Two days later, the day to crush the jar arrived.
Eren petitioned the King, protesting against a signature he had never made. However, since the one who granted permission and the one who sat in judgment was the same King, it was futile. He was excluded from the podium of the opening ceremony on charges of deceiving the King. Instead, he was forced to sit in a corner of the Audience Chamber, wedged between royal guards. Eren had refused to attend, but the King had dragged him there by force. It was a move to suppress public opinion and the ministers, who would find it strange for the discoverer to be absent from such a major event.
The Audience Chamber was decorated more lavishly than usual. Ministers lined the left and right, and in the center sat the jar. The dark, dull exterior of the jar shimmered faintly under the candlelight.
"The Great and Noble King... having heard the earnest plea for the opening of this ancient artifact, filled with the desperate passion of his foolish and dim-witted subjects, has accepted it under his rightful authority bestowed by heaven and his brilliant judgment. Accordingly, his loyal subjects have prepared this place to honor the King’s holy acceptance."
Clap, clap, clap.
Applause erupted among the ministers.
"The Royal Research Institute, which organized today's event, will now demonstrate its achievements to repay the King's sea-like grace with heartfelt loyalty."
Talase stepped forward. Behind him, three sturdy men pulled a cart carrying the jar. Once the jar was lowered from the cart, Talase knelt before the King.
"Your Majesty, we shall proceed."
The King gave a silent nod of approval.
The three men moved.
The first fixed the jar in place with a large set of tongs.
The second placed a sharp chisel against the surface of the jar.
The third raised a heavy hammer.
Eren’s heart pounded like a madman. He bit his lip.
Right then.
The doors at the back of the Audience Chamber were violently thrown open. Four royal guards entered, dragging a woman bound in iron chains.
It was Ari.
A stir went through the entire Audience Chamber. The ministers turned their heads. The King wore a satisfied smile.
"You’ve arrived just in time."
Ari was bound to a pillar at the entrance. The iron chains clattered coldly. Her face was pale, and dark shadows hung under her eyes. Yet, her gaze burned like a flame.
Eren tried to spring up and rush toward her. But the guards, anticipating this, gripped his shoulders firmly. One guard behind him quietly aimed a dagger at his back.
Talase glanced at her and bowed his head to the King once more.
"We shall begin."
The King gave a slight nod. Talase turned to the men and ordered them to start. He felt a bitter sting at the King’s behavior—the King never gave a command directly.
K-BOOM!
With a thunderous sound, the hammer struck the chisel. The copper outer shell of the jar cracked. At that sound, Ari, bound at the entrance, screamed.
"Stop it!"
She cried out desperately, as if she were the one struck by the chisel.
"There were other documents! My hypothesis might be wrong!"
Ari shouted again. Eren locked eyes with her. Talase urged the men on. For a moment, the Audience Chamber was in an uproar.
K-BOOM!
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The second hammer strike rang out. Along with the steel casing inside the copper shell, layers resembling clay fell away.
"I can explain! There is a word derived from Electricity in the ancient technical dialects!"
Ari spoke urgently. Eren quietly relaxed and sat back, waiting for his chance. Talase shouted for Ari to be silenced. The Audience Chamber grew chaotic.
K-BOOM!
The third hammer strike rang out. Inside, a metal layer of faint, hazy light was revealed.
"Radiation!"
Ari screamed again. The Audience Chamber fell silent in an instant. That word was a word of magic to some researchers. A word even the ancients feared. The origin of the decline of ancient civilization. That was the alias of that word.
The King looked at Talase. Hearing the voice, Talase stood and spoke to the King.
"That person is a state criminal. She dared to reject Your Majesty's wise command and mocked Your Majesty’s loyal apostles. That shouting now is merely the desperate screeching of someone afraid of having her achievements stolen."
The King nodded silently. The atmosphere settled as if the surrounding ministers also agreed with his words.
"Radiation—it carries heat and light!" Ari screamed once more.
"Your Majesty, that person is disturbing the royal heart by citing a single, extremely rare text." Talase put strength into his voice. "There were over two thousand jars in the ruins where this one was found. If it were so dangerous, why would the ancients have made it this way?"
