63. An Existence That Even Gods 'Rely' On
63. An Existence That Even Gods 'Rely' On
The human child gave up resisting.
He was only focused on running away and surviving.
[Skil─urg..?!]
"That one... is a lost cause."
A face gripped by fear.
Faced with the fear of death and overwhelming violence, he could barely keep his eyes open, let alone muster the will to resist.
Seeing the approaching death, Ares prophesied that ending.
"Perhaps your eyesight is poor?"
"What?"
Athena spoke.
"It seems you see those eyes as eyes that have given up on life."
"What do you mean─Hmm?"
That child did not give up.
He did not give up on surviving.
[....Fuck]
"Ah, right. That 'move' was still there."
He stopped time for just a moment to slip his body out.
However, Ares's opinion remained the same as before.
"He's obviously going to die soon anyway. That weak, fragile coward overcoming what my child couldn't endure?!"
"Well... sometimes, the 'instinct' to survive is stronger than the 'killing intent' to kill someone."
"Ha! Don't always think you're right, Athena. War and combat are strictly different."
"...As expected from a muscle-brain."
"You fucking bitch?!"
"Ehe~~i, don't do that! Anyway, he's running around trying to protect our kids, so the two who asked him shouldn't act like that!"
Ares bared his forearms and stepped forward.
Hermes barely managed to stop the two of them, specifically Ares, so a fight didn't break out, but the atmosphere was terrible.
He probably won't survive.
And our children might die too.
Ares was filled with the thought that even the only hope he had believed in and tried to rely on was actually an empty shell.
He just gave up all hope and waited for the end...
[Hee-hee, hooo! Hee-hee, hoooo!!]
"That guy... he's getting used to it, isn't he?"
"His field of vision has broadened. He's even gaining a bit of composure, though slightly."
"Wow, that would have been perfect even if he were my apostle!"
Unexpectedly, he was holding out well.
As if his previous breakdown was just a mistake, his movements gradually stabilized, and a spark of hope began to grow.
[Ick eck! Ick eck!]
Ridiculous, yet clearly dodging.
Athena nodded calmly.
"The instinct towards survival is, indeed, stronger than anything else."
In truth, the act of running away itself was far from the image of a 'hero'.
However, the fact that he could 'run away' and 'survive' against the troll proved that even if he wasn't a 'hero,' he wasn't a 'mediocrity' either.
"...He's certainly better than that other person's apostle..."
Hera acknowledged it too.
At the very least, a child who knew his place and bowed his head seemed better than a fool who ran wild without knowing his limits.
Of course, eagerly running away against the Main God's command might seem insolent, but this too was that child's fate.
The unconcealable essence of his soul.
The instinct to avoid. Human weakness, tucking its tail before the strong.
It was the worst disposition for a hero, but it might not be such a bad instinct for a single 'human' trying to live.
'If he can just hold out like this...!'
Cronus's divine word.
In 5 minutes. If he could just endure for just 5 minutes, everyone could be saved.
Hera quietly put her hands together and cheered for the child of the lower realm.
And finally,
[.....Hoooo]
"That guy, his momentum changed."
"He read the breathing."
"Oh, ohhhh! He keeps dodging by a paper-thin margin!"
He dodged.
He dodged, dodged, and dodged again.
A one-step difference became half a step.
His body, which had been moving late, instead advanced a breath faster.
As if he could now dodge without using 'Divine Authority', he even took a step forward.
[Counter]
"Ooooh! That bastard, that!"
"Is he going? Is he going? Is he goiiiing?!!"
He countered the troll's attack,
and immediately clenched his fist and shouted.
[Youth - Straight Punch]
"He went for iiiiiitttt!!!"
"He went for iiiiiitttt!!!"
A straight punch that crushed the troll's nose.
Ares and Hermes embraced each other, rejoicing at the unexpected grand reversal as the troll staggered disgustingly with a burst nosebleed.
"Hmm.... Hm, ahem...."
Athena smiled subtly, covering her mouth behind them.
And if there was one goddess among them who couldn't hide her expression the most...
"He lived......"
Hera let out a sigh of relief.
Feeling that the promised 5 minutes had passed, she waited for the teacher from the lower realm who would soon arrive.
[.....Huh?]
"...What?"
A look of confusion.
He suddenly blanked out and stammered.
[Guoooooo....!]
[Uh... uhh.....]
"N-no! Dodge it right now!"
He couldn't come to his senses.
The child was ultimately hit by the troll's club and rolled on the ground.
At the same time, Hera could realize what had gone wrong.
"...Cronus, don't tell me you manipulated time?"
"Is there a problem?"
"Ha!"
A problem, he said.
Of course there was.
The problems were overflowing, that was the problem.
"That child endured for 5 minutes exactly as you said. Then, as a god, as that child's Main God, shouldn't you give him appropriate compensation?"
