Chapter 248. C Between B and D (2)
Shalyh had become noticeably quieter than before. First, the legend was absent, and the army that defended the city had departed to support the Cassiubia League’s main base. Moreover, much of humanity, which once filled up the streets, had recently gone out of the city to make money as the settlement payment date approached. Those who haven’t met their quota yet left in a hurry to look for expedition and adventure.
The Demon Empire snorted after hearing about the city’s situation from their informant. They got the feeling that their plan was smoothly sailing like a sailboat in a soft breeze. Although it was true that the Demon Empire were carrying out their deeds in secrecy, the holy city showed no signs of retaliation even a few days after they left for Shalyh. However, it was understandable since all the attention was on the Cassiubia mountain range.
Moreover, humanity must have been complacent, thinking they would be protected by Shalyh’s godly territory. They probably believed they were perfectly safe inside their holy city, and it was now time to crush their naivety. Even if the humans noticed them now, it would be too late. As soon as the godly territory disappeared with the help of the traitor they had planted, a large army of the great Demon Empire would appear before the humans. And then the demons would mercilessly trample over the barebone, helpless city with all its armor and shield taken off. The Demon Empire did not slow down; in their minds, they could already see the wailing and burning view of the city. Their destination was not far off.
* * *
The total number of gods secured by humanity was three. However, only two gods have been revealed to the public—Shahnaz and Kabbalah, and even among the gods, Kabbalah belonged to a special category on Liber. To be more precise, it would have been more accurate to say she became special considering Liber’s current climate. Gods were an existence that fed on faith. People prayed because they wanted to gain protection and blessing; it could be said that gods were born out of people’s wishes, or in a way, out of necessity.
However, what might have once been a necessity was no more. Just as public phone booths gradually disappeared with the advent of mobile phones, and pencils began disappearing with the emergence of ballpoint pens and sharpies, the law of supply and demand dictated that once consumer demands disappeared, so would supply. Of course, a product’s value might remain the same with a small number of dedicated consumers, but that wasn’t applicable to Kabbalah. She was just one of the many ancient gods that had been completely forgotten in the past.
When did a person truly die? It was when they were forgotten. That was a quote from a famous manga and anime.[1] In this aspect, gods were not much different from humans. Being forgotten for a god meant extinction, that was, death. No god wanted to return to nothingness after being born with the fate of immorality. They didn’t want to disappear or ‘die’. Then to prevent that from happening, they needed to not be forgotten.
The sole reason why Kabbalah artificially gave birth to Balal, who was her opposite, and became Kabal was so that she could break away from the evil alignment and evolve into a new existence after merging with an existence from a good alignment. However, Kabal failed to achieve her goal in the end. In order to pursue an even more perfect form, she joined hands with the Kingdom of Salem and sent Balal to their academy, but everything went up in smoke due to an unexpected accident. As a result, Kabal was forgotten and disappeared, but was later dramatically revived by Chi-Woo, who brought Balal to her.
Still, being resurrected didn’t mean she had gained a perfect form. Balal herself was an artifact made through an experimental procedure. She was man-made, forged by human power in the end. Immortality and mortals were fundamentally different. As a god, Kabal had come together with an incomplete existence like Balal; since they were fundamentally different from each other, Kabal became unstable, which was part of Kabal’s current godly territory. That was the gap the Demon Empire was targeting.
The temple of Kabbalah was located in the central square of Shalyh. Since she was the guardian deity protecting the sacred city, the Cassiubia League went well and above for her temple. Although the temple would have normally been bustling with visitors, it was quite empty today. The number of people in Shalyh had decreased a lot, and it was late at night. That didn’t mean there was no one around, however. Someone was climbing the stairs shrouded in shadows. It was hard to make out the face because of the robe covering it, but judging by the body shape, it seemed to be a male figure. After climbing up all the stairs, he paused and looked back.
He looked around the quiet city for a moment before turning around and entering the temple. After passing a long and narrow corridor, the main hall came into view. A white-haired girl was sitting in the center of the hall and staring blankly up at the arched ceiling. After checking that the girl was not Kabal, but Balal, the mysterious figure smiled faintly.
