Ch.178Beyond the Dream (6)

“I am the God of Dreams. Once a deity who rose to the rank of Great God, husband to the Goddess of Night, and one who was dreaming an eternal dream for the gods who would return… I could be called the one who was left behind.”

That’s what the head in Llewellyn’s grasp said. Despite being the face of a beautiful woman, the expression it displayed was distinctly masculine.

He seemed unconcerned about this contradiction.

“You clearly said they would return, but I can see they haven’t. Or perhaps more accurately, they couldn’t return.”

Instead, with an expression full of regret, he blankly stared up at the sky. Though Llewellyn looked at the same sky, he couldn’t understand exactly what it meant.

So he quietly placed his middle finger against his index finger and then—

FLICK!

“Ugh…?!”

“Explain so I can understand.”

With calm nonchalance, he delivered a forehead flick to the deity.

The god tried to shudder from the pain before realizing he no longer had a body, and groaned.

The beautiful face grimaced in pain. It was a sight that stirred some unknown sadistic pleasure in Llewellyn, though he didn’t show it.

“How barbaric… words would have sufficed…”

“I don’t like vague explanations that gloss over details.”

“Vague? I explained everything!”

Sometimes people realize their mistake right after speaking. Gods apparently have similar moments—the God of Dreams froze after shouting in anger.

Hadn’t he mentioned something himself? An eternal dream.

Eternity is a long time. Even if not truly eternal, one certainly couldn’t call a mere 200 years “eternity.”

The God of Dreams broke into a cold sweat.

“Could it be… you don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“Though I’d like to scold your barbaric attitude, I must ask something first.”

Llewellyn nodded slightly as if to say “go ahead,” and the deity took a deep breath.

“Do you know about the Great Ascension?”

“No.”

The god’s face contorted with shock. Llewellyn added:

“I’ll answer in advance since you’ll probably ask later—the existence of gods is not common knowledge.”

“What do you mean?”

The explanation was insufficient. Llewellyn gathered his thoughts for a moment and decided to lay out everything.

“The existence of gods has long been forgotten. Only those who have become gods like me… or an extremely small number of powerful individuals, or those connected to artifacts left by gods, know of their existence.”

From a god’s perspective, this was absurd. How could people forget gods of all things?

But at the same time, a realization dawned.

After the God of Dreams began his eternal dream, so much time had passed that even gods had been forgotten.

The God of Dreams was shocked by this realization. He had no idea how much time had passed while he slept.

“…Are you alright?”

When the god stopped mid-explanation in shock, Llewellyn was concerned not about the deity’s well-being but about the explanation he was supposed to hear.

But even as just a head, a god was still a god.

The God of Dreams quickly composed himself.

“I am fine. I merely needed to sort out what to explain to you first.”

His attitude had changed. When Llewellyn raised an eyebrow, the God of Dreams cleared his throat and spoke.

“First… let me explain about the Great Ascension.”

*

Llewellyn set the God’s head down in a suitable place and listened to the explanation coming from its mouth.

The masculine speech pattern combined with a feminine voice might have been distracting, but Llewellyn was already accustomed to “unusual speech patterns” thanks to Lorian’s knightly way of speaking.

So Llewellyn listened attentively, his greatsword thrust into the ground.

“The Great Ascension was, let’s say… our grand plan.”

“Our?”

“What we call the Pantheon.”

A familiar name. Under Llewellyn’s gaze, the God of Dreams continued.

“But before explaining the Great Ascension, I should explain why it came about. Would you prefer a simple explanation or a detailed one?”

“Keep it simple.”

Llewellyn had a habit of skipping cutscenes that were too long.

“Yes, simple is better. You’ll learn the details soon enough anyway.”

The God of Dreams seemed to accept this on his own, tried to nod before remembering he had no body, sighed, and then spoke:

“Simply put, there was a god among us who could see the future. That god revealed that our eternity wasn’t truly eternal, and would eventually fade away. We sought to avoid that fate.”

