༺ The Slanted Ceiling and the Mountain of Laughing Corpses – 5 ༻
Struggling to her feet, the regressor’s voice trembled feebly.
“I never wanted… to kill. I tried to find if… there might be another way.”
Her battered state was evident to anyone. She could no longer continue fighting. Yet, the blood dripping from her wounds retraced their path. She had used bloodcraft to make it flow back into her. Then a gust surrounded her, blowing away the dirt and grime. For a moment, she seemed cleansed.
Of course, that was merely superficial. Internally, the blow from the earth dragon had wrought significant damage. She was doubtlessly barely standing on her feet. However, the regressor possessed the ability to channel her pain and despair into rage.
“I just… wanted to do well. Because only I could do it. Because if I don’t change, nothing will… I believed that with good intentions and true effort, everything would get better.”
During her early regressions, when she could see the situation start to visibly improve, the regressor believed that when issues arose, she could appear anywhere to resolve all conflicts, and create an everyday life of peace and beauty. With repetition, things would gradually get better.
She clung to this belief once. However…
“But why! Why, why! Whyyy!”
She encountered futures that couldn’t be altered. Hearts that refused to be swayed. She saw rigid convictions, stubborn pride, and pure obstinacy.
In a world of corrupt organizations and evil individuals, the few good souls were the first to perish in the face of danger. The people she expected to stand by her harbored hidden agendas. Amidst it all, the regressor alone played the role of a clown.
As for those who would have offered true help, they would turn away in the next cycle, rendering their promises meaningless.
“Why won’t anyone help meee?!”
Filled with anger, the regressor looked to the skies, her eyes shimmering with a seven-colored spectrum.
The heat-detecting Crimson, the imperious Amber, the penetrating Jade, depth-revealing Azure, the far-seeing Indigo, and the power-discerning Violet.
These were the Seven Colored Eyes, the mystic powers of sight. The mere appearance of one could send tremors through the world.
The eyes weren’t fused, nor were they shining in sequence. Each of the seven colors shone on its own, yet also as one whole.
A halo emerged in the regressor’s eyes, glittering like the stars in the night sky. From its ends flowed either tears, or perhaps clusters of light.
She had activated all of the Seven Colored Eyes: the Revolving Wheel of Heavens. Through this power, attainable only when all seven mystic eyes merged, she glimpsed the unfathomable.
“If you’re so eager to die, then give it a try! I’ll think later whether I can save you or nooot!!!”
The seven mystic eyes could see the unseen, and the sum of them, the Revolving Wheel of Heaven, could perceive possibilities. Once called the Eyes of Fate, they gauged one’s potential fate.
Due to its enigmatic and uncertain nature, this mystic eye was progressively shunned because of those who met ruin clinging to fate. Over time, the eye was fragmented into different powers.
It was a different case for the regressor, however. To her, the fruits of possibilities already matched the number of her regressions. It allowed her to see herself, drawing out the potential of the human named Shei. This was neither prophecy nor precognition.
By reading and observing her potential in a past life cycle, the power she obtained then, she could temporarily replicate that strength.
Though the cost was her lifespan, that was something she possessed in abundance.
“Skyblade Art, Draconic Ascension!”
A tempest unfurled behind the regressor, energies spiraling chaotically. With a swift leap, the regressor unleashed a slash of incredible force cloaked in the wind.
“You jumped again. Do you never learn…?”
The Earth Sage clutched the very air, twisting it. She intended to capture her opponent using Void Gravitation and rip into her with the earth dragon.
Crrk. The dragon’s concrete body warped, groaning ominously like an overburdened pillar.
“Hiyaaah!”
“Earth Dragon.”
Springs weren’t only made from metal. As long as it didn’t break, even concrete could take its properties. The Earth Dragon, animated by the Earth Sage’s power, had precisely this capability.
The surging earth dragon roared and in a flash, appeared right before the regressor. The next instant, it was vertically cleaved cleanly in two. The regressor forged on past the split, shrouded in a tempest, and swung her blade toward the defenseless Earth Sage.
Had the swing been on the ground, it would’ve had the force to slice even the distant clouds.
A deep gash tore through the Earth Sage. Blood poured from the unmendable wound, spanning from her shoulder down to the opposite side of her waist—a fatal injury.
But even after landing such a blow, the regressor didn’t let her guard down. She clenched her jaw and immediately braced herself.
A powerful kick from the Earth Sage sent her airborne like a ball.
Seconds later, the Earth Sage’s right earring split with a crack. The fracture was identical to the wound on her body.
