Chapter 43 – The Moon and the Old Moon Hidden by the Magic Tower
”Heo Eok… Huh… !”
The hour hand of the clock tower next to the spire in the distance was slowly tilting to the right. As it was approaching midnight, the downtown area, where many students had stopped walking, was already filled with only a few ambitious cafes quietly lighting up their lights.
An alley that stretches like a spider’s web along the city’s busiest main street. In a place where not even the light of the gas lamp could reach, two shadows were panting and making their way through boxes and trash.
With bulging wings sticking out from their robes, they are Vanir gods who hastily rushed out of the academy. The vain flapping of its wings tried to cut through the wind, but it was impossible to fly in the sky with its organs that had already degenerated.
“Not here. Run away! “It’s a dead end!”
“Crazy, where should I go now? “Didn’t you run away from the Academy too carelessly?!”
“This…” “It goes this way.”
As I made a hasty turn, the sound of shoes slowly echoed from the other side where pitch black encroached upon me.
Tak… Crack…
As if conveying a warning, the heavy and ponderous steps definitely belonged to a man.
It’s him.
It’s him.
The Vanir gods were sweating like a waterfall and suddenly decided that the robes they wore over their heads were unnecessary, so they threw them roughly on the floor and started running towards the other side where they had once given up.
It was thought that it was a much more rational decision to go through a dead end than to walk into hell.
But maybe it was because I was in a hurry. I bumped into a co-worker who was running with me and lost my steps.
In the dark alley, the only source of light was the bright moonlight hanging above the chimney. It was probably a mistake to end up in this alley in the first place.
Even as they rolled around awkwardly on the floor, their nerves were tense and they kept an eye on the shadow blocking their path.
Ttogak.
She is the woman this time.
Ttogak.
The devil’s steps.
A terrible sound of shoe stomping, not only indifferent but like sharp frost.
Ttogak.
Elegant silver hair that won’t be strange even if it turns blood-red at any time. Even under the moonlight, the vivid red eyes scattered a captivating glow, creating a sculpture.
“Oh my, where are you going in such a hurry?”
It was a smile as sweet as a cookie, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at it from the front.
My colleague, who not only had a broken rib but also had one of his arms cut off, began to fall to the ground, gasping for breath as if he had suffered a fatal wound.
“Ugh… Ah… “
“Oh my… You look like you’re in a lot of pain. “Is it okay for the Vanir gods to behave so ugly just because of pain?”
“Cibaal… Her broken bone punctured her lung. Please… Please save me… !”
“hehehe, matching bones is quite a difficult magic. “If you attach it incorrectly, the bone will have to be broken again by professional healers.”
She, the silver-haired girl, spoke elegantly.
“But what should we do with this? Rather than sticking… “
Keyiing… ! Wood clatter!
“Cutting is my specialty… “
“Kwaaa! Argh! Pfft… ah… evil… !”
The thin thread extending from the girl’s hand began to gnaw away at his bones and flesh. Even as her dark red flesh was splattered in all directions, the girl just stared with disdain at the blood splattering on her clothes, and she did not even glance at the Vanir gods.
“Ahh! Crazy! f*ck! Just kill it! Kill it! Just kill me! You devil! A b*tch like blood relatives! “You slut!”
“Oh my… Since I am also a blood relative, I will just listen to people talking about blood relatives and devils… “
Easy and concise. The moment the girl’s expression cooled, I belatedly realized that something had gone wrong.
“… “I don’t want to see bugs crawling around my pure body that I gave to my master.”
Chaaa!
How many people would be in their right mind to see their comrades, who were alive and breathing just moments ago, split into small pieces of meat and return to dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of pieces of meat?
The Shinjok who was left alone faced the pouring blood in a daze, but soon realized the reality and collapsed.
Not knowing that my pants were getting wet, I just mechanically opened my mouth to survive.
“Oh, don’t come…” !”
“Run away. Even if you don’t have time to cast teleportation, wouldn’t you be able to fly in the sky with those great wings?”
“… Please… please… Just save me. I will never come near Freya again… Please… “
“Well, the wings of the Vanir gods were broken a long time ago when they betrayed the moon goddess.”
As Undine approached, Ignis, who was watching the scene from the roof, jumped down and said.
“Undine. Avoid unnecessary words. “Unless you plan to miss her right under her nose like last time.”
“hehehe, brother, there is no way I could repeat that mistake. “I have no intention of disappointing my master twice.”
“If you have the spirit to say something like that, look ahead. “The new moon has come.”
Ignis spoke briefly. As soon as the words are finished, a familiar noise spreads at the entrance of the alley. Undine’s cold, distorted expression melted into love as if it had never happened before.
“Oh my… master… !”
“Don’t kill the one thing left, but leave it behind. “I plan to send it to the gods as a warning.”
“Ah, yes! Of course!”
As Undine took a quick step back, the Vanir god who was lying down and trembling slowly raised his head.
“It’s too dark.” Eugene muttered briefly, and a small light bloomed from his hand.
