Chapter 174: Resolve to Die, Reason to Live (11)
We all despaired. It seems that we wouldn’t even be able to kill them.
What would happen if we chopped off their limbs by mistake?
They could grow in numbers endlessly.
While all of us became speechless, Michael muttered aloofly.
“But they don’t seem to be willing to attack us. Let’s just walk past them.”
“Huh, huh?!”
With Deborah in his arms, Michael bravely walked past them.
Startled, I was about to grab Michael, then grabbed by Abel who seemed more startled than me.
“No, wait!”
But like what Michael said, those things just let him through without attacking him.
Not only did they seem to have no will to attack him, it seemed like they weren’t even sensing us there, perhaps due to not having a face.
We glanced at each other, then followed Michael to walk past them.
“There is a portal.”
We were walking cautiously following Michael, and easily found the portal to the next step. Seeing how our mana were restricted again, this place too, must be a ‘trial’, but it was this easy?
But we found out the reason why soon enough.
“It’s closed.” Michael muttered nonchalantly, as if it was totally unrelated to him.
Just as he said, the portal that was always open like a monster’s jaws was shut tight for some reason.
“But why…”
Floundering, I quickly looked around. Soon I found something about 5 meters away from us.
It was a round altar. The altar, made of stone, was old and was broken here and there.
I approached it at once and looked at the altar with hard to read-ancient letters written on it without any context. Abel chased after me and held my arm.
“M-mother! Don’t go off alone. Stay with me. They don’t look as if they would attack, but we don’t know what may happen…” Abel said as he held me with worried eyes.
Seeing him displaying a totally different behavior with a face that looks exactly like that of Hades, I felt oddly embarrassed.
If it was him, instead of worries like this, he would say…
-You have no fear at all. Well, it’s only natural since you are with someone as powerful as me.
…and rebuke me.
Smiling at the thought of him for a moment, I apologized to Abel. “I’m sorry. But I should take a look at this.”
I looked around the altar, then stepped on it slowly. Although it was cracked here and there and was hard to read, I was intending on reading it since it was written in ancient tongue.
Leaving the wary Abel below, I stepped onto the altar and got on all fours, slowly reading ancient words written on it slowly.
Though it was a little confusing since it’s been a while since it got written…
“Altar of…sacrifice?”
The word that had been used the most here and there were kinds like ‘sacrifice’, ‘offerings.’
It seemed to indicate this trial’s name…
For some reason I felt uneasy.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, a light shot out of the altar.
As I shrank slightly from getting caught off-guard,
“Ack! What’s this?!”
“Shoot!”
Something surprising happened.
‘Those things,’ that couldn’t even notice us up until just now, started attacking with their eyes gleaming red.
Many of them attacked Abel, who was blocking the way up the altar where I was.
“Abel!”
Abel swung his sword sideways once. Thankfully, those things fell apart chopped in two by their waist, but…
Just like what happened when Azar cut one, each part regrew the parts they were missing, multiplying in two.
“There will be no end to them like this!” I could hear Azar shouting from a distance.
It was just as he said. There would be no end.
They were magical beasts that couldn’t be killed by cutting them down, and they even multiplied endlessly.
‘But, why did they suddenly start attacking?’
Surely, there must be something. I looked down at the altar that suddenly started to emit light with fear in my eyes.
A few of them charged at Abel, but I, who was on the altar, was safe for some reason.
‘Could it be…’
I was scared of those things that were charging everywhere with their 3-meter tall bodies, but I closed my eyes tight and jumped off the altar.
The moment my feet landed on the ground,
Shwaaa-
The light from the altar disappeared and at the same time, the red light from the monsters’ eyes disappeared all at once. And as if nothing had happened, they lost their will to attack and started to sway around their limbs, wandering around without aim.
“Ah…”
An exclamation erupted from my mouth in reflex.
‘I see.’
I could see why this trial was named ‘the altar of sacrifice.’
“Childe! Are you alright?!”
Azar ran towards us as he shouted, Abel replied as he was checking how I was.
“Yeah! I’m fine!”
Azar immediately rushed over and spoke as he pointed at the portal.
“The portal opened just now while these things were moving!”
“What?”
“But now…”
Azar bit his lip as he turned to look at the portal placed afar.
The portal said to be open was closed shut for some reason, just like how it was when we first found it.
Just as I thought…
The altar probably seemed to be the ‘key’ to open the portal.
The altar only reacted and emitted light when I stepped on it, making these unknown monsters aggressive.
“Why… did the portal suddenly open then close?” Abel asked me, looking troubled.
Unable to answer, my gaze landed helplessly on the altar.
