GRP Chapter 8

Several hours earlier, Mariaeks had listened to humans moving cautiously beyond the river.

'You know those thieves everyone's been talking about? They caught them.'

'I haven't heard anything about that.'

'My younger brother works at the castle. He told me—said it was a secret. Apparently the thieves are northern spirits. They've got them locked in the castle dungeon right now.'

'What kind of northern spirit lights campfires?'

'No, really! He said they're two spirits shaped like huge white wolves, about this big. That's why we're out here scouting now, taking this risk. In case something happened in Heimdrykze.'

Mariaeks didn't even realize she'd crossed the river in a daze. Her awareness only returned now, facing the insect nest. Only then did she grasp that she stood on the verge of violating sacred law.

Mariaeks stood precarious as a dead tree. Unable to advance or retreat, she could only hope the Great God would grant her revelation. At the end of that path, surely there would be only the right answer. Why did all her choices feel so hasty and foolish? If only she possessed even slightly decent power—would things be better than this?

The only power Mariaeks possessed was making flowers bloom from her hands. Rhaevydie had cackled at the flowers blooming from Mariaeks's hands. What good is that, Mariaeks?

Rhaevydie had been right. Heimdrykze was a place where the law of survival of the fittest applied thoroughly. The weak died, the strong survived. The only one who'd escaped that clear logic was Mariaeks herself. Thanks to the Great Absolute's arrangement, she'd survived despite possessing utterly useless abilities.

That thought led Mariaeks to a realization. She'd been under a tremendous delusion. How had she agonized over whether or not to save them, when without divine salvation she couldn't even breathe properly? It wasn't a matter of choice. It was a question of whether she could or couldn't.

'My dear Mariaeks….'

A wind swept past Mariaeks's ear. In that cold current, Mariaeks recalled the small, worn temple. The place where she should be. Where each day began and ended in peaceful repetition. Her entire world.

Mariaeks decided to follow the divine will. Unfortunately, there was one thing she'd forgotten. When had life ever flowed according to one's own will?

"Don't block the path, you…."

Suddenly, humans surging from behind jostled Mariaeks this way and that. One step, two steps, five, eight….

And so Mariaeks set foot inside the castle walls. She froze in place, turning only her head to gaze at the snow-covered mountain range beyond.

Mariaeks had expected something to happen the moment she passed through the gate. The mountain range would tremble violently and split in two, red light bursting from between. Or the sky would turn black. Or perhaps the Great God would descend to the insect lands and freeze the humans themself. In any case, she'd thought she would face a situation more terrible than any imagination.

But nothing happened. Only now could she truly grasp that the Great God slept. A hundred years after they'd fallen asleep, she finally understood. Perhaps the Great God wouldn't even notice her transgression.

Mariaeks turned her head again to look at the streets where humans wandered. And farther still, her gaze moved to the crude castle rising higher than other buildings.

'They've got them locked in the castle dungeon right now.'

Her pink eyes gleamed.

"How is your body?"

At Samthyeon's question, Garth stroked his chin slowly and smiled.

"As you see."

"Like shit, then."

Garth nodded readily.

"What about the herbs you mixed this time?"

"The effects are dropping."

"You must be building resistance. Shall I try something different?"

After pondering for a moment, Samthyeon got to the main point.

"Did you gain anything from this journey?"

"Gain."

The gain Samthyeon spoke of meant any clue related to the curse. It had been about a year's expedition. Hopelessly short to find information he couldn't discover in a lifetime of searching. Garth answered with a cold smile.

"I see you didn't."

"Did you?"

Samthyeon grasped the necklace hanging over his robe and shook it. It was the symbol possessed only by ten high priests among Thul'Mhoriae's countless priests. A gesture that could be interpreted as 'Do you know who I am?'

In the beginning, only shapeless power called 'void' or 'providence' existed. In defiance, two gods were born. And the one called 'Father,' the god of destruction, sealed the void in his own heart before taking his own life. Father God's fragmented remains gradually accumulated, becoming one mass again. That became today's continent.

