Chapter 116
Chapter 116
Chapter 116
Celestial (6)
Giovanni, who had removed the hood of his robe, was a young handsome man with impressive lustrous golden hair.
Well, of course, but one shouldn't be fooled by appearances.
Giovanni was almost the only human who survived the war with the gods that occurred 800 years ago.
In other words, he was one of the eldest among humanity, easily over 800 years old.
Giovanni clasped Rudian's hand and shook it lightly while smiling.
"Well, I'm truly delighted to see a celebrity like this."
His voice was much more serious and polite than Eugene's, but from the subtle mischievous smile that lingered, one could tell what Celestial's basic atmosphere was like.
"What you did in the capital was impressive. That product of super-science that could even eliminate a Demon King must have been a power that interfered with causality."
As expected, Giovanni and Celestial had watched the confrontation between Rudian and Marbas.
And the fact that he specifically mentioned the word "celebrity" implied that they weren't the only ones who had watched that battle.
"Are you curious?"
Rudian asked with a deliberately playful smile, but Giovanni's reaction was quite dry.
"No, I'd like to know, but you wouldn't tell us such a trump card. What's important to us right now is just confirming the fact that you and I don't need to fight."
"I feel the same way."
"Hmm, this isn't a good place for conversation, shall we move somewhere else?"
The Pope's massive corpse had melted away without a trace, but the archbishops' corpses still remained, contaminating the surroundings.
Rudian, still maintaining his smile, pointed to Giovanni's hand.
"Before that, shouldn't you deal with what you're holding first?"
"Ah, this...?"
Giovanni had been holding something like a blackish lump of flesh in his hand since earlier.
Luciella frowned deeply and pointed it out.
"That ominous-looking thing... What is it?"
"Ah, Princess Delphione. This is the heart of the cult Pope I just killed. I extracted it with telekinesis before it completely melted. It's also a fragment of the evil god Apophis, part of his true body."
"A fragment of a god?"
Gray, being a magician, eyes lit up greatly.
"Heh, it's the ultimate magical material for magicians, so I took it out for experiments... But I can't use it like this."
Looking closely, more than ten small tentacles were protruding from the lump of flesh, trying to burrow into Giovanni's palm.
However, those attempts only futilely swept across his palm surface, ultimately unable to penetrate inside.
Rudian frowned and said.
"It's looking for a new host."
"Good eye. If it parasitizes another life form like this, one troublesome great demon will be born..."
CRACK!
The flesh lump's form couldn't withstand Giovanni's grip strength and collapsed.
"It's better to just get rid of it."
Following those words, Giovanni's hand was engulfed in flames.
The flesh lump writhed in agony as if it had its own consciousness, but couldn't escape the grip strength of the hand firmly grasping its body.
Then, an evil cry flowed out from the flesh lump.
—Humans... How dare you...!
It was obvious who the owner of that cry was.
"Apophis? You're already facing final extinction, so what are you so resentful about that you crawled out again?"
—How dare you ruin my great aspiration! I will never forgive you!
Malice that pierced even the soul.
An ordinary person would be dominated by fear from just this god's cry and slowly wither to death, but there was no one here with such weak mental fortitude to be affected by that degree.
Giovanni mocked such Apophis.
"What are you going to do if you can't forgive me? You've already lost all your believers and lost the causality to interfere with this world."
—Uaaahhh!
Apophis raged madly in anger, but indeed, with just a handful of remaining flesh, there was nothing it could do.
—I will definitely, definitely repay this humiliation!
In the end, the flesh lump left only curses filled with evil and was completely carbonized and annihilated in Giovanni's flames.
For the cult of Apophis, which had emerged as quite a troublesome force in the original work, this was too futile an ending.
"Boss, even though it's nominally a god, is it okay to provoke it like that? What if that guy goes crazy and becomes hostile to us?"
Eugene, who had been silently watching the scene, spoke cautiously to Giovanni.
"Heh, that won't happen. Although it suffered losses from this incident, its main body hardly took any damage. It'll just cool off its anger and end it there."
"Is... That so?"
"Well... Unless we cross over to that guy's stronghold first. But would we be crazy enough to do that? That won't happen, right?"
"That's right."
Eugene and the other executives nearby nodded in agreement.
"Now, since everything is definitely finished, let's move to our stronghold! Everyone prepare to receive guests!"
"Yes!"
Since every single one of them was no less than a Great Magician by outside world standards, the cleanup was also completed swiftly.
"I'll draw a teleportation magic circle, so please come this way."
Rudian and his party followed the magicians' guidance to the teleportation magic circle.
Just before heading to their stronghold, Rudian looked at the Apophis cult's stronghold, now reduced to just foundation stones, and clicked his tongue slightly.
'Hmm, will it really end like this?'
The evil god Apophis's persistence would be quite famous among the gods here, even without the original work's setting.
Since its pride was properly wounded, there would definitely be lingering resentment...
'Besides, not all causality has been severed. That dungeon remains...'
However, there was no need to worry much about this side.
Although Rudian's party had eliminated one archbishop, the biggest aggro had actually been taken by Giovanni.
Whatever Apophis did afterward would be Celestial's responsibility to handle, so now Rudian didn't need to worry about this matter anymore.
'Well, whether to tell them that fact depends on what you do from now on.'
Rudian's gaze turned back to Celestial's magicians.
***
Celestial Hanging Gardens.
