Chapter 268

Chapter 268

While things were progressing, the hunters inside the dungeon weren’t just sitting around doing nothing either.

“Let’s look around this forest some more.”

The priests of the Moon Lady Religion, in particular, were the most proactive.

“The flow of time inside and outside the ruins is different. Rather than splitting up, it would be better for everyone to move together.”

“That’s right. Even if we slowly check this vast ruin, time outside barely passes. Senior brothers and sisters, gather here.”

“The Saintess stepped forward for us sinners. We can’t just sit still like this. Let’s do what we’re best at.”

Watching the Moon Lady Religion priests discuss among themselves and even reach an agreement, one hunter awkwardly asked,

“Um, uh... could we talk a bit...”

“We know you all will feel repulsed and troubled by the sins of our Moon Lady Religion. You don’t need to accommodate us. It will be uncomfortable, so let’s each do what we need to do.”

“No, don’t suddenly define it like that.”

“We are only sorry to inform you of an unpleasant truth. But since our Saintess stepped forward that far for the Moon Lady Religion, we cannot remain still either. We will make sure we don’t cause any trouble, so you don’t need to worry.”

“I’m saying let’s talk, you people. Are you doing this on purpose?”

A veteran hunter grabbed the Moon Lady Religion priests by the backs of their necks and put them among the hunters. The priests went “Uh, uh,” but were dragged along anyway. Seeing those shriveled faces, as though they were ready to be beaten to a pulp, the hunters murmured.

“Was the Moon Lady Religion originally like... like this? I don’t really know the vibe of the religious world.”

“As far as I know, they were dry and individualistic... cool-headed priests who valued only knowledge and wisdom.”

“After seeing those blank reactions, you’re still saying cool-headed?”

“I’m saying they were, normally. Normally.”

The hunters could feel the Moon Lady Religion priests’ problems. It wasn’t so much that the hunters dug in and realized it, as that the priests’ expression control had collapsed—collapsed badly. The Moon Lady Religion priests were missing a screw somewhere.

With their greatest sin laid bare, they didn’t even try to hide their shame.

“Ghk...! Kill us!”

“What the hell is wrong with these people.”

The hunters were just dumbfounded. It was because they didn’t place great meaning on the Moon Lady Religion’s sins.

“Even if there’s a problem, it’s an internal Moon Lady Religion issue. You don’t need to bow yourself down to us like that. Suddenly saying to kill you—what are you talking about?”

“No, what... are you filming a historical drama? We already have plenty to do in a dungeon, so let’s not make things uncomfortable among ourselves. Priests, lift your heads a bit too. You can go out and clean it up, it’s not like—good grief...”

“More importantly, if you’re going to do something, include us too. Our guildmaster must’ve dreamed all his dreams, because he left a few hours ago. Lend us your wisdom.”

The Moon Lady Religion’s track record of offering saints to divinity to benefit the world was chilling. Some got angry. But in an age where individualism was rampant, what did that have to do with them?

“So what are we supposed to do?”

They just wanted to wake up from this dogshit nightmare.

“Do we just look around these ruins?”

“You must not get involved with us sinners. We will find our own method of repentance...”

“Share that method. I didn’t think the Moon Lady Religion was like this, but you’re selfish—trying to clear it only among yourselves.”

“We are sinners who stood by and watched the miserable end of precious people...!”

“So what?”

“H-how can you say something so harsh...!”

Some of the hunters noticed the Moon Lady Religion’s true nature.

“...Ah, lack of social skills.”

“Oh... I see.”

“No wonder we couldn’t communicate.”

They recalled the Moon Lady Religion’s closed culture that had been hidden behind their image as normally cool-headed scholars. Since they only gathered among themselves to research and study, there was no way they could develop social skills. It was the natural result.

“In many ways, they’re different from the Sun Religion priests.”

“Those people drain my energy whenever I meet them...”

“By the time you come to your senses, you’ve somehow donated money.”

There would have been reasons like this, too, for why the Sun Religion and the Moon Lady Religion had been at odds for so long. Their dispositions were too different. In fact, some Sun Religion priests mixed in the group were looking at the Moon Lady Religion as if they were pathetic.

“Hoo, truly. How could you treat precious saints like that...”

“If you were going to do that, give them to us.”

“Sister, there are many ears listening. Speak with refinement.”

“I think it would be better if we served the Saintess than you Moon Lady Religion.”

“Yes, exactly that.”

