Karma Chain (5)
Etella saw hundreds of chains radiating from Seongeum's heart, branching out and connected in every direction.
Even without detailed knowledge of the otherworld, those chains told her what they were.
"The True Seongeum."
The woman who sealed the spirit domain for humanity.
It was clear she had taken on a living body, and by comparing the feeling to the chains linked to her and Shagal, Etella could sense the nature of that emotion.
"Are you... the True Seongeum?"
Etella stepped closer and asked.
"Uuuuuu..."
Seongeum's body trembled, and the chains rippled from the far end of the Valley of Wailing.
A force pressed toward her from all sides.
_Aaaaaah!
She made no sound with her lips, but a soul's scream rode the wind and reached them.
"How irritating."
Shagal watched Seongeum with a short sword in hand.
He didn't care who she was, but of course the chains made him think.
"Don't, don't come..."
A hoarse, exhausted voice leaked from the Seongeum wrapped in chains.
"Rest assured. I, too, am a guardian of good. I will not leave your pain unattended."
Clack, clack!
After a brief struggle, Seongeum shook her head.
"Shirone."
"Shirone?"
Etella raised an eyebrow as Seongeum shivered and looked downward.
"Tell Shirone what I say. He must never come here. Send him back."
"I don't know what you mean. Where is this place? And the chains? Why must Shirone not come?"
When a second wave of pain struck, Seongeum spread her limbs and lifted her head.
_Aaaaaah!
Hearing the cry of the one once called the Iron Maiden was terrifying in itself.
"This place is the Valley of Wailing. It's the source where the world's black magic flows in and where the river of hellfire runs. I clogged it. As a result, I became like this."
Etella looked around.
If hellfire truly flowed here, they would not be able to approach—it would be unbearably hot.
"I don't know what happened to you, but the chains represent human karma, worldly attachments. The chains are hell. They bind those who entered hell while still alive and keep them suffering forever—until they are purified."
Etella checked her own chains.
"But we're not bound to hell. We're connected to each other."
"I don't know why either. But maybe... the two of you are each other's hell."
While Etella fell into thought, Shagal snorted and stepped forward.
"Nonsense. Maybe not this woman, but these chains can't hurt me. They annoy me a little, but if this is hell, it's a livable one."
Seongeum's face was blank, but for a moment she looked at Shagal with pity.
"Everything follows its course, evildoer. Where there is attachment, there is suffering. No one here can avoid pain. In the end you will curse those chains. Like all living embodiments, including me, you will weep blood."
Waves of pain hit her as she spoke, and then she fell quiet.
Her will was superhuman.
Etella still couldn't tell what the chains linking her and Shagal meant, but in any case Seongeum needed release—fast.
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Go back."
Seongeum repeated the same words.
"There is no way to escape the Karma Chain. No one can cut it. No—no one should cut it. If it's severed, destruction will occur in the real world. Tell Shirone to go back."
"I can't do that."
If Shirone had really come to the otherworld, he must carry some possibility.
"I will free you. Wait. I'll find a way somehow."
Seongeum said no more.
All that remained of her was suffering in hell, but in the process she had come to sense something.
'Perhaps even this is part of the order?'
Watching the Karma Chain that linked the two of them, Seongeum said, "Whatever you do is your freedom. But remember this: this place... is not one that lets you concern yourself with other people's pain. Someday your Karma Chain will bind you."
"I will overcome it."
Just as Seongeum had done.
Etella turned and looked up over the Valley of Wailing. "Let's go. First we need to get out and gather information."
Shagal sneered. "You think I'll just stand by? I don't care what happens to that woman. And if that's what you want, I won't lift a finger."
For the first time Etella shot him a cold look, staring at Shagal with hatred and resentment he hadn't seen even in countless real-world battles.
Perhaps it wasn't the expression of a guardian of good, but Etella's own personal emotion.
"You're not the only one who can bind me. I can bind you too. If you want to see who wins, feel free to try."
Shagal closed his mouth. He wasn't exactly afraid, but Etella's stare brought an inexplicable unease.
'What is this?'
A prick of sensation ran through a corner of Shirone's heart along the Karma Chain.
It felt like the emotion that had once turned his life upside down in the real world.
'Tia.'
The face of a woman who might now be only a memory surfaced unbidden.
"Heh heh heh."
Shagal shrugged. "Fine. There's nothing else to do—let's go. But remember: I'll never see you smile."
Etella scowled again, but seemed satisfied and moved toward the cliff face.
Bound to the chains—the two tied to the Taeguk chain—began to climb the rock.
"Ugh!"
Rian, moving ahead, suddenly stopped.
Again Gehenna's chains shot out from his heart and dug into the ground.
"Hup!"
When he tried to sever them with divine transcendence, a second and a third chain erupted.
"Rian."
When Shirone looked back, Rian felt the urgency in his gaze and pushed harder.
With a clink, three chains snapped and a stream of demonic current soaked into his body.
