TGS - Chapter 186
Chapter 186: The Seal
The location chosen to open the battlefield space was a relatively high mountain ridge, a short distance from any human-inhabited cities or villages.
The terrain here was treacherous, and legend had it that fierce beasts roamed the area, so it was rarely visited by people. Given the short amount of time, which didn't allow for choosing a more remote location, there was no more suitable place than this.
When the figure identified as the Creator God of Kasnie approached, the main gods of Solancia, without a word, pulled It into the battlefield space.
The other party had no intention of objecting. In the blink of an eye, accompanied by a fleeting rift of white light, the gods vanished from the sky above the mountain ridge.
No one noticed.
In the mountain forest not far away, a young wolf poked its head out.
Sniffing the scent in the air, the young wolf hid behind a tree, motionless, as if waiting for an opportunity to hunt.
Inside the battlefield space.
The seven Solancian gods stood in a circular formation, spaced apart from one another, forming a wide encirclement with the Creator God of Kasnie in the center.
Despite holding an absolute numerical advantage, the attitude of the Solancian gods was far more solemn and grave than in any previous divine battle.
A Creator God.
Just as the God of the Sky had said, in human civilizations, the myths about creation seemed to follow an unspoken agreement.
Those beings imagined by humans to have birthed or created the world either had no name, no wisdom, and no consciousness, or their power dissipated and they vanished on their own after the world's birth, gradually ceding authority to their descendants before fading into obscurity.
Worse still, some grew extremely weak and were killed by their descendants, not even managing a graceful retirement after their work was done.
The rules did not permit a Creator God to appear at their full strength.
If this was for the sake of balance, then it was obvious that a creator deity was not on the same level as other gods. It was possible that even the full power of a pantheon would be insufficient to fight one—just as a fully armed human army could not destroy even the weakest of gods.
Of course, this was only speculation.
For several millennia, a Creator God had never appeared in a divine battle. Whether It possessed overwhelming power was still unknown. How could they know how dangerous It was without trying?
They had to make a move first before they could make any judgment.
However, the sole remaining deity of Kasnie seemed to have no intention of starting the battle immediately.
The mist of light on Its face swirled, slowly revealing a familiar face and a pair of eyes as deep blue as the night sky.
Lotus's eyes widened slightly, but she maintained her composure on the surface, not blurting out that name.
It was En who spoke.
"Perseus?" The infant frowned, a look of near astonishment on his face.
Before the other party voluntarily revealed Its face, no one, except for Lotus who had a vague inkling, had considered It and the Goddess of the Mind to be the same individual.
It wasn't just the difference in physical characteristics; the most important thing was the divine power. The mist of light surrounding Its body had no connection whatsoever to Perseus's transparent, gelatinous power.
The main gods had only assumed that the Creator God Klotho had found a way to manifest. But how could the Creator God before them be Perseus?
"My name is now Klotho," the Goddess of the Mind… the Creator God said with a smile. "The Father God of all things. That title doesn't quite suit my taste, but it is very useful."
Its voice had also changed, from the voice that was clearly a goddess's in the past to an androgynous tone. It was more piercing and more uncanny than before, as if carrying a hollow echo.
Suojia and En exchanged a look. She raised her head and said gravely, "You possess the title of a Creator God, and yet you can come here. You have deceived the rules."
The Creator God said, "It's only deception if it can be exposed. But now, even the rules are powerless against me."
Lotus listened quietly for a moment and roughly understood.
Perseus had, by some unknown means, replaced the Creator God of Kasnie, seizing Its name and divine authority, and left the island of myth.
To achieve this goal, there must have been a price. Perhaps the demise of the other three Kasnie gods was part of that price, planned by Perseus from the very beginning.
Lotus suddenly recalled the incredulous looks in the eyes of the God of Mountains and Rivers and the God of the Ocean before they dissipated. In the final second before their deaths, had they sensed something was wrong?
As she pondered, the space before her eyes suddenly emptied.
The next moment, the Creator God appeared before Lotus like a phantom. The movement was so seamless it was as if It had been standing there from the start.
Her divine power coalesced into a form ready for offense or defense. Without even raising her eyes, Lotus said calmly, "What do you want to say now?"
Perseus—now Klotho—was a strange god. Every time before a battle, It had to offer a few words of persuasion to surrender, never tiring of it, to the point that Lotus began to wonder if her refusals weren't firm enough.
The Creator God sighed. "I don't want to kill you, Lotus."
"Now, I am the only god of Kasnie, and in the future, I will be the sole supreme god of this land. The seat to the right of the throne will belong to you. Before that, I don't want you to have to die once."
Lotus was suddenly taken aback.
She caught a certain signal in the Creator God's words.
"You don't intend to continue the faiths of the other three Kasnie gods?"
"Why should I?" the Creator God retorted. "The new divine domain has no need for other gods. If not for you, the entire continent would have only one faith in the future."
Klotho.
Lotus finally realized why the name had sounded somewhat familiar before.
In the later era where she had been born and raised, there were still religious beliefs.
In history, after the ancient Solancian civilization was cut off, this land had changed hands time and again. No single people could hold onto this vast, fertile territory for long, until it stabilized in modern times.
