Chapter 138: The Slanted Ceiling and the Mountain of Laughing Corpses - Finale
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 138: The Slanted Ceiling and the Mountain of Laughing Corpses - Finale
Jizan was in Shei’s hands.
Normally, it would have presented her with a trial, but for some reason, Jizan remained silent instead of showing her a vision. It simply lay still, entrusting its full weight to the Regressor.
She didn't know why, but it was a stroke of luck. Shei could wield Jizan now.
“Jizan…!”
Shei sensed victory, but Earth Sage clearly thought otherwise. She charged, reaching out to snatch Jizan from Shei’s grasp.
But Shei wasn’t worried.
In Earth Sage’s hands, Jizan was a colossal power that could tilt mountains and split the earth.
At the same time, it was also a counter to Earth Sage’s very existence. By its nature, her own power could never overcome Jizan.
If this is in my hands, victory is certain!
She had to show her the difference in their power, to make this unyielding woman finally give up.
Shei thrust Jizan forward and shouted.
“Earth Sage! Stop!”
Earth Sage answered with a stomp.
The ground beneath them shook. Before the shockwave could reach her, Shei quickly plunged Jizan into the earth. The vibration traveling through the ground was swallowed by the sword.
But in doing so, she had left herself defenseless. Earth Sage closed in on her exposed upper body.
The only thing she could move now was Chun-aeng.
This leaves me no choice.
Shei lowered her stance, still gripping Chun-aeng.
I’ll cut her down and calm her.
Shei had once been the world’s last hero. A Weapon Master who wielded both the sword of the sky and the sword of the earth. While her skill wasn’t overwhelmingly superior to others, no one could draw out the power of both swords as she could.
She laid Chun-aeng over Jizan. The thin, sharp rapier rested atop the jet-black, heavy greatsword. The two blades, so different they seemed to be polar opposites, became one, like a sword meeting its sheath.
The weightless sword, Chun-aeng—its essence was the vast sky. A thin rapier forged from compressed space.
The recoilless sword, Jizan—its essence was the unyielding mountain. A thick club formed from the clenched earth.
Until now, she had only used Chun-aeng. But the sky needed the earth to stand tall, and the earth was changed and shaped by the sky.
It would have been a different story if Jizan had fallen into her opponent’s hands. But it was in Shei’s grasp. Both swords now belonged to her, the strongest warrior of a humanity on the brink of extinction.
Even if her body was tired and weak.
Victory was decided.
Using Jizan as a sheath, she laid Chun-aeng upon it.
And in a single breath, she unleashed the compressed space.
The recoilless sword, Jizan, was the world’s heaviest cannon. It fired the immense power of Chun-aeng forward with perfect focus.
Aerith Blade Supreme. Secret Art.
Horizon Sunder.
Parallel lines that seem destined never to meet finally converge in eternity. Or at least, they appear to.
In that far, distant place, the sky and earth touch, drawing a line of peace. Beautiful and majestic. A single straight line that has existed since the beginning of time.
And she split it, vertically.
Space was sliced away at an angle.
Earth Sage’s right arm, the pitch-black darkness, the heavy air, even Tantalus itself—none could withstand the slash that erupted like a bolt of lightning.
Her ears went numb. In the Abyss, a place surrounded by walls, a sound rushed in from an immense distance.
The slanted ceiling cracked, and through the fissure, the sky appeared.
The sun had just set.
Through the gap, a violet sky was briefly visible—a bleeding watercolor that only shows itself in the moment before light gives way to darkness.
The glimpse of the sky vanished as the heaving ceiling settled back down, closing the fissure.
“…Hah.”
Earth Sage staggered backward. Thud. A belated sound came from the pile of corpses.
It was Earth Sage’s right arm, severed by Chun-aeng.
The arm had rolled away from its owner, finally coming to a stop against a protruding corpse.
Shei let out a deep breath, hiding the wave of exhaustion washing over her as she spoke.
“Don’t resist, Earth Sage. If you swear to stand down, I’ll reattach your arm.”
In truth, she had no energy left in Chun-aeng, nor the strength to lift the embedded Jizan again.
But in a fight like this, the more brazen one usually wins. Shei feigned composure and said.
“It was a clean cut, so if we treat it properly, it can be reattached…”
“Why…!”
Earth Sage cried out, her face a mask of anguish.
“Why? Why does the future belong entirely to you people?!”
Shei fell silent. The question was clearly aimed at the Sanctum, but Shei herself felt a pang of guilt.
If Shei hadn’t come, Earth Sage would have obtained Jizan. And she would have marched alone to hold the Sanctum accountable for its sins.
By being here, Shei had erased that future.
She had used regression, not prophecy or foresight, but in this timeline, she had effectively stolen Earth Sage’s future.
