Deuslute spoke with a smile so radiant it seemed boundless.
「I’m sure you have a lot of questions. I’ll answer them one at a time.」
Just as she said, Ex was having a very hard time making sense of the situation.
Thanks to Berith’s scheme, his identity as a demon had been exposed.
And now Deuslute had appeared before that very demon.
With an attitude far more favorable than he ever would have expected.
‘Come to think of it…’
The moment Ex heard Deuslute’s voice, a memory surfaced.
It was from the dream he’d had at the Revolutionary Front’s downtown branch.
“Wait. That voice that tried to warn me back then…”
「That was me. I couldn’t finish because a demon interfered.」
With those words, the erased portion of his dream came flooding back.
Berith’s voice.
And the sound of fingers snapping.
Berith must have used his ability to tamper with the dream.
“Why did you try to warn me?”
「Because things were becoming far too dangerous for me to simply stand by and watch. You could call it meddling on my part.」
“You were watching me? Since when…?”
「Since the day you deceived that young dragon.」
“Ah.”
Back when he was still Screamweed, Ex had tried to trick Maria, who was only a hatchling at the time, because of the whole expulsion crisis.
That had earned him a Plausibility Penalty.
『Plausibility Penalty Acquired: The Watchful Eyes of Great Beings』
‘I thought that penalty just meant Maria would become obsessed with me…’
Apparently, it had literally drawn the attention of ‘great beings.’
Now that he thought about it, the penalty was absurdly unfair.
「For the record, I’m far from the only one in the Divine Realm keeping an eye on you. Quite a few of us are interested in you. Your life is rather entertaining.」
“I’m not sure how I feel about you all enjoying my life as entertainment…”
「That’s hardly something you’re in a position to complain about, Editor Ilyong.」
“Urk…!”
For some reason, the goddess knew far more than she should have.
“H-How much exactly do you know?”
「I know this world was created according to someone else’s rules. I also know you had a hand in that creation. And I know the one responsible is a creator named ‘Elysia.’」
“So… everything.”
Thank heavens no Plausibility Penalty appeared.
Apparently, the restriction didn’t apply when speaking to a goddess.
But if Deuslute knew everything, then Ex could only think of one reason why she had descended before him.
“Then… did you come here to punish me?”
Ex was the editor who had encouraged the creation of countless Doomsday Scenarios in this world.
From Deuslute’s perspective, he had every reason to be someone she despised.
At his question, Deuslute shook her head.
「That was how I felt when I first learned of you. But not anymore. In fact, I appeared because I intend to help you.」
“What?”
「I am the goddess who presides over the goodness of humanity. The path you’ve walked was enough to quiet my hatred.」
Ex looked back over everything he had done since coming to this world.
He couldn’t remember doing anything that could really be called a good deed.
He had barely had enough room to breathe while struggling to stay alive. When would he have found the luxury to go around being charitable?
Deuslute immediately noticed his confusion.
「Ex, goodness doesn’t mean spending your life doing kind deeds. The purpose of goodness is to help others. To allow everyone to survive together. You’ve spent all this time desperately fighting for your own survival, but think about the way you chose to survive.」
Ex understood what Deuslute meant.
His ultimate goal was to survive the destruction of the world.
And to accomplish that, he needed as much powerful fighting strength on his side as possible.
That was why he had always prioritized keeping as many people alive as he could.
In other words, from Deuslute’s point of view, that counted as good as well.
「If you had acted selfishly and self-righteously, sacrificing everyone else just so you could survive alone, I would have punished you. But you didn’t. That is why I descended here.」
“So… that’s why?”
「Of course, that reason is barely more than a speck of dust compared to the real one.」
Ex could only think that he had gotten incredibly lucky.
If he had tried to monopolize everything for himself in the name of survival,
he probably would have ended up dying by Deuslute’s hand.
That Plausibility Penalty had been far more terrifying than he’d realized.
Ex let out a relieved breath and changed the subject.
There was something he absolutely needed to confirm first.
“Wait. Can Elysia see us like this right now? Because if she can, this situation is pretty dangerous…”
「I separated you and this place from the flow of time. Naturally, Elysia cannot perceive this moment either. You can consider this place a completely independent space for now.」
As expected of the most famous goddess in the world.
Her abilities were on an entirely different scale.
And she genuinely seemed willing to answer anything he asked.
But there was still one fundamental question.
“Why did you appear?”
Why had the goddess descended in the first place?
“You seem to have come here to solve this situation, but it’s already beyond fixing. Now that I’ve become a demon, there’s no way for me to turn human again. Unless you’re planning to descend in front of everyone and personally tell them not to hurt me or something.”
Deuslute merely smiled without saying a word.
“…You’re actually planning to do that?”
「There’s no reason I couldn’t.」
“No, wait. You can’t do that. That would…”
Ex could name hundreds of reasons why Deuslute absolutely must not descend.
But one reason mattered more than all the others.
That reason alone was enough to make her descent impossible.
「The Demon King is not the most urgent problem right now.」
Exactly.
If things went wrong, the Demon King could be revived.
Deuslute was currently maintaining the seal on him.
But Deuslute’s resolve was firm.
「Ex, the world is already heading toward destruction in places you know nothing about. Just as you fear, the Demon King is the greatest threat, but many other disasters of comparable magnitude have already begun to unfold. At this rate, the world will be destroyed before the Demon King even has the chance to act.」
“…Is it because I twisted canon?”
「No. This world’s destruction was already decided by Elysia’s choice. If anything, your existence is closer to an unforeseen variable. And right now, that variable is on the verge of being crushed.」
Deuslute spread her enormous wings.
「At this rate, the world will be destroyed one way or another. We cannot simply stand by and allow that to happen. So we made a decision. We chose to make the sacrifice necessary to prevent that destruction.」
What exactly was this ‘necessary sacrifice’?
At that moment, Ex couldn’t even begin to guess.
「Which is why, right now, we need an enormous variable.」
And time began moving again.
* * *
Clang-!!!
“Urgh…! What…?”
The instant time resumed, the first thing Ex heard was the sound of Darius’s sword being knocked away.
Because of that, Ex’s head remained attached to his shoulders.
“…Light?”
Before Darius or Milia could even understand what had happened, they noticed the anomaly.
And they weren’t the only ones.
Every single person in the arena felt it.
「Lower your weapons.」
At that single command, everyone lowered their weapons.
A holy and sacred being stood before them.
Who could possibly dare to keep a weapon raised in the presence of such a being?
「I command you in the name of the Goddess.」
The First Light, the Goddess Deuslute, had descended upon the mortal world.
Before the Goddess, rank and strength meant nothing.
Every person present was nothing more than one small, fragile lamb.
Some fell to their knees.
Others clasped their hands together.
Some raised their heads to receive her holiness, while others bowed low, humbling themselves before her divinity.
And that goddess had appeared to protect Ex.
That alone was reason enough to put away their weapons.
Of course, not everyone accepted it.
“I refuse to accept this-!!!”
Snap-!!!
The sound of fingers snapping rang out, and a razor-sharp wave of malice shot toward Deuslute.
But a single flap of the Goddess’s wings shattered that malice into nothing.
The one who had dared attack the Goddess was the demon Berith.
“I won’t accept this! I refuse to accept it-!!!”
Berith’s face twisted with boiling rage.
His expression, usually so devoid of emotion, now held nothing but anger and hatred.
He looked like an artist staring at the enemy who had ruined a masterpiece he had poured his heart into.
“You’re telling me the way he escapes certain death is through the unexpected appearance of some transcendent being?!! Who would accept such garbage?! I did not prepare this stage just so you could drag out some ancient story device that should have died thousands of years ago!! Get out, Goddess!!! This is not your stage-!!!”
A darkness so thick and filthy that it made the skin crawl seeped from him.
Every word he spoke felt like a sharpened dagger.
“If you refuse to leave, then I’ll twist this entire place apart if I have to…!!!”
Berith’s Demonic Eyes went wild as if they had gone completely mad.
Those pupils that gazed into the abyss and nothingness locked onto the Goddess.
His hand rose, ready to snap his fingers and unleash something horrifying.
「There is no place for you here, Berith.」
This time, Deuslute did not merely stand by and watch.
Clatterrrrr-!!
Berith, whom no one else had even managed to touch, was instantly bound in golden chains.
The difference between the 28th-Ranked Demon and a goddess on the level of a chief deity was great enough for her to disregard his ability entirely.
With his entire body restrained, Berith gritted his teeth and roared at her.
“You…! Do you think you’ll get away with this? Do you really think they’ll let a goddess run wild after descending into the mortal world of her own accord?!!!”
「I was prepared for that.」
“What…?”
「Someone like you, who thinks only of your immediate amusement, would never understand.」
Berith’s expression turned vicious the moment he heard that.
He had realized Deuslute’s intention.
“So that’s it. You’re doing all this just to stop an ending that cannot be stopped. What an ugly, pathetic struggle, Deuslute.”
「…」
“So what are you going to do? Appeal to these insects? Tell them that Ex may be a demon, but he’s a good demon, so they shouldn’t kill him? Do you seriously think that will work?”
Berith’s words struck directly at the problem.
Deuslute had descended and openly protected Ex, who was a demon.
Even so, the doubts in everyone’s hearts had not completely vanished.
“Humans and demons can never coexist!!! The humans here might keep quiet for a while! But what about all the humans outside this arena? Do you think your devout believers will simply obey you? Or are you planning to make an appeal to all of humanity?”
「…」
“In the end, Ex will be captured by human hands and butchered like an animal! Your descent will accomplish nothing, and humanity will forget every word you said!! Do you believe in the goodness of humans? Even if you do, I’ll make sure that’s exactly what happens!!!”
Berith’s malice, his determination to drive Ex into disaster no matter what it took, knew no bounds.
This was what obsession looked like when a demon who had spent centuries drowning in boredom finally found something entertaining.
But Deuslute was not someone Berith could dismiss so easily either.
「Humans, look at those screens again.」
Deuslute pointed toward the magic devices Berith had installed, the screens showing images from other locations.
When the people turned their eyes toward them, Deuslute continued.
