Chapter 1306: God of War

「Oh? Looks like it’s about time.」

Jashin-chan started to grow transparent as we celebrated our victory. Her temporary body was about to disappear.

「I shall return to my slumber within Master once more. But I had an enjoyable time! Call upon again the next time you find yourselves against an Evil God Fragment!」

「Is that really okay?」

「Of course! I despise the other fragments!」

『Despise them? But aren’t you all fragments of the same god?』

「We are not the same!」

She began explaining her feelings.

Jashin-chan, aka the Evil God’s Innocence, was a fragment that never wanted to become the Evil God. From her point of view, the Human God’s other emotions forced her into the role.

There was a disagreement among the gods back when the world was first created. On one side were the gods representing people and living creatures, such as the Chaos Goddess and the War God. Standing against them were the gods ruling over nature, such as the Flame God and the Storm God.

The nature gods considered free will to be unnecessary, especially for humans. Thus, they attempted to create lifeforms that existed solely to offer prayers to the gods.

These creatures would do nothing except pray and make offspring, resulting in an ideal world without any conflict or worries. The nature gods genuinely believed they were being merciful.

As gods of nature, they espoused stability and harmony. The volatile phenomenon known as emotion was deemed worthless. As we can see, their concepts of love and mercy differed greatly from those of the more human gods.

The gods debated this subject endlessly with no real conclusion, until the War God decided to act. She declared her intent to annihilate the entire world, thereby declaring war on all other gods.

By making enemies of everyone, she managed to protect the positions of her fellow human gods.

After a long and hard-fought battle, the War God ultimately fell. However, such was also part of her plan.

Dividing herself into numerous fragments allowed her to infuse her powers directly into the physical realm. The so-called “Evil God” was actually split apart by her own will.

The war had also served to weaken the power of the other gods, thereby buying her enough time to assimilate herself with the world.

It was already too late by the time the gods realized it, so the War God completed her plot successfully. By utilizing her aspect as the Data God, she had altered the very laws of the world.

Thus resulting in the introduction of stats and skills.

That’s right. There was no video game-like system when the world was first created.

Her aspects as the Data God, the Entertainment God, and the Comprehension God affected the stat and skill system greatly. More importantly though, was the effect on the thoughts and emotions of those who lived there.

As long as this system exists, all life is automatically granted wisdom and power. The dystopian world envisioned by the gods of nature can never come to pass.

Furthermore, her role as the Evil God combined with the creation of fiends to give people a reason to fight, which encourages growth and unity.

The gods realized they were outplayed, and eventually gave up on eliminating the Evil God’s influence from the world. Many even made use of her system to strengthen their kin or create new species.

Well, the nature gods lacked much in terms of emotions to begin with. They apparently didn’t hold any grudges toward the Evil God after the war.

In fact, they still acknowledge her as a true deity, which explains why they are so strict with mortals who abuse the Evil God Fragments.

Regardless of how things ended up working out, the Evil God’s Innocence wasn’t satisfied with this outcome. She hated the War God for making the original decision to seal herself away like this.

Weird. So even fragments from the same god can have differing opinions and personalities due to getting separated from other emotions.

「…It made me alone for so long.」

「I see.」

Fran stroked Jashin-chan’s head, who smiled genuinely from the bottom of her heart.

「But now I have you two at my side! I won’t be lonely anymore!」

「Woof woof!」

「Of course, I wouldn’t forget you!」

Jashin-chan laughed as she gave Urushi’s neck a tight embrace.

「You better give me some curry the next time I come out!」

Leaving behind a final request, Jashin-chan disappeared. Well, to be more accurate, it’s only her temporary body that disappeared. She’s continuing to make noise inside me.

〈I’ll be returning to sleep for a while too.〉

『Fenrir-san, thanks for everything.』

〈No worries, I had fun. Fran, Urushi, you two did well.〉

「Nn.」

「Woof!」

〈I may wake up again once I’ve recovered more of my strength. See you then.〉

「Nn. Bye-bye.」

「Woof!」

Fenrir-san also returned to his slumber. Considering how hard he’s been pushing himself, I hope he can finally get a good night’s sleep.

