Chapter 56 - Episode 9. Three Fortresses Meeting (1)
Chapter 56: Episode 9. Three Fortresses Meeting (1)
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「In the end, everything is a matter of life.」
―Renius Bell, trainee reporter for 《Chaos This Month》.
* * *
Manticore, the western fortress.
When Geumcheon Hall Master Im Jinhong received the report that the Colossal Deadman 「Magritte」 had been eliminated, he was certain he had misheard.
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
It could not be true.
What was a Colossal Deadman?
By the standards of the 《Great Realm》, it was a monster on the level of a ninth-stage Adapter. At minimum, people with the rank of Lieutenant General had to step forward before they could face one. There were only three such terrifying monsters in all of 《Chaos》.
“That can’t be true.”
Geumcheon Hall Master Im Jinhong ordered the facts checked again.
Geumcheon Hall’s intelligence network was mobilized in full to investigate what had happened in Gorgon. Four days later, the Hall Master received word that Geumcheon Hall’s entire northern branch near Gorgon had been wiped out.
* * *
「...Ten days have passed since the Colossal Deadman 「Magritte」 was defeated. Several major changes have occurred within Gorgon Fortress during that time. The greatest change has been in its residents. I spoke to an elderly man passing through the street...」
Renius, a trainee reporter for 《Chaos This Month》, had been typing notes through the 「Emergency Memo」 skill when they suddenly looked up and asked,
“So, in your opinion, what has been the biggest change in Gorgon since that incident?”
The person Renius had questioned was a muscular old man carrying the horn of a massive Horned Beast over his shoulder.
Chisels and hammers hung from the old man’s waist, as though he worked as a craftsman in some workshop. Since he was carrying the horn himself, he likely did not hold a high position. That made him the perfect person to ask about the incident ten days ago.
The old man answered.
“Life’s gotten better.”
“How exactly has it gotten better?”
“How... Well, people are doing better for themselves.”
Over the past few days, Gorgon’s economy had been booming. Much of that was because six of the Ten Halls of Chaos had moved their headquarters to Gorgon Fortress. As many of 《Chaos》’s foremost powerhouses gathered in Gorgon, the supply of major resources, including Horned Beast horns, naturally surged.
“It seems far too serious a situation to say people are doing better.”
Yet from the outside, Gorgon looked utterly devastated.
The Outer Fortress had been half destroyed by the damage sustained while defeating the Colossal Deadman 「Magritte」, and a considerable number of residents had lost their homes. Many souls had walked the path of soul extinction.
For a place that had suffered such a tragedy, though, Gorgon’s mood was bright. The people repairing ruined houses had gentle eyes, while the voices of those sharing Horned Beast horns carried a strange excitement.
It was a sight that could not be found in any other fortress in 《Chaos》.
“Well, you could say that, young reporter, since you didn’t see the 「Path of the Wave」.”
The 「Path of the Wave」.
The event in which a pitch-black tide of Deadmans had been split by a single streak of sword light. Renius, the trainee reporter, had heard about it as well.
They said the great poet Euphrates, who had been at the scene that day, described it like this.
―It was as though nature itself had knelt before a single human.
To an inexperienced reporter like Renius, it was hard to understand. A human had made a path through a wave of Deadmans? How could such a thing be possible?
On the day the 「Path of the Wave」 was carved, many of Renius’s seniors, reporters from 《Chaos This Month》, had gathered in Gorgon.
The final messages the senior reporters left behind that day were as follows.
―Sometimes, you must become a few lines of an article yourself.
Whatever had possessed them, they all threw themselves into the 「Path of the Wave」 and fought the Deadmans.
Then they died.
That was how Renius, a low-ranking reporter, had been dispatched here.
...What had people seen that day?
What had happened that day for Gorgon’s residents to wear such unfamiliar expressions?
“Anyway, life’s gotten better in Gorgon. That’s all an ignorant fellow like me can tell you.”
It was a puzzling answer.
Leaving those words behind, the muscular old man carried the Horned Beast horn into a small tent. A sign reading “Medical Center” hung over its entrance.
