Chapter 7 – The Assault

Athalia, the young god who could be called the chief deity of Pleiades, watched her world in bewilderment.

Dozens—no, perhaps over a hundred Outer Gods had descended upon Pleiades.

It was something that should have been impossible.

Outer Gods did not move in packs.

Throughout all of history, the number of Outer Gods who had visited Pleiades could be counted on one’s fingers.

She couldn’t even begin to fathom the scale of the calamity that would unfold if such a number of them began to run rampant.

The damage could be even greater than the Disaster War, when the Seven Calamities and the demon worshippers had run mad.

But that wasn’t the end of the problem.

“We’re cut off.”

The world was sealed.

All connections between Pleiades and the outside were severed.

She could no longer feel the Witch’s presence in Hell.

She could no longer communicate with the Great Archangels in the Heavenly Realm.

Athalia, the chief god of Pleiades, knew.

Pleiades was isolated.

A great barrier, erected by dozens of Outer Gods, had trapped the entirety of Pleiades as if it were in a box.

What was the reason?

Why would the Outer Gods do such a thing?

“Yudelia.”

Yuder and Cordelia.

The guardian deities of Pleiades.

This had all happened in the brief moment they were away.

It was as if the enemy had been waiting for their absence.

“This is a planned invasion.”

It wasn’t a spontaneous attack.

The enemy had clearly been targeting Pleiades for a long time.

If so, what was their objective?

Did they simply wish to feast on souls, as Outer Gods were wont to do?

Athalia closed her eyes and focused her consciousness.

Though she had lost most of her power and authority as a chief god from piecing the world back together so many times, she was still the chief god of Pleiades.

She could understand Pleiades more completely than any other god.

Athalia’s soul—her divinity—reached out to the world.

Within the world’s system, she surveyed all of Pleiades.

And then she knew.

There was one Outer God who was observing the world.

Athalia instinctively sensed that she was the ultimate enemy who had orchestrated this entire crisis.

The surrounding scenery changed.

A white sky and a black earth.

In that place, which stretched out endlessly like a horizon, Athalia saw a goddess standing alone, gazing up at the sky.

She was a white, beautiful goddess.

There were shattered traces here and there, as if the edges of a statue had been broken off, but she possessed a power so immense it was hard to believe she was an Outer God who had lost her foundation.

“Hello.”

The goddess spoke while looking at the sky. Her voice was sorrowful yet beautiful, stirring a protective instinct.

Instead of replying, Athalia glared at the goddess.

At Athalia’s gaze, the goddess smiled faintly, then lowered her head to look at Athalia.

“Hello again. My name is Aylia.”

“I am Athalia,” Athalia replied stiffly. Aylia nodded as if she understood.

“It’s only natural for you to be hostile. After all, I am your—no, Pleiades’ enemy. And I’m about to do something very terrible.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“Something truly awful and cruel.”

With a self-deprecating smile, Aylia pointed to her own broken shoulder and said, “The world I was born in was shattered. It hasn’t vanished, but it’s badly broken.”

The concepts embedded in her story were transmitted to Athalia.

Aylia’s world.

That world, broken in half, was empty.

No one lived there, and no one could.

“I want to fix our world.”

“I will offer my help.”

“Thank you, but I must decline. This isn’t a problem that can be solved by just borrowing a few hands.”

Aylia pointed to the sky and the earth.

As she did, the sky and earth parted as smoothly as if it were a lie, revealing what lay beyond.

The aggregate of information that constituted the world of Pleiades.

The very cornerstones of the world.

“Athalia, I like you. I think what you did to save your world was truly remarkable. So I’ve decided to be bold as well. Because when it comes to saving one’s world, one cannot be picky about the means.”

As Aylia reached for the sky, the cornerstone revealed beyond the space—what should rightly be called the World Stone—began to tremble.

“Ah, I see. I can’t take it from here. I suppose I’ll have to go get it myself, won’t I?”

