Hermit Wizard

The Soul Flows High (3)

The telepathy was full of despair and fear. He was trembling in fear with his view blocked. Even while being treated like this, he never attempted to commit suicide in a normal state of mind. It is said that people could kill themselves by bursting their circulatory system with their own will even if their hands and feet were tied together due to their physical structure. Nevertheless, I made him regain consciousness because I knew he wouldn’t be able to try.

=…What else are you going to ask today?=

The Fake God, who managed to settle his mind, closed his emotions and asked me, but I noticed the extreme tension he couldn’t completely hide. If you were a contractor of the demons, you would be crushed by the weight of the fear of death that couldn’t be avoided. After the day that I suppressed the Fake God, I woke him up like this once a day, interrogated him, and knocked him out again.

=…There is nothing more to say. Until when will…=

“…”

The suggestion to tell me everything you know didn’t work. Concerned about some of the truths that hadn’t yet been revealed to me, I continued to interrogate him and kept adding new questions for nearly two months. As time went by, the Fake God became more terrified. At first, he groaned in front of me on the hillside and burst into anger, but gradually he realized his situation.

The Fake God must have been afraid every day when he fell asleep in the tank. He wondered if I would take his life while he was unconscious. Would he be able to open his eyes again? By the time his freedom of thinking came back, he would already be dead, and his soul would be in the hands of the demon. And now, after I had finished talking to Parvache, it seemed that almost all the information I could get from him had been taken.

=…!=

The Fake God’s eyes trembled; his anxiety rose when there was no answer. I carried two memory crystals in my hand. Initially, I planned to use only the memory crystal for the organization those people belonged to. Still, there was no reason not to use all the other memories that had been obtained. I believe that Yodmo had skillfully cut out the memories. Still, I thought there was a possibility that there could be some useful information in the big crystal.

So how did I use these crystals? I stretched out my palms and lifted the two beads into the air. Slowly, it flew towards the head of the Fake God. I wasn’t a Yodmo. I couldn’t eat the crystals to check this memory’s content or plant it in my mind. If I did that, it would be mixed with my earliest memories, and I would stop existing as my original self.

“You said that you just have to touch it near the brain, right?”

[Yes.]

My memories of a dozen years and the lives of 29 people. Even if the balance wasn’t right, it didn’t fit well. But just in time, I had already secured an existence that already had over a thousand years of memory. If you were familiar with that amount of memory, you could likely withstand it even if you were injected with dozens of additional human memories. Moreover, there was a suggestion that the truth should be told.

I looked at Yusu. He had already heard my request and wasn’t taking his eyes off the Fake God. The two opaque beads were soon absorbed into his head.

=Aaah, aaaaaaaah, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahskdyigdlaj!=

My head seemed to be broken by the telepathic scream from the Fake God, who had accepted the memories. I waited for a while with the receiver system circuit closed. The Fake God constantly twitched and trembled. The feeling that the memories of 29 people’s lives were absorbed all at once would be insufficient to express as mere pain. Violet essence flowed from eight gill-like organs on his stomach. It said that when transparent body fluid came out, it was really a sign of death.

=asdfgsaaaaahpleaseenotagainqwtywrwy!=

Although I prepared my mind, it wasn’t a comfortable sight. No matter if he was an alien, seeing him in front of me, tightened my heart. However, overcoming the urge to avert my gaze, I gave strength to my eyes and looked at the scene. I asked Yusu to observe the soul, but I also kept my eyes on him. In that state, his cramps gradually calmed down after some time, fortunately, without any concerns. His trembling stopped, and I sighed with relief. After confirming that his breathing had stabilized to some extent, I spoke.

“Who are you?”

The Fake God, who sensed the telepathy delivered by Parvache, barely raised his head and answered. Even though the memories of dozens of people raged inside him, the planted suggestion continued to apply.

=Me…, I…, asfdfjhgjkd…=

“My name is Brendon Elliot…”

=What are you talking about?! What? These memories?=

“I’m Tamim Al-Hammad… no, Anna Hawkins…”

=What did you do to me?!=

“Umberto Bellomo!”

=Noisy! I’m asdkjgkjh…=

“…Chris O’Neill… no, David Moriyama…”

=Stop!=

“I… I… aaaaahhhh!”

