[END] Chapter 207: The Descent of the Evil God (5)
A beautiful voice that pierced the silence.
A huge darkness swept over the world with the hymn of destruction.
The insects that sensed the crisis crawled out and ran in all directions, and all kinds of birds flapped their wings and flew away from death.
Crack.
As the ground cracked and the buildings collapsed, Estasia continued to sing calmly.
“…”
It was not common to see the world being destroyed.
In that sense, the world that I saw in front of me was definitely an amazing sight.
The whole landscape that I could see to the horizon shook and crumbled.
The concrete fortress that seemed to never fall followed my gesture and collapsed, spewing smoke.
The world that collapsed like dominoes was very splendid.
“What a spectacle.”
Everything was ruined and destroyed.
In the area of destruction where screams and noises ran rampant, the cursed ones staggered and fell to their places.
The only rest they were given was their own share.
For them, death was salvation.
I gave them a fair death, who had lost their reason and even their names.
I no longer needed a smartphone to perform such miracles.
I was now a being who could do anything I wanted without clinging to a small smartphone.
“It’s a pity if the invited guest doesn’t show up when I’ve set up such a splendid stage.”
At the same time, I felt an inexplicable pressure that tried to suppress me.
It was the sanction of <Karma’s decree> for the unilateral and extensive exercise of power.
If my smartphone had been fine, it would have surely displayed a message like this.
Karma that was excessively biased in one direction had a high possibility of causing ‘causality correction’.
Of course, that was what I wanted right now.
There was no way to restrain the evil god who ran wild without a high-intensity sanction.
“Isn’t that right, Estelle?”
As I turned my head with a smile, I saw Estelle’s figure that had appeared on the roof somehow.
Estelle’s expression, holding a black umbrella as always, showed no sign of leisure.
It was natural.
I was choking her breath right now.
People were not beings who lived satisfied with the fact that they had their breath.
How much more so for a god who looked down on humans from a high position.
She would not want to live a life that had all possibilities blocked.
For Estelle that I knew, the current situation was no different from dying.
“You… do you know what you’re doing?”
“You look very angry, my goddess.”
Estelle looked at me with a distorted face and showed clear hatred.
It was a thick killing intent that made my skin tingle.
But I just smiled brightly at her.
It was clear who was on top at this moment.
Estelle, who had lost her potential in the world beyond the smartphone, had little to do here.
Especially when the opponent was the last survivor who had lost everything and only had his breath left.
“You, really…!”
Crack.
The sound of grinding teeth echoed on the roof.
She would be angry.
She would be annoyed.
She would feel like going crazy with rage that she couldn’t express anywhere.
It was natural.
That was all the emotion that I had felt back then.
It was the memory of the time when I was tormented and suffocated by the unknown god in front of me.
I opened my mouth, recalling the memories of the two of us, to the suffering Estelle.
“Estelle. Do you remember what you said to me once?”
Estelle had said this to me once.
There was nothing more enjoyable than destroying a sandcastle that someone had built with difficulty.
But I thought Estelle was wrong.
It was troublesome to feel joy by just destroying a sandcastle.
It would be more enjoyable to destroy something bigger than that.
“Isn’t it fun? To smash someone’s plan right before they succeed with my own hands.”
“You…”
“Of course, this world is more suitable than a sandcastle.”
Crack.
The outer wall of the cracked building began to float in the air under the influence of gravity.
Concrete with exposed rebar.
Lampposts that were separated from the ground and tangled.
Everything in this world was in chaos and disorder.
And at the center of that world were Estelle and I, looking at each other.
“Stop it…! There’s nothing to change by doing this!”
Estelle’s appearance, shouting at me to stop, was funny.
She had never bothered to think when I shouted at her to stop, but now she hoped that I would stop in front of me.
Estelle was afraid.
Of the punishment that the tilting decree would bring.
Of the price that would come if she broke the balance that she had barely adjusted to the limit.
Estelle, who had destroyed the world once, could not have avoided such karma.
Even the karma of life that she was carrying now was enough to burden her.
At least in my eyes, who had become a god like her, I could see it clearly.
Estelle’s appearance, who was afraid of losing more than me.
“There’s nothing more to lose. You’ve already destroyed everything with your own hands.”
There was only one rule that the decree imposed on a world where the balance of good and evil was broken.