Unlike the widespread polytheistic belief system of this time, the people who lived on this land much later no longer believed in the existence of gods as their ancestors did, but only acknowledged a single creator, Kerosda.
During the most fanatical periods of religion, being a heretic was a sin in itself. Kerosda created everything, creating holy spirits and evil spirits. Besides It, there were no true gods.
And this monotheistic sect, called the Poro religion, whose origins were unknown, was precisely the most widespread religion in the future world.
Ever since confirming that this was not the same world as her original era, Lotus hadn't given much thought to the religious history of that other spacetime. After all, since the worlds themselves were different, the situation in the other world couldn't be used as a complete reference.
If the development of the two worlds was consistent, if the Creator God Klotho was the original version of the creator Kerosda...
Perseus's plan was probably successful.
Humanity had risen and fallen many times, and almost everything related to the ancient polytheistic gods had ended up in museums. Only It, and the faiths of a few other monotheistic religions, had endured.
Lotus lowered her eyes in brief thought, but to others, it might have looked like she was hesitating.
The Creator God seemed very pleased to see this. "Have you finally seen the light?"
Lotus shook her head and casually found an excuse. "No. It's just that you're too much light pollution."
The Creator God, shrouded from head to toe in a mist of light: "..."
After two seconds of silence, a cold light flashed in Its eyes.
"Then let us begin," the Creator God whispered. "Although I wanted to convert you into a Kasnie god while you were still alive, it seems that is no longer possible."
Before Its voice had faded, several streams of divine power had already blasted toward the Creator God in the center of the encirclement. They held nothing back, aiming to kill a god.
If this attack was ineffective, if it couldn't even cause any damage, then...
The arcs of divine light dissipated. The Creator God was completely unharmed, not having moved even half a step. It maintained the posture of a raised hand, as if trying to reach for Lotus, who had been quite close just a moment ago.
Lotus had already retreated rapidly while launching her attack, instantly creating distance and causing the Creator God's reach to fall short.
In that critical moment, Lotus only had time to exchange a glance with Suojia to her side.
Almost at the same time, the Creator God spoke softly: "Deprive."
The same move once used on Adia, the Goddess of Love, now took full effect without even needing to break through the gods' mental barriers.
In an instant, the Solancian main gods' perception of divine power was completely severed. The divine power they had sent out was still persistently spreading everywhere to gather information, waiting to feed it back to their main bodies, but their main bodies could no longer receive it.
For the other main gods, being deprived of their divine perception was like being deprived of sight and hearing, or perhaps even worse. The only exception was Lotus, who had awakened relatively recently and was not as accustomed to constantly sensing her surroundings with divine power.
"The familiar methods are a bit more effective, aren't they?"
The Creator God murmured.
Even twice the number of main gods would be unable to fight It.
This was not a difference in the amount of divine power; factors like length of existence and strength of faith had become irrelevant. This was a qualitative difference—only a creator deity could deal with a creator deity, just as only a god could kill a god.
If they dragged this out any longer, the damage would only be more severe.
Lotus gathered her divine power, transforming it into a form as dense as deep water, and then pushed it forward. The other Solancian main gods made the same move at the same time.
A multicolored torrent of power submerged everything in the center of the circle, mixing and melting into a four-sided rhomboid that trapped the Creator God within.
The other party had originally shown no intention of dodging, only frowning slightly when It was completely submerged.
"A seal?"
It was a seal.
Unlike a barrier, the divine power of this seal was used to solidify everything within it, until the divine power could no longer be sustained.
After realizing what was trapping It, the Creator God was not panicked or surprised, merely quite puzzled.
"Why are you doing this?" The Creator God said "you," but in reality, It turned Its head to stare only at Lotus. "A seal like this would be lucky to last a year. Surely you don't expect the Princess of Solancia to completely destroy Kasnie within that year?"
As long as the civilization of Kasnie was not extinguished, as long as there was even a single believer, Perseus—and Klotho—would continue to exist.
And in just one year, not even a single generation would be lost, let alone an entire people.
Lotus looked back coldly, not answering.
Divine power was still being continuously poured in. To prevent the seal from being broken, the main gods had summoned and released their full power. Lotus also recalled the avatar she had placed by the princess's side. All of this became the seal—a seal that would not last for long.
Soon, the Creator God's gaze stopped moving, fixed in that puzzled, head-tilted posture.
The seal solidified completely, but the input of divine power did not cease. At this point, it was no longer something they could stop just because they wanted to.
Using the seal was something they had discussed before the Creator God arrived in this region. If ordinary attacks could not harm It, the seal was the only way to temporarily halt Its actions.
Before their power was completely drained, the light of the rhomboid seal dimmed and stopped absorbing power.
Lotus only had time to let out a sigh of relief.
The next instant, the battlefield space, no longer supported by divine power, abruptly dissipated.
The several main gods, now without any spare divine power, fell from the sky along with the rhomboid seal. Falling.
Lotus, in free fall: "..."
Well, I suppose I should be thankful in advance that gods can't die from a fall.
Comments
Post a Comment