The Death Mage Who Doesn’t Want a Fourth Time
chapter-304

In human society, a great commotion was going on, particularly in the churches of Nineroad and the gods of the wind attribute.

The previous day, the statues of the God of War Horns Sirius had crumbled, and most of his most devout clergymen had lost consciousness. A knight with his divine protection had almost drowned in his stew. But this incident was not yet over, given the panic among the clergymen who had not lost consciousness.

But who could have foreseen that the statues of the God of War Drums Zepaon would crumble as well?

Both gods were ancient gods who had existed since before the Demon King’s arrival in this world, and unusual in that they were gods of the wind attribute and yet strongly characterized by their nature as gods of war. Thus, despite being subordinate gods, they had many worshippers.

The statues of three gods had crumbled in the past year – the other being Fitun, the God of Thunderclouds. The people were beginning to fear that events that would decide the fate of the world were taking place, unbeknownst to them.

The chaos was particularly great in the Amid Empire, where it had been announced that the Demon King had been resurrected through a divine message to Eileek Marme, the young pope of the Great Church of Alda.

Emperor Marshukzarl had suddenly abdicated, and all of a sudden, the eldest son of the Iristell house of dukes, whom the public had never previously heard of, had been crowned as the new emperor.

The ‘Thunderclap’ Schneider, the S-class adventurer who was a living legend and regarded as a hero of the Amid Empire, had come out as a worshiper of Vida. Under his leadership, the Storm of Tyranny had assaulted Duke Marme’s mansion and destroyed a church of Alda.

To the common people who knew nothing of the surrounding circumstances, each one of these events was an incredibly significant one that might not even happen once in a lifetime. In addition to all of that, it was an understatement to say that they were gripped by fear and anxiety over worries that the resurrected Demon King had somehow defeated Sirius, Zepaon, and Fitun.

It was even possible that cities would fall into panic and riots as the people feared the end of the world. And the cause of that was incidents that had occurred at churches… places the people visited to seek comfort.

No matter how the nobles, knights, and guards tried to comfort the people and tell them that there was nothing to worry about, it didn’t sound convincing. The sudden crowning of a new emperor was one thing, but how could the nobles, who were still mortals, possibly be aware of what was happening to the gods?

It was the clergymen’s job to calm the worshippers as they voiced their fears and clung to their gods for hope. But this could not be done when the statues of the gods crumbled and even the highly-respected high priest of Zepaon collapsed with his eyes rolling into his head. The only clergymen who remained conscious were those who had never received a Divine Message from Zepaon before; they were not very effective at filling this role.

And the clergymen who served other gods couldn’t explain what was happening, either. But the Church of Nineroad, the Church of Alda, the clergymen serving other subordinate gods, and heroes with the gods’ divine protections were working hard to keep the populace calm.

But it was not all bad news for the people.

In the Church of Botin in the capital city of the iron-nation of Marmuke, the northern vassal state of the Amid Empire, people were rejoicing.

“Ah! What a good day today is!”

“To think that this day would come during my lifetime… Let everyone know! Botin-sama, our goddess, has been resurrected! She is free from the Demon King’s seal!”

Botin, Mother of the Earth and Goddess of Craftsmanship, and Peria, Goddess of Water and Knowledge, had been resurrected.

The two goddesses had sent Divine Messages to all worshippers who were devoted enough to receive them, whether they were in the Amid Empire or in the Orbaume Kingdom, informing them of their resurrection.

Hearing this news, the worshippers cried tears of joy and began to leave in order to spread this wonderful news to the people.

But the Dwarf who served as leader of the church stopped them. “No, wait! Wait, I say!”

Good news was not all that was in the Divine Message.

To the Dwarf, the latter half sounded like: “I have reconciliated with the mad flame; I have gained magic, creation, and knowledge; and I give my blessing to life. Even so, we have no light.”

What does this mean? No light… is this a bad omen? No, that’s not it. If the ‘mad flame’ is Zantark, ‘magic’ is Ricklent, ‘creation’ is Zuruwarn, and ‘knowledge’ is Peria… ‘I give my blessing to life.’ Could it be that she gives her blessings to Vida?! And ‘we have no light’ means that Alda, the God of Law and Fate, is not their ally…

“I-if I make this known to the public, what will happen to this country… to the people? There will be no order… this nation could very well collapse,” the Dwarf muttered.

The Amid Empire’s national religion worshipped Alda, the god of law, as its chief god. It could be said that every citizen of the nation was a worshipper of Alda.

