Chapter 185 – 185 – The Only Faith
I melted in my sister’s arms and took off the shackles of my body. Now I feel something beyond that. The endless spiritual world is whispering the truth to me.
I get closer, as if mesmerized, by the purple veil that sways gorgeously in the darkness of space. The whispers are getting louder little by little.
The moment the silhouette behind the veil comes into view, a great joy of praise comes from deep within my heart…
We were born from enjoyment, and enjoyment is the gateway back to the source.
Even if a butterfly dies, its wings become a typhoon. We die, but the consequences of our actions are forever etched into the universe.
So tempt. Love Do your best to carve a trace of joy that will remain forever on the thread of time. Devour all the bliss in sight and spit out the most obscene obscenities.
Go crazy! Embrace the virtues of madness! Tear off the skin on your face that frowns at taboos with contempt, and rejoice and decadence to your heart’s content, overcoming all barriers of reason that guard against profanity!
You only live once, so enjoy the extravaganza until your brains explode and run out of your nose!
So, the moment you encounter a moment of joy, thrill, and radiation, call her name. Oh, Ishtar.
Or In-nanna, or Irnina, Ikhs-Shital-Tagan. Addict. Greedy. A cosmic fever that craves both prey and predation. A storm of unsettling steam embraced by the morning star.
Huge, auspicious frivolity. An angry mother whose youngest daughter was taken away. A great snake that is ecstatic, smearing all the stickiness on its scales.
And the serpent will finally swallow our light…
The goddess warned me when I first saw her. She said that if she tried to face him directly, she might get in trouble.
I think I know now what that means. That indescribable color of madness is Ishtar’s true face.
The price of facing God with his bare eyes explodes in his head. How can you not love an ecstasy that is more than an ecstasy?
Destructive impulses come rushing in. There would be nothing happier than dying in her arms. I want to do that, but I have to.
That sounds like shit.
Get all out of my head, all you stray thoughts that have gathered together like a blood clot blocking the blood.
It’s comfortable and painful, it’s fun and scary, and it feels like she’s going to turn around, but she shakes it all away by shaking her head vigorously. Because this is not the time to lose your mind.
I have lovely colleagues who I cannot let down. There are people you don’t want to make cry.
And best of all, Thena, who is disappearing after being crushed by Mithra, is waiting for her help!
Suddenly, I feel pain digging into my skin. It starts from the back and spreads to both arms.
When I moved my trembling arm and looked, I saw a burning sentence engraved from over my shoulder to my hand. It seems that Ishtar’s pattern is getting longer as more words are added.
Meanwhile, the goddess gets closer. Pushing her veil down from her face. To me, who is barely able to withstand the madness caused by her influence.
The sense of intimidation is enormous, but the approach is relaxed. Just as a whale slowly approaches a diver to show that it has no intention of attacking.
The moment I finally got within arm’s reach, I reflexively knew what to do.
The power that Ishtar gave to me, her great warrior, is the power to contact the inner thoughts of her crush…
I reached out to the most dangerous woman in the universe.
————
My eyes light up.
When I felt the solid ground behind my back, I let out a sigh of relief.
It’s different from just before, when I was surrounded by an unknown sense of floating. The tingles of metaphysical madness have long since disappeared.
All I can feel is the darkness of the sky, the moisture of the soil, and the cool breeze passing by. It is said that all senses have returned to reality.
Rumbling.
…But it shouldn’t be reality. Because mountains and cities were uprooted and flying through the sky.
The apocalypse is unfolding. And very loudly.
Bang.
Every time a thrown object on a scale too surreal to be real passes through the air, the grass in the field shakes from the wind pressure. Along with my eyebrows and skin that were spread out.
···Is Lord very angry? Otherwise, it’s a scene that’s hard to understand.
No, it would be difficult for even him to create such a mess. It may be possible to burn a city, but scooping it up and moving it would be a completely different story.
Potato stems can hurt even a child, but it takes an adult’s strength to pull a potato out by the roots. A violent act of such force that it would make even Lord look like a child. What is the identity of the culprit?
While I was panicking and thinking about nothing else, another prosperous city flew overhead. The roots of the earthquake-resistant building were scattered like dirt particles.
I turned my head in the direction the city came from. And I immediately regretted it. This is because I saw a scary sight that felt as if not only my heart but also my intestines would explode.
