Hakai no Miko

The next morning, Maha Genovandela, seen in the sun, only looked like a normal mountain in the distance.

If you look up from the foot, you can see mountain skin with no grass seemingly growing and yellowish brown. Also, it looks like an active volcano that is still active from up white smoke everywhere.

But it wasn't a creepy mountain colored by a blue fire like last night.

"Look. Follow the path on which the statue of the God of the Beast was placed, and you will go out to the lake that will strike the 'Water of Fire'. So I drew water from the fire, and I went to the top of the mountain to have it revealed overnight at the temple there."

The witch's head explained the contents of the trial before the Ethereal Horses.

"- What do we do? If you want to stop, it's within the moment."

To witch-heads who say provocative things, they usually say, "Don't underestimate Soma!" Even Shemr, who seems furious, nods tiny and cocky. Again, for the Zoans, how terrible a mountain this Maha Genovandela is.

"It's okay. And I'm interested in what kind of mountain."

Said the Ethereal Horse, carrying a bearer with a small calf.

What intrigues the Ethereal Horse is the word "water of fire" in the mouth of the witch's head.

Even now, the "water of fire" was told by the witch head to draw from the lake in the mountains as a sign of the achievement of the trials, but it did not tell us in detail what it was like. No matter how many times I ask him, he says to the witch's head, "Actually, it's fun to see," and he still doesn't know who he is.

But because it's called "water of fire," you're sure to think of it as something liquid related to fire.

The first thing that the Ethereal Horse thought of was oil.

If there was a build-up of oil about the size of a lake, this would be a big discovery. The bulk of this world's fuel relies on wood, but it may be able to cover it up.

For that reason, I wanted to find out who it was at all costs.

"Hey, Soma. Don't you have to climb?

Until just before the Ethereal Horse climbed to Maha Genovandela, Shemr showed a difficult color.

"On more thought, there will be other good means. It's a really dangerous place."

"Oh, my God, your son. Believe me a little bit about you under the umbilical cord."

He was a shemur bewitched by a witch's head, but he gets angry even though he suspects his trust in the Ethereal Horse.

"I believe in Soma all the time!

But he immediately creased his nose and dropped his voice.

"But as the witch-head knows, I hear that being in Maha Genovandra is an unparalleled ghost in the world. Nor is that just a rumor. Whatever it is about this world, the ghost is the other person..."

I don't give it to my mouth, but Garam and Zoog, who still had the same thoughts, would arm themselves.

"But if you achieve this, Mr. Mambaha will recognize me."

Manbaja, who is firmly unwilling to acknowledge the Ethereal Horse, publicly stated that he would admit it if he revealed the night in Maha Genovandela. As a pale horse who wants to gain the trust of Zoan as a whole at all costs, it's worth doing until you risk it. All that, besides being a suggestion that the witch head has put forward, Mambaha, who thinks that the Ethereal Horse will never be able to achieve, will never be convinced if he is brought up with any other conditions than this.

Just to see that, the Gallums had to shut up.

"Here. Have this"

So the witch's head gave her a leather bag with water and two bags (tweezers) to the horse.

"There's food in the two bags. Eat yellow packets at noon and red packets in the evening. It's supposed to be a beast's prayer to God before you eat it, but in your case, it doesn't matter what God you believe in."

"Okay," said the Ethereal Horse, putting the package on his backpack along with the wool textiles and the like used to reveal the night in the mountains.

"Soma, wait a minute!

Shemr, who finally said and pushed away the pale horse who tried to climb the mountain, runs off the spot to see what he thought.

Coming back soon afterwards, Shemru pressed a pile of ornaments into his pale horse, which he had brought in all his hands.

"Soma! This is the amulet I asked the witches to give way to. Keep this guy on."

It begins with a fist-great stone dug into the surface with various texts, all of which are amulets of exorcism, such as wood bills and necklaces and head decorations. All of which Shemr bowed his head and gave way to the witches of the "family of eyes" who were accompanying him.

Shemr snuggles them around the neck of a pale horse, wraps them around his wrist, and screws them into his nostrils.

But there are more than five necklaces alone, and it makes me bulky to wear them all, no matter how much.

"Your son. Isn't that a little hard to hold?

The witch's head, which seemed like a sight to behold, was enough to do so.

Exactly. I can't take everything, but it is nevertheless something that Shemr was worried about collecting for me. The Ethereal Horse, wearing as many amulets as he could wear, told Shemr, still anxiously wrinkled in his nose, with the cheerful voice possible.

"Well, I'll be there."

"Oh. - Absolutely, come home safe! It's gotta be! Because it must be!

