< 156. The Outsider from the North >
*
It was the fifth night of the voyage. Fernandez was finishing up a report to submit to the Church and sipping tea for a moment.
The cold winter rain had been falling for days, cooling the city drunk on festivities. Listening to the sound of raindrops hitting the window, Fernandez slowly sipped his tea.
– Knock knock.
Then, there was a cautious knock on the door. Since there had been no visitors for days, Fernandez tilted his head and looked at the door.
“Come in.”
“Priest, Her Majesty the Queen is looking for you.”
“Queen Leia?”
Fernandez stood up, draping his cloak. The voyage was expected to continue for two more days, and Leia had been staying up late, busy with administrative tasks due to the merger with the Malerun clan.
– Creak.
Fernandez opened the wooden door and looked at the servant standing there. The servant’s nose was red from the cold winter wind.
“Is it the Audience Hall?”
“Yes, an outsider has arrived.”
An outsider in the city moving across the vast sea? Fernandez tilted his head and followed the servant into the streets.
*
The air in the Audience Hall was heavy. Leia sat on the throne, chin resting on her hand, looking down at the human standing before her.
The outsider who arrived in the middle of the night was an old man with long robe hems, messy hair, and a dry branch as a cane. His eyes glowed as he glanced around the hall.
“Long live the great Queen of all things and seas, the Serpent Queen Leia Pin Guimerin! A priest of Vaitas requests an audience.”
“…Didn’t I tell you to drop those damn titles? Let him in.”
As Leia grumbled, the doors of the hall opened with a loud noise. Ministers, nobles, generals, and admirals all looked at the man entering the hall.
– Thud.
A heavy step. A confident stride with precise spacing. A robe revealing a straight back and a well-trained body. Eyes filled with a gloomy glow of fatigue. The man who saved the Guimerin clan twice, the nobles whispered.
“Ah, welcome, friend.”
“Queen Leia. An outsider has arrived, and you called for me?”
“Would you like to hear what this man has to say?”
As Leia gestured, the outsider looked at Fernandez with a strange expression. A human receiving such courtesy from an elf? The outsider frowned and spoke slowly.
“The promise of the Serpent King. We keep it. Why is it gone?”
“…A northerner.”
Fernandez heard the nasal tone unique to the northerners’ language. Leia shrugged as she looked at the outsider.
“He can’t speak the common tongue, the language of the western kingdoms, or even elvish. He insists he made a deal and needs to meet the Serpent King. He mentioned Malerun, so my soldiers brought him here.”
“Kaltar Peashee?”
“Sarkhan.”
After briefly exchanging words, Fernandez looked at Leia, who nodded. Do as you please. Fernandez approached the old man, who wore a wary expression.
“Why is a northerner here? This isn’t a safe coastline.”
“I came to ask if King Malerun kept his promise to our tribe.”
“He’s dead. Now this elf woman is the king of this land.”
“I see. So, our tribe is finished.”
The old man sighed self-deprecatingly. He swayed dangerously, as if he might collapse at any moment.
“Your fate might end here too, northerner. Queen Leia hates Malerun, and you sided with him.”
“My fate doesn’t matter. Surviving to this age is a disgrace to me.”
The old man staggered with cloudy eyes. He rubbed his shocked face with dry hands.
“But the fall of Hazard Palen… It can’t be stopped now. There’s no one left to stop the serpent.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“What’s the point of saying it? Leave me be. Or let me die at the hands of those barbaric fairies. Or lend me a sword. At least if I die fighting, it won’t be a shameful life to my ancestors.”
Fernandez stroked his chin for a moment at the old man’s words. He then turned to Leia, who was sitting on the throne, looking at him with bored eyes.
“Queen Leia. May I speak with him privately?”
“What did you two talk about?”
“It seems King Malerun made a deal with this man’s tribe. He wants to clarify it, but the timing isn’t right.”
“Is it something we shouldn’t hear?”
“Not necessarily, but I doubt he’ll speak in front of you.”
Leia frowned for a moment, looking at the old man. There was no reason to spare those who dealt with Malerun, but there was no need to kill him immediately. She shrugged.
“Do as you please. Just make sure to tell me about that damn deal later. Alright, everyone. Dismissed. We’ll continue the meeting tomorrow morning.”
Leia readily sent Fernandez away. Fernandez whispered briefly to the old man and left the Audience Hall with him.
*
As soon as they entered the room, the old man sat by the campfire, rubbing his hands. Fernandez handed him a teacup and sat across from him.
The old man sniffled and stared blankly at the teacup. His face looked even older after the walk here.
“Let’s cut to the chase. What deal did you make with Malerun?”
“It’s none of your business, southerner. Just know that this world is ending.”
“We live in this world too.”
“Damn it. Leave me alone. I came here in a hurry because the starlight was strange, but it’s too late.”
“Don’t give me that nonsense about Malerun being some great hero to save the world. He didn’t have the power for that, and even if he did, he wouldn’t have used it for you northerners or this world.”
“Who would think that cunning old elf would save the world? He and we were just using each other.”
The old man sighed and sipped his tea. A moment of silence passed, and the old man looked at Fernandez with a resigned expression.
“Have you heard of the World Serpent?”
“No. Is it your tribe’s myth?”
“Yes. One day, it will rise and devour the gods and the world…”
“It’s a story about a giant snake that swallows everything. When the end comes, it will rise, twist its body, the seas will turn upside down, and the mountains will crumble.”
“Well, it’s a story you can find anywhere in the world.”
Mentions of the end times are common in every religion worldwide. Whether it’s fire raining from the sky, rising sea levels, or the sun disappearing…
To Fernandez, all of it was just a bunch of ridiculous tales. The apocalypse he witnessed wasn’t written in any prophecy. It was the kind where gates to hell opened, and the world became twisted and corrupted by magic.
