Chapter 90
Chapter 90
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 90
Chapter Title: -90
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 90
Chapter Title: Circuit Giant
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Behind the railing where the Night Hag Queen stood, a deep ice cavern yawned open, every bit as profound as the fissures in Hatham's Valley.
And the things filling this ice cavern were giants clad in steel, looking for all the world like knights of the Empire.
Even by a rough count with her own eyes, there were over a hundred of them. Each one was forged from ice harder than steel, with circuits etched into every crevice.
What's more, every single one was as massive as a Mountain Giant king.
"What do you think? My masterpieces. I installed mechanisms in Mountain Giant corpses, armored them with the ice walls of Hathar, engraved circuits to make them move. Ha! True masterpieces, incomparable to those dwarf trinkets of magic engineering. Just one could sweep the Empire away."
Knowing the woman harbored no hostility toward her this time, Elis approached slowly.
"What do you call this place? No, what are those things called?"
"Hm, never really thought about it. They're still like fetuses, so maybe 'golems'."
"Golems. And you call those fetuses..."
"It's not magic. I studied life itself. Of course, the core implanted in the center is a fusion of demonic sorcery and celestial light, but with that, they can rise again no matter how many times they're destroyed. The ultimate soldiers. Actually, on second thought, 'legion' fits better."
Kirumin Jai grinned wickedly, lost in memories Elis couldn't fathom.
"This time, my legion will defeat that knight."
Leaving the cackling Night Hag Queen behind, Elis examined the golems once more. In the Demon King's memories, Mountain Giants were beings with wills that connected the earth. Did these share the same will? With bodies so vast and majestic? Could it be?
"Do they... wish for death themselves?"
"Asking about will? That's exactly what you're completely lacking right now."
In response to Elis's question, Kirumin Jai gave an enigmatic reply, then roughly seized Elis's hand and aimed it toward the golems. While Elis hesitated in surprise, for some reason her hand began to glow with an inky blue light. That light was unmistakably not vengeance, but Rah-the kin of sin named for madness.
"The madness in these mountains has warped this land over eons, and I drew inspiration from it. Madness is contagious and awakens the lifeless. So isn't that life itself?"
The madness began to flow through the cavern, seeping into the golems' cores.
"No! That's not it either. Only the madness that sends shivers through your eyes is true life. The way to control the golems. Reviving breath and will in their empty husks-that's madness. Get it? That's why you carry madness."
As inky blue ice crystals scattered like tears, the golems began to awaken.
"Until now, I could only use madness here in these mountains. With it, I granted eternal death to countless immortals. But now that gods and Mir are at each other's throats, I needed to transplant the madness for when the Great Demon King destroys the Empire. Through you."
Only then did Elis realize how she was being used in this tale. A superweapon that could shift the tide of war. She was its living controller. Or the hand atop a puppet's head. Kirumin Jai looked at Elis and spoke again.
"Now, let me explain what helping me means. Along the paths down to the surface from the valley, five golems lie dormant, defeated by immortals. Go wake them all. Then complete the descent. How many deaths will it take to awaken those chained lives, one after another?"
It meant awakening the shattered golems with madness along the descent paths-like a snowball rolling down a hill, growing to sweep away the immortals. Awaken a golem, descend with it, awaken another, descend again, then die. The golem would halt there, only to be awakened anew, advancing just a little, ever so slightly further with each step.
Elis realized this wasn't just about fighting well-it was something only she, who could escape death like the immortals and repeat endlessly, could do. But.
"And once we descend, what then?"
What was she ultimately supposed to achieve through this?
"What do I get out of it?"
She had found something only she could do, and now she wanted to know why she had been reborn. But asking without knowing, not even expecting an answer-it was pathetic. Elis bowed her head, feeling wretched.
Watching her, the Night Hag Queen sensed the heart of this alien being, who unlike herself hadn't received the Great Demon King's will directly through horns, and whispered.
"Freedom."
That single word, ringing softly, echoed louder than Elis's pounding heart. Louder even than the sweet temptation that death permits death.
"W-what?"
"Freedom. I'm the Demon King, but not so authoritarian. Look around-you'll see my kind aren't inherently warlike. Except that second head helping make the golems. Experimenting, exploring, indulging... If everything ends and you no longer need to wield golems, I'll make you into one too."
Seeing Elis didn't grasp her words at all, the Night Hag Queen made a small object inside a transparent ice pillar at the railing's corner-like glass-'walk' over.
"Th-that's..."
A doll eerily like a human. A golem shaped like a woman's body.
"Not kin of sin, but filled with your memories and will-I'll turn you back into a real human."
Without thinking, Elis approached the woman's doll and inspected it closely. No hair, seams at every joint. And grotesquely, the core was exposed at its chest.
"I can... go back?"
But it was so beautiful.
"I don't know what you want or what you'll do, and I don't care. But in this absurd world, I'm the only one who can give you what you desire most."
She was the Night Hag Queen who had helped create the current Great Demon King. Crafting a mere human body would be trivial for her. So Elis couldn't help but wonder.
"Why go this far?"
She couldn't believe a demon offering her freedom. They were obviously using her as a golem controller. Demons were like that. Humans too.
"Sigh, here we go again."
"No, Night Hag Queen, I know the princess is this world's distortion. But I can't forgive the Demon King or demons. I can't empathize with your hatreds."
Why do we hate each other?
Is that what they call fate?
"You haven't fully recalled the Great Demon King's memories, have you? Asking something like that."
'Obviously because I hate humans.'
Chashap Hei, who hadn't passed puberty and had a girlish voice, had surely worn that same look. Having experienced both sides-perhaps that's why. She could empathize with the world the Hero she admired tried to save, and the Demon King trying to save that Hero as a friend. But what was the source of this primal hatred inside her, like the sin within?
What must she 'avenge'?
The root of sin in her kept fueling the questions.
"What am I'missing?"
To Elis's question, Kirumin Jai sent the doll back with a bored snort and said,
"You'll learn it all when you reach the human city at the mountain's end. The millennium pact, Mir and gods, the first Hero and the original Demon King. Until then, focus on helping me properly. I'm the only one who can promise you freedom now."
She was right.
No reason not to believe. She was seeking her unique role in this story, and the reward was freedom-a human body. No need to hesitate. Right there, gazing at the circuit giants and the small human, Elis vowed.
She'd learn everything at the human city. No more questions. Just keep pondering and asking.
"Where do I go?"
Her eyes steady, Elis spoke, and Kirumin Jai pulled a map from her bosom and handed it over.
"You never know when you'll die and return, so keep this map on you and follow the death points. I sent Chashap Hei who brought you back to the summit. Recharge your circuits from him and fly straight along the map-it'll save time. I've marked the circuit giant locations too. After raising the last one and making the barrier, go on your own. A bit further is the mountain boundary, probably where my harpies are. Retrieve your sword there and head straight to the human city. The rest... ah, we'll continue once you arrive."
Elis checked the map as Kirumin Jai instructed. Grasping the mountain range's layout for the first time, she realized she had descended to the midpoint. And.
"This is the human city on the western continent... Fromnain."
A region seemingly isolated, mountains at its back, river ahead where the range ended. A small city at the frozen plain's edge, marked with what looked like Kirumin Jai's drawing.
She didn't know what the wolf-like sketch meant, or what lay in this city with a name like the great Sonain Empire. For now, she decided to descend. Elis pocketed the map and turned to leave.
"Then I'll be off."
Back to the battlefield filled with bone-chilling death.
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