Shadow of the Evil God

Chapter 178: Further South

Aya hadn't been in town much lately, spending most of her time in the wilderness. However, being in the wilderness didn't mean being deserted. On the contrary, when walking in the wilderness, one could see many people and things that were invisible in the towns. Continuing north from here, as one approached the borders of the Kasar Empire, a vast desert stretched across two countries. It was arid and barren, with only sparse shrubs reportedly covering thousands of miles.

That desert was nothing like the forests of the south, nor like the coastal areas patrolled by military garrisons. There were no towns or farms. It was savage, as wild as if it had never been civilized. The mountains seemed to be piled up with stones, the earth was a patchwork of cracked loess fragments, and thorn bushes formed poisonous curtains that crisscrossed the desert, tangled and inextricable, looking like a pile of inextricable knots.

She was used to the cold climate of Neuen and could hardly stand the scorching sun of the desert, which made her uncomfortable even at the edge. There were almost no edible beasts there, and the few that could be eaten were poisonous snakes and lizards.

Imperial emperors expanding their territories would ignore it, and wartime armies would try to avoid it, leaving no garrisons. Because of this, as a vast wilderness straddling two countries, disaster-stricken farmers, war refugees, fleeing criminals, and those escaping forced labor would all pass through this land. In the past, some traveled from Domini, south of the desert, to the north, but now, everyone travels from the northern part of the desert, the Kasar Empire, to the south.

Ajeh took her to the edge of the desert for a few days, deciding to first purchase some supplies before heading north. In just a few days at the edge, Aya had already witnessed many things rarely seen in the Noien region. Thirst and hunger were not to be mentioned, and the crisscrossing thorn bushes, poisonous insects, snakes, and lizards in the desert were far more dangerous than the trees and beasts in the forest. Some refugees, along with their families, made their way south along the desert, only to reach the edge of the desert, starving corpses covered in scars and bruises, some even carrying their own sun-dried children on their backs.

This town, a refuge for those who had managed to escape the desert, was a gathering place for homeless people desperate for a living. Simple brick houses were crammed together on both sides of the dock. There were few places to stay, and the alleys were crammed with people. Beneath the low eaves lay damp, peeling walls. The cracked walls were covered in salt and moss, some of which was being scraped off and eaten by the starving.

Patrolling troops from the Dominican Kingdom, wearing armor and carrying spears, passed along the avenue, plastering notices on shop walls, most of them wanted posters depicting human heads. Although the desert wasn't considered a safe haven for humans, and its depths were a renowned death zone, bandits used it as a base from which to attack nearby pedestrians. When the patrols passed, silence fell, but once they were gone, the area suddenly became noisy again.

Like Neuen, the docks were surrounded by people, but the overall situation was much worse than Neuen. The rotten fish and old corpses deep in the alleys were left unattended, emitting a foul stench, not to mention cleaning up the feces of humans and livestock.

You know, in Neuen, there's a dedicated feces gang that collects feces from the entire lower city and sells it to the city lord to make saltpeter. They've even formed a monopoly, forming a mafia. Most respectable people don't want to mess with the feces gang, unless they want to wake up in front of their house to find a mountain of shit piled up to their knees, making it impossible to even take a step out.

Suspicious vendors peddled all sorts of dubious wares on street corners, disheveled prostitutes solicited business in huts, and drunken sailors brawled with local gangs of porters, their heads bloodied before being dragged deep into the alleys and vanished. This place, near the bandit-infested desert, was clearly more rampant than in Neuen. Some, unwary, would be packed into sacks and shipped elsewhere at night, bound for forced labor from which they would never return.

You have to know that at the edge of the desert, people can at least go through the process of being caught by slave traders before being forced to do labor. If they do not leave the desert, many people will not even have time to go far and will be captured by the imperial army and directly forced to do labor.

Perhaps it was because she was so neatly packed, or perhaps because she stood out so much on her own, but before she'd even gotten far, Aya noticed someone following her. Besides the stench of fish, they carried the scent of fresh blood. As a child who had spent her childhood mingling with various gangs in the lower port of Neuen, she was all too familiar with the smell.

Aya rounded a corner and entered a narrow alley, stepping over several homeless people lying half-dead on the ground. As expected, she reached a dead end. The footsteps were no longer disguised, approaching rapidly. Following the sound, she could see a complete three-person gang blocking the alley along her path in the shadows.

The garrisons in the towns naturally wouldn't care about this. On the one hand, the slave traders would certainly pay them tributes. On the other hand, in the business of purchasing cheap slaves for labor, the local armies were the main trading parties. Other forms of slave trading could only account for a fraction compared to military supplies.