A giant is trampling the world. The material that makes up the body that will reach the sky resembles a nebula in the night sky, and the roar of anger spreads like the sound of a huge bell, causing a tsunami.
And beneath its feet, the lights of dozens of cities are going out with a single step. With the harsh sound of tectonic plates crackling.
“Then what? It’s just a dream.”
A little surprising. I never thought my imagination would be rich enough to picture the end of the world in such detail.
However, there is one fact that is as scary as that nightmare scene. I pinched my cheek and it hurt. It shouldn’t hurt.
“···It should be a dream. Why does it feel like it’s real?”
First of all, as I thought before the goddess, it is a little too early to turn back.
Let’s take comfort in the fact that it is a sight you cannot see even if you pay money. If it were a dream, it wouldn’t be possible to dream it again in such detail… And if it were reality, the real economy would have collapsed anyway.
First of all, looking at the appearance of the city being torn apart by giants, it doesn’t seem to resemble the style of any country I know. Maybe we have arrived in another world like the Demon World…
What. It seems somewhat similar to the buildings of the Demon World. There are many circular marble buildings, and the magic lights unique to them are flashing.
Could it be that we have come to a demon world on the verge of destruction? That probably isn’t true either. Didn’t they say that the demon world fell because it was overrun with monsters, and then they exploded with bombs at each other and it was completely destroyed? She hadn’t heard from Erina about the giant.
And what’s really strange is that the monster has chains wrapped around its neck and arms.
A chain of a size commensurate with the size of the captured object is dug into the monster’s flesh. Every time I tighten it to the point of crushing it, every joint sparkles with a golden light. Like a warrior’s sword.
I have more questions than how it was made. Who on earth thought of chaining up a monster like that?
And is the monster upset because you tried to tie it up, or are you tying it up to stop the angry monster?
“Both.”
I was shocked and turned my head. And reflexively, he let out a childlike scream and ran.
Sister Monica was sitting at the edge of the cliff. With the ground shaking so violently, it looked very dangerous.
However, the moment he grabbed her collar and pulled her back, the excessive weight sent a shiver down her spine.
Her sisters are by no means slender, but they are not as heavy as stones or pillars. I let go of the collar I was trying to pull and took a step back.
A woman, presumed to be a sister, stands up. But her face resembled Eshen’s.
No, she looks like Isil Rune. She turns her head little by little, and each time the angle changes, she sees a different shape of her face.
Road. Morgan. Garam. Leni or Nenyah? Villena or Nidroga, Erina Florica…
···What on earth?
“I am all of them. And at the same time, I am none of them.”
“···Are you who I think you are?”
“Of course it’s me. Didn’t you use the power to invade your inner self on me?”
She tried to be polite by quickly bowing, but the goddess smiled and grabbed my back and pulled me up.
“It was obvious that you would go wrong if you continued your journey in your true form, so I borrowed from the children an image that would put your mind at ease.”
“Okay.”
It would have been a little less confusing if I had chosen just one person to rent.
If I thought I would go crazy just looking at my real face, I think I would get motion sick now. Even if I move my head just 1cm to the side, it changes quickly and I can’t get used to it.
“First of all, where are we?”
“Probably somewhere between Armatam and Summeriris, but it would be better to ask when. There was neither Armatam nor Summeriris at that time.”
“···Is it the past or the future?”
“The past. Isn’t it nice to think that that scene has already happened and is in the past?”
It certainly is. The giant that roars while shaking off the chains rising from the ground is so amazing that I don’t even feel fear anymore.
“If my guess is correct, that could be…”
“Yes, a demon god. This is the moment of his birth. Look at the tragedy of An-Anu, the creator of the planet, being pulled down from the sky and transformed into great fear and sorrow. Not by anything else, but by the hands of his creatures. .”
“···Are you saying that we created a demon god?”
“You people on earth were once so powerful. In your era, artifacts of great power that could change the fate of a dynasty were traded on the streets as antiques.”
I held the grappling hook in my arms tightly without realizing it. Don’t listen, my friend. You are not an antique.
“The ‘Multidimensional Chain’ was originally a magic engineering technology created to explore other dimensions. However, it was used for the terrible task of bringing down the main god. We didn’t find out about it until later, but it was the work of Mithra believers.”
“···This is crazy. Was Mithraism the main sect at this time?”
