Chapter 303 : The Sword of the Gods

It was my turn to introduce myself, so I had to give a little more in return.

I started off politely.

"I am Ashuban Sherwood, the captain of the Sherwood Mercenary Corps, a handsome traveler also known as the Half-Sword Ashuban and the Red-Eyed Devil."

"Eh?"

"So you can just call me Ashuban."

I said that and held out my hand.

Primus Agnis As... what was it again?

It seemed to be a name in the language of dragons, and the pronunciation was subtly different, so it was difficult.

My tongue felt twisted.

Anyway, the red dragon—no, the woman who had been a dragon—stared at my outstretched hand.

After tilting her head for a moment, she reached out her hand and carefully took mine.

She glanced at me as if to ask if that was the correct answer.

Nod.

When I nodded, the red dragon smiled brightly.

"Is this the way humans of a time that has not yet arrived greet each other?"

"That's right. It's called a handshake."

"A handshake... a handshake..."

The red-haired woman repeated the word "handshake" a few times and then asked with a curious tone.

"Why did clasping hands become a greeting?"

"Uh... well. I think it probably started with the meaning of 'I am not holding a weapon to stab you in my hand'."

"Interesting. How fascinating."

The dragon, who had transformed into a human, seemed to like the handshake, and she held my hand and shook it up and down.

"It feels good. It makes me feel good."

"I'm glad you like it."

"Haha."

After the handshake, which had lasted for about a minute, was over.

Her gaze fell on the Night Sky Sword that was in my other hand.

"A dark-colored sword."

I inadvertently looked at my hand, which was holding the Night Sky Sword, and was startled.

"Ah."

To think I was shaking hands with the blue blade exposed.

What a rude thing to do.

I was about to quickly put it back in its sheath...

"Huh?"

The strangely light weight of the sword bothered me.

I brought it in front of my eyes and examined it.

"No..."

The sword was completely shattered.

Was it possible for a sword that was so hard to be shattered like this with just a flick of a dragon's finger?

As I was looking at the shattered sword in vain, the dragon said in a flat tone.

"It's broken."

"...It's broken."

"Can't you use it anymore?"

"I guess so."

"Then I?"

It seemed she was going to do something with the broken sword, so I nodded.

"Yes. Use it as you please."

I said that and held out the 'thing that was once the Night Sky Sword', which had died a heroic death...

She looked at the shattered sword in my hand and then.

Fwoosh!

"Ugh!"

The hard sword, whose material I didn't even know, burned up in an instant.

It instantly turned to ash and flowed down to the floor.

"Hmm. It was a good stone."

"..."

When I looked down, the broken pieces of the blade had also caught fire and mixed with the ash that was spread on the floor like sand.

I swept the gray ash with my foot and then raised my head.

"Uh, Miss Free Pass Agaris—"

"It's Primus Agnis Istradel."

"Uh..."

"Call me Istradel. The front is just a modifier."

"Alright. Istradel."

"Yes."

"Where are we?"

"The infinite repetition of a distant yesterday. A place where the world was destroyed, and a place where the world is reborn."

"Hmm."

I didn't understand a single word.

Well, even if I asked, 'How many years ago is this from the imperial year 347?', no one from the past would be able to answer.

What was my mission here?

To meet the red dragon of the distant past and listen to her words?

"Ashuban."

"Yes."

"Look around."

At her words, I looked around again.

Thanks to the floating fireballs, I could see better than before.

"How is it?"

The sky was still black, and the ground was gray.

Not a single blade of grass could be seen.

It was completely quiet, as if even the wind had died.

It was a gray wasteland.

Had the whole world been engulfed in a conflagration?

"It looks like the world has been destroyed."

Istradel said out of the blue.

"Shall we walk for a bit?"

"Yes."

I matched my steps with Istradel, who was walking lightly.

The floating flames followed us.

Rustle, rustle.

It felt like walking on very fine sand.

After walking in silence for a while.

Istradel suddenly said.

"It is the trace of the Evil God's rampage."

"...An Evil God?"

"To be precise, the Demon God was corrupted into an Evil God."

Demon God? Evil God?

—What you have to do is an investigation.

Flash!

My mind returned with a sensation like lightning striking my head.

—An investigation into a forgotten, old secret. An investigation into what happened to this world in the past.

—And, an investigation into why the Demon God died.

I had been so out of it that I had completely forgotten.

The reason I had started this time travel was to investigate the ancient times!

Slap, slap!

I slapped my cheeks to wake myself up, and then carefully asked Istradel, who was looking at me with a strange expression.

"Is there a difference between a Demon God and an Evil God?"

"There is."

We stopped walking.

No, we had no choice but to stop.

Because in front of us, an endless abyss was spread out.

Istradel raised her hand and pointed at it.

"The corrupted Evil God was born there. It came up, splitting the ground with the violent blood flowing through the earth. With all sorts of evil things. It was a terrible sight."

And then she pointed to the place we had come from, the opposite side.

"It went that way. Sucking up all the life from the earth and the sky. Turning everything into dust and ash."

I listened to her words, afraid to miss a single thing.

"All the dragon clans, who had been asked by the gods, blocked the Evil God's path."

"But the Evil God was too strong. Many dragons scattered into ash and dust and refused his advance, but the Evil God's steps could not be stopped."

"In the end, the Evil God crossed about half of the continent, and then, in front of a cliff, he stopped advancing."

'Continent, cliff.'

I collected two keywords that could help me guess the location.

I put those two in the back of my mind and then asked a question.

"Why did he stop advancing in front of a cliff? Was he afraid of heights?"

"No."

Istradel looked at me.

