Chapter 435: The Savior Ω IX |
The Savior Ω IX
"Mr. Undertaker. The number of people I could bring at once was limited, so a few were left behind."
Tap, the Saintess stepped forward lightly.
The ashen ground she stepped on was no ordinary place. A subspace unfolded solely based on my dream, my memories.
The divine realm of the false regressor.
"Still, I brought most of them—"
She paused.
Only now did the surrounding scenery finally register in the eyes of the Saintess, who had devoted herself to making this hastily revised operation a success.
"Good heavens. This place..."
She wasn't the only one who was at a loss for words.
The strike team members who had arrived in my divine realm simultaneously with the Saintess. Whether it was Seo-rin or Ha-yul, without exception, they all looked dumbfounded as they frantically looked around.
The first to open her lips was Ji-won.
"Hmm. There are a lot of corpses."
Next was Dok-seo.
"A-a lot? This isn't at that level! It's just... there's nothing but corpses?!"
Dok-seo's expression was accurate.
The bottom of the deepest unconscious.
And this place, which they'd descended to using me as a staircase, was simply the heart of a nightmare where corpses sprawled all the way to the horizon beyond.
A mountain of corpses in a sea of blood.
In this place where it seemed no words could seep through the crevices between the corpses, if we had to give it a name, only something like that would barely be permitted.
"Wow."
Ah-ryeon's eyes sparkled brightly.
She was already on her knees, rummaging through corpses. Even as blood seeped under her fingernails, she rejoiced like a child dyeing their nails with garden balsam.
"Th-this... looks exactly like me! It's my face! But there are leaves sprouting here and there on the face... It's the end of me after becoming a World Tree! Guild Leader!"
"Ugh."
Seo-rin made a disgusted expression.
"Why are you deliberately rummaging through something like that?"
"Huh? Th-this is Guild Leader's deepest heart, isn't it? And there are so many of my corpses here... Aren't you happy?"
"That's morbid. Really!"
That's right.
This divine realm, the 'Cemetery of the Mountain of Corpses in a Sea of Blood,' was practically no different from revealing the world as I saw it.
How could the corpses collapsed here be only Ah-ryeon's?
The Saintess was stepping on the Saintess's forearm, Seo-rin's heels stepping back crushed Seo-rin's cheek, and at the edge of Ji-won's gaze hung Ji-won's severed torso.
"Unni...?"
Amid all this, Yo-hwa looked with a blank face at the reinforcement newly arrived in this divine realm.
"Yep. Guten Tag. Meine Schwester?"
Grin.
Yo-hwa, receiving the gaze, waved her hand. With her other hand, she still had her fingers tightly interlaced with mine.
"A-are you really my unni? I mean, my twin?"
"Yo-hwa. What exactly is 'real'?"
"Huh?"
"For me, the only person who truly exists in this world is Sunbae here. Ah, of course you exist too! For convenience's sake, for convenience."
"...What?"
"In short, if they're someone remembered by Sunbae, who is a true human, then they too can be called a true human. You know trickle-down economics, right, my little sister? That's a concept that applies to humanity's humanness too."
"..."
"In that sense, having received the trickle-down, or rather, having opened my mouth wide directly under the faucet and gone chug-chug drinking the flowing water, this body is truly a human among humans. You could call me Adam's Eve. Final answer? Yes! Final answer!"
"...Ah, I see. So that's the kind of human she was."
Understanding, resignation, and a bit of contempt settled on Yo-hwa's expression. Sisterly affection had built up at super speed.
Not long after the separated family reunion, an earthquake occurred from beyond the horizon of corpses.
Kruuuuuung...!
The strike team members' gazes all turned simultaneously.
Kruuung, kruuuuuuung...!
Corpses swept up in the tremors scattered through the air.
Some corpses shot up to the sky, then fell bizarrely slowly.
Thud! There were also corpses that flew right up to our noses and added one more to the pile. Ah-ryeon, who happened to be nearby, flinched.
"Hii, hiiiik!"
The turbulence beyond the horizon was endless, and the corpses flying toward us didn't decrease either.
All those corpses had Yuri's face mounted on them.
"..."
Mounted meant, literally, mounted.
The corpses had different genders and different body types.
Only the faces. Where different expressions should have been, 'Yuri's facial skin' was mounted.
It was the most cruel prayer.
All the anonymous lives spent on reincarnation wriggled and chanted a single name like a Buddhist prayer.
"It's coming."
Someone's murmur.
Oooo oooo oooo...!
The horizon writhed and squirmed, then red flesh rose up from it.
Its size was immeasurable.
Even the sky that had seemed endlessly vast became nothing but a frustrating background screen once the red flesh appeared, and the earth groaned with cramped square footage.
'Hello?' 'What is life.' 'Nice to meet you.' 'Ahaha.' 'Mother.'
