Chapter 241
Chapter 241
Chapter 241
Heaven's Fall (6)
Ruura and Garganta's departure from the heavenly realm!
It was such a major event that it instantly swept away the thoughts I had just been having about fate and whatnot.
"…Why?"
Not only Rudian, but everyone behind him widened their eyes and stared at Ruura.
"How unexpected. I can understand Garganta, but even Lady Ruura?"
Rudian actually calmed his excitement and pressed Ruura for answers.
"Weren't you neutral?"
"Well, originally I was."
Ruura gave a self-deprecating smile.
"If I hadn't learned the truth… I would have remained neutral."
The truth?
Before he could ask what that meant, Ruura continued speaking.
"The Seven Great Gods have split apart. The heavenly realm is practically on the verge of losing its function."
"……!"
A group that maintained the balance of the world and preserved prosperity as the sovereign of all dimensional realms.
The fact that such a group was losing its function was definitely not a good thing.
"North and Satera have sided with Berus. Garganta and I have rejected Berus' will, Haniel is neutral, and Medaiel isn't in a position to voice an opinion in the first place, so the Seven Great Gods system has essentially collapsed."
Had things progressed this rapidly in such a short time?
Ruura patted Rudian's shoulder as if understanding his feelings.
"I myself didn't predict this turn of events, so I understand. But there's no time."
"If the Seven Great Gods are split to this extent… what happens next is obvious."
Rudian sighed.
"The Day of Great Liberation. They're going to perform a ritual to bring it forward, aren't they?"
"Right. North and Satera have already begun that work with their subordinate high-ranking gods."
The Day of Great Liberation, a major event in Chapter 4 where all the gods of heaven would cast off the constraints of causality.
Originally, the Day of Great Liberation was something that would simply come in due time if you waited, but when great gods gathered together to perform a ritual like this, they could accelerate its timing.
Since the divine power required for the ritual was enormous and it would come naturally if left alone, it had been meaningless until now, but…
'Now it has meaning, damn it.'
Still, there was hope.
Not all of the Seven Great Gods were participating, and with just North and Satera, the ritual to bring forward the Day of Great Liberation would take quite a long time.
"We need to stop it as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the middle realm we need to return to will be destroyed."
Elvin expressed doubt after hearing Rudian's muttering.
"Hm? In the current situation, didn't you say that if the gods regain their power, they won't pay much attention to the middle realm? But why?"
"Ah, aside from that, the Day of Great Liberation has one more special meaning."
"Meaning?"
"That is…"
"The doors of all dimensional realms will open wide."
It was Ruura who stole Rudian's line.
"……"
Rudian pouted and glared at Ruura, but she stuck her tongue out slightly at Rudian and continued her explanation.
"When the doors of all dimensional realms open, it means the edge parts of each dimensional realm begin to overlap with each other."
"Overlapping means… will they influence each other?"
At Elvin's question, Ruura nodded.
"Right, you're not a complete idiot after all."
"Ah, no…"
"The middle realm is literally the world located in the middle of all dimensions. If the Day of Great Liberation occurs, it will truly be affected by all worlds."
Fertile farmland would fill with demonic energy, and thriving cities would be covered by the spirit realm's environment.
The dead, influenced by the underworld, would attack the living, the dead would suddenly come to life, and under the influence of other worlds, completely new forms of humanity might emerge.
"Whatever happens, the fact that the middle realm will become a mess is unavoidable. The word 'destruction' wouldn't be entirely wrong either."
"……!"
The expressions of the other party members except Rudian hardened.
While other gods might not care much about the middle realm, for those living in the middle realm, this was absolutely something they couldn't just overlook.
"Couldn't the two of you stop the ritual?"
North and Satera without Berus should be easily stoppable by Ruura and Garganta.
While Satera's faction, the largest in the heavenly realm, couldn't be ignored, they should have been capable of at least disrupting the ritual, right?
"…Unfortunately."
Ruura's expression darkened.
"The entire Pantheon is welcoming this event. From their perspective, there's absolutely no reason to refuse this ritual."
"…Ah."
"From the Pantheon's standpoint, there's no reason to refuse when someone says they'll bring forward a day they can play."
If you had to express it differently, it would be similar to how no office worker would refuse more holidays?
"Even among my subordinate gods, quite a few are welcoming this event, separate from opposing Berus. In practice, Garganta and I alone cannot stop the ritual."
"…I see. Then do you know when the ritual will end?"
"Seven days."
"…That's short."
"If there's any good news, it's that after those seven days pass, Satera and North, who performed this ritual, will be completely neutralized for a while."
"That's not really good news… It would be better if we could stop the ritual before then."
Even if the balance broke for just one day, there was no telling what adverse effects it might have on the middle realm.
"But… Ruura, why did you betray Berus? Make the reason clear."
At that moment, Castor, who had been silently listening from behind, questioned Ruura.
"Otherwise, I might misunderstand you as a double agent planning to stab us in the back."
"…What do you take me for?"
"No matter how much you're one of the Seven Great Gods, when the stakes are laid out this big, no one knows what variables might arise. Make your position clear."
At those words, Ruura bit her lip slightly, then suddenly tears began to well up in her eyes.
"Berus… doesn't love this world."
"……!"
"Since my domain is love, I can tell. At some point, Berus stopped loving this world and began to see it as an object of hatred."
Since it was her domain, Ruura could see through at least part of Berus' inner thoughts.
