Chapter 239
Chapter 239
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 239
Chapter Title: Throwing Sparks (5)
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Fernandez and Kirhas gradually slowed their pace. The sounds were fading. The screams, the eerie wails. Before long, all that surrounded them was the chilling friction of the sandstorm winds.
“Benefactor, this is…….”
“Shh.”
Fernandez pressed a finger to his lips and quickly signed with his hands. *Something’s there.* They came to a complete halt, scanning their surroundings.
For a moment, the sandstorm winds shifted capriciously, growing fiercer and revealing a silhouette beneath the dust.
It was a statue. Despite the traces of countless ages, it still gripped a curved sword with a blade sharp as fresh steel, its stone arms crossed over its chest as it gazed into the distance.
Fernandez stepped a couple of paces away from Kirhas. He raised his hand toward the sky and snapped his fingers with a sharp *crack*. At the same instant—
*Crack! Boom!*
A curved sword came hurtling toward where he had stood, embedding itself in the ground. And it wasn’t just one. At least five curved swords pierced through the sand from different directions, slamming down toward the source of the sound.
Fernandez was already gone from that spot.
He gazed calmly at the statue extending its curved sword. Covered in densely inscribed magic runes, it was some kind of golem.
*It reacts to sound.*
*Performance has degraded. Logic circuit damaged?*
*Could be the controller’s dominance has weakened.*
Fernandez looked up. There was a point where the wind’s direction changed. He took Kirhas’s hand and headed that way.
If he considered the flow of mana like waves, this was the upstream path—the densest current.
*Whoooosh……*
The dust was gradually clearing. Their field of vision widened bit by bit. Objects around him came into view one by one.
A road half-buried in sand—what was visible suggested it was a carriageway. The straight, uniform pavement tiles attested to masterful stonework.
And lining both sides of the road stood statues. Spaced at identical intervals like soldiers in formation, one after another. As his vision cleared further, Fernandez narrowed his eyes and stared straight ahead.
*The Pharaoh’s Path.*
This was the grand avenue leading to the palace. Stone golems carved in the likeness of gods, guardians of the Pharaoh, stretched out in a long line, all facing the road’s end. Even after ages and sandstorms, they held the same pose, radiating sharp menace……
*Whoooosh.*
The wind swept away the dust. Their vision cleared completely. The sky was a clear blue.
He stood at the very center of the sandstorm region—in the eye of the storm.
The clear sky was cut off in a perfect circle. A few meters beyond this spot, the sandstorm still raged.
*Screeeee!*
An eagle’s cry echoed from beyond the heavens. The bird soaring in the sky traced an elegant circle before descending gracefully and vanishing toward the road’s end. And at the road’s end rose a massive altar.
[Show your aura.]
The golems lining both sides spoke in unison with the same voice. As Fernandez stepped forward, Kirhas grabbed his sleeve. She hurriedly signed. *Watch for traps.* Something to that effect.
Fernandez chuckled softly, ruffling her hair before moving ahead. *Shing.* Kirhas drew her sword, gripping it as she guarded his back, eyes darting everywhere.
* * *
There was no interference even up to the altar’s upper level. To the point where the mana circuits he’d activated as a precaution seemed pointless. The statues guarding the altar simply stared silently, their heads turned toward it.
The altar was built of gleaming white marble. Not merely reflecting the noonday sun, but emitting a soft glow from the stone itself.
Its steps were formed by intricate inscriptions filled with gold and distinctive Upper Asit relief carvings.
He stepped onto it.
One step at a time.
Finally, he reached the altar’s topmost level.
“…….”
Three figures were there. No, three *things*. Mummies preserving nearly perfect likenesses of their living forms. Two, dressed as palace attendants and adorned with every kind of jewelry, slowly fanned ornate feathered fans.
And in the midst of those maids lay *she*. Reclining on a massive throne decorated with glittering emerald gem-insects…… A beauty that even stunned Fernandez.
No, a mask of a beauty. Likely modeled after her living appearance. A mummy wearing a delicately sculpted mask of gold and pigments lay atop it, gazing down at him.
“Ravirata…….”
[One of my names.]
Her voice was beautiful, like a melody from the heavens. Wraith lords typically lacked vocal cords and didn’t converse with physical sound. This was a form of magic speaking language directly into his mind.
Such meticulous detail even in trivialities. Fernandez smirked. It was extravagance bordering on bluff.
[Savior. Why do you attack us?]
Surprisingly, there was no hostility from Ravirata. For one who had buried thousands of troops under sand with a single spell and unleashed wraiths to harvest survivors pinned beneath the dunes.
“Saviour, huh.”
[You drove away Asit’s darkness and restored light to me and Asit’s heroes. Asit owes you a debt. Savior. Why do you treat me as an enemy?]
Ah, so it knew that much.
