God's Love
The landscape beyond the castle walls resembled a vast sea.
Crash—
Each time the God of the Flowing Water gestured, a colossal wave surged forward and swept across the land.
The Land Boars instinctively curled their bodies, desperately trying to withstand the waves they had never encountered before.
Yet even with their massive size and weight, they could not endure the enormous waves.
Squeeeal! Squeeeaaal!
The Land Boars swept away by the current flailed their limbs in panic.
But their swimming ability was pitiful at best.
Most of them never resurfaced, and even those who briefly bobbed above the water soon sank beneath it.
It was a situation where lives had been saved at death’s door by divine intervention.
Yet the people were gripped by unease. The anxiety felt by the priests of the Flowing Water Order was especially intense.
Isalbius muttered under his breath.
“...O God.”
Elbridge offered a quiet prayer.
“My Goddess. Can the God of the Flowing Water handle this crisis?”
It is impossible.
“As expected. No matter how powerful a god may be, directly intervening in the mortal realm should be...”
No. Elbridge. This is not a matter of how the Authority is exercised, but of the total volume of Authority manifested.
The Goddess’s voice was usually bright and lively, but not now.
And from her tone, Elbridge sensed a complex mix of emotions—regret, tension, and a faint trace of relief.
He asked again.
“What do you mean by the total volume of Authority? Isn’t Authority granted by the Chief God in proportion to the number of seats a deity holds?”
It is similar, yet different. Even without a seat, a god can manifest tremendous power. Look. The God of the Flowing Water, who possesses only a single seat, has just displayed Authority far beyond his station.
“Then the reason a god cannot bestow Authority beyond a certain point is...”
Because it has not been permitted. The gods know precisely how much Authority the Chief God has allowed them, and they do not cross that line.
The Goddess’s voice had grown so soft that even Elbridge could barely hear it.
It felt as though she were imparting a secret that must never be revealed.
When a god manifests Authority through a holy knight, it is to use that power efficiently. It is far more effective to lend strength to a capable holy knight than to handle everything with Authority from beginning to end.
In other words, the God of the Flowing Water was currently using his Authority in an extremely inefficient manner.
An inefficient method. And a total volume of Authority that clearly far exceeded any acceptable limit.
“Goddess. Then… what happens if a god exerts power beyond the limit set by the Chief God?”
You will witness it shortly.
With a deep sigh from the Goddess, the oracle ended.
Elbridge leaned against the half-collapsed southern wall and gazed outward.
As if a transparent barrier had replaced the broken section, the waves crashed violently against the wall but never spilled inside.
How much time passed after that? At last the waves began to recede.
The immense volume of water that had flooded the ground around the wall scattered in every direction.
The muddy earth was revealed once more.
The corpses of drowned Land Boars lay scattered everywhere.
Gurgle…
Whether by misfortune or fortune, some Land Boars still clung to life.
Those who had miraculously survived rose while coughing up water, then staggered fearfully back into the forest.
The vanguard of the stampede had either died or fled.
Perhaps because their momentum had been broken, even the Land Boars that had avoided the waves retreated into the Great Forest. The foolish creatures would no longer remember the cries of the piglet.
The people looked up at the sky.
Rain still poured from the leaden clouds. The God of the Flowing Water slowly descended toward the ground.
When he had been in the sky, the God of the Flowing Water had possessed the gentle appearance of an elderly man.
But now his eyes were bloodshot, and dark, bulging veins stood out across his face. Both arms were gradually turning a deep, unnatural crimson-black.
Marcus muttered in a shaky voice.
“Fuck… anyone can see he’s completely lost it…”
It was an extremely blasphemous remark, but fortunately the holy knights and priests who served the God of the Flowing Water did not hear it.
The God of the Flowing Water spoke, panting heavily.
If only I had made the decision a little sooner…
The God of the Flowing Water did not regret manifesting his Authority. Nor did he rejoice at the sight of the believers he had saved from the stampede.
