Chapter 184
Whoosh…
My vision shifted.
The first thing I saw was Sobius.
He looked endlessly worried as he spoke to me.
“Mother. Are you all right? You don’t look well.”
I have never had a son. And I’m certainly not your mother.
Just then, I heard Adwin’s voice.
[I have lightly linked my soul and yours to Idria’s world.]
[…You really can do anything, huh.]
[Thanks to that, we can now borrow Idria’s senses. That way, we can directly observe the special room with our own eyes.] He was right.
I tried to look around, but it was impossible.
All Adwin had done was borrow Idria’s senses, not take over her body.
Then…
[What kind of trick is this? Mide Mohan.]
It seemed Idria had noticed our presence.
Through her eyes, I observed the special room. It was an strange place.
The sky turned red, then blue every few seconds.
The ground alternated between desert and swamp.
A breeze like spring would blow, then turn into a biting winter wind moments later.
But none of that mattered to me.
I hadn’t expected the special room to resemble the normal world anyway.
What caught my attention was Idria and her followers.
Pirensha asked cautiously,
“Mother, what’s wrong?”
“Shh.”
“Ah, yes.”
Idria silenced her underlings and spoke to me.
[How are you talking to me? Even for a hero, this is a bit much.]
[You don’t need to know how. And don’t bother complimenting me. This connection only allows secret conversation, I can’t affect the special room physically.]
[I wasn’t complimenting you.]
[Then how did you end up like that?]
I wasn’t mocking her.
Because Idria and her followers really did look that bad.
On either side of Idria were Sobius, Pirensha, and Sabach, bound.
Their entire bodies were wrapped in translucent chains, which were fused to the bare wall.
Like flies caught in a spider’s web.
Then Adwin touched other spirit-bubbles nearby.
[I have linked to Sobius, Pirensha, and Sabach’s souls as well. I left out Batore.]
[Of course you did. Good call.]
Apparently our conversation was audible to the others too.
Their eyes widened in shock, though they wisely stayed silent.
Pirensha’s sharp voice came first.
[Mide! Where are you right now?]
[I’m not inside the special room. And that’s my question to you.]
[What?]
[Where exactly are you in the special room? I know you’re inside it, but specifically, where?]
At that, Sabach seemed to realize something and asked carefully,
[Why do you ask? Are you planning to rescue us?]
[Regrettably, yes. You and Idria have work to do for me.]
[You mean that matter…?]
[You sound displeased. Do you not want to?]
Sabach stayed silent.
Sobius spoke in his place.
[It’s not about wanting or not. If Mother has decided, we follow.]
[Good. Glad you understand your situation.]
[…]
[Then answer my question. Where exactly are you inside the room?]
Then Idria spoke.
[I don’t know.]
[How could you not know?]
[The special room isn’t just a simple room. There’s another world beyond that door.]
Even through the soul-link, I could almost hear her sigh.
[This place is a world of its own.]
[You mean it’s so vast you can’t tell where you are? That’s a weak excuse.]
[When Batore threw me inside, I thought I hit the floor. But it wasn’t the floor, it was the wall.]
[What’s that supposed to mean?]
[I’m simply describing what I experienced. The floor turned into the wall in an instant. That’s how twisted this world is.]
She chuckled softly.
[When I came to my senses, I was stuck to these translucent chains, alongside the others.]
[…]
[The door we entered through is gone too. I can’t tell if the distance stretched or if space itself shifted. Either way, this world is full of phenomena beyond comprehension.]
[And Batore?]
[He disappeared.]
At that, Pirensha ground her teeth.
[That traitor…]
[Pirensha. As I said, Batore didn’t betray us. He just ate something rotten long ago.]
Rotten food, huh.
An interesting metaphor.
Even so, judging by the faces of Pirensha and the others, they weren’t convinced.
Sobius spoke up.
[Even when you first took Batore in, Mother, I had a bad feeling about him.]
[Enough.]
[The rest of us were accepted for a reason, but Batore was just a sudden decision, wasn’t he? I ask now, why did you choose him?]
I recalled, through the Eye of Omniscience, the scene of Idria taking Batore in.
A starving, deranged youth beaten to death, taken and turned into one of her fingers.
Compared to the others, it really had been an impulsive choice.
Idria said,
[Because he reminded me of Idria.]
Silence fell.
In that moment, Adwin, I, and the Fingers of Lies must have all shared the same thought.
[What the hell does that even mean?]
[I understand your deep wisdom, Mother.]
No. Guess we didn’t share the same thought after all.
Pirensha snapped at me.
[Watch your mouth. That wasn’t nonsense.]
[Then how else do you interpret that? She just referred to herself in a third person.]
[I don’t know either, but she must have had a reason.]
[There’s no reasoning with you people. Fine, Idria, explain yourself.]
Idria spoke calmly, as if it were nothing special.
[When the energy of “negativity” humans create reaches its peak, a Demon King is born.]
[Right.]
[But that negative energy alone doesn’t just create a Demon King. There must be a medium.]
[A medium… like the Demon King’s core?]
The core of Demon King of Destruction was Mountain Baharma.
The Demon King of Greed had been a liquid.
The Demon King of Corruption had constantly changed form, but there had always been some sort of central point that could be called its core.
[For reference, the precise core of the Demon King of Corruption was the basic elements themselves. Elements can combine and transform into anything, that’s their nature.]
[That’s not what I asked.]
[And my core is a heart.]
I knew that.
Before the regression, Kaeld had once managed to seize Idria’s heart in his grasp, even if only briefly.