Chapter 135: The Slanted Ceiling and the Mountain of Laughing Corpses - 7
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 135: The Slanted Ceiling and the Mountain of Laughing Corpses - 7
I sipped the remaining Hundred Crimson Blossoms as I observed the Spiritual World. Then, at the final moment, I saw the ultimate grand magic the Grand Master had used just before her death and muttered.
“Wow, she really was special. No wonder she was so arrogant.”
“Ah…”
“So the Abyss wasn’t hell? It was heaven. And because this land became the Abyss and vanished, no one could find it. Thanks to that, I returned to my main line of work after a long time and buried 300,000.”
“Ahhh…”
“But I guess it was hard to ignore the resentment of 300,000 prisoners of war? Is that why you created a relic containing the question you couldn’t choose? Good grief.”
Jizan had not yet been drawn. It was neither a sword nor a staff, but simply a jet-black rod. Its formless state was the key to this Spiritual World, the problem posed by this question.
But I was a mind reader, and at the same time, an honor student who was perennially at the top of my class in secondary school.
Reading the answer without solving the problem was a piece of cake.
“For a survey, the backstory is pretty damn grand.”
Not that there was a right answer, of course. When you got down to it, this was basically a survey the Grand Master had created with the sword of the earth, Jizan, as a freebie.
The question itself was extremely subjective, so unless I could sufficiently convince the Spiritual World, Jizan would not grant me its power.
Well, not that it had anything to do with me.
I read her intent and lifted Jizan. A jet-black, unadorned rod, impossible to tell if it was a sword or a staff.
The sword of the earth, possessing the power of Earth Art, and at the same time, a weapon more heinous than any other if wielded against a person.
“Ah, ahhh.”
“A design that makes it hard to tell if it's a staff or a sword.”
“Why, why…”
The Grand Master—or rather, her spiritual image—sobbed as if her deepest shame had been exposed.
The spiritual image was in despair, watching me tear up the survey she had so painstakingly created, fiddle with the prize as I pleased, and grasp the true meaning of this test.
“Even if it was because of those cowardly prophets, isn’t it crossing a line to test the living with a problem you couldn’t answer yourself? Oh, I don’t mean you’re arrogant. I mean you literally crossed the line between life and death.”
I shrugged at the spiritual image, which still had its head buried, sobbing.
Even if it was a spiritual image left in a relic, it was nothing more than an echo of the dead. It couldn’t possibly answer me.
I swished Jizan around and said.
“Since you’re already gone, no need for greetings. I won’t see you off, so farewell.”
Just as I was about to turn my consciousness away.
“Was it… this humble one… who was being tested?”
“Agh, you scared me! I nearly had a heart attack!”
The Grand Master’s spiritual image suddenly spoke to me.
Corpses these days really know how to surprise a guy. Why did it suddenly wake up and talk to me? Could it be that its consciousness from 1300 years ago still remains?
“Is it because this is the Abyss? The corpses, the residual thoughts, they’re all strangely odd. They’re too well-preserved, and the thoughts are clear enough to be read.”
I calmed my startled heart and narrowed my eyes, glaring at the crucifix piercing the Grand Master’s stomach.
“Or is it because of that crucifix…”
The power of the Sanctum, whose very existence was a mystery. Perhaps, like a delayed prophecy, it was delivering a question to me across 1300 years.
I stared intently at the crucifix for a moment, but nothing changed. I decided to stop caring about fruitless matters and focused on the Grand Master.
“So, should I treat you as a living person for now?”
As I was deep in thought, the wailing spiritual image of the Grand Master lifted its head.
Her eyes were as clear as a lake, and the single river of tears flowing from them was ephemeral. Her expression revealed a sorrow and anguish that transcended time.
The Grand Master’s spiritual image wept sorrowfully and pleaded with me.
“This humble one… ultimately could not choose and procrastinated, only to be driven into a corner. I did not wish to kill with my own hands, and at the end of my flight, I ended up killing myself. By running away from that place… I found peace, but a part of my heart always held onto a lingering regret.”