"I don't know what nonsense you're talking about, but 5 minutes haven't passed yet."
"That's because you stopped time... No, wait."
How.
Why.
"You don't feel your 'Divine Authority' from that child, right?"
"Isn't that natural since I collected it?"
"Why... no, could it be...?"
"He ignored my orders. It's only right that he receives a just punishment accordingly."
"..............."
He took back the Divine Authority.
It's not an impossible thing to do.
In terms of possibility or impossibility, it definitely belonged in the 'possible' category.
But even if it were possible, arbitrarily bestowing and reclaiming Divine Authority went against the basic 'principle'.
"The child of the lower realm is young. He's young and foolish. I'm not denying that. But..."
He gave a divine word.
He made a 'promise' through his name.
Yet to unilaterally break a 'promise' and even snatch away 'Divine Authority'.
'Vicious bastard....!'
There wasn't a single thing formally wrong with it.
Right now, the time wasn't filled, and the justification of punishing him for defying a god wasn't exactly 'wrong' either.
'But no matter what, there has to be a line, and there has to be common sense!'
This was tyranny and violence.
On top of that, the last lifeline he had been relying on, the Main God he trusted and followed, abandoned his own apostle.
[Sh... it....]
"Cronus. Are you serious?"
Eyes drowned in despair.
A figure completely drained of strength, his spirit broken.
A pitiful child abandoned by his god, no longer even feeling the will to resist.
"Give it back even now. No matter how much of a punishment this is, it's going too far!"
"It's none of your business."
"Cronus!"
"Hoo......"
Hera's reproach.
Cronus let out a light sigh.
"You are noisy."
"Guh.....!"
A sense of pressure.
The air grew heavy and it became hard to breathe.
Hera soon noticed. This place was none other than Cronus's temple.
No matter how much he had declined, he was an existence that could never be resisted within his own temple.
"That child was my child whom I chose in the first place, so there is no reason for an outsider like you to step in."
"...I'm telling you to take responsibility as the Main God who made a child follow him, as a god."
"I am merely making him pay the price for forsaking his god. I have no intention of killing him."
He was just making him realize his place.
As if I would try to kill my own child.
"In the first place, your child, your children have all already made it out alive. You are now seeing them crawl out of the abyss and taste the bright light once more."
"That is....."
"Everything you desired has been fulfilled, so what exactly is the problem?"
"..............."
As Cronus said, their children had escaped.
Thanks to that one child, they could run away and survive.
The goal I wanted, the goal we all wanted, was achieved───however, still.
'Still, this is...'
It was too much.
It was nasty and vicious.
"You insolent thing who threw away my name. Feel it. And realize it. The standard of judgment for you is I, and the one you must serve is also solely I. If you pity yourself and try to run away, realize the price for it thoroughly."
".........Tch."
A voice solely aimed at making someone serve and depend only on himself.
How would the child of the lower realm, who felt abandoned by the god he had believed in under the desperate situation, react?
'He'll probably shed tears.'
He'll shed tears and lament loudly.
He'll just put his hands together and pray, apologize, and become that bastard's son of a bitch.
A theatrical situation that made her stomach turn just thinking about it.
All of it just to keep a single child in the palm of his hand.
Feeling once again that he was the old monster who once devoured his brothers and sisters to maintain power, Hera could only look upon the child of the lower realm with pity.
A child of the Pure Love Blessing who was kind-hearted and upright, always looking only at one child, was in the hands of that disgusting old monster and suffering.
Hera simply trembled her fist at the fact that she could only watch what would happen next.
And so, the child abandoned by his god, used as he pleased, spoke.
[...Well, okay.]
As if it were nothing.
[The absurdity.]
As if he had already expected it.
"Wha... what is.....this....."
His divine armaments were taken away, leaving him with an old, shabby, toothless dagger.
A body that had lost its Divine Authority was just a slightly sturdy frame.
The situation was the worst.
Beneath a ground where even the god had abandoned him.
The child of the lower realm───no.
The human.
[Because I'm used to it.]
"............."
He got up from his spot.
He got up, gripping a weapon that seemed ready to break at any moment.
Before a violence he could never overcome, a violence he couldn't even dare to resist.
[Hooooo.....]
He mustered his will and carved out his courage.
Even though his terrified hands trembled weakly.
Even though his legs shook with the urge to run away immediately.
[....I have to do this.]
A step forward.
A struggle not to win, but to live.
"........Ah..."
He was not a hero.
He wasn't a genius that appeared once in centuries either.
He was just an ordinary, terribly ordinary commoner.
A weed blooming on the roadside, a blade of grass.
Therefore, even though there was nothing to look forward to, even though he was a 'human' with no more grounds to rely on, he made one unconsciously 'look forward'.
"You, are......!"
A being that makes even a god 'rely on' them.
Hera, unknowingly, had begun to genuinely root for Chrono.