There was even a statue of Alda in this Church of Botin.

That was precisely why the Dwarf church leader could not carelessly speak of his interpretation of the Divine Message. Thus, he ordered the priests he had stopped at the church’s door to inform the people only of Botin’s resurrection.

“After that, give me some time alone so that I may contemplate the meaning of the Divine Message more thoroughly,” he told them.

He then stationed priest-warriors to ensure that he would not be disturbed and shut himself in his own chambers.

“What intentions did Botin-sama have when she sent this Divine Message? Or was I simply too inexperienced to properly grasp the Divine Message’s meaning?”

Divine Messages communicated the thoughts of powerful gods to humans whose minds were limited in comparison, so it was inevitable that they were not always interpreted accurately. There were cases when a worshipper was only able to perceive one part of a Divine Message, causing it to sound like something else entirely.

The church leader wondered if this was the case here. Perhaps there was supposed to have been a continuation to the sentence, ‘we have no light.’

But he realized that this was not the case.

“Come to think of it, why did I only inform the believers of the goddess’s resurrection? Divine Messages should be delivered to the people in their entirety, no matter how long the messages of the gods are… Could it be that this Divine Message was actually two, sent one after another?!”

Divine Messages were not frequent occurrences. Two being sent one after another with no delay between them was unheard of. It was unheard of, and yet… the church leader had never heard that such a thing was impossible.

The question was, why had Botin chosen to do such a thing?

“Could it be… I interpreted the first Divine Message correctly, and its purpose was to let me confirm that I had interpreted the following Divine Message correctly as well…!”

The Divine Message speaking of Botin’s resurrection was correctly interpreted, so the second Divine Message with the information that all of the great gods other than Alda had sided with Vida was undoubtedly also correctly interpreted.

But this realization brought no relief to the church leader’s expression.

“What right do I have to pray to Vida now…? But there is no doubt that the goddess sent me this Divine Message because she has expectations of me. I must ask everyone to lend me their wisdom and somehow let the people know of her true intentions.”

This was the reason why clergymen served as representatives of the gods in the mortal world.

The church leader told himself this as he filled himself with a sense of duty to distract himself from the pressure he was feeling, but the truth was that a large number of other clergymen had also received Botin’s Divine Messages, and Peria had sent Divine Messages with the same meaning to her own clergymen. Thus, he found himself able to borrow ‘everyone’s wisdom’ sooner than he had expected.

Meanwhile, in the Divine Realm of the God of Law and Fate Alda, a heavy silence had fallen.

Alda had fallen silent after hearing the reports of the gods who had been defending Peria and from the God of Mirror Images Larpan, and the silence was made all the heavier by the absence of Nineroad, who had left to gather the subordinate gods together and deal with the situation.

None of the subordinate gods present found themselves able to speak. The silence of the subordinate gods of the earth and water attributes was one of complete astonishment, as if they had just become aware that the world was about to end.

After all, Peria and Botin had immediately sided with Vida after being freed.

Many of them were those who had risen to godhood after being accepted by gods who had served as replacements for Botin and Peria. These young gods had never even met the great god who was supposed to be their master, and they had always believed what they had been told since they were mortals – that Botin and Peria would become Alda’s allies once they awakened.

To be more precise, they had never even considered the alternative – the fact that they would become Alda’s allies had become such a deeply-rooted assumption that they had never paid any conscious thought to it, as natural as knowing that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

The minds of these young gods were in turmoil, and they were unable to even move.

The older gods who had existed since before the war against the Demon King were deeply perplexed as well. They could not comprehend why Botin and Peria had become Vida’s allies.

Why would Peria stand on the side of Vandalieu, who absorbed the extremely dangerous Demon King fragments into his own body and transformed into hideous forms?

Why would Botin declare that she was an ally of Vandalieu, who commanded not only filthy Undead and demigods such as Talos and Tiamat, but also the races of Vida who carried the blood of evil gods?

No matter how much they asked themselves these questions, they found no answers.

There were some among these gods who wondered if they were the ones who had been in the wrong, if they had been mistaken in assuming that the other great gods shared the will of Alda and Bellwood.

But it was difficult for the gods to admit these things.

After becoming gods, they had acted as gods of Alda’s forces and spread these teachings to their worshippers, and their worshippers revered them as gods of Alda’s forces.

To deny these teachings would be to deny themselves, a complete loss of self-identity.

It was just as difficult as it would be for a god who had always taught their followers to love others and forbade them from killing to suddenly instead teach that violence is justice and slaughter carried out by the strong would lead the world in the right direction.

“H-have… Botin-sama and Peria-sama gone mad after all?” one of the gods suggested feebly.

This was the easier conclusion to reach, and this god wasn’t the only one grasping at it. Indeed, many gods had believed this to be true of Ricklent and Zuruwarn when their betrayal came to light.

But unlike Ricklent and Zuruwarn, there were subordinate gods with their own personalities who knew Botin and Peria personally among the forces of Alda.

“You bastard! Do you mean to disrespect our master?!” one of them shouted in anger.

Botin and Peria’s subordinate gods found it difficult to believe Botin’s declaration as well. But they were not convinced by the irrational argument that the master they served had fallen to madness.

“But there was no sanity in that declaration!” the first god protested.

“No, it was very much sane!” testified the God of Mirror Images Larpan, who had personally witnessed Botin’s bold declaration. “At the very least, Botin-sama was in her ordinary state of mind when she made her declaration before us. Her eyes were filled with spirit and burned with the light of her strong will. I do not believe she had become insane and was simply speaking nonsense.”

“B-but then, why would she make such a declaration and say that she is an ally of Vandalieu… Why would she tell us to leave Alda-sama and remain in a position of neutrality? Could it be that Vida’s faction intends to say… that the filthy Vandalieu is right?”

“That is… But still, is it not dangerous to simply assume that Botin, a great god, has simply lost her sanity?!”

“Dangerous?! Do you intend to divide us? If we are in conflict with one another, defeating Vandalieu would be a hope that is beyond our wildest dreams. Do you intend to allow the efforts of Gorn-dono and his allies to go to waste?!”

“That’s not what I’m saying! But I –”

“Be silent, all of you,” said Alda gravely, finally breaking his silence.

The subordinate gods who had been on the verge of a full verbal argument closed their mouths and waited for their master to speak.

“Your surprise is only natural. But Botin has not lost her sanity; she was sane when she chose to side with Vida. The same is true of Peria, who has been deceiving us,” Alda said.

But these words only caused further astonishment for the subordinate gods. Unable to accept this, they loudly began voicing their objections.

“Alda, is that in itself not evidence that Botin-sama and Peria-sama have lost their sanity?!”

“Just what reason could they have possibly had to side with Vida… with Vandalieu?!”

“Could it be that Botin-sama and Peria-sama simply chose to join the stronger side, bending their knee to him because of his power?!”

The God of Judgment Niltark would usually be the one keeping the subordinate gods quiet, but he did not speak.

“That is not what I am saying,” said Alda. “Botin and Peria have chosen to envision a future that is different from the one that we envision. I cannot accept their future. And I cannot even begin to understand what they are thinking, but…”

Alda himself had been shocked into speechlessness by Botin’s declaration and the realization that Peria had been deceiving him all of these long years. This shock had been greater than the shock of realizing Zuruwarn and Ricklent’s betrayal.

But then, he remembered that gods, especially great gods, prioritized different things.

This simple fact had been obvious before the arrival of the Demon King Guduranis, but because a hundred thousand years had passed since he parted ways with Vida, and he had served as leader of the gods for so long, it had been left forgotten in the back of his mind.

“We have always envisioned returning this world to its original state… returning it to a world free of corruption – no matter how accustomed the people have become to living in a world with Devil’s Nests and Dungeons, using materials taken from monsters for their own purposes. We have resolved ourselves to making that a reality, even if we must spend hundreds of thousands of years purifying the Devil’s Nests, millions of years persuading the humans that this is for the best, and tens of millions of years sealing away all of the evil gods and fragments of the Demon King,” said Alda.

This was the ideal that Alda strived for. An ordinary world where monsters and the Devil’s Nests and Dungeons that spawned them did not exist.

A world without Vida’s races.

At Nineroad’s suggestion, and the discussions that followed, it had been decided that races that did not possess the blood of evil beings, with no Rank displayed on their Status, would be accepted. But that was the limit of what Alda was willing to allow.

A hundred thousand years ago, Vida had called her children ‘strong new races of people,’ but Alda could not think of them that way. To him, Vida’s races were not ‘people.’ They were highly intelligent monsters – nothing more than underlings that served evil gods.

If it were just Dark Elves, he might have been able to accept them. And perhaps it would have even been possible to accept Titans, Beast-kin, Merfolk, and the Drakonids.