He used telepathy and his voice at the same time and began to pour out numerous names. In each memory, he spat out the truth. Many of the names he spoke of voice didn’t match the passports. It seemed that they were fake IDs. All 29 people whose memories were absorbed were from English-speaking countries, and the language that the Fake God spat out was English. Hearing that, I infused Mana into the Speech Dissolving Beads that I had prepared in advance. Who knew that I’d be using this for an alien interrogation. Having confirmed that the memory was absorbed, I decided to move on to my question.

“Okay, I’ll ask.”

Now, even if the memory inside him was answered in English, I could understand it. I checked what I was most curious about. I wanted to hear a definite answer through the memories of those who actually belonged to that organization.

“Is your group working on a plan to resurrect the Dragon?”

The Fake God’s memories gave the original answers he could, through telepathy.

=…I have no group to which I belong… Ah? This…you planted their memories in me!=

Suggestion affected all memories, and 29 of them answered my questions with force, even when they were confused. Perhaps because the same answer was derived from all the memories, they answered me, which was a standard speech method for those memories, without any confrontation with each other.

“…Yes.”

As expected. Damn it! I asked one after another.

“What is the name of the organization?”

The telepathy answered because of coercion, even though he knew it wasn’t a question asked to the memory of Fake God.

=I’ve been independent and alone for hundreds of years…!=

And, the information I wanted to hear came out through his voice.

“We are…Guardians of the Great Convention.”

That’s it. My eyes shone at the thought of finding a clue to focus on.

“What is the purpose of the organization?”

He answered.

=I don’t know more about the organization of these guys beyond what I said the other day.=

“We are ordained to defend the Great Convention as those chosen by Him. Becoming his limbs, we pursue, recover, dispose of humans who use the power of miracles, guard the continental borders, and monitor those who have crossed the wall to implement the Convention.”

Calling Yusu here today was also to make him a witness. If I checked the memories of those 29 people alone and conveyed them in words, White Deer’s decision-makers might not believe it. Yusu, who was listening closely to the words, nodded and spoke.

“Continental borders…I see what the Great Convention is. It seems to be referring to the agreement that the Dragon made after the war with the beings who crossed all the walls of the world. As a result, we were restricted from entering the land at the ethnic level and interacting with humans.”

This was a story I had already heard of.

“Even if some individuals enter the land or come into contact with humans, it has been forbidden to pass on magic techniques or reveal their identity. I guessed they were the Dragon’s eyes and limbs to monitor this, but I didn’t know it was a human organization.”

Then he tilted his head.

“But, that’s weird. The Dragon has already died, and it has been confirmed that the agreement has returned to nothing. Why do you want to protect it?”

As he conveyed his questions, the Fake God’s memories answered.

=I don’t know.=

“…We do not recognize the termination of the Convention. Until the day of His resurrection, we will continue to carry out his mission. At the same time as He will rise again, the coercion of the Convention will also be restored.”

That’s as if it were natural to be resurrected.

“How on the earth is the group called Guardians of the Great Convention trying to save the Dragon?”

The answer was disappointing.

=I don’t know.=

“We do not know.”

Of course, the memories of the Fake God wouldn’t know about it, but why do memories of those 29 people say they didn’t know the answer to their organization’s existential purpose? Was this knowledge that only a few of them guarded closely? When I asked about it, the answer came back.

=I don’t know.=

“Only the executives know the plan in detail. This was information that wasn’t allowed for apprentices like us.”

I questioned again, “Tell me all the names and whereabouts of the executives you know!”

Then their memories borrowed Fake God’s mouth and spat out several names and places. Most of them were closer to nicknames than real names, and the site wasn’t in the proper address. It was roughly said to be somewhere. The more I continued to interrogate, the more I learned. The Guardians of the Great Convention’s rank and file seemed to be made up of a thorough point organization. These guys, called apprentices, had little knowledge of the useful information.

After the ritual of baptism (which was more of a magic brainwashing), it seemed that only repeated training and mission execution was performed according to the commands from above. They didn’t even know where the headquarters was located, and they were only quick about the organization’s injected ideals and goals. I continued to ask about the part that kept bothering me. What did they do with humans using the power of miracles? There was a strong conviction that this organization might have been involved in terrorism in the United States.

“You said you were disposing of the human wizards? Did you really kill them all?”

The Fake God responded with a low, suppressed voice.

“The apprentice retrieves the human wizard. The disposition after that is the responsibility of the executives…we do not know.”

“Why are you doing that?”

“Because exercising the power of miracles is the same thing as a sin for humans. As human beings, only the Guardians of the Great Convention, whom He acknowledged and directly controlled the number of, were allowed to use magic!”

