Chapter 1393: Paradise Lost (4)
Trees dyed in purple swayed like ghosts from all directions, gesturing wildly.
Beneath them, buried corpses gasped and rose, letting out grotesque roars.
“Kieeeeeegh!!”
“Growooaaah!!”
Touching a Spell-Word Stone at the entrance of Paradise Lost triggered an anomaly, as if the entire space had awakened from slumber.
Everything in Paradise Lost seemed to bare its fangs towards them, centered around the Spell-Word Stone.
Facing the drooling, wide-mouthed corpses that charged at them, the members of Pandemonium moved immediately.
Crash!!
Thud-thud-thud!!
An ice wave exploded, binding the corpses, and Sarin and Maiya plunged their blades into their necks as if slitting throats.
The corpses were brutally torn apart by the flashing sword light before they could even reach the spellcasters positioned at the rear.
“Damn it, you really startled me!!”
Crunch!!
Ermont grumbled, thrusting a black magic spear into the chest of a charging corpse.
“Why did the corpses suddenly wake up? Did Hylaea do something wrong?”
“Rather, it’s the influence of the Spell-Word Stone’s commandments activating and altering this spacetime.”
Lennok, standing near the Spell-Word Stone, gestured towards Ermont’s back.
“Are you sure you can afford to be distracted?”
“Huh?”
Crunch
A corpse lunged from behind Ermont and bit the black wizard’s head with its bare mouth.
Its eyes rolled back as it climbed onto his shoulder, greedily sinking its teeth in.
A moment later, a throbbing pain in his head made Ermont jump in place.
“Ooooh?!!! H-Help the black wizard!! My brain’s being eaten!!!!”
“Stand still, you idiot!!!”
Whack!!
Freya kicked Ermont in the stomach and plunged the dagger in her hand into the corpse’s forehead.
Her movements were ruthless, driving the dagger in, then punching the corpse’s jaw to pull it away from Ermont’s head.
However, even with the dagger impaled in its head, the corpse thrashed violently, constantly targeting others.
Freya’s expression turned sour at its incomprehensibly persistent durability.
“What is this? It won’t stop at all. Can we even take it down?”
“It takes almost no damage from our attacks. This is completely unexpected.”
At the same time, the expressions of the members, who noticed the anomaly from all sides, turned grim.
The individual combat power of the corpses was negligible, but their resilience and durability were incomprehensibly immense.
Even as Maiya and Sarin simultaneously sliced through the charging corpses from all directions, they seemed almost unaffected.
Even when their entire bodies were sliced, frozen, or burned, they thrashed and convulsed ceaselessly as if they had taken no damage at all.
In an instant, the wave of corpses overwhelmed the area around the Spell-Word Stone, pushing the other members back little by little.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!!!
“Not only simple physical attacks, but spellcraft barely works. What’s the reason?”
“Even corpses controlled by necromancy aren’t like this. There must be some secret…!!”
“If it’s an anomaly that completely disregards existing physical laws, there’s only one reason.”
Crunch!
The Spell Master, who had conjoined and stuck the corpses’ heads together, glanced over.
“Check the Spell-Word Stone immediately. What are you doing?”
“Don’t tell me…!!”
The corpses were impervious to the attacks of the superhumans gathered here.
It was an anomaly, as if the physical laws of this space itself were greatly distorted.
The other members, instantly realizing the reason, sharply turned their gazes.
“The power of the Spell-Word Stone is changing the physical laws of this space!!”
“Damn it, is it because of the commandments!!”
Pushing back the surging tide of corpses, they hastily reread the commandments inscribed on the Spell-Word Stone.
[The miracle of compiling and [REDACTED] information must only be done in the form of language.]
[Therefore, I hereby command that the [REDACTED] of the Heogongrok shall be inscribed here and serve as the commandments of the new world.]
[Commandment One: Forming hand seals is forbidden.]
