Black Swarm (4)
The crater Son Yujeong had fallen into was littered with corpses whose flesh had burst open.
"Eek!"
Each time the blood-red club swung, severed arms and legs flew into the air.
"What the—what are these things?"
Having felled the hellish fiends, Son Yujeong cocked her head and looked around.
"Uwaa… please, please stop… please, please—"
Bodies that had long since lost any human shape writhed and crawled.
"Why won't you die?"
Richela, left with only her face, screamed in despair at whatever life remained.
"We can't die!"
Son Yujeong grabbed Richela by the hair and lifted her face to meet her gaze.
"Why can't you die?"
Seeing someone calmly talk to a human head finally made Richela realize.
She's not right. She's gone mad.
For those who couldn't die, the worst fate was having their head smashed.
Not confirmed, but rumor said in that case they were put in a coffin and buried in the earth to suffer.
"Please stop. Just leave us alone. Please, please, I beg you."
"So tell me why you can't die," Son Yujeong said as Richela blurted out everything she knew, and Yujeong nodded.
"Hmm. Purification, huh."
She stroked the Gingoa looped around Richela's neck like a broken ring.
She grabbed the cloud-like rolled end and pulled, but it didn't budge.
"Ugh… damn."
From experience, even if the body was destroyed you couldn't strip it off.
Why do this in Hell? There's no Buddha here.
When someone who has reached a high level of spirit intones a special spell, the Gingoa contracts. Its power could strip even Son Yujeong—the embodiment of a stone monkey—of her neck.
"I really hate this."
It seemed unlikely a monk would be here among the world's scum, but the whole situation felt wrong.
"Huh?"
Snapped out of her thoughts, Son Yujeong noticed Richela staring at her body.
"What are you staring at?"
"It's just… you've got a nice figure."
Son Yujeong laughed.
"You're thinking that even though only my neck's left? You're funny. Then again, where I lived there were monsters whose faces floated around like that. I never thought you'd be one of them."
Richela thought bitterly.
You made me like this… In any case, the thought of spending eternity like this made her world go dark.
Might as well be purified, she thought.
At that moment, a burning wind roared in from the sky.
"Huh?"
When Son Yujeong looked up, something writhing like black smoke was flying in.
"Heukseung!"
The criminals who still had faces twisted at Richela's cry.
"There! There it is!"
If she was doomed to crawl this place forever, Richela decided it would be justice to take Yujeong down too.
"Don't, you idiot! Don't call the Heukseung!"
"Shut up! You think cozying up to that woman will change your life? We're all doomed if that happens!"
Faces screamed in unison.
"You're finished too! Be buried in the Wall of Wailing and suffer forever! Kahaha… Uwaa!"
At that moment, the Heukseung that had come into the crater instantly gathered the bodies.
"My body! My body!"
Richela sobbed, but having preserved her face felt like a blessing.
Three Heukseung hovered before Son Yujeong, radiating a murky, sinister presence.
"Living vessel?"
A face snared by a Heukseung cried out.
"Grab that woman too! She's incredibly fast! Catch her before she gets away—ugh!"
Black chains clanked, tightened, and even consciousness was cut off.
The idea that they might have been the same made Richela's skin crawl.
"Let's get out of here. Those things are terrifying. I haven't seen them myself, but…"
Even their maddened seniors had been petrified at the mention of the Heukseung.
Son Yujeong's eyes flared a golden light.
"What are you?"
Even her truth-piercing golden gaze couldn't make out their true form. Perhaps because they were truth itself.
"…A servant of Buddha, huh." The Heukseung that had found the Gingoa understood why Son Yujeong had no Karma Chain.
"So there's a reason you were sent. I won't ask."
The Heukseung's attitude toward her—different from how they treated Yahweh—made that clear.
"But what you hold is the property of Hell. Hand it over."
Terrified, Richela thrashed.
"No! Don't listen to them! They treat people like objects!"
The Heukseung replied, "Most humans who enter this world accept their end and are purified willingly. But those addicted to pleasure cannot give it up and refuse purification."
Worldly attachments were overwhelmingly strong.
"They're the sort who ignore rules even in your world. Men who oppose the Buddha's will—hand them to us; it's the right thing."
"No."
What the Heukseung didn't know was that Son Yujeong's disposition bordered on chaos.
"This one's mine. A fun toy. I won't give her to you."
Though they treated her like an object, Richela nodded weakly.
"…I see, then."
Guessing the Buddha's intent, the Heukseung dissolved into smoke and filled the sky.
—Seeker of truth in Hell, whatever you awaken to, you will not fulfill the karmic work of saving sentient beings.
"I'm not thinking that."
Son Yujeong shot back, but the Heukseung simply became a black vortex and disappeared over the horizon.
Richela trembled at the miracle.
"They left. They left."
According to her seniors, no human had ever escaped a Heukseung alive.
"Then where now…?"
Richela's vision spun.
"What do we do about this?"
