My patience has already reached its limit. I’m getting sick of continuing to listen to this stupid bullshit and kindly informing them.
If they spout nonsense this time too, I’m just going to get up.
Perhaps some energy unintentionally entered my gaze—all the humans turned pale and trembled.
I just looked at those things. I didn’t particularly rush them. I don’t know what they took my gaze for, but only after a long while did the lead human finally open his mouth.
“Le, Levia Rishian is… known as an ancient god who existed before the thousands of gods. It’s said you have tremendous power as the origin of all trees. As that origin, the tree that gives generously… And… yes, the… authority over all things that take root, we know you have. Though not as much as the thousands of gods, the primordial power is strong…”
My head naturally bows.
“Right, but… but even so, you thought I would obey and submit to you…”
While being crushed by a mere gaze and barely able to speak, they actually know properly. Though full of errors, they knew everything in the big picture.
Ah, these weak kids really have guts. Knowing everything, they thought they could catch me and put a leash on me, that they could use me as they pleased. That I would obediently tuck my tail and crawl in to prostrate at their feet.
“Hah… I had a glimmer of hope. Thinking maybe you crawled up here without knowing.”
Seeing them come fully armed all the way here, even while thinking there’s no way they wouldn’t know, holding onto a thread of hope might have been because I wanted to avoid it even knowing it was foolish.
I wanted to continue loving humans. Really. I didn’t want to be disappointed and angry.
“First of all, I’m not a god. I have no idea why humans are calling me a ‘god’… Even Phellos, whom I saw most recently, clearly knew I wasn’t a god, you know? My goodness, how can you compare me, the origin, with those brats who are sustained by mere faith? Even if you were going to compare me to a god, shouldn’t you have at least attached something like primordial? Like the Void or Fortune. Honestly, I think I would have felt bad even if you compared me to those kids, but at least they match in caliber. How can you use the thousands of gods, who are barely parasitizing on this palm-sized garden, as a standard to measure time and try to compare me? Just mentioning those things in the same sentence as me feels bad, you know?”
The more I talk, the angrier I get. Maybe it’s because until just a moment ago, my favorability toward humans had become very high due to Miros, making it even harder to control my rage.
The garden’s gods prove their existence and gain power through faith. Before that, it was the same in paradise and in eternity. Paradise collapsed and eternity fell away beyond.
Now they say the gods have made and hold their own separate paradise, but that’s just an imitation. Even that they couldn’t restore properly, so only those at the level of the Nine Great Saints, Seven Great Seats, or equivalent could barely construct it. I’m not interested in that so I don’t know the details.
No, that’s not what’s important right now. I was just compared to those greenhorns, and was even told I’m inferior to them. I even received the insult that my power is close to primitive with no intelligence. My goodness, what kind of calamity is this!
To receive such insult from humans who are worse than ants, of all things. It’s absurd.
“No, no no. There’s no point babbling like this.”
I waited for an answer, and that human answered. Though it wasn’t the answer I wanted, anyway, my time of patience ended with this.
“…The answer was sufficient. Though it’s really terrible to hear.”
I got up from my seat just like that and shed the human form.
One step, one step. With each step I take, the humans become smaller. Lower. More precisely, the height of my gaze rises. Their necks gradually lift, following my gaze. The pitter-patter of small footsteps soon changes to heavy thumping sounds that spread far and wide.
Finally, I completely returned to my true form. The humans were very small and in too low a place. They’re just looking up at me.
Thud. I take just one more step and the humans all collapse. Like snow that was barely piled on thin branches being shaken off, they sprawled on the ground helplessly.
—How dare… you come all the way to my nest and make me suffer this insult?
Every time I moved my step, the humans lined up behind collapsed helplessly. Unable to even breathe, they die just from looking at my existence.
Birds gather in the sky one by one. All kinds of birds fly over and flap their wings above my head. I looked up at those things and threatened.
—Just in case I’m saying this, but if anyone tries to stop me… you’ll really see the destruction of this world.
The thousands of gods each keep one bird as their symbol. Like Haman’s goshawk or Taraki’s owl. Even gods of dogs and cats have symbolic birds. Absurdly.
They’re all frauds. Things with no foundation gained power by obtaining just faith and keep birds while showing off. I guess they thought they were really great because the small creatures held them up.
I snarled at the loitering birds.
—Take care of yourselves, properly.
Thinking about it, there’s no way the humans could just come here. If they knew I’d be angry, they should have stopped it on their own. Though I don’t think they would have helped, turning a blind eye is the same.
In other words, they were holding onto hope that a being beyond specifications capable of dealing with me might appear, like the human hero of the past.
Aren’t you saying you had the delusion that you could tear me apart and devour me?
Did these things’ caliber fall to human level because they parasitize on human faith? Right, otherwise it can’t be explained. That human hero was also barely summoned to this world to begin with. Begging and begging to the primordial.
If a human of that level could emerge from here, why would they have summoned one?
The sound of birds fluttering and flying overhead is particularly noisy, but not one of them dares to think of descending. They’re just hovering nearby making a fuss at best.
