Chapter 596
Chapter 596: Let Me Tell You an Old Tale. (1)
“Hmm.”
Ghislaine paused for a moment in thought.
How does Ereness know that?
She probably hasn’t regressed like I did.
I had sensed that Ereness was hiding something, but never had she spoken so directly about danger before.
Now that the topic had come up, I felt it was time to ask for more details.
Ghislaine moved people to a wider conference room and asked,
“Give me the details. Why are dragons attacking humans?”
I didn’t know the reason in my past life either. One day, dragons appeared out of nowhere with immense malice towards humans.
Dragons indiscriminately destroyed everything in their path. They attacked humans alongside the continent’s monsters.
Of course, the Salvation Society also did not just stand by. They launched indiscriminate attacks on both the Salvation Society and the rifts.
Perhaps we could have been allies, but since the dragons had already destroyed several human kingdoms, the Human Alliance had no choice but to fight against the dragons.
I was curious about why the dragons were rampaging, but what intrigued me the most was the timing. In my past life, dragons didn’t appear until several years later.
‘What future have I shifted again? There was nothing related to dragons!’
I was aware that with every change I made, events were happening sooner. Wasn’t the Salvation Society’s rampage quicker than in my previous life? Thanks to that, we could eradicate the Salvation Society before it grew any larger.
But I had never encountered anything related to dragons.
After hearing Ghislaine’s question, Ereness took a moment to gather her thoughts before speaking.
“Dragons want to kill someone.”
“Who?”
“The one known as the King of the Salvation Society. In the old war, we referred to him as the Adversary.”
“So you’re saying that the dragon wants to kill that Adversary by killing humans?”
“Right. If the dragons can’t find the Adversary, they plan to kill all humans.”
At that, Ereness glanced at Yulien.
“Hmm….”
Ghislaine crossed her arms and fell into thought.
It seemed Ereness still harbored doubts about Yulien. Before asking, Ghislaine needed to clarify something.
After organizing her thoughts for a moment, she asked,
“We don’t know your past. What is the true purpose of the Salvation Society? Who exactly is the King, the Adversary they are looking for?”
“…….”
“And what does the old war mean? Without that knowledge, we won’t understand what you’re saying, right? We don’t know why you and the dragons want to kill the Adversary. Are they merely trying to conquer the world? That doesn’t make sense!”
Everyone knew that Ereness hated the Salvation Society. She had suddenly appeared to help Ghislaine and fight against them.
At that time, she had mentioned that she had been fighting against the Salvation Society for a very long time. But she hadn’t shared any more than that.
It was overlooked then, but now the situation had changed. To understand her words, having some background knowledge was essential.
Ghislaine pressed her for that knowledge.
“…….”
Ereness remained silent for a moment. After all, humanity was already fighting the Salvation Society, so she didn’t have to say it.
However, to prepare for the battles to come, she needed to share what she knew to some extent.
Taking a deep breath, she slowly began to speak.
“I will tell you about an ancient myth and war that has long been forgotten.”
*
In ages long past, this land was a prosperous and peaceful world ruled by four goddesses.
Everyone worshiped the goddesses and lived leisurely, free from any disputes.
It was truly an ideal utopia.
The peace was shattered by an unexpected visitor from a very distant place.
The visitor was another god from another realm.
He met with the four goddesses and requested their help.
He explained that his world was on the brink of destruction, and his creations were in peril.
To save them, he had traversed what was thought unbreakable, consuming his own divinity to pierce through the dimensional barrier.
The goddesses decided to save them. Thus, they permitted migration to this world.
The unfortunate beings resembled humans of this realm. They thought living together wouldn’t pose any issues.
Though they did possess intense will and desire, it could be another driving force to move the world.
But problems arose.
The beings of that realm could not withstand the massive universal principles. Crossing the dimensional barrier, they lost their identities, leaving only their destructive natures behind.
Every time they crossed over, they turned into hideous monsters, bent on destruction.
The goddesses closed the dimensional door. They could not allow this world to be corrupted.
The god from that realm grew furious. Though they had transformed hideously, they were still his creations, his children.
He thought the goddesses had broken their promise and forcefully reopened the dimensional door.
Countless denizens from that realm flooded into this world. The inhabitants of this world suffered as they battled against them.
The people of the world gave that divine being a new name.
The Demon God.
Thus, the god of that realm became known as the Demon God.
Upper gods and inhabitants from that realm continued to pour into this world. The goddesses had to stop it.
Thus started the war.
Armies led by the Demon God clashed with those led by the goddesses.
It was a war that shattered the world. Countless beings perished. The war seemed never-ending.
However, the long war eventually ended in victory for the goddesses. This world was filled with their divinity.
The dimensional door was closed again, and all the beings that had invaded this world were obliterated.
Yet, it could not be called a complete victory.
The Demon God was powerful. The goddesses ultimately lost their bodies in battle against the Demon God, losing their ability to directly intervene in this world.
Only their will remained to oversee the world. Only a select few could barely communicate with that will to become its priests.
A world where the goddesses’ care had vanished.
Thus, paradise crumbled.
Those who remained had to struggle to survive.
Life was not easy for them.
The Demon God’s corpse lay on the earth, and its soul faded into the universal principles.
However, being divine, that corpse was anything but ordinary.