"Hrrrrgh!"
"You okay?"
Rian nodded. "Got the hang of it. Know the trick. But this is really inconvenient—they come out at the worst times."
"Maybe in a living embodiment you can't move freely in hell. You're probably an odd case."
Is he really an odd case?
'Rian's chains consume hellfire.' It might be an anomaly shaking the foundations of the otherworld's system.
'From Geffin's experience, there were surely upper layers in the otherworld besides Satan's host.'
If so, someone was likely watching them now.
'Some movement will show itself eventually. We need to find something like a city inside.'
The spirit domain had been sealed, but the world's black magic kept pouring into the otherworld.
Now that the demon realm had opened, hell must be saturated with unprecedented visitors.
'Even if we extinguish all the hellfire, it won't purify the otherworld itself.'
Shirone aimed to meet whoever managed hell's system.
"Let's go, Shirone."
Not wanting to worry Shirone, Rian went first and Shirone followed without protest.
The reason falling into hell didn't feel so lonely was because Rian was at his side.
As they reached a sheer peak, a scream so enormous they'd never heard anything like it filled the air.
"What's that?"
Many humans were walking toward a place where a giant river of fire flowed.
They couldn't run because countless ghouls swarmed around them.
"Those numbers are enormous."
The demon army that invaded the real world wasn't the only mass—there were far too many ghouls.
"Argh! Argh!"
Ghouls attacked from all sides and tore people apart, while those at the front were whipped by masked demonkin and forced into the river of fire.
"Those bastards!" Rian grabbed the great diagram, but Shirone spoke calmly.
"Stay calm. They're not humans living in the real world. They're only the emotions of the moment of death taking human form."
"But... they're suffering." Rian didn't handle subtleties well.
"If the chains represent worldly attachments, these ones don't have chains. Their emotions flowed into the otherworld, but their minds have already slipped elsewhere."
"Elsewhere meaning the outside world?"
"...Anywhere. No one knows. What I mean is it's not exactly judgment. It's a system where real-world emotions flow into the otherworld and are cleansed."
"A cold world."
If there was no salvation or damnation from the start...
The two hurried down toward the procession.
Everyone was naked, and ghouls waiting for a chance pounced on them.
"Argh! Save me!"
When a ghoul dragged someone away, dozens more swarmed and tore at the flesh.
A masked demonkin cracked a whip and drove the ghouls off.
"Get out of here! Do you know how scarce our resources are right now? Ghouls are the problem everywhere."
Shirone read the letters on the armbands around their forearms—"Ultima."
While moving through the crowd, countless people were devoured by ghouls.
"I'm scared. I'm scared."
A woman walking beside Rian turned to him.
"Where are we going? Are we just going to disappear like this? No, I don't want to disappear."
Rian knew about systems. Even if it might be a lie, he couldn't ignore the suffering.
"Shirone, I don't really understand."
Shirone nodded.
"Right."
And that would be the reason humans must fight in this cold world.
"How can we save them?"
"Hellfire."
Shirone pointed ahead.
"If we remove the river of fire, it should be fine. But even with Yahweh's light, it won't be enough to erase all of it..."
"Hey, you two."
A worker from the Fire Resource Management Corporation sensed something strange and came over.
"Who are you?"
The biggest sign that Shirone and Rian inspired no fear was that the worker felt no fear around them.
"Why are you here? This isn't where you belong. Go rot back in your original world."
At that moment, multiple chains shot from Rian's heart and sank into the ground again.
The startled worker watched in silence, then slowly lifted his head.
"Gehenna. Could it be..."
The corporation had already issued orders regarding anyone who severed Gehenna's chains.
"Kill him! It's him!"
Pandemonium erupted in the procession; workers—and even the ghouls—lunged at Rian.
"I'll hold them. Extinguish the hellfire."
Shirone stepped forward and emitted Yahweh's light; the ghouls burst into flame and were incinerated.
Meanwhile Rian cut his chains and ran for the river of fire.
'Can I do it?'
With no time to plan, he dove into the flames before the chains could take hold.
"No, no, don't!"
The worker shouted, but Rian's body was already immersed in the blaze.
_Aaaaaah!
Hundreds of chains shot from Rian's heart and began sucking up the hellfire.
"W-what..."
Witnessing a phenomenon unprecedented in the otherworld, the workers stopped fighting and stared.
Bubbles roiled across the river; after a moment the surface calmed as if by retroaction.
"Rian..."
Shirone turned back, tense, and the company worker smiled faintly.
"Of course. Now then, let's blow that hellfire to bits!"
A streak of light punched through the flames and shot into the sky.
The chain connected to the Great Diagram〈Idea〉 surged upward without end and tore a hole through the cloud of fire.
Along that chain, planetary-scale flames twisted like a spiral and began to expose the riverbed.
Shirone, the workers, the ghouls and the humans all froze, stunned.
_Aaaaaah!
Rian, sending a single chain from his heart, spread his limbs wide and roared.