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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Ruby
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The questions of causality approaching Yuma had the form of heavy black smoke.
As if trying to crush Yuma’s body from above.
Like a giant wave, they struck down as if trying to cover Yuma from top to bottom.
Crack—! Crunch—!
And all of them bent and refracted just before directly touching Yuma’s body.
Achievements.
The achievements Yuma had built up until now on this land of the middle realm had made it possible to overcome all the questions of causality.
“—Magnificent.”
The bird-person Ardolak quietly admired.
The human before his eyes was steadily advancing through the section that had slowly annihilated his own soul that had achieved demigod level.
There was no need to specifically ask what kind of achievements he had accomplished.
Because behind Yuma, like spirits, the beings he had killed until now appeared.
Warriors who had reached the extreme limits of human capability.
Demigod-level beings.
Two Demon Lords and a Great Demon Lord, countless demons.
Two gods.
“—….”
Achievements that a human could not accomplish.
Ardolak thought while watching Yuma walking toward the upper levels of the stairway.
That person might really accomplish it.
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Six months.
Six months had passed since Yuma disappeared.
Yuma had disappeared in December of last year.
Before they knew it, they had welcomed the new year and nearly half a year had passed.
The members of the Astes Empire who belonged to Yuma’s companions had no choice but to be flustered by Yuma’s sudden disappearance.
Since it had been half a year, not just one or two months, it was natural.
The people of the Astes Empire had also experienced the cataclysmic changes that had occurred in the middle realm during those six months.
The people of the Geharden Continent didn’t know about the divine realm invasion of the Silmaria Continent on the opposite side, but they knew about the disaster that had occurred on the Carmac Continent, which was across the sea.
Because people from the Count Bellman household of the Rehen Kingdom, a kingdom attached to the edge of the Carmac Continent, had come directly by ship to request rescue.
“—…They seemed like gods.”
Brigitte very easily believed the words of the count’s retainer who spoke while completely frightened.
The knight from Bellman, who had thought he would be treated as a nonsense talker for not telling ridiculous lies, was dumbfounded when
Brigitte nodded and very easily believed him.
Incrinew’s descent too.
Barbatos’s descent too.
Having witnessed both with her own eyes, Brigitte found the Bellman household knight’s words believable.
Just because evil gods had arrived in other continents and other countries wasn’t such a strange thing from Brigitte’s perspective.
It was just something that warranted very strong vigilance from the Geharden Continent side.
Why did they invade the Carmac Continent, which was relatively close, and not invade the Geharden Continent?
Brigitte could infer the reason without difficulty.
‘Yuma.’
It was because of the being called Yuma.
God.
It was probably because a being who had eliminated two gods from this world—gods that surely belonged to the quite strong category—had established himself on the continent.
But that being had not returned for six months now.
“When are you coming back… Yuma.”
Brigitte looked up at the sky with a complicated expression.
‘…Yuma.’
Brigitte couldn’t predict that Yuma was undergoing transformation to become a god.
She just thought he was temporarily away to ascend his mastery higher than it was now.
But after investigating the place that Third Seat Ella Brighton had pinpointed as where Yuma had disappeared, she came to think a little differently.
‘God.’
In the past, among the bird-people who had been strong from the beginning, there was a being called bird-person Ardolak who was born exceptionally strong beyond specification, and he had reached demigod status.
Accordingly, he had dreamed of complete divine awakening.
Since he was a being who had reached demigod status through individual martial prowess alone, dreaming of divine awakening wasn’t such a strange thing.
However, just because it was a challenge worth attempting didn’t mean success was guaranteed.
That Ardolak was said to have ultimately failed.
She was able to receive through the high elf Luinerif a book containing records that he had been unable to completely pass through that passage of transformation called the [Transcendence Altar], and ultimately his very life had been extinguished.
And in those record documents, it was said that after Ardolak’s failure in divine awakening, all kinds of murderous natural disasters suddenly struck the bird-people’s land, and accordingly two-thirds of the bird-people kingdom was annihilated.
The remaining bird-people members were said to have scattered in all directions across the continent to find a way to live, avoiding disasters that seemed to be divine wrath.
Luinerif, who was sitting next to Brigitte as she stared intently at the record documents, opened her mouth.
“—The records say natural disasters, but there’s a high possibility that it was tribal-level punishment brought down by gods who were angered by a being who was not a god from the beginning daring to reach divinity.”
Divine punishment.
Brigitte felt her entire body trembling.
Fear.
The fact that the person called Yuma wasn’t beside her.
That instilled too great a fear.
“I am… too powerless.”
She vividly realized that she had relied on Yuma for too many things until now.
The very vague belief that the empire would be safe.