[Commandment One: Deploying [REDACTED] is forbidden.]
[Commandment One: Consume the knowledge of others as a meal.]
[Eat and record ceaselessly, then regurgitate it.]
[Only new knowledge shall be your daily bread.]
“What, so what commandment did we break?!”
Ermont, blood spurting from his head, urgently shouted as he read the commandments.
“Did someone here form hand seals to use spellcraft? We didn’t do anything, so why—”
“It’s not a penalty. This space itself is simply bound by the Spell-Word Stone’s commandments…!!!”
Hylaea urgently read the last commandment of the Spell-Word Stone.
“‘Consume the knowledge of others as a meal.’ These corpses are only moving according to the commandments. We need to solve this part!!”
Paradise Lost was a spacetime, like a world dominated by an Ascendant’s Spell-Word magic.
The commandments inscribed on the Spell-Word Stone were literally the absolute laws set by Jinwa herself.
Just as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and water flows from top to bottom, here the commandments were akin to new physical laws.
Since the corpses here were closer to inorganic matter subservient to the Spell-Word Stone’s commandments, they couldn’t be damaged by ordinary spellcraft or physical attacks.
“No, what ‘solve, solve’…!! Are they asking for food because they’re hungry?! Oh?”
Ermont grumbled reflexively, then suddenly realized the answer and his eyes widened.
Commandment One: Consume the knowledge of others as a meal.
Eat and record ceaselessly, then regurgitate it.
Only new knowledge shall be your daily bread.
“New knowledge!!”
The corpses running rampant in this space were beings moving to crave the knowledge of others.
Even their targeting of others’ heads was because the concept of knowledge in the human body was closest to the head.
Therefore, if they were given the new knowledge they desired as nourishment, they would stop, even if only to ‘regurgitate’ something.
Realizing the situation in an instant, they quickly began to find a solution.
“So, if it’s new knowledge these corpses don’t know, that’ll do?! Can I just tell them anything?”
“I don’t know!! We need to first verify the scope of ‘new knowledge’ to understand—”
“Ah, then I’ll just throw something out first!! Don’t complain!”
Ermont cleared his throat and firmly grabbed the arms of a corpse charging right in front of him.
“Ahem, this isn’t something to say in this setting, but…!!!”
The black wizard, with one arm wrapped around the corpse’s neck in a headlock, whispered into its ear as it thrashed.
“Actually, I… have a habit of squatting on the toilet when I relieve myself.”
“…”
The wildly thrashing corpse suddenly stopped convulsing, and the watching members gaped.
Davi in his arms retched, and even Lennok turned his gaze away with an incredulous expression for a fleeting moment.
Crunch.
After a brief silence, the corpse embraced by Ermont plunged its teeth into his skull.
“Kye-e-e-e-eng-ek!!! It hurts, it hurts!!! Help m—?!!”
Kicking the corpse away, Ermont hastily put distance between them, clutching his head and rolling on the ground.
Ermont, who had rolled to Hylaea’s feet, cried out with an utterly aggrieved expression.
“No, it didn’t work at all!! Liar!!!”
“So, you seriously presented that as ‘new knowledge’ to Paradise Lost?”
But the gazes directed at Ermont were incredibly cold.
“It said to feed them knowledge as a meal, not to dump garbage information.”
“The Ascendant will surely be pleased. To learn a new way for the black wizard to relieve himself.”“
“My ears have been contaminated with filthy information…”
“Get out of the way. I’m just going to kill this moron right here.”
“Eek?!”
Ermont, forgetting his head injury amidst the murderous words, hastily rolled on the ground.
Maiya, swiftly running through the garden, kicking away the surging corpses, spoke quickly.
“Ermont did something pathetic, but he got the direction right. Private information or phenomena won’t work. They aren’t even treated as knowledge in the first place.”
“Since the one who set the Spell-Word Stone’s commandments is an Ascendant, what Jinwa considers ‘new knowledge’ must be important…!”