There is no god in disorder.
Only immortal demons rotting in hell where no one takes the side of life remain.
Can a being who can only live without exercising any power be called a god?
Well, I didn’t think so.
“It was all for you. You knew that…”
Estelle spoke to me with a trembling hand holding an umbrella.
The falling goddess seemed to have a lot to lose.
Unlike the time when she was more noble than anyone else, she looked so ugly now.
Of course, if she called the love of an evil god destruction, her words were not wrong at all.
I was loved by her greatly.
Enough. Beyond satisfaction, to the point of shedding tears.
“Yeah, I guess so. I thought you would say that.”
“So, right now——!”
“We’ll be together forever, Estelle.”
So I was going to pay her back for what I had received.
It started with a choice of either-or that Estelle could never avoid.
A forced choice full of irrationality and contradiction.
To lose or to let go of what she had.
She had to make a choice in a situation where there was no compromise.
I was the stake in this irrational gamble.
“You were the one who wanted to be with me forever, right?”
The roof that began to float in the air shone the scenery of the world that was being destroyed.
The destruction that the song of the end created had reached the roof of the building where we were standing.
Estelle, who faced such destruction, bit her lips with trembling eyes.
“…”
“So this is the decision that your apostle made.”
I threw the smartphone in my hand to the ground with force.
Crash!
The screen of the smartphone shattered and the fragments scattered around.
It was something I no longer needed.
Too much time had passed for me to depend on everything on this small device.
I had grown up losing countless things.
It was time for me to step into this world with my own power, not the power of tuning.
“Uh…”
Estelle was so confused that she couldn’t even say a proper word.
It was natural.
The karma of the decree that bound the two divine beings to the earth was tilted extremely.
Although it was a choice of either-or, there was only one way that Estelle could choose.
“Why are you like that? Don’t tell me there’s no proper role for the goddess of retrogression in a destroyed world?”
Tilting the decree to the other side.
It was nothing but spitting out everything she had done and going back to the way it was.
What she hated so much——
Going back to the boring and dull world.
“Ugh…!”
A moan mixed with countless emotions escaped from her mouth.
She looked extremely miserable.
She had to let go of everything she held in her hands.
I was ready to fall to the bottom of the abyss, but sadly, Estelle was not.
“But you’re lucky, you know.”
“Stop…”
“I’m different from anyone else, I’m kind. I can tell you what you have to do.”
Fortunately, even I, who had just ascended to the throne of god, had something to tell her.
No, maybe it was a story that I could only tell her because I had become a god now.
Because I had just realized it and it was still vivid in me.
“…”
The moment I followed Estelle’s plan and collected a million karma and got the fragment of truth.
I finally understood.
What was a god.
And what was the right order of the world.
Rules and regulations, they had no meaning at all now.
Well, wasn’t a god a being that established its own rules on top of those regulations?
“From now on, I’m the evil god.”
I raised my finger at Estelle, who was speechless.
I folded my thumb that pointed at myself, and then pointed at Estelle in front of me.
This finger meant one thing.
“So you have to save the world.”
I overturn the order of this world.
I create a new order.
Under the order where everything converges to destruction, she has to go against the only order.
That was the only miracle allowed to the ‘god of retrogression’.
That was the only miracle that Estelle could make at this moment.
“You…”
“Go back. That’s what you’re good at, right?”
Thud—.
Estelle dropped the umbrella she was holding with a trembling hand on the floor.
She covered her face with her shaking hand, soaked in anxiety and impatience.
Her lips that showed through her hidden face spat out a trembling voice.
“You… are crazy.”
Did she finally make up her mind?
With Estelle’s short word as a signal, an overwhelming density of power spread throughout the world.
Estelle’s power, with a huge amount of karma, suppressed my power and tried to interfere more strongly with the world.
As the power of retrogression activated, the world began to go against the flow of causality.
The minimum line to maintain balance was half.
I take back half of the world from her.
That was the return I was aiming for, betting my whole life on it.
“Estasia. Stop now.”
“Yes.”
Once Estelle’s power that defied order began to move, it was meaningless for me to use my power anymore.
I stopped Estasia, who was praying, and looked at the world that began to go back.
“Is the world going back to normal?”
The collapsed buildings started to merge as if rewinding the video.
The lampposts that were pulled out returned to the ground naturally.
