Chapter 45

Chapter 45

Inside an enormous cave whose size could not be measured.

In a large Shrine Hall built there, two people were speaking.

“This has become troublesome.”

A boy in a white gown shrugged as though at a loss.

He frowned with hollow eyes, then scratched his head irritably.

Then the man in gray Priest robes sitting across from him opened his mouth.

“Are you concerned about the appearance of the Great Master?”

“That is your jurisdiction, is it not? More importantly, the item that was supposed to come has not arrived.”

“Do not be too disheartened. To be honest, Black Jade is not something that is guaranteed to appear, is it?”

“No! It is guaranteed to appear!”

The boy in the gown shouted with glaring eyes.

“Because I know Enlil tampered with that place…….”

“By Enlil, do you mean Possessor Enlil?”

“Yes. That blood-mad woman infused her Thought into the Great Mountain Centipede’s Dragon Jade. Apparently, the Cult Leader taught her the method long ago.”

In truth, saying he had taught her was generous. Enlil had barged in without warning.

That lunatic, who cared nothing for anyone’s opinion, had suddenly brought an axe down at the Cult Leader and shouted at him to hand over the method for transplanting Thought through Aura.

“In any case, I was waiting only for that Black Jade…….”

The boy looked down at a ‘Puppet’ lying on the operating table beside him.

It was covered with a white cloth, but from the curves of the body and the delicate hand that had not been fully covered, one could tell that it was a woman’s.

“I needed Black Jade to awaken this! I was finally looking forward to seeing it move……!”

“Is that the ‘Puppet’?”

“Yes! It is a masterpiece among masterpieces, restored from an ancient Relic buried on the Sixth Floor……!”

The boy’s eyes gleamed with the madness of an eccentric.

“Are you not curious? Hm? What the ancient dungeon was like…… why something like this was buried there…… the secret history veiled behind it all……!”

“I am a Priest. I have no interest in anything other than the Cult Leader’s words.”

“You are so young, yet you have no romance…….”

The boy clicked his tongue like an old man and stroked the Puppet’s hand, which was exposed outside the cloth.

It was as cold as a corpse’s hand, but its texture was so soft that it could not be distinguished from that of a human.

“Why can no one recognize the value of this……? The technology contained in this is astonishing……. It can think like a human, and it can operate mana and manifest Skills. In theory, it can even use Aura……!”

Of course, the latter was impossible at present.

The Puppet before his eyes was a test model.

It was nothing more than a prototype for trial operation.

“According to the plan, I was supposed to activate this with Black Jade, send it to the Second Floor, and measure its performance! With the data gained from that, I planned to mass-produce an ‘army’! But that idiot Admon ruined everything!”

“Admon Colishi is not at fault. The appearance of the Great Master was merely unexpected.”

The Great Master had appeared.

Of course, if it had only been that, there would not have been a problem, but something they had not anticipated at all had occurred.

“According to the investigation, South Spirit Mountain disappeared in its entirety. Do you have any guesses?”

“…….”

An entire mountain had vanished.

At those words, the boy tapped his chin.

“There is only one power capable of producing that much force.”

No matter how large-scale a Skill was used, it could not produce enough power to alter the terrain.

There was only one power in the Golden Land capable of grinding away an entire mountain.

It was called an otherworldly miracle that rewrote the laws of the world.

“Descent of the Great Precept.”

“…….”

“A Higher Being must have appeared.”

Transcendents called Higher Beings.

When the term ‘Master’ was mentioned, the expression of the man in Priest robes also stiffened slightly.

Each and every one of them was a Disaster, regarded as a walking natural calamity.

“There should not be many Masters currently active above the Sixth Floor…….”

The Priest, who had been briefly lost in thought, opened his eyes wide.

“Surely Enlil did not?”

“That is unlikely. There is a limit to the power that can be exerted through a Thought. And if her main body had appeared, the Cult Leader would have moved.”

Masters, especially Enlil’s movements, were subjects of special attention.

The fact that the Cult Leader of the Downfall Order remained silent meant that, at the very least, the one who had appeared was not Enlil herself.

It was probably the work of another Master.

“Tsk…… How annoying. There is already one leech clinging to us right now.”

The expedition sent by Ortanis was stirring up the nearby area.

Was his name Gordon Lansher?

Because of that brat from the former Vityaz Expedition, the boy’s range of movement had been greatly reduced.

“Then there is no helping it. We will have to use this.”

The Priest opened a small wooden box and took out a jewel that shone pale.

