episode_0181

I wondered what to do about the tragedy before my eyes. It was clear that if I left everything else behind and left this unattended, something bad would happen.

“Ugh….”

It is still having a negative impact on faith in real time.

I don’t know how Akasha could have brought about such a scene of torture as a result of a decline in faith, but I couldn’t just sit back and play since I saw that it was possible.

“…I have to tell Prinia first.”

Since I didn’t know how to resolve the issue, I turned to Prinia like an elementary school student looking for a cat-shaped robot.

“Prinia!”

“Hello, Eugene. I can’t say it’s been a long time.”

“This time it’s not a joke, it’s something really serious.”

“…….”

“It’s not just me who is serious, it can become serious for everyone!”

“…What is it?”

“Akasha… Akasha…!”

“Did you find any more magic swords?”

“It’s much more serious than that.”

I told them in detail everything I had experienced when I met the bandits. The part about reading the memories of the bandit leader and the details about the altar were explained in particular detail.

“Going near that area… had a negative effect on my faith. I don’t know what trick they used…!”

“……Hmm.”

As expected, Prinia’s complexion suddenly darkened as if it was a serious problem.

“I have to check it myself… Can you go back to the scene and take out the bow?”

“Well, is that okay?”

“Yes. Like the World Tree, it is not something that I can directly see and understand the situation, but it is an object that contains my faith.”

“Aha.”

The bow of the World Tree contains Prinia’s faith.

So, if you take out a bow at an altar where faith is rapidly eroding, Prinia will be able to remotely gauge the severity of the situation or the level of influence.

“It only takes about 10 seconds.”

“Okay. I’ll be back.”

I temporarily returned to the underworld and took out the World Tree bow.

“Uh…?”

The bow of the World Tree, whose true form was revealed, returned to an ordinary bow in less than five seconds. I couldn’t last the 10 seconds that Prinia said.

After waiting for a while just in case, I took out the bow once more and held it there for a total of about 10 seconds before returning to Prinia.

“What do you think, Prinia? What do you know?”

When I came back and checked, Prinia’s complexion had suddenly turned pale.

“Huh… Huh… What on earth is this crazy dragon planning in the Underworld…!”

“Trigram, are you okay!?”

“Yeah… it’s not that big of a problem. I guess I was just a bit surprised because it was my first time experiencing an outside force eroding my faith.”

I agreed with that. It was certainly true that faith was being eaten away. And it was not a very pleasant feeling.

“Is it because Eugene has a body of his own? I’m sure you can stay fine in a place like that.”

“I also felt a little dizzy. Anyway, maybe this is good?”

I didn’t know how to clean up after myself, so I came here, but Prinia seemed to have no solution either.

“I don’t know the exact method, but I think it’s probably a way to suppress the faith of an unspecified number of people based on personal despairing experiences.”

I somehow felt like I knew the method. There was an ability of Akasha that came to mind when I remembered my experience.

“The only way to get over this is to inspire faith again.”

“By what means?”

“You said it was near the headquarters of the Stella Church, right? Then, first, we will invite Stella’s believers there and offer sacrifices and prayers.”

“What if people in the church are adversely influenced by it?”

“Don’t worry about that. You said something like that was built in an ordinary bandit’s den, right? It probably doesn’t have much of an effect on creatures in the underworld.”

Is this a technique that, unlike gods, has no effect on those in the flesh? Once again, I wondered why things had to be so complicated.

Prinia seemed to know what I was curious about and started explaining even though I didn’t ask.

“They probably did it so that we wouldn’t find out. If the underworld is noisy in some way, it’s only a matter of time before it reaches me or Stella’s ears.”

Among those with religious beliefs, humans boasted the largest number, while elves were a small but widespread race. And they believe in Stella and Prinia, respectively.

As Prinia said, Akasha would have moved with security as the most important thing.

“Then, if it weren’t for me, you could have kept hiding and done something like this?”

“In fact, you probably couldn’t find it. That’s great, Eugene. It’s bad, it’s bad.”

When Prinia, who seemed to be a woman with a mysterious spirit, patted my head without hesitation, I felt embarrassed.

