Chapter 410: The Divine and the Anathemas
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 410: The Divine and the Anathemas
I had never thought of Tyr as fast. The way she always strolled along at a leisurely pace, carrying her own coffin, made her seem no different from a tortoise. And indeed, outside the Abyss, she had been sluggish.
But here in the Duchy of Mist, Tyr was astonishingly fast. As if to prove her claim of creating the mist by sharing her darkness was no lie, she manipulated the surrounding fog, moving as if swimming through it. It felt as if I was standing still while the world moved around me.
When I came to my senses, Tyr and I had traveled to a quiet pasture. After confirming no one was around, Tyr took a shallow breath.
“Hah. What just happened back there?”
“It was nothing. I just used the power of a Divine.”
“I have no idea what you consider ‘nothing’.”
Seeing how calm I was, Tyr began to settle down as well. I sat on a suitable rock, and Tyr followed, sitting beside me and trying to sort through her chaotic thoughts.
‘It was Hu’s power that revived my heart. He recalled my long-lost memories and rekindled the embers. Back then, I was so overcome with joy, and later I simply wanted to be with them, so I didn’t press the matter… But is it alright to ask Hu now? If I pry about the King of Humans, will he disappear like a fae?’
It’s fine to ask now. While I had wanted to hide the fact that I was the King of Humans for as long as possible, there was no reason to keep it a secret now that I’d been found out.
Everyone’s hands were being revealed, uncontrollably so. It was likely a situation stirred up by the Regressor, who had seen the future once and was now meddling with it. Thanks to her, secrets had become meaningless, and everyone had been forced to run at full tilt in a race to the bitter end.
In that case, it’s better to lay my cards on the table and join the race than to keep them hidden.
I spoke before Tyr could even ask.
“Tyr. The Divine we met in Claudia had a unique power. As you saw, it was the power to wield lightning.”
“You mean the power Peru used at the end?”
“Yes, though the way it’s used is completely different.”
Speaking of which, I held out my palm to show her. In the empty air, sparks of electricity crackled into existence. It wasn’t as powerful as the lightning wielded by Peru or the Thunderarch, but it was more than enough for one person to handle.
Witnessing this arcane power before her eyes, Tyr finally decided what she needed to ask.
“Hu. Can the King of Humans… use the power of the Divine?”
I had mentioned it once before, but it must have sounded like nonsense back then. I suppose I should explain it properly.
If I was going to make her an ally, we needed to be on the same page.
“No. All humans can use the power of the Divine. Because the Divine are the axioms of the world.”
Tyr pondered this for a long time before replying.
“The axioms of the world… That sounds similar to what the mages of old used to say.”
“It’s probably the same thing. The magic that mages use is also just a fragment bestowed by a Divine. It’s all a matter of how it’s used.”
Someone who is truly ignorant doesn’t even know what they don’t know. Tyr’s mind was filled with such directionless questions. From a teacher’s perspective, she would be the most difficult kind of student to deal with.
But who am I? I am the King of Humans. I read all of Tyr’s vague questions and chose an answer that would pierce through them all.
“The world existed long before humans. Amidst the great axioms and flows, beasts simply lived. But some of those beasts learned to read the flow of the world and process it to their advantage.”
“You mean humans?”
“It’s not limited to humans. A bird that flaps its wings, a spider that builds a web, a beaver that builds a dam. All creatures that have flowed with the world understand and use it in their own ways.”
With a flick of my finger, two cards fluttered like birds. I stood them up on the rock to build a house of cards. After knocking it down, I placed them together seamlessly, like a dam.
“Understanding and shaping the world isn’t exclusive to humans. All creatures do something similar. It’s just that humans are a little more adept at it. Humans, who turned that skill into curiosity, sought to understand the world to better use their tools… and after countless attempts, they eventually reached the fundamental axioms.”
“The axioms of the world?”
“Yes. Not for the purpose of using them as tools, but they reached the principles of the world itself. You could say it’s like they learned how to make fire instead of just finding and using it. The Divine are these axioms forged into laws—a gift and a power left to humanity by the enlightened ones who understood this world.”
I pressed my palm gently against the rock. My own strength and weight could hardly move it, but when I used Earth Art, it indented. Beneath my handprint, the rock that had turned to soil remained. I swirled my finger in a circle, and from a handful of soil, a dandelion bloomed. A seed that had been hiding in a crack in the rock, withered and dead, was forced to sprout.
“The power to change the world. Magic is simply a formalized method of using this power of the Divine, but in essence, it is a power permitted to all living things.”
“…Vampires were unable to use it, however.”
“That’s an unavoidable consequence of being a vampire. The boundary between your inner and outer selves is blurry. To change the world, you must have a firm sense of self, but vampires lacked a clear distinction of their own being. Ah, but now that you’ve regained your heart, Tyr, it might be possible for you.”
Though controlling the immense power swirling within her body would have to come first, anyway. Tyr nodded and moved on to her next question.
