Chapter 506: The Imps and the Legend of the Spirits of Old Things in the Mortal World

Floating Island, City of the Divine Kingdom

Treasures of every kind lay spread before the Void's Mold Mother. Behind them, the witch doctors stood with sour faces.

The mushroom person did not mind in the least. She counted the pile one item at a time, then finally raised her head.

Her great mushroom cap drifted gently above her. Beneath it, the soft, mild lines of a face could just be made out.

At last, the mushroom person spoke, drawing out each word.

"That~ will~ do~"

The Void's Mold Mother was able to speak.

But as a being of life ability, she naturally did not use mental communication as a wisdom ability user would.

Most days, she was far more accustomed to talking with the other mushroom molds. Unless she was answering her master, the Life Sovereign, she remained wholly absorbed in her own thoughts and her own glass tank, leaving everyone with the impression that she could not speak at all.

Now she counted her treasures with irrepressible delight, dreaming of the day she might have a hoard of her own, just like the other Ruhe Great Gods.

Each of the other great gods kept a giant city from the Primordial Age in storage. She, too, needed something of her own to put away.

Surely that was only fair.

Losing patience, the witch doctors spoke up.

"When do we begin!"

They had no idea how much longer the Supreme Divine Being would remain on the floating island, so they pressed her for an answer.

"We wish to begin as soon as possible."

The mushroom person nodded and said nothing.

The meaning was clear all the same.

"We can begin at once."

Half of what the witch doctors had just saved from the Life Sovereign by refining the Wand of Doomsday Divine Punishment went straight back out again to the Void's Mold Mother.

The Void's Mold Mother had not been born long and owned nothing at all. Now, thanks to the witch doctors, she had earned her first fortune and obtained her first spatial tool.

The spatial tool could not be used here yet. It would have to wait until the witch doctors opened the gate of the Dream Realm.

"That was our agreement!"

"And you must carry things back for us."

"You have taken quite enough from us."

"You must see our task through."

The witch doctors addressed the Void's Mold Mother one line at a time, their words fitting together perfectly.

Their point was that the Void's Mold Mother must not only carry them down into the mortal world, but also bring back whatever they wished to take with them.

Only then would it be worth the price the witch doctors were paying.

In truth, the witch doctors' true bodies would not descend at all. They needed only to disperse their mimicry bodies and draw their consciousness back.

But they wanted to bring other things back as well, and that was a great deal more troublesome.

The Void's Mold Mother heard them out and looked rather put upon.

"You cannot?"

"Then the price is too high."

The witch doctors immediately made as if to reclaim their goods. Having gone from penniless to prosperous only moments ago, the Void's Mold Mother grew anxious at once.

The Void's Mold Mother spoke up then, "There... is one other... way."

The Void's Mold Mother explained that she truly had no way to carry things from the mortal world into the high heavens. Even sending the witch doctors down merely meant fashioning bodies for their consciousness to inhabit, not transporting them there in person.

Every so often, however, Lady Shelly had her carry parcels of snacks from God's Island in the Divine Kingdom of Creation up to the floating island.

At those times, Lady Shelly herself would haul the mushroom person's avatar into the Star Realm.

When that happened, the witch doctors could hitch a ride with it. Everything was ready.

In one of the City of the Divine Kingdom's great halls, the witch doctors sat cross-legged beside the mushroom person.

The Void's Mold Mother rose to her full height, her enormous cap casting a shadow over them. As she floated slowly into the air, a soft phosphorescence radiated from her body.

A lovely song seemed to drift through the air.

"La la la la la~"

Threads streamed from the Void's Mold Mother's hands, shuttling back and forth until the entire hall was sealed.

The witch doctors did not resist. As everything before them faded into a blank, empty white, their consciousness began to drift away as well.

Far away in the mortal world, a jungle of deep emerald green lay beyond a city's walls.

Streams of white foam gathered and merged, finally hardening into six figures.

They were six shells in God's Form, indistinguishable from true bodies of flesh and blood and capable of bearing an immense load.

