Provoking the Forgotten God
It was a trait that would vanish forever the moment he transformed again.
"Druid of the Golden Rule, so we meet again!"
High above the arena.
Before I knew it, a crimson bear and a lizard belching fire from every scale stood before me.
Grizzly, and the Frenzied Salamander!
Both of them had their eyes gleaming with wild excitement—an impressive sight.
"So you are the master of Yanti Mountain."
At that, Grizzly blinked both eyes.
"…You know me?"
"How could I not know the master of that beautiful mountain that stands at the western edge of the continent?"
"……!"
In the same instant the madly glittering eyes settled into calm.
Tyrant Grizzly of Yanti Mountain was rather famous among players—famous entirely for "tearing things apart."
He shredded everything that came within reach, earning him the nickname "the Tearing Bear."
In truth, more than a hundred gamers had been torn to pieces by Tyrant Grizzly.
He's connected to one of the Seven Great Hidden Quests, after all.
There was no need to treat him as a pure enemy.
We might meet again someday.
"…I never imagined the Druid God would know of a mountain all the way at the western edge."
Tyrant Grizzly lightly clasped both paws together.
"Come visit sometime. I will treat you with the utmost hospitality."
So you can tear me apart too?
I forcibly swallowed the words that tried to leap out.
"I will."
"It is an honor to face you in battle."
"I am likewise honored to face the master of Yanti Mountain. May it be a glorious contest."
"Do not worry. I have no intention of holding back."
I let out a short snort of laughter.
The warlike nature of the Tearing Bear remained unchanged.
Interesting.
An amusing fellow.
Of course, that did not mean I planned to go easy on him either.
When it came to bloodlust, I was no less formidable.
Tyrant Grizzly was certain of victory.
At best it was a mineral centipede.
The elemental matchup itself was overwhelmingly in his favor.
Losing was simply unthinkable.
"……."
Yet in the duel that followed, Tyrant Grizzly could only keep his mouth tightly shut.
The flames the Frenzied Salamander unleashed were powerful enough to melt anything—
…yet Dianax did not so much as flinch.
Minerals and fire are supposed to be a clear advantage, aren't they?
The elemental affinity itself favored the Salamander.
Yet the Salamander's flames proved utterly useless.
He could not understand it.
Even if Dianax's body was forged of the super-metal orichalcum, that was merely a shell.
It only covered parts of the creature; it did not encase the whole.
There were plenty of gaps leading to Dianax's core—gaps that should have burned the moment fire touched them.
And yet.
This is no ordinary Dianax…!
Only when he watched Dianax wrap itself around the Salamander did Tyrant Grizzly finally realize the truth.
It wore the shape of a Dianax, but it was not a Dianax at all.
By the Primordial Attribute, damage from the Salamander's flames is reduced by 50%.
Due to Dianax's form conversion, HP is fixed at 150.
Defense rises dramatically.
By the effect of Divine Embodiment, all of Dianax's attacks are judged as Holy.
By the time he understood, it was already too late.
Kieeeeeek!
The Salamander, its entire body constricted and crushed, screamed—
Dianax is victorious!
"What kind of absurd—!"
Tyrant Grizzly has been defeated.
He had been certain of victory.
In an instant, defeat arrived instead.
When the Round of 40 ended, twenty contestants were eliminated.
Among them, the Knights of the Golden Rule held a considerable share.
"…I am sorry."
Serengeti bowed her head deeply.
She had been overwhelmed so completely that "crushed" was the only accurate word.
Against Destruction King Mork the match had ended the moment it began.
Thus she kept her head lowered, as if she could not face anyone.
Yet Serengeti was not the only one who had fallen.
"Only five of us left…"
"…They are stronger than expected."
Out of thirteen, a mere five remained.
More than half had been defeated.
The ones who advanced to the Round of 20 were, including myself, Hudson, Albino, Valte, and Priest Andrew.
"It is all right. In the end only one remains to claim victory. Trust in me, Druid of the Golden Rule."
Albino spoke.
Yet the words brought little comfort.
The gap in power had been far too glaring.
This will be disadvantageous in a long tournament.
Situations where we met fellow knights and could conserve stamina would likely never come again.
Still, as Albino said, the remaining numbers did not matter.
As long as we stayed until the very end and won.
The problem was…
The Round of 20 begins.
Druid of the Golden Rule (Dianax) VS Forgotten God (Primordial Dragon)
The real problem was the Forgotten God.
The Primordial Dragon had not originally looked like that.
Yet the moment it faced an ally in the bracket, the two had suddenly fused.
When they meet an ally they fuse; when they lose to another order of knights, the soul flows into the victor and evolves.
Even defeat worked the same way.
The Monster Soul of a defeated Forgotten God flowed into the victorious Monster Soul and evolved it.
In other words—
By the end, all thirteen could merge into one.
…It was not a rule violation, yet no matter how one looked at it, it felt like a cheat key.
The Forgotten God was clearly exceeding my expectations.
It will become a contest of who holds more cards.
Yet the reverse was also true.
Just as I did not fully know the Forgotten God, the Forgotten God did not know what cards I held.
In particular, it would never know about the form conversion of the Nameless Eagle.
Dianax was only the beginning.
A battle in which both sides revealed cards one by one, devising strategies and countermeasures.
Naturally, the side that held more cards—and the side that revealed them later—held the advantage. That much was obvious.
Jackpot.
In that sense, this matchup was a jackpot.