“How many people in this world get to pass on with no regrets? If you went peacefully, that’s all that matters.”
“Is that… truly alright? Was it alright for this humble one to flee from my sins?”
At the Grand Master’s death-cry-like shout, I met her eyes and spoke to the faintly perceptible residual thought.
“What’s wrong with running away? Fleeing in the face of an unbearable problem is one of the guaranteed paths. I don’t dislike those who try to run. In fact, I’m rather fond of them.”
“Is that so…”
“Except for those who use death as their escape.”
The spiritual image clamped its mouth shut. I knelt before the Grand Master’s image, meeting her gaze.
“Death seems like a great escape, doesn’t it? A place where no one can come find you, where no one can hold you accountable for your wrongs. It seems like the most perfect indulgence, right?”
I couldn’t read the spiritual image’s thoughts. The wall of time was something even my mind-reading couldn’t overcome. Damn this useless power.
Still, like any other ordinary person, I mustered up a reasonable amount of empathy and murmured.
“Yes, you’re right. There’s no afterlife in this world, so how could anyone come to hold you accountable for your sins? It’s easy for you.”
Even the Abyss, which actually exists, took all this trouble and chaos just to find. What if someone were to die without leaving a single trace? That would be the very pinnacle of defaulting on one’s debts.
“But you have to consider the perspective of the living. What do you know, they try to collect on a debt, and the debtor is in a place you can’t reach unless you die! How do you think the creditors feel? Who do they demand payment from for what they couldn’t collect?”
From the Spiritual World of the highest mountain, I pointed down below with my hand. Unlike here, in the farthest, lowest land, the Regressor and the Earth Sage were fighting each other.
Beings who existed, but were not visible in this Spiritual World.
“That’s why they followed you all the way to hell. To pick up the debt you postponed.”
“Ah…”
The Grand Master, having foreseen what was to come, lamented deeply. If she had simply vanished without any lingering regrets, that would be one thing, but if she left a spiritual image because she wanted to resolve those regrets…
She should have expected this.
I handed the survey back to her. The Grand Master, now the one being tested, accepted it with a heavy heart. I looked down at her and rose to my feet.
“Your choice isn’t over yet.”
The glimmering light in the Regressor’s eyes flickered weakly and died. Immediately after.
“Kuh…!”
The Revolving Wheel of Heavens vanished, leaving behind a powerful sense of exhaustion. For a moment, the Regressor’s strength failed her, and shattered concrete and corpses piled on top of her. A small tomb was created to seal her away.
The fight itself had been in the Regressor’s favor. She had driven the Earth Sage into a corner with a series of relentless attacks.
But the cornered Earth Sage was stronger. In particular, the fact that there was a massive amount of concrete above her head that she could freely draw upon was a huge factor. If the sky had been open, as it was on the surface, the fight would have been more even, or perhaps even in her favor.
But whenever the Earth Sage was pushed into a crisis, she would unsparingly pull down the concrete of Tantalus and slam it down, and the impact would cause the mountain of corpses to heave and pour down.
It was a landslide of corpses.
No matter how high it was piled, the elements that formed it were not solid earth but the bodies of dead soldiers. It couldn’t withstand such a massive impact. The Regressor, positioned relatively lower, was swept up in it, exhausting her energy just trying to evade it.
In the end, her strength gave out before she could reach the Earth Sage.
‘…If only I had blown away the entire mountain of corpses with a storm. If only I had destroyed the Earth Sage’s foothold…!’
Why did that thought only occur to her now, when all her strength was gone?
But regret is always too late. All the Regressor could do now was groan amidst the unpleasant sensation of the corpses.
No, there was one more thing she could do.
Watch me rise to my feet before the Grand Master’s remains.
Returning to reality, I felt the sharp scent of Hundred Crimson Blossoms at the tip of my nose. The top-shelf liquor, which easily masked even the stench of blood from the corpse mountain, momentarily numbed my senses and heightened my emotions.
