novelraw Chapter 46 : The Shrine Maiden of the Wasteland (2)
Chapter 46 : The Shrine Maiden of the Wasteland (2)
Chapter 46: Shrine Maiden of the Wasteland (2)
Dawn broke through the oppressive darkness and the drizzle scattered across the sky as Kadim prepared to depart.
His armor was as simple as always, consisting of nothing more than a leather pauldron. As for weapons, he'd packed everything from his Mosquito, Salmon, and his hellflame daggers.
His stash of demon blood was running low, with just a bit of Possession-type demon blood left, and barely a mouthful of the Hydra blood. He probably wouldn't need to use them, but the fact that his supply was nearly depleted nagged at him.
'Would be nice to run into a decent demon on the way.'
It was the kind of thought that would've made his employer pass out from shock if she'd heard it.
He stepped out in front of the inn to find Illenia already waiting for him. Her outfit wasn't much different from yesterday's, except she'd thrown on a gray cloak to keep the rain off.
"You're up early! Aren't you the diligent one?" she said brightly.
"Says the person who got up even earlier."
"Hehe, I can never sleep when I'm excited about something. Well then, shall we get going?"
Their destination was somewhere in the eastern plains of Messen. It would've been nice to take horses, but that wasn't an option. Illenia had shuddered at the mere suggestion, insisting she got terrible motion sickness and couldn't go anywhere near horses.
Kadim asked her how she'd pinpointed the location of the ruins. Illenia rummaged through her bag and triumphantly held up a strange stone tablet etched with peculiar markings. A jewel the size of a fingernail was embedded in its center, and from it stretched a faint beam of light that pointed east like an arrow.
"I picked this up by chance while wandering the Wasteland. Whenever I get close to ruins, it always points in that direction. Without this, I probably never would've had the guts to go searching for the Shrine Maidens' ruins at all."
Kadim's eyes twitched slightly. The moment he saw that thing, he knew exactly what it was.
'That's... a cursed artifact.'
Just as Elga's priests created holy relics and mages crafted magical tools, the Shrine Maidens could create 'cursed artifacts' imbued with mysterious sorcery. However, the creation process was incredibly demanding, and there were so few Shrine Maidens capable of making them that these artifacts were even rarer than holy relics or magical tools.
'She just "happened" to find a cursed artifact that people actively search for and still can't obtain...'
His suspicions deepened. Meanwhile, the oblivious Illenia cheerfully rambled on about how effective the stone tablet was.
Following the ray of dawn, they walked until a pale glow began to writhe along the distant horizon. But thick rain clouds blocked the dawn, keeping the sky dim and murky. The ground, thoroughly soaked with raindrops, scattered earthy scents over and over. Earthworms occasionally wriggled up through the muddy footprints they left behind.
The drizzle had thickened into a steady rain.
Illenia pulled her cloak tighter to keep the water from seeping through. Kadim brushed his wet bangs aside and asked in a dry tone, "So you went to the Wasteland to find the Shrine Maidens?"
"Hm? Oh, yes! The Wasteland is the homeland of all Atalan people, after all. If any Shrine Maidens were still around, I figured that would be the most likely place."
"What's it like there now? It wasn't exactly a pleasant place to travel even back in the day."
"The Wasteland? Of course it wasn't pleasant. There were times I almost died several times in a single day, you know? Thirst and hunger were just the baseline, then there was the heat, the poisonous insects, the monsters, and occasionally even demons... Well, I survived, so I guess that's what matters, right?"
"..."
"Oh, but have you actually been to the Wasteland, mercenary? Even among Atalans these days, hardly anyone's been there..."
"...I have. A long time ago."
The Hero's party had chosen a route that crossed the mountain range and cut through the Wasteland to reach the Demon Scape.
They'd suffered plenty there, though not as much as in the Demon Scape itself. After that experience, the Wasteland stopped being the spiritual homeland of the Atalan people in Kadim's mind and became more like "the place where the genius girl mage learned how to curse like a sailor."
Either way, he had no idea how a woman could've survived out there on her own. From the way she glossed over it, he doubted he'd get a straight answer even if he pressed her.
So Kadim asked a different question instead.
"Why'd you get interested in the Shrine Maidens of the Wasteland in the first place? You're not even Atalan."
"..."
Illenia pulled her cloak tighter around herself.
The air grew heavier. She turned her gaze toward the distant mountains and fell into a long silence. When she finally spoke, her voice had changed.
It was subdued, almost melancholy, completely unlike before.
"They say history is written by the victors, don't they? The paths the victors walked are decorated with gold leaf and wreaths, preserved and commemorated for all eternity. But the paths the losers walked... they're stained with filth and insults, and sometimes they're forgotten from people's minds entirely."
