Ch.1094Uncomfortable Reunion

An old man with a square face, snow-white hair, and a stylish mustache. A face that remained in my memory.

Though he looked more shabby than I remembered.

“…Why are you here?”

I asked in a dumbfounded voice, almost mumbling.

The person waiting for me in the cave was someone I never imagined I would meet again in this way.

“Paulus.”

Paulus Eisen Hindenburg. The former Cardinal of the Church of Menes and…

…the second apostle.

“Ah, I’m honored that you still remember this old man’s name—”

Crack.

A blue-silver lightning struck the old man’s neck as he was speaking nonchalantly.

Durandal, embedded in the cave wall after grazing the old man’s wrinkled neck. I pressed him against the wall with my sword at his throat.

“Kuk…!”

Paulus couldn’t even react. He probably wouldn’t have been able to react even if I had cut his head off. Being unaccustomed to physical combat, his reaction speed was slow.

“Speak. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now.”

“Kheu… well, a reason…”

Paulus, his neck caught by Frosting, smiled painfully as he spoke.

“None? If there’s none, just offer your head.”

“If you, if you kill me, the void monsters currently circling will all rampage again at once. Would that suffice as a reason?”

…Void monsters?

“What do you mean? Are you saying you control and command the void species monsters? You?”

“Control… is far from it. Command is also different. I merely made them circle around.”

“What are you saying? Stop talking nonsense and speak clearly.”

I glared at him and pulled Durandal from the wall, pointing it at his eye. A clear message that I’d take out one of his eyes if he continued with his nonsense.

“I veiled their eyes with the curtain of night, awakened madness with moonlight, and made them lose their way through illusions. Made them circle eternally, chasing a light they cannot catch.”

What the hell is he talking about? I told him to speak clearly, and he’s spouting even more nonsense.

“Simpler.”

“…It means they’re chasing illusions I created. While I can’t control monsters, I can at least lure them with well-made bait.”

Ah, so that’s what he meant. Should have said so from the beginning.

However…

“Was that possible with Alfodhr’s power? I don’t think so…”

Alfodhr, Wodanaz, Volberg, Grimnir, Baltyr.

With at least five known names, that accursed ancient god’s essence was a primordial chaos deity governing war, magic, and death.

As Alfodhr, he spread the runic magic system in the old world; as Volberg, he blessed warriors and raised them as berserkers; and as Grimnir, he spread the magic of human sacrifice.

At the same time, he was an evil god of slaughter who swept across the world with an army of undead monsters created by stealing the power of death from Belliona, and hybrid monsters presumed to be experiments of runic magic.

While he might have the power to induce madness, abilities like veiling eyes or showing illusions seemed quite distant from the powers I knew of him.

Such powers seemed less like Alfodhr’s abilities and more like…

“When did I say it was Alfodhr’s power? The Demigod of Stars seems to have forgotten my former position.”

…Right, it was closer to Menes’s power.

“How…”

I flinched in surprise and glanced at the faint, soft light emanating from Paulus’s fingertips.

Holy light.

Not the grayish holy light unique to Volberg or Alfodhr, but a silvery white holy light, soft and pale like moonlight. Menes’s holy light resided at Paulus’s fingertips.

At the fingertips of an apostate who betrayed his god and switched to Alfodhr.

“How… well, that’s what I’d like to ask. Why hasn’t Menes withdrawn his power from this old apostate? It’s truly puzzling, isn’t it?”

“……”

“Did he not withdraw it… or was he unable to? Which do you think it is?”

After a moment’s consideration, I released Paulus’s neck and withdrew Durandal.

I hadn’t decided to trust him. I just judged that if everything he said was true, there might be some value—or necessity—in hearing him out for a while.

“Kheu, kuheu… Yes, now are you willing to have a conversation?”

“Well…”

I glared at Paulus, who was coughing roughly as if his throat hurt, and sat down heavily on a rocky ledge a few steps away.

Maintaining enough tension to blow his head off quickly if he tried anything.

“I’ll listen to your last words. Speak. Whatever nonsense you wanted to tell me.”

“How merciful. Then, I’ll speak freely without reservation.”

