Chapter 397: Those Who Seek Death Shall Live (2)
Akrah was the root of all evil, and also the mother who had given birth to him. Keter had once sworn that if he ever met the woman who bore him only to use him, he would beat her without hesitation. However, when he actually faced her, he could do nothing. He simply stood there, carefully taking in every detail of her face.
For someone who had abandoned him in a lawless city, deliberately made him regress, and forced him through horrifying trials, she looked remarkably gentle. She merely stood there, yet the compassion and maternal warmth radiating from her aura eased Keter’s tension and even melted away his hostility.
Keter glanced around. He had been so focused on her that he had not noticed it before, but time had stopped. This was not like the Heavenly Venerable slowing someone’s personal flow of time—the time of the universe itself had stopped. That overwhelming power snapped Keter fully alert.
“This feels like the last meal they give a prisoner right before execution.”
Akrah, whom he could never find no matter how hard he searched, had come to him on her own. It was obvious she had not done it for his sake. Strangely, though, his chest did not burn the way he thought it would. If anything, he felt calmer than ever.
Have I gone numb?
Maybe it no longer felt shocking. He had known for a long time that Akrah was a complete bitch.
Keter stepped right up to her and looked down at her.
“So, what exactly have you come here for?” he asked in a cold, commanding tone.
Akrah was a god powerful enough to halt the universe, yet she willingly looked up at him and spoke almost in a whisper.
“I know you won’t be able to understand me.”
Her voice was as persuasive as her gentle appearance, but Keter did not waver.
“Even if I did understand, I don’t think that would change anything. In a fight that only ends when one side dies, who exactly is going to understand and then quietly die for the other?”
“No. It’s the opposite. I intend to die for you.”
“…What?”
“I’ll tell you everything honestly, so please listen. This world repeats birth and destruction over and over again. Sooner or later, the end always comes. And the cause is always the same.”
Akrah lifted a finger and pointed toward the Godfather and the gods surrounding him.
“Gods and humans can never truly coexist. In the end, gods always try to erase humanity.”
“Like the Godfather?”
“Keter, do you really think the kings of each nation are good gods? They are not. The only reason they do not treat humans however they please is because of restrictions, and I am the one who created those restrictions.
“However, I cannot keep them bound forever. Once they accumulate enough causality, they will begin thinning humanity out again. They will erase those who try to become stronger than them, those who refuse to worship them, and even kill humans out of boredom. That is the true nature of gods.”
“But you’re also…”
“Yes. I am a god too. That is why I said I intend to die for you. Once all the gods in this world are gone, I will be the last to disappear. Then this world will finally become a place meant only for humans, and the cycle of birth and destruction will come to an end.”
“Wait a second. Gods revive even if they die, don’t they? I heard true annihilation is extremely rare. And even if every god here dies, there are still evil gods, malevolent gods, and all kinds of lesser gods spread throughout the world.”
Even though Akrah sounded as if she were being completely honest, she was leaving out the most important part. There was something she was deliberately hiding. The proof was that she had not said a single word about how she intended to kill all the gods.
Just as expected, Akrah could not answer right away. That meant there really was something she did not want to say.
“How are you going to get rid of all the gods?”
That was the core of it: how exactly did Akrah plan to eliminate them all? Keter pressed her for a real answer.
“In the beginning…”
Akrah raised her hand toward the sky. The surroundings darkened. In that endless darkness, a faint orb of light formed at the tip of her finger.
“…there was light.”
One orb became two. Two became four. The divided lights formed stars, and the stars formed galaxies.
“Humans believe the gods created mankind, but that is not true. It was the other way around. Humans created the gods because the first humans were afraid. They feared everything they did not understand.
“So, they created gods—a god who knew everything, a god who could do everything. They gave shape to disasters and diseases that had once been invisible. That is how gods were born. And those gods granted the wishes of humanity. The god of wind calmed storms, and the god of rain brought water during drought.”
“Wow…”
Keter believed that, in this world, there was almost nothing that could not happen. But even so, it was hard to believe that humans created gods. He wondered then why humans were so weak. The answer, in truth, was something Keter already knew.
Because humans are weak, they’re also capable of becoming strong.
Humans were beings of possibility, and that very possibility was what allowed them to create even gods.
As if reading Keter’s thoughts, Akrah continued.
“The gods came to fear human potential. They were terrified that the beings who had created them might one day erase them. So, they began controlling humanity. They shaped the world so that humans would always need them, so that no one could live without gods…”
It was a confusing explanation, but Keter somehow understood it right away. It was wisdom born from surviving in the lawless city.
“So in the end, the weapon people made for themselves ended up killing them. Something like that,” Keter added.
“The gods are one of the worst creations humanity should never have made. And… there is only one way to erase them.”
Akrah let the words hang instead of finishing them, but by now Keter had already understood.
There was a reason she had gone into such a long explanation. What had created the gods was human imagination and human will, so the answer was to reverse that. Humans had to forget the gods. However, the influence of the gods in this world was too great. Humanity could neither defy them nor forget them, which meant…
“If all humans die, then the gods disappear too,” Keter said.
“Not all of them. Keter, you and Vina can survive. No—you must survive. It is because the two of you will rebuild humanity. You will create a perfect world without gods. We will return things to how they were before humanity made its mistake.”
Akrah stepped closer and wrapped Keter in her arms.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you from the beginning. You suffered so much, didn’t you? But it’s over now. From here on, only happiness awaits you. Everything that tormented you will disappear from this world.”
