Chapter 206
Son of bitter cold.
The moment he heard those words, words came out without going through his brain.
"How do you know that?"
In the world where he had barely managed to kill the adult Yurik, he didn't know what choice Leandros had made.
He had definitely gone to the southern sea, but what happened after that?
Had Ig and Leandros even encountered each other? Was he certain there had been no variables there?
If a major event had occurred in a place he hadn't seen at that time, was there a possibility it had affected the ending?
The swelling questions instantly covered his entire body.
The snake laughed.
[What a smell that would freeze one's tongue. Come closer here. Child of ice. So that I may see you properly. What a nostalgic scent.] His palms began to sweat.
His heart, which usually had a minimal presence, began beating wildly on its own.
In this cycle, what kind of ripple effect would Ig's awareness of Leandros's existence bring?
Anxiety crept up his legs, crawling upward.
He had to know.
He couldn't regress once more over such a variable. This was his limit.
When he unconsciously took a step forward while feeling the pressure.
Suddenly his body's balance tilted to one side and he staggered. As he stumbled sideways and barely straightened up, he saw Yurik pulling at his arm.
"Why are you-"
"Don't go."
"What?"
"Don't go. I have a bad feeling. Don't go. That thing is strange. I don't like it."
By 'that thing,' did he mean Ig?
When Yurik whined, the prostrate snakes made threatening hissing sounds.
When he habitually put the child in his arms at that sound, a voice as damp as the hidden darkness whispered.
[How curious. There's a foul smell. A scent I've smelled once long ago. Yet such an enchanting fragrance. Child, you possess something most interesting.]
"Are you... calling me his child?"
[Child of the cold star. Faint but ancient and powerful protection surrounds you, yet you ask me again?]
At that moment, what had been tensely stretched snapped.
Only after cold sweat completely covered his forehead did he finally realize.
"Right, it was me."
The being he spoke of wasn't Leandros.
This snake had smelled his scent.
Throughout all worlds, only he and Leandros had been under Aphoom-Zhah's sphere of influence.
But Leandros hadn't been born here and now, and the contract he had made with Aphoom-Zhah continued across space and time.
If Yurik hadn't bought him a few seconds, he would have gone straight in there.
That would have truly become a situation where he might have had to regress again.
While he relaxed slightly, the snake asked persistently.
[Just as snakes revere me as their creator, you too serve your master. However, this land is a newly born star, land owned by no one. Does your master also covet it?]
"Covet?"
[The Mother of Sorrows has already descended. The Living Flame has also occupied part of the star with his subordinates. Even the Sleeping God of Yith, the Sitting God have flocked to the newborn star. Those who command countless planets and galaxies also watch.]
"I understand there's nothing particularly noteworthy here yet. Why do they so desire new land?"
[The Foolish Father, the God of Idiots sleeps at the center of the universe, but we patrol the edges with open eyes. For us, existence is worse than death, and death is but a dream that transcends eternity. However, the hearts of lesser beings establish our existence and simultaneously bring the power to tread upon land.]
The hearts of lesser beings.
Even hearing those words, the snake-people merely buried their heads in the ground and lay flat.
He glanced at them and asked Ig.
"Are the other gods you mentioned already here? Do they have beings like your snake-people?"
[Who knows. What I desire is only to expand my children's territory, to lay more eggs and form more powerful cities. Apostle of ice, you who wait on distant stars. This land is not a place for your master to come.]
Judging by Ig's words, Aphoom-Zhah seemed not to have come here yet.
But someday Aphoom-Zhah would descend here, and conversely Ig would become a being who could only be summoned when his believers called him.
Besides that, countless other gods would come to this planet in the future, be sealed, sleep underground, and live hidden beneath the sea.
Since human reason couldn't withstand even small fragments of gods and escaped into madness, this world would belong within the genre of horror fiction.
"What if I said I wouldn't convey those words to the cold flame I serve?"
What if he expelled all of them from this land?
Even if it took a very long time, if he could eliminate them one by one, steadily.
"I know what you want. Many beings will migrate to this land in the future. But as long as the master of this planet isn't decided, you can't force that, can you?"
[This is a proper negotiation and a final warning sent to the cold flame. Even so, will you ruin things with your own judgment?]
"Ruin things. You should speak properly. I simply won't be swayed by the likes of you."
Though he was regarded as Aphoom-Zhah's apostle, he didn't have the abilities to match.
How would Leandros, who had been Aphoom-Zhah's apostle rather than Duke Hartmann's escort knight, have acted?
He might have trampled the pride of those called gods with his innate high pride. Or perhaps he would have let whatever words he heard flow past him.
"The being I serve is only one. Not a reptile crawling on its belly on the ground, but one who burns quietly within ice. All decisions are made by him."
He spoke like the only apostle he remembered.
There was no response from deep in the cave. Instead, his skin tingled as if someone was glaring at him.
[How insolent. Certainly such arrogant attitude befits a subordinate of the frozen flame.]
