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Last Embryo Volume 3 Chapter 3 Part 1

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

「…All things aside.」

As they were walking through the woods, Pritt suddenly looked up at the sky with a grim expression.

「There’s quite a lot of pollution here. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this place the planet’s Aorta, and for it to become this impure. I wonder, in the end, just what in the world were they experimenting with here?」

「The Aorta is…polluted? Is it something like what happens to the cardiopulmonary system after long periods of smoking?」

「That’s quite an interesting and accurate example. If you look at this woodland from the biological perspective, it should have maintained a perfect equilibrium at this point in its development, and yet it has been polluted to the degree that even I can notice the deviation.

……Basically~ I’m saying that the Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide production ratios have become rather strange. In a bad way, that is.」

The Oxygen production has declined – apparently, that was what she was trying to say. With that being the case, calling these magnificent woodlands the planet’s Aorta wasn’t exactly wrong either. This was the most prominent oxygen producing place on earth, and combined with the tropical animals that consumed said oxygen, it was in charge of the planet’s most essential cardiopulmonary function.

「Izayoi, have you heard about the natural world’s cycle amplification and the 『Terra Material』?」

「Yeah, I’ve heard a bit about it from Porol. I think it was ‘The cycles of natural phenomenon are there to increase the cumulative amount of ‘Terra Material’ or something?」

「That’s right. Divine Spirits gain power by faith, but Demi-Celestial Spirits and Spirits increase their powers by the local cycles. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the Amazon Tropics, famed for being the biggest oxygen production and consumption center, is the most unique and an enormous cycling bundle of spiritual veins within the natural world.」

「Hou… So that’s how it is with the scale of the cycle. What other Aortas are there?」

Izayoi’s eyes gleamed. It appeared that the story had stirred his curiosity. Pritt continued the conversation with a serious face.

「Well, with that said, there aren’t that many places that you would call the planet’s Aorta. In terms of earth veins: Yellowstone, of the Great volcanic belt of USA, and the Siberian Traps from the prehistoric age fall under the classification of Aortas. Other than that, it would be everything on the Equator and….. ah, that’s right. Japanese islands are the world’s biggest Aorta.」

「Huh?」

Izayoi leaked a shocked voice from the unexpected development. Pritt, looking amused by his reaction, explained the reason behind it while raising her index finger.

「There’s nothing that surprising in that, you know? Japan is, after all, the world’s most seismically active country. That country, being born on the earth’s cracks, suffers up to a thousand earthquakes every year due to the problem with the flow of earth’s crust, and the typhoons, known as the heavenly disasters, happen up to an average twenty times a year. In both the earth and the sky, it’s the biggest and most important land among the planet’s cycles. It can unmistakably be called the largest Aorta of the earth.」

「Haha. Indeed, that does seem to be the case. Although, whether it’s something to be happy for is another matter altogether…Still, that surprised me. Are you saying that there are close to none of those Aortas in Europe?」

「Rather than close to none, there really are none. Not a single one. It had been lost when the Atlantic, located in Greek coastal waters, had lost its original shape due to the eruption and vanished, and since then, Europe had been a region that Divine Spirits had declared as 「the Land Where Mankind Prospers」. As a result, while many cultures and ideologies had originated on those lands, it developed its ideology in a way that completely contradicted the Terra Material. So, while there are many holy grounds of Divine Spirits there, there’s not a single one of the planet’s spiritual grounds.」

Divine Spirits have always preferred the west side more and had implemented the planet’s remodelling over countless years. It was a land with few disasters and brimming with prosperity, an area where it was easy for mankind to prosper. Thus, it brought forth many countries, and they went through the cycles of warring, merging and dividing, and continued to develop. This was also the reason why one of the mythological systems was called 「Cycle」. But since the West had been altered in a way that it was difficult for disasters to occur, it was only natural that the disasters would go elsewhere. And with that, the West developed through the cultural cycles while the East through planetary cycles.

And that was the origin of the seismically active country of Japan: the easternmost nation, situated at the other end from the western standpoint.

「That’s where the main difference comes from between Japanese myths and foreign countries’ myths and royalties. The concept of King, 「one who governs the country」, in western countries is in contrast with the vastly different Japanese concept of Royalty, 「one who opposes the disaster」. There weren’t many who could be called invaders by the Japanese, either. And that resulted in constitutionalism in the oldest country of the CE and also the Living Gods ideology.」

「Hmm… smooth words make smooth ways, is it? So, putting it differently, as the East was burdened with the Western debts and had pushed itself to the limit, it developed in a way that gods didn’t expect it to, is it?」

「Haha, that’s harsh, but it’s exactly as you say! But pardon us. Even our eyes couldn’t perceive that the Far East would have developed in such a grand way. And the West will sooner or later pay the price. The West had its share of hardships in the past when polytheism suffered an almost complete extinction, so please just think of it as there being a balance.」

They cut through the forest’s ivy branches with knives and jumped over the marshland. While imagining the world map in his mind, Izayoi decided to ask about something that stood out to him.

「Hm? Then what about the Chinese and such? Do these cultures fall under the planetary category too?」

「No, they are yet another one, different from both. Chinese people are the descendants of Dragonkind, but to explain about that, I would first need to explain the difference between 『Dragon』 and 『Long』 species… but let’s save that for another time. I smell blood.」

Pritt’s voice suddenly turned tense.

Izayoi quickly checked behind them and covered the blind spots. They didn’t sense any hostility from their surroundings. Was it the aftermath of someone’s fight or perhaps it was due to fight between the forest animals. The two continued to advance through the marshlands in a slow pace while carefully watching their step. If it were animals, they were no opponents for them. No, in the first place, no wild animal would even consider approaching these two. They were like walking mountains, oceans or storms even. While they strolled through the place, most of the animals simply fled for their lives. That was the reason why they hadn’t sensed any living presences nearby. Even the spirits and the forest sages hid and shivered as they held their breaths, desperately waiting for the storm to pass.

Since the spirits were so frightened of them, it was better for them to accept that getting the information out of them would’ve been impossible. They exchanged glances and kept on moving forward without stopping.

When they arrived at the middle part of a river that was crossing through the rainforest, they began to survey their surroundings more closely while having the wind blowing from the gaps between the trees brush against them… only to be attacked from underwater just a moment later.

「Move!」

「I know, you don’t have to tell me!」

The two of them jumped to the size to avoid a compressed water bullet that has been shot towards them from under the river’s surface. Given their heightened reflexes and awareness, an attack of such caliber was absolutely no threat to them, but that was not the most important thing here. The important thing here was the nature of that water bullet.

Initially both Pritt and Izayoi took it for solidified water, but upon closer inspection it turned out to be more like a bullet made from compressed air. More and more of them were being shot towards them, and their speed was nothing to sneeze at despite the fact that they were being attacked from underwater. And while they might be less effective in inflicting lasting damage than normal bullets shot from a gun, they were still more than any ordinary human could handle with their meager reflexes and endurance.