Chapter 988: Chapter 988: The New World and a New Beginning
New World · Lower Layer.
All humans and gods from both worlds were sent to the lower layer. Naturally, because the two worlds differed in circumstances—and because of the considerations of their respective gods—this created quite a few problems, especially at the beginning.
As a result, Meteria and Shiki Ryougi reached an unspoken agreement. Humans and demi-humans from both worlds were grouped together, while Xenos and gods were each categorized separately. The three groups were kept completely apart.
This was mainly because conflicts among humans weren’t particularly severe. At least, right after arriving in the new world, those tensions wouldn’t be too obvious. As for what would happen later... that was another matter entirely.
Of course, the situation for the Danmachi world was far better than that of the Type-Moon world. After all, the gods of the Type-Moon world hadn’t formed especially close relationships with ordinary humans, so the former gods were simply grouped together with other gods.
The Danmachi world was completely different. Its gods had descended to the Genkai for amusement and formed their own Familia, each of which attracted different humans to join as adventurers. Because of that, the Danmachi side wasn’t like the Type-Moon side at all, where the gods stood alone. Here, every god was surrounded by their own group of adventurers.
Clearly, the Danmachi side was in a much better position.
The Type-Moon side couldn’t really argue against that. They truly didn’t have deep ties with the humans of the lower world. And all the gods knew that the new world meant a complete restart, so most of them hadn’t planned on forming any relationships with humans before entering it.
In short, everyone was waiting for the new world.
At this moment, gods from different pantheons sat together, discussing what to do next.
Now that they had arrived in the new world, they needed to begin working again toward reclaiming their status as gods.
The King of Babylon, Gilgamesh, thought the same way.
"Oh!!! A new world!"
For Ishtar, this new world felt incredibly fresh. Unlike before, when she was constrained by the world’s limits and descended as a Heroic Spirit, she had now arrived in this world as a true god.
"Ah, even though my Authority is reduced, this brand-new feeling is actually pretty nice."
Ishtar examined her own condition. Her Authority had decreased, but the world itself felt far more expansive.
"But it’s not just Authority that was taken away. Even part of my divine nature is gone."
Gilgamesh could clearly sense it as well. The divinity he had once discarded had been stripped away, replaced by a completely different, whole divine nature.
’Completely erasing the traces left by the old world, then bestowing a corresponding divine status and divinity. This really is the level of a demigod. It seems everyone truly starts from the same line.’
’But the Gate of Babylon won’t open anymore. The Omniscient and Omnipotent Star is the same. So giving everything up really wasn’t a joke.’
’Erasing an existence that possessed divine status, divinity, and Authority, then replacing it with something from the new world... that’s a tremendous benefit.’
At this moment, Gilgamesh became fully convinced that the new world truly offered everyone a fresh hope.
He had always been skeptical of that claim before, but now it had been proven.
A brand-new world. No hard limits on height—no, more accurately, a height whose ceiling was set by those above.
Gilgamesh knew the new world would still have restrictions. For example, being unable to reach three digits. But could they even reach four digits right now? That alone was far from easy.
Three digits weren’t impossible—but the difficulty was simply too great.
So for now, reaching four digits was the realistic goal.
Gilgamesh understood this clearly, and he knew the other gods likely did as well.
In the past, the road ahead was nothing but limitation. Gods had no room to grow. But now, in this new world, they finally had the right to grow. Even if it came at the cost of abandoning everything from the past—so what?
The past was a haze that capped their height. No matter how strong the wind, it couldn’t blow past that limit. But now, it could—so long as the conditions were met.
The corner of Gilgamesh’s mouth lifted slightly. He could almost see the madness that would grip the gods as they fought for higher positions.
’But this time, the ones with that right won’t just be you gods.’
Gilgamesh had no intention of letting such a rare opportunity slip by.
Looking around, they found themselves on a plain, with a forest visible in the distance. It was suitable for a temporary settlement.
However, if they wanted to stay long-term, they needed to find a water source.
Naturally, that wasn’t a task he needed to handle personally. There was a perfectly suitable laborer right here.
"Ishtar, go find a water source nearby."
"Huh? I’m the one going first?"
Ishtar stared at Gilgamesh in disbelief, eyes wide.
"Harvest. What do you think?"
That single sentence shut Ishtar up. It was true—water was a core element of harvest. If she wanted to shape the Authority of harvest, this was something she had to do herself.
"Fine, fine. I’ll go..."
Ishtar knew this was part of the agreement she had made with Gilgamesh. By shaping the Authority of harvest, she could use it to protect the people of Babylon. But in return, she had to be prepared to genuinely help them.
To form her divine status and Authority, she needed the faith of the people of Babylon. Before that, she had to devote herself wholeheartedly to improving their lives through harvest.
Grumbling, Ishtar mounted Maanna and headed off into the distance.
Gilgamesh withdrew his gaze. Reconnaissance like this was something Ishtar was better suited for, and a task this simple was hardly something that unreliable goddess could mess up.
"Prepare to set up camp!"
At Gilgamesh’s command, the entire group began their preparations.
...
While Babylon was setting up camp, the gods and Familia assigned to the Danmachi side were also beginning their own encampments.
Loki looked over her Familia and the crowd gathered from Orario, unable to help but sigh.
"Our world really does have a lot of people."
At this point, everyone from the Danmachi world had gathered here. The crowd was dense, packed tightly together as far as the eye could see.
"How could it not be? Three months ago, the entire world moved toward Orario. This is basically everyone."
Riveria couldn’t help but agree.
Looking at the unfamiliar surroundings and feeling the magic still surging inside her body, she sensed changes within herself. It wasn’t just an increase in magic—she even felt like her vision had extended farther than before.
"Loki, why do I feel stronger?"
"Stronger? Oh, the new world gives different races different traits. Each race also has its own Spiritual Rank, which directly ties into the new growth system in the future."
"And your respective Falna will change as well."
Hearing Loki explain it so casually, Riveria’s brow twitched. She had never heard anything like this before.
But Loki’s secrecy was probably intentional. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have kept quiet until now.
Still, it would have been better to know about these changes ahead of time. That way, they could have prepared.
Now, adapting to this new system would likely take quite a while.
At the very least, the immediate priority was to understand this new system thoroughly. Otherwise, they were bound to run into problems because of it later on.
