Chapter 22 — I Thought I Was a Goner, but Looks Like I Was Saved
Malna stood in a space filled with vividly colored buildings. The pillars were red, the walls yellow, and the roofs gold. From her perspective, it was hard to believe anyone existed with an aesthetic sense that would allow for such a gaudy display of color.
For a moment she didn’t recognize it, but quickly realized she was in the Heavenly Throne, a place used to manage the world that she rarely visited. The world ran itself mostly automatically, so as long as they didn’t need to make any large-scale changes, there wasn’t much use for this place.
It was basically abandoned. Of course, buildings set up for the use of gods wouldn’t decay. They had been built by the previous gods of this world, but thinking they were in bad taste, Malna had avoided coming here ever since taking over.
“I’m sure you’re wondering why you’re here, of all places.”
Malna turned to look at the source of the voice. A boy was standing there. The ever-present smirk on his face was somehow familiar to her. He was one of the old, fallen gods from before her arrival.
“I thought I was a goner after sinking to the bottom of the ocean and getting eaten by a giant fish, but it looks like I was saved.”
Malna doubted his story, but the details rose up in the back of her mind. Yogiri Takatou and his friends had ridden the dragon, and it had fallen into the ocean after losing its strength. The humans had escaped, but the dragon had just sunk. As he fell into the depths, an enormous sea monster had swallowed him whole. He had been telling the truth, but even fallen as he was, he was still a god. There was no way he’d be killed by a wild animal.
“I ended up going overboard with my powers a bit. If the seal hadn’t been released, this body would have been in a rough spot. Oh, do you need me to introduce myself? I’m Kouryu. It’s more of a nickname, but I’ve surprisingly taken a liking to it, so I’d be happy if you called me that.”
Gods were fundamentally indestructible. Even if you killed or erased them, in time they would reappear. So in battles between gods, it was common for the winner to either enslave the loser or take measures to seal them away.
During the battle for control of this world, seven gods had perished, and four had fled. The one that had remained refused slavery and resisted until the end, so Rilna had sealed his powers. The key to that seal was the caster herself, so as long as she lived, no one could ever remove it.
“What do you want? Are you planning on taking back the world or something?” Malna was strangely flustered. Even though she was a god, things she didn’t understand kept happening over and over. She wasn’t in a state to keep up her usual playful demeanor.
“Well, that might be a bit challenging. The twelve of us together lost to just two of you. Even if there’s only one of you left, I find it hard to imagine I could match your strength.”
As he said, even with his godly powers returned to him, Kouryu had no chance against Malna by himself.
“So if you’re wondering why you’re here, it’s because I called you. You were just jumping around without any goal in mind, right? So there was a bit of room for me to intervene. You were running away, not caring where you ended up, so I went ahead and decided your destination for you.”
That was certainly possible. She had been thoughtlessly jumping around, with no thought at all as to where she might end up.
“As for what I want...nothing in particular. I just wanted to make fun of you a bit.”
“What?! Do you want me to kill you or something?!”
“Uhh, I don’t think I could really die right now. I couldn’t win, but I don’t think I’d lose. Anyway, what do you think of Yogiri Takatou?”
Malna went quiet. Those words brought the events that had just occurred back to the front of her mind. She still hadn’t got her thoughts in order. She hadn’t been able to figure out what was going on.
“Do you know something about that thing?!” she demanded.
“I’m not going to tell you anything. I’m here to make fun of you. So go ahead and squirm all you want. Just seeing that helps my stomach settle.”
For a god like Malna, not knowing Yogiri’s true nature was strange in itself. As an all-knowing, almighty god, it was unthinkable that anything within her domain would be unknown to her.
“Now then,” Kouryu continued, “fundamentally, gods are omniscient and omnipotent, but as you know there are a number of gods out there. If all of them were all-powerful like that, it would be pretty strange. I mean, omnipotence is kind of contradictory in and of itself.”
Taken literally, the idea of omnipotence, the ability to do anything, engendered its own paradox. The common example would be, can an omnipotent being create a stone so heavy that no one can lift it? If they can’t, then they aren’t omnipotent. But if they could create a stone so heavy that they themselves can’t lift it, then they aren’t omnipotent either.
