Author Note: I made some edits that that I forgot to put in last chapter. In case you’re wondering Godou’s Body of Wind skill as also supposed to consume his health as well when active.

Part 1

Ding!

A new quest is available.Lou’s Wrath, the Elemental Lord Candidate’s Challenge

Despite being called back to the Elemental Realm of Light, Elemental Lord Candidate Knite still wishes to have a battle with you to fulfil the mission given to him as a result of Lou’s rage over the destruction of his lost temple. Thus, after Knite finishes his business in the Elemental Realm, he will return to the town of Tellap to continue where he left off. Answer Knite’s challenge and emerge victorious!

Difficulty:

S (Legend)

Restrictions:

Must have caught Knite’s interest.

Must have pissed off the God of Light Lou

Penalties:

If you do not meet up with Knite he will attack the town of Tellap again in an attempt to find you

Rewards:

Unknown

You cannot refuse this quest. Quest has been accepted.Crisis has ended. Heretic Decree: Unknown has finished taking analysis of your desires. Heretic Decree Unknown has been converted to [Divine Wildcard Decree].Due to finally establishing your own personalised Decree, you have gained the approval of the Divine Overlord: The Origin. The Origin has bestowed up you some of its Divinity. The skill: [Gift of the Origin] has been obtained.Your Health, Stamina and Mana has fallen below 10% of their maximum value. If you do not rest soon your life may be in danger.Overpowering Will has deactivated.Survival Instinct Has deactivated.

As Knite disappeared through the portal, a series of messages bombarded Godou’s vision, and a rush of fatigue also hit him. However he ignored all these things because he had more important things to worry about. Namely, finding a way to get himself and Badas out of their current situation.

After Knite had left, all of the monsters and defenders he had sealed had started to awaken from their comas. Godou current location was outside of the walls of the town and literally right in the middle of the enemy monster army.

Both himself and Badas were not capable of fighting their way back to the safety of the town walls in their current states as both of them had used techniques akin to double edged swords against Knite.

The only reason they hadn’t died yet was probably because of the fact that all of the monsters around them had been killed as collateral damage in their battle against Knite and the fact the the monsters were still groggy from awakening.

It seemed like a hopeless situation but nevertheless he persevered. There had to be a way out of this situation. Godou went and helped Badas up and supported him upright. Badas had deactivated his aura when Knite had left but Godou saw that he seemed to have having some trouble breathing, let alone speaking.

Just before Badas had uses his technique he had said something about using the last of his lifeforce. That point worried Godou.

Would I be able to use teleport to carry us both back inside the city? Godou toyed with that idea but ultimately discarded it. He didn’t have enough mana or Divine Tolerance left to perform that skill as he was now. Pus he still didn’t know if he could carry someone else while teleporting either.

A dark shadow flew above them. Godou looked up startled and saw a giant white bird swooping towards them silently. The bird somewhat resembled an eagle and had a wing span of at least 5 metres.

A monster attacking already?

Godou readied himself, prepared to fight but quick words from Ferrex stopped him.

[Stop, I sense no killing intent from it. Rather, I don’t sense anything from it at all. Nevertheless, It’s not part of the monster army that’s for sure.]

Godou hesitated and in that moment the bird reached them and Godou felt a light joint of pain as the bird grabbed both him and Badas and carried them back to the city.

From up close, Godou noticed that the bird seemed strangely artificial. His body was comprised of sharp lines which no living creature would have and its body seemed to have been made out of some sort of hard material. Blue light glowed out from where the bird’s eyes should have been.

Using his new found ability to detect mana, Godou tried to see what he could learn about the bird. However, he found feel no mana from it at all.

[Is this a product of ancient magic? This bird is most definitely a golem but I don’t see any traces of modern magic circles on it.]

Ferrex also made speculations, sharing Godou’s doubts.

Conversely, Godou noticed that Badas had retrieved the broken pieces of his sword in some point in time and was clutching them tightly during the flight.

The bird flew over the city walls as if it had a set destination to land. To Godou’s surprise, the bird’s actual landing point as the place where he and Badas and left Hel and Inori behind. The bird set them down on the ground, though not to gently. Though considering the fact that it had been flying with the unbalanced weight of two extra people this fact couldn’t be helped.

There was another person present there now who looked like they were treating Hel and Inori with rectangular strips of paper that didn’t look like bandages.

Rather, they resembled the spell tag thrown by Inori earlier than bandages. However, instead of a magic circle, a strange symbol seemed to have been drawn on them. Godou could sense traces on mana on these spell tag like strips of papers.

[Healing Charms huh? Another type of ancient magic…]

After it had dropped them, the bird flapped its wings and amazingly starting to shrink dramatically until it was about the size of a nightingale. Then it landed on the shoulder of the person who had treated Hel and Inori. The bird then turned into a mass of red light and vanished.

Godou noted that that person was male and wore a white coat that was somewhat reminiscent of a scientist’s lab coat. That person seemed to be 1 or 2 years older than he was.

The person, who Godou now recognised as one of the drinking buddies he had made before the siege, Satoshi, turned and looked at them with an appraising eye as if taking in their conditions. Then he threw several healing charms at them.