“Jinwa is a Transcendent who rose to Grand General of the Empire, and a Spell-Word Weaver who founded the common language. There’s almost no knowledge she wouldn’t know!!”
The master of Paradise Lost was a rare case among Ascendants who achieved immense accomplishments in both martial and scholarly pursuits.
It was because such a genius had fallen and gone mad that Paradise Lost had become such a dangerous and grotesque hell.
“Think!”
“Knowledge that a mad Ascendant from long ago would value, yet would feel new to her…!!”
Decades had passed since the Central City’s destruction, and a considerable amount of time had passed since Jinwa had fallen into her current broken, degenerate state.
Unless she had consistently devoured knowledge even while mad and eating humans, there must be something from the current era that she wouldn’t know.
What could it be? Among theories or knowledge discovered relatively recently, new information that an Ascendant might value—
“E-Evan Vylun’s thesis?!”
“Exactly!”
Screech!!
Hylaea, stopping at one side of the manor, quickly began to write something on the back of a document from her bag.
Swiftly jotting down complex equations and symbols on the paper, she thrust it before a corpse’s eyes.
“It’s the basic principle design equation for reproducing anti-gravity engine anomalies…!! How about th—”
“Kieeeeeegh!!!”
Snap!!
The corpse’s hand, tearing the paper in one rip, unhesitatingly grabbed Hylaea by the collar.
Sarin’s shortsword flashed, severing its wrist, and she began to run, carrying Hylaea on her back.
“The idea was good, but it didn’t work…!”
“Why? Among the knowledge Jinwa doesn’t know, it should be one of the most valuable concepts!”
“The premise was wrong. It’s not that it had no value, but that Jinwa didn’t actually not know that knowledge to begin with.”
Tear-tear-tear!!
The Spell Master, who had conjoined the corpses’ feet to the ground to entangle them, said as he ran.
“Countless modern humans must have been consumed by Paradise Lost over the years. Wouldn’t there have been anyone among them who knew about Vylun’s theory?”
“That’s…!!”
The four theses published by Evan Vylun were so famous that there was hardly anyone across the continent who didn’t know their name.
If Paradise Lost had constantly moved and consumed humans as nourishment, there must have been some among them who knew about Vylun’s theses.
“Knowledge already absorbed by Paradise Lost won’t work. Just telling them or showing them knowledge doesn’t seem to be very effective either.”
“No, more importantly, Hylaea. You had Professor Vylun’s thesis memorized well enough to transcribe it on the spot? That’s a bit creepy.”
“What’s creepy about it…!!”
Freya, questioning in bewilderment, and Hylaea, flustered, rapidly crisscrossed through the garden.
Thump-thump-thump!!!
The movements of the rampaging corpses from all directions grew more intense, and the group was continuously pushed back as they discussed solutions.
They were being encircled in real-time by nearly thousands of corpses, centered around the Spell-Word Stone towering on the hill.
“The conditions are too strict…!! Damn it, I knew from the start it wasn’t a trial meant to be cleared!”
Personal information wasn’t even treated as knowledge, and information famous enough to be valuable was already absorbed by Paradise Lost.
As for ancient knowledge or old techniques, the master of Paradise Lost would know them far better than anyone here.
Only then did the members, who understood the intent of the commandments inscribed on this Spell-Word Stone, quickly exchange opinions.
“I think I understand why hand seals and domain deployment were forbidden. It doesn’t want information that didn’t previously exist, like a Domain, to be treated as new knowledge.”
“No, why did she set the rules so thoroughly?”
“Conversely, it means that a powerful uniqueness on the level of a Root Mindscape would undoubtedly be treated as new knowledge.”“
“What is that? Are you saying we should find a way to deploy a Domain using a shortcut right now—?!”
“Half right, but you probably won’t need to go that far.”
Whoosh!!!