Without thinking, Renius followed him inside.
“Hey, the new horn is here.”
“You’ve arrived!”
Medical staff rushed over from every direction and examined the horn’s condition.
“Oh, it’s a Four-Horned Beast horn. We don’t have the ability to process something like this...”
“That’s why I came myself.”
The muscular old man laughed heartily, picked up a chisel and hammer, then began crushing the horn. Horn powder flowed from the hammer’s tip and fell onto white sheets of paper.
The medical staff let out cries of admiration.
Renius was no different. Even a trainee reporter like Renius knew how hard a Four-Horned Beast’s horn was. Turning such a horn into powder required skill that only a master craftsman could possess.
So he was not an ordinary old man?
Renius’s question was soon answered by the praise the medical staff offered.
“As expected of the Deputy Workshop Master’s 「Crafting」...!”
“It truly is incredible.”
Medicine ground through the old man’s 「Crafting」 flowed into the mouths of patients struggling with illness.
“Thank you. Thank you so much...”
“Now, don’t talk. You’ll spill the medicine.”
Renius watched the scene blankly.
They were supplying medicine made from Four-Horned Beast horns. That was unthinkable in any other fortress.
And on top of that...
“Are you really giving out this medicine for free?”
“Hm? Ah, yes.”
All the patients were at the level of Non-Adapters. There was no way Non-Adapters could afford medicine made from Four-Horned Beast horns.
“Why are you doing this? If medicine of Four-Horned Beast grade is given away for free, the Inner Fortress’s finances will...”
“It’s fine because the Fortress Lord hunts Horned Beasts personally.”
“...The Fortress Lord personally?”
“That’s right. Each time he goes out, he brings back hundreds. Thanks to that, the Medical Center never runs out of horns.”
Renius wondered if that had been heard correctly. A Fortress Lord hunted Horned Beasts? What kind of situation was that?
The old man answered in an indifferent tone.
“There’s no use explaining it all day, young reporter. People who haven’t lived here won’t understand.”
Renius quietly studied the old man’s face. Only then did Renius realize who this old man was, the one they had happened to speak to.
Meikal Garnad, Deputy Workshop Master of Twilight Dusk.
The only human capable of processing Garnak horns, and the man called Gorgon’s finest craftsman.
Renius knew the name of the emotion on the old man’s face. That was why Renius could not believe it.
It was the most unfamiliar emotion in Chaos.
―Life’s gotten better.
Those who had existed in 《Chaos》 for over a hundred years did not use the verb “live” lightly. The word itself was already a contradiction.
Yet Meikal Garnad, who had lived for one hundred and fifty years, had used that expression.
Renius searched through the 「Emergency Memo」 and silently looked at the headline they had decided on when they first received this assignment.
「Gorgon’s Fortress Lord, Chaos’s salvation or its disaster?」
Quietly, Renius erased the headline.
When Renius looked up again, the Medical Center and the streets of Gorgon came into view. Smiling people. Faces bright with energy as they repaired broken shops and cared for the wounded.
As Renius studied each of their faces, they felt their fingertips tremble with an indescribable sense of fulfillment.
Not a miraculous salvation, nor a disaster that would end everything.
Or perhaps something that included both salvation and disaster.
No one knew where it would lead, but it was the possibility of being able to head somewhere at all.
At that moment, realization struck Renius like lightning.
Renius immediately wrote what they had realized in the 「Emergency Memo」.
「The residents of Gorgon have begun to live.」
Though they had written the sentence themself, Renius could not fully understand what it meant. Still, they instinctively knew that the value contained within those words was something immensely important.
This sentence would become a crucial opening for explaining the 《Chaos》 to come. Renius’s instincts as a reporter told them so.
Rumble.
A sudden explosion from the direction of the Inner Fortress cut off Renius’s excited thoughts. Thick smoke rose from the outer wall of the Inner Fortress.
“What is happening?”
Meikal answered Renius’s tense question with a shrug.
“It’s been happening often lately.”
An explosion of that scale could only occur when high-stage Adapters clashed with their spiritual power. Several possibilities flashed rapidly through Renius’s mind.
