EnCoffin Me Chapter 24
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 24
Ellie stayed up late that night.
She guessed most people would be up late too, since the official account had already announced that after midnight, the new short film about the primordial myth, ‘The Flowers of Heaven,’ produced mainly by Pupil, would be available to stream. This series was planned to continue, aiming to educate the public about history from ten thousand years ago. Most people knew there were two opposing forces in that history, but Ellie felt no one had truly witnessed the real power of the dark creatures like she had.
Non-holographic videos were not only produced quickly, but also didn't need any time to load. So, exactly at midnight, Ellie opened the newly released video from Pupil. On the dark gray screen, sparse deep red flowers gently drifted down. The narration was the voice of Mr. Lucius, this resurrected saint from ten thousand years ago.
【On the day the era began, the goddess scattered the flowers of heaven.】
On the day the dark gray world was born, before light and darkness had separated, the twin goddesses clasped each other's hands with one hand and leaned against each other as they looked down from the clouds. The blonde goddess was named Galotti, clad in sky-blue dress, the younger of the twins. The black-haired goddess was Freyna, in deep red dress, the elder sister. The two goddesses leaned against each other for a long time, looking down at the small, wriggling, shapeless beings on the ground.
【How pitiful.】
Freyna said. She stood up and cut the palm of her hand.
【Partake of my fresh blood, go forth and think, go forth and love. There must be thousands of different beings in this world, each with its own melody. I beg you to bravely sing it out loud—】
The flowing goddess' blood turned into deep red blossoms that fell to the earth. From that moment on, all things in the world took on countless different forms—
This was the flowers of heaven.
The woodblock print did nothing to diminish the goddesses' grace. Instead, it added a rustic richness to their image. Galotti gazed longingly at her elder sister, while Freyna always looked down at the earth with a heart full of compassion.
More gods began to emerge, dancing wildly around the twin goddesses. Galotti joyfully spun with the crowd of gods, then turned back, reaching out to hold her elder sister.
【Look, elder sister! How blissful it is to be a goddess. Let the celebration go on, let us always be together!】
But Freyna's deep red sleeve slipped from Galotti's hand. The goddess drifted down toward the earth, her eyes reflecting things never seen before. Beneath that ground, at the end of the darkness—
The Underworld River flowed eternally.
The goddess fell in love with the river's deep, rushing currents. She willingly took upon herself the weight of all the dead souls in the world. She shed her divine veil, leaving her divinity and power to her younger sister, and embraced the Underworld River with boundless love.
She became the bride of the Underworld River.
From that moment, the world had light and darkness, dawn and dusk. Some beings worked at sunrise, others at sunset; some rested at sunrise, others at sunset. Although they differed in rhythm, they still loved one another. The goddess left behind, Galotti, was crowned the Goddess of Light. She gazed at the earth, missing her elder sister.
But the God of Slander whispered to her.
Galotti knelt on the clouds and wept, her tears turning into fire. The flames of divine war reached the banks of the Underworld River. The dark gods who worshipped the river fought back fiercely. Corpses of gods piled like mountains, and the creatures of the earth suffered a great calamity. Freyna shed tears. She kept her youngest child by her side and sent the three older ones to the surface.
Leviathan guarded the seas, keeping the waters from overflowing, so creatures could gather resources from the ocean and ships could travel and communicate. Behemoth coiled around the land, blocking the cold winds from the north, allowing the seasons to change and preventing eternal winter. Qizhi forever flew alone in the sky, acting as mother's eyes, watching all creatures on the earth.
But Galotti's heart was like iron and gold. She believed she had been forgotten and betrayed by her elder sister. She vowed to take revenge.
The two goddesses dueled on the banks of the Underworld River. Galotti possessed the strongest divine power and the highest authority, yet such immense power could not harm the goddess who had already merged with the Underworld River. Unwilling and in pain, she cried out a mournful wail to the river—
【It was you! You abandoned me!】
She slashed the river with her sword, severing the flowing gown of the goddess drifting within. But as the waves churned and the skirt fluttered, what danced forth like a shimmering gauze-like fishtail was the goddess' youngest child, a little red fish. Each graceful flick of its fins mirrored the swirling gowns they once wore amidst the revelry of the gods.
It turned out she had never been forgotten.
The whispers of the God of Slander were broken.
The twin goddesses embraced each other, just as they had at the beginning when they sat on the clouds. They shared all that had happened since their separation, speaking through three thousand days and nights. When the third thousandth long night passed, the goddesses, their hearts freed of all knots, made a pact. The heavenly gods would withdraw, and from then on, the world would be left to the creatures on the earth.
But even though the gods left, the slander still spread hatred across the land.
Under the shadow of the dark purple slander, a huge wheel appeared on the screen, rolling over forests and lakes, crushing prosperous towns beneath it. More and more corpses tumbled into its path. Black and white clashed constantly in the image, with the black moon and white sun alternating in dominance. During the white sun's reign, beneath the embrace of wings and horns, an elder of the Holy Temple raised his scepter high, proclaiming a grand millennium-long scheme. Under the black moon's glow, amidst the cold glint of spikes and scales, a young man with bat-like wings bared his fangs, summoning eternal darkness.
