Episode 1193 Oldark – 2
‘Your’ territory.
It is a world that is separated from but connected to the first world, and signifies a single timeline symbolizing the ‘original past’ within the eternal cycle connecting the past, present, and future.
When destiny is fulfilled, the world is reorganized, starting from her domain and restarting from her domain the moment the future time limit is exceeded.
Literally, ‘the past that will become the future’.
At the beginning of that cycle, there were beings awaiting the battle of destiny.
“It is God’s will! Gather the offerings!”“Aaaargh!”“Aaaargh!”
Spears hurled by the believers tore at the flesh. Children caught in snares were dragged along, their skin peeled off, and wooden buildings burst into flames.
A priest dressed in green wiped his sweat from the scene of chaos.
“You finally managed to catch them.”“I almost received divine punishment.”“You sent the souls too far this time. God is truly mischievous.”
The believers knew not only the meaning contained in the concept of the soul but also the correlation between the soul and destiny.
The gods who surrendered to ‘you’.
Because they were believers who worshipped one of those gods and belonged to him, having experienced the battle of destiny.
“Let’s stop the games here. A great oracle is scheduled, so let us hurry and gather the offerings and return.”“Has destiny been rebuilt?”“I believe so. Furthermore, there may be words regarding the Battle of Destiny.”“Oh, finally…!”
The priest twisted the corners of his mouth as one destined for the fate of a priest.It might be nothing special to one destined for a nobler fate, but compared to those destined for the fate of a slave, it was a life that could not be better.
“Burn everything that cannot fit on the cart.”“Yes, Father.”
Their god enjoys scattering the souls assigned to him, then releasing his followers to hunt or capture them, offering them all at once as sacrifices on his altar.The souls that die in this way return to the god, and the process above is repeated, merely to alleviate the boredom until the battle of fate resumes.
“Please spare me, please spare me, Aaaah!!”“This bitch is always flailing around. It’s a shame I can’t have her this time, though.……”
And since the sacrificed souls forget their memories from before death, their reactions are inevitably intense; that is the reason why hunting never gets tiresome.
Father is thrown into a burning house.
The girl whose hair is being pulled screams.
Just as the girl, who had been killed hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times or more, was about to have her neck pierced by a sharp sword this time, the tip of the sword fell to the floor.
“uh?”
At the same time, the believer’s body was dragged down.
Heavy pressure
The believers, with the exception of the priest, were trampled by gravity. They did not die, but they were completely immobilized. All the air was drained from their lungs.
“Caw, caw……!!!”“Crack……!!”
The flames went out all at once.
As the flames that seemed like they would turn her father to ashes disappeared and the grip holding his head suddenly let go, the girl was startled and slumped to the ground.
The priest stepped back in confusion.
“W-what is this?!”“What god do you worship?”
Verden, who appeared in the middle of the village, looked down at the old priest.
And, what are you doing here?
Gray and blue eyes.
The priest felt a tremendous majesty right before his eyes that he dared not oppose.
‘god……?!’
I looked back at the gods under ‘your’ command, but none fit those characteristics. Upon closer inspection, their divine nature was also unclear. I wondered if they were gods who had newly surrendered to fate, but I had heard no such story.Above all, even if that were the case, there was no reason for them to threaten us.
Still, thinking that it might be a god, the priest showed utmost respect.
“I serve the god Zukta───”
Verden grabbed the priest’s head and confirmed the first memory the priest recalled. He understood instantly which god was worshipped and why the massacre had been committed. Notonly that, but he also understood where the beings captured as sacrifices were being transported.
To think that God’s henchmen participated in the Battle of Destiny.
I roughly understood what ‘your’ territory is.
“I understand why the First Demon King guided me to this realm.”
Verden narrowed his eyes and turned his back.
The priest felt relieved.
Well, I don’t know what’s what, but it looks like there was a misunderstanding.
Crackle crackle crackle crackle crackle crackle!
The priests and believers were crushed vertically by the immense weight and died instantly.Their souls were stored in the [Gring Arcanum].
Verden looked around the village.
The burnt corpses were scattered about… and the surviving girl, her father, and the bound residents hurriedly knelt down, cautiously looking up at Verden with eyes filled with fear.
Souls trapped in crude vessels.
The souls were hunted while trapped in prepared bodies and used as playthings for the gods.If things continued this way, they would collapse within a few months at most, leaving only the souls behind to go to the fifth world. Saving the [Gring Arcanum] would have been a solution, but Verden chose a different one.
The power of the World Tree.
The green stem that had pierced through the ground thickened and rapidly grew into a small tree. The pure magical power emanating from the tree embraced the residents.Huh?Their souls and bodies began to stabilize, very slowly, little by little.
“As long as this tree lives, you too will endure.”“…….”“There will be no more hunting.”
As Verden was about to leave, the girl who had nearly been beheaded asked urgently.
“Are you, are you a god?”
They seemed to be souls born in an era closely intertwined with the gods. Otherwise, they would have called Verden a sorcerer.Verden felt compassion. Their plight was no different from that of the demons.Victims of fate.
The gray gauntlet swept the girl’s head.
“Ah…”“I’ll come pick you up someday.”
Verden smiled and then vanished without a trace, just like a dream. However, the corpses of the believers and the small tree proved that it was not a dream.
Amidst the murmuring of the survivors, the girl in her father’s arms remembered a benevolent smile.
“God…….”
* * *
[The Wheel of Fortune has been rebuilt───!]
The voice of God resounded from atop the stone pyramid.As the divine presence surged atop the 222 steps, a thousand believers gathered around the pyramid knelt and raised their arms high.
[The eternity I longed for was temporarily postponed by the Destroyer of Fate, but it is ultimately inevitable. Before long, the battle of destiny is bound to begin again.]