The broken things went back to their original state against causality.
The power of retrogression that I faced for the first time was very amazing and mysterious.
“Yeah. It’s a nice view.”
“That’s right. Just like you said, master.”
The world was going back.
Even if it wasn’t the perfect world that I longed for, the whole world was returning to the lively world where people lived and breathed.
The scenery of the world that I had buried in my old memories came back to my mind.
The world before destruction was very boring and dull.
Someone had to get up in the morning and go to work.
Someone else had to suffer from their boss’s nagging.
Another someone had to come home with a tired body and drink beer and play games.
“It’s a view that you would believe if someone told you it was a game.”
The same day repeated every day.
A tedious day that didn’t show any change.
The painful times that I lived under pressure and responsibility.
Yet I loved it very much.
“Really.”
That time, that moment.
More than the game that I liked very much.
***
Epilogue
A year had passed since the fight with Estelle, the god of retrogression.
There were many things that happened in the continent during the last year.
The Temple of Abundance moved south from the holy land, and the Order became the state religion of the empire.
The priests of the six temples who survived also fled outside the empire’s influence.
In Crossbridge, a new temple of the Order was built magnificently instead of the six temples, and the organizational structure of the Order was also greatly reformed, led by Roan, who became popular.
According to the reformed organizational structure of the Order, the church tax also grew significantly.
Many believers came to the holy land every day to face the god who descended to the ground.
Of course, it was my duty to look after them from above.
They were the ones who came from the empire to see me.
I would have to punish them if they showed rude behavior, but it wasn’t hard to greet them who wouldn’t hesitate to give their lives for me.
Today, too, I wore a suit that matched my body to meet the believers, and Eutenia, who chose my suit, spoke with a smile.
She had been in charge of these events since I descended to the ground.
It was not only because she was the first apostle, but also because her wish that she asked me was one of the reasons.
“It’s thanks to you choosing a good suit for me.”
When I answered her question with a solemn tone, Eutenia’s expression brightened up more.
She was very weak to this kind of reaction.
She would be happy all day with just one compliment from me, and when she received a gift from me, she would walk around the holy land all day and brag about it to other apostles.
It was a scene where I could understand why she had the trait of a fanatic.
Of course, it changed completely in a different direction after I came down to the ground.
Now her appearance looked like a blind love rather than fanaticism.
“Any suit suits you well, great one.”
“That might be true.”
I nodded and looked at my reflection in the mirror.
I might sound narcissistic, but I looked pretty handsome in the mirror.
I was handsome enough in the first place.
Sometimes when I saw a mirror, I would see a celebrity’s face overlapping with mine for a second.
But the way I looked now was a little more handsome than that.
At least, I had an appearance that gave off an old-fashioned vibe that didn’t match my visible age.
As I looked at myself in the mirror with satisfaction, Eutenia came close and draped a cloak over my shoulder.
“I’m sincere.”
“Yeah. You always are.”
“So, I wish you would say something sincere to me too.”
Eutenia leaned her head on my shoulder in the mirror.
Seeing her like that, I remembered the wish she had asked me.
The day when I had not been on the ground for long.
When I asked the apostles about their wishes, only Eutenia had asked for a peculiar one.
Her wish was very crude but special.
“I love you, Eutenia.”
But it was not easy for me to grant her wish.
How could I calmly utter such a word that would ruin my dignity as a god?
But Eutenia was stubborn.
So I had no choice but to say it, even if I was embarrassed.
“Please tell me more. That’s my wish.”
“I love you more than anyone else in this world.”
It was a word without any lie.
Eutenia Hyrost.
She was a very special being to me.
She closed her eyes with satisfaction and opened her mouth with a languid voice.
“I like it. It feels like being loved by you, great one.”
As I watched Eutenia’s happy face, I recalled the memory of that day.
Once, when she asked me for a wish.
I swore in my heart as I looked at her then.
I would spend the rest of my life in this world for her sake.
That must have been the only thing that was truly valuable to my first apostle.
I still believed that.
***
In the middle of the sea where the intense sun shone down.
There, the abyssal beast Cuebaerg was moving with a parasol stuck on his head.
It was not his own will, but according to the strong request of the tenants sitting on his head.
The vampires sitting on Cuebaerg’s head hated sunlight very much.
