Episode 1182 Soul – 5
The Mission of the Sixth Apostle───Collection of Souls.
An indescribable weight rests on Verden’s fingertips.
Crack… … .
The sound of metal twisting from the Dragon Sword [Magrath] tickles the ears. The crack created by the collision with [Interis] begins to grow larger.Even the legendary masterpiece, forged over a lifetime by G’harun’s ancestors by pouring in vast amounts of dragon bones, could not stand against a deity akin to the Absolute.
Fate and Soul.
In the fifth world mentioned by the Gray Dragon in the prison of the defeated soldiers, there is the source of destiny. And, it is also the world of souls.
The world of the complete ‘you’… However, the truth that she had created the very concept of the soul was beyond Verden’s imagination.It was neither the fact that souls did not exist in ancient times, nor that they were a natural law of nature.
Shhhhhh──clank.
The chaotic sound of chains.
The moment Akand revealed the mission of the Sixth Apostle, they manifested themselves.He had seen them before.They were the true nature of the forbidden that Verden had witnessed in his own inner world alongside Hiante and Alpha. The chains of the forbidden crisscrossed this desolate sky.
The punishment for violating the taboo was not carried out immediately.Nor did the World Tree intervene as an observer and executor of the punishment.
The world held its breath.
Verden did not readily break the momentary silence. He temporarily suspended his thoughts, confronted the Apostle, and simply waited calmly.
Akand said.
“You cannot create something out of nothing… That is true. If there had been a miracle where a spark ignited from the void in the first place, there would have been no reason for the concept of the soul to be born, nor any need to pursue the cycle of fate.”
A distinctive, bizarre current began to rise more strongly than ever.An eerie wave.The boundary of taboo had already been crossed.
“So ‘you’ had to realize the non-existent eternity in everything that exists…… A spiritual body that does not physically decay with the flow of time, and is infinitely free compared to the physical body, was the answer.”
Akand whispered reverently.
The source of destiny is the soul.
Verden recalled the conversation he had with Hiante.
───Oldark and the Power Source, ‘you’ and the Soul. The moment Verden understands the two, he will realize the whole truth. Why on earth the Battle of Destiny broke out… … and what choice Oldarc, having been defeated once, ultimately made to resist.
Finally, I obtained the truth about ‘you’ and the soul. Now that I had uncovered half the inner workings, all that remained were Oldark and the power source.
It was then.
Clang.
From the distant sky, the deafening roar of chains colliding and twisting spread. My hearing vanished. To be precise, the noise emitted by the forbidden chains was so severe that I could hear nothing.The World Tree did not appear. However, it was evident that something extremely dangerous was approaching.
The source of destiny lies in the fifth world───A gaze heavier than when the Gray Dragon broke the taboo stares at this place as if to kill, and attempts to extend a malevolent hand to punish the violator.
The punishment for mentioning taboos must be endured not only by the speaker but also by the listener, unless they bear the entire burden alone like a gray dragon.
“Of course, the severity of the punishment won’t be the same, but the price for revealing the source of destiny would be enough to erase both me and Arkhand from the world and still have room left over.”
In the prison of the defeated soldiers, I felt despair amidst a sense of powerlessness and had to flee, but… …it was not like that now.
Essential anger overwhelmed inevitable fear.
|Dare|
Neither the first Demon King nor ‘you’ violate the taboos established by each other.It must be because it is dangerous in many ways.
However, even if they were to blab about the true nature of the Magic Tower’s power source, or whisper the source of destiny to everyone, would a threatening price follow for the two of them?Of course not.While it might interfere with the battle of destiny, it would not dare to hasten their demise in the slightest. But is that the natural order of things that applies only to the two of them?
If Verden intended to bring about his own death by sacrificing an apostle in this way, it would be a regrettable and complete misjudgment.
Taboos can no longer kill me.
If you wish, I will make ‘you’ realize it firsthand right here and now.
Shhhhhhh!
Countless wedges of concepts struck the skies of Verden and Akhand. The sight of bodies and souls being brutally pierced flashed through my mind.
Verden concentrated divine power.
He intended to shoot back his power the moment the taboo touched it, thereby completely annihilating the source.Although he would suffer considerable damage in the process, once the taboo on the soul vanished, the truth ‘you’ had kept hidden would be revealed to the whole world.Revenge was an age-old attribute that defined Verden’s life; he would retaliate when wronged.
Soon, the sound of a piercing rang out.
… … .
The taboo did not reach Verden, nor even Akand. The chains, which had stopped an inch in front of the two, soon faded and vanished.At the same time, the loud metallic sounds that had been raging in the sky also quickly subsided.
There was still no sign of the World Tree. No, even the World Tree would not have the authority to arbitrarily lift the execution of the forbidden.Then who had lifted the punishment of the forbidden? Naturally, it could only have been its owner. For it would be something only the owner of the forbidden could do.
Was this all her doing?
It’s permission.
Akhand voluntarily revealed the source of the Sixth Apostle’s mission and destiny. It was an act of self-deception, but because ‘you’ condoned it, no punishment was carried out.To summarize the situation immediately preceding this, it was as follows.
Akand pulled the corners of his mouth slightly, like a believer whose prayer had been answered.
“All things change from being to being… and from one to another. That is all there is to it. In reality, it is merely the unremarkable law of nature. Come, do you not wish to imagine it for yourself, O God of the Abandoned.”
Two steps.
If this world is a home, what is the rest?
… … A cabin in the snowstorm comes to mind. The sculptor Jose’s house nestled in the blue mountains. Verden naturally pictured that scene in his mind.
