Chapter 180 – God Has Spoken (8)

The temple that had been restored to its original appearance as if just built seemed real even to Sun-woo’s eyes.

A temple filled with beautiful murals and sacred energy, with a refreshing atmosphere like entering a forest swirling throughout the entire temple.

However, the group except for Sun-woo had no time to check their surroundings.

They didn’t know what to do about the descent of the god itself, not a god possessing someone else.

The group all sat in chairs arranged in a circle according to her words.

“First, I’ll apologize. In order to find out how the world has changed, I checked the memories of the three of you. I apologize for looking at your memories without permission.”

The blue-haired goddess bowed her head to Prince Adolf, Daniel, and Alda.

At the goddess’s apology, the three people unknowingly waved their hands saying it was okay. With her holy appearance, the three seemed to find it difficult to even think differently.

However, Van Shingwan and Yeonhwa, who worshiped other gods, and Sun-woo, who somehow was not affected by the divine power at all, frowned at her words.

“If you’re going to look, why only look at three people instead of everyone?”

At Sun-woo’s grumbling, the group looked at Sun-woo with surprised expressions.

Not only the group caught up in the goddess’s divine power but also those who worshiped other gods found it strange that Sun-woo was openly complaining to a god.

The goddess also looked at Sun-woo with peculiar eyes.

“I’ll apologize again. It’s because I don’t have time. And anyway, since I’m a god… it’s been really long since a human talked to me like this.”

The goddess continued speaking.

“The reason I only checked the memories of three people is because I couldn’t see the memories of others. Looking at the memories of those who worship other gods is originally difficult, and with my current ability, it’s also hard to see the memories of high-ranking humans. As for you, there seems to be another reason…”

The goddess smiled while looking at Sun-woo.

At her smile, Sun-woo flinched inwardly. There was something that could be caught.

“The time I’ve been trapped in here has been too long. Whether humans had deceived us during that time, whether we would be forgotten and disappear like this, it was too long a time even for gods to endure. If I hadn’t persevered, I might have collapsed like the god’s fragment you all met.”

According to her words, the black mass monster the group had met, the ‘god’s fragment’, was a god trapped in a magic circle just like the goddess.

However, that god, unlike the goddess before them, couldn’t endure the years and lost its reason, becoming a god’s fragment with only instinct remaining.

“Anyway, since the magic circle is for trapping gods, if the rank drops, the magic circle can’t stop them.”

She looked outside the temple with sad eyes.

“What happened?”

When she stopped speaking, Sun-woo urged the story again.

He had also realized what her words about not having time meant.

Faintly glowing powder was flowing down around the goddess’s body. Her materialized body was scattering.

“You noticed. I used my remaining divine power to come to my senses a bit and change into a good-looking form. Thanks to that, there’s not much time left, but it’s much better than perishing without doing anything.”

The goddess showed a comfortable smile toward Sun-woo. Indeed, she was a god.

“I, and the gods, came to be trapped on this island because of a war. The battle between the Demon God leading numerous demon kings and our world.”

The goddess continued speaking calmly.

Long ago, when the Magic Empire was blossoming with splendid civilization.

This dimension was invaded by a tremendous enemy.

It was an enemy called the Demon God that forcibly tore through dimensions and appeared from a dimension called the demon realm.

The ruler of the dimension called the demon realm and a fallen god who had destroyed numerous dimensions.

The Demon God led numerous demon kings to invade and destroy this dimension as well.

“Fortunately, this place wasn’t an easy place either. Numerous magic users and humans, and the disciples of gods, and us gods. We all joined forces to oppose them.”

But they couldn’t block the demonic energy the Demon God emitted. The world was gradually being corrupted, so the Magic Empire and the gods had no choice but to make a decision.

“The Demon God was also a god like us. Just a god with the opposite polarity. Because he exists, the world changes to match that. Moreover, he wasn’t a lower god like us but a higher god who dominated an entire dimension, so there was no way to stop the Demon God through ordinary means.”

The gods decided to gather their power and seal the Demon God.

A god would become bait to lure the Demon God, seal him using the gods’ power.

And then use a magic circle utilizing divine power to steal the sealed Demon God’s power and annihilate him.

Of course, it was expected to take hundreds of years to annihilate him, but the gods could sufficiently endure it.

“But that time ended up taking not hundreds but thousands of years…”

Regret was in the goddess’s expression.

“Don’t tell me, this island is a sealing magic circle to trap something called the Demon God?”

Van Shingwan asked the goddess with a dark expression. It was different from the story he had heard from his goddess.

“The gods born later wouldn’t know any of these stories. After we trapped the Demon God, the Magic Empire also seems to have perished together with the demon kings. The children who became new gods would have no way of knowing.”

So there wouldn’t be anyone left to liberate us either.

She murmured desolately.

The group came to hear secret history about the Magic Empire’s destruction in an unexpected place.

“I think I’ve roughly told the stories you wanted to know… I think I can immediately grant the requests of the young gods and the system.”

She raised her fingertips from which golden powder was flying.

