Chapter 179: Imitation
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 179: Imitation
Divine Power was the general term for an energy resource that connected one with God.
Its ability was to nullify all that was impure.
Clerics claimed they could nullify the magic of witches and monsters precisely because they were profane beings not created by God.
But Yohan now knew that wasn't true. He knew the truth: that monsters and witches were beings born from God's hand, while humans were beings born by chance, contrary to God's intentions.
If that was the case, then what was Divine Power, and who was God?
He had come seeking the Saintess to find those answers.
─My child, you can hear me now.
“Ah, ahh—this voice is…”
A sacred voice that cleared the mind just by hearing it. Asha instinctively realized that only a divine being could possess such a voice.
As Asha experienced this spiritual encounter with God, Elesis, who was watching beside her, witnessed firsthand as she awakened to Divine Power and conversed with God.
It was astonishing. Even back in her home country, only a few high-ranking cardinals could speak directly with God. How could a mere nun from the slums?
“He says… there is no need to be surprised.”
“…What?”
“God said so… that there's no need to be so surprised.”
Hearing Asha's words, Elesis felt a chill run down her spine. Weren't those words spoken as if her very thoughts had been read?
No, on second thought, it wasn't so strange for God to read her mind. In fact, a being like that should naturally be capable of such a thing.
Letting out a deep sigh, Elesis nodded and rose to her feet.
“…I'll go get Yohan.”
“Ah, yes!”
With that, Elesis went to find Yohan, who was playing with the children inside the church. The children were playing with toys Yohan had brought, and Yohan, who was watching over them, realized something must have happened when Elesis suddenly approached.
“Elesis? What's going on…?”
“Asha succeeded. Come inside.”
“…Finally.”
The reason he had come here. To meet God through Asha. Realizing that he had finally achieved his goal, Yohan immediately followed Elesis into the church.
The moment he pushed open the church doors, Yohan flinched, sensing an unidentifiable energy from within.
Something is here, above.
“Ah, Mr. Yohan.”
“Sister. Did you succeed?”
“Yeees… Huh? What do you mean…?”
As soon as she saw Yohan's face, Asha tilted her head in confusion, then suddenly became flustered. A moment later, she began to spew streams of pure white light from her mouth, eyes, nose, and ears.
It was as if light-emitting bombs were endlessly exploding inside her head.
She resembled some kind of inhuman creature, but having lived with witches and witnessed many beings that didn't seem human, Yohan was able to approach without much fear.
“And you are?”
─To ask when you already know… it seems you don't have a very pleasant personality.
“Then are you God?”
Hearing Yohan's question, the being of light shook its head, denying it.
“If you are referring to the omnipotent Christian God, then no. However, if you are asking if I am the one you seek, then yes.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“Yes. I am the being who brought you here, the creator of this world, the god that people worship.”
The being of light, God, spoke thus and opened its mouth.
“I am Illeija.”
Illeija was the god of this world, but not like the God of Christianity or Islam who created the heavens and the earth in seven days and was the master of the entire universe.
It—he or she—was closer to a planetary god, born by chance at the same time as the planet itself. As such, it did not know how the universe came to be, or what existed beyond the solar system, outside its planet.
For that reason, Illeija focused all the more on this pale blue dot. It watched the creatures it had personally made frolic about and took an interest in the lives of the humans who had been born by chance.
“What was the reason you brought me here?”
Yohan carefully asked the question he had wanted to ask all this time. Nearly a year had passed since he had been thrown into this other world.
He had been lucky enough to meet a witch, and by chance, he had a constitution that was immune to witches' curses. He had somehow managed to survive and stay alive until now, but… to be honest, his days were such that it wouldn't have been strange if he had just dropped dead at any moment.
Hearing Yohan's words, Illeija opened its mouth, saying it was for a very simple reason.
“Because my child wished for it.”
“…Your child?”
“The one you know well. Your teacher, Evangeline.”
Hearing that Evangeline was a child of God, Yohan's eyes flashed as if asking if it was true. He couldn't believe it. His teacher was cute, pretty, and lovely on a god-like level, but to think she was actually a child of God?
But as if reading his thoughts, Illeija shook its head, saying that wasn't it.
“She is not the only special one. Asha and Elesis here, Margaret outside, the countless orphans, the wood and stone used to build this church—all of these are my children.”
“…Ah, in that sense.”
When the universe was still a searing red, the explosions that occurred then caused atoms to collide at countless speeds. Those explosions created innumerable stars, and those stars, in turn, created innumerable planets.
Thus, we are all children of the stars. Likewise, in the eyes of Illeija, a god of a star, we were all its children.
“No, wait a minute.”
He had almost glossed over it due to the shocking news that Evangeline was a child of God, but Yohan didn't miss what Illeija had just said and asked again.
“—My teacher summoned me?”
“Yes.”
“But, how…?”
“She wished for it. I granted it.”
At those words, Yohan stared intently at Illeija.
“You can't tell me how?”
“How can you explain sight to the blind, or speech to the mute? I simply did it because I could.”
“Then what about the way back to Earth?”
“That is a very simple matter.”
Illeija said this as it looked at Yohan. A beam of light shot out from its eyes, shining brightly on Yohan's chest.
As if to say the answer had been there all along.
“If you wish for it strongly, it will be so.”
“What is that supposed to…”
“You are aware that I am the one who created the witches, are you not?”
“Yes, I heard from the World Tree…”
“Then why is the magic I created nullified by the Divine Power that I did not create?”
Hearing this, Yohan shrugged as if to say he didn't know. Was it because Divine Power, the power of God, was a higher-tier power than magic, allowing it to negate magic?
If so, why did Illeija grant Divine Power only to humans and not to the witches?
Why couldn't humans with Divine Power wield powerful magic like witches?
Just why?
“—And why is Divine Power, known to be my power, so similar to the ability you possess?”
“…That's.”
And above all, Divine Power was far too similar to Yohan's own magic nullification ability. Yohan knew very well what this ability was.
His ability was his subconscious. That is, the power to impose the paradigm he learned on Earth onto this other world. Having grown up his entire life on an Earth without things like magic or superpowers, he felt an unconscious rejection when he saw magic, and his ability was what brought that rejection into reality.
─Then by what mechanism, exactly, could Divine Power nullify magic?
“It's simple. Because Divine Power and your ability are fundamentally the same.”
“The same…?”
“Divine Power is fundamentally based on the laws described in the Bible. The Bible states that magic and monsters are profane and unjust, so clerics who truly believe and act on that can nullify magic. Doesn't that method seem familiar?”
That's right.
Divine Power was the projection of one's own religious worldview—formed by the Bible, long-term education, and indoctrination—onto the world.
Yohan's ability was the power to apply the paradigm of his subconscious—formed from being born and raised on Earth—onto the world.
Fundamentally, the two abilities were identical.
“They say humans are animals of imitation. Yes, in the end, humans even managed to imitate my power.”
“…No, so you're saying—that Divine Power isn't a power you granted?”
“Yes, haven't I been saying that from the start?”
Illeija gazed at Yohan and nodded.
“I did not create Divine Power. It is a power that humans created themselves. And likewise… the ability you have is not something I gave you. It is a power you created yourself.”
Just as they imitated birds to create airplanes, imitated spiders to create fiber, and imitated the sun to create nuclear fusion.
Humans had, in the end, even imitated God.
“Strictly speaking, you could be called the God of Earth.”
That was it.
Yohan's ability.
Divine Power.
In the end, they were the ability to overwrite the world with one's own.
Yohan, the only one in this world who possessed the worldview of Earth, was, from Illeija's perspective, the God of Earth who could transform this world into Earth.