Ever since he had gotten his class change, Godou had been immune from the effects of all the healing spells that been thrown at him. Thus Godou was surprised that the Healing Charms actually had an effect on his body as they increased his rate of regeneration. However, the effectiveness of the Healing Charms could not be compared to actual healing spells. Rather, they only seemed to be slightly better than using bandages. Admittedly, the effects of the Heal Charms had also been greatly reduced as well due to his class attributes.

Sighing, Satoshi addressed Badas who lay collapsed on the ground, barely conscious and seemingly unaffected by the Healing Charms.

“The hell did you do to yourself man?”

“Oh… it’s you… It was… a good fight… I… have no… regrets…”

Badas responded to that question as if he had something important to say. Godou wasn’t sure how to react in this situation but Satoshi interrupted him before he could finish in a sarcastic tone which you never would have expected someone to say to a dying person.

“Yeah bullshit you have no regrets. Why would you ask me to find a healer who knows how to cast resurrection otherwise? By the way, I couldn’t find one.”

As he said this a small flask appeared in Satoshi’s hand out of nowhere. It was full of red liquid which Godou recognised as a health potion.

“However, as the one who told you alerted you about the Elemental Lord Candidate popping up out of nowhere, I would be responsible for your death if you die here. (Not to mention I won’t get any quest rewards…) So live on Knight, your kingdom (and myself in extension) have not finished exploiting your services! Potion Cast!”

Satoshi opened the flask and splashed the contents onto Badas. As he did so the red liquid suddenly glowed and transformed into red light and entered Badas’s body. Badas’ consciousness seemed to become hazy after that but his condition appeared to settle down somewhat. His breathing was no longer as strained and erratic. For now that is.

From the looks of it, Badas had already reached the stage where not even a High priest/Pope (Note: I’m just going to assume these are the same in this fanfic) level healer could help him. What Satoshi had done was merely buy him some more time.

However, looking at the situation, Satoshi had managed to save all of them from a critical situation, thus Godou gave him his gratitude and asked.

“Thanks for saving us. How are the others doing?”

By others he had meant Inori and Hel. From the looks of it Hel was barely conscious and pretty much unable to move by herself. Inori had woken up but also seem weak and groggy. Conversely, her hair and eyes had returned to their original dark colour.

“The Knight is suffering from the backlash of a powerful technique as well as physical and mental stamina depletion. Only time will help with that. The holy spirit contractor also suffers from stamina and mana depletion, she also seems to be in a state of not being able to use magic due to over stepping her boundaries. Again only time will see how this goes. While resource depletion is more serious for NPCs than players, they should recover. Either way, both of them of them will be unable to help in the siege any further.”

So was basically a “they are exhausted but will recover” sort of thing. Satoshi looked at Godou with recognition in his eyes while responding to Godou’s question with something that sounded like a doctor reporting a patient’s diagnosis. For some reason Godou didn’t doubt him. Perhaps it was the easy going yet reliable atmosphere around Satoshi?

Then Satoshi smiled.

“Of course all of this isn’t for free. You guys own me a favour.”

A terrifying devil’s smile that set a chill up Godou’s spine. Was easy going really the right description?

“I can’t speak for the others but I will pay you back one day.”

Nevertheless Godou ended up agreeing with Satoshi’s point. Helping out friends in need. Wasn’t that the natural thing to do? Though in this case it more like a “an eye for an eye” situation.

Anyway, after some further quick discussion, they decided to move the ones who were unable to battle (Hel, Inori and Badas) to a safer location, namely, inside the Church of Freya.

The church of Freya was chosen mainly because Godou had the authority to enter and leave it and because it was the most likely place to find a healer or information about the whereabouts of healers. It was also a place full of holy power. Apparently, being in places saturated with holy power sped up resource recovery somewhat so that kind of place who be ideal for stabilising Hel’s and Inori’s condition. More importantly, being in a place full of holy power allowed for a longer effective time range for the resurrection spell, so that kind of place was just what Badas needed.

Resurrection was a holy spell that did exactly what it sounded. It revived people from the dead, not as undead however, but as normal living beings. However, due to its abilities being so powerful, resurrection would only be effective during a certain time period after the person had died. It was also a high level spell that required a skilled and experienced healer to use.

Despite his apparent medical expertise, it seemed that casting such a holy spell was beyond Satoshi’s capabilities.

They made their way on foot, mainly in case they ran into someone who would cast the resurrection spell on their way to the church. Satoshi had also set his bird flying in the air above the town again to keep a look out and alert them if any stray monsters had managed to get close by.

Satoshi could afford to do this since he never had any real orders because he was militia while Godou party had practically already been destroyed and Badas had relieved him from his duties.

On the way there, Godou could feel himself drawing many stares.

Satoshi supported Badas as they travelled while Godou was left with helping out Hel by supporting her with his shoulder. However, although Inori also to be able to walk, she was also still groggy from fatigue and somehow found walking easier leaning on him from the side opposite from Hel.

Thus, Godou walked through the streets in a situation that somewhat resembled “a lady on each arm” literally. Although there were many things Godou wanted to defend himself about his current situation such as Hel being a male who just happens to look androgynous (Yep he still hasn’t noticed), he didn’t seem to be able to find the energy to do so.

