The Day of Descent
World and dimension.
They weren’t exactly the same thing, but explaining the distinction would take so much tedious detail that it was easier to skip it.
Like Edel, a god who governed an entire world, could perceive beings from other dimensions.
“But only perceive them. I don’t actually interact with other dimensions. The risk is too high to cross the barrier just to chat about trivial nonsense.”
Would things have turned out differently if she had taken that risk and maintained contact with another dimension?
Maybe a worse disaster would have come down on them, and things would have ended up even more disastrous than they were now. Or maybe, having learned of the Dimensional Beasts in advance, they would have prepared and passed through without any calamity at all.
Either way, it would have been different.
“I don’t know how those Dimensional Beasts first came into being, but I do know what they want.”
They invaded other dimensions and absorbed the energy of those worlds.
A dimension drained of its energy would slowly sicken, until at last it met its end.
Just like the situation Silia was in now.
“We should’ve stopped them from getting in from the beginning. By the time I noticed, it was already too late.”
It was annoying to catch a rat that had gotten into the warehouse, but it was doable.
But if the rat wasn’t one or two, but dozens, hundreds, so many you couldn’t even count them—
And if, no matter how many you caught, more kept coming from somewhere else, and you couldn’t even seal the holes they were coming through—
Then it would be far better to burn the whole warehouse down and build a new one.
Or build a new warehouse and move everything inside.
The Dimensional Beasts were the same way.
The only difference from a warehouse was that you couldn’t destroy a world and build it again, or move its contents elsewhere.
After a long, grueling war against the Dimensional Beasts and her eventual defeat, Edel had made her choice.
For the sake of survival, she would place herself under the authority of another world.
Gods were proud beings.
And their pride in the worlds they created was no less fierce.
For such a god to swallow that pride and decide to subject her own world to another was proof of how deeply Edel loved the world she had made.
...Or so she said.
I listened quietly for a while, then cut in.
“I get that the Dimensional Beasts are that dangerous.”
I’d known they were dangerous for a while, but whether they were really enough to make Edel lose ground was another question.
If she was supposed to have fallen, the oppressive presence radiating from her was absurdly strong—stronger than anyone I’d ever met.
It didn’t make sense that beings I could probably handle on my own had defeated her.
“Obviously. The strong ones were all busy fighting me, so they’re still patching themselves back together. It’s not like I was just helplessly shoved around, you know?”
“You still lost in the end.”
“...Should I just go home?”
“Sorry.”
“...Anyway! That’s one reason. And the hole torn in the dimensional barrier still isn’t big enough for the truly dangerous ones to cross over yet, but as time passes, stronger monsters will start coming through. And when that happens, the rate at which this world decays will speed up too.”
Tic, tock.
Edel made a clock sound with her mouth.
“If I had to compare it to something, I guess you could say the world’s got a time bomb strapped to it.”
“Didn’t you say being placed under Earth’s authority solved that?”
“Unfortunately, no? That was just a way to delay the timer on the bomb. If we don’t solve the root problem, it’ll go boom eventually.”
“...Why are you telling me this?”
Not only had she manifested in person, she was explaining all this to me too.
Wasn’t that a little too much kindness to lavish on one human being?
Edel, who had been fiddling with a statue, came lightly toward me.
One step, then another.
The closer she came, the clearer the emotion in her eyes became.
“Didn’t I already tell you? You’re my sword.”
“...”
“If it’s for killing the things that ruined my world, I can spare as much kindness as you want.”
When I saw that flicker of feeling hidden behind her playful eyes, I couldn’t say anything.
I hadn’t expected a god—someone farther from humanity than any living creature—to show something so painfully human.
But I only caught a glimpse of it for an instant.
Just as quickly, Edel gathered herself, slipped back into her earlier manner, and put on that teasing smile again.
“Now then. Anything else you want to know? Ask me anything. For my little bird, what wouldn’t I tell you?”
“Make up your mind. Am I a little bird or a sword?”
So there was a reason she was being nice to me after all.
I didn’t know how she expected me to beat the kind of enemy even a god couldn’t overcome, but if she was going to say things like that, I had no reason to refuse.
I actually had a lot I wanted to ask. This worked out nicely.
Inhale—
“So, through the Apostles... what exactly do you want to achieve? Is the reason other people don’t notice anything weird because of your scheming? Then was me noticing something strange part of your arrangement too? And—”
“—Wait, wait, wait!”
Edel frantically waved her hand and cut off my endless stream of questions.
She was already sweating a little as she said, “...Can you ask them one at a time? Like that, I can’t answer you.”
“You’re a god and you can’t even do that?”
“Ah, wow, you’re a seriously annoying brat.”
...If she hadn’t been a goddess, I would’ve decked her.
Edel muttered under her breath, so quietly I could barely make it out.
For a moment, her face took on a benevolent glow.
That gentle smile made the atmosphere shift all at once.
“Is that really what you want to ask?”
“...”
Her counterattack made it feel like the breath had been knocked out of me again.
“...No.”
...That stuff didn’t matter.
What I really wanted to ask was—
“...Why did Garid have to die?”
If she could bestow that kind of power on countless players, then saving one person would have been nothing.
Even in game terms, it would have been a trivial thing—just saving one measly NPC.
