Chapter 227: Episode 71: Becoming a God (2)
Real godship could be obtained as a soul’s class rose after a body died. However, Gustarte had a body. That meant he had a divine flesh. Nevertheless, I could not feel it at first. I assumed it was because he had been corrupted and controlled by mortals. Even so, it could not be denied that he was a divine being.
“Absorb him…”
I moved away from the Tree of Origin. I would become a true god by absorbing Gustarte. Then again, it came with a sacrifice. I had to give up my current life.
Being a god… I had never thought about it.
The first god I met was the demon god, Death Bringer. Death Bringer had admitted me as a participant in the game and had sent me to Earth. Because of that, I became one of the 72 demons, and I reached the position of an archduke.
Also, I had met the gods of Earth. They were of lower rank than Death Bringer, but 72 gods convened and used their powers to turn back time. I was able to build more experiences and took over an advantageous position with lots of information.
But I never thought about becoming a god myself. I shook my head. I didn’t want to be bothered by something I had never imagined of becoming.
Since birth, my dream was to become the Dark Lord. Some said that a Dark Lord was comparable to a god, while others disagreed. It depended on who you asked and their nature.
Becoming the Dark Lord was my ultimate dream. I wanted to sit on the Dark Lord’s throne and laugh like there was no tomorrow. That was my purpose. I had been working hard to achieve it. Nothing could change my mind.
What good would it bring if I died? Even if I became a god and acquired omnipotence, I would not be able to sit on the throne of the Dark Lord. I knew the time concept of gods was different from that of mortals. Also, gods were not allowed to intervene in the affairs of mortals unless it was a serious matter involving world destruction or extinction.
The Administrator of the Origin had already considered me as a candidate for the next god, but I couldn’t say that I totally agree with him.
‘I shall wake Gustarte now,’ I thought.
I had completely different thoughts from the Administrator of the Origin. He had asked where the god who lost his direction would go, but 0001 had had a different idea.
My monsters had been studying the body of Gustarte, but it went at a snail’s pace. The information was so vague, and I didn’t think they would be able to draw conclusions in one or two years.
But time was limited. In about a year, my next enemy would be the Shadow Emperor, or someone strong enough to pretend as the Shadow Emperor. I had to prepare for battle in Devildom. I could not just focus on Gustarte until then.
“Lyhee.”
“Yes, Master. Did you call me?”
Since I came back from the Underworld, Lyhee wanted to wait around me. It worsened after I was injured at the Greenwich Observatory. It seemed like she was trying to keep me in sight all the time.
I told her calmly, “Tell Gaparam to prepare for the results of his research and the Moon Arrow.”
“Lyhee-hee. Gaparam was focused on his research and barely heard me last time. If he does that again, can I kick his butt?”
“Whatever.”
“Lyhee-hee-hee!”
Lyhee flapped her wings. She was pleased with my response.
Gaparam nervously stood in front of me. He looked terrified, holding the result of the research on one hand and the Moon Arrow on the other.
“I read your report. It was great.”
The result of the research was about the homunculus that I had seen on the battlefield in Egypt. It was quite great. The homunculus was the one who cut the neck of Duke Beilla.
“No… I owe it to the Master’s grace that I managed to come up with such a result.” Gaparam bowed to show his gratitude.
It wasn’t long before he spoke with respect to me. After I had shown him Gustarte’s body, Gaparam began to treat me differently. I didn’t care much about others’ tones, so I had not cared about his rudeness before. But it looked like Gaparam wanted to pay me respect.
“Have you made any other progress in the research?” I asked.
“I’ve found out the reason for the homunculus’s short life. I should have approached it in a different way since I have incubated it. When I looked at how a god’s body works—”
“I don’t need technical details.”
“I wrote it down in my journal for easy reading.”
Gaparam handed over his research data. I scanned through it and found that I already knew most of his findings. Gaparam included the test done on the wizard and the reason why Gustarte was weak for Greed. However, they were all just hypotheses.
“Not much about the Moon Arrow…,” I commented after reading.
Gaparam sighed. “It is not an ordinary item. It was more difficult to research about this Moon Arrow than the wizard’s body, but I persisted. The only thing I found so far is that the Moon Arrow exists for the ‘balance’. That’s it.”
Balance… It might mean the Origin. Then, Gustarte might have found his original divinity.
“I guess I have to try it,” I muttered.
“Are you saying…?”
“I will stab Gustarte with the Moon Arrow.”
“…!” Gaparam was startled. “B-but we don’t know what will happen! What if it explodes?”
“The Seven Sins were made to get rid of the gods. You found that out, right? And Greed captured Gustarte’s power very well.”
That was right. Gaparam also mentioned about the Seven Sins in his research. He had been studying why Greed restrained Gustarte’s power and accidentally reached the Seven Sins. He had found out that the Seven Sins were weapons aimed at the gods.
The Hell Lord… He was certainly a crafty fellow as I got to know him more. He had prepared a lot for his revenge.
“Okay.” Gaparam handed me the Moon Arrow and quietly stepped back.
I turned my head. Gustarte was lying down. I couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not. I tightly grabbed the Moon Arrow and stabbed it into the wizard’s chest without hesitation.
