[483] The Night of Heaven (1)
Beneath the Hall of the Fallen of Second Heaven Rakia, a torture chamber had been set up where angels who'd lost their divinity to the whales were imprisoned and made to suffer.
Viewed by the standards of the physical plane, an angel's durability far surpassed a human's, so the instruments of torture were grotesque contraptions on a scale unseen in the human world.
Gangnan hung with her hands bound in chained manacles that descended from the ceiling, unconscious and relying entirely on that suspension to hold her up.
Unnamed snakes slithered across the floor, and the sealed air stank so foully it overpowered even the sulfur of the burning torches.
From the darkness dozens of pupils opened and a Mara stepped into view.
Torko, a subordinate of the fallen angel Mauriel.
He was a Class-1 Mara with a skeletal old man's face, a bald head, a belly bulging like a tadpole, and legs far shorter than his long arms.
Called the god of screams in some worlds, he had a perfect understanding of the human body and was an expert torturer who could induce pain with the lightest touch of his fingertips.
A dull chorus of laughter echoed off the walls.
"Heh heh heh, let us hear it—disgusting human screams."
"Can we even kill her? Use just one forty-third of my hatred for Miro and she'd be dead."
The fallen angels who demanded Miro in exchange for Gangnan across Rakia let their subordinates vent their fury.
Some Mara had no interest in human suffering at all, but others were utterly fascinated by it; everyone gathered in this torture chamber was of that latter sort.
Torko cupped his palms and slapped Gangnan's cheek.
The sound was hollow and alien, and the shock rattled Gangnan's brain.
"Uuuugh!"
As if her skull had been split, she grimaced and came to.
"This place…"
All she saw was the hooked-nosed old man.
But her senses picked up the countless malignant auras seeping into the prison walls.
'They've captured me.'
She'd expected it. The only thing she regretted was that she'd lost consciousness instead of dying outright.
She tugged at the manacle on her wrist and the chain connected to the ceiling swung.
If it were only iron, she could slip out.
She could break her wrists and be free.
'The cuffs are siphoning power.'
As far as she knew, sealing a schema at its source by normal means was impossible.
That left two possibilities.
Either it was outside regulation…
"An object?"
"Object . The more force you apply, the stronger its rigidity becomes. You won't be able to break free."
'Annoying…'
From the Mara's explanation she inferred that the less strength you used, the weaker the rigidity would be.
But if even the minimal rigidity exceeded a human body's, escape was impossible.
"Kill her."
It was best to abandon impossible strategies quickly.
"In the end you will die. But perhaps you might live."
Torko smiled as if curious at her reaction when Gangnan looked up.
"If humans bring Miro here by noon tomorrow."
When hope appears, humans become ugly.
She shuddered at the thought of how degraded that brave warrior who'd reclaimed Miro beyond the gate would be made.
"Pfft!"
Torko's face soured.
Gangnan let out a hollow, humorless laugh and shot him a look of contempt.
"Miro will never come."
No way.
Gaold would not trade the result of twenty years of pouring everything into his work for his mere life.
'Right. He won't come.'
If he were that indecisive a human, he wouldn't have shoved her into a death pit in the first place.
'Good for him. He'll meet the one he loves.'
Contrary to expectation, Gangnan's slight smile twisted Torko's features.
"If he does not bring Miro, all you have left is a death at the edge of a scream. How will you shriek? How will you beg to be killed?"
A Mara watching from the darkness murmured sibilantly.
"Kikiki, a human's scream is the sweetest music in the world."
Born a warrior, she would die a warrior.
Even under that chilling threat, the Rammuai warrior did not waver.
—Gangnan, you are a woman.
She had first met Gaold sixteen years ago, when she was thirteen.
After her wolf clan was wiped out and she fled south, her life had been a chain of trials.
Those who reached out to a child with nothing always had ulterior motives; in most cases it was because she was a girl.
Among the wolf clans she'd been outstanding physically, but she was far too young to take down the strong of the world.
In the end she was kidnapped by a band of thieves and dragged to a foreign slave market.
"Don't stare like that."
A man facing her inside a crate said, "From the start, don't think of yourself as human. More like a dog, a horse, a pig, or a cat. Depending on what animal you are, life could turn out all right. You're pretty and rare, y'know."
"I'm a wolf."
The man didn't understand the southern tongue.
But he knew he couldn't get a good price without removing the ferocity from her eyes.
Buyers' tastes varied wildly, and trying to cater to a few preferences could make the value plummet.
"This won't do. We should temper her in advance."
The man drew the tarp across the crate and darkness rushed in.
When he turned back, his eyes were no longer normal.
Crackle.
A sound like chewing soft cartilage came from his fist.
"First, let's make you a dog."
"I'm a wolf."
Gangnan snapped, crouched, and then launched herself forward with every ounce of strength. With her hands bound behind her, she headbutted the man's abdomen, shoved, and burst out of the wagon.
"Crazy!"