The moment he heard those words, Keter awkwardly returned the embrace. Akrah took it as understanding, even agreement. But then, Keter stepped back and gave a bitter smile.
“If you never know the pain of hunger, then you’ll never know the happiness of being full.”
* * *
For a while, silence fell between the two of them. Keter’s refusal was unmistakable, and yet Akrah did not give up.
“If you had never known suffering, then perhaps your words would be true. But Keter, you lived in a lawless city and experienced every kind of pain there is. As such, you should understand the gratitude of a life without want, even without needing to feel deprivation again. Am I wrong?”
The secret behind why Keter had been abandoned in the lawless city was revealed. It had been to make him suffer. The more pain a person endured, the more obsessively they clung to happiness. However, Keter had not grown the way Akrah intended. He had not become someone who pursued happiness. He had become someone who pursued amusement.
“You really don’t understand humans. Even the same water tastes cooler when you drink it while thirsty. It feels good to finally pee after holding it in. And people only feel a sense of achievement when they get what they want through time and effort. That’s not just me. All humans are like that. They chase stimulation, grow used to it, and then want even greater stimulation.”
“…That is exactly why humans can never coexist with gods—that selfishness, that refusal to be satisfied with what they have. Humanity can only survive if it abandons that.”
“It’s true that the reason people kill other people is because of this thing called selfishness, but the reason this world has become a better place is also that selfishness existed. Writing, so people could communicate more smoothly; weapons, to fight off wild beasts; wheels, to travel farther and more comfortably—I think all of that began with selfishness. And do you know what happens if humans really do abandon selfishness, as you say?”
Keter raised both hands beside his head and slightly bent his fingers.
“They turn into rabbits. Just because there are more rabbits than lions in this world doesn’t mean anyone thinks rabbits are stronger. The saying ‘the ones who survive are the strong’ isn’t some absolute truth either, and being strong doesn’t guarantee survival. So then what is strength?”
He was not really asking Akrah. It was a rhetorical question.
“The answer is possibility. The drive to become better precisely because you’re not perfect. Akrah, you pretend to care about humanity, but in the end, you’re just another god who doesn’t trust humans and wants to control them as you please.”
“So you think the cycle of destruction and creation is a lie.”
“I didn’t see it happen, so of course I don’t believe it. Did the world really even get destroyed? Or did you just rewind time and make it all unhappen?”
“…”
Keter had only asked as a probe, but Akrah’s expression darkened, as if he had struck the truth.
“If you can really turn back time whenever you want, then if you fail, you can just rewind and try again. Just like you always have.”
“It’s impossible to turn back time now. I stopped that to prevent any god other than me from rewinding time.”
“Huh. So that means this moment is the final timeline. The last one that can’t be turned back.”
Akrah quietly nodded. Keter suddenly felt his shoulders grow far heavier.
The fact that time could be turned back and everything started over again had always been an enormous source of reassurance. However, if Akrah was saying that she had made it impossible for anyone to do that anymore, then that meant she had staked everything on this moment. And if she had prepared this much, that was practically the same as saying failure was impossible.
“So even this conversation we’re having right now is part of your plan. And you already knew I wouldn’t accept it.”
“…After coming this far, I can’t just erase everything because I failed to get your permission.”
Further conversation was meaningless, so Keter tried to head toward the Godfather. With a light gesture from Akrah, however, he became completely unable to move. The only reason Keter had been able to move within the stopped universe at all was that Akrah had allowed it. The moment she withdrew that permission, he had no way to resist.
In a sorrowful voice, Akrah spoke, “Keter. It won’t change anything even if you go. You know that. As long as you are human, you cannot defeat a god.”
“Winning isn’t everything in a fight.”
Something unbelievable happened. Keter moved, even though he should not have been able to. Akrah’s eyes widened. She knew Keter possessed the Authority called Unchain, the power to be bound by nothing at all. However, what Akrah had done was to tamper with the laws of the universe itself—a force vastly superior to ordinary Authority. So why, even if only slowly, could Keter still move?
A moment later, Akrah felt a strange sense of wrongness and then realized what it was.
“Keter, you….”
Every time Keter moved, dust fell from him. It was the source of life itself, flaking away from his body.
“How could you do something like this!”
Keter had expanded the target of Unchain, his Authority, not to himself but the universe. It was a realm beyond eight-star, into the unknown realm of nine-star. It was the road to godhood. For one moment, Keter had made himself into a being that could be bound by nothing at all.
A human should never be able to reach nine-star, and yet Keter was using the power of a nine-star with a human body. The price was his own annihilation.
Could every eight-star become a god by sacrificing their own existence? Of course not. Keter had wagered everything he possessed—the traits of all living things, and even his soul. At this point, he had less than an hour left to live.
Akrah could not believe it.
“Why! You could have lived. You could have started over from the beginning. Why would you choose to throw everything away!”
This was not part of Akrah’s plan. Why would Keter, selfish and concerned only with himself, do something so selfless that he would even throw away his own life?
Keter turned to look at her. His face was bright with a smile.
“Because someone has to do it.”
Akrah could not understand him, but one thing was clear. She knew exactly what she had to do now: she had to save Keter. If he died, then everything that had happened here would become meaningless.
I can’t rewind the time of the universe anymore, but if it’s only Keter’s time….
Even that would be a violation of causality great enough to demand Akrah’s own annihilation, but this was no time to care about that. Akrah stretched out both hands, preparing to turn back time for Keter alone.
And just then…
“This is the moment I’ve been waiting for.”
The Godfather suddenly appeared behind Akrah.
