Chapter 147 - Episode 20. God of Yesterday (11)
Chapter 147: Episode 20. God of Yesterday (11)
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"Everyone, fall back! Pull behind the front line. Injured gods, regroup within five minutes, then return to the front!"
Rene issued her orders calmly.
Despite Jaehwan's consideration, the gods had been unable to escape the giant Cocoon. It formed faster than they could flee.
The one saving grace was that Jaehwan's final attack had kept them from falling into Yesterday.
Thanks to that, the gods could join forces and hold back Arteina's army.
"Urgh!"
"We're being pushed back again!"
Arteina's drones fired without pause. Guard dogs that kept coming back no matter how many times they were killed tore the gods apart.
Runald, who had been repeatedly using Stab at the front, staggered and left himself exposed to the enemy's attacks.
Rene grabbed him by the nape and quickly pulled him to her side.
"I told you to fall back! Stay by my side!"
"But Jaehwan-nim..."
Having spent all his World Force, Runald muttered as if he had lost his mind.
"Jaehwan-nim went in there alone."
"I know."
Rene bit down on her lip.
There was nothing they could do right now.
[The God of Mortality ‘Thanatos’ asks what in the world is happening.]
[The God of Flames ‘Ignis’ asks where Naked Stab is.]
Perhaps the 《Little Brother》 network had recovered. Messages suddenly began pouring in.
Rayray answered in Rene's place.
[The God of Flash ‘Rayray’ says there is no time to explain that!]
"Gods of Today, gather here!"
With Martis taking command, the gods who had chosen to live in Today joined Rene's group of Allies.
Rene turned to Martis.
"How many troops do we have left?"
"Not many."
Martis's expression was grim.
The number of gods who had betrayed Yesterday and joined Today was falling by the moment. Some had been torn apart by guard dogs, while others had burned away under the drone squads' bombardment. Many had abandoned their Vicegerents and fled, or hidden inside the Cocoons again.
Still, some gods continued fighting to protect Today.
Martis was one of them.
"Today was hard-won. Fight to the end! Even if we die, we die in Today!"
The remaining gods let out a roar.
Martis looked proudly at them and swung his sword with all his strength. Three or four drones exploded at once under his World Force.
Martis knew well that Today was not such an extraordinary concept.
He knew that the ten years he had spent using Stab could not change his life. He knew the exhilaration from before was only an illusion born from enlightenment.
Every other god probably knew it too. They endured here because they wanted to turn the Today they had barely gained into tomorrow.
"At this rate, we'll be wiped out."
Resolve alone could not overcome this situation.
Gods in the rear were pouring World Force into the Cocoon's inner wall, but it remained unmarked.
Of course it did. That Cocoon had likely been made from at least five hundred years' worth of accumulated World Force. For now, their only answer was to keep holding on and wait for Arteina's Sanctuary to be lifted.
"Runald, did you get any word from Beginner-nim?"
"No."
Runald weakly shook his head.
Only the occasional sparks falling from the sky proved that Jaehwan was still fighting.
Pushed back again and again, the gods now held their ground with the Cocoon's inner wall at their backs.
Martis looked to Rene.
"We cannot pull the line back any farther. Is there no way?"
"Nothing comes to mind..."
"You should be able to do something."
Rene frowned, and Martis continued.
"Any Anonymous God who had watched your broadcasts for long enough would know. God of Fate."
Rene lightly bit her lip.
She had expected to be found out someday, but of all places, here?
Rene watched Arteina's massive army advancing on them.
What if she activated her Sanctuary here?
If she forcibly manifested her Sanctuary and invoked [Fate], she might be able to overcome this crisis.
The problem was that the cooldown for [Fate], her unique Setting, was extremely long, and its conditions were complicated. If she used it incorrectly here and could not use it where it was truly needed, everything she had built so far could become meaningless.
But did she have any other choice?
Quiet World Force surged around Rene's body.
Rumble!
A deafening crash rang out in the distance, followed by the sound of the world tearing apart.