"..."
"But I... I couldn't understand it. Why does that rule apply even to gods and their followers? Some gods' priests thrive and wield influence across the entire continent, while others are persecuted and disappear without a trace, and no one cares. What's the standard that determines the difference?"
"..."
"...So I decided that I, at least, would seek out the traces of those who've been forgotten and record them as an archaeologist who's dedicated her life to research and contemplation. Ah, this is kind of embarrassing! I'm not really doing anything that grand, hehe..."
By the end, Illenia's voice had returned to its usual cheerful tone.
Kadim stared at her face for a moment.
At first glance, the answer flowed naturally enough. But thinking it over, there was something distinctly off about it.
"..."
Still, it was hard to pinpoint exactly what felt wrong.
In the end, Kadim shut his mouth and kept walking in silence. Illenia also said nothing more and quietly quickened her pace.
They reached their destination around noon.
***
Kadim's impression of the ruins left behind by the last Shrine Maidens of the Wasteland could be summed up as follows:
"...This is supposed to be ruins?"
"Yes, well, more precisely, it's what I believe to be the entrance to the ruins..." Illenia trailed off.
Honestly, calling it an entrance was a stretch. There was no grand stone gate, no passage leading underground, not even a single foundation stone. The scenery at their destination looked exactly the same as the utterly boring plains they'd passed through on the way.
But Illenia didn't give up. She wandered around with the stone tablet for a while, and when she found the spot where the light beam was strongest, she called out to Kadim in an excited voice.
"Here, look here! See, it's right here! The ruins left by the Shrine Maidens of the Wasteland! You can see it says something like 'entrance,' can't you?"
"..."
All that was there was a single stone slab half-buried in the ground with indecipherable ancient scripts etched on it.
Kadim let out a dry laugh.
Truth be told, even from his first playthrough, Kadim's feelings toward the Shrine Maidens of the Wasteland hadn't exactly been warm.
It wasn't that they'd been enemies. They were clear allies who'd offered advice and assistance to Kadim, the Great Warrior of Atala, without hesitation. The problem was that their advice and help came in the most irritatingly indirect and convoluted ways imaginable.
For example, if you said you were thirsty, they'd hand you a shovel, then tell you the location of a cave full of monsters where someone who knew the location of a buried map showing the best place to dig a well was being held captive.
They'd claim it was Atala's will that there could be no reward without trials and hardship. But from a game design perspective, it was just a convenient excuse to pad out filler quests. And realistically speaking, the reason was probably this:
'...They're just covering up their lack of Divine Power with pointless busywork and flashy mysticism.'
This seemed like more of the same nonsense.
That stone slab wasn't actually marking an entrance to anywhere. It probably had some pretentious philosophical drivel carved into it like "death is the entrance to new life" or something. Maybe if you solved the hidden riddle, there'd be some kind of reward, but it'd probably be pitifully small compared to the effort required.
Of course, there was a slim chance his prediction was wrong. Among the Shrine Maidens of the Wasteland, there had been exactly one exception.
A Shrine Maiden who possessed Divine Power far surpassing the others, and who could perform wondrous miracles without all the tedious processes.
"..."
Oblivious to Kadim's thoughts, Illenia busied herself trying to figure out how to enter the ruins. She pulled item after item from her bag. From talismans etched with ancient script and bizarre metal ornaments to a rusted bronze bell.
"Ar, del- kia? Ros-den ge- mra, s-deb..."
She muttered incomprehensible words while lining up the antiques, then crawled around on all fours like a dog to grop around the ground. To anyone watching, she looked completely unhinged.
Kadim watched her antics with indifference. When it became clear she wasn't going to stop anytime soon, he sat down. As he reached behind himself to brace his body, his hand happened to touch the stone slab.
Suddenly, the texture of the world changed.
"...!"
Scrrrrrrrrrreeeech...
Like peeling away a layer of tattered wallpaper, the scenery of the hazy sky and damp field stripped away. Behind it, an inky darkness slowly revealed itself. The steady drizzle could no longer be felt, and only murky air seeped into his lungs.
Just as his eyes began to adjust to the darkness, torches flared to life on the walls. He took in the scene piece by piece. It was a corridor-like space with floor and walls so smooth they seemed polished, and the bewildered face of the archaeologist.
"Wh-what? What did you do? What just happened? No, wait, where even are we...?"
"..."
In the blink of an eye, they'd been transported from the eastern plains of Messen to some unknown space.
Kadim reflexively stood and raised his throwing axe. He didn't understand the exact mechanics of what had just happened either. But his accumulated experience and instincts were screaming at him that they'd landed themselves in a pretty damn troublesome situation.