“Anyway, I understand. First of all, you’re going to invite the priests of the Stella Church and honor their souls, right?”

“Yes. I will also tell Stella separately.”

When Prinia explains the whole story to Stella, Stella delivers the message to the Pope in the form of an oracle, and it is immediately spread throughout the continent by the Papal States.

In fact, it is no different from the Earth’s Internet network.

“The magic sword is also suspicious. This is probably my guess, but if the altar is meant to weaken the faith of all gods, I think the magic sword is meant to harm Stella personally.”

It was my unfounded guess, but Prinia nodded and agreed.

“That could be possible. Well, you must have suffered so much.”

“A lot of things have happened? Akasha to Stella?”

“Ah. You don’t know. It was a long time ago, but Akasha often appeared here.”

When I heard that, I couldn’t shake off the chills I felt. This was almost like saying that Akasha almost became a god.

“Of course, I didn’t come here in a standard way. You need faith to come here, but Akasha is a creature from the underworld, so she has no faith.”

“…The smartest dragon.”

I remembered one of Akasha’s nicknames. It seemed like I had reached this place with the knowledge I had accumulated over countless years of living.

“Every time he came, he made a fuss as if he was trying to vent his anger, and every time Stella came forward and subdued him. Stella is the strongest among the gods.”

“Hmm… That’s how I’m gathering faith.”

Of course, Stella would be powerful even without faith. This is because energy strong enough to create stars can be freely manipulated.

“Anyway, I have more things to do…”

There was also a reason to hurry to Plane. First of all, I wanted to somehow resolve the terrible scene before my eyes.

As he was about to leave, Prinia suddenly got lucky.

“I’m sorry, but can you please give me a little more trouble?”

“Huh? What else is happening?”

“If Akasha really planned this incident to threaten the gods, similar things are probably happening in many places.”

“Ah… I guess so.”

The bandit leader, who was in charge of actually leading the action in this incident, did not have the Akasha lock on his head.

In other words, it was safe to say that there were so many people doing terrible things at the altar that they could not be compared to those who possessed the magic sword.

“Okay. Leave it to me. I will cooperate as much as possible until Arjen safely gives birth to my children.”

You’ll probably have to go to all sorts of places to find it. But it was a fortunate thing. It’s much better than wasting 50 years meaninglessly.

“Thank you. Eugene.”

After saying goodbye to Prinia for the last time, I returned to the underworld and was once again greeted by the cold scene of the altar.

It was still a very unpleasant space where faith was being undermined.

Thinking I might forget something, I familiarized myself with the surrounding geography as much as I could, and when I returned to the carriage, I was able to meet Wayne, who was taking care of the children.

“I went there.”

“How was it?”

“Like I said before, I thought it would be an ordinary fight against bandits, but it turned out to be bigger than I thought. Do you know what Akasha is doing?”

“What is with your face being so serious?”

I explained to Wayne what Akasha was planning, just as I had conveyed it to Prinia.

No matter how much of a warrior he was, Wayne was also human, so there were some parts left out in the explanation, but some parts were supplemented by the conversation with Prinia, so the overall context was able to be conveyed.

“That damn dragon is plotting blasphemy…”

Naturally, Wayne’s expression was not good. I think he’s a bit angry as his relationship with Stella has become stronger recently.

“So, I think I should visit the Vatican as soon as possible. Of course, something similar to that is happening all over the continent, so that needs to be resolved as well.”

“…I’ll be busy walking around for a while.”

“Ah, what should we do with these children?”

“Let’s take him to the Vatican. It will be easier than having to find the parents one by one ourselves.”

I nodded. In the future, the denomination’s help will be needed in many ways.

When I looked around, I saw that the rescued children were looking very nervous. I felt somewhat sorry that my anger and urgency had affected the children.

“Sorry, guys. The original plan was to camp near here…”

There is nothing we can do because it is urgent. As long as the horse’s condition allowed, we had to hurry to Plane as much as possible, day or night.

Perhaps because of their sense of urgency, the horses worked hard and were able to arrive at Plane a day earlier than scheduled.