Athalia neither confirmed nor denied Aylia’s words, but that was enough.

In the process of stitching Pleiades back together numerous times, its World Stone had gained a physical form within the world.

“Is our world’s World Stone your objective?”

“Yes, I need it to restore our world. With the World Stone of Pleiades, our world can live again.”

Aylia spoke with a bright smile, as if it were a wonderful thing.

She was a chief god.

She had to know what stealing a World Stone meant.

“Aylia.”

“Yes, Athalia.”

“Are you saying you will destroy our world for the sake of yours?”

“Yes, that’s the plan.”

Because I am the chief god of my world.

Because I will fill our star with life once more.

Because I promised everyone who departed that I would.

“If the world collapses, everyone in Pleiades will die.”

“I know that, too. And for that, I am sorry. Truly.”

But I will not stop.

I will save my world, even if it means destroying yours.

“Goodbye, Athalia. It was a pleasure to meet you. And a word of advice in advance. Yuder and Cordelia cannot come. You know the reason why, don’t you?”

Smiling beautifully, Aylia vanished in a flash of light.

Left alone, Athalia felt a wave of dizziness but clenched her teeth and perceived the world once more.

Aylia’s objective was the World Stone.

And she had now pinpointed the locations of the stones.

This meant there was no longer any need to wait.

Athalia could see them.

The figures of the Outer Gods beginning their descent from the sky to the earth.

The inhabitants of Pleiades, feeling fear and awe as they watched the alien gods suddenly appear.

“No.”

Seeing an Outer God appear in the sky, a small child reached a hand toward it.

The Outer God saw the child and smiled a white smile.

It unleashed its divine power.

An entire village vanished.

And this was only the beginning.

Athalia clenched her fists and turned to the east.

An army of terrifying scale had begun its march alongside the Outer Gods.

The Azure Dragon.

The Superhuman Emperor who had unified the East.

Now she understood.

He was a vassal of the Outer Gods.

No, having accepted the power of numerous Outer Gods, it was no exaggeration to call him another Outer God himself—a Human God.

“Yuder… Cordelia.”

The young god Athalia collapsed where she stood.

She screamed at the tragedies that began to erupt simultaneously across the world.

*

“It is impossible.”

To Yuder’s question about how to enter Pleiades, the Witch stated it plainly.

“As it is now, there is no way to enter Pleiades.”

“Why is that?”

“It is because of the Outer Gods’ barrier.”

The languid smile was gone from the Witch’s face.

She rose from her throne and walked toward Yuder and Cordelia.

“The Outer Gods’ barrier is distorting space itself. It makes a space leap to Pleiades impossible, even if you know the coordinates. In fact, you were lucky to have even arrived in Hell. Had things gone slightly awry, you might have crash-landed in a world you don’t even know, one far, far more distant than this.”

Yuder understood what the Witch was saying.

And he also understood why she said entry was impossible.

Travel between worlds was fundamentally premised on space leaps.

But if the very gate of space was being distorted, there was no way in.

“It is not just one or two. It is a barrier erected by dozens of Outer Gods working together.”

Three large spheres floated up behind the Witch.

The one on the left was Hell, the one in the middle was Pleiades, and the one on the right was the Heavenly Realm.

The Witch looked up at Pleiades, which was encased in a round film above her head, and continued.

“I have also explored the possibility of attempting a space leap through a gap or a hole in the barrier, but I have concluded that it is practically impossible.”

The Outer Gods’ barrier was not stationary; it was rotating irregularly.

There was no pattern, making it impossible to even formulate a plan to aim for a fleeting moment.

“So is there no way at all? Can’t we just blow up the barrier?”

At Cordelia’s question, the Witch of the Deep Forest shook her head.

To remotely destroy a barrier created not by one but by many Outer Gods, and a barrier in another world at that, was impossible not only for the Witch but even for the Great Lords of Hell, who were fully-fledged gods.

What, then, was to be done?

