Chapter 164 - Rain, Mud, and Fire (1)

1

The young Earth Spiritfolk did not know what “rain” was.

The older ones did. Those old enough to be grandmothers knew. Sometimes, the elderly Earth Spiritfolk would gather around a campfire and murmur among themselves.

“Rain is water that falls from a black sky.”

An elderly Earth Spiritfolk rubbed charcoal onto a fingernail and drew a picture.

●. It meant night. It also meant darkness. Since the Earth Spiritfolk had become slaves to the Mountain Snailfolk and come to live here, in the Great Cavern, it had become the character most familiar to them.

“When ‘rain’ falls, the whole world fills with moisture. You can smell it anywhere, without going to a stream or a well.”

“All the dry ground softens in an instant. It softens into mud. When ‘rain’ falls, simply walking on the ground lets a pleasant sensation envelop your toes.”

The elders spoke as they drew ‘●~’ on the ground.

Rain falling from a dark night sky.

“Goreuk.”

It sounded like a dream.

Water covering the sky, mud filling the land.

Water and mud were hard to come by in the Great Cavern. They were only permitted to fetch water twice a day. The ground in the Great Cavern consisted of gravel and sand, making it difficult to produce mud no matter how much water they mixed in.

“Doesn't water sometimes drip from the cave ceiling?”

An elderly Earth Spiritfolk whispered.

“That is rain.”

“But not enough water falls to fill the cave.”

“Because the holes in the ceiling are narrow. Ker. The world outside is different.”

“There's a world outside, too?”

“This place is a pit. A little pit. A well. Beyond the cave, the world is so vast that this place amounts to no more than a handful.”

“Kerrr. That sounds like a lie.”

To the young Earth Spiritfolk, the Great Cavern was the world. Its ceiling was high, and the earth beneath it was deep. No matter how far they dug, there seemed to be no end. And this Great Cavern was nothing more than a well?

That, too, was impossible to believe.

“One day, the White Lion will return. Gor.”

“Once, this entire world was covered in trees. We lived in the World Forest. But the wrath of a god descended, and the World Forest burst into flames. The fire did not cease. For ten days, it grew, and for a hundred days, it burned as fiercely as ever. That was when the White Lion guided us.”

“The White Lion will return and save us from this well.”

“Kekereukker.”

Time passed, and the elderly Earth Spiritfolk died.

Everyone who remembered Guru fell.

Now, even the oldest among them did not know rain. Occasionally, an Earth Spiritfolk got to bury their nose in an abundance of mud, but that was a luxury granted in exchange for risking their life in the colosseum. It was never because ‘rain’ had fallen to cover the sky.

“Kereukke.”

Rain.

“Kerreuk.”

Mud.

Watching the two jars of water fetched from the stream, the Earth Spiritfolk wished for rain. Rubbing water into sand to make damp earth and smearing it on their skin, they nurtured their longing for mud.

Somewhere other than here.

A life other than this one.

“Guru.”

Our homeland.

2

Slimepolis.

Cries erupted throughout the city where the Mountain Snailfolk had built their civilization in the dark.

[The Bloodsucking Race rises against the Mountain Snailfolk!]

[The Gillfin Folk rise against the Mountain Snailfolk!]

[The Demonfolk rise against the Mountain Snailfolk!]

[The fairy race rises against the Mountain Snailfolk!]

[The Conforming Humans rise against the Mountain Snailfolk!]

Each individual cry was weak, unable to overcome the Mountain Snailfolk's blaring trumpets. But that was only a matter of time. Five streams of cries, flaring up in five places, began to surround the city.

“Kweeoo.”

The Black Dragon leader's divine beast, a black bird, fluttered its wings open. I had no talent for understanding birdsong, but somehow, I understood what she was trying to say.

'I've come to help, Death King.'

I nodded.

'With your help, this fight will be easy.'

I had fought alongside the Black Dragon leader many times before.

She would not remember it herself, but over hundreds of attempts to defeat the [Demon King of Autumn Rain], I had become familiar with her fighting style.

No hunter could withstand our combined attacks.

“Grrr!”

I roared and charged the hunting dog.

WHOOSH!

The Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven unfolded, setting our surroundings ablaze. As flames closed in from every direction, the hunting dog used a Divine Art to evade them.

'Now!'

But the Inquisitor was not the only hunter who could teleport through space.

FLASH!

