Unlike Banan who was introducing various parts of the sanctuary with a pleasant expression, Orma walked as if being dragged by Ban, lightly scanning the interior buildings of the sanctuary with a gloomy face and muttered.
“Fishy smell…”
“Fishy smell? I don’t smell anything.”
“You don’t feel it rising from below? It’s disgusting enough.”
Is that so? Ban sniffed hard with his nose and also subtly asked Jaena if he smelled anything. He asked thinking that as a beastman, his sense of smell would be better than an ordinary human’s, but Jaena just shook his head with a face that said he had no idea.
“I only smell fragrant flowers, why do you ask?”
“…It’s a smell so strong it gives me a headache, but like Jaena says, it’s also like flowers.”
That was strange. A fishy smell and flower fragrance both strong at the same time? As Ban tilted his head, Banan, who had been guiding them through the sanctuary, smiled faintly and said.
“Humans couldn’t possibly smell that scent.”
“…”
“It’s the smell of calamity. It was the last place I was going to show you anyway, so it would be troublesome if you’re already so disgusted.”
There seemed to be some smell related to calamity that only Gods could smell. Ban subtly glanced at Banan’s expression, then saw her heading toward the stairs leading underground and recalled a scene from the game.
Siol was also one of the areas players had to pass through in the game, but Siol at that time had already met destruction and was in a state where everything was either dead or contaminated. Especially as you went down from the sanctuary to the underground, a horrific sight unfolded where living creatures ‘contaminated’ by calamity swarmed, and it was terrible enough to make even Ban, who had a strong stomach, grimace badly. So even though he thought it would be fine now, he couldn’t help the creepy feeling.
“Gasp… This place is filled with water. Is this the smell Orma-nim mentioned?”
“Well, probably not.”
As soon as they entered the dark underground, an eerie atmosphere and chilly temperature greeted Ban’s group. Pitch-black water pooled abundantly beside the path stretching straight through the center. The motionless water was dark as if black ink had been mixed in, but a faint light flickering at the end of the path reflected on the water surface, allowing them to barely distinguish the floor and walk.
“Uh, uhhh… Ban gong, hold my hand! It’ll be terrible if I fall!”
“It seems like you’re the one begging Ban to hold your hand, not the other way around.”
Jaena extended his trembling hand toward Ban, but Orma snatched that hand first and shook it roughly like a handshake. Thanks to that, Jaena’s slender body fluttered up and down like a fallen leaf with sounds like “Urk!” and “Ack!”, but unfortunately, Ban, who would normally stop this, had his attention directed elsewhere.
“Sa-save me! I’m falling! Ban gong! Ban gong!”
“That… doesn’t seem to be Vanellas, what is it?”
“Those are the seeds of calamity.”
Bluish-shaped flowers bloomed creepily and densely around the huge round core that protected the temple and Siol at the end of the underground waterway path. Like Vanellas, they were slightly transparent and luminescent, but that was the only similarity—their nature was as different as heaven and earth. Though they had abundant petals like chrysanthemums, their appearance with flower buds drooping downward looked like grotesque life forms at a glance. Smelling them up close, they emitted a very strange fragrance that was sour and sweet enough to give a headache, and perhaps this was the identity of the fishy smell and flower fragrance Orma had mentioned.
“Humans call them ‘Blue Tears.'”
The evidence that the world was heading toward destruction wasn’t simply sunlight alone. These strange flowers blooming simultaneously were another evidence of calamity. Like Siol and Banan’s sanctuary, they bloomed without fail in places with abundant water and where plants grew well, destroying the surrounding environment.
It wasn’t simply destroying the ecosystem by having a large number of individuals—they ‘contaminated’ the surrounding living creatures entirely. Changing them into bizarre forms where their essence couldn’t be recognized, creating powerful acidic substances that melted even bones along with a foul odor. The contaminated creatures that became mushy would take on grotesque and horrific appearances like growing an extra limb.
Then you might say, why not just pull them out and burn them beforehand, but whether they had spores or not, they would regrow shortly after being pulled out, and they even contained addictive hallucinogenic components.
“Did you deliberately dry up the waterway because of this, Banan-nim?”
“That’s right. If someone happens to drink the water or even if it splashes on their skin, it will be transmitted to that human or animal as well.”
He hadn’t expected this kind of calamity. Ban looked at the flowers lining the waterway core with a somewhat helpless face. If it were something related to sunlight it might be different, but how could Orma solve this?
