The Sword Of Salvation
Ch. 1 — Human and Devil
SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE BEGINNING, the world has known four continents separated by saltwater puddles with a total area exceeding the combination of the four continents.
Northama. Southema. Westhimas. Easthomas. The names of the four continents are inscribed on the world map. Although writing and language are all the same on all four continents, but each is famous for its own uniqueness. There was no other continent besides the four.
Northama, or more commonly called the Northern Continent, is a continent that is two-thirds covered in ice. Southema opposite Northama. Two-thirds of the area is covered by desert. Westhima has more lakes than all three continents combined. And specifically Easthoma, or popularly called the Eastern Continent, there are more mountains on this continent than the number of days in a year.
The world is divided into two: the upper world and the lower world. The two separated the thick lava liquid that was impossible to penetrate. The world is a mystery to each other.
The humans and various kinds of beasts lived in the upper world, while the demons ruled the underworld. The two have never been in contact with each other since life was born, and the two cannot intersect. Because the devil was born from a human soul that could not enter the realm of eternitya soul filled with sin, regret, and emptiness.
No human knows how the underworld is or what the devil is like. Two thousand years ago, for the first time since life began, a demon made it out of the underworld into the upper world. Together with the troops he brought, the dominance of the humans began to be questioned. It was a day that changed everything.
The upper world that previously only had conflicts with each other, was now the target of the ferocity of the demons. The devil becomes stronger by eating the soul of a human. There are also those who say that they, after eating a certain amount of human soul, will be able to be freed from the chains of hell that shackles. Inevitably, all demons regarded humans as food.
Lukhiel is one of many demons in the upper world. He has spent more than a thousand years wading through the world of humans and other living things. Therefore, Lukhiel is no longer the same as the average demon. He has consumed a total of one million two hundred thousand souls ‒ he has long been freed from the chains of hell that shackles. Moreover, Lukhiel was one of the eight demons that the Primordial Devil categorized.
This long white-haired man who was combed back was old. When equated with humans, he is seen to be in the age between 50 and 60s. But that's not surprising. Lukhiel is no longer bound by the chains of hell; nothing prevents him from growing old. Of course Lukhiel can stay young if it does not stop consuming the human soul. However, his fight with the holder of “Sword of Salvation” three hundred years ago has changed the devil.
Although he was one of the eight demons whom the Primordial Devil had categorized, he was now also a fugitive of demons. He was labeled a traitor. Lukhiel is infuriated by demons and humans. Man cannot forget the atrocities that Lukhiel committed in the past, and the demons refuse to accept his actions that save man and slaughter the devil.
If anyone accepts Lukhiel's presence after knowing it, then it is simply the Serenity— Organization an organization formed as a container to shelter half-demon and half-human individuals. Just as Lukhiel was infuriated by demons and humans, so were they. However, even though they gave her a special place, Lukhiel refused to join and continued to wander.
Lukhiel wants to keep his promise to the woman who has changed it: he will look for a human who deserves to be inherited “Sword of Salvation”.
Therefore, even though he was a demon, Lukhiel's body was moved to save the seven-year-old human child that other humans were about to kill. He caught the fire sword slash of one of them with his index finger and right thumb. Surprise struck the man, but his mouth did not have time to react. Lukhiel had slashed his neck with his left hand.
“Glanz, you've me—”
Lukhiel finished off the other man before his sentence was perfectly spoken.
And as it has been, he did not eat their souls. Other than because Lukhiel had already changed, eating human souls only made powerful demons that were still shackled in the chains of hell. For the liberated demons, eating the human soul no longer provides any benefit other than adding life energy (the energy responsible for delaying aging).
“For anyone who kills, one day it will definitely be killed. That's the inevitable reality. The karma. I too..Suatu day will be killed.”
Lukhiel turned his eyes to the seven-year-old human boy who was about to be killed.
He still did not move from looking at his mother's head which was no longer fused with the body. Lukhiel does not remember what his life was like before he died and became a demon; nor is he half a demon born from the results of experiments. So, Lukhiel cannot say he really understands what he is feeling. Which Lukhiel knows, it must have hurt.
Lukhiel stood quietly for a long time looking at the boy. But the boy did not care about his presence. In fact, if he hadn't intervened, the kid wouldn't have cared either. Maybe she still doesn't fully understand what's going on, or maybe she thinks she's pretending to take her head off. Lukhiel doesn't know. Clearly, he understood that the child now lived a kara.
Lukhiel can't just leave the boy. He saved her. If he decides to leave her, he doesn't need to save her from the beginning. However, now they were in the forest, not far from the cliff; there was no housing that he could go to to leave the child there. If anything, Lukhiel is pessimistic that they will take him in.
The only right thing to do is to take the child to the city, where there is an orphanage that he can try to go to. However, Lukhiel himself had just come from there. His departure was also because in that city there were two Level 1 Sterminatore people. No matter how great Lukhiel is at hiding his demonic presence, Lukhiel fears they will still be able to detect it. Lukhiel knows he can take them out at once if necessary, but he doesn't want to get into trouble.