The Black Dragon leader immediately followed him to the spot where he had fled. Driven back by my attacks, the Inquisitor had no time to watch his rear, and she did not miss the opening.

CRUNCH!

The black bird's sharp talons raked the hunting dog's golden fur.

“Karr—!”

The hunting dog screamed, bleeding. It twisted its neck and bit into the black bird's wing. The bird and dog tumbled together, tangled in the mud.

This time, I spotted an opening.

'Switch offense and defense.'

I sprang forward in a single bound and pounced on the hunting dog's waist. I sank my powerful teeth deep into its golden pelt. Blood poured from my jaws as a scream burst from the dog's.

A one-sided mauling.

The goblins cheered at the sight of the hunting dog being wounded.

“Kekereukker!”

“The White Lion is defeating the Golden Dog!”

“To Guru! Let us return to our homeland!”

The more wounds the hunting dog suffered, the more triumphant the goblins became. The Mountain Snailfolk, on the other hand, were bewildered. They had responded swiftly even to the massive slave rebellion, but the sight of their divine beast being hurt left them at a loss.

[Slimepolis's mining district is liberated.]

The goblins gradually drove the Mountain Snailfolk out.

“When are the reinforcements coming? Raim!”

“Th-the slaves are causing trouble elsewhere, too...”

“The horned bastards are running wild! Raimu! We need support!”

“The Fish are rampaging at the docks!”

“Support is out of the question. It's urgent here, too!”

“Request reinforcements from another polis...”

“How are we supposed to request reinforcements with the waterways blocked? Those bat bastards are going crazy, too!”

The snails resisted desperately.

But the slaves who had put the Mountain Snailfolk's civilization on a firm foundation now seized them by their feelers. Earth Spiritfolk on the land routes. Gillfin Folk in the waterways. The Bloodsucking Race in the air. Demonfolk, the fairy race, and Conforming Humans in the streets.

Everywhere the snails had worked their slaves, flames rose.

[Slimepolis's entertainment district is liberated.]

[Slimepolis's temple district is liberated.]

The enslaved races could not understand one another. Each of the six spoke a different language. That was probably why the slaves had remained divided until now, kneeling beneath the Mountain Snailfolk's tentacles.

“Grr!”

“Kweeoo!”

But gods and mortals were equally unable to communicate through words. The divine beasts led the races as revelations far more powerful than speech. While the Black Dragon leader and I pressed the Inquisitor, our other companions swept freely through Slimepolis.

The Mountain Snailfolk were losing control of the city.

[Slimepolis's city gate district is liberated.]

[Slimepolis's barracks district is liberated.]

The tide of battle had turned.

The rebels who had set out from the mining district had already advanced as far as the docks.

Merfolk splashed in the river connecting the inside of the cave to the outside. They were Gillfin Folk fishing slaves. The merfolk severed the ropes tied around their necks and sank the ships.

“Y-you wretches! You're nothing but lowly Fish!”

A Mountain Snailfolk overseer raised a tentacle high and brought it down.

SMACK!

The merfolk struck by the lash screamed and fell beneath the surface. But the overseer was hopelessly outnumbered. Dozens of merfolk gripped the bottom of a galley and swam, rocking it back and forth.

“Aaaaargh!”

Snails slipped on the deck.

SPLASH!

A snail slid into the river. The merfolk swimming nearby swarmed toward it.

“Stay away! Stay away! You Fish, agh! Aaaagh!”

Twenty merfolk each bit a mouthful out of the snail. It was like a pack of sharks hunting a penguin. The snail thrashed its tentacles in a desperate struggle, but it could not drive the merfolk away underwater. A short while later, only an empty snail shell remained on the surface.

[Slimepolis's dock district is liberated.]

CRACK!

The galleys moored to the enormous docks sank. The sacks of salt aboard them went down as well. The rock salt the goblins had chipped into fine pieces all night dissolved without a trace as it fell into the river.

The hunting dog watched the scene out of the corner of its eye.

“...”

Dozens of galleys broke apart. A pink dolphin leaped from among the wreckage. It was the divine beast possessed by the Paladin.

SPLASH!

The dolphin traced a beautiful arc and dove beneath the surface.

The Gillfin Folk cheered, slapping the water with their tails.

[Slimepolis falls to the rebels.]

The hunting dog opened its mouth.

“Karrr.”

Perhaps the Inquisitor had laughed, “Ahaha.”

The underground world he had built over two hundred years was sinking.

