Finally, at the moment he reclaimed the child of his dreams, peace came to the earth as well.
The mounds of earth that had risen from the ground also returned to their original places.
However, those who had already incurred the wrath of the gods and recklessly committed acts they should never have dared could not return to the surface.
“Ugh……aaagh……!”
Swallowing even the last struggling priest without leaving any behind, the earth buried them forever in the soil.
That cruel end was vividly displayed before countless people. As expected, their faces turned pale at the terrible scene.
However, that was not the end, but the beginning of the tragedy that would now unfold.
Rumble rumble…….
A sound that shook heaven and earth rang throughout Atlante, and the ground began to shake.
It was not Seianes’s doing.
It was the reason Seianes had sent Cairens somewhere, and also the price humans paid for being swayed by ignorance and lies.
Crash—!
As if it had been waiting, Atlante’s guardian statue cracked and its fragments fell below. Sharp fragments scattering like rain struck down upon Atlante’s citizens.
“Kyaaaah—!”
“Aaah—! Aah!”
What they held most sacred was breaking, and people nearby screamed in surprise and fled. Someone was crushed to death under enormous fragments, and someone was severely injured and couldn’t move.
But a fear greater than worry and fear about people being hurt covered all of Atlante.
Was it an illusion that the guardian statue cracking seemed like the beginning, like the final warning the gods were giving?
“……Calm down!”
The King of Atlante shouted loudly to protect the alarmed citizens, but no one listened to him.
“This is where Cairens, the great Henelion’s son, was born and raised…… as long as he is here, we are…….”
As long as he is here.
Yes, on the premise that he was here, Atlante was safe.
But if he wasn’t?
“Haa……!”
The king, wanting to deny reality, forcibly turned his body. Slowly raising his head, he looked at the platform on the central altar where Cairens had been.
There was no one there.
The god and the strange child who had been there just moments ago. Even looking all around, Cairens, who had disappeared with a single touch from that god…… could not be seen anywhere.
“No……. No.”
Watching the unbelievable scene before his eyes, the king flailed at empty air.
Though the most important child who had disappeared like a mirage was already gone, his pathetic flailing, unable to believe that reality, was unseemly.
“Nooo……. No, please.”
The moment his desperate final plea fell with tears, the sound of mountains rumbling in the distance foretold the calamity that would befall Atlante.
* * *
A land hidden from human eyes and invisible to them.
The great World Tree Zeyaom, penetrating the underworld and the surface, stood there.
Its roots grew deep within the underground river Amiter, its trunk rose from the surface. The tree’s branches stretched far up to the world of the gods above the sky.
Deep below the tree that had grown thus was Pytiom, who had lost his voice in exchange for seeing the future, and on the roots, tree trunk, and branches, a total of three monsters, one each, had taken their places.
Finally, at the very top of the tree was the being that penetrated the entire tree. Zeyaom, who was no different from the tree itself, lay his body among the long-stretched branches.
“Hehehehe~ Hmm hmm.”
Whatever made him so excited, he hummed playfully with the corners of his mouth raised. His melody echoed along the wind.
“What’s making you so happy?”
A man leaning against the corner of the tree behind him asked, his navy blue eyes sparkling. His wide-open eyes looked quite gentle, but there was also an inscrutable sinisterness dwelling within them.
“Well, things resolved themselves without me even lifting a finger.”
“Hm?”
Zeyaom, who had been cheerfully humming, laughed out loud.
He had literally gotten rid of his unsatisfactory followers without lifting a finger. All of this was thanks to Seianes.
Not long ago, Zeyaom, as a god, received a question from the humans who served him and gave them an answer. An answer about how to stop the calamity.
Of course, the judgment was entirely up to the humans. And the responsibility for that judgment was also solely the humans’ burden.
“Ahahaha, it’s really so convenient. How nice it is to be able to clean things up all at once like this.”
The leaves rustled in time with his cheerful laughter.
In that wind, a single leaf hanging at the tip of a branch fell beneath the man’s feet. The red leaf particularly drew his gaze.
It reminded him of someone, knowingly or unknowingly. Somehow drawn to the red color, the man bent down to pick it up.
“Doesn’t it remind you of something?”
Zeyaom’s voice that suddenly popped out burrowed into his ear.
In that instant, Zeyaom’s action of picking up the leaf stopped. Creaking, like a broken wooden doll, he raised his head to look up at Amina standing behind him.
It was uncomfortable that he always had to look up until his neck hurt because of his massive frame.
“How funny. Does Henelion know your sibling is nestled in his bosom and is deliberately acting stupid?”
Toward the suddenly appeared guest, instead of issuing an eviction order, Zeyaom greeted him with laughter.
“My sibling isn’t stupid. It’s just that his intelligence and wisdom are being devoured by the massive emotions of anger and vengeance, shaking his rationality.”
“Then is it the fault of your other siblings? Intelligence devoured by emotion…… Henelion doesn’t even know this and just follows the words of wisdom devoured by revenge. Foolishly thinking that just because it’s in his bosom, it’s still on his side.”
What could he be relying on to act like that when he dragged all his siblings in, burning with vengeance?
Even though it had taken a place in his heart, making him make only emotional judgments, Henelion didn’t notice anything strange. Perhaps that itself was part of wisdom’s revenge.
So that even his judgment would be biased by emotion, making proper thinking itself impossible.
“I came here for one thing, Zeyaom. I need what you have.”
“You’re talking about what you mentioned before?”
Amina had already visited Zeyaom once before.
And he had extended his hand to Zeyaom with an outrageous request. Naturally, Zeyaom had flatly rejected that proposal.
But this time, when he used Pytiom to give an oracle to the humans and saw an interesting future, the proposal from Amina that he had already rejected came to mind.
It was a future he had never even imagined once while living through countless, uncountable hours of time since being born into this world.
The moment he glimpsed that fragment, he was shocked, surprised, and angry, but also strangely pleased. So much so that he regretted having rejected Amina’s proposal.
Could he really see such a future? Though it was a future that would be of no help to him whatsoever, thinking that future might come made him endlessly excited.
“Yes.”
So now that Amina had come again, he boldly decided to open up and give out everything he had.
“I’ve come to want to see something too. I’ll help you as much as you want with what you’re trying to do. But you can’t interfere with what I’m doing either.”
It was like a warning. Though the corners of his mouth were still raised, there was firmness within them.
A single leaf that had fallen from Zeyaom’s branch.
Zeyaom picked it up and handed the leaf to Amina.
Amina didn’t say much. Instead, he expressed his intent by accepting the leaf in his hand.
It was the moment a strange alliance was formed.
