Famine 163: The Final Gift

Si Zhiyan smiled and nodded.

【Eye】 stared intently at the overlapping figures of Kazuko and Si Zhiyan, letting out a shrill cry, while the air around them trembled once more.

She was weeping.
She was full of regret, jealousy, on the verge of collapse, yet she would do everything in her power to let her sister live.

The deadly blood mist still filled the air, but suddenly, a bloody rain began to fall. A torrential downpour crashed from the sky, each raindrop a dense, razor-sharp needle, carrying a strong malice that threatened to flay and grind flesh to bloodied pulp.

This time, from within the “Gem Domain,” a beam of light shot up from the ground.

It was a small, orange-red flower, flickering with sparks, flowing like molten lava through the air.

【Ashen Flower—Lava】

Clang! Clang!

A ripple surged at his side, and a band of short, burly figures burst up from all directions like marmots. Gem pendants dangled at their waists, steam rose from their bodies, and joy beamed from their faces.

—The Lava Folk had arrived.

Heave-ho! Heave-ho! Strike the bones of the mountain,
Sweat pouring onto skins cast in molten earth!
Heave-ho! Heave-ho! Look beneath Fukuko’s feet,
Even the miner dogs’ stubby legs can kick at the stars!

They chanted heartily, hammer after hammer, and in the blink of an eye, they built the phantom of a mineshaft before Si Zhiyan and Kazuko. Molten earth as the base, wood as the frame, and enchanted gems shining throughout the carefully structured support.

Countless rain needles struck against the phantom walls of the tunnel, but could do nothing—splinters spun off and gradually faded away.

A third beam of light shot up from the depths, a black, tentacle-twined energy writhing into the open.

Sol, who-knows-when-it-had-arrived, pressed against Si Zhiyan’s leg. The little puppy, tan and fluffy like a Shiba Inu, had tentacles that swirled atop its back. It yipped, wagging its tail.

The puppy nuzzled his leg, its soft warmth banishing the chill from Si Zhiyan at once. Si Zhiyan looked down and smiled, reaching out to stroke its head.

Behind Sol, countless phantom puppies erupted from the black abyss—an enormous, golden, furry mass, barking, surging together at the “Eye’s” flower.

The miner dogs with their tentacles.

【…You…you…】

The blood-red spider lilies shivered; even the “Eye’s” voice had lost its previous sharpness. A ring of ritual patterns rose up around her—bright red as blood, glowing faintly, reminiscent of ritual circles from long ago.

There must have been an instant in which she could have destroyed all these dear little dogs.

Yet, in a fleeting moment… she—Aiko—hesitated, unable to strike.

In the blink of an eye, she was awash in the dogs’ energy.

……

Si Zhiyan took a deep breath and straightened slowly. His back was drenched with cold sweat, but he had no time to care. He only bowed his head, wiped the blood from his lips with his handkerchief, and said:

“Let’s begin.”

Kazuko nodded and rang her kagura bell.

Chime!

This time, the forest itself began to quake.

All the trees wrenched free their roots and started to move.

Centered on the farm, the entire Blackthorn Forest converged toward them.

Countless blackthorn trunks marched in dense ranks, radiating outward, vaulting up to the sky, as if the forest itself was collapsing inwards.

This time, nothing stopped them. The insect swarms had already ceased their assault; at some point, the walls had quietly withdrawn and the lava moat had faded away. The blackthorn trees and the farm’s guardians interwove, becoming indistinguishable from one another.

They occupied the meadows, the flower fields, even the iced-over lakes. All across the land, spider lilies were encircled on every side.

Unnoticed, endless black woods had swallowed the entire farm.

These guardian samurai stood tall in death, the most faithful children of Tenman Paradise. Every corner was steeped in the breath of the “Heavenly Pulse.” Their vivid presence marked the gathering of all spirits from Tenman Paradise.

Samurai, miner dogs, lava folk… all filled every space.

From above, the farm’s border had vanished. Without a careful look, it was almost impossible to distinguish farm from Tenman Paradise—the two had become one.

This was Tenman Paradise.

Against the whole of Tenman Paradise, Si Zhiyan and Kazuko now stood facing the “Eye.”

—Ah, yes.

This was Si Zhiyan’s plan.

He knew full well that with his and the farm’s current strength, there was absolutely no way to shake the main god’s fully realized “Eye.” This was precisely why the Supreme God, though knowing his schemes, didn’t bother to so much as glance his way.

From any angle, he was simply too weak.

Si Zhiyan slipped his hands in his pockets, gazing at Aiko with calm and candor.

So what,
Kill me—someone so powerless, and destroy this land you’ve protected for so long. And your sister.

……

【Eye】 trembled.

She, with narrow, pale pupils, looked at Kazuko’s pallid face.

In the chaos and bitter resentment of the “Eye’s” gaze, for one fleeting moment, a shimmer of water appeared, reflecting Kazuko’s form.

Her other half.

Through countless centuries of endless torment, the chaos was required to make decisions—to identify players who threatened the game, to monitor and kill them. That’s why there were moments of clarity when the Supreme God would hang aloft in the sky, staring from bloodshot eyes, scanning for danger.