Flutter—.
Whenever the giant tentacles undulated, ripples spread across their surface. Yuri's face, arms, legs, gestures. A temple incarnated as a lump of meat was singing a hymn.
It was mumbling that no one could understand.
However, to me, the master of this divine realm and someone who had received a tenfold song implanted in my heart by Hecate, it was clearly audible.
'Huh?' 'How many days do I have left to look at the sky and feel it's beautiful.' 'What a coincidence.' 'Guild Leader.' 'Let's become one.' 'Mr. Undertaker?' 'Once upon a time,' 'it was said.' 'Likewise.' 'Something only I can do.'
There was no great meaning in those murmurs.
Simply, because the reincarnators of the past who had already died had accumulated far too much compared to the living reincarnator of the present life, there were only gestures where the subject had reversed.
"Uuugh...!"
"I-it's too noisy!"
"Everyone, cover your ears!"
Unlike me, the strike team members who couldn't understand the Outer God's screams groaned in pain.
"Mr. Undertaker."
The Saintess spoke urgently.
"We don't know when 'that thing' will use its authorities again. It seems to have gotten even stronger."
"It's not a misconception. Right now, Yuri and I are in an inseparable relationship. When she enters my divine realm, Yuri is strengthened as well."
"...We entered here following Mr. Undertaker's proposal, but do you have a countermeasure?"
"Of course I do."
I smiled.
"Don't you understand yet?"
"What?"
"Yuri isn't the only one who becomes stronger here. I know not only Yuri's life but all of your lives as well. For instance, the Saintess from a cycle where she fell and became a priestess of an Outer God."
"...!"
The Saintess's eyes widened.
"Then...? Wait a moment."
The Saintess raised her arm and spread her fingers.
"...This is impossible."
A moment later, a rare shadow of shock settled on her expression.
"It's true. Even if I stop time, I'm not tired at all. I feel like I could respond to the enemy's time acceleration as much as I want... that kind of feeling."
"Ah! So you finally understand how Sunbae's divine realm works!"
Yo-hwa giggled. She seemed excited, as if dopamine had been going crazy since earlier.
"That's right! As long as Sunbae permits it, in this divine realm everyone can demonstrate their abilities at their prime!"
"Prime..."
"Yes! Our Sunbae isn't a support genius for nothing! Tricks like this are possible too!"
Yo-hwa finally released her interlaced fingers. Instead of grabbing mine, she firmly grabbed her twin sister's hands.
Both of them.
"Huh?"
"Yo-hwa, don't worry. After this operation ends anyway, we'll all get one shot of Udumbara detox and return to being human."
"Wh-what are you... saying?"
"Mmm, my little sister. It means this is our first and last stage where we can run wild without worrying about the aftermath."
The corners of Yo-hwa's eyes curved like half-moons.
"O Taeguk."
At that moment.
"Father and mother and child of all things. Descend here and now."
The world twisted.
Among the corpses forming the mountain of corpses in a sea of blood, only the corpses of Yo-hwa and Yo-hwa, just the two of them, surrounded the sisters as if caught in a whirlpool.
The corpses made 'hands.' Hands grasped other corpses' hands, and corpses without hands had their toes twisted to act as hands instead.
The corpses bloomed endlessly like flowers. The outline or form of bodies had no meaning. Arms sprouted from stomachs, and chests vomited out faces.
"Ah."
Yo-hwa's eyes wavered.
If even the outline of herself was like this, what about other things?
An authority that toys with all boundaries. When the power that mocks all things entered her hands, Yo-hwa couldn't help but convulse.
"This is..."
"The role originally assigned to us sisters."
Yo-hwa grinned.
Originally, in the early cycles, Yo-hwa had gained fame as a Necromancer.
Necromancy that broke down the boundary between life and death was, in fact, merely the most basic feat for Taeguk.
"Because one person can't handle it, the ancient god of our household that can only receive a complete descent in the body of twins. And also a shitty Outer God bastard."
"..."
"Our lives were ruined because of it, so if we get some benefit from it, who's going to say anything? Don't worry. This unni will escort you through everything step by step."
"...Yes. No, yeah. Please do. Unni."
"Alright. Shall we send a light jab as a greeting to our Sunbae who's been around much longer than us?"
One of the corpses drew a sword.
Even that sword had spontaneously generated from the corpse.
Pshhhk! Like an offering sacrificing itself, the corpse thrust the sword tip into where its heart should be.
The moment one offering sacrificed itself voluntarily.
Oooo oooo oooo...!
Blood spurted from a corner of the red flesh that had been approaching from the horizon.
Since one spurt of blood boasted a quantity comparable to a river, the mountain of corpses in a sea of blood literally formed rivers of blood.
"Hmm."
Yo-hwa's eyes narrowed.