“At that time, the color of religion was different from what it is now. The very act of devoting oneself to faith was the preserve of a few. That’s because we are not only beneficial to you.”
I think I know what you mean. I almost lost my mind just watching it.
“Fire has many uses, but if you get close to it, it will scorch you. We are more than form, and we can tear you to pieces without our intention.”
The goddess, still sitting at the edge of the cliff and shaking her legs, pointed to An-Anu, who was smashing the buildings on the ground with her fists.
“So, we only remained as neighbors who indirectly interacted with the races on the ground through An-Anu, which connects the universe and the planets.”
“You don’t accept our worship?”
“There was no need for that at the time. Unless you made a mutually beneficial deal with mortals, forming a master-slave relationship would have been considered an oddity among the gods.”
“But there was one weirdo.”
“Strangely enough, Mithra was very interested in the surface world. Even more so than I, who was teased for frequently interacting with the species on the surface. He exerted influence until half the planet believed that Mithra was the only god.”
She is the only god. That strange word somehow sounds disturbing.
If someone calls themselves an only child, you may think that there is only one child in the family. If it’s been that way since birth, there’s nothing strange about it.
If someone calls themselves a unique talent, you will first think that they are a great person. There is nothing strange about it as it is the result of effort.
However, the inner meaning of the word ‘one God’ is…
“For example, my Goddess, if I claim, ‘There are no other porters, I am the only porter.'”
“You are either mentally ill, or you are overly proud of your ability to be a porter, or you are outright denying the existence of other living porters…”
The goddess looks at me playfully.
The three cases the goddess mentioned are far from the one possibility that crossed my mind. Perhaps you want me to speak directly.
“Or, even if I were Emperor Armatam, there would be no way to do that, but if you were planning to eliminate all suitable porters like Danar’s plan… No. I think I was overthinking it.”
“But Mithra tried. The first victim was An-Anu, and then the rest of the gods. Should I say he was trying to keep his word?”
Pup···.
“Anyway, thanks to his unreasonable efforts to secure believers on earth, a lot of mortals went crazy. Instead of getting closer to the sun, the sun came directly to them and destroyed the nerve roots beyond their eyeballs. “It was the victims who were forced to become madmen who led the conspiracy to ‘degrade the Lord.'”
Windows the size of ancient buildings fly up, spewing flames. It’s like a meteor traveling backwards from its fall path.
And then he is thrown into the body of the giant An-Anu. Flames bloom like roses and the god’s body vibrates, but An-Anu only becomes more angry and does not collapse.
A vicious kick blows away the procession of mechanical devices that shoot out spears. Although it could not be seen or heard from this distance, countless drops of blood and screams would have erupted.
“So, even though the ancient sun believers may have killed hundreds of millions of their own people, they should not be overly reprimanded. There is someone else who deserves the blame. ‘How dare there be a greater god than our father Mithras? We must bring him down and kill him. Right.’ “The arrogant Mithra who took such nonsense seriously.”
“It would be right to drag him out and kill him… But he was still alive, wasn’t he?”
“How easy would it be to destroy the source of all life? It’s like a flea trying to take down an orc. In the end, it ended up like that, so we couldn’t just sit still. Keep watching.”
The gigantic chain, which could be considered a feat just for its creation, was ultimately destroyed, unable to overcome the power of the titan. As freedom approached, An-Anu began to glow more violently.
At that time, the gods tear the thick clouds and come down. It bends down and eagerly extends its hands and claws, and sometimes tentacles or other appendages of unknown origin.
The intention is to wrap An-Anu up and bring him out.
“Which side are you trying to save? An-Anu? Ground?”
“Both. Of course, our family was An-Anu, but it wouldn’t be right to let you be destroyed.”
But then, light shines through the torn clouds.
A ray of light extending like a spear pierces An-Anu’s head and limbs at once. The screams of the gods echo.
“It was the second blow.”
“Second time?”
“The first attack caused him to fall and fall into madness as he resisted the chains fired from the ground. And the second ‘holy spear’… Completely crippled him.”
“···If it’s Seongchang, is it by any chance what I experienced in Hwanhwagok?”
“What’s stuck in your body is a miniature version of a toy, but that’s right. So you should be proud. You may have relied on my blessings, but you withstood the assault that destroyed An-Anu.”
I’m really lucky to have survived.