Ah, this is good. This is what I call a drink.
Elated, I drew Jizan and shouted so loud the Abyss seemed to shake.
“Nobody move! From now on, I’m running this operation!”
Thud. Everyone here, upon seeing my action, froze with their mouths agape. It felt like I had become a king, and I was satisfied.
This overwhelming sense of omnipotence. The thrill of everyone’s attention on me, their heavens and hells hinging on my every move.
As I triumphantly raised Jizan, the Earth Sage, who had buried the Regressor far below, glared at me.
“How? How can an ordinary person wield the Grand Master’s relic…?”
“Why are you so surprised by something like this? Isn’t climbing a mountain and picking up a stick less surprising than changing your eye color all the time?”
I was no different from a hiker who had recovered a stick left behind by a previous climber. I was just an ordinary hiker, except for the fact that this was a mountain of 300,000 corpses and the thing at the top was the Grand Master’s relic.
But the Earth Sage could not accept my claim.
“…That cannot be, Sir Hughes. What in the world are you doing?”
“Hunting and gathering! The time-honored tradition of picking up unattended items!”
I swung Jizan. It felt heavy, but it wasn’t as difficult to move as I’d thought.
Good. This is enough to make a declaration.
“Jizan is mine now. Which means I can do whatever I want with it.”
“Your jest goes too far.”
“I may joke around sometimes, but I don’t joke at important moments like this! I know how to read the room!”
How absurd. After voicing my complaint with a grumble, I decided to show her proof that this was no joke.
I held up the sword that held a status equal to the earth itself and shouted.
“Now then, to all the gravemen who created this stage, you have worked hard.”
At my words, the corpses in their loose-fitting clothes all turned to look at me. Looking at the few who remained, I gave them a warm smile.
“Gravemen recorded in history. Those who died at the hands of the Overlord. Those who became vengeful spirits with a sense of duty, who did nothing but pile up corpses for 1300 years.”
When the Grand Master vanished along with the 300,000 corpses and the Abyss appeared in her place, the Overlord, believing she had hidden the bodies and fled, threw the remaining gravemen into the Abyss.
This was the Overlord’s massacre of the gravemen, as known to history.
But they did not die. For some reason, as they fell, they eventually reached the bottom of this Abyss.
What greeted the gravemen was the Grand Master, her life fading with a hole through her stomach, honoring their souls.
Was it true that the position makes the person?
Those who had admired the Grand Master, and even those who had merely pretended to be gravemen, all accepted their fate of being trapped in the Abyss and honored the souls of the 300,000 soldiers.
With their bodies before death, and with their vengeful spirits after.
“I have witnessed and experienced all the duties you have fulfilled! But a monk can’t shave his own head, and a graveman can’t bury his own corpse! On behalf of all of you, who could not receive a send-off from the living because of your status, I, an ordinary human, will honor your souls!”
Shouting thus, I raised the Grand Master’s relic high. The corpses, now only vengeful spirits, followed Jizan with their gazes.
To all those who had not forgotten their duty even after death, I cried out.
“I, who am still alive, have discovered an old tomb on my path and, in accordance with the duty of the living, will pay my humble respects before I go. You have worked hard. May you all rest in peace.”
I held Jizan with both hands and bowed deeply, offering my respects to all of them. Immediately after.
The corpses all collapsed, like puppets with their strings cut.
They would have found peace even if some other ordinary person had mourned them, not just me.
All they needed was a ceremony just for them.
Because they were gravemen who followed the will of Mother Earth, who had buried 300,000 corpses one by one, they could not bring themselves to close their eyes until they themselves were buried by someone else.
When I closed their eyes for them and straightened my back.
The Earth Sage stood before me. She looked at me with a slightly stiff smile.
“…You have honored the souls of the Grand Master and her followers in my stead.”
“Don’t thank me. It is the duty of the one who holds Jizan.”
The Earth Sage’s expression darkened at the reply I gave with a refreshing smile.