Sacrifice for the God (2)
Whether Maybel's father had foreseen the future or found a method through his vast knowledge, that wasn't something to worry about right now. I set it aside.
"I get the rough idea of what's going on, but there's something that doesn't make sense."
"What is it?"
I lightly snapped my fingers, and at that moment, Maybel drifted off to sleep. After all, this wasn't a conversation for a child who'd nearly become a sacrificial offering.
"A sacrifice to become the body of a god. From what I know, creating a god doesn't require anything like that. Why would they demand such a thing?"
"Pardon?"
Ella's expression shifted to one of shock as she scooped up the suddenly slumbering Maybel.
I'd created and altered various gods through opinion manipulation and incitement, but we'd never needed any kind of sacrifice. Hell, there hadn't even been a proper ritual. It was just a matter of swaying public opinion and rallying belief to shape the god into the form I desired.
Which meant rituals for creating gods didn't exist in the first place.
"A god is born from the faith of countless humans. A physical body is utterly meaningless."
Gods arise from the collective faith of many. Excluding a few special cases with physical forms, without that human belief, they were fragile things that couldn't even sustain their own existence.
Hmm. In that sense... gods are like mental parasites, born by latching onto the faith of the masses. They can't exist without gaining the belief of many humans.
An intriguing thought.
But that wasn't important right now. Back to the matter at hand.
"That's why a ritual for creating a god that demands a body as a sacrifice... is suspicious."
"I-Is that so? But how do you know about such rituals, Dragon Priestess?"
"Mm. The details are a secret. But one thing's certain—no one knows more about creating gods than I do."
It was my method from the start, after all.
But the ritual Ella described... no matter how I thought about it, it was completely different from mine. It felt almost like...
"If you perform that ritual, are you absolutely sure a new god will be born?"
"P-Pardon? Well... that is..."
"I know plenty about making gods myself. But the ritual you described seems entirely different from what I know."
Ella's face grew rigid at my words.
"Th-That can't be... but..."
She couldn't string her words together properly. Hmm...
"Perhaps the voice that taught you this ritual was deceiving everyone?"
Otherwise, it made no sense. Demanding something so absurd.
If it was a trick to dupe desperate ratkin and get what it wanted? Then... what did that voice truly desire?
"Tell me everything you know about the ritual the ratkin are preparing. I'll compare it to what I know."
"Y-Yes, understood."
Ella began explaining the ritual for creating a god as she understood it.
"First, the preparations include a child to become the god's body, a large quantity of mana stones, prayers and faith from those who will be the new god's followers... and finally, a massive number of souls as offerings to refine ordinary prayers and faith into a pure god and enable ascension."
Hmm. This is bad news!
It's suspicious as hell!
Mass souls? Sure, mana stones make sense—you can use their mana for magic or miracles. But mass souls? That's way out of line!
It's not even a proper ritual. It reeks of ulterior motives!
"Total bust. That ritual."
"Pardon?"
But... if that voice from underground is who I think it is, did it want revival so badly it resorted to this?
Even if it revived, it'd just make it easier for me to find it.
"Doesn't it strike you as suspicious? Demanding mass souls and all. Even the gods of the Pantheon don't ask for that. Did the ratkin really believe in it?"
"The ratkin leaders believed it fervently. I wasn't sure myself... but back then, when they said it so confidently, I had no choice but to trust them."
Fervent belief, huh. Hmm...
Was their situation so desperate they had no other options? Or...
"Hmm... I don't know who that voice belongs to, but... maybe it brainwashed them."
"Brainwashed...?"
"Yeah. Otherwise, how could they buy into such a far-fetched ritual?"
Of the materials Ella listed, the only thing actually needed to create a god was the followers' faith. Everything else...
Hmm... Maybe I should set aside a day to dig underground.
It looked like it wanted to extract mana from the stones, absorb mass souls, possess the sacrificial body, and gain a complete form.
If successful, it could revive with a body full of souls and mana. Far from its original shattered state, but still.
What an idiot.
But among those materials, the mass souls... Hmm...
Were they planning to slaughter all the ratkin for their souls? Or...
"How were you planning to obtain those mass souls for the ritual?"
"Well..."
Ella hesitated a moment before speaking.
"By massacring the residents of Armen."
"Armen?"
Ratkin living underground were going to slaughter the city of Armen on the surface? How...?
I had a guess. Living hidden in the deep sewers, tampering with the aqueducts wouldn't be hard.
Armen's people used the aqueduct water normally. Poison the source with something highly lethal...
And you could wipe out the city's humans easily.
Hmm... Wait.
Was Armen's aqueduct and sewer system prepared for this ritual from the start? Aqueducts to harvest mass souls, and the village under the sewers as the ritual site?
If so... this had been in preparation for quite some time.
Long before Maybel here was even born.
Hmm.
"We can't just leave this alone."
"Yes. For Maybel's sake if nothing else, the ritual must fail."
Ella gently stroked the sleeping Maybel's head again. Deep affection filled that soft touch.
"Not just Maybel—we can't let Armen's people be massacred."
So, what to do? The simplest way was to storm underground right now and smash everything.
Hmm. Hmmm.
They'd done wrong, but wiping them all out felt excessive...
Hmm. Hmmm...
If they'd already committed the act, maybe. But they hadn't yet, so killing them all...
It made my heart waver a bit.
The ratkin were just thrashing desperately to survive. Slaughtering them entirely felt wrong.
Just disrupting the ritual wouldn't be enough.
Hmm. Umm. Ummm.
That's it.
"What if we just make Maybel a god?"
"Pardon?"
Ella's eyes went wide. Why the shocked look?
"D-Did you hear me right? This ritual sacrifices not just her, but Armen's people too!"
"Not that ritual."
They stirred this up because ratkin needed a god. If one already existed, none of this would've happened.
So.
"Not that shady ritual—a proper method to create a god."
"A proper method...?"
Ella eyed me with deep distrust. Fair enough.
Her daughter nearly died because of a shady god-making ritual, and she lost her husband to it. No wonder she couldn't believe.
But.
"She won't be sacrificed as a body for a god. We'll hijack the ratkin's ritual and ascend her directly to godhood."
"B-But..."
"Then... your daughter becomes a living human who ascends to godhood. When her mortal life ends, she'll become the Rat God, watching over the ratkin. Wouldn't that secure your race's future?"
Ella fell deep into thought at my words, then murmured softly.
"It does sound appealing... but becoming a god... wouldn't that mean bearing an immense responsibility?"
"Maybe. But it's the noblest existence a living body can achieve. Do you dislike the idea of your child becoming that?"
Ella shook her head slightly.
"No, that's not it. I'm just... worried. Gods are immortal, burdened with great duties. What if, after becoming the Rat God, the weight crushes her?"
Hmm. Indeed.
She's worried about her child, after all. Parents always fret over their kids, but isn't this a bit much?
In that case.
"Why not ask her directly?"
I gazed at the sleeping—no, pretending to sleep—Maybel as I spoke.