By Fernandez’s judgment, Ravirata was an exceptionally skilled mage. The Conclave revived by Munto was composed of Upper Asit’s greatest rulers, after all. It was only natural.
As a powerful mage, she would have sensed Munto’s bindings that held her. And with those bindings released, she would naturally realize that after long ages, she had finally gained freedom.
Thus, savior. The one who freed her and her people from what seemed eternal darkness of the great demon. A perfectly logical conclusion.
“Your era ended a thousand years ago. The world belongs to the living, as it should for the living.”
[Does that mean the dead must decay to dust, even if they possess free will?]
“Your wills are illusions woven by magic. Your spirits endure, but souls are gone, vitality faint, natures twisted. Munto needed puppets, not whole souls. You’re mere shadows of the people you think you were in life.]
[Shadows, you say.]
Ravirata slowly rose, gesturing. At her signal, the maids set aside their fans and retreated carefully.
[Yes. No more sensations of skin, no music played beautifully, no food tasting sweet. So shadows, you say. Mere imitations of our living behaviors.]
“That’s right.”
[No.]
Sweeping aside a thin violet veil, Ravirata stepped forward. Her golden mask gleamed under the noonday sun.
[What defines life? Is it merely the activity of organic flesh? Who dares—who dares call our wills ‘imitations’? You, you living—how are you born? How do you die?]
Ravirata showed no anger. She simply spoke calmly, gazing at Fernandez.
[Were you born with longing for birth and clear free will from the start? Your first breath was base instinct, your body a mix of your parents’ traits—an imitation. Even so, would you call yourself merely your parents’ copy?]
*This is getting interesting.*
Feizashi cackled. Fernandez stared coldly at Ravirata.
Ravirata took a goblet politely offered by an attendant and poured its contents onto the ground.
*Splash……*
A sour stench stung his nose. Wine. Extremely old, fermented and thickened to sludge…… Ravirata stood unmoved.
[All humans are born and inevitably march toward death from that moment. But does that mean humans live only to die? No. We were born in the great demon’s shadow, built to be his puppets. Yet that does not define our entirety.]
Ravirata stared at Fernandez. He stroked his chin, organizing his thoughts. He had plenty of counterarguments, but he had no desire to debate this pharaoh.
What do we live for? What proves life? Who am I? Such questions weighed heavily on Fernandez now.
But…… did he need to ponder?
This was undoubtedly Ravirata’s true heart. She spoke sincerely to persuade him. Persuasion? Conclave pharaohs never persuaded others. They only asserted.
Those words from Ravirata…… They were surely sincere, desperate even. But they weren’t like her. Not pharaoh-like. Upper Asit’s pharaohs didn’t persuade.
They asserted. And dominated.
*She’s weakened.*
Fernandez shook his head and gripped his sword hilt. *Shing.* With a grating sound from the sand-crusted scabbard, the greatsword slid free.
Weakened. Feizashi was right. To reverse the tide, Ravirata had unleashed massive magic. Magic refined and advanced enough to rival Feizashi’s signature spell.
Even in his prime, Feizashi suffered severe backlash from his signature spells. For Conclave-level figures to cast such magic—it wouldn’t come cheap.
Wraith legions’ power scaled with their pharaoh’s. Down below, the wraiths’ reactions and sluggish movements proved Ravirata’s decline.
“You’re right, Ravirata. Calling your existence mere imitations has its flaws.”
[Then, savior. Will you make peace with me?]
“That makes me all the more sorry.”
Ravirata paused at Fernandez’s words. She tilted her head slightly.
[Sorry for what?]
“Even respecting your will, affirming your lives…… It’s too late.”
*Shing.*
The blade rose into the air. The greatsword’s edge pointed straight at Ravirata. At her, at its tip. Fernandez bowed his head.
Munto’s seal breaking sooner than expected. The Conclave running wild. Granting each Conclave member free will by slaying Munto.
All his karma. Not some religious blame-shifting. Literally his karma. Even those trampling it.
Puppets anyway? Fernandez couldn’t think that way. Even if Feizashi wouldn’t have hesitated.
Puppets. Who dares claim true freedom in this world? Himself included. Knowing this horizontal world’s truth, to Fernandez…… All events were just a grand puppet show from a macro view.
If living are shadows, imitations of life…… He was no different. Feizashi’s shadow, an imitation marching toward Feizashi’s goals. Not wrong.
*Your life is your mold. Sinner, advance.*
He recalled Kadan’s trial. The hunting god’s punishment was ‘life.’ Feizashi’s life was tragedy laced with regret and remorse, and Fernandez, inheriting it, was bound by the same mold.
“I have only one answer for you, Ravirata.”
[……What is it?]
“I’ll pray for you. To your gods, in your tongue…… Earnestly.”
Fernandez raised his head.
His blue eyes gleamed darkly.