As the broken earring fell to the ground, the gash on the Earth Sage closed as if stitched together.
“Preceding Funeral… How annoying! Why do you just come back to life even when you’re about to die?!”
The regressor vented her frustration. It wasn’t healing nor restoration, just a momentary deferral of the wound. The Preceding Funeral was a technique that transferred damage to a clay effigy, allowing the user to ‘feign’ an unharmed state and continue fighting.
Facing an opponent who could resurrect in the midst of battle was more exasperating than it sounded.
Of course, the Earth Sage was more taken back than the regressor.
“…How peculiar. Prophecies cannot change reality, and observation without learning cannot enhance one’s skills. Yet, just now, it felt as if your abilities themselves have changed…”
When the regressor was hit by the kick, she altered the point of impact by lunging forward, simultaneously reaching out early to brace her leg and mitigate the force. Her fluid movement and the flow of her Qi were different from before.
Be it her Qi Arts or physical capabilities, everything appeared overwhelmingly superior to what it had been. The Earth Sage recognized this.
“However, like wearing clothes a size too big, I sense stray energy seeping out from the gaps. I do not know what it is, but borrowed power will not last long.”
“Borrowed, hah! This is my original skill! And even without this, I can beat you in just another 3 years… as long as you don’t have Jizan!”
Her rapidly dwindling energy was a heavy burden, but rage drove the regressor forward. She yelled at the Earth Sage.
“Surrender! This is the last time I’m using words!”
“I wish to ask you, considering your perilous state. Do you still intend to fight?”
“That’s funny! If not for that Preceding Funeral, you’d have already died once!”
“You will have to kill me twice more.”
Clink. The clay effigy on the Earth Sage’s left ear swayed. An extra life. The other remaining life was her own.
With a fleeting shared glance, their determination was affirmed.
The regressor took a stance again, while the Earth Sage wrapped her body in concrete. It had come down to a race against the clock. Could the regressor take down the Earth Sage before time ran out? That would determine the outcome.
But as the regressor looked up at the Earth Sage with gleaming eyes, she suddenly noticed a human figure moving on the distant mountain of corpses. Her eyes widened in disbelief as shock gripped her, nearly causing her to fall.
‘What the heck… is he doing over there?!’
***
When the undying thrust his fist into a corpse’s abdomen, the corpse didn’t fall. Instead, it blankly stared at the undying’s right arm impaling it.
A weak whisper came from its mouth.
“Dirt.”
“Dirt?”
Another corpse reacted to the first. The murmur spread from one dead body to the next, and soon a quiet chorus of “dirt” enveloped the area.
Moments later, the corpses’ heads stiffly jerked around, their eyes shifting. They rushed madly toward the undying.
“Ehh?! Callis, stay back!”
Before being swallowed into the wave of corpses, the undying picked Callis up and flung her away. Though caught off-guard, Callis managed a fall break and rolled over several times.
The wave quickly submerged the undying.
“Rasch!”
Callis’ scream was drowned out by the droning of the corpses.
“Bury, must bury. Lay to rest.”
It was a crazed chant, containing nothing but a lingering sense of duty. The corpses, dressed in baggy clothes, pounced like thirsty beasts.
Callis gritted her teeth. The number had already exceeded what she could handle. Cursing her powerlessness, Callis knelt before Tyr to plead.
“O Progenitor! Please! Save Rasch!”
“…Very well. Wait a moment.”
But as Tyr was levitating droplets of blood into the air, the undying’s voice boomed out from among the undead.
“Hold on! Something is not right!”
Any ordinary person would’ve already been torn to shreds in that ant-like swarm of corpses, but the undying sounded perfectly fine.
“These beings are less hostile than I expected! They might not be trying to attack us…!”
The undying emerged from among the undead, who carried him up like a coffin. They moved him toward the mountain of dead bodies.
The undying shouted with amusement.
“Haha! I feel just like a king!”
And then Tyr flicked her droplets of blood, taking out everything under the undying with a boom. The attack was more a sweeping blow than a pinpoint strike. The corpses were blown to bits, and losing his support, the undying dropped down.
As the undying rubbed his bottom, Tyr made a quiet remark.
“That is no reason to leave them be. After all, specters are merely echoes of the departed’s final cries. It is more merciful to eliminate them sooner. Do you not agree, Hu…?”
As Tyr turned around, she found a corpse wearing my outer garments standing in my place.
Tyr tilted her head, and slowly realizing the situation, her face turned ashen as shock took over.
“Hu?!”
While Tyr frantically searched for me in astonishment, I was scaling the mountain of corpses, riding a specter-possessed undead.