The other party said something to her, but due to the language barrier, she couldn't understand it at all. However, since she was mute, there was no need to communicate. Aya pursed her lips and retreated, first throwing out a dozen copper coins. One person stopped and began to pick them up, while the other two continued to surround her from either side. Then she retreated further, until she was against the wall. The drunk with the swollen nose who was the leader finally reached out to her.

She immediately punched the opponent on the cheek, with her middle finger knuckle protruding forward, hitting him accurately.

The tip of his nose, the cartilage at the tip of his nose, dislocated and shattered against his palate, causing him to wail in agony. Admittedly, this punch was thrown with resentment, not at this stranger, but at another stranger who had been filled with curses and countless vengeful spirits of the dead and then thrown aside.

Although the fate of ordinary people is generally like this, the only difference is whether to suffer less torture before dying or to suffer more torture while alive, but since she has the opportunity to express the hope that she could not express in the first half of her life, she will of course seize it.

She whistled happily, laughing at his miserable appearance, then grabbed his big hand that he stretched out cursingly, squeezed it hard, and twisted it around his wrist like twisting a rag, with the sound of bones breaking, she received another more heart-wrenching scream.

He is so tenacious. Most people would have fallen down with their hands covering their face if their nose was broken like this.

Aya dragged the drunkard by his completely rotten wrist and threw him aside, slamming him to the ground. Then, with a lurch, she ducked, dodging the other man's furious swing of a wooden club. She landed a punch right in his jaw—how dare he, so tall, look down at her? The blow knocked his upper teeth against his lower, sending a mouthful of blood and broken teeth spurting out, knocking him off balance. Then, she swung her fist into the big man's face, sending his head crashing down onto the ground, sending a cloud of dust billowing and the distinct crack of a skull.

The last person, about to reach for a dagger, saw the devastation, snatched up her copper coins, and ran. Aya, holding onto the wall, gave a powerful push, instantly leaping over the corpses, leaping over ten meters before landing on the man's back. She crushed him to the ground, crushing his fragile spine.

She grabbed the body as it was about to escape to the alley entrance, lifted it by the ankles, and dragged it all the way to the shadows at the deepest part of the alley. She not only found the copper coins she had used for her purchases, but also a few extra silver coins, three finely crafted canteens, and even half a bag of pears. She whistled, put the coins back into the bag, tucked the canteen into the bag behind her cloak, and walked away from the scene, chewing the pears as she went.

At this point, she had completed more than half of her purchases, and the merchant even gave her some money, so it can be said that things were going smoothly.

Aya wandered around, trying to find a vendor willing to pay her, when she saw the refugees, who smelled like wild animals. She gnawed down to the tiny seeds inside the pear, cracked them open, and stood at a distance, watching them for a long time as they went.

Further south?

Chapter 179 Feeding

......

Their destination was Fort Gural, but Cesar decided to stay in Gonzales first. He took the princess to inspect the workshop, which had recently resumed production, hoping to take on the remaining responsibilities of a teacher. Otherwise, he would be too much of a talking reference book. That being said, he had never actually been a teacher. Most of the time, he was left to figure things out on his own, and he couldn't guarantee the extent of his own achievements.

Cesar reorganized the workshop's personnel structure. Since taking over the Gonzales region, he had transferred all the raw materials, weapons, and food that had been stored throughout the region to the fortress warehouses. Some was also stored in the town of Corina, near the fortress, and artisans from all over the region were gathered together. Numerous freight convoys waited on the highway, either transporting raw materials to Corina or waiting to load various packaged crates, barrels, and sacks.

"I think there's room for improvement in production here," he said to the Collina town official, holding up a recent report. "Bring over whoever we can find and have the foremen select them. They'll then arrange one or two more shifts depending on the situation. We still need more workers. You might think we have enough, but there never will be, because efficiency can always be improved."

They led the officer onward, first inspecting the foundry. Upon seeing the Governor arrive, the foreman was about to offer his greeting, but before he could utter a word, the officer preemptively demanded an increase in shifts. His face darkened.

"There are only so many craftsmen in Gonzales!" the old foreman declared passionately. "How can I conjure up another group of people and another group of shifts out of thin air?"

"I promoted you, gave you this position, and paid you so much, and you're having trouble talking to me about it?" Cesar looked at him. "You're the most prestigious craftsman here. Find me a way to improve things. I want to see more shifts and higher production before I go to Fort Gural. The specifics of how you do that are up to you."