“If the Divine are a power permitted to humans, why did the Sanctum seal them away?”
“Oh, you figured that out?”
“Isn’t it obvious? The Sanctum was scheming in the Abyss and in the Village of Clouds.”
She had a ridiculously good nose for the Sanctum’s scent. I nodded and said.
“The Sanctum didn’t exactly seal the Divine away. They don’t have the power to. As you know from the Golden Lord and Mother Earth, they revealed themselves openly to the world, didn’t they?”
“They did. And their teachings spread throughout the world. So, what was the Sanctum doing about it?”
“It’s simple. They sealed away one of the Divine’s lores to prevent humans from committing the Anathemas.”
Tyr reacted to the word ‘anathema’. As a being closer to the concept than anyone else—a vampire of Gluttony who drinks the blood of others—she knew the Anathemas well. She mentioned them with a displeased look on her face.
“Are you talking about the four Anathemas arbitrarily decided by the Sanctum?”
“Yes. You know all four, right?”
“Of course I do. I’ve heard those tiresome things so many times I could list all four right now.”
“Please do.”
If we both knew the material, there was no need for me to explain it. Tyr readily accepted the explanation I’d passed to her.
“Type 1 Anathema, Gluttony. The act of filling one’s body by consuming what is wicked and vile. The rabble would condemn vampires as disciples of Gluttony and attack us, even though we only take blood, not life.”
I didn’t mention it, but usually, the ‘wicked and vile’ thing is other humans. Tyr grimaced and moved on.
“Second Anathema, Graft. The act of abandoning the body crafted by the Creator and replacing it with another. The creations of black magic, with beastly horns or wings sewn onto their bodies, are the results of Grafting.”
“In the Fallen Dominion, they replaced their bodies with machinery, though.”
“Yes. That could also be called Grafting. For something they declared an anathema, they didn’t do a very good job of stopping it. In any case. The next, the third Anathema, is…”
Tyr, who had been speaking primly, suddenly snapped her mouth shut. She trailed off, hesitating to mention the third Anathema.
“…The, the next is. The third Anathema.”
“What is it? You don’t know?”
“I do! It’s just…”
‘The third Anathema is Splice… I know it’s an anathema, but how can I utter such a shameless word in front of a man!’
Seriously. Blushing just from saying that. How old are you, acting like a teenage girl? If it’s that hard for you to say, I’ll say it for you.
“I’ll tell you. The third Anathema is Splice. The anathema of joining a human with something else to conceive something that is not human. The means are varied, including bestiality and orgies. The most famous case is Muhu Agartha, who was said to have mated with all manner of beasts and slept with every man in a city…”
“Have you no shame! I am well aware of it, so hurry up and move on!”
Her face growing redder, she slapped me lightly. I was going to tease her more, but it hurt more than I expected, so I quickly moved on to the next anathema.
“Finally, the fourth Anathema is Heresy. The anathema of deluding humans with perverse knowledge and causing them to lose faith. They seek to condemn and correct profane thoughts and false beliefs.”
“It’s completely arbitrary. If they don’t like something, they just call it heresy and attack.”
“I think so too. Now, Tyr. We have these four Anathemas. Do you see what they all have in common?”
Though they are called Anathemas, they aren’t actually that extraordinary. There are many cases that are surprisingly easy to find around you. People may not go around boasting about it, but if faced with an extreme situation, anyone would choose to survive, even if it means committing an anathema.
Just as the vampires did, the people of the Fallen Dominion did, and Agartha did. The Anathemas exist plainly in reality.
But there is a reason the Sanctum designated all these realities as Anathemas.
“The Anathemas are things that cause a change in humanity.”
To protect humanity.
“Gluttony turns humans into prey. Graft turns humans into tools. Splice muddles the purity of humanity. And Heresy corrupts the human spirit. The Sanctum created the Anathemas to protect humanity, both as individuals and as a species.”
“…Protect, humanity?”
How do you know that? Tyr’s eyes threw the question at me as she looked up. Tch, I had nothing to say to that.
I am the King of Humans. I don’t have any memories from the previous King of Humans. All I have is a promise from long ago.
That promise… the one the Saintess of Origin used to bind the King of Humans, has been passed down to this day. That promise is all I know. I have no memories of the inception. So there’s nothing more I can say.
“Alright, let’s get back on track. A Divine who has reached the axioms of the world possesses the power to change it. Even if a Divine’s relic doesn’t actively use its power, the mere spread of their knowledge changes how people see the world and alters their lives.”
Instead, I told her what I knew for certain.
“But, Tyr, humans, too, are a part of the world.”
The Sanctum tried to hide the Divine. They tried to kill Tyr the moment they confirmed she had learned Bloodcraft, and they ostracized the existence of vampires. They designated acts that everyone secretly recoiled from as Anathemas.
All of it was for a single purpose.
To protect ‘humanity’.
“The power of the Divine can change ‘humanity.’ Not just our way of life or our actions, but the very concept of what it means to be ‘human’.”