I thought I knew the way to activate this ‘key’,
“It needs a human sacrifice.”
“…Huh?”
“What?”
Hearing some quite fearsome words, everybody widened their eyes.
Then, Michael, Deborah and Roxa came over.
Roxa pointed at the portal excitedly as he spoke.
“Dat thing righ’ opened! What did ye do? Think we can go in when it’s open.”
“Yes, this altar can open the portal. We can cross over when the portal is open.”
“So…”
“But in return, one of us must stay behind here to keep the portal open.”
Hearing my words, Roxa’s smile froze.
* * *
The monsters with fearsome appearance were still wandering around.
We could tell how many hours have passed in vain.
Beside the portal, there were Azar and Abel trying their best to open the portal by force, and Deborah and Roxa stayed beside them.
Michael and I had finished decrypting the ancient words engraved on the side of the altar.
Though it was a difficult process due to damages done here and there, we could recognize it roughly.
“This is troubling.”
It was devastating.
The gist of what was written on the altar was as follows.
[At times, noble sacrifice shall make us a more perfect being.
Sacrifice for a child,
Sacrifice for a lover,
Sacrifice for a comrade,
Sacrifice for the goal.
Only one who has someone to willfully shed blood of sacrifice for them, will reach god in the end.
Offer a noble sacrifice to reach the arms of god.]
Michael and I were lost for words for a long time after deciphering the ancient words.
“Since it mentions blood and whatnot…”
“It’s probably referring to those these things.”
Michael pointed with his chin at the wandering monsters behind them nonchalantly.
“You mean these are the souls of the humans who were sacrificed?”
“Probably. The soul wandering around after getting killed by these things must have turned into one of these as the time passed.”
“My days…”
In order to pass this trial, we had to leave one member behind, and sadly their end might as well be death.
“If so, if we must pass here, it should probably be…”
It was for the best if either me or Michael was left behind.
We may get ripped apart and devoured by those things as a sacrifice, but we wouldn’t die at least.
Understanding the word I’ve just swallowed, Michael gave a shrug.
“I have no intention of staying here. I will reach Gaionia no matter what.”
Hearing Michael’s firm words, I was dumbfounded for a moment.
I wasn’t worried about being left behind, but I was worried about what may happen after our group meets Gaionia.
If we end up failing to kill Gaionia, then…
‘There would be nothing left other than begging for life.’
Who would do that though? Hades, who doesn’t believe in god? Or Deborah? Or Michael who is despises god? Or Abel? Who, would think to fall to their knees before Gaionia and plead with them?
Still, I couldn’t coerce Michael to stay when he said he didn’t want to.
I gave a nod and spoke. “Very well. Then I will stay behind. In return, I have a request. If, if we somehow fail in killing Gaionia…”
“No.”
Cutting through my words, Michael folded his eyes and smiled.
He landed his hand on my shoulder and spoke with his affectionate looking smile.
“I cannot have you do that either.”
“Then there is no other way.”
“Why not?”
Shrugging, Michael glanced at Azar and Roxa standing by the portal.
“The slender one seems to have no intention of being left behind no matter what, but the big burly one is faithful to Duke Louvremont, so you should be able to talk him into it.”
“What?”
I laughed at the absurdness.
“Michael, no Ignis.”
“…”
“Have you gone crazy? Do you feel nothing now that you have killed a person or two?”
“It’s something that would all be fixed after killing Gaionia.”
“What?”
“How many souls like this do you think are in Orcus?” Michael said, still pointing at the wandering monsters. “A few dozen? A few hundred? Since the world has been created and since the first ‘human’ died, this place existed. Numerous souls that are against that insane father’s standards are suffering here.”
“…”
“What Procreathor ultimately wanted, shouldn’t just be to end our punishments. He must want to liberate all the suffering souls after erasing Gaionia.”
“You seem so certain. That you would be able to kill Gaionia no matter what.”
Unfortunately, things weren’t so easy in the future I saw.
Michael looked down at me silently without an answer, then soon turned his body to walk towards the portal, swaying.
“Hey, wait up!”
It seemed as if he would order Azar to stay behind at any moment.
Michael arrived before Azar even before I could catch up to him.
“After investigating the altar, there seems to be no other options. One of us will have to remain behind to activate the altar.”
“Hey!”
Arriving late, I charged to close Michael’s mouth, but I was a step late.
Michael spoke as he held my arm fairly easily.
“It was His Grace Louvremont who decided to endure entering Orcus for our sake. If there are people who have something to repay him for his goodness, please raise your hand.”
What a crazy punk.