The Shinjok was instantly overcome with anger at the sight of Eugene revealed under the light. I ended up letting go of the strings of reason.
“B… Give me Brisingamen… “
“Hmm? “Didn’t you just say that you wouldn’t even come near Freya?”
“That’s… That b*tch… It is the treasure of the Vanir gods… ! Eugene Sir Neferna! Isn’t he the hero who wielded the Second Holy Sword? As a warrior who once held the holy sword, I am not ashamed of taking what belongs to others… “Wow!”
“I guess you still don’t understand. Freya is not something you own. Freya must have left the village of her own volition.”
Eujin lowered his gaze and faced the gods.
“Do you know why the blood relatives want the magical power of the Vanir gods? “That’s why I spent a lot of money to buy this Brisingamen.”
“Tsk… !”
“How dare that happen to someone…” !”
Instead of answering, Eugene lightly gestured as Undine, enraged by the spittle, tried to strike with the ice spear.
“Undine, back.”
“Master!”
“Back.”
When Eugene spoke firmly without even looking back, Undine bit her lip and swallowed her anger. Ignis, who was with him, winked at his younger brother.
“The power of fascination of the Vanir gods is difficult to simply define.”
The thin necklace in Eugene’s hand slowly began to glow brilliantly.
“It is difficult to compare it to processed mental magic.
More primal and fundamental magical power. It’s closer to a kind of innate and instinctive hypnosis or brainwashing.
Since it is the power of the Vanir gods who once served by the side of the goddess, it must have been reflected to some extent that it transcends knowledge.
What… By the time you reached the generation that was abandoned by the goddess, your power has weakened to the point that you can barely save it by accumulating it in this Brisingamen for several days, but even so, if you can get a steady supply of it, it is so efficient that it is difficult to replace it with magic, and it is a source of tremendous power.”
In his hands, a margin was spread around Brisingamen. Temporarily dismantles the magic attached to the Brisingamen and begins processing the power accumulated within it.
“Group hypnosis and hallucinations… And brainwashing… Blood relatives… It was necessary to deceive mortals all over the world with this power of fascination. In fact, blood relatives do not form groups. Just as humans naturally form groups. Nevertheless, the significance of the existence of the Magic Tower where blood relatives voluntarily gather. That much is clear, though.”
He looked up at the sky.
“It doesn’t matter who betrayed first. Whether you are gods, humans, or others. In the end, the goddess went crazy and destroyed the moon herself, bringing a disaster called a snowy field to the world.”
In the end, it is all of our responsibility to create an era in which heroes, monsters, and holy swords are needed, he said.
“The collapsed moon is a symbol of the end. That kind of symbol cannot be shown to ordinary people. In the Clan’s Magic Tower, six wizards joined forces to hide the moon that the goddess had collapsed. Eventually, a huge magic technique was developed.”
“Manwol supplies the enormous amount of magical power needed to maintain the magic.”
“Crescent Moon is the total control of complex margins and magic power, and the interpretation and improvement of calculations and structural techniques.”
“The first phase of the moon is for the maintenance of margins and foresight of danger through the flow of the past, future, and stars.”
“Hahyeondal is an overwhelming force, a blade to overcome all adversity and difficulties that come to the Magic Tower.”
“The old moon raises a false moon and pretends to be a fool who deceives everyone in the world.”
“Freya is the Old Moon of the Magic Tower… It’s doing its job very well… In other words… Her power of fascination… “
Eujin wrapped around Brisingamen.
“By casting a kind of genus on the mortals remaining in this world.”
The light that started from the necklace shot out into the sky. The smoothly curved rays of light raced through the night sky like a shooting star.
Soon the light reaches the moon.
Ripples suddenly appeared on the surface of the moon, which was like a calm lake.
The moon slowly swims through the night sky, scattering piece by piece.
Like layers of paint flowing down, the remnants of the moon flowed down, and beyond that, a new, or perhaps even original, appearance of the moon could be glimpsed.
And then the moon appeared.
“Cover our eyes.”
That image was engraved on my retina.
The adjective ‘collapse’ is a very finite expression. There was something there, torn to shreds, that might once have been the moon. Crushed moon rock and its fragments.
It looks as if time has stopped. It is a breathtaking sight, as if everything will spill out at any moment with the slightest touch. It is also inevitable that you may have the illusion that someone is forcibly holding you down. It was not easy to understand the unrealistic sight of the scene being physically frozen, as if it were a frame capturing the moment of being shattered.
When I closed my heavy eyelids and opened them, the fallen moon had disappeared.
As if it had never been like this, the silvery, beautiful moon had a clear light.
“… All it does is help you turn your head away from the despair in front of you.”
“Ah… Ah… “
From Noble mtl dot com
Primal fear takes over.
The moon falls.
It collapsed.
This is a fact I already knew.
This is a fact that was kept in complete secrecy from the elders of the divine tribe.
But it was all useless.
The moment I saw this intuitive truth, everything I had imagined until now was trampled upon.
