Ch.387Starlight-Laden Past. Meteor Crater (4)

“Haaa….”

“Are you calmer now?”

Victor nodded slightly.

He had calculated that whining and dawdling here wouldn’t yield any particular benefit.

If his corruption meant humanity’s corruption, then standing firm would make humanity’s soul like a mighty fortress as well.

Though it was a case of the interpretation being more significant than the dream itself, at least thinking this way stabilized his mind.

“Still. I have one question left.”

“What is it?”

“How did you know I was a god? It’s hard to believe I’m the only person who’s brought an army to this pit so far.”

“Oh, that?”

The old man, as if it were nothing significant, handed him a rod.

Looking at it closely, there was a small square monitor attached to the end. When Victor grasped it, the screen immediately filled with repeating sequences of numbers showing 9999.

“What’s this?”

“How should I put it… In terms your sensibilities would understand, a divine power detector? Anyway, it’s an artifact with such a function. Think of it as a tool for detecting supernatural abilities.”

“I see. A supernatural power monitoring device.”

Even on the surface, supernatural abilities are commonly seen. Similar to sorcerers born with innate magic, these are people who don’t even use mana but draw power from somewhere connected to their essence.

Since their origins remain undiscovered, most people distrust those with supernatural powers, and findings made through their abilities aren’t admissible as evidence in court. Nevertheless, those with supernatural powers are treated as invaluable assets in armies and adventurer parties.

They could unleash supernatural powers rivaling magic without being affected by magic-nullifying tools—what profession could be more convenient?

The powers of gods can also be considered a type of supernatural ability in principle.

Whether the Four Great Gods or the sun and moon, they don’t use intermediaries like mana when exercising their authority.

They can simply control their powers at will because they are inherently theirs.

“You’ve set a new record. The previous highest score was… about 12,000 or 13,000, I believe. Truly remarkable. Seeing house-sized fragments floating through the air without you lifting a finger.”

“I heard there were no auras in the Age of Stars, but it seems there were people with supernatural powers?”

“They suddenly appeared when humanity began cultivating potatoes on Mars. At first, they were very weak. Bending metal spoons from a distance or guessing others’ feelings? But as humanity’s numbers grew and technology advanced, the powers of these individuals began to strengthen rapidly. Crumpling tanks weighing over 100 tons like paper, manipulating the minds of thousands of people at will.”

“Not much different from now. Was doom predetermined even back then?”

Magic, supernatural powers. If these forces share anything in common, it’s that they wield superhuman power.

The magic or supernatural abilities used by a single adventurer party might require an expert to interpret, but on battlefields where thousands clash, even ordinary people can feel the waves of superhuman power. When someone truly focuses to twist the earth’s crust to raise mountains or divert waterways with grand magic, people instinctively shudder even tens of kilometers away.

And everything comes with a price—the more one abuses superhuman power, the harder it becomes to deploy magic. Just as calluses form when the same spot is repeatedly injured, the world operates on mechanical causality and inevitably resents when individuals not bound by the world’s rules implement their will against its laws.

Fields made fertile through magic eventually become barren wastelands, and people manipulated by supernatural powers gradually develop immunity unless killed or persuaded through eloquence.

If the former is the world’s defense mechanism, the latter is built into humanity itself—a congenital safeguard preventing “magicians” from enslaving human will.

Isn’t it common in fairy tales? Those who create sinister things like “love potions” ultimately fall as villains.

“But we couldn’t establish any countermeasures. We couldn’t just kill supernatural individuals on sight. Above all, they developed too quickly for our outdated judicial and legislative systems to respond.”

“Fine. Then let me ask one last question.”

“What is it?”

“Why did you bring me underground? If you could contain a god like me, making contact with ordinary people would have been literally child’s play. No matter how many fragments have accumulated, couldn’t you have used that ‘hardening light’ or whatever to create a barrier?”

“…”

When Victor said this, the old man showed him his body attached to the mechanical device.

“Tell me. Do I really look alive to you?”

“…What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. Hanging from this massive machine… a life where I can’t die even if I want to… Knowledge that has stagnated to the point of decay weighs me down, and the burden of 100,000 years presses upon me… I want liberation. You have already succeeded in building a civilization far more powerful than when we perished. There’s no place now for a… soul of the past like me. Isn’t that right?”

“You desire death.”

“…That’s right.”

Death.

Not something any intelligent being could easily speak of.

But this old man, the most ancient one who had endured extreme solitude for 100,000 years, had every right to desire death.

He had lived far too long and was equally powerless.

Although Victor couldn’t read his past and thoughts since he wasn’t of the Sun People, he knew the old man wasn’t lying.

“I shall render judgment.”

“…”

“You have dared, in a world ruled by the God of the Sun, to use technology that insults divine authority to bind me, and dragged me like livestock to slaughter into your cave. This is an insult to royalty and blasphemy against divinity. The judgment for this can only lead to death.”

“Finally…”

“However.”

“?”

“One cannot punish those who are already dead.”

“Wh…what…?”

“Therefore, I shall pronounce my judgment. Old man of the Star People, listen and remember. As the God of the Sun, I shall raise this land again. Your facility shall become a museum, and you shall become an entity of this world with a mission from the past. Pass on and teach the broken and forgotten past. Your knowledge has value, so I shall resurrect one who is dead, to await the day of final judgment once more.”

As the God so judges, let the earth rise.

RUMBLE!

“What! The ground is… rising???”

“Be still. I am the master of all things under the sun. The earth shall rightfully obey my command.”

Reverence gradually fills the old man’s eyes as he experiences divine power for the first time.

And simultaneously, expectation takes root.

To him, who had swallowed loneliness for 100,000 years in this pit full of past failures, the god was about to assign a new role.

CRASH!

Like a volcanic eruption, the pit rises again.

As a mountain, as a hill—the place where humans had lowered the elevation by 12km over 1,200 years now stood as a mountain with an elevation of 3,400m, looking down upon them.

“To the fragments, debris, and all things distant from the polarized light of the stars, I command: reveal what is hidden within you.”

At this, from millions of fragments and debris, precious relics of the past emerge. Like parents distributing gifts to their children during holidays, they were given to the citizens of Meteor who were blankly staring at the transcendent scene, and they knelt down, crying out Victor’s name.

“By this, the pit has ascended to become a mountain range, which is my mercy to uncover the century’s secrets that have been buried in darkness. You, who have survived and been cursed, from now on, live and transmit. Spread your knowledge and past to the subjects of this land with that aged mouth, telling how the ancients perished and what great achievements these Sun People have accomplished. This is the punishment for a traitor who committed treason against divinity. No secular power can overturn this disposition.”

In the end, Victor did not go on an adventure.

But as a god, as a monarch, he succeeded in bringing a gift that would completely shake the historical academia of the 13 continents.