Catching his breath, Paulus leaned back on a rock seat opposite me and slowly began to speak.

“The gods reside in heaven. Not on this earth, but somewhere in that high void that we cannot reach until we die.”

“……”

“Lord Median. Have you ever conversed with the gods?”

“What?”

The first words he uttered while facing me were such an unexpected question.

—-

Have I ever conversed with the gods? It was unexpected, but not a question I couldn’t answer.

“Conversations with three. If I include those whose voices I only heard one-sidedly, then six… no, seven perhaps?”

Astraea, who occasionally spoke to me when I was still a saint, and the remnants of Ausrine that I encountered just before awakening my divine nature as a star.

And the World Tree, who spouted various nonsense to me just before burning to death.

Since Ausrine was a remnant left after death, it’s a bit ambiguous, but if I count that as a god too, then I’ve conversed with three gods.

In addition, during the Great Fire of Militchiya, there was a voice that spoke to me through Durandal when I reached the level of Master.

That was probably Elpinel.

The purpose was to prevent me from realizing that I had been entranced by her divinity residing in Durandal, making me an extremely radical human protector mindset.

Another voice was the eerie murmuring I heard in the Kamain Dungeon where I obtained the Twilight Rune.

Judging by the “Warriors of Baltyr” that appeared right after, that was probably Alfodhr’s voice.

Besides that, there were the incomprehensible nonsense Invidius spouted to me when he descended, and the occasional beast-like howling sound.

That was probably the voice of the sky wolf, Vanirgand, which is the root of grand titles like the Heavenly Killer.

Looking back, there were quite a few.

“Seven… hmm… more than I expected.”

Paulus seemed to share my thoughts, as he paused and looked somewhat perplexed. Did he not expect there to be as many as seven when he asked?

“So, what about it?”

“Do you know? How blessed that is?”

“Well, I’m not sure.”

Blessed? What nonsense.

The only voice that actually helped me was Astraea’s, and the rest just caused trouble. How is that a blessing?

Even Elpinel did something extremely unpleasant by messing with my mind without my consent.

While her intention might have been for my mental health, if good intentions make brainwashing a good deed, then hypnotizing a school bully into becoming a good wife would also be a good deed?

…Huh? Is that actually a good deed? Maybe it is…?

Anyway, I was deeply displeased. Although I’ve come to understand what happened since breaking free from that brainwashing… understanding doesn’t make the displeasure go away.

So, I found it difficult to agree with Paulus’s claim that it was a blessing.

“If you don’t know, let me tell you. Since Carlos the Great’s death until now, about eight hundred years. During all that time, the gods have not given any voice. Do you understand?”

Paulus continued in a somewhat agitated tone.

“Eight hundred years, a full eight hundred years! It was truly long… an incredibly long silence.”

Then he suddenly muttered in a subdued tone, as if lamenting.

His extreme mood swings made me wonder if he might be showing early signs of senile dementia.

“So what? Are you envious? If you’re so envious of conversing with gods, I could help. There’s a very easy way.”

“…That won’t be necessary. Meeting them after death is meaningless. The souls of the dead are merely possessions of the gods, not entities that can converse as equals.”

“Ah, is that so…? That’s certainly the thinking of an apostate.”

From my perspective, it was an obvious taunt, but surprisingly, Paulus nodded readily as if willing to acknowledge it.

“Indeed. That’s why I turned my back on faith. To find another way.”

“Another way?”

“Ascension. Feilandria suggested that method to me. If there are questions to ask the gods, the only way is to become their equal… to sit beside them as beings of the same rank.”

“So you joined hands with Feilandria for that? To become a new god and have a chat with Menes?”

To converse with a god who doesn’t answer, one becomes a god and ascends to heaven. It’s absurdly grandiose, but not entirely flawed logic.

The question is whether ascension is possible, but if one succeeds in ascending, it would indeed be possible to converse with the gods.

“Yes. That was the case… But now there’s no need for that.”

Paulus, who had been nodding with his head slightly bowed, suddenly looked up and stared directly at me.

With eyes that desperately yearned for something.