Every single second was pain, every second an agony bordering on annihilation.

When she could bear it no longer, she would silently lower her gaze and draw out her most precious treasure, seeking just a bit of strength to endure.

Those were scattered fragments of memory—the happiest, most beautiful days of her life.

To be honest, those weren’t even truly carefree days.

The days of training were grueling and bleak; Aiko had been no more than a child, not even ten. Though all the focus was on Aiko as the “Heavenly Pulse Maiden,” only she knew herself as someone useless.

The shrine maidens praised her diligence and insight, but in reality, she was the weakest, most inept maiden in history.

While Kazuko and Samurai Yamada ran through the mountains catching fish, Aiko never allowed herself a moment’s rest. She woke at dawn to study, practiced late into the night, even ate and slept amid her labors. She struggled so desperately, exerting herself a hundredfold, yet always saw the Grand Shrine Maiden’s brow creased with disappointment.

It was only natural—for the power of the “Heavenly Pulse” had been split so many ways, yet she was the only one to train it.

A child’s world is always small. In those days, when she thought there would never be light again, training was everything to Aiko. She only ever saw herself as worthless. Of course, she wept, sobbed, broke down, even resented herself. In the darkest hours, the hatred and bitterness she herself despised clung to her like a parasite—Why? Why was she different from the other maidens? Why was her power broken? Why did she disappoint the Grand Shrine Maiden so much?

But her sister would always climb the wall to visit her.

Her favorite time, each day, was at midnight. As the moon climbed past the trees by the shrine, Kazuko would slip over the wall, stepping on the crooked old tree, to find her.

Kazuko’s eyes always shone so bright, her steps so light. She was the elder sister, always ready with stories, with endless tales. She would say that kappa lived in the mountain streams; that young deer and fawns would hide together in the hay come winter; she’d slide open the paper door in the middle of the night, sneaking her a big box of steaming hot oden.

Lift the lid—fragrant steam billowed up. Inside was a brimming pile of sweet stewed vegetables: daikon soaked with salty-sweet broth, a hot juicy delight with every bite.

That girl with the long black braids, beaming, hands behind her back, warm with sunlight, dimples flashing in her cheeks—

That was her sister. The sister she loved most in all her life, the one who would always, always be dearest to her, the one she would protect all her days.

For her sister, for the people of Tenman Paradise, she could do anything—endure any suffering.

Now, her sister stood before her, intimately allied with her enemy.

Her sister wanted her to die. She wanted to die, too.

……

Her sister’s lips moved, saying something softly and indistinct…

【…you…repent…it’s not too late…】

Aiko could scarcely hear anymore.

She raised her bloodstained eyes, as if she were back there, on that day.

She stood atop a world on the verge of destruction, holding the last blooming flower of Tenman Paradise in her hand.

Amid so much blood and wailing, amid this unending apocalypse, the people of Tenman Paradise still preserved a single thing—Hope.

That hope, passing through the “Heavenly Pulse Destiny God,” was delivered to the heart of the maiden Aiko.

But a broken maiden had no power to protect the world.

This little flower of hope wavered in her hand, little more than a lure from hell.

Aiko cried through the night in the great hall.

The next day, she sat down with her sister, placed her well-nurtured kagura bell between them, and said:

“Sister, use the divine ritual tool. I’ll let you have ten moves. My weak point is my left ventricle, I’m least skilled against fire-attribute talismans, my left leg is injured, and the meridians blocked, my right eye is damaged—nearly half-blind, with a half-inch blind spot.”

“Sister, one of us will die, one of us will live.”

“From now on, the Heavenly Pulse will be one.”

……

Aiko slowly, slowly drooped her flower core.

The last scarlet tear rolled from her monstrous eye.

【Eight million spirits, a sacrifice to heaven, siblings torn apart… all for nothing.】

【These bloody sins I committed; the cause will meet its consequence.】

With a frail, twisted, faltering voice, the “Eye” whispered:

【Sister, you win.】

Kazuko pressed her finger down.

Boom!

The red light belonging to another Heavenly Pulse maiden engulfed the twisted body of the spider lily.

【Aaaaaaahhh—】

Searing pain overwhelmed Aiko in an instant. She screamed in agony, each cry thick with blood and misery. Fragile crimson petals quivered in the wind.
Each bitten, exposed filament of the bloody spider lily, each fiber of sclera, every glassy cell of the eye… now, all flayed and torn, lashed by roaring flames, as if being sliced apart piece by piece, split and melted away.

Aiko was in such pain, almost broken, the energy of retaliation gathering again and again, but always trembling, always finally bound and dissipating amid layers of petals.

A wordless confusion radiated from the other side of her neural link. The Supreme God demanded that the “Eye” resist, demanded she protect herself—but she could not respond.

The Supreme God would never understand why its “Eye” chose to do this.

When pain reached its apex, there was a strange, wild joy—her soul split in two: one half shrieked and collapsed in hysteria, the other floated above, coldly watching herself scream, thinking, this is what I deserve. She knew, she always should have met this day; this was her fate, her sin.

She ought, in this shattering pain, to wait for its end—and… for the death that must come.