Were they to just stand by and watch as Pleiades was ravaged by the Outer Gods?

Yuder gritted his teeth and began to think.

The Witch watched Yuder with a sliver of hope, while Cordelia, instead of clinging to Yuder, stared intently at the models of the worlds the Witch had created.

There had to be a way.

Some kind of way.

A way to enter Pleiades from Hell—

“Ah.”

Cordelia suddenly spoke up.

Yuder and the Witch turned to her simultaneously. Cordelia flinched for a moment, then shot her hand up like a student presenting in class and said, “Um, hey! Wouldn’t this be possible?”

Though they often forgot, Cordelia was the greatest archmage in Pleiades.

So much so that she could have taken on the role of the God of Magic, in addition to being the Goddess of the Sun, Love, and Beauty.

This was her opinion.

No, forget the God of Magic—this was Cordelia.

Yuder knew her power to bypass the process and arrive at the result.

“Have you thought of a good idea?”

At the Witch’s hopeful question, Cordelia pursed her lips for a moment, then stretched her hand toward the celestial spheres above her head and said, “What if we go there directly?”

“Directly?”

“Yes, directly. Not a space leap, but just traveling from Hell to Pleiades.”

As Cordelia drew a line in the air with her finger, a line was drawn between Hell and Pleiades.

If a space leap won’t work, let’s just go there ourselves.

Like shooting a rocket from the Earth to the Moon.

At Cordelia’s words, the Witch blinked, her face looking as if her brain had short-circuited.

It was only natural. This wasn’t travel between cities, but between worlds.

To go to another world without a space leap, just by walking—no, running—was that even a remotely sane idea?

“Could that… actually work?”

The Witch blinked, her voice dazed. Yuder let out a cheer.

“That’s it! That’s it! Cordelia!”

“Kya!”

Yuder swept Cordelia into a fierce hug, peppering her forehead, cheeks, and lips with kisses before exclaiming in ecstasy, “Yes, if a space leap won’t work, we just have to go there directly. Hell and Pleiades are much closer than other worlds. If we can secure enough speed, it should definitely be possible. As expected of Cordelia. A genius, an angel, my goddess.”

“Heehee.”

At Yuder’s praise, Cordelia hummed and smiled.

To be honest, she had no idea how to secure the speed Yuder mentioned, but thinking about such things was Yuder’s job anyway.

Besides, the Witch was also here.

“It seems possible. Although it would be on the premise of thousands of years, the existence of Outer Gods who traverse between worlds proves it can be done. Moreover, since you are the gods of Pleiades, you will not face the resistance one normally would when crossing between worlds. The distance between worlds is generally so vast that I never considered traveling directly… but it seems possible. Of course, there is still the problem of breaking through the barrier after we arrive, but it is a much more plausible and realistic plan than a space leap.”

With each word, the light of reason began to return to the Witch’s eyes.

Yuder crossed his arms and pondered.

“The problem is securing speed and durability.”

Stepping outside a world was similar to, yet different from, entering the vacuum of space.

To protect oneself outside a world, one needed divinity, just like the Outer Gods.

‘Is it possible with these avatars?’

The current Cordelia was an Archangel, not a Great Archangel.

Although she possessed the soul of a Great Archangel, her body and soul were in disharmony, making it impossible for her to exert her full divinity.

The same was true for Yuder himself.

How would they secure the necessary divinity?

And what about the speed?

No matter how close Hell and Pleiades were, the distance was still so great that even the Witch had never considered traveling directly.

In fact, according to the Witch’s explanation, even the Outer Gods seemed to spend hundreds or thousands of years traversing between worlds.

What should they do?

Had they hit another dead end?

Yuder racked his brain.

And then, a familiar voice reached his ears.

The beautiful and clear voice of a woman.

[Yuder.]

The Goddess of Nine Heavens and Nine Gates.

It was unmistakably her voice.

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Translated By: Meher (RaidenTL)

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