Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint - Chapter 597



A Tale of the Past. The Old Testament – 4

A passing traveler brought peace to the snowy mountains. The long winter ended, and spring would come even to the distant border’s snowy mountains.

Many women who had been captured by the giants shed tears of gratitude. The humans of the snowy mountains, freed from the giants, lit great fires for the first time, dancing and singing.

They promised a future, clearing away the layers of sin that had accumulated on this land, but ‘Nuna’ did not care much. Rather, the king’s warriors were more joyous than ‘Nuna’.

Amidst everyone’s cheers, ‘Nuna’ left the snowy mountains, leaving behind the great achievement of annihilating the evil giants.

The next destination was the jungle. The jungle, a repository of countless lives, held immense potential, but it was not solely for humans. In the land of the World Tree, all kinds of beasts lived in fierce competition.

Competition meant eating and being eaten. The jungle, full of fruits, tree roots, insects, and small animals, was also teeming with humans who frequently encountered each other. Even among the same species, or rather, because they were the same species, they were even more dangerous competitors. In the jungle, it was all too common for humans to kill and eat each other.

After countless people were eaten and eaten, the winner was determined, Ankrah, who ate a thousand members of the Anka tribe.

Ankrah eliminated competitors by eating humans. After eating for a while, he got the hang of it and learned how to make the life force he consumed his own. Thanks to Ankrah’s cooking methods, the Anka tribe thrived day by day.

However, despite the increase in numbers, the Anka tribe tried to maintain the number of humans they consumed out of inertia. Eating a thousand people meant more were born, but even that number was insufficient to meet the Anka tribe’s demand.

A powerful, beautiful, wise, and merciful human king visited the jungle. Humans fleeing from the Ankras ran to the one from beyond the plains and pleaded. They begged to kill the Ankras, to defeat those evil cannibals. ‘Nuna’ went to meet the Ankras.

Hearing rumors about the human king, the Ankras decided to strike first. They dared to deceive, lure, and surround the human king to devour him.

But such gluttony was far from enough. The Ankras were disgracefully defeated by ‘Nuna’. Although ‘Nuna’ showed mercy and spared them, ‘Nuna’ disappeared from the jungle for unknown reasons.

Legends about the one from beyond the plains spread widely in the jungle. Now, this land, watched over by the great ginkgo tree, would be blessed.

In the desert where the beast Baphomet dwelled, black water containing the primordial life force gushed forth.

The primordial giant beasts. Humans could not even imagine the ancient beasts that ruled this land in the distant past.

The essence of life, formed from the primordial giant beasts crushed and melted over time in the bosom of the earth goddess, was the ‘black water’.

Drinking the black water granted immense vitality, but the rampaging power consumed the body, causing transformation. The black water, both poison and medicine, curse and blessing, was a resource feared whether used by oneself or others.

Humans were the best at using such resources.

The mother of beasts, Baphomet. A human who luckily discovered and monopolized the hidden black pond in the cave. She cured her chronic illness with the black water and pondered how to prevent other beasts or humans from taking this resource. Weak and without anyone to rely on, she used her wisdom to create traps.

Beasts, lured by the scent of the black water, fell into her traps and were dismantled for materials. Flesh became food, tendons became strings, bones were finely ground.

As she processed each beast, Baphomet delved into dark and obscure magic. It was a primitive sorcery, later called black magic, that targeted life itself.

Using the black water as a medium, Baphomet learned black magic and grafted beasts to create monsters. The black pond became a spawning ground for monsters. The monsters hunted beasts, tore them apart, and threw them into the black spawning pond to create more monsters.

Sadly, the best material for humans to handle was humans. The monsters actively targeted humans, and humans had to hide and stay silent as if dead to survive.

Though the monsters were powerful and terrifying, they could not reach the human king.

The human king and his warriors, upon arriving in the desert, easily hunted the monsters. The monsters were not human, and ‘Nuna’ showed no mercy to the monsters who dared to attack first. Designed with a stronger fighting instinct than a survival instinct, the monsters shattered like eggs hitting a rock.

The humans of the desert, freed from the monsters, left praises for ‘Nuna’ on stones and sand. They treated the noble guest from the east with utmost respect, sang heroic tales, and inscribed stories in the constellations.

Having lost most of her monsters, Baphomet knelt before ‘Nuna’. Unlike the Jotuns or Ankras, she sincerely submitted and offered the black water to ‘Nuna’ as a sign of submission and tribute to the king.

