Chapter 78. Jizu.
Chapter 78. Jizu.
So we pressed on, boring through the mana-saturated depths for several more days. I'd thought it wouldn't take long, but the expedition proved grueling even for the Awakened, never mind ordinary soldiers. And when we finally arrived, the sight that sprawled before us was utterly alien.
At the center gaped a colossal crater, its interior cut off from reality as if it belonged to another world entirely. It felt like some massive film set, built for a movie with an unlimited budget.
If I had to compare it to anything, it vaguely resembled China's Zhangjiajie, the sort of place I'd seen on TV ages ago. The rest of the party was just as awestruck.
"Hmm... it looks like the descent is going to be quite difficult."
"To think something like this just... appeared out of nowhere..."
"Let's proceed down carefully for now."
Awakened or not, this gorge was vertigo-inducingly deep. One wrong step and a tumble from this height would mean serious injury, no question.
I took point on the way down and glanced back a few times. Even the Awakened were struggling, huffing and puffing as they followed. If they were this winded, the regular soldiers must have been on the verge of collapse.
The odd part was, we'd spotted gargoyles, goblins, and orcs here and there on the way in, but once we reached the heart of this place, there was nothing at all.
After crossing the gorge and venturing far deeper, a massive shape came into view even from a distance — a colossal form, hunched and still. Its mere breathing made its body twitch, and every exhale sent vibrations rippling through the earth.
"I thought it was a mountain at first... the sheer size of it is unbelievable."
"If it spreads its wings, it'll be far larger than what we're seeing now."
"Does it not realize we're here because we're too small?"
That was impossible. Ziz was fundamentally a highly sensitive creature. It would have known we'd entered the forest the moment we set foot inside. Why it hadn't reacted and was staying so docile, I couldn't say.
We walked for quite a while longer until we finally stood before it. Then it opened its closed eyes and looked down at us. Even its eyes were the size of a modest building. The rest of the party had apparently grown accustomed to this sort of thing — they were startled for only a moment before regaining their composure. But the Japanese contingent looked seconds away from full-blown panic.
I was startled too, though for a different reason. This was not the radiant, impossibly enormous Dire Bird I remembered. It looked utterly spent, as if it might collapse at any moment.
It studied us, then spoke. The language was neither the tongue of Titan nor any language of Earth. The thought simply resonated directly inside our heads.
"How in the world did humans manage to reach this place...?"
At the voice echoing in their skulls, the party members looked around in every direction.
"Everyone, calm down. That creature is communicating directly, mind to mind."
"No... to begin with, humans of this world shouldn't be capable of defeating a gargoyle..."
Ziz was one of the three beasts of the Demon Realm, a creature whose wisdom rivaled even that of the Sage.
Mana began creeping around us, probing — it was trying to read our thoughts through magic.
— Crackle!
Sparks flew where its mana collided with my own. At the same moment, I saw interest flicker in its eyes as it watched me overpower and block its probing.
"Hooh... truly, humans remain ever a mystery..."
"Let's cut the chit-chat and get to the point."
"Human... do you think I am to be trifled with simply because you bested my mana?"
"Hah..."
"Do you even know who I am, to speak so—"
"Ziz."
"...!!!"
"King of all winged things. The beast of the Demon Realm wisest and most obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge."
Surprise flickered through Ziz's gaze. Then its eyes hardened with seriousness.
"How does a human of this dimension know of me?"
I drew my sword and smirked.
"The most intelligent of all birds, and you still forgot me. A little disappointing."
More astonished than ever, it asked in a voice that could scarcely believe what it was hearing.
"...Right. Only one person would dare brush me off as a mere 'bird.' The Calamity."
"Then I'll ask once more. What exactly are you doing here?"
I let a hint of killing intent seep into my voice. Far from panicking, Ziz let out a dry chuckle.
"Nothing."
"And you expect me to simply believe that?"
"Then what reason have you to disbelieve it?"
I laid out my reasoning: the demonic invasion, the case of the Leviathan, and the bottom line — that in the end, Ziz too was a being created by the Demon God, so there was every reason to suspect the demonkin were targeting this other dimension.
"Just because they do such things, must I do likewise?"
Ziz was, by the standards of creatures from the Demon Realm, something of an oddball. Because it had always been fascinated by humans.
"I grew curious about human emotions. Why humans are so utterly devoted to their children. And conversely, why our own Father, the Demon God, treated us the way he did."
"..."
"So I avoided the wars and the commands, and simply observed humanity — until I arrived at a single notion."
It was true: Ziz had always prized only the pursuit of knowledge and the satisfaction of curiosity above all else. And nothing angered it more than being interrupted in that pursuit.
"I thought... if I were to become a parent myself, perhaps I might come to understand those emotions."
I was about to ask what the hell it meant when it lifted its chin, revealing an egg it had been sheltering beneath its body. It was a large egg, roughly the size of a small child.