To Shemr's words, the pale horse smiled and waved one hand, turning his back on her and climbing to Maha Genovandela.

Even if you can't see behind it, the witch head speaks gently to Shemr, who still hasn't tried to move with his eyes on you.

"Well, your son. Don't worry about it. You're the son of that goddess. Even ghosts can't do that. Besides, I'm going to do a ritual to wish her well."

And when he finally took his eyes off the mountain, Shemr bowed his head deeply to the witch's head.

"Witch-head. Please, give Soma the protection of the god of beasts..."

◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

Maha Genovandela is a barren land.

When I started climbing, the appearance of the plant, which was still sparsely visible, also decreased visibly, turning into the sight of only a gotten rock in less than half a minute's walk.

As far as I can see, I just see a few lichens, and I don't see a single other weed. Naturally, without the appearance of herbivores eating such plants, there is no appearance of carnivores preying on them. Together with the sight of white smoke erupting from the mountain skin here and there, Maha Genovandela had become a place to create an eerie atmosphere.

The Ethereal Horse was climbing the mountain in silence.

A pale horse walks on a narrow path known as a hiking trail. I just retreated the big stone that gets in the way, and the scaffolding is bad. The Ethereal Horse was even moving his legs, even as the stone he had treaded repeatedly collapsed and was about to fall.

But that foothold is heavy.

That is because as he climbed the mountain, anxiety was sprouting right in the chest of the pale horse.

The sight of Maha Genovandela, coloured by the blue flames I saw last night, was something that I didn't think was very much from this world.

In modern Japan, even when a ghost is heard, he smiles, "No way," but there is a God in reality in this world. If there is a God, there is nothing strange about having a ghost.

Occasionally, the pale horse trembles bickly whenever he hears a rock tumble down from somewhere, either because of the gushing wind or because of the gas that erupts more than underground. Even if I look around, I don't see anything like animals or people at the moment.

But there was a delusion that someone who didn't show up instead was hiding and observing themselves jitterily, and one of the Ethereal Horses was frightened.

When I climbed the mountain that way for about two hours, the Ethereal Horse felt a unique odor behind his nose.

"This smells like sulfur..."

It is a familiar smell for Aoima, who lived in Japan with a lot of volcanoes and also often went to hot springs everywhere by his travel-loving father.

I looked around and I saw something yellow and white where I sprayed up white smoke. Wouldn't that be sulfur?

I had already predicted that maybe the Ethereal Horse would look like the mountain that raised the smoke.

Occasionally even in Japan, climbers lose their lives due to hydrogen sulphide gas erupting from volcanoes. Maybe this is also why so many Zoan people have lost their lives so far.

Thinking about it, looking back at the roads that have been climbing, the roads seem to have avoided areas where the air tends to lag behind. Perhaps that happened as a result of trying to avoid the places sacrificed by the ancestors who climbed here and made their way.

The Ethereal Horse was ho relieved by the possibility that many Zoans lost their lives not because of ghosts, but because of toxic gases. Along with that, I tremble at the danger of being clearer than a ghost who doesn't even know if he's here or not.

In the meantime, the Ethereal Horse removes the cloth from his luggage and wets it with water from the water bag before covering his mouth. I don't know as much as it would work, but it would be to the point of rest.

Climbing further up the mountain, the smell of sulfur becomes stronger. White smoke was already rising from the mountain skin, which began to be covered with yellow chunks of sulfur so widely that it could be seen in the distance.

The irritation of the eyes and nose increases with it. I can't stop crying and sniffles from earlier. If Zoan has a sharper feeling than himself, this should be pretty tight. I didn't think it was impossible for them to avoid this place either.

Maybe the Zoans consider this sulfur smell to be the smell of manure and call the land a mountain of genobanda.

It is when the Ethereal Horse passes through where a mass of sulfur is pushed just in front of the mountain path.

Even then he was a pale horse who held his breath and tried to run past his side for a small run, but there was something that caught his eye.

I was afraid of poison gas, but I was asexually concerned about what I saw blurring my vision, turning back by the sulphur that raised the dreaded white smoke.

And the Ethereal Horse, holding his breath and putting his face close to the sulfur, was astonished.

I almost raise my surprise unexpectedly and hold my mouth in haste. Then I carefully observed it again, making sure it wasn't a mistake to look at it, and then rushed off the scene.

The Ethereal Horse, retreating to the place where the wind passes, exhales the breath he had stopped and takes a deep breath to greed (mumble) the fresh air. That's how I felt, and I looked back at what I had just seen.

"Blue fire?

Since the sun was strong during the day, I wouldn't have known if I hadn't looked closely, but there was definitely a blue fire coming out of the sulfur.