Celestial's stronghold located at the boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere.
Originally, it was a realm where life forms couldn't survive, but the technology of Celestial from their past golden age, which far surpassed the current Four Great Magic Towers and humanity's technological capabilities, made it possible.
'Truly a stronghold that lives up to the organization's reputation.'
Rudian looked around with curious eyes.
This aerial garden was a place that even the protagonist Abel had never visited, truly existing only in the setting.
The actual aerial garden was truly an ideal paradise where exotic flowers and plants bloomed profusely and where spirits and fairies seemed to live.
'Though it's managed by familiars created by magicians, not spirits.'
"It's incredibly beautiful..."
"This isn't human work! How is something like this possible?"
Luciella and Gray, with their excellent sensitivity, looked around and their eyes shone with emotion.
While Luciella was purely admiring the scenery, Gray was admiring the elegant and intricate magical formulas installed everywhere - that was the difference.
Giovanni smiled contentedly and nodded.
"Haha, it's our pride. It's been 80 years since we welcomed guests, but we've still maintained it steadily."
Rudian also didn't show it outwardly, but felt great inspiration from the beauty of the surrounding scenery.
Until they entered the castle built right in the center, that is.
As soon as they saw the interior of the castle following the guide, Gray's comment exploded.
"The interior management doesn't seem to be done at all..."
A vein mark suddenly appeared on Giovanni's forehead, who had been confidently trying to guide them inside.
"Hey guys, didn't you clean up?"
"Ha, hahaha...!"
Unlike the outside, which showed a paradise-like appearance through magical treatment, the inside of the building truly deserved to be called a magician's workshop.
In a word, it was a complete mess.
"J-just wait a moment, won't you?"
Half-activated magic circles, reagents scattered here and there, and books thrown around to a degree that would make librarians sigh were definite evidence of how chaotic their daily lives were.
'Great Magician or whatever... All magicians are like this.'
It seemed like he had seen a similar scene when he went to the Fire Magic Tower to meet Gray long ago.
'Is this déjà vu?'
Only Gray was nodding as if familiar with it, while the rest of the party looked at Giovanni with coldly cooled eyes.
"Ha, haha...!"
About 3 minutes later.
When the party went out and came back in, they noticed that the internal environment had completely changed from its very structure.
The interior of the castle, which had become a completely different space from before, became a neat and splendidly decorated place welcoming the long-awaited guests.
At its center, Giovanni managed his expression with effort and welcomed Rudian's party.
"Now, let me formally welcome you. Welcome to our Celestial's stronghold, the Sky Castle."
"...Thank you for the hospitality."
The Sky Castle built on the aerial garden was actually much smaller in size compared to the Four Great Magic Towers.
It was at a level where any decent Great Magician could use this entire castle as their workshop...
Rudian soon understood the reason.
'It's one castle, but dozens of spaces are overlapped. Each space seems to be the workshop of the members. Indeed...'
It was truly a legendary-grade... No, considering its size and function, it could be called mythical-grade artifact.
The space they first saw was probably someone's workshop. And the culprit was probably...
"Now, now, stop thinking about useless things and sit here."
As if reading Rudian's thoughts, Giovanni quickly changed the atmosphere and offered seats.
At the seats were Giovanni and five magicians who appeared to be executives.
And Rudian's party took their seats.
As soon as they sat down, Gray looked around and asked.
"This place seems like it absolutely must not be discovered, but is it okay to reveal the location to us like this?"
Although they had come through spatial movement, by looking at the continental view directly below, they could sufficiently calculate approximately where the location was.
At Gray's question, Giovanni and the other magicians looked at Gray with mysterious smiles.
Those gazes weren't mockery, but rather like seniors looking at a bold junior with fond eyes.
"Let me say it doesn't particularly matter. At least based on middle realm forces, there are some troublesome guys, but none that we can't handle."
"That's quite confident?"
"Because we have the skills to back it up. For the magical schools on the ground to catch up to us, they'd need several hundred more years."
"......"
"In that regard, your party's leader belongs to the 'troublesome category' I just mentioned. Yet revealing this place's location is my goodwill toward you who fought against demons that would be a loss to mess with."
"Let's stop there."
Rudian glared slightly at Giovanni, who was saying things he didn't mean.
"Anyway, if negotiations break down, you weren't planning to let us leave nicely after bringing us here, right? I'd appreciate it if you'd stop playing word games with our Gray."
"Ah, was I found out?"
"If you keep fooling around, there won't be any negotiations or anything."
"Seeing that you came here despite knowing that, you must have something you're confident about... Fine. I'll stop the jokes here."
Giovanni shrugged his shoulders slightly and then clasped his hands under his chin.
"Well, you probably already guess this, but we have only one purpose for needing to ally with others."
Rudian nodded at those words.
"That would be so. What you need right now is only 'that thing.' Considering maximum efficiency, it would be right for you to use it."
A satisfied smile immediately appeared on Giovanni's lips.
"Good. Good. We can be good partners. Then could you tell me with your own mouth what our demand conditions are?"
At that question, Rudian slowly spoke his answer.
"Among the Seven Colored Worlds, the Blue World - that's what you want, right?"
The divine artifact that was the only one among the Seven Colored Worlds related to magic, and was both the ultimate amplifier and the oldest grimoire in history.
In the original work and now in the present, what Celestial wanted was only this one thing.