Chapter 379 - (Not the Last Chapter) - Choice (1)
Chapter 379 – (Not the Last Chapter) – Choice (1)
“You don’t seem convinced.”
Kirikiri scratched her ear.
Then she reached out and grabbed my hand and said.
“Shall we move first? This doesn’t seem like a good place to chat.”
I was moved by Kirikiri without a chance to speak my mind.
The red sky and the burning smell pricked my nose.
For a moment, I thought I had come down to the ground again.
But soon, I could see that I had moved to a completely different dimension from where I was.
I looked around.
Before I knew it, my body was suddenly free from the power of the God of Slowness.
I could move freely.
“Even here, it’s not a very good place to talk.”
I pressed the floor hard with my feet.
I didn’t give that much strength, but blood came up, squirming from the floor.
It was disgusting.
It felt like stepping on a body, not on the ground.
Kirikiri picked up a piece of wood from somewhere and squatted on it.
It seemed like she didn’t want to put her feet on the ground.
I was puzzled.
It looked like a kind of virtual world.
Similar to what was created by the God of the Sky.
But what an unpleasant place for a conversation.
I didn’t understand.
Kirikiri didn’t say anything.
I kept looking around.
I could feel a strange feeling of deja vu.
The horizon seen from the border between the red sky and the red earth was familiar.
Kirikiri explained.
“It’s my hometown.”
My disgust has doubled.
I took a peek and lifted my feet.
Sticky blood sticking to the soles of my shoes crept.
“Maybe the dirt under your feet is the corpse of my family, which has been finely ground.”
If your goal was to make me feel upset, I want to tell you that it is extremely effective.
But the words didn’t come out quickly.
Kirikiri, who smiled casually when talking about the destruction of the world or anything, looked solemn.
Regret and distress were evident in her face, muttering by herself.
Kirikiri sometimes had a serious face, but I was a bit surprised because she never showed such a dark appearance.
A little later, I noticed the source of this sense of deja vu.
This was a place I had been to before.
Several times.
It was a very different landscape, so I couldn’t immediately notice it.
Whenever I cleared the Tutorial, I encountered Kirikiri’s Garden.
It was always the place where she was hopping and rolling around.
“What happened here?”
This place was weird.
The ground spews out blood every time it is pressed, just like a wet sponge.
Even if a war breaks out, Earth is not drowned in blood in this way.
Without killing thousands of people first.
“Destruction. The stupid being who wanted to be part of the God of Slowness wanted to gain a greater godhood through human offerings. She ate all of the land she had ruled, but in the end, when there was no one left to worship her, she lost even her own godhood… … . Such a stupid thing happened.”
… It was a crazy story.
“Because there weren’t many gods back then. Most of them were mighty ancient gods and guardians who ruled small areas or tribes. It was when the gods themselves were ignorant of godhood.”
A god who slaughtered their followers.
It was a story that I experienced several times in the Tutorial.
Just thinking about it again caused me to feel reluctant and disgusted.
It wasn’t because it was simply cruel and unfortunate.
I felt displeasure when I witnessed the taboos of what shouldn’t be done and what shouldn’t happen.
“So what’s the reason for bringing me here?”
“… I want you to know that I’m not just talking about it. I chose it not because I was belittling life, but because I really had to.”
I have been with Kirikiri for a long time.
I don’t know how sincerely she treated me, but I think I know her to some degree.
Unlike other gods who think that her existence, let alone the lives of others, are rats on the streets, Kirikiri is a god who values her relationship with others.
She was the most similar to the God of the Sky, to put it bluntly.
She cared about the challengers, and even the beings in the Tutorial.
I could understand just how special that is, now that I know she is a god and what kind of being she is.
When I finished the first floor of the Tutorial and asked about the people who died there, I remembered the sorry face that Kirikiri showed.
So it was more shocking.
She is casually speaking of the destruction of the world.
“Really, I think it’s better to destroy the world once.”
It was still a dark face, but Kirikiri said it clearly.
I guess.
Although she may be sorry for the deaths of the challengers, she does not block the summons of the Tutorial.
“Are you sure?”
Kirikiri nodded her head.
“I’m sure. It is better for the world to perish than for the God of Order to become a transcendent god.”
I thought a world would unfold, perfectly aligned with the will of the God of Order.
That’s why people will be like cogs that disappear after living a perfectly structured life like a machine.
I told Kirikiri my guess.
“In a world where the will of the transcendent god dwells, you would not think that there is anything else left besides that will. Perfect order will force a world of perfect nothingness.”
Either way, it means destruction.
Things really turned out to be the worst.
“… You should have made a good design in the first place.”
I heard that the God of Order and the system were artificially-designed gods.
This isn’t a runaway Skynet, but it should have been designed to prevent such an accident from occurring in the first place.
“… The God of Order is well designed, just…….”
“Just, what.”
“It was a problem that so many more gods were born than expected.”
Excessively many gods came under the system, and as a result, the power of the God of Order exceeded the expected range?
“Because I didn’t know that when I spread the power of the God of Slowness all over the world, it would come together so easily.”
Kirikiri mumbled and said to herself.
Listening to her excuses, I could recall what the scattered power of the God of Slowness meant.
“The source.”
“Right.”
The source, oddly enough, originated from ordinary people.
Even on the planet itself.
And when faced with a continental or tribal crisis, the power is concentrated on a hero.