The mischievous curl at the corner of Son Yujeong's mouth sent fear creeping back.
"Please, spare me. Or at least throw me into the hellfire. I just want it to end."
"That's a hassle. I just want to get rid of this thing right now. Know anything about it?"
Son Yujeong scratched at the Gingoa, and Richela's head spun at a speed like never before.
"I—I don't know exactly what it is, but maybe if you go to Raviette it could be dealt with."
"Raviette?"
"I've heard Hell produces a lot of strange things. Most of them are made there. If there's an expert… maybe."
Her confidence was fading.
"Could it be destroyed? Maybe."
"Hmm. Then let's head there. If my business goes well, I'll grant your wish."
She said that and plucked a strand of hair; it drifted away in a shimmering string of light.
It was the same level as Shirone's material, but that too was just a bloodline privilege.
Richela blinked as Son Yujeong instantly had proper clothes on.
"Magic?"
"Something like that. Clothes are uncomfortable, but being naked causes more trouble."
Seeing blood drip from Richela's neck, Son Yujeong clenched her left hand.
"You should fix yourself up a bit too."
"Huh? No, I—" Before Richela could finish, Yujeong's left hand heated like molten lava and seared the cut edge of her neck.
"Kyaa! Kyaa!"
Taken off guard, Richela's eyes went bloodshot and her jaw dropped. The smell of burning flesh filled the air. Only when she was nearly passing out did Yujeong remove her hand.
"Now that's clean."
"Ugh! Uuuugh!"
Tears fell at the horror of being whole with only a face.
"Carrying it around's a pain anyway."
She produced a pointed cap on a chain, shoved it into Richela's neck, then wrapped the chain around her waist so it hung below her ribs.
"Keee! Keee!"
"Done! Now, shall we be off? Which way?" Richela wondered what sins she'd committed in a past life to deserve this upside-down world.
"Let's hold on until purification," Richela said, recalling what her seniors had told her. She rolled her eyes and added, "If we can get to a high place, you'll see this area is a giant's skeleton. Follow where the heads are placed and it leads to Raviette."
"Aha!"
Yujeong crouched and sprang; the ground fell away beneath them.
"Waaah!"
As the world spun, a horizon full of bones stretched outward.
The city of magic engineering, Raviette.
Rian couldn't find any commonality in the forms of the demons walking the streets.
"As human emotions vary, so do demon forms. There are distinct species like ogres or succubi, but the range of shapes is huge," Shirone explained.
"Humans, being based on genes, treat even an extra finger as a mutation. Demons don't have mutations like that. Once species split based on demonic tendencies, births become random. So some demons are brutal…"
"Kraaa!"
A monster-faced demon passed and bared its teeth at Shirone.
"Other demons have a beauty that seems almost unreal."
A beautiful demon walking the other way winked at Shirone.
"Where d'you think you're looking?"
The next moment, a demon selling goods on the street knocked her down and stamped on her.
"Ugh! That's insane."
Feeling the sting of eyes on his back, Shirone forced an awkward smile and said, "Still, it doesn't mean I'm popular. Let's just say form doesn't matter much in this world."
"I see."
Rian couldn't understand the local speech, but the society was clear enough.
"Shirone, I'm really curious." Rian surveyed the countless structures that made up the city instead of watching the demons.
"How are you looking at all this so calmly?"
From the gate onward, it was clear humans were being used in various ways in the city's constructions.
"That's true."
Shirone was composed.
"I'd be lying if I said it didn't disgust me. But I've seen so much since accepting the Omega that I'm used to it."
It had been as long as the time the griffin wandered.
"Hey, Yahweh!"
A voice called from a stall selling furniture.
"Why not buy this? I just got something you'd love."
It looked like a bent-over person, gutted like a fish, its entrails removed.
"Hah! Hah!"
A face attached to its side exhaled as a demon tapped it.
"It's whole—carved from a single trunk. It keeps breathing, so it doesn't rot easily."
Not a manufactured piece of furniture, but a whole log carved into shape.
"How about it? Take one. I'll cut you a deal. Huh?"
The mouth smiled, but the hostility in the demon's eyes was like facing an enemy.
That was enough for Rian.
"I'll behave."
Gripping the handle of his daejikdo, he turned to the merchant—Shirone stopped him.
"It's fine. He talks big, but he won't take me on. He's all bark."
The demon bared its fangs and spat.
"Drop dead, Yahweh!"
It spat and hacked, and a vein pulsed in Rian's neck.
"He still annoys me."
"Because they hate me most. If I get this worked up, I can't stay in the city."
Rian wanted Shirone to get a day off, so he calmed himself. Shirone pointed at a restaurant sign.
"By the way, aren't you hungry? Let's eat first. We need to find out where the Grand Duke lives anyway."
"A little peckish… I was starving."
"Haha, then let's try that place. It's my first time inside too, but it should be edible."
Rian looked up at the sign.
Something was written in the demons' language, and a human arm hung and gestured.
I hope it's alright.