The drones and guard dogs that had been launching their full assault froze for a moment. Then, like dogs rushing to save their master, they all began returning to the Main Plant.
With the sound of thunder, a white night descended upon the world.
Even Rene, who had lived for thousands of years, had never seen anything like it.
The lightning strike was splitting an entire floor apart.
She had witnessed scenes of destruction on the Sixth Floor of 〈Metaverse〉, but they could not compare to what lay before her.
From the edge of the sky to the end of the earth, a beam of black light fell like divine lightning, dividing Yesterday from Today.
"Everyone, get down!"
The aftershock of the quake passed, and the gods rose from the ground, coughing.
Rene looked toward the Main Plant.
Where the enormous Plant had stood was now a blackened, empty field.
A single lonely sword was embedded in its center.
Rene moved her lips a few times, but swallowed her words. Runald spoke instead.
"Jaehwan-nim. It's Jaehwan-nim."
She already knew Jaehwan was incredible.
Still, could an Awakened One truly do something like this?
Yesterday, which no god had ever been able to destroy, was breaking apart.
As though all that time had been an illusion, something cold touched Rene's cheek.
「...」
Fragments scattered through the air like snowflakes. They were the years accumulated by the gods who had lived in Yesterday, stored inside the Plant. Pieces that would have become memories for someone crumbled into ash in midair.
"Ah."
A few gods swallowed back tears.
Gods who still could not escape Yesterday's lingering illusion sank to their knees and gathered the falling fragments in both hands.
What meaning had the hundreds of years they had lived held? If they were bound to emerge into Today like this in the end, why had all those Yesterdays been necessary?
No one knew the answer.
The gods all turned toward the center of the Seventh Floor, as though the answer might be there.
[Aaaaaaah!]
Arteina writhed in agony.
Driven out of Yesterday, Arteina thrashed around in her battered Doll. Broken drones stopped projecting their images and fired light toward her. Like a corrupted video full of missing polygons, Arteina's Doll was riddled with holes as it was crushed and vanished.
Silver streamed from Arteina's eyes as she cried out.
[My gods! Where are you all? Our world is collapsing, and you...]
Like a mother searching for a lost child, the blind God of Yesterday groped through the air.
Arteina had spent her entire life caring for the Anonymous Gods.
Then came messages from the children who had found their mother.
[‘Anonymous God 481’ clicks their tongue in contempt.]
[‘Anonymous God 510’ shakes their head, saying they knew this would happen.]
[‘Anonymous God 849’ curses over the poor server management.]
Those who had not yet come out of the Cocoons.
Anonymous Gods who still believed they were in Yesterday all began hurling abuse.
[‘Anonymous God 711’ demands to know whether they can no longer use ‘Anonymous’ from now on.]
[‘Anonymous God 872’ asks what will happen to all the gacha draws they have made so far.]
[‘Anonymous God 1941’ requests a refund.]
...
The Doll staring blankly down at the Cocoons broke apart. Arteina reached toward her Cocoons.
A second bolt from Destruction struck down from the sky, and every remaining Cocoon burst apart. The final messages left by the Anonymous Gods faded to ash gray, and every Plant's power supply shut down.
[The God of Mortality ‘Thanatos’ is looking for Jaehwan.]
[The God of Flames ‘Ignis’ is looking for Jaehwan.]
[The Dragon God ‘Droyan’ is looking for Jaehwan.]
[The God of Gambling ‘Baccarat’ is looking for Jaehwan.]
[‘SirwenTV’ is looking for Jaehwan.]
《Little Brother》 messages poured down from the air.
Before countless watching gods, the remnants of Yesterday, including Arteina, swirled through the air and were sucked somewhere else.
[All Tasks on the Metaverse's Seventh Floor have been forcibly terminated.]
At the center of the vortex appeared a man carrying a child on his back, along with a crow.
[A new ‘King’ of the Seventh Floor of 〈Metaverse〉 has been born.]
* * *
[Aaaaaaah!]
