A Fragment of Darkness (1)
Time passed.
A lot happened during that time, but nothing all that important, so I'll just skim over it.
The priest who figured out that the plague killing his wife and child stemmed from corpses left to rot out in the open asked me how to handle the bodies. I gave him a simple answer.
"Just burn 'em."
Since the plague spread from those unburied corpses, right? If you can't bury them properly, burning's the next best thing.
But humans really hated cremation. Did they see it as desecrating the dead or something? Burying them just lets them rot down to bones anyway.
So I spread a little rumor.
By offering the body of the deceased to the Holy Flame, the soul can shed some of its karmic sins. But the Holy Flame burns eternally deep within a volcano in the scorching desert, untouched by human feet.
I figured it'd boost Ifrit's rep while I was at it. The kid's all alone out there—kinda pitiful, y'know?
Spread it around like some sacred fire that devours impurities just right.
It's not as good as offering to the Holy Flame itself, but burning the corpse down to bones can still cleanse away a tiny bit of sin.
A tiny bit—which you can read as "barely enough to register on judgment." Whatever. The real goal was preventing plagues by burning bodies.
If you could bury them right away, no need for this, but not every corpse gets that luxury. Like in wars, for example.
Humans and the other non-human races kept expanding their territories.
Humans had the widest reach, mixed in with beastkin living alongside them.
Elves spread out around the World Tree in the great forest, dwarves tunneled into the mountains near Sagarmatha like ants in a hill.
Lizardmen hadn't expanded much due to humidity and temperature issues, but their preemptive claim made their territory pretty vast anyway.
Giants? Their numbers grew, but only to a few hundred. Even with huge individual territories, they looked pathetic compared to other races.
Dragons? Most pilgrims worshiping me as the Goddess of Life wandered the world on pilgrimages, or holed up in caves. Either guarding eggs or hatchlings, or just liking the shut-in life.
So dragons didn't really have territories.
Each race kept pushing outward. But you can't expand forever. Livable land's limited, and most of it's already claimed.
War was inevitable.
Well, so far it was just among humans!
Even humans wouldn't pick fights with other races!
Harsh forests and steep mountains were natural walls for elves and dwarves. Giants' lands were too cold for humans to invade easily.
Lizardmen? Their kids could smash rocks barehanded—humans dumb enough to fight them? We'd call those suicide cases.
So humans only warred with other humans.
Population boomed, but no professional soldiers or mercenaries yet—just conscripted adult men. City-states could muster 300 to 500 each.
With promises to allied states, they'd scrape together support troops. Average battles: around 1,000 per side.
Iron was rare, even for commanders—most armed with bronze or stone. Armor? Bits of bone or thick leather at best.
And these ragtag armies hacked at each other.
Hmm. Humans' greed is endless, repeating the same mistakes... Nah, no full-scale wars yet!
They tussled just enough to test strength, then called it quits!
Adults were precious; too many deaths hurt either side. So they kept it moderate.
City-state level—no solid nations or ethnic identities yet. No genocides, just turf scuffles!
Watching them, I let out a small sigh.
Should I stop the wars? Fights between people lead to wars between cities and nations—isn't that natural?
Even if I could, is stopping them really for humanity's good?
Dunno. Human history is war history. Progress through war.
Block all wars, and society stagnates?
I sighed again. Hoo... Having a clear personality sucks sometimes. A mechanical god would've just done the job.
Dunno. Really dunno. No clue what's best.
Best to step back and watch.
Anyway, I turned away from the humans and beastkin starting their pie fights.
With the underworld wrapped up, I had some free time and started making something.
A long-postponed project. A tool to drag back that insolent brat.
Like a fishing rod to hook Erebos from underground.
With tracking, capture, and imprisonment traits targeted only at him—no escape.
Overkill? Nah, he deserves it! That idiot started it.
Chasing wishes, did the unforgivable. Scared of losing scales, split the ones I lent him to flee. Felt pain for the first time—well, second, after those bugs in my wings as a newborn.
Anyway, Erebos is at fault. I can go overboard, no problem!
So I gripped the rod I'd made.
Made from darkness like his, the line could seep underground and snag him. Auto-tracking too—just dangle it in the earth, and snag the fool.
Time to fish.
Erebos existed as deep underground darkness since gaining ego.
No light pierced there—pure darkness, his domain.
So I dangled the darkness-line and waited ages.
For the child I raised, taught, nurtured. To capture Erebos.
He'd think his way out if he could, but eventually...
Time dragged. Priest who served me died, became upper underworld manager per my hint—rod still.
Holy Flame faith spread, even deifying it—rod still.
Eastern princess dove to underworld alive to revive her dead father—rod still.
How long? When Akad, a mere city-state, conquered neighbors into a kingdom—the rod twitched.
Found him? I yanked and reeled for a full day before seeing the catch.
Finally... caught the foolish son after all this...
"Hm?"
I stared at the line's end.
The Erebos-tracker had... just a faint wisp of darkness dangling.
Uh... um... so...
"Erebos?"
The faint darkness just wriggled on the hook, no answer.