Come to think of it, six of the Ten Halls of Chaos had established their headquarters in Gorgon.
It had seemed strangely quiet.
Even when only three of the Ten Halls occupied one fortress, the place became loud with power struggles between them. Yet six of the Ten Halls had gathered in Gorgon now.
“Has a war broken out between the Ten Halls?”
“A war?”
At that, Meikal laughed as though he had heard a particularly amusing joke.
“If that is war, then I suppose it is.”
Meikal let out a booming laugh as he watched the Hall Masters of Chaos fly gracefully through the sky after smashing through the Inner Fortress’s outer wall.
“Five today.”
* * *
The training grounds of Gorgon Inner Keep.
The Hall Masters, their faces bruised blue and purple from Jaehwan’s repeated blows, knelt quietly in a line before him.
“Weak.”
The Hall Masters trembled in humiliation. No one had ever said such a thing to them before.
“What the hell have you all been doing for hundreds of years?”
They wanted to argue, but they had no grounds to do so.
Just moments ago, five of them, excluding Shin Mugeuk, the second-ranked Hall Master of Limitless Hall, had attacked at once and still suffered a miserable defeat.
Yoon Yong, the Thunder God Hall Master and the first to be thrown aside, trembled as he recalled Jaehwan’s Stab.
“Yoon Yong, your feet are all you have.”
Thunder God Hall Master Yoon Yong lowered his head.
Jaehwan added a word for each of the other Hall Masters.
“Kang Hwang, your destructive power is strong, but you’re slow.”
Kang Hwang, Hall Master of Fire King Hall, moved his lips in displeasure.
“Ja Geukryeong, you’re agile and have good instincts, but your stamina is terrible.”
Ja Geukryeong, Hall Master of Goddess Hall, bit her lip.
“Jegal Myeong, you think too much before making a move.”
Jegal Myeong, Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall, scratched his head awkwardly.
“Cayman, you’re the best among these people. Your fundamentals are excellent, and you don’t have any particular weaknesses. But that means you don’t have any outstanding strengths, either.”
South Sea Hall Master Cayman appeared to accept the assessment without complaint.
At last, Jaehwan’s gaze turned to all the Hall Masters.
“And you all have one problem in common. Do you know what it is?”
The Hall Masters waited for Jaehwan’s next words with tense expressions.
“You think you’ve already become something without putting in any real effort.”
Their expressions crumpled miserably.
Two old men stood some distance away, watching the scene. They were Shin Mugeuk, Hall Master of Limitless Hall, and Cheongheo, the Divine Doctor of Despair.
“He’s right.”
“Thanks to that brat, I feel like a weight’s been lifted off my chest.”
Cheongheo chuckled. He had always wanted to gather up the young Ten Hall Masters and give them a proper beating. At last, that wish had come true today.
“You old men over there are too weak for people who’ve lived a thousand years, too.”
Cheongheo’s lips twitched.
“...Fuck.”
Still, Cheongheo did not argue. He agreed with Jaehwan’s standards as well. Even by Cheongheo’s standards, the current Abyss Expedition was woefully inadequate.
More precisely, they were far weaker than they had been nine hundred years ago.
The Ten Halls of Chaos had existed nine hundred years ago as well. Back then, every Hall Master was at the level of a seventh-stage Adapter, while the top five ranked Hall Masters were eighth-stage Adapters. The Heavenly Dragon Hall Master, who held first rank at the time, had even been a ninth-stage Adapter.
Expedition Commander Mulack, the Dream Demon, possessed strength that surpassed even a ninth-stage Adapter.
Even those powerhouses had struggled with the expedition.
The 《Abyss》 was where such monsters lived.
“Everyone, you remember the recent subjugation battle, right?”
“I remember.”
The Thunder God Hall Master answered.
The subjugation battle Jaehwan meant was the battle three days ago against Geumcheon Hall’s northern branches.
“Half of you were seriously injured or nearly died then.”
At Jaehwan’s words, the Thunder God Hall Master and the Hall Master of Fire King Hall trembled.