"I tried to erase that ability first since [Teleportation] seemed like it would be the most annoying. But something else got erased?"
"Teleportation was probably possessed by the Yuri who remained in reality, not that lump of flesh."
I said.
"How did you erase the reincarnator's ability?"
"Well, um. It's intuitive, so it's hard to explain. I'm implementing a simulation of the reincarnation where teacher Yuri awakened teleportation, then overwriting it with a scenario where I stab her to death with a sword."
"...Is the principle the same as Do-hwa?"
"One more shot."
Pshk! This time, three of the corpses dancing in a circle around the Yo-hwa sisters simultaneously drew swords and sacrificed themselves.
Oooo oooo oooo...!
Three strands of the red flesh's tentacles melted like candle wax. The source of the blood flowing onto this earth was the tentacles that died like that.
"I just killed [Sound Seal], [Memory Reading], [Sensory Contamination]. How's that, Sunbae? Amazing, right?"
"Now I understand why Go Yuri tried so desperately to split Taeguk into Infinite Void and Mastermind."
"Right, right. Originally, the final boss wasn't that lump of meat but us sisters..."
Psssssssht!
The corpses that had been dancing in a circle perfectly fine suddenly had their chests split open. Soon their hearts burst and they collapsed with thuds.
At a glance, it reached six hundred corpses.
"...Mm."
Yo-hwa's confident smile became ambiguous.
"Teacher Y-Yuri is reacting a bit strongly? Running the simulation is tough."
"...Don't tell me that to kill three Go Yuris in the simulation, six hundred of you were killed in reverse?"
"A mistake, a mistake! This is just a small happening that occurred because I'm not yet familiar with handling Taeguk. Ah, the more powerful abilities are concentrated in the relatively later reincarnations, so it's not easy—"
Thud. Thud thud!
Even while speaking, the chests of the corpses in the circle kept splitting without rest. Yo-hwa was horrified at the alarming speed of the open-heart surgeries.
"Ah, damn! Are you planning to dump everything on us sisters and just play around?! What's the strike team doing! What's the healer doing! Hurry! Heal!"
"H-hwaa."
Ah-ryeon responded in her usual blank voice.
"It's not even alive, and h-healing something that's already dead is my first time too..."
What happened at her fingertips was completely unlike usual.
Srrrrk—
Flowers bloomed from the corpses of the twin sisters buried face-down in the mountain of corpses in a sea of blood. From split chests, from where hearts had burst.
Soon the spider lilies formed riverbanks.
The corpses stained red rose up wriggling again and, with hands clasped together, joined the procession of the eternal circle dance.
"Ooh!"
Yo-hwa let out an exclamation.
"As expected, Ah-ryeon! The best contaminated one and best healer in Sunbae's party! I believed in you!"
"Being told that by someone I'm meeting for the first time... doesn't give me any impression at all..."
"Anyway, with this the perpetual motion machine is complete! Now then, without dragging it out, let's quickly crush Yuri-sensei's authorities—."
Right then.
A tentacle extended from the red flesh that had definitely been straddling the horizon and struck the circle dance.
"Ack."
Divine speed.
The sisters didn't even have time to react.
The circle dance of corpses that seemed like it would continue forever had half of it evaporate.
Even this was only because I quickly stepped forward and deflected in one stroke the red flesh's tentacle that had been aimed at 'this side.'
If I hadn't stepped forward, the tentacle would have struck not the periphery of the circle dance but the center, meaning the Yo-hwa sisters.
"S-Sunbae."
"You drew too much aggro. The opponent is the most sublime and cruel Outer God. I understand that winning at a 0.1% gambling table makes dopamine secrete like crazy, but if you make one wrong move, you'll be gone in one hit."
Before my words even ended, tentacles began flying one after another. This time not one but tens of thousands.
[I'm.]
The majority of them were slaughtered midway.
[I'm sorry, the nullification-type abilities.]
Still tens of thousands of tentacles remained.
I gripped Do-hwa's handle tightly to fight against them, but I didn't need to take a step forward.
Kwaaarrrrrk!
The wave of tentacles that had been swung with momentum to sweep this side away exploded after being blocked by an 'invisible wall.'
The blood that burst as the tentacles shattered also didn't flow in the direction where our allies were.
The 'transparent barriers' became covered with liquids like a car window running through heavy rain.
"Phew."
Step.
A girl with hair as red as blood passed by my side and took one step forward.
Glancing back at this side, like someone convinced they existed at the coolest angle of their life.
"I."
She spoke with a nihilistic expression at a level that would slap Osamu Dazai's cheek and strike Edgar Allan Poe's chin.
"Heavenly Demon, descending."
"..."
LiteraryGirl's prime.
A.K.A. The author who beats up readers.
"Cool. Confirmed."
It was the second coming of the most wicked one.
Footnotes:
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