If there truly was a plot to literally subvert the world hidden here, then the only one left who could provide Sū ěr with answers was likely this giant, who seemed to have been made into an artistic statue. He didn't want to miss this chance.
The black sludge that had merged with the black aura had already begun to flow back when the giant showed signs of breaking free. It was sucked into the giant's nose and mouth during its first deep breath... it was nothing more than a final struggle before the end.
Sū ěr could see this.
Most of its body had completely melted. Even during the recent upheaval, it showed no sign of restoration like the black sludge. In fact, it was the exact opposite: the thing that had pulled back the giant's struggle and roar was its own melted body—the things that had turned into brownish-black substances.
Like someone trying to hold back a person jumping off a tall building, the body leaned forward.
"Who trapped you here?"
Staying by the giant's side, Sū ěr raised his voice and asked directly. It wasn't that he didn't want to start with friendly, simple questions and work his way up, but the giant looked like it could close its eyes at any second, and this time, it was unlikely to "rise from the dead" again.
But there was no reaction.
"Hey! Are you there?! Who killed you?!" After a few seconds of silence, finding that the giant hadn't heard him, Sū ěr changed the question. This time, he finally got a response; it was no longer a one-man show.
"...Kill..."
Dazed and dull, the giant acted as if its mind couldn't quite turn the corner. It only reacted to that specific word from Sū ěr mouth, like a heavy truck trying to make a turn in a narrow space.
"...Kill... Not kill... Don't kill..."
"...Beg..."
The giant humanoid, who looked like it was about to die a moment ago, grew agitated again, though it was quiet compared to the commotion earlier.
Finally turning its head, Sū ěr saw that the giant had long since lost its eyeballs. Beneath the open eyelids was a void, yet it hadn't sunken in like a normal person's lost eyes. It slowly turned toward Sū ěr, its hollow gaze fixed on him as if it could still see.
It was incredibly creepy.
Sū ěr felt his scalp tingle slightly. He thought for a moment and then raised a hand to wave. It was originally just a tentative gesture, but he didn't expect that before his hand could drop, the giant humanoid began to cry—presumably.
It wasn't crystalline tears, but that black, mud-like fluid. It flowed from beneath its two giant, hollow eye sockets, running down its face in two thin black lines.
Strangely, the tears didn't flow evenly. Far less black "tear-sludge" flowed from the left eye than the right. These black tears dripped from the giant's chin, landing on its chest.
They didn't merge into a single whole like the previous sludge, nor did they spread out under gravity. Instead, they formed two distinct piles.
"...Careful... Careful..."
The giant was still struggling to speak, but this time it was finally addressed to Sū ěr. Its giant head lifted slightly, seemingly looking into the distance. When Sū ěr followed its gaze, he saw the zenith of the Silver River—the place where Takamagahara should be.
Be careful of Takamagahara? Sū ěr wondered, but he could get no further answers.
When he turned back, intending to press the giant for more, he saw a startling sight—the two distinct piles of black sludge were throbbing and jumping. One moment they were twisting into lines, and the next, they were forming... human shapes?!
His nerves taut, Sū ěr watched the scene intently. To his surprise, the pile of black tears from the left eye formed a tall, full-figured woman roughly his height. On the other side, the much larger pile of tears from the right eye eventually became a girl of about fifteen or sixteen.
Both had the same silver-grey hair, though the mature woman's was long and the girl's was short. Once the shaping was complete, the young girl's eyes remained shut. In the next second, her body slumped onto the giant's chest, apparently unconscious.
But the full-figured woman remained conscious. She didn't even bother to look back. As if unaware of Sū ěr strange gaze, she knelt before the giant humanoid with poise, her body bare.
Having given birth to these two... children—Sū ěr would temporarily call these two women the giant's children—the giant seemed to have reached the end of its strength. Every now and then, the sound of snapping and crumbling reached his ears. At the edges of its body, the skin was falling away like rock fragments, its torso crumbling into powder. But none of this affected it.
It merely lowered its head, its hollow eye sockets watching the lives just born from its own eyes. Its gaze swept over the kneeling woman and finally rested on the unconscious girl.
"...Thou... Eirin ..."
"...She... Tsukuyomi ..."
"...Flee... Live..."
The voice was intermittent, but this time even Sū ěr could understand. It was like a dying father entrusting his children, giving unique names to the lives born from his own body, as if registering them in the company called "The World."
"...Yes. I shall obey your command," the tall woman replied in a low voice after a long silence. For the giant, that was enough.
It was fading, and its life force was fading with it. Even if the process of birthing two lives had already taken its last breath, this current fading was to the point where not even a trace remained... until its color was that of true grey-white rock.
The arched, bow-like body snapped and collapsed, crumbling into basic stones amid a cloud of dust. Upon close inspection, one could still see the remnants of the giant's features on the rocks—the contours of the bones, the remains of the eyes and brows.
Watching this in silence, Sū ěr had too many questions. He saw the full-figured woman, who had received her mission, slowly stand up and turn to look at him.
"Who was he?"
Now that the dust had settled, time was no longer so urgent. Sū ěr pondered for a moment, but finally asked the question that was the source of all his doubts.
"...Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto."
The tall woman replied.