Seeing the jewel emit a wondrous light, the boy’s eyes widened.

“Why! Is that not a Fragment of God!”

A Fragment of God.

A materialized piece of Authority that had fallen from the broken Golden Rule.

“The Cult Leader is also keeping an eye on the Puppet’s activation. He has specially permitted the use of this Fragment.”

“What Authority is this?”

“They said it is the Authority of ‘Awakening’.”

“Excellent! Oh…… is today my birthday?”

The boy received the jewel from the wooden box, his face lighting up as he hopped in place.

A Fragment of God!

With this, he would be able to do more than activate the Puppet. He could draw out power beyond its original performance.

It was a Precious Treasure that could make the Black Jade he had originally intended to obtain seem like nothing.

With trembling hands, he picked up the jewel and brought it toward the Puppet.

“Now……! The Cult Leader has great expectations for you as well! Hurry and awaken, and prepare to serve……!”

Paaat!

The Fragment that descended upon the Puppet flickered like a pale star.

Soon, as the Authority of Awakening seeped in, the Puppet’s hand began to twitch as if it had gained life.

“Then I should prepare as well.”

The Priest smiled.

It was about time he met this so-called Great Master.

***

It felt as though I were surfacing from deep underwater.

My hazy mind awakened, and I lifted my heavy eyelids.

I blinked blankly and opened my mouth.

“This is…….”

It was an unfamiliar ceiling.

Where had the sky of South Spirit Mountain gone? Why was there a ceiling in front of me?

“You are awake.”

When I turned my head, Jin Baek was right beside me.

Seeing him, I felt as though I naturally understood the chain of events.

Persica and Jin Sohwi must have brought me to White Cloud Castle.

“……What happened to the two of them?”

“You are asking about those children before worrying about your own body? Tsk…… Both are safe.”

He said they had been sent out for a while so I could rest.

Jin Baek had remained in case my ‘Mana Core’ became unstable.

“My Mana Core……?”

“Can you not tell? Focus your consciousness on your heart.”

As he said, I focused my consciousness, and I truly felt something in my heart that had not existed before.

It was as though I had gained a second heart.

It felt like a Nucleus that circulated mana throughout my entire body had filled my heart.

Instinctively, I realized that it was the Core the Great Mountain Centipede had placed inside me.

“I…….”

“Are you wondering how you are alive?”

I nodded slightly.

Back then, while facing Admon Colishi, I had been certain of my death.

Because this thing now inside my heart was originally not something a human could contain.

“The Great Mountain Centipede put Black Jade inside me. But…….”

“What you hold is not Black Jade.”

“Pardon?”

It was not Black Jade?

As I looked back at him, Jin Baek sighed and said,

“Black Jade is a sinister object boiling with resentment and Ghostly Energy. Is what you hold truly like that?”

“It is…… not.”

“Exactly. The energy you hold is far too clean and Pure.”

He looked at me and spoke.

“Isran. What you hold is an object called ‘Dragon Jade’.”

“Dragon Jade……?”

“It is a Spiritual Pill held by a centipede that has lived for hundreds of years, one that has become one with the Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth.”

A centipede that had completed its preparations to become a dragon was said to hold it, a crystal formed from the condensed energy of great nature itself.

It was truly a legend among legends.

He exhaled heavily as he spoke.

“Black Jade is created when resentment fills a Core after all its energy has drained away. It is certainly precious, but in the end, it is only residue. Even if a person holds it, that alone will not lead to death.”

“Then the reason I almost died was…….”

“Dragon Jade. It happened because you held the original Core in its complete state.”

So that was what had happened.

Come to think of it, the Great Mountain Centipede had handed over its Core of its own will.

I had thought it strange that the energy was too clean for a crystal of resentment, but I had never imagined it had given me something far greater than Black Jade.

“When I first saw it, I nearly fainted. I never imagined Dragon Jade truly existed, much less that you would appear while holding it.”

“……I did almost die.”

“Of course you did. A human held that much energy. If a person swallowed such energy, it would be normal for their body to burst before five seconds passed. Even if they somehow endured it, the energy channels throughout their body would be torn to shreds, leading to death. The fact that you lived is a miracle.”

“……How did I survive?”

He shook his head.

“I do not know. They said that by the time you were found, the power had already stabilized.”

By the time Persica and Jin Sohwi arrived, everything had already ended.

Admon Colishi was dead, and the Great Mountain Centipede had disappeared.

As for me, lying unconscious alone, the Dragon Jade that had already half settled within me was apparently pulsing.

No one knew who had done it.

