent morphed into a fishy tang of blood, warm sunlight yielding to musty wood and encroaching shadows that filled my vision.
"...This place."
The interior of an ancient wooden house.
Worn walls and furniture bearing the marks of time.
Only faint moonlight seeping through the window frame barely pierced the gloom.
There was Asrania.
I approached as if entranced; the first thing that caught my eye was red. Her hands were a mess of sticky blood.
Clutched in her bloodied fist: a Blood Cell.
Identical to the one in my hand. The stone akin to the Abyss's heart.
Asrania stared piercingly at the desk.
Atop it sat a glass culture dish.
Shattered fragments of Blood Cell.
'...She crushed it?'
Squirm, plop.
Black mucus oozed from the red shards, soon taking form.
Unmistakably the Abyss.
"With this..."
Asrania muttered, her face strangely elated.
"A new birth."
She gazed long at the newborn Abyss fragment, then scooped up the remaining red Blood Cell shard.
Her hand moved to her mouth.
Gulp.
She swallowed it without hesitation.
I watched blankly as the Blood Cell slid down her throat.
The suffocating realization hit belatedly.
"That's how I was born. Through the Blood Cell inside Mom."
"Ha."
So that's why she called her 'Mom.'
The fake Esira's words pierced my mind.
'She said my heart was a Blood Cell too.'
The Abyss born before my eyes had emerged from a Blood Cell as well.
Black mucus seeping from the fragment.
The sight of it taking shape. I'd witnessed it with my own eyes.
'Then I...'
A chill raced down my spine.
Asrania's reason for being deemed out-of-spec.
'Because I'm not human.'
I harbored a Blood Cell fully within my body and lived.
Or perhaps... I was the Blood Cell.
I was no different from the Abyss.
Same roots. Same essence. Same bloodline.
Only one question held me back.
How far could I trust this vision from the Abyss?
Was any of it true?