Instead of drinking the mysterious black water, ‘Nuna’ learned how to refine and handle it. ‘Nuna’ left the desert, leaving Baphomet behind.

…Of course, the mother of the beast who lost her beast. She disappeared quickly.

It was a journey that lasted nearly ten years. During the arduous journey, some of the king’s warriors died or left, and new warriors joined, experiencing changes.

Mount Taesan, soaring high as if to support the sky, and Mount Bulraksan.

The ginkgo tree, blessed by the earth and sky, the World Tree.

The legacy left by the primordial giant and embraced by the Earth Mother, the black water.

Seeing and experiencing many things, the king’s warriors grew significantly. The lorekeepers, who handled knowledge, wrote hundreds of new scrolls, and the warriors gained the power to handle vitality through repeated battles. The technique later known as qigong spread among the warriors.

It was around that time that the Archdruid Nevitha gained some enlightenment.

When the ‘sister’ who achieved such feats returned, what greeted her and the warriors was a ‘nation’ in a form they had never seen before.

In ten years, the ‘nation’ had prospered immensely.

The king’s warriors who did not follow the ‘sister’ returned to their hometowns and established their bases. The strong and wise king’s warriors became lords and ruled over the people.

The lords who seized power first worked to revive the villages. They settled wanderers, cultivated land, established laws, and created order. The villages became cities, and to grow larger, they constantly expanded by swallowing surrounding villages… until they collided with other territories.

The opponents were also king’s warriors like themselves. Since warriors could not fight each other, the cities stopped expanding and turned their eyes in other directions. However, by then, there was no more land left to claim. Everywhere they looked, there were only cities claiming the land as their own.

The pressure to expand outward failed to achieve its goal and began to cause friction with other cities. The warriors who once swore loyalty to the same king now regarded each other as enemies.

Thus, the ‘nation’ became a vast empire ruled by hundreds of lords.

The king’s warriors, who expected a warm welcome, were bewildered by the unfamiliar reactions. It was different from the past when they were welcomed everywhere. When they tried to pass through large gates, humans armed with weapons swarmed out and pointed spears at them.

How dare they point spears at the king’s warriors? The bewildered warriors grabbed the lorekeeper and asked.

“What happened while we were away?”

“…It has become a sea monster that came ashore.”

As always, the lorekeeper gave an appropriate answer. Whether the listener understood or not.

Sea monsters can only live in the sea. If a sea monster comes ashore, it will become exhausted and die, unable to support its heavy body.

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The new ‘nation’ was a sea monster that had come ashore. At that time, it was an order too great for humans to handle, but thanks to their excessive knowledge and power, they could barely maintain their form.

“The reason they haven’t been crushed to death under their own weight is because of you, my lord. Your grace, like the sea, still remains, supporting them so they don’t have to kill each other.”

There was only one reason why war did not break out between the opposing cities.

The king of humans.

They called themselves monarchs, but in their hearts, loyalty to the king of humans remained. They restrained their actions, conscious of the existence of the ‘sister’ who was clearly superior and wiser than themselves.

Even amidst mutual hostility and territorial disputes, they believed that if the ‘sister’ returned, she would resolve all these conflicts. They believed she would judge rightly and awaited the king’s return.

In a situation that was utterly incomprehensible, the warlord El knelt before the ‘sister’.

“My lord, please hear my final plea.”

The warlord grabbed the hem of the ‘sister’s’ pants. Kissing her feet, clutching her ankles. Shedding the attitude of detachment from all things. The warlord pleaded with the king of humans.

“My lord, this is the last chance. You must restore order. Now, at the end of this first year when civilization has reached a singularity, the only enemy of humans is now humans themselves. Just as it was with the giants, the cannibals, and the beasts. Now humans will use their strength and wisdom to kill other humans.”

What the warlord feared was not the giants, the cannibals, or the beasts. The warlord feared the way they treated humans.

The ‘sister’ also, through her continuous journey, vaguely realized what she wanted.

“My lord, I, El, as your warrior, plead with you. Give me an order. In the name of the king, end all these disputes and restore order. If you give me an order, I can accomplish it.”

A warrior cannot dare to handle the king. The king of humans is perfect. An imperfect being cannot argue with a perfect being.

However, the king can give orders to the warrior.

The right to demand that the king command them to do something. The warlord exercised the precious right that the king’s warriors had obtained through great effort.

To eliminate the conflict that would soon arise. To establish order and rule the empire in the name of the king.

To El’s sorrowful plea, the ‘sister’ responded, fully understanding his heart.

“You do it yourself.”