A moment later, streams of mythical consciousness crossed the intervening space and pressed themselves into the mimicry bodies.

Immeasurable power poured from those bodies at once, carrying ripples of the Mythic Domain and law.

Then, one after another, the witch doctors opened their eyes.

Witch Doctor Skull felt out the body the Void's Mold Mother had made.

"Good. It works, just as we thought."

Witch Doctor Right Leg said, "We cannot unfold the domain of the Divine Kingdom here, but some of our mythical power came down with us. It will suffice."

After inspecting their new bodies, the witch doctors walked out of the jungle together.

Witch Doctor Right Hand breathed in the jungle's scent.

"The mortal world smells rather pleasant."

Witch Doctor Torso stood tall and was the first to see into the distance.

"There is a city just ahead."

Witch Doctor Left Hand spoke up at once, "We are not here to amuse ourselves. We have work to do."

They descended the hillside. The city ahead had clearly been built around a harbor and wharf.

Pack beast carts came and went without pause while sailing ships put in one after another. The first city the witch doctors reached was Serc Harbor, part of the Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents on Ruhe Beast Island.

It was a port on an inland river, and an important transport route for the Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents.

Besides the overland routes, most trade between the Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents and Suinhor passed through this harbor. Its prosperity drew crowds far beyond those of an ordinary city.

The witch doctors entered Serc Harbor and soon set about hunting for their targets.

There, they reached out with their senses in search of old objects with the potential to become imps, things made precious by age and value.

They would leave a thread of their own mythical law's power on each object. The method wasted some power, since infusing an object did not guarantee that an imp would be born from it.

The surest method would have been to reach into the Dream Realm and extend their own mythical law down into the mortal world.

Then, the instant an old object began to change, they could draw upon the power held within a divine being and act on it directly through mythical station, altar, and law.

Every attempt would then produce an imp, without wasting any of their own power.

For now, however, the witch doctors' mythical kingdom lay in the high heavens, leaving this as the only road open to them.

"Look, an antique ring!" Their first target was found in an antique shop.

"Precious objects are far more likely to become imps." The witch doctors all agreed. Apart from objects with some special meaning, anything mortals deemed precious was naturally more likely to win their favor.

Finding another object with the potential to become an imp, one of the witch doctors declared, "This craftsman's clock is excellent. A treasure beyond question. Why not seed it with a little power!" Anything a craftsman or artist had poured their whole heart into making held great potential too.

"Look at that drunk's wine flask. They will not let go of it to save their life. That person prizes drink above life itself!" On the road, they had seen a drunk nearly tumble from a bridge, yet even in that state the flask remained clutched tight against them.

Throughout that bustling harbor city, the witch doctors left countless marks behind, scattering seed after seed.

After that, through the power of the Void's Mold Mother, they appeared in one city after another.

They did not travel between cities on foot. They simply descended, choosing each destination at random without regard for distance.

Among them were great nations such as Suinhor, and small ones such as the Yellow Sand Kingdom and the Wasteland Witch Kingdom.

One day, in a city in the Land of Sunrise, the witch doctors were standing in an auction house and looking over the works of its artists.

Then something reached them. As one, they turned toward Serc Harbor.

Witch Doctor Skull was the first to speak.

"Can you feel it?"

Witch Doctor Left Hand nodded, a note of excitement in her voice.

"The first imp has been born."

"Has it really?" Witch Doctor Torso was overjoyed too.

"This soon?" The other witch doctors were smiling as well.

Excitement swept through the witch doctors, and they summoned the first imp at once.

To their surprise, the first imp came from none of the objects they had valued so highly. It had been born from the drunk's wine flask back in Serc Harbor.

The drunk had loved their drink more than their life, carrying the flask in their arms all day and never letting it go.

Some days ago they had drunk themselves blind, lost their footing at last, and fallen into the river.

They drowned.

After their death the wine flask slowly developed a consciousness of its own, until that plain, unremarkable dead thing finally came alive.

The witch doctors formed a ring around the wine flask imp and looked down at it.

A single organ had grown from the flask's body, a huge mouth that hiccuped without pause and breathed out gust after gust of stale wine.