Llewellyn recalled something he had once heard in passing.

That even the universe isn’t eternal and will someday die.

Though not being a science major limited Llewellyn’s knowledge on the subject, it was enough to understand what the god was saying.

“But no one knew how to avoid it—until a certain mage made a mistake and opened the sky.”

“Wait.”

Llewellyn had to frown at that part.

Something felt off. He lacked the verbal ability to articulate what felt wrong, but the God of Dreams was an excellent listener.

As Llewellyn slowly fumbled through his thoughts, the God of Dreams listened carefully and summarized:

“You find it strange that while gods have been forgotten, the existence of the sinner who opened the sky remains common knowledge.”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“Someone must have concealed our existence. And judging by your expression, you can guess who.”

Llewellyn thought of the Empress. More specifically, the Three Clans and the beings known as “Father” and “Mother” and their underlings.

What would they gain by erasing the existence of gods?

He didn’t know. But in this land, only they could have made people forget about gods.

Llewellyn nodded in understanding and signaled the god to continue.

“We’ll discuss that later. Let me continue my explanation. Knots should be tied at the proper time.”

The god rolled his eyes to look at the sky. True to the expression “opening the sky,” the sky stretched high above, filled with stars.

The only difference was that they weren’t moving. Time seemed to have stopped—everything except Llewellyn and the god was frozen.

‘What a convenient power. I wonder if I could use it in battle.’

That would be nice. As if hearing his thoughts, the God of Dreams added before continuing his explanation:

“I should clarify that this isn’t time being stopped, but rather you and I sharing the same dream. You could call it a dream that affects reality.”

“…I don’t understand. You’re saying time isn’t stopped?”

“That’s right.”

“Then will the severed head reattach?”

“No.”

Confusing. Llewellyn didn’t understand, but at least he knew it functioned similarly to stopping time.

“Since this is ultimately a dream, it would be difficult to apply in combat. Dreams break when disturbed.”

“Useless then. Fine, continue your explanation.”

“Yes, I should. Where was I… Ah yes, I was talking about the owner of this body.”

This body. More accurately, this head. Llewellyn glanced at the remains of Renia, whose body he had severed, leaving only the head, and pretended not to notice.

“What the owner of this body did provided an excellent indicator for the gods. It proved that there were worlds beyond this sky… and abundant potential there.”

The decision was made quickly after that, the God of Dreams added, rolling his eyes.

“We called this plan the Great Ascension. It was a plan for all gods to cross the sky at once, reach new potential, and truly attain eternity.”

The God of Dreams recalled the past. Back when gods still existed, when the Pantheon planned the Great Ascension and everyone prepared to depart.

The very few gods who couldn’t bring themselves to leave, and those who had committed sins and couldn’t depart.

The God of Dreams didn’t hide even this. Partly because there was no point in hiding anything when reduced to just a head, but also because he felt his role was to reveal everything if the person before him was the last born god.

“Only those like me who sympathized with humans, or had unfinished business, or disagreed with the Great Ascension itself, along with those who had committed sins and couldn’t participate in the Ascension, remained behind.”

“Which category did the God of Craftsmanship fall into?”

“You know of him?”

Surprised by the sudden mention of the name, the God of Dreams listened as Llewellyn glumly nodded.

“I killed him. I thought he was a steward like you… I had no choice.”

“That’s no problem. He was a sinner. A sinner who devoured the God of Vengeance—he wouldn’t have felt regret even in death.”

It was a clean assessment. Seeming to feel no regret whatsoever, Llewellyn nodded, though he wondered if they weren’t fellow gods.

“But I was different from him. I was special.”

“Because you possessed a sinner’s body?”

“No, because I was the only Great God who remained.”

Great God. An unfamiliar term to Llewellyn. Understandably so, since gods didn’t exist in Grim Darker, so there were no terms for divine ranks.

