༺ The Slanted Ceiling and the Mountain of Laughing Corpses – 7 ༻
I observed the visions while sipping on the remaining drops of the Hundred Crimson Blossoms. I muttered to myself in amazement upon witnessing the Grandmaster’s epic spell cast just before her death.
“Wow, you really were special. Enough to warrant arrogance.”
“Ahh…”
“So the abyss wasn’t hell? More like heaven. With this land transforming into the abyss and vanishing, it became untraceable. Thanks to that, you could return to your old primary duty and bury 300,000.”
“Ahhh…”
“But I guess it was hard for you to ignore the grudges of so many captives? Must be why you turned your unresolved questions into a relic. Really now.”
Jizan was yet to be drawn. It was just an obsidian stick, neither a sword nor a staff. Its undecided form was the key to the Grandmaster’s spiritual world and her dilemma.
But I was a mind reader and the constant number one student in secondary school in my time. Deciphering answers without even solving problems was a piece of cake.
“What a grand backdrop for a survey.”
Not that there was any right answer. Essentially, it was just a survey that came with Jizan, the Sword of Earth, as a freebie. The question itself was highly subjective, so without adequately convincing the spirit, she wouldn’t grant the sword’s power.
Though well, that was no concern of mine.
I discerned her intention and lifted Jizan, the pitch-black stick that could be either sword or staff. It possessed the power of earth magic and could become an unparalleled weapon of menace.
“Ahh, ahhh.”
“Is it a staff or a sword? Such an ambiguous design.”
“Why, why…?”
The Grandmaster—or more accurately, her spiritual echo—wept as if her dirty secrets were exposed.
The spirit despaired watching me see through the true intent behind this test, tearing up the survey she painstakingly crafted, and freely fiddling around with the “freebie”.
“You might have ended up like this because of those cowardly prophets, but don’t you think it’s crossing the line a bit to test someone using a question you yourself couldn’t answer? Oh, not that I’m saying you’re arrogant. You literally crossed the line between life and death, after all.”
I shrugged toward the spirit, who was still sobbing with her head hanging.
Though I called it a spirit left behind in the relic, it was no more than the echo of someone departed. It could never respond to my words.
I twirled Jizan as I continued speaking.
“I suppose since you’ve already passed on, there’s no need for send-offs. I won’t say much. Goodbye.”
But just as I was about to shift my attention…
“Was I… the one being tested?”
“Holy, what the heck?! Almost shocked the liver out of me!”
The Grandmaster’s spirit suddenly spoke to me.
Seriously, modern corpses were such a surprise. Why’d she suddenly wake up and start talking? Could it be that her consciousness from 1,300 years ago still remained?
“Is it because of the abyss? It’s all so strange, be it spirits or the dead. They’re too well-preserved, and their lingering emotions are vivid enough to perceive.”
I calmed my startled heart, and fixed a narrow glare on the cross protruding through the Grandmaster’s torso.
“Or maybe it’s because of that cross…”
Perhaps Sanctum’s power, whose very existence was a mystery, was at play. It was possibly delivering a question to me across the span of 1,300 years.
But no matter how intently I stared at the cross, nothing changed. I decided to stop wasting my time and focus on the Grandmaster.
“Then should I treat you as the living for now?”
As I was lost in thought, the Grandmaster’s weeping spirit looked up. Her lake-clear eyes streamed with tears, her expression tinged with sorrowful torment that transcended time.
The spirit beseeched me tearfully.
“In my indecision, I delayed making a choice until I was ultimately ousted. Fleeing from the burden of killing, I drove myself to death in the end. In my escape, I found… solace. But it appears a part of my heart had always clung to regrets.”
“How many in the world can go without any regrets? If you left in peace, then that’s enough.”
In a voice reminiscent of a last breath, the Grandmaster’s faint spirit cried out to me.
“Was I… allowed to do so? Was I allowed to flee from my sin?”
I answered, meeting her eyes.
“What’s wrong with running away? Running from a problem you can’t handle is a valid path in its own right. I don’t dislike people who try to run. On the contrary, I quite like them.”
“Is that so…”
“Except… for those who see death as an escape.”
The Grandmaster’s spirit shut her mouth as I knelt down, holding her gaze.
“Death seems like a good refuge, doesn’t it? The perfect exemption, a place where no one can pursue you or question your wrongs.”
I couldn’t read the spirit’s thoughts. Not even my mind-reading ability could penetrate the veil of time. Damned power.
Still, like any other ordinary person, I tried to empathize to some degree.
“Yes, you’re right. How can anyone hold you accountable when there’s no afterlife in reality? You’d feel at ease.”
Even the abyss, which did exist, took great lengths to barely reach. If someone died leaving no trace at all? Well that’d be the ultimate evasion of responsibility.
“But please spare a thought for the real-world implications. Imagine a creditor trying to collect, only to find the debtor resides in a place unreachable to the living! How would that creditor feel? Whom will they claim from then?”
From the summit we stood on, I pointed below. Unlike our lofty perch, the distant depths were flame with the clash between the regressor and the Earth Sage. They existed, yet were unseen in this spiritual plane.
“That’s why they’ve followed you even into hell. To collect the debt you left behind.”
“Ahh…”
The Grandmaster sighed deeply, foreseeing the events to come.
If only she had vanished without any lingering attachments. But having chosen to preserve her spirit out of a desire to dissolve regrets, she should have anticipated this outcome.
I handed back her survey. The Grandmaster, now on the receiving end of the test, took it with a heavy heart. I stood up, gazing down at her.