"Thanks for the compliment."
[However, there's one thing you're mistaken about. Presumptuous subordinate.]
"What's that?"
What trick was he trying to pull?
He gripped the book and pen tightly with the hand not held by Yurik.
A chilling wind blew from inside the cave and he blinked once,
And a gaping giant mouth and fangs were right before his eyes.
*
Yurik couldn't understand what had happened before his eyes.
While Yesung was conversing with the unpleasant voice, he had merely been standing beside him.
Something pushed him hard and he was flung away. And when he barely opened his eyes,
Black scales filled his entire field of vision.
It took several seconds to realize this was the body of something enormous.
In the meantime, Yurik saw the limbs of half-snake half-human beings crushed beneath.
He saw snake-people pushed against walls like himself, unable to move, and surviving snake-people hissing in surprise at the sudden event.
In all those moments, only Yesung, whom he desperately sought, was absent.
As the large body slowly retreated into the darkness, the snake-people hesitantly gathered.
The voice spoke with a sigh.
[Truly a satisfying sacrifice. Since the blood is sweet and fragrant, I should sleep for a while... Divide what the sacrifice brought among yourselves.]
Divide?
Yurik, with his low understanding of snake-people, didn't know exactly what those words meant.
But when the snake-people's yellow gazes all turned toward him at once, instinctive fear overwhelmed him.
"I, I am."
How should he speak at times like this,
How exactly should he get out of here.
Where should he go through the snake-people.
Yurik knew nothing. He couldn't know.
All he had learned during the thousands of years in that city were helplessness and defeat engraved in his bones.
Yet the only reason Yurik had survived safely was one thing.
Because Yurik's value in that city was infinitely low.
Because the trouble the Elder Things would experience to kill him exceeded the joy they would gain from killing him.
His purpose was unclear. He was merely something that had accidentally gained life in a garbage dump, remaining like a scab.
That's probably why he had particularly liked Yesung's arms.
Because it was so moving that a being who could communicate and converse with him, the only being who asked for his thoughts, didn't push him away.
But at this moment Yesung was gone, and the snake-people's hands were reaching toward Yurik.
Yurik wanted to live. So he asked.
What should he do? What should he do here?
-Run away, right now. Run! Don't look back and run!
At Yesung's screaming voice that suddenly came to mind,
Yurik slipped under the snake-people's arms and ran away.
The snake-person in white robes shouted in a voice like scraping metal.
"Catch him! Tear off the tender arms and give them to the young ones, tear off the tough legs and give them to the aged compatriots! Don't waste a single drop of blood and marrow!"
The snake-people ordered to hunt crawled and ran after Yurik.
The white-robed snake-person put both hands into his ample sleeves and composed himself.
The prey with only two legs would soon be caught since it wasn't familiar with the underground kingdom.
More than that, he was slightly worried that the Father of Vipers had never so impulsively revealed himself to outsiders before.
Though he couldn't grasp everything with his meager insight,
He could at least understand that the one the Father had swallowed was someone who served another 'competitor.'
He shook his head and said to the remaining compatriots.
"The Father will sleep from now on. Don't disturb him and quietly return..."
Then,
Someone asked.
"Return where?"
The snake-people's heads all turned toward one direction at once.
Except for someone occasionally sticking out a thin tongue and hissing, it was quiet.
All around was silent. Even the snake father sleeping inside couldn't detect this anomaly.
There was no life form present who could ask such a question.
Then had they all heard a collective hallucination?
The white-robed snake flinched and stuck out his tongue.
It was to smell the scents lingering in the air.
Savory earth smell. Faint blood scent. The Father's thick body odor. The compatriots' tension. Among all the scents touching his tongue tip, there was one smell growing stronger.
The Father's scent and,
The blood scent that had been faint until just now.
The snake he had thought was sleeping inside opened his eyes wide. A head with eyes larger than two heads combined shook savagely from side to side, battering the walls.
With fierce hissing sounds, the entire cave vibrated.
[What is this... what are you daring to do! What are you doing in my belly!]
"Father, great Father of Snakes! Please calm down, please calm yourself!"
The snake-person flinched and approached, kneeling to try to calm Ig.
But when several were crushed by Ig's large head thrashing in unbearable pain, no one dared approach further and merely prostrated on the ground, praying.
"Father, King of Vipers!"
[You, you-!]
With a spine-chilling high scream, sounds of sticky sacs bursting and tough hide tearing were heard.
Finally, with a thud against the wall, the snake's head protruded its tongue.
Behind the snake's head. From there still swallowed by darkness.
A young man covered in blood from head to toe slowly walked out.
-Squelch, squelch.
Red marks dotted behind him with each step.
He tried to wipe his ruined face but seeing that even his clothes were soaked, he lowered his hand.
The snake-people could see that besides the book and pen, he was holding a curved yellow horn.
The completely red young man asked the snake-people.
"Why do you have such expressions?"