Chapter 1082 – Fallen Gods

000

The good times.

Glory of the past.

Even now, when I close my eyes, I remember those days when I was intoxicated with my own omnipotence.

Although we are aware that it is a moment that will not return, it is the nature of both gods and humans to cling to the time that has passed.

A mountain rising high into the sky.

At the top of the mountain, which was artificially raised using accumulated faith, there is a lake so large that it can contain everything even when the full moon rises.

And, a magnificent temple made of marble was built next to the lake.

Ruben, the goddess of hunting and maran.

Her devotees walked up to where she was, climbing over a thousand stairs, and offered numerous offerings and performed her ancestral rites.

There is only one thing they want.

Hoping that their hunt (fight) will lead to victory.

It starts from a trivial dispute between a small group, and before you know it, it reaches a war to settle deep-seated feelings between nations.

Please, with the hope that Ruben will stand by their side and pull the bowstring towards the enemy.

Half of the animals hunted.

Their skin and bones.

Sometimes luxurious jewelry and fabric.

Someday, a living human being.

It was offered as a sacrifice requested by an oracle given through shamans who represented Ruben’s will.

Even if you just show off the power of the faith you received from them for a little while, people will be swept away like ants.

And at the end of a war they started in their name, the defeated side always devours the god it worshiped and absorbs its divinity.

How many gods have been devoured during hundreds of years of war?

Some called her the goddess of the moon, and some called her the goddess of purity.

─If you remember that in the beginning it was an existence whose purpose was to fill its own stomach by borrowing human power, you have come a long way.

“Goddess of the Hunt, Ruben, aim your bow for us in the next war…!”

As Ruben thought so, he sat on his throne prepared in his temple and looked at the people who were bowing their heads towards him and praying.

The throne made of ash wood, which he had chosen as an appropriate symbol, was decorated with laurel leaves.

‘Is it war again? It hasn’t been that long since last winter, but I guess I’m not tired of it.’

Ha, Ruben rested her chin and shook her head as she sighed.

If her humans who were making sacrifices to her had seen Ruben’s reaction like that, she would have prepared more of her sacrifices because she was afraid of losing Ruben’s protection.

But fortunately or unfortunately, none of those gathered there was aware of Ruben sitting on the throne.

She had gathered enough faith to transcend the physical realm, and now she had become something close to the soul.

The only ones who can see her like that are a few priests who have personally bestowed her grace as a shaman.

However, over the past few hundred years, Ruben had grown tired of making such a new temple himself.

This was because most humans could not withstand the grace given to them and became a mixture of a wolf and a human.

“Reuben said. If you become my arrows and run like a gale without looking back, you will be able to pierce the enemy’s neck.”

And a woman wearing a toga talking to the humans, standing between her throne where Ruben is sitting and the humans.

She was elderly and looked like a priest no matter where she looked…

Ruben must have snorted at her as if she was dumbfounded when he saw her like that.

A few decades ago, when Ruben did not build a new temple for the reasons she mentioned above, the temple was naturally in a state of emergency.

Meanwhile, from nowhere, she came in and claimed to be Ruben’s priest, deceived the people in the temple with plausible words, and now she has risen to the position of priest and is acting like Ruben’s spokesperson.

Humans are the ones who can’t do anything without God, but on the other hand, if there is something worth worshiping as ‘God’, does that mean that the reality is not that important?

‘At last. Are we just objects for humans to push the ‘responsibility of desire’?’

Ruben’s days are so boring that he feels direct skepticism about his position as God.

‘Well… It’s difficult to lose faith, so let’s give an appropriate blessing for this war.’

Nevertheless, she does her work as a god because she does not want to give up her current power.

To that end, he tried to personally select a useful person among the humans who visited his temple.

If you grant him some grace and make him an apostle, he will become intoxicated with heroism and win the war on his own.

Then, later, greater faith will return to you.

Of course, an apostle who received grace would be cursed to slowly turn into a beast, just like other priests…

In the end, you will be looked at with fear by your loved ones, and in the end, you will be stabbed by their spears and lose your life.

Still, it’s probably the power he wanted, and isn’t it an old cliché in this world that the end of a hero who receives God’s attention is a tragedy?

Thinking like that, Ruben looked at the people with their heads down on the ground with low eyes, and the end of his gaze—

A person wearing a deep hood, without bowing his head properly, caught my eye.

‘Hoo.’

Ruben never sensed her ‘her faith in herself’.

It meant that she did not think of Ruben as a god.

In this temple, despite offering sacrifices and bowing among the believers.

Ruben was able to see clearly that there was a different intention flashing in her stomach.

‘This… Is going to be fun.’

Therefore, Ruben did not say anything, but opened his eyes wide, seeing this as an opportunity to solve his boredom for the first time in a long time.

The audience was quiet, and the priest, who called himself Ruben’s representative, was speaking for a long time.

The woman who caught Ruben’s attention got up from her spot and walked through the crowd as if it was normal for her to reach where the priest was.

And, she naturally pulled out the shining blade she had hidden in her bosom.

The dagger pierced upward from the chin of the priest who was 3 seconds late in understanding the situation.

Phew! Sigh!

It was a neat move.

Her blade must have pierced her jawbone from below and pierced her brain.

As if that wasn’t enough to reassure her, she used the dagger in her hand and struck her neck once and once at the location of her heart.

After a quick thrust, she pushed the dying priest away.

Finally, it wasn’t until she swung her hand once to scatter her blood from her dagger.

“Ooh, wow!!? Jeez, priest!!”

People screaming.

The crowd flees in panic, and those who panic but take up a fighting stance to capture her, her assassin.

‘Kkeuk… Ahahaha!!’

Ruben laughed and put his clothes on as he saw her and his congregation’s unsightly appearance.

This was her own temple, and she probably thought that no one would harm her priest.

The result was this disaster.

In contrast, after killing her priest, she did not show any signs of embarrassment and just took off the hood she had put on her head.

With her gray hair cut short, she held her dagger backwards and spoke to her followers gathered at her temple.

“Look! The priest of the god you serve lost his life so vainly! Ruben will not protect you! You are destined to be destroyed by our god, ‘Arctus of Invasion’!”

At the same time as her declaration.

The ceiling of the marble temple collapsed after receiving a strong impact.

Then, a huge wyvern appeared from beyond, grabbed the assassin, and flew into the sky.

Even in the temple of the goddess of hunting, in a situation where there was no one who could properly fire her bow, she shouted confidently as she mounted her wyvern.

“I am his representative and apostle! Sephirna! I am the one who will push you all into his belly!”

With those words, she flew over the sky with the wyvern and disappeared.

It was a declaration of war, and at the same time, it was an effective strategy to weaken the faith of Leuven’s believers toward Leuven.

In the ancient tribal war, which could also be called a war between gods, weakening the power of the gods was more important than anything else.

“Arctus… Ahahahah…!”

But Ruben was smiling.

Even though she felt her own strength weakening in real time, she was excited by the presence of her ‘prey’ that she had found again after a long time.

She spreads her wings and spreads her wings to invade the territory she controls.

It was necessary to tell people that there is nothing more foolish than provoking God.

001

“But Arctus. The ending with you, like most stories in this world, was neither heroic nor poetic. It was improbable, and what existed there was the price of futility and unnecessary stubbornness.”

Now, all the glory of the past has been lost, Ruben said as he sat inside the little girl’s bowl.

The way she spoke was like her words to an old acquaintance with whom she was recalling old memories and sharing them.

“…”

And her companions who were looking at her were at a loss for words at the sight before their eyes.

Sasha- No, the place where Ruben was sitting was on top of Arctus’ thick neck.

She was holding a bow that fit her hand well, and several arrows made of magic.

Arctus, who was struggling with excitement, had arrows of magic stuck in various parts of his body and-

His body was tied up by the chain between the arrows, and he was lying face down on the ground like a captured subdragon—

As if he was angry, he was just repeatedly exhaling poisonous breath flowing from between his nostrils and mouth.

Solving the current situation of not being able to move was impossible for him.

After receiving an explanation from Ruben about his wife’s situation, Arctus immediately became angry and tried to attack the group with his entire body.

But Ruben expected that to happen, so she quickly shot several arrows and tied up Arctus’ body –

It was like an old man telling an old story in front of his companions and him, telling them what had happened.

The sight of Sasha moving like a flash of lightning – a swifter and more accurate blow than any other scene she had ever seen by lending her body to Ruben ─

It was a mysterious appearance that seemed to automatically remind me of the nickname goddess of the hunt.