“When I disappear, the remaining powers will go to young gods with tendencies similar to mine. And the other gods here are either right before disappearing or have already disappeared. If you release the seals one by one, the power of the young gods will gradually become stronger. That’s probably what they want too.”

At the goddess’s words, Van Shingwan seemed to disagree, but he didn’t say it out loud.

Whether the outside gods originally aimed for it or not, what the group had to do was decided.

“But is that god called the Demon God really annihilated?”

At Yeonhwa’s question, the group all looked at the goddess.

“He’s annihilated. Anyway, inside the magic circle, we were engaged in a power struggle with him. Although it took longer than expected, his existence has disappeared from this world.”

At the goddess’s definite answer, the group let out a sigh.

Just demon kings were unmanageable, but a Demon God. If they had heard the story that he hadn’t died, Sun-woo was planning to bolt immediately.

“Is the story roughly finished? And after I disappear, you can take the things underground.”

The goddess grinned at the Prince, and the Prince blushed a little, unlike himself.

“But isn’t there a way to survive? You’re a god!”

Alda, who had been listening to the story until then, unknowingly opened her mouth. She looked startled after speaking, but the goddess smiled warmly at Alda.

“Divine power requires the faith of believers. There are also gods who maintain divine power through other methods, but the gods of our dimension can’t maintain divine power without believers. Gods whose names have been forgotten for a long time can’t maintain divine power. Then the god disappears.”

The group then realized they didn’t know the name of the goddess before them.

“I am a god whose name has been forgotten. There’s no way to prevent disappearance.”

The outside gods sending the group inside might have been because they knew there were no more who knew these gods’ names.

Disappointment in gods flashed through Sun-woo’s mind, but Sun-woo shook his head to shake off idle thoughts.

Anyway, it was a story of gods from another dimension. There was no reason to care unnecessarily.

Sun-woo had something more he wanted to know.

“By any chance, can you tell me about the Summoner, the system?”

At Sun-woo’s question, the goddess looked at Sun-woo with a peculiar expression again and opened her mouth.

“A divine existence to prevent the dimension from being corrupted by demonic energy.”

Unfortunately, the story that came from her mouth was not much different from what Sun-woo knew.

“That’s what I know for now. Anyway, you’ll learn more details as time passes. After you fill up the authentication you’re collecting and your rank becomes a bit higher.”

As her words ended, an alarm rang from Sun-woo’s phone.

Sun-woo could tell without really looking that the authentication count had gone up by one.

“Now it’s time. It was an interesting time. It’s regrettable, but it was worth enduring.”

With her words, golden powder began to flow abundantly around her.

Her body was collapsing in earnest.

Along with that, the divine power flowing from her gradually decreased, and the temple’s appearance began returning to its broken state.

She looked at each member of the group, then finally looked at Sun-woo and smiled.

[I think I need to apologize to you in advance.]

The goddess’s voice flowed into Sun-woo’s head.

Even her face was decomposing into golden powder so she couldn’t speak, but looking at the expressions of others, it seemed she made it audible only to Sun-woo.

Sun-woo looked at the goddess with a puzzled expression, but she disappeared as shining powder just like that.

The temple changed back into a broken ruin. The chairs the group had been sitting on also scattered into dust, and divine power could no longer be felt.

The group looked around blankly. It was hard to adapt to the sudden change.

“Phew, anyway, it seems we’re headed in the right direction?”

At the Prince’s words, Daniel nodded.

“It seems we need to avoid that thing called the god’s fragment while finding ruins and liberating the magic circles.”

Of course, Sun-woo needed to eliminate the god’s fragments without the group knowing, but basically Daniel’s words were correct.

“Hmm, then shall we get some extra income?”

The Prince, who quickly escaped from the lingering feeling, looked at Sun-woo and smiled wickedly.

The Prince’s appearance with the shell of a hero stripped away was an adventurer eyeing relics itself.

Sun-woo didn’t see such an appearance of the Prince negatively. After all, Sun-woo also liked extra income!

Sun-woo restored the collapsed passage using the earth spirit, and the adventurers including the Prince rushed underground.

[Ha, I slept well.]

Sun-woo was also about to follow right away, but was surprised by the story he heard in his head and looked at his arm.

The bracelet that had been quiet after several warnings had opened its mouth again.

‘I told you to be quiet, were you sleeping?’

[I couldn’t talk… there was nothing to do. So I slept and grew my power during that time.]

‘But why are you suddenly talking again?’

[I’ve become somewhat stronger now so I think I can help master.]

He was worried it might chatter thoughtlessly again, but fortunately the bracelet that woke from sleep looked much calmer than before.

Sun-woo felt interest in the bracelet’s words about becoming stronger than before and began going down the restored passage while talking with the bracelet in his head.

Yeonhwa, who had been moving following Sun-woo, tilted her head while looking at Sun-woo’s bracelet.

She felt divine power from Sun-woo’s bracelet that was similar to what she felt from the goddess of this temple.

But that feeling soon disappeared, and Yeonhwa thought she had seen it wrong and headed underground following Sun-woo.