The God-Given Land and the Answer

Two figures swam on through the ocean, crossing the deep sea Abyss. It was cursed water, so feared that every trilobite man paled at the mention of it.

Even the People of the Abyss would not go near this place, for fear that God would banish them once more into that eternal dark domain.

Looking down, one could see a bottomless trench plunging straight toward the deepest reaches of the seafloor. That world of darkness was like some vast mouth swallowing everything whole, and to pass above it was to slip out from between the jaws of the most terrifying monster the world had ever known.

Tito surfaced, and with the power of the Divine Cup he took in everything around him.

His eyes could not see, but the light leading toward the God-Given Land still guided him onward.

"That way."

"We need to go that way."

Old Stone Helm caught up from behind, far slower than before, and there was something sluggish in the way he moved.

Tito could even hear his ragged, uneven breathing, and the sound of it alone made plain just how weak he had become.

The poet sensed something was wrong. "You are hurt."

Cracks had spread across the carapace of Old Stone Helm's chest. He had been hurt after all, though from the outside there was no telling how badly.

The old man himself did not seem to care much. "I'm old now. Not what I used to be."

"Even a knock or two is more than this body can take these days. It's grown as brittle as sand and stone."

With age, the carapace of the People of the Abyss only grew more brittle, the very opposite of the trilobite men.

The older a trilobite man grew, the harder his bone armor became, until it was almost like stone.

Tito's voice was full of concern. "Is it serious?"

He had never once imagined that he would come to care so much for the safety of a Person of the Abyss, let alone become friends with a king of the Demon Abyss Kingdom.

Old Stone Helm stopped and drew a few labored breaths. "Not too serious. Let's keep moving."

They dove back beneath the water, cutting once more through the deep blue sea and the Abyss.

A few days on, the two of them were still following the guidance of the Divine Cup, and in that endless expanse of ocean not a single landmark remained in sight.

No islands, no Yinsai settlements, not even ruins.

They had no idea where they were anymore, or how far they had come from the deep sea Abyss.

All they could be certain of was that their direction was true. Where the God-Given Land actually lay, how much longer the journey would take, whether they would ever arrive at all...

Of all that, the two of them knew nothing at all.

Old Stone Helm had grown too weak to go on. His injuries were far more serious than he had let on.

As he swam, he began to sink, drifting down toward the seafloor below.

Tito caught hold of him at once, pulling the old man up and settling him across his own back.

"I will carry you."

Old Stone Helm fell silent for a moment. Then he spoke two words.

"Thank you."

The two of them pressed on, supporting each other. Tito became Old Stone Helm's walking staff, and Old Stone Helm became Tito's eyes.

Dusk fell. The two of them moved slowly onward through a sea turned entirely to gold.

The sun's last light poured through the surface and spilled into the water, carrying warmth down with it, and hope, for them both.

Then, upon that golden horizon, a shadow suddenly appeared.

Neither of them noticed it at first. But the closer they drew, the larger the shadow grew.

At last, Old Stone Helm made out what it was.

An island.

Old Stone Helm seized hold of Tito, his pupils going wide in an instant.

What manner of island was this, bathed in sunlight, radiant with a light so brilliant it dazzled the eye!

Seen from a distance, it looked as though it were made of pure gold.

Sacred, pure.

And touched with the eternity of gold itself.

"It's appeared?"

"It's really appeared!"

Tito froze for a heartbeat. Then, all at once, he understood what was happening.

"Really? Is it really true?"

"Right there... just ahead of us?"

The poet's voice trembled with every word.

He had set out from the Sky Temple. How far he had traveled since, how many hardships he had come through, he no longer knew. Was this, at last, the end of the road?

Old Stone Helm was even more overcome than the poet. He stared at the island, the words spilling out of him one after another.

"The God-Given Land. There really is a God-Given Land."

"So God... really does exist!"

The two of them quickened their pace, racing on toward the God-Given Land.

The water grew shallower and shallower. Step by step the two of them waded up out of the sea and set foot upon the kingdom of God.

Tito could not wait any longer. "Describe it to me, quickly."

"What is the God-Given Land really like? Is it as beautiful as the legends say?"

Old Stone Helm lifted his head from Tito's shoulder and saw at last what that gold truly was.

A boundless sea of flowers.

Never had he seen a sight so magnificent. Strength surged up in him out of nowhere, and he pulled free of the poet and pressed on ahead.

The sea of flowers swayed, parting to open a path.

They were welcoming the poet and the old man's arrival.

"A sea of Sun Cup flowers. Just as you said, a sea of flowers here with no end in sight."

Tito answered, just as overcome. "The Sky Temple's records were true after all. Priest Schlode really did once see the God-Given Land."

Old Stone Helm tilted his head back.

Following the boundless sea of flowers in toward its center, he caught sight at last of the pyramid temple rising from the middle of it.

A massive dream bubble enveloped the magnificent pyramid, countless shifting colors flowing like a mirage across its surface.

He used wisdom ability to carry his voice outward, shouting with all the strength he had.

It was as if he meant to tell Tito everything he saw, though it sounded far more like all the emotion inside him breaking loose at once.

"The temple."

"The pyramid, and the temple of God Yinsai."

"God is still here. The divine still stands unshaken in this place."

Tito groped his way forward as well, and caught the scent of flowers on the air.

A powerful force spread outward from his consciousness, feeling its way over everything around him.

He could sense the scene around him.

He sensed it. He did not see it.

The ground, the sea of flowers, the stone tablet, the ruins.

It was as though the whole picture had been projected straight into his consciousness, set down directly inside his own mind.

"The God-Given Land."

"I can see it."

"It is truly... so beautiful."

Old Stone Helm turned back to look at Tito, and saw at once the change that had come over him.

"King Redlichia's bloodline is boiling inside you."

"Congratulations, poet. You have awakened wisdom ability."

The two of them pressed on along the path the flowers had cleared, and there they saw the God-Given City, and the stone tablet standing before it.

The poet could not wait. He stepped forward, and the moment his mental power swept across the tablet, what had been carved there came to him all at once.

"Look at this."

"This is the very stone tablet your ancestors raised with their own hands, King Redlichia's own sons, His Highness Ense and His Highness Boon."

"And it records their story here as well. How they built Ense City, and how they built Boon City."

Old Stone Helm drew close to the tablet and ran his own fingers along the grooves carved into it.

He knelt, both arms raised and cupped before him, offering homage to his own ancestors.

Once Tito had taken it all in, he stepped past the tablet and moved on.

He meant to enter the God-Given City, to go and stand in audience before the Great Yinsai.

But Old Stone Helm had stopped where he was. He lay prostrate before the tablet and did not rise again, and could go no further.

In truth, he did not dare go any further.

Tito turned back and called out to Old Stone Helm.

"Are you not coming up?"

"Did you not want to come here to find your answer?"

Old Stone Helm pushed himself up. He gazed at Tito, and a smile spread suddenly across his face.

Tito had never once imagined that a Person of the Abyss could smile with such peace and such gentleness.

"No need."

"I have already... found my answer."

With that, Old Stone Helm went still, and did not move again.

"Hey!"

"Hey!"

Tito called out to the old man again and again, but there was no answer at all.

The nameless king was dead.

The wind stirred the sea of flowers into waves. One by one the Sun Cup blossoms that had parted to make way folded closed again, swallowing him until he could no longer be seen at all.

The poet stood there, lost, all thought and feeling drained from him.

Even at the very moment of his death, the poet still did not know Old Stone Helm's name, let alone what answer he had truly been seeking.