CH 249

Stomp, stomp. The sound of footsteps came from everywhere—behind pillars, in front of the doors leading to the yard, and even the entrance of the main hall. Soon, he looked around and found himself surrounded by many figures at once.

“Haiaru…!” Then he heard a familiar voice and turned around. His mouth gaped open. “M-Murumuru?”He saw Murumuru, the leader of the half-demons, and four others of their kind.

“How are you here…!”

“I had my doubts,” Murumuru growled. “When I heard what that guy told me, I thought it couldn’t be! But…!”

The half-demon called Haiaru whirled around when Murumuru said ‘that guy’.

“A human…?” Haiaru saw a human man in front of him; it was a face he had never seen before. He didn’t know what was happening or why his companions had suddenly appeared like this, but Haiaru quickly racked his head and said, “I don’t know why you are acting like this, but it’s a misunderstanding, Murumuru. You must not believe that human’s lies—”

“Shut up!” Murumuru cut Haiaru’s off in an instant, and thus Haiaru realized things were going horribly wrong. But he believed it would still be alright since he had accomplished the most important goal.

“Why did you betray us…!”

“How am I the traitor?”

“What?”

“Aren’t you the one who’s being stupid? Don’t you know the current situation is better than anything else? What’s the point of continuing this hopeless fight!?” The one who had done wrong was barking the loudest. Murumuru looked at Haiaru in bafflement, at a loss for words.

“I simply wanted to live. Is it a sin to look out for my survival?”

“…Did you finish everything you wanted to say?” Murumuru’s voice dropped several octaves, and soon, a sword was drawn. It was clear from Murumuru’s sharp gaze that he intended to slice Haiaru in two this instant.

“No, I still have things left to say,” Haiaru responded and even boldly suggested, “Murumuru, since things have reached this point, why don’t we join hands? Not just you, but every one of our kind.”

Murumuru snorted, “You really must have lost your mind. Do you really think we would accept your offer?”

“Is there any reason not to?” Haiaru calmly continued, “You must also know the sort of treatment our kind has received until now. If those guys have at least a conscience, they shouldn’t blame us for betraying them.”

“Nonsense. The Cassiubia League accepted us. We are fellow companions who bled and fought together!”

“All they did was accept us into their group. We fought with all we had in wars, but in reality, we were always treated like outsiders. And that’s not all!” Haiaru gripped his fists tightly. “Even though we passionately protested against it, the league ignored our complaints and took the humans into their fold!”

“So, you threw away the league for choosing to collaborate with humans and ran off to the Demon Empire of all places?”

“They promised me! They genuinely apologized for discriminating against us and said that they would treat us as equals if we fought with the empire now!”

“Ha! Do you seriously believe the Demon Empire?” Murumuru shook its head in astonishment. “Be honest. You just thought we would lose this war, so you wanted to save yourself. That’s all there is to it, Haiaru.”

“…”

“Not even the Sernitas or the Abyss, but you dare join hands with the Demon Empire… I suppose they were the only ones who would even pretend to accept you,” Murumuru said mockingly. “You sly and vile coward. You should be ashamed of yourself! You are the shame of our kind!”

“It’s fine whatever insults you throw at me. You can blabber all you want.” Haiaru snorted. “But as you are also my kind, I am giving you a chance.”

“A chance?”

“I don’t know how you found out, but it’s already too late. Everything is over,” Haiaru said and glanced toward the entrance. “Aren’t you hearing it?” It was faint, but they could hear a mass number of enemies invading the city, and the sound was getting closer. It seemed like they would break through the city gates any time now.

“…It was true.”

“Did you think I was lying?”

Murumuru murmured, and Haiaru made a confident smile. “Do you realize it now? What you should do—”

“He didn’t say a single lie…”

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“Hm?” Haiaru blinked hard. What was Murumuru talking about?

“You are probably imagining a rosy future, soaking in your fantasies.” Murumuru raised its sword and pointed it at Haiaru. “But I won’t kill you immediately.”

“What are you saying all of a sudden?”

“It would be a waste to kill a guy like you now. You have to witness everything you’ve caused with your own eyes.”

“Have you been listening to me? Do you still not realize the situation you are in?”

“And then, when you are in great despair, I will take special care to kill you slowly while inflicting the greatest amount of pain I can onto you.”

Haiaru clicked his tongue, but Murumuru looked unbothered. Then Murumuru turned and nodded at Chi-Woo. It was a signal that Chi-Woo could begin now since the confirmation was done.

“It’s truly interesting,” Kabal said in the state of Kabbalah. “I agreed to it because of the conditions, but I didn’t think everything would unravel so smoothly.” Everyone’s eyes shot toward the black-haired girl as she murmured. Then Haiaru gasped when he saw what was inside Kabal’s hands. It was the flower of light he had presented as an offering.

“Why is that…!” Haiaru shouted.

“What is it?” Chi-Woo asked.

“It’s an item containing the condensed form of Penrils’ god’s divinity.”

“Oh.”

“With this much, we won’t have to use your merits.” Kabal stroked the flower petals and smiled. “It surprised me no matter how much I thought about it. To think every piece would fall perfectly into place. As expected…” Kabal looked at Chi-Woo intently and asked, “You remember our promise right?”

“…Yes.”

“Good. That’s all I need to ask.” Kabal let out a long sigh. For some reason, she appeared a bit bitter and threw two flower petals toward Chi-Woo. Haiaru looked completely perplexed. What in the world were the two talking about?

***

Going back to the past—before Chi-Woo hashed out a plan with Evelyn.

“A godly territory isn’t an almighty asset,” Evelyn told him. “There are some who think they can just get any god to establish a godly territory by offering them merits. And they would have an advantage over the Demon Empire within the sanctuary.” Evelyn crossed her arms while speaking. “But if a priest who studied ancient history heard this, they would be shaking their head like crazy at such a belief.” Then she asked the group, “What do you guys think a godly territory is?”

“Uh…it’s a holy territory,” Ru Hiana answered.

“Why don’t you explain it in more concrete and specific terms?” Evelyn shook her head.

Chi-Woo responded, “It’s a place where a god chooses as their territory and graces the land with their blessings and protection.”

“Correct!” Evelyn pointed at Chi-Woo and winked. “It’s as you say. A godly territory is where a god’s influence has been strongly poured into—a god’s influence.” Evelyn put special emphasis on the word ‘influence’ and asked, “Then, what do you think this influence is? What sort of influence does a god have that determines the godly territory’s effects?”

Evelyn answered her own question as it looked like nobody could answer.

“It’s based on how they are formed.”

She went on to explain that gods came to be based on a specific need. The reason why people talked of faith and prayed was that they wanted something. Like how people prayed to the Greek god Demeter for good harvest and Aphrodite for beauty and love, gods formed as wishes and prayers accumulated. Thus, the areas that gods had influence over were deeply connected to the will that gave them shape in the first place; and this was also related to the effects of the godly territory.

“For example, let’s think of a god born from an infertile person’s wish for a child. Once that god established a godly territory, what sort of effects do you think that godly territory would have?”

“Its effects must be related to child birth…?” Ru Hiana answered, and Evelyn nodded.

“Yes. For a person wanting a child, it would be a perfect location to go to. They can give birth to as many children as they want there. But what perks would that place have for a warrior?”

“…”

“Or how helpful would that place be for someone who wishes to defeat the Demon Empire?” It would be meaningless to them. Blessings for children didn’t give any direct benefits in a war.

“Then Kabbalah….” Ru Amuh asked.

“She’s an extremely special case,” Evelyn said. “Kabbalah is a forgotten god. Though she disappeared because she became unnecessary, she was resurrected thanks to a mighty god’s powers.” It was thanks to La Bella re-establishing the balance.

“If she had established a godly territory in only her Kabal state, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference now. After all, Kabal is originally a god of evil alignment…but there are other methods.” Like Evelyn said, Kabal was one of the exceptional gods. “Because there’s Balal.”

Ru Amuh gasped in realization. Balal was an existence created to neutralize Kabal’s evil so that she could evolve into a new being, which perfectly aligned with those who wanted to protect Shalyh against the Demon Empire. In other words, Balal allowed Kabal to have influence that matched the current situation. Thus, a godly territory with Balal in the center was created, but it had a clear weakness: Balal’s fallibility. The Demon Empire would be aiming for that.

“What I’m trying to say is that even if we establish a godly territory, we have to secure a god with the right sort of influence first.” In other words, their priority was to find a god who would have a meaningful impact on the Demon Empire. Finding such a god wasn’t an easy task. If it was, the Cassiubia League would’ve already found gods from all sorts of places to establish godly territories. After thinking deeply about this matter, Ru Amuh spoke.

“What about God Bably? Isn’t that the god who chose you, Lady Evelyn, as the saintess…”

“It will be great if God Bably is still here, especially since they have a long history and tradition of fighting demons…but that’s not possible.” Evelyn licked her lips. “If God Bably still existed, they would’ve called me as soon as I was resurrected as the saintess again. But I couldn’t sense any sort of revelation at all.”

This meant only one thing: that the god named Bably was no longer in Liber. There was no way such a famous god could disappear due to a lack of need. It was more likely that God Bably had met an unfortunate end for mysterious reasons.

