"Ah… that hurt…"
Yusalk pushed aside the rubble burying him while awkwardly clutching his head.
"Velti's divine power of reality can twist outcomes, and when it's combined with the Death God's power, the strongest force for killing… it becomes almost impossible to guard against. That's bad…"
Yusalk looked at Ankh, whose rage had reached its peak, then split his mouth into a grin and made a decision that completely betrayed his status as a god.
"Time to run away~"
Yusalk turned around and bolted without the slightest hesitation, showing absolutely no concern for his dignity as a god.
Ankh: ???
"Bastard! You call yourself a god while acting like that?!"
Ankh gathered divine power into his fist.
His figure warped slightly, and he instantly teleported above Yusalk's head.
Yusalk nimbly rolled across the ground and shouted back without caring at all, "I'm not Atush! Only a lunatic would pick a fight with you just to get beaten up! If you've got the guts, go fight Zous!"
One unfamiliar name after another left Ankh confused.
Then, seeing Yusalk dodge his attack and continue running toward the Eclipse Gate, a sudden thought flashed through his mind.
This guy's strength was decent, but it was only especially effective against humans.
Which raised the question…
How had he made Ankh disappear in another timeline?
Ankh thought for a moment, then abruptly stopped.
Carefully recalling Yusalk's actions from the moment they met, he could not help frowning.
With Yusalk's abilities, if he wanted to wreck the world, it would probably only take a little divine power.
So why was he fixated on the Eclipse Gate?
"Wait!"
After thinking for a while, Ankh suddenly shouted at Yusalk, who had already run quite far.
Yusalk actually stopped obediently.
He turned back to look at him and shouted with a hint of disappointment, "What is it? You're not chasing me?"
Ankh sucked in a quiet breath.
Why did this brat sound like he was looking forward to being chased down?
Keeping in mind his desire to gather information, Ankh kept a stern face and beckoned to him.
"Come here for a moment. I won't hit you for now, i want to know some things about the past."
Understanding the relationship between Yusalk and his original self might allow him to deduