Chapter 129: The Grand Deception (3)

[129] 20. The Grand Deception (3)

For elves, the concept of ‘end’ is ambiguous and hazy.

Humans can easily imagine ‘the end’. You don’t even have to go far. Just visit a cemetery, and you’ll know what your own ‘end’ will be like.

But elves are immortal beings. Even if death were to come, they leave behind only a handful of wind instead of a corpse. It’s closer to a special kind of farewell than an end.

Sharik, who was the most oddball even among elves, was no exception. He had fled the World Tree and had witnessed and heard about countless deaths. But he had never felt that it was ‘the end’.

He merely thought, ah, this is farewell, this is goodbye. There was sorrow, but not a sense of something ending.

Until now, that is.

Sharik looked at the crumbling world.

That wasn’t a metaphor, but a precise description of reality.

The sky was bruised purple. Here and there, it had been torn apart, dripping black tears. Well, more precisely, hordes of monsters, not tears.

The earth, like freshly fallen snow, easily crumbled. If you closed and then opened your eyes, a new chasm would have appeared. And if you peered into its depths, blood-like lava bubbled and boiled.

Everywhere he looked, there was nothing that wasn’t either dead or dying. Only decay and decline were prevalent in the world.

And all of this destruction was originating from one place.

“She eats well, doesn’t she.”

Sharik looked at the white giant shoving a mountain into its mouth. It once had the form of a woman, but now it looked more like a giant balloon.

It wasn’t surprising.

Three continents and seven kingdoms were inside that stomach.

“Hmm, so we have to fight that thing?”

Bali fingered his braided hair while looking back and forth between his axe and the giant. Then, wrinkling his nose bridge, he muttered.

“Going to need a much bigger axe than this.”

“You’d need a city-sized axe to chop off that head.”

Jasmine grumbled as she stood beside Bali. She pulled down her blue mage’s hat and glanced behind her.

“To begin with, are we even allowed to kill that? Isn’t it a goddess.”

“If we don’t kill her, there will be no future for us.”

Skuld said while fiddling with her crystal ball. Every time her fingers touched the crystal ball, hazy images appeared.

“Left as is, the goddess will devour the entire world and ascend beyond it.”

“We’ll all become the Goddess’s shit. She’ll take a dump like a sparrow, plop, and fly away.”

Sinclair emptied his liquor bottle and hurled it far away. Then he lied straight down on the ground, looking more like a drunkard than a priest.

Watching him, Jasmine furrowed her brows in displeasure.

“Is it okay for a priest to say that about the Goddess?”

“A bitch who devours our world like a hungry pig ain’t no goddess. She can suck my dick.”

Sinclair blasphemed against the divine with practiced ease and a sullen expression. Then he turned his head to look at the person who had been silently observing all of this.

“So, o great Hero. What are we supposed to do now? Slather ourselves in apple jam and charge in?”

Though his expression was vulgar, it was a question everyone present had been holding back. Naturally, all eyes turned to one spot.

A single man standing under a withered tree, glaring at the Goddess. He had such an ordinary face that if you looked away for even a moment, you might forget what he looked like.

But perhaps because of the atmosphere, or maybe because of their tired eyes.

Once you looked at him, it was hard to avert your gaze.

“Alain, you saved us five out-of-the-blue, even though we were strangers to you. Saying we could save the world.”

Sinclair’s voice tinged with resentment.

Finally, Alain turned his head to face the five.

“We’re going to seal the Goddess.”

His tone was as casual as saying he’d have venison for lunch tomorrow. It was so nonchalant that Bali involuntarily nodded.

“Hmm, I see. Let’s do it.”

“No, that’s not ‘I see’, you thick-headed barbarian!”

Jasmine yelled and turned to face Alain.

“So how exactly are we going to do that? And let me tell you this beforehand, I’m not going to shut up and just follow your orders like last time.”

Jasmine’s violet eyes grew cold.

“For three years, I just believed your words about saving the world, and did nothing but that miserable training. Stayed holed up in a room doing research in a safe place while watching my friends and family die.”

Resentment spreads as easily as laughter. Especially when you share similar experiences.