—Why are you so angry?
—When did the humans come?
—Dead. Didn’t you say you liked humans?
The Dryads I’d sent on an errand returned and asked in bewilderment. Words were no longer necessary. I resonated to show everyone what happened earlier. Then sharp thorns suddenly bristled from the Dryads’ bodies.
—Let’s punish them! They need to be punished!
—This is possible? Why did they do that?
Everyone was angry without exception. Rather, they began to get much angrier than me who was directly insulted. And the Dryads and I left the nest and began to descend to where the humans were.
Squish, squish. The humans gathered in droves die just from seeing my appearance. The children and I just stepped over them without even cleaning them up. They’re crushed with helpless sounds like bursting wild strawberries, crunch crunch. Red juice bursts and flows from the remains of those things.
As we passed through the forest like that, the ground trembles. It seems the world, unable to watch anymore, is stepping in. I responded irritably.
—I know, I know.
I know what it’s worried about. Because it’s rare for me to get this angry, that’s what’s worrying. Since most things have already abandoned this place and left, it’s worried I might leave too.
—Separate from me being angry, I’m not really going to destroy everything.
The ground trembling subsided a bit. I continued moving forward without stopping and said.
—I’m not trying to make them extinct, and I have no intention of making a mess and leaving. At least not now. What you’re worried about won’t happen.
Really. I’ll just vent a little bit and end it. I don’t know why everyone can’t believe me.
***
The human city came quickly. Well, it was right in front of me originally. To begin with, it’s my territory so there’s no reason for my steps to be slow. Humans who became aware of me turn pale and collapse in droves. There were occasionally individuals who held on, but they didn’t dare move. They just bury their heads in the ground and fall over.
More and more birds gathered around me, but that was all. Even among those, the ones whose bodies couldn’t endure suddenly died while flying and fell with a thud. Even more flew in, but that’s all it was. At most they’re just a bit annoying.
—I just think these foolish things need a bit of discipline.
The ground trembles finely, creating very small undulations before me. It’s begging me to be a little more patient. No, I’ve already been patient enough.
—I’m already being very patient even now. You know that, right?
I gave them chances how many times? I even waited. I was excessively merciful, and the damn humans were absurdly shameless. That’s all.
—I won’t do it severely. Just, enough for them to come to their senses.
It was a promise that wasn’t a promise. I did just that much. I finished by just cleaning up that one thing called the empire of those great humans. I didn’t touch anything more.
Was it called Hadika? I just cleaned up exactly that. I only removed the things that were under my nest. Because these guys were the ones who did wrong. It’s not that I hold a grudge against the individual called human itself. It wasn’t something to hold a grudge over.
I just got a little angry because they did something stupid. It’s not like I’ll hold onto this saying I hate them, I can’t forgive them, I’ll remember this forever. It’s not that big a deal, right? If you do something rude, you should be prepared for the other party to get angry.
This should be enough for them to come to their senses.
I just got a little angry.
***
I got upset and lashed out, but when I returned to my nest, something felt unsatisfying.
Did I let them off too easy? Should I have done it properly while I was at it?
But these damn gods don’t seem to think so. All kinds of birds have been swarming and loitering day after day. They seem to want to say something, but I didn’t want to listen, so I killed them all as they gathered.
But they kept swarming, so I had no choice but to gather them and let them talk.
“How much did I even do to make you act like this? Are you guys going to have a showdown with me?”
I’m rather worried I handled it too roughly, but these things are making a fuss over me just getting a little angry. These things do nothing while making the biggest fuss.
“It’s not like I’m trying to make humans extinct, and I didn’t place a curse on them for generations. Did I make them unable to breathe, did I starve them? I just finished it at the level of only punishing the kids who did wrong.”
They swarm day and night, chirping and flapping their wings, making so much noise I could die. I’m busy listening to our kids’ requests, and I have to listen to these brats’ tantrums too.
“Frankly speaking, what were you doing when those damn humans were doing stupid things? Should I really examine this properly? Huh? Should I kill the land right now and dry up all the water sources?”
It was a chaos loud enough to make my ears ring until just now, but silence fell in an instant.
When I get annoyed, are they scared of that too? They killed even the sound of flapping wings and settled down one by one. As if it was staged, they all shut their mouths in unison.
These things are really rotten. They’ve been parasitizing on humans for too long and became assimilated. They’re acting exactly like humans. Things that barely sustain their existence through faith were strutting around saying that rat-tail sized thing is power. They really think they’re something great.
—Do things that can’t even exist without human faith think they’re equals because I obediently listen? How dare… Are you trying to test the limits of my mercy?
Look at that. Just me snarling a bit threateningly makes the birds that came as symbols burst. Even the ones holding on are having a hard time, unable to breathe and busy trembling.
That I babbled using human-style communication was also me being considerate in my own way. Snarling carries will directly, so weak things can’t endure and die.
Grass and trees are safe because I am their proof and origin. That’s why they can accept my energy. Other things can’t even dream of it. Especially when my mood is bad, it’s even harder to endure.
