The Last Place Hero's Return

Chapter 243: Divine Descent (3)

A year had passed since I had regressed to this life. In that span, I had enjoyed so much happiness, happiness I could never have even dared to dream of in my previous life. Yet, I still remembered. Those memories would surface without warning, like a thorn driven deep into flesh—the endless snowfield, the raging blizzard, the cold that crushed my very lungs, and the distant but never-ending life.

Of course, after I had returned to the past, the Blessing of Resurrection was no longer a curse but a blessing that allowed me to change the future. However, that was only a conclusion drawn in hindsight. Just because the outcome was good didn’t mean the process itself could be justified.

That was why I wanted to ask the Forest God. Why did it have to be me? Among so many people, why was I the only one bound to an unending life, left to struggle in torment? If there was a reason, I wanted to hear it. Even if there wasn’t, I still wanted to ask why I had been given such a cruel life.

“Dale...” Iris looked at me with trembling eyes, as if she had read my heart. Then she nodded quietly. “All right.”

Clutching Grace’s divine relic hanging around her neck, she nodded once more. “I’ll try summoning the Forest God through Divine Descent.”

“Please, Iris,” I replied.

Grace said, “Hmm, I don’t fully understand the situation, but you want to commune with the Forest God, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Grace nodded. “Understood. First, draw out the power of the Seven Eyes with everything you have.”

“Understood.”

A seven-colored aura bloomed from Iris’s body. It resembled the sight of Camellia using the Blessing of the Seven Stars. The difference was that in Iris’s case, it wasn’t an overwhelming force that dominated her surroundings, but rather a sacred presence, as if a miracle were unfolding before one’s eyes.

“All right, we’ll begin.” Grace placed her hand atop Iris’s head. “Follow my guidance and slowly move the power of the Seven Eyes.”

Radiant rainbow light enveloped both of them. With a soft gasp, Iris’s eyes flew open. The rainbow shimmer in her pupils faded, replaced by the same deep green as mine.

Watching her wrapped in a green aura, I swallowed hard. This was different from Camellia’s Blessing. Camellia had borrowed a god’s body, manifesting it within herself. Iris, on the other hand, was borrowing a god’s mind, invoking it within her through Divine Descent. Unlike Camellia, who merely drew upon divine power, Iris gave the unsettling impression that she herself had become a god.

Suddenly, Iris shook violently. “Ah, uh, ah.”

I rushed toward her, but Grace raised a hand to stop me. “Focus. Don’t resist the god’s power, accept it as it is.”

Iris answered with some difficulty, “Ah, y-yes. Mo-ther.”

She drew in a deep breath, and the unstable green aura gradually began to settle.

Grace let out a quiet, incredulous chuckle. “She’s my daughter, but still... amazing. Are you sure this is really your first time using Divine Descent?”

I didn’t know the exact details, but Grace’s reaction made it seem that Divine Descent had succeeded without incident. With her eyes closed, Iris slumped forward like a doll with its strings cut. Then, she slowly raised her head. However, the presence before us was no longer Iris.

Iris, no, the Forest God looked at Grace with a faint smile. “It’s been a long time, Grace.”

Grace bowed her head, tracing a holy sign in the air. “I pay my respects to you, Forest God.”

The Forest God gazed at Grace’s translucent spirit with sorrowful eyes. “So even you... couldn’t escape the passage of time.”

“I was human, after all.”

Compared to the lives of gods, a human lifespan was but a fleeting moment.

With a faint smile on her lips, the Forest God continued, “Hehe. Don’t say that. Even gods don’t live forever.”

At that instant, the green in Iris’s eyes faded back to their original color. “Not forever?”

The eyes turned green once more, and the Forest God said, “Oh? You’re still conscious even while your mind is connected to mine... It really is this child’s first time using Divine Descent, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is,” Grace answered.

“Impressive. Grace, even you fainted immediately the first time you used it, and the communion was cut short.”

Grace puffed out her chest proudly. “Hehe. It’s because my daughter is exceptional.”

The Forest God continued, “So, to answer this child’s earlier question, yes, that’s correct. Being a god doesn’t mean one lives eternally.”

This contradicted what was written in the scriptures of the Seven Star Church. Even Yurina, Elisha, and Laneige—who, though not as devout as Iris, had never once doubted the eternity of the Seven Gods—felt their eyes tremble slightly. It was an understandable reaction. After all, common sense dictated that a god was eternal and immortal by nature.