"North and Satera are under a huge misunderstanding. Berus isn't causing trouble to reorganize this world's order. Rather, it's to return this world completely to nothingness."
"I managed to communicate with Garganta, but… the other bastards misunderstood that I was rebelling against Berus instead. Those bastards, the worst scoundrels in the world."
"……"
Ruura's speculation wasn't much different from Rudian's prediction of Berus' goal.
Although Ruura had made the choice to protect all things because she loved them, inevitably, given her nature and characteristics, she would suffer emotional wounds no matter what she did.
'Hah…'
For the first time, Rudian looked at Ruura with sympathetic eyes.
***
"It's been a long time, human."
Rudian showed quite a bit of joy at seeing a face he hadn't seen in a very long time.
"Indeed it has. It's been a long time, Lord Raihon."
Raihon, a god under Garganta and a high-ranking god of lightning, had come to find Rudian along with other gods under his command.
"Lord Garganta said he had other business to attend to. Instead, he sent us to help you."
"…Is that so?"
Whether he really had business to attend to, or simply found meeting with them distasteful.
Time would tell.
"We'll help with this situation too. It doesn't particularly matter whether the world is destroyed or not, but… still, it would be quite a meaningful move for myself."
So that's how you can package saying you'll work hard for romance.
Rudian looked at Castor with coldly cooled eyes.
But even so, Castor was confident.
'By the way… the party has grown too large.'
The triplet gods plus Rudian's party, and now Ruura and the Pantheon's high-ranking gods including Raihon.
The party's numbers had easily surpassed 20 people.
'…At this rate, if we go to Michael like this, he might faint.'
It was a composition that wouldn't be strange to be branded as traitors at first sight.
***
Sure enough.
The situation where high-ranking gods including Ruura appeared in large numbers caused a brief panic among the archangels plotting rebellion.
"Do you have a grudge against us? Are you getting revenge like this because we stabbed you in the back last time?"
It was Gabriel's comment from the command tent set up for the 'nominal' joint heavenly training.
"What revenge… I brought this kind of force as allies, and instead of thanking me, what are you saying?"
"You're smiling."
Gabriel stared intensely at Rudian, who was smiling with narrowed eyes.
Rudian and Gabriel, who had become fairly close since coming to the heavenly realm, had long ago agreed to speak casually to each other.
"Phew…"
After some time had passed.
Michael, who had come out after explaining the outline of Heaven's Fall to Ruura and Castor, looked at Rudian with tired eyes.
"It would have been nice if you had given us some advance notice."
"Ruura's joining was unexpected for me as well. There wasn't really a timing to give advance notice."
Still, the joining of Ruura and the other gods would be like having a million troops from the angels' perspective.
…Though who knows what will happen after everything is over.
"By the way, what was Ruura's reaction?"
"She was a bit displeased, but fortunately she understood. She said that after the heavenly realm collapses, she'll guarantee the angels' autonomy and create a new 'world' with those who follow her."
As expected of a deity-level being, the scale is no joke.
"That's fortunate."
"But there's a problem…"
Michael's expression darkened rapidly.
"We archangels completely failed to detect the split among the Seven Great Gods or the atmosphere in the Pantheon. Not just me, but the other archangels as well."
That statement meant only one thing.
"…The Pantheon already knows about the archangels' rebellion."
"Yes, that's correct."
Michael nodded heavily.
It's no small matter that not just Berus, but the entire Pantheon knows.
"However, the Seven Great Gods have already split, and the Pantheon's strength has also decreased due to the ritual. In terms of military strength, it's actually become more manageable."
"Then what we need to do is reduce that gap in military strength even further."
Rudian grinned.
Due to recruiting the triplets and Ruura's sudden joining, it had been delayed, but Rudian's real plan hadn't even started yet.
"Lord Michael."
"Please speak."
"What's the total number of second-rank angels mobilized in the current plan?"
"Second-rank angels… you mean Cherubim?"
"Yes."
Michael found the point of Rudian's question puzzling, but still thought it over before answering.
"It would be a little less than 70. If my memory is correct… probably around 68?"
Simply by numbers, it could be considered a small number.
But second-rank angels held positions high enough to be considered commanders of heavenly sectors.
Their personal abilities could also be considered equal to or above the lower gods of the Pantheon.
"What level is their armament?"
"Armament level… you mean? That's a vague question."
"Just tell me the approximate grade."
Michael was definitely different from Gabriel and Uriel in that he understood consideration well.
If those two heard this, they'd go crazy with rage… but since that's actually how it is, what can you do?
"By lower realm standards… they're equipped with at least three pieces of legendary-grade armament."
Three legendary-grade artifacts.
It was certainly an impressive level, but even so, there were grade differences within legendary items, and above all, even if you gathered all the legendary items that 68 people possessed, it wouldn't be better than two or three proper mythic-grade items.
"But why exactly is that…"
Looking at Michael's questioning eyes, Rudian smiled brightly.
"There are still two days left until the plan, right?"
"Y-yes, but… given the situation, I'm thinking of moving the plan forward."
"Ah, there's no need for that. Let's make plans to strengthen the second-rank angels' military power during the remaining two days."
"Military power enhancement… you mean?"
From Michael's perspective, he would think how much the second-rank angels' military power could be enhanced in just two days.
"Let's replace all the second-rank angels' armaments… with completely new ones. Fortunately, there's… quite a lot of labor force to substitute."
Right.
Preferably by raising the grade by one level.