Leaping from a moving wagon with bound hands was near suicide.
A heavy wheel rolled toward Gangnan's fallen face.
Just when she thought it was too late to dodge, the wheel burst with a bang and the wagon overturned.
Gangnan knelt and glanced to the side.
Before she could take it in, the thieves surged forward and began to beat her.
"Goddamn it! Kill her!"
With her hands tied behind her, she took the blows defenselessly.
But she used her whole body like a shield, rose, and displayed Rammuai techniques with her free feet.
She weaved through the thieves on her small frame, and when a hulking man blocked her path she swung her leg.
The low kick struck his shin like a log, and a dull crack rang out.
"Aaaargh!"
Overwhelmed by pain, the hulking man couldn't hold on and collapsed, screaming.
It was not the strength of a thirteen-year-old.
"Don't take me lightly. I'm of the wolf clan—"
That was all she could manage, and with fists raining down from all sides she eventually tumbled back to the ground.
"Ah! Damn it!"
A man who'd fallen from the wagon because of Gangnan staggered toward her with blood streaming from his head.
He drew a dagger from his boot and raised it at her.
"I'll stab you a hundred times and kill you!"
Then another bang echoed and the man's head exploded.
"What the—?"
Only then did the thieves realize this wasn't a mere accident.
At the edge of the forest path they'd come from, a man was walking toward them.
Gaold, twenty-four, a graduate of the Alpheas School of Magic who had set out on ascetic training.
Unlike his present gauntness, there was still a trace of youth to him, but his body was almost skin and bone and his complexion as if he might die at any moment.
Most deeply etched in Gangnan's memory were his eyes, as if they contained death itself.
"Who are you? A mage?"
"Have you ever seen a god?"
At the mention of gods the kidnappers—itching with contempt—met each other's eyes and snickered.
"A mad monk?"
In a world of human trafficking and wandering, encountering those driven mad by their ascetic path wasn't rare.
"Have you really never seen one? Where the hell is a god?"
The leader brandished his dagger and stepped forward.
"Hey, what use would finding a god be? Did we commit some crime?"
"I—"
Before Gaold could finish, a dagger flew for his brow.
"Because he must die."
Paff-paff-paff—BOOM!
Air compressed, and the heads of all the thieves standing around the overturned wagon exploded.
Gaold tilted his head slightly to avoid the dagger and walked forward slowly.
He looked down at Gangnan, who was staring up in a daze, and spoke without emotion.
"Kid, have you ever seen a god?"
A fear she had never felt before tightened around her, yet Gangnan slowly shook her head.
"Where is it? Where on earth is it? I must kill it."
Gaold scanned the forest as if searching for something, and his behavior struck Gangnan as the height of madness.
'He's crazy. This man's mad.'
After looking around for a long while, Gaold glanced down at her and untied the rope binding her hands.
'I have to run.'
That was the first thought that came to Gangnan's mind.
But before she could act, Gaold abruptly extended his hand.
"Can you get up? Judging by your looks you're southern. Which clan are you from?"
For a moment Gangnan forgot all her fear and glared fiercely at him.
No one who had offered her help until now had ever truly benefited her.
"I'm a wolf."
As Gangnan's face burned, Gaold's eyes half-closed.
"A wolf clan, huh. I heard they were exterminated. Must've been rough."
'He knows the southern tongue?'
It was astonishing that this ragged, beggar-like madman could understand.
"What's your name?"
After thinking long about who this man could be, Gangnan slowly answered.
"Gangnan. They call me Gangnan."
"Gangnan?"
Gaold groped through the haze of his fading memory and found meaning.
"The spirit of the wolf."
Then, with a faint lift at the corner of his mouth, he said, "That's a fine name, Gangnan."
She would never forget how that felt.
"Come. You're badly hurt. You need treatment."
Gangnan followed Gaold to a cave in the woods.
She remained wary, but for now she needed someone's help.
Gaold handed her hardtack from his bag.
It was rock hard, but there was enough for days.
Her hunger was extreme, so she ate, though the biscuit wouldn't break easily without wetting it first.
Gaold chewed it with ease.
What puzzled her was the low groan that escaped from deep in his throat each time he moved his jaw.
Assuming he truly was mad, Gangnan made a declaration like a challenge.
"I'm leaving tomorrow morning."
Gaold didn't stop her and only nodded.
That night.
"Uuuugh… uuuugh…"
Gaold woke at the faint groans coming from where Gangnan lay.
"What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
"Nothing… it's nothing."
Gaold sat up and saw Gangnan's pale face drenched in cold sweat.
"Tell me. What's the problem?"
"Nothing, it's— it's nothing…!"
Gangnan clenched her teeth and stubbornly insisted, and Gaold, no longer worrying, lay back down.
"Sleep. We'll leave at dawn."
Time passed, and past midnight Gangnan crawled out of the cave and staggered into the forest.
A moment later, Gaold's eyes snapped open.