NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 99
Chapter
The party moved toward the source of the strange sounds, and what they found was as bizarre as the noise itself.
“Grrrr…!”
“Caw caw…!”
The corpses were moving? Did a living person become a corpse? Roksanna frowned at the grotesque scene that was hard to put into words.
“So this is what they call a ghoul.”
“A ghoul?”
Roksanna nodded at Enok’s words.
“Due to the characteristics possessed by the God of Life and Death, these beings emerge. They become such ambiguous forms, caught in the pull of a god straddling the line between life and death.”
It had nothing to do with the God of Life and Death’s intentions. He could choose to hold back, but given the foggy nature of the current situation, it was fortunate that the damage wasn’t worse.
“Hmm.”
Enok unfurled his Ki Eye and scanned the surroundings.
It wasn’t just humans. All living creatures, and even all beings that had past lives, were aimlessly wandering, caught in the border between life and death.
‘Is it only because this is a Magic Region that it’s like this?’
Imagining what would happen if the God of Life and Death appeared in the middle of the city… Enok let out a hollow laugh.
Below Grandmaster level. In other words, starting from Master, everyone would end up like that.
A being that twists the laws of the world merely by existing—that was a demigod.
‘Oh… why am I…?’
Suddenly, a wail from before the God of Life and Death departed came to mind. His empty eyes were gazing sorrowfully at Enok.
What he likely saw was his soul connected to Rionne’s soul.
An elf who went mad from loving a human faced the opposite outcome than Enok, so it wasn’t surprising.
“Well, what do we do about this…?”
Tsukiyo murmured as she looked at the ghouls.
For now, thanks to Roksanna, who quickly concealed their presence, the ghouls weren’t rampaging too much, but from what she knew, ghouls charged at the living like madmen.
Ultimately, they would have to deal with it, but among them, there could be someone who was originally alive, and she had no clue what to do.
“Shinhou, is there a solution?”
“Hmm. It seems we don’t have any particular options right now.”
“Hmm… Is there no way?”
Just then, Tsukiyo had extended her nails with a solemn expression.
[If they are lost between life and death, just guiding them in the right direction is enough.]
Enok raised his head at the voice resonating from above.
“You’re here?”
[Yeah. Sister’s here.]
Rionne lightly smiled as she landed softly on the ground.
[I think I can handle this level of trouble.]
If it was something the God of Life and Death deliberately caused, perhaps he wouldn’t be able to, but a situation without any intention was something Rionne, who had only recently become a demigod, could certainly tackle.
[Oh my…. Another demigod….]
[Huh?]
Rionne spotted Tsukiyo’s vial. Looking through it at the ghost inside, she smiled faintly.
[Isn’t that a soul that’s at least two thousand years old?]
[Why are you looking at me like that…?]
[That should be better than most elixirs, right?]
[Eh…!]
With the ghost’s startled voice, Rionne chuckled and reached out her hand.
[Shall we deal with this first?]
“Are you sure? It seems too far gone to be considered alive anymore.”
The organs, including the heart, had stopped functioning for a long time. Even if they were to recover, they would merely turn back into a proper corpse.
[You shouldn’t apply logic to a demigod’s work.]
As Rionne drew in her power, shards of green light began to illuminate the world gradually.
[Watch carefully, Enok.]
Saaaaa──────────
As the shards of light converged, a gigantic tree soared up to the sky. It exuded incredible life force. Gazing up at the tree in amazement, Enok finally spoke.
“Now that I think about it, Rionne’s abilities don’t seem related to swords at all.”
Though she was called Swordmaster, ever since she had become a demigod, her displayed abilities were more connected to trees than to swords.
[It just happened that way.]
Just as she spoke, light poured down from the massive tree, brightly spreading through the space and guiding those wandering between life and death onto the right path.
Being inside a Magic Region meant there weren’t many humans around. Animals and monsters living in the Magic Region were drawn back to their original states by Rionne’s power.
Those who were alive remained alive, while those who were dead remained dead.
Poooo-!
A wild boar regained its senses and sprinted off somewhere.
“Ugh… What, what just happened…?”
“Hmm, everyone okay?”
The party exploring the Magic Region also regained their senses. It was a group made up of one Master and a few Experts.
For a moment, they appeared cautious as they looked at Enok and the party, but the man who seemed to be the Master opened his eyes wide as if realizing something and bowed his head.