The end of the world happened because of humanity’s internal conflicts and betrayals within the tribes. It was caused by followers swayed by the whispers of demons and corrupted mages. As someone who was at the forefront of it all, Fernandez found the global doomsday myths laughable.
When Fernandez chuckled, the old man’s expression twisted.
“Southerners are weak yet arrogant, unable to read the signs of destruction among the stars. It’s not surprising. But you will perish because of that arrogance. The end of the world has already begun.”
“Yeah, the end of the world started long ago, last night. So, did Malerun promise to stop it or something?”
“The gods have bowed to the World Serpent.”
“…What?”
Fernandez, who had been mocking the old man, paused for a moment. The old man glared at him with fiery eyes.
“Ultimately, the Einherjar were defeated. The Valkyries no longer guide warriors to the halls, and the souls of lost warriors wander as wraiths between the winter mountains. The followers of the World Serpent have begun to gain power.”
“Cut the nonsense and tell me. What about the gods?”
The Temple of the Gods was sealed, and the great deities within were still intact. If they had lost their power, Fernandez would have been the first to notice.
So, the god this old man was talking about wasn’t one of theirs.
“The wolf has swallowed the moon and begun to bite the sun. The World Serpent has awakened from its long slumber and is preparing to tear the throat of its adversary. Jormungand, that cursed monster, has risen.”
“Save those fairy tales for your grandchildren. Tell me about your god. Your god.”
The Temple of the Gods, the great deities of the ancient civilization. Beyond them, there were lesser gods, demi-gods, and those who had gained divine status.
In his past life, the elves hunted the lesser gods within their domain. Gods who couldn’t step over the threshold of the Temple of the Gods were hidden and slumbering across the world.
And such beings surely existed in the north too. Though they never revealed themselves until the moment of the world’s destruction, so details were scarce.
When the dark Erik invaded, they had their own religious beliefs. Fernandez rested his chin on his hand and stared at the old man. The old man coughed for a moment, then spoke.
“A few years ago, communication with the gods and spirits was cut off. The village shamans tried several times to summon them, but all failed. In the midst of that, a revelation came. A revelation that the end was coming.”
“And?”
“And three months ago, the Kazaldar Tribe, who served the God-King, suddenly declared their allegiance to a prophet of the World Serpent. During the tribal council, they slaughtered the other chiefs and started a war.”
The old man sipped his tea with cloudy eyes and continued.
“They’re lunatics who openly claim that the World Serpent, dormant since the mythic age, has awakened. They say the time of the end is near, and the gods will no longer lead us to the glorious halls.”
“…Three months ago, you said?”
“Yeah, about three months.”
If it wasn’t a coincidence, Fernandez frowned as he thought. If it wasn’t a coincidence, that was around the time Mumto died in the Great Wilderness.
“The chief of the Kazaldar Tribe died, and his young son became the new leader. That brat Erik. He swept through the battlefield with monstrous strength.”
“…Erik?”
“Yeah! That damn brat. A kid who hadn’t even dried the blood on his head was crushing the best warriors of other tribes one by one with his hand axe, breaking limbs as he fought!”
Erik’s march south was about ten years from now. If he had already unified the north by now through conquest…
“In the midst of that, our leader received a revelation. To help the Elven King hunt the gods. Before the Kazaldar Tribe. The only way to prevent the end of the world is to stop the gods’ power from flowing into them.”
“Who made the prophecy?”
“I don’t know. After that, our leader no longer received any revelations.”
A storm of information swirled in Fernandez’s mind. Erik, the northerners, the tribes not yet unified…
Gods and spirits. It was probably about the lesser gods slumbering in the north and its vicinity, not the gods of the Temple of the Gods.
The ‘Prophets of the World Serpent’ gathering divine power, plotting something. A serpent. Why a serpent? A giant serpent that would bring about the end of the world.
Ridiculous doomsday theories. Demons. Started their activities three months ago. After Mumto died?
‘Good grief. It’s her.’
-Sadarkelisa…
The Serpent Empress. The fallen dragon. One of the five Great Demons, an ancient being. The goddess of the scaled races, the mistress of hell.
She had been sealed and dormant since the Celestial War, and now she was beginning to awaken. If it was her, and if she was affected by the death of a Great Demon…
‘They said she’s trying to kill her adversary.’
-The Celestial Dragon Karadfellin. That guy guarded Sadarkelisa’s seal until the Great War.
‘If Sadarkelisa’s minions are gathering the power of the gods…’
-With that power, they could break the seal and kill Karadfellin.
‘They would tear the veil of the material world and open the gates of hell. Yeah, this old man is right. Then the end would begin.’
A timeline completely different from his past life. He thought the true end was still far off, with plenty of time to prepare for the future. But from a completely unexpected place, he heard a completely unexpected name.
Fernandez narrowed his eyes and glared at the old man.
“Northerner. I need to meet your leader.”
“…Are you saying you’ll help us in place of King Malerun?”
“No, I won’t be hunting gods.”
Fernandez slowly got up and headed to the table where he had been working on documents. He tore off the back page of the report he had just finished.
Soon, he took out a new sheet of paper and picked up a pen.
“It’s a completely different field. I’m a priest of the southern religion, northerner.”
-Diemonica, Fernandez Sernerd. Additional mission proposal.
Fernandez pressed his seal onto the burning candle on the table and then onto the paper. The wax spread in a circular shape.
-We will burn heretics, demons, and witches.
“We hunt demons.”
Fernandez said as he tied the wax-sealed document with a string. It would take some time to return. He laughed self-deprecatingly and tapped the edge of the report.
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