In the end, they said that they could become one, but others couldn’t. It was possible to presume that human wizards were already mixed in their organization ranks.

“Why is it a sin to learn magic?”

“The practice of magic grows the soul and expands the spirituality.”

“…?”

I didn’t expect that word to come out of his mouth. That was the basic common sense that any wizard knew.

“…That’s right, but what?”

“Growing the soul is something that is not allowed for the human race.”

…I was gradually falling into a labyrinth.

“We stop it. One of the sacred missions that have been around for many years.”

[That’s a little weird.]

“Yeah. It couldn’t have been a long time…it’s like there wasn’t a human wizard before the Channel opened.”

“…Not like that. A significant number of human wizards have existed in the world for a long time since the Great Convention. A few human beings born with talent despite the shackles of the species.”

He flinched as if he tried to resist coercion, but he couldn’t win and continued to talk.

“Most of them end their lives without awakening their magic, but very few of them radiate their power with strong origins without a proper spell.”

It seemed rare for being a wizard only with talent before the Channel opened. But what he was specifying now appeared to be a case like me, who succeeded in actually implementing magic.

“Dangerous people use magic instinctively without teaching. They can create miracles unconsciously.”

Right. There were a handful of geniuses who opened the Mana circuit with their own power. Come to think of it, it was weird. Was I the only one in this long history who was born with such qualities? The Fake God continued to answer me after receiving my question.

“The strange phenomena, such as the body floating in the air while sleeping, or the burning of a healthy tree while screaming. They spread easily and soon became our targets.”

“Oh, my God.”

That wasn’t someone else’s story.

“And they disappeared, quarantined and concealed, even before they were even recorded in human history. We have played a role in filling the voids where the species’ shackles did not reach their power.”

[Min-joon, it was fortunate that the magic you triggered when you were a child summoned me in a room where no one was present. If by any chance it was seen outside…]

In my heart, I agreed with Parvache. What if my first summon took place in front of people instead of sleeping? And what if the one summoned wasn’t a mental body but a flesh body? It didn’t stop there. The danger has always been around. When I had no concept, and Parvache lacked information about the world, what would have happened if the words I was talking about at school weren’t treated as a child’s delusions? From the time Parvache was able to move its body, it also had knowledge of this world, and it forbade me to say and do such things. But by any chance, what if I broke its words and exposed it to the outside?

Eventually, I would have been recovered by them, too. In the end, it meant that they had prevented the creation of proper wizards among humankind in that way. I calmed my mind and pointed out that I couldn’t understand the meaning of the words he said.

“What do you mean by the species’ shackles?”

He responded with his voice.

“After the Great Convention, the races that crossed the wall were expelled from the continent. At that time, most of the islands were poorly populated and did not meet the conditions as the birthplace of civilization…”

The voice began to twist.

“He forbade those expelled from passing on magic to humans. And he withdrew all the magical knowledge from humankind.”

Now gradually, I felt like a picture of what happened in this world was being completed.

“And finally…by using direct power, he put magic-repressing shackles in the genes of the human species. And the shackles have continued until recently.”

The Truth-Seeker’s power was to suppress magic. There was something I could guess as soon as I heard it. However, with the knowledge I had so far, it was merely the power to deny and destroy the magic that was activated. I couldn’t even imagine that it would be possible to suppress the human race’s magical possibilities.

No, wait. If he had used power on such a ridiculous scale, he would have been beaten up by a tremendous reaction…what made him do that?

[…What the Truth-Seeker had to bear would have been a tremendous reaction indeed. The penalties will be weaker for the power to nullify the entire planet’s magic, which we were worried about before. While doing that, what did the Dragon want to do with the humans in this world?]

Parvache was right. In the end, it was said that the Truth-Seeker of the Earth had been trying to prevent the spread of magic in human civilization for a long time, even at the expense of such damage.

‘No, but Parvache, isn’t it possible to detect the power of echo of the Truth-Seeker? If something like that was planted in human blood, why didn’t we know about it?’

[I do not know. Maybe it’s because it’s a tiny fragment of power plant in a gene…anyway, I’m sure I’ve been connected to your mind many times and shared sensations, but I never felt that there was such a thing in your body. Now that the Truth-Seeker is dead, of course, there will be none.]

This world where the talents of wizards were scarce. It seemed that I could now understand why the situation suddenly changed after the Truth-Seeker’s death. It was because power was extinguished upon his death.

The “power of anti-magic” that he sowed upon humanity ages ago.