Chapter 126 - Episode 18. God Without a Vicegerent (8)
Chapter 126: Episode 18. God Without a Vicegerent (8)
──────
Could they escape?
Would it be faster for this world to be destroyed?
Without even looking back to see what had become of Jin Eunsae, Runald ran down the volcano's lower path.
"Go! Get to the seventh floor somehow."
Jin Eunsae's Push reached him.
"Find the 「Black Moon Inn」."
Black Moon Inn.
Those six syllables were all Runald could hold in his mind right now.
His forearm would not stop shaking. No matter how hard he tried to forget, he could not escape the memories of the battle.
Galateon's cold killing intent raining down on them. The overwhelming certainty that he would die if he fought.
He was scared. Terrified. There was no way he could face a being like that.
"Damn it. If only Jaehwan were here."
The moment Runald heard Andersen mutter, he stopped.
Was it really right to run away like this?
The cube in his arms shuddered intermittently with heavy thuds.
Its vibrations sounded like a god's rebuke.
"That's far enough."
A voice stopped him in his tracks.
A sharp polearm landed at his feet, and Runald fell onto his backside.
One of the Alliance members who had been chasing them stood there.
Andersen recognized them and stepped forward.
"Jihan? It is you, isn't it?"
There had been no chance to speak earlier, as Jihan had seemed to be talking with Ethan, but Andersen knew Jihan as well.
It was only natural. Five hundred years ago, they had been Companions who fought for the revolution together.
At least, once upon a time.
"Andersen-nim."
"Just let us go. Please. I don't know why you're with the Alliance, but you weren't this kind of person."
Jihan smiled quietly.
"I am not the Jihan you knew. You should know well enough what I have done."
The God Without a Vicegerent, Ethan Cart's most cherished Incarnation.
And then...
The Vicegerent who had betrayed them five hundred years ago.
Jihan pointed the tip of their staff at them threateningly.
"Damn it. How could you... how could you..."
"You will die if you keep that. Hand over the cube, then leave."
Leave?
"Then I will spare you, Andersen, and that Follower of yours. I will also guarantee the King of Crows's safety."
Andersen hesitated before asking.
"How can I trust that?"
"I swear it to the God of Whirlwinds... no, to the King of Crows."
Andersen glanced down at the cube in Runald's hand.
The cracks across its surface had deepened considerably.
The Moya Moya Crow Doll's spring creaked.
Having made up her mind, Andersen opened her beak.
"Jihan. Is that truly the path you chose? Have you forgotten every oath you made five hundred years ago? Has your cause, the one where you wanted to make a world where gods and humans were equal, all disappeared?"
"Rats and cats cannot be friends."
"What...?"
"If a rat wants to befriend a cat, there is only one way. It has to become a rat as strong as a cat."
Runald looked up at Andersen.
Jihan's words resembled the story Andersen had once told him about a strong rat.
"I just fought a member of Rupture. After fighting them, I understood exactly how strong they are."
"Wait, you."
Jihan's eerily gleaming eyes were fixed on the cube.
"I need that cube."
"What are you planning to do with it? Do you still hold a grudge against Ethan?"
"What I want is not the King of Crows. Andersen, there is no point hiding it. I already know who he is."
Jihan smiled coldly.
"I will devour him and become an Awakened One."
There was no way for Jihan, who was already another god's Follower, to become an Awakened One.
Still, there might be a way to steal an Awakened One's power.
It was something Andersen herself had once attempted.
God Devouring.
"You're just a Vicegerent. You can't perform God Devouring like the other gods."
"It seems you have forgotten who I am."
Jihan took a grimy black glove from their clothes. At a glance, it was clearly a dangerous Part.
Jihan had been Ethan's former Vicegerent. Perhaps they had inherited Ethan's techniques and created a Part that allowed a human to perform God Devouring.
Andersen growled and beat her wings.
"I can't let you do that."
Jihan narrowed their eyes.
"If you refuse to yield, then I will have to use force..."
"Jihan, what are you doing?"
Beris approached, gritting his teeth through a body reduced to rags.
Jihan spoke warningly.
"Do not interfere."
"What are you wasting time for? Right now..."
With a sharp whoosh, Beris's chest was pierced.
Beris turned in shock, but his eyes clouded over in an instant. His heart had been destroyed, shutting down the Doll's functions.
"I told you not to interfere."
[The God of gacha draw ‘Beris’ is enraged by the Doll's death!]
[‘Anonymous God 94’ is startled by Jihan's actions.]
[The God of Flames ‘Ignis’ watches the situation with great interest.]
[The broadcast channel of the God of gacha draw ‘Beris’ has been forcibly terminated.]
Runald gulped and backed away.
Jihan was serious.
They were willing to kill a fellow Alliance member without hesitation and turn their back on the Alliance they had loyally served, all to take this cube.