“I have never rested for a moment! I never spared my own life…! Though I may have compromised, I never strayed from the righteous path! But them? They killed the Grand Master as they pleased, hid the truth, enjoyed their prosperity, and pretended to be just…! We… we were only struggling to survive…!”
Ah, so what Earth Sage claimed back then was true.
Honestly, Shei felt sorry, and she thought the Sanctum had gone too far.
But what could she do?
The Sanctum was not a completely transparent organization. Even Shei, who had been involved with them in large and small ways throughout her regressions, couldn't claim to know everything about them.
Even so, their will to prevent the world’s destruction was the same, so Shei had sided with them.
“Just because you know the future, all of that is permitted? Nonsense! Because it could become a spark for war, we can’t even question their crimes? Absurd! Are we… supposed to just submit to a predetermined future?!”
It was a harrowing cry, as if she were coughing up blood. The Regressor could sympathize with her feelings.
But she wouldn't regret or grieve over it.
No matter how much Earth Sage lamented, it was better than letting the world be destroyed.
After pouring out her emotions, Earth Sage muttered, as if drained of all strength.
“Kill me.”
The Regressor scowled.
“No. If you die, the world will go to hell.”
“Because the Sanctum will be damaged? The world will collapse because of that? Are they truly the pillars that support this world?”
“Because you! The world will go to hell because you die!”
The Regressor shouted in frustration.
“Your followers, the citizens of the Military State, the scattered followers of Mother Earth! They’ll try to avenge you, or they’ll refuse to cooperate any longer! They’ll demand to know why the Sanctum so brutally murdered such a noble person!”
There was a reason Earth Sage’s death became a spark for war. She was, at least nominally, a Brigadier General of the Military State, a hero to its people, and a representative of the Order of Gaia.
“Please, if you’re going to die, just die quietly by yourself! If a big shot like you dies like a martyr, then all hell will break loose and no one will be able to stop it!”
At the Regressor’s outburst, Earth Sage scoffed in response.
“…Now, that is impossible even if I wanted it. I have lost my qualification. The Grand Master… must have ultimately been unable to acknowledge me. I just… wanted a place for us to exist…”
“I don’t know about the other stuff. But if it’s a place for you to exist, I’ll make one after I stop the apocalypse. So just stay alive until then.”
“Heh heh…”
Earth Sage staggered and turned away. Using her Qi to hold her severed shoulder together, she slowly began to climb the mountain of corpses.
“You have to take your arm! I said I’d reattach it!”
“Leave it there,” Earth Sage said without a backward glance.
“That is the path I walked, and what I achieved. I will not turn back. I will not tear it down. I do not regret my choices.”
“You’re so stubborn…”
“And…”
Earth Sage muttered with a weary face.
“…The Grand Master entrusted her power to you, so you shall inherit her duty, Champion.”
“I told you, I’m not the Champion.”
Earth Sage didn’t reply, simply stumbling up the mountain of corpses. She looked like an ascetic, wandering in search of hardship.
It was then, as Shei watched Earth Sage’s retreating back, that a menacing sound rumbled from above. Rumble. Shei quickly looked up. The slanted ceiling, the very land of Tantalus, was screaming.
Is it going to collapse?
Shei tensed, gripping the hilt of Jizan tightly.
Just then, Tyrkanzyaka burst through the concrete ground from the crack on the other side. Landing at the foot of the corpse mountain, she looked around and shouted.
“Hu! Where is Hu?”
Thankfully, it seemed the ceiling wasn’t collapsing just yet. Shei let out a sigh of relief.
“He was fine when I saw him earlier.”
“Thank goodness…! Where is he?”
“He threw this Jizan from the summit earlier. Since I can’t see him now, he must have fallen back behind it. That guy, what the hell was he…?”
Deflecting Chun-aeng? Let’s say it was a coincidence.
Seeing through her camouflage? Let’s say he managed it through psychological warfare.
“Something’s been strange from the start. Fixing your heart… and undoing the seal on this relic, Jizan. I don’t know if he passed Jizan’s trial or not, but the Jizan he handed over is…”
In a previous cycle, Shei had grasped Jizan and faced a trial within its vision. The moment 300,000 people were being buried alive, Jizan was presented before her. A choice had to be made.
The method Shei chose was simple.
She drew Jizan and attacked the Overlord.
Though it was only a vision, the Overlord was a match for ten thousand men. She couldn’t win no matter what she did. But the Regressor treated it as training and challenged the Overlord until she succeeded.
Finally, after the strength of the Overlord prepared by the vision was exhausted, Jizan, with nothing left to offer, reluctantly lent her its power. She couldn’t use its inherent power of Earth Art, but as a ‘weapon,’ its performance was perfect.
Shei had been satisfied enough with that performance, but…
“This power I’m feeling now is Earth Art.”
Now, Shei was certain. She could use Jizan’s full power.
She wasn’t sure how this had happened, but…
“What about the Taoist? What happened to her?”
“I’ve neutralized her for now. There she is, kneeling at the summit…”
Ruuuumble.
The ominous sound came from above again. Broken pieces of concrete struck their shoulders. Shei clamped her mouth shut and looked up at the ceiling.
“Hey, Tyrkanzyaka. I think something’s wrong with the ceiling… Doesn’t it seem… more tilted than before?”
CRACK-RUMBLE!
Her ominous feeling became reality.
Cracks raced across the ground like galloping horses. A sound like thunder echoed as lightning-shaped scars were carved into the ceiling. Crumbled concrete poured down like rain, and collapsed debris fell like hail.
The ceiling was collapsing.
After all, Earth Sage had drawn on its power without restraint, Tyrkanzyaka had torn through it, and finally, Shei had used a technique that split the very earth. It would be stranger if it were still intact after all that chaos.
Shei shouted urgently.
“Tyrkanzyaka! Catch the falling debris!”
“It is impossible to support all this land with shadows! Hu, where are you? Come to my side at once…!”
“No! Help me! Help me blow this ceiling away! It’s better than letting this whole landmass fall…!”
Shei immediately created a Stepping Cloud, kicked off the ground, and jumped onto it. Then, holding Jizan with both hands, she raised it over her head and pressed it against the gradually descending ceiling.
“You intend to lift the ceiling with that sword? Impossible!”
“No, it’s possible!”
“…Possible? How?”
“This Jizan is a sword of incredible weight! It may not look like it, but it’s probably as heavy as Tantalus itself!”
“Then how are you holding it?”
Shei didn’t waste time explaining the power.
“That’s what makes this Jizan so great!”
“They make all sorts of strange swords these days…” Tyrkanzyaka muttered, intrigued. In reality, the relic was made about a hundred years before Tyrkanzyaka was even born, but no one cared about that fact right now.
“Alright. Now that I can use Earth Art, I’m going to lift this entire landmass! I can do it now…!”
Glancing over, she could hear Nabi and Azzy barking in the distance. Rasch, Callis, Nabi, and Azzy were pressed against the opposite wall, relatively safe from the debris.
“I’ll take care of the big chunks. You just handle the small ones!”
“Got it!”
As the slanted ceiling descended, most of the lights along the edges were shattered, scraped, and broken. The light gradually faded.
In proportion to the growing darkness, countless dark knights rose to their feet. Darkness swarmed around them, and they all transformed into giant figures.
A shadow’s size changes depending on the position of the light. The giant dark knights, cloaked in shadows three times their body size, followed the command and caught the falling debris. Concrete chunks the size of human heads slowed as if submerged in water upon touching the shadows.
“Alright, here I go!”
Heaven Earth Art, Earth Pillar.
Just as she was about to swing the sword, Shei suddenly stopped.
Jizan’s weight was surely like that of a great mountain, but it seemed even a mountain found the weight of Tantalus significant. An unimaginable weight pressed down on the Regressor’s hands.
Jizan wouldn’t move.
“Urgh…!”
Her exhausted body resisted violently. Her depleted Qi screamed.
Still, the Regressor gritted her teeth and drew upon her strength.
Her body wouldn’t move well, but the Regressor’s Qi Art shone in moments like this.
Heavenly Counter Domain, the Qi Art that engraved movements into the body, forcing it to move.
Heavenly Counter Domain, Offensive Form. Descending Slash.
“Hrrrrrraaaah!”
The Regressor swung the sword, and Jizan responded to her will.
The land that formed Tantalus was built of blessed concrete, the result of Earth Art being inscribed upon it.
That was why Earth Sage could so easily use Earth Art on it, despite it being concrete.
Therefore, the one holding Jizan could move Tantalus itself.
The last remaining wisp of the Grand Master’s will echoed. Immediately after.
THWUUUUUUUNG.
It was a feat akin to flicking a steel door and sending it flying with a snap of the fingers. Something normally impossible.
But thanks to the unique properties of this land, the power of Jizan, and the design of Tantalus…
Because all these things aligned, Shei’s attempt succeeded. She swung Jizan and ‘blew away’ Tantalus.
The slanted ceiling grew more distant. The faintly glittering lights on the edges told her that this landmass was rising. The sparkling lights grew smaller and smaller.
A landform had risen by the power of a single human. The slanted ceiling moved away, briefly regained its level, then began to tilt in the opposite direction.
The land of Tantalus, gradually flipping over, finally began to tumble away. The almost completely destroyed artificial lights scattered a shower of sparks and vanished.
And through the gap, the sky arrived.