“What about God Shahnaz?” Ru Hiana asked.

“It’s not really a good choice,” Evelyn answered. “While not to Kabbalah’s level, Shahnaz is also in a pretty rare category.”

“What do you mean?”

“She used to be human, but she became a god because her tribe wished for her to be great after her death. So her foundation is based on native religious beliefs. Furthermore, she’s the Queen of Conquest. We’re trying to put our roots here, not go on conquests.”

“Ah…” Ru Hiana agreed.

“Then God La Bella—” Chi-Woo started, but Evelyn immediately cut him off.

“No way. I don’t know about other gods, but it can’t be La Bella. Never.”

“W-Why?” Chi-Woo was stunned to have been shot down so severely.

“La Bella…is a double-edged sword.” Evelyn shuddered as if the thought alone made her fearful. “She isn’t just neutral. She seeks perfect neutrality. Don’t you realize how scary that is?”

La Bella was a god of balance who sought to find a perfect balance between good and evil. When Evelyn brought up this point, Chi-Woo realized what she was talking about.

“It might be fine now, but if you think about it in the long run, you have to avoid her at all costs. And if our enemies realize the basis of our godly territory then, they could easily use its effects for their own benefits.”

Shahnaz was a no-go and La Bella was dangerous. It was the same for other gods like Mamiya or Miho.

“We can’t do anything before we solve this problem.”

Evelyn’s statement was met with resounding silence. Finding a single god was extremely difficult in the current situation—but they even had to find one with the right kind of influence?

Seemingly feeling hopeless about the situation, Evelyn flopped onto the sofa with a big sigh. “Ha—it’s to the point that I want to borrow power from a foreign entity.”

“A foreign entity?” asked Chi-Woo.

“I mean gods outside of Liber,” Evelyn murmured. “…I wonder where I could find one.” She spoke like she wished one would just fall from the sky. “A high-status god with fighting prowess and wishes to vanquish evil…”

Silence circled around the room, and most of them looked at her like they thought that would be very difficult—except for one person.

***

The city gates opened.

“Good! Charge forward!”

“Burn and loot! Indulge in anything you can do!” The great demons yelled, and armies rushed into the wide-open city gates.

“The godly territory status has been lifted,” one great demon said calmly while watching this scene unfold. “The city gates are also open.”

“…”

“Nothing happened.”

“…”

“All there’s left to do is occupy this city,” the great demon with the calm voice said and glanced downward. Shersha was scanning her surroundings.

“Not yet…” she said in a faint voice, and the great demon sighed. If he could, he wanted to run into the battlefield. He wanted to stomp and burn down the holy city that had been an absolute eyesore. He had planned to do just that before Shersha insisted that they be careful. Thus, the great demon stood back for a moment and studied the situation, letting the lower-ranking great demons rush in first. They were like mice in experiments.

“What worries you so much, Shersha?” the calm voice asked like he couldn’t understand. Of course, he respected Shersha’s judgment and thought she must have a good reason for acting as she had never done before. Thus, he repressed his urge and waited. However, not all great demons in the single-digit ranks were like him.

“Ah, who cares! I can’t endure it any longer! I’m going!” One of them led their army and jumped into the fray.

“Damn it! Me too!” As one moved, the sentiment spread. Others also began to feel a sense of urgency, and thus another great demon quickly followed. Shersha scowled, but she couldn’t forcefully stop them; she could only suggest to them to act a certain way. Demons were beings who enjoyed war, and moreover, they had a rule that only those who participated in war could claim loot. Many great demons of higher ranks couldn’t bear to watch demons in lower ranks monopolize the spoils of war.

It was then a streak of light shot down into the dark city. Silverish moonlight seeped through the cloud-filled sky and focused on one area. It was as if someone was coming down this path.

“?” When the great demon with a calm voice realized this fact, a mysterious sound rang in his ears.

Dum, dum, dum, dum….It was a deep rumble, like someone beating on drums, accompanied by horses clopping on the ground so hard that the earth shook. At first, the great demon thought the sound was coming from inside the city, but that wasn’t the case. The source wasn’t underground, but above them. Realizing that something strange was happening, the great demon raised his head and clearly witnessed a giant bird gracefully fly through the clouds. And a formidable giant descended from the sky riding this bird. The giant wore armor and equipment he had never seen before and held a giant guandao that reflected the moonlight and glowed a bluish light.

“What is that…?”

The great demons stared with their mouths gaping at the sight of a being wholly foreign to them. White Horse Heavenly General, who guarded the great Jade Emperor and vanquished evil spirits to protect humans, was descending to Liber.