He grieved for those who had already been swept away and killed.
The God of the Flowing Water murmured.
Goddess of the Rusty Shield. God of Fox Rain. God of the Silver Harpoon… You must be watching me. But I can no longer hear your voices. Was I too weak to ascend to heaven?
The God of the Flowing Water was still weeping.
His once-transparent tears had turned ashen. The color of the rain falling from the sky gradually darkened into the same shade.
This is ominous.
What his eyes saw was the form of a fallen god. Yet Elbridge’s instincts screamed that what stood before him was not a god, but a demon.
It was a bewildering situation.
Nevertheless, Elbridge’s mind had never been clearer.
The answers to all the questions he had harbored until now lay right before his eyes.
Why holy knights could accumulate divine power by hunting demons and demonic beasts.
Why the Goddess of the Rusty Shield had told him not to hate demons…
The god’s breathing grew increasingly ragged.
Huff. Huff…
And then, every part of his body began to swell.
Crack. Crunch.
His spine bent, and sharp thorns burst outward. His facial features, except for the mouth, were crushed and erased. His entire skin turned a deep crimson-black, gleaming with an eerie luster.
His body had already grown nearly twice the size of an ordinary human, and it continued to expand.
No one could deny any longer that he had become a demon.
The dark-crimson demon growled as it glared toward the castle wall.
Blind murderous intent toward humans—the most common reaction of a demon.
Whoosh—
The demon swung its arm violently.
A massive pillar of water erupted from its fingertips and slammed into the wall.
Boom—
A heavy shockwave spread in all directions along the wall.
The power contained in that pillar of water was comparable to the stampede itself.
Nearly everyone was terrified. They feared the demon, and they feared the fact that the God of the Flowing Water had turned into one.
Yet there were those who defied that fear and stepped outside the walls—Elbridge, Rombel, and Marcus.
Marcus’s legs were trembling faintly, but no one noticed.
He hasn’t fully awakened as a demon yet. We need to settle this as quickly as possible.
Having made his decision, Elbridge kicked off the ground.
“Even if it’s dangerous, we end this quickly! Rombel, attack from behind! Marcus, draw its attention however you can!”
As Elbridge charged straight at it, the demon created another water pillar and aimed at him.
“Grant me the Authority of No Retreat!”
Elbridge’s shield glowed pure white as it blocked the ashen water pillar. The pillar that had skimmed the ground now turned toward Marcus. He rolled across the dirt in panic to evade it. It wasn’t elegant, but it was practical.
Deciding to eliminate Marcus first, the demon fired water pillars at him in rapid succession.
“Son of a—!”
Marcus spat out a curse.
He ran, rolled, crawled, and twisted his body in bizarre ways, somehow dodging all three attacks. It was a truly remarkable improvement.
While Marcus created an opening, Rombel approached from the rear and leaped high. He intended to split the demon’s skull with his axe.
At that moment, Rombel saw the thorns growing from the demon’s spine twitch slightly.
“...!”
He stopped mid-swing, thrusting the flat of his axe forward like a shield to protect himself.
Clang—clang—
The thorns shot out and struck the axe. But that wasn’t all.
The demon immediately spun and slammed Rombel with its arm.
“Gah!”
Rombel vomited blood as he tumbled across the ground.
Yet Rombel’s approach had meaning. The demon had lost sight of Elbridge for a brief moment.
Slice.
Elbridge, who had closed in unnoticed, swung his sword and severed the demon’s right arm.
Its skin still isn’t fully hardened.
So far, so good. But there was another problem.
Sizzle—
A few drops of the demon’s bodily fluid splashed onto Elbridge’s face. The fluid began to burn his skin with a strange hissing sound.
Burning the skin on his face was not a major issue. He could endure that much pain.
The real problem was that one or two drops had landed in his left eye. His vision in that eye vanished almost instantly, and his sense of distance grew blurry.
Pain could be endured, but functional impairment could not be solved by sheer willpower.
Should I immediately request healing Authority from the Goddess of Spring Rain and Moss? No. Not yet—
At that moment, the demon’s left arm flew in from outside his field of vision and smashed into his breastplate.
Crack!
Preoccupied with his disrupted sense of distance, he had failed to account for his narrowed field of view.
Two or three ribs seem broken.
But the pain did not hinder Elbridge’s steps.
He rolled twice across the ground and rose almost immediately.
A demon would relentlessly target anyone who showed an opening, so it was highly likely it would pursue him at once to finish him off.
When he looked up, sure enough, the demon was charging toward him.
The instant Elbridge shakily regained his balance and raised his shield again, someone stepped in front of him.
“O God…”
It was Isalbius. He had slipped out of the castle and joined the battle.
Yet Isalbius was someone who could offer no help in combat. He was the very person who had been unable to participate directly in the Grand Festival and had instead hired five holy knights from other orders.
Since the god he served had become a demon, he could not even wield healing Authority.
The demon’s left arm, now tipped with long claws, flew toward Isalbius.
Elbridge clenched his teeth and kicked off the ground. Should he shield Isalbius with his shield first, or would the demon’s claws tear him apart first?
Too late.
No matter how he calculated it, the claws would reach first.
In that case…
The moment Elbridge decided to use Isalbius as bait and cut the demon down—
The demon wrapped its left arm around Isalbius in an embrace.
What?
The unexpected action froze Elbridge in place.
The demon growled, breathing heavily.
And then it spoke, faintly.
Isalbius… Crybaby Isalbius…
Elbridge was stunned. The demon was speaking?
Isalbius, overcome with emotion, spread both arms and embraced the demon in return.
The fluid leaking from the demon’s wounds burned one of Isalbius’s arms, releasing a foul stench. It must have been excruciating, yet Isalbius did not loosen his embrace.
“O God…”
Isalbius was crying.
The demon raised its left hand—now tipped with long claws—and carefully wiped away Isalbius’s tears, making sure the claws did not pierce him.
The still-incomplete demon rose unsteadily to its feet.
Then it gently pushed Isalbius away and spoke to Elbridge.
Knight of Silence. Kill me before it is too late.
The demon knelt so that Elbridge could cut it down easily.
“No… You mustn’t…”
Isalbius shook his head violently, convulsing, and tried to approach the demon again.
Quick-witted Marcus rushed over and grabbed him.
“Get over here!”
“No! No!”
Struggling to suppress its instinctive bloodlust, the demon’s body trembled violently from time to time.
Yet Elbridge, resting his sword on the ground like a cane, asked the demon.
“God of the Flowing Water. Do you have any last words?”
Elbridge had experienced countless battles.
But this was the first time he had ever given a demon time to leave a final message.
The demon replied.
I left a sealing orb at the Eternal Lake.
“So you knew this might happen one day.”
Just… a little.
Still kneeling, the demon straightened its violently trembling body.
And with one final, thunderous cry, it roared.
My children! Come! I shall share with you the final moments of your unworthy father!
Elbridge raised his sword.
And swung it twice.
Thud.
The first strike pierced the demon’s heart.
Slice.
The second strike severed its head.
Thump.
The headless body of the demon collapsed limply.
From the still-incomplete demonic flesh, faint glowing fireflies rose into the air.
The number of fireflies multiplied until there were too many to count, then scattered into the dark world.
Immediately afterward, an overwhelmingly dense divine power—enough to fill the entire world—spread in every direction.
This was the God of the Flowing Water’s final act of love. This divine power would become the strength of the priests and holy knights who had lost the god they were meant to follow.
That is, once they find a new god to serve…
The lukewarm southern raindrops had ceased at some point.
Elbridge looked up at the sky.
As the rain clouds drifted away on the wind, a sky full of stars gradually revealed itself.
Elbridge sat quietly and watched the night sky where stars and fireflies mingled together.