A giant with its limbs cut off collapses like a porcelain doll. The body, shriveled in pain, barely manages to raise itself with its one remaining arm.
The gods who lost An-Anu become angry and despair and disappear beyond the sky. It seems like I can’t come down. Only the sun shines insidiously beyond the dust cloud.
An-Anu also cries out in sorrow like the rest of the gods. Dragging with one arm the ash-covered body that had been burned and blackened by the heat of the holy spear.
And with that mass it began to destroy royalties. The world on the ground, which may have been cheering after overthrowing the giant, was soon crushed by the ship and turned into crushed powder and debris.
“From this day on, ‘An-Anu’ came to be called the demon god ‘An’. He lost his status as ‘Anu’, the god of gods, and was reduced to a distorted being. Can you see the demon energy scattering from that body?”
See. It is an aura of black pollution that is commonly seen, even near the Magul Cave.
Of course, what is blooming from the demon’s body is darker than anything I’ve ever seen before. As soon as you get close, it feels like you will die from the poison.
“Now I understand. The reason it is black is…”
“It’s because it’s the ashes of a burned god. The reason monsters, broken creations of hatred, are born from demon energy is because the ashes still contain the power of the creator.”
Perhaps due to her mood, Ishtar’s tone sounds very bitter.
Why not? Although the other person is fundamentally different from me, as someone who has lost his family, the deep loss does not feel unfamiliar.
“Thank you for understanding.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It was sad. It was scary at the same time. ‘An-Anu, the creator of our gods, the one and only, is gone. What do we do now? Where do we get the energy?'”
“You get energy from him?”
The sky is turbulent. I can feel the confusion of the gods.
“We were all immature gods, nothing more than energy creatures, so only An-Anu could exist alone. It would have taken eons for us all to become like him.”
“Just as the future tree, the acorn, gets its nutrients from the parent oak tree?”
“That is a plausible analogy. An-Anu was like a parent to us as young spirit beings. Not only in the sense that he created us, but also in the sense that we would starve to death without him.”
“It was a community destined to die together when An-Anu died. But aren’t you all safe yet?”
“We floundered like starving baby birds and eventually fell from the nest. And we discovered something surprising: spiritual interaction with you can nourish us.”
“God vs. God. The master-slave relationship that you all thought was useless has since become very necessary.”
“I learned that although not as much as An-Anu, the worship of intelligent souls is enough to feed us. It would be even better if we were worshiped by many souls. That made us all realize that. That little, arrogant little Mithra. “How on earth did he gather the power to harm the best of us, even if only by surprise?”
Is it because he didn’t go crazy even after facing Ishtar? It seems I can still hear whispers from the world beyond form.
Beyond the distant sky, the language of the gods fluctuates. ‘Little brother, you failed. Our father and mother are still alive. We will restore him and lift him back to heaven!’
‘Why do you think it is a failure, my mean sister? Look at that decayed being crawling on the ground.’
‘What?’
‘Do you think it will come first for you to rebuild him after eons of time, or for him to finish off all of our believers and starve everyone to death?’
“We ended up participating in a terrible crime that attacked existence. For your survival and for ours.”
“The Age of Aptitude. You gave us the weapons you made.”
“And in the end, he succeeded in trapping the demon, even if only as a temporary measure. He promised that a way would be found later to restore him to his sanity and original form. However, Mithra’s opinion was different this time. He wanted to kill him. In the end, what he wanted was “It was only one from the beginning.”
“One God.”
“It’s amazing that he’s not the highest god, but the only god. He’s not even happy about stepping on us and taking An-Anu’s place, so he wants to stand tall over our corpses. Although he brought us into the big picture, he’s also a bastard. We couldn’t accept the fact that we were sharing the worshipers that should have been ours. In the end, as soon as the demon god was defeated, another war broke out. One god who took over half of the earth clashed with all the gods who managed to secure the other half. “
Goddess snaps her fingers. The point of view changes to the distant future.
The world that was once destroyed by demons was beautifully rebuilt, although not as good as before. And it is falling again.
An army unified under a single flag with the sun engraved on it. This is because it clashed with the coalition forces of dozens and hundreds of flags. Everything that exists on that plain, be it a city, village, or fortress, is burning, collapsing, and being trampled.
Following the barbarism of gods versus humans, now a barbarism of all of them was taking place. My teeth are shaking.
“How can a bastard so twisted as to lead such a tragedy claim to be the god of law and justice?”