That was when sparks flashed through the air.
Startled, Jihan looked up.
Another door was opening in the sky.
"How...?"
Jihan's lips trembled.
The Alliance's promised later arrivals had only been Mogi, led by Galateon. That was what Jihan had clearly heard.
Then what was that?
Their chest tightened as though someone were clutching their heart. Cold sweat ran down their back.
It was the same pressure Runald had felt when Galateon stood before him.
Only a handful of gods in the Metaverse possessed such status.
[Jihan, why did you steal the Alliance's cube?]
A god's thunderous roar came through a Doll.
Jihan struggled to steady their trembling legs. They immediately recognized whose roar it was.
Currently ranked fourth in the Metaverse.
Leader of Alliance Bihwa.
The God of Assassination, Rakers.
[Answer me, Jihan.]
Jihan instinctively stepped back.
Having served the Alliance for the past five hundred years, they knew.
No matter what they said here, they would die.
Then there was only one option left.
"Andersen! Hand over the cube now! Otherwise, we will all die!"
Andersen's expression stiffened.
Including Galateon, who was engaged in fierce combat within the volcanic crater, two of the Metaverse Six Gods had arrived on this battlefield.
Behind them stood hundreds of Alliance members from Mogi and Bihwa.
Even if Jaehwan and Ethan returned, facing all of them at once would be impossible.
Runald spoke in a trembling voice.
"Andersen-nim."
At last, it was time to choose.
* * *
In a wide clearing, Jaehwan stabbed into the air.
「World Stab」
He attacked again and again, but the cube's wall would not break easily. Instead, its surface produced a powerful rebound that frequently sent the force of his Stab back at him.
Jaehwan prepared a stronger attack.
"I told you it would be better to stop. If you strike with greater force, the recoil will injure us."
At Ethan's warning, Jaehwan stopped his Stab and glared at the wall.
「Doubt」
An entire day passed as Jaehwan repeatedly stabbed at the cube wall or stared at it. Yet even with his 「Doubt」, it was difficult to grasp its essence. He could only see the strange movements of particles, as though they were not matter from this world.
Ethan slowly examined the wall.
"There are traces of a manipulation-type Setting. It looks like an exceptional craftsman made this."
"A Dream Demon's work?"
"Probably. It seems this zone underwent Sanctuary Conversion using the Tears of the Fall of Time, but I cannot be sure."
Jaehwan stabbed at the wall once more and asked, "How do we get out?"
"Not right now. Even if I dismantle it my way, it will take at least ten days."
If they were trapped for ten days, not even fragments of Runald or Andersen's souls would remain. He would not be able to save Yoonhwan either.
There was no time to wait that long.
"Do not worry. Time flows differently here. Not even a minute has passed outside yet."
"Is that why you are lounging around and doing business?"
As Jaehwan said, Ethan had even set up a luxurious recliner. They lay back in it leisurely, checking the sales status of Products on the auction house. All the while, settled payments continued flowing into their pockets.
"It is a form of survival. Unlike you, I need to consume trust to maintain my existence. To eat, I need to earn."
"The other gods do not seem to be like that."
Andersen had consumed trust before, but that had been to urgently replenish her World Force.
Ethan answered.
"Gods with Followers do not need to go through that empty ritual. Their World Force gradually increases and recovers even if they do nothing. But I am different."
Jaehwan recalled Ethan's divine title.
God Without a Vicegerent.
Ethan did not merely lack a Vicegerent. They were a god without even a single Follower.
Ethan added, "A god with no Followers cannot recover or increase their World Force. It declines over time. Without replenishing it, they eventually disappear."
"So that is why you avoided fighting."
Jaehwan had wondered why Ethan suddenly surrendered in their recent battle. It turned out they had wanted to conserve their World Force.
Ethan's lips twitched.
"Your luck was good."
"I wonder. Yours was probably better."
Jaehwan stopped stabbing for a moment and caught his breath.
"Why do you not use a Vicegerent?"
Flipping through the Product catalog, Ethan answered as though it were nothing.
"It is a common enough story. I was betrayed."
"You cannot forget the wound of betrayal, so you do not take on a Vicegerent?"
"That makes it sound rather romantic."
Jaehwan began stabbing at the wall again.
Ethan continued.
"You may not be curious, but I will tell you anyway. I was betrayed five hundred years ago. My Vicegerent at the time was someone named Jihan."
"You do not have to tell me."
"They were the one who stole my Doll-making methods, and they were also the first to cling to the Alliance and betray us."
"I did not ask."
"They were not born with a particularly kind nature, but they were not such a bad person either. They were decisive, at least. The problem was that they used that decisiveness in the wrong direction."
Jaehwan's sword changed direction.
A tremendous gale from his Stab grazed Ethan's earlobe. Ethan's hair whipped violently, but their expression remained blank, as though they trusted Jaehwan not to attack them.