The Sun Religion already disliked that Hunter Seo Gio—presumed to be a saint—had recently settled down in the Moon Lady Religion. Once this dungeon ended well, they would stir up both the inside and outside of the Moon Lady Religion to snatch away Hunter Seo Gio and Saintess Aram.

Even knowing what the Sun Religion was thinking, the Moon Lady Religion couldn’t bring themselves to get angry. At that cowed reaction, the Sun Religion felt uneasy instead. It would have been better if, like usual, they threw sharp words at each other.

“...Tsk, seriously, that’s why I can’t even say anything.”

“Why are they so dispirited? They should’ve done better from the start...”

Amid the priests’ strange atmosphere, Seo Seohui smiled.

“Then shall we start moving?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Let’s...”

With Moon Lady Religion priests—who were skilled at organizing knowledge and information—at the center, the hunters analyzed the ruins. The ruins were as wide as fortress walls surrounding a great city. There were many stories about the evil god there.

Most of it was what Saintess Aram had explained before she left, but...

“...”

Justitia’s guildmaster, Seo Seohui, stared at a wall.

“...”

“Guildmaster? Is there something there?”

“No, nothing.”

There was nothing.

“It’s just well made.”

All over the ruins’ walls were countless intaglio works.

There were pieces so delicate and realistic you’d momentarily think they were real, and also abstract works of scenery or animals, or humans whose faces weren’t drawn. Seo Seohui looked up at the ceiling.

“Isn’t it cool?”

“...”

The vice-guildmaster also looked up at the ceiling. It was a ceiling depicting twilight.

“...Ah.”

At first he thought it was a magical illusion, but it wasn’t. It was twilight made purely through torchlight, shadow, and intaglio. The vice-guildmaster instinctively realized it was a work made by human hands.

Seo Seohui asked at his friend’s reaction.

“Isn’t it amazing? It must’ve been left abandoned like this for a long time, but it’s still pretty intact.”

“...You’re probably the only one thinking that in a dungeon, Guildmaster.”

“No, Guildmaster Bisavol is similar too. Finding romance in a dungeon.”

“Isn’t he a rather special case?”

“Haewoon is too.”

“...”

When even another “Symbol of Eternity” came up, the vice-guildmaster shut his mouth. It was fine to put another guild, the Collection Merchant, on his tongue, but he didn’t want to handle his superior and that man’s friends however he pleased.

Seo Seohui laughed lightly.

“Somehow, I really like works like this.”

It was a world where magic existed and mystery ran rampant. If you used skills, you could create astonishing works any time. But Seo Seohui liked this better. Pure miracle and emotion made by humans.

Isn’t it grand, intuitive, and beautiful?

“I wonder who made it.”

“From the records we’ve examined so far, it would have been the dragon that died last in this forest.”

“If you say dragon, don’t they usually use magic? They’re called the end of mystery. They could’ve used an easier, more convenient method, and yet they did the work in such a troublesome way.”

“We wondered what those broken wooden chairs and ladders were used for, but it must’ve been for this.”

“...What a shame...”

His mouth tasted bitter.

“They must have been an incredible artist.”

“That artist is trying to kill us right now.”

“Not trying to kill us—just unable to contain their anger.”

“Do you feel sorry for that dragon?”

“I can’t help imagining ‘what if’...”

If everything had gone well, they would have become an artist who led the era. A fine sculptor and painter, and a great dancer who could sublimate excitement into art. But it didn’t happen.

‘...Someday, even in our world, a tragedy like this could happen.’

That was why he kept an eye on the Moon Lady Religion’s situation as well. Another friend and Symbol of Eternity, Jeong Haewoon, was also laying groundwork for that.

They couldn’t use what they had prepared, but they felt good that, unexpectedly, they were able to prevent the Moon Lady Religion’s tragedy.

“...”

Right, he just had to think of things that made him feel good.

“Then where do we go now?”

“You won’t look at the ruins any further?”

“There are plenty of people better at that than me, like the Moon Lady Religion priests.”

“Guildmaster’s words are correct.”

“We’ve rummaged through the house like this, so it’s about time the homeowner showed up, but we still haven’t seen them. That huge dragon we saw when we first came to the ‘Amusement Park of Dreams’—where on earth is it now?”

“A Demon King is in a Demon King’s castle, isn’t he? If he’s not at home, he’s at his workplace—there aren’t that many places to go.”

“That’s a good guess too.”