Cuebaerg conveyed his will to Pluto, who was sitting on his head, with a relaxed voice.
-“Are you still not satisfied?”
“This place is not suitable for vampires.”
Pluto’s voice echoed from under the parasol that blocked the sunlight.
She looked at the isolated island floating in the middle of the sea and shook her head.
On Pluto’s right, there was Eileen, who was faithfully assisting her.
She had forgotten the fact that she was once a saint, and she was very obedient to Pluto.
Of course, that was also why she could follow Pluto’s side until now.
-“What’s the problem?”
“It’s hard to find blood, and more importantly, the sunlight is too strong. It would be better to go into a jungle somewhere.”
At Pluto’s words, Cuebaerg spat out a fountain.
Thud. Splash.
Some of the seawater that he had sucked in fell on the parasol.
Cuebaerg, who played a light water prank, showed a short dissatisfaction to the tenants on his back.
-“You’re picky.”
“Weren’t there any beasts in the abyss that cared about the environment?”
-“The abyss was all the worst environment. There was no room to choose a place to live.”
“…”
At Cuebaerg’s words, Pluto showed a moment of hesitation.
But soon she neatly folded her worries and shook her head.
What they were looking for now was a land suitable for building a country of vampires.
It was not right to build a country in a place where the sunlight was strong, no matter how they thought about it.
“I guess this won’t work.”
At the words that compromise was impossible, Cuebaerg stopped for a moment.
But soon he stopped spitting out the fountain and answered her.
-“Is that so.”
“Sorry, but keep moving. Let’s look for a darker place.”
Pluto finished talking to Cuebaerg and tapped his head with her palm several times.
Thump. Thump.
The sound of tapping his soft skin echoed.
Cuebaerg showed a fountain full of dissatisfaction and then started to move forward again.
Eileen, who saw Cuebaerg hitting the fountain, poked his head with her finger and said.
“I won’t forgive you if you disobey master’s words, even if you’re a monster.”
-“All vampires are rude.”
With two tenants on board, Cuebaerg cut through the sea and set out for an unknown land.
Until they find a suitable land to build a country of vampires,
The journey of the three monsters would never end.
***
The holy land, Crossbridge.
In the place that had become the holy land of the Order, Peter looked at his left with bored eyes.
On Peter’s left, there was Perin sitting on the railing.
She was sitting on the railing and biting an apple full.
Her face eating the apple looked somehow happy.
“Is that good?”
“It’s good. Do you want a bite too, master?”
At Peter’s question, Perin offered him an apple with a bite taken out of it.
Peter looked at the apple that Perin offered him for a moment, then snorted and shook his head.
Even though Estasia had been gone for a long time from the meeting, Perin’s name for her still hadn’t changed.
“······Forget it.”
Sigh.
Peter let out a short sigh and turned his head to look at the other side.
On the right side of the railing where Peter was standing, Evan was sitting in light armor.
He was still looking at the crowded streets of the holy city with a heavy face.
Peter asked Evan, who was looking down at the ground, about Daniel, who had been missing since earlier.
“Where did Daniel go?”
“He went to prepare the meat for the feast for the great one.”
Evan’s answer was a familiar pattern that he had heard many times.
It was a well-known story that he, who claimed to be a farmer, usually hid his identity.
Daniel was an assassin by profession, but his slaughtering skills were impeccable.
He had clearly learned the assassination techniques to kill people silently by using animals.
Now he was using those skills to process the meat that came to the holy city.
“Come on, who doesn’t know that’s just a cover-up job?”
“Well. He says he’s satisfied with just preparing the meat for the great one.”
An assassin who had terrorized the world was content with killing pigs and cows.
Peter couldn’t understand that at all.
If he had the same power as Daniel, he would never have settled for that level.
Rather, he would have had ambition and tried to spread his name across the world.
Of course, that would have made him a covert assassin, contrary to Peter’s thoughts.
“By the way, did your wish come true from the great one?”
Peter, who was leaning on the railing and having a pointless thought, was asked by Evan first this time.
The wish he had asked from the great being.
It was the story of the wish he had promised to the apostles after all his deeds were done.
Of course, Peter wished for his lost family to be returned.
His master gave him a three-year grace period for that wish.
There were still two years left until Peter’s family came back.
“I still have two years left.”
“Didn’t he say he would grant it if you waited three years?”
