Ch.159The Scales (4)

“This is insane.”

A spontaneous reaction that came out without any thought. The ‘background settings’ throughout the novel, such as the detailed organization of the Ten Towers or the circumstances of the Divine Light Order, matched exactly with the current era, but perhaps something went wrong regarding the Demon Lord himself.

Now I could understand why the reason for the Demon Lord’s revival was described somewhat vaguely. It was beyond the scope of what could be determined through prophecy.

‘No. The real problem isn’t that.’

The title of the novel was “The Demon Lord Who Returned in 2077.” Though my memory wasn’t perfect, I was certain the number 2077 was in it.

But now I had to question whether the Demon Lord would actually return in 2077. Was the Demon Lord already revived?

Was Hydra Corporation, like the Divine Light Order, preparing a grand scheme over thousands of years to slowly destroy everything while seeing all?

Questions kept piling up one after another. Just as I was about to squeeze my eyes shut, Carisia’s white hair flashed briefly before me.

‘…Alright.’

I take a deep breath. Organize my thoughts. Extract evidence from my mind to verify my hypothesis.

First question.

Is the Demon Lord alive right now?

No.

The Demon Lord can’t just appear saying, “I’ve never actually experienced death.” The Ten Towers themselves are proof of that.

The golem Adusiam that I excavated from Pluto’s Great Temple, and the mental parasite that nearly committed suicide after a few words of persuasion from me upon sensing its creator’s absence, are further evidence.

And the revival through the mental parasite would have been significantly delayed when Carisia blew up the parasite.

Above all, if the Demon Lord were alive, he would have targeted the “Ten Commandments” directly. Not indirectly like the current actions of moving Arguirion to attack the Ten Towers, but in a very direct and clear manner.

‘Arguirion proclaimed truth and justice.’

I had already guessed that their “truth” referred to the Ten Towers’ assassination of the Demon Lord. In the same context, the cause they were trying to summon must be the Demon Lord.

‘The Demon Lord hasn’t been given a physical body yet.’

After confirming this proposition that forms the core of the plan, I felt more stable. I raised my head again to look at the Thunder Giant.

“If one tries to see a god through prophecy, what would be the result?”

“Unknown.”

“Even as a guess. This is important.”

“If divinity detects an attempt to read itself, it would only reveal what it wants to show. Like how Phoibos bestows prophecies upon his believers.”

I almost cursed. What if what I thought was a history book was actually an ancient fanboy record manipulated by the Demon Lord?

I was about to demand why it wasn’t doing its job properly.

“However, if the divinity failed to detect the act of prophecy, or if there are multiple divinities being observed through prophecy interfering with each other…”

“Then what?”

“It would manifest as a form of speculation about ‘the most likely future’ based on the information observed by the prophet and their subjectivity.”

It was truly an ambiguous condition. Did the Demon Lord not know about the foresight concerning himself? Or was there another power comparable to the Demon Lord that blinded his eyes?

I couldn’t know. The only thing I could base my judgment on was the present.

Another ‘divinity,’ huh.

I looked at Carisia and thought about her.

Baekmumeong was the only being in the original work who opposed the Demon Lord and thwarted his will.

The original work doesn’t describe in detail how Baekmumeong came to be born.

But I know Carisia. That she was originally born from the Ten Commandments’ White Light.

If the Ten Commandments are fragments containing part of the Demon Lord’s divinity, then Carisia might have inherited some of that divinity as well.

However, I questioned whether such a fragment could interfere with the Demon Lord. Even with sacred objects containing divine power in the world, prophecies still work fine—

‘Hmm?’

“…Don’t sacred objects interfere with prophecy?”

“Divinity-and-divine-power-are-concepts-of-different-dimensions.”

The Thunder Giant added a few words. Just as “mana” and “magical power” are considered similar yet different among mages.

Just as magical power is mana transformed to fit the form of individual mages, divine power is divinity possessed by gods as interpreted by individual priests.

Even divine objects (神物) created directly by the rare existing gods—like the Scales of Aigio that I now possess—containing divinity couldn’t interfere with prophecy either.

Two things are needed for divinity to interfere with prophecy: awareness of the act of prophecy, and the will to interfere with it. Divine objects contain divinity but lack the will to interfere with prophecy.

Then there was hope.

The Ten Commandments were essentially divine objects directly inheriting the Demon Lord’s divinity. And their owners, the successive Tower Lords, were unaware of prophecy’s existence while always being enemies of the Demon Lord.

Even if information about the Demon Lord himself couldn’t be clearly revealed due to the limitations of ancient priests’ capabilities, it could still be used as reference material to some extent.

“…Wait. Are you saying that the Scales of Aigio and other sacred objects I’ve found so far are classified as divine objects?”

“To preserve souls for thousands of years, one must borrow the power of divine objects.”

There’s one more person besides me collecting divine objects. The one the ancient priest of Hestia warned about.

Judging from the ability to freely utilize artifacts excavated from Pluto’s Great Temple, they likely hold a high position within the Divine Light Order.

Probably the Pope.

“What can be done by sacrificing divine objects and the souls of ancient priests?”

“—Ah.”

The Thunder Giant let out a somewhat ominous exclamation.

“That must be the missing piece I warned about. It was something I originally intended to warn you about, but it disappeared along with the soul fragment.”

Damn it.

I clutched my head.

“Though I have remained beyond the time permitted to humans, my soul is not whole. The time granted to my existence is not much.”

The light was slowly fading from the Thunder Giant’s limbs. I couldn’t help but sigh.

“You have fulfilled your duty. However, it seems I won’t need to use the scales.”

Hearing my response, the Thunder Giant hesitated briefly, then slowly opened his mouth.

Not with the thunderous, solemn, and massive voice, but with the voice of an ordinary old man, worn by time.

“I hope so.”

***

Ortes rose from his seat.

‘Is Carisia awake?’

At least outwardly, she was still lying in bed. He turned his gaze from Carisia to glare at the scales placed like a decoration in a corner of the desk.

Ortes stared at the scales for a long time, as if having a staring contest. One had no eyes, and the other had narrowed eyes, making it quite difficult to determine the winner.

Suddenly, Ortes muttered.

“Should I throw it away…”

“Don’t do that.”

Carisia had approached from behind without him noticing. Ortes, not particularly surprised, responded to the boss’s voice.

“That’s an easy solution. Someday, a situation might arise where we need to use it to solve everything.”

“That’s why we should keep it. You’re saying we might need to use it someday, right?”

Ortes sighed. He had no idea what price they would have to pay if they used the scales to defeat the Demon Lord, or if that proved impossible, to banish him from this world.

“I’ll put it in your office since I won’t be using it. I don’t want to keep it here and risk using it for something strange.”

Ortes passively resisted his boss’s will. Carisia nodded.

“Then go back to sleep. It’s still dawn.”

As Carisia headed back to the bed, Ortes also closed his eyes. After some silence, a gentle voice broke the quiet.

“Others would be confused whether your eyes are closed or not because they’re so narrow.”

A voice confident that Ortes was not sleeping.

“You can tell the difference, boss. That’s why I can’t doze off during meetings.”

As Carisia had been certain, Ortes was awake.

“Since you can’t sleep anyway, why not just come to bed? When we used to travel together, we slept holding each other.”

It was a playful question. Ortes chuckled and replied.

“What do you mean ‘each other’? It was you, boss. I was going to leave since one of us had to keep watch, but you forcibly held onto me, remember?”

“I told you I could detect things with magic!”

“As I’ve told you many times, you shouldn’t rely too much on that magic.”

The two continued their conversation for no particular reason. It was their old habit of dealing with unspoken anxiety.

“So, what were you thinking?”

“About what?”

“When you saved me.”

At the end of their long conversation, as dawn was breaking, Carisia asked.

“There was no special reason. It was just… the situation called for it.”

Ortes answered with his eyes still closed.