"We need to actually talk about..."

"Okay, take me with you and we'll go to the workshop to discuss this now. That's the most practical way."

They followed the old foreman, passing through the gate emitting waves of heat and entering the workshop. He looked up, and the entire ceiling was glaring red from the smelting furnace's flames. The dark beams crisscrossed, resembling the skeleton of a giant. The constant pounding of hammers filled the air, and the vibrations grew stronger the further they went. Even if they covered their ears with their hands, they could still feel their eardrums vibrating. In the crimson reflections, people moved back and forth, and dark shadows swayed everywhere, evoking the imagery of a fiery hell from religious legends.

Cesar gave Altinya some time to buffer, and only after she had somewhat overcome her discomfort with the foundry environment did they continue to move in.

"These are our only blacksmiths," the foreman said, pointing to the area where the hammering sounds were the loudest. "They have to hammer the hot metal into shape. The thickness, shape, temperature assessment, and how to apply force all require extensive experience. You can't just find some random people to do this job."

"I know the whole process," Cesar said to him, "Not only do I know it, I also know that you didn't tell me about the subsequent processing. Trimming off excess metal corners, filing edges, polishing surfaces, these are not things that they have to do. I want you to tell me how much time your skilled craftsmen spend on these processes?" As he said this, he walked to the side of a craftsman who was processing the hand guard parts and asked him to stand aside.

He picked up the gauntlet and pointed at the rough edges. "File the edges," he said. "It takes a fair amount of patience and skill, but I don't think an apprentice with a short training period can't do it. If you can get your skilled craftsmen to focus more on what they're supposed to be focusing on, they can forge more parts in the same amount of time. Do you understand?"

"But each person can only take on a limited number of apprentices," the foreman replied. "You can't expect our experienced people to take on that many apprentices. We simply don't have enough manpower."

Cesar shook his head. "Who told you to take apprentices? You even have so many different types of craftsmen. Can't you further subdivide them and have them focus solely on filing? Screen a group of people based on their physical fitness, give them a short period of training, and then immediately put them on the job after they pass the test. If you think they're not qualified enough, it's okay to let them file for the rest of their lives. Many people just need to make a living anyway."

"This is too..."

"The difficulties in the details," Cesar said, raising his hand to signal him to stop. "You can find a way to overcome them yourself. And polishing the surface—I hope that when I inspect the forge in the future, I can see that the blacksmiths are actually hammering the red-hot metal, rather than using sandpaper to wipe the scratches and flaws on the surface of the parts, wasting their precious working time. Why can't you use all the good steel on the blade?"

"This is to ensure that the final armor is of higher quality," the foreman said. "I hope every step is completed as perfectly as possible."

"This isn't armor for the nobility," Cesar denied. "Didn't you notice there aren't any artisans here adding all sorts of insignificant family crests and decorative patterns to the finished pieces? I don't need them to be particularly sophisticated, just enough to stop the claws of wild beasts or cushion the damage from musket fire. Do you understand?"

The foreman had nothing to say but nodded in agreement, and they continued walking down. When they passed the area where armor parts were assembled, he glanced at the foreman and gestured for him to fill in the laborers who had completed short-term training here as well.

"This matter has a great impact on the overall structure and strength of the armor," the foreman stated.

"I don't think it's difficult," Cesar said. "We already have special tools for punching. Have your craftsmen mark the location of the holes on the parts, mark the required size and depth, and then organize a group of trained young men who only know how to operate the punching machines according to the markings. Their whole day's work is to place the parts on the workbench and punch the required holes. It's simple and boring, but as long as there's food to eat, you can let those who are almost starving to death work for as many years as you want."

Seeing his gaze drifting off again, the foreman quickly said, "Piercing is fine, but riveting is not!"

After completing his inspection of the foundry, Cesar bid farewell to the foreman and took the princess and the official to the lumberyard. Almost two months had passed, and the long-abandoned waterwheel was nearly repaired. It intercepted the turbulent torrent in the valley and, through gear transmission, powered the forging operations in the foundry. With the waterwheel, many other workshop operations could also be utilized.

Unlike the foundry, which requires a large number of skilled craftsmen, the lumber workshop now operates two shifts, staffed by men, women, and able-bodied children from across Gonzales. Stronger workers collaborate to load the logs onto the sawing tables, while those with a bit more strength carry the cut wood. Others clean up the wood chips, keeping the workshop running smoothly.