But he could make some guesses. A Great God must be no ordinary deity.

“And as the only remaining Great God… I decided to enter a long sleep until my wife returned to announce the success of the Great Ascension. While also keeping watch over the sinner who opened the sky.”

Llewellyn recalled what the God of Dreams had said earlier.

Husband of the Night, wasn’t it?

Even just hearing the name gave the impression that she was no ordinary goddess.

“But she never returned. That’s how I knew the Great Ascension had failed. Even my sleep wasn’t peaceful.”

“Not peaceful?”

“There was a being hunting the sinner’s body. I thought I had vanquished it when the sky first opened, but it didn’t die and came looking for its contractor.”

Now Llewellyn could guess what had happened.

The sword embedded in the Transcendent’s body, the sealed sinner’s body, the God of Dreams who vanished without a trace.

Llewellyn looked at the sword in his hand.

“That monster acted as if it would destroy everything. I had no choice but to subdue it.”

But subduing a monster that had gained spatial distortion and immortality couldn’t have been easy. The God of Dreams smiled bitterly in self-mockery.

“I had to drain my last divinity and even seek the sinner’s help to subdue it. Afterward… with my existence fading and death approaching, I had to remain in the sinner’s body. Crushed by the monster’s presence, I could do nothing.”

After that, things remained constant, the deity said.

A life of falling asleep, dreaming, waking up in despair, and falling asleep again.

In those dreams, the God of Dreams realized his mistake.

“It had only come to take its contractor from the beginning. I could have simply handed it over without exerting myself… it was a mistake.”

The god closed his eyes in regret. Once a Great God, he was now a prisoner bound to a sinner’s body.

“So I was looking for someone to pull out the sword. If only the sword were removed, I would be free again.”

Though not this kind of freedom, he added.

Llewellyn couldn’t laugh. It was a humorless joke—who would wish for freedom from their body, or more precisely, their upper body?

But regardless of what he thought, the truth of this whole affair was essentially the result of a series of mistakes.

The consequences of recklessly opening the sky, the tragedy of trying to block a Transcendent’s will by misinterpreting it.

And even the divine power recklessly applied to somehow escape that state.

A truly miserable affair. And at the end of it all, even his neck was sliced.

Llewellyn felt a slight twinge of guilt, and the God of Dreams, seeing the “new deity’s” face, asked:

“Why did you come here?”

“I… came because suddenly everyone was heading here, and I wanted to fix anything wrong before that happened.”

Recruiting the entire city was a secondary concern. After all, that would only be possible if the people remained intact.

“How are things outside?”

“Not great, and it’s complicated in many ways, so I’m not sure I can explain…”

As Llewellyn tilted his head uncertainly, the God of Dreams pondered.

“Why did you go to meet the God of Craftsmanship?”

No answer came. Llewellyn averted his eyes and tried not to answer, but.

That itself was somewhat of an answer.

The God of Dreams guessed his intention and, despite having no lungs, heaved a deep sigh.

“This too must be the guidance of fate. Very well. Take me with you.”

“…Huh?”

It was a sudden proposition. As Llewellyn stared blankly, the God of Dreams smiled faintly.

“Many divine beings still remain in this land. Whether you know it or not, there are far more gods who couldn’t follow due to their sins than those like me who chose to stay.”

“Wait, are you saying—”

“I will help you. I will give you my knowledge, my counsel.”

With his chin raised proudly, the God of Dreams smiled despite being reduced to just a head.

“So that you may devour all gods and become the true deity of this land.”

An arrogant declaration.

A declaration filled with confidence that he would definitely be of help.

“I’d rather not.”

“…What?”

“Carrying around a severed head doesn’t appeal to me.”

Llewellyn declined with a disgruntled expression.

Thanks to this, Llewellyn learned just how annoying a god’s tantrum could be.

When Lucilla was released from the dream, the first thing she saw was her brother with a talking head tucked under his arm.