Moreover, as time passed, the waterway core was also in danger. Though called the waterway core, that was Banan’s power sustaining Siol and was no different from a sacred object. The core, several times larger than a person and round, evoked a mysterious and magnificent feeling as if the moon had been shrunk down. But at this rate, even the core would be contaminated and a situation no different from the scene Ban had seen in the game would unfold.
It would have been easier if monsters popping out were a sign of destruction—he’d only need to use his body without using his brain…
“We could just set fire to it refreshingly. Why didn’t you try calling Muhwi?”
Orma, who had been quietly watching, smiled savagely and spoke mockingly.
Muhwi, God of Fire and War. Though a God who also governed death and destruction, surprisingly unlike other war gods in mythology, he wasn’t savage-tempered or hot-blooded. Rather, he was more serious and taciturn… right, closer to a God of martial arts.
However, at Orma’s words, Banan grimaced for the first time. At her appearance of turning her head without even replying, as if she didn’t even want to be associated with him, Orma clicked his tongue and approached closer to Ban.
“I don’t know what they expect me to do about this. What can I even do?”
“Hmm… The situation does look quite difficult. For today, I think it would be better to return for now and think more about methods.”
Finally, from Ban’s mouth came the answer to withdraw for now—an answer that pleased Orma’s heart. With a satisfied face, Orma ignored Jaena who was clinging to his leg in fear and led Ban outside, firmly holding his hand.
Since he was walking stride by stride without saying anything to Banan, Ban hurriedly turned his head back to offer a greeting. However, the last thing he saw was Banan approaching the Blue Tears, bending at the waist and extending her hand. Was it okay for a God to touch the seeds of calamity?
“Wait, just a moment…”
“Why. You’re not worrying about a God, are you?”
Considering that, Ban’s main worry was occupied by Orma, his own God. When he looked at Orma in disbelief, he just tilted his head as if asking what the problem was.
“Ta-take me with you too! Uwaaah!”
As Jaena’s scream echoed loudly and Ban became flustered, he ultimately left Banan behind and barely escaped the underground waterway while carrying Jaena who climbed up his leg and clung to him. Orma grimaced badly beside him, but he lightly ignored it. Ban’s head was complicated with uneasy thoughts about whether this was okay, and thoughts that since she was a God after all, what could happen just from touching the seeds of calamity a bit?
It should be fine. Seeing how full it was in the first place, it wasn’t something that happened in just a day or two, and she knew the severity of the contamination…
* * *
“Phew, the sanctuary was a very beautiful yet simultaneously frightening place.”
“Your clothes got wrinkled because of you and show no signs of smoothing out.”
“…Ahem, I’m sorry, Ban gong.”
It would be frightening to think you might fall into the waterway contaminated with seeds of calamity. Ban shook his head as if it was fine. Then he picked up his spoon and held out food as if to block the mouth of Orma, who was looking at him with a sullen face from beside him. Ban still hadn’t given up on the ‘let’s work hard together’ project—reviving appetite.
“…You eat it.”
“Quickly.”
“I said I’m fine? Suddenly what… Mmph!”
Ban, like the parent of a child throwing a tantrum about not wanting to eat in a childcare program he’d once seen on TV, picked up finely cut bread and flew it splendidly through the air like an airplane before stuffing it into Orma’s mouth. Thanks to that, Orma, who had narrowed his eyes thinking what is he suddenly doing while eating, was instantly subjected to this treatment.
Whether he knew or not about the God’s eyes growing increasingly fierce, Ban once again stabbed bread with his fork with an expressionless face and began flying the airplane. He wondered if he should make a “shwoooosh” sound with his mouth, but soon muttered while looking down at the plate with great disappointment at the momentum that seemed about to overturn the table.
“It’s delicious though…”
“Eat a lot yourself. Don’t make me angry.”
Was appetite still a failure…? While Ban poked at the food in disappointment, only Jaena, who had been watching this ridiculous scene from the side, giggled and said.
“Just now Ban gong looked like Orma-nim’s father.”
“I understood a bit of the heart of a parent raising a child who won’t eat properly.”
“How funny.”
“Hmm… Come to think of it, what kind of person was Orma-nim’s father?”
Jaena, who knew nothing of Orma’s situation, asked with innocent eyes. Ban hesitated, but Orma replied roughly with a nonchalant face.
“He’s dead, why.”
“Well, that person would have been human so after the passage of time he would have already passed away, but in our tribe, one story about Orma-nim has been passed down.”
“What story.”
“The story that Orma-nim is actually Muhwi God’s son!”
“…”
Whether he knew or not about Orma’s face that instantly turned cold, Jaena began to bring up the story passed down in his tribe while chattering away.