“…?” Balal tilted her head and shifted her gaze when she heard footsteps. She looked at him, silently questioning why he had visited at such a late hour.
He stopped walking, and after politely greeting her, the figure showed his respect by kneeling on one knee. “God Kabbalah, your humble servant has come here to pray.”
Balal looked back and pointed at the wall at the front of the main hall, where a stone statue was erected. It was a statue of the twin goddesses, and Balal’s index finger pointed at one of them; she was asking if he had come to see Kabal. “No, I have come to see you. You do not need to wake God Kabal up.” He continued in a low voice, “I’ve received a great offering by chance. Please accept it.”
Balal’s eyes twinkled at the word ‘offering’. She immediately got up and walked towards him. When Balal was standing right in front of him, he took a flower from his arms and offered it at the girl’s feet. Then he bowed deeper than before.
Balal’s eyes widened because she could tell it was an extraordinary offering at a glance. Rather than a regular flower, it looked like an ornament made of glass, yet it was not an artifact but an organism. Furthermore, the pistils, petals, and stem all glowed white. It was a special flower made out of light, but above all, Balal felt an enormous divinity from it—a divinity extremely clean and refined with hardly any impurities. Balal didn’t say anything, but she clearly looked impressed.
After looking intently at the flower, she bent down and picked it up. She held the flower tightly with both hands, looking at it with disbelief. Then she sniffed it up close and breathed in its scent. A strange thing happened then. The glowing flower dissolved into particles and got sucked into Balal’s nose. As if intoxicated by the power, Balal closed her eyes and savored the offering.
“Do you like it?” he asked with his head deeply bowed.
Balal replied with a bright smile. She didn’t know where he got it, but it was an offering in which divinity was condensed into a lump; there was no way she wouldn’t like it.
“If you are pleased with it, please accept another one.” He pulled out another glowing flower and offered it to Balal. “I sincerely ask you to not reject my offering.”
Balal gaped slightly. She quickly picked up the flower and immediately inhaled it. Then, at the very moment the melted light was about to enter her nose—
“!” Balal paused and opened her eyes wide. At the same time, her whole body emitted streams of light, or more accurately, light fluctuated all around her. It was flowing out from her like a river running along a bank.
Only then did the figure show his true color. “The Demon Empire succeeded in annihilating the Fenrirs and capturing their god.” While Balal was flustered, he finally stood up and said, “Of course, it was only possible with the Sernitas’ help, and they had to hand over the spoils in return, but they didn’t hand over everything.” He continued to speak as he looked at Balal, who gradually exerted a stronger glow and was unable to control the light at all.
“The two flowers I gave you are the result of intensely condensing the divinity of Fenrir’s god.” Then he raised his hand and chuckled, slightly touching his index finger and thumb. “But it’s been adjusted very slightly. The connection between the two…”
More and more light flowed out, and light was sprinkling like a shower everywhere. Anyone could see that she was extremely unstable.
“It’s now time to pay the price for your greed.” Then he suddenly asked, “Isn’t that right, God Kabal?”
Balal’s left eye turned black at once—Kabal had manifested along with her which didn’t faze the man at all. He had already carried out his plan, and it was already too late to turn things around.
“You bastard! How dare you!” Kabal gritted her teeth.
“I’m a half-demon.” He snorted. “No matter how hard I try, there’s no hope in sight, so I’m going back to my hometown. Do you find that a problem?” The way he spoke changed once Kabal appeared. “Of course, I can’t go empty-handed, so I need to bring a gift,” He said gleefully, looking at the furious Kabal and the helpless Balal.
How did one break the godly territory? It was not that hard once its weakness was identified. One simply had to look at the matter from a different perspective. Opposites attract. That’d been a saying since ancient times. Even poison could become medicine if one used a small amount according to the situation. In contrast, no matter how great a drug was, excessive use could make it toxic. For example, if one was looking for a way to blind people, diminishing their eyesight to the negatives wasn’t the only way; raising it to an insane level would do the trick as well. This was possible because there was a limit to human vision. If one exceeded that limit, their brain wouldn’t be able to handle it.
