Natural Black Onyx attracts and traps any mana. Even if it’s a curse, which is a collection of negative mana.
There is a never-ending demand for it as ornaments for royalty and high-ranking nobles who are always at risk of assassination, and its value continues to soar even now.
Such Black Onyx was hidden under the guild’s floor. Aleu was not so dull as not to feel a chill at that fact.
“The fact that you don’t have nightmares means you aren’t from the Sleepless City. In that case, naturally, you would have no way of knowing about the Beast God faith.”
Aleu’s throat tightened. He tried to move his legs to turn back, but they wouldn’t budge as if they were sewn to the floor.
“The humans who once lived in this land were captivated by development and permanence, and they maintained a groundless faith to keep this land fertile. They schemed to bury mana-rich Beast Gods alive and enrich the land with the mana released when they died. The atrocities, carried out over generations, buried approximately several thousand lives in this land. It’s not certain if there’s a causal relationship between the history of the Sleepless City’s prosperity and this faith, though.”
But, the Carrier shook his head eerily.
“Over the long years, as humanity analyzed mana, they found that there are two main types of mana. Living mana and dead mana, positive and negative mana. When they found that out, the believers must have been greatly troubled. Because if that were true, the soil they lived on would be overflowing with dead mana, negative mana. They wouldn’t know when it might become a curse and erode the land… a situation equivalent to living on top of a bomb.”
The Carrier continued to speak cheerfully, kicking the Black Onyx that had been revealed.
“So, they put a lid on the hole where they had buried the Beast Gods. A natural stone that absorbs and traps mana… with this. To gather this much, it would require enough money to move a country today. They must have gathered it desperately. They must have been frantic.”
Aleu, moving his gaze slowly and gradually, became transfixed on the surface of the Black Onyx.
The Black Onyx, which should have shone black and brilliantly──was muddy, showing a flat and rough surface as if ink had been splashed over it.
“In that way, they absorbed the negative mana and prevented it from becoming a curse. Keeping it a secret forbidden to be spoken of, until now… until today, when this land is called the Sleepless City and prospers, no one knew. ──The existence of the failure of the century that leads this country to ruin.”
The Carrier spread his arms and let out a loud laugh.
And then, immediately after.
Squish. The sound of flesh being pierced was heard.
“…Eh?”
Aleu realized his voice had become horribly distorted.
And, he continued to stare blankly at the arm growing out of his chest for a moment.
“Ah… gaaaaah!?”
He let out a death cry.
The piercing hand──the Carrier’s hand──that had been supporting his limp body was pulled out, and Aleu vomited blood and collapsed on the floor.
Grabbing his beautiful golden hair roughly, the Carrier threw his body onto the surface of the exposed Black Onyx.
“I was prepared for a struggle… but to just watch, how heartless, Wind Spirit Hresvelgr. You must understand what this act signifies.”
Aleu lay on the Black Onyx. The guardian of the World Tree, who was just watching the events unfold in his pocket, felt a sense of resignation as she felt herself being pulled somewhere.
(I didn’t imagine disappearing like this… but compared to the pain of living forever… this is still better.)
Aleu’s life was fading.
But this was the result of Aleu’s and Hresvelgr’s selfishness.
This selfishness was a function given to Hresvelgr when she was created by the world.
It was her nature as a spirit, symbolizing the free wind.
In that case, like a free wind spirit. She would meet her end selfishly.
(If I disappear… I won’t have to remember anymore. …It’s a shame that… the fun things will disappear too, but…)
However, if she continued to live like this, it felt like the disappointment would fill up even the fun memories.
Like all living things, Aleu’s body began to release mana. And Hresvelgr, who was connected to Aleu’s mana, also left Aleu’s body as the contract was terminated.
The Wind Spirit, a mana body, did not resist the attraction of the immense Black Onyx and sank her body into the completely muddied stone.
“Hoh, you aren’t even resisting… well, it’s convenient, though.”
A small sky-blue light sphere swam through the Black Onyx.
“Wind Spirit, you shall meet it. The taboo committed by the foolish faith.”
Falling further and further into the Black Onyx──eventually, Hresvelgr passed through it.
Most of her mana had been absorbed, and Hresvelgr, whose consciousness had become hazy, reached a very narrow cave.
In that place, which was just hollowed out of the ground, a tattered torii gate and a small shrine, about the size of a small child, stood one by one.
On the surrounding walls, countless scratches, like something had been scratched over and over from old to new, were engraved. At the sight of those marks, which looked like the traces of someone trapped trying to get out, Hresvelgr felt nauseous.
She was shown vividly the “scars” that must have been left by instinctive fear, unable to endure the hunger.
And then──it stood up slowly.
Dragging its emaciated body, showing something like an obsession──it opened its mouth wide toward Hresvelgr in her light sphere form.
Hresvelgr’s consciousness cut off there.
The negative mana of the Beast Gods who had been buried.
It filled the land and could have eroded the soil at any time, but it hadn’t materialized as a curse until recently.
Why was that?
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It wasn’t because it was absorbed by the Black Onyx.
It was because it had already begun to be absorbed before that.
The taboo committed by the believers.
That was──burying a Primordials alive. The greatest mistake of greedy humans.
The Primordials, who lives for an eternity, actually survived for a thousand years under the Black Onyx without dying.
And, according to the principles of this world, the accumulated mana flowed into the Primordials all at once.
It sucked up several thousand years’ worth of negative mana, and then its sublimation──ended.
The one the highly intelligent Primordials resented was the humans derived from this land.
However──the curse had not yet come out to the surface.
Under the Explorer’ Guild. The curse activated by the Primordials had been absorbed by this massive Black Onyx, which the believers had used as a lid in a desperate struggle, until today.
But that was only until now.
The nightmares the people of the Sleepless City saw. That wasn’t the main body of the curse, but only the part that exceeded the capacity the Black Onyx could hold──only a fraction of the curse.
■
It’s dark… miserable… lonely.
The hunger wouldn’t subside and tormented me for hundreds of years.
If I could have gone mad, that would have been better than anything. If I could have died…
Even now, somewhere in my heart, I continue to resent humans.
But I gave that up a long time ago.
I don’t even have that kind of energy left anymore. I don’t remember the sadness or anger I felt when I was betrayed.
Only loneliness torments me.
And yet… many Beast Gods, not me, are trying to use my body to start rampaging──telling me to stand up, telling me to vent my resentment.
I don’t want to move anymore… it hurts when I move… it’s painful…
──Vent your resentment.
No… please kill me…
──Vent your resentment.
Until when… do I have to live…?
The voices won’t stop.
Negative mana doesn’t forgive humans.
All those emotions enter my body.
…Help me.
Clatter. Something entered that space.
In this space where the corpses of animals and humans I had no memory of had suddenly appeared recently, a sky-blue light sphere, which felt clearly alive, fell in.
I no longer had the leeway to think.
Hunger drove my body, which should have been too weak to move──.
And I took it into my mouth.
■
“Finally, it started moving. That’s what made it worth continuing to send negative mana. Now, let us begin.”
The Carrier──the 70th Greater Demon, Seere, formed a line in the air.
The white glowing line was a penetration magic with the property of piercing all things.
The thread-like thinness of it pierced the Black Onyx in a straight line.
In an instant──it erupted.
As if a balloon were popped with a needle and the air inside escaped.
And so, the trapped [Curse] leapt out onto the surface.
The curse was, in other words, the wish of the Primordials.
Its only desire──is the destruction of the Sleepless City.
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