Godou noticed Satoshi staring at him curiously as well. Growing irritable he asked:

“What?”

However, it seemed like Satoshi was staring at him for a different reason.

“Well, this pretty much the first time I’ve seen a player with an A ranked race though I could have sworn that your race was only B ranked last time I saw you in Mark’s pub.”

“A ranked?”

Godou’s reaction was one of confusion. Speaking of which, I think Holy Spirit Gregorus’s also mentioned something about that before he was “killed”.

“You don’t know? The races in this world are given hidden ranks from A to F with F being the weakest and A being the strongest. F rank represents the weakest races, basically normal animals like rabbits and such. E refers to weak humanoid like monsters like goblins and kolbolts. D refers to humans, elves, dwarves and most other starting races and the scale increases so on. As you look higher up the ranks, the gap in power between in tier seems to increase. B rank refers to weak gods, higher spirits, divine beasts, phantom beasts etc. I think A rank refers to True gods like Lou, Freya, Thor and Ultimate Class beings like the Elemental Lords, Dragon Kings, Abyssal Lord etc. Pretty much the strongest monster you can meet on the continent normally are B ranked monsters. Almost all A ranked beings seem to reside in worlds of their own making which are not on the continent. Ancient texts refer to these worlds collectively as the Immortal Realms while the continent is referred to as the mortal realm.”

Satoshi answered Godou with an astounding degree of detail considering the fact that he was a player as well. Evidently, he was the real deal when it comes to collecting information.

Ferrex, who had been silent up until now had also appeared surprised.

[To have so much detailed information. Come to think of it, he used at least 3 different types of Ancient Magic earlier. Who the hell is this guy?]

Since Satoshi couldn’t hear, Godou asked in Ferrex’s stead and got the following frivolous answer.

“Oh don’t mind me. I’m just a stalker. No one suspicious. ”

Their conversation stopped there because they had arrived at the church.

Part 2

Godou walked around the church looking around. It seems they had miscalculated. The church of Freya was practically deserted.

Thinking back, Godou did remember something about the church of Freya being short on members recently due to various factors. Killed by Seirph, called to the Plains of Despair, investigating Naidiriv etc. It seemed that all their current members of the church were actively helping out on the battlefield so there were no powerful healers left in the church.

On a side note, Badas’s condition had gotten worse as they entered the church so Godou had left the others in a waiting room to go looking for a healer. Badas because he obviously shouldn’t be moved any more than necessary, Hel and Inori because they needed to rest and Satoshi because he needed to monitor their conditions.

Thus Godou was left by himself again. Then again he wasn’t completely alone since Ferrex was with him but Ferrex had gone quiet recently. He would still respond if Godou asked a question so Godou had the impression that he was thinking about something.

Godou entered room after room growing more restless as he continued. He came to a room that had a large magic circle drawn on the ground. In the centre of the circle was a large arch made of some strange material. If he remembered correctly, this should be the room with the teleport gate linked to other churches belonging to the church of Freya.

Godou considered using the teleport gate to ask for help in other churches but disregarded the idea since he didn’t know how to operate the teleport gate himself.

The gate suddenly flared up and a disturbance appeared in the centre of the arch.

Was someone coming?

The disturbance formed into two figures. One wearing priest robes and the other wearing grey light armour. Godou focused his attention on the priest.

A man appearing around 30 years old. Conservative features. Plain undecorated robes. No staff to be seen anywhere.

It was someone Godou recognised. The last time he had met this person was on Mt Revils. Godou vaguely remembered him saying something about fixing the teleport gate in the church based in Naidiriv. It was Lexus!

[Ah! Lexus can cast Resurrection!]

After hearing that Godou immediately requested Lexus’s help. Although normally he would have liked to politely greet Lexus first, this was a matter of urgency since Badas probably didn’t have much time.

Surprisingly, Lexus offered his assistance without questioning any further. Godou led him to the room where the others where. He noticed that Lexus appeared more tired and haggard then he had ever seen him before. Parts of his robes also seemed to be damaged from battle.

Would he really be able to cast use a complicated spell in that condition? But then Ferrex had said it could be done and knowing Ferrex he would have taken into consider Lexus’s condition as well right?

When they reached the room, Godou decided to wait outside. For some reason, the room had the atmosphere of a surgeon’s operating room which made him reluctant to enter carelessly.

Conversely, the waiting room was the last door in the corridor.

Instead, he turned his attention to the figure who had accompanied Lexus in the Teleport Gate. That person had also followed them to the waiting room and like Godou had also decided to wait outside. Surprisingly, this was also someone that Godou knew.

A teenage girl wearing light armour and a grey scarf. Purple hair which you could only see in an anime or a game like this. The veteran player who had partied with Godou quite recently before the siege. The player who had been involuntarily nicknamed “Grey Phantom” by the player community. Reta.

Seeing Godou’s stare, Reta raised her hand in upbeat greeting.

“Yo! I was wondering hold long you were going to ignore me. Just kidding~ It seemed like an urgent matter.”

“It’s nice to see you again as well.”