"Get over here. And pack all that junk away. Now."
"Huh? Oh, y-yes!"
Kadim checked the path behind them.
Not far back, he found a wall blocking the way with no exit. He knocked on it, but heard no hollow echo. The corridor seemed designed to force them forward and nothing else.
He turned to see Illenia staring at him, her eyes trembling with anxiety as if begging for an explanation.
Kadim furrowed his brow slightly and spoke. "I don't know what just happened either. Looks like some kind of sorcery was activated. But we can't just stay here, so I'm planning to head inside and look for an exit. I'll go ahead and scout. You can stay here if you want."
"N-no, I'll come with you! Staying put doesn't guarantee safety either..."
"Then stay alert. No telling what might jump out at us on the way. And whatever you do, don't touch anything carelessly."
"...Yes, understood."
Kadim moved forward slowly. Fortunately, he didn't detect any immediate threats. Illenia collected herself and matched his pace. Torches lined the walls at regular intervals, making the space resemble a corridor carved from natural stone.
But that was far too mundane an observation. After walking several hundred paces, they both came to realize this was anything but an ordinary place.
"..."
"..."
Densely packed crimson ancient script, distorted human silhouettes, twisted weapon outlines, shadows of roaring monsters and demons...
Like the frenzied scrawlings of an obsessive madman, grotesque symbols covered every inch of the walls and floor without leaving even a fingernail's worth of space.
Overwhelmed by the sight, Illenia quietly grabbed hold of Kadim's cloak.
"Could this really be... a ruin made by the last Shrine Maidens of the Wasteland? But I've never been able to get inside before. Why this time...?"
"..."
Kadim thought in silence. His prediction had been wrong.
That stone slab really was an 'entrance.' An entrance that used sorcery to summon people into this bizarre space. He hadn't expected those Shrine Maidens to actually label it so honestly.
He had plenty of questions, but they couldn't afford to stop. Kadim coldly shook off the hand gripping his cloak and resumed walking. Illenia gave an awkward smile before following after him again. The deeper they went, the more ominous the atmosphere became, and soon a faint sound began echoing from the depths of the darkness ahead.
...Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom...
"What's that sound? A drum?"
"..."
It didn't take long to identify the source of the sound.
At the end of the corridor, a circular chamber appeared. Its diameter was wide enough that you'd need to take forty long strides to cross it, and torches arranged along the ceiling like a crown cast a reddish glow over the room.
In one corner sat a drum painted blood-red, and a drumstick that floated in the air with no musician but striking the hide on its own.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom!
"Get back. This doesn't look good."
"Ah!"
Kadim grabbed Illenia's arm and pulled her back. Just from the props and terrain alone, it was obvious something was about to appear. He raised his sword and axe and focused his mind.
Sure enough, he wasn’t wrong. Something began to manifest.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
From the earth below, mud molded itself into indistinct forms.
Kadim had no intention of standing around like an idiot waiting for them to finish forming. He immediately hurled his axe at the mounds of dirt.
CRASH!
Dust and gritty particles scattered. The dirt mound shattered completely, losing all shape. But that wasn't the end of it. Other dirt mounds throughout the chamber were simultaneously growing, sprouting up everywhere.
Kadim swept his arm wide to the side and took a wide swipe with his throwing axe.
CRASH!
Salmon returned in an arc resembling a crescent moon. The dirt mounds caught in its trajectory exploded into clouds of dust and collapsed one after another and losing their forms.
Kadim threw Salmon again while simultaneously extending his sword arm and swinging Mosquito. The blade vibrated with displeasure as it tasted no blood, but still dutifully crushed the rising earth. Metal tore through dirt in a frenzy, and a thick storm of soil swirled around Kadim as its epicenter.
BOOOOM—!
But the chamber was wide, and there were too many dirt mounds rising.
The ones farthest from Kadim finally completed their transformation. The dirt mounds, now standing upright on two legs, shed their earthen texture and took on surfaces of leather, steel, and bronze-tinted flesh.
Kadim's eyes twitched. He recognized the completed forms.
They looked like members of his own tribe.
—Glory to Atala, Master of Ten Thousand Arms Who Knows No Defeat...
—Glory to Atala, Eternal Arbiter of War...
Warriors raised their weapons while praising their god in somber tones.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom!
The drumbeats pounded like a heartbeat. Then a resonance spread through his very being as a clear voice echoing in his mind through sheer will alone.
[Great Warrior of Atala... if it is really you, overcome this trial and prove your strength.]
'Damn Shrine Maidens. They've pulled this shit again.'
Kadim ground his teeth in annoyance.