Gods such as Alda, the God of Ice Yupeon who had represented Peria after she fell into slumber, and the now-deceased Brateo and Madroza, regarded such races not as new races of people, but as weak, mortal versions of their brethren, or the failed creations of former friends.

But even that was because they did not possess evil blood… the blood of repulsive beings.

They could not accept the existence of races that possessed Ranks, such as the Majin. Those were creatures that possessed the blood of evil gods. If they were to grow in number, they would become a harmful influence that corrupted the world and created more Devil’s Nests, just like monsters.

The gods were aware that these races had wisdom and benevolent hearts. But just as humans found it acceptable to kill Goblins, these races needed to be exterminated whether they were evil in nature or not.

But even without such reasons, Alda simply viewed races like the Majin as repulsive beings that encroached upon the lives of ordinary humans.

But all of this was just Alda’s view. He had forgotten that there was no guarantee that the other great gods would share that view.

“But Botin, Peria, and even Ricklent and Zuruwarn have decided to co-exist with this world… a world where monsters are continuously spawned in Devil’s Nests. They have accepted Vida’s races and Vida’s circle of transmigration system,” said Alda.

He did not know of the events that had taken place or the paths their thoughts had followed for them to reach that decision. But the conclusion that they had come to was clear.

“Impossible… That itself could not mean anything other than that they have lost their sanity!” shouted Yupeon, who had been the most deeply impacted by Peria’s choice to side with Vida’s faction. “But… it is impossible that Peria-sama has lost her sanity,” he whispered, dejectedly falling to his knees as he remembered what kind of goddess his master was.

“Then… Alda, what are we to do?” asked one of the younger gods. “I do not believe that the current world is in a normal state. Not only that, but believing in Peria-dono, who has deceived us this entire time, is…”

“The same goes for Ricklent-dono and Zuruwarn-dono, who kept themselves hidden and did not even explain their thoughts. I can only imagine that they simply abandoned the ideal of returning the world to the way it was before the Demon King arrived in it, and yielded to the present reality of a world filled with monsters!” one of the other younger gods said.

Peria had been pretending to be in a state of slumber, while Ricklent and Zuruwarn had kept their movements hidden despite being awake. They had been dealing with the situation of not being able to join forces with Alda because they believed Alda had lost his mind.

But none of the gods gathered here believed that Alda had lost his mind. That was why they felt as if Peria and the other gods were one-sidedly criticizing Alda’s forces without having even attempted to explain their opinions and intentions.

Peria and the others had likely imagined that this would happen, but… they couldn’t simply come to Alda nonchalantly and argue for and defend Vida’s opinions, when doing so would result in them being impaled by the Stakes of Law.

From the very beginning, they had known that they would lose the trust of the younger gods among Alda’s forces in exchange for their own safety.

And they were right.

“There is nothing to do about it,” said Alda.

He had not lost his ability to reason. He had simply become madly fixated on his ideal; on working towards that ideal at any cost.

“What they have deemed acceptable is different from what we deem acceptable, but that does not mean that we are wrong,” Alda said. “There is no mistake with the ideal that we strive for. One day, they will understand that.”

There was no mistake with Alda’s ideal. There was nothing to do other than to continue working towards making that ideal a reality.

The power of the gods of Alda’s forces alone was woefully insufficient to achieve this goal. Even if the gods of Vida’s forces were to join them, it would be impossible. At the very least, it would take ten million years to reach that ideal.

And even if that ideal could be reached, a hundred million years from now… Was it right to impose this upon every mortal that would live between now and then?

If it could be reached in ten years, it would be the correct decision. Even a hundred years from now, the mortals could do it for their grandchildren. Even a thousand years into the future would be the great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren’s generation for long-lived races such as the Elves.

But what about more than ten thousand years from now? Was it really acceptable to force the mortals to fight against Vandalieu and his empire, with their lives and souls at risk, for the sake of an ideal that would be realized in a future that was too distant for them to even imagine?

Alda believed that it was. He believed it was only natural that any proper mortal would be willing to fight.

To Alda, it was something that did not even need to be thought about or questioned. It was no different from the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.

“But if we include Vida and Zantark, that would mean that six great gods will be our enemies…!” said one of the subordinate gods.

“Do not worry. Future battles will likely take place where humans live, rather than in lands that no humans have ever stepped foot on. The time has come for the heroes that we have been nurturing to show their true value,” said Alda.

“Can our heroes really be victorious against enemies that defeated Gorn and the others?!” said another of the subordinate gods, seemingly unable to stop him from voicing his doubt.