“After the Tree of Creation burned away, even the gods came to possess lifespans. Of course, they’re incomparably long compared to those of humans.” The Forest God wore a bitter smile. “In any case, nothing is truly eternal in this world.”

After listening to her in silence, I slowly stepped toward the Forest God. “Wait. What kind of nonsense is that?”

Alarmed, Grace shouted, “S-s-son-in-law! How dare you speak like that before a god?”

However, her words fell on deaf ears.

I asked again, “You’re saying there’s nothing eternal left in this world?”

Then what was my life supposed to be? That hellish nightmare and that unending despair, what the hell was it? A raging torrent of emotion surged up inside me. Feelings I had long buried, memories I had suppressed, and pain I had crushed down, all of it boiled over at once, as if exploding.

“What was it supposed to be? Why? Why was I the only one? Why was I the only one who couldn’t die, who had to live forever?”

The Forest God looked at me, utterly bewildered. “Pardon?”

I glared at her, grinding my teeth. “Hah. Playing dumb now?”

I tore open my shirt, exposing the mark etched into my left chest. The clearly engraved mark bore the soul stigmata of the Forest God. “You, you gave this to me! You’re the one who made me eternal! And now you’re saying there’s no such thing as eternity? What kind of bullshit is that?”

Then what was my life? What was that accursed eternity I endured?

The Forest God shook her head, flustered. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. There must be some misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding? You call this a misunderstanding?” I shouted.

She nodded quietly. “Yes. I... have never given you anything.”

What was she talking about?

“What? Then what about this?! This soul stigmata right here—”

She cut me off. “That isn’t my soul stigmata.”

“What are you...”

The Forest God continued, “No. To begin with, what’s carved into your chest isn’t even a soul stigmata. It resembles one in form, but it’s something entirely different.”

Then what is it? What are you even saying? You’re telling me what’s etched into my chest isn’t a soul stigmata? Then why can I use mana? Why do I have the Blessing of Resurrection?

Feeling lost, I asked, “Then, what is this?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

A god was saying she didn’t know about it. Then who knew?

The Forest God analyzed my “soul stigmata” and said, “It’s concealed... as if shrouded in ash-colored smoke.”

Elisha had used similar words when she had examined me with the Blessing of Insight.

The Forest God looked straight into my eyes. “But there’s one thing I’m certain of. Within you, something far greater than divinity is sleeping.”

Something greater than divinity? That would mean the power dwelling inside me surpassed even the power of a god. That was a ridiculous thought.

Suddenly, an image surfaced in my mind. It was the sight of the colossal presence I had seen in my mindscape—the dark, ash-gray figure that effortlessly pressed down flames fierce enough to swallow the world.

A quiet gasp slipped from my lips. The scattered pieces of the puzzle snapped into place. It was no wonder I was incapable of accumulating mana through breathing techniques like other heroes. What was etched into my chest had never been a soul stigmata. It was only natural that I couldn’t gather mana the way others did.

The only way I could build mana was by burning my body with the Primordial Flame to create it. The deaths I repeated day after day to increase my mana were meant to provoke the Primordial Flame through my own death. I had thrown my body into those roaring flames like firewood. Moreover, I had already learned long ago that mana was a byproduct created when the Primordial Flame burned the Tree of Creation.

I clutched my head and let out a hollow laugh. The clues had been there from the start. The answer was written plainly on the test paper. It was almost laughable that I had only realized it now. The solution was that simple.

“Hah! Hahaha!”

Memories flared up like fire, filling my mind. I had always questioned why my soul stigmata hadn’t burned away. The Primordial Flame that burned soul stigmatas and even the demonic flames of the Demon God that devoured divinity couldn’t burn mine.

Elisha had once told me, “There’s not one, but two. There are two powers dormant inside you, Dale.”

Before I ever embraced the Primordial Flame, there was already another power within me.

The first time we had met, Grace had said, “You carry within you the power that extinguishes fire.”

Only one power could extinguish the Demon God’s demonic fire. In a world where eternity had vanished, the reason I alone could remain eternal was something else entirely.

“So, that’s how it was.”

I placed a hand over my left chest. Closing my eyes, I sank into my mindscape. Flames roared before my eyes. Beyond the violently surging fire, I saw a colossal form wrapped in ash-gray mist. As I slowly reached out, the mist gradually dispersed.

The one who granted me eternal life wasn’t the Seven Gods. It was you.

Where the ash-gray mist faded away stood something so immense that its size couldn’t be measured. It was a tree, gazing down at me.