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Chapter III: God’s Eyes Are Vigilant 

“Ah! I lost again!” 
“Me next, milord! It’s my turn!” The sounds of children playing filled the street. 
I picked up the small iron top the kid had sent flying. I’d thought to make some toys for the kids. 
I’d been teaching them how to spin it properly. They’d picked up on it pretty fast. There was a makeshift arena made out of a bucket with a cloth to protect the sides where the kids were having heated top battles. 
Needless to say, my top was the best, and before long the kids had made it their goal to beat me. As of now, they had yet to succeed. Bwahaha, they were fools to underestimate the top spinning skills my grandfather passed down to me. 
“Alright, that’s all for today. Here, I’ll give you all your own tops so, be good kids and go home, okay?” 
“Really?!” 
“Yaaay!” 
“I’m gonna be your servant when I grow up, milord!” 
If I could buy retainers for the price of a single top, I could probably hire an army of servants. 
I watched the kids run happily home, and spotted a familiar figure standing nearby out of the corner of my eye. 
A smiling old gentleman with a sturdy build and a thick white beard. There was a pair of fox ears growing out of his head, and a bushy tail sprouting from his back. 
“If it isn’t Olba. How long have you been standing there?” 
“It has been far too long, master Touya. Or should I now address you as His Highness, the Grand Duke of Brunhild?” It was the Mismede merchant, Olba. The father of Olga and Arma, and uncle to Nikola, one of my own knights. 
“I did not expect to find someone of your stature here, playing with children in the street. It was so unusual that I couldn’t help but stop to watch. However...” Grinning, Olba plucked one of the tops left behind in the makeshift arena. 
“This is a truly unusual toy. I have not seen its like before. And its structure is so simple. Would you be willing to let my company sell this creation of yours?” 
“Yeah, that’s fine. It isn’t exactly something I came up with anyway, and it’s not like the manufacturing methods are a secret. Though, if you could, I’d like you price it low enough that children can afford it.” 
“Hmm. If I kept the price that low, there would be no reason for people to buy more than one. In which case...” He really was a merchant to the core. Already, he was calculating how to maximize earnings. If he kept the price low, he’d have to sell large quantities to make a profit. So unless he had an incentive to produce in bulk, there was no point in selling it. 
For other toys, you could expect people to come back for more after they broke their first one. However, tops didn’t really break easily. He did have a point. In that case... 
“What if I made different varieties... Wouldn’t that solve our problem, making them fun to collect? For example, I could make them in different colors, put the various family crests on some, maybe images of Dragons and knights on others. Wouldn’t that make kids want to gather all the different kinds?” 
“That’s perfect! Even if they don’t break, kids will want to buy a bunch that way. If we take advantage of that... brilliant!” Maybe I shouldn’t have said take advantage of. That made it sound sinister. But it was true that making them a collector’s item he could produce as many as he wanted. Well kids would probably be happy with just one, and the adults that had an interest in collecting would have the money for more. 
“This country truly is a wonderful place. There are so many opportunities for a merchant here. Better yet, it seems most merchants haven’t discovered that fact yet!” His eyes were glimmering at all the possibilities for profit. It seemed that he wanted to open a Strand Company branch store here. And in fact, the initial purpose of his visit had been to obtain approval for that. 
As they operated internationally, allowing them to establish an office here would certainly make it easier to import and export goods. There was no reason not to give him permission. 
I decided to call over old man Naito and Nikola, to have them help figure out a suitable location for their store. Nikola was more of a bodyguard than a merchant, but I was sure he’d enjoy the opportunity to talk to his uncle so I decided to bring him as well. 
I let Olba decide how he was going to sell the tops. For formality’s sake, the country was entitled to ten percent of his profits on it. 
I never expected that years down the line my top would be a highly coveted item that nobles from all over were willing to pay ludicrous sums to obtain. 


“All right, I can use magic to preserve its hardness. Then, just in case it breaks, let’s give it a restoration function. Now, if I [Program] it to absorb the surrounding magic...” Recently, I’ve been busy creating weaponry using the Phrase crystals we’d gathered. 
After all, it was an item that changed magic into hardness. The greater amount of magic it received, the tougher it became. It also increased its cutting ability, as well. That was the secret behind the sharpness of the Phrase’s attacks. 
I filled the crystal with a significant amount of magic. That allowed me to replicate Phrase’s hardness, sharpness and even its regenerative abilities. 
“And that’s how I made this sword. The first one of its kind. I call it ‘Touka.’” 
“Touka...” Yae took the colorless, translucent sword from its sheath. The crystalline blade was reminiscent of ice. The light coming from outside the workshop gave it a brilliant shine. 
“Just so you know, I made it automatically absorb magic from the surroundings — primarily the air itself — so I don’t think it will ever run out of that. If that ever happens, though, you should know it by how well it cuts. Just fill it up with magic and it should be back to normal.” She tested its sharpness on a piece of iron I’d prepared, and the blade cut through it like paper even though she just lightly touched it. This sharpness is borderline scary. 
“This should be able to cut through the Phrase. You have my thanks, Touya-dono.” After putting Touka into its sheath — which was made of a Phrase crystal, too, but painted to not be translucent — Yae looked at me and gave me a blissful smile. That made the creation more than worth it. 
However, behind her, I saw four highly familiar faces — all pouting at me. 
“...I’ve made things for you too, so stop looking at me like that.” First, with Lu being a dual-wielder, I gave her two short swords. They were pretty much just like Touka. 
I didn’t have any weaponry for Yumina and Linze, but I gave them both a set of Phrase crystal bullets. I set them to, upon landing, create an [Explosion] behind them, causing them to get wedged into the target. 
Though the [Explosion] itself wouldn’t have much effect, it worked pretty well as a propellant. I also made the bullets sharp and used magic to increase that sharpness even further. The idea behind it was based on a fictional weapon that used explosives to launch a high-speed metal stake — the pile bunker. 
Then there were Elze’s gauntlets, which made good use of the crystals’ toughness. 
I’d spent some time thinking on how I could make their power more focused, and I’d ended up adding some brutal-looking, cone-shaped attachments on the fists. Two sharp horns — left and right — focused on a single point. It was easy to imagine just how destructive a hit from those would be... 
Normally, they would be hidden inside the back of the gauntlets, and I made it pop out when she made her fists face forward — a sort of “pulverize mode,” so to speak. 
“Just so you know, it’s dangerous to use it outside of battles, so don’t keep it in that state when—” Suddenly, a crash. Right as I was saying that, the stone spread out on the workshop grounds was pulverized. Damn it! I know you want to try them out, but that’s gonna make Rosetta cry! 
“Not bad. Breaking things is much easier than normal.” 
“That’s because I’ve made it that way... Ahh man...” As I was thinking of what excuse I’d make when Rosetta saw what happened here, I heard the sound of trees falling down. 
“Impressive sharpness.” 
“Amazing! The trees are so large, yet they get cut like radishes!” As Yae and Lu turned gleeful due to the effectiveness of their blades, I looked at the fallen trees and concluded that no excuse would work now. 
Guess I’ll bite the bullet and get scolded... I’m sorry, Rosetta. It’s odd, though. How did it come to this? Yumina and Linze, too, were putting the bullets into their gun chambers, so I somehow got them to stop. I couldn’t allow the casualties to increase. Why are my wives so keen on fighting? Good grief. 
After testing the weaponry, we made our way back to the castle, where we were met with a panicked Lapis. Did something happen? 
“Sir... No... Your Majesty. You have messengers from another country. Please get appropriately dressed and go to Kousaka.” Eh? Messengers? That’s a first. I wonder what country they’re from... My Duchy of Brunhild was gradually becoming a proper country. Naturally, international relations were next, but I haven’t made any preparations for this. 
My country was surrounded by Regulus in the east and Belfast in the west. That meant that there was no chance of me getting invaded as long as I was on good terms with these two countries. 
However, that didn’t mean that not getting along with other countries was a good idea. Every nation had their motives and methods, and there was always the possibility that they could do something indirectly. 
Still, so far, not a single nation considered my new, small country to be worth interacting with. The countries in the western alliance knew me very well and I interacted with them often. However, I didn’t know how to react if the messenger came from a country I didn’t know.


“It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Your Majesty, Grand Duke of Brunhild. I am Nesto Renaud, a messenger sent here on behalf of Elias Altra, Pope of the Ramissh Theocracy.” 
“And I am Phyllis Rugit.” 
“Very well.” I sat on the throne in my throne room. Kousaka — the ex-Takeda Elite Four member — was standing next to me and throwing me glances. 
I know, I know. I have to avoid saying much and leave most of it to you. After all, we didn’t know what they wanted. Rather than saying something unnecessary, it was better to just stay silent. “Silence is golden,” as they say. Also, I had little of the so-called “majesty” about me; I had to be considerate so they wouldn’t underestimate me. 
“We wholeheartedly welcome you. Now, might we hear what is your business here?” Kousaka spoke to the messengers. The person before me — Nesto — was a grown man with short, blond hair. He was clad in a fancy white robe with golden embroidery on it. At first glance, he looked like a priest. He appeared to be over 40 years of age. His hair seemed kinda weird, though. 
The person next to him — Phyllis — was a quiet, bookish-looking girl with light purple hair in a bob cut. She looked about as old as me. Her robe was white, too. It wasn’t nearly as flashy as Nesto’s, though. 
They looked like priests of the Ramissh Theocracy. They worshiped the god of light — ‘Lars,’ I believe. If they were priests there, then they had quite a lot of political power. 
One of them — Nesto — spoke up. 
“Our theocracy’s pope — Elias Altra — wishes to befriend the Duchy of Brunhild. We also wish to propagate the Church of Lars in your lands by having you accept it as your state religion. If you are willing to do that, Ramissh Theocracy will recognize you as a sister country and always support you.” 
...Huh? State religion? As in, one that’s protected by law? 
“We invite you to undergo a baptism and begin building a church in your lands. If you follow the teachings of Lars, the god of light, your nation will surely become more prosperous than ever before.” Nesto spoke those words with great zeal and enthusiasm, but I felt the exact opposite, and it only got stronger with every word spoken. 
The hell’s this guy saying? Why should I undergo a baptism from such a weird cult? 
“The teachings of our Lord Lars destroy evil and bring forth light and justice...” 
“No, thank you.” 
“...Huh?” My words caused him to stop his heated speech and turn stiff. 
“Whatever do you mean?” 
“Exactly what I said. I don’t need a religion in my country.” The speech dragged on for a bit, but it was basically an invitation to his faith. And honestly, I found it shady as hell. The god of light? Did he really exist? 
“So you are saying that you have no need for the teachings of our Lord? Do you not believe in God?” 
“I’d prefer it if you didn’t say such silly things. There’s not a man in this world who believes in God more than me. I thank him every day.” I spoke those words as Nesto glared at me. 
It’s not your god, though. 
Reacting to what I’d said, the Phyllis girl joined the conversation. Unlike Nesto, however, she didn’t seem mad. She looked more confused than anything else. 
“Then why? If you believe in God, why do you refuse to spread his word? Seems contradictory, if you ask me.” 