There are two types of craftsmen here. One is responsible for maintaining the machinery, ensuring that the whirring circular saws can continue to work continuously throughout the day, except for brief maintenance and inspection breaks. The other is naturally the experienced carpenters, who provide the required wood for various types of military equipment. There is a demand for wood for musket stocks, armor supports, long handles for weapons, the base structure of artillery, and even battlefield engineering facilities.

Cesar checked the efficiency of operations in the wood workshop, then went to the weapons warehouse to examine the pyramids of cast iron rounds and grenades, checking that they were of the correct diameter and that they were greased and stored in the right conditions to prevent rust.

"Use a lens to inspect the barrel of the artillery piece," he told the quality inspector. "There must be a standard for smoothness, and a limit on the depth of trachoma. Those who fail to meet the standards will be penalized, and burrs must be polished away."

"Are the cannons here too small?" Artinya suddenly asked.

Cesar explained to the princess why he chose light artillery as his primary weapon. "Artillery requiring more than ten horses to pull it is a heavy logistical burden and is also detrimental to battlefield deployment. Last time, if I hadn't held the pass, the mages would have completely destroyed the heavy artillery positions. Using light artillery as the primary weapon, each cannon only needs one horse, or even no horses at all, and can be pulled by a few infantrymen. The burden of fodder would be greatly reduced, and marching efficiency would be significantly improved."

"What about the lack of firepower?"

"We can compensate for this by using flexible battlefield deployment and increased artillery numbers. This light artillery, paired with standard artillery carts, is just as efficient as infantry in terms of movement. If needed, we can move the artillery across the battlefield to support a specific direction and focus on a specific area. Of course, another important reason is that if we sense signs of a spell, we can send a battlefield signal, allowing soldiers to quickly move the artillery away from the danger zone. You can't just rely on Diana to block it all."

"I understand, sir," Altinia replied. "Then again, I initially thought you had a different understanding of military operations, but when you talk to the artisans, you act like one, too."

"I think you can do it, and you're not far off," he said. "The assumptions you mentioned earlier are indeed the result of your observations along the way. If you take a step further and look beyond the superficial, your assumptions can become more than just assumptions."

Cesar took Artinya to inspect all the workshops, talked to every foreman, and wrote an inspection record of the operation of each workshop, preparing to keep it for further study later.

"In general," Cesar said after sending the officer away, "if you thoroughly understand how they operate, you'll know how they can be successfully reorganized and become more efficient. Even if you can't figure it out right away, if you record your findings and gather a group of people to analyze them, you'll be able to determine whether the methods they offer are feasible. Furthermore, you'll be able to tell whether the people you thought you could trust are bluffing you or truly working for you."

The two of them ended up at a food factory in town that had been set up specifically for the army.

"There seem to be more freight trucks here than in other workshops?" asked Altinya.

"If you have ever eaten moldy bread and rotten meat." Cesar glanced at her and received a polite but slightly helpless smile from the princess.

“Personally, I still don’t want to experience life in the slums,” she said. “It’s unnecessary. But I understand what you’re saying.”

"You can predict the difference between one way of filling your stomach and another." He had to continue, "You don't need to spend more on food, as long as you give priority to ensuring the supply of this logistics route.

Delivery efficiency ensures that the bread delivered to the front lines is always a few days old, the meat is always good, and the wine is sealed tightly. In this way, even if the soldiers cannot eat their fill due to supply problems, their morale will not be easily shaken.

Cesar met the cook and received the anise cider and sweet rolls for the officers. He wanted to take them and continue explaining, but found his hands were covered with sawdust, soot, and grease from the guns, so he had the cook put them on the wooden stake nearby.

She took the bread, picked up a small piece, and tore it apart with her teeth, eating it quickly and cleanly with the efficiency of an officer. "For rations, it tastes very good," she agreed, and then swallowed a sip of cider.

Cesar shook his head. "Well, it's almost night, if you want to eat, just eat..."

Altinya tore off another piece and fed it to him, her index finger brushing across his lips. It was a little moist, with a hint of sweetness from cider and bread.

"It's almost night," she said with a smile. "What I want to say is that I've come to many conclusions that can't be drawn from historical records. During this time, I want to do some inspections and investigations on my own. But when we reach Gural Fortress, please take me to visit all the nearby towns as you did today."

Cesar swallowed the bread with difficulty. "You do things that are really shocking sometimes," he said.

"Are you frightened? I don't think you need to be so serious, sir," she said, tearing off a piece herself and then handing him another.

