- 246: After-explanation
“She escaped.”
With the explanation that Yorishiro gave to me in her visit to my hospital room, I -Kuromiya Haine- learned about the many things that happened while I was lying unconscious due to my injuries.
It was today that I regained consciousness.
When I asked, I was told that it has already been four days since that incident happened, and that surprised me quite a lot. The other thing that surprised me were the details of the previous light hero Ates’ capture and escape.
I am currently being told this by Yorishiro, but…the more I hear, the more troublesome it became.
There’s a mountain of things I want to ask and hear about, but the first thing I want to ask about is…
“What is a God Hero?” (Haine)
It was a concept that was completely outside my knowledge.
I am the incarnation of one of the six Gods of Creation, the Dark God Entropy, and Yorishiro is the incarnation of the Light Goddess Inflation.
We are the very ones that created this world, and we should know all about this world, and yet, I don’t know about this —this thing called God Hero.
What is that?
“That is the trump card I thought of in order to go against the Demon Lords.” (Yorishiro)
Yorishiro said straightforwardly.
As always, I can’t read this person.
“The monsters that the four Base Elements created have evolved to self-awareness, and the end of it are the Demon Lords that have cut off from the control of the Gods. Even if Haine-san and I were to use all our power to subjugate them, it would most likely bring about heavy damage to the human civilization.” (Yorishiro)
True.
The scariest part of the Demon Lords is that they possess human levels of intelligence and move with a strategy in mind.
The Water, Earth, and Wind Demon Lords have their playful sides to them, but the one that seems to be their leader, the Fire Demon Lord Michael, felt completely different.
He saw the situation with a cool-head, and will achieve his objective by utilizing any means possible —for the sake of eradicating humanity.
“No matter how much of an ultimate power we hold, Haine-san is an individual. Even if we were to add me, it would only be two. The four Demon Lords can utilize their advantage in numbers, and if they were to move in a strategic manner, the battle between monsters and humans will be thrown into a muddy situation.” (Yorishiro)
“Even if we were to win that muddy battle, the human civilization will fall, and there’s the chance that they will receive permanent damage they won’t be able to recover from.” (Haine)
“And most of all, the peril of humanity must be resolved by the humans themselves. Therefore, I decided on trusting the heroes. In other words, my cute friend Karen-san.” (Yorishiro)
Yorishiro places her hand on her chest.
“I believe in Karen-san and have entrusted a part of me to Karen-san.” (Yorishiro)
“And that’s…a portion of your God power?” (Haine)
“That’s right. The hero and the God become one.” (Yorishiro)
And thus, God Hero huh.
“I have given Karen-san the God ability of ‘growing stronger by receiving the prayers of humans’.” (Yorishiro)
“Oi, that’s…!!” (Haine)
Isn’t that the root of all evil?
Aside from me who was sealed for 1,600 years since the creation of the world, and Inflation who lived as the summit of the Gods in that time; the other Gods -the four Base Element Gods- drowned in the power of prayers and began to glorify themselves.
But because the four Base Elements had indulged so much in the prayer of humans, they in time grew unable to live without them, and they began to lose their power as the era developed and the prayers grew less.
For Gods, the prayers of humans are the very definition of a drug.
“You made Karen-san shoulder such a dangerous thing?!” (Haine)
“Due to the many battles that Karen-san has gone through, she has obtained a big reputation unheard of before. If she could change those emotions from the people, she can become a hero that could even surpass Demon Lords. Also…” (Yorishiro)
Yorishiro continues.
“Leaving aside me who is one of the two poles, the other four Base Elements have weakened quite a lot due to the drying up of those prayers. Even if we were to distribute that power, the heroes wouldn’t be able to defeat the Demon Lords.” (Yorishiro)
“You…!” (Haine)
Could it be that she was not only going to do this with Karen-san but all the other heroes as well?
“Of course, I won’t let the heroes shoulder the burden themselves. The heart of humans that have good and evil in them, if there were to be a storm of several millions of emotions added to it, that would only serve to torment those girls. But by passing it through us Gods as a filter, we can decrease the burden to its bare minimum.” (Yorishiro)
The prayer energy that had led the four Base Element Gods into peril. By having only the God receive that demerit, the heroes will receive only the merits of it.
“But if you do something like that, you will also end up like the other Gods! You managed to not put your hands on the prayer energy to maintain your power, and yet…!” (Haine)
“I am a human, but as expected, I am still a God. What God would I be if I didn’t move for the sake of humans?” (Yorishiro)
Is what Yorishiro said as she smiled with dazzling resolve.
She is trying to have the humans overcome their own peril, and, as a God, she is providing them the method to achieve it, and will also join them in the fight as a fellow human.
“Because of this battle, I had to move the plan faster than expected, but the result was decent. The power that Karen-san displayed as a God Hero was something that had plenty enough power to confront the Demon Lords.” (Yorishiro)
“But the very person, Ates, that went against that crazy strong power…” (Haine)
And so, we go back to the beginning statement of our conversation.
“…She got away, didn’t she?” (Haine)
“Yes, she got away.” (Yorishiro)
Ates was overwhelmed by this power that was on par to that of the Demon Lords, and yet…
“She escaped.” (Yorishiro)
There’s no point then.
Even when using such a trump card, they couldn’t manage to finish her…..No, for a human to corner Yorishiro so much is already an abnormal situation.
“That means, Ates was…a more dangerous opponent than we thought huh.” (Haine)
“Yeah. Even against the technique that surpassed the ‘Holy Light Bisection’ of Karen-san, right after she was crushed by those pincers, she used the power of the shadow spear Abel to enter the shadows and, by crossing through the shadows of the rubble that were littering the place due to my ‘Holy Light Destruction’, she escaped to the outside.” (Yorishiro)