“It isn’t. Also, you say that your god is the ‘god of light,’ Lars. Does ‘light’ mean that there’s a god of dark? Are there any other gods?” I answered her question with another question. The one to answer was Nesto, who puffed his chest as he did so. 
“God of sea, god of mountains, god of earth — certainly, there are many various gods. However, the one standing above them is the god of light, Lars — the most glorious of all. He’s an absolute god of justice, and not even the god of dark can stand up to him.” 
“Doesn’t seem like it, though.” 
“What?!” Nesto went past just glaring at me. His voice turned ragged as he stood up — anger palpable in his expression and demeanor. 
Well, I expected as much. 
“Are you saying that our Lord is powerless?!” 
“You called him an ‘absolute god of justice,’ right? Then why are there still criminals and evil-doers?” 
“Th-That’s... That’s what we’re here for! We punish evil in His stead! It’s our duty! We are His limbs and...!” 
“That’s just your power, isn’t it? Nothing divine about it. Don’t confuse that.” Nesto’s shoulders were shaking at this point. Did I say too much? Am I wrong, though? 
“Then what has your God given to us?!” 
“Nothing. He’s pretty busy. He leaves us to take care of ourselves. Doesn’t intervene unless there’s something important. Also, it’s not like I’m completely rejecting your teachings. If you believe in your god, it’s all fine by me.” 
Everyone has their very own god inside their hearts. Let people believe whatever they want. It’s fine like that. However, I don’t like people using their Gods in international relations. 
Nesto looked at me with pure hatred in his eyes. 
“...It appears that you have been bewitched by a wicked God. It appears we will have to purify you.” 
“Ah?” 
What did he just say? “Kohaku. Hold him down.” 
“As you command.” 
“Augh?!” Kohaku attacked Nesto from behind, pushed him down on the floor and kept him there with its front legs. Naturally, Kohaku was in Byakko mode. 
I walked over to Nesto, crouched down and looked in his eyes — full of fear of Kohaku. 
“I don’t care what God you believe in. You can pray to whatever divinity you like, regardless of whether they actually exist or not. However, I won’t allow you to treat my God as wicked. You don’t know anything about him, so I don’t want you saying stuff like that.” I glared at Nesto, opened a [Gate] on the floor and teleported him... Straight to the river outside the castle. 
When he disappeared, he left behind his blond hair. 
I knew it was a wig. 
I looked to the side and saw Phyllis, who was wordless with shock. 
Oh. Crap. I overdid it. 
He was a messenger from another country. I had better methods of dismissing him. Hearing him talk badly about God got to my head. I mean, seriously, how could that nice old man be a wicked God? Still, I went too far... I turned around and saw Kousaka with his hand on his forehead, exhaling a long sigh. Crap, I really messed up. And he told me to not talk too much, damn it. 
“Umm... Priest Nesto is...?” 
“Well... I teleported him outside the castle. Don’t worry, he’s not hurt.” 
Probably wet as hell, though. Guy might even catch a cold. Not that I would care. 
“My apologies. Please forgive his rudeness. Just so you are aware, this audience with Your Majesty was based primarily on Nesto’s own initiative, and the pope was not too enthusiastic about it.” Phyllis bowed her head. 
Really? “Having this country adopt the Church of Lars as its state religion would be a great achievement, after all. I believe that that was Nesto’s plan.” 
So he just wanted to get ahead in life, huh? Pretty vulgar for a priest. 
“Anyway, I don’t plan on having a state religion. Tell that to your pope.” 
“Yes. Certainly. By the way, umm... about what you said... Have you perhaps met God in person, your Highness?” 
Oh? Did I say something that gave it away? Man, how should I answer this? 
“I am sorry. This must sound weird... I just... became doubtful about whether God truly exists or not...” Phyllis whispered that and brought her head down. 
You sure you should be saying that? You’re a priestess, aren’t you? 
“This question was always on my mind. People punish evil in the name of justice. While a part of me sees that as a wonderful thing, I can’t help but wonder whether it’s fair to mark someone as evil simply because they’re demonic or born from the dark. Also, can’t we forgive someone who only made a single error? Such questions came one after the other and...” I can somewhat understand her, but is it really okay for her to continue being a priestess while doubting her God so much? Suddenly, the smartphone in my pocket began vibrating. 
Eh? Now, of all times? Since there was only one person who ever called me, I knew exactly who it was. 
I took it out and answered the call. 
“Hello?” 
“Hey, it has been a while. I take it you know who this is?” 
Yeah, of course I do. Still, you should say who you are when calling. This timing, though... 
“Were you watching?” 
“Happened to be watching, yes. I must say, having you snap like that was quite satisfying. Thanks for getting mad for my sake.” 
Crap, he saw me. Damn, this is embarrassing. As I was writhing about the stuff I’d said, Phyllis fearfully called out to me. 
“Umm... who are you talking to?” 
“God.” 
“Eh?!” As Phyllis became surprised, I noticed that Kohaku — standing next to me — was in a weird state. The tiger wasn’t moving a muscle. 
Wait, what? Even Kousaka is completely stiff. What the hell?! 
“Oh, I just stopped the time there for a bit. Things could get troublesome if anyone else saw me.” 
“You stopped time?! Wait, did you just say ‘if anyone else saw me’?! Do you mean that...?” 
“I thought that I should answer that young lady’s questions. I’m coming over. She won’t believe you otherwise. All right, then...” 
“Hey...!” 
Seriously? He actually hung up. I moved the smartphone away from my ear and looked at Phyllis. 
“He’s coming over...” 
“‘He’...? Who do you mean?” 
“Well... God.” As Phyllis and I were both in a state of astonishment, God descended before us, surrounded by blinding light. His divine — obviously, considering he was God — aura engulfed us. A single glance was enough to see just how celestial he was. He slowly went down and stood on the same ground we mortals walked on. 
“Yoo-hoo, it is I, your man God.” 
“Be more serious, damn it!” You obviously had more majestic things to say! And stop smiling like that, the situation is ridiculous enough as it is! 


Phyllis stood before the merry old man, trembling uncontrollably. After a few seconds, she seemed to lose the ability to stand. She collapsed to the ground, twitching. 
“Hm? Are you quite alright, dear?” 
“Uh, God...” God didn’t seem to understand what was going on, so I called to him. 
“There’s a... force you’re exuding right now, can you maybe turn it off? It’s making it hard for me to even look at you, so I can’t even imagine what it’s doing to her.” 
“Oh? Ah, very well. Goodness me, I forgot I was in the mortal realm. Forgive my carelessness... Divine energy tends to leak right out of me! I didn’t even notice...” Gradually, the golden shine in the room receded back into God’s body. Alongside it, the horrifying feeling of submission and oppression vanished as well. That’s God for ya, I guess. 
“We should be quite fine now, I believe. Are you alright, dear?” 
 

“Y-Yes...” Despite her words, Phyllis still only really seemed capable of raising her head. That was perfectly understandable, all things considered. Having been shown something like this? She’d have no choice but to admit the truth. I think her earlier question about the validity of my God had been promptly answered. God absolutely existed. 
“We should change venues, I think. Is there another, more comfortable room in the area?” 
“Hm? I mean, I have a meeting room...” I opened up a [Gate] and the three of us went through. Phyllis had trouble standing, so I had to lend her my arm until we reached the couch. 
I went to prepare us all some tea, passing by a frozen Renne and Cecile, who were apparently laughing at something before being paused. I poured out the tea by myself into a big pot, then returned to the room with a few snacks and three teacups. 
When I returned to the room, the two were much like they were when I’d left. God was swaying around a bit, looking about the room like an excited child, while Phyllis was sweating bullets and almost completely immobile. Her eyes, on the other hand, were darting all over the place. 
I poured out the tea into the cups and lined the snacks up. God took the first sip, and I asked my question. 
“I’ve got a question for you, old man.” 
“Mhm? What is it?” God placed his teacup down on the table with a smile, and turned to face me. 
“Do you know of any god of light named Lars?” 
“That... does not ring a bell. I’ve never heard that name, no. In fact, amongst all journeyman-level gods, and even trainee gods... there is no such being as Lars, god of light.” I didn’t expect him to be that confident. Phyllis looked like she had been punched in the stomach. But that was only natural, the god she had been raised to believe in had just been completely outed as fictional. 
“Well, maybe he isn’t called Lars. Is there a god of light?” 
“No, there is no such thing as the god of light. Well, if I were forced to classify a god of light, that would probably fall under my jurisdiction. I’m the world god, after all. There’s a god of wind, a god of fire, a god of darkness, and so on. For the most part, deities with the ‘god of’ prefix are the most simple and lowest of the godly hierarchy.” Hm, I wondered if that meant the god of love was a lower level god, as well. That confused me, because she seemed very friendly with my god, who I figured was pretty much at the tippy-top. I didn’t really know much about the social affairs of the divine realm, nor did I care that much. 
“B-But... if that’s the case, then what about the legendary incident, in which High Light Priest Ramirez called down Lars, god of light?” Ramirez, the High Light Priest, was the founder of the Ramissh Theocracy. The person who supposedly purified the land by borrowing the light of God. 
“Hm? You say he called upon a God? Even if humans could summon Gods, which I sincerely doubt... it would still be rather rare. Then again, there are some Gods that act upon simple whims, so I could not rule it out entirely.” The irony here was palpable. This God was probably the most whimsical of the lot! 
“Still, as the story goes... I do not believe it was a God. It is more likely that he summoned a spirit. To be more specific, a spirit of light.” 
“That’s a little ambiguous... Is it possible to peep into the past and see what happened?” 
“That is not impossible, but... it would be a bit of a bother. Let me explain in terms you may understand a little better. It is quite easy to pause an episode of something if you watch it on DVD, yes? But say you recorded television for an entire year, and suddenly needed to find the advertisements of a specific late-night talk show from a year and a half ago. Your recordings are numerous, and you have not indexed them... it would be quite hard to reach that certain point, would it not?” That was a needlessly complicated explanation, but I pretty much understood. 
“But then... what of our teachings? Our doctrine...?” Phyllis looked completely depressed, which was only natural given that God had just shot down her entire life. It was understandable, but even so, I didn’t expect her to get that torn up over it. 
“Do you people need the hand of God to hold yours? Can you not march forward for the sake of your own beliefs? Your own responsibilities? There’s no harm in taking God as a piece of emotional solace, but you must not use religion as a crutch. Your parents, siblings, lovers, friends, you must trust in them, as they trust in you. To be dependent upon us is the greatest mistake you could make. The Gods will do nothing to your world. I can assure you of that. Only you are capable of saving yourselves, or destroying yourselves. You are the ones with the power to change the world, to create miracles. We above will simply watch down upon you.” God was certainly being thorough, but he still interfered now and then, didn’t he? 
I decided to keep my mouth shut. I didn’t think my commentary would have anything to add. Phyllis seemed pretty sad, anyway, so snarky commentary would just be insensitive. 
“Well, even though I said that, I suppose it was not entirely the case... I typically leave you to your own devices without looking. If young Touya were not sent here, I may not have taken a look at affairs for another ten thousand years or so.” Just like that, he completely ruined the beauty of his message! Even though he had made a point to say the Gods were watching, it felt more like they were neglecting! He probably had a ton of different worlds to manage anyway, so keeping an eye on every one would be a pain. “Is that truly the case?” 
