Chapter 8: Savour of the Demihumans – 2

Title: Praise the GM of Rudera!

[Author: Suspiciously Wealthy Cat

Hear the proclamation of our great and fair King Brigand.

All Demihumans of the continent, engrave the king’s proclamation deep into your bones.

Until now, we Demihumans did not know our roots.

We were a lesser race, wandering without a proper nation.

That was the evaluation of other races towards us.

But that is not true.

We Demihumans had our roots in the deserts.

Due to the great war in the mythological era, the empire of the Demihuamn was destroyed, and our god, Duamutef, vanished to protect us.

Other races erased our history and despised us as an inferior race, but we built a more splendid civilization than any other!

We flourished in history, unknown to anyone!

We were the true rulers of the desert!

After the great war, all history disappeared, and as Duamutef chose to vanish to protect us from the god of chaos, we walked a path of persecution.

But now, it is different.

The merciful and almighty God of Rudera, GM, has taken pity on us and revived the desert of the past for us.

We have reclaimed our history, built by Duamutef and our ancestors!

We have severed Apophis, our first and last enemy.

All of this is due to the blessing bestowed upon us by GM.

As the king of all Demihumans and the apostle of Duamutef, as the ruler of the Spriggans Great Desert on the second floor of the Labyrinth Tower, I command you: Serve GM, the new master of our Demihumans.

Praise GM, the one and only almighty god of Rudera.

Thanks to his mercy and blessing, we Demihumans have regained our god, Duamutef!

GM, may you be eternal!

We Demihumans will follow you until the end of this world!]

“…Huh?”

Reading the post on the community forum, I felt my mind go blank.

Duamutef?

GM?

Brigand?

GM is what I’m called in Rudera, right?

Why am I appearing here?

The author named Suspiciously Wealthy Cat.

As someone who frequents Rudera’s community, I know who this is.

The author is Navel, the great warrior and right-hand man of the Demihuman King.

He occasionally posts the Demihuman King’s proclamations on this community to effectively communicate messages to Demihumans spread across the continent.

So this message is something all Demihumans on the continent will see…

Why am I in such a message?

Wait a minute. Duamutef is…!

I remembered what that name meant.

It’s clear.

It’s the quest NPC I added yesterday in the newly added large content, the Labyrinth Tower, in Rudera.

The place created by combining numerous worlds is the Labyrinth Tower.

I got bored of seeing only fantasy worlds in Rudera and made it by adding worlds of different kinds.

Among them, the world on the second floor of the Labyrinth Tower is the Spriggans Great Desert.

A map with an ancient lost technology concept based on Egypt, inspired by countless novels and games from previous lives.

Since it is based on Egypt, I used massive structures like pyramids.

The main quest running through the second floor of the Labyrinth Tower is to defeat the sealed evil god Apophis, the adversary of the ruined ancient empire.

Duamutef, a deity favoured by the people in the ancient empire, saw his realm fall due to a war against the evil god Apophis.

Losing all his worshippers and failing to maintain his divinity, the now weakened Duamutef could only manage to seal Apophis with himself, preventing the god of chaos from entering the world.

As a result, Duamutef’s divinity eroded, and Apophis’s resurrection drew near.

In this context, Duamutef encounters mysterious entities, the players, who have entered the pyramid where he is sealed.

This group of challengers from the Tower of Labyrinth receives a quest from Duamutef to confront Apophis.

Despite his prolonged weakening, Apophis is still a formidable god with an overwhelming level of over 700, far beyond the reach of typical enemies found on the second floor of the Tower of Labyrinth.

Even if all the players in the world of Rudera united, they would be no match for him.

Thus, I implemented a gimmick related to Duamutef: temporarily granting the power of a god.

This concept, reminiscent of games where players receive a temporary boost to face an overwhelmingly powerful foe, was meant to introduce players to the unique environment of the Tower of Labyrinth.

But what exactly happened inside that led the Demihuman King to write such a letter?

Could he have mistakenly thought the ancient empire was the land of the Demihuman people?

