Ch.1268I’ve Come to Deliver Bad News

Just as when enough heat gathers it transforms into flame, yet fire and heat are fundamentally different, there existed an enormous gap between death and divine death.

This meant that simply piling up countless corpses, accumulating death, could not reach the divinity of death.

If one killed by their own hands, they might accumulate karma, but that alone would be limited to the realm of heroes.

The fragments of divinity that Ausrine had spread throughout the world, karma, had degraded and corrupted so severely over countless generations that it alone could not reach divinity.

At least, that was what Garmerlic knew.

As far as he knew, there was only one way to cultivate divine power. To steal it from or be granted it by those who already possessed divinity.

Very rarely, there were those who achieved divinity by devouring beings like ancient giants and ancient dragons who, while not gods, were comparable to them—but those were exceptions among exceptions.

Garmerlic, as a demigod who had lived for ages—though most of that time had passed while he slept—knew this better than anyone since the days of Xanten.

The fact that killing countless lives over and over would neither fatten the divinity of death nor perfectly restore the goddess’s divinity based on it.

That’s why he researched. A method to sublimate the overflowing death into the divinity of death.

And from the beginning, he experimented with his research results on the Empress of Vampires whom he had rescued for this purpose.

He tore out and refined part of his divinity, then added all kinds of techniques from rune magic to eastern sorcery and divine miracles to corrupt it into a form as close as possible to the goddess’s power he remembered, before implanting it into a suitable test subject.

The results were truly encouraging.

The refined, corrupted, and implanted divinity of death drew something from the countless corpses around it and absorbed it into itself.

Like the gravity of a star that pulls and binds floating soil and rocks to form its own body.

And what was absorbed slowly dissolved into the divinity residing in the test subject’s left arm, naturally fusing with it.

He had succeeded in growing divinity itself just by piling up corpses.

Thus, Garmerlic discovered a way to gather the countless deaths overflowing in the world and sublimate them into the divinity of death.

With the success of the experiment he had pushed forward despite his doubts, all that remained was to expand the experiment to a global scale and spread harm throughout the world.

That was how Garmerlic came to break his long seclusion and cause the great upheaval that shook all of Naraka.

—-

Feyrus, with only his head remaining, ranted with a mouth that had no vocal cords.

He detailed what Garmerlic was trying to do, how brutal and horrific the slaughter would be, and what would happen as a result.

“Garmerlic has gained certainty and will no longer hesitate. He will advance without hesitation or looking back, until he fills this world with death.”

Wow, that’s truly an atrocity that would incite universal outrage.

Filling the entire world with death—even the mustached one-testicled man from the original world who pushed millions to their deaths would weep at this. He must be killed.

But isn’t that what you were trying to do?

“Why don’t you just join hands with them? What you’ve done and what you’re trying to do doesn’t seem much different from them.”

“It’s different.”

Feyrus firmly denied it.

“We inevitably gather souls as a means to an end, but his goal from the start is death itself. We can never coexist.”

Ah, really? That’s quite different, you bastard. Do you have no conscience?

Well, a cultist necromancer wouldn’t have a conscience. What could I expect from someone who treats human lives and souls like grain at a mill?

“So, you want me to fight him instead of you? That’s quite an appealing proposal. Have you heard of ‘using enemies against each other’?”

I snorted and stomped on Feyrus’s head.

It was true that I needed to fight and kill Garmerlic. If he was truly the source of this catastrophe, I would have to skin him alive before killing him, as I had sworn.

But that didn’t mean I had to follow Feyrus’s proposal. From my perspective, he was just another vermin I needed to catch and kill.

It meant that fighting and killing Garmerlic had to be done entirely of my own will. Not in the pathetic position of killing Feyrus’s enemy for him.

You say the result is the same?

How could it be the same? The former means I decide when and how to fight, while the latter means I’m just being used.