“Indeed. It may sound somewhat cruel, but the world is not my responsibility. No world is. The inhabitants are the ones who decide what happens to their world. The Gods will do nothing, I promise you that. Well, we would interfere if the troubles in the world were caused by us, for example the rare incident of a God turning wicked and laying waste to the world below. We would step in then.” I certainly hoped nothing like that happened to us. Sounded like a bad time for everyone. The rules seemed a little flexible and contradictory there. Gods sure were whimsical. 
“If I were to summarize, I’d say that I want the people of their respective worlds to deal with the problems of their respective worlds. Even if a great Demon Lord appeared and began to wage war upon the world, hoping to crush or dominate it, we gods would do nothing if the Demon Lord were a natural resident of the world to begin with. That being said, I would elect to grant divine weaponry to mankind and aid their struggle. I do not like worlds in which people suffer heavily, after all.” That made sense enough. I supposed that indirect intervention was also a fair option. It was enough to interfere, but also not be a massive boost. But then again, he said they wouldn’t intervene in the natural order of the world, but they’d still grant some kind of superweapon to use in the case of big events like a Demon Lord uprising? It all sounded a little half-assed to me. 
“There will always be those who depend on their parents forever. But the humans of this world are children no longer, I ask that you walk by yourselves, talk by yourselves. If you do so, you should be able to walk with pride and strength, to clear all obstacles in your path. With that, we Gods will watch over you keenly. Sometimes.” That ‘sometimes’ was a little unnecessary. But I’m sure that someone was always being watched somewhere across all the universes, so it wasn’t like they were slacking. 
“B-But what am I to do...? If Lars, god of light, doesn’t exist, then... All of his teachings were made by a man, rather than the divine. Does that make it all meaningless? Does that make all I’ve ever done completely meaningless?” 
“It is not meaningless, far from it. I am certain that somewhere, at least once, those teachings have saved someone. It matters not who made them, so long as they do good. Simply look at it as ‘for your fellow man’ rather than ‘for the glory of God.’ Cast off the shackles of doctrine, and live by your own strengths.” 
“...Y-Yes...” I didn’t think her mind would be able to change right away. After all, she had been born with a certain mindset, and raised in it. But, little by little, I felt she could be freed from the shackles she was born into. 
“Well then, I believe it’s time for me to leave. It is not proper for time to be put on pause for so long...” We moved back to my throne room, because it would’ve been strange if we suddenly vanished in front of everyone else. 
Kohaku and Kousaka were both as stiff as they had been before. If it weren’t for the unusual circumstances of the situation, I might’ve been inclined to pull a prank on them. It was a tad late for that, though. 
“Well then, my dear. Live strong, live brave. Live in good health.” God bore a beautiful smile, and turned into particles of light. 
After a few moments, Kohaku and the others began to move again. They looked in our general direction, somewhat confused. Since my location was a little bit different to when time had stopped, I think it looked like I had teleported from their perspective. 
“...I-It feels like I just woke from a dream. Did... did that really just happen?” 
“It really did. You met with God, the one and only. Do you believe, now?” 
“...I do.” The girl wore a peaceful smile on her face, and the shine in her eyes seemed calmer, more serene. I hoped that she was able to reconcile things within herself. 
Then, with a quick bow and an apology, she left my throne room. 
So ended my first diplomatic meeting. I was immediately reprimanded by Kousaka. I couldn’t really complain about that, though. I was not exactly good when it came to negotiation. 
In all honesty I was a little concerned, so I dispatched one of Tsubaki’s ninjas to the Theocracy. I summoned a tiny bird and asked him to take it along with him, so that I’d be able to know any news as soon as he got it. 
A few days later, I learned that a priestess of the Ramissh Theocracy, one Phyllis Rugit, had been stripped of her position. She had been charged with high blasphemy, the penalty for which was death. 


How could something so foolish have come about? I couldn’t understand why Phyllis had been marked for execution. The world was too cruel a place, to allow this to happen to a girl who was finally able to act on her own thoughts. 
When is she to die?? 
Ah, yes... The execution is scheduled for three days from now, early in the morning. The only reason she wasn’t cut down on the spot was because of the presence of a group that protested the order, and they didn’t wish to create civil unrest.? The agent I had sent to Ramissh was able to instantly report in through a telepathic link I had set up via a summoned bird familiar. From the sounds of things, Phyllis had some allies over there, so that was a small comfort to know. At the very least, I was glad she hadn’t been killed yet. 
Thank you. Please continue your investigation, and let us know if there are any new major developments.? 
Very well.? I cut off the contact. I had to figure out what to do. It was obvious from the outset that I couldn’t leave her to die. I was the one responsible for Phyllis’ new outlook on life, so the execution order was also my responsibility by proxy. 
“Ugh... this is why religion is such a bore, Touya. Religious people are always convinced they’re in the right, and never stop to consider other outlooks!” Elze, leaning her arms on the table at the balcony, failed to hide her irritation. I told everyone about the situation with Phyllis, though I took care to omit the part about us getting a visit from God. I just replaced that part by telling everyone that I had persuaded Phyllis to change her faith, or rather that she had left our meeting with a few things to reflect on and ponder. 
“So, what will you do?” 
“Well, I figured I’d go there. I have to stop the execution, right?” I gave Linze a simple enough answer. This was one of those situations where the fact that I was a head of state could come in handy. They couldn’t just brush me off, surely. I decided that the best course of action was to directly negotiate with the pope. After all, the life of one former priest wouldn’t be that difficult to negotiate sparing, right? 
“And if they do not stop, if they do not, what will you do then?” 
“Hm... it’ll have to be a prison break, right? I’ll bust in and save her.” 
“A-Are you stupid, Touya?! That’ll cause an international incident!” Yumina didn’t seem to like my response to Yae’s question, but I decided to keep it as a last resort. I didn’t think we needed to rely on Ramissh or anything, so if we ended up souring relations with them it wouldn’t be the end of the world. 
At first, I held back a little. I wasn’t sure if Lars, god of light, was a real entity, and I didn’t want to meddle in their religious affairs, but after God himself told me that Lars wasn’t real? That changed everything. Ultimately, their religion was irrelevant to me in this matter, what mattered was their diplomatic attitude. Part of me wouldn’t have even minded if diplomatic relations broke down between our two nations. They just sounded more like trouble than anything else to me. 
I shifted my gaze to Kousaka, who was quietly standing nearby. 
“Will there be any issues if I earn the ire of that country?” 
“Currently, I see no major negative repercussions. But they may send their zealots to cause trouble in our country.” Well that sounded a bit irritating. It struck me as odd that a God with teachings of light and justice would have such petulant, hounding followers. 
“They can justify anything if they say it’s in the name of justice... It’s just a convenient excuse for them...” Lu let out a quiet mutter, disgust painted on her face. That reminded me of a saying I’d once heard. So long as everyone tries to be the hero, wars will never end. 
“Anyway, I can’t just abandon her like this. I’m off to go save her.” 
“Then at least let us come, too.” 
“No, if we all rush in at once it’ll only needlessly agitate them. I’ll take care of this one myself.” Having said that, I decided to take Kohaku with me just to be safe. My decision must have seemed somewhat irresponsible for a head of state, but since we didn’t know what to expect, I figured it’d be safest for me to handle it alone. 
So long as everyone tries to be the hero, wars will never end.


“Oh, so you’re the grand duke of Brunhild, are you? Sorry, kid, but I don’t have time for your games right now. Go play royalty somewhere else.” I made use of Babylon to go all the way to the capital of Ramissh, only to be turned away at the front door of the Isla Temple. 
It was only to be expected, really. I had no real evidence to support my claim, after all. If some kid turned up out of nowhere and introduced himself as a monarch, I’d probably look at them funny, too. 
“Look, can you just like, go fetch the pope for me or something? There’s something important I need to talk to her about.” 
“Fetch the pope...?! Insolent brat! How dare you talk of our pope like she’s some household pet!” 
“Sorry? I don’t believe in your religion, and I’m not even a citizen of your country. I don’t see why you’re getting worked up over something like that.” I’d wanted to resolve things peacefully if possible, but the knight before me drew his sword in a fit of rage. Whoa, this guy was quick to snap. I nimbly dodged the knight’s attack, following up with a chop to knock the sword out of his hands. The metallic clang of the sword hitting the ground alerted the rest of the knights, who were swift to react as they poured out of the temple in droves. 
“What happened?!” 
“We’ve got an intruder! Some insolent brat calling himself the grand duke of Brunhild. He insulted the pope!” 
“He did what?!” Two, four, six, eight... Around twenty knights in total. They had me surrounded before I could even react. They sure brought out a lot of people just to subdue one kid. For a group claiming to follow a god of light and justice, they sure didn’t seem averse to using cowardly tactics. Though, when I thought about it, a team of heroes fighting together to defeat a single monster was actually fairly common in superhero shows. I decided to just stick these guys in that category for now. “I’ll ask one more time. I, the grand duke of Brunhild, wish to meet with the Pope of Ramissh to discuss an important matter. Would anyone be kind enough to escort me to her?” 
“We’re not playing along with your little game, kid!” I brandished my weapon, and without hesitation fired a paralysis bullet at the first knight to charge at me. Seeing him collapse on the spot, the other knights faltered for a brief moment, but quickly pulled themselves together and raised a war cry. 
Mithril in my right hand, Black Dragon horn in my left, I shot my way through the throng of knights with my trusty twin Brunhilds. 
I immobilized their entire force in an instant. That’s what you get for not listening to me. 
“Truly a bothersome crowd, these people.” 
“You can say that again.” I instinctively met Kohaku’s analysis with a complaint of my own. Still, what was I to do from here? My options were to just continue like this and force my way in, or... 
Deciding that this was a better course of action, I cast [Recovery] on one of the knights to undo the paralysis. 
“There’s a priest here called Nesto-what’s-his-face, right? I want you to bring him to me. If he refuses, tell him I’ll spill the secret about his head to everyone. That’ll make him understand.” I was already acquainted with that baldy priest, so I decided to seek him out first. He was more likely to hear me out than these guys were, at least. 
The knight followed my instructions, taking off with a panicked dash into the temple. Before long, a group of what I could only call paladins came out of the temple fully clad in pure white armor, with Father Nesto leading the way. Oh hey, he got a new wig. 
“Your Highness, the Grand Duke of Brunhild?! What brings you to this place?! No, before that, explain yourself! What is the meaning of this?!” 
“I told the guard that I had important business with the pope. He refused to hear me out, and then a whole group of them attacked me without warning. I simply reacted in self-defense.” So I explained, pointing at the listless knights littered on the ground. 
“Do you understand your position here? You’ve shot down soldiers of a foreign country, and are attempting illegal entry into our sacred temple. This is an international incident!” 
“And raising your sword against the ruler of a foreign country isn’t? Nice double-standards you’ve got there.” I could almost see the sparks flying as I met my eyes with Nesto’s. What a pain. This guy clearly hated me. The feeling was mutual. Whatever, I just need him to take me to the pope. 
“What is going on here?” This time it was a man wearing a gaudy robe who emerged from the temple. His hair was neatly swept-back, and he had a silly little mustache. He was the spitting image of a certain dictator. Ours would’ve been a little bit taller, though. 