"I am dying. To be precise, I am choosing to bring my own life to an end..."
Now everything made sense. Its haggard appearance was the result of constantly pouring mana into the egg — and for an egg laid by Ziz, ordinary mana would have been nowhere near sufficient.
"When I crossed over into another dimension, I intended to quietly raise my child alone, satisfy this final curiosity of mine, and let my life come to a close."
'Makes sense. If it were still on Titan, there'd be no shortage of bastards scheming to get their hands on the egg.'
"But to encounter the Calamity in a place like this... what are the odds..."
At that moment, the man who always hovered at the side of the Japanese Awakened representative spoke up.
"Just what are you plotting to do in our country...!"
Ziz snorted, as if the comment wasn't even worth dignifying.
"Small, unremarkable human. Do you believe that because I converse with the Calamity, I regard you as an equal?"
Ziz fixed him with a pressure-laden glare. The man trembled, broke out in a cold sweat, and dropped his head to avoid its eyes.
"So what do you intend to do from here on out?"
"You can see it yourself, can't you? My mana continues to flow into my child. It won't be long before I die."
"So you're just going to sit here quietly and wait for death?"
As if there were no more need for words, Ziz closed its eyes and fell into silence. By now, our people had a rough grasp of how the situation was unfolding.
The Dire Bird was not a being hostile to humanity.
It and I knew each other, for reasons of our own.
And the egg it was protecting held value beyond that of any strategic weapon.
Unlike our party, those who knew nothing of Titan were beginning to look at the egg with greedy, creeping eyes.
'There's a famous oral tradition: when Ziz dies and blood flows from its corpse, entire cities will be flooded by that blood. As for the egg... I have no idea what will happen.'
I gave the order to withdraw and began moving the party out. But then Ziz opened its eyes again and addressed me.
"Would you be willing to grant me a request?"
"A request?"
"Yes. Did you not once say you would grant me one favor?"
"I'll hear it first, then decide."
What it asked for was beyond anything I could have imagined.
First: kill me.
Second: look after the egg.
"Asking me to care for the egg as a parent — that much I can understand. But why ask me to kill you?"
"When I die and my mana disperses, catastrophic damage will occur."
"...?"
"You are someone I can trust with this request. I know you will somehow contain the damage, and you will raise my child well."
"To begin with, how does an immortal being know what comes after death?"
"Shall we simply call it... intuition?"
"Since when did a beast of the Demon Realm have such a sentimental side?"
Ziz laughed, a wheezing, weary sound. Then it wiped the smile from its expression and looked at me with utter sincerity.
"I am asking this as a favor. And I wish to feel, even a little, what it was like to be struck by the 'caliber' of the one who killed our Father."
At that earnest request, I silently gripped the scabbard in my left hand and the hilt in my right, and focused. I concentrated more intensely than I ever had, even when killing the Demon God. Wind stirred around us, rustling the leaves. The wind built and built until it howled into a gale. And then the earth itself began to tremble, as if an earthquake were rolling through.
In that state, I drew the sword. The blade carved a pitch-black trajectory from lower left to upper right — a slash honed to the singular purpose of 'cutting,' a swing I had never yet given a name.
The strike sliced diagonally through the gorge ahead, cleaved through the clouds high above, and kept going, its arc tearing onward into the sky.
But, astonishingly, not a single wound appeared on Ziz's body.
Even so, Ziz felt its very origin fading into nothing.
"So this is the Calamity's..."
"Don't worry. I'll keep my promise."
"With a human of your caliber... I have no worries at all..."
Its eyes slowly closed. The breath it had been drawing halted. The pulse of its body ceased. To someone who didn't know better, it would have looked as though it had simply fallen asleep.
Just as Ziz had warned, a staggering torrent of mana erupted from its body the moment it died. A storm of mana dense enough to casually grind humans to paste swept through the area.
— Chaos Sword Technique — Reverse
I gathered the raging mana storm and channeled it toward the egg. Exposed to that kind of onslaught, the egg should have been reduced to dust, yet inexplicably, it remained perfectly intact. Over the course of several dozen minutes, the storm slowly subsided, its energy absorbed into the egg.
I approached the egg and carefully ran my palm over its surface.
'Did she really need to go this far... staking everything she had...?'
The Special Forces Commander approached cautiously and spoke.
"Representative, we'll transport the egg."
He produced a piece of the cloth they had been using as tent material and bundled the egg so that two or three soldiers could carry it comfortably. Then, with Chaeyeon providing support as a mage, they moved it.
Meanwhile, with Ziz dead and its mana dispersed, communications began functioning normally again. Our side contacted Gimpo; their side contacted their headquarters.
We reported mutual mission success and headed back toward the point where the seriously wounded were resting.
But for some reason, the captain of the Japanese Awakened was nowhere to be seen.