Chapter 298: Death At A Funeral
The skies beyond the world tree were red as Kir watched from his perch about a kilometer away from the graveyard.
Unlike Norneau where cremation was the norm, here the dead were buried at the roots of the world tree. A fitting tribute to the massive entity that sustained the Kingdom in more ways than service as a nigh-unassailable capital.
A cursory investigation of the trunk had proven that it was entirely resistant to Kir trying to carve a hole into it with magic, and not just because the shell of the tree seemed to be half-composed of naturally occurring, magically reinforced carbon fiber. Trying to delve the tree’s structure had given him the feeling of being watched, and so he stopped as soon as he felt it, not wanting to risk that there might be a great spirit he could offend by existing, as with the spirit of the lake.
The last thing he needed was to get swatted from behind by a tree that could have served as an orbital elevator on Earth’s moon.
I wonder what happened to Earth...
"Eye on the prize, here they come," Kiryu said.
After identifying the correct graveyard, Kir had gone through quite a lot of trouble to make sure he’d have every advantage for the fight he was about to start, and all he had to do was wait.
One by one the carriages arrived at the small temple of Shin Seker, a local death god. Nothing particularly godly happened as the hours ticked by. Kir was beginning to wonder if they were about to have a night-time burial when at last the procession left the building, slaves bearing the closed casket of the woman he’d killed and thrown from the kilometers-high bridge.
They lay the coffin before a mausoleum and opened the lid, and Kir could barely make out the upper body inside of it.
"Didn’t think they’d have more than a smear to bury," Kiryu cut a joke about the dead slaver.
"I imagine some creative reconstruction must have occurred."