Merus finally decided to tell them why he was staying silent.
Seeing how Merus reacted Allen could guess it was not something that could be explained in a sentence or two though.
"Maybe we should leave this conversation for after we've gotten rid of the Pagan Worshippers and monsters in Theomenia then. Are you okay with that, Dogora?"
"Yeah."
Allen was really curious to find out why Dogora could not activate his Extra Skill.
They had been friends since they were small in Kurena Village.
That was an important conversation, but some things had higher priority.
Theomenia was still overrun by monsters, and they needed to be killed.
They had to exterminate the monsters, return the city to normal and let the people taking refuge in Niel return to their regular lives.
Only when that happened, would their mission to rescue the Holy Land be complete.
They had to finish what they had initially set forth to do.
It was very unlikely, but there was also the possibility of some survivors still desperately hiding under all the rubble.
If there was a life to save, they had to save it.
Allen's party split into a few groups and they all went to hunt monsters.
He also summoned Wraith A's that could phase through walls and check every building.
Even though that was the largest city in the entire country, all monsters in it had been killed by dusk.
Allen's party climbed inside Merle's Tam-Tam, and they flew back to Niel.
His summons remained there, planting Gold Beans to build a monster-deterring barrier around Theomenia, and to kill the monsters around the city.
With all that in place, Theomenia should recover soon enough.
"..."
Inside Tam-Tam's control room, Dogora waited silently for Merus to start talking.
Merle left Tam-Tam on auto-pilot and sat down together with Allen and the rest.
'You wanted to know why I haven't said what I know, right? This is something not even Rosen knows.'
"The Spirit God?"
The Spirit King Rosen had lived for 5000 years, but as the First Angel, Merus had lived for nearly 100000 years, letting him call Rosen without a title.
'That's right, Descendant of the Prayer Maidens. The God of Creation Elmea explains these rules to gods as they ascend, but not the reasoning behind them. I'm sure there's many things the Spirit God keeps to himself already.'
"I see."
'Do you still wish to listen? It isn't a pretty story.'
"I don't mind."
Allen replied as he glanced at the Spirit God Rosen, who was getting his back rubbed by Sophie.
'Alright then... I think I mentioned this before, but the gods value equilibrium. And I hope you realize that maintaining said equilibrium is extremely complicated. Allen, I'm sure you've seen what a world without equilibrium looks like in your past life.'
"Mmm, equilibrium? Like when a king gets overthrown and a country falls to anarchy? Or when money loses its value?"
Allen recalled what a world without equilibrium looked like, but tried to word it in a way that made sense in this world.
He had heard of countries that were invaded by pirates and there was no one to uphold the law, or places that fell to hyperinflation where a bottle of milk cost a roll of banknotes. Those were the first examples that came to mind when he thought of a world without balance.
Allen's friends just listened.
They had learned in the Academy about civil wars that overthrew the royal family, or the importance of keeping the value of their common currency up, but they wondered why Allen thought of those first.
'Those are good examples, but they're limited to a country, not the entire world. Not to mention that a world without equilibrium looks far more horrible than that.'
But apparently Allen was even more horrible at coming up with metaphors in this world.
Allen perused his past memories trying to come up with a better example.
(Ahh, so it's more like a duplication bug being exploited, or trading with real life money for gear.)
Those were things Allen understood even better, thanks to his long experience as a gamer.
One of his worst memories was a time when a duplication bug was found in a game he was enjoying for a while.
Someone discovered a way to get infinite copies of an item in an online game he had been playing in his past life.
Under the right conditions, any item could be duplicated, which made the value of rare items plummet. The developers were bombarded with demands to fix the bug.
He recalled the response being severe, with those who engaged in duplicating items, and those who traded for them getting their accounts banned.
Eventually the game was updated and the duplication bug was fixed, but they had been unable to erase all the duplicate items still floating around, so the market continued being a mess.
Allen finally understood, but he still looked at the rest trying to find the words to explain it.
"So...for example a world where a bug gets discovered and everyone abuses it. Or when there's not a good defense against cheaters."
'Bugs and cheaters, huh. I guess you did experience things like that in the past. I guess that's close enough.'
Merus had inherited Allen's Summoner Class by basing himself off Allen's memories.
