Ch.217217. The Human God

“…….”

Outside the walls of Greyfond.

Dark clouds gradually gather in what was a bright sky.

Did the heavens sense something, preparing to send a sudden spring rain?

Erika Bright sinks into deep thought with her arms crossed.

“Are you sure it’s alright for you to be here?”

One of the Bright family mages approaches her.

Currently, they were monitoring the followers of Mule who were staying in the tent village, along with soldiers from the Zeronia family.

The Great Debate had already passed its midpoint.

He was concerned about her absence, as the fiancée of the Spiritmaster, especially when the outcome of the debate remained uncertain.

But Erika shook her head.

“He’ll manage just fine on his own.”

Her firm faith doesn’t waver.

Yet when she speaks of him, her voice softens noticeably.

It was clear how much Erika Bright loved her fiancé.

“Even if I’m not by his side, it’s right that I do what I can for him.”

This wasn’t much different from how Erika had always expressed her affection.

Because she loved him, she kept her distance; because she loved him, she let him go in days past.

Because she loves him, even now she watches his enemies rather than him.

Because Erika Bright is a woman who can stand on her own.

That’s what makes her so radiant and beautiful.

“I… don’t understand.”

At the mage’s words, Erika didn’t bother to explain or make him understand.

No, rather, a faint smile formed on her lips precisely because he didn’t understand.

A story between just the two of them, incomprehensible to others.

As Erika was once again realizing the many forms love can take—

FWAAAAAAAK!

Multiple tents from the tent village suddenly fly up to the top of the high walls.

Without any warning, tentacles emerge and begin violently tearing apart the tents.

“KYAAAAH!”

“L-Lord! My Lord!”

“Mule! Mule! My younger sibling is sick here!”

Screams spread amid the sudden and unexpected situation.

Meanwhile, the towering tentacles extend their massive bodies toward the walls.

PWAGAK!

But a golden light pierces straight through such a tentacle and extends outward.

The light melts the eyes and teeth attached to the tentacle, causing green blood to spurt out like a fountain.

The soldiers, frozen at the hellish scene unfolding before them, regain their senses upon seeing Erika’s light.

“Report to the royal family!”

Erika gathers the Bright family mages and Zeronia’s soldiers.

“W-weapons don’t work!”

“W-what is this!”

“The spears just pass through!”

The guards who aren’t affiliated with any family thrust their spears and swords at the tentacles climbing the walls.

But they merely pass through the semi-transparent forms without causing any damage.

Seeing this, Erika recalls what Deus had told her before they parted today.

The true identity and characteristics of the god called Romuleus.

A being that cannot be harmed by ordinary weapons or common magic.

The spears and swords are ineffective, making it impossible to stop the enemy, while their numbers continue to grow.

“N-no! Nooooo!”

“AAAAH! Mule! Lord Mule!”

“Motherrrr!”

The desperate screams of people continue to echo from below the walls.

The followers of Mule staying in the tent village swell up, burst, and transform into tentacles.

This is.

The fate of those who worshipped the man who performed miracles not permitted in this world.

They were neither right nor wise, and even selfish.

“This is too cruel.”

But even so, their deaths were brutally harsh.

Faith.

The weight of responsibility carried by those two simple characters was materializing outside the walls of Greyfond.

Like deep seaweed swaying in ocean waters, tentacles of various sizes begin climbing up the walls.

Forcibly swallowing the hot breath rising in her throat, Erika clenches her hands.

‘Ordinary weapons can’t cause meaningful damage anyway.’

The weapons the soldiers carry cannot harm those tentacles, which appear to be the body of a god.

“Everyone get down below the wall! Block the gates from opening!”

Staying here would only lead to meaningless deaths.

Moreover, seeing how the followers in the tent village transformed, there was a possibility that even touching the tentacles could be dangerous.

At least the gates could be reinforced and blocked, which was the best option for now.

“What madness is this!”

A fierce shout rings out from behind.

Erika, who was preparing spirit magic, slightly turned her head.

There stood the guard captain with his impressive mustache.

