WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 594: A Story from the Past. The Old Testament - 6

──────

A fanatic, a cult leader, a monster who deceived the people, made them pluck out their own eyes, and offer them as sacrifices. Beel, the Radiant Celestial Lord, who harmed humanity through the forbidden rites of heresy.

"Big Sis" and the warriors climbed the mountain in search of Beel, but Lonely Mountain Yulim truly lived up to its name.

The warrior sent to search returned after barely looking around.

"Your Majesty. Nothing is in sight."

There was nothing. No shade to hide from the light, no thicket to block the wind. That only made it all the more obvious that nobody was there.

Until now, not a single detail from the Keeper of Lore had been wrong. What was going on? The Warriors of the King looked to the Keeper of Lore in confusion. She answered calmly.

"The Church of Light's main sanctuary is somewhere in Yulim. We simply can't find it because it's hidden."

"Wise Keeper of Lore, there doesn't appear to be anywhere to hide on this rocky mountain. Unless our eyes are mistaken, this mountain is empty."

"They used wicked means to erect a barrier that conceals their base. We can't find it without a way to break through it."

"What is that method?"

"There's a barrier in one of those valleys. Divide into groups, search each valley, and shine mirrors on the ground."

How could they find something they couldn't see? The people looked doubtful, but this came from the Keeper of Lore herself. She had led humanity through autumn and discovered the three calamities. The wise Keeper of Lore had never been wrong.

Rather than waste time arguing, the warriors decided to act.

"Come now. Do you truly think the Keeper of Lore would speak falsely? If they're hiding behind a barrier, they must be cowards. They don't seem particularly dangerous, so let's split up and search at once."

"Great Druid, please weave the grass into a communication network."

"My liege. I'll be right back."

The Warriors of the King scattered in groups of two and three, each carrying a mirror. They worked together so well that they didn't even need instructions.

Once everyone had gone, "Big Sis" naturally remained with the Keeper of Lore. The Keeper of Lore was accompanied by five warriors who had guarded her since the snow mountains. They had devoted themselves to training and possessed exceptional skill, yet rumors said they were more loyal to the Keeper of Lore than to the King of Humanity.

Perhaps because of those rumors, or perhaps because they were true, a somewhat heavy atmosphere hung in the air. A faint tension passed between the Warriors of the King and the Keeper of Lore's five warriors.

The Keeper of Lore and "Big Sis," however, spoke warmly with each other.

"This mountain is swept by dry winds throughout the year. Not a single cloud rises here, and not even one blade of grass grows. It earned the name Lonely Mountain because one mountain stands here all by itself."

"Lonely? It feels refreshing because the view is so open."

"That's Lonely Mountain's pride. Still, my liege, it is difficult to notice incoming messages halfway up the mountain. Let's wait somewhere with a clear view."

"Big Sis" answered the Keeper of Lore's suggestion.

"Let's do that."

Lonely Mountain Yulim had only one peak. There were no trees, no grass, not even perennial snow, leaving it bleak and desolate. Attending "Big Sis," El, the Keeper of Lore, set out to soothe Yulim's loneliness.

The day was perfectly clear. The dry, cold northern light was pale but not dazzling. If sunlight in the jungle was a torrential downpour, Yulim's sunlight was a gentle drizzle that seeped in. Even sunlight that burned the skin seemed to spread pale and soft here.

The expedition was so peaceful and quiet that it felt more like a leisurely outing. There were no dramatic tales here, like those of the snow mountains, jungle, or desert. Still, perhaps this empty space could be filled with thought.

Lost in deep contemplation, the Keeper of Lore reached the peak alongside the King of Humanity. Only then did "Big Sis" quietly call to her.

"El."

"Yes, my liege."

"This is the place, isn't it? The place you wanted to bring me to."

El stopped walking.

A single peak stood alone beneath the blue sky. Nothing could be seen from below, so they had naturally assumed there was nothing here.

Yet if it wasn't on this lonely peak, where else could it be?

"Yes. This is Holy Mountain Yulim, the Church of Light's holy mountain. It is where everything began."

El drew a bronze mirror from within her sleeve. Carefully holding it before her, she turned it slightly toward the sun.

A gentle, embracing wind passed by.

An aurora of countless colors unfolded like a curtain.

Innumerable rays of light ran freely through the world. They glittered, shattered, scattered into fragments, and joined together again. They swallowed. They gave birth and split apart. They curled and twisted. Their colors described every word humanity had ever made.

The mirror was the key, and the sky was the lock. When she inserted the mirror into the sky and turned it, the curtain of the world was drawn aside.

What had been hidden within revealed itself.

