Ch.49People, Lions, Bulls, and Eagles (6)

Maria was facing off against a beast. Every time the monster charged at her, swinging its four arms, she countered by stabbing it with her awl and dagger.

Each time, the beast would howl and try to crush Maria under its body, but she nimbly dodged these movements as if she had anticipated them all.

Kain ran toward the center of the plaza to help Maria. But he quickly rolled to the side as Beatrice’s decaying arm tried to grab him.

“It’s because of that woman.”

Beatrice’s arm pointed at Lily.

“You’re ignoring me because of her, right? Because I’m dead and she’s alive. Oh, please just answer this one thing. When will you cut her throat?”

“Shut up.”

“I don’t think so.”

Beatrice backed away with a snicker.

“No. No. You can’t hurt that child. It won’t happen that way. I want to help her. She needs to know what a monster you are.”

Beatrice’s shadow clung to Lily.

Like Kain, Lily was also holding her scabbard, fending off the elderly villagers. But her movements were sluggish, and the humans consumed by shadows persistently clung to her.

As Lily struggled to push away the elderly with her scabbard, Beatrice enveloped her body.

Lily screamed and stepped backward. She shook her head as if trying to clear her mind, but her movements became increasingly heavy. Countless hands pulled Lily’s body to the ground. They climbed on top of her, seemingly trying to strangle her.

From the opposite side came Maria’s shout. She had tripped over the monster’s leg and fallen. The arms embedded with awls and daggers tried to tear apart the Inquisitor’s body.

Kain threw his staff at the monster’s back. The creature howled at the unexpected blow. Maria used that moment to roll away.

With no time to draw his sword, Kain rushed toward Lily. He lunged forward, pushing away the elderly. Though it felt like his shoulder was dislocating and his body breaking, he endured the pain and grabbed Lily.

“No… I don’t want this… I can’t take anymore…! Stop…”

Lily wailed, her body trembling. She didn’t seem to recognize even Kain.

“Lily, Liliana!”

But Lily covered her face more frantically with her hands. She curled up defensively in desperation.

“No, stop! Stop, please, please stop!”

“Whetstone!”

Kain shouted. Surprisingly, Lily lowered her hands.

“Huh…?”

“Whetstone! Snap out of it! It’s just shadows. Just shadow phantoms!”

He punched the jaw of an approaching figure and kicked another in the chest. Lily’s eyes became clearer.

“Kain.”

Lily reached out her arm. Kain grasped it firmly and pulled her up.

“We need to help Maria! Can you go?”

“Yes, yes!”

Kain drew his sword. Lily picked up her own sword from the ground. Just as the monster was about to pin Maria down, Lily slashed through its legs and waist, while Kain cut off its back and arms.

The monster howled and twisted its body. Maria’s dagger pierced through the left side of the monster’s neck—the male side. The woman who had lost her partner dragged her body along with a desperate scream.

“Kairos…!”

Beatrice’s face overlapped with the woman’s. Kain’s sword-wielding hand trembled. But he forced himself to grip it tightly.

“You’re just a phantom.”

The sword cut across the air. Thud. Beatrice’s head fell to the ground. From the headless beast’s head crawled hideous worms. Like lifting furniture in a damp basement, they rushed into people’s bodies.

“Why?”

Beatrice’s voice was strangely calm.

“Why? Why did you kill me? Why did you have to kill me? You should have saved me.”

Kain deliberately ignored her. He turned to Maria.

“The bastard is struggling…”

Exhausted beyond measure, she could barely lift her arms.

“What about the holy fire? Won’t that work?”

“The shadow’s power is too strong.” Maria’s voice was hoarse.

“Too strong. It’s been rooted in people for too long. This shadow didn’t come from outside. It grew from within the hearts of Masada’s people. It’s not just a day or two of twisted minds. During the day maybe, but at night… we can’t drive it all away with light.”

The people’s screams grew louder. The lights in Masada’s houses went out one by one. Like Kain and Lily before them, the people of Masada were facing their own nightmares.

Denying. Panicking. Eventually fleeing. Falling into confusion. Not knowing what they were doing, they would randomly throw whatever they could grab. They would strike with knives at hands coming to help them. They would kick away arms trying to hold them steady, thinking they were being strangled.

“Can’t we… can’t we do anything by force?”

Even Lily was sobbing now. Maria smiled.

“So even the bull-like young lady has this side to her. How delicate you are. What else can we do… Kain. Let me ask you one favor.”

“Speak.”

“Stab my heart.”

He was about to say it was madness. But Maria was serious.