“He promised that.”
“It’s already been a year, so the remaining time will pass quickly.”
Peter stroked his chin with his finger at Evan’s calm words.
Daniel and Evan in front of him, they all looked like transcendent beings.
They had modest dreams even when the great being asked them for their wishes.
The wish Evan had asked for that day was the prosperity of the Alemir family.
It was a stark contrast to ‘that woman’ who had boldly asked for a crazy wish.
“Evan, you’re amazing. Sometimes you seem to have no ambition.”
“Do I look like that?”
“Yes. If you think about it, even that crazy woman who asked the great one to say he loves her once a day… Uh-uh…”
Evan’s thick gauntlet blocked Peter’s mouth as he calmly talked about Eutenia.
Peter looked puzzled at Evan, who suddenly covered his mouth.
He had brought up the topic when there were only three of them, but he didn’t understand why he reacted that way.
Then Evan warned him with a serious face.
“Eutenia can hear the stories that flow throughout Crossbridge. You should be careful if you can…”
-“I already heard everything.”
Before Evan finished his sentence, a hand stretched out from the shadows and grabbed Peter’s back.
The hand that pulled his back hard slammed Peter into a pillar of the building.
Koong!
Peter screamed as he opened his eyes wide with a dull shock.
He felt a sensation of nausea from the pain that spread throughout his body.
“Kuaak······!”
“I should have advised you earlier, but it was too late.”
Evan smiled as he looked at Peter, who was stuck to the pillar, and reached out his hand to him.
Above Evan’s head, who reached out his hand to the fallen Peter, the sun shone brightly.
***
After Estelle reversed the flow of causality.
The earth was able to recover to a considerable level after a long time.
Although half of the population disappeared and a significant number of infrastructure was destroyed, humanity was strong enough to overcome those wounds and move forward.
The TV in the sanctuary, which used to repeat the same content every day, started to show new content.
The internet, which had been silent and stopped, also had new information uploaded every day.
It was moving in a completely different direction from the broken world where only old memories existed.
My sanctuary was still located in a place where there were few people, but that was unavoidable for the safety of the world.
Of course, sometimes I went out to shop, but that was only occasionally.
The basic premise was to suppress the transcendent beings here.
“Estasia. Clean up the feathers you dropped.”
One fallen angel with the power of destruction.
One overly diligent angel.
And two beings with divine power existed in this space.
It was right to keep them away from the residential area for the peace of the world.
“No.”
Unfortunately, my roommate – no, my cohabiting angel – was very unfriendly.
She was watching TV while eating ice cream, and ignored the feathers on the floor.
She refused my request with a very firm attitude as she stuffed her mouth with ice cream.
I couldn’t help but sigh at the sight.
I felt the need to be more assertive with Estasia.
Even if she was lazy, wouldn’t she listen if it was God’s command?
“Really? Then it’s an order. Let’s clean up.”
“Estasia doesn’t listen to master’s order either.”
“······Why?”
“Because she’s a fallen angel.”
She said that and took another bite of ice cream.
Nom.
I had no choice but to stare at Estasia with a blank face as she ate a mouthful of ice cream and mumbled.
I couldn’t figure out what to say when she said that bluntly.
It was undeniable that I made Estasia a fallen angel.
“······Estasia. It would be nice if you cleaned up a bit.”
Aronia intervened with a word for Estasia from beside me.
She spread her wings wide and spoke confidently to Estasia.
But Estasia’s answer was very cold.
“Aronia will do everything anyway.”
“······.”
“I don’t want to do it.”
Squeak.
Aronia’s head turned toward me with a strange sound as she heard Estasia’s answer.
Her eyes were full of expectation as she looked at me.
She seemed to think that I would side with her, who was saying the right thing.
“Maybe you should clean up your own feathers…”
“Cheer up, Aronia.”
“Master!”
But I only cheered her on.
It was hard to refute the logic of the invincible fallen angel with my current logic.
I put my newly purchased smartphone in my pocket after giving Aronia a brief encouragement.
And then I prepared to leave this space where Estasia and Aronia were.
Being a god was more work than I thought.
“I think I have to go up to the roof.”
“Please don’t abandon a hardworking angel!”
Aronia grabbed my leg that was heading to the roof and sprawled out.
But unfortunately, I was a cruel god with a cold heart.
