The Final Trial (6)
"Aaaagh—! Aaaah—!"
"Breathe! Breathe! Push! Follow me! Hoo, hoo—!"
"R-Ria. Merciful Five Gods, grant Ria strength..."
"C-come here, Demonic. Let us pray together—"
"Get those men out of here! They're driving me mad!"
The room was pure chaos. A woman's screams tore through the air as if they might split the walls; a midwife issued calm, practiced instructions; and Demonic and Antonio stood by, looking utterly lost.
Seizing the uproar, Kenis slipped into the room unnoticed and held her breath as she watched. She had always imagined a birth as something holy and sublime—something that would unfold smoothly and beautifully beneath everyone's blessings.
But the scene before her was more like a war.
"Aaaagh—! Aaaaah—!!"
Ria's lovely face had gone deathly pale, cold sweat soaking her entire body, her brows twisted with agony. The screams never stopped for even a moment.
"Merciful gods, merciful gods... Five Gods, please—give Ria strength..."
Demonic, always so composed, paced around the bedside in a frenzy. Listening to the woman he loved scream was clearly torment; pain and anguish filled his eyes.
"Good heavens."
Pain and screaming. The birth of a single life was this fierce. The sweat and tears poured into that process were beyond measure.
Kenis quietly covered her mouth. She meant to stay until the end, even if it meant keeping vigil through the night.
A long time passed.
The moon rose where the sun had been, and the sun withdrew again behind the evening glow. Which meant Ria's suffering had stretched on and on.
And then, at last, the moment arrived.
"Waaah! Waaaah!"
"A girl! It's a girl! A daughter!"
A baby's powerful cry rang through the room—the long labor's hard-won fruit.
Kenis, who had been nodding off, jerked her head up and peered at the scene.
"Ria, Ria! Are you all right?"
"M-my baby... where is my baby? Is my baby... safe?"
"Look here! Oh, how precious! The child is the spitting image of her mother! Support the baby's neck carefully—that's it."
The midwife was holding something tiny, wrapped in cloth. Kenis stole a look at the baby's face and recoiled in quiet horror.
That's supposed to be me?
That wrinkled, ugly little face was hers? A newborn goblin would have been cuter.
Yet even that wrinkled, grotesque, entirely red infant looked like treasure in Ria's eyes. She gathered the child carefully into her arms. Tears slid down cheeks that had grown slightly gaunt, proof of the labor she had endured.
"My child. My baby... hhk— Nick, look. Our—our baby... hhk—"
"Ria, you did so well... you really did so well... thank you so much."
Ria carefully cradled the child, and Demonic cradled Ria.
Kenis could not speak a word.
The sight of them holding each other, sharing their tears... was nobler and more beautiful than any sacred painting she had ever seen.
So beautiful it almost hurt.
Kenis burned the image into her eyes. She quietly watched, engraving her mother—whom she would never forget—into her heart.
For the past few days, Priest Rofinus had been lost in blasphemous delusions—absurd, unrealistic fantasies that could not even pass for a joke.
It had all begun with a small coincidence.
While searching the Pantheon's Great Archive for old texts to reference in a paper, he had stumbled upon a passage that set the delusion in motion.
Star-light.
It is the purest power of the beginning.
Pure because it is nothing.
And because it is pure, it can become anything. This is exceedingly dangerous—a double-edged blade that knows neither good nor evil—
Rofinus thought.
Yes.
If it could become anything...
Then...
Could it not become a god?
If a human body dared to hold a sufficient quantity of stars—could that human not become a god?
Priest Rofinus's mind filled with such delusions.
Anyone else who learned of them would cry heresy at once, calling them blasphemous and horrific. Rofinus knew that perfectly well.
It was a terrible, heretical, sacrilegious, and blasphemous thought.
To dare become a god in a human body.
And yet.
The long silence of the Five Gods had forced endless waiting upon all mortals.
Demons and heretics thrived. The people starved and suffered. Across the continent, wars washed blood with blood, each conflict breeding the next in a chain of vengeance and slaughter.
Those who had reached their spiritual and physical limits cried out to the gods. They desperately sought an answerless divinity, staring up at an indifferent sky.
An age so bleak and cruel that death itself had become an escape.
An age that hungered for miracles.
The world needed salvation.
A human...
Becoming a god.
Casting off the husk of mortality and being reborn as an immortal spirit.
Rofinus! Snap out of it! How could you even conceive of something so monstrous!
Lost in his daydream, Rofinus suddenly jolted in horror. What had he just been thinking?
Such blasphemy!
How could a human endure Star-light in the first place? Star-light was the pure power of the beginning itself. The idea was absurd.
It's a ridiculous fantasy. A human would have to be born with Star-light to withstand that power...
Convinced he had been momentarily possessed, Rofinus started walking again.
I heard Ria gave birth to a girl. I should bring a few fragrant flowers at least.
Not long ago, word had come that Ria had safely delivered a daughter who was her spitting image. He had been too busy with other duties to visit then, but now he meant to go see them with flowers and a little fruit in hand.
To be fruitful and multiply was the natural order of things, and the safe delivery of both mother and child was a blessing of the gods. Carving out a little time to show his face and offer a blessing was only right.
Having prepared fresh fruit and a few fragrant blooms along the way, Rofinus hurried on.
Following the corridor, he came upon the prayer hall. Always open to all, it bustled with people at prayer.