Sighing a deep breath, Lukhiel crouched down and patted the child's shoulder gently. He did not think the day would come when he decided to take care of a human child. But here it is. Lukhiel has no other solution than to bring the child into hiding. He could tell this child had a strong spirit in it. Perhaps, if he trained it, this child could inherit “Sword of Salvation”?
Lukhiel nodded to himself and decided. “Come wake up,” he said slowly. “Let's bury your mother.”
It takes extra effort to pull the child out of his despair. Lukhiel was patient enough to persuade, and that patience paid off completely. The boy finally looked at her after a convincing half-hour, and it took Lukhiel another half-hour to persuade Mariel—as the boy called her name—to stand up and bury her mother. Of course all that works is Lukhiel. He only allowed Mariel to put a headstone on the head of the mother's tomb.
Other than the sound of the whizzing wind and noisy night animals, there was no other sound that bothered. Lukhiel closed his eyes. He didn't try to fall asleep, just closed his eyes. He did not know when the child would get tired of kneeling like that, so he could not melt himself. Lukhiel intends to go with him shortly after Mariel falls asleep.
“Why...?”
Lukhiel's eyes that closed spontaneously opened, eyeballs glanced at the child. Mariel did not look at her; the boy's eyes were still at home looking at the navel. However, Lukhiel knew that the question was directed at him. However, Lukhiel did not respond immediately. He waited for the child to clarify his question.
“Why should mom die?”
Is the question coming out of the mouth of a seven-year-old normal or not? Lukhiel could not conclude. Although he has lived a long time, he has never been involved in human relationships. However, in his view as a demon, that question was not normal. Demons almost never ask why someone should die.
However, Lukhiel understood the meaning of the child's question. Even he has an answer to that question: “Everybody who lives at some time will die. You too will die someday. I do too. Everything is. As the rising sun will set, so that life will surely die.”
Lukhiel does not know what the mother of the child caused until someone paid a mercenary to go after him. Therefore, he could not give the right answer. Even so, Lukhiel believes that the answer is the right one to give. That kid is a kid, the right answer won't be good for him. When he was older, he could search for the right answer directly.
“Why should we suffer?”
The boy asked again, and this time his gaze had been fixed on the demon. He looked at her expectantly.
Lukhiel stops leaning. He spontaneously sat cross-legged, eyes also looked at the child. “You believe in the god?” tanyanya confirms—Lukhiel cannot give a satisfactory answer without knowing whether Mariel is a worshiper of gods or not. “Your mother taught it?”
“Mom doesn't like gods, but she still prays to gods. I followed mom. I prayed to him.”
Lukhiel nodded in understanding. “In this world, there is such a thing as destiny and karma.” The devil explained. “The god decreed, some people suffer and some are happy. He decided that there were rich and there were poor. He set no women and men ‒ no mother and no father. You may suffer because the pure god wants you to suffer. It could be karma. Karma is a natural reciprocal effect: you do virtue, you reap virtue; you do evil, you reap evil. It could be your suffering because of the ugliness your mother once made.”
Mariel returned her gaze to the navel. Lukhiel doesn't know if the answer satisfies the child's expectations or not. However, in his own opinion, he had given a very satisfactory answer. Lukhiel couldn't have given a better answer than that. Mariel looks like a smart kid who's too mature for a seven-year-old, so maybe she won't be satisfied. However, Lukhiel had no other answer to give. What answer is more appropriate? Lukhiel thinks there is none.
Silence ruled for tens of seconds. Mariel then returned her gaze to the demon. “...Why do gods assign some suffering and some happy?” the question is a bit unsure. “Can't she set out to make everyone live happily?”
Lukhiel let out a long sigh hearing the question. Although it was a simple question and seemed so easy to answer, the answer turned one hundred and eighty degrees. Even for Lukhiel who has lived for more than a millennium, the answer to that question is beyond his comprehension. No matter how long he contemplated, Lukhiel had no answer.
“Only the god himself can answer that question.”
That was all Lukhiel could give in response. If this was before he changed course, Lukhiel would laugh at the question and then insult and demonize the god. The majority of the demons (who were already free from the shackles of the hell chain) he knew would also behave like that. However, for Lukhiel who has changed, there is no other answer he can give besides that.
“How can I ask the god?”
“No how,” response Lukhiel quickly. “It's impossible. At least, I think impossible. But I am not a person with unlimited knowledge. Maybe someone else knows the answer. You have to wander off to find him.”
“Berke...lana?”
Lukhiel took advantage of the opportunity to stand up and approach the child. Maybe he will wait a few hours if he has to wait until the child is asleep. Therefore, he will use the curiosity of the child to affect him a little.
“True, wander.” Lukhiel crouched on the side of the navel facing the child. “The world is wide. There are four continents. We are now in Westhima. You must travel through every region of this continent. If you don't find an answer, you can travel to another continent. Do you want to travel to be able to ask the god?”
“What am I...can I travel?”
Lukhiel's lips curled. However, before his mouth opened about to answer the question, Lukhiel felt two sources of prana at a distance of half a kilometer from where they were. There was no mistaking that the two pranas belonged to the second Level 1 Sterminatore he had seen in the city. The situation would be troublesome if they were to find him. Therefore, he directly hit the nape of Mariel and made her faint. Then he ran towards the south of the cliff with Mariel on his shoulder.