Arteina screamed amid the storm of messages from the gods.
The 「Prayer Flood Wave」 she had used until now was returning to her. The backflowing World Force was destroying her.
[You are no longer the ‘God of Yesterday’.]
She did not want to die like this. It could not end here.
I am the God of Yesterday.
At the final moment, Arteina's World Force covered her like a Cocoon.
.
.
.
"Hey, Arteina."
When she slowly opened her eyes, harsh sunlight stabbed into them. Through her blurry vision, she saw an unpleasant face.
"What's with sleeping in? Didn't we say we had to leave early today?"
It was Justice.
Arteina stared blankly. She was about to ask how Justice could be here, whether Justice had survived, when a black-clad man passing beside them cut in.
"Pathetic. To think there is a god who wakes up later than Justice."
Ethan.
Arteina could not understand what was happening.
As the King of Crows and the God of Definition bickered, someone called her name once more.
"Arteina."
Her longtime Companion asked her a question.
"Why do you look so sad?"
The Naked God, Andersen.
Arteina gave a weak smile and wiped her eyes.
"I just had a dream."
"A dream? Not a glimpse into your Vicegerent's dream?"
Arteina nodded.
Once she calmly looked around, the familiar scenery of the great grasslands came into view.
Her memories returned one by one.
This was the Seventh Floor of 〈Metaverse〉.
They would now climb to the next floor. They would destroy that damned Alliance and see the end of this Tower.
Arteina took Andersen's hand and stood.
After quickly packing their things, the Ally group walked across the grassland. Justice talked in that distinctive voice about the Tower's rankers, while Ethan picked at his ear as if the noise annoyed him. Every now and then, Andersen smacked both of them hard across the back.
As if in a dream, Arteina followed the Ally group's footsteps.
Out of habit, she counted them. One step, two steps.
When she suddenly looked up, she saw Azasu trees growing sparsely across the grassland. Fruits shaped like enormous Cocoons hung from their branches.
Without realizing it, she reached toward one of the Fruits. Then she heard strange words.
「Idiot. Rot there for the rest of your life.」
She had no idea what they meant.
Andersen threw a punch with a sharp whoosh and shattered the Fruits. The broken Fruits flowed down and were absorbed into the earth.
Arteina asked,
"Why did everyone end up like this?"
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"Didn't everyone once want to become good gods?"
It was unclear who she was speaking to.
"Why does everyone laugh at that now?"
"What are you talking about? I don't laugh at it."
Andersen gave a bitter smile. Then messages echoed through the air.
[The God of Flames ‘Ignis’ looks at Arteina.]
[The God of Mortality ‘Thanatos’ looks at Arteina.]
[The Dragon God ‘Droyan’ looks at Arteina.]
Seeing those messages, Andersen muttered,
"Maybe everyone has lived for too long."
Once again, it was unclear who Andersen was speaking to.
"They have seen and heard too much, so they think they know too much."
Because we had become gods.
"Was I wrong?"
"Who knows? Whether someone was right or wrong, what does it matter now?"
Andersen grinned and offered her back.
"You look tired. Climb on."
"What?"
"Get some sleep. Have another dream if you want."
"But..."
"We have a long way to go. Get some rest and forget about it."
As she climbed onto Andersen's back without thinking, Arteina wondered.
Was that really all right?
Was this really the sort of thing she could forget after getting some sleep?
Despite the questions rising within her, a heavy drowsiness came over Arteina the moment she settled on Andersen's back.
Andersen spoke gently.
"Tomorrow, you will be able to live with different thoughts again."
As sleep slowly washed over her, Arteina looked up at the sky. Far beyond it, she saw something like a very faint ray of light.
A light she felt she had seen yesterday. A time she missed terribly.
Watching the fading glow, Arteina slowly closed her eyes.
* * *
The faint light subsided, and the swirling image of Yesterday disappeared.
A small cube remained where the image had been.
[Time Cube].
Jaehwan looked down at the Cube for a moment before speaking.
"We're going to the next floor."
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion