Chapter 155
Bibi's voice echoed through the dim wetlands. A woman's sad melody ringing through this eerie place made it feel like wandering through a nightmare.
After finishing one song, Bibi looked around the now-quiet swamp and said, "The atmosphere... seems a bit different."
"I think so too."
"To think of directly seeking this land's god—your thinking is different from others."
"It's just a difference of meeting early or late."
Darkness briefly passed over her face.
Our drifting was now approaching its end.
Both Bibi and I knew that the end would not be smooth.
Perhaps it would end with someone's death.
"You suffer hardship by being with a cursed duchess."
"As I've said before, this was my choice. I have no intention of blaming Your Grace."
"..."
Bibi didn't know, but I chose to accompany her knowing things would get complicated. So I had no thoughts of blaming her.
Bibi silently moved forward again. And began reciting sorrowful lyrics once more.
About thirty minutes passed like this. Her voice gradually began to shrink.
"The widowed lady prayed to the goddess—"
[The… widowed… lady… prayed… to… the… goddess.]
Then she cut off her song mid-way and turned to look at me.
"Did you hear that...?"
I had heard it too.
Somewhere, someone was singing along with Bibi's song. Low and gloomy... a voice with a different texture than ordinary humans.
When Bibi stopped singing, the echoing voice stopped precisely. Nothing was around, only an eerie air lingered. The source of the sound wasn't clear.
Bibi squeezed her eyes shut then open and brushed off the goosebumps on her arms.
"So it was true that even souls cannot escape this place. What a terrible land."
Then a child's laughter echoed from behind us. Bibi startled with a jump.
This was absolutely not a place where children could be. Something inhuman was definitely here.
"They're watching us for sure."
In the Soderton circulation system, spirits played such tricks. Here, it seemed ghosts took that role.
"Should I keep singing?"
I nodded. Bibi took a deep breath and began singing again.
After about two verses, something began singing along again. Still faint, low, and gloomy in tone.
Bibi kept singing with her eyes tightly shut.
I drew my wooden sword and heightened my vigilance of the surroundings.
Though it was nearly noon, the sky grew increasingly dark. The eerie environment, atmosphere, ghostly voices, and ominous signs all combined made Bibi increasingly shrink back.
Then she stopped singing again and said, "It's whispering to me. Did you hear it this time?"
"No, I didn't hear it this time."
"It stopped singing along and told me to abandon you. It's chilling."
"Abandon me?"
"Yes. It says to abandon you and go with it."
"...Come closer to me."
"Good idea. I was just wanting to do that."
Bibi, who had been leading, narrowed the gap and tightly gripped my sleeve.
"I never thought I'd encounter dead souls so vividly. Aren't you scared?"
"I'm used to it now."
"..."
Then Bibi flinched again.
"I hear it again."
She turned her body right and pointed. There lied water mist and a dark swamp.
"There. The sound comes from there."
I freed my sleeve from Bibi's grip and interlocked our fingers. Her hand trembled slightly.
"Are you... ready?"
"...With you, I can go anywhere. Let's go."
With my wooden sword in one hand and Bibi's hand in the other, I slowly moved toward where she pointed.
With each step, our feet sank up to our shins.
As we advanced, I too could hear something.
"Sob... heuheuk, heuheuk"
It was a long, thin sobbing sound.
Under the shade of dead branches, a boy was crying.
Bibi's hand trembled. Having already been deceived by the old woman, we had long abandoned the thought that any person we saw would be real.
"Heuheuheuk, heuhuk."
Bibi asked, "What are you doing in a place like this?"
The boy suddenly stopped crying and turned to look at us.
"...I want to go home but I'm too scared to move."
Bibi looked at my face, questioning what to do.
When I nodded, Bibi confirmed and spoke to the child, "We'll go to your home together."
"No... Sister should come with me, leaving that person behind."
"This person is my friend. Why can't he come?"
"I don't like him. I hate him."
"This man will come with me."
Looking closely, the boy was crouching in the swamp, but his feet weren't sinking at all.
"If you go with that man, everyone will be angry."
Then he suddenly stood up and ran into the dark wetlands, disappearing.
Bibi quietly stared at where the boy had passed. She knew too. That no footprints remained there.
"Let's follow."
"...Yes."
We followed silently where the child had fled.
Though it was midday, the sky grew increasingly dark. As if during a total solar eclipse. The expression "swallowing the sun" wasn't just a metaphor.
As we went deeper, traces of people began appearing one by one in the vicinity.
A tattered dress hanging on a branch. Seeing it, Bibi pressed close to me and said fearfully, "This dress... it's Imperial style. I wonder why it hangs in such a distant foreign land."
Going further, we saw someone's skeleton still wearing thick armor. Given the long sword in its hand, it seemed to be a knight.
"This one... wears Principality armor."
A hand bone rising from the swamp like a lotus. A skeleton sitting with its shoulder blade completely missing.
In another place, a skeleton wearing luxurious accessories on its neck and fingers.
People of all kinds had died and been left here.
It felt like entering an antlion pit that draws in and devours wanderers.
"Seems we're in the right place."
"Yes, it feels like crossing the path to the afterlife."
After walking for a while, what we encountered at the end was a lake.
The water was dyed black below as if ink had been poured in.
A stench assaulted our noses; Bibi wrinkled her face and covered her nose. Bubbles rose endlessly from below.
"...This is surely hell."
The boy we'd met earlier walked to the lakeside and shouted at us, "You shouldn't bring that man here!"
"..."
"You can't bring him here. No. No. Nooooo!"
The boy's shout turned into a shriek loud enough to hurt our ears. Bibi startled and covered her ears.
"The Duchess is our sacrifice!!"
The boy's face began decaying and melting. Then instantly turned to smoke and vanished. We hurriedly ran to where he had been.
There laid a child's skeleton that seemed long abandoned.
I could feel Bibi trembling through our joined hands.
"They sure like surprising people."
"Ah, that's not what's important... Something, something is coming."
"...?"
"I-I don't know what it is. But... immense mana is approaching us."
Her body began shaking like an aspen tree. Soon her eyes lost focus. Bibi looked up at me and cried urgently.
"No. T-this is something we cannot face."
The whole world began gradually darkening. Eventually, complete darkness covered everything, without a single light.
***
A small spirit appeared from Damian's hand.
"Ppiyak!"
Sparks continuously sprayed from the spirit's wings. It was the only light in this place completely submerged in darkness.
Bibi began breathing roughly, perhaps from excessive tension. She was on the verge of panic.
The spirit's light wasn't nearly enough. With darkness falling, it was impossible to know what might come from where.
When Damian whispered something softly, the spirit left his hand and flew somewhere.
Then it set fire to the dead trees around.
Soon, along with acrid smoke, fire began spreading nearby. And thanks to the trees burning slowly against the humidity, the surroundings began coming into view.
"Are you alright?"
"It's coming... I've never experienced such a mass of mana in my life."
Damian turned his eyes to where Bibi was looking. The blazing firelight reflected on the black lake, and something massive was moving on the undulating waves.
Just then, something firmly grabbed Bibi's ankle.
"Kyak!"
A bone hand suddenly sprang from the ground and restrained her.
Seeing this, Damian immediately struck it away with his wooden sword.
"W-what is this?"
Soon the sound of bones clashing together was heard.
Damian hurriedly began surveying the surroundings.
The skeletons abandoned near the lakeside slowly began rising.
[Give back my body.]
[My child starved to death.]
[I must return to my wife.]
And those skeletons began surrounding Bibi and Damian while muttering to themselves.
When several slowly tried to grab Bibi, Damian swung his sword and shattered them.