Rules Written in Blood (4)
"That ended faster than expected."
Yuel blinked as she entered the Domain.
The first thing she saw was Jeclin on his knees, and Najin standing over him without a scratch, sword leveled at him.
"Who is this guy?"
"I don't know. Looks like one of Hermann's apostles. He started firing arrows without warning, so I subdued him first."
Jeclin's lips twitched. He looked like he wanted to snap back, "Who was the one who invaded first?" but he didn't have the nerve to actually say it.
"Na."
Najin asked curtly.
Jeclin looked deeply displeased, but the mont Excalibur flashed, he opened his mouth at once.
"...Jeclin. Warden Jeclin."
At that na, Yuel let out a short "Ah."
"A Constellation active around 600 years ago. He's in the sect records. He served as a ranger in the Kembel Kingdom, a marksman with a record of shooting down several demons."
"You know ?"
"Yes, I do. My patron rembers every star that has ever killed a demon, even once."
After saying that much, Yuel tilted her head.
"I don't know why you beca an apostle of the Star of Omniscience... Najin?"
"Yes."
"You don't have a single wound. And it took very little ti to subdue him. Impressive. Could you tell how the fight went?"
Najin did. It wasn't a battle that needed much explanation anyway. Once he finished, Yuel looked at him with an even stranger expression than before.
"So."
She tilted her head.
"You an that against a marksman with a maximum range of over forty kiloters, and likely an Authority that guarantees a hit, you closed the distance and subdued him... simply by running?"
"I tried catching or breaking them too, but after a while, it seed I could just run, so I did."
"...In this kind of terrain?"
"There was plenty to step on and jump from."
Yuel's expression grew even more peculiar.
From her perspective, this Constellation nad Jeclin was clearly among the strong. A marksman firing guaranteed-hit arrows from dozens of kiloters away? That description alone made for a terrifyingly troubleso opponent.
And right now, they were in terrain favorable to a marksman, with the high ground secured in advance.
Without support or bombardnt from at least a Magic Tower Master-level mage, even Yuel would've struggled. She would've had to drag out a long, tedious fight, or force her way in while accepting the risk of major injury.
"Hmm."
Then again, from Jeclin's side, this must have felt unfair too. What was the weakness of Constellations capable of extre long-range sniping? Their power dropped with distance, so they couldn't land overwhelming single blows.
So they either killed by piercing a vital point with the first shot.
Or, if that failed, they stacked damage steadily and delivered a final blow once movent slowed.
Neither worked on Najin.
Even among Transcendents, Najin had reflexes and dynamic vision on another level. He would never take an arrow to a vital point, and even if one sohow struck a limb, Excalibur's regeneration would heal it quickly.
To beat Najin through physical ans, they'd need either repeated hits strong enough to sever limbs in one blow, or one hit that ended everything outright.
And against a 9-star Constellation?
Yuel doubted whether such a being even existed in the Outland. With a look of sympathy for Jeclin, she took off her coat and spread it across the floor.
Then she started rummaging.
Yuel began taking things out of her coat. Watching her, Najin asked,
"What are you doing?"
Yuel blinked at the question.
"Excuse ? We captured an apostle of the Star of Omniscience, didn't we?"
"Right?"
"If you kept him alive instead of killing him, then there is only one reason, isn't there? You intend to extract information."
Lined up on top of the coat were tools likely ant for torture. Holding a few of them, Yuel strode toward Jeclin.
"Even if he's a Constellation, his body structure is still human. Which ans torture thods used on humans still work. And one of an Inquisitor's main duties is extracting information from demon contractors and black mages."
She lifted a stake.
"Leave it to ."
"This is my specialty."
"You think I'd open my mouth to that kind of torture? I am a proud Constellation. Don't assu thods that work on black mages will work on ."
Jeclin sneered.
"You will never make talk. Kill instead. My loyalty to Lord Hermann is like iron that can neither rust nor be broken..."
Exactly ten seconds after saying that,
instead of laughter, Jeclin let out a very human scream. "Kyaaaaaaah!"