The energy and thoughts emitted from the corpse began to gradually change the world. Various animals and plants were affected, becoming what would be called monsters.
The humans of this world had to suffer again as they fought against those beings.
But even that was a minor problem.
The thoughts left behind by the Demon God filled the world with the intent to conquer it and save his people.
As time passed, beings among humans, tainted by those thoughts, began to emerge.
They sought to reopen the dimensional door, to save the inhabitants of other worlds and perform the rituals to resurrect the god.
That was the very beginning of the “Salvation Society.”
The beings they intended to save were not the people of this world.
They were those from another world who had suffered for eons, trapped in the dimensional rift.
The first place where the Salvation Society took root was the land where the Demon God’s corpse lay.
That land, filled with malice and rage, was a place no one could dare approach. Thus, the people of the world named it the Demon Realm.
Those who believed in the Salvation Society were safe in the Demon Realm but could not readily step outside into the world.
This was because the mightiest beings crafted by the goddesses to face off against the lower gods of the other realm, the dragons, were monitoring the area.
Of course, even the dragons could not recklessly enter the Demon Realm. The energy lingering there was beyond their capacity to handle.
For many long years, the followers of the Salvation Society sought ways to harness the power of the Demon God.
In the end, they were able to utilize a part of that power and could slightly open the dimensional door once again.
Thus began the war anew.
It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that the history of humanity is intertwined with the battles against the Demon Realm.
However, it wasn’t only the Salvation Society that advanced using the power of the Demon God.
The elves prospered in their forests, and the dwarves built enormous underground worlds.
Humans constructed empires across vast lands and blossomed into a brilliant civilization.
They pondered how to seal the Demon God’s land and eradicate the Salvation Society.
Meanwhile, the Salvation Society thought about how to resurrect the Demon God and seize this world.
For thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years, they remained at odds.
Until the war from a thousand years ago broke out.
*
“…….”
Upon hearing Ereness’s story, everyone wore blank expressions.
It was such a ridiculous and nonsensical tale. While it was somewhat plausible, it was far too unrealistic to accept outright.
Ereness seemed to understand their feelings, nodding her head.
“It’s just a myth explaining why this world became the way it is. Naturally, it won’t be logical and may contain distortions. I only said it because you need to know this myth to understand the purpose of the Salvation Society.”
Taking a moment to catch her breath, she continued.
“I know the myth of the Salvation Society to be somewhat different. They claim this world originally belonged to them, and we drove them out. Yet the purpose aligns with the myth.”
People nodded along. Myths are typically like that. One cannot take them at face value. Everyone just accepted it as such.
For ordinary people, it was merely an interesting story, providing a basis to vaguely understand the motives of the Salvation Society.
But for at least one person, it was more than that.
All eyes turned to one location. There stood someone exuding immense energy and spilling fury.
It was Parniel.
“How dare you… bring up such nonsense before me?”
Boom!
As a devout servant of the goddesses and a being called a saint, she was genuinely furious.
What is a myth? It serves as the origin of religion and the foundation for scriptures to worship the gods.
Others must not recklessly create or distort it. Doing so was a challenge to divinity and an act to deny the faith.
Parniel had never heard a myth like that. An elf creating a myth that even a saint of the church had never heard of!
“You are… a heretic.”
Ereness responded with a laugh.
“It was a common myth known to all a thousand years ago. The church intentionally deleted records and hid it.”
“Where do you come up with such nonsense!”
Crack!
Parniel’s enormous mace fell towards Ereness. But Ereness didn’t even blink.
Crack!
Ghislaine drew her sword to block it. However, her body swayed, and she bent her knees.
‘Is she insane?’
The power was immensely stronger than usual. Parniel seemed genuinely enraged.
For now, she needed to be calmed down. If these two fought, we wouldn’t be able to get to the information we were truly curious about.
“Parniel, hold on a second.”
“Get out of my way.”
“Let’s at least hear the rest. We haven’t even discussed the Adversary yet, have we?”
“……Huh.”
Parniel glared at Ereness for a long while before withdrawing her mace.
Ghislaine turned to the people of Penris, who covered their mouths and exchanged smirks.
‘You understand how we feel, right?’
‘It’s tough being the one to mediate.’
‘Ah, this is entertaining to watch.’
Only Ghislaine could manage the powerhouses from the outside. Thus, such a situation had arisen.
Seeing the people laugh made Ghislaine twitch her lips. She could tell what they were all thinking without needing to ask.
With hopes pinned on the future, Ghislaine glared at everyone before turning to Ereness.
“According to that myth, does that mean that the Cracked Beings are inhabitants of another world?”
“That’s right. And the light that creates the Mutants is the souls of those trapped in the dimensional rift.”
“So they want to live in this world and keep crossing over?”
“Yes. They believe this world is their promised land and paradise.”
“Heh, it’s a tiring place to live here as well. Sounds like they have quite the misunderstanding. Well, other people’s worlds usually look more appealing, I suppose.”
“…….”
“Let’s set aside the myth for now. What about the Adversary and the war from a thousand years ago?”
Ereness paused for a moment before slowly speaking.
“For a long time, humanity faced off against the Demon Realm and encountered a new enemy. A genius unprecedented in history emerged from the Salvation Society.”
Ereness’s tale began anew.
It was the story of the Adversary, the mightiest of all a thousand years ago.