「Urushi, thanks for everything.」

「Woof!」

Fran patted Urushi, who wagged his tail vigorously.

〈Disengaging the Trail of Bonds activated by provisional name Master. Suspending the Divine Sword Release state.〉

『Oh right. I can’t utilize my full power unless we’re up against an Evil God Fragment.』

「That’s fine. I’d rely on you too much if I could use your power all the time.」

『Yeah, I knew you’d say that.』

「Nn.」

I went on to ask Announcer-san about something that had been on my mind.

『What will happen with the curse on the black cat race?』

Urushi, Jashin-chan, and I should be treated as Fran’s familiars, but I suppose a lot of other people participated in the first stage of the battle. And how does Trail of Bonds factor into the equation?

「Allow me to answer that question.」

「!」

『Y-You’re… the Chaos Goddess!』

There was suddenly a beautiful woman with silver hair, red eyes, and tanned skin, along with an intense divine aura. The Chaos Goddess had descended upon us. Her aura was completely different from the Evil God Fragments, but it sent a shiver down all our spines just the same.

「Well done on defeating the Evil God Fragments and sealing them within the divine realm.」

「Nn!」

「However, I’m afraid to say this does not lift the curse on the black cats.」

『W-Why not? Was it because we borrowed Jashin-chan’s power? Or because we fought together as a large group earlier?』

「No, the condition was violated by Trail of Bonds. It may be a powerful ability, but that power is borrowed from countless others. In other words, Master, it could be considered the limitation and price for your usage.」

Seriously?! In other words, Trail of Bonds grants us the power to defeat the Evil God Fragments, but using it means we can’t lift the curse. It’s already pretty limited in usage to begin with!

So this is the “price” for using me?

『I’m sorry, Fran… This is my fault…』

「No, Master, it’s not. We would have lost without you! Besides, this makes our goal clear!」

Fran never once lowered her eyes. She looked straight ahead, brimming with determination.

「Next time, we just have to beat a fragment with only black cats. Then we lift the curse!」

『Whoa, you seem really excited! But yeah, I guess you’re right. That doesn’t sound so impossible now that I’m a divine sword!』

「Nn!」

「Woof woof!」

Fran never backs down, no matter the circumstances. She’s already thinking about the next battle despite the brutal one we just experienced.

「Fufufu, as expected of you guys. Oh, but there’s one more thing I need to tell you before I go. The Kingdom of Raydoss has abused fragments of the Evil God. There can be no denying this truth…」

「!」

But wait, aren’t all the main culprits dead? I guess considering the circumstances, it’s still possible the country will receive divine punishment as a whole.

「…However, the king and duke also contributed to the elimination of the fragments. In light of this atonement, we will only take the lives of the direct perpetrators and their accomplices.」

So it seems they’ll settle for divine punishment applied to the researchers involved in abusing the fragments and the closest aides to the deceased dukes.

The Chaos Goddess spoke to us as if it was a simple conversation, but everyone on the battlefield could hear her words.

I saw the Northern Knights in the distance drop to one knee in gratitude.

Having fulfilled the purpose of her descent, the Chaos Goddess gradually began fading away.

「Master, I thank you for saving her heart.」

She must be referring to the Evil God, right? Maybe the Chaos Goddess was concerned about the Evil God’s well-being since they were apparently on the same team initially. There seemed to be a slight tinge of affection in her eyes.

I don’t know if she read that thought or not, but the goddess replied with a knowing smile.

「Fufufu. Well then, I bid you a pleasant chaos…」

I previously found her parting words to be ominous, but not anymore. Strange. Is it because I’ve come to understand that chaos isn’t always bad?

It seems Fran took the goddess’s words as encouragement, clenching her fists with renewed determination.

「There was a black cat in the Northern Knights. I’m gonna go talk to them!」

『Now that you mention it, they seem to have several other black cats too. We heard about the duke buying up a bunch of slaves, so he must have been training them as knights.』

「The North Duke is a good person.」

Fran began walking toward her next destination with firm steps.