If Ruben himself were to guess why her body moves so well-

Perhaps it was because he was able to recall some memories of those times by reuniting with his enemy from his prime, Arctus.

While the followers of Ruben and the followers of Arctus were waging war in the material world.

To hunt Arctus, Ruben also confronted him by shooting an arrow that pierced his wings from a place invisible to mortal eyes.

The full-scale fall of Arctus occurred immediately after humans began to turn their faith away from the primitive wild gods due to the rise of the religious order.

─It may have been, but he had one more thing.

The biggest reason was that in the war that took place between dragons in the past, they participated as allies of the evil dragons and were defeated.

A wild god with the deepest connection to dragons, to the point where he is worshiped as a sub-dragon (wyvern).

However, even so, it is only a ‘sub-dragon’ and a ‘wild god’ that a spirit or demon evolved by gaining faith.

Compared to dragons, which can be said to be of a higher order than such beings, it was inevitable that their status was relatively low.

He must have had a huge sense of inferiority towards the dragons that existed above the head of Arctus, the god of reproduction and invasion.

I don’t know what he was promised in return, but he fought a ‘losing battle.’

The result is what we have now.

In history, they were treated as dead, and they fled to the Four Dragon Mountains, which were barely touched by humans.

He created a humble kingdom of his own descendants and became a corpse-eating king.

“And now she has lost her sight and her wife has been taken away by someone. Old enemy.”

With his head down, Ruben’s words made the listener feel his own downfall, and Arctus’ rampage was slowly subsiding.

It wasn’t that his mood sank, but that it was an inevitable end due to exhaustion of physical strength.

“O…OOHH…SUoooooHHH…”

And slowly, slowly, Arctus opened his mouth and cried out.

It was a desperate and pitiful cry that could not feel the intimidation of God that had been shown in his anger earlier.

“I don’t just feel sorry for you, Arctus. The percentage of your self-employment is so high…”

Hearing such cries, Ruben got down from him and took off on his feet to return to where his group was.

There was no longer any reason to be held back by a powerless god.

Like this, the expedition will be able to move forward once again.

Arctus, whose heart was completely broken, would not pursue the expedition.

If he appears in front of him again – At that time, Ruben was planning to completely hunt Arctus.

However.

“Wife… How could it be that even you left me behind…! Sephirna, my proud favor…!”

At the sound of the voice flowing from his cries, Ruben stopped his steps without realizing it.

“Sephirna…?”

And, in the scene he recalled earlier, the girl holding her dagger-

He turns his head towards the female wyvern in front of him, who has lost focus and is like an empty shell with nothing left but her body.

Apostle.

Beings who received the protection of the Wild God into their bodies and were able to demonstrate abilities that transcend humans.

In the case of Ruben, we give him the ‘Hunter’s Engraving’ to help them finish their hunt successfully.

However, if the power of the imprint is drawn out too much, it will be reduced to the form of an irreversible magical beast.

Even Utu had a case where he turned a human into a spider.

Then – in the case of Arctus…

“…”

The last apostle left of the fallen god.

Even if no human form remains – it would have been the most precious treasure to him.

For him, who is also in charge of the field of ‘reproduction’, the position of ‘wife’ was also a paradoxical title symbolizing her preciousness.

“I don’t know if that guy named Laplace knew about it or not…”

Ruben mutters that and looks back at Arctus.

“Sephir I am not dead yet. She is alive, her brain has been removed. If she can get that brain back, she can get her self back.”

“──.”

Ruben looked down at Arctus from the front as he said that.

“Let’s make a deal, Arctus. As a former enemy, if you promise me ‘one thing’: I will save your wife.”

That voice was different from that of the ‘devil’ who preys on a weak point and demands the soul.

Therefore, Arctus slowly calmed down his rough breathing.

Likewise, he looked up at Ruben, whom he recognized as his ‘old enemy’, and spoke quietly.

“What do you want, Ruben?”

In the dragon’s canyon, Ruben’s answer echoes quietly.

Everyone present must have been shocked by the contents.

Arctus was calm.

And, after a while, he nodded his head.

“If I can save my wife… It’s a low price.”

He made a contract with Ruben in the name of God.