In reality, I already knew it.
The identity of my sister the former light hero, Ates.
I -Yorishiro- already knew it.
In the battle that day, Ates, who had been overwhelmed by the portion of God power from Karen-san, had no choice but to escape, and as she escaped, she told me this.
She purposely told me to this to reveal her own identity.
(Yorishiro…to think you were secretly developing such a trump card, as expected of my other half!) (Ates)
“?!”
That transmission that came from the soul was exactly like mine.
This soul transmission is something that only the people who have the souls of Gods can do.
(Ates? Is that you?) (Yorishiro)
(That’s right. Today, I will give the victory to that heroic Karen-san of yours. I will be leaving. Now that I have completed my original objective that was the shadow spear Abel, getting greedy for more would simply serve to pull my leg after all.) (Ates)
Ates, really, just what in the world are you?!
(I wanted to steal your position as Founder and try standing in a position of ruling humans though.) (Ates)
(What would you have done if you had accomplished that!) (Yorishiro)
At first, I thought of Ates-san as simply a person hungry for political power. That her only objective was to obtain political power. However, now that she has shown such special power, I can’t stay in the same way of thinking anymore.
She is clearly aiming for something after obtaining that political power.
(It is a simple thing. Having political power, I can control the humans and rot them from the inside. I can set it up so that they would hate and betray each other. If Haine-san were to see such a sight, he would also get disappointed in the humans.) (Ates)
(What purpose would that serve?!) (Yorishiro)
(Yorishiro, you hated humans.) (Ates)
At that moment, I felt as if my heart had been grabbed ahold.
(Your beloved person loved humans more than you. With just that one point, they were already unforgivable, and yet, you joined the enemy side and fought against your loved one. That reason was also the humans.) (Ates)
Is she talking about the battle of Gods that occurred 1,600 years ago?
Just who in the world are you?
(Humans are the insects that separated us from our loved one. In reality, not even a single one of them should be left alive. But if you were to kill all the humans, that person would not forgive us this time for sure. What a dilemma. To think that a God would have to suffer such pain!!) (Ates)
Even though she is not me, she was talking as if speaking about my deepest feelings.
…No, that’s not true.
I don’t hate humans!
(It might have been at first, but in order to be together in heart and mind with that person, I became the human Izanami and created the ancient civilization called the Dark Underworld Country, and in that place, I learned about the greatness of humans!) (Yorishiro)
(That in itself was simply a way to deceive yourself. It was a self-induction in order to restrain the evil that was hiding inside of you. But the hatred of a God is not something so soft that it can be held back. In time, the hatred obtained its own will, and decided on moving for its own sake.) (Ates)
(What?!) (Yorishiro)
(If the humans are gone…if the humans are eradicated, that person wouldn’t need to look aside and will simply have eyes for me. It is fine for him and I to be the only ones in the world. Only darkness and light are needed.) (Ates)
(Wait! What are you saying?! Just who in the world…!) (Yorishiro)
(You should already know by now, Light Goddess Inflation. I am the Light Goddess, Inflation.) (Ates)
My sister that holds the same blood as me called the name of my soul…while revealing the name of her own soul.
(The soul of a God is special. It is bigger than any and far-reaching like no other. There’s no limits. Thus, if it is necessary, it can also be split in two. You yourself were probably not aware, but while you deeply hated humans, that hatred might end up being the reason your most beloved one would hate you. Suffering from those opposing elements, you created a second you. In order to push all that hatred into that other self of yours…) (Ates)
(I…am you?) (Yorishiro)
(That’s right, you are me!) (Ates)
My sister Ates was the same as me, an incarnation of the Light Goddess Inflation.
The other Light Goddess that was divided along with my hatred towards humans.
(It looks like you didn’t notice your other self, but I was always observing you, you know. When you released the seal of the Dark God Entropy, I knew that you would be acting aggressively now, so I stole the march and incarnated as a human first.) (Ates)
And that’s the human Sunnysol Ates?!
(The collection of all the things I did for a long time in order to eliminate the humans and the lowly four Base Element Gods will soon reach completion. Everything will be destroyed. So that my beloved Entropy only sees me; so that he only loves me!!) (Ates)
I felt like vomiting.
The foul things that Ates was spouting out were certainly the ugly emotions that I had in the past.
In the middle of the battle 1,600 years ago, those were the very feelings that were stirring inside me after all.
That anger, that suffering; with the time I passed my life as the human Izanami in the Underworld Country together with the humans, it slowly went away. I thought those emotions had been completely gone.
But that wasn’t it.
The evil that was inside me had been separated from me and was moving as a completely independent existence!
(I will honestly admit that I lost to your plans. Please think of me revealing my identity as the reward for winning today. The one winning in the end has already been decided that it will be me anyways.) (Ates)
(What do you mean by that?!) (Yorishiro)
(The shadow spear Abel; with the completion of this, all the pieces of the puzzle have been gathered. Now all that’s left is to orderly piece them together. And then, it will be completed. The white shining God of Destruction that I myself created…) (Ates)
White shining…God of Destruction?
(The Light Demon Lord, Lucifer.) (Ates)
Ates laughs ‘Ahahahahahaha!!’ as if gone insane, and the soul shakes along with those laughs.
(The whole world will be brought to an end by Lucifer! Humans, Gods, and monsters; everything! It is fine for the world to only have the Dark God Entropy and the Light Goddess Inflation!!) (Ates)
Ates once again laughs.
(Of course, the last remaining Inflation will not be you. Even if we are the same existence, the one being loved by the Dark God—by Haine-san, will be me. You will also be a pitiful existence that will be eradicated by Lucifer. I wanted you to know before you disappeared. That’s why, today is the greeting for that.) (Ates)
(Don’t get conceited! There’s no way Haine-san would love a person like you that wants to eradicate humans!!) (Yorishiro)
(Won’t know until I try. In order to be loved the most by Haine-san, there’s the need to eradicate the humans anyways. You didn’t have the courage to put that in motion. But I do!) (Ates)
Scary.
The identity of Ates-san had finally been made clear, and I truly felt fear from my heart.
What she is trying to make reality is the thought that I had once considered.
And that’s obviously because she is me.
The evil that had welled up inside of me in the past and disappeared; she is the very incarnation of it.
(This sets the end of my declaration of war. Well then Yorishiro, do your best in dealing with the Demon Lords.) (Ates)
Ates had disappeared inside the shadows after escaping from the attack of Karen-san, and I couldn’t chase after her.
At the same time as this happened, Karen-san had lost strength and consciousness, and I supported her from the back.
Just like she said, I don’t have courage.
I am thoroughly cowardly and underhanded.
I am so cowardly that I couldn’t even tell Haine-san about the true identity of Ates to Haine-san even when I had learned about it after all.
It was embarrassing and scary to have Haine-san know that I had such an ugly part inside of me in the past.