A snowstorm is raging outside the cabin.
The bitter cold ceaselessly poundes on the transparent windows and wooden walls, attempting to steal away the warmth. If things continue like this, everything will eventually freeze.
As Jose goes about his daily life, he periodically throws firewood into the stove. The flames, having consumed the sacrifice, radiate intense heat once again.He will not die, and the cabin will not be swallowed by the cold.
As long as the flames of the stove do not go out… … .
That is fate.
‘You’ created souls based on the mind. The concept became common sense of the world.Every living being came to possess a unique soul, and a separate world, the place where the souls of the world ought to go, was prepared in a space beyond the third dimension.
Heaven, the afterlife, hell.
The afterlife was described with various landscapes and names, but since no one had ever been there, people imagined different worlds of souls.
The Ruas Church included a view of the afterlife in its scriptures stating that if one does not cleanse oneself of karma during one’s lifetime, one will fall into depravity and descend into hell, and if one is recognized as holy, one will go to the side of the Goddess of Light.
The priest of light, who spent his entire life with the scriptures, lived an altruistic life.Although his divine power was insignificant, he never committed even a minor sin and was a benefactor to many people; when he passed away in old age, hundreds of people came to mourn him sincerely.
The priest closed his eyes and thought.
O Luas,I shall go to your side.
The priest did not doubt salvation because he had lived an honorable life to himself and to God. And he became a soul and woke up in another world.
However, the dazzling radiance of the goddess that had been dreamed of so much was not there.
The radiance that greeted the priest was a different light. It was a strange light, both hot and cold. When he looked inside, countless souls were floundering and writhing in agony, swallowed by massive flames.Among them were his long-time mentors who had taught him doctrine.
The priest stepped backward and slumped down.
A soul who had lived as a villain, the exact opposite of a priest. Fortunately not yet consumed by fire, and fortunately still maintaining his sanity, he looked at the priest and whispered softly.
There is no heaven.
“I construct a soul from the spirit that would originally vanish along with the body upon death, and using that soul as a driving force, I trigger a massive cycle in this world. Eventually, once the necessary number of souls is prepared and the Wheel of Destiny turns, I can connect the future and the past. Truly like a miracle.”
The basic principles of destiny.
“When a specific time period repeats in this way, the eternal cycle is completed. Never reaching the future where the end will come, and thus never perishing…….”
Akand narrowed his eyes.
The world of ‘you’ who has finally been saved.
* * *
Since the resurrection of the ancient king, an unknown wave interfered with spatial travel across the continent. Through that wave, voices like this were sometimes heard from communication devices.
───Ah… … Where… … is this… … ?───Is this… … Heaven… … .
Isabella also heard a zombie with a soul say this.
───I, lived my life so diligently.───Where is heaven… …?
Among the commanders of the Xerion Empire, there was also a deceased disciple of Bendie.
The relationship between the soul and Akhand.
Only after hearing the source of his mission and destiny did Verden understand how he could mobilize such a vast, endless army of undead for war.
How many people have truly died on the continent since the birth of the soul?It must be countless.
That’s right.
We fought with the soul.
I waged war against the dead who had been kept in the fifth world and were forcibly dragged to the land of the living—the continent—by the power of the Apostles.I killed the dead again.I did not just exterminate the undead race, but the dead in the truest sense.
‘You’ utilized the souls meant to be the ingredients of fate as soldiers once again. And when the undead died, you used the returned souls as ingredients of fate once more.
It was a cruel cycle.
but…….
What truly shocked the Absolute Verden was not that.A new truth derived from fate.
|Was it… like that?|
Verden realized the source of the devil.
* * *
Between the fifth world and the continent, which is the first world, there is a ‘rift between worlds.’There, a nation ruled by the second Apostle, the first king of the human world.
The torturer who was torturing a half-human, half-horse in the City of Destiny said
───That, that’s it, huff, because I have to soften the bones and flesh before the execution… … so I have to make sure they can’t come back up here and send them back where they came from… … .
───You said this is where you came?
───His Majesty has ordered it. We must send it back where it came from… … to, where it came from… … to where it came… … to, where it came from… … .
So they can’t come up.Back to where they came from.
Hadras, the Archdemon Legion Commander, whispered this.
───[To the Savior… who destroyed fate… we feel hope… not merely because you shattered this destiny… but because we felt a hope that can truly understand us, who have become twisted.]
Twisted.
The gray tears flowing from Verden’s Mystic Eye flickered.
The devil was originally a soul.
A byproduct of fate, born when the soul itself twisted while climbing up through a rift between worlds in an instinctive attempt to escape the fifth world.
My poor believers.
* * *
We were born unwillingly by fate.We rebelled.Defined as evil by an unwanted Creator, we instinctively… … and inevitably resisted, and resisted again.
Did you say that faith is belief?Did you say that faith is complementary?
We, too, know how to believe.We, too, yearn for our 부족한 hearts to be supplemented.We, too, know how to give faith.
But why do we have nowhere to turn?But why do we still have nowhere to go?But why must we live in hiding for the rest of our lives?
‘You’ hate us, andthe resistor does not stand for us.
Is being born like this a sin?
Even if we have the power to choose, the option we truly desire is nowhere to be seen. This is because the world has defined our very existence as a sin.
But I can’t give up.
Because I have poor children by my side. So I will build a shelter and wait endlessly for that time to come.
The moment fate crumbles.
Eventually, the moment our god is born.
The moment our souls are finally saved.
The moment when we can finally shed tears.
───Noxias, the Archdemon of Darkness, creating Rivereas, the Archdemon’s Refuge───