“Your choice isn’t over yet.”
***
The glimmers in the regressor’s eyes flickered out weakly, and the next second…
“Ugh…!”
The Revolving Wheel of Heaven disappeared, leaving behind an overwhelming sense of exhaustion. In this weakened state, the regressor was buried under falling concrete and heaps of dead bodies. A small grave formed, sealing her.
The battle itself had leaned in her favor, with her relentless attacks putting the Earth Sage on the defensive.
However, the Earth Sage was even stronger when defending. In particular, the abundance of concrete overhead, which she could freely manipulate, played a large part. If they had been on the surface, under an open sky, the fight would have been a little more balanced or advantageous to the regressor.
In moments of peril, the Earth Sage had summoned down the concrete of Tantalus. The subsequent shockwaves shook the corpse mountain, triggering a cascading avalanche of bodies.
Despite its mountainous size, the material composing it wasn’t solid earth but the corpses of fallen soldiers. They couldn’t withstand such massive impacts.
Due to her lower vantage point, the regressor was swept up in the avalanche and had to expend energy to dodge its waves.
Eventually, she was too drained to reach the Earth Sage.
｢…I should have blasted away the entire mountain with a storm. Or destroyed the Earth Sage’s foothold…!｣
The regressor asked herself why this thought only occurred after she was completely exhausted. Regardless, regrets always came late. All she could do was grunt amidst the disgusting embrace of the dead.
No, there was one more thing she could do. Watch me as I stood up in front of the Grandmaster’s remains.
Upon returning to reality, the sharp aroma of the Hundred Crimson Blossoms pierced my nostrils. The top-grade liquor easily overpowered the bloody stench of the corpse mountain, numbing my senses while heightening my emotions.
Ohh, yeah. Now this is what I call alcohol.
Growing cheerful, I pulled out Jizan and bellowed into the abyss.
“Everybody freeze! I’m in charge from now on!”
Everyone came to a halt, staring at me with their mouths agape.
The weight of their collective attention was satisfying, making me feel as if I had become a king. It was a powerful thrill to know their fates rested on my every move.
As I triumphantly raised Jizan, the Earth Sage’s eyes widened in shock.
“How? How can someone ordinary hold the Grandmaster’s relic…?”
“Why are you so surprised about something like this? I just crawled up a mountain and picked up a stick. Isn’t it less surprising than someone changing their eye color?”
I had basically retrieved a stick left by a previous climber. Discounting the fact that this mountain comprised 300,000 corpses and the Grandmaster’s relic lay at its peak, I was just another ordinary hiker.
But the Earth Sage couldn’t accept what I claimed.
“… How could that be? Sir Hughes, what on earth are you doing?”
“Hunting and gathering! The age-old act of collecting ownerless goods!”
I swung Jizan. Though heavy, it wasn’t as unwieldy as I’d imagined.
Good. This should be good enough to make a declaration.
“Jizan is mine now. That means I can do with it as I please.”
“Your joke goes too far.”
Dumbfounded, I complained grumpily.
“I might joke from time to time, but never in a crucial moment like this! I do discern the right time and place, you know!”
Then I decided to show proof that I wasn’t fooling around. Holding up the sword that equaled the earth’s might, I continued loudly.
“Now, to all the gravemen who made this stage possible, thank you for your hard work.”
The corpses draped in baggy clothing turned their eyes to me in unison. Few of them remained now.
I offered them a warm smile.
“To the gravemen recorded in history, those who died by the Overlord’s hand, and those who, driven by duty, transformed into specters and did nothing but heap bodies over 1,300 years.”
When the Grandmaster disappeared along with the 300,000 bodies and the abyss appeared in their stead, the Overlord presumed she hid the bodies and escaped. So, he cast the remaining gravemen into the abyss.
This act went down in history as the Overlord’s massacre of the gravemen.
Yet, they didn’t die. For some inexplicable reason, they fell until at some point, they arrived at the bottom of the abyss.
There, they were greeted by the sight of the Grandmaster, impaled through the stomach, laying the dead to rest even as her life ebbed away.
You are what you do, as they say.
Both those who always revered the Grandmaster and those who merely masqueraded as one of the gravemen accepted their fate to be trapped in the abyss. They proceeded to lay the 300,000 soldiers to rest.
They served with their bodies in life, and with their souls in death.
“I’ve borne witness to every duty you’ve upheld! But just as a chisel can’t carve its own handle, gravemen can’t bury themselves! Bound by your roles, you were denied a proper farewell. So allow me, a mere mortal, to honor and remember you all!”
With that said, I raised the Grandmaster’s relic high. The corpses, now left with nothing but their souls, tracked its ascent.
I addressed the gravemen who hadn’t forgotten their duties even in death.
“I chanced upon this old tomb during my journey. In accordance with the duty of the living, I’m going to perform a modest rite. You have all done well. Rest in peace.”
Holding Jizan with both hands, I bowed deeply in farewell.
In the next breath, the corpses fell like kites with severed strings.
Any other ordinary person honoring them would have granted peace to these souls. All they needed was a ceremony solely meant for them.
Burying each of the 300,000 corpses as gravemen devoted to Mother Earth’s will, they couldn’t bear to close their eyes until another laid them to rest. And I did just that.
As I straightened up, I found the Earth Sage standing before me. She looked at me with a slightly stiff smile.
“… You paid tribute to the Grandmaster and her followers, on my humble behalf.”
I replied with a refreshing smile.
“Don’t thank me. It’s the duty of the one who holds Jizan.”
Her face clouded at my words.
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