Chapter 58 : Chapter 58
Chapter 58: Kua Holy See (2)
Though the body has crumbled, the soul is intact and unchanging. But alone and delicate, it is bound to a new body.
However, according to the cycle, the value of the new is determined.
…The founder dislikes that.
“What country’s language is that?”
Deban read the words engraved next to the mural with great ease.
“You wouldn’t know, young master. Kua has a surprisingly long history.”
“The founder has a long life. Is the one Barote calls father the founder?”
“Well. I’ve never heard that the founder was a grand mage.”
“Is he still alive?”
“Personally, I hope he’s living as a bug.”
“He started the experiments because he didn’t want to be reborn as a bug in his next life.”
The first fruit of that was the chimera.
An attempt to extend lifespan by combining humans and long-lived species.
Or combining them with long-living monsters instead of precious other races.
“You have to follow the truth. If you can escape it just because you don’t like it, is that really the truth?”
But he must be alive. Simurtr thought.
Otherwise, there was no way the experiments would still be ongoing.
“Right. He used test subjects instead of his own body. They weren’t even prisoners, a bug is too good for him.”
“At first, they were prisoners, but since they only failed, they ran out of people.”
They were test subjects for securing stability, and failures. The experiments on chimeras were said to have never progressed.
The reason they were still producing chimeras was probably because they wanted soldiers.
A shield until the experiment was complete.
“That must be it. So they just brought in whoever they could find. He was about to die, had no results, and couldn’t find any prisoners to use.”
Simurtr looked at Deban. Even the scabbard holding his sword was caked with dried blood.
“But he was too scared to use his own body. Instead of washing away his sins, he piled up more. Ruo says they judge your sins again in the afterlife.”
His entire body was soaked in blood. The amount was so large that it was still dripping, not having dried yet.
“Isn’t that just to make money? To sell indulgences. Ah, are you by any chance a believer of Ruo?”
“Are you crazy, to believe in Ruo? It is to make money. There’s nothing as light as the money of someone who’s about to die.”
Indulgences were Ruo’s, but when Simurtr heard the word, Degrate came to mind first.
It was because of Jiaren. She had once said that a request from Degrate had the authority of a Ruo indulgence.
“You said you were a different test subject? Not a chimera?”
“Yes, artificial insemination, creating a completely new human. Different from a chimera, which is a synthesis with other species.”
“Are they born with a long lifespan?”
“No, the lifespan is the same. The purpose is probably to be a consumable.”
“Ah, so you keep several and when one’s lifespan is up, you switch to a new body?”
Was that possible? Simurtr thought.
Kua’s idea was an act based on the premise that the soul could be transferred.
“Probably? But I don’t know how they switch. I don’t even know if it can succeed.”
The first successful product of that intention was Deban.
But in the process of his past self destroying that branch, he had escaped, so Deban didn't know the subsequent experiments and results of the remaining Kua.
“We’ll know if we go up.”
He didn't know how much of Kua’s forces remained, but he could find that out along with the current stage of the experiment by going up.
“Yes, but… to be honest, I’m not really keen on it.”
But Deban’s expression was reluctant.
“Why?”
“Because there won’t be much I can do when we go there. No matter how ruined the Black Tower is, looking at Kua’s facilities, there will definitely be necromancers.”
“So what? We can just kill them all, it’s a masterless Magic Tower.”
The Black Tower, exiled by Basor, had lost its warp. The head of the Black Tower at the time, who was from a branch family, had died, and a new head was not elected. A masterless Magic Tower. The Black Tower, moved to the north, had no power.
“How many could there be? It’s a wonder they haven’t collapsed all this time.”
“There probably aren’t many. But you’ll be the one doing it all, young master. Not me.”
“Ah, you don’t want it taken away?”
“Yes, I want to kill every single Kua myself. Of course, if it weren’t for you, young master, I wouldn’t have even known that there was a Kua branch in the Black Tower……”
I came too soon. Deban said.
“I was planning on not looking for Kua until I was certain I could kill them all.”
He probably could have borrowed Mectera’s power.
Mectera tended to cherish talented swordsmen, and Kua’s atrocities were terrible enough to be a clear justification for intervention.
“So that’s why you didn't say anything.”
That was the reason Deban had kept his mouth shut.
When the 6th Sword Order that had left for Degrate returned, and when reporting on the Phantasm that existed outside, Deban had not mentioned the possibility he knew of.
“…My reason for living would disappear.”
Deban had always wanted to become stronger.
He chose the 3rd Sword Order, where there were frequent real battles. He wanted to learn something from Simurtr, the youngest Sword Master. He even transferred to the 6th Sword Order according to his words.
“Then what should we do? Let’s do as you wish.”
Simurtr understood Deban’s feelings.
Revenge with someone else’s hands? If he could find peace with that, he would have revealed his existence as soon as he was reincarnated.
If he had done that, the unit members would have gathered. Aran would be calling him young master and following him around, and his master, who must be somewhere, would gladly help.
‘What’s the point in that.’
Simurtr did not want that.
There was the reason of not wanting to be a burden, but the biggest reason was probably because he was human.
Selfishness. The greed and conviction that he would only find peace if he finally killed the traitors with his own hands.
He didn't want to borrow the hands of others. He didn't want Semenu to know the truth. He didn't want anyone’s help.
‘Deban must be the same.’
The guy whose thoughts he could never read had become honest. That’s how desperate he was.
Just as he himself had been so happy seeing Haryun Bahab that the corners of his mouth had hurt.
‘And that was despite her being the daughter, not Akarr.’
But to have that throat snatched away by someone else?
Simurtr didn’t even want to imagine Akarr dying at the hands of another. Akarr’s head was his.
“Should we just find Beden and Janya’s body and run? If you want, we’ll do that.”