Six eyes.Two arms.Four legs.
An ancient, humanoid god named Zukta delivered an oracle to the believers.Usually, an oracle involves a believer mediating the transmission of a god’s will, but the oracle here was different. For the gods who received ‘your’ will were the mediators themselves.
God of gods.
‘You’ were no different from the gods worshipped by the gods.
[We offer the final resistor and the destroyer of fate to ‘you’ to complete destiny! Eternal cycle! To escape the apocalypse and exist forever! For eternity!!]
“Waaaaaaah!”“Waaaaaaah!!”
[Offer a sacrifice!]
Hundreds of souls were transported all at once, placed in wheeled prisons,to the place most visible to the god Zukta.
[I return the souls I possess back to ‘You’; at the end of victory, I shall be endowed with a higher destiny and lead an infinite yoke.]
Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta! Zukta!
[‘You,’ please watch over me!]
As the souls trapped in crude bodies pressed against the wall in terror, the believers thrust spears through the bars. Screams and screams ran wild.The believers laughed as they watched.
Haha
Even if a soul is killed, it returns as a soul. For the believers who had experienced such a small eternity, there were no longer any boundaries left to uphold.Amidst the repeated destruction of ethics and morality, only malice remained for them. Their god cared for his followers, but paid no regard whatsoever for the dignity of anything else.
Kugugugugu… … !
Zukta concentrated his divine power.
[The miracle of this Zukta that worships fate!]
A green sphere formed in the hand rushed forward. Immediately afterwards, space split diagonally.The miracle split in half and exploded in the air.
[… … ?!]
God worships God.
Verden stared at Zukta in front of the prison where the sacrifices were taken.
How ugly.
[Who are you… … .]
Shut up.
Verden tilted his staff. Seeing the magic power concentrating, Zukta glared and manifested a high-level miracle in response.
Madou
A dark red glow flashed.
Whoosh!
A beam of destruction erased the miracle and pierced Zukta’s body. The top floor of the pyramid behind it was also obliterated.
[Uh… … uh… … .]
Zukta staggered, spewed blood, and gripped the throne. He tried to recover with divine power, but he could not gather strength.
The source has been destroyed.
Six eyes trembled.
[No way… … No way.]
Before anyone realized it, Verden glared at Zukta from the top of the 222 steps. Zukta trembled violently and lashed out his arm as if in a desperate struggle.
Boom!
The air rippled from the shock wave.
Verden was not pushed back at all. Although he was not at full strength as the war with the Sixth Apostle had only recently ended, the difference in class was overwhelming.The divine weapon [Einber] did not allow a single blow from someone like Zukta.
Boom!
Zukta, whose head was half crushed by a staff blow, crawled on the floor.
[W-Why is the Destroyer… here…!!!]
His fingertips barely touched the stairs. Verden flipped the guy over with his toes and stomped on him.Crunch…As force was applied, Zukta’s divine body was gradually crushed starting from the chest.
To think someone like you is a god.
[Save me, save me───Aaaaaaaah!!!]
“Look.”
Verden swung his staff in front of Zukta’s followers.
This is the god you believe in.
The spear of destruction decapitated Zukta with a thunderous roar. Thump, thump, thump! The god’s head only stopped after rolling down and hitting the prison.Blood gushed from Zukta’s neck and flowed down the stairs.
God is dead.
A heavy silence enveloped the surroundings, and the priest screamed as he tore his face with his fingernails.He realized that Zukta’s death was real.
“Aaaaaaaah!!”“Z-Zukta!!!”“My fate…….”
From this point on, the believers began to flee. It was the fate of those who had lost their god. However, Verden had no intention of letting them go. Heimmediately grabbed [Interis] in reverse and pierced Zukta’s corpse vertically.
Rumble!
The dark lightning exploded through the god upon the believers whose divine power had not yet vanished. The nature of destruction that shatters the source and the inverted nature of the lightning.The lightning strikes splitting into a thousand branches annihilated the Zukta faith in an instant. They were erased without a single death scream, a corpse, or even the slightest trace.
Only the soul dwelled in [Gring Arcanum].
He could have destroyed the soul as well, but that would have been a violation of Verden’s own commandments.
Is it not just Zukta, but the souls Zukta possesses that are being recorded as well?
The souls that were killed without being taken as sacrifices returned to Zukta, but when Zukta died, they came into Verden’s book.
Now, only the souls destined to be used as sacrifices remain here.
Verden repeated what he had done in the village.
After exchanging a few words, such as providing a way to sustain their bodies by rapidly growing a tree that emitted magical power and revealing the location of the village, he left.The souls remaining in the pyramid were in disarray, but found stability by praying toward the tree.
“Oh, God of Gray…….”
* * *
Kwagwagwagwagwa!
Somewhere in the jungle where a waterfall was cascading down violently, Verden said
Please come out now.
+How was her domain+
Oldarc naturally appeared as if she had been by his side all along.
I felt terrible.
If the world is reshaped by fate, they lose all memories and are condemned to repeat their given destiny. If granted the fate of a virtuous person, they will live the life of a virtuous person, regardless of what they did in the past.
Oldark asked.
+Can you understand?+
“……I understand your intention. You must have intended to show me that no matter how noble ‘your’ ideals may be, there are aspects that I, who value the dignity of the sentient being, cannot tolerate.”
That is her compromise. She selected because she could not serve everyone. In the end, some are bound to repeat a cruel life forever, and the souls used by fate are regarded as nothing more than mere materials.
“…….”
Verden nodded slightly and then turned his head.
However, there are aspects of the actions shown by the First Demon King that are unacceptable.
Verden asked.The question he held in his heart.
Why did you abandon Alpha?
