NOVEL NEXT Chapter 46: (2)
The burden of managing the world with the disappearance of Umus was as expected too great. The apostles themselves had to create new apostles and worked hard to maintain the equilibrium of the world. With the most powerful apostle, Morinaga, in charge, they managed the world well. However, the management was by no means perfect, leading to world stagnation and giving birth to this sealed land.
The humans, on the other hand, carefully selected some among them to carry out their duty. The reason for this was that they couldn’t simply randomly open up a path while Kyou, the God of Destruction, was eyeing for an opportunity to invade the world. Those who had been chosen to carry out the duty waited for the periodic strengthening of Umus’ power to perform the summoning ritual. Only during this period of time would they be able to simultaneously prevent Kyou from invading, as well as successfully performing the summoning. Those who were summoned in this manner were those who were close to the primordial world. Powerful humans who had already discarded the protection of God. Thus, the humans continued to take in new blood and strengthened their resistance to Gods.
And then, the witch of abyss. Why was the duty of being the guardian bestowed upon a human instead of an apostle? Apostles were far more powerful than humans. However, there was a limit to the height they could attain through experience and faith. Even if they reached the highest rank, their power would be worth nothing in front of a God. For this reason, the ones chosen were the weak but overflowing with potential – humans. However, even if they did possess the potential, it was still nonetheless an infinitely narrow and long path. The witches of abyss had continued to pass down their power from generation to generation, aiming for the peak that they would one day reach. Beyond the realms of man and apostle, they were travelers aiming for one day reaching the realm of God.
「–It’s been hundreds of years since I was born. I’ve spent most of those years studying the beauty of muscles, but…. Maybe I should have learned a little more about history, huh.」
Kaku-san groaned as he heard the history of creation for the first time. What manner of education had his former boss given him? It was a mystery that rivaled the history of creation.
「Well, I more or less get what you’re saying, but… isn’t this world kind of in danger?」
「Yes. It’s without a doubt in danger. Moreover, it’s about to get a whole lot worse.」
The trigger was the summoning ritual carried out by the Purin Kingdom. Performing the summoning ritual without waiting for its season, it definitely turned into a good opportunity that Kyou, the God of Destruction, had been waiting for. During the time they carried out the summoning ritual, he succeeded in sending his avatar into this world.
Beatrice, the witch of abyss, sensed it. No, it might be more accurate to say that the divine power bestowed upon her by Umus, the God of Creation, had told her about it. The arrival of her destined enemy. However, it was supposed to be not the time yet. It was still too soon.
According to the original schedule, it could be said that the plan had only just begun. Beatrice had already possessed power beyond those of apostles, but she was not yet capable of wielding the power of God. How many more generations would be needed to reach that stage? At this stage, it was unknown.
Now that Kyou’s avatar had appeared, however, she, the witch of abyss, had no choice but to step up and deal with it. It might be just an avatar, but with her current power, her defeat was already a foregone conclusion. There, she decided to put up a trap to lock the avatar into the sealed land. In this land, there were barriers created by numerous apostles. If it was the barriers that had been strengthened with the world’s magical energy over the years, they should be able to seal the avatar. She carried out the plan with such an assumption, but the result was utter failure. However, if the avatar was left unattended as it was, the world would be destroyed from the inside out. In the end, disregarding everything else, she had no choice but to drag the avatar into the sealed land, along with herself.
「—I was defeated by the avatar, left in such an appearance and had been loitering around this sealed land.」
「Heh…. Hmm? Wait a minute. That means there’s something dangerous in this place….」
Tanaka suddenly turned pale and began to break out in a cold sweat. From what he had been listening thus far, it was a considerably dangerous opponent. In such a that kind of manner, the situation was turning into this kind of dangerous state.
「There’s no need to worry, it’s already left this land, after all. No, I suppose it leaving is more worrying, huh.」
Beatrice said inexpressibly.
「I suppose it was during last summer? I sensed a release of tremendous energy in the west. The energy was enough to even destabilize the space, you see. It used that chance to escape from this land.」
「It’s not here, huh? Scaring the shit out of me like that…. No, that’s a shame. Even though I was intending to insta-kill it with my karate.」
Tanaka had a swift change of mind and proceeded to make an appeal of his strong stance by performing shadowboxing. Erasing the memory of him being at the western region exactly in the last summer as well as the incident where he extinguished no small amount of land in the area, he was engrossed in making ‘swoosh, swoosh’ sound effects with his mouth.
「Oh well, whatever. Nevertheless, the reason for this incident is the hero summoning at the Purin Kingdom, huh… somehow, I feel that there’s been so many incidents stemming from it.」
He recalled that he himself was also dragged by the summoning.
「How ironic. They sought salvation, only to bring over destruction. But I’m sure that’s not what Morinaga wanted either. For better or worse, they were trying to save the world, after all. I can’t say that that was the right thing to do, though.」
Was it the despair over the loss of the God of Creation? Or was it the sense of duty to the world that was entrusted to them? Morinaga, who sought after power, was now calling themselves God and planning to unify the world with those who believed in them.
「So my former boss was a victim of this, huh.」
「Namu namu.」
Kaku-san let out such words with sorrow, while Suke-san chanted the magic words that Tanaka had taught him. Their thoughts would surely help his former boss to rest more peacefully. For the former boss, who might have been a muscle fetishist, to be able to rest….
「Hmm, what a hunger inducing story. Anyway, I get that there is no threat around us at the moment, but soon the world will be in danger.」
Nodding his head, Tanaka summarized the story. The fact that his mind was occupied with the sweets from his hometown was probably just a trivial detail.
「Even now, Kyou’s avatar is probably secretly maneuvering somewhere in the world. The end of the world, which was supposed to occur in the distant future, is about to begin. So I have a favor to ask of you.」
「Me?」
「This power that has been entrusted to me by the God of Creation. I would like to entrust it to you.」
「Here comes a Cheat!」
Tanaka raised his fist and looked up to the sky. Juice of happiness leaked out of his eyes.
「… Wait a sec. Isn’t that impossible? It’s a lineage of witches, isn’t it? I mean, I’m a man, after all.」
Countless instances where he had been continuously betrayed by the world up until now. It taught Tanaka what doubt was. What a truly sad world it was.
「No, not really, it seems that it can also be inherited by men, it’s just before we knew it people had somehow started to call us the Witch of Abyss. So, to match that image, it was then decided to limit the inheritance only to women.」
「That’s it?! No, well, I do think that’s pretty important in itself… yup.」
A man who never forgot his chuunibyou soul, that was Tanaka. The size of his vessel as he demonstrated such an understanding could be said to have already surpassed that of a child’s teacup.
「Very well. I have no problem with it. Or rather pretty please. Please bestow this power upon me.」
He promptly took a menial attitude. The way he got down on his knees and begged for power was the exact mirror of a little man.
「However, now that I’m already dead, I can’t bestow upon you the power we’ve accumulated. The most I can do is entrust to you the two powers entrusted to me by the God of Creation: ‘Creation and Destruction Boundary’ and ‘Deceiver of the Abyss’.」
「Something cool is coming!」