That let Merus see everything in Allen's past, even from before he was born in this world.
"And so you only tell new gods about that, so that the information doesn't leak."
(This is still an incomplete world anyway. I'm sure there are forceful rules in place so they can continue working on it.)
Allen had never heard of a game without bugs or exploits before, so he could understand why certain rules might be needed.
It was not too different from moderating accounts that abused bugs, and banning them.
'Exactly. Though perfect equilibrium is impossible to achieve. So the laws have been changing constantly, even now.'
Merus mentioned how there were times when all children born were heroes, or they would not obtain their desired Talent at birth, and many more terrible situations.
(Ahh, I see. So they had cases like that. I guess that's also why he's been somewhat distant with us as well.)
In the four months that Merus had become a summon, Allen felt like he spoke rather coldly with the party.
He was always reserved, or looked displeased when he had to help with various things, though sometimes his true self managed to peek through.
That was how everyone took Merus, and they assumed he was simply pretending to care more now, or at least that was how Allen and his friends saw it.
"So the laws get changed. But what happened to other worlds that lost their equilibrium?"
Allen's party was starting to catch on.
'They were destroyed. Regardless of how many people lived in them, without equilibrium there's no real prosperity.'
"""Wha-?!"""
"I don't believe it. The Gods would never..."
Sophie, a firm believer of the Spirit God, was the most shocked in the group.
'...'
Merus remained silent, not saying anything to Sophie's words.
"The gods aren't supposed to get their hands dirty, right Merus?"
(That's why you look so displeased all the time. And that's why you refuse to show yourself to the priests of Elmea's Church.)
On top of his usual reserved self, there was another reason why he did not want to be summoned near priests.
"Huh? Then who..."
Cecile understood before she could finish her question.
'We don't, unless it's for salvation. I...or rather, us angels, representatives of the Gods, have been in charge of destroying worlds without equilibrium. The number of lives taken by the Demon King in the last few decades is nothing compared to what I've done. I was created around 100'000 years ago, and it's happened many times since then.'
(The Demon King has destroyed around four countries in the last fifty years, and there's a way almost every year. And that's nothing to him.)
As far as Allen knew, the Demon King and his army had already killed many tens of millions of people.
Maybe the victims numbered even a hundred million, and it was hard to imagine that was still nothing compared to Merus' count.
He had existed in Elmea's Church since way before the Giamut Empire was founded.
Allen did not know who built that church, but he realized that an awe-inspiring demonstration of the Gods' powers had a hand in its creation, and not just mere faith.
"But because of all that, I can't say what I know."
"But we're trying to use our powers to defeat the Demon King. Do you really have to hide the reason from us?"
The world was suffering under the attacks from the Demon King. Sophie tried to reason with Merus, they were going to use that power for good.
'Even if insignificant, an event like that can slowly and steadily dissect the laws of the world. And there's always someone who uses that knowledge for evil. It's always happened that way.'
He almost sounded like he blamed himself for failing to stop it in the past.
Merus continued speaking.
At first only a handful of people would slip through the rules set in place.
But craving power and fame is ingrained in human nature, so the abuse of said loopholes would increase exponentially.
There was a case of one person who gained the title of sage, he kept what he knew to himself for his entire life, but then when the end of his days got closer, he wrote a book detailing his life, as a way to be remembered for posterity.
"And even if one never speaks, there's always those who can divinate or read minds, finding out secrets."
Allen felt like Merus had always been wary of the Astrologer Temi.
If he had destroyed the world a few times in the 100000 years he was alive, that meant the world had to be erased every few ten thousand years.
Considering it only happened so rarely, Allen was willing to listen, since it was unlikely it would spread far even if they gained hints about the Laws of the World.
'But anyway, with that long preface out of the way, the reason why Dogora can't use his Extra Skill is almost connected to the Laws of the World. Are you sure you want to hear that?'
Merus gave them a last chance to stop.
"..."
Dogora did not know what to say.
The party turned to look at Allen.
"Well, if we don't know that then we might never save the world from the Demon King. Tell us."
'I see. I'll tell you then. This is a story about the Eight Heroes Plan as well...'
With a new term, the Eight Heroes Plan, Merus began to talk.