Seo Seohui drew his sword and started moving.

“It’s a shame, but we don’t have that much time.”

“The time when we’ll start getting bad reactions from the citizens in reality has come.”

“If we drag it out any longer, things will get worse.”

Since the Saintess seems busy on her end, they had to do their part.

“Just how far did that Saintess, reputed to be smart, foresee?”

He wanted to get a bit of help.

* * *

The evil god asked,

and the human in prison answered.

“...”

Ather had a strong will to live.

“Well, if you ask why... I have no answer I can give you.”

Isn’t living better than being dead?

“...Of course, there are lives worse than death. I have lived such a life, trapped in that dreadful thorn prison. Back then, death was a mercy I couldn’t even hope for, so I called you, Argio...”

It was dreadful.

“It was a great achievement my comrades and I accomplished by devoting everything.”

And Ather broke it with his own selfishness. It would have been enough for him to endure and withstand the pain, that boredom. If he had, the evil god would never have been freed from the seal. It wouldn’t have happened.

That truth couldn’t help but eat away at Ather.

“...But what could I have done?”

Ather suffered in the thorn prison for what might have been thousands of years. As a human who would be considered long-lived if he lived eighty years at most. Truly, he enjoyed honor beyond his station.

“Of course, it’s all excuses. I know that well myself. In the process of trying to seal the evil god, my comrade who was fourteen died, trampled under the dragon’s foot. A comrade the same age was torn apart and chewed to death alive. A comrade who was sixteen sobbed and sobbed under the evil god’s curse until their eyeballs finally melted into bloody tears, and only then did they take their eternal rest.”

The evil god’s curses are truly terrible.

“It comes back to me. A curse, a curse. Certainly, that was completely different from magic. Different from the holy power saints wield, too. All the rules of the world twisting, and that time when it would threaten me without a care. Those scenes. Ah, that was truly... confusing for me.”

The royal palace librarian, who prided himself on knowing the rules of the world better than anyone, spoke.

“Flesh rotting and hearing hallucinations was nothing.”

There were things he remembered vividly. The evil god was extremely sensitive to the emotion of rage.

“Someone who committed adultery and incurred a lover’s rage became one body with the affair partner. Sharing a single leg while their two torsos were split, they grew exhausted and died quickly.”

What else was there.

“Parents who abandoned their child and incurred great resentment had their tongues, vocal cords, and lips erased, and died unable to eat or drink. Even thinking back, it’s not a pleasing sight.”

There was more besides.

“It was cruel, dreadful, filthy, and disgusting. It was different from the fear you can feel on a battlefield. The fear that comes from unknown rules—it felt like it dirtied me. The revulsion of bugs crawling...”

Was it any wonder the evil god drew so much hostility?

In a way, it was punishment given by a god. But no one believed that. Ather still agreed with that opinion. It was nothing more than sulky, twisted rage-mystique seeking a sacrifice.

In other words, it was a natural phenomenon.

“...And humans have always tried to bend nature...”

Trapped in the evil god’s embrace, Ather slowly blinked his eyes. A strange drowsiness crawled up his back. Then it settled on his brain and calmly wrapped around it. The weight of sleep grew heavier, pressing on his brow.

He pressed a finger firmly against his heavy brow.

“...”

Then he opened his mouth again.

“Why wouldn’t I go mad?”

Ather was already a madman.

“I suffered for that long. I can no longer take pride in being human. The evil god reshaped me into a human form, but how can you call that human? I am now an ancient wraith, a monster. Nothing more, nothing less...”

Even so, he was glad to meet the Saintess. He was grateful he could follow her opinions. Being no more than a wraith, he could at least mimic being human. That was a little different from his conversations with the evil god Argio.

“When I spoke with the evil god, I didn’t feel like I was alive. I only felt like some kind of mystery floating in the air. It didn’t feel human. But surely I was alive—so why? That’s how it was for me.”

But when he was with Aram, he felt like he was human.

He would not discriminate. Both were sensations and positions Ather affirmed and loved. He only wanted to say something simple: he might be able to become human, but he was not human.

“And if I am a monster shaped by the evil god, then take my neck.”

“Though your will to live is strong, you desire that.”

“I am only being faithful to my role. My natural order should have ended with my era.”

“Yes, is that so.”

The evil god embedded in the palm chuckled softly.

“Then I will lift you.”

My hand is empty, isn’t it?

(Continued in the next part)