"Hic!"

"Hic!"

The witch doctors called out to the wine flask imp, "Hey!" The great mouth kept hiccuping, then smacked its lips and spoke.

"Got wine?"

"Got wine?"

"Hic!"

No matter how they questioned it, the wine flask imp remained the same. They could not tell whether it was genuinely foolish or merely drunk.

The witch doctors looked at the wine flask imp, and then at one another.

"This..."

The six exchanged glances. In one another's eyes, each found the same expression, caught somewhere between laughter and tears.

Afterward, they left Ruhe Beast Island to walk the Avel Peninsula and the Land of Light.

They even made a trip to the Land of the Giant Dragon, to see how the lizard people had been getting on of late.

Wherever they went, they marked object after object and left them to wait. Once an imp was born, they could return and gather it in.

Even if only one imp emerged from every hundred marked objects, that would be enough.

The witch doctors spent two and a half years walking from place to place.

Along the way, they left legends of every kind behind them.

The birth of the imps was witnessed by many.

Many witnessed old objects and antiques suddenly come alive at dusk or after dark. Some opened mouths and spoke, some grew hands and feet, and some rose into the air under their own power.

Without exception, each object had once been cherished by someone.

To its owner, each held a memory of great importance.

Little by little, people began to discern the pattern behind these events.

A story spread among them.

Given enough time, any object steeped in longing and the refusal to let go would become a living thing. These were spirits born from old objects, brought into being by human longing and memory.

They pursued the memories and habits of days gone by. Some possessed strange powers and got up to all manner of peculiar things.

Most, however, posed no danger. At worst, they were merely odd fellows.

Late one night, the witch doctors stood upon a high ridge with hundreds upon hundreds of old things gathered around them.

Without exception, every object had sprouted organs that had never belonged to an old thing and awakened to a consciousness of its own.

After all this time, the race of imps gathered by the witch doctors was almost complete.

They began to think of going back.

Tonight was the night they had agreed upon with the Void's Mold Mother.

As they waited, the witch doctors looked over the gathered imps and counted them.

Picking up a teapot, Witch Doctor Skull recalled that its owner had been an old snake person.

"This one. It is the teapot that old man in the City of Delan used for years and years!"

The old man had kept a shop and would sit in the doorway calling to everyone passing by, "Care for some leaf tea?"

A rather dull, wooden human face had grown on the body of the teapot imp. When the witch doctor looked at it, the face opened its mouth and spoke.

"Care for some leaf tea?"

"This cup is beautiful, though a piece is missing from its rim." A small creature raced in circles around Witch Doctor Left Hand's feet. Beautifully patterned, the mouthless cup could not speak, but two legs had sprouted beneath it, and it could run very fast indeed.

"A painting. And the woman in it is quite beautiful." Witch Doctor Torso held up the picture. The beauty inside did more than move. She cast flirtatious glances at the witch doctors below. Perhaps its owner had often gazed at the painting while alive, imagining that the beauty favored them.

"War! War! Charge the enemy!" Without warning, a black helmet beside them began to shake violently. Its visor snapped open and shut as it unleashed a roar that startled them all.

Most of the imps were small. The majority were objects a person might idly turn over in one hand, followed by household goods and a scattering of precious treasures and antiques.

Small objects were not merely easier to carry. The smaller an object was, the more readily it became an imp.

Objects that were too large, by contrast, found it harder to awaken to consciousness at all.

Thus, most of the imps were no larger than a palm or fist, with some smaller than that.

Once the count was complete, the witch doctors compared their tallies. Witch Doctor Right Hand announced the total.

"Eight hundred and twenty-three imps altogether."

Witch Doctor Left Leg came over.

"Yet very few of them seem to hold much potential!"

Witch Doctor Torso nodded.

"Indeed. These imps are much too weak. Most have grown one special organ and possess no ability beyond it!"

The imps differed from one another in temperament.

Some were childlike, some resembled ordinary young people, some were lively and restless, while others carried the gloom of old age.