The wheel rolled relentlessly forward, with blood and death trailing like shadows. Slowly, flames began to crawl up its surface. The saint's voice calmly narrated the timeline of the war, while endless wails and cries echoed in the background.
【Until the very end, on the day the era concluded…】
【What fell was not blossoms.】
The screen darkened. Only fire rained down, trailing long tails of flame as it plummeted, landing with a roar, and then falling silent.
Alexio looked at the scattered documents on the floor. He raised his hand, and under the control of his mental power, the papers floated up and were stacked neatly again on the coffin. Lucius remained silent as well, but his hand resting on the coffin gripped so tightly that his knuckles whitened.
“So, now we know the truth.”
Alexio said calmly, looking up at Lucius. Lucius was watching him too, but Alexio wasn't good at reading others' emotions and, as usual, didn't try.
“That's a good thing.”
Alexio had always believed that knowing the cause was the first step to solving a problem. Since the world's destruction had been caused by the collapse of the three pillars of darkness, the current imbalance between light and darkness was likely a side effect. So he thought maybe they could try to establish something similar to those three pillars. He guessed some dark creatures might play a key role, such as the werewolf and lich he had seen before. These two were once the guardians of the three pillars of darkness, and he was relatively familiar with them.
“So now there was a new goal.” Alexio even felt a bit energized by the challenge. He saw the saint staring at him without blinking and simply reached out his hand.
“Do you want to join forces?”
The vampire's hand was spread open before him. The sharp pain in his left eye intensified, nearly like a punishment, which made him realize just how unsettled he felt inside.
That sacred, noble world had collapsed. He had been an accomplice to its destruction, but the vampire said nothing about it. It wasn't that the vampire didn't care about the destruction of the previous era, but it was more like he didn't believe Lucius had truly been an accomplice, and was already preparing, with ruthless efficiency, to take the next step.
“The way you are, I know you must be drowning in guilt right now.” Alexio thought about the lunatic's unstable nature and cautiously tried to comfort him. It was the first time he had ever tried to comfort someone like this. Usually by the time the lunatic appeared before him, he'd already regained complete composure.
“Then let's say joining forces is your way to atone, though I don't think you followed the Holy Temple's plan through the end…” Alexio guessed he was probably right. After all, the lunatic was unlikely not to cause trouble.
His hand was still extended in a welcoming gesture. The saint looked at him deeply before raising his own hand.
“I will… do my best.”
Just as he was about to place his hand on Alexio's, Alexio suddenly withdrew. Lucius thought he had changed his mind, but the vampire leaned closer, staring seriously at his left eye.
“There's something shiny in your left eye.”
“!”
“Are you crying because you're moved?”
“……”
No, it wasn't like that!
Alexio was genuinely curious about what was sparkling in the lunatic's eye. He had never seen it before. It shouldn't be there. So he reached out, intending to hold the lunatic down and pry open his eye to see what it really was.
“Don't touch it!” Lucius' expression changed slightly. The pain in his left eye reached its peak. In the vampire's shocked eyes, he saw a long chain of jagged spikes unfurled, one end deeply embedded in his left eye while its tail twitched like a living creature, almost like some kind of evil entity!
【In the saint's eyes, there is only black and white.】
The thought came to him.
Alexio's expression grew serious. He guessed this was likely a tool the Holy Temple used to control the hunters. After learning the truth, the lunatic's faith had seriously shaken, and so, as punishment, it broke free from his body. He didn't know if acting now could save the lunatic's eye, but if he didn't try, the consequences would be worse.
He reached out toward the chain twisting and swirling in the air. His smooth movement suddenly changed midway, and with lightning speed, he seized the snake-like thing. The spikes pierced his palm, but Alexio's expression didn't change. Instead, he coiled the chain around his hand a few times.
The vampire's blood stained the chain like a contagion. The pale, translucent chain bloomed with faint deep red flower patterns. Meanwhile, Ellie, who was looping the ‘The Flowers of Heaven’ video, wiped her nose as the scene showed the goddess cutting her palm and scattering the flowers. The narration was calm.
【On the day the era began, the Goddess scattered the flowers of heaven.】
“What the hell is this…” Alexio clenched his teeth tightly around the writhing chain, baring his fangs in pain, but the agony only fueled his ferocity. He had to pull this disgusting thing out!
“Pull it!” Lucius said through the pain, “Even if I lose this eye!”
Without hesitation, Alexio prepared to strike. From his angle, he could now clearly see the object embedded in the lunatic's eye: a translucent wedge. The frenzied spiked chain whipped wildly. Just as Alexio was about to exert force, he noticed cold sweat forming on the lunatic's forehead.
He remembered how the saint from his memories would always appear calm and composed. He had never known if the saint bore any pain.
“Give me your hand.”
He said softly, the vampire's fangs slightly visible at the corner of his lips.
“I will give you ecstacy.”