Chapter 281: The Reason for Being Targeted
"The reason is that fate has deemed it that you four would be the key to their master’s defeat."
"Huh?!"
The door opened up and a woman wearing white priestly robes walked in, trailed by a knight who was clearly at a loss on how to handle her.
"Apologies for coming in uninvited, but I had no choice given the severity of the situation."
She bowed lightly towards the Count who only nodded before dismissing the knight and then offering her a seat on one of the sofas.
"So...who are you and what’s all this talk about fate?"
"My name is Sakaala, and I am the head priestess of this city’s branch of the Church of Fire.
A pleasure to make your acquaintance, otherworlders."
The woman introduced herself as the religious leader of this city, enlightening the quartet a bit about the religious beliefs of this world.
"Church of Fire? And who is the being whom this Church worships?"
"One of the Ten benevolent gods, the god of fire."
The priestess, Sakaala replied to Esna’s inquiry, before proceeding to elaborate on the nature of the gods worshipped on Gade.
"Elemental gods, huh? It’s funny how you guys worship gods, considering this is a universe ruled by Devils..."
The girl muttered to herself with a wry smile, but all the beings in this room were superhuman existences, so they did not miss her words, however, all those from Gade failed to comprehend what she meant by ’universe’.
"Leaving that aside, you said fate had deemed it that we’d be the key to the leader of these monsters’ defeat.
Explain further on that."
Sakaala nodded in response to Layla’s words before she began her explanation, for the sake of the quartet, and the others in the room.
"Although they look no different from the monsters of today, these monsters are actually all ancient beasts that were sealed away a thousand years ago."
Hearing her statement, Nicole who had been silently playing with all the water spirits flocking to her since the start tilted her head to the side and asked.
"A thousand years is considered ’Ancient’?"
Even though she was young, Nicole had the same sense of time as Devils who lived for hundreds of thousands of years. So, although a thousand years was a long time to her, it wasn’t something she saw as ’Ancient’.
"That’s the part that surprises you? I’m more interested in the type of sealing magic that was used. Keeping monsters like Orcs and Trolls alive for a thousand years is not an easy feat.
Even if they are Grandmaster level existences, their races don’t have that much lifespan so I’m curious about how they achieved that feat.
Perhaps they were placed in some sort of ’Stasis’? If that’s the case then this might involve a Time magic user or a high-level ice manipulator."
Esna spoke up, already beginning to analyse the possible types of sealing magic that could be used, and arriving at a conclusion that the quartet didn’t like.
"Hopefully we don’t have to deal with any time magic users..."
Layla muttered as she remembered the feeling of being caught up in the abstruse law’s power courtesy of her best friend Arthur.
"Um...you girls. Let her finish her story first, then we’d know what we’re dealing with."
"Oh, apologies. It’s just that the sealing magic that can keep monsters alive for a thousand years intrigues me.
Carry on with your narration."
After Edward’s little rebuke and Esna’s short apology, Sakaala awkwardly continued her explanation.
"These Ancient Monsters were all members of the armies of a powerful Evil god that tried to plunge the world into eternal darkness a thousand years ago.
He was so powerful amongst the gods, that he was capable of controlling more than just one law that governs the world."
"We all know that tale, about the Leader of the Malevolent gods who warped the laws of the world and covered everything in darkness."
City Lord Vako spoke up after Sakaala, citing that this story was not anything new and was actually common knowledge in Gade.
"Laws of the world?"
"Hmm? Yes."
"You guys know about the laws of the world?"
"Of course, we do. How can we not know about the powers possessed by the gods we worship?"
Count Vako replied to Layla’s question with a look that said ’Why was she asking something so obvious?’.
"Then do you guys know what authorities are? In respect to the ’laws of the world’."
"No, I have certainly not heard about the word ’Authority’ being used with respect to a law."
Count Vako looked around as he answered but all those present shook their heads indicating they did not know what Layla asked about, all except Sakaala.
’She knows something...’
"Okay, so these gods are clearly not deity realm existences. People on their level would definitely use an authority."
Esna arrived at that conclusion from the answer she received, but Undine shot down her conclusion almost instantly.
[A deity realm existence can envelop an entire planet with the power of the law of darkness, without needing to use an authority.
They can do such with relative ease.]
"..."
The young godslayer girl twisted her lips in a frown upon hearing Undine’s words, while Layla gave Sakaala the go-ahead to continue.
"The Leader of the malevolent gods covered the world in darkness, and with his subordinate elemental gods going about spreading death and disorder.
To combat him and save our world, the Benevolent gods rose up against their malevolent counterparts, using the power of light to brighten up the world once more.
And in a great battle that ravaged numerous lands, they vanquished the malevolent elemental gods one by one, leaving only the leader of the malevolent elemental gods, the god of darkness.
After battling the Malevolent god of darkness for multiple days, in a fight that left countries destroyed, they finally defeated him and stripped him of his godhood, before sealing him away in the ruins of one of the largest countries that was destroyed in their battle."
’Countries, huh? Countries in this world are a lot smaller than average, but still, this checks out with the destructive power of Legendary and Sovereign realm existences.’
Layla thought to herself, analysing the details from the explanation that Sakaala gave them.
"After sealing him with the powers of the laws, they gathered the surviving mortals and re-founded the country where they sealed him in, before finally deciding to go into slumber to recover from the previous wounds they were inflicted with during the battle.
That country then expanded to be a great Empire under the rule of the demigod children they had with the ruling mortals."
The moment the last line escaped her lips, all the indigenous people of Gade present had their eyes widen in shock as they instantly realised where this sealing place was.
"Don’t tell me...!"
"It is exactly as you think.
The country the gods founded was our Empire, and the place they sealed the god of darkness, was our capital city.
They had to watch the seal to make sure that it was sturdy enough, but they could not leave the mortals suffering, so they opted to do both in the same place."
Ady frowned deeply upon hearing this, a chill going down his spine as he realised the capital city he had lived in for most of his life was where a malevolent god was sealed.
"Why haven’t your churches made this news public?!"
In response to the top adventurer’s shout, Sakaala calmly turned to him and replied with a straight face.
"Do you know the sheer amount of unrest that it would cause if the tens of thousands of people in the capital were suddenly told that they were living atop the seal of a malevolent god?"
"...!"
The adventurer instantly realised what she meant and quieted down, while Count Vako sighed softly as he would have made the same decision if he was the one saddled with this knowledge.
Sakaala then turned towards Layla and answered one of her earlier questions.
"With respect to this thing you called ’Authorities’, I may have an idea.
However, what is passed down among us high priestesses may not be the exact same thing. It is called a ’Pseudo Authority’.
It was something the Leaders of the gods used in battle."
Her words made Esna’s face brighten up as she slammed her fist on her palm and spoke.
"Definitely not a deity.
It is impossible for them to possess Pseudo authorities. They just gain the complete authority directly."
Undine chuckled lightly when she saw how Esna was happy to not have to be on the hit list of a deity realm existence.
"Then again, that was quite obvious.
A battle between Deity realms that would last for days, would be enough to blow a planet like Gade to smithereens ten times over."
Edward added to her words with a shrug, before continuing.
"The way she said it makes it sound like they controlled the laws of the world ’around’ them. But we can never know if that’s what they did, or if they were actually generating the law energies from their bodies."