The source of that belief was the being called Yuma.
But now he wasn’t there.
The empire members who had been in the heavenly realm had already been made to return starting a month ago.
Because the situation of the surrounding continents had rapidly deteriorated since last month.
Even in the midst of this, she could confirm the preventive measures Yuma had put in place to prepare for situations that could arise unexpectedly.
The elf side and the lycanthrope side had come forward to regularly exchange greetings with each other.
All of this was what Yuma had requested of them in advance.
The request to step forward and help if something happened to the continent or if signs of such appeared.
With their active help, Brigitte was able to construct defensive lines in advance to prepare for possible invasions from the evil god side.
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Divine realm.
—Pantheon.
The [God of Vicious Fortification], Malphas, looked at the gods before his eyes.
The gods gathered in the pantheon this time also numbered close to fifty.
The giant black crow slowly opened its beak.
“There must surely be those who, like me, sent familiars to observe the middle realm.”
At the words of Malphas, one of the Eight Evil Gods, other first and second-tier gods nodded their heads.
“And among them, there must be gods who observed the Geharden Continent in detail.”
This time as well, several gods nodded their heads.
One of them opened their mouth.
It was a pale-skinned goddess wearing dark heavenly robes like mourning clothes.
[Holy Mother of Gloomy Compassion], Galua.
Galua slowly opened her mouth.
“He wasn’t there.”
Galua licked her lips once with her purple-tinged tongue.
“No matter where I looked in the Astes Empire, I couldn’t find that human, Yuma. That god-killer who killed two of the Eight Evil Gods.”
Yuma was absent.
At Galua’s confident words, the eyes of gods with various appearances simultaneously widened.
“You’re really saying that Yuma isn’t there? In the empire?”
The [God of Steel and War Clouds], Duke, asked while twisting his head toward Galua.
Galua didn’t lose her terribly calm demeanor even at Duke’s questioning tone.
Her purple lips opened again.
“Not only in the Astes Empire where Yuma originally established himself and lived, but anywhere in the Geharden Continent, I couldn’t find any trace of Yuma.”
As a result of Galua spreading her familiar butterflies throughout the entire continent for surveillance, Yuma was currently not present anywhere on this continent.
“I started spreading my familiars from three months ago.”
According to what Galua had confirmed, from three months ago.
The giant crow, Malphas, slowly nodded his head.
“I also spread my familiars from three months ago. Yuma. That human’s current state is predicted to be serious enough that he cannot be active, at the very least.”
Galua, who heard Malphas’s prediction, added one more word.
“He might be dead. The very fact that a human killed one god doesn’t make sense. Since he killed two, it wouldn’t be strange if his body and soul gradually declined due to the backlash and he reached death.”
More gods began nodding and agreeing rather than denying the words of the Holy Mother of Gloomy Compassion, Galua.
Because the reasoning that a being who killed two gods had declined and died due to the resulting backlash seemed sufficiently valid.
“If he’s absent or in poor condition… isn’t now an opportunity? We should tear him apart and kill him.”
The god Duke, who swept his blue hair back, made a fishy smile.
“Isn’t he the one who dared to oppose the gods?”
Malphas weakly flapped his wings and stepped forward again.
“First, we should send familiars for a few days to confirm whether he’s really absent, then it would be better for us to descend directly. If he’s really absent, even just sending familiars would turn things into somewhat of a wasteland.”
Galua and the other gods raised their mighty divine power in agreement.
Gods who possessed combat-type familiars carefully armed their familiars.
“We need to engrave the position for the insects.”
A giant god that seemed like a mix of scorpion and centipede muttered.
It was [God of Shallow and Deep Armies], Yenkal.
Multiple gods agreed with Yenkal’s words and prepared their familiars.
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Swish!
Bell was alone swinging her sword in the outdoor training ground.
Clear sword energy bloomed like flames on the sword.
Master.
She was endlessly refining the swordsmanship she had learned from Yuma.
“If it gets this long, you should tell me in detail.”
Bell gritted her teeth while recalling Yuma’s expressionless face.
“Making me worry…”
Wherever he was, she had faith that he would definitely return.
But this time the absence was too long.
Whoosh!
Bell began seriously swinging her sword again.
She deployed the sword paths she had learned from Yuma.
“When you come back, you’ll get hit just once.”
As payment for making her heart worry like this, she was thinking of hitting him just once.
She abruptly stopped her busily moving arms.
“…What is it.”
Kiiiiing!
Because the transparent stone in front of the imperial palace began to fluctuate.
This was a danger detection barrier set up by archangels who had come down from the heavenly realm.
Bell quickly raised her head to look at the sky.
Something was falling down.
Very large things.
And very many of them.
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