In the subjugation battle three days ago, Yoon Yong, a sixth-stage Adapter, had nearly died, while Jegal Myeong, a seventh-stage Adapter, had suffered serious injuries.
They had not even attacked Manticore, Geumcheon Hall’s headquarters. Yet it had cost them that much just to eliminate the northern branch alliance.
Forgotten Ghosts.
Killing weapons whose souls had only half undergone Mutation, granting them both the power of Deadmans and human reason. Only after facing them did the Ten Hall Masters understand how Manticore had fallen to a single Hall faction.
Each weapon was powerful enough to rival a sixth-stage Adapter. Geumcheon Hall had seized Manticore because it possessed hundreds of such weapons.
Rumors also said that Garuda, the western fortress, was caught in a similar chaotic battle.
“You’re already like this against a single Hall faction. How are you going to set out on an expedition?”
The Ten Hall Masters lowered their heads at his scornful voice.
“Starting today, you’ll undergo special training for one week.”
The Ten Hall Masters looked at one another.
Special training?
They understood Jaehwan’s words, yet they could not quite accept them. They knew they needed to grow stronger. They also knew there was not much time left.
But one week?
How could they become stronger in only one week?
Jegal Myeong, Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall, raised his hand on behalf of the group.
“Fortress Lord, may I ask a question?”
“Go ahead.”
“As you know, the Ten Hall Masters gathered here are all Adapters.”
It was such an obvious statement that several Hall Masters looked puzzled, wondering what Jegal Myeong was trying to say.
“I know.”
“Then you must also know that an adaptation stage cannot be crossed in a single leap.”
Adaptation stages.
They ranged from the first stage to the fifteenth stage.
Numbers that divided the ranks of Adapters.
Jegal Myeong continued.
“It varies depending on one’s talent, but it normally takes ten years for a Non-Adapter to become a first-stage Adapter. It takes another twenty years for a first-stage Adapter to become a second-stage Adapter. A second-stage Adapter takes forty years to become a Third Adapter, while a Third Adapter requires another eighty years to become a Fourth Adapter. Most humans die before they even become Fourth Adapters.”
In general, each higher adaptation stage required at least twice as much training time unless there was a particular opportunity. That was why Fourth Adapters were called high-stage Adapters. Not many humans could survive as Adapters for one hundred and fifty years.
“Even then, it is said that the seventh stage is the limit for a realm one can reach through simple accumulation of time. That is why people say that the seventh stage is the limit humans can reach.”
Every Ten Hall Master was one of Chaos’s most gifted talents. That was why they had reached the sixth or seventh adaptation stage faster than others.
Yet they clearly understood that this was their limit.
Jaehwan asked,
“So?”
“I heard that you are an Awakened One, Fortress Lord.”
Awakened One.
The Hall Masters’ expressions changed in various ways at those words. Some looked as though they had known it all along, while others were shocked.
Jaehwan answered,
“Yeah. That’s what they call me.”
He had no intention of hiding it anymore.
Jegal Myeong nodded and continued.
“I know almost nothing about Awakened Ones. In truth, I doubt I am the only one.”
Many facts about adaptation and Adapters were widely known. For example, that adaptation consisted of fifteen stages, or that reaching certain stages granted particular powers...
But Awakening was different.
No one knew by what principles, or through what kind of training, one could reach Awakening.
“All I know are a few rumors about Awakened Ones. I hear that rather than advancing through steady accumulation, they leap to another stage through sudden realization.”
Jaehwan recalled the first time he had gained 「Selflessness」.
That was true. The moment he had cast off the shell of the System and become his complete self. It would be a lie to say there had been no accumulation of realization, but what ultimately created 「Selflessness」 had been an overwhelming eruption of emotion.
The explosive feeling of emptying everything within himself and rebuilding it anew.
That was the source of Awakening.
“What are you trying to say?”
“You know that we are Adapters, Fortress Lord. You also know that we are not people who can suddenly become stronger.”
“Yeah.”
“Then there is only one answer.”
The eyes of Jegal Myeong, Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall, gleamed.
“Are you planning to make us into Awakened Ones, Fortress Lord?”
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion