Chapter 84: The Sorcerers Who Disappeared in the Active Volcano
"...An active volcano?"
Tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions... for a large portion of the human population, the existence and concept of these natural disasters are actually quite distant.
Many people say that humans are nothing more than insignificant parasites to the Earth, and it's too naïve to shamelessly regard themselves as the planet's masters—and this is indeed true.
To this day, humans have only been active on the surface of this planet, never having truly explored its interior. And in terms of time, humans have existed for at most a few million years, which is merely a drop in the ocean compared to the Earth's 4.6 billion years of existence.
Humans can only speculate and imagine what this planet looked like millions or hundreds of millions of years ago, or whether other intelligent life forms ever existed. Furthermore, in the face of natural disasters produced by the Earth, all the technology humans have prided themselves on to date is completely useless.
A tsunami can easily swallow an entire coastal city, a hurricane can level a fortress built by humans, not to mention crustal movements like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. It's no exaggeration to say they could completely destroy all of human civilization to date.
It's just that human history is too short, and we've been lucky not to have encountered such drastic changes.
Even without mentioning these, just considering volcanic eruptions, which have frequently occurred even in modern times, humans have absolutely no way to resist them.
Didn't the second-largest city of ancient Rome become a historical specimen, along with tens of thousands of its inhabitants, all buried under volcanic ash?
Even with current human technology, the most we can do is predict a natural disaster beforehand and prepare as much as possible to avoid it.
Humans' classification of volcanoes is also quite simple and clear: those that have erupted in existing historical records or are likely to erupt again are collectively called active volcanoes.
The remaining ones, which are not known or predicted to have a possibility of eruption, are naturally extinct volcanoes or dormant volcanoes.
Emiya remembered very clearly that the mountains and city where the shrine was built were not very far apart. In terms of the destructive range of a volcanic eruption, that area could completely be described as being in a danger zone.
Furthermore, if the scale of the volcano were larger than expected, the matter spewed out could flood into the sea. At that point, the impact wouldn't just be on one city or one country.
.
.
.
"That's right, it's an active volcano," Gojo Satoru affirmed, nodding in response to Emiya's confusion.
"However, what's surprising is that there are no records of that mountain having erupted in the past, and modern geological surveys say that a volcano shouldn't exist in that geographical location.
But it truly exists there, and it even had a small-scale eruption five hundred years ago."
As he spoke, Gojo Satoru took out a map from his pocket, then drew his finger across an area encompassing nearly a hundred kilometers.
'Right, and this is considered 'small-scale'.'
"Does that mean this phenomenon is very abnormal?"
Emiya didn't understand geological surveys, but if that geographical location were really that dangerous, humans wouldn't have built a city there.
"Well, anyway, that's what the records in the Jujutsu High archives say. As for saying a volcano shouldn't exist, perhaps human surveying methods aren't comprehensive enough yet?"
Gojo Satoru chose not to dwell on this uninteresting point and quickly brought the conversation to the crucial part—
"According to the records in that document, that active volcano originally showed a trend towards a second eruption. Fortunately, the 'Strongest' Sorcerer at the time and the nearby residents jointly held a ritual."
"It involved spending over a decade to cultivate a young girl of the purest, most stainless innocence, combined with a large amount of faith and several unknown Special Grade Cursed Tools, to create a unique Cursed Spirit, which is the 'Mountain God' you saw.
Its essence is of course still negative emotions and curses; the clearly documented sacrifices alone numbered no less than a hundred people... but perhaps a special technique similar to the 'Reverse Cursed Technique' was used, which is why the 'Mountain God''s manifestation was different from a normal Cursed Spirit."
As everyone knows, there can be discrepancies between historical records and the actual situation.
Sacrificing the lives of at least several hundred people, only for the final result to be the creation of this one Cursed Spirit, and using a certain girl as raw material...
Even if it did ultimately fend off the natural disaster of the volcanic eruption, what was the meaning?
To showcase how utterly inhumane the species called humans can be?
Also, this method of human-made deity creation seems to be exactly the same as the Tsukumo family.
"..."
'Looking on the bright side, at least Emiya has exorcised that Cursed Spirit, allowing that unnamed girl's soul to achieve permanent liberation.'
"And then, there's something I didn't even know before—"
Gojo Satoru lightly tapped the table with his finger, temporarily using this to imply his dissatisfaction.
"The Jujutsu Headquarters knew about the 'Mountain God''s existence when they were founded decades ago, but they chose to conceal and ignore it because it was suppressing the volcano. Almost no sorcerer knew about its existence.
That artificially created Cursed Spirit spent centuries in that shrine, and due to the barrier, it was difficult for the outside world to know about it."
Between the mission to eliminate Cursed Spirits and the more convenient solution to the volcano problem, they unhesitatingly chose convenience.
"They just let it be? What about people who accidentally wandered in?" Emiya asked in confusion.
"You have to remember, Emiya-kun.
Family-line sorcerers have never cared about what happens to non-sorcerers."
For those people, as long as the majority of non-sorcerers are safe and social stability can be maintained, that's enough.
Are they expected to risk their lives for the sake of an occasional non-sorcerer?
"Well, that's certainly not surprising at all."
Emiya had to admit that such a decision was completely correct on a large scale, but he himself could absolutely not accept it.
After a moment of silence, Emiya recalled another crucial question.
"So, Gojo-sensei, that active volcano...?"
Gojo Satoru finally sat up a little straighter and revealed: "Because the Headquarters chose to conceal it themselves, they have no reason to question you, but they still sent sorcerers for a secret investigation.
I don't know if the volcano is still dormant, but those guys just sent word that the sorcerers they sent in lost contact and they want my help to solve the problem."
Given Gojo Satoru's personality, he certainly wouldn't repay malice with kindness. But if there really was an active volcano that posed a danger to the area, he couldn't possibly ignore it either.
"..."
"Then let me handle this, Gojo-sensei.
After all, I'm the one who exorcised the 'Mountain God'. For whatever reason, I can't just stand by and ignore what happens as a result."
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