The Moon Arrow shone with a blue light as soon as it was stuck into Gustarte’s chest. It started to change its form, and, in the end, it became some sort of a giant key. A hole for the key appeared near Gustarte’s chest. The blood vessel stood out around the hole.
Soon, his body rose. The key entered the hole and turned. Then, Gustarte’s body was torn down into dozens, hundreds, thousands of pieces.
The body was being restructured, like a snake shedding its skin. This process went on for minutes.
Gustarte opened his eyes when the reconstruction was over. He looked at me with expressive eyes. They were different from when he had lost his ego.
“Randalf Bruciel, this is Earth. Have a long time passed since I malfunctioned?”
He asked me, but it seemed like he already knew the answer. He didn’t look confused at all. If anything, I could sense his feeling of futility.
“Are you a god of the Reverse World, Gustarte?” I asked.
“Yes. I am the god who was not supposed to be here. Even though I regained consciousness, it looks like I don’t have much time left for me. Soon, Death Bringer will figure out and try to put me to sleep.”
“Are you talking about the demon god, Death Bringer?”
“Yes. Now, I have got back my divinity, and I am the only god who knows the true purpose of Death Bringer. His system is even able to neutralize intermediate gods. He will try to get rid of me before other gods notice about it.”
I could tell that he was explaining to me why he was controlled by a mortal. If I got to know how Ufa was able to control Gustarte, I might be able to use it one day as well. I became very curious.
“I want to know about the details,” I demanded.
“Randalf Bruciel, didn’t you join in the experiment about the system that Death Bringer made? Things that one could have never imagined have already happened because of this system. The Spirits of Darkness penetrated the gap and infected my consciousness.”
I somewhat understood it. The system… He must be talking about the messages popping that were created by the demon god, Death Bringer. Indeed, I was curious why he had created such a system.
Death Bringer told me that I must become a player in the game that he had created to destroy the world. In other words, the system was the game itself that Death Bringer had made.
I also got the information that the Spirits of Darkness were the reason why Ufa could control Gustarte.
Gustarte read my expression and went on to explain, “The Spirits of Darkness learned how to deal with cracks. They even made holes in Nothingness and the Origin. I was once connected to Nothingness briefly, and they were able to invade my world. If it was a normal situation, it would not be able to do anything to me. However, they used the power of the system. Even I could not do anything. The system is complete. It has the power tied up to gods. Death Bringer planned to use this system to remove the other gods.”
“So are you saying the demons were his test subjects?”
“That is correct. Death Bringer had no interest in becoming the Dark Lord. Also, gods are not allowed to intervene in such things. Anyway, since the Spirits of Darkness learned how to control the cracks perfectly, they will aim at other gods, or they will try to wake other beings in Nothingness or the Origin, or even the forgotten ancient beings. The Spirits of Darkness may not be aware of it as we speak, but Death Bringer is controlling them like a puppet.”
It was certainly surprising. I had a hard time catching up at what Gustarte saying. The only thing I was sure was the Spirits of Darkness did this.
But it was weird. In my past life, these things didn’t happen. The Spirits of Darkness were on the defensive because of other spirits. Also, they never infected a god with a virus or made issues with cracks.
“All of these happened because of you, Randalf Bruciel. It was the effect of shifting the axis of time backward. Because of that, the balance of the world was twisted, and lots of cracks were opened to fill that gaps. These cracks became good samples to the Spirits of Darkness. Maybe this was what Death Bringer intended. If he planned such a thing by guiding the gods of Earth to you… He is a really scary guy.”
“I am the cause?” I replied in disbelief. “All this happened because I came back?”
Gustarte nodded. “That’s why you have to make things right. The system created by Death Bringer is too perfect that even he could not touch it. If you use this knowledge to your advantage, you will be able to ruin his plan and achieve your dream.”
I shook my head immediately. “I don’t intend to interfere with the squabble of the gods.”
“Did you just say squabble? Death Bringer already achieves results using the Spirits of Darkness. He has enough data using the demons. Don’t you see what will come next? Death Bringer is doing something he should not do. The demons on Earth are just the beginning.”
“He will try to erase the evidence.”
“That is an undeniable truth. He is probably working on it.”
I frowned. I could not believe everything that Gustarte said. But even if half of what he said was true, it would be a serious matter.
“Gustarte, is there a relationship between the Spirits of Darkness and the resurrection of the Hell Lord?” I asked.
The Hell Lord was dead, but I had his heart. There were rumors that the Hell Lord was in Devildom at the moment. It was weird no matter how I thought about it. That was why I asked Gustarte.
“The Hell Lord was supposed to be in the deepest area of Nothingness. Originally, it would be impossible to go back to the real world. Since gods could not interfere with Nothingness, I guess the Spirits of Darkness probably planned and executed the work.”
“But I saw the message that the Hell Lord was extinct. I thought extinct mean no longer existing.”
“The deepest area in Nothingness is a place where even Death Bringer isn’t allowed to enter. If the Hell Lord was in the place where the system could not detect, it would not be weird that the system stated he was extinct.”
One of the things I was most curious about was solved.
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