Chapter 399: Black Mountain-Chan
The trees here are tall, and although their jet-black trunks aren’t that thick, they stretched straight up towards the sky before the branches spread wide out, casting shadows on the ground.
Coal black bodies with beautiful clean straight lines — as I made my way through the forest, I’m reminded of the animated optical illusion drawings* that move when the black lines are dragged over them. There’s this sense of illusion that something unknown had slipped between the distant trees and was peeking at us.
Maybe that’s how Black Mountain Spirit managed to sneak in among the spirits that surrounded me.
So, what to do now?
Maybe it’s better to just ask the Black Spirit Mountain-kun directly rather than go through Uncle Boulder — oh, it’s not ‘kun’, but ‘chan’?** Ah, yes.
「That’s right~…Very few folks enter this forest after all~ 」
『Black Spirit-chan hates black spirits and the humans that makes those black things. 』
Eh, she hates black spirits, even though she is black herself? I inwardly roasted Black Spirit-chan, who was speaking in third person. Maybe it’s in the hue or shade of black? Eh, wait a sec, she hates humans, so why was I able to name her?
That first sentence was said by Uncle Boulder. He continued swaying while dragging his words and making pauses in between. He’s the type of spirit that can’t move away from his original body, and he was swaying because the rock itself was oscillating — it feels kinda weird for a boulder that’s so tall you have to tilt your neck to see its top to be trembling like jelly.
Black Mountain-chan has feathers, and her lower half resembles the pointed tip of a ninja’s kunai. Not sure if it’s for putting a finger or a cord through, but it also has a hole that glows with a black light.
「Why is it hard to enter the forest ~ 」
『The humans who set foot in Black Spirit-chan usually goes to the space between the Spirit Realm and the Physical Realm. Did you know, Black Spirit-chan can do whatever she wants with the trees that grow here, from their roots to their very crowns. 』
Erm, so does that mean the Black Mountain itself had become a something similar to the mysterious spaces known as 『Fae’s Path』or 『Path of the Spirits』?
「Moreover, there’s fog outside the forest too~ 」
『That fog is Black Spirit-chan’s retainer and it’s connecting the entrances. 』
Whenever Uncle Boulder says something, Black Spirit-chan is ready to give the spoilers…
「Those who are disliked by the mountain will never find their way in. 」
『That’s because they’re gonna wander in a different dimension from Black Mountain-chan. 』
Hauron called it『Ephemeral Space』, if I’m not mistaken. It’s a place that is close to the Spirit Realm, and even animals and humans from the Physical Realm can go there as long as certain conditions are met. The『Path of the Spirits』is an example, and the dimension of the Black Mountain must be one too, but unlike the former, I have a feeling that there’s no way out it.
「They’re going to be chased out if they’re too troublesome. 」
『There’s a distorted place intertwining the Spirit Realm and Physical Realm deep, deep down beneath Black Mountain-chan and that’s where they’re thrown in. 』
Eh, does that mean those guys that were chucked into that chasm end up in the Labyrinth? Folks did say that monsters, animals and the occasional treasures appear there from nowhere… Is that why the Labyrinth seemed to exist here and there? It’s scary.
「That’s right. What I know dates back to the era of the Megalith Spirit ~ 」
『Black Mountain-chan’s knowledge dates way way back, even further than that~ Ah, but Black Mountain-chan already forgot when . 』
Seems like I can just ask both of them, huh.
At any rate, based on the flow of conversation, the eras of megalith spirit and the tree spirit had been quite long. The wind then swept over the land, followed by a short period of ice and darkness, and now it’s light.
Black Spirit-chan existed for a long time already, so she’s strong and other spirits can’t affect her. Her actual body is the immobile type, so she doesn’t have kin and underlings all over the world, but regardless of that, she’s still a powerful spirit.
At the present, the light spirits were numerous to the point of causing white nights, but even so, the kin and underlings’ influence in this place was relatively low, maybe because the Black Mountain is already far from their usual area of activity. Apparently, the era of the fire spirit didn’t happen in this place either.
Humans never inhabited this place, so the history of this place is unknown. However, folks had been regularly coming to this place one person at a time due to some sort of rite of passage to adulthood, even from long ago.
「During the period when winds blew so fiercely, some creatures tried to fell these trees ~ 」
『Black Mountain-chan did her best to knock them all down into the chasm.』
Ugh, there might be a humanoid monster lurking somewhere in the labyrinth, huh.
「The heroes also came here frequently, come to think of it. 」
『Black Mountain-chan hates the heroes. 』
I totally agree with you on that one.
「The heroes cross the fog and arbitrarily take away things from here~ 」
「Black Mountain-chan’s collection! 』
「Oh, did you guys agree to be named because you hate the heroes? 」
Black Mountain-chan blended in among the other spirits, but for Uncle Boulder, I named him properly — no, actually, I asked for his name.
「That’s one of the reason~ 」
『Well, there’s also that~ 』
「But it’s mostly because your aura is soothing~ 」
『Black Mountain-chan has never seen the aura of so many different spirit attributes mixed all together. 』
「There’s a lot going on with all those things mixed up, yet your aura is very stable~ 」
『It’s very novel! 』
Uncle Boulder was chuckling while Black Mountain-chan seemed to be the type of spirit that would gush over curious things.
「Eh, do I seem that way to you? 」
I blurted out.
「That’s how it feels~ 」
『That’s how it feels. 」
「I guess stability is good, then? 」
I feel uneasy about the thought of my body giving off spirit vibes, though. I’m a human, right…?
「That’s right~ You can stabilize it despite having a physical body~ 」
『Black Mountain-chan likes it. 』
「Spirits that have original bodies like me favor it that ~ 」
He kept on mentioning strange stuff about having a physical body, but I guess that’s a good thing for me as a human?
「The heroes’ aura are also stable, though ~ 」
『Their aura is that of a single-attribute spirit, and it is weak. 』
「It’s not balanced ~ 」
『If they want to come here again, they should at least be dyed in darkness too. 』
Wait a sec there, Black Mountain-chan. That kind of hero is known as one that turned dark, you know. Perhaps what you’re trying to say is they have to get along well with dark spirits?
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