At that moment, Sarin gasped as she saw Lennok land in front of her.
It was the first time the wizard, who had been covering the sky of Paradise Lost with darkness, had moved.
She couldn’t have imagined that he would target her of all people first.
“There’s a much easier way.”
“…!!!”
She desperately twisted her body to dodge, but Lennok’s hand was faster.
A chilling movement, as if Sarin’s body was being sucked into Lennok’s grip.
It felt terrifyingly similar to the inexplicable powerlessness she had felt when they fought in the hotel room.
The mad wizard’s rampage, showing its true colors as soon as they entered Paradise Lost.
Sarin, recalling the earlier subjugation battle and sensing death, instinctively closed her eyes for a moment.
Tear!
Lennok tore off a part of the sleeve of the shroud she was wearing, then immediately turned away.
“…Huh?”
“Open your mouth.”
Thwack!!!
A Demonic Giant appeared behind Lennok, slammed down on the head of a charging corpse, then snatched it up and lifted it high.
As the corpse screamed, Lennok threw the piece of Sarin’s shroud into its mouth, then struck its lower jaw to force its mouth shut.
Boom!!!
As the Demonic Giant kicked the corpse in the stomach, the corpse, having swallowed the shroud piece, tumbled down the hill.
It was as if he had forced the corpse to swallow the shroud piece, which had been crammed into its mouth, by making its body roll.
At the same time, the rampaging corpses stopped moving, as if lying, everywhere the eye could see.
“…”
“W-What?!”
Whoosh…
The trees and vegetation that had been thrashing and revealing their roots everywhere fell silent, lost in thought.
The corpses slowly knelt, bowed their heads in place, and deeply hunched their bodies.
The landscape of Paradise Lost, which had been chaotic moments before, became eerily silent in an instant.
A flustered Freya stammered, but some of the other members had figured out what Lennok had done.
“The shroud crafted by the True Ancestors of the Blood King’s Castle…”
“It was said to be one of only five such items made using blood as a medium throughout history.”
“Indeed. ‘New knowledge’ isn’t limited to theories or records, but…”
The information about the shroud that Sarin had explained while drying her clothes when they first fell into the lake at the entrance of Paradise Lost.
She had said it was a shroud personally crafted by the Blood King’s Castle, a relic-grade garment of which only five existed in history.
Lennok remembered her passing remark from back then and had thrown a piece of that shroud as nourishment to Paradise Lost.
A shroud woven with blood that only the True Ancestors of the Blood King’s Castle could make. Its rarity, with only five existing throughout history.
The wizard understood that the very existence of the shroud could be treated as ‘new knowledge’ in this Paradise Lost.
A faint admiration flickered across the faces of the other members as they realized this.
“He remembered what Sarin said in that short time and found a solution. How ingenious.”
“Certainly… the structure and crafting method of a rare relic would also be a part of new knowledge. I hadn’t thought of that far.”
“No, Tower Lord. If your mind works this well, why are you usually so—”
“I was lucky this time, but it probably won’t work like this next time.”
Lennok cut Freya off, slowly dusting off his hands.
“As you already know, the Spell-Word Stone’s commandments are often difficult to interpret. This space itself isn’t a test with clear passing conditions, after all.”
“That’s…”
“We could solve the current situation like this, but as we go deeper, the commandments will become more complex and stringent.”
The expressions of the others, understanding what Lennok was implying, turned serious.
“Indeed… the Spell-Word Stones embedded in Paradise Lost weren’t just this one.”
“Different commandments must be inscribed on the Spell-Word Stones embedded in other locations.”
“How about splitting up to check the commandments beforehand? We could avoid areas with tricky commandments.”
“It’s not a problem that can be solved by simply avoiding it. Do you still not understand what an Ideological Domain is?”
“The Spell-Word Stone’s commandments are rules set directly by Jinwa. We are discussing what kind of being Jinwa is. We need to find a more fundamental alternative.”
