Ascending to the Highest — 7
The nights had turned truly cold, and even the days had grown brisk. Every tree that meant to change color had already done so, and more of them stood stark and bare, not a single leaf left. Winter had come striding in.
As if to match the bleak season, something happened very far away.
Byeong-il and Jung Jae-woo were taken by an organization called the Murim Alliance. Yes — the two who had slipped out of the Heavenly Demon Cult three months ago and fled a long way off. Their purple hair gave them away to the martial artists. They were hauled to the Alliance and interrogated there, and it came out that they were of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
In short, they were drugged and tortured. And it was not only the obvious kinds of torture. Some unknown art peeled their identities open down to the root.
By the measure of my faded memories, it was a technique difficult to imagine in a world one would call a martial realm — strange enough that I suspected a link to Daegon, Cult Leader of Tongcheon. Of course it was not a technique Daegon himself had possessed. His arts centered on bioengineering, so the direction was somewhat different. But Daegon is not the only immortal in this world. There are several besides him.
Originally Daegon was driven out of another world, invaded this one, lost, and fled into the deep water. Which means there are immortals who defeated him. Stronger immortals. They live on Mount Kunlun, and I could see a technique I took for a trace of that side.
Drawing a soul out of a living person and looking through the memories — the level of that art is on an entirely different scale, isn't it? Projecting a screen into empty air was, in those faded memories, something possible only in science fiction. A few of the worlds where I keep harvesters do possess that sort of technology, of course. It lies too far beyond anything those harvesters enjoy, so I have only ever seen it from a distance.
They used something like a wooden carving floating in the air to draw the light out of a harvester's body, and a glow dyed a deep violet burst from the flesh. In the room where the harvester's soul was being extracted, one of them gathered the others and explained, toward the light, that this was a corrupted soul. The Heaven-Defying Demonic Qi had eaten into it and left it so. This color, he said, was a chaos that twists the world — an evil power one must never have dealings with.
Rather harsh of them, if you ask me.
And so the light really was the soul. I found out in the end.
That was not all I learned. One of the people gathered opposite the expert asked whether the soul could be restored to what it had been. The one I took for an expert cut him off at once: there was no way to cleanse a soul already soiled. Which means that, at least, this world does not possess technology of that caliber.
If they could strip away what I have blessed, my warmth would vanish. If I were classified as a disease and could be cured — ugh. Horrifying.
Or perhaps they simply do not know, and somewhere in this world there is a faint chance such a technique exists. Only humans were in that room, after all. The place the art is presumed to have come from — Kunlun. The ones who live there might possess it.
Immortals. They are called immortals as a group, but for the most part each of them is a special form of life, closer to one person, one species. No — some of them are difficult to call living things at all.
They must be warm, surely…….
No. Ahem. I have to be careful of them.
For now, among those inside the Murim Alliance interpreting the harvesters, there do not seem to be any immortals. I cannot see any great light. But there are people who handle a special technique. In Byeong-il and Jung Jae-woo's memories they found the woman who turns people into harvesters, and they designated her an evil enchantress who corrupts human beings.
Yes. That's me.
They grasped that I was in the Heavenly Demon Cult and lamented that so many had already fallen into my grasp. Then they announced that the Cult must be struck before any more Heavenly Demons could appear. At the end of that announcement, declaring that evil qi had to be purified in such-and-such a way, they fed the light into a strange device. The light that went in slowly melted and was extinguished, and at the same moment the gaze I had been watching through was cut off.
They can break the light. Well, of course. A vessel can be broken. It was irrational to begin with to think a vessel could never be destroyed. They erase the soul. They incinerate it so that no trace of me remains. So that kind of technique exists too.
Even so, I am not terribly worried, because I remember what Eunjae did. After becoming a harvester, Eunjae killed freely in the place called Murim — for revenge, Eunjae said, killing until the heart was eased — then returned to the Heavenly Demon Cult, made a family, and died of old age. Those last years were a little strange, as if dementia had set in, but even so I think Eunjae accomplished everything that was wanted.
So if the Murim of now is only at that level, then with the Heavenly Demon and Oh Myung-sung — those two — it should not be a great problem.
Which is to say: once this winter passes and spring arrives, a mass warmth-absorption event is going to happen!
The age being what it is, fighting through the winter will be difficult. Even weighing it with my half-baked knowledge, the earliest would be late this spring. At the latest it might be pushed back several years, but I doubt they will simply leave it alone. From what I heard through Jung Jae-woo and Byeong-il — who might as well have been tortured to death — these people will definitely invade. They have fallen into terror that someone like the Heavenly Demon might appear again. They saw with their own eyes a Guardian who had been merely strong come to wield the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. Would they stand by and watch Heavenly Demons — the kind that once turned all of Murim to a wasteland — be mass-produced?