“I don’t particularly follow blood relatives. It’s not even about siding with the empire…. However, know this one thing. “Go and tell this clearly to the gods.”
He looks down. As our eyes meet, I feel his body slowly stiffening.
Snow.
Those eyes are the problem.
Those eyes are unbelievable…
It’s so eerie that it’s hard to believe it belongs to someone who was once a warrior, but it’s completely devoid of emotion.
“Don’t touch Freya or my people.”
The eyes were filled with deep-rooted hatred.
“Next time, I plan on ripping off all your wings, so let’s behave ourselves.”
***
I fell asleep last night.
When I suddenly came to my senses and opened my eyes, three faces I didn’t want to see appeared on the table that I had never seen before.
It is space-time magic. It seemed like he was caught in Manwol’s trap while he was asleep.
Is it a magic tower? Among them, the phases of the moon. It must be the first full moon.
But what was actually seen in front was not the first full moon, but the full moon.
Manwol, she looked at me with a bright smile.
Her hair, which seemed to have been dipped in her blood, seemed to be emitting a particularly bloody smell.
Finally she opened her mouth.
“Wow, new moon! No, Eugene? Should I call you Neferna? Anyway, you’re finally here? “I waited until her head fell.”
“……… ….”
“Hey~ It’s been a while since I last saw you, but isn’t it too chilly? It’s me, it’s me. Full moon.”
“……… ….”
“hahahahaha!”
Two shadows appeared next to Manwol, who was laughing.
It is the first full moon.
He is the one who brought me here. Or should I say ‘the people in charge’?
Two children who looked like decalcomania dolls started talking to each other with their unnatural mouths clicking, clicking, clicking.
“There are more people around Shinwol these days.”
“One of them said it was Old Moon.”
“Old moon? Freya? I know!”
“And they say there are siblings from the Disizu family.”
“The DC family! Ignis and Undine! “I know those siblings!”
“Finally, do you know what?”
“What?”
“They say there is a fox tribe!”
“Fox people! I miss you! Because I don’t often go out in the snow! But the fox tribe?”
“Under the sasaeng!”
“Illegitimacy? Who?”
“Fox people!”
“Fox people are bastards~ hahahahaha! Fun!”
“But who?”
“Fox people!”
“The Fox Clan is an illegitimate child! But who?”
“Who are you talking about?”
“Who are you asking me to call an illegitimate child?”
“Is that what you meant?”
“That’s what you said!”
“It’s the emperor!”
“Wow, emperor! Bastard! But who is whose illegitimate child?”
“Well? I don’t know either! Manwol, teach me! “Who is whose illegitimate child?”
“Puhuhuh…” Sigh… ! “It means that the fox girl is the illegitimate daughter of the emperor of the empire.”
Laughing, Manwol answered the twins’ questions.
The twins are skilled enough to summon people into their dreams without warning.
I had no intention of greeting the uninvited guest who showed up last night.
I didn’t bother suppressing my discomfort.
“…… Shut up.”
“hahahahaha! “Eugene is angry!”
“hahahahaha! “Shinwol is angry!”
“For what?”
“You shouldn’t touch that fox tribe.”
“Are you going to get angry?”
“Are you going to get scolded?”
“What should I do?”
“I’m going to kill you.”
“Who?”
“Us!”
“Then I’ll have to kill you first!”
“Us?”
“No, Eugene!”
“Let’s do it! “I come first!”
“Ahahahaha! “I come first!”
“Can we fight and win?”
“By ourselves?”
“There’s not even a crescent moon!”
“There is no full moon!”
“There is no old moon….”
“Old moon? Freya told Manwol not to call….”
“It’s always special treatment. Even the new moon always takes care of the old moon….”
“Aha, maybe that?”
“It’s a replacement! The woman!”
“I think Eugene wants to play the hero again like he used to.”
“I guess I’m not even tired!”
Then, the two dolls stopped talking, probably because they were tired from being broken by their own hands.
Manwol burst into laughter as if she couldn’t hold it in any longer.
“hahahaha!”
“Manwol laughed!”, “Why are you smiling? Funny? Where? How? Why?”
“I’m sorry. Sanghyuns. “It’s because I don’t get tired of you guys.”
“Really?”
“Really?”
“…… However, Eugene went alone. It’s a shame. I can’t help it. Because it’s not just today. Today is just… Old Moon, she just wanted to express her gratitude for protecting Freya.”
“hahahaha! Thank you!”
“Hee hee! Lie!”
“It’s not a lie, right? I do it when I’m thankful, too. … Even if it means I’m a former warrior who wants to kill the goddess, has his records erased by the empire, and is attacked indiscriminately by his blood relatives, and is at the peak of injustice.”
“Oooh trash.”
“Oooh, you bastard.”
“A poor wanderer who doesn’t belong anywhere. Shinmoon of the Magic Tower, part-time instructor at the Imperial Academy, and… This time, ‘Moonlight Chaser’? I wonder if he’s having fun! hahahahaha! This is why I don’t want to die early!”