Teogonia: Volume 1 (Premium) Read online

  7

  In this world, the fact that demi-humans differed from humans in terms of appearance didn’t mean they were any less intelligent. They were just as capable of devising strategies, and they weren’t lacking original ideas.

  The allied lords had walked right into an enemy trap.

  Not a single soul had suspected that the information from the Banya “scout” was entirely fake. The trick had left the Banya soldiers seething with rage.

  “How’d we end up in this mess?”

  “How the hell would I know?!”

  They were guided into the forest, but there was no org camp of any kind to be seen.

  They sent out new scouts, but their scouts were eliminated every time; not a single one came back.

  They were deep in the forest with no information and it felt as though something wasn’t right, but the confidence brought on by their superior numbers still kept them from stopping to rethink.

  That was how they carelessly made their way to a low-lying area of land shrouded in mist, and were surprised when they found themselves in a marshland that was still storing rain from the recent rainy season. They hadn’t had time to get over the shock when a large force finally charged at them.

  The enemy was cunning.

  The barrage of arrows that came flying at the humans made them retreat without thinking, pushing them back into the territory of a third party that would normally have been a spectator to the battle.

  This marshland belonged to the lizard-like lagarto, and visitors weren’t welcome.

  With the humans caught off-guard by the threat posed by another species at their backs, the eager warrior-class orgs saw an opportunity to strike, and the human formations fell into disarray.

  “Lord Olha!”

  “Forget him! He’s not even looking at us!”

  Olha had thought that because he had power beyond any normal human, he would somehow be able to right the chaos by relying on his superior strength. This was nothing more than conceit caused by lack of experience. He was barely aware of the situation around him as he abandoned the soldiers under his command to charge at the enemy. For a lord’s forces, their guardian bearer formed the core of their strength, and Lag’s forces were no exception: Olha had been their core.

  Like predators taking helpless chicks from the nest while the mother is gone, the enemy came charging in. An org with overwhelming body mass and tough skin glared at them down its snout. On its face were the red markings of the kumadori.

  It was the worst possible development... they faced an org guardian bearer.

  Lag’s soldiers were thrown into disarray with no way to defend themselves, and were forced to scatter. Many of the org foot soldiers were organized and ready to attack the defenseless backs of fleeing humans. The humans were seeing their usual fighting style suddenly turned on its head.

  Kai was one of those who fled.

  At first, he stayed with his squad as they fled together, but when they couldn’t shake off their pursuer, they split into two so that at least one lucky group could escape. Predictably, the pursuer chose to go after the group that included Kai, who was slowing them down.

  To compensate for Kai’s wounds, their strongest fighter Manso had stayed with him, but they couldn’t outrun their pursuer. Manso waited until the very last moment before saying, “Sorry, Kai,” and leaving him. Manso was fast, so the org soldier gave up on him, choosing to go after Kai instead.

  Damnit!

  Kai wasn’t ready to die this way.

  Not just as he was starting to understand the principles behind magic.

  Not just as new doors were opening to him and he had the chance to make something of himself.

  He tripped several times, leaving himself covered in mud as he frantically ran for his life.

  He had no idea which way he was running.

  The mist that filled the air made him feel as though the lagarto marshland was close. The lagarto were aggressive toward humans who strayed into their territory, and they wouldn’t hesitate to tear Kai apart.

  The sound of footsteps behind him was growing closer, and then he could hear the sound of its heavy breathing too. The distance between the predator and its prey was little more than a hair’s breadth.

  Kai had never stood a chance of outrunning a fitter, stronger org.

  Fear overwhelmed him and his breathing was wild.

  Suddenly, a feeling of heat shot across his side. The mysterious burning sensation began to spread. Kai looked down in confusion and saw his clothing turning red.

  He realized that he’d been stabbed by the org soldier pursuing him.

  It was all too much, and Kai wanted to cry.

  Kai had felt as though he wouldn’t be able to run much further, so he’d been running into the dangerous misty region of the forest without thinking. It was now difficult to see, and he was blindly going deeper, cutting his way through thick undergrowth where there weren’t even animal trails. Kai cut through thorny leaves and branches as he made his way deeper into the mist, desperately charging ahead. The ground beneath him suddenly became a steep decline, but Kai continued to throw himself forward, unintentionally throwing himself into the air.

  He had no time to fall gracefully. His body struck the ground many times as he rolled downhill. Then he turned a somersault and found himself upside down at the very edge of a cliff, where he was fortunate enough to be stopped by a tree root that collided with his back.

  He wheezed as the impact knocked the breath out of him.

  His eyes filled with tears, but there was no time for self-pity.

  Please, tell me I lost him...

  Kai held the bleeding wound on his side tightly, and with a glimmer of hope, he strained to see the top of the steep slope through the mist. But there he saw his death was still approaching, in the form of an org carefully making its way down toward him.

  Whatever happened, the org soldier was determined to kill Kai. Perhaps orgs were expected to kill a certain number of soldiers, like a sort of sales quota they had to meet.

  Sales... quota?

  The term that came into his head puzzled him as he tried to climb to his feet. Intense pain shot through his side, and he fell back down with a gasp.

  “Gaah!”

  Now that he’d had a moment to think, he’d become aware of just how painful his injury was, and he couldn’t help but curl into a ball. He could feel thick, hot blood on the hand that held the wound, and he knew that the bleeding wasn’t going to stop. He’d been too frantic to realize it until just now, but the wound was more than serious enough to be life-threatening.

  The org had made its way down to Kai now, and with a snort of excitement from its long nose, it swung at Kai with a long-handled stone axe.

  Now that Kai was badly wounded and unable to move, the org was here to deliver the final blow.

  Kai instinctively threw himself aside and just barely dodged what would have been a fatal hit. As a last resort, he drew the knife that hung at his waist. He’d forgotten about the wound at his side again, and now he was waving the knife to keep the org at bay as he slowly backed away... but he was in a narrow space with a cliff to his back, so he was soon left with nowhere to go. He was forced to stop another strike from the stone axe using his knife.

  The blow was too powerful, and it pinned him down.

  The difference in strength was clear to see. The org brought its snout close as if toying with Kai, and the stink of its breath made him go wide-eyed.

  Shit... shit...

  He couldn’t understand anything the org said, but he knew that it was finding humor in the powerlessness of humans.

  The handle of the stone axe pressed against his neck, and it became painful to breathe.

  If only I’d learned more magic... If only I could roast this disgusting pig whole...

  The harder he struggled, the worse the bleeding from his side became. His body was starting to feel cold, and even his thoughts were becoming clouded.

/>   Then Kai felt it was time for desperate measures.

  He didn’t know whether his magic would be effective or not, but if he could just surprise the org...

  He dropped the knife that hadn’t been of much use to him and reached out to grab its snout. The org laughed at the sight of his shaking hand.

  If I can just take out one of its eyes!

  “Fire magic!”

  He was already on the verge of death.

  He didn’t worry about the consequences.

  His godstone drew the life force from every inch of his body, directing it toward his outstretched hand.

  It had only been a few days, but he’d given thought to the way “magic” worked in this world, and after finding which methods worked in practice he’d come to a certain level of understanding.

  This “magic” isn’t a chemical reaction.

  He’d concluded that this strange phenomena was actually energy released in exchange for an equivalent amount of his spiritual energy. And that spiritual energy could be directed using mental images. The reasoning was that simple.

  The reason that guardian bearers didn’t concern themselves with magic, despite probably having great stores of spiritual energy, was partly because of the risk of depleting their resources. But a more important reason may have been that their physical strength increased dramatically the moment they inherited a divine spirit, and it was usually more convenient to use that strength to produce whatever result they wanted.

  The reasoning behind the toughened flesh and incredible power that was given to a guardian bearer, however, was still unclear.

  “Burn, pig!”

  The flame that suddenly burst from his hand was close to its eye. The org cried out in surprise and arched its upper body back while still over Kai. It was covering its face with its hand, so the belly of the org naturally became exposed.

  I’ll send this fucking pig back to Samsara!

  He pressed his left hand down on the snout of the org soldier as his right hand picked up the knife again and drove it straight into the region of the org’s heart.

  Kai stopped his magic subconsciously when his usual countdown was over. The flame went out but the org continued its muffled cries.

  Kai felt sure he’d dealt a decisive blow.

  But then he was pushed back by the weight of the collapsing org’s head, and he staggered backwards.

  Kai realized his mistake too late, and couldn’t stop himself from falling backwards together with the dead body of the org.

  He’d been careless.

  Well, if I have to die, a quick death after a fall is probably a good way to go, Kai decided. The strength was gone from Kai’s face, but a slight smirk still remained.

  As he fell over the cliff he felt as though he was floating, and a moment later his consciousness slipped away.

  In the center of the forest where the battle was taking place, a young human boy was silently falling into a valley through dense mist.

  No one was there to see it happen.

  8

  The cliff was sheer, and the drop looked to be several dozen yules straight down.

  A fall from such a height would have been fatal if there hadn’t been a surprisingly large lake beneath the dense mist, which, by some miracle, broke the boy’s fall. The god of death had allowed Kai to remain in the realm of the living.

  It wasn’t long before Kai began to regain consciousness. He felt himself floating in the cold water, and then he was truly awake.

  Water...?

  The water that filled the lake was exceptionally clear.

  At first, he thought it must have been a pool of rainwater formed during the rainy season, but the volume of water was too great, and it had the characteristic coolness of spring water. Water that collected during the rainy season always had warmth to it.

  For a while he marveled at his strange surroundings and let himself float in the water as he gazed at the sky above, which glowed with the faintest white light.

  Through the glowing white mist that covered the landscape, he caught sight of a hazy outline of steep cliffs. These sheer cliffs formed a circle around him, and “caldera” was the word that came to mind as he considered the terrain.