“Cardinal Zeon...?” Nesto turned his head and muttered. Cardinal? If I remember right, aren’t those like a few really important guys who work directly under the pope? 
“Father Nesto, who is this man? It is most unpleasant to have him causing a commotion on our sacred temple grounds.” The cardinal clicked his tongue as he turned to face Father Nesto. Oh boy, we’ve got a live one here. 
“He, he’s... Err, I mean, this esteemed gentleman is His Highness the Grand Duke of Brunhild. He says that he wishes to meet with Her Holiness the Pope.” 
“This boy is...?!” The cardinal stared intently at me, looking me over as if appraising my worth. It made me realize something. When introducing myself as a leader, I should probably have been dressed the part. I made a mental note to ask Zanac to make me some kingly clothes next time I saw him. I honestly felt that too many people in the world judged others based on appearance alone. 
“Your Majesty the Grand Duke of Brunhild, was it?” 
“That’s me.” 
“What manner of business could a foreign ruler have with Her Eminence the Pope? If you’d like, I could relay a message to her on your behalf.” 
“Thank you, but I would much rather meet with Her Holiness in person. Could I trouble you to escort me to her, instead?” The cardinal and I clashed gazes with sly grins on our faces, each of us trying to sound the other out. I felt like I definitely couldn’t trust this guy. If my plea to rescind Phyllis’ execution were left in this guy’s hands, I didn’t think the pope would ever get to hear a thing about it. 
“...Right this way.” The cardinal invited me into the temple. I was led to a room and asked to wait there, with several paladins left behind to keep an eye on me. I sat obediently in a chair, keeping to myself as the paladins’ gazes bored a hole in my back. I was neck-deep in unfamiliar territory. 
They probably weren’t stupid enough to assault me while we were inside the temple, but doing as I was told seemed like the best course of action for the time being. 
After a short wait, the cardinal returned to the room. 
“Her Eminence the Pope will see you now. Please, right this way.” The cardinal led me around through several more corridors. The temple was unnecessarily huge. After climbing up a long staircase, we finally reached a fancy door with golden borders, beyond which was a large, spacious room. 
Lined up by the left wall were several men in robes similar to the cardinal’s, and to the right stood a row of paladins standing at attention. An elderly woman in pure white robes and a big, long hat sat with a sharp look on her face atop her raised platform. This lady was the popess, Elias Altra. 
“Welcome to my temple, Grand Duke of Brunhild. I must admit to being rather startled by your abrupt visit, but as the pope, I have agreed to meet your request at an audience.” 
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Your Eminence. Please forgive my rudeness for barging in unannounced like this.” I lowered my head as I spoke. I wasn’t really at fault in the slightest, but I figured I should probably still apologize for beating up all their knights like that. 
“...There is much I would like to say, but let us get straight to this business of yours. Whatever has brought you all this way to my temple?” 
“Regarding the death sentence of one priest, Phyllis Rugit, I would request that the execution not be carried out.” The entire hall was filled with mumbled whispers the moment that name left my lips. The pope took note of this, and shot me an intense look. 
“What a farce this is. To think that a foreign leader would interfere in the death sentence of a convicted criminal... I cannot help but worry for the state of your kingdom.” 
“...A criminal, you say? Then tell me, what crime has she committed, exactly?” 
“Her primary offense is her advocation that our God, Lars, is a figure of make-believe. This is an unforgivable sin for a priest to commit. In addition, she is suspected of being a vampire who has already attacked several people. A being of darkness with such an evil soul must be dealt with appropriately.” 
What? Phyllis is a vampire? What’s that supposed to mean? Are they saying she hid that fact in order to become a priest and blend in? 
Master, do not let her mislead you. That girl was, without a doubt, an ordinary human being. I would be able to recognize a vampire by the smell alone.? Kohaku supported me through telepathy. I knew I could count on Kohaku. But still, things were starting to look pretty suspicious. Almost as if the whole thing was one big, convenient set-up. 
“That’s strange. Shouldn’t you be able to see through a vampire’s disguise like that with your god’s righteous powers?” 
“...Lars will never allow evil to go unpunished. All who defy him shall meet with divine punishment. Much like in this case.” This wasn’t “divine punishment” at all, it was just conveniently silencing dissenters. I began to suspect that this old lady already knew that Lars was a big old fraud. 
“So you claim, but haven’t there already been a number of victims? I feel that your god should have enacted his divine punishment before so many victims arose, don’t you think?” 
“Any such victims must have been carrying sins of their own. The truly devout would never have fallen prey to such evils.” This was pointless. She was making baseless claims with that backward religious logic of hers. 
“...Then I assume you have no intention of rescinding Phyllis’ death sentence?” 
“No evil can be allowed to go unpunished. Worry not, for we shall purify the girl’s soul in the process. These very actions are naught but pure salvation for the girl.” I let out a heavy sigh. The whole thing was just so stupid. Non-believers are evil. When things go well, it’s all thanks to God’s guidance. When things aren’t going well, it’s because you don’t have enough faith. And when a system based on these beliefs allows legal murder of innocent people, it just leaves me dumbstruck and appalled. 
“This is stupid. Every one of you here is truly beyond salvation.” 
“Wha...?!” My words froze the room into total silence. Even the pope stared at me wide-eyed. I was done playing along with these jokers. Since it didn’t seem like words would be effective, I’d just do things my way instead. 
“I’ll declare it loudly for all to hear. Lars, the god of light, does not exist. He’s a false idol, and Phyllis merely caught on to that fact. You’re free to have your own beliefs, but stop labeling anyone who disagrees with them as evil. Don’t think that being religious somehow automatically makes you better than everyone else.” 
“Silence! You will insult our God no further!” The paladins to my right all instantly moved their hands to the hilts of their swords. 
“I’m very sorry about that. So sorry, in fact, that I’d like to apologize to Him in person. Bring your god Lars before me, and I’d happily kiss his feet.” Not like they could, even if they wanted to. 
“I reject the very notion of your god, and all that he stands for. I reject any teachings that could possibly allow one to enact false justice in the name of a false idol, dooming an innocent girl to an unjust death. I’ll say it again. You have no God.” 


Their religion was unusual to begin with. Despite having been around for a thousand years, it remained mostly contained within their own country. Even considering that the magic of this world made it nigh-impossible to determine an actual “divine miracle,” the fact that their religion had barely spread at all was plenty suspicious. If I were to use healing magic back in my own world, a new religion might spring up overnight. There would still be those who would call me a fraud, of course, but the fact would remain that I had healed a person’s wounds, leading at least that person to believe in me. However, in this world the most you’d get is a few thanks; it definitely wouldn’t be taken as a divine miracle. That was the nature of magic. That’s just how things were over here. 
They called it a religion, but living in this country you would naturally be surrounded and outnumbered by the devout everywhere you looked, leaving you with no choice but to follow suit. It wasn’t about whether you really believed in the god or not; it looked more like a form of mind control in this case. 
One important thing to note was that not a single country had formed an alliance with Ramissh. This country — or rather, the ground that the country rested on — might have been hiding something. 
Taking Belfast as a comparison, the people there placed more faith in fairies than Gods. People who had met fairies could be found here and there, but nobody would claim to have met a God. According to the God that I knew, fairies were like the Gods’ servants’ servants or something. 
At any rate, it was pointless to compare this religion to any of those from my old world. Heck, I still couldn’t even be sure if this planet was round like Earth was. 
Compared to the religions I knew, this one felt obviously different and horribly warped. It didn’t seem like it was meant to lead people to salvation, or even just offer some peace of mind, at all. All I got from them was that they hated anyone who disagreed with them. 
Coming to the country myself had only helped solidify that impression. There was clearly more to this country than it seemed. 
“...And that’s why I let myself get caught on purpose.” 
“I... see.” I explained my plot to Kohaku as we sat together in an underground prison cell. I swear I’m not just trying to save face. After my outburst, I was one-sidedly labeled a villain. Naturally I’d be able to gather evidence after being caught. ...That was definitely my plan, yeah. 
“In that case... what do you intend to do now?” 
“...Wh-What do you think I should do?” Kohaku leered at me, eyes filled with doubt. I’m joking, it’s a joke! 
“For now, Phyllis’ safety comes first. After that, we’ll gather info. Let’s go.” 


The underground prison wasn’t especially big, nor was it especially bright. It was sturdy, though. The stone walls surrounding us held firm. Is this the kind of hospitality you want to give a neighboring monarch?! I found it all a little bit excessive really. I wondered if they were going to just act like I was some miscreant who had pretended to be Brunhild’s grand duke. 
If that was the case, they might end up seriously trying to execute me. If someone from my country came to investigate, they could always cover it up and lie about me ever being here, too. 
Welp, better break out already. 
“[Mirage].” I created an illusory image of Kohaku and myself, and set it in a dingy prison corner. I didn’t want them thinking we escaped, after all. 
I considered using [Gate], but they’d placed down a barrier preventing that kind of magic. That stupid baldheaded priest probably tipped them off about it. But that was fine, there were other methods to escape, after all. 
“Oh, right... better conceal ourselves...” I used [Invisible], a very convenient spell, to turn Kohaku and myself invisible. We could see one another, but nobody else could see us. 
I then used [Modeling] to twist apart the bars of the prison and make my grand escape. Naturally I restored the bars to their original appearance after we got out, though. 
I climbed up a tight stairway and found myself in a stone passage, lined with doors. At the other end, there were even more stairs going up. We were still in the underground section, so the guardsmen were still a bit ahead. 
Each door was marked with a number, the one I had just exited was clearly cell number four. 
“Map search. Phyllis Rugit.” 
“Understood. Search completed.” My smartphone projected a small map and pointed out the location, it seemed to be cell number eight. 
I closed my map. Even if my Smartphone was concealed by my magic, the projected image it shot out was definitely visible. It’d be bad if somebody noticed that just floating around. 
I opened up cell number eight and slowly descended the stairs into the dank underground. 
After a while, the stairs were no more, and I saw Phyllis across on the other side of the dingy room. Thank goodness, she’s still alive... Doesn’t look injured, either. 
I quickly noticed another person in the room, lying on the ground. She wasn’t alone. 
“Phyllis... Phyllis...” I didn’t want to be too loud, so I gently called out to her. After a few moments, Phyllis slowly raised her head. 
“...Wh-Who’s there? Whose voice is that voice?” Phyllis began to look around, anxiety painted on her face. I had forgotten I was invisible. 
I undid the spell, and revealed myself to her. 
“Y-Your Highness the Grand Duke?!” I completely ignored her surprise and bent open the bars with my trusty spell. I turned to the side and slipped into the cell with her. Wait a second, this jail’s slightly larger than mine! Is this a form of discrimination? Am I being oppressed? 
“Why are you here of all places...?!” 
“I came to help you, of course! I felt pretty responsible about that execution order!” 
“N-No, Grand Duke, please! This isn’t your doing, it’s all mine...!” 
“Shh, you’re being too noisy!” I clamped a hand over Phyllis’ mouth. 
...... I-Is it okay? Maybe the guards’ll just think she was talking to herself... I hope they don’t get suspicious... Well, I don’t hear anyone coming, at least... 
“Phyllis, who’s that sleeping person over there? Is she a friend?” 