Those differences came from the emotions and memories each had absorbed at the moment of birth.

One point, however, mattered above all others. Every last one of them looked less than clever.

Each seemed to be missing a string somewhere inside its head. Over time, Witch Doctor Skull had come to understand the nature of the imps.

"This is the reason."

"An imp is born from a person's longing and obsession. It awakens by absorbing the part of that person that scatters after death, so every new life born this way is missing something."

"That is why it appears weak and possesses so little wisdom."

"Once their numbers grow large enough, however, some are bound to show great potential. It is no cause for concern."

Just then, a thought struck Witch Doctor Left Hand.

"Lady Shelly named them imps. That means..."

Witch Doctor Torso answered at once, "It means a clever sort of fellow!" Before them, the crowd of imps shouted, squabbled, and raised an endless racket.

No matter how the witch doctors looked at them, the imps seemed the very opposite of what their name meant.

The witch doctors exchanged glances and immediately dropped the subject. At that moment, it came.

A shaft of light fell from high above, revealing a mushroom person with an enormous bundle of colored cloth strapped to her back.

"Time~ to~ go~"

"Quickly~ now~"

The witch doctors stepped forward at once and nodded to the mushroom person.

With a wave of the mushroom person's hand, the colored cloth unfurled and bundled up the witch doctors and every last imp together.

A mighty power and will descended from the sky. In an instant, the mushroom person shook off the earth's pull and flew toward it.

Inside the bundle the witch doctors were still talking.

"Where shall we settle these imps when we return?"

"Set aside a corner of the botanical garden. Some can live there. Most imps are small in any case."

"They can help tend the plants and animals there."

"Are they capable of it?"

"Send the rest into the City of the Divine Kingdom. They will serve well enough as ornaments."

"The moment they start their racket, they will turn the City of the Divine Kingdom upside down." Witch Doctor Left Hand then raised the next problem they would have to face.

"There are still countless objects we seeded and had no time to retrieve."

Witch Doctor Skull said, "The imps we have gathered should be nearly enough. Given time, the Dream Realm's power should reach as far as the floating island."

"First we establish ourselves. Once the gate of the Dream Realm is open, everything else can be resolved."

"Any other imp that awakens can then enter the Witch Doctor Kingdom through the gate of the Dream Realm."

Even as they spoke, they drew closer and closer to the Star Realm.

Their bodies began to break apart into clumps of foam, then evaporated without a trace.

Meanwhile, their true bodies in the City of the Divine Kingdom were rapidly awakening.

High in the heavens, a figure stood at the floating island's edge and casually hauled up her servant.

"Gurgle gurgle!"

Shelly was in high spirits, her eyes full of anticipation. Her snacks were gone, and she was waiting for the new ones.

When the mushroom person hauled up her load and the bundle of colored cloth came undone, Shelly found a number of very strange objects mixed in with the many things made by miracle technique.

Shelly surveyed the objects scattered across the garden. Almost every kind of thing was represented.

There were paintings, teapots, bowls, cups, wine flasks, helmets, and weapons.

The most valuable were imps born from glass perfume bottles, old gold coins, and the like.

"Hm?"

"Is this some new thing the Spirit Country has put out lately?"

"Why's all of it so battered and shabby?"

Shelly found this very strange. Everything made by the spirits had always been more gorgeous than the last.

Even the strange and ugly pieces were gorgeously strange or gorgeously ugly-cute. Her words had barely faded when the scene changed.

All at once, the shabby little objects began moving together. They swarmed through the garden like a disturbed hive, shrieking as they ran.

"Aaah!"

"Eeek!"

"Waaah!"

"It's so scary!"

Shelly frowned, displeasure written all over her face.

"No more noise."

On the instant, every last imp fell silent.

Male or female, old or young, lively or wooden, forceful or timid, every one of them now stood trembling.

Only then did the witch doctors appear, emerging one after another to stand before Shelly.

They explained what these creatures were to the Life Sovereign.

"Lady Shelly, these are the imps, the race You named."

Her interest piqued, Shelly glanced at the spirits of old things lying flat and scarcely daring to move.