"Maybe when the sulfur burns, there's a blue fire?

The Ethereal Horse recalls the flaming reaction he learned in school classes. It was taught that burning metal would change the color of the flame for each of its types, but it was thought that maybe burning sulfur would result in a blue flame.

"No way, is this who the fire is?

The speculation was centered.

The identity of the fire of Maha Genovandela is the blue flame in which sulphur burns.

This Maha Genovandela was one of the leading sulphur producing regions in the world. Hydrogen sulphide and sulphur dioxide in volcanic gases blowing out of a rift of rock produced sulphur on the surface, which was causing high temperatures and igniting and producing blue flames.

Surprised by the unexpected truth of the fire, the Ethereal Horse climbed further up the mountain.

Mountain roads become even more risky. Sometimes he held his breath and ran through the sides where the white smoke erupted, sometimes using his hands to climb the rocks, and along the way he took lunch in the big rock, which had been taught by the witch head, and continued to climb the mountain for another half an hour or so, before finally leaving for a lake that hit the "water of fire".

…… Wow! "

The Ethereal Horse raised an unexpected voice of admiration.

Probably Lake Caldera, where rainwater accumulated at the crater and volcanic activity. Its lake, which was made into the belly of the mountain, sparkled in beautiful emerald green in the light of the sun.

Unfortunately, it was not the oil I had hoped for, but the emotion of seeing the beauty of the lake shining on emerald green was an excess to make up for the disappointment.

When he reached the edge of the lake, the Ethereal Horse lowered the bearer's beard and drew water from the lake with a pattern of baked goods (hiccups) like a short pattern.

From the witch's head, she was cautioned then that no water should be spilled or touched.

But if you say so, it's the humanity that bothers me.

As far as I can tell, I wonder why the water in the lake shines on beautiful emerald greens is called "water of fire".

Is it a hell of a high temperature?

Looking over the lake thinking so, it does raise the white hot air. So I put my horrible open hand over the lake.

But I don't feel as much heat as I thought.

Immerse your fingertips on the lake only for a moment.

But it's not hot.

Now I just dipped my fearful right hand in the water of the lake for a moment. Sure, slightly warm. Plus, my skin feels kind of tingling. But that's all.

Why is this "water of fire"?

I didn't mean to, but I tried to pump water into the jar anyway.

It is then.

"Hot! Hurts?! Itatattattattattattattattattattattattattattat!

Suddenly, my right hand dipped in the lake complains of severe pain. At first, he felt the heat that had touched the fire, and then he ran through the entire skin of his hand with the same intense pain that had stuck the needle.

Anyway, if it's because you dipped your hand in the water in the lake, you have to wash it off. Put the water from the water bag you had on your right hand and muddle it desperately with a cloth.

After a while, tingling irritation still remained, but the pain also healed, so when I looked closely at my right hand, my skin was burned red. It is a symptom that I just put my hands on the water in the lake, but it is as if I even put it on hot water.

What the hell is this lake water?!

The fact that the hand touched even though it is water becomes like a burn. Also volcanic gas that erupts in large quantities. And sulfur dyeing the mountain skin yellow.

They led the Ethereal Horse to one reasoning.

"No way, is this water sulphuric acid?!"

As the Ethereal Horse speculates, sulphuric acid is what the Zoans refer to as "water of fire" identity.

This Lake Caldera in Maha Genovandela was also a rare sulphuric acid lake on the continent of Cerdeas. There was a volcanic jet hole at the bottom of the lake that blew out large quantities of gas, and the sulphite gas in that gas and the water that accumulated on Lake Caldera were reacting to produce sulphuric acid.

What is the pH of the water in this lake? It was strong acidity of 0.1 or less, and that was enough to dissolve it without trace in a few hours.

What made the lake look beautiful green was also the colour of iron sulfate dissolved in water, which was made of the iron content of the soil dissolved by the sulfuric acid of the lake.

"Is this all, sulphuric acid...!

Mountains burning blue by sulphur.

And a huge sulphuric acid lake there.

The Ethereal Horse could not help but marvel at what the nature of the Continent of Cerdeas had created.

"That's right, fantasy world!

Ever since I came to this world, the absence of fantasy elements such as adventurers and magic has been a secret disappointment of the Ethereal Horse. However, he remembered the trembling excitement of the natural marvel of Maha Genovandela, which cannot be seen in modern Japan.

However, although the Ethereal Horse does not know, there are real lands on the planet where similar natural phenomena such as the Kawaiijen volcano in Indonesia can be seen. But for the Ethereal Horse who doesn't know it, this Maha Genovandra was just the fantasy world itself.