「The Hero and the other champions who went to stop the Hellgate, as well as the humans who evacuated to the grand auditorium, are still alive.」
Leon’s group, who had been lying on the ground after being defeated by Andras, were already back on their feet.
Under Circe’s command, the others moved with flawless coordination, steadily driving Andras back.
At the grand auditorium, Roxwell unleashed his White Light Sword and killed a demon before it could attack anyone.
The knights were working together as well, defeating the demons and evacuating nearly all the civilians.
What Berith had shown them was nothing more than the single worst moment from each battlefield.
A pitch-black lie so shameless it bordered on absurd.
「The truth Ex concealed was that he became a demon.」
Deuslute’s gentle gaze turned toward Ex.
「And there is another truth. Ex saved everyone.」
This was the very ‘One Truth’ Berith had tried to hide.
Grrrrrk-!!
Berith ground his teeth so hard that his molars nearly shattered.
This was supposed to be the finale.
The climax he had been waiting for.
The instant Darius severed Ex’s head,
that was when they were supposed to learn the other truth and collapse into despair.
A man had cut down his own brother who had tried to save the world.
An Imperial Prince had killed his closest friend simply because that friend was a demon.
No one could be trusted.
There was no one left to rely on.
“If I’d only had a little more time…”
Berith had remained quiet until now because he wanted to witness that scene.
And just before the moment finally arrived, it had been ruined right in front of him.
If Ex himself had beaten him, Berith could have accepted defeat.
But he had never imagined that this damned goddess would descend.
“…Still, nothing changes.”
Berith opened that filthy mouth of his once more.
“Fine. Let’s say he saved the Empire from disaster. So what? He is still a demon. Maybe he saved the Empire this time because it serves some larger plan to destroy the world. That kind of suspicion won’t disappear just because a goddess says a few kind words on his behalf.”
The argument sounded almost desperate.
But the point itself was sharp.
Humans could not fundamentally trust demons.
Saving the world was only an outcome.
Without something they could believe in with absolute certainty, a demon would remain an enemy.
Demons had been humanity’s enemies for thousands of years.
Ex knew that better than anyone, which was why he couldn’t relax.
‘Things are already hanging by a thread. What else are you planning to do…?’
Deuslute had already helped more than enough.
The unexpected support alone had been more than Ex could ever have asked for.
But the longer she remained here, the more danger there might be to the seal.
Ex subtly tried to signal Deuslute with his eyes.
“Ahem…”
「…?」
That was enough. She should head back to the Divine Realm now.
He’d figure out the rest somehow.
He appreciated the help, and she really needed to take good care of that seal.
He’d pray properly from now on, so maybe she could keep sending plenty of divine power his way.
At Ex’s desperate attempt to communicate all of that through a single look, Deuslute simply smiled.
「Ex, this may sound rather sudden, but… in the thousands of years since I became a goddess, I have never once personally chosen a Hero. Something other than my own will has always made that choice for me.」
“Uh… what?”
「Which means I still possess the authority to make my own choice.」
Ex wasn’t the only one who reacted with confusion.
Everyone else had the same question.
If Deuslute had never chosen the Heroes until now, then who had?
The statement had just threatened to rewrite everything they knew about history, leaving the crowd drowning in questions.
“…Ah.”
And then Ex alone understood the Goddess’s intention.
“N-No…”
That goddess was about to do something catastrophically insane.
This wasn’t some ordinary disaster.
It was the kind of colossal disaster no one in the world would be able to handle.
He had to stop her immediately.
Otherwise, the world was finished.
Ex’s face drained of color as he hurriedly shouted.
“Y-You can’t do that!!! That’s against the rules!!!”
At Ex’s horrified cry, Deuslute’s lips curled into a faint smile.
Somehow, the innocent smile on her face seemed almost mischievous.
It was the satisfied smile of someone who was very pleased with the choice she had made.
「Here and now, I make my proclamation.」
Fwaaaaaaaaaash-!!!!
A colossal pillar of Deuslute’s light descended upon someone.
Brilliant and solemn, the pillar of light singled out one existence.
「By my authority and in the name of my divinity, I decree.」
Not a single person present failed to recognize what that pillar of light represented.
It was the symbol of the Goddess who had created the Hero, the legendary figure tied to the very founding myth of the Empire, the object of admiration for all humanity.
「I hereby choose the Champion of the Goddess, the Hero.」
To receive that light was no different from being chosen as the Hero.
The one bathed in it would begin a new heroic legend, a journey to save humanity.
「Ex, you are my Champion and my Hero.」
And so, there was one thing that absolutely had to be remembered.
『Warning! There must only ever be one Hero.』
If the rules were broken, a penalty would follow.
『A Plausibility Penalty will therefore be imposed.』
The instant that law was violated, the punishment of the world would descend.
『Plausibility Penalty Acquired: Goddess Deuslute’s Godhood Revoked』
–TL Notes–
Tired of seeing Ads? Then please support me on Patreon! Any tier of subscription will make it so you won't get any ads!
If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at patreon.com/InsanityTheGame
Join my Discord! https://discord.gg/BWaP3AHHpt