Chapter 130: The Slanted Ceiling and the Mountain of Laughing Corpses - 2
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 130: The Slanted Ceiling and the Mountain of Laughing Corpses - 2
The conclusion was simple. They were the first to reach the Abyss, and this scene was proof that could not be fabricated.
In other words, the Sanctum had murdered the one known as the Grand Master, a Taoist of Mother Earth.
The history of the Military State, and the folk tales of the Undying, were both wrong.
This meant Tyr's story was the closest to the truth.
So, time was the greatest distorter of history after all.
Or perhaps the Sanctum’s influence had tainted every source the Military State referenced when writing its history.
Looking both dejected and enraged, containing all her indignation like a volcano dormant deep within the earth, Earth Sage trudged forward before coming to a sudden halt.
Then, with a serene smile, she looked at the figure blocking her path.
“Yes. I knew it would come to this. That fleeting presence I felt the moment I first saw you… The scent of those who live untethered to the earth. It is an air unique to that terrible ilk who justify every sin in the name of seeing the future.”
The person blocking Earth Sage's path was, of course, the Regressor.
The Regressor stood facing Earth Sage, her blue and red eyes gleaming. Earth Sage's serene smile became even more benevolent.
“Even after hearing such a hidden truth, do you intend to stop me, boy?”
Steeling herself with grim resolve, the Regressor faced Earth Sage. Unlike her usual self, she swallowed nervously before asking.
“…Let me ask you one thing.”
“What is it?”
“If you take her ‘relic’ from this place and return to the surface.”
At the peak of the mountain of corpses, the jet-black staff held gently in the woman’s hands.
Pointing to it, the Regressor asked Earth Sage again.
“What’s the first thing you’ll do?”
Earth Sage didn’t ask. She didn’t ask what the staff was, nor how the Regressor knew of it.
She simply accepted it, merely nodding her head.
“Is it not obvious?”
As if stating a self-evident truth, Earth Sage’s smile widened as she replied.
“I intend to hold the Sanctum accountable for its sins.”
A calm declaration. Against the most powerful organization in the world, the undisputed ruler in all matters of religion. The Sanctum, a group that held countless secrets and Arcanes in its grasp.
In response to Earth Sage’s declaration of war, the Regressor pressed on.
“That was in the past.”
“It is a holy crusade of the present.”
“Many will die.”
“Not as many as they have killed.”
“You’ll end up dying too.”
“I am not afraid.”
The Regressor knew she couldn’t persuade her with this alone. Instead, she posed a different question.
“What if that act leads to an even greater tragedy?”
Earth Sage scoffed. The Regressor’s question, rather than giving Earth Sage pause, seemed only to harden her resolve.
“…That precious future of yours again. You speak as if you’ve seen it firsthand. How curious. A man could never become a Saintess.”
‘She must have heard that from someone,’ Earth Sage muttered, but didn’t press the issue, clearly giving no weight to the warning of a ‘greater tragedy.’
The Regressor said desperately.
“In just a few years, a being that threatens the world will appear.”
“Is that so?”
“Even if the Sanctum falls, even if an age of the Order of Gaia and the vampires dawns, he will still appear. No—he will descend upon the world even faster, and far more powerful.”
“I see.”
A listless reply. Growing frantic, the Regressor confessed a truth she had kept hidden, fearing it would cause panic.
“The King of Sins. A judge who wields the power of the Divine to pass judgment on the sins of humanity. The Saintess of the Sanctum, the Mage King of the Mage Federation, the Sword Saint who protects the Empire… none of them would last a second against him. He is a being so powerful that all of humanity united could not hope to defeat him.”
“The Divine, you say. A name the Sanctum is fond of.”
“He is born from all the vice in the world. If you, Earth Sage, renowned and respected, were to wage war against the Sanctum… If you were to strike a blow against them alone and die a heroic death… That alone would become the spark for war. The world would be engulfed in conflict, and from it, sin would blossom. In the chaos, scoundrels who would throw the world into turmoil will appear. And in their midst….”
The King of Sins will be born.
Having consumed all the despair and vice of humankind.
The Regressor tried to explain the terrible disaster the future held, but…
“So what?”
“…Huh?”
She could only respond with a dumbfounded sound. To the bewildered Regressor, Earth Sage replied with an expression of pure, resolute clarity.