  As he floated absentmindedly in the water, he slowly began to realize that he was on the verge of death. The warmth was completely gone from his limbs now, and even the pain of the wound on his side felt distant, as if it belonged to someone else.

  Shit... I need to get to shore or I’ll bleed out.

  With that thought at the back of his mind, which had already become cloudy, he began clumsily swimming.

  He barely kept afloat as he struggled to think clearly and determine the direction of land. Then his searching hand grabbed hold of something. Without knowing what it was, he pushed it away, propelling himself toward the direction of the cliff. It would take him some time to realize that the object was in fact the body of the org soldier he’d killed a short time earlier.

  The lake didn’t fill the entire base of the valley. Kai was able to make his way to what appeared to be the shore, where he dragged his body out of the water. The roots of a gnarled tree extended toward the shore, and Kai was able to drag himself over and rest his back against them.

  His head felt just as blurred and foggy as the scenery around him as he tried to think of some way he might survive.

  I have to close this wound right now or I’m dead... But I can’t climb these cliffs with these injuries.

  In his current state, he’d never be able to leave the valley. He didn’t even know which part of the forest he was in, and with demi-humans living wherever there were no humans nearby, there was little chance of anyone coming to his rescue.

  The question was how to heal the wound in his side. There was only one option, and it didn’t take Kai long to think of it.

  If I can use my healing magic...

  He closed his eyes and remembered how he’d healed his broken bones. He focused his attention on his godstone, and it began to draw in his spiritual energy almost automatically.

  But Kai quickly gave up.

  I’m down to the last dregs...

  With Kai on the verge of death, the spiritual energy that was his life force was reduced to almost nothing. Without recovering his strength, the magic that had been his last hope wouldn’t work. But if he simply lay still and waited for his body to recover, he’d die from blood loss.

  For those born in the borderlands, it was essential to know which plants could be used to stop bleeding. Kai was looking for those plants now, but instead he caught sight of the body of the org floating near the shore.

  Heh, I got the bastard, was his first thought... but then he realized that this presented a new opportunity.

  Kai reached for his knife, but it was gone. With a tut, he looked instead to the long-handled stone axe that was still in the org soldier’s hand. He’d have to borrow what he didn’t have.

  He dragged himself over and was able to reach the body of the org. With its axe in his hands, he used all of his strength to swing it down at the creature’s chest. The skin of living creatures was tough, and tearing it apart by hand was surprisingly difficult unless there was already a cut.

  Kai didn’t hesitate to plunge his hands into the opening in the skin made by the axe. He rummaged through its cold, slippery innards and before long he found an object shaped like an ocarina, hidden behind its lungs. He’d found the org’s godstone.

  He quickly washed it in the water and then broke it open against a rock embedded in the soil nearby. He had to strike it against the rock several times before a piece broke off. His fingers scooped marrow from the opening, and he hungrily licked it from his fingers. The rich taste of the marrow made his work feel even more urgent.

  Here it comes...

  What came next was a sensation of heat inside his godstone... and then an increase in strength that he could actually feel. It felt as though his level of existence as a living being had increased. />
  He continued to greedily lick at the remains of the marrow as he tried to activate his healing magic once again.

  Cells of mine, close the blood vessel.

  Now he had significantly more spiritual energy to gather up and direct toward the wound in his side, causing the cells in that area to become active.

  It had taken Kai several days of trial and error to realize that while magic had essentially unlimited potential, it wouldn’t work without a specific mental image and an appropriate amount of spiritual energy ready to be consumed.

  For example, the mental image of a flamethrower wouldn’t work with just a matchstick’s worth of fuel at hand.

  He reasoned that his magic wouldn’t work with a simple mental image of healed wounds because the image was too vague to be followed by the cells that made up his flesh. The site of the wound itself was made up of tens of millions of cells that would all have to work in coordination. Instead, Kai had to keep his expectations as reasonable as possible for his healing magic to work effectively.

  In the case of a broken bone, it wasn’t enough to hold some vague image of his body being healed. He had to focus his thoughts on the idea of many bone cells adhering to each other. Though it wasn’t much use to form a weak bond at a single point, Kai found he could do this repeatedly at countless different points, and a strong bond would be created by the combined effect of many weak bonds.

  In this case, Kai had decided that the amount of blood he was losing was the urgent problem, and so his attempts at healing had been focused on closing the blood vessel.

  It feels like there’s less bleeding... I’ll just have to hope that it worked.

  Kai began to drag himself along the ground again so that he wouldn’t fall asleep on the damp shore of the lake. Some distance from the water’s edge, he curled up in the roots of a great tree that looked like it would shelter him from rain.

  Even in the thick mist, he could tell that this was an impressive old tree with branches that spread out like a roof over his head.

  Damn... can’t stay awake...

  Kai didn’t get the chance to check whether his bleeding had completely stopped.