“Using enemies against each other…? Ah, you mean making enemies fight each other and reaping the benefits? I would if I could, but… unfortunately, it’s difficult this time.”

But Feyrus denied my accusation again.

“Then what? Surely you’re not going to spout nonsense about joining hands and fighting together?”

“…If you’re curious, why don’t you stop interrupting and listen?”

“I’ll listen to the end if you don’t talk nonsense.”

“Haah….”

Unable to refute, Feyrus sighed briefly and clicked his tongue before speaking again.

“Garmerlic is the most urgent threat at this moment. That’s a truth that won’t change whether you ignore or deny it. But they are not the only threat.”

“That’s true. You’re certainly as problematic as they are.”

“No, just listen….”

“Ah. Yes, yes. Continue.”

I laughed, giggling. Feyrus’s face, which had remained expressionless even when his limbs were cut off, was now contorted enough to make me feel satisfied.

Yes, it’s not easy to feign composure in front of me, is it? Keep being upset like that. It makes it easier for me to see through your intentions.

“…The vampires have been annihilated and the giant army has fallen to undead, but he still has the frost giants of Utgard. They will soon begin to move.”

Frost giants…

Right, they did exist. I’d have to deal with them eventually, but unlike other factions, they weren’t openly rampaging, so I’d put them on the back burner.

“I cannot know what they are trying to do… but my god wishes to stop them. However, I cannot face the undead army and the frost giants simultaneously with my power alone. That’s why I’ve come to you.”

“What nonsense is that? Are you asking me to handle one of the two instead?”

I was curious what he was going to say, but it was nonsense after all.

He’s asking me to help with what Alfodhr wants. Has this guy completely lost his mind? What nerve does he have to ask me such a favor…

“This is ridiculous. Since when have we been on such friendly terms that we help each other?”

If it’s something Alfodhr would like, it’s probably something that won’t benefit me. Why should I help rather than hinder?

“Yes, that reaction is natural. But you will have no choice but to comply.”

“Why, are you going to cry if I refuse? That would be quite a spectacle. Please show me.”

“Tears will flow. Unfortunately, they won’t be mine.”

Feyrus smiled, slightly raising the corner of his mouth. Though with only a head remaining and his eyeballs burst, it just looked ridiculous.

“I don’t know the frost giants’ purpose, but I can roughly predict what they’re trying to do. They plan to raise Utgard Castle to the surface.”

“I guess they want to bask in the sunlight. Some sunbathing can only be done once in a lifetime, but seeing the sun after thousands of years might be worth it.”

“And they are in the north. Underground in the area known as the Duchy of Faelrun on the outside.”

“……”

I fell silent for a moment. I could understand what he was trying to say.

“The Duchy of Faelrun ruling the northern surface and the ice castle of frost giants trying to rise to the surface. By now, can’t you guess what will happen?”

“Are you saying they’ll destroy Faelrun Castle? Or even pull it underground and bury it at the bottom of this Naraka?”

Feyrus indicated his agreement.

“Exactly right. What building could possibly withstand a massive fortress surging up from below? If left alone, Faelrun will collapse, and many will meet futile, or perhaps heroic, ends within.”

This bastard listened to me a bit and now he’s even threatening me. Is he saying that if I, or he, don’t step in to stop it, Faelrun will certainly perish?

“And doesn’t a friend of yours reside there? Frider van Faelrun. I heard she’s a close friend just a year apart in age.”

It was even a rather effective threat.

It was true that Frider was stuck in Faelrun territory, and as he said, if the frost giants destroyed Faelrun, given her personality, she would certainly rush at them.

And she would die.

Frider’s combat ability was, at best, average for a hero-class knight.

It had been quite a while since I’d seen her, so she might have grown somewhat in the meantime, but she definitely wouldn’t have reached the realm of demigods.

In other words, if the frost giants aren’t stopped before they rise to the surface, Frider’s death is all but certain.

I simply couldn’t ignore that possibility.