Bab 234: Immortal Book - Endless Dispute
The wall is covered with senseless, disordered patterns of black and white; it's length is endless in either direction.
Each day it moves, shifting itself backwards and forwards. No one knows how the wall moves or why, and no one has even seen it move.
This is the immortal wall - you will come to hate it, and to love it.
- - -
“Why do we live near the wall? Why do we guard it?” Young one asked.
Elder pointed backwards; “Look behind us.
Those grand stone castles, as impenetrable as the immortal wall itself.
The abandoned vast cities, the elaborate gardens, even the temples in the horizon behind us; the grand buildings which seem to touch the sky. None of us know all of our past, though we are surrounded by distant memories of it...”
Elder smiled, “Why do you think we aren't living in them? Hm? Those grand monuments which fill us with awe?”
“Ah, they're cold?”
“Pf- Ha!” Elder grinned.
“Well yes, I suppose that's one reason. But young one, the soil near the immortal wall is different. It's the only place where food grows.
Well, to be more precise: food only grows near the wall, and since the wall is ever-moving, we someday must abandon the buildings we create, leaving them in the past as we stay with the fertile land.
If you travel far enough away from the wall, you will need to take plenty of food with you - but if enough of us leave to sit comfortably inside of the grand castles we've left behind, the monsters will rush over the wall and destroy all of our food, all our progress.
Even with all of us here, they have to be fought off. They never let us rest for too long...”
“Why do they attack us, Elder? What's on the other side of the wall?”
“I don't know. No one does...
On the other side of the wall, it seems like everything grows and dies simultaneously in a chaotic ever-changing mess.
Even things that shouldn't grow or even move sometimes spring to life; it's nothing but utter chaos on the other side of the immortal wall.”
“Can we go over the wall?”
“What? Into that land where anything and nothing could happen? I don't think you understand... there are no rules out there, none bound by logic. No sense... Nothing, and everything.
You could be walking and suddenly your legs turn into snakes, or you fall into a never-ending hole, or perhaps... you will stumble across a grand treasure - though in all the chaos, even finding something useful is rare, not to mention the beasts and horrors you will have to contend with just to bring them back.
But you won't make it back without being changed, scarred.
The chaos changes boys into men, men who would never leave the wall - not to rest in the castles behind or venture into the chaos. They stand here, living on the boundary between madness and monuments.”
Young one looked at the wall, a spark of desire in his eyes.
“I can see what you're thinking: You want to risk it all.
But who got the treasures we have now?
Well, the wall shifts and moves backwards and forward all the time, but for the most part it moves forward, entering the chaos. The beasts come across, we slay them and the chaos is nullified, leaving treasures behind.
In a way, the fertile soil is a treasure in itself.
It's why we need to move our farmland all the time. Food only grows near the immortal wall.
It's why we call the great cities and castles and structures our past, for we cannot live there though it may make us comfortable.”
Elder nodded, as if he was agreeing with himself, his voice seemed to become heavier, “Mm... there is no life behind us, but on the other side there can even be too much life, which spills over the wall and becomes our problem.”
“I-I see...” Young one frowned.
Elder smiled, “Don't worry too much. We can deal with one of the grotesque beasts at a time.
If we cannot slay it, they always return to the chaos after they've caused some here.
We rebuild, regrow, and put everything in order like we always do, and then prepare for whatever threat may come next.
Plus, when you slay your first beast, you will be rewarded with strength, able to slay greater and greater beasts each time. This is the gift of the wall.”
Young one slowly nodded, feeling insightful, “So, if the castles are our past... then the chaos is our future?”
Elder gave Young one a warm smile, appreciating his simple outlook.
“Almost, but not quite. We make sense of the chaos,” he pointed to the wall, “and we make it our own.” he pointed to the past, “And without both, we perish, though we cannot live in either. We are beings of both worlds.”
Hadiah
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