The perfect chance to gauge just how strong the Forgotten God's cards truly were!
Once the bracket was set, I entered the arena and looked upon the Forgotten God.
In that instant—
"You can never defeat me, child beloved by those detestable twin goddesses."
…the Forgotten God spoke to me.
The Supreme Soul.
Its tone was not friendly.
On the contrary, it was hostile.
A voice thick with rage.
The Forgotten God boldly declared that I could never defeat it.
At the same time it called the twin goddesses "detestable."
It knew of the goddesses and resented them.
That it saw through the fact that I received their blessing was further proof.
In short, it had no intention of letting me win.
I shrugged.
"Oh? So you know Rhea and Fina?"
Ordinarily, casually uttering the names of the twin goddesses was an act of blasphemy.
Any member of the Goddess Sect who overheard would have clutched their throat in horror.
Yet speaking a name also meant a certain familiarity.
Not a relationship of worship, but one of equals—
like friends, like lovers, or simply like neighbors.
Beings one could feel utterly at ease with, free of burden.
To me, the twin goddesses were exactly that.
Wilhelm had revered and followed them, yet I had never been a native of Pangenia to begin with, so I could regard them with easy familiarity.
"…Do not speak those detestable names before me, child."
Just as expected.
The Forgotten God's reaction was extreme, as predicted.
An excessively sharp reply.
A rudeness that did not suit a divine bearing.
So Forgotten Gods can't control their emotions, huh.
Come to think of it, the first Forgotten God I met had also been unable to rein in its feelings.
When I had broken the door by solving the trial my own way instead of the prescribed method, had it not flown into a mad rage?
"Why? Did Rhea and Fina pull some kind of scam?"
"Fine. I see now that you are not the sort who listens to words."
That much was true.
Even I admitted I was the type who did whatever I pleased.
Yet I was genuinely curious.
I had almost never met anyone who disliked the twin goddesses.
Especially if that someone was a god.
Using the word "detestable," in particular, hinted that something had happened between them.
One did not casually use such language for trivial matters.
It was the sort of word reserved for when someone had been swindled, betrayed, or thoroughly wronged.
I don't really know much about the goddesses, do I?
Thinking about it, that was true.
I roughly knew the twin goddesses' life stories, yet that could not be called truly knowing them.
In reality I knew nothing of their daily lives.
And that was true of Wilhelm and the Goddess Sect as well.
Yet now I stood face to face with a Forgotten God that seemed directly entangled with the goddesses.
I grinned.
"Rhea and Fina…"
"Silence!"
Whew.
I gave a soft whistle.
Apparently those two names were a reverse scale that must never be touched.
Wait.
…There's an achievement for this too?
Even seeing it left me speechless.
Yet a mere taunt would not have triggered an achievement.
It meant that until now, no one had ever succeeded in provoking a Forgotten God to this degree.
Moreover, the appearance of a Mysterious Achievement meant—
The Forgotten God places you upon the Trial Platform.
…that the opponent was truly enraged.
"I am curious whether your skill matches that loose mouth of yours."
It had grown so furious that it had, conversely, become calm.
I nodded and opened my mouth.
"You need not worry about that part."
"…I had intended to take only half, yet against you I shall take the entirety of your soul."
The souls of the Forgotten Knights.
If they lost them entirely, they would lose their way and wander forever.
Not only me, but every member of the knight order.
It was a threat that the moment of defeat would cost us not half, but everything.
"And what will you wager in return?"
Yet if something was given, something must also be received.
It would not do for only me—and only the Knights of the Golden Rule—to bear the risk.
Besides, I had already been told that victory over a Forgotten God would yield a Symbol.
I asked because I could not imagine what more it could possibly stake.
"The Supreme Soul that is born when all my children merge—the thing every god envied and coveted. I shall give you that."
The soul completed when thirteen beasts fused.
A mere two had already become a Primordial Dragon.
What would form when all thirteen merged was beyond imagination.
And it was offering to hand that stored soul over to me intact.
The Supreme Soul, is it.
Indeed.
A soul bearing the name "Supreme."
As a reward it was more than ample.
Yet I could not simply nod in delight.
In the end it also meant I would have to face that Supreme Soul in a final clash.
"If you have grown frightened unlike when you were spouting nonsense, you need not accept."
When I fell silent it turned the provocation back on me.
It seemed to believe I would refuse.
At best a reinforced Dianax—surely no match for the endlessly fusing souls, it must have thought.
Had it known every card I held, it would never have spoken of additional rewards like this.
It definitely doesn't know about the Nameless Eagle.
The Forgotten God did not know of the Nameless Eagle.
But now I knew.
I knew what the Forgotten God's final card was.
The Supreme Soul.
If a monster of matching caliber were completed, it would certainly be threatening—
"I accept."
…yet it was not a level I could not attempt at all.
The Forgotten God's Additional Trial has been established.
Nothing had changed.
I simply had to keep fighting.
Only the weight of what was staked had grown a little heavier according to the outcome.
It was the same as when I first faced a Forgotten God.
Take everything, or lose everything.
So let us once more stake everything and collide.
Which of our everythings would prove heavier—
I had been curious about that myself.
"……."
The Forgotten God briefly lost its words.
Even it had not expected the opponent to nod.
With nothing more than a reinforced Dianax… how dare he.
Within the World Tree's dungeon there existed countless Forgotten Beings.
Among them, Dianax was nothing special.