Chapter 676: The Tower Without a Ceiling and the Intermingling Humans - 7
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 676: The Tower Without a Ceiling and the Intermingling Humans - 7
“All I wanted was for every one of them to achieve their desires. And that ‘every one’ includes you.”
You are included in the ‘all’ I speak of. The Saintess of Light, who watched over this place from that distant realm, guiding people with your radiance.
“Knowing what lay above, knowing the evil of those two, and knowing your own strength, you came down and acted yourself. You killed Kuram and the centipede and warned me of the danger of what lies above. This was your judgment, and you achieved it by confronting it head-on. A perfect result.”
Kuram and the centipede had sinned in the past and would likely sin again in the future. So Ruel killed them.
The knowledge above is dangerous. Ruel made that known and stood in my way.
In the end, Kuram and the centipede were judged, and as long as she forbids it, no one will be able to ascend.
Ruel had obtained everything she wanted.
“Order is fulfilled by judging the sinner who breaks it. I have no desire to pass judgment in order’s place. Someone like you, who desires order, must do it yourself. Because that is your desire.”
That result was obtained through power.
Forcing others through strength. The order Ruel speaks of is inevitably like that. Ruel had realized the final destination of my logic.
“King of Humans. Did you wish for me to commit a sin?”
“You’re right, but don’t get the wrong idea. I don’t just wish it for you. To me, you are just another human.”
I want everyone to fulfill their own desires. Not desires twisted by the responsibilities imposed by order, or warped by oppression until the original wish is forgotten. I want them to live for their honest, pure desires.
Not acting like a machine simply because they were given an order.
Not brandishing power without a single doubt or thought, leaning on faith.
Not fabricating all sorts of justifications just to hate or despise someone.
If you’re going to use order as a tool to shift responsibility, then don’t. Be honest and savage instead.
“My goal has always been the same. For everyone to achieve their own desires. Not to blindly believe in order, not to confuse duty with desire, but to pursue their own pure wishes.”
Everyone acts according to their desires. What if they clash? What if, to fulfill one person’s desire, you must crush another’s?
It can’t be helped.
You have no choice but to fight.
Just as the mage and the paladin opposed me, and just as Ruel came to kill Kuram and the centipede and stop me.
“After everyone has pitted their desires against one another, the final survivor—the victor—is the one who becomes the new order! Order is savagery, too. The only difference is scale and power, but otherwise, it’s no different from savagery!”
Order isn’t noble. Order is also an object of struggle. It’s just that it’s too big and powerful.
It must always be challenged. Order, too, must prove its worth. So that if it’s no longer needed, it can be cast aside in an instant.
After hearing all I had to say, Ruel gave a faint, sad smile.
“You don’t distinguish between humans and sin. You even deny the very attempt to distinguish them, don’t you?”
Huh? Of course.
What creature loves the shackles that bind it?
“‘Hate the sin, but not the sinner.’ It’s a phrase that tells us to treat sin and humans as separate things. But the King of Humans doesn’t separate humans from sin. You treat the judgment carried out by order as the same kind of savagery as the sins committed by humans.”
That’s right. They’re the same. There are only two reasons why a human cannot defy order. Either they understand its necessity, or they simply lack the power to overcome it.
It’s the same if you replace ‘order’ with ‘another human.’ We’re no different from when we followed a tribal chief in the distant past.
“As long as you believe that, we will never be able to separate sin from humanity. The separation of concepts will not occur… Hmm. It was a future I already knew, but to finally reach it feels a little bitter.”
The separation of concepts.
Using the Beast King, a conceptual being, to create a being that embodies the concept itself.
As I thought, the Sanctum’s goal is…
“So that’s why you need two Kings of Humans.”
Ruel smiled faintly.
At the top of the Tree of Corruption, a King of Humans lies asleep. Not alive, but not dead either.
Nevida tried to save her ‘sister,’ and the Saintess turned a blind eye to Nevida’s actions. And so, there came to be two Kings of Humans.
The powerful Beast King who ruled the world before the first year, during the age of savagery.
And the Beast King who grew weak, having lost its meaning after civilization arose.
There cannot be more than one Beast King for a single concept.
Dogs and wolves may share the same roots, but they are different species. Among the pack-living wolves, the most loyal and human-friendly individuals were tamed, and after long years of bonding and imprinting, a new species was born. That is why dogs and wolves could exist as separate kings.