Even Father's sacrifice didn't completely clear the void. Nothing still existed in the world. The grieving 'Mother' became a single white tree and took root in Father's remains. Life forms were born across the continent in response to Mother God's creative power. Two-legged things, four-legged things, things firmly rooted in earth, things swimming in water, things drifting on wind. This was the beginning of what current scholars call the Ancient Divine Age.

The ancient gods inheriting Mother and Father's great abilities were born from Father's remains, dead with providence sealed inside. Because they were mixed with providence from birth, none could escape death.

So the ancient gods found a way to pass on their power. They followed Mother's method. The ancient gods tore off parts of themselves to create lesser gods and pass on their power. Repeating succession to the next generation, they were split into smaller pieces. The time it takes for a great mountain to become sand passed, and the current gods, humans, animals, plants, and countless species came into being.

The priests of the Thul'Mhoriae Alliance calling current gods "half-gods" or "quarter-gods," or even "one-three-thousand-six-hundred-seventy-second gods" wasn't entirely wrong. The shocking fact that gods and humans, all living things, shared the same roots remained undiscovered for a very long time, buried in various forms.

The ancient gods were born possessing not only their parent gods' abilities but also their fragmented memories. And they carved those memories in their own language into earth and rock, trees, hard minerals, the ocean depths. This was the origin of the sacred traces humans today called ruins and relics.

One priest spent a long time following those sacred traces. Before long, they succeeded in interpreting the ancient language of the forest with the sacred tree, one of the largest ruins.

At a time when the premise 'Gods are omniscient, omnipotent, perfect beings, and humans are incomplete, insignificant beings who can only hope for their salvation' encompassed the entire continent, the origin of gods and humans was revealed.

Gods are stones, and we are grains of sand. But we were all rock. Let's get along well, rock to rock.

What overturned wasn't common sense and preconceptions, but heaven and earth. An uproar erupted over the unbelievable fact. The new truth, first dismissed as insanity, came to unite humans as one. At first a small current, it soon became a great river. Humans began to stand alone, free from the great beings who harmed them, wielded them, tried to make them obey. This was the beginning of the Thul'Mhoriae Alliance.

Following the achievements of the priest who laid that foundation, Thul'Mhoriae's priests developed not into blind worshipers of gods but into scholars who retraced and studied past traces. Samthyeon was one of the leaders of that fanatical research group. Meaning he was the human closest to the true nature of the 'curse' that surely touched divine power. It also meant he held a position that could forcibly obtain cooperation from temples across the continent.

Garth watched Samthyeon rummaging through his clothes. He pulled out something wrapped in tanned leather. A delicately crafted white dagger.

"A relic from a recently discovered ruin in the northeast."

Other temples apparently called Samthyeon shameless or a thieving bastard. Because he seized everything as soon as it was excavated.

"It's strongly engraved with fire and destructive power. Three people departed for the divine embrace during excavation, they said. Just from a finger-prick. I modified it a bit stronger in my own way."

Garth held out his hand, but Samthyeon couldn't hand over the dagger. Weariness didn't mark Samthyeon's face so much as complexity. Decades of accumulated heavy emotion laid bare. But Garth's patience didn't remain to receive it. He smiled and cast a cold gaze.

"Samthyeon."

At the short warning, Samthyeon exhaled a long sigh. Then placed the dagger on Garth's hand.

Garth gripped the dagger in reverse and aimed it at his own heart. Samthyeon watched him with sunken eyes.

The dagger's sharp point tore through cloth, passed through skin, pierced muscle, and lodged in his heart. Red blood began to spread across the white fabric. Garth's brow twisted as he raised the corners of his mouth. Time passed. The white tunic was soaked entirely in blood. Enough for an ordinary human to return to the divine embrace.

Samthyeon, who'd kept silent, couldn't hold back and spoke again.

"How is it? Feel like dying? Are you dizzy, is your consciousness fading?"