"Red, orange, yellow, turquoise, blue, indigo, purple, light, darkness."

"Because the leaders of the nine colored races gathered and killed the Demon God in front of the cliff."

"Everyone was desperate. Because if they went down the cliff, it would be the end."

So if they went down that cliff, it would really be the end, so they fought desperately.

And after a fierce battle with great sacrifices, they succeeded in killing the Evil God.

"The Demon God died, but he did not die."

"Pardon?"

"It was a fierce battle. In the process, time and space were torn apart here and there, and a fragment of the Evil God escaped through the crack."

"Hmm."

"And so it was settled. For now."

"I see."

Istradel looked around at the world that had turned to ash and said.

"And so, about half of the world was engulfed in darkness and turned to ash."

"..."

I thought for a moment and then asked.

"Istradel."

"Yes."

"You said the Demon God became an Evil God and came out of the ground."

"That's right."

"Then why didn't the other gods come down? Why did they leave the responsibility to the dragons instead of dealing with it themselves?"

"The gods cannot come down here directly. Because that is the rule."

"A rule?"

"Yes. If you break the rule, your divinity is broken."

"Then what about the Demon God?"

"Didn't he become an Evil God because he broke that rule? And since his divinity was broken, he finally met his death."

"Mmm..."

I didn't understand it well.

Come to think of it, Scarlet had said that the Demon God was dead, and his seat was still vacant.

And as a side effect, the messy magical beasts were running around the continent.

'A Nameless God.'

No.

'A god who has lost his name.'

He had occupied the throne of the Demon God, and in the end, he had destroyed the throne and transformed into an Evil God.

I looked up at the sky.

A black sky.

The dark heaven that the Dark Heaven Society had been crying out for, the black, dead sky was there.

So if the Dark Heaven Society resurrected the Evil God who had lost his name.

The light would disappear, and the world would become a world full of ash like this?

It was the true destruction of the world.

Istradel looked at me straight.

"He will return."

"..."

"He will recover his strength, and as he eats the faith of his followers, he will gradually expand his influence, and he will regain the meaning of his existence, and he will be resurrected by tearing through time and space, just as he did when he fled."

"Then, the Demon God is not completely dead?"

"The Demon God is dead. The Evil God was born."

I looked at Istradel's sparkling green eyes.

"What is the reason you are telling me this?"

Istradel looked at me for a moment, and then she started walking somewhere again.

I had no choice but to match my steps with hers.

"..."

Istradel walked for a while and then suddenly opened her mouth.

"The return of the Evil God is inevitable."

I looked at her, who was walking next to me.

"The gods decided to take measures to prepare for it."

Stop.

Istradel stopped walking.

"You seem to be their 'sword'."

Me... the Sword of The Gods?

"And the one who wields that sword is..."

Istradel came a few steps closer.

She came so close that our noses were almost touching, and she looked into my eyes.

I held my breath and looked into her green eyes.

It was an irresistible force.

Since she was looking into my eyes, I had no choice but to look into hers.

Deep, dark green eyes that seemed to suck you in.

It was as if the secrets and mysteries of a world I did not know were spread out there.

And so, as I was being sucked into Istradel's world and struggling.

Her world spat me out and moved away.

When I came to my senses, Istradel was a few steps away, looking at me and smiling.

I don't know what it was, but it was a very satisfied smile.

"Do you know that?"

"No."

"The eyes are the windows to the soul."

"Pardon?"

"The one who wields the sword seems to be qualified enough."

"...What does that mean?"

"Haha."

"?"

"Hahahaha!"

Istradel spun around and scattered her laughter, as if she were so happy.

And then she suddenly stopped laughing and held out her arm to me.

"Hand."

When I held out my hand in a daze, Istradel immediately found the black bracelet on my wrist and began to fiddle with it.

"Hmm. You've collected four colors."

"Uh, yes."

"Mmm. It's almost time. The time is ripe."

Istradel, who had been muttering incomprehensibly, looked at me and said.

"Questions. Do you have any?"

"Questions?"

"There are things that I can only answer if you ask."

I rolled my head for a moment and then brought out the two keywords I had put in my head earlier.

'Continent, cliff.'

"Where are we on the continent?"

"The west."

"Then where did the Evil God go?"

"The northeast."

"Uh... you said the Evil God's steps stopped in front of a precipice?"

"That's right. A deep cliff."

Istradel nodded.

"It is the place where the Evil God's last breath scattered."

I looked at the sunken abyss, and then at the direction the Evil God was said to have gone.

'...So that was it.'

The place we were in now was the west of the continent, the homeland of the demon race.

The abyss where the Evil God was said to have been born was the demon realm.

The Evil God's tracks, which had gone to the northeast.

The fierce battle that had taken place in the process.

The desolate lands of the west and the northeast, where magical beasts poured out like crazy compared to other places.

Was the contaminated black mana that was said to have caused the magical beasts the trace of the Evil God?

Was it the blood and flesh that the Evil God had scattered as he advanced?

The Evil God who had finally met his death in front of a cliff.

The cliff where his last breath had scattered.

The unknown fog with an unknown power that hung on the cliff.

The Misty Cliff.

"..."

"Has that answered your question?"

"Yes. I think so."

She nodded, and then she started walking somewhere again.

"Follow me. I have something to show you."

I followed Istradel and walked for a while again.

Soon, she reached a certain place and lowered her posture, crouching down.

"Come here."

I followed her gesture and lowered my posture.

"Isn't it pretty?"

A small sprout with a fresh green color was peeking its head out from the sea of ash.

"This is...?"

Istradel smiled and said.

"It's our daughter."

(End of Chapter)