“If we’re bound by more complex commandments than this, we’ll become the Ascendant’s slaves, unable to do anything. In the worst case, we might kill each other in our right minds.”
Immediately, opinions flew back and forth at a rapid pace.
The members, understanding the danger and complexity of the commandments, fell into deep contemplation.
They had already experienced firsthand how difficult the rules and commandments of Paradise Lost were.
Everyone realized that even a slight mistake could derail the operation in an instant.
“I don’t understand what everyone’s been talking about all this time.”
However, Lennok, watching the members, tilted his head with a bewildered expression.
“I didn’t bring this up because I think we need to bypass the Spell-Word Stone’s commandments. Rather, it’s almost the opposite.”
“Opposite? What does that mean?”
“If Jinwa’s Spell-Word will continue to hinder us, if the commandments are likely to become increasingly stringent—”
“Kieeeeeegh!!!”
“Grrr…!!”
At that moment, the hunched corpses everywhere began to awaken one by one.
The monsters of Paradise Lost, having finished digesting the new knowledge, rose and ceaselessly expressed their hunger.
Lennok readily turned towards the drooling corpses glaring at them.
“Shouldn’t we first confirm if we can break through those commandments head-on?”
“…What?”
Flash!!!
Beyond the sky, darkened by black magic, a fierce blue lightning bolt streaked.
Thunder exploded, lightning flashed, and brilliant lightning struck down before Lennok’s eyes.
A dizzying spectacle, as if the storms and thunderstorms erupting everywhere were converging onto a single person’s fingertips.
Those standing behind Lennok instinctively lowered their heads, as the lightning filled their vision.
“Tch…!!”
“Impossible. Don’t tell me!!”
Crackle, crackle…!!!
Ignoring the gasps of the astonished members, he pulled the lightning, which stretched to the horizon.
Following his casual, light gesture across the air, overflowing lightning poured down.
An immense tsunami of lightning directly struck and tore through the rampaging corpses on the ground.
[Thunderous Deluge]
Kwooaaah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!!!!!
“Kieeeeee—”
“Haaaah-aaah-aaah!!!”
“Haaah-aaah!! Haaah-aaah!!”
Limitless lightning poured down onto the corpses’ heads, thrusting an unbearable force into their insides.
Thrashing their limbs, they scattered and vanished one by one without leaving a trace, unable to endure.
Their insane screams and roars were swallowed and buried by the lightning, disappearing without a trace in an instant.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!!!!
In an instant, the tranquil garden scene, centered around the Spell-Word Stone, was revealed before their eyes.
The trees that had been thrashing everywhere were crushed, and the corpses melted away, burned.
In the center, the wizard stood alone, enveloped in lightning, slowly taking a step forward.
“…”
“As expected, if you feed them new information until they burst, they can’t withstand it.”
As the others watched in a daze, Lennok rubbed his wrist and nodded.
“While the Spell-Word Stone’s commandments within Paradise Lost may be limitless, the beings subservient to those commandments have limits. We’ll just do this from now on.”
“…”
“Even being able to do this much expands our ways to explore Paradise Lost. I’ll explain the trick as we move to the next Spell-Word Stone…”
Lennok turned to the unresponsive group, asking with a bewildered expression.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“…No. Are you truly asking because you don’t know?”
All the corpses abandoned in Paradise Lost were beings whose knowledge had been taken and brains eaten according to the Spell-Word Stone’s commandments.
Because they were consumed by the Spell-Word Stone’s commandments, they would neither die nor vanish except by methods derived from those commandments.
However, Lennok had forcibly resolved the situation using an absurd method: force-feeding the corpses new information until they couldn’t withstand it.
This was only possible because Lennok’s lightning magic itself was such vast, uninterpretable information—
The people, speechless, stared at Lennok and muttered.
“Th-That’s not something a human would even think of, is it?”
“Is this guy really insane?”