Were the lives of Silia’s people nothing more than expendable props for the entertainment of Earth’s residents?
“First, calm down a little.”
“I am perfectly calm.”
“You say that with such a murderous face, and I don’t trust a word of it.”
My face?
I raised a hand and touched my cheek; the soft feel of skin came back beneath my fingertips.
It seemed no different from usual.
“It’s true that I do have the power of resurrection.”
“Then—”
“But I’ve never once brought a life back for selfish reasons. Do you think I’d violate the cycle of birth and death that I created with my own hands? Do you have any idea how annoying and exhausting it is to twist the rules?”
“...That was in the history books.”
“Either they weren’t actually dead to begin with, or they paid a price so enormous that it warped the established rules. If you read the histories, then you can probably guess what they paid.”
Anger flared up in me at her words, and I snapped, “I know that much—”
“No chance.”
Edel cut me off flatly.
“Maybe later. Right now, you’re not strong enough to break the rules.”
“...Then what are the Apostles, the players? Those guys can barely...! They can’t even kill one monster without panicking...!”
“I told you to calm down.”
“Calm down...? Do I look like I can do that right now?”
“See? You’re not calm at all. You were pretending, and failing miserably.”
“I’d rather not be stabbed to death by my own sword, so I’ll get to the point quickly,” Edel said.
“It’s embarrassing to say it myself, but that wasn’t something I accomplished entirely by my own power. It was the result of cooperating with Earth’s Administrator.”
Even though Silia had been placed under Earth’s authority, Edel still retained control over Silia itself.
And only Earth’s Administrator could interfere with Earth’s humans.
So the two of them had cooperated.
“The Apostles’ bodies may breathe like people, speak like people, and move like people, but those bodies aren’t their true flesh. If the concept of death itself doesn’t exist for them, how could resurrection exist?”
...
So from the very beginning, she had never given them the power of resurrection.
...What, exactly, had I come here for?
When the blacksmith first told me about the Apostles, all I had wanted was to confront Edel.
But as time passed, and I began to suspect that this world might actually be a game—
I’d thought maybe they weren’t really dying and coming back to life, only appearing that way.
Just as Edel had said.
“...Ha.”
A bitter laugh escaped me before I could stop it.
...Then why was I so disappointed now, after thinking that way in the first place?
Maybe I had wanted Edel to acknowledge the unfairness and bring Garid back to life.
Or maybe I’d simply needed someone to dump this boiling resentment onto.
But after hearing Edel’s explanation—
“Then I can’t even resent you for it...?”
I couldn’t bring myself to blame her at all.
Because, somewhere in my heart, I had already admitted that she had done everything she could.
“...”
I could feel everything that had been holding me up collapsing.
I had left Garid’s side and clung to this one thing to keep myself going.
What was I supposed to do now?
...The one lamp that had still been shining went out, and darkness spread over my heart.
“That’s not what you wanted, is it?”
“...What do you mean?”
Then Edel spoke up as casually as ever.
That I didn’t want something like this.
At her direct denial of my feelings, I answered on reflex.
“Then what did I want?”
“Shouldn’t you be the one to know? How would I know what’s in your heart?”
“...What?”
She could read thoughts, and no—before that even—
She’d brought up the subject herself, and now she was saying that?
The absurdity of it made me jerk my head up, and my bewilderment drove away the emptiness that had seized me a moment before.
I stared at her without bothering to hide my disbelief, but she was still smiling in circles, as if this were all very amusing.
“Why do you think you came here with Journey?”
“...Well, as a translator to help with communication, and to check whether my suspicion was right...”
“If that were really all, there were much simpler ways to do it. For example—”
Crackle!
Static sparked across Edel’s body.
At the same time, her once-clear form turned so hazy I could see the scenery behind her.
“Looks like that’s all for today. Oh dear, calming children is truly difficult. Humans are suddenly looking pretty admirable, aren’t they?”
“What? Wait—!”
“Even if you say that, there’s nothing I can do.”
“You said I could ask anything I wanted.”
“No, I didn’t think I’d only have this much time either.”
Sorry!
Edel gave a dehet-like laugh.
Even as she did, her body kept fading until it was almost impossible to make out her shape.
“...Three days. You should be able to recover somewhat by then, so come back in three days. Until then, think over what I said, and if you still have the will for it, then—”
Edel vanished before she could finish.
The divine power that had filled the prayer room disappeared, and only the lingering traces of Edel’s own sacred energy remained, drifting through the air.
The prayer room, now sunk into sudden silence.
Still kneeling there all alone, I blinked slowly.
“...So what did I want?”
For some reason, I had the strange feeling Edel was laughing.
* * *
Journey was in an exceptionally good mood today.
“Mmm...!”
After waking up from what could only be described as the most satisfying, deeply restful sleep.
“Ah, it’s a double yolk!”
When she cracked an egg to make a fried egg and found it was a double yolk.
“Huh? Really? It actually worked?!”
And when she heard that the giveaway prize she’d applied for on a whim had been won.
Seeing all those little strokes of luck, Journey thought, Today is definitely going to be a perfect day...!
One of those rare days—maybe only a handful in an entire year—that could truly be called perfect.
But there was one thing she had overlooked.
“...Ka, Kana?”
Namely, that just because the beginning was good didn’t mean the ending