“Thank you. We owe you a debt.”
“Captain? What are you talking about?”
“Shh. I’ll explain later.”
As the man quietly asked his party members to be silent in gratitude, he bowed once more.
“Thank you so much. We should head back to the city now.”
“The city?”
Rionne’s gaze turned to the air. Soon, it seemed she realized something, narrowing her brow.
“Really… Demigods are all ridiculous.”
“What happened?”
Roksanna asked.
“Everyone in the city has turned into ghouls. It seems even the lord has become a ghoul… we might need to hurry.”
“Then let’s hurry.”
Roksanna looked around at her companions. Everyone else nodded in agreement, listening from the side, while Enok was closely observing the dug-up grave over there.
“Son-in-law?”
“Ah, yes.”
At Roksanna’s call, Enok rose from his spot.
‘Is this what it means to twist the laws of existence?’
The grave he was looking at was one where corpses were buried.
It seemed that due to the power of the God of Life and Death, some corpse had turned into a ghoul and dug itself out, and there were about one of these graves every two steps.
‘Now that I think about it, I struck with all my might, yet I emerged without a scratch.’
Rionne wasn’t so much like that. Of course, there was some difference, but it was a difference that Enok could gauge now.
‘Well, the God of Life and Death must have taken a long time to become a demigod.’
Understanding this, Enok stepped forward.
*
The city was truly in chaos.
Ghouls, having lost their minds, wrecked things, smashed buildings, and even devoured each other.
Rionne clicked her tongue and drew in her energy.
The tree soared to the heavens, shining brightly.
Soon after, people began to regain their senses. Some were retching with mouths full of human flesh, while others screamed, clutching broken arms after smashing buildings.
In the end, the light pouring from the tree healed the wounds of the people, but it couldn’t bring back those who had already died.
The wails of those who had lost their precious ones echoed. Enok quietly stood still, listening to that sound.
[It’s unfortunate.]
Enok nodded at Eri’s words.
“Yeah. It’s hard to directly blame the God of Life and Death for this.”
[Isn’t that wrong? Ultimately, it was because of that person that this happened.]
“Just because someone steps on an ant while walking doesn’t mean they’re to blame. The ants would blame that person, but—”
[Are you saying these people are ants?]
“Well, from a demigod’s perspective, it wouldn’t be a problem to see it that way, would it?”
Of course, every demigod is different, but simply looking at the differences, the gap between humans and demigods is far larger than that between humans and ants.
Whether that demigod was originally human or elf, the moment they surpassed Master to reach Grandmaster, it became impossible to group them in the same species.
They might as well be closer to monkeys than humans.
[Hmm… Still, they can communicate with humans.]
“Ants can communicate too, you know?”
[Ah.]
After a moment of contemplation, Eri shook her head.
[Anyway, that’s what I think.]
“Yeah. That’s all that matters.”
Enok patted Rionne on the shoulder, who was gazing sadly at the humans.
“Let’s go back, Rionne.”
“…Okay.”
*
Returning to the Elf Union, the party headed straight to the Estor House.
The Elf Union was, as the name suggests, a union. It was a gathering of large and small villages and houses, among which the Estor House was particularly massive, comparable in size to a kingdom.
The party appeared in front of the main gate of the mansion in the blink of an eye.
“It’s huge.”
Tsukiyo twisted her neck fully to look at the gate. It seemed like it wasn’t much different from the imperial palace.
Though she had never seen it before.
“It wasn’t this big at first. It just grew over time as I lived.”
At Roksanna’s words, Tsukiyo tilted her head.
“Can you grow to this size just by increasing it little by little?”
“It took about three thousand years to reach this size.”
“Ah, I see.”
Tsukiyo nodded in understanding and knocked on the main gate.
Bang bang bang—!
“Is anyone there?”
No answer came back. Tsukiyo clicked her tongue.
“Why isn’t there a single gatekeeper?”
“They’ve all been influenced by him.”
Roksanna said with a wry smile, placing her palm on the door.
Thuum—!
With a great tremor, the enormous gate swung open as if pushed aside. The gust of wind was strong enough to sweep her hair completely back.
“Um….”
Gazing at the revealed scene, Tsukiyo began to step back slowly, hiding behind Enok.
“Wh-What’s with those guys…?”
Countless elves stared this way, their expressions blank, only tilting their heads.
Rionne sighed sadly.
“Everyone… I’ll return you to normal today.”