However, beasts are also conceptual beings.
After clearly distinguishing between the eras before and after the first year, after establishing civilization, accumulating knowledge, and cultivating power…
Humans had finally changed.
Changed so that the ‘sister’ alone could no longer represent humanity.
“You are our success, King of Humans. A new king who has finally appeared after humanity underwent long evolution and maturation. You are the proof that the humanity of today is different from the savages of the time before the first year.”
Ruel, who had been gazing at me with sparkling eyes, tilted her head for a moment.
“And yet, you are still savage. Even though humans have reached civilization and become completely different beings from savages, you have not been able to cast off your savagery. The arrangements made by the Saintess of Origin cannot promise an unchanging tomorrow. We must take one more step forward.”
“So you’re going to use the remaining King of Humans to create a King of Sins?”
Ruel answered calmly.
“It’s the opposite. The one we intend to create is the one that remains after sin has been extracted.”
The one that remains.
Not the King of Sins, but a pure and good King of Humans, remaining after sin has been removed…
A king of divinity, supported by the Saintess’s power and guidance, leading all humans to virtue? Seriously. They call it a king of divinity, but isn’t that just a human version of the Dog King?
“To think of playing with someone else’s life like that. Did you get my consent?”
“I offer my deepest apologies.”
“How reckless. I suppose that is your own form of savagery. But are you sure it’s okay? The human version of the Wolf King, the King of Sins, will destroy the world, won’t he?”
At that, Ruel asked back, puzzled.
“Is that what Shei told you?”
“Yes. That the King of Sins will appear and destroy this world. That the future you all want to avoid is that one. That’s how she explained it.”
The King of Sins is the wolf version of the King of Humans. Me, or my ‘sister.’ Since my power is insignificant, it’s highly likely to be my sister.
I don’t know if my sister would truly try to kill all humans, or if she has the power to destroy this world on her own. But Shei’s memories were definitely real. She might not have shown me everything, but what she did show was all true.
“It seems Shei didn’t tell you everything either. But that’s fine, isn’t it? The King of Sins exists, and if we defeat that being, peace will come. Believing that is much more hopeful, don’t you think?”
Ruel replied cheerfully. Her next words, however, were pessimistic and despairing, a stark contrast to her expression.
“It’s certainly more hopeful than the truth: that humanity drove itself to extinction in a species-wide suicide!”
And then, I read the thought that surfaced in Ruel’s mind.
*
This world is endlessly fragile and precarious. The moment she became a Saintess, she realized that the apocalypse was very easy to bring about, and that a Saintess could reach it with simple ease.
Ruel, who had been brilliant from the start, understood this fact far more quickly than any other Saintess. She reread the books left behind by the ‘Oracle.’
Flip. The page turned, and in the instant the letters trapped in the paper were illuminated…
The world stopped.
The thin paper stiffened. The flowing light slowly illuminated the letters. In a slice of the world cut out with scissors, in a time where all had stopped, Ruel was lost in thought alone.
The Grand Master of Mother Earth judges the Overlord and his army with the Abyss. Then, to prevent war, she wanders the world, killing evil lords. But she is killed by an assassin, and thus, ten indelible Abysses are created on the continent.
The grace of Mother Earth does not reach the Abyss. Flowing streams of water fall into the holes, reaching the deep recesses of the earth. Insects and fungi alike perish in the void where they have no foothold, and an area of several hundred kilometers in radius is laid to waste.
One alone would have been devastating, but the continent was too fragile to withstand ten Abysses. Ten points of loss where the earth’s energy and water veins vanished. The deeply driven stakes acted like a magic circle, draining all the life force from the continent.
With the Grand Master’s death, Mother Earth’s forgiveness could no longer be sought. The followers of Mother Earth were killed by enraged people, and their bodies and knowledge were all thrown into the Abyss.
Now, even the means to reach the bottom of the Abyss to find the Grand Master’s relics had vanished. Humanity would lose its civilization and knowledge, barely surviving on the parched land.
“A single Divine. And she was armed with good intentions. Yet the end still comes. How curious.”
It wasn’t that Mother Earth was particularly dangerous. All the Divine were like that.
For example, if the Progenitor of Vampires had devoted herself to her craft and awakened to become a true Divine. If she had gained the power to grant all humans the gift of immortality.