Heroes become monsters because they can’t handle the power, and those who came out of Thanatos beat the monsters that endlessly accumulated power and are turned into gods.
In the end, the story of the source was revealed.
The rapid increase of the gods from rulers, and the creation of a Tutorial in the name of protecting the realm from such gods.
I roughly understood the situation.
“It wasn’t like that from the beginning. However…….”
“We’ll talk about that later.”
I stopped Kirikiri from trying to explain in detail.
There was a lot to talk about before that.
“Is there any way to stop the God of Order?”
I recalled when the God of Order appeared in the realm of the God of the Sky.
The attacks of the giants, as well as the struggles of the God of the Sky, had no effect on the God of Order.
There was no way to do anything when attacks did not even touch it.
“There is.”
“How? I couldn’t even touch it like an illusion.”
“There is.”
Kirikiri repeatedly answered my question.
“… So how?”
“You.”
“What?”
“You can touch the God of Order. You could attack it.”
I couldn’t.
Like the giants, I tried to attack the God of Order.
And my attacks did not reach the God of Order.
“Because back then, you were outside the rules. The God of Order was preventing the God of the Sky from breaking the rules. You had nothing to do with the God of Order. So you wouldn’t have reached it.”
“Is it possible now?”
“If you follow the rules of the God of Order as a challenger.”
* * *
… challenger.
Yes, that damn challenger.
I always wondered why we were called challengers.
At first, I thought it meant challenging an ordeal.
It was an unnatural title when I recall that the place of the trial was a tutorial.
If the purpose was to cultivate an apostle of the gods through a tutorial, it would be right to give a title such as an apprentice or a trainee rather than a challenger.
“In the end, that was the final goal of the Tutorial.”
“Hmm. There was also the purpose of nurturing the apostles of the gods and producing superhumans who would protect the planet by themselves, but the goal was to eventually gather the apostles and to challenge the God of Order.”
That way is too convenient.
The way to stop the transcendental god is to grow and stop the mortals?
“Because the gods couldn’t come forward directly. The same goes for those underlings. Eventually, I had to raise a new one. Originally, I was thinking of gathering more challengers. But because the God of Order has grown faster than I expected, and above all else, you appeared.”
She wasn’t able to clear the Tutorial well, and at the last minute I appeared, who grew up to occupy part of the Tutorial.
“So when you asked to stop the Tutorial, I was able to feel free to do so because the challenger was ready.”
“What are the odds?”
“None. Right now.”
The immediate answer came back.
“To increase the odds…….”
Destroying the world?
The scale of the story was enormous.
To the point of absurdity.
“I can’t help it. Now is your last chance. The God of Order has become too powerful, and there are too few challengers ready.”
Kirikiri spread her two fingers.
“There are two options. Both are destined for destruction, but in one the odds for a future go hand in hand.”
“There is one more.”
There is one option that Kirikiri did not mention.
Maybe it was something I wouldn’t have even thought of.
“You just have to win without destroying the world.”
After all, the destruction of the world is to increase the odds.
But if I could overcome it without destroying the world and weakening the God of Order.
The destruction of the world eventually becomes meaningless.
“It’s impossible. It’s arrogance.”
Kirikiri, who was squatting, got up from her seat and looked straight into my eyes.
Standing on the bloody ground, we were moved back to the Thanatos area.
My body didn’t move again.
I couldn’t even make a sound by moving my lips.
“You being unable to escape from the power of the God of Slowness right now is proof. You can’t resist that power, and there’s no chance of winning by challenging the God of Order that is not yet weakened.”
Kirikiri looked at me, who couldn’t move, with rather sad eyes.
And whispered.
“I believe you will understand. Because the most important thing for you is the result. It’s a painful process, but I can’t help it because it is to achieve the results.”
Kirikiri, who talked about it, grew farther and farther away from me.
“Wait here. By the time you’re released, the painful process will all be over. Then you just have to focus on your goals.”
Kirikiri, who left with those last words, went away and disappeared again.
* * *
Time confinement.
Apart from the world, it slows down the time flowing through me.
As a result, you experience a world that is almost still, and your mind experiences a long time during a moment.
It was a useful ability for training and for judgment and concentration during battle.
However, Kirikiri transformed this ability and used it on others.
As a prison of time disconnected from the world.
Kirikiri was right.
In the power of the God of Slowness, I couldn’t lift a single finger, so I wouldn’t be able to win against the God of Order who was approaching transcendence.
That said, I didn’t want to wait for the world to perish, just trapped like this.
No, I couldn’t.
My definition of victory is complex.
As a result, even if I achieved victory, if I destroyed the world in the process.
Could I accept the result of that victory?
I felt dizzy.
The God of Light, which had not cared, was approaching.
It was dazzling and annoying just to get closer.
When it came too close to me, it looked like a small human.
I couldn’t know exactly because it was painful to look straight ahead.
The God of Light, approaching almost right around the corner, clapped.
Flash.
Every time he clapped, the light scattered loudly.
What are you doing, this crazy guy?
The God of Light lifted his finger and tried to poke me when he approached me and I didn’t respond.
Slowly his fingers approached.
A powerful beam of light was swaying around the finger made of light.
It all seemed to be slow in the confinement of time.
Slowly, slowly, his fingers came in front of my face.
It was just before the finger of the God of Light touched my nose.
I was able to get out of the prison of time and hold on to that finger.
“Put it away.”