MTLNOVEL Chapter 255
Chapter 255. Seven Ancient Gods (9)
The sixth god, Cernunnos.
Today felt different. Cernunnos was a bit stronger than the other gods, and it was receiving real human sacrifices.
The Garden Research Institute was bustling with preparations for the ritual. I followed the Research Department Head deep into the facility.
“Are the people ready?”
“Three prisoners sentenced to hard labor.”
“Understood.”
The Garden Research Institute was a much older building than the Seoul Branch. It had been abandoned since the Cold War, giving it a more classical feel.
Compared to the Seoul Branch building, which was mostly filled with fluorescent lights and white and gray tiles.
“The ritual is simple. We’ll offer the people to Cernunnos. If we send people into Cernunnos’ Containment Room, it will devour them whole.”
“Really? How?”
“Last time, we carried them in on stretchers after sedating them. It seemed a bit inhumane to let them be eaten alive.”
Is sedating and then killing them more humane?
It wasn’t entirely unreasonable.
Cernunnos had also been severely injured during the siege of Facility No. 1. Feeding it people to help it recover left a bitter aftertaste, but…
I don’t know if there are other options.
I doubt there are.
If left alone, the Garden would erode the real world. Killing Cernunnos might cause the Garden to collapse, or the Garden’s erosion of the real world could spiral out of control.
This is the best method.
It’s not all good, though.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The Research Department Head entered the password, and the meeting room door opened. We sat at the large table in the meeting room.
We were supposed to meet with the Garden Research Institute’s executives here. They seemed a bit busy.
As soon as she sat down, the Research Department Head crossed her legs and took off her shoes. Clearly not in her right mind.
I glanced at Lee Se-ah’s black stockings. She wiggled her feet while scrolling through related data on her device.
Hmm.
“Any new research findings?”
“Since Cernunnos was injured, strange phenomena related to the Garden have been spreading worldwide. It’s been tough to manage, and the Gardeners’ influence seems to have grown.”
“Is the cleanup going well?”
Lee Se-ah tilted her head at this question.
“It’s complicated. Giant centipedes and strange plants… they don’t directly cause casualties, but it’s hard to know what long-term effects they’ll have on the ecosystem.”
“I see.”
Lee Se-ah continued.
“Cernunnos is one of many gods symbolizing nature. Just as humanity has subjugated much of the ecosystem, we’ve conquered Cernunnos and its Garden, but…”
“You mean, regardless of what we can do, we don’t know what the consequences will be? Both in reality and symbolically in our relationship with the gods.”
I stumbled over my words, but the Research Department Head nodded.
“I wonder what the Administrator thinks, but I believe it’s time to make concessions to the Garden, especially in this case.”
I nodded.
“I’ll be right back. I need to check why the other staff haven’t arrived.”
The Research Department Head looked around and left the meeting room. Did something happen?
As soon as the Research Department Head left, a man I’d never seen before entered the meeting room.
An expensive-looking navy suit. Black tie. His age wasn’t immediately obvious, but his hair had streaks of gray.
A sense of unease washed over me.
“Hello, Administrator.”
“Who are you?”
“It’s hard to catch you alone.”
He looked like an orchestra musician—
Ah, shit.
I pulled out my pistol from my coat pocket, emptied the magazine, and summoned all the Popo to my location. The man was pushed against the wall.
He didn’t seem hurt by the bullets. I already had an idea of who he was.
The Colorless Orchestra.
An agent from the resistance group against the Foundation.
The Popo dragged him down. His suit, reinforced or not, didn’t tear even when the Popo bit into it.
He had also blocked the bullets earlier.
I grabbed a monkey wrench from one of the Popo and swung it at his head.
Whatever the situation, it’s better to subdue him first and ask questions later.
Thud!
I don’t know how badly he was hurt, but there was a fair amount of blood on the wrench. I hit him again.