Whether I had done it unconsciously, or whether someone else had intervened.

The only thing known was that, thanks to it, I survived, was taken to White Cloud Castle, and swiftly underwent the rest of the Construction Ritual.

“Congratulations. Not only do you have a Core now, you have obtained the Supreme Treasure of the Second Floor.”

“Will there be any problems?”

“I do not know.”

He firmly shook his head.

Since it was an object no one had ever obtained until now, whatever might happen belonged to the realm of the unknown.

“…….”

I placed my hand on my chest and felt the Core beating together with my heart.

When the Great Mountain Centipede had handed this to me.

I remembered the voice that had shouted in bitter resentment.

“Back then…… the Great Mountain Centipede said something to me.”

Enlil.

That centipede had clearly called out the name of Possessor Enlil.

“Enlil, you say…….”

Enlil Grace Rosetta.

A Possessor who came to this land one hundred years ago, and according to a Thought, an existence called ‘Executioner Enlil’.

As if Jin Baek also knew of her, he continued.

“I do not know much either. However, there is a record that she visited White Cloud Castle long ago.”

In the days before the Pilgrimage Route existed, she had apparently stopped by White Cloud Castle and abruptly questioned them about the legend of South Spirit Mountain.

The legend of the Great Mountain Centipede, the centipede waiting to ascend, and the Black Jade it spat out upon death.

After hearing it, she had suddenly left for South Spirit Mountain, and all news of her had been cut off.

“There are no records after that, but if the Great Mountain Centipede called Enlil’s name, I suspect there was some kind of transaction between them.”

“A transaction?”

“How would I know? It happened before I was even born.”

In the end, it was something no one but the dead Great Mountain Centipede could know.

But if the Great Mountain Centipede had disappeared, what happened to the Gigantias’ rampage?

“Then what happened with South Spirit Mountain?”

“That has been resolved.”

“Ah…… I suppose the centipedes have returned to normal now.”

As expected, had the Berserk Event ended because the Great Mountain Centipede died?

Just as I thought that, Jin Baek shook his head.

Then he looked at me with a gaze that had become even more serious.

“South Spirit Mountain has vanished.”

“……Pardon?”

“Exactly as I said. The entire mountain was blown away. Now it has become some low hill country.”

“…….”

“Now I am the one who wants to ask. What in the world happened there?”

I could not answer.

Because I was just as bewildered.

‘The mountain disappeared……?’

What in the world happened there?

***

After that, Jin Baek left the room, telling me to rest.

Because South Spirit Mountain had evaporated, not only the Second Floor but even Ebla had become chaotic, so he apparently had a mountain of work to do.

“…….”

Left alone in the Lodging, where only silence lingered.

I reached out into the air.

Clap!

As if it had been waiting, the sword flew into my hand.

From that sensation, I realized this was not a dream, but reality.

“Ishara.”

Wooooong—The sword that had been called by name vibrated gently.

Back then, just before I lost consciousness, I had felt a pulse similar to this.

“Did you do it?”

Since there was no other existence that could have exerted such power, in the end, she was the only one I could ask.

As I quietly stared at the silent sword, I noticed something strange.

“What is…… wrong with this?”

The jewel embedded in the sword.

The Fragment of the Golden Rule was cracked all over.

It looked so precarious that it might shatter at any moment, and its color had become far cloudier than before.

“…….”

I remembered what the Apostle of the Golden Rule had said.

If I used the power of the Fragment, she could come outside while preserving her full strength.

Only once.

And even then, only briefly. There had been those conditions, but the Apostle had said it was possible.

At the time, I had thought it was merely a joke and let it go in one ear and out the other.

“Could it really have……?”

……I could not know.

The sword remained silent and gave me no answer.

But for some reason, I felt as though she had protected me.

The one who had stabilized the Dragon Jade that had seeped into me.

The one who had saved me from Admon Colishi.

If she had come outside, all of it would make sense.

“Thank you.”

I hugged the sword and quietly gave my thanks.

As expected, being together like this made me feel at ease—

[Was that addressed to me?]

?

“Huh?”

I heard something just now.

Just as I tilted my head in confusion, the mana flowing from my heart suddenly began to gather in the air.

The gathered and kneaded mana was shaped into a long form, and eventually became the figure of a single centipede.

“…….”

[…….]

For a moment, an awkward silence flowed.

The gazes of a human and a centipede collided in midair.

“What the hell.”

The figure of a centipede that had suddenly appeared.

It…… looked exactly like the Great Mountain Centipede.