"Five Gods, please—let my son come home alive... This old mother's final wish. Please, please let him come home alive..."
"Snf— M-my mom is... really sick... She's coughing up blood and can't even eat... hhk— I-I'll pray really hard from now on, so please save my mom, okay?"
Every story was heartbreaking. The Pantheon helped them as much as it could, but it was hard for human hands to hold back a river.
The age had gone mad, and the world was drowning in chaos.
Rofinus looked up at the sky with pain-filled eyes. Beyond the window, the heavens were so clear and spotless they seemed almost cruel.
Why do the gods not tend to the earth? If a tower were built from these people's suffering and tears, it would have reached the heavens long ago... How long must we wait?
Swallowing the bitter taste in his mouth, Rofinus headed for the room where Ria was recovering.
Knock, knock—
It was a room for a new mother and child. Rofinus rapped on the door with the utmost care.
Time passed, but no answer came from within.
Could no one be there?
Knock, knock—!
A louder knock produced the same result.
"Demonic, Ria. It's me, Rofinus. May I come in?"
"..."
Silence. Rofinus was nonplussed. He had set aside a busy paper and his research to come; he had no idea when he would next find the time.
"...I'll let myself in, then?"
Creak—
The door opened without a sound. A clean room prepared for mother and child. On the bed, Ria slept quietly.
Soft, soft—
Ria dozed in the sunlight, peaceful and warm. Beside her bed stood a tiny crib. Her daughter would be sleeping there.
They're asleep. I'll just leave the gifts quietly and go.
Rofinus scribbled a short note with a nearby pen, then carefully set the fruit and flowers in the middle of the room. He was about to slip out on silent feet when—
"Mm... Nick, I don't... want that..."
Shaaa—
Suddenly, along with Ria's sleep-talk, came a flowing sound—like metal dust grains brushing against one another as they streamed.
"Hm...?"
Rofinus glanced around for the source, then looked down at Ria's sleeping hand.
He saw it.
He saw it, and there was no unseeing it.
Star-light, flowing from Ria's hand and along the bed.
A stream of Star-light, glittering faintly and brilliantly as the grains struck one another.
It was a cluster of the Milky Way, beautiful even beneath the sun.
The pure beginning.
That is...!
Star-light.
Thump— thump— thump—
Rofinus's eyes went wide. His breathing turned ragged; his hands shook violently. That Star-light flowing from Ria's hand!
It was unmistakably the Star-light from the ancient text. He could feel it. The moment he saw it, he knew.
The power riding and flowing within those stars!
The Star-light beckoned to him. Come and take me. Desire me, and make a god.
Why Ria possessed Star-light did not matter. How she had hidden it did not matter.
All that mattered was that Ria had Star-light right now.
Thump— thump— thump—
The mad pounding of his heart thundered in his ears. Sweat soaked his whole body; his breathing was as rough as a man who had sprinted at full tilt.
Rofinus's hand slowly reached toward the Star-light. If his hand could only touch it—if he could only command that power—he felt he could do anything.
If he used this power!
Even becoming a god in a human body would be possible.
W-with my own hands... I can make a god!
Omnipotence.
He could end this wretched waiting by creating a god with his own hands.
The age needed a god. The wicked trampled and took from the good and the weak. The powerless starved, were robbed, and died.
Salvation was needed. An absolute god was needed. A god who would end all this chaos!
He could do it. Only he could!
With Star-light, he could make a god.
"—so Ria was saying—"
"Hup!"
Voices from outside. The Star-light that had wound around Ria's hand vanished without a trace.
Rofinus quickly withdrew his hand and composed his expression.
He may have lost his reason to the Star-light without meaning to, but he knew at least that no one else must discover it.
Creak—
"It was so funny back then— Ah? Priest Rofinus, what brings you here..."
"Demonic, and Great Priest Antonio. I knocked, but there was no answer. I know it was improper, but I came in first and waited. Ah—these are gifts."
Demonic and Antonio entered the room. Rofinus calmly greeted them and made to leave.
"Leaving already? Ria should be waking soon. Won't you stay a little longer—"
"Forgive me. The paper I'm researching has me rather busy. Even this was a brief window I managed to carve out, so it's a bit difficult. I will pray for a bright future for you both."
Click.
Rofinus quietly shut the door and walked the corridor.
A hallway thick with stillness and silence.
Rofinus had seen it. He had faced a fragment of that infinite power.
He could see the possibility.
He could do it.
He could create a god who would save this world full of war and malice—a god who would judge the wicked and work miracles.
For that, he needed Star-light. A vast quantity of Star-light.
And he needed a vessel. A vessel to hold the Star-light. A sacrifice who would become the god.
...I'll need allies.
Rofinus hurried his steps. He could not carry out all of this alone. Methods of gathering Star-light. Methods of transferring Star-light into a vessel.
Even the method of making a god from Star-light.
There was so much to research.
I can do it. Of course I can! I can make a god who will end this filthy, cruel age!
With Star-light, it was possible.
If the gods answered prayer with silence—if the gods saw injustice and did not judge—if the gods did not understand the human heart—
Then he would make a god who possessed humanity.
And thereby save this world.
With his own hands, he would end the long silence of the gods.
As Rofinus strode quickly down the corridor, a firm resolve flickered in his eyes. That gaze twisted and twisted again—
Until it almost looked sane.