Talase continued. "Nowhere in the literature does it say that Radiation is kept inside a jar."
The King responded no further. Talase gave an even stronger command.
"We are almost there. Proceed with the destruction."
Talase gritted his teeth at the King's reaction. Eren put strength into his legs so he could push back the guards at the right opportunity. Due to the commotion just now, the blade at his back had loosened, and the weight pressing on his shoulders had eased.
K-BOOM!
The chisel dug into the final metal casing.
"No! NOOOO!"
Ari’s scream echoed.
The body heat of many people mixed with the warmth of the heaters. Yet, the worker wiped his sweat and raised the hammer again. Outside, the cold wind was howling. Ari squeezed her eyes shut. Her lips bled.
The chisel, having pierced the final metal shell, turned red-hot from the heat emerging from within the jar. The workers poured water on it to maintain the chisel's strength. A hissing sound erupted as steam rose.
Eren could no longer endure Ari's screams. For her sake, he had to stop this. If Ari was acting like that, he thought there must be a reason. He bolted upright and threw himself toward the podium. The guards reached out in panic, but Eren had already slipped past them.
However, it wasn't the soldiers who blocked Eren's path.
"You must stop now!"
Eren shouted, but the Audience Chamber was a mess, crowded with people flocking to see what was inside the breaking jar. The guards were barely managing to create space around the King. Eren was buried in the thick crowd. He tried to push through the shoulders of those in front, but the heavy fur coats and ornate dresses of the nobles blocked him layer upon layer.
At that moment, the final hammer strike rang out.
K-BOOM!
The moment the hammer crushed the seal and broke the last resistance, a bizarre silence arrived, as if all sound in the Audience Chamber had been deleted at once.
The ancient materials packed densely within the lattice of the jar began to resonate with one another. It was a cursed metal that grew hot on its own without fuel. The thick walls surrounding the jar were no longer a shield. They transformed into reflectors, bouncing the invisible forces trying to escape back inside, causing them to strike each other endlessly.
The invisible forces, fed by speed and time beyond human perception, tore into and collided with one another; the heat and light inside the jar amplified exponentially. And the light erupting outward struck the red-hot steam.
The steam expanded under the fierce heat, then scattered with a strange sound as if beaten by an invisible force. Each particle of that murky mist began to emit light of its own, as if they had become blue embers.
Zinnnnnnn....
A bizarre vibration rang through everyone near the jar. It was not a sound heard with the ears. It was a sound that literally struck the inside of the mind.
Every person in the Audience Chamber felt the same taste in their mouths.
Instantly, through the thick steam, an indescribable, transparent, and chilling blue brilliance erupted. It was not the warm yellow of a lamp, nor the pale white of moonlight. It was the desire of the ancients who wished to imprison it for 100,000 years, the color of a starving abyss that had waited for 50,000 years.
A bluish light illuminated the area around the jar. It was a mass of light that burst forth without fire or fuel.
That blue light stretched out in all directions but cast no shadows. The light did not travel over objects; it permeated everything, illuminating the inside and outside simultaneously. The pillars of the Audience Chamber, the arms of the workers, and even the joints of the King’s finger bones had no place to hide within that transparent, blue radiance. It was not brightness; it was an erosion that dissolved the boundaries of matter.
The King saw that light.
In that light, the King saw the Sangsi Port he had so longed for. His hands gripped the armrests of the throne.
In that light, the King saw his own coronation. His lips trembled minutely.
In that light, the King saw his father. He inhaled and could not breathe out.
In that light, the King saw the darkness. The strength left his hands.
The King collapsed.
Eren saw it over the crowd. The workers standing directly in front of the jar, Talase, and the King on the throne—all were swept away frontally by that transparent, blue brilliance.
The back of a fat minister in front of Eren was soaked in blue light. That thick fur coat became a shield, obscuring Eren's field of vision. Thanks to that, Eren was able to step slightly aside from the mass of direct light. Yet, even in that fleeting moment, he could not escape the bizarre vibration flowing through the air and the taste of iron that filled his mouth.
The light scattered through the crowd and scanned Eren’s entire body. It was not heat, but a chilling shudder that froze him to the bone.
The light had been shattered.
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