Chapter 256

Chapter 256

“An… altar?”

How should one describe that shape?

Seohwa muttered unknowingly as she gazed at the massive structure shaped like a peculiar square pyramid. A building shaped like an altar for offering sacrifices to the heavens.

Actually, it wasn’t strange for such a structure to exist. Wherever humans are, faith is bound to be born, and altars are established wherever primitive faith exists.

The important thing was just one thing.

The altar-like thing before their eyes was far too large.

So large that it was hard to believe humans had built it.

“It’s, it’s a seal.”

“A seal? That thing?”

“Yes… It’s not the same type of seal as the Great Seal, but probably…?”

Shinui spoke uncertainly as she examined the details of the structure, narrowing her eyes.

“Every single stone making up that structure contains the will of consecration… If we dig below the stones, something must be sealed there. Though I don’t know what that something is…”

“Could it be a yokai?”

“That’s…”

—Strictly speaking, it both is and isn’t a yokai.

“—!”

At the voice suddenly heard from behind, everyone hastily turned around and took combat stances. Behind them in empty air, a brown-skinned woman of unknown identity floated leisurely.

“You are…”

—It seems I’ve startled you. My apologies. Ah, is the meaning being conveyed properly?

A foreign language.

Yet Seohwa cautiously nodded as she felt the strange sensation of understanding its meaning. At that action, the woman slowly descended.

—I am Layla. The priestess who guards this tomb.

“Tomb? Priestess…?”

—I’m referring to what you were looking at. We call that a pyramid. Would it be easier to understand if I called it a king’s tomb?

“That’s… a royal tomb?”

Even the legendary tomb of Qin Shi Huang, said to be endlessly buried with mercury and gold, probably wasn’t that large.

—Hoho.

At Seohwa’s astonishment, Layla smiled faintly, nodded, and looked at the pyramid. Then came the answer.

—That is indeed a seal. Strangers. If you ask whether it seals yokai, that’s correct. If you ask whether it seals humans, that’s also correct.

“What on earth does that…”

—The pharaohs sealed beneath there are children of the gods.

“Children of the gods?”

—The literal meaning. Descendants of the gods.

Don’t we have time?

After briefly looking around, Layla nodded and waved her hand. Simultaneously with Layla’s wave, the yokai energy disappeared as if washed away with water.

“What is this?”

—I’ve diverted attention from the surroundings. After all, there are those who have been eagerly awaiting your visit.

“Eagerly awaiting our visit—what do you mean? This is our first time coming here…”

—The heavens are a mirror reflecting the earth. Isn’t that so?

“Ah…”

She read it through astronomy.

At Layla speaking that way, Seohwa thought of the Divine Maiden’s strange ability and understood. If she had such mystical powers, she could easily foresee them coming here.

“What do you mean by descendants of the gods? Perhaps divine beasts…”

—Not quite. What’s buried beneath there are yokai.

“…Yokai?”

—But yokai closest to humans above all else. Because they were born, raised, and died by human hands.

“…What on earth.”

—Since you read astronomy, you seem to have come from quite a peaceful place, but originally yokai are far too powerful for humans to handle.

Yokai feed on fear.

Conversely, that means yokai won’t go extinct until the emotion of fear disappears. As long as intelligent beings exist, yokai are entities that must inevitably arise.

—As all humans did, in the distant past of this land, humans lived as livestock. Humans were yokai’s shepherds, pigs, cattle, horses, and toys.

—But humans are animals that pursue a better future. So one day, a human harboring fear of yokai thought this.

—Wouldn’t it work to make yokai our allies?

Communication with yokai is impossible.

Yokai are terrible beings. Humans cannot become yokai. Yokai likewise cannot become human.

These are facts proven throughout countless histories. No matter how much yokai energy you implant in humans, humans will have a rejection reaction to yokai energy and die. It’s like humans becoming cattle or horses. It’s an impossible domain.

—A fool from a rural village thought this. Let’s capture a yokai and raise it like a human. Let’s raise it by instilling human thought, human morality, and human rules.

—That person was devoured by the yokai he raised like a child.

—A sage from another village thought this.

—Let’s capture a yokai and raise it like a human, instilling human thought, human morality, and human rules. And.

Let’s worship it.

So it won’t need to seek out fear itself.

—Before they make us livestock, let’s become livestock first.

“…That means.”

—It seems you’ve realized now.

They made yokai their kings and feared them. They trembled in terror and revered them. But they made those yokai think of themselves as human.

Then what remained was simple. Satisfied with the fear that gathered without moving or killing people, the yokai thought of themselves as human and instead killed the yokai that attacked them.

—However, there was one blind spot in this fact that no one expected.

“…What?”

—That yokai and human lifespans aren’t the same.

After the sage died, people worried about catastrophe. Fearing the immortal yokai would think itself not human. Fearing it would realize its nature as a yokai.

And.