…………
……

No one knew how much time had passed.

Ten minutes? A year? Ten years, a hundred?

The red light finally faded away.

The pain was gone.

Far above, a faint sound echoed.

【Thunk.】

She still existed.

Aiko lifted her gaze in confusion.

No—she didn’t have her “Eye” anymore.

The Supreme God’s eye, the bloody blossom of flesh she had carried, had vanished utterly in the agony before.

Now all she had left was a single spider lily stamen.

Nothing but a trembling, crimson iris—unable even to move.

But what appeared before her was not the Supreme God, nor the underworld, but a clear glass dome.

It seemed to be a glass jar, tall and cylindrical, covering her entire ruined eye.

Near the opening, a face appeared.

That hateful, despicable, arrogant—though truly innocent—black-clad Si Zhiyan… was bent over, standing outside, gazing down into the jar.

That fine-boned face was still slick with cold sweat left un-wiped, rendered pale and frail by her torment, yet it did not show defeat, but rather… a smile, one she could not fathom.

In those eyes, curved and red, there was no hatred at all, only calm release and warmth, making Aiko’s own pupil tremble and shrink.

Inside the jar, beside her, a thousand sweet-scented candy flower stamens bloomed.

【Nursery #11—Tiramisu Candy Jar of Dreams [Excellent Quality]】
The user and the cursed object merged, imbued with a subtle sweetness of hope, birthing vines.

On these vines, many candy jars would grow, and within each, a fragment of anew dimension.
Within the dimensional shard there was a world of rainbow color.

Blue skies floated with clouds of cotton candy; milk tea ran in rivers; the soil was crumbled Oreo cookies, the house walls were chocolate cake, fences of sour gummies, paths of caramel shortbread…

Clamp the candy jar down upon the earth, and a “Dream World” of unlimited duration could be sealed away inside.

—Completely isolated from the outside world.

This was a product of the farm.

In the battle just past, the Supreme God’s bestowed eye and bloody flesh on her had already been annihilated, leaving no signal to transmit beyond.

The Supreme God had lost its current “Eye,” and the new one had yet to be inherited. He no longer had sight, nor could he observe the world.

From the moment the Blackthorn Forest swallowed the farm… no, perhaps earlier—from the time the Ashen Flower of Tenman Paradise had slowly claimed the land, the farm had blended into the local realm.

The farm’s aura had merged with Tenman Paradise, the two no longer distinct.

Which meant…

Realizing something, Aiko’s pupil contracted sharply.

A lid covered the sky. Si Zhiyan’s slender fingers picked it up, and slowly, slowly, twisted it closed.

This meant…
This was a world the Supreme God could not touch!

The Supreme God could no longer find this place.
Nor the remnants of her.

Creak.

The last thread of the lid was twisted shut.

Above, only a bright blue sky remained. Clouds of cotton drifted on the breeze, fields of Tiramisu cake rose and fell like hills of cocoa, studded with candy canes, dotted with caramel pudding blossoms.

On the far side of a Tiramisu mountain, Kazuko, dressed as a shrine maiden, led the others as they came toward her.

Her sister Kazuko was now a mature Heavenly Pulse maiden. All the souls that remained in Tenman Paradise, in all shapes and sizes, their phantoms circled about her. Spirits of all kinds, the Lava Folk, miner dogs, guardian samurai… all followed close behind.

Kazuko’s long lashes flickered, her twin irises—hollow red—glimmered with all the spirits of Tenman Paradise.

At last, Aiko could hear her sister’s voice.

【I am the incarnation of the Heavenly Pulse Destiny God, a daughter of the Heavenly Pulse.】

【All the souls of Tenman Paradise, eight million strong, have already returned to this body; the debts of blood and karma are repaid, and have come to rest here.】

Her sister knelt down easily beside her, meeting her fragmented gaze.

Kazuko smiled, cupped the flower-pupil gently in both hands, and slowly…

Set it into the orbit of her own left eye.

Buzz.

Their souls resonated as one.

Once, in the festival hall, their father, a humble woodworker, had carved his two little girls again and again—not just one, but both. Sister and sister, hand in hand, together with their family, never to be parted.

The body of the Heavenly Pulse Maiden was forged from the faith of her followers.

If that faith could save Kazuko, it could save Aiko as well.

Aiko trembled and conveyed her feelings: 【Sister…】

Kazuko pressed her palm over her left eye, then lifted it gently.

【…See, Aiko.】
【All the debts and sins, all the karmic ties, are mine to bear now.】

【This time… let me carry it.】

【No, not just me… but both of us.】

Kazuko bowed her head, imitating the gentle, natural smile Si Zhiyan often wore. Glossy black hair slipped down, veiling her eyes.

【Yes, I’m here. Right beside you.】

……

On the farm, Si Zhiyan stood up, stretched, and looked down at the Tiramisu candy jar in his hand.

The system interface popped up, reflecting the description of the sprout he’d nurtured in the farm’s nursery:

—Can your hope conquer this despairing world?
No one knows.
But, now that things have come this far, there’s no turning back. Why not enjoy a sweet dream?
This is the last gift the merciful, malevolent farm owner leaves to you all.