CHAPTER 38: THE VERDANT CALAMITY, PHASE II (THE MIRROR OF MORTALITY)

The pain as Cecilia’s body flew through the forest was so excruciating she thought she would black out. But the robe’s magic healed her before she landed.

"Ugh... Enemies with regeneration in anime make it look so cool, as if the pain was nothing... Once again, reality loses to art."

She stood back up, knowing what she needed to do.

She ran back towards the Vertant Calamity, dodging the vines and branches in the way.

:::

A few weeks ago, in Cecilia’s timeline, she created a quest with the powers entrusted to her by the devs.

She designed a Miracle, which is a technique only priests who broke the level limit of the priest job and maxed the skills were able to cast, and the devs implemented it in the game.

She resisted the urge to call it ’Memento Mori,’ as it would be too obvious. So she called it Thanaphysis in the Ephyraeon language. It was a projection spell that forced the target to perceive its own mortality.

She then gave the scroll with the spell to an NPC with the corresponding levels, designed the NPC’s personality to be twisted and insane, and let her loose in a player city. The Church issued the request to hunt that priestess and forbid the use of the spell.

Cecilia had, of course, learned the spell as well. It was a forbidden miracle, and the Church wouldn’t be happy with their founder casting it, but she had to try it.

After all, the enemy in front of her shouldn’t have a self-aware mind, but it was called forth by mortality. It always existed, being reborn every time the balance of life and death was derailed, and going back to sleep when it was restored.

She jumped up the trees, reaching the same height of the monster’s face.

"Thanaphysis."

("The Reflection of Death")

At that exact moment, the monster froze.

The core on its chest began shining a corrupted light and showing lines of debugging text that float around it before disappearing.

[ERROR: CYCLE BREACH DETECTED.]

[RESTORATION LOOP INFINITE.]

[ERROR 7aaf09f390c57c2e2a06c06b81cdc54e.]

[RESTORATION LOOP CAN’T BE COMPLETED.]

"Okay, so this guy is still a construct. I don’t know how long it will take for him to escape the loop, so I better start working. Thread-Sight."

She activated the technique that allows her to see the lifelines of all beings. Then she gets down to the ground. There, she draws three deep breaths, presses the palm of her hand onto the ground, and begins chanting.

"Eireneth melathion, thyra es phorion.

Ephemar hushai, phaneros eiden.

Nythea lytha, anthyra kaleo.

Phōs es eirēnē. Kai moratha menō."

("Stillness of rest, gate of passage.

Soul in silence, I behold the light.

Death fades, rebirth I call.

Light into peace. And the cycle remains.")

A wave of bluish shimmer ripples outward from the palm of her hand. It expands over the ground in a circle with a radius of one kilometer.

When she finishes chanting, a faint wind arises in the area. But it’s not normal wind, as the air is in complete stillness. It’s soulwind.

Inside that radius, all places where a death has occurred in the last month shine. She could sense them in her mind, through the spell, even though she couldn’t see them. The identity of the dead, the cause of death, and the timing.

"So someone was really overhunting here, and they weren’t villagers. Well, I’ll deal with that later. For now, I need to appease that guy."

The souls of killed animals were still there, scattered and restless. That pooled death corrupted the mana and was the trigger to spawn the Calamity.

She looked at the monster, and it was still locked up in its catatonic state but was already showing signs of breaking off the loop.

"I must hurry. Let’s begin with bringing peace to those souls."

She traces a spiral in the air with the tip of her staff, with each motion leaving afterimages of teal light. She draws the first spiral in a counterclockwise rotation to symbolize decay, then clockwise to symbolize rebirth.

"Aelun ythera, saen thul."

("Rise, forgotten embers.")

Her voice sounds not like the imposing chanting of a spell but soft like a prayer.

Like attending to her voice, the glowing souls of the slain wildlife lift from the ground, the trees, and pools of water. They drift upward like fireflies, pulsing like a heartbeat.

At that moment, a roar echoes through the forest. A glance was enough for Cecilia to understand that the Calamity had broken out of the loop. But, instead of resuming the rampage, it was looking at her, as if something deep inside it recognized what she was doing.

Cecilia then continued her ritual. She knelt on the ground and again pressed her free palm on the soil. The other hand was still holding the staff, which she planted into the ground.

The staff grew roots, countless silvery filament-thin tendrils connecting each to the place of one death.

"Mori ysae, thun elaris."

("Rest, and let the weight be known.")

Her whisper reaches each and every floating soul, whose light then flickers. Some of them glow in pure gold, rising freely and floating away to the heavens.

But the majority doesn’t have that luck. The ones who died violent deaths turn into a disease-green color instead. But even those are different from each other.

The ones whose bodies were consumed by their hunters have a fainter green, while the rest pulse violently, creating vines of decay that tether them firmly to the ground.

Cecilia gasps, then takes another deep breath, draining that corruption and rightful anger into herself. Her eyes burn silver as the burden of their last moments floods her memory.

She grits her teeth, forcing herself to not let go, to accept it all. The pain of countless deaths echoes through her own body, tearing into her consciousness. Yet, she stood through all.

When the built-up pain was reaching the limits of what she could bear, the chrysalis on the top of the staff cracked open, releasing hundreds of spectral butterflies. They swirl in tight circles, scattering to the fallen wildlife and decaying plants.

"Epheron ysaw, nyth elara. Mori thal enae thura."

("Sleep, forest of grief. Awaken as the garden of dawn.")

The butterflies begin to disintegrate into particles that merge with the souls, cleansing their corruption. The green turns to amber, then white, then gold, and the now-freed souls float out to the heavens.

The Verdant Cataclysm, seeing that, let out a satisfied grunt and sits its huge body on the ground, looking curiously at Cecilia.

She holds its gaze, then raises the staff, pointing at it, uttering the final verse of the prayer.

"Enael moris cyl enae. Saen ephor, ythera thal."

("What was broken shall breathe again. Through death, through dawn.")

A silver line appears, connecting the beast’s core to the staff, then to Cecilia herself. It lasts, therefore, just a second, but the color of the core changes, taking the silver-purple hue of her hair.

The Verdant Cataclysm grunts one last time before a bark-like material envelops it, forming a wooden cocoon.

Seeing that, Cecilia smiles.

((This has never happened in the game... what the hell?))

Then she faints.