◈ 501. [Side Story] New Year’s Festival (3)
Fortunately, there were no full-fledged events such as martial arts competitions or dance festivals at this New Year’s festival.
Colleagues and citizens seemed to be regretting it (especially when they looked at me and licked their lips), but the city is busy right now.
Let’s be content with having fun while celebrating the New Year today.
Anyway, after going around the neighborhood in the morning and returning to the mansion-
“Hmm. Southern stews are quite spicy.”
Obama calmly sits in the restaurant and sips the meat stew… … Emperor found.
You haven’t seen him for a while these days, and he suddenly appears like this and is doing a stew mukbang. I smiled and sat next to the Emperor.
“How do you do miscellaneous drinking?”
“It’s a little more crude than the imperial stew, but it has its own flavor.”
The emperor placed the cutlery in the cleanly emptied stew bowl and wiped his mouth with a napkin.
You look like you’ve been eating some kind of high-end royal fine dining. Actually, it’s just rice cake soup.
“Where are you wandering around like this?”
“Isn’t it easy for the emperor to come to the southernmost land? While I was there, I made sure that the order of the country was properly established in every corner.”
It’s scary to say it, but in the end, it seems that he just toured the southern region and inspected it.
“Now that we’ve roughly checked how the monster front is running, we’re about to return to the ecliptic.”
It has been several days since the emperor vacated the imperial capital because of my coercion.
I don’t know if I don’t know, but the center must be completely blocked by now. The final decision maker is here… … You should come back soon.
“Let’s send troops and supplies in turn. The Empire is also a member of the World Defense Front here, so it will be faithful to its role.”
The emperor said so, but I couldn’t help but regret it.
The Emperor is the most powerful being of all the humans I have ever met.
If he stays here on the monster front, it would be very useful in preventing future monster invasions… … .
The emperor smiled once as if he knew all about me and then said,
“If the monsters invade more and more, I will come down with the whole army. Just before that.”
The emperor slightly turned his gaze to the north.
“I want to organize the remaining front lines in the empire and come back.”
“Lee Shin Front… … You speak.”
Northern Front of the Empire.
A war unfolding in the spirit world between deities descending south and the emperor.
The dragon blood front in the west signed a peace treaty, and the dark front in the center revealed its plot and was stranded.
Now, of the four major fronts of the Empire, only the Northern Front and the Southern Kaiju Front are left.
The emperor stretched out and loosened his neck.
“It’s time for them to start moving again. Jim will have to go and settle the matter himself.”
“… What are you going to do with these gods?”
Even the emperors of the world couldn’t get rid of the four of them cleanly, so they must have been doing just that.
How do you say to organize those new wires?
“Do you remember why these gods invaded?”
“Was it to protect their respective guardian races?”
The four isins are the guardian deities of each race.
Dwarf Elf Werebeast Mermaid.
Each of the ancestral gods of the 4 different races directly attacked as their race was persecuted and driven to the brink of destruction. to free their people.
“okay. But didn’t the four Ashes arbitrarily set the liberation of the different races as a condition?”
“yes?”
“Didn’t you promise to accept the four major races as members of the World Defense Front, treat them equally and free them from slavery?”
At the Emperor’s words, I opened my mouth slightly.
“ah.”
“Oh, what is it? Was this what you were aiming for?”
The emperor smiled at me, but no, this was really caught. I wasn’t even thinking… … .
“I did it. Ash, you have already presented the negotiating card that these gods want. As a condition, Jim will try to negotiate with the gods himself. Of course, I don’t know if we can come to a good conclusion that easily after we’ve been fighting for a long time without even talking about it.”
The emperor crossed his arms and shook his head.
“In exchange for abolishing heterogeneous slavery and restoring their hometowns, we stop the fight against the gods… Of course, it is not that there is no loss from the viewpoint of the empire and human beings. But the gains are overwhelmingly great.”
The invasion of these gods was pointed out as one of the fates that would destroy the Everblack Empire.
In fact, it was also a frontline that the emperor had been struggling to defend against alone for the past several years.
Instead of stopping the war with them and finding peace, freeing the slaves of different races… … Maybe it’s a very cheap price.
“I don’t know why I haven’t thought of this before. While worrying about the fortunes of the empire in the invasion of the gods, why didn’t they think of removing the cause? Wouldn’t they have thought of listening to what they want and negotiating with them?”
The emperor sighed and patted his head.
“If you sit in this absolute position for a long time, you sometimes forget about means such as concessions and negotiations. When you get old, only your pride gets tighter.”
“… .”
“Even these gods are beings who can communicate and try to understand each other. So I’m leaving to negotiate with them.”
The emperor pushed his chair and rose from the table.
Suddenly, a light seemed to flash behind him. His presence was felt again. The emperor smiled while tidying up his clothes.
“And I will join you here before it is too late. So please take good care of this place in the meantime, Ash.”
“Leave it to me, Momma.”
The emperor stared at me as I bowed respectfully.
Then, suddenly, another topic was brought up.
“… ash. Do you know the concept of sanctification?”
I blinked curiously. I know that.
Divinization.
In the game, it was the opposite concept of beastization.
“If you give up your humanity and walk the path of a beast, you become a beast, and conversely, if you acquire too much humanity, you gain divinity and ascend to heaven… I know.”
“It’s pretty accurate.”
The Aegis task force and Mason, who were turned into a beast after being hit with the serum, and Lucas, who gave up on their own way… … .
It reminded me of the old look of Lucas, who was glaring like a beast. Beastization was the power to discard one’s own humanity instead of gaining power.
Sanctification is the opposite. It was a characteristic that a being could acquire by acquiring multiple humanity.
“If you do, do you know how to acquire that humanity excessively?”
I shook my head at the emperor’s question. You don’t even know what humanity is in the first place? All I know is that if I throw it away, it will become a dog.
The emperor explained slowly in a serious voice.
“When the lives, souls, and wills of countless people are shouldered by one being. At that time, the existence gets a chance to acquire the godhood and if it accepts the godhead, the deification proceeds.”
Then, suddenly, I remembered the condition of becoming a god of each race that I had heard from Ader before.
1. In the case of the progenitor of the tribe.
2. In the case of a great person who saved the race from danger.
3. Finally, all of your people die, leaving only one member of your race in the world.
In all three cases, they go through the process of shouldering the lives and souls of their own people… … That was how to acquire divinity.
‘In the end, is sanctification the process of gaining divinity and literally becoming a god?’
Suddenly, I thought of the Goddess, the guardian of mankind, who was bound to the spirit world.
How did she become that way?
He also recalled the image of the gigantic alien gods invading through the spirit world. As the founders of each race, they also had to carry the souls of their own people.
The last Goblin God King I met on the battlefield… … Carly-Alexandre’s face also flashed through my mind.
He said he had the opportunity to obtain this deity, but of his own will refused.
While organizing these concepts in my head, the emperor continued his speech slowly.
“I also embraced that power. Now it has stopped at the half-god stage.”
The emperor’s transcendent power.
It was none other than this deification.
“I myself became a transcendent and forcibly sanctified myself in order to deal with the deities of the spirit world.”
“The words that you were forced to proceed… ?”
“How can I forcibly take on the will of another person’s life and soul?”
The emperor laughed bitterly.
“It was a burnt offering. Yes, it is human sacrifice.”
“… !”
I opened my eyes.
Until the magic stone was presented in the Crossroads, human sacrifices were being made in order to activate Everblack, a dark beast in the imperial city.
Slaves of different races were burned, prisoners of enemy countries were burned, and those suspected of being spies were burned. People captured from all over the world were used as firewood.
Under the pretext of preventing destruction, the empire has committed such a terrible massacre.
And in this process, the lives, souls and wills of others… … The emperor is stolen.
“Literally, I burned the lives of my subjects and gained divinity in return. And with that power, I have been supporting the Lee Shin Front.”
In the shade, the emperor smiled coolly.
I got a little goosebumps.
“Don’t look at me with those eyes. Didn’t you know that this father is the world’s greatest villain?”
“… .”
“The defenders of the empire swore to do anything to protect the empire, and they did. … But thanks to you, that evil has stopped.”
While I presented the magic stone and Serenade distributed it. Human sacrifice has stopped in the ecliptic.
The massacre of the innocent has ceased.
But the crime of massacring them won’t go away either.
“As the offerings and burnt offerings ceased, the divinity that I forcibly acquired also escaped. I am gradually losing my qualification as a representative of humanity.”
The emperor squeezed his hand tightly and then opened it. In my eyes, his power was still strong, but he said his power was fading.
“… Why are you telling me this?”
Thanks for the explanation, but so what? What is the purpose of saying this to me?
I didn’t understand, so I just asked, and the emperor stretched out his hand-
tight.
He squeezed my shoulders.
“If the world is really headed for destruction. You, the leader of the frontlines here, will naturally have a chance to acquire divinity. It is from the heart that I hope you will judge well at that time.”
Facing the golden eyes of the transcendent, I broke out in a cold sweat.
Do I get divinity?
Get a chance to become a transcendent like the emperor… … ?
“Once you gain godhood, you can know the ugly truth of this world. And you can never go back.”
“… .”
“But if the world is truly headed for destruction, you will surely obtain that power. It must be a situation where you have to grab at least a straw.”
The emperor slowly let go of my shoulder and patted me lightly.
“You have already reorganized the world to your liking, gathered everyone in the world into an alliance, and are the commander of the frontline commanding them all.”
“… .”
“Humanity will now regard you as its leader. And as the representative of mankind, as the prince of princes… … You have to choose last.”
With a ferocious smile revealing his characteristic molars, the emperor said,
“Will you remain as a piece or become a player?”
I spit out another chess game term I had heard before.
“In the end, everything in the world is like that. Will it remain as a piece or become a direct player… … Haha, I look forward to the answer you will give at the end.”
***
After playing around with unknown settings, the emperor rode Alcatraz and flew away.
“… What are you talking about?”
As I pondered over the words of the emperor, I said Eight! He made a noise and kicked the ground.
It is a distant and abstract story. All I need is practical support to defeat the monster right away.
‘There are only a few more days until the next defense… … .’
Although the member countries of the World Defense Front promised to send troops and supplies.
The world is wide and the crossroads are stuck in the southern hinterland. It will be a long time before all troops and supplies arrive.
In the end, we have done a lot of work, but we have to carry out the next defense right now with our existing troops.
‘I just do what I can.’
Go on free exploration, manufacture equipment, recruit and nurture new mercenaries.
Slowly assimilating troops arriving from all over the world into one army.
If you go step by step like that… … The other seeds I have sown will sprout one by one.
“Okay! Then after a long time!”
Shaking my shoulders, I shouted.
“Shall we go to Dungeon George?”
In terms of experience, the time for free exploration has returned after a long time!