“Who gave you permission to commandeer and deploy troops! Even if His Majesty permitted your private soldiers, our guard is not under your jurisdiction!”

“……”

“Guards! Take positions on the wall immediately! Stop those monsters!”

“Those monsters cannot be touched with conventional weapons or magic. Right now, blocking the walls and withdrawing troops is our best option.”

“How can you be so certain! Will you take responsibility?! Being the Spiritmaster’s fiancée doesn’t mean we have to follow your every command!”

For a moment, Erika glared at the guard captain with fierce eyes.

Momentarily intimidated by her cold aura, the guard captain flinched and stepped back.

But Erika slowly turned her gaze back to the outside of the wall.

“I’m not standing here as the Spiritmaster’s fiancée.”

She has no intention of shifting responsibility to him.

“Erika Bright of the Bright family. As a proud mage in my own right, I will take full responsibility for everything here.”

A golden butterfly lands on her fingertips.

“King of the spirits.”

Erika whispers to it, then raises her hand high as if releasing it.

The golden butterfly begins to grow larger as it flies higher into the sky.

“I beseech you.”

FLASH!

The golden butterfly grows enormous enough to cover part of Greyfond’s sky.

The tentacles try to oppose it but melt away before they can even touch it.

“Protect us.”

FLASH!

The massive butterfly crumbles like debris and falls as rain.

Golden rain falling from the cloudy sky.

The pouring rainwater forms a massive barrier that envelops the walls.

The tentacles that rush to break through it turn to ash the moment they touch it.

‘As I thought.’

Erika had been certain since her first strike that her magic was effective against them.

That her magic, accompanied by the Spirit King of Light, would work against them.

Having single-handedly defended the wall, Erika directs sharp words at the guard captain who was staring at her with a dumbfounded expression.

“I can’t hold out for long. Hurry and request reinforcements.”

“Ah! Ah! Y-yes! Understood!”

The guard captain, his authoritarian demeanor completely gone, salutes and starts to run down the wall, but.

“Ah……”

With his sigh comes the sound of explosions from behind.

PWAAAAK!

The tentacles pushing from outside could be held back for now with Erika’s spirit magic.

PWAAAAK!

PWAAAAK!

But seeing tentacles erupting from various places inside the city, Erika could only let out a sigh.

* * *

At the center of the debate hall.

Sharl’s body transforms into a massive tentacle, asserting its presence.

The teeth embedded in the tentacle grind, and its bloodshot eyes glare at me.

“No! This can’t be!”

“M-Mule! What in the world is happening!”

The tentacle that appeared in the center of the debate hall swings its massive body, trying to crush me.

“Hmm!”

KWAJIJIJIK!

A powerful electric shock shoots out, reducing it to ashes.

The person with the highest magical achievement in this place.

Grand Magician Rockpellican, who was moderating the debate, strikes the floor with his thick oak staff and glares at Mule.

“You need to explain yourself properly, foolish one.”

No longer as a moderator, but as a mage and as a key figure protecting this country.

Rockpellican shoots fierce killing intent toward Mule, but Mule responds with a sneer.

“Pitiful fools who don’t understand the greater purpose.”

The atmosphere of the man who could have been called a good shepherd until just now changes drastically.

“Bow your heads under our august will. Praise me, who has descended upon this crude land for the salvation of the continent.”

His voice distorts.

He shouted in a thick, bizarre voice as if dozens of people were speaking simultaneously.

“It’s time to pay the price for twisting and distorting fate!”

PWAAAAK!

Tentacles pour out from the audience seats. Though the screams of the confused people can’t be heard due to the silence magic, the sight of the audience fleeing in panic is vividly clear.

“I am the fallen god, Romuleus! I am the messenger who has personally descended to expound the truth and verity of this land to you!”

The floor beneath Mule begins to crack.

CRACK! CRACKLE!

Small tentacles emerging from the cracks engulf the bishops who were closest and supporting Mule.

“Lord Raizer! Strike this one down!”

“N-no! Save meeeee!”