The cold light in Jasmine’s eyes appears on the faces of the other five.

“I’m sick and tired of just following your orders without any explanation. Tell us exactly what you plan to do, Alain.”

“…”

Alain remained silent for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth.

“Genius.”

Like a mirage rising in empty air, a figure materialized. Eventually, it became a man wearing a robe.

“What is it, old man.”

“Explain.”

Genius looked at Alain as if asking if he was serious.

“They should know too.”

“…Fine.”

Genius walked toward the five heroes with a displeased expression. He looked at the five pairs of eyes filled with a strange anticipation and scratched his chin.

“I’ll say this upfront, you’re not going to like it.”

***

Sharik smacked his lips as if he had a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Alain wasn’t as idealistic as you humans like to portray him. Of course, he was a perfect man, but he was perfect more as a general than as a person.”

To bind the Goddess’s feet, an army of five thousand strapped bombs to their bodies and were devoured by the Goddess. Until their dying breath, they believed that what they were carrying wasn’t a bomb, but a return talisman.

The few remaining dragons, betrayed by their own kind and their Dragon King now dead, were offered as sacrifices to dark magic. It was to shrink the Goddess’s ever-expanding body.

Three thousand pure maidens were thrown into molten steel. The steel, infused with the maidens’ souls, became the holy sword that would trap the Goddess’s soul.

During the Age of Apocalypse, hundreds of thousands of innocent people died. And it was certainly the Goddess who instigated all that death. But not all that death was by the Goddess’s hand alone.

“At the cost of tens of thousands of deaths, we brought down the goddess. We dismembered her body and banished it beyond this world. And her soul we trapped in a holy sword.”

Sharik looked down at the ground with sorrowful eyes.

“But there was no joy in saving the world. Instead, the faces of those we sacrificed choked us. Even though we didn’t know, we still had blood on our hands.”

Because we were deceived by Alain, he added bitterly. 200 years had done little to ease his remorse, it seemed.

“So as soon as the Goddess was sealed, we scattered in all directions. We couldn’t bear the weight of our sins. And to somehow find a way to atone.”

Only then did I understand why the seven heroes had worked for the sake of future generations. It wasn’t to prepare for the Goddess’s resurrection, as written in Skuld’s diary.

They simply couldn’t bear their own guilt.

“As for the others, well, they built Magic Towers and founded kingdoms or so I heard. But I had no knack for that sort of thing. I just wandered the continent as a free problem-solver. I was immortal anyway.”

Sharik, who had been speaking, suddenly grimaced. As if recalling an unpleasant memory.

“Then I ran into a crazy bitch and ended up like this.”

A crazy bitch?

A strange intuition tickled at my nerves.

“Could you tell me more about that story?”

“Hmm? I don’t really like talking about that, since it’s about me losi…”

“Please.”

Sharik pouted for a moment, then sighed and opened his mouth.

“I was traveling through the snowy mountains when suddenly a blonde woman attacked me. She was incredibly strong. I did my best, but… well, in the end, I ended up like this.”

“Don’t be too disheartened, dear. It couldn’t be helped.”

Bliss stroked Sharik’s face with a gentle hand. Sharik smiled at Bliss, then said suddenly, as if he’d just remembered something.

“Ah, and if I remember correctly, wasn’t her name Amy…?”

I unconsciously clenched my fist.

A dull pain throbbed beneath my heart.

“Amy… you say?”

“Yeah, blonde hair, blue eyes. And about Bliss’s height, a rare beauty. Do you know her?”

I swallowed down the word “yes” that rose in my throat. My intuition told me I shouldn’t answer rashly.

Above all, I mustn’t forget why I came here.

“No, it’s a name I’m hearing for the first time. More importantly, may I ask one more thing?”

“One more? You seem to have an awful lot of questions. Go ahead, ask away. I’ll decide later whether or not to answer.”

“Do you know about the price of fate?”

The last clue that might help defeat Irene. I carefully examined Sharik’s face, trying not to miss even the smallest detail.

And then I realized it was completely unnecessary.

“Price of fate? What in the world is that?”

Sharik wore an expression as if he had no idea what I was talking about. He even looked up at Bliss and asked.