Since the crisis had been taken out of his hands, Godou felt that he could afford to waste time for greetings now. Reta seemed curious about had happened so he answered her questions to the best of his ability.

“So who died? You want Lexus to use Resurrection don’t you?”

“The commander.”

“Seriously? No wonder you were desperate. What happened to Ferrex? Shouldn’t someone like him also be able to cast resurrection as well?”

In response to that question Ferrex himself answered, allowing Reta to hear him.

[Its complicated but right now I’m just an item in Godou’s possession.]

“Oh wow really? Come to think of it, I’ve heard about sentient items like ego swords and the like.”

Reta’s reaction was not as surprised as Godou expected to be. It seems that she had gotten used to these kind of things after playing Royal Road for so long. Moreover, she started panting heavily and seemed to be taking the conversation in a weird direction.

“Kyaa! Doesn’t that mean that you two… pant… will be together... pant... for “everything”?. It’s like you two become… pant.. “one”. ”

“Everything? Become one? For some reason I don’t like the connotation your using for those words. Also, stop panting like a dog in the heat!”

Godou couldn’t help but let that retort slip from his mouth. Before Reta could reply, the door of the waiting room opened behind him and Satoshi came out reporting.

“Resurrection was successfully though Badas still can’t fight yet, Lexus is now looking at the other two and…”

He trailed off as he caught sight of Reta. Godou noticed Satoshi’s eyes glance quickly at the only exit behind where Reta was currently standing. He scanned for nearby windows but found none. He closed the door and backed away slowly, his back against the wall.

Reta’s expression also changed. She smiled. The smile of a shewolf that had cornered her prey.

There was a strained silence. Godou looked on in confusion. Was there some past history between these two? Both of them seemed to be veteran players so it would be plausible.

“Ha ha ha ha… It’s a small world isn’t it Grey Phantom?”

The one to break the silence was Satsohi.

On the other hand, Reta had moved to the centre of the corridor to seal off Satoshi’s escape, her knuckles cracking menacingly.

“It depends how you see it. Now, tell me… What’s a Haven spy like you doing in Kallamore?”

Godou recalled the situation between the Kingdoms of Haven and Kallamore. The two were enemies with each other and had a war a few decades ago. Officially, the war had ended with a ceasefire but that didn’t mean that the fighting had stopped. The Kallamore-Haven war was still being waged unofficially with both kingdoms sending spies and saboteurs to try and weaken the other.

“Spy? What are you talking about? I’m just an adventuring alchemist now, nothing a Kallamore assassin should concern herself with.”

Satsohi defended himself but even to Godou this didn’t sound very convincing.

“Really? Why don’t I believe you?”

As expected, Reta didn’t buy it either.

“I didn’t expect it to but still… Let me just get to the point. You can’t kill me.”

“Oh?”

“Simply, because I know your weakness.”

With the haughty grin of a veteran who survived many battles, Satoshi pulled out his bluff.

“Really now? I don’t know what happened to you but your level seems to have dropped since I last saw you. Besides, when have you ever beaten me one on one?”

In response to that, Reta made preparations for an attack with a retort of her own. Godou simply stood in the middle of all this unsure of which side to take.

“Ha ha ha If you want an exchange of blows then I’m afraid you attacking the wrong person. That sort of stuff is for the 3 powerhouses to handle… or rather there’s only Ray Bard left now since the other two aren’t active anymore… Scorn all you want but the weak have their own way of fighting!”

Reta leap at Satoshi aiming for a punch in the face. However, Satoshi manifested a scroll in his hand and opened it like a shield in front of his face.

Reta’s punch continued as if it would rip through the scroll anyway. But then just before it connected with the scroll… she stopped.

Godou leaned to the side to see what the scroll contained but then sincerely wished he hadn’t.

On the scroll was a realistic painting. Without a doubt it would be a work of art. So real that it looked almost like a photograph.

But that wasn’t the problem. The problem was what the painting was a picture of.

Describing something like that might permanently scar his mind. Let’s just say that the scroll contained a painting of the genre called “Yaoi”.

“…You cheapskate…why do you have…”

“Ha! Against a broken character like you, I have to resort to such measures!”

Satoshi slowly edged around Reta, keeping the painting between them like a shield. Reta followed his movements but didn’t attack, her expression showed that she torn between two choices. It was kinda of cute in a strange way.

Moreover, should I be amazed that Satoshi was carrying something like that with him or about the fact that it actually kept Reta at bay?

Godou could only shake his head at the idiocy of the scene he had just witnessed.

It was in that moment that the door opened again and Lexus appeared saying that Badas wanted to speak with them… Only to catch full sight of the painting Satoshi was holding up as a shield.

….

There was another moment of silence then…

“Burn.”

Holy flames of purification were released on the painting.

““Ah!””

Simultaneously, Satoshi and Reta cried out though for different reasons.

Thus, this ridiculous ordeal was settled.

After managing out what to do next as the middleman, Godou managed to get Satoshi and Reta to begrudgingly agree to meet Badas together.