"These are the imps?"

The witch doctors felt both guilty and nervous.

Every one of these imps truly failed to match what Shelly had once hoped for.

At least, the low-rank imps they had gathered in haste, meant only to draw down and diffuse the Dream Realm's power, all looked less than clever.

Shelly walked over to a trembling perfume bottle imp and prodded it with a twig she had tossed onto the ground earlier.

The perfume bottle imp instantly let out an uncontrollable shriek. At the same time, two tiny hands of golden thread clapped over its backside, its expression utterly deranged.

"Eeek!"

At the sound, Shelly's mouth formed a small o, and her eyes widened and brightened.

Delighted, she turned to the mushroom person and the witch doctors in utter amazement.

"It really can talk!"

Shelly bent down and gave it another prod.

"Eeek!"

The perfume bottle imp shrieked again, then fainted dead away from terror and lay motionless. Shelly's eyes shone. She had found another interesting thing.

The sky messenger Lomier flew back from Magic Tool City, making straight for the Sacred Mountain of Light.

Lately, he had gathered every scrap of information he could find about becoming an apostle, studying how apostles differed from one profession to another. He was even willing to pay for baseless rumors.

He hoped to find among them the method of becoming an apostle best suited to him.

He had also been buying everything the apostle ritual required from the demon spirits, including the materials for the ritual and the construction of its altar.

Lady Duma had already decided to grant him the Art of God's Grace, but Lomier would have to gather everything else himself.

As he flew over the Silent Kingdom, Lomier could see how much the winged people's cities below had changed over the past few years.

"So much has changed!"

Since the demon spirits' arrival, the winged people had gradually become part of the wider world.

Goods unique to the winged people now reached the rest of the world through the demon spirits. Their feather robes, for example, had become fashionable across Ruhe Beast Island and the Avel Peninsula.

Only the great and the noble could afford them.

The winged people's various flying tools also sold briskly in the snake people's kingdom.

Some of the rarer animals from the Land of Light commanded high prices as well, with the Harvest Temple said to be behind the purchases.

Changes within the winged people's own kingdom were greater, extending far beyond the magic tool airships and travelling shops that came and went everywhere.

Most striking was the brown ball vine's gradual replacement of the curled fern, which greatly changed the food found on the winged people's tables.

The brown ball vine not only yielded more, but also thrived in the mountain terrain where most winged people lived.

Even as Lomier marveled at these changes, he worried about how far behind the winged people remained.

The gulf between the Land of Light and Ruhe Beast Island was vast. No one knew how long it would take them to catch up.

The changes brought by Ruhe Beast Island therefore left some winged people both glad and uneasy.

Passing through the barrier, Lomier landed on one of the Sacred Mountain of Light's high platforms.

The sky messenger on watch saw him.

"Oh, Lomier."

Lomier nodded.

"I have returned."

All along the way, people called out his name.

"Lomier!"

"Lomier!"

"Lomier, did you find it?"

"Lomier, are you sure you're ready?"

By the time he reached his quarters, another sky messenger had heard of his return and arrived with a letter.

"Lomier, there's a letter for you."

The letter had reached the Sacred Mountain of Light through the Rainbow Tree, with his name written on it.

Lomier took the letter, tore it open, and began to read. It had come from the Matale Principality.

Gravely ill, Ose of the Matale Principality hoped Lomier would come.

Lomier let out a sigh.

"Ose is dying."

The sky messenger beside him asked, "Who is Ose?"

Lomier said, "Ose is a friend of Ray's and mine, and the former Grand Duke of the Matale Principality."

"They have grown old. Their body is failing."

"They hoped to break through to the third rank, to advance once more even at their age and extend their life."

"It is a pity. They failed."

Below the rank of apostle, no ability user could break through the limit of their lifespan. There was no question, however, that the stronger they grew, the more readily their life approached that limit.

For a long time, Lomier stood with the letter in his hand.

He grieved for Ose, but his thoughts also turned to himself.

In the end, he decided to leave for the Matale Principality at once.