Thinking of it that way, some recoil has ever been frightened by the shadow of the ghost, and the Ethereal Horse comes to mind in this natural marvel.

The lid of the lid of the lid was tightly closed so that the water drawn did not spill, and the cloth was wrapped around it from above, and then carried back to the carrier, and the footsteps of the Ethereal Horse, who walked out again, were lighter.

The Ethereal Horse, which climbed the mountain to be guided further by the statue of the god of the beast, reached the top of one of the Mount Outer Ring, which is so as to surround the lake.

At the top of the mountain was a temple (dust) made of stones revealed overnight by the witch heads of history. If one person lets his body in, it's just a small temple that fills up, but it would be better than wild lodging on a mountain of blow.

The sun had already fallen on the western mountains, and had begun to stain red. Looking back at the mountain path I climbed, I saw that blue and white fire burning in the shadow part where the mountain was able to block the sunset.

The sight that only looked like a creepy fire last night is no longer the only mysterious and fantastic figure of nature for the Ethereal Horse today.

I also forgot to breathe for a while, and the Ethereal Horse was never tired of the sight of the sulphur-burning mountain.

But you can't watch the sulphur burn forever. We need to be ready to stay in the temple before the sun sets completely and darkens.

When the Ethereal Horse laid the bristle fabric he had brought inside the temple, he calmed his hips there. Then, as the witch head told me, I eat something like a dough that was put in a red bag.

In time, the wind grew stronger at night.

The night breeze was cold, but the Ethereal Horse can't keep the fire warm even to try to get warm because of his grace. But if I had dived in the fur woven fabric in the temple, it would not have been as cold as it would have been. Having finished eating the dough, the Ethereal Horse dives into the fur woven fabric laid in the temple.

As I lay in the shrine that way, my sleeper immediately attacked me to see if I still had the fatigue of climbing the mountains during the day.

Hopefully, I would have seen more sulfur burning sights, but I can't beat the sleeper. When the Ethereal Horse has one big yawn, he decides to fall asleep with the hairy textile tucked up to his head.

How tired he was before he knew it, too, and soon after counting ten, a regular sleep leaked out of the temple.

So the pale horse fell asleep, and after a while.

A number of figures appeared around the temple. When the shadows sneak into the shrine without sound, they wonder for a while how the pale horse rests quietly inside.

Then one of the shadows threw down the stone he had picked up near the temple. The stones bump into each other, then make loud noises rolling down the slopes. But the sleep of the Ethereal Horse, which leaked from inside the temple, was not disturbed.

When one of the shadows, who looked at each other, approached the temple, he plunged his hand in, turning up the wool fabric that the Ethereal Horse was wearing.

Then, from below, a completely sleeping Ethereal Horse's face peeked.

"It's okay. I'm completely asleep."

A shadow confirming that there was no sign of the Ethereal Horse waking up told his companions who were eager to see what was going on behind them, and a Zoan woman appeared from behind them.

"He's a superimposed guy."

It was a witch-head.

And the shadows that surround the temple are also the warriors of Zoan, the chief of the witch, who is called the Shady Confession. Warriors who, as their name suggests, serve the witch's head from the shadows, and know few of its existence even in the Family of the Eye.

"I'm glad our pills worked for droppers from different worlds. - Keep it clean, just in case."

That being said, when the witch's head creaks her jaw, one of the shady confessors retrieves the red cloth that was wrapping the dough that the Ethereal Horse had folded in the corner of the temple, and places a cloth that resembles well instead.

"But you're a surprisingly bold guy. I couldn't see how frightened I was at all by this fire."

One of the shady confessors told me to admire how the pale horse had been so far.

"I don't know if he's skinny or if he's the son of that goddess."

The witch head agrees with it. Before this sight, which frightened even the brave Zoan warrior, I thought of a pale horse who seemed to rejoice rather than fear, and the witch's head answered half admirably.

But soon, when the witch-head becomes a serious face, he commands the shady confessors.

"You guys, stay away from here and keep an eye on your surroundings. Don't ever come until I call you."

When the shady confessors leave the shrine without sound, the witch's head drags the pale horse out of the shrine, which is falling asleep with medicine. And he lay a pale horse on top of the hairy textiles he had laid on nearby mountain skin.

Okay, let's get started.

With that said, the witch's head pulled out a mountain knife without sound. Unlike other Zoan mountain knives, it is a sacrificial mountain knife carved with exquisite craftsmanship.

"Boy, don't feel bad for me. This still holds the fate of every Zoan on the plain."

A witch-headed mountain knife is slowly drawn to the side.

Bright red blood scattered across the cheeks of a pale horse.