Badas was still weak and unable to fight due to his recent resurrection but Godou was told that his life was no longer in danger. With much effort, Badas managed to speak to them and give Satoshi and Reta a quest to kill the enemy general. Although Reta had stopped trying to attack Satoshi due to Badas’s words, Godou really wondered whether those two could really cooperate on such a quest.

It seems Badas had excluded Godou from this task since he knew that Godou still had to the issue with Knite to deal with.

Apparently Ferrex had brought Lexus up to speed about Knite’s appearance and Lexus wanted to speak with Godou privately after taking care of Hel and Inori and after doing some preparation. Conversely, those two were moved to rest in a separate room.

Thus, Godou moved to the location where Lexus had told him to wait for him. It was also a familiar place to him.

After all, he had spent the equivalent of 3 weeks in there before.

A secret room under the Church of Freya.

The entrance to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

Though, he knew it was necessary to consult Lexus about the how to deal with Knite he still uttered those words.

Part 3

During the period of time that he was waiting for Lexus, Godou had gone back and checked all the messages he had been ignoring since Knite’s appearance.

He found the first few messages quite distressing. His race seem to have changed… well, evolved.

Race: Heretic God/Breaker of the Divine Decree

As one who refused to sign the Divine Decree known as the Contract of Gods, you are an unbound force of disaster, free from the restraints which bind all other true gods in the mortal realm. All beings with sufficient training will be able to recognise the abnormality you represent in the mortal world and react accordingly.

Traits:

- Rarely, when hit by an otherwise fatal attack, you will survive with less than 1% of your total Health.

- The strain caused on your Divine Tolerance due to using Divine Abilities is halved.

- When you die, your character will be permanently deleted.

- Other bonuses to be discovered.

Although it was probably an ultra-rare race Godou was not one bit happy about this race change.

First of all, why did it have to be named Heretic God?

And secondly, if he died his character would be deleted, wasn’t that basically the equivalent of a permanent death here as well?

Godou’s patience was reaching its limited due to the events that had been happening to him in the past few hours and reading this was not helping.

He continued checking the messages and opened the relevant information about the strange quest ranking Knite’s quest seemed to have.

(Legend) ranked quests are quests were the fame gained from your actions related to the quest are not actually connected with your person. Instead, they are spread as something like a myth or and urban legend.

He opened the information windows for the skill he just unlocked.

Gift of the Origin [Max]

A gift of Divinity given to you who have gained the approval of the Divine Overlord: The Origin. Convert all your accumulated fame to gain the might of gods and reset the cooldowns on all skills and abilities.

You must set an incantation to use this skill. This skill requires approximately 180 natural days (in-game time) to recharge after use. The actual time required may vary due to many factors.

Duration: 24 hoursDivine Wildcard Decree [Comprehension: 0%]

A personalised Divine Decree which grants you powers beyond other mortals. Randomly gain access to Wildcard Forms which have been shaped by an analysis of your desires. Each Wildcard form can only be used once every 24 hours. The skill level of the abilities gained from the sub degrees are dependent on the intensity of your aura.

Restrictions:

This skill can only be activated in the presence of an hostile Divinity.

Card 1

[Details are hidden until use].

Card 2

[Details are hidden until use].

Card 3

[Details are hidden until use].

Card 4

[Details are hidden until use].

So another game breaking yet unreliable power... Would the world please stop fucking with him? At this rate Royal Road who turn out exactly like reality. (It’s already too late!)

Calming himself from that sudden outburst of emotion, Godou waited. It was in that time that Ferrex spoke to him again.

[I have something important I want to discuss with you.]

“About what?”

[Well… about the beginning of everything. The origins of our classes and the origins of the world.]

Since he had nothing else to do, Godou thought he might as well listen.

[Call it Divine Inspiration if you will but during the time that I was unable to talk to you, Godou, I was… how would you put it? Stuck between the realms of life and death. Basically, I was halfway in the immortal realms while still having a connection to the mortal realm. Because of that, I was able to gain access to some information which I normally wouldn’t be able to. Godou, this is a story of the origins of our classes.]

This convenient Divine Inspiration sounded a lot like spirit vision for some reason… Thinking back, Ferrex had demonstrated a similar ability before as well. Godou realised.

[In the beginning of time, there was only one realm and that that one realm contained all species. That realm was the continent Versailles. Although, it is called the mortal realm now, it would not be wrong to say this it is also the original and first realm to be created. All other realms are mere copies of it.]

As Ferrex spoke, the scenery around Godou vanished and changed, recreating itself to create images that matched his words. Was this some sort of game cut-scene?

[This included Gods as well. The Gods roamed the land and did whatever they wanted and started conflicts wherever and whenever they wanted. Needless to say, they were at war with each other. Everywhere they went they caused calamities and disasters of all sorts. Eventually, a group of gods teamed up and decided that if they were to continue onwards like this then Versailles would be destroyed.

Therefore, they decreed that all gods who reached a certain level of strength could only compete against each other in strength and prosperity through their followers. In other words, it was a proposal to seal their powers from the mortal realm and create their own realms like the Elemental Lords and Spirit King. The majority of god’s agreed to follow this decree however, there were some who opposed of it and rebelled.]

Godou saw it. The two different fractions, arguing with each for countless days. Seeing that they would never meet each other’s views, the two fractions just gave up trying to solve the dispute and went their separate ways.