This man's identity was so complex, entwined not only with distant people and events, but also with those most intimately connected to him. Cesar didn't know how to respond. After finishing his bread, he went to the river to wash his grimy hands. At his side, Altinya gazed at the nearby workshop, lost in thought. As he lowered his head, a bell rang somewhere in town. When he turned back, he found her eyes closed, quietly waiting, as if for the clear echo of the bell to fade with the dusk.

Silence reigned all around. He stared at the princess's unresponsive profile, feeling as if he were in an ancient, dilapidated palace awaiting the coronation ceremony. The thought was truly unreal. Then he realized she looked younger than twenty, far too young. Perhaps he hadn't usually realized her youth. The eyes in her oval face were always calm, unruffled. Her nose was straight and delicate, and her lips were meticulously embellished. Her waist-length silver hair, like carefully polished silver threads, was tied behind her ears with two purple ribbons. In the fading twilight, it seemed as if snowflakes were drifting through it, gleaming silver.

"The moon came out unusually early today," Artinya suddenly said, explaining the vision before him. "Do you know the meaning of this bell, Teacher Cesar?"

Cesar blinked. "I don't know," he said, "but if we run out of ore, we could melt down that bell and make a lot of cannons."

Chapter 180: Night in the Wasteland

......

Legosius folded his wings and soared across the night sky, pitch black as a deep pool. Leaden clouds piled up, surging with a repressed roar, like a boiling sea. The ocean carried him forward, through the bottomless abyss humans named sanctuary, crossing a thousand meters in an instant. The jagged world still oppressed his breath, but it had recently eased slightly. It seemed that the time for his horde to once again fill the sky was not far off.

For a life like it that didn't care about the passage of time, urgency wasn't something it often felt, but the monk's daily oppression of its body and soul had already brought it unusually severe torture. It couldn't help but recall the mad king of the Kuna people, and thought that they actually had quite a few similarities.

But what is the reason that makes them so similar?

A thousand years have passed since the present world, and yet these two beings, who had no connection at all, unexpectedly share the same shadow. Furthermore, they too, on similar paths, with similar purposes, called upon the true God. This similarity makes it seem as if they were not acting on their own accord, but rather as tools of some unknown conspiracy...

But it didn't matter. Whether those two lunatics were instigated to go mad or went mad on their own, the next era they would usher in was undeniable. The creatures born from the present world had occupied the world for too long. It was time to let the wasteland and all it held return to the light.

The abyss receded, and Legos spread his pale wings, sweeping over the mountaintops. He flew over the mountain range that stretched from north to south, toward the enlightened being who was getting closer and closer to the true God.

In fact, from its perspective, Cesar was the chosen one who should receive the revelation. His continued existence proved that he was the one who should initiate the transition of eras and draw the wasteland into the modern world. This was a process more in line with the laws of era change. While it would still eliminate humanity's status, it would not be as cruel and thorough as the change initiated by the Kuna people.

But the rules have been set by Thain.

If a chess player truly existed, its thinking would surely be extremely clear and precise. Given the Kuna's experience with failure, its moves this time would undoubtedly be more cautious and prudent. There had been no signs of its existence until the epochal transition was forced to halt. Would there be any clues this time?

Legosius longed to delve into the secrets of the depths of darkness.

......

The sky spun, and night fell again. Within a few breaths, it gave way to blood-red daylight, and then again, repeating itself over and over again, creating a chaotic and eerie pattern of light and darkness on the ground. The hollow sun soared to the top of the mountain, stagnating for a whole day before slowly setting like an old man in his twilight years. And then, night fell once more.

They huddled in a natural shelter formed by several gray boulders, waiting for everything to pass before taking action. Diana was meditating as a sorcerer, Phil was completely unconscious, and Cesar could only curl up in a ball, gazing at the rotating sky through the cracks in the rocks. The passage of time was meaningless, and so were the food and water that gave life. Aside from the terrible torment endured by the mind, nothing else held the same meaning as in the present world.

The wilderness is so incomprehensible.

Ever since the last time Phils found those shadowy, ownerless souls, they have been staying in this rocky mountain in the wilderness, waiting for an unknown sight to pass by. It was not only the sun, but also an eye, empty and pure, searching for human traces among the rocks at a meaningless distance. It might be searching for them.

The night before, Cesar had spent a little over a minute among the rocks before Diana told him the night was over and it was time to return to the real world. That night, he felt like he had been in the wasteland for months, even years. Although the exact time was definitely less than one night, he couldn't reason with himself to convince himself otherwise.