“Strong, as the rumors say—”
I grabbed his collar and kicked him to the other side of the meeting room. The wooden table shattered.
“What do you want?”
“Just a moment—”
Bang!
I threw the mysterious man again. This time, the steel door broke. Blood splattered across the meeting room and the surrounding corridor.
Click.
I aimed the rifle handed to me by one of the Popo at the newcomer, targeting his knees and elbows precisely.
Four gunshots.
The man finally stopped moving. It might seem excessive, but you can’t let your guard down for a second against humanoid supernatural phenomena.
I’ve seen humanoid phenomena with abilities to manipulate reality or rewind time, far stronger than others.
The more they deviated from humanity, the more easily they antagonized or looked down on other humans.
“No, what is this—”
“This is my facility, and one of my guardian deities, Cernunnos, resides here.”
Whether he was disguised or his appearance had changed, I instinctively knew who he was. This man was my brother and adversary.
Blue Rose-1. Contrabass.
A being created from artifacts recovered from the Colorless Orchestra. I’d have to ask why he came all the way here.
“I didn’t expect to lose so embarrassingly.”
“Same here.”
“Losing to Administrator Kim without even a proper weapon.”
“Why did you come?”
“A warning.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re wrong. A world ruled by scientists created by the Foundation. Do you know where a country ruled by scientists existed historically?”
“What?”
“China. They appointed scholar-scientists as high-ranking officials, and the result was China’s infamous one-child policy.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“Your approach is wrong. Trying to control the world better with better equations and machines is meaningless…”
“Do you really believe that?”
“Dr. Kim. Weren’t you planning to offer several innocent people as sacrifices to a monster today?”
Whether they were innocent was debatable. They were prisoners handed over by the government.
“I’m not sure they’re innocent.”
“We, the Orchestra, hate the Foundation’s hypocrisy and stripping magic from the world.”
I tilted my head.
Footsteps. Contrabass lay bleeding in the corridor, and Foundation soldiers, alerted by the commotion, swarmed the scene.
A hand signal to stop.
“What’s that?”
“An intruder.”
“Dead?”
I nodded, and the Popo stepped back. The Foundation soldiers opened fire. Blood splattered everywhere.
“Take this to Cernunnos too. Investigate how he infiltrated.”
Behind the soldiers, the Research Department Head frowned with a somewhat grim expression, as if wondering how he got into my facility.
“Research Department Head. Do you know anything?”
“There seems to be a security issue.”
It wasn’t serious, but if it had been another Foundation employee being targeted, there could have been casualties.
“An agent from the Orchestra.”
“Apologies. We’ll rectify this.”
It was the first time in a while I’d seen the Research Department Head’s serious expression. I simply nodded.
Cernunnos was contained at the center of the Garden Research Institute. Like a corridor-style apartment, the central cylindrical space overlooked Cernunnos’ containment zone.
This allowed monitoring Cernunnos from all angles, shooting or throwing things at it, but the structure had a few vulnerabilities.
“By the way, Dr. Kim. How did you take Cernunnos to the siege of Facility No. 1? It doesn’t seem like there’s a way to get it out of there.”
“We summoned an avatar. It’s a bit complicated.”
Cernunnos still bore the wounds from that battle. Its massive, moss-covered body moved, and metallic blood, faintly glowing like mother-of-pearl, splattered slightly.
The wounds hadn’t healed.
“Ah, ah. It’s starting.”
The facility’s sirens began to blare. We looked down at Cernunnos from a high vantage point.
The massive antlers moved slightly, and something resembling a long tongue…? A tongue-like appendage dragged one of the lying people into the underbrush.
It seemed to have created a new organ to minimize movement due to its injuries.
Second, third.
And finally, Blue Rose-1, Contrabass’s body disappeared into the underbrush.
The end of an era.
An era where supernatural phenomena inexplicably increased in frequency on the Korean Peninsula, spreading like a plague. The conclusion of the Foundation’s civil war.