Created Gods (2)
Standing at the first gate of the Underworld, the black stone statue gazed down at the souls passing through alongside the reapers. Talos.
I stared blankly at Talos, who stood motionless at the first gate.
Hmm... This guy's got sentience?
I didn't design him with that in mind at all...
Maybe Ceres got it wrong? Or did some bug crop up somewhere and give him a mind?
Hmm... If he really did develop sentience... if he gained a heart...
Was letting that little girl through—who came begging to revive her parents—not just a glitch, but something deliberate? Did he feel pity and send her down to the lower levels of the Underworld out of compassion?
I had no idea. Really, no clue.
So.
"Talos."
I had to check, just once. When I called Talos's name, he silently turned his head to look at me. Inorganic eyes. No emotion whatsoever. The idea that eyes like these held feelings or intelligence was hard to swallow.
But I had to confirm it.
"Do you have sentience?"
I tossed the question at Talos, a flicker of expectation in my voice.
"......"
But Talos gave no answer.
Hmm... Yeah, figured as much.
Sentience awakening in a stone golem I slapped together on a whim? Sounds ridiculous.
Even if I am the goddess of life, sentience isn't something you just whip up. If it were that easy, everything I've ever created would have minds of its own by now.
Yeah. Total nonsense. Ceres must've fed me some empty ramblings, and I fell for it.
"Yeah, no way."
I shoved down the faint disappointment bubbling up inside and placed a hand on Talos's sturdy leg.
If Talos really did have sentience... he could've been a huge help—
Right then, Talos twitched faintly.
"......?"
"......"
"Hey."
Another twitch. This guy...
"Talos."
This time, no movement. Hmm... For now.
Let's just smack him once. I've got a regeneration spell on him, so even if he breaks a bit, he'll fix himself.
So, I swung my fist with moderate force.
BOOM!!
"Hooh..."
Blocking my fist was Talos's massive black greatsword. This ridiculously huge blade had intercepted me perfectly.
Hmm. I didn't program Talos with AI advanced enough to block attacks freely. Just simple command execution...
Which means...
"Talos. Have you been deceiving me all this time?"
A tiny pang of betrayal hit me. A golem I made without a second thought develops self-awareness on its own and keeps it secret from me of all people. Kinda annoying, but whatever—I'll let it slide generously. The important thing now is to probe this emergent AI of his a bit more.
"If you confess honestly now, I won't get mad. When did you gain self-awareness?"
Talos stayed silent to my question. Hmm... Exercising your right to remain silent, huh? Not in the mood to talk yet.
I clenched my fist again and raised my arm. One solid hit oughta loosen his tongue!!
Talos shook his head in what looked like panic and pointed to his own neck with a finger.
Neck? What's with the neck... Oh. Ah. He can't speak because he has no vocal cords? Duh, a robot carved from rock wouldn't have 'em.
"You should've told me upfront that you can't talk. Why pretend you had no sentience?"
If he'd just admitted it sooner, this would've been way easier. Here I was, slaving away to build an AI god, oblivious that I had a ready-made sample right here. Analyzing this guy would've slashed the difficulty.
"......"
Talos started gesturing wildly, like he was desperate to communicate, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it. A giant statue flailing around was kinda fun to watch, but useless for understanding. Pointing at the ground, holding up three fingers. Some incomprehensible motions, then he flops flat on the floor.
Hmm... Three underground... the three death gods? And flopping down means... pass out? Collapse?
"The three death gods pass out?"
Talos shook his head ever so slightly at my guess, pointed his thumb at his own chest, then jabbed at the ground again while raising three fingers.
Himself and the three death gods. Hmm... Oh!
"You pretended to lack sentience because you figured you'd end up slaving away like the death gods until you collapsed?!"
Talos nodded faintly.
Whoa. This guy.
So he thought if I found out he had a mind, I'd turn him into a work slave like those three death gods who get ground down daily judging souls?! The nerve...!
"Your jobs are totally different from the start! No way a gatekeeper and death gods are the same! Even if you have sentience, I'd never dump that workload on you!!"
Talos placed a hand on his chest and swept it downward—like a gesture of relief!
Ugh. Cheeky bastard. Really cheeky! Not that I'd actually use him for judgments anyway. He can't even talk. Modifying him for speech might work, but... hmm. Regeneration magic would undo it instantly. Too much hassle—forget it.
Instead.
"I won't make you handle the death gods' work. But I do need to investigate you a little."
"......!"
Talos flinched and backed away. What was he so scared of now?
"It'll be quick, don't worry. Just lie down, stare at the ceiling, and it'll be over."
Not like I'm gonna disassemble you to bits!
I just wanna poke at your AI! But Talos seemed uneasy about even that and tried to retreat further.
Clank!
Chains forged from my mana bound and restrained his body.
"Alright, show me your back."
Well, not really the back. Just need to scan every nook and cranny inside.
And so, I thoroughly examined Talos's body, investigating exactly how this AI had formed.
Investigating Talos didn't take long. Most of the statue parts were unchanged, but curiously, I found mana clumped and crystallized inside his chest.
I hadn't put anything like that in when I made him. Yet there it was—a bizarre mana crystal nestled in his chest cavity. Probably the trigger for his self-awareness.
The crystal resembled a mana stone in form, but its composition was totally different. At the core was the mana I'd used to create Talos, surrounded by dense layers of mana.
Tinkering with it transmitted what felt like Talos's will... Yeah, this must be the nucleus of his AI.
Hmm... If my mana clumped up like this when I made Talos...
Does that mean anything I create with my own mana could awaken like him?
Like... the Hero's sword, say? Nah, probably not. Talos is just a special case. A massive humanoid form, packed with my mana, known to humans as the Underworld's gatekeeper—so he picked up some faith too. That combo must've sparked his ego.
Others probably couldn't. Hopefully.
I ignored Talos sprawled motionless on the ground, stood up, and stretched luxuriously.
Ahhh~Fwew. Good. Now, combine this intel from Talos with the automated prayer system to perfect a more refined created god.
For starters... let's make one to assist with Underworld duties. Most souls get bogged down because reviewing their entire lives takes forever—except the really sinful ones or tricky cases needing close scrutiny.
An auto-summarizer god... Like those chat AIs from other worlds. That'd speed things up huge!
And so it was born: the High Intelligence Auto Death Evaluation System. Or Hades for short.
If the English sounds off, just overlook it. I named it Hades first and backronymed from there! Grammar wasn't a priority!
"What's this?"
"A secretary to help with your workload."
Ceres, half-corpse from the crushing workload... Wait, half her body was already a corpse. Ahem. She'd nearly turned the other half undead while I slacked off perfecting Hades, and now she eyed me with distrust.
"This pitch-black slab?"
A sleek black stele carved from Underworld rock. Invisible to souls awaiting judgment, positioned behind the seats where the Underworld gods sat.
"If this slab works right, it'll slash your Underworld workload big time."
"Hard to trust words from a god who slacked off instead of doing her job."
"Hey now. One step back for two steps forward."
I ignored Ceres's grumbling and placed my hand on the black stele. Infuse it with... my mana as power source, plus a portion of faith directed to the goddess of life. Specifically, weave in 'the end of life flowing into death's new beginning'...
Hummm.
A faint vibration from the stele. Good. It's working.
After a bit, a girl appeared on the black stele—almost identical to me. Differences? Black hair, no dragon horns. Well, technically, it's a fragment of me as a god... a sort of clone? Sub-spirit? Something like that. So of course she looks like me.
"Booting up. Commencing auxiliary operations."
The black-haired me on the stele spoke in my voice, low and steady.