“Quickly. There’s no time. If you won’t do it, Lily will have to. Trust me. It will stop this. If I could do it myself, I would have… damn it. Hurry!”

“No!” Lily approached Maria. “What nonsense are you talking about!”

“I said stab me, you idiot!”

Maria screamed as if in agony. Lily stepped back in shock. Kain’s sword pierced through Maria’s body.

“Ah… ah…!”

Lily stepped backward. Maria chuckled as if she’d heard an amusing joke, then collapsed to the ground like a puppet with cut strings.

Lily rushed toward Maria. Kain held her back. Surprised and confused, Lily struggled.

Maria, who had been hanging her head and bleeding from her mouth, suddenly looked up.

“Who was it?”

The voice was sharp and shrill. A voice that seemed forced.

“Who dared touch the daughter of the ash tree?”

Maria stood up. Kain’s sword was still embedded in her heart. Like a drunk person, Maria’s body swayed. She seemed to have difficulty even holding her head up.

“You. It was you. I know you. I know you who tried to harm my daughter…”

“Maria asked me to.”

Kain answered dryly.

“Maria told me to stab her heart with a sword. Because something evil is throwing the village into chaos. Since Maria told me to do it, I bear no responsibility.”

If trees could walk, they might look like this. Maria turned her body, swaying unsteadily. She looked at the shadows crawling like insects, at the people trying to bite and devour each other, at the burning buildings of Masada.

“Full of vanity and wickedness. Full of things that shouldn’t exist. Full of mold that rots tree roots! Mold that fattens itself by feeding on others. Persistent things that exploit just enough not to kill, yet refuse to disappear easily.”

Maria knelt down. She placed her palms on the ground. She vomited a lump of blood onto the ground. The writhing tumor looked like a heart.

From the heart, roots and branches spread out. They ran through the streets like moles digging through roads. They climbed walls like ivy that eventually wraps around them. They wrapped around the arms and legs of people engulfed in shadows like tendrils.

“All that returns to the earth is rotten. All that lie their bodies in the soil have breathed their last.

Yet even those already dead, the earth can raise up. It can make the rotting join the great flow of the world.

Even the seemingly eternal sky repeats its waxing and waning, so how much more so for things born of the earth?”

The roots and vines absorbed the shadows.

As if they were morning sunlight, as if they were precious nutrients.

The shadows gathered toward the lump of blood that was beating thump, thump despite being dead. The shadow kicked the heart boom, boom as if it still had more work to do.

Eventually, the blood lump split open. Like a sprout emerging, yellowish leaves bloomed from it. Far from being green, they were brown with a dark reddish tint.

Yet the heart still beat thump, thump. With each beat, it gradually grew. The trunk became quite sturdy, and the branches that had seemed delicate grew thicker and more hideous.

What grew like a tree was not a tree. It was like a sculpture growing from the ground.

It contained all kinds of forms of suffering. There was a person tearing at their own body after being bitten on the ankle by a snake. Behind him was someone watching and enjoying it. There was a carving of a crusader happily stacking the heads of heathens like a pyramid.

There was a man committing adultery while his wife was away, and a child stealing money from their parents’ wallet. The greedy expression of a merchant who deceived the sacred for profit, and the obscene bust of one who worshipped someone other than the god of life and death,

The image of a crusader seemingly scolding his child, the scene of someone drunk breaking into another’s house and causing trouble.

All the sins committed by the people of Masada were growing, engraved on the dead tree. Kain saw even his own image beheading Beatrice among those hideous forms.

The tree of sin had now grown enormously, almost touching the sky. People who saw their sins being captured in the tree wailed in agony.

“Be saved.”

Maria whispered.

“Go. And sin no more. Nothing can be hidden for a lifetime, but neither must anything be carried as a burden for a lifetime. Now go.”

Maria snapped her fingers. Holy fire burned the tree. Just as Haspel had burned his brother’s body, the fire of the prophet of life and death consumed the tree that had grown by feeding on sin.

From the tree burning with light, butterflies flew up.

They were butterflies as brilliant as stars in the night sky. As if Masada had become a large and beautiful garden, as if each gathered person was a beautiful and lovely flower, the butterflies born this way fluttered around playfully.

They comforted the hearts of the surprised and saddened people. They gently landed on burning floors, and settled on the bodies of those bitten and bleeding, helping new flesh grow.

Eventually, the butterflies landed on people’s shoulders. Without a sound, like sand flowing between fingers, they crumbled. Small and beautiful, like the beauty of the world when first opening one’s eyes, they disappeared.

With a clang, Kain’s sword was pulled out. Maria, collapsed on the ground, coughed. Lily bent down to hold and comfort Maria.