2.
Najin watched the row of torture tools on Yuel's coat with curious eyes.
He had no hobby of torturing people, and he didn't enjoy watching the process... but Najin also had experience with torture.
Hadn't he learned many thods from Ivan and Offen back in the underground city? Recalling what he'd learned then, Najin asked Yuel questions from a purely investigative angle.
"What is that used for?"
"Ah, this is used to hold it in place, like this."
Yuel demonstrated. Jeclin scread in a shrill voice.
"Oh. Then what about this one?"
"This one is used like this... would you like to try?"
"Ah, sure. Like this?"
"At that point, angle it like this..."
Yuel wrapped her hand around Najin's and adjusted the angle in fine detail. Jeclin's screams beca just as finely tuned.
"Like this?"
"Exactly. As expected, you learn quickly. Excellent. Would you like to try this too?"
"Nice. How does this one work?"
Like a child proudly showing off toys, Yuel introduced one torture instrunt after another, and demonstrated a few right in front of him.
-Ugh.
Watching that, rlin shook her head. Torture continued a little longer, and at last Jeclin spoke.
"I'll talk! I'll tell you everything! All of it!"
"Already? Why not hold out a bit longer? I still haven't finished introducing the tools..."
"Didn't I say I'll talk!"
Yuel smacked her lips in disappointnt. Jeclin glared at her like he couldn't believe this crazy bitch, but it had no effect on Yuel.
Yuel calmly moved to the next step.
Question one, are you truly Hermann's apostle?
"Yes. He gifted a fragnt of truth, and I swore to beco his warden."
Question two, what are you doing here?
"I guard the road leading to his Domain. And for your information, from where I was positioned, if you go right behind it, there's a large pit. Lord Hermann's Domain is there."
Jeclin started spilling even things they didn't ask. Holes were opening all through that iron-like loyalty he had boasted about.
Question three, since when has Hermann been inside there?
"It was around 150 years ago. Lord Hermann ca to in a battered state and asked for a favor. He said he had to prove sothing from then on, and it would take a long ti, so I was to block anyone from entering this place."
"Do you know what that was?"
"I wasn't told."
"Then what condition is Hermann in inside there? As his apostle, shouldn't you be able to check?"
Jeclin was connected to Hermann. And that connection was usually not one-way. If Jeclin wanted, he should have been able to trace Hermann's condition.
"I can't do that."
Jeclin frowned.
"He strongly warned never to look this way, and never try to probe him."
"Is that so?"
Yuel lifted the stake.
Jeclin flinched in terror and clicked his tongue.
"Tch. I'll do it. Wait."
Jeclin closed his eyes and connected his mind sowhere. Ti passed. Then Jeclin's body began to tremble.
Flash.
Jeclin's eyes snapped open. They were bloodshot, his pupils hugely dilated. Blood started flowing from his eyes.
"Ah, aa? Ah. Aa."
Jeclin's body shook like a broken doll. Liquid began running from his nose, mouth, and ears. It wasn't blood. Sothing that should never co out was leaking through those holes.
"Ihik, hik, hihik!"
Jeclin burst into laughter while shaking his head, then toppled sideways. Najin grabbed him by the hair and lifted him.
His eyes were rolled back, drool running down.
He didn't look dead, but he didn't look alive either. Watching that, rlin frowned. Materializing beside Najin, rlin tapped Jeclin's forehead with her finger.
"Well now."
rlin clicked her tongue.
"Kid, his brain lted."
"...What?"
"His brain lted."
Pointing at the liquid Jeclin had leaked from his nose, ears, and mouth, rlin frowned. Najin understood what she ant and clicked his tongue too.
"What the hell did he see to end up like this just from seeing it?"
That was what they had to figure out next.
Najin stood and lightly swung his sword. He cut away the sheer cliff Jeclin had been guarding, and a path leading below ca into view.
A long, unbroken road.
The road swallowed by darkness had no visible end. Standing before the road, likely the one that led all the way to Hermann's Domain, Najin spoke.
"So the Domain of the Star of Omniscience is at the end of this road. Understood."
Yuel stood beside him. She narrowed her eyes at the road where nothing could be seen but darkness. The bracelet on her wrist jingled softly.
"Najin."
"Yes, Yuel."
A brief exchange of glances. Right after, Najin and Yuel walked into the darkness. In that deep dark, Najin drew Excalibur. The path began to show, as if even this darkness could not swallow Excalibur's starlight.
They walked that single road with no visible end.
One step, two steps, three steps...
Then at so point,
sound vanished. They couldn't hear their footsteps. The light from Excalibur flickered. Space was distorted. It seed to be a barrier wrapped around a Constellation's Domain, a barrier that rejected outside intrusion.
Sshk.
Najin prepared to swing his sword and break it, but Yuel stopped him, as if to say there was no need.
The mont she touched the barrier,
the barrier swallowed her. And Najin, who was holding her hand, was swallowed with her at once.
3.
The Star of Omniscience, Hermann.
Though his updates had stopped 150 years ago, he was a 10-star Constellation, once called Omniscience. And Omniscience had long been treated as a symbol of godhood.
Omniscience.
To know all. To know everything, with nothing unknown.
Then what did the Domain of soone called by that na look like?
The Carnival King's Mindscape was a vast grave lined with masks made for her. Don Quixote's Mindscape was a play staging his adventures in the Outland. Najin's own Mindscape held the scenery of the Underground City, his starting point.
Then what about the Domain of the Star of Omniscience?
What shape could the Domain of a Constellation with such an arrogant na possibly take? Najin could now answer that question he'd once held.
"..."
When he ca to, Najin was falling.
From high in the sky, downward.
The sky he saw as he fell was made of tens of thousands, hundreds of millions, trillions of gears.
A sky that should have held beauty and mystery had beco a precise machine, repeating fixed motion.
Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack...
Endless gears clacked and moved the world. There was no unknown there. Mystery was absent too. The sun rising and setting was the result of exact calculation, and stars shining, day coming, night coming, all of it was only motion made by gears.
A sky made of infinitely precise machinery.
That was Hermann's Mindscape and Domain, the form of the world he had created.
But that precision was allowed only in the sky.
When he turned his head and looked at the ground,
it was full of discarded things. Byproducts left over from building the machinery, judged useless for constructing the world, piled layer upon layer across the earth.
Countless cities were there.
They were Hermann's testing grounds, factories for making new gears to decorate that sky. Najin was falling toward those countless cities.
And the owner of this world noticed the guest who had entered it. The gears covering the sky started spinning violently.
Clackclackclackclack!
Then that motion stopped with a sudden jolt.
Space twisted.
Najin was sucked into that distorted space and his fall stopped. He closed and opened his eyes, and the gears were no longer visible.
What entered his view was a dull alleyway and the scenery of a city that felt oddly familiar.
Sealed City... no.
It had a similar form to Sealed City, but the buildings in the Sealed City Najin rembered had never been this tidy or clean. They had been full of the weight of ti.
A city that looked newly built.
In an alley of that city, Najin opened his eyes and first checked his companions.
'rlin?'
-Yeah, I'm here.
rlin was confird.
The only one left was Yuel, but there was no real need to check. Hadn't they entered while holding hands? When he raised his hand, Yuel was right there, gripping it tightly.
"..."
Her expression was a little strange, though. Yuel frowned, narrowed her eyes, then twisted her face into a grimace. It wasn't an expression she normally made.
"What is this fucked up...?"
On top of that, those were not words she would normally use either.
After trailing off, Yuel looked at Najin.
The mont their eyes t, Yuel blinked. Then she checked her own hand holding Najin's. Then she checked her fingers, not just holding his hand, but fully interlaced with his.
After confirming that much, Yuel nodded.
As if she perfectly understood the situation, she gave a broad smile.
"It's a dream, fuck."
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