If he wished, he certainly would.
He would ignore everything related to Kua in the future as well.
“…I really want to do that, but what can I do now that I know?”
Deban’s shoulders slumped.
“How would I know when I’ll become that strong? I hope I don't get any more family. I already have too many.”
Eventually, Deban compromises with the reality he had been avoiding.
He could not leave Kua behind because of his selfishness.
“Then we’re going up?”
Simurtr, while understanding that, could not empathize.
***
“Now the laboratory, and above that, the research lab. Right?”
“Yes, and from the ground floor up are the successful test subjects like me.”
“Then where would Beden be?”
“Aren’t you on bad terms?”
“Still, I have to save him. He’s only 16.”
“You’re 16 too, young master.”
“I guess it’s because we’re the same age.”
Deban tilted his head.
It was the same when he was calming Ael. This young master was weak to minors.
He thought it was groundwork and an excuse for himself, but seeing it like this, it didn't seem to be the case.
“He wasn’t in sight until now, right above the laboratory.”
“That’s right.”
“Even I think it’s a waste to use him for a chimera. He’s a Mectera.”
He was on the ground floor.
Simurtr was half-certain. There was no way they would use such a precious bloodline to make a mere chimera.
“The Phantasm, he must be a successful case too.”
“I think so too.”
He set aside the question of whether it was possible to transfer a soul for now. That was not in the realm of conjecture. Well, they must be doing it because they were confident.
“Next is Beden, a Mectera. They’re trying to make a Mectera too.”
“That must be why they were after Haryun Bahab.”
“Right. Honestly, if they only made one for the founder, the believers would have no reason to cooperate. They’d want to make many test subjects. And preferably good ones.”
Simurtr thought of Barote.
A magician capable of maintaining a warp.
“Barote is really five years old.”
“But his body is like that?”
“You were an early test subject. Now it seems they’ve succeeded in an experiment for rapid growth.”
“Oh.”
If one assumed that, then Barote’s words and actions could also be understood.
Kua had succeeded in creating a Basor test subject. The identity of the one called father would become more of a mystery, but for now.
“So there was a reason Lady Janya was disposed of.”
“Right. The Basor test subject succeeded, and they got a Mectera, so would Jabad satisfy them?”
“But why did they lock you in the basement, young master? For now, you’re a Bahab.”
“Who knows.”
The reason his conviction was only half-full.
The Hero Family Bahab. Haryun Bahab was a more precious test subject than Mectera in terms of fame.
But Barote didn't put him in the same place as Beden and locked him in the basement.
“Let’s just say it’s because Barote is stupid for now. There’s no end to it if we just keep thinking like this.”
I was told not to put them together. That's what Barote had said. Perhaps the 5-year-old him had faithfully carried out those words.
“Starting from the laboratory. We’ll go up and screw them over one by one. I don’t know how many spellcasters there will be, so as quietly as possible.”
Actually, he didn't think there would be that many.
It was a ruined Magic Tower, and necromancers preferred to live in the Black Land rather than such a tower, and they had actually done so.
The fact that there was a Kua branch might be proof of that. If the Black Tower had power, they wouldn't have accepted them. Kua’s atrocities were such that they would be branded as public enemies of the continent if they were revealed.
‘Well, it’s not like the Black Land bastards would care about that.’
This was the north, not the Black Land.
Moreover, the Black Tower that had belonged to Basor.
‘Basor is probably not involved. It seems they need at least one for the experiment.’
They wanted Beden from Mectera and Haryun from Bahab. They probably took one each from Basor and Degrate as well.
To create a new human related to the bloodline, at least one was needed.
‘No way.’
He didn't think that Basor, the traitor, would have offered his own bloodline.
The traitors who were called heroes all had an enormous pride in their family and bloodline.
‘That's why he was a lowly Grand General and a Baperr.’
Simurtr let out a hollow laugh as he thought of the traitors. What meaning did that damn bloodline have?
Not to mention the traitors, even Kua, who was obsessed with bloodlines after succeeding in an experiment, seemed pathetic.
“Let’s go.”
Simurtr climbed the stairs first.
He had already received Deban’s permission. As quietly as possible. That was not something he said to Deban. It was a problem that only he, with his Star-Breaking Style, had to be careful about.
***
They were all wearing the same clothes.
Pitch black so that nothing would show even if something splashed during an experiment, and in the center of the top, the symbol of Kua was drawn large.
“Intruder……”
“Escape……!”
Their mouths chattered, but no sound came out. At least, that's what it sounded like to them.
Simurtr’s illusion maintained the laboratory in silence.
“Hmm?”
They didn't know even as their colleagues were dying.
Even as their heads were flying off right next to them, they were smiling. Their colleague, seen from the corner of their eye, was focused on the chimera in front of them.
Swish. Simurtr’s sword also cut the throat of the grinning researcher. The chimera that confirmed it let out a cry that could be either a cheer or a scream. Deban’s sword pierced the chimera’s heart.
“This feels shitty.”
Simurtr, who had cut down dozens, furrowed his brow.
Killing the researchers was of no consequence, but killing the chimeras was an unpleasant task. They must have been innocent humans originally.
“This is the best we can do.”
Deban said in a convinced tone.
As a former test subject of Kua, he knew that those who had been experimented on had no hope. If they were test subjects like him, they could live, but the chimeras could not be turned back.
“But can I talk?”
“I’m a Phantasm user. But try to keep it short. It’s a waste of magic.”
“Yes.”
Even though they were talking right next to them, the researchers couldn't hear. They didn't notice Simurtr and Deban’s presence until the moment they died. All the way.
Until every living thing in the laboratory was dead.
“Let’s go.”
Simurtr and Deban climbed the tower.