Birth is not blessed. In the short span of less than twenty years, children grow into adults and demand a share of the already cramped land. The population increases, and resources dwindle. The crowded people clash more often. But they do not die. Humans just grow irritated with situations that don’t go their way.
At some point, humans no longer rejoice in children. They do not love children. For even if they raise them with toil and effort, they will only become competitors who covet what is theirs.
And so, children disappear. Even newborn children are found and killed before they can gain the power of immortality. Like hamsters eating the young born in a cramped cage, they even devour the children of others. And so, the world becomes peaceful.
No life is born, and no one meets a natural death. The world slowly dies in a state of ennui.
In a world where the cries of children have vanished, the Progenitor, who failed to find love, feels regret at some point. But the world has already solidified. Her kind heart could not go against the demands of her people. Humanity fades like the twilight, holding only a slight sense of regret.
“What matters is what one can do.”
—The contemplation ended.
Flip. The turned page settled down softly. This contemplation, enjoyed in frozen time, was something only Ruel could do. Already smart and curious, she often used foresight to hone herself.
Having finished reading a page and even her contemplation, Ruel was about to turn the page again.
“How was it, Ruel? Have you finished your thoughts?”
The Saintess of the Sky, Mayel, was beside her.
Ruel was momentarily flustered by the sudden appearance but soon realized. Mayel hadn’t moved through frozen time; Ruel had foreseen Mayel being here. The future she saw became reality.
The moment Mayel foresaw the future of ‘herself reflected in Ruel’s eyes,’ Ruel was able to see her. She didn’t know if it was Mayel’s actual self or just an illusion formed of light. It was likely the latter, but that would depend on what future Mayel saw.
The power to compel a desired future. A power most alien even among the Saintesses, a wonder that even Ruel, who could stop time, could not dare to fathom.
What kind of being was the Saintess of Origin, who had foreseen and blessed such a thing? In the first place, how did she grant Ruel the power to foresee frozen time? She could only feel awe.
“Yes. I understand now.”
Greeting Mayel, Ruel closed the book and answered.
“That to greet a today identical to yesterday is a blessing in itself. And that this sublime, desperate penance is a burden only we can bear.”
A single Divine could destroy the world. Even when cloaked in good intentions, they shake the world and change the humans within it.
The world survives through a miracle-like coincidence. And through the order created by the Sanctum. To bring an unchanging tomorrow to this world, they must continue to foresee that miracle.
At Ruel’s wise answer, Mayel smiled brightly and said.
“Ruel. The Shrine of the Divine you met may outwardly claim to study the Divine, but they harbor a different intention. The Red Tower Master, Hwaran, is trying to create a World Law. A set of rules woven from the Divine.”
“The Shrine of the Divine? I haven’t heard of them yet.”
“Ah. You haven’t met them yet. I’m sorry, talking about things you don’t know again.”
Forget meeting them, she hadn’t even begun her ascent. The plan to climb the Floating Castle had not yet been realized.
But it seemed Mayel could see it. It was a frequent occurrence, so Ruel listened patiently and calmly.
“You’ll learn most of it by seeing and experiencing it on the Floating Castle. What you need to learn about is the World Law. A rule made from the Divine. That’s what you must be wary of. They will never be able to achieve it, but… if they get their hands on ‘Pride’ and ‘Jizan,’ they will gain the power to destroy the world.”
She knew what Pride and Jizan were. She could also infer the meaning of the Shrine of the Divine from the words.
There was only one unfamiliar term. World Law. But it wasn’t hard to understand.
“World Law. Like the Sky God system created by weaving five Divine together, it must be a method of projecting the power of the Divine onto the world.”
After all, the Saintesses were already managing rules made by weaving the Divine.
The number of Divine who had sworn to protect the world instead of destroying it was five, with Lightning being the most recent to join. It was not something a fledgling organization like the Shrine of the Divine could compare to. Of course, since a single Divine was enough to destroy the world, they had to be cautious.
“There are three Divine they have any chance of finding. But if you can just persuade the Blue Tower Master, that number will be reduced to one. Oh, the Blue Tower Master is the 14th Tower Master, Elisha Celsius!”
Mayel’s explanation was still unhelpful, a jumble of past and future. But it didn’t matter.
Because Ruel would have already decided to act according to her words.