[These rebellious gods continued to walk the land as the harbingers of disaster and chaos. Over time, they were no longer recognised as gods but as Devils. As they grew in power and support, they eventually gained the name Heretical God.]

Hmm? Why does this name sound so familiar? Godou wondered sarcastically.

[It was because of the disaster brought forth by these Heretic Gods that the other gods were forced to step in and intervene. However, since they could no longer directly interfere with the “mortal” world they had to bestow upon their followers a way to oppose the Heretic Gods. This led to the development and implementation of a system that allowed them to utilise loopholes in the system they created and channel their power through a proxy. The Divine Saint Variants system.]

So this is the lore about the Divine Saints and Divine Saint Knights huh. For some reason Godou no longer felt surprised by the complexity of Royal Road.

[Thus started a second major war between gods. This time between the Divine Saints, Divine Saint Knights and the Heretical Gods. Initially, there was no contest between the Heretic Gods and the Divine Saint Variants. Humans were inexperienced in the ways of using Divine Power and so it was child’s play for the experienced Heretic Gods to kill them. Many religions were wiped out during this chaotic period.]

Images of conflict between mortals and gods appeared in Godou’s sights. He saw churches destroyed, people massacred all from the wrath of a single god. A lone figure dressed in white stood in front of a city, shielding the people of from the god’s wrath.

[But then the humans learnt. With each battle they survived they learnt how to fight. They learnt how to survive. They learnt how to win! Each generation of Divine Saint left behind a new way of using Divine Power. A new spell in the arsenal which was later named the Heaven’s Calling. With each generation of Divine Saint Knight, the process of using Divine Aura was refined until it developed to a stage that it could rival gods. This technique became known as Divine Possession.

The number of white figures increased. Alone, these figures fought against the gods, gaining experience and growing stronger.

[Thus eventually, the Heretic Gods became all but wiped out. They may still exist but they haven’t made themselves known to the rest of the world. But this was not the end of it. Within this chaotic era, there were certain individuals’ whose talents began to shine.]

Four silhouettes appeared before him. There images distinctly different from the images that had appeared before them.

[A vampiric witch, feared by all as Queen of Ice and Gospel of darkness. The Witch.]

Godou caught sight of a pale woman with long blonde hair, surrounded by an army of demonic puppets in a wasteland of ice.

[A bored troublemaker, wielder of a power which no human should ever hold. The Trickster.]

He saw a youth, also blonde, lying on the ground staring at the clouds. Bored of the world and all its lacklustre challenges.

[A holy sword wielder, the sole survivor of a church ravished by the direct power of gods. The Sword Saint.]

He saw a blue haired swordswoman dual-wielding holy swords of tremendous power. With glaze sharp like a sword, she sought to oppose the Gods to the very end.

[And a mysterious adventurer, an entity capable of capturing and bringing even the strongest beings into submission. The Fighter.]

He saw a figure stand on top of a dark snowing mountain. Waiting in the cold, waiting in silence. All for the sake of finding a worthy opponent. Red eyes flashed mysteriously in the dark.

[Despite their different origins and abilities, these four had something in common… They met The Origin.]

Godou stiffened at the mention of a familiar name. Wasn’t The Origin mentioned in one of his new skills?

[And responding to their wishes The Origin bestowed upon them the power to bring this the era of the War of Gods to its climax.

The Origin, the original, changed their bases and turned them into an alikeness of itself.

Thus, like The Origin, these four became Divine Overlords.]

The Origin was without a doubt, the most powerful entity in all of Royal Road.

The Origin was the original. The creator of all. The ruler of all.

It had many names.

To the Gods and legends, it was the Divine Overlord.

To the churches, it was called the Holy Seer.

And to the programmers who created Royal Road, it was known as the A.I. Goddess Versailles.

This was the truth that had not been spoken.

[Try as they might the Divine Saint Variants of many religions were unable to defeat beings who were not originally gods themselves. As if mocking the efforts of true Gods, these four refused to fall, for they were different from the gods who were strong because of their Divinity. Rather, it was because these four were strong that they were given Divinity. Thus these troublemakers roamed around the land, following their desires and occasionally causing a conflict of some sort].

[Over time, knowledge and records of these events became warped and lost. Even with my Divine Inspiration I was unable to find out what happened to the Overlords. They simply vanished over time.]

Ferrex gave him a few moments to let this information sink.

Then with perfect timing, Lexus arrived.

Part 4

Meanwhile, in the Elemental Realm of Light, Knite had returned to find an astounding amount of damage had been done to the realm.

Evidently, a fierce battle of colossal powers had been waged while had had been playing around… full filling his duties in the mortal realm. No wonder the Elemental Lord needed his help. Knite could feel the power sustaining the Elemental Realm fluctuate wildly. Come to think of it, the keystone was stolen as well wasn’t it?

As part of the immortal realms, the Elemental Realm of Light had not originally been created at the beginning of time. Rather, it had been something created along the way as the first elementals grew stronger and for whatever reason needed to create a realm of their own.