Fear is a powerful driving force.
Hehe. Now I only have to wait.
I was watching what was unfolding far, far to the north when Soo came into the room.
"Choseol, what are you doing?"
"Just sitting still."
"Is that why you've gotten so chubby?"
Soo sidled over and laid a hand on my chest. It has grown quite large. My frame is big, so in simple circumference I am bigger than Rebecca. Looking only at the proportions, I am simply a tall woman. Except that in this world, height is a demerit. They say that even a beautiful face is ugly if the woman is too tall.
Or am I ugly, and is that why people do not come trying to become harvesters? It is possible. But I cannot choose the vessel. No — strictly speaking, I can. When the chance comes, I do not have the leisure to refuse because it is not human, or because the appearance is hideous. And yet, for all that, both bodies were beauties. Standards of beauty differing by the age cannot be helped. From that point of view, Soo herself is far too thin.
"It's that I was too thin before. You're the one who's still too slender, Soo."
"Tell that to Master. It's brutal these days. Forget putting on weight — I'm just wasting away."
Soo flopped across my lap and whined. From around the time the weather turned quite cold, both the Heavenly Demon and Soo had taken up swords and begun to spar. Measured against the memories I hold, the timing seems a little early. Considering how late Soo started…… Mm. The Heavenly Demon who is teaching her will know better than I, who have only memories, so he will teach her properly on his own.
"I don't really know how to fight, so just learn it the way the Heavenly Demon teaches you."
"Haaang!"
Even so, she did not say she hated it. She does not seem to dislike growing stronger, either.
Then Soo stared straight at me. I can tell how a gaze or a body is moving, but I cannot tell what someone is thinking. If I do not know, I ought to ask.
"What is it?"
"It's just — you stick to polite speech in this weird way. No matter who you're talking to, you use honorifics, don't you?"
That is right. I am using polite speech. Respect and courtesy sometimes become powerful weapons. Crawling beneath others profits me more than standing over them. Dominating from above can wait until after they know everything about me.
"Is it strange?"
"Doing it to a kid younger than you — a servant, no less — feels weird to me."
She was talking about herself. I had thought she accepted it without much question, but it seems she did find it odd. Originally Soo was sent here as my servant, and I received ownership of her from the Heavenly Demon. But I gave Soo her freedom. The freedom to do whatever she liked.
"It can't be helped. I decided to be this way from the start."
At my words Soo stared at me. Doubt, hurt, and several other feelings were mixed in her expression.
"It feels like you're putting up a wall."
Mm. Reasonable that she would feel that way. She understood exactly. I am putting up a wall. A very, very, very solid wall. I am putting it up so that what lies behind will never be shown. I have no intention of showing anyone what is back there. Behind it there is nothing but screams driven mad by the cold.
The Heavenly Demon seems to have glimpsed a trace of it, but seeing how he pities me, he did not see it properly. The real thing would be a little more horrific, and a little more revolting. If the door set into that wall opens even once, it is over. Like being injected with a drug that destroys the brain cells completely, there would be no going back. If it opened, afterward I would commit savage things until I was stopped somewhere, and never be able to obtain warmth again.
"This is something I couldn't show even if I wanted to."
"You don't mean to open your heart?"
That struck rather close to the center. This topic was troublesome. At least while I am in the Heavenly Demon Cult, I mean to play the part of someone harmless to anyone. Best to shift the focus of the conversation.
"Oho, so your belly's full already. You think even this much isn't enough? I've given you so much of what I have to give, and still it's not enough…… Fine. Take it, if you can!"
I caught Soo and tickled her side. She screamed and fled. I chased after her, and Soo, shrieking, ran out of the house.
"Ah…… Should I have come some other time?"
A beautiful woman in pure white stood at the entrance with an awkward look on her face. She was not a harvester, so I had not known she was coming. People do not come here anyway; I had wondered whether a lost stray cat had found its way in.
"Soo, we have a guest."
"Welcome!"
Soo, as if nothing had happened, went to Goo Mil-mil and guided her inside. I went to the kitchen and set about preparing the tea In Sim-won had brought as a gift not long ago.
"You are the Heavenly Demon's disciple, I see."
Goo Mil-mil addressed Soo in an awkward, polite tone.
"I'm not his direct heir, so you don't need to speak so formally!"
Soo burst into a hearty laugh as she talked with Goo Mil-mil. A direct heir is a disciple who inherits everything the master possesses. Soo only has her martial arts looked after, so she is not on that level.
"You're the one in the higher place, Lady Goo Mil-mil."
Whatever those two became to each other was their affair. Thinking so, I set the tea to boil over a fire that does not go out.