Ch.212Buried Things (2)

Whirrrrr….

The sound of the air conditioner circled the ceiling.

The basic facilities were operating again after the equipment had been reactivated.

“Can’t we do something about the lighting?”

I asked Kiria with a voice tinged with dissatisfaction. Instead of answering, she pulled out a fist-sized jelly-like sphere from her pocket, which immediately began to emit a bright light.

“We’re still short on power… but we can light up as much as needed with these.”

As she spoke, Kiria kneaded the brightly glowing sphere and threw it against the wall.

Splat!

The glowing sphere stuck to the wall and continued to emit light. I could roughly estimate that over a thousand of these sky-blue glowing spheres were attached to the walls.

“What is that? I don’t think I’ve seen it before…”

“Ah… this is a light jelly. It’s a sticky jelly with a light source inside. It operates on nuclear fission, so it has a very long lifespan.”

“I’ve never seen one before…”

“That’s understandable. They’re extremely expensive. One silver coin each.”

“Huh. Wow.”

That meant several gold coins had already been spent just to provide light.

Seeing my astonishment, Kiria explained with a bitter smile.

“This excavation is government-funded. We can’t afford to excavate like this every time.”

“I see.”

I nodded with my arms crossed.

Government-supported exploration was a double-edged sword.

Major discoveries that couldn’t be left solely to the private sector were all explored and excavated under government control, which meant it was safer, but the excavators received a smaller share of the findings.

If this had been a small-scale exploration, they couldn’t have deployed such a mass of light jellies costing one silver coin each.

Seeing the literal flood of items that only national power could support being stuffed into this ruin, I began to think that the division commander’s demand for command authority was somewhat justified.

Of course, it was nonsense, but when asked how much the higher-ups had already taken, making a fuss over just that would be embarrassing.

“Tsk… I hope nothing dangerous shows up.”

“I agree, but… it won’t be that easy.”

As she spoke, Kiria led me to a place where numerous cryogenic sleep capsules were enshrined.

Inside were many mummified figures, all of them armed.

“This is…”

“A burial chamber we discovered only this morning. After careful examination, we found they were placed in hibernation capsules after they had already died. This is a cemetery…”

“We won’t be able to remove their weapons.”

Kiria nodded.

Most ancient weapons had biometric authentication, making it impossible to carelessly remove them from their owners. Even if removed, the trigger wouldn’t pull or the force field wouldn’t activate. Even without such mechanisms, blades would dull and blunt weapons would have their center of gravity drastically altered, making them extremely difficult to use.

Occasionally, weapons without biometric authentication or those that had been deactivated were literally worth their asking price.

If all these soldiers were to revive… a massacre would be unavoidable.

“Make sure no one touches them carelessly. Ancient soldiers are beyond what modern humans can handle.”

“I’m well aware.”

The fact that they preserved corpses in capsules meant they were either meritorious or high-ranking individuals.

And that meant they were extremely loyal to the Empire, and by extension, had strong faith in the Sun and Moon.

As evident from this, they were soldiers who lived in an era when the Sun and Moon were literally worshipped as Arahitokami—living deities incarnate.

What if they suddenly awakened? It would be absolute chaos.

Those who revive are consumed by madness. Mana, the medium for intense grudges and attachment to life that facilitates resurrection, is also a conductor of information, allowing them to instinctively understand the world’s situation upon awakening.

Standing at the boundary between life and death, they would feel guilt for not receiving the touch of the Sun they worshipped. They would seek to “purify” the current humanity who worship the Four Great Gods who pulled down the Sun and Moon to rule the world, as well as the blasphemers who dare to excavate their resting places.

And they would do so armed with the overwhelming technology of the ancient Empire.

“One armored division won’t be enough.”

“They’re just buying time. Becarium has already put the entire standing army on near-war footing. Everyone’s leave has been canceled, and it’s a complete mess.”

“My goodness.”

Although 1,201 years have passed since the Extinction Force began, technology has not been universally restored but remains fragmented, with the overall technological level not even approaching that of the Imperial era.

In fact, even the claim that technology has been fully restored is only half true. The particle therapy machine used during the Imperial era was merely the size of a massage chair, but now it requires an entire building.

They say sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, but the ancient Empire’s technology transcended even magic itself.

The artificial sun we encountered before, despite being pre-Imperial technology, has been operating for over hundreds of thousands of years. Can current humanity withstand military weapons created at the peak of human civilization? Even Karil would slap me for suggesting such a thing if he had no conscience.

“So they’re staking the nation’s fate on excavating this dangerous place.”

“It’s a reasonable trade-off.”

“I can’t deny that.”

With ruins of this caliber, even collecting scraps would be worth their asking price. Just a few centimeters of decayed old cable could fetch hundreds of gold coins.

They must have accumulated so much that they could wage war for over 50,000 years without even eating.

“What did they lack during the Imperial era?”

“…Freedom, I suppose.”

“Freedom, huh.”

That must certainly be true.

The Sun and Moon could be seen everywhere, which meant humanity could never escape from the two deities.

The overwhelming majesty of the Sun and Moon eventually collapsed due to the inescapable paradox of “why doesn’t an omnipotent and benevolent god judge the wicked,” but there were still some excuses during the ancient Imperial era.

Given that even the Sun fumbles through excuses with me, back when divine power was much stronger, the priests must have engaged in theological debates almost daily.

Of course, when the response was always “I believe in humanity’s potential,” even those who had been loyal for 300,000 years eventually switched to the Four Great Gods’ coin.

In the end, humanity desired transcendent rulers rather than transcendent understanders.

However, even the Four Great Gods who rebelled only removed the Sun’s unilateral rule. They couldn’t erase the overwhelming power of Nariakira Saburo and Maria Taylor, who possessed the ineradicable authority of light and heat.

A murderer, a prostitute, a writer, and a usurer might ascend to godhood, but they could only continue doing what they had always done. The Sun and Moon were literally humanity’s father and mother, the founders of the Empire, and beings with eternal dominion over the human species.

They were the first beings to carve their existence into the world by gathering humanity’s collective will during the dark era without the Sun.

“May they rest in peace…”

I put my hands together in prayer, hoping the soldiers of the past would not awaken.

They were those who had crumbled away in the sunlight, and this land was no longer touched by the Sun’s radiance.

“The Sun has not forgotten you. He watches over all…”

I said this ritually, but my heart was uneasy.

The Empire had fallen to the hands of humanity who yearned for freedom and change, away from tyranny and oppression under a god who merely watched.

What was the Empire like when they died?

Was it when the frozen earth was warming under the Sun’s heat? When the Sun was at its zenith and humanity built towers reaching high into the sky? Or when the Sun collapsed and the Empire beneath it crumbled into a 50,000-year eclipse?

Either way, it was profoundly melancholic.

If it was the first, they martyred themselves blinded by the Sun’s radiance. If the second, they suffocated without enjoying any freedom under the Sun’s glory. If the last, they died honorably maintaining their loyalty to the end, facing the unresponsive Sun and the power of the Four who were dismantling the Empire.

“How sorrowful, soldiers of the past. May you find peace. The Knight of the Sun blesses you…”

I knelt and prayed to the Sun.

Though it was human technology casting blue light on the transparent capsules rather than the Sun’s light, the Sun sent me a message:

[Their wishes shall be fulfilled.]

Ah…

I knew it would be so.

Eternal light that guides me, deliver us from eternal death.