—At the age of eighty, the first yokai king… the pharaoh died.

“…Died, you say?”

—I mean died as a human. From old age.

“Wait…!”

At Layla’s story, Shinui’s eyes widened as she urgently asked.

“Wasn’t there some kind of mistake? A yokai aging and dying like a human… Didn’t it starve to death from lack of fear…?”

—Certainly not.

“That doesn’t make sense. That conviction about oneself could change one’s very essence… Does that make sense…?”

—Strictly speaking, the essence itself didn’t change. Even after death, the first pharaoh was still a yokai. Only the pharaoh as a human died. The pharaoh as a yokai was still alive.

The pharaoh who revived and became conscious of itself as a yokai was terrifyingly strong. How strong a yokai that received offerings of fear from tens of thousands of humans for decades would be needs no explanation.

However.

—In any case, only while the pharaoh thought of itself as human did it live as a human. It deceived its essence, deceived the world, and even deceived the laws.

“…Then that tomb must be a tomb for sealing dead pharaohs.”

—Indeed. That is both respect sent toward the ‘human’ pharaoh and shackles fastened to the hands and feet of the ‘yokai’ pharaoh. Shall we call it the minimum device necessary for our survival?

After pausing briefly, Layla looked up at the sky.

—You don’t have much time left to stay here.

“…Time to stay, you say.”

—I mean what’s happening in your homeland is in full progress.

“Why are you paying such attention to us?”

—Because that place has the highest ‘possibility.’

Here too, humans live on. But that’s only by establishing barriers that could collapse at any time and hoping for yokai’s mercy.

—You drove out yokai with human strength. But astronomy says this doesn’t fit providence.

“…”

—If it’s providence for yokai to stand above humans, then you’re the only ones with the possibility of defying heaven.

Conditionally, yokai can become human.

What about the reverse?

Can’t humans become yokai?

If humans became yokai, would they truly be yokai?

—Existence isn’t necessarily fixed. I wanted to convey that to you. You must already know this from experience.

“What on earth…!”

—Time is up.

Seeing the dust cloud slowly rising in the distance, Layla frowned and waved her hand through empty air. Simultaneously, the void tore open.

—This continent is not your stage. So.

—Return to where you should be.

As the dust cloud gradually approached, Layla waved her hand as if seeing them off. And.

“Wait, I have more questions…!”

When Shinui shouted urgently at Layla’s action.

Whoooosh!

The opened spatial rift engulfed the party, and silence arrived.

“…”

“This is.”

At the landscape that changed in an instant, Seohwa looked around and let out a groan. Though it didn’t look like Jungwon’s vegetation, the climate was mysteriously mild.

“The location is…”

“…Haah.”

Shinui, who had been sitting in a daze looking at the sky for a moment, sighed and frowned.

“The Mediterranean… Sea.”

“…Pardon?”

“That, that magician sent us all the way here… There, there was more I needed to hear.”

Similar to yokai, yet different, are divine beasts. There’s no guarantee the stories applying to yokai apply to divine beasts, but there’s certainly a probability.

The story that yokai raised as humans die—does it apply to divine beasts too?

Then what happens to her disciples? Though divine beasts, do they gain human lifespans? Though human, do they gain divine beast lifespans? What about their memories?

“Nothing’s been resolved…”

Seeing Shinui with a dark expression thinking of her disciples, Seohwa carefully stroked Shinui’s back.

“Couldn’t we visit again later?”

“…”

“Maybe she sent us ahead because it’s urgent now. After things settle down a bit, if we visit then, she might tell us.”

“Do, do you think so…?”

“Yes. She didn’t seem like a bad person. She did say there wasn’t enough time.”

A meaningful story. A story as if seeing the future.

But more urgent than that is overcoming the crisis at hand. If we don’t handle this immediately, won’t countless people in Jungwon die?

“You said it’s a divine beast as large as a mountain, right? So.”

Let’s see.

As she spoke and looked around, Seohwa suddenly discovered a massive form moving in the distance. A form moving slowly and heavily, as large as a mountain.

“Ah, over there…!”

It’s over there.

The moment she tried to say those words, Seohwa lost her words at the sight before her. And for good reason.

What was clearly visible just moments ago.

Was no longer visible at all.

—!

A roar.

At the impact beyond perception, Seohwa involuntarily stepped back and blankly looked up at the sky, confirming the mountain-sized form she had seen in the distance was shattering into pieces. What was visible in the place where the sun should be.

It had no end.

Rising high into the sky, piercing through clouds and overlooking the world, it was far too large to be a living being. With no exaggeration, as large as a mountain range, an existence that could pierce through clouds while sitting.

“This is…”

Sangwi. Capable of moving a thousand li in one step.

The strongest divine beast.

“It’s, it’s a bit large.”

“A bit?”

“Tremendously a bit much.”

Seeing Sangwi’s form, Seohwa swallowed.

…Even so, isn’t this too large?