The half-demon’s plan followed that same principle. He fed divinity that was beyond the control of an imperfect being. Of course, he purposefully gave a little too much in the process.
“But this is such a downer. I was a bit nervous because my opponent is a god.” While looking at Kabal, who was lighting up the entire main hall, he mocked her, “As expected of your twin. The fact that she was greedy and tried to achieve an unreasonable dream is just like you.”
Kabal groaned. This wouldn’t have happened if the offerings were taken separately; the problem arose when the two flowers were combined. As if an agreement had been reached beforehand, the two divinity collided and exploded. As a result, the balance that was maintained by La Bella, who boasted one of the greatest powers even among the true neutral gods, was on the verge of breaking.
“How can you keep up the godly territory in that state?” he said teasingly.
“Ahhh. I’m so upset. How can I get beaten by a punk like this? No, it’s not me. Balal, you great idiot.” Kabal, who controlled half of the face, was angry, and the other half of the face was tearful.
The half-demon laughed cheerfully at the sight. “Haha! A fight between sisters! What a fascinating sight!”
“Ah. Ah. What shall I do? At this rate, the balance will be broken. Then the godly territory will go berserk.”
“There’s no use crying over spilled milk. What’s the use of trying?” After laughing for a while, he suddenly cleared his throat.
“Oh, no. What should I do?”
“Calm down and listen to me. Is there a reason for you to let the godly territory go berserk?” He suggested in a sly tone, “I’ll say it bluntly. Release the godly territory while you can. Then what you most fear won’t happen, and I’ll be able to put in a good word for you to the demons who will be invading.”
“Oh. Really?”
“Yes. Also, wasn’t your original alignment more in line with the Demon Empire? If you give up your futile dreams, you will be treated well in the Demon Empire.”
“Okay. Good.” In the next moment, the strange and mystical energy surrounding the whole city suddenly disappeared. It all happened in a flash, and the half-demon flinched. He didn’t know how to describe it exactly, but he had thought she would ponder about her decision for at least a bit longer since she had her pride as a god. But it had happened all too easily. She was way too complacent, and there was another suspicious aspect. Thinking back, things had been odd since the very moment Kabal appeared.
Although the plan was definitely going as planned, her reaction was a bit strange. Her tone was way too flat considering how furious she was supposed to be.
“Wow. I’m in trouble. Damn it. I can’t believe I fell for such a low trick. Damn. Shit. What the hell. Ahhh.”
It was the same now. She sounded like she was reading from a textbook. A sudden thought crossed his mind, but he quickly shook it off. Regardless of her reaction, it was undeniable that the godly territory had been lifted, and like this, he perfectly fulfilled his side of the bargain. The only thing left for him to do was to greet and watch the Demon Empire mercilessly invade Shalyh.
“Hm…that’s good. You’ve made a great choice. Now then…” However, he wasn’t able to finish his sentence because Kabal was in a strange state. He hadn’t been mistaken.
The bright lights that had surged in chaotic fluctuations disappeared, as if everything he saw had all been an illusion.
“…” And when he saw Balal’s eyes, he inadvertently gulped. Her flustered look was completely gone, and while showing half of her face, she stared emotionlessly at him. When he met her emotionless eyes, he felt a mysterious fear rear its ugly head. A shudder ran down his spine.
“Damn it. We’re damned. Shalyh is now doomed… Ah, wait. I don’t have to put up this show anymore. I acted for no fucking reason.” Kabal, who had been murmuring to herself, suddenly frowned and spat on the ground.
“…What?” He asked with a dumbfounded expression. “What did you just—” When he was going to ask once more, he made eye contact with the deity before him. Balal smiled softly, and Kabal raised the corner of her side of the mouth.
The moment he saw their cold sneer, he looked around in a hurry.
1. From One Piece. ☜