Chapter 83
Chapter 83
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Voice
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Second descent. White poison rose up again, as if waiting for Elis. Because of its hazy, fog-like spread, not a single living thing could be seen from the start to the end of the lower peak.
For a moment, she wondered if this white poison was death itself visualized.
"Haa."
No, perhaps she herself was something like that. Elis pushed through the snow and fog, questioning and questioning again. And after some time, she found the spot where she had died.
"Bloodstains..."
It hadn't been long, so snow hadn't even covered them. And not just that-the surrounding snow had melted from the hot blood. In other words, she had definitely died right here, and that undead Join had devoured her flesh and bones clean like a corpse-eater.
"And it's still here."
The trail of blood continued behind a lump of hard blue ice like a rock. Elis slowly gripped the handle in the center of the shield-like hard board and lifted it.
Then she climbed the ice lump slowly. Thanks to the shoes Iveldra had made her, she didn't slip, but she wanted to avoid making noise.
It's undead, but as a Join, its hearing must be...
Wait, why do I know that?
More unanswered questions flooded her mind. Everything was foggy. Elis reached the top of the ice lump, swallowing her death. Sure enough, the Join was right below, eating what had been her.
Then time wasn't rewinding. And if so, her body would remain like this every time she died. She had no idea what mechanism it was, but she would have to keep witnessing herself die and get eaten.
So what the hell was it? If that was her, then was the current her a copy, and the kin of sin had spat out an illusion into this world?
Then what am I right now?
'I don't know what I should strive for. Please guide me, along with that guiding star, on how to overcome this identity crisis.'
Elis froze at the voice that suddenly surfaced. It was definitely hers. And she remembered it had been a time when she felt a similar frustration.
That suffocating feeling. Who she was, and what she should fight her sword for. Where the tip of her sword, Rahab, should point.
No, before that, I need to find my sword first.
"Die."
Thud!
Elis raised the board with both hands and leaped, smashing it into the undead Join's head. The head split in two and fell, and the chunks of Elis's flesh in its mouth splattered out.
But that was it. The undead Join slowly turned its head toward Elis on the ground.
"As an undead, it won't die from something like this, huh?"
Elis glanced at the board sliding across the icy floor from the impact of her strike. If the undead Join charged straight at her, she could somehow grab it first. But after that?
Grrr.
Countless questions swirled. But the undead Join gave her no time to think-it had no thoughts at all-as it pressed its wing bones against the ice and sprang forward.
It just wanted to kill and eat her. Eyes filled with pure malice, the thing that had died yet wouldn't die charged at her, soaked in blood.
Bam!
"Kuh!"
Elis barely flung herself aside and grabbed the board again, but it wasn't enough to block the undead Join's wing bones. So what now? In that instant, cracks entered her eyes on the ice.
"Haa!"
She had to erase the questions, the thoughts. Just like that undead Join trying to devour her now, she too had risen from death. Strike with pure malice.
Bam!
Dodging the undead Join's bones again, Elis pressed deeper in. She immediately jammed the board into a crack in the ice. But this too fell short.
The ice was thicker than expected, and a pilgrim's board meant for sleeping on the pilgrimage path couldn't even pierce the gap.
"Damn it!"
Elis raised the board overhead without even looking up. In that moment, heavy pain smashed down on her. Fortunately, it wasn't the wing bone. It was just the shattered face slamming into her.
"Kuh!"
But it didn't end there-the undead Join swung wildly at the board Elis held up, whipping its neck.
She couldn't hold out like this. Should she abandon the shield-like board and create distance again? No, she'd get hit by the wing bone and die instantly. Force herself to stand? That wouldn't work either. The board was obviously about to break soon. No, holding it low like this had already pushed her arms to the limit. The moment her arms snapped, her neck would follow. Like that undead thing that wouldn't stop attacking even as its skull burst and its neck bones cracked continuously... Wait, undead. Aren't I undead too right now?
Then.
"Hyaap!"
Bracing for the break, Elis pulled her right arm from the board and thrust it straight into the ice.
Bam!
A small rupture sounded, followed by the crunch of bone not just breaking but shattering, then a massive roar as the ice cracked and twisted apart with a creak.
"Hup!"
In an instant, the ice collapsed, and the frozen waterfall leading down the peak twisted as well. Elis had no choice but to tumble down with the undead Join amid the crumbling ice.
Of course, due to its massive size, the undead Join got wedged in the twisted gaps, then crushed between colliding ice chunks, its upper and lower body separating. An enormous amount of ice poured down, and Elis, having ditched the board, barely dodged to land midway down the peak.
"Haa, haa..."
Ragged breaths came as death brushed her through the holes in Iveldra's wings. The arm that had shattered the ice hung limp like a black rag, devoid of strength. But thanks to death's touch, she felt no pain. Now she had to go lower. She hurriedly gripped the broken board and stood in the pit where cracked ice had gathered.
It was probably where a small waterfall from rainwater fell, and the terrain had formed naturally as ice built up and broke off repeatedly.
"Huh?"
But thinking about it, from this impossibly high mountain, living things other than birds accidentally crushed by falling ice-or perhaps fellow undead-chose to die in this pit.
"This is as far as I go this time."
A dozen undead Joins charged at Elis simultaneously. The first one thrust its wing bone, piercing her collarbone and chest. Then it got stabbed in the back by another incoming Join's bone and clumped together. But the undead Joins didn't stop-they devoured Elis. The one that tore off Elis's left cheek was greedily divided and eaten by the others.
***
Elis's second descent ended like that. Rising again from the pure white grave, she realized her broken arm had returned to normal, and the board was gone.
"As expected..."
Elis headed toward the exit between the mounds. Iveldra greeted her the same as before.
"You're back."
"There were undead... no, Joins that had become undead."
Iveldra applied a black teardrop from Rah to Elis's right eye again.
"This is the Hatam Mountains, home to Gehenna's highest peak, and originally the final bastion blocking undead crossing from the frozen northern lands. If Joins became undead, they could probably climb at least to the upper peak."
Iveldra stroked Elis's hair as she continued.
"Did any memories surface?"
"That is..."
Elis fully trusted Iveldra. Meeting her made even the overflowing injustice from before fade away. So her current hesitation must be because the memory she'd recalled wasn't complete.
It was just a voice for a moment. Who she'd said it to, where, why-none of it came back.
"It's fine. The more you experience death, the more moments of death you face, the greater your longing for life will grow, and your memories will gradually return. Once you descend to the city of forgotten humans, everything will be alright."
"But there are too many undead. How can I get down below...?"
"Elis, how many of those undead did you kill this time?"
Iveldra asked with her characteristic emotionless expression. Elis caught her breath and realized once more. She kept dying and reviving as kin of sin, while time flowed on. In other words, the undead Joins she'd just killed were truly dead, unlike her.
If she did this ten times-no, maybe fewer if opportunities arose-then it wouldn't be her that vanished, but Hatam's undead.
"You are not free from death. But you can choose. If you keep risking death, repeating the descent over and over, you will eventually win, Elis."
Death whispered sweetly once more, and Elis refused.
"I'll go again."
Just a little more dying. If she reclaimed her sword at the peak's end, she could point its tip at undead more horrific than death. And with each battle, memories trickled back.
This time, at least two. Elis snatched the rusty sword from a pilgrim's waist and began descending the stairs.
Thus, she descended into her third madness.