I mercilessly left Aronia behind and got out of the room.
As I left the room, I didn’t forget to firmly remind Aronia and Estasia.
“Clean up all the feathers until I come back. And eat ice cream moderately.”
“Have a good trip.”
Thud.
As I closed the door with Aronia’s sobbing and Estasia’s farewell, I started to see the scenery of the city that was being rebuilt.
The cityscape that was moving with noisy sounds was very lively.
Cars with headlights on were running on the road, and countless workers were restoring the ruined city.
It was a contrast to the cityscape that was dead with the lights off until recently.
“What a beautiful sight.”
I felt a proud emotion in my chest every time I saw the people who came back.
I couldn’t get back all the people I lost, but the half I got was very precious.
Is this how the gods feel about the humans on earth?
Even if they don’t know about me, I will love them as much as I can.
I have vivid memories of countless nights when I missed them so much.
“I hope they’re all happy.”
Snicker.
I muttered to myself and walked up the empty stairs.
The stairs that I had walked up many times were cleaner than before.
It was thanks to Aronia who cleaned diligently.
At the top of the stairs, there was a large cage with an ominous aura.
Of course, what existed beyond the cage was a familiar face of a girl.
“You’ve been visiting more often lately.”
“I’m worried that the goddess here might run away. It would be a disaster if the world is destroyed again, right?”
The god of retrogression, Estelle.
I was suppressing Estelle, who had weakened after exhausting most of her power, here.
Estelle, who was trapped in the cage, was reading a book in her hand leisurely.
It was something I had Aronia get for her.
I leaned on the cage that was holding Estelle and glanced at her reading the book.
Estelle was reading a book with an old-fashioned title that suited her well.
“Did you have a good day yesterday?”
“How could I? Someone is locking me up like this.”
“Isn’t it God’s duty to watch over you so that the seal doesn’t break?”
As I said that, I checked the sturdiness of the cage that locked Estelle up.
The strong energy that came from my fingertips told me that it was intact.
It meant that the cage could still do its job.
Estelle’s power had not recovered enough yet.
“You know this cage will collapse someday, right?”
“Well, that day will come too.”
“Do you think I’ll stay still when that happens?”
Estelle, who was watching me check the cage, warned me in a sharp voice.
She was right.
It might be impossible for me to suppress Estelle forever with my power.
Someday, she might break this cage with her own power and escape.
I couldn’t predict whether that would happen in 100 years or 1000 years.
But even then, my actions wouldn’t change much.
“Then I’ll have to stop you again.”
“Do you think you can do that?”
“I don’t know yet. Maybe by then I’ll have grown into a great god.”
I would stand in Estelle’s way many times in the future.
I wouldn’t let her ruin this world ever again.
That was the role given to a being called a god.
I would destroy this world many times, and save it many times.
That was the only duty I could bear as the one named Destruction.
“Well. I don’t know.”
“I thought you would answer like that.”
I left Estelle behind me with her cold answers, and took out the smartphone I had in my pocket.
The smartphone I bought new in the city was shining clean as if to prove its newness.
I reached out my finger to the screen of the smartphone and unlocked it.
Swish.
On the spot where my finger passed, I saw the pictures of the apostles and believers.
It was an image I had taken from the other side of the world and set as the wallpaper of my smartphone.
“You have a bad hobby. You put pictures on your smartphone even after being treated like that?”
“It’s what I like best.”
“That’s very sincere of you.”
As I listened to Estelle’s words, I looked over the faces of the apostles in the picture one by one.
Eutenia. Evan. Pluto. Perin. Daniel. Peter.
And Roan, the Holy King, standing in the middle of them.
They were precious memories that would never be forgotten even as time passed.
“It’s better to keep them like this, right? They are things I don’t want to forget even when time passes.”
“…”
Thud.
As I watched the apostles on the screen, I tilted it to show it to Estelle.
Estelle’s blunt eyes looked at the screen of the smartphone.
She looked at the faces of the apostles with an indifferent face.
I also smiled brightly and looked at the screen of the smartphone with her.
Even under the darkened sky, the screen of the smartphone was shining brightly.
“It’s nice to be able to be together always.”
Beyond the small screen of the smartphone.
There was a world there.
There was a precious story that I could never forget.
And there was me.
The Evil God Beyond The Smartphone 完.
Fin ~