“That person... or rather... that woman... is Her Holiness the Pope, Elias Altra...” 
“Excuse me?!” I suddenly blurted out my surprise, and instinctively covered my own mouth. 
The goddamn pope of all people?! But wait, that can’t be right... what about the old crone I met earlier with the piercing eyes?! This woman looked completely different. I took a closer peek at her face, and it was definitely not the same person. She was definitely about the same age, but this sleeping woman’s face was far gentler and softer. 
“Wait, this is Elias Altra?! Then who did I meet earlier?!” 
“It’s more likely that you met a different person entirely. Did she look similar age-wise, but with a more piercing gaze?” 
“Yeah, kinda like that I guess.” 
“That was probably Cardinal Kyurei, then... She’s Cardinal Zeon’s elder sister.” That would make her the sister of that annoying mustache guy. Hm, but that didn’t add up... It seemed as though they’d prepared a fake pope and given me a fake audience with her! Which meant to me that they were all working together. This was beginning to seem like a seriously foul conspiracy. 
“Sorry, I’m finding it a little hard to follow here... Can you tell me everything from the top?” According to Phyllis, after she returned home and reported to the pope and the others, everything went wrong. The cardinals were furious at her for the denial of their God, and the opposition of their doctrine. Immediately, they demanded she be executed. However, the pope herself, along with a few other priests, stood up and objected to that. 
Phyllis wasn’t entirely surprised by their reaction, but was amazed that the pope herself stood by her side. Regardless, she was arrested either way. 
After a few days, the pope was also thrown into the dungeon, albeit in a severely weakened state. 
“But why would they toss the pope of all people in prison...?” 
“Th-That is because... the secret of this nation must be protected, at all costs.” The pope opened up her eyes, and stared right at me. She seemed to have awoken. The pope’s left eye was green, and her right eye was blue. Her eyes were heterochromatic, mismatched. It brought to mind Yumina’s Mystic Eyes... “You are the grand duke of Brunhild, are you not...? My name is Elias Altra, it’s a pleasure...” The pope herself slowly raised herself up and introduced herself. Despite her motions, however, she looked extremely weak. I decided she’d need to heal up. 
I cast [Recovery] and [Refresh] on her, which brought her body back to relative strength. After that, I slapped on a [Cure Heal] for good measure. 
As I healed her, I wondered why she hadn’t just healed herself... but that was stupid, just because she worshiped a god of light didn’t necessarily mean she’d have any talents with Light spells. I was pretty sure I remembered someone telling me Dark and Light were fairly rare attributes to have affinity for, anyway. 
If it was similar to a fantasy RPG, then people who had healing magic would probably be priests who channeled the power of God through their spells. That kind of thing was a staple in videogames, but this was another world, not a game world. Even so, I couldn’t help but think if that’s how it worked, then the religion would’ve spread further and faster. 
“Thank you so much for that... I feel considerably better.” 
“I’m glad. But more importantly, why were you brought here? You said something about this country’s secret?” 
“...... Hmh...” 
She stayed quiet for a time, before looking right at me with a focused expression. 
“It is a secret that would shake the very foundation of the country we stand in right now, but it seems there’d be no point in keeping it hidden from you. It is indeed as Phyllis said. Lars, god of light, does not exist.” What? I was completely taken aback. The pope of a religion had just denied her own God. I looked a Phyllis, who seemed equally shocked. 
“Each of the cardinals know the truth as well. After I ascended to cardinalhood before I was pope, the previous pope told me the truth as well.” That means the higher-ups knew... but they still continue the farce of believing in this Light God... why? There was something more important than that, though. Sure, Phyllis and myself knew Lars didn’t exist because God himself had verified that information for us. But how did the cardinals themselves know for sure that the God they worshiped wasn’t real? “Long ago, this territory was the domain of monstrous beasts, demons, and wicked spirits. The one that appeared to purge these creatures was a man known as Ramirez. But Ramirez was not the priest our scriptures state he was.” 
“He wasn’t...?” Isn’t Ramirez the founder of Ramissh? What’s going on here? “Ramirez was no priest, he was a mage. One that specialized in summoning. His greatest affinity was Dark Magic.” 
“What...?!” 
“The scriptures state that Ramirez summoned Lars, god of light, to purge the land of wickedness. But the truth is different entirely. What Ramirez called down were wicked spirits, servants of the darkness. After he used that power to purge the land of beasts, he came up with an idea, and began to set it into motion.” Hm, so God was right after all, he’d summoned powerful spirits. But they weren’t light, they were creatures of the dark... Still, Ramirez must’ve been a hell of a guy to call upon dark stuff like that... My attention turned back to Elias, who was explaining what the man’s idea was. “Ramirez thought he would build a kingdom upon his newly-conquered land, using the powers of dark spirits to manipulate the minds of the people who lived there. That’s how he began the Lars faith. The dark spirits he summoned merged into one great beast, and meddled with the minds of the people who were brought into the area. Through this method, their thoughts were twisted in line with Ramirez’s. All of the citizens accepted Ramirez’s doctrine without question, and the Ramissh Theocracy was formally founded.” What the hell...?! Isn’t that just brainwashing?! Or maybe it could be called something more akin to hypnosis... still, twisting people’s brains like that? That’s totally messed up. 
“Was the dark spirit’s mental conditioning that strong?” 
“The influence of the spirit made it easier for him to convince people of his ideals, but people who were resistant to magic ended up being less affected by it. That’s why Lars, god of light was created as a figurehead for the faith. He used mental conditioning, and an idol people could aspire to. Using that wicked combination, he captured both the hearts and the minds of his people.” Ramirez disgusted me. I wasn’t surprised that they were so desperate to keep the secret. Their entire religion would collapse if this leaked out. It was truly heinous that a religion built on the ideals of light was actually spawned by a monster from the dark... 
“...I understand that this is a really important secret, but... Why does this mean the pope had to be locked up?” 
“I protected Phyllis, so they believed I may have gone rogue and threatened to spill the truth. Not to mention the fact that both Kyurei and Zeon were originally in the running for popehood, and saw an opportunity to supplant me and my position. I was gradually fed a medication that poisoned my body and weakened my mind. They didn’t have to kill me to replace me, after all.” That made sense enough. They probably had no idea why I’d come to their country, and with the pope being absent they decided to trick me into a fake meeting... They were probably suspicious because of what had happened with Phyllis, too... They didn’t handle it very well, though. 
“But, Your Holiness... why did you protect Phyllis? Aren’t you kind of meant to be the figurehead of the religion? Why would you stand by someone who would shake the faith so much?” I didn’t get it at all. If I were a pope, then someone like Phyllis would be seen as a pest. 
“...I truly believed in Lars, god of light... it’s why I joined the priesthood. I worked hard, for the sake of my Lord. But when I became a cardinal... They told me there was no God. That my work was fruitless. After that, I simply worked to maintain the lie, a cog in the wheel like all the rest. Once you learn the truth, there’s no going back to normality.” That sounded pretty rough to me. I figured they’d probably set up methods to silence anyone that threatened to reveal the truth anyway. Dead men tell no tales, after all. And now I had learned this secret, so they’d probably end up after my head if I wasn’t careful. 
“Before I knew it, I had ascended to the position of pope. But it was an empty position, my heart was already withered. I was trapped in a place that I couldn’t possibly abandon. Then, Phyllis came and told us what she had seen. She appeared, truly convinced that there was indeed a God out there.” After speaking, the pope turned to Phyllis. She turned to me, vigor in her voice, a beautiful smile painting her face. 
“Can you imagine the euphoria I felt in that moment? It was indeed true that Lars, god of light, did not exist, but... there was in fact a god that did. And there was a person who had actually met Him! The words that she had heard from God, I was desperate to learn more. It was the first time in years that my heart truly began beating again.” 
“But why did you believe Phyllis without question? You didn’t doubt her at all?” After I asked, the pope pointed to her left eye. Her pale green eye suddenly turned darker. 
“I possess the Mystic Eyes of Sincerity. I’ve never been able to miss a lie. It was also one of the reasons I was elected as pope. When Phyllis told me her story, I knew she was no liar. I learned in that moment that God truly existed, and it made me so happy. In that moment, I was euphoric, because of God’s blessing. I was also envious, as I wished to meet God myself...” The pope let out a quiet, sad mutter. Oh. Oh no. Before I could stop it, I realized what was about to happen. I turned to look at Kohaku. The tiger was frozen stiff! 
“Yoo-hoo! Did someone want to meet little old me?” 
From the darkness, God himself descended, clad in dazzling light. 
God, please! You’re way too whimsical! 


“Have you just been watching this whole time?” 
“It had been weighing on my mind. The poor girl had been locked away because I had done something I shouldn’t have, and I felt rather guilty about it all. But then, as God, I couldn’t exactly come to her rescue myself...” I knew what he meant. The root cause of all that was going on could be narrowed down to carelessness on God’s part. 
I stole a glance in Phyllis’ direction and noticed that she’d already fallen prostrate before His divine presence, while the pope stood, mouth slack, staring at us in confusion. 
“Umm... Your Majesty, who might this be?” 
“This is God.” 
“G-G-God...?!” The pope’s eyes snapped wide open, and she gazed at both God and I in turn. She was certainly surprised, but it seemed she still had some doubts. I could feel her using her Mystic Eyes on me. She could tell that I wasn’t lying, but it seemed like she hadn’t quite fully grasped the reality of the situation yet. 
“Oh, I know. God, do that flashy halo thing you did before.” 
“Eh? I thought you told me not to use my divine aura anymore.” 
“You have my permission this time.” God nodded and gradually begin to let out his divine aura. Welp, here it comes. 
God’s majestic form lit up for all to behold. His halo of divinity was as impressive as ever. One glance would be enough to convince anyone that this person was, indeed, the one true God. 
Bathed in His divine light, the pope also laid herself prostrate on the ground next to Phyllis. 
“Can I turn it off now?” 
“Yup, that’ll do.” The imposing light vanished as swiftly as it came. Just then, a certain doubt floated up from the back of my mind. Why was it that I could resist his divine aura which should easily have overwhelmed any normal human? Was that another one of the perks he gave me when I was sent to this world? 
“Is there something the matter?” 
“Hm? Oh, I was just wondering why your aura doesn’t completely overwhelm me like it seems to do to everyone else. I just figured maybe you’d done something that would give me some resistance to it.” God looked at the two girls at his feet and tilted his head. 
“...Come to think of it, that is rather strange. Any ordinary — or even extraordinary — human being exposed to my divine presence in its true form should be left bowing before me in awe, like these two girls. None of my gifts to you included a resistance to Divinity itself, so I cannot think what would be... Ohh!” 
“...God, what did you do to me?” What’s with that face?! Why do you look like you’re screaming “Oh, shit!” in your head?! Looking away is just making you look more suspicious! And why are you trying to play it off by whistling? These days not even cartoon characters do that! 
“...You’re a poor liar, God.” 
“Erm... Weeell... Could you wait for just one moment?” He raised his right arm aloft and unleashed some kind of power. I couldn’t tell what he’d done for a moment. 
“I’ve stopped time for the girls, as well. It would be rather troublesome if anyone were to ever learn of this, you see.” The girls had already been paralyzed in their positions bowing before God’s feet anyway, so it didn’t really feel any different from a moment ago. Still, if God said so... 