“I asked, so what?”
Step.
Her foot landed on a corpse. The body, having undergone a process akin to coagulation and sedimentation for over a thousand years, was as hard as packed earth and supported her without wavering.
“If they committed persecution to prevent a tragedy, then they must have been confident they could endure the resulting resistance. If they lacked the strength to suppress even the struggle for survival and still defeat the coming disaster, then they should never have committed such an act in the first place. After all, in the future they envisioned, there was no place for us.”
Even if it hadn’t been so firm, Earth Sage would not have stumbled.
She was the Unyielding—one who never falls, who always walks forward.
No one could stop her simply by standing in her way.
“That’s not what I mean! We have to work together to overcome this crisis, not fight each other…!”
“To send a Champion to stop me means you must be confident.”
“No! I don’t want to stop you! If you just promise to take the sword of the earth, Jizan, without using its power, I’m willing to let you have it…!”
The moment she heard those words, Earth Sage’s face twisted like a wrathful god as she roared.
“LET—ME—HAVE—IT?!”
Veins bulged on her neck. Her clenched fist made a sound like crushing rock. With a flick of her wrist, five rings on her arm clanged harshly.
Then, as if vomiting up her very soul, Earth Sage cried out.
“That belongs to us! It is our land, and it shall be our grave! A mere Champion of the Sanctum! By what right do you ‘let me have’ the Grand Master’s relic—!”
Ruuuumble.
Her shout slammed against the mountain of corpses and the slanted ceiling of Tantalus, echoing throughout the abyss. It was so powerful that the corpses beneath her feet seemed to stir.
“Don't be so arrogant as to think the future belongs to you! Even if you did claim that relic in a future without me! That does not give you the right—!”
CRUNCH.
Earth Sage clenched her fist and drew back her arm. Her muscles swelled, and the five rings merged into one, encasing her right arm completely.
Having steeled her body and mind, Earth Sage glared at the Regressor with terrifying intensity and shouted.
“Draw your sword, Champion! I will advance! I will take her relic, buried in this ancient tomb, and I will hold the Sanctum accountable for its sins! I am an apostle of Mother Earth, and I am the scream of those who die in her name! If you wish to bury this truth in the ground, then you must kill me and bury me in the Abyss—!”
The persuasion had failed. The Regressor of this timeline had also failed to stop her.
A familiar sense of defeat. The Regressor bit her lip and lowered her head. Then, her eyes met mine, down on the slope below.
‘If the one trying to persuade her hadn't been me, but someone else. Yes. If it had been him, would anything have changed?’
Impossible.
I am, at my core, one who simply listens to the wind. How could I possibly block the gale-force will of the Unyielding?
Even I didn’t know. I knew how much resentment and longing was inside her, but I never expected such violent hatred to emerge.
I’m a mind reader, not a prophet.
The Regressor sighed and spoke slowly, as if drained of all energy.
“The future… has never once been mine. It’s always been my enemy, trying to screw me over in the most unimaginable ways.”
The Regressor reached up and grasped her sword—Chun-aeng, the Sword of the Sky, her constant companion.
She unlatched the compressed space she had saved for this very day, seizing the surging power in her hand.
“Let me correct one thing. I'm no Champion of the Sanctum. I've never prayed to a god in my life, and no god has ever answered me. If anything, we've only ever fought and cursed each other.”
‘At first, I was relieved to be alive again. The second time, I was happy to have gained a strange power. The third time, I was thrilled. I thought I’d become someone special. But this specialness wasn’t a blessing, it was a curse. For someone ordinary… like me… it’s too much to bear….’
After that brief moment of self-derision, the Regressor raised her sword again.
The vast Abyss trembled.
Between the slanted ceiling and the mountain of corpses, a wind began to rage. It was as if the Abyss had reclaimed its sky and summoned the winds once more.
Whoooosh.
The cry of the wind flowed over the corpses, wailing in sorrow. Soon, that cry converged into a single point and was drawn into the Regressor’s sword.
Wreathing her sword in that immense power, the Regressor screamed.
“Fuck it! Even so! I still have to stop the world from being destroyed!”
The Regressor kicked off the corpse-strewn ground. Earth Sage slowly drew her right foot back, the earth behind her hardening to brace her body.
An invisible sword and five rings clashed.