“Goddess! Goddess Hertia!”

But despite their pleas, Mule bursts into maniacal laughter.

“It is I who sat on the same throne as them, ate and drank the same things, and beheld the same visions! Who are you calling upon, my beloved ones!”

The cracks beneath Mule’s feet continued to widen,

and the tentacles rising from within moved greedily to devour people.

“S-Saintess!”

“Holy power! Against that wicked demon!”

The bishops call for Lucia.

“Hm.”

Though she already knew the outcome, Lucia extends her hand to demonstrate.

Pure white holy power shot toward Mule.

The gift of God that destroys all evil.

The greatest proof that God still watches over this continent.

However.

Mule merely absorbs her holy power and grins with his mouth stretched wide.

“Ignorant child, trying to punish me with the power we gave you. Come, bow your head. Your god has arrived.”

He was spreading the holy power after corrupting it as his own.

But it was different from the ordinary holy power the Saintess used.

Perhaps because it was holy power corrupted by a fallen god.

Normally, the brilliant blessing of God would heal and restore those it touches.

But the holy power Mule was shooting had a murky gray color and was turning those it touched into parts of himself—into tentacles.

“Ah……”

Lucia gasps.

Not only was holy power ineffective, but it was being used as a dramatic theatrical device to prove that Mule was truly a god.

Because the gray light Mule was pouring out was fundamentally the same as her holy power.

As Lucia stared at them with a bewildered expression—

“I ask of you.”

[Don’t worry.]

The woman who received my request steps forward.

Former Saintess Stella.

Just as she did for Sharl’s soul, the witness of resurrection, her divine form takes on color and materializes.

“S-Stella!”

“Why is the former Saintess here!”

The bishops who spotted Stella greeted her with surprise and raised voices, but.

Stella herself was in a standoff, glaring at Mule.

“Woman who served, you have received faith, now withdraw.”

A clear dismissal indicating he had no further business with Stella. But Stella slowly spreads both hands.

[Remember when I asked? What should I do if God suddenly ends my mission?]

Mule gives a clear answer to her question.

“Accept it humbly.”

For that is my will.

The god was saying so, but the Saintess who had been closest to that god answered differently.

[I was filled with questions. With so many people still needing to be saved, why did God take away my power? Why end my path here?]

“……”

[Could God not see those poor souls?]

Mule did not answer.

Sometimes God answers with silence, and Stella was a woman who found answers within that silence.

[After much contemplation, I realized as I set down my mission.]

“……”

[Ah, God does not consider saving them to be my mission.]

Though granted holy power, she had never actually received a mission from God.

The mission to heal those who were pitiful, sick, and wounded was.

Not given by God.

It was something Stella had decided for herself.

“You who arbitrarily judged God’s will were not worthy of that power.”

[Is that so?]

With a slight smile, Stella’s hands slowly fold together.

As if in prayer.

[You are throwing the continent into chaos.]

“This is order.”

[Those called your believers are suffering.]

“For those who followed me, it will be the most joyful death.”

[I see.]

“…!”

Suddenly, Mule’s eyes begin to tremble. His gray holy power that had been covering the debate hall gradually begins to disappear.

More precisely, with unclear dominance, it was naturally oxidizing.

And the one doing this was.

The woman before him, who once truly deserved the name Saintess in her handling of holy power.

[Fallen god.]

Normally, holy power should have burned Stella’s soul state upon contact.

But the corrupted holy power shared only its name and nature with the original—its effect was something completely different.

[Being who brings chaos to the continent, I’m sorry, but please don’t arbitrarily treat us as your believers.]

The gray holy power gradually gathers before Stella.

Mule tried to resist, but his skill in handling holy power couldn’t even begin to compare.

The god took such power for granted, while Stella had always contemplated and practiced how to handle it.

As Stella clenches her fist, the holy power cracks and then—

KWADEUK!

With the crack, it shatters completely.

[You are not our god.]

The teal eyes of the deceased Saintess warned the fallen one.

[Such a god, we don’t need.]