“Well? Out with it.” 
“Hrmm... To summarize, you have already died once, back in your old world. I took responsibility for that and reincarnated you, but...” 
“But?” I couldn’t see what he was getting at. Heck, I was actually pretty thankful to him for giving me a new life in this world. 
“Normally when reviving someone, I would repair the damage done to their physical or spiritual body using the basic elements and energy of that specific world. In your case, though, I summoned you straight up to the Divine Realm before anything else. Physical body and all. Only after that did I revive you into a new world.” 
“I’m afraid I don’t follow.” 
“Well, I revived you using the materials I had at hand. And since your body and soul were both in the Divine Realm at the time, I ended up putting you back together with divine matter. To put it simply, your body is similar in composition to that of a God.” This was the first I’d heard any of this. I was dumbstruck. 
“B-But I still get exhausted if I run for too long, and I can still get injured like anyone else. It doesn’t really feel like I’ve got a God’s body...” 
“Well, it has only been one year since you were reincarnated, your powers might not have fully bloomed yet. Can you think of any similar situations where your strengths or resistances have felt rather abnormal for a human being?” ... More than I could count. My near-limitless mana pool, and my ability to use any Null spell I wanted, for example. I’d always chalked it up to being “God’s gift,” but... It turned out that it was actually “all God’s fault.” 
“My mistake. Wahahaaah!” 
“Don’t just laugh it off like that... Please tell me there aren’t going to be any adverse effects to this later on down the line.” 
“None at all. Think of it as just having obtained a much sturdier body than the norm. Although, you may find yourself awakening to some strange new powers later on... if I’m right, your body is like that of an infant God’s right now. So please let me know if something like that does happen.” Whaddya mean by strange new powers?! I damn sure hope that I won’t randomly wake up one day with a halo of divinity radiating from my entire body... 
... I decided not to worry about it. If it wasn’t gonna kill me or directly harm me in any way, then I figured I could live with it. Just so long as I could continue living out my life in this world, that was enough for me. 
Just then, something came to mind that might’ve been able to destroy my peaceful life in this world. 
“Hey, God, do you know anything about the Phrase?” 
“Phrase? Nothing comes to mind, I am afraid to say.” I figured as much. I seemed to recall him saying that he hadn’t been checking in on this world much until after he sent me here. As God would say, if a world faced potential destruction, then it was up to that world’s inhabitants to find a solution to that which didn’t involve divine intervention. 
But if God wasn’t the one who drove the Phrase away around five thousand years prior, that only made me question what caused them to leave... 
His explanation finished, God raised his hand once more and let out that same power as before. I assumed the girls could now move again, but it was hard to tell since they were still bowing before God as they had been this whole time. Kohaku, however, was quite clearly still frozen in time. I felt kind of bad for Kohaku being the only one left out... 
“You can stand up now. I’m very sorry that my carelessness has put you in this difficult situation, young lady.” 
“N-Not at all! P-P-P-Please, think nothing of it!” 
“It seems as though I’ve even managed to get the pope wrapped up in it... I’m truly sorry about all this.” 
“Th-thank—... I am grateful for your words...” The two finally raised their heads. This was Phyllis’ second time meeting God, so although she was nervous, she could at least look him in the face. On the other hand, the pope had just exchanged words with God himself, and the encounter had left her with tears flowing down her face. Well, it was a pretty life-changing experience for her, to put it lightly. 
“I overheard your conversation. It must have pained you greatly to have lived your whole life embracing a lie like that. Fret not, though. All will be fine now.” 
“Such benevolence...!” 
“Whaddya mean, everything’s gonna be fine? Are you gonna step in and resolve the whole situation for us?” For a moment I was worried that he planned to just walk out in front of everyone with his halo on full power and declare “Your god of light doesn’t exist. There, religion disproved,” and wrap it all up with a clap of his hands. I mean, that did seem like the quickest and easiest solution, but... 
“Not me, Touya my boy, you are. After all, that’s what you’ve always done until now, is it not?” This irresponsible God was just planning on making me clean up after his mess! I couldn’t believe his audacity. I knew I wasn’t supposed to rely on divine intervention to solve my problems, but still! 
“Uhm... taking the cardinals out of the picture wouldn’t work out so well. If the truth were exposed, then there’d be public outcry.” But really it was more likely that we’d just be branded as liars. After all, who would believe us? 
“It is not as if the citizens are at fault, but... As things stand, they would only continue to believe in their god of light. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but their justification of anything under the banner of light and justice cannot be excused.” 
“I don’t believe this country can continue to function if we simply outed God as fake... If only there were some way to maintain the charade, but change the teachings...” The pope let out a saddened mutter. 
It certainly wasn’t a simple thing to change the foundation of a religion. It’s not like you could just toss half a bible out the window and call it a day. I had no idea how to deal with that... 
Hm, maybe some kind of incident could change how things are seen around here... Maybe God could just show up, and... no, that’d be too much interference. Guess we’re on our own. 
“Well, I will leave it to Touya. Now, that matter aside... Shouldn’t we deal with the fellow beneath us?” God tapped on the stone floor with his foot, smiling gently. Beneath us? What do you mean? I turned to the pope, whose expression had quickly turned grave. 
“Y-You noticed it...? Th-The presence down there is the Dark Spirit that Ramirez summoned... it’s been beneath the temple since the inception of the Theocracy...” 
“It what?!” Wait, that monster’s been lurking down there for the last thousand years?! Spirit or not, wasn’t it summoned?! I thought summoned creatures needed magic energy to stick around!! Wait no, more importantly, why is it still here?! 
“It didn’t take long for Ramirez to found the Ramissh Theocracy with the Spirit’s aid, but... shortly afterward, his mind was completely eroded and the man’s mind was taken over by the beast. After all of that, the spirit fused with Ramirez’s body and the cardinals of the era sealed it beneath the temple grounds. It was better for them to keep it here, actually... Because the Spirit’s ability of mentally conditioning everyone in the area never wore off. The brainwashing ability still emanates from it even to this day. Undying, but no longer alive, you could say Ramirez still supports the religion even in this state now.” The pope spoke directly to God, as if confessing a grave sin. 
That was a hell of a story. If that was true, it meant that such a horrible secret had been passed from cardinal to cardinal for the last thousand years. I finally understood how insidious this religion truly was. It also explained how the Spirit was still here. If it fused with the summoner and sustained his body, then it could live here indefinitely. Though, I doubted he was still conscious after so long. 
“The magical power of the Dark Spirit cannot affect you, or this girl, on a count of your high magic resistances... but that does not apply to the regular folk here. Even now, they are being unconsciously influenced by Ramirez and his original doctrine.” 
“So that means, if we can deal with the spirit...” 
“Correct, my boy. The zealous faith will disappear from the hearts and minds of the people. From then on, it would depend on the true feelings of the individual.” That made sense. We had to kill it at the source. But I still had the feeling there’d be some rotten types who’d do anything under the banner of their own justice, even if we broke the mental interference. 
“But I would suggest you two make haste. You said they sealed him, yes? I am quite sure that the seal is weaker than ever right now, and darkness is already emanating from its lair.” 
“You’re right... In fact, there’s been a string of people losing their energy, and even their lives... We officially blamed that on the work of a vampire, but in truth... it was because the spirit seal is waning.” Well, that explained the vampire plot thread away quite nicely. Still, it was pretty bad if it was starting to drain people’s lives. It made me wonder if the Spirit was trying to build power or something... 
“We need to deal with this Dark Spirit before it’s too late... Your Eminence, do you have anyone in this country that would side with you if it came to it?” 
“There are a few amongst the clergy that hope for the same outcome as I. But our numbers are minute compared to those backing Cardinal Zeon.” It was better than nobody, at least. I wanted to avoid revealing the true origins of the country to the public, though, and everything about the Dark Spirit’s mind control. But, I also wanted the cruel and inconvenient justice that Lars, god of light’s doctrine spoke of to be stricken out entirely. 
“Very well, I think I have seen enough. I will keep watching from my perch, so best of luck, Touya my boy! See you soon!” 
“What?! Wait!! You can’t jus—!” Before I could voice my protests, God vanished into beams of light. You coward! Get back here!! You’re making me deal with these messes that aren’t even mine, augh!! But, as much as I didn’t want it to, time began to flow again. Kohaku eyed me with suspicion. 
My liege. I feel as though something very unusual just happened to you...? 
Don’t mind it. It’s no threat to us.? 
Very well...? From Kohaku’s perspective, we must’ve instantly teleported from one position to another, so the tiger was having difficulty processing how our pose and location had shifted so suddenly. It would be a pain to explain though, so I decided not to bother. 
“...I feel as though I’ve awakened from a dream.” 
“Me too, Your Holiness...” I wondered if that was part of the exhilaration of meeting with God. As I watched the pope and Phyllis giggling together, something bit at my mind. 
I felt it, an unpleasant crawling sensation up my spine. An electric shock that jolted right through me, making me feel ill. It... can’t be... 
“...Don’t panic now, but... The Dark Spirit’s seal just broke.” 
“Wh-What?!” Phyllis went pale in the face. Then, we heard the rumbling from below. It got louder, and louder. We need to get out, now! I twisted the iron bars with [Modeling] and carted Phyllis and the pope along with me up the stairs. The rumbling grew steadier, faster, louder. I had no doubts that the earth beneath us would crumble in seconds. We came out into the long passageway that led into other cells, and I quickly checked for other prisoners. Thankfully there were none, so we continued upward. 
“Prisoners?! How did you escape from your cel— haghgh!!” We passed a guard, and I instinctively shot a paralysis bullet at him. Ah crap... I can’t leave him here, can I?! “Kohaku, return to your beast form!” 
“As you wish!” The pope opened her eyes wide in surprise as Kohaku both spoke, and turned into an enormous White Tiger. But I had no time to explain, I simply put the knocked-out guard on Kohaku’s back, and continued running. 
As we escaped from the prison, we came out into the temple’s halls. I continued to run, finally stopping in a courtyard. It was at this point that I realized it was no longer day time. The moon was high in the sky. I checked the time, and it was just past the stroke of midnight. 
The barrier wasn’t set up across the entire temple, so I used [Gate] to take us to the middle of town. 
The rumbling beneath the ground became more of a violent quake. Unsurprisingly, the streets were filled with bewildered people, apparently they assumed it was a simple earthquake scare. They didn’t seem extremely afraid, so I figured earthquakes weren’t uncommon in this region. 
As I took the guardsman off Kohaku’s back, the people in the area quickly noticed I was with Her Eminence the Pope. That wasn’t especially surprising, she was the head of their state and seemed quite well-known. Everyone in the streets began swarming around her. They were probably uneasy, because the rumbling wasn’t getting any gentler. 
“Y-Your Eminence! What is going on?!” 
“Please, everyone! Be calm! For your own safety, you must vacate the—” Just as she began telling the people to take refuge, an enormous explosion blasted away part of the temple. From amidst the dust and debris, something began crawling out of the building. WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL IS THAT THING?! It was enormous. Its shape wasn’t even remotely human. Its skin was pitch, two black horns jutted from its head. On its side, countless grasping arms writhed from its body. On its back, six long tentacles squirmed. Its lower body was a mass of tendrils, without number. And its head had no eyes, only an enormous mouth, one that almost split across its entire face. 
