Immortal's Ascending Path - 36
Episode-36. Kunkan's Gift
Someone said that mana is like the wind.
Roberta agreed with that statement. As she peered into the house with Fritz, she felt the wind. She sensed the flow of mana blowing from the inside out, like a draft, in front of the window.
That wind was mana emanating from a monster whose name was on the register of the evil god Kunkan, no, from a person. The mana contained within the body flowed out as if fleeing once the name was erased from the register.
The people inside the house groaned. The backlash must have hit them as the mana they had accumulated throughout their lives flowed out all at once. Some slumped down, some clutched their chests, and some retched.
And soon after all the mana they possessed had left the house, another mana blew into the house and settled in the empty bodies.
'Was the name really erased from the register?'
It was the first time she had ever witnessed such a thing, but Roberta was certain.
Ulrich had said, 'Now, your names are erased from Kunkan's register.' It was a whisper, but it was in the stillness of the night. There was no way a whisper wouldn't be heard in a place where even breathing could be heard.
'The mana flowing out is because the name was erased from the register, and the mana flowing in is probably because they received a new sacrament. There's no other reason.'
How could that be possible?
The fact that he performed the sacrament was not surprising. It was a scene she had already witnessed. On Roberta's first day in Ditmarsken, he performed the sacrament in front of her.
But erasing names from the register?
'Even His Holiness can't do that. Erasing names from the register.'
It was a miracle that even the head of the Public Church could not perform.
The public mistakenly believes that excommunication removes a name from heaven, but that was absolutely not the case. Excommunication merely expels the target from the human community called the Public Church, it does not fix the register.
'It's not even in the scriptures. There was no need to fix the register when the Creator was in heaven. Changing the register was only mentioned in the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha of later eras.'
As she remembered, several beings were mentioned in the apocrypha as having changed the register, but the reason was not revealed. All of them were after the Creator had left, and the targets were also heterologous races.
That's why it was apocryphal. The literature contained content that could not be logically explained, but it was not a matter to be classified as pseudepigrapha. Since it was never mentioned even once in the age of the gods, it couldn't be the power of God.
Therefore, theologians speculated that it was an allegory, and Roberta thought so too. Until now. But it wasn't an allegory.
"Who… are you?"
Tapio asked cautiously.
He was a human who had once walked the path of a Priest. Even though he was only an apprentice Priest, there was no way he wouldn't know how absurd the miracle Ulrich had performed was.
"Tapio, continue to lead the children in the future."
Ulrich did not answer the question and smiled gently.
"Just as you have done so far, prevent the children from going astray in the future."
Tapio opened his mouth to ask again, but hesitated. His gaze turned over Ulrich's shoulder. The children, born as humans but no longer human, were looking at his back with wide eyes.
The wariness, worry, and anxiety they had felt until just now were gone. The pain that had arisen the moment the mana flowed out had also subsided, and only surprise arose in the midst of peace.
However, their appearance remained the same.
"······Will their appearance return to normal over time?"
"No, I can't turn everything back. Because it doesn't contain a curse."
Why? Tapio inadvertently let out the words.
"Even though the power of the evil god no longer reaches them?"
"Kunkan, whom you call the evil god, his power calls for change. It does not inherit the qualities given by the parents as they are, but makes them grow into completely different beings. The only way to reverse the grown life is to go back in time."
His pupils trembled greatly. It meant that even if they escaped from the hands of the evil god, they could not return to being human. Tapio opened his mouth to let out a sigh, but Ulrich continued.
"However, I have placed your names on the register of Ganymea."
Ganymea, the goddess of knowledge and wisdom, and Hestio's mother.
"The power of the being you call the good god tries not to have a big impact on our world. Because she follows the owner's character. Therefore, compared to Kunkan, the impact is insignificant."
But, he added.
"She never agreed with Kunkan at all during her lifetime. The power she left behind is the same. She will try to alleviate some of the changes he made and erase others."
"Because she… symbolizes reason."
That was why Ganymea's Priests were often regarded as cold-hearted. Also, her Priests had an unusually high curiosity to pursue knowledge.
That's not all, Ulrich muttered to himself. Tapio didn't hear him. He pondered. The liberation he had so desperately wanted had come, but it did not solve all the problems.
Even if their names were erased, their appearance did not return to human form. The children who received the false sacrament had to bear their current appearance until the day they died and turned to dust.
"Appearance is important. But the outside is not everything."
Tapio nodded.
Until this moment today, what was the basis for Tapio treating the children as people? For him, the criteria for a person were thoughts and actions. If they thought like people and acted like people, even if their appearance changed, they were still human children to him.
"Kunkan drove the children to impulse. They would suddenly get angry, cry, and then forget that I was even a person for a moment."
"That will never happen again."
Ulrich asserted that it would never happen again, that even if their appearance did not return, they would not become monsters. Tapio smiled weakly and clenched his fist tightly.