Indeed, it was difficult to suddenly believe that humans, even if they were heroes, could be more powerful than demigods who possessed enormous, powerful bodies.

“Of course they can. I am certain that you have nurtured them so that they will be able to,” said Alda.

Indeed, true heroes… mortal individuals that the gods believed would one day join them as gods, were just as powerful as demigods, if not even stronger.

It was true that demigods were powerful. They possessed hundred-meter-tall bodies protected by strong muscles, scales, fur, and shells, and each one had their own unique abilities based on what they ruled over. They were capable of fighting even in places like the Demon King’s Continent, where humans could not possibly survive.

In that sense, demigods were unmistakably more powerful than heroes.

But in combat, it was a different story. True heroes were capable of defeating Colossi, Elder Dragons, and Beast-kings.

The ‘Thunderclap’ Schneider, though he was a hero of Vida’s faction, had defeated multiple corrupted Elder Dragons in the past. And heroes of the gods of Alda’s forces had defeated demigods such as Pure-breed Vampires as well.

Heroes used the Status System to its fullest extent to benefit as much as they could from it. They came up with clever strategies, equipped themselves with equipment of exceptional quality, and could even summon familiar spirits or heroic spirits into their own bodies. Demigods were a marvel of nature, but even they could fall at the hands of heroes.

The prime example of such heroes was Bellwood and the other champions. Although the gods had brought them to this world after searching another world for the best individuals to serve as vessels for their power, they had also once been human.

“And the Five-colored Blades, led by my own hero Heinz, have finally reached the floor where Bellwood slumbers. It will not be long before he is resurrected,” Alda announced.

And for the first time in a long while, his Divine Realm was filled with cheers of joy.

The numerous battles against the recreation of the Demon King Guduranis produced by the Dungeon were incredibly fierce.

Even after seeing Guduranis turning into dust and vanishing, Heinz looked around warily for some kind of trap, unable to believe that he had finally won.

“Does this mean that we have finally matched Bellwood?” asked the human martial artist Jennifer as the party descended the stairs to the next floor.

But nobody agreed with her.

“It is true that we defeated Guduranis, but… in the battle that took place a hundred thousand years ago, I am sure Bellwood and his allies had to fight against a countless number of evil gods and their armies of monsters just to get to him,” said the Elf Diana, priestess of the Goddess of Slumber Mill.

“I’d say that we’ve gotten closer, but not that we’ve matched him,” agreed Delizah, the female Dwarf shield-bearer.

“And besides, in order to defeat the Demon King, we had to die over and over while coming up with a strategy and refining it. We’re a long way away from Bellwood, Farmaun, and Nineroad, who defeated him in a real battle,” said Heinz.

Indeed, their victory was the result of a countless amount of experience… and learning.

With the destruction of the God of Records Curatos, the original ruler of this Dungeon, the powerful enemies recreated by the Dungeon from records of the past really were nothing more than recreations.

They did not possess the ability to think or make decisions; they could not fight against Heinz and his companions with any patterns other than the exact ones that had taken place in the past. It was impossible for them to act spontaneously in a way that deviated from those patterns or adjust their behavior to Heinz’s moves.

To give comparisons, they were like robots that only moved exactly as they were programmed, or like enemy characters in a video game.

Heinz and his companions had learned the Demon King’s behavior patterns through countless deaths, then defeated him by exploiting the openings in those patterns.

Even so, the fact that they were able to learn and exploit these patterns was proof of their tremendous skill. As they were now, it was likely that they were capable of defeating Schneider.

But if Curatos were still alive, the enemies would have been able to use a greater diversity of patterns and possessed a certain degree of thinking and decision-making ability, and it was unlikely that Heinz and his companions could have defeated Guduranis so quickly.

It could not yet be said that they had matched Bellwood.

“What he means is, don’t get ahead of yourself just because we beat a fake,” Edgar said chidingly.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. But you don’t have to glare at me like that, you know?” said Jennifer.

“Glare…?”

Edgar raised a hand to touch his own face, as if he had just noticed.

His eyebrows were unintentionally furrowed in a deep frown. That was how much displeasure he had felt at Jennifer’s words… no, at fighting against the fake.

“… Sorry. I think I was feeling a little tense,” he said.

He couldn’t remember why he felt such displeasure. He managed to play it off, and nobody took too much notice.

After all, they were about to step onto the floor where Bellwood slumbered.

From behind the door at the bottom of the stairs, they heard the faint sound of a clinking chain.