“GauUguguHGhh!! GooOoraaRaaAagGghH!!” It raised a monstrous roar, as if the depths of the earth were screaming for salvation. 
The air itself trembled. The sound it released was enough to bring the townspeople to their knees with fear. The ground began to tremble, people everywhere dropped to the ground. Is it manipulating people’s minds? Making them afraid?! 
This thing’s like... a god of evil... I couldn’t stop that cliche kind of term from floating up into my head. This was the Spirit of Darkness that was once called forth and manipulated by the summoner known as Ramirez. But now, it was in command. And after a thousand years... it was free. 
I can’t stress enough how big this thing was. Its dark tendrils moved forward, and the creature began to rise up. It was enormous, and ominous enough to strike disgust into the hearts of anyone. 
One of its back-tentacles came down, smashing apart some of the temple. It let out another scream as debris and dust scattered around the area. This thing was a serious threat. 
“GoGOaghaAgGuU!!” Unintelligible nonsense leaked from its maw, which was now unhinged and wide open. Along with the sound, a tar-like black fluid began bubbling out of its mouth like vomit. 
Droplets of the stuff began falling, but they didn’t hit the ground. Before they had a chance to, they transformed into winged, bat-like creatures. They had insectoid legs, but muscular human torsos. Their heads were elongated, but had no defined features like eyes, noses, or ears. Just mouths. 
They flapped their wings and scattered across the city. The townsfolk began to shriek and scream, the entire city became a discordant tune of horror. 
“GaAaAhgUGuhhRuuUugghahaAahahaAaA!!” The Spirit of Darkness screamed toward the heavens. 
“I-It’s a monster!” 
“G-God will... God will s-surely save us... y-yeah...!” All around me, I heard people lapse into desperate prayer. Sorry, but this monster... is your god. 
It probably didn’t even remember Ramirez at this point. I could only assume that the spirit was operating on some base, destructive impulse. 
“You said a thousand years ago that the cardinals teamed up to seal it away, right? Can’t we do that again?!” 
“I don’t think we can... We simply can’t match up to the power of the church from back then. The majority of the appointed cardinals nowadays can’t even use magic!” That’s useless, then... Well, I guess what she says makes sense. If we were to compare the two eras, the difference is clear. In the olden days they probably prioritized strength or wisdom, but the current clergymen are just people in it for the faith, or political gain. Which makes them completely useless when the going actually gets tough. 
Guess there’s nothing for it... But what can I... oh... there’s an idea. 
A sudden flash of inspiration struck my mind. 
To be blunt, I saw an opportunity to change their doctrine at its core. Obviously having the real God appear was a no-no, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t pretend to be him. If I did that, defeated the monster, gave the pope some kind of fake divine message, and said a few words... then she’d definitely have the upper hand against the cardinals, and I could quash the idea of Lars once and for all! 
But wait... isn’t this just as dishonest as Ramirez? I am tricking everyone... But, hm... even if I am tricking everyone, I’m tricking everyone with the best intentions! I’m just going along with what the actual God wants, acting on his behalf, so it’s fine... right? I wasn’t able to decide by myself, so I quickly took the pope and Phyllis aside and asked them about it. 
“...If I’m entirely honest, I do not wish to deceive my people. But, I think we could create a much better situation than we’ve ever had before. If we defeat this beast, then we at least stop it from influencing their minds. That way, the warped ideals of justice can be easily removed from our doctrine as well.” Her Holiness looked right at me, and asserted her belief. She had no hesitation. 
“As pope, I have spread the gospel of a God I knew did not exist. I was crushed by guilt, restraining my true feelings and refusing to show them. I told myself it was for the sake of the Theocracy, but... If we were to change the doctrine, I would freely talk of God. The God you spoke of, Grand Duke, He would be the God I speak of. Even if the people don’t know it, I would carry His ideals in my heart, proudly puff out my chest, and be happy. Don’t you think such a thing would be wonderful?” I agreed. Though I felt a little awkward for using God’s name in vain like this... it was still necessary. 
After all, I was sure the citizens would be happier if the monster threatening them was slain by their God, and not by the leader of a foreign nation. And, on an international level, this would definitely give Brunhild a more favorable position with the bigwigs of Ramissh. ... That being said, I wasn’t motivated by such things. 
“B-But will you really be okay?! Can you win against such a huge beast?! It’s a Spirit of Darkness, understand?!” 
“Mmm... I think I can handle it.” Phyllis had reasonable concerns, but I had an inkling that it wouldn’t be as tough as I expected. 
This spirit’s specialty was likely its brainwashing ability. And, from what I understood, it was an area-of-effect skill rather than a direct target kind of thing. In short, it worked in a large area, which is probably why Ramirez thought to use it to govern a nation. 
For someone like me, with my obscene magical resistance, it was no matter of concern. That being said, I didn’t want to hang around it for too long... I had a feeling I couldn’t resist it forever. In fact, it was pretty much a guarantee. Even Ramirez fell victim. 
I think I’ll be fine, but I won’t know until I give it a go... The only issue now is making myself look like a God. I decided that the best way to handle it would be to cast [Mirage] on myself and call it a day. 
As I headed toward it, the dark spirit cracked one of its tentacles across the ground, shattering streets and houses. It seemed to deal basic physical attacks, which definitely weren’t a matter of concern for me. 
I should probably hurry, though... the entire Holy Capital is gonna go up in rubble if I don’t. I left the pope, Phyllis, and the townsfolk, and hid in a back alley. The two girls were leading a prayer circle. Typically I’d have told them to leave, but this was part of the plan. I would descend, as God, in response to their prayers. 
I changed my appearance with my [Mirage] spell. Although it was more like I was masking myself than actually transforming. I decided to take the form of a traditional Greek-style God with long flowing blond hair, and blue eyes. I made myself pretty handsome, too. 
“Well?” 
“It looks good, but it feels like something’s missing...” Kohaku gave the tiger equivalent of a shrug. But I look just about as plain as the real God! It’s not my fault you haven’t met him! What kind of Heavenly Beast are you if you haven’t even met God, huh?! 
Hm... what’s missing then... how about... I created another illusion that caused light to cloak my entire body. I briefly considered adding a halo and angel wings, but I didn’t want to look like an angel. If I ended up being a messenger from God, rather than God himself, that would defeat the point. 
Just as I was putting the last parts of my disguise together, I realized something. Normally people would expect a God to actually fly in the sky, descending from the heavens. If I just appeared and walked amongst people, claiming to be God... that’d be a little weird. I really should’ve learned a flight spell. I made a mental note to pick one up later. Ugh, pretending to be God is a real pain in the ass, I hate this! Still, there was nothing I could do about it. I decided to project the image of God into the sky... Which completely defeated the point of cladding myself in it to begin with! Then again, I’m going to have to look like this when I fight the monster anyway, so I guess it’s fine. 
As I projected the divine image of the one true God into the sky above the city, the people let out yell of wonder and surprise. God had descended, and He was basking them in His glow. First thing’s first, we’ve gotta take care of those minions. 
“Come forth, Darkness! I Seek the Shining Warmaiden: [Valkyrie]!” ...Frankly, calling forth divine warriors to help me with a chant of “Come forth, Darkness” sounded super silly to me, but I had to roll with the punches. 
Summoning circles appeared around the projected God illusion, and angelic warmaidens were called forth into the sky. I made a contract with Valkyries after the incident in the Regulus Empire. I liked the Griffins, but having them as my sole air support was troublesome. 
The Dark Spirit has created shadowy monsters, slay them, and protect the townspeople.? I conveyed telepathic orders to the angelic maidens, and they scattered across the city. 
It honestly would’ve been easier to use my smartphone to lock on to all of them and wipe them out at once with light magic, but they would’ve died too quickly. The citizens wouldn’t have even known what saved them, and that wouldn’t do. I was directing a scenario here! 
Still, people’s lives were at stake. I didn’t think the Spirit’s minions were specifically targeting people, they seemed more like they were mindlessly rampaging, but that didn’t mean they were any less dangerous. If they continued roaming around and trashing whatever, then people could still die through collateral damage. 
The townspeople began to cheer, which was only natural. God himself and a band of angels had just appeared to fight their enemy. 
Alrighty, time to move. I made myself disappear with [Invisible], and dashed across the rooftops, making sure to keep an eye on the God illusion I had projected up into the sky. 
Man, at times like this I could really use a flight spell... Wonder if it’s wind magic... or maybe it’s a Null spell? Yeah, if it was Wind then Leen would be able to use it easily... It’s gotta be a Null one. 
I finally arrived before the temple, and got a real sense of how big the Dark Spirit was. 
I erased the illusion of God in the sky, and, while maintaining the illusion of God on my own body, took out a two-meter-long sword from my storage. 
I’d reduced the weight of the blade using [Gravity] so I could wield it in one hand, and it was created from a Phrase fragment. The material the blade was made of kind of made the surface sparkle and dance with light, like the surface of water. I decided it was sufficiently mystical enough to pass off as a Godly weapon. 
The Spirit of Darkness turned and glared down at me. Well, I said glared, but it had no eyes. Sure felt like a glare, though. A few of its back-tentacles whipped toward me. 
“Hup...!” I jumped to the side and made a horizontal swing of the sword. I cleanly cut the tentacle, and the dark mass fell to the ground. A foul black fog began leaking from the sliced-off tentacle. ...Gross. 
But I didn’t have any time to react before the tentacle vanished, and a new one took its place on the monster’s body. Wait, this thing can regenerate as well? That’s irritating! 
As a (fake) God, I couldn’t let anyone see it give me a hard time, so I needed to kill it fast. I briefly considered using [Slip], but it was so big that it’d definitely destroy a chunk of the city if it fell over. Maybe I should crush it! 
“Target lock. Spirit of Darkness. Invoke [Gravity].” 
“Acknowledged. Target acquired. Invoking [Gravity].” The Spirit of Darkness immediately began to fall, it couldn’t support its new, increased body weight. With a scream, it fell on to its side. 
The area of the city beneath it was, naturally, completely leveled. Ah crap! I pretty much got the same result I would’ve if I’d used [Slip]! Welp. God did it, not me. At the very least, the people in the immediate area should’ve evacuated by that point, so nobody would get harmed. 
This is pretty bad though. I think I may have overdone it with the flashiness... 
There was nothing I could do, so I focused on wiping it out with an overwhelming show of force. I amplified the effects of [Gravity] on the creature, but couldn’t be sure if I’d even changed much. It didn’t have a face, so I couldn’t gauge how it was feeling, either. Regardless, it seemed that I had it pinned down. Now, for the finale! 
“Strike true, Light! Sparkling Holy Lance: [Shining Javelin]!” The spears of light drilled their way through the beast’s body, and... The holes left in the creature didn’t regenerate. It stood to reason that a Dark Spirit would be weak to light magic. 
“Target Lock. Launch an additional... one hundred... no, two hundred [Shining Javelin] strikes at the Dark Spirit!” 
“Acknowledged. Target acquired.” It was time for this monster to get a taste of (fake) God’s (two-hundred-javelins of) wrath! 