“My love, have you ever heard of such a thing?”

“…Not at all, dear.”

“Well, there you have it?”

Dismayed by the unexpected response, I stammered, thinking this couldn’t be right.

“You really don’t know? That there’s a set fate in this world, and that if you go against it, you’ll be punished…”

“I’m sorry, but that’s the first time I’m hearing about this.”

Sharik seemed genuinely apologetic as he said that. He shook his head and continued.

“The world calls us the Seven Heroes, but in reality, we were closer to Alain’s subordinates. And Alain was a man who preferred giving orders rather than explanations.”

Meaning, it was possible that only Alain and Skuld knew about the price of fate.

I sink to the floor, strength draining from my legs. I clutch and tear at my hair, head bowed.

“Then what am I supposed to do…”

I had already followed almost every clue I could think of. Or do I really have to go meet the Demon King…

“Well, I think it’s my turn to ask questions now.”

I lifted my head to look at Sharik. Since when had he been wearing a guarded expression.

“There’s always an intention behind a question. And whatever that intention may be, judging from your reaction, it must be quite a serious problem… What exactly is going on?”

He saw through me.

A sense of frustration, like a cough, caught in my throat. I instinctively averted my gaze and sank into thought.

Would it really be right to tell him about this?

What’s the probability that Sharik is lying right now?

And what if Irene has set a trap even here?

My contemplation was deep, but short.

He is Shafiq’s father.

That was enough to make him worth trusting.

I met Sharik’s gaze and opened my mouth.

“Someone is trying to resurrect the Goddess.”

I explained the whole story from start to finish. It was a long, long story, starting from the first mission I took with the hero party. And the more I spoke, the more I realized what a fool I had been.

I finally ended my explanation with a lament.

“…All of this happened because of my negligence. If I had just realized Irene’s true intentions sooner, things wouldn’t have turned out like this.”

However, regret that simply remains as regret only sinks deeper. I bit my lower lip and looked at Sharik.

“That’s why I want to take responsibility and set things right.”

Sharik’s eyes deepened.

“It doesn’t matter what it is. Please tell me how to stop her. I’ll accept whatever price comes with it.”

Even if that price was my own life.

I forcefully swallowed the words that were rising up.

And the ensuing silence became an unwelcome guest. In the cramped room, only unease and inscrutable silence flowed.

Sharik was the one who finally broke the silence.

“First of all, I want to tell you one thing.”

The sound of a snort.

Thinking I misheard, I raised my head, but

What came into view wasn’t anger, but a smile.

“That there’s no need to worry too much.”

“What?”

Sharik cackled frivolously, as if proving that he really was Shafiq’s father.

“Did you really think we wouldn’t have any countermeasures for such a situation?”

“Well…”

“We were far more terrified of the Goddess than you think. Knowing the sacrifices that were made makes it even more so.”

His eyes grew distant, as if lost in memories.

“Certainly, it was Genius, that arrogant bastard, who was tasked with guarding the subspace where the Goddess’s body was sealed. But he’s not the one who holds the key to that door.”

“The fifty immortals who were either moved by or submitted to Alain. We broke the key into pieces and entrusted each piece to them to guard.”

“Moreover, even with the key, the gate wouldn’t open without the consent of the Seven Heroes themselves, or their rightful descendants.”

“It was unexpected that the seal on the holy sword has been broken, but with just the holy sword, they can’t resurrect the Goddess. Don’t worry too much.”

It was security bordering on paranoia. Even if I had been there, I doubt I could have done a better job than that.

But then, why was my unease growing with each word.

Unsurprisingly, it was Sharik who put a period to that unease.

“Unless someone invents magic that can travel between worlds, or a being from another world forcefully opens the gate… But that’s just ridiculous, right?”

Magic that can travel between worlds.

[So, is this a parallel world?]

A being from another world.

[Haven’t you heard of Grandfather Dangun, the common ancestor of all Korean people?]

My blood ran cold.

At the same time, Sharik’s face also turned pale.

“…Wait, don’t tell me… really? It really happened? Really…?”

I couldn’t bring myself to answer Sharik’s question.