“We’ve all kind of agreed to just turn a blind eye to the omnipotence paradox, but that still leaves the problem of when two omnipotent beings face off. In that case, it becomes a contest of the scope and strength of one’s omnipotence.”
Of course, that was something Malna knew. Those who were omnipotent could only exercise that power within their own domain. On top of that, there was a strength associated with their omnipotence as well, which was the deciding factor in a fight between omnipotent beings. If their domains overlapped and their powers were of equal strength, they would balance each other out and both become powerless.
“And as far as omniscience goes, we can’t know all information all at once. Though we call ourselves gods, we still have intelligence, sentiments, and emotions, and we still think of things sequentially. Even if we are omniscient, that knowledge is still based on an individual soul and will. So it’s not like we know everything right from the start. By deciding we want to learn about something, we can gain that information.”
“What are you even trying to say?” Malna interrupted.
“Just setting things up. Now then. In order to maintain omniscience, you can’t be allowed to not know something, but by what I just said, as long as you don’t try to understand that thing, then there’s no problem. So, your parent, I guess? Or your creator probably never told you. If you don’t know, you won’t think about it, and thus your omniscience can be maintained.”
“So what?!” Malna was starting to get angry at his roundabout, condescending speech.
“What I’m saying is, you’re not omniscient anymore. You don’t know what Yogiri Takatou is, do you? Therefore, your omniscience has collapsed.” By pointing that out, he had shaken the foundation of Malnarilna’s divinity. “On top of that, Malna and Rilna are supposed to be equals. If one of you can be killed, that means the other can be as well. Makes you wonder whether you’re really omnipotent too.”
Her divinity was shaken even more. Malna could feel cracks begin to run through the foundations of her godhood. Things were getting bad for her.
“So beings that hold themselves to be omnipotent and omniscient exclude that thing entirely from their thinking,” Kouryu explained. “Those who don’t know about it are never taught. If they never challenge it, they’ll still be omnipotent. If they never try to learn about it, they’ll still be omniscient.”
“Th-There’s no way something like that exists! There’s no way!”
“But it does, unfortunately. And even more unbelievable is that there’s no way to escape Yogiri Takatou either. It’s over for you.”
Malna looked at Yogiri Takatou in disbelief. Eyes appeared. Like they had been there the whole time, just shut until now. Eyelids opened to reveal countless eyes all around her. That was the embodiment of the concept of sight. It was a sign that Yogiri Takatou was aware of her existence. He knew she was looking at him, and he was looking back at her.
“So, getting back on topic,” Kouryu continued, “in a fight between omnipotent beings, territory is pretty important. In a place where their power doesn’t reach, they can’t fight against other omnipotent beings. By the way, where exactly are we?”
The Heavenly Throne. The place where the world was managed; the base of the old gods.
“With your other half’s death, my seal was released. At the same time, I got just a bit of my domain back. This is a place where I can use my omnipotence.”
“So what?! That doesn’t change that this is still my domain too!”
“Yeah, and you’re much stronger than I am, so I can’t beat you.”
“Then what do you want?! Just get to the point!”
“I’ll just have someone who can beat you do it.”
Something struck Malna’s back. A pale, slender arm punched through her from behind and burst out through her chest.
“Let me introduce you two,” Kouryu said. “This is the Jet Black Witch, Miranda, and her hobby is killing gods. She’s also known as the Godslaying Scourge.”
“Wh-Why...?” Malna recognized she had been dealt a fatal blow.
“I shook the foundations of your divinity, got you in my domain, and then obtained the help of another omnipotent being,” Kouryu explained. “I wasn’t quite sure it would be enough, but it seems to have worked.”
“I was trying to think of some way of getting back at you,” Miranda added. “Overkill like this feels quite nice.”
“W-Wait... If I disappear, then this world—”
“You think I care what happens to your world?” Miranda spat. For a world-crossing witch, this place alone meant nothing to her.
“I’ll take over as god for you,” Kouryu snickered. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing I haven’t done before.”
“Th-That’s not what I mean! They will... This...world...”
But Malna disappeared, unable to explain anything.
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