“Fire!” 
“Acknowledged. Launching attack.” 
BOOM, CRASH, RUMBLE, SHAKOOM, BADABOOM!!! 
The ground began to shake, which was natural, those Shining Javelins were really doing a number on the thing. The Dark Spirit’s body split repeatedly, fragmenting as each new blade of light fell down upon it. As the volley ended, there was little left of the creature itself. 
The fragmented pieces of the spirit spread across the area like a blackened fog. I figured that it was probably still alive, in some base form. I couldn’t have that, though, it’d be a real pain if it resurrected or something. Therefore, I decided to annihilate it entirely. 
“Come forth, Light. Shining Exile: [Banish]!” I cast a purifying spell over a large radius, scattering light everywhere. The wicked fog quickly scattered and dissipated. 
As the light faded and the darkness of the spirit swirled into nothingness, a single skeleton clattered to the ground. In an instant, it crumbled to dust and blew away in the breeze... 
I wondered if that was Ramirez. After a thousand years, he was finally freed. I honestly felt a little pity, but he fell victim to his own misdeeds in the end. 
Alright, now was the time... I had to work hard and deceive everyone. 


I looked across the streets as cheers resounded from every corner. Even amidst the dark of the night, I could hear people far and wide. 
“Amazing! He did it!” 
“Lars, thank you o Lars! The god of light has vanquished the wicked one!” 
“Take that, you monster! Feel the wrath of our lord, you fiend!” The citizens cheered and jeered with enthusiasm, but I was just left feeling irritated. 
I didn’t know if it was just due to the residual brainwashing, but they were yammering on about Lars. I decided I’d show them the wrath of God they were cheering so much. 
It seemed a feat wouldn’t have been enough, so I had to preach to them directly. 
“Target Lock. Effective range, within the city’s borders. Invoke [Lightning Javelin] in random locations, ensuring that there are no people within ten meters of the spell. Repeat three hundred times.” 
“Understood. Target acquired. Invoking [Lightning Javelin].” All of a sudden, three hundred bolts fell from the sky and struck the city. Screams and shrieks broke out, and the townsfolk were sent into disarray. 
I used my smartphone to project my image high into the sky, ensuring it could be seen at a distance. 
“Do not speak so carelessly of justice, wrath, and indignation. It was the warped justice of your people that created this beast to begin with!” Then I decided to spice things up a bit. Using a [Gate], I brought the pope to my location. Her image too, was projected into the sky, and the citizens cheered in admiration. I gave the pope a knowing nod, and she kneeled before me, bowing her head. 
“Is it you, Your Divinity? Lars, god of light?” 
“I am not, my child. I am indeed god’s light, but I bear not the name of Lars. There is no such god named Lars.” The people watching broke out into confusion again. That was natural, though. I’d just denied their god through-and-through. 
“Step forth, young one. I’ve a message for you all.” I placed my hand on the pope’s forehead, and a dazzling light engulfed us both. I was a little tired by the charade, and tried to speed it up a bit. It’s not like I had actually imbued a message into her mind, it was just dramatic effect. 
After the light faded, the pope fully prostrated herself before me. Frankly I thought it was a little bit of overkill on her part. 
Either way, I simply moved on to the next part. 
“One final matter. I must bestow divine punishment upon those who accumulated sin, and allowed many crimes to be committed under the fraudulent guise of justice and light.” I used my portal once again in a similar fashion to bring forth the assholes who had shown themselves to me earlier on. Cardinal Zeon, his sister Kyurei, the other cardinals, and the Templars who had hassled me all bowed before my divine might. 
“Confess your sins to me.” 
“W-We’ve committed no crime, indulged in no sin! I-I’m a devout follower of your radiance, the light of God is my shepherd, I p-p-promise!!” Zeon began blabbering like an idiot, his face mashing into the ground in reverence. I couldn’t believe he’d even try to worm his way out of the situation in front of God. It didn’t matter that I was pretending, he didn’t know that! This guy really was an idiot if he thought he could fool the divine. 
“You miserable whelp. Claiming an innocent girl to be a vampire, going so far as to plan her death... Confining your very pope to a dingy jail cell?! You thought such things would escape my omnipotent gaze?!” 
“Th-That was just...!!” Both Zeon and his sister went pale. The citizens, who were still looking on, began murmuring amongst themselves. The cardinals, the Templars, and everyone else present couldn’t seem to contain their shock and horror. 
“And you know as well as I that they were not your only crimes. Shall I disclose your other transgressions? One by one?!” 
“N-Ngh...!” Zeon fell silent. I had asked the perfect leading question. I had no doubt in my mind that he had done all manner of terrible things under the banner of God, but I wasn’t entirely certain of what they were. But now I knew he and his sister were beyond salvation. 
Even while knowing there was no god of light, the two of them still conveniently used the image for their own ends. I couldn’t afford to let them off the hook. 
“Repent, mongrels!” 
“Ughaah!!” I used my trusty paralyzing spell on everyone before me, except the pope of course. I then turned to Her Eminence, and spoke thus. 
“I entrust their punishment to you, my child.” 
“Of course.” 
“Light and Dark are two sides of the same coin, forever indivisible. Justice, injustice, both are creations of human hands. If you commit to one side, you will ultimately tip into the other. Do not allow this.” I faced the citizens and made my final declaration. That being said, I don’t really think I made a very good speech. I decided to bail before I slipped up any more and got caught out. 
I had the Valkyries come from behind me and scatter across the city. 
“Farewell, children of man.” The Valkyries all shone in unison. I took my opportunity to get the heck out of dodge through a portal, and hid away from sight. After the light faded, I created another illusion of beautiful feathers falling from the sky. I felt like I was directing a movie. 
The pope then rose to her feet. 
“God has left! From now on, we will take full responsibility for our actions! We will repent as one, for betraying God’s will! As He spoke, we should all have taken in a message of accountability! We will work hard and seize what is right with our own hands! Pray to Him in gratitude and peace!” 
The voices of the people roared across the night, they were elated. That’s about what I expected, but... She definitely had more charisma than me, that much was for certain. 
I figured that would be enough to let everything work out. As I watched the excited townsfolk and the pope’s speech, my smartphone began to vibrate. I seemed to have an incoming call. 
“Hello! Is this God?” 
“That it is, my boy. Ahaha... it seems you have put the situation to rest! I am quite relieved, thank you.” 
“Yup, seems like we’ll be fine now. Any weird stuff that was interfering with their minds should die down soon enough, if not already. Now the people should be able to make rational decisions for themselves.” In a sense, you could say that I had driven a divide in the people’s minds about the concept of God itself. The influence of Ramissh was likely to decrease after this, but... In turn, the people oppressed by their wicked justice would go down as well. 
There would surely still be those who believed in Lars, god of light, but that was fine by me. Believing or not was ultimately their choice, and that just meant they were human. All I had done was prevent people from abusing that belief and imposing it upon others through force or trickery. 
“I do apologize for leaving the matter to you... Do apologize to the young priestess and that charming young popess for me, would you?” 
“Don’t worry about it. Just pay me back by looking in on their country now and then, just in case things get weird again.” 
“Very well, then! I’ll be sure to pay attention.” I hung up on God, and moved back to Phyllis and Kohaku through one of my portals. 
“Thank you, Your Majesty... Thank you so much.” Phyllis was moved to tears the moment she saw me, and respectfully bowed her head. I didn’t really do much to deserve that level of appreciation though, if you’d have asked me, I’d say I was the one responsible for the mess to begin with! 
“God told me to apologize to you and the pope on his behalf. I think there’ll be tough times ahead, do you think you’ll be okay?” 
“I do. After all, God is always watching.” Phyllis nodded, there was no hesitation in her eyes. It seemed I had nothing to worry about. 
Since it was through my own magic that various buildings and the grand temple were annihilated, I quickly decided to rebuild them with another of my trusty spells. However, the pope appeared and stopped me in my tracks. She said that showing my power like that in public, especially after everything that had just happened, would be a terrible idea. She had a point, I didn’t want to expose the truth behind that God. 
I watched over the pope beginning her new type of sermon, and I smiled. I had decided that my work here was done. Though, just in case, I gave Phyllis a Gate Mirror for quick and easy communication. Then, after a short goodbye, Kohaku and I portalled our way home to Brunhild. 
Some days later, rumors finally began flowing through various countries that a God had descended in the Ramissh Theocracy, slaying a wicked Dark God in the process. Irreligious countries laughed off the story as propaganda. That aside, the Ramissh Theocracy officially changed their following from Lars, god of light, to simply preaching the word of “god’s light.” Their motto of it all being in the name of light and justice was also stricken from the record. 
Officially, the founder of Ramissh was still Ramirez, and the one that aided him was the god of light. That part of the story remained consistent. All I and the pope had done together was remove any mention of Lars, and his twisted justice. 
“Geez, I never expected you to pretend to be a God, Touya... you’re gonna get punished from above!” Elze nudged me in the side, laughing at my tale. I had, naturally, explained to my family what had happened in the Theocracy. I just cut out the parts about the real God. 
Cardinal Zeon, Cardinal Kyurei, the Templars, and the others who had actively abused the pope were stripped of land, position, and property. They were excommunicated from the church and jailed. The confiscated wealth ended up being vast, it seemed that all their fearmongering and donation-begging had paid off well for them. The pope kindly returned that money to the people, compensating the victims of years of oppression. 
All of those imprisoned also happened to be those that knew the truth behind the Ramissh religion, but it was unlikely they’d be believed even if they did blab. After all, they were all personally judged by God himself before a great crowd. 
And, after a short time, an envoy from Ramissh came to greet me in my castle. My halls were graced by the presence of the youngest cardinal in history, Phyllis. 
“You seem well.” 
“As do you, Grand Duke.” I took a look at the letter she had brought with her. To be blunt, the letter stated that they were sorry about the previous envoy, and wished to establish good terms with Brunhild. 
There was no outlandish demand like forcing me to adopt a state religion, or baptize myself. It was simply a letter of good faith, asking that my duchy maintain a friendship with the Theocracy going forward. 
Naturally, I accepted. In order for my country to grow, good diplomacy was necessary and welcome. I had no desire to connect with bad nations, but I had made good friends within the Theocracy. 
“Hm, I was somewhat worried just now, but it seems to have ended well... I wonder if the God who appeared in Ramissh intended for this to happen...” After Phyllis left, old man Kousaka let out a small sigh of relief and gave me that comment, along with a sidelong glance. 
I didn’t tell him the exact details of what went down that day, but I did tell him I was there when it happened. As far as he knew I was visiting the Theocracy, then God happened to descend. It was mighty convenient, but that was the story I stuck to. 
“Do you believe in God, Kousaka?” 
“Who can say... He exists within the hearts of those who believe, and does not within the hearts of those who do not. That is what I believe, at least.” James Barrie, an English writer, wrote in “Peter Pan” that whenever a child says “I don’t believe in fairies,” a single fairy dies somewhere. 
Kousaka had a point. To believe in something, was to give it life. I don’t think anyone could get in the way of that. 
“And what of you, Grand Duke? Do you believe in God?” 
“I do. I do.” Somewhere, off on the breeze outside, I thought I heard the gentle chuckling of the divine old man himself. 



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