If so, his account becomes somewhat understandable.

“Hah. I never expected it to turn out like this.”

I had created several pyramids in the Spriggans Desert to evoke an Egyptian atmosphere, filling them with ancient Egyptian-style artifacts and drawings inspired by Egyptian gods.

As a result, the figures in those drawings had animal-shaped heads.

“Is that why he mistook it for the land of the Demihuman people?”

An unexpected development.

I chose the ancient Egyptian theme because of its mysterious appeal, popular even on Earth, never imagining it would lead to such confusion.

“Although, I still don’t understand the context of the subsequent worship of the GM…”

Regardless of his intent, it’s hard to see this as a positive development.

Since Rudera’s appearance and the subsequent fascination of the continent’s inhabitants with this virtual world, there have been countless attempts by powerful individuals to uncover my identity and manipulate me to their liking.

Though I’ve never encountered such an approach before, considering Brigand’s ability to unite all the Demihuman people of the continent and establish a nation single-handedly, this too seems like a similar attempt.

No matter what happens, I must never let anyone, except for my family and Carthesia, discover my true identity.

I wouldn’t die peacefully otherwise.

Albus resolved firmly.

***

However, he overlooked a few facts.

Firstly, Brigand, due to his boisterous nature, wasn’t the kind to scheme in such a manner.

Secondly, for the continent’s inhabitants, who have never experienced anything more engaging than plays or arenas, the events within Rudera are so immersive that they struggle to distinguish them from reality.

The last thing was still the notion that Rudera had immeasurable value and influence on this continent, more than he had ever imagined.

As a result, he could not fathom the immense repercussions the Tower of the Labyrinth would bring to the continent.

***

“……So that’s what happened.”

Diana, the Demon King, and the administrator of the community, read Brigand’s message through a hologram screen with her arms crossed.

“So that absurdly powerful monster was the evil god, the enemy of the Demihumans.”

Secretly entering the labyrinth ahead of other players, she was the first to reach the Spriggans Desert located on the second floor of the Tower of the Labyrinth.

Flying to scout this completely unfamiliar area, she discovered Brigand, the King of the Demihumans, traversing the desert and observed his adventure from afar.

During this process, she saw him enter the underground of a pyramid and fight a gigantic snake.

Even though she was too far to see properly, the fear emanating from that snake made her skin crawl, despite her having transcended mortal limits.

A monster she doubted all demons combined could not defeat.

When Brigand suddenly displayed strange powers and defeated the monster, she couldn’t believe her eyes, but from the surrounding circumstantial evidence and Brigand’s message posted in the community, she was convinced.

“He resurrected an extinct god, cut out a part of the past continent that had disappeared, and revived it in the present. Not only that, but he temporarily granted that power to a mere mortal…”

She realized that the GM had granted divine power to Brigand and had him defeat the evil god of chaos.

“This is something even a demon god wouldn’t dare to do.”

As a demon king who directly inherited powers from a demon god, she was certain how absurd this was.

“GM…… are you some kind of creator god?”

The existence of the GM felt even more distant.

Her eyes were shaking violently, unlike her usual composed expression.

In the desert night of the vast southern continent,

In the middle of a wasteland abandoned by all nations, where only nomads lived,

The crystallization of faith born from all the beastmen across the continent gathered divine power.

‘Our god Duamutef.’

‘Save us.’

‘Your people pray.’

‘Deliver us from evil.’

The voices of prayer, originating from the depths of the hearts of beastmen scattered across the continent, resonated as one.

Woooong

The divine power gathered and condensed into the form of a small girl.

An imaginary being that shouldn’t exist.

A false god arbitrarily set by Albus, born from mistaken faith.

Nuuuooong

With a blank expression, the girl descended to the ground and stretched her body.

“I am… Duamutef.”

Standing naked in the desert, the crescent moon’s light shone on her from behind.

“The protector of all Demihumans.”

Following this, was the first signal of the great chaos that would engulf the continent.