“Frugality. Justice. Patriotism. Morality. Honor. These are all beautiful virtues for mortals. But aren’t virtues always accompanied by cynical jokes and sayings?”
“···Beware of those who say they are not interested in money. Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels. This is exactly how scoundrels talk about loyalty and honor.”
“You know a lot. Isn’t it interesting that the same logic can be applied to God? The rules he talks about were those of a tyrant. Confining all things in a unified, vertical system.”
“They are very different from the Mithraists I know. Not people like Vicar Gunther or Paladin Christensen, but good believers who just go to church every Sunday.”
“A public promise to help one’s neighbors. A personal rule to get up early. A paladin’s oath to bear responsibility for all people. If all those beautiful doctrines were nothing more than inventions from your beautiful minds, perhaps no one would. “You won’t believe it.”
“Even under the rule of an evil tyrant, good people are born as a bunch of screw-ups. So, what happened to the war? I feel like I know the outcome.”
“If we had seen earlier Mithra’s idea of slaughtering the believers and tampering with our vital cords, we might have been able to win. Unlike the guy we were used to on earth, we didn’t know hatred and war, so we were beaten hard. But as expected. “I should have done it. I had a responsibility to do it.”
The goddess closed her eyes tightly.
“The blood of believers on both sides began to flow like rivers and seas. Mithras, who had secured enormous energy and troops, did not get tired, but on the contrary, we were exhausted from the long war. However, one side did not have enough power to overwhelm the other. , We eventually accepted the ceasefire offer and agreement. It was the birth of the Pantheon Council.”
“It wasn’t Mithra’s victory. I thought it was obvious when you look at the way the world is going.”
“Of course, in reality, Mithra won. He became very proud, and as if claiming the right to be the victor, he singled out his biggest political opponent and purged him as an example. He was originally of the same rank as himself, and was more explosive than any of the gods. “The only god who expanded his power and became a terrible threat. So that no one can rise above him again.”
“···Suppression of the Ishtar Church…?”
Sister Monica’s testimony comes to mind. Burning chapel. Blood and slaughter. A trauma that continues to haunt him for a long time to this day. You said Lilith went through something similar.
But she is left breathless as the goddess herself reveals her whole story. She said the goddess had comrades who had to prevent it.
“While you and your church were being sacrificed, what hole did the rest of the gods hide in? You’re cowardly! If you don’t want to end up in the same situation, you have to fight with all your might…”
“Could you force your own child to die for the survival of another family’s child? There are many gods who wept madly because the believers they had developed affection for through exchange were massacred.”
“But···.”
“Plus, most of my children at the time agreed that we would rather be abandoned. If it meant a little less bloodshed, our sacrifice would be enough. I refused. I hid them in a veil of night fog and searched for them through temptation and bribery. “I burned the clues. But it was in vain. The sun’s power is becoming grander day by day.”
“Have you ever kept quiet about how great it is to tell people that much? Couldn’t you have revealed the truth to the world?”
“The church that accuses it will be the next target.”
“What about the goddess? The goddess has nothing to lose, right?”
“Why have nothing to lose? Every child born into this world is already a hostage. And for this moment today, it was also necessary to strategically persevere.”
“This moment?”
“I’m not showing you the truth.”
It’s so absurd that my mouth drops open. What changes if I find out the inside story of all this?
But the goddess shook her head.
“Why do you put yourself down? Do you think you can’t be a factor?”
“It’s obvious. I’m a porter!”
“Of course, he is a porter. But as far as I know, the porter prevented the destruction of Hohwangok, prevented the fall of the Dragon’s Nest, and has been an excellent leader in the history of the heroes of the Special Monster Slaying Party. His name is Tannhäuser Bantai. Coincidentally, his name is yours. It’s like this.”
“···It wasn’t entirely my fault. Even if I wasn’t there-“
“It is a fact that no one knows, but there is something that only you did. She eliminated one of the most dangerous people who had felt the loneliness of being a member of Mithra more deeply than anyone else. And that was only by awakening that person’s human conscience.”
“Me? Who?”
“Even if Edin is destroyed, didn’t you successfully return Edin’s son, who would have become the next generation’s demon king and burn the world, to his original human path?”
What?
“That… That… Eh, honestly, I don’t believe it.”
“Then it will remain a fact that no one knows forever.”