To greatly simplify the process of creating an artificial realm, you could say that two things where needed. First the proper power and technique needed to be used to create the world. Secondly, a keystone needed to be created to “anchor” the artificial world.

Anchoring the worlds allowed their “location” to be references thus allowing the artificial world to be connected with other worlds rather than just “float” out isolated in “space”. Thus, over time, the network of worlds eventual grew and became collectively referred to as the Immortal Realms.

The Mortal Realm would be seen as the overlapping area of each world. Sort of like the centre of a large Ven Daigram. The influences that the Immortal world keystones had on the Mortal Realm appeared in the form of leyline clusters and the like.

Since the worlds were all connected in some way, when one world was disrupted, some effects would show on the other worlds as well.

The Elemental Realm of Light was connected to the realms of many different Light Gods. If it to be attacked and damaged so badly, the attacker must really be fearless.

In the case of the Elemental Realm of Light, the power and technique to sustain the world had been produced by the Elemental Lord himself. However, as a result of creating a world so vast and large, the Elemental Lord was unable to gain access to the Mortal Realm.

When an elemental dies, their they return to the Elemental Realm and wait until their body stabilises enough to the point where they can re-enter the mortal world. However, if the elemental lord dies, then the elemental realm also collapses thus the elemental lord has no place to return to and so dies permanently.

Hmmm, if I recall correctly, the keystone of the Elemental Realm should have been that thing right?

Knite tried to recall what he could. It wasn’t that difficult.

Keystones generally had to be objects of power. Although for a realm like the Elemental Realm of light that had so many connections to other realms, it should be fine without a keystone for a few years.

Although he seemed like an idiot who charged head on into things with physical techniques he did have the same base stats as Castor. This of course also included the Intelligence, Wisdom and Insight departments. It was just that he was too lazy to use think most of the time.

The keystone of the elemental realm should have been the legendary holy sword ExDurandal. It was basically a fusion of the legendary swords Excalibur and Durandal. If he recalled correctly, Durandal was supposed to have great destructive power whilst Excalibur had 7 different abilities including boosted speed, invisibility, destruction, shape changing, illusions etc.

Apparently the keystone had been stolen, or rather, retrieved back by its original owner, the Divine Overlord: The Sword Saint. Apparently, this had happened just after he had left the realm.

If only he had stayed, back little longer, he would have been able to fight the… help the Elemental Lord fight against the Sword Saint. Although Knite was regretful over that fact, he had been able to meet some interesting fighters in the mortal realm as well.

Right now, Knite was using his elemental powers to try and stabilise the Elemental Realm. It wasn’t difficult work. In fact it was just plain boring. But it had to be done. While he was doing this, his rate of recovery had also fallen dramatically.

As a result of the fierce battles he had under gone in the mortal realm, Knite had lost a bit more than 50% of his total Health. His stamina had also dropped significantly due to the fact that he was hit by a technique that turned his aura against him. Additionally his partner, his horse/scythe had also died and with the Elemental Realm as it was it seemed like it wouldn’t be able to return to the mortal realm for a while.

If only Castor were here, then he would be able to return to the mortal realm to continue his business. Not only was stabilising the elemental realm boring work, it was also the type of work where too many cooks would spoil the broth.

In other words, if Castor came back and relieved him of his duty, he would be free to do whatever wanted, this is, he would be free to continue challenging Godou and whoever else wanted to fight him.

Just as he thought that, Knite sensed a powerful light entity arriving on the Elemental Realm. It seemed Castor had returned.

Knite went over to the place were Castor had arrived and immediately noticed that something was wrong.

Instead, of materialising in his normal form, Castor had returned in an irregular unfocused form which started to reform itself.

Knite connected the dots. The Elemental Lord had said that there had been a powerful barrier around the place where Castor was. That meant that Castor had been fighting someone strong enough to stop the Elemental Lord from communicating with them.

Castor’s current form was what happened to an Elemental when they died. So that meant that Castor had lost his fight. Therefore there must be someone insanely strong in the other town in the Mortal Realm as well.

Either way, there was no way of knowing any more unless he asked Castor himself.

Knite diverted some of his attention away from stabilising the Elemental Realm and instead accelerated Castor’s reformation process.

This looks like it’s going to be interesting.

Part 5

It seemed that there was really was no other option left for Godou other than confronting Knite himself. As much has he wanted to reject the idea, Godou resolved himself for the task.

However, as he was now, Godou could only see a very microscopic chance of him defeating Knite. Even though, he had new powers which may or may not be helpful, he couldn’t didn’t know what most of them did until he actually used them in battle. Godou wasn’t even sure if he could activate Divine Wild Card Decree against Knite considering that it needed the enemy to have divinity.

However, it was in situations like this that Godou’s true abilities began to shine. The lower his chance of victory, the faster his mind worked and the more his was able to press his limits. That’s how it always had been. There was no way of knowing what happened until it happened so there was no point stressing when you can’t do anything.

Nevertheless, Godou still decided to consult Lexus and Ferrex about the issue. After much discussion, Lexus seemed to have come up with a solution where Godou could try out his new skills to get a grasp on their abilities before the fight.

Godou gladly accepted his help. Although, Godou was the nonsensical sort of person whose ability to win increased the more likely they’re about to lose, it didn’t mean that he was arrogant enough to reject help when it appeared. If someone offered to make things easier for him then he would accept. If the opponent purposely showed an opening, then it would strike at it with all his might.

The disposition of doing whatever it takes to achieve victory. That was the every least that someone needed to have when going up against an opponent like Knite.

Lexus led him into the Hyperbolic Training Room.

“Okay. First thing’s first, we need to protect the Divine Gem since we don’t want it blowing up in our faces. Holy Barrier!”

Lexus erected a powerful barrier around the room then continued:

“Now from what I can see, this new power of yours will only activate in the presence of an enemy Divinity.”

Godou nodded in agreement.

“Thus, as long as the conditions are met for that you will be able to use your new powers right?”

“Yeah, no offence but no-one here satisfies the conditions.”

Hadn’t it been established that no matter how strong a member of a religious order was, they couldn’t obtain a divine aura? As a priest, Lexus would not qualify as a sparring partner.

[Are you sure about that Godou?]

“We have told you before haven’t you haven’t we? Church members can’t exceed the bounds of a holy aura. However, there is one exception to this rule. The Divine Saint Variants.”

Wait don’t tell me… The shock of Godou’s realisation must have shown on his face as he put two and two together as Lexus chuckled lightly and exclaimed:

“Yes! I propose that you spar with the Divine Saint of Freya! Luckily for you, he was in the area. However, as a result of fatigue due to an earlier battle with another Elemental Lord Candidate and casting various spells, he is only at around 10% of his normal level of power. So I will ask you…”

The atmosphere around Lexus suddenly seemed to change.

“Please be gentle with me~”

Lexus raised his arm in front of him. Godou felt a tremendous pressure erupt as Lexus released an intense holy aura.

“O heavenly messenger, come hither and deliver this plead to the great goddess…. O one who governs all beauty, thou faithful servant seeks your guidance!”

Hostile Divinity detected. The conditions for activating Divine Wildcard Decree have been met.

Golden lights flashed. Lexus’s holy aura began to change. Becoming purer. More sacred. And more powerful. More divine.

“I call upon thee, graceful one who houses the essences of the slain, grant your servant an avatar to collect the life of those to fall!”

Bathed in golden light, Lexus continued to chant. A disturbance started to appear in the space in front of him.

“I beg of you for I am thy vassal, eternally true and ready.”

The disturbance started to change. Shaping itself into a more humanoid figure.

“I beg of you for I am thy medium, a subject of thou beauty and power.”

Golden light coated over the disturbance like flakes, giving it a physical form. Godou was suddenly reminded of the manner in which Gegorus had been manifested.

“I beg of you for I am the symbol of Freya, may you be revered by your followers and envied by your enemies!”

Golden armour and weapons appeared around the disturbance. Appearing elegant, but without losing its original purpose of protection.

“Blasphemers! Behold the might of my power! And be grateful that you have been chosen to witness the grace of gods! O bountiful one who selects the souls of the afterlife, grant me the right to use your avatars as my champion!”

A tremendous pressure started to be emitted from the armoured figure which the disturbance had become.

“Heaven’s Calling: Valkyries of Freya!!”

With a final brilliant flash of golden light, Lexus finished his incantation. Floating before him was glowing golden suit of female armour.

Thin and graceful.

A fairylike existence.

Yet capable of emitting such a powerful impression of unrestrained violence.

A Valkyrie.

“Given my current weakened state, I guess a single Valkyrie would be only par with a level 400 dragon I would say? This pales in comparison to an Elemental Lord Candidate but I can always summon another one. Weakened as I am, my limit would about 30 of these at once? Certainly not enough to beat Knite but for sparring, it will suffice.”

After saying such an outrageous comparison, Lexus exclaimed.

“Come Godou! I cannot teach you how to use your powers. However, there is no better training than experiencing an actual battle!”

***

In the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, one day was approximately equivalent to one and a half weeks. Therefore, roughly ten hours in the room would be equivalent to one hour in the outside world. Due to the Divine Gem in the room, skills did not have a cooldown and physical limitations are practically non-existent since Health, Mana and Stamina gain massive spurts in regeneration whenever low.

On the other hand, recovering to a condition better than where you were originally was impossible. The rapid regeneration was capped to the state you were in when you entered the room. In other words, taking advantage to the time altering effects for resting and recovering strength was impossible. Additionally, there was no way to recover from mental exhaustion inside the room.

Despite its flaws, the room was perfect for the purpose that Godou and Lexus needed.

After some time spent sparring and resting, inside and outside of the room respectively, they felt the return of an intensely powerful aura of light.

Thus was the signal for the beginning of the end of this troublesome incident.

It had been almost four hours had passed since their last battle.

True to his word, Knite had returned!

--------------------------------------

Word Count: ~9000 words

Info dump! This chapter had a lot of content I wanted to release for a long time. Lin4t beat me to the punch in some parts by releasing them before me.

So many coincidental meetings with people Godou already knows (cough cough). I guess this is mainly because I have already introduced most of the main cast at this point. There’s still one more heroine I want to introduce but she will come much later (around vol 4 so yeah… long time away).

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