"That is enough."
#
Ulrich left the house alone. He met Roberta and Fritz, who were waiting outside. The expressions on their faces were different.
Fritz was docile. Partly because he did not fully understand what had happened inside due to his lack of experience, but even if he had understood, his attitude would not have been much different.
The boy was a descendant of the Meyer family, a family that had served one human for generations. Even if he performed a greater miracle than this, he was the type of person who would just brush it off as something that could happen. He was raised to be that way, and his inherited nature was like that.
"······."
On the other hand, Roberta had a complicated expression.
She seemed to have lost her words because various emotions were tangled up.
"Roberta, you will see the answer without having to ask."
At Ulrich's words, Roberta's expression hardened.
"It would be strange not to know. But there's no need to hear it from my mouth right now. You'll be able to come to your own conclusion by the end of the journey."
Saying that there would be many things she would come to know without having to explain each one, Ulrich started walking. The two followed behind. The village was quiet late at night, even the sound of insects was silent.
"Don't you think it's a truly harsh world?"
Fritz asks because Roberta doesn't ask.
"What aspect are you referring to when you say it's harsh?"
"The fact that you can't live without relying on God."
"Isn't it natural since they created our world?"
"It's not natural. The world wasn't originally like this. The ritual called Infant Sacrament was created after the age of the gods ended. It was not created by the gods."
"Huh?" Fritz tilted his head. He looked at Roberta because it was so different from the common sense he knew. She was still silent. She did not react even after hearing words that denied religion. She was just sending a strong gaze at his back.
"When the heavenly immortals harmonized the world with great will, the earth was pure. You could wield mana without receiving the sacrament, and mana did not harm those who had not received the sacrament. Mana was just a part of nature flowing like the wind."
"······."
"In those days, faith was not necessary either. None of those who created the world called themselves gods, nor did they want to be. What they revered was the person on earth."
Following that, Ulrich said while looking at the slightly cloudy sky where the fog had cleared. There were many believers even when they were there, but there was no point in talking about it now that they were gone.
"It is natural that the Pantheon today created the concept of heaven and hell and claims that nothing is valuable except faith. Look at what this village, Tapio and the children, have experienced."
During the civil war, not a single child survived the year because they could not receive the sacrament, and the sacrament they barely received called upon an unwanted being and caused hardship.
Of course, the situation this village was in was an exception among exceptions. However, the fact that a world where exceptions can occur is also evidence that our world is harsh.
"There are not many people who can overcome such hardships, regarding reality as originally like that. There must be a reason for the hardship, and they tend to believe that rewards will follow. They say that heaven is testing us and that we will go to heaven. They live hoping for a salvation that no one has ever promised."
"······But."
That's when Roberta spoke.
"In the end, this place received that unpromised salvation."
Ulrich's steps stopped slightly and then continued again.
"I have a narrow view, but I don't pretend I didn't see what I saw."
#
The three guests left the village in the morning.
Because the swamp sent fog again, the three people who came from beyond the fog disappeared back beyond the fog.
Tapio and the villagers were standing at the entrance of the village. They were seeing off the human who had moved their names to the right place.
"Tapio-nim."
Hearing the young voice, Tapio lowered his face.
"Don't we have to go inside?"
A boy with deer antlers growing above his ears asked.
"What if someone else sees us?"
His worry was deep. It was a concern about what would happen if strangers came out in front of the village and saw them.
It was a natural concern. Even though the evil god's blessing that had descended on the village had disappeared, their appearance remained the same.
"It's okay. You don't have to hide anymore."
Tapio stroked the head of the boy who asked, "Really?" Although many problems would follow because of his appearance, he was not worried.
"Spread out your hand. Do you remember what I showed you earlier?"
"This?"
The boy spread out his right palm. It resembled the shape of a cat turning its front paw over. It was full of white fluff, and pink bulges stood out between the hairs.
Soon, light emanated. A blue pattern floated above his bare palm, which was the symbol of Ganymea. Tapio answered that he did well, and then spread out his right palm in the same way to reveal the seal.
Tapio's seal was not Ganymea's. It was that of Dieus, the king of heaven. Until yesterday, he had Dieus' wooden seal, but today he had the real seal. Together with the children he had performed the sacrament on.
"If someone shouts at you that you are a monster, show them that."
He thought while looking at the boy's seal.
He was the youngest of the children who had received the false sacrament. He had several siblings, but they all died eaten by madness. One by one, they became monsters from the top.
The next was this child. The two knew that the ending that the siblings had faced would arrive in the same way. It was an ending that would arrive before long, as if it were fate.
But fate had changed.
A human who could fix the heavenly register and bestow the embrace of Ganymea and Dieus stood before the child. The wrongly raised name was erased from hell and newly written on the register of the human mother.
From now on, this child will live, not as a monster but as a person. And he will grow up and create offspring, and become the beginning of a race that is still nameless today after the gods have left.