That irritated Jaehwan.
"Are all gods of the Abyss as talkative as you?"
"Some are like me, and some are not. Most Alliance members do not have Vicegerents either."
"..."
"The gods of this tower dislike Followers. They think of them as worms that gnaw away at their existence."
Worms.
Jaehwan's hand paused as he continued stabbing.
Ethan went on.
"They want to become complete gods on their own, without the restrictions of Followers or Vicegerents. That is why they create constructs like Dolls and use them as Vicegerents. The worms they ride do not need wills of their own."
Gods who looked down on humans.
It was a familiar story, even without listening closely.
"Those impressive gods could not exist without those worms."
"That is right. Which is why gods have no choice but to raise worms, to maintain their own worlds."
"Pathetic. Do Followers remain with gods even knowing what they are like?"
He could not understand it.
Who would pray to an absolute being that viewed them as nothing but worms or expendable goods?
Ethan shook their head.
"Every Follower needs a god. To endure in this 《Abyss》, they need a Worldview."
"I know that. I mean, why do they not become Followers of a better god?"
At first, Jaehwan had refused to admit it, but now he knew.
There were certainly gods like Andersen in the Abyss.
Low-grade gods who cared for their Followers, gods who could be called good in the ordinary sense.
"You are right. There are good gods in the Abyss. But not every Follower wants a god like Andersen. Followers need powerful gods to prove themselves."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you truly think Followers are the ones who act as Vicegerents for their gods? Have you ever considered that gods are actually acting as Vicegerents for their Followers?"
Jaehwan recalled the Followers he had met so far.
「“I was a Follower of Andersen-nim.”」
「“I am a Follower of Belkain...”」
「“This one is a Follower of Hermier...”」
A slight chill ran down his spine.
Come to think of it, that was true.
"You look like you understand."
"The god they serve defines their worth."
"Correct."
Just as gods needed Followers, Followers needed gods.
The god they acted as Vicegerents for defined their worth.
The 《Abyss》 was a world where those who could not act as their own Vicegerents relied on one another to reveal their existence.
Jaehwan rubbed his forehead as though it hurt.
"So in short, you use Dolls because you hate Followers?"
"I use Dolls because the pain of betrayal still hurts, as you put it."
"You are quite a weak-hearted god."
Ethan stared at Jaehwan.
"You will be hated because of that indifference."
"It seems my words hurt you too."
"Gods, Followers, Lords. They will all hate you for the same reason."
"I do not care. Everyone hates me wherever I go anyway..."
"Because you are someone who can act as their own Vicegerent."
Jaehwan was at a loss for words.
The faces of enemies who had spat hatred at him came to mind.
Lords acted as Vicegerents for the System.
Gods could not exist without Vicegerents, and Followers needed gods to prove themselves.
Then what was Jaehwan?
Neither a Lord nor a god nor a Follower.
"Seeing your Sanctuary made me wonder. Are you truly acting as your own Vicegerent?"
What he acted as a Vicegerent for.
For a moment, the world within Jaehwan felt unfamiliar.
"Are you not also merely a Follower acting as a Vicegerent for your own Worldview?"
Samyeong Garam had once said that Adapters and Awakened Ones were separated by only a sheet of paper.
They simply lived while believing in different worlds.
Then, just as Samyeong Garam had been a slave to the System, perhaps Jaehwan too was no more than a slave to the world he believed in.
The moment he thought that far, Jaehwan realized he was entering a new sensation. He had felt something similar when he first entered 「Selflessness」 and 「Hypothesis」.
Jaehwan slowly opened his mouth.
"I..."
"Can your world truly be called entirely yours?"
Was his world entirely his?
Jaehwan thought for a moment, then slowly blinked.
The answer was simple.
"You will know when you see it yourself."
Sanctuary Manifestation.
「The World After the Fall」.
Jaehwan's world, shaped through 「Hypothesis」, opened.
A pool of blood spread across the ground, corpses piled among it. Thick fog obscured the rest of the landscape.
Ethan slowly rose and looked around Jaehwan's world as though admiring it.
No Worldview was created without reason.
No matter how insignificant, every Worldview in the 《Abyss》 held meaning.
Ethan lifted their head and looked at Jaehwan's sky.
"Do you live while looking at something like that every day?"
The fog parted for an instant, and a massive red eye in the sky stared back at Ethan.
Even Ethan, who had lived for thousands of years, could not help but shudder at the sight.
Ethan spoke.
"I know what that eye represents."
"Everyone who sees it says something similar."
"They cannot help it. Everyone in this 《Abyss》 knows what it is, but they do not try to truly look at it. Still..."
Ethan stared up at the incomprehensible eye, then continued hesitantly.
"A very long time ago, I saw someone who had hung something like that in the sky, just like you."
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion