Chapter 354: His Revenge (2)
Chapter 354: His Revenge (2)
Yupinel, the Goddess of Harmony.
Kalaron, the Incarnation of Destruction.
These two were gods so famous that Patrick had heard stories about them from Ava since he was a child. They were the supreme deities at the pinnacle of all myths, the creators who brought about the genesis of the world.
And those great gods were…
“Who is it? Which bastard entered the flood rainfall values like this?”
“It’s World Number 59,484. We decided to trigger a Great Flood there, so isn’t it fine?”
“Look at the rainfall figures. Is this a flood? It’s Armageddon!”
“…Tsk, it’s a typo.”
“Argh, I’m seriously going crazy. If things go wrong, I’m the one who’s going to get cursed out later! Me!”
Watching the two of them work…
What is this?
Patrick’s illusions about divinity shattered instantly.
Great divine status of creation, my foot. They just looked incredibly busy and miserable.
The two continued to focus on their work for a long time with hollow, sunken eyes. Only then did they speak.
“First, let’s deal with the matter at hand.”
“Right. We should.”
Rather than gods, it looked more like two zombies dragging themselves upright. With their gaunt eyes fixed on Patrick, they approached and flopped down across from him.
“Uh… well, my name is Patrick Schneid—”
“Enough. Let’s cut to the chase and get straight to the point.”
“…….”
Well, that works for me, but… is this really okay?
Regardless of Patrick’s thoughts, Kalaron pulled out a white cigarette of a shape Patrick had never seen before, lit it, took a long drag, and spoke.
“You’re going to fight the Outer God, right?”
“…Well, yes.”
“Then you’ll need to fill up your lacking divine power.”
“I suppose so.”
“I’ll give it to you.”
Just like that?
As Patrick looked on in bewilderment, Kalaron added, “On one condition.”
There it is.
Patrick frowned and raised a hand. “Wait, wait. Let’s stop right there for a second.”
“…….”
He couldn’t let the conversation flow according to the other party’s pace. He needed to know exactly what was going on. There was no point in crying foul later once the deal was sealed.
Would a god really try to scam him?
Well, looking at them, they didn’t exactly radiate dignity. So…
I’ll do things my way.
Steeling his resolve, Patrick gave a thin smile. “You’re being surprisingly cooperative, aren’t you?”
“Is that a problem?”
“It’s not that it’s a problem, but…” Patrick trailed off, staring intently at Yupinel and Kalaron. “It’s suspicious.”
At that, the two gods flinched ever so slightly.
It was a minute tremor, but Patrick’s eyes didn’t miss it. In that instant, Patrick knew he had hit a nerve.
Patrick leaned back against the sofa, crossed his arms, and spoke in a cold voice. “What’s your objective?”
“…How rude.”
Kalaron replied with a frigid expression, his face showing blatant irritation. “I offer a chance out of pity, and you show greed? You humans truly never know the meaning of satisfaction.”
“That’s the best part about being human. And…” Patrick grinned. “Seeing the Four Calamities and how you two act, gods don’t seem all that different from humans.”
“…….”
“Or perhaps you aren’t the perfect, flawless beings I thought you were.”
Kalaron spoke coldly. “I’ll say it again. Will you take the chance? Or will you give up and face destruction? The choice is yours.”
“So you’re trying to bluff me.”
“…….”
“I’ve never lost a game of chicken in my life, you know.”
“Are you saying you choose destruction?”
“Do you know this saying?”
“…….”
“If everyone goes down together, it doesn’t count as losing.”
Having said his piece, Patrick stood up as if he had no lingering regrets. “Since it’s come to this, there’s nothing I can do. I’m leaving.”
Patrick walked toward the open portal without hesitation. Just as his foot was about to touch the threshold…
“Stop!”
It was Yupinel’s scream-like shout that halted him.
The moment he heard it, the corners of Patrick’s mouth curled up, while Kalaron pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Do you really have that little backbone?”
“Do you think this is the time to be playing hard to get? If things go wrong, all of us will—”
“I get it. I get it, so stop.”
Watching the two of them bicker, Patrick spoke with a smirk. “Now, shall I ask again?”
“…….”
“What’s the real story here?”
“Actually…”
At Patrick’s question, Yupinel sighed and revealed the truth.
To put it simply… they were in a desperate situation.
When the Outer God invaded this world, Yupinel and Kalaron had hurriedly joined forces to fight back, but they were on the verge of defeat.
In terms of divine status itself, they were equal to or even higher than the Heavenly Demon. The problem lay in the nature of their divinity.
Yupinel and Kalaron were essentially gods specialized in creation. Though they differed in alignment, they were deities who fostered the world’s development by creating followers.
In contrast, the Heavenly Demon was a purely combat-oriented deity. He was a god who directly brought trials and destruction to the world with his own power.
In human terms, it was the difference between a civil official and a military officer.
Naturally, the two fragile(?) civil officials were busy getting utterly thrashed by the Heavenly Demon. They had tried to create powerful combat creatures like dragons to fight back, but it was barely enough to hold the line.
Ultimately, lacking the strength, the two had to borrow power from other worlds. As a result, they barely managed to seal the Outer God, but they couldn't destroy him.
Or more accurately, they weren't allowed to.
“In the first place, if we recklessly destroy a deity from another dimension whose world boundaries are different, there’s no telling what kind of disciplinary action we might face.”
Wow, that sounds like a miserable job.
Listening to Yupinel’s complaints, Patrick realized that being a god wasn't easy either.
Anyway, the Heavenly Demon was sealed. The problem was that a divine seal could never last forever; eventually, it would break. And when that happened…
“We’ll be ruined.”
“There’s nowhere else to borrow power from.”
“Even if they did lend us power, we’d be buried under the workload they’d dump on us as payment.”
“We can’t handle any more than this.”
Ah, so that’s why they’re overworked.
They were doing other people’s chores. Patrick finally understood why they had been processing work with such immense irritation earlier.
Kalaron continued, “In the midst of that, the sealed Heavenly Demon offered us a deal.”
“A deal?”
“He said that if we brought a human from his original world to be his adversary, he would leave our world.”
“…Wait, don’t tell me?”
“It wasn’t us who summoned you. It was the Outer God.”
“Hah?”
What a joke.
The Heavenly Demon summoned me? Why?
Yupinel provided the answer immediately. “It seems the Heavenly Demon had been constantly observing his original world even while sealed.”
“Haaah…”
“And during that time, your exploits caught his eye.”
“Okay, so? What does he want to do after summoning me?”
“He wants a duel.”
“A dueeeel?”
“His desire is simple. To test his martial arts against a warrior of equal caliber. In the terms of your world…”
“A warrior’s pride?”
“You could call it that.”
“He brought me here just for that?”
“Exactly.”
Patrick was about to lose his mind at their audacity when Yupinel hurriedly added, “That said, we didn’t interfere with your life in that other world. Your death there had nothing to do with us.”
“…….”
“We simply took your soul after you died and allowed you to be born into our world with your past life’s memories intact.”
“…….”
“And let me be clear, this wasn't easy. Being reincarnated with your memories is normally the ultimate privilege.”
“Ugh….”
True. Honestly, that made sense. What would have happened if Patrick had been born into the Baron Schneider family without his past memories?
I might have struggled just to survive each day against the monsters of the Great Forest.
Living a second life with the memories of the first was indeed a massive advantage.
“But you didn't do it for my sake, did you?”
“…….”
“…….”
That was also true.
Seeing Yupinel and Kalaron avoid his gaze, Patrick spoke with a vein throbbing on his forehead. “Did I ask you to do this? Huh?”
“Hey, we’re still gods. Isn’t it a bit much to be so rude?”
“Argh! So what? From what I can see, you guys aren't all that.”
“How can you say that?”
“I mean, to put it bluntly, an enemy invaded your territory and you were too weak to handle it. Isn't that right?”
“Well, that’s…”
“And you borrowed war funds from neighbors to try and win, but now you can’t even pay the interest?”
“…….”
“And even then, you couldn't finish off the enemy you defeated, so now you’re just scraping by. That’s your situation, isn't it? Yes or no?”
“…….”
“…….”
The hearts of the two creator gods ached. Why? Because it was all true.
Patrick let out a deep sigh, rubbed his face with both hands, and spoke. “Why is my life specialized in cleaning up after other people? Why?”
[It must be your fate.]
“Shut up!”
After snapping at the voice, Patrick sighed again. Well, what was the point of complaining? In the end, the work had to be done.
“So, if I don’t fight the Heavenly Demon, he won’t leave this world.”
“That was the promise between him and us.”
“Tsk, a promise made without the consent of the party involved is worth jack…”
“…….”
“Phew… so, for me to fight the Heavenly Demon on equal footing, you have to give me divine power anyway, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then why bother attaching conditions?”
“Well, actually, this condition isn't just for us; it’s something you might find quite enticing as well.”
“Me?”
“If you defeat the Outer God…”
As he listened to Kalaron’s following words, Patrick’s expression gradually hardened.
Usually, Patrick would interject with snarky comments, but in this moment, he simply listened to Kalaron in silence.
A long while later…
“Is that… the truth?”
“Of course.”
“Fine. Then it’s settled.”
Patrick stood up.
“Hand over the divine power first. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Our situation isn't great, so we can’t give you much. It’ll be just barely enough to fight the Outer God, but…”
“Above all, since you haven't ascended to godhood, the divinity we bestow is consumable. You must not use it recklessly.”
Patrick nodded as he received the divine power bestowed by Yupinel and Kalaron.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Thus, after receiving the divinity, Patrick returned to his original world.
When he returned, what met his eyes were the Four Calamities, completely exhausted after spending all their remaining power, and the residents of Pabera, who were desperately waiting for his return.
Patrick spoke to Persona.
“Let’s go. It’s time for the final battle with the Outer God.”
* * *
Back to the present.
Patrick’s twin swords became sharp lines that cleaved through space, striking at the enemy. Even for a 7-Star warrior, the speed of the attacks Patrick was unleashing now was too sharp to counter. However…
“Impressive. You truly live up to the name Radiant Dragon.”
The opponent was a figure who was always mentioned when discussing the strongest in history. One of the Four Grandmasters, the Heavenly Demon.
He leisurely evaded all of Patrick’s attacks and reached out his own hand.
“Now, receive mine.”
Heavenly Demonic Divine Art.
Heavenly Demon’s Thousand Hands.
In an instant, the Heavenly Demon’s hands blurred into countless palm images, swarming toward Patrick. Faced with attacks coming from different forms and trajectories, Patrick hurriedly shifted his swords from offense to defense.
Boom! Bang! Crash!
“Ugh….”
He could block it. He could, but…
Damn it, if these were ordinary swords, they would have snapped long ago.
With every block, an immense shock vibrated through his wrists, leaving them numb. More importantly, every time he exchanged blows with the Heavenly Demon, the divine power within him was draining rapidly.
The only reason Patrick could trade blows with the Heavenly Demon on equal terms right now was because of this divine power. Once it was exhausted, Patrick’s attacks wouldn't work, and he wouldn't be able to block the Heavenly Demon’s strikes.
If that happened, the outcome was obvious.
I have to settle this before then…
But it didn't look like it would be easy.