It was an altar. Stone, sand, and bricks were mixed together so chaotically that its style could not even be identified. It looked as though someone had piled up anything they could find solely to make it taller, only for it to become so tangled that they had lost their chance to repair it.

Yet one thing could be felt with overwhelming intensity.

The desire to touch that lofty sky.

Had they wanted to build a tower? Had they wanted to build stairs? Or had they never had the leisure to think that far?

Whatever shape it took, they had only wanted to rise a little higher.

To touch the sky, even slightly.

Someone who had longed to reach the sky lay dried stiff atop the altar, dead with an arm stretched toward heaven.

"Ugh..."

Someone let out a groan.

There was not just one corpse. Centered around the altar in the middle of the peak, hundreds lay dead, dried up like mummies. Every one of them reached toward the altar like a compass.

Or petals spreading from the center of a flower.

"There were people who wished to touch the sky. They called themselves the Church of Light. They cared more for the light that descended from the sky than for their own bodies."

El walked along a path through the corpses as if she were familiar with it. "Big Sis" followed behind her.

Round objects rolled about as though welcoming long-awaited visitors. White and round, yet holding a variety of colors, they looked like toy marbles.

Looking closer, grotesque veins came into view. Red muscles gripped the pupils. Dried, cracked tissue twisted in disturbing shapes.

"They admired the unreachable sky and the light that shone from it. I don't know why. I don't know why they became that way. Did they find it wondrous? Were they curious? Or was something wrong with them?"

They were human eyeballs, probably removed with great care to keep them from being damaged.

Human eyes rolled around like trash. The moment they realized what they were, the Warriors of the King stared at the corpses in horror.

The bodies they had thought were ordinary corpses had glass spheres fitted in place of intact eyes.

"So they studied light. They delved into these two eyes and the world they could perceive through them. What did it mean to see? Who decided what color was? Was the scene I saw the same for everyone? Even if it was, how could we tell the difference?"

Making her way through the bodies with glass eyes, El climbed onto the altar and approached the corpse of a woman at its highest point. A tetrahedron containing an eye was drawn upon her pure white robe.

"There was someone who believed an unseen being existed, that it led us toward knowledge and wisdom, and that the purpose of life was to discover it. Someone who believed she had to offer even her life to do so."

The corpse's hand was stretched toward the sky. El picked something up from it.

It was a transparent prism, so clear that it was hard to tell whether it was there at all.

"Her name was El. In time, she would bear the title of Radiant Celestial Lord."

The instant El picked it up.

Let there be light.

"She is a Demon God."

"Big Sis's" memories were flooded with light.

The world changed all at once. The light transformed into innumerable letters, scattered, then gathered again, repeating the process.

This was the realm of knowledge. A place where bodies, strength, and everything else were meaningless. Masses of light surrounded us in hundreds of wavelengths, while half-digested knowledge drifted limply through the air.

In a space where only knowledge and truth existed, El faced me.

"I am a child born from their arrangement. Bearing their longing and wishes, I explored without a shred of doubt. I dug deeper. I gathered people. I accumulated knowledge. I betrayed. I deceived the people. I beguiled. I misled. I tested. I drove them to death. I even plucked out my own eyes. In pursuit of light, I went blind, then reached the light of truth. I am the Demon God."

El touched the corners of her eyes. Her transparent pupils, which reflected not the present, held a future that had not yet arrived.

She was a prophet in the truest sense.

The First Holy Maiden.

The origin of all Holy Maidens. If there had been light in the beginning, it was only after she was born that light truly came to be seen.

"Yet at the end of truth, I realized something. No matter how magnificent the vast order engraved among the stars of the distant night sky may be, no matter how delicate the structure contained in a grain of sand may be, if no one exists to see it... it has no meaning at all."

What had she seen at the end of the future? There was no way for me to know. Still, it was clear that some immense change had come over her.

"Having ascended to the Demon God's seat, I pierced through the light and bestowed enlightenment upon my younger self, who gazed up at the sky. The Church of Light gathered believers and performed rites that sought truth in the light. They cut glass to gather the light, then trapped people within a mass of light bright enough to burn out their eyes."

Glass eyeballs and transparent prisms. Clean glass bubbles hanging throughout the altar. And the grotesque altar itself, built to place lenses and prisms in specific positions as it rose.

This altar was a place built to trap light and peer into its secrets.

"As I endured the pain within that blazing light... I received the truth delivered by my future self. If I didn't act, I would someday face the coming end."

The First Holy Maiden, who had encountered forbidden knowledge within the light, turned her transparent gaze.

At its end was me.

Huh? Me, not Big Sis?

"Yes. My liege, who has come from afar, from the future in which I succeeded."

The First Holy Maiden looked directly at me and made her prophecy.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried