The Burden of Divinity
Crunch!
A bare foot, caked in mud and filth, crushed the fallen leaves. Its owner, former Pope Angelo III, trudged forward, carrying a massive burden on his back.
"Huff... huff..."
With every step, his joints ached; with every breath, sweat poured down his chin and back. He had lost track of how many days he had been moving without rest. His sense of time was long gone.
His overexerted joints screamed, and his mouth had tasted of dry ash for hours. He only survived because he could cast Miracle Arts to restore his stamina and heal his wounds.
For days, he traversed mountains, fields, and dense forests, day and night. As a fugitive, using the well-maintained main roads was out of the question.
His once-luxurious robes were torn to shreds, and his soft silk boots had long since worn away, leaving his bare feet caked in mud.
Yet, he could not stop. He had to escape. The terrifying sensation of a cold blade poised to pierce his back haunted him the moment he slowed down.
The Holy Capital Justia... had been seized by an entity claiming to be the Primary God. Just when he thought he had managed to overcome the crisis, something far worse had occurred.
The disaster struck when he least expected it. To seal the pretender, he had compressed a barrier—originally designed to cover the entire Holy Capital—to encircle only the Papal Palace. His plan was to pacify the chaos in the city, then search the continent for the true sealed Primary God.
But those plans were utterly shattered. The Apostle serving the pretender had somehow destroyed the barrier, which was supposed to be impregnable.
Naturally, the pretender was freed. His fellow clergymen, who had just recovered from their madness, instantly fell back into their fanatical state. They branded Angelo III a heretic and began hunting him down.
Even now, numerous Inquisitors and Holy Knights were hot on his trail. Some had even caught up to him, forcing Angelo III to tearfully take the lives of those he once called brothers.
It was devastating. He had envisioned his name immortalized in history books as the heroic Pope who saved the true god and overcame the crisis. Instead, he had lost everything and was reduced to a miserable fugitive.
The only saving grace was that he could still hear the 'voice' of his deity. When the disaster struck, instead of fleeing immediately, he had followed the deity's instructions to slip into the Secret Archive beneath the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Only after retrieving the item his deity pointed out did he escape.
The item, kept in a sealed chamber deep within the archive, was none other than a Sacred Relic of his god.
It was a crystal skull, breathtakingly beautiful, radiating an intoxicatingly vast amount of divine power.
Along with the order to smuggle the relic out, his deity revealed that she was currently sealed deep beneath the Great Mountain Range in the far north.
From the Holy Kingdom in the center of the continent to the northernmost peaks.
It was a staggering distance, one that no sane person would attempt on foot without a Teleportation Magic Circle.
Still, once he crossed the borders of the Holy Kingdom, things would get easier. Few would recognize his face out there. He could disguise himself as a traveler, hire a carriage, or use a magic circle.
As for the supplies and clothes needed for the long journey... he could simply steal or take them from non-believers.
No, that wasn't stealing. He was on a grand mission to rescue his god. For those non-believers, providing him with food, shelter, and transport was a golden opportunity to atone for their sin of faithlessness.
"Y-yes... indeed..."
Angelo III let out a greasy, twisted smile through his cold sweat.
Without his realizing it, his mind had warped completely.
Yohan stepped outside with Justia.
Since having both the Goddess and Justia appear together would shock the villagers, the Unnamed Goddess accompanied them in her spiritual form.
"Ah, Apostle! You're back."
"Hey, show some respect! You should call him 'My Lord'!"
"It's fine, just call me whatever's comfortable," Yohan replied.
As they walked through the village, residents quickly recognized them and approached to greet them.
"Goddess!"
"The Goddess is here! And the Apostle too!"
Because Justia looked identical to the Goddess and shared the exact same divine energy, none of the villagers realized she was actually Justia.
Yohan chatted idly with the villagers as they walked.
The village, which had once been nothing but crude shacks on dirt roads, now looked quite respectable.
Most notably, many villagers had set up stalls around the plaza. This meant the concept of commerce had finally taken root in a village that used to be purely self-sufficient.
Compared to when he first arrived with a carriage, the progress was staggering.
Justia's eyes sparkled as she looked around. Yohan felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
"What is this black lump?" Justia asked.
"Ah, that's beef jerky. You catch wild beasts in the forest, and then..."
"Meat? So it is edible."
Before Yohan could even finish explaining, Justia stood right in front of the jerky stall.
"Apostle," she said, looking back at him.
Good grief.
Yohan sighed and reached into his pocket for his coin purse. However, he clicked his tongue upon realizing that the purse only contained high-value coins, like gold coins from the Empire. He had smaller change at home, but...
"Oh, please! How could I ever take money from you two? Just take it!"
Fortunately, the quick-witted stall owner spoke up first. Yohan nodded in gratitude. He'd have to come back alone later to pay the man.
He watched as the owner sliced a large chunk of jerky into bite-sized pieces.
"Wait, just a moment—"
"Actually, just take the whole thing! It's a bit salty on its own, but if you pair it with beer..."
The owner sliced all the displayed jerky, piled it into a basket, and thrust it toward Yohan.
"It's been a while since you returned. Share it with the Knights over some drinks!"
The villagers seemed so genuinely thrilled by the visit of the Goddess and her Apostle. Even though Yohan waved his hands in refusal, the owner insisted on handing it over.
"Take this too!"
"Here's some more! Freshly harvested!"
Other villagers flocked to them, offering various foods. Even Yohan found himself overwhelmed.
Pwahaha!
Justia was equally flustered, while the spiritual form of the Unnamed Goddess roared with laughter inside Yohan's head.
Yohan and Justia returned home carrying a basket overflowing with food—everything from beef jerky to various fruits and drinks. The basket was so packed it looked ready to burst.
"Satisfied with the tour?" Yohan asked as he set the basket on the table.
"Yes. It was highly enjoyable. Thank you for granting my selfish request," Justia replied with a gentle nod.
Flash!
"Hehe! Since these are offerings from my precious believers, I shall personally partake!"
The Unnamed Goddess, who had remained in her spiritual form the entire time, materialized and immediately reached into the basket.
"Mmmph..."
Yohan watched the small Goddess struggle to stretch her tiny arms, then turned his gaze back to Justia.
"So, I doubt you came all this way purely out of curiosity."
Now, it was time for the real discussion. He pulled out a chair and sat down, gesturing for Justia to do the same.
"Sigh."
Sitting across from him, Justia suddenly let out a heavy sigh.
Yohan blinked in surprise, and even the Goddess, who was busy taking a bite out of a sugar apple, widened her eyes.
"In this place... a deity can mingle naturally with her followers," Justia murmured, her voice unusually soft. "On the other hand... as the Primary God of the Holy Kingdom, I must always present myself as flawless and absolute."
"..."
Yohan immediately understood the weight behind her sigh.
She was still afraid.
She felt immense guilt for casting out her other half out of jealousy, which had only worsened the situation. She felt a crushing burden, one she had never experienced before, of being responsible for millions of believers.
Though Yohan had offered some blunt words of encouragement earlier, it wasn't enough to fully ease her troubled mind.
"Perhaps it would be better..." Justia began.
"Perhaps it would be better to merge with me again and return to being the emotionless Goddess of Justice?" the Unnamed Goddess interrupted, cutting her off.
"According to the prophecy, the moment we, who were split in two, become one again, we shall become a more perfect existence. If so, there would be no need to tremble in fear like this."
Yohan silently watched the exchange between the two deities.
"My other half, it seems your long slumber of thousands of years has made you forget something crucial," the Unnamed Goddess said, her tone turning calm and solemn.
Justia had no reply.
Though the Unnamed Goddess was physically much smaller in her child-like form, she somehow felt far grander and more imposing than Justia in that moment.
In terms of mental age, if the day they split was considered their birth, the Unnamed Goddess had spent far more time awake and conscious.
Meanwhile, the Goddess's words reminded Yohan of an important detail he had briefly forgotten.
The prophecy stated that when the two halves merged back into one, they would become a perfect being.
Prophecies were always brief and omitted minor details, but the core truth would inevitably come to pass.
This meant that, eventually, these two would have to merge.
And that moment would likely coincide with a crisis far worse than anything they had faced so far.
For instance... the resurrection of the Demon King.
Suddenly, another memory flashed through Yohan's mind.
"Hey, wait a minute."
He cut into the deities' conversation. Both of them stopped talking and turned their attention to him.
"Hey, dummy. Do you remember when we raided the basement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith? There was a nasty energy leaking from behind one of the walls."
The Secret Archive beneath the Congregation was not just a place for storing ancient texts. It was a vault designed to seal away things that should never be unleashed upon the world.
"Is that thing... still safely sealed?"