At least this curtain of boulder provided a welcome respite, shielding against the biting wind and the scorching heat. Cesar felt like he was in a cave, cut off from the outside world. He only had to take a step or two outside to feel the heat threatening to burn him to a crisp. Then, in a moment of daze, the evening breeze would penetrate his skin, chilling him to the bone.

During this time, Cesar meditated for more than an hour according to Diana's method, and then was forced to wake up again. It must be admitted that meditation was almost not meditation for him. It was all short dreams with confused consciousness, or even not dreams. It was just fragmented hallucinations and fantasies that visited him when he closed his eyes.

He saw Firth kneeling on the ground, bending down, touching his face. It was as if it was Firth who was awake in the wilderness, and he himself who was unconscious. Her eyes, far from being gloomy, pierced his own like knives. When he fully regained consciousness, he realized that the eyes he had mistaken for Ajeh's were silver stars against the blood-red sky.

This guy was more than he was used to the emptiness of the wasteland.

Cesar wasn't keen on feeding the beast with his own flesh and blood, but oftentimes, pain in the midst of a void with no end in sight was more soothing. He brought the wolf girl, now smaller than Phils, to him and placed his wrist in her mouth, clearly feeling the sting of her fangs.

When people stand on the edge of nothingness, it is easy to fall into madness, thinking that no matter what happens, no matter how twisted and horrible it is, as long as it can bring clear feelings, it can save them from nothingness. Sometimes, he even wants to get out of the wooden box.

He held Phils in his arms, using her terrifyingly light and unconscious body to comfort his heart.

The ebb and flow of the day and night originally had the meaning of recording time, making people feel that their lives had experienced a new day, but after time lost its meaning, he could only see that everything on the sky was like epilepsy, alternating between slowness and convulsions.

For a while, they were practically strobing, driving him crazy the moment he opened his eyes.

Time passed so quickly and so slowly here. Cesar felt as if the tides were rising and falling. The boundless rocky plains transformed into a swamp, the boulders covered by dense vegetation. The swamp was then sealed in the cold plain. In an instant, the vegetation that covered everything withered and disappeared, leaving only a few branches and leaves around him. He didn't even notice that his hand was eaten, but later he discovered that as time passed, he naturally grew a new hand. It was as if the boundaries between life and death, even the incompleteness and wholeness of the body, no longer had a clear boundary.

How many times had this hand been eaten and regrown? Cesar looked at his right hand and felt that it had happened many times, but he couldn't remember how many times. He regained some consciousness, held her face, and inserted his index finger from the corner of her mouth to touch her fangs. "You should have eaten enough, right, Ajie?"

Chapter 181: A Little Different from What I Imagined

“It doesn’t necessarily make sense in many places in the wilderness,” she said. “I was just remembering what it felt like to eat.”

Cesar understood what she meant, for her incessant biting had lasted for quite some time. "How do you survive in the wilderness?"

“No one would dwell for long in a place so distorted in time,” Ajeh said. “At least not those who live in the present world, for whom the passage of time still has meaning.”

"I don't want to stay long, but I don't know what that thing in the sky is looking for."

"Perhaps a deity," Ajeh said. "Although they can't interfere with the real world, they sometimes cast their gaze upon the wasteland, whether intentionally or unintentionally, severely disrupting all order nearby. Considering our relationship with Analik, no matter what it's looking for, whether it's us or not, our presence in its sight won't have any good consequences."

A god, or rather, what Firth called a demon. Even if it were a demon, it would have to be a primordial being. Cesar felt a sense of illusory at the thought of the word. However, after Ajeh suggested it might be a god observing the wasteland, Cesar's sense of strangeness intensified. He gazed at the blood-red sun and felt a strange trance creeping into his heart, as if it were being sucked away. After that, his trance intensified, as did the gaping emptiness that filled his soul.

The feeling grew stronger, making him feel like the sky was a bottomless abyss, into which everything was endlessly falling. Perhaps he should step out of the shelter of the boulder and fall into the swirling sky; that would have been the right choice, but Ajehe bit his wrist, and the intense pain brought him back to his senses.

After the trance, an unbearable fear returned. He clung to the rocks, feeling as if the sky were an upside-down sea, and everything on earth was falling. The flat ground beneath him stung with such intensity that sleep was impossible; he needed a sharp knife to lie on to soothe his body. The hair on his forehead felt boundless, as if mountains were collapsing and about to crush him. The endless rocky plain beneath him was as thin as a needle, making it impossible to maintain balance. He felt as if he were about to fall, plunging into the seething abyss surrounding it.