“Karreuk, kar.”

The hunting dog backed away. Thick blood dripped with every step. Its beautiful golden fur had already been torn by the lion's teeth and the black bird's talons, leaving it drenched in blood.

The Mountain Snailfolk were no different.

“Raim...”

“Raim...”

Terrified, the snails hid behind the hunting dog. Their shells were dented by the goblins' stone hammers. Many had severed feelers or mutilated tentacles.

Driven out from all across the city, the Mountain Snailfolk fled to gather around the hunting dog.

“Kgrr.”

Naturally, the enslaved races driving them back came swarming after them.

Blood-drenched Demonfolk shouted fiercely.

“Kill those bastards!”

“Give them back exactly what they did to us!”

The Demonfolk resembled dokkaebi, with a single horn set in each forehead. Those horns, which should have stood tall like a unicorn's, had been snapped off halfway.

Proof of their enslavement.

The snails had broken the Demonfolk's horns as though branding them. Along with their horns, they had broken their slaves' pride and self-respect. There was a price to pay. Where pride had been broken, resentment bloomed like mold; in the corners where self-respect had been ruined, resentment grew like poisonous mushrooms.

“Fucking bastards...”

Would the other races be any different?

“They made us eat dirt and snickered at us.”

“We'll throw you into a pit and pour salt over you!”

The Conforming Humans growled.

“They caught our children, put them in wells, and kept them there, calling them ‘fish tanks.’”

“Let's throw them into the colosseum and make them fight each other!”

The Gillfin Folk shouted from the water's edge. Their curses rippled across the dark surface.

“They pulled our ears off because they were long.”

“Chop up their feelers and shove them into those bastards' mouths.”

The fairy race spoke.

“Blood...”

“...”

Hanging from the cave and its buildings, the Bloodsucking Race quietly looked down at the Mountain Snailfolk. They said little. They simply flew in from somewhere with animal remains and dropped them, one after another. They were the heads of dogs the Mountain Snailfolk held sacred.

Each of the six races spoke a different language, so they could not share their anger. But they all had some knowledge of the Mountain Snailfolk's language. Slaves were inevitably forced to learn their masters' speech.

“Kill them.”

Someone whispered in the Mountain Snailfolk's language.

“Kill.”

Every race knew that word. It was something the Mountain Snailfolk always said to their slaves. The groan that first escaped from the Demonfolk instantly became a universal language, flowing through the cave.

“Kill!”

The Mountain Snailfolk trembled in terror.

“Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!”

At last, for the first time since their enslavement, the six races shared what was in their hearts. Its name was anger.

Everyone was drenched in blood.

And they wanted more.

“...”

I looked over the Mountain Snailfolk cornered at the docks.

'It would be easy to order their massacre.'

Conversely, stopping the massacre would be simple, too.

Right now, I was as good as a god to the goblins. A god's command was absolute. Whether I ordered slaughter or mercy, the goblins would obey.

'But this isn't something I should decide by giving an order.'

I turned around.

'Choose for yourselves.'

And I slowly walked toward the exit of the Great Cavern.

“Ker?”

“Kekereukker...?”

Behind me, I heard the goblins' bewildered voices.

I did not stop walking. I moved slowly enough for them to follow, but quickly enough for them to see me off. The Demonfolk blocking the way hesitated, then stepped aside.

“...”

“...”

I could feel silence settle among the goblins. Like believers faced with an inscrutable oracle, they looked at one another. As I moved farther and farther from the sound of their breathing, someone took a step.

“Goreuk.”

That step was toward me, not toward the docks where the Mountain Snailfolk had gathered.

The dozens of goblins who had received Oracle Messages directly from me were the first to follow.

Then the young goblins came after them. The children preferred following the god they had seen for the first time in their lives to avenging their race's grievances.

“Kerrr...”

“Kekereukker.”

When a child followed, its mother came after it.

When a pit chief followed, the other goblins began moving one by one.

The sound of stone hammers falling rang out here and there. Casting the tokens of their lives as mine slaves onto the ground, the goblins followed the lion they revered as a god.

'Yes.'

In the dark underground world, a procession of thousands stretched behind me.

'Those of you who wish to follow, come.'

We walked toward the underground city's only passage to the outside.

No one could block our way.

The moment I set a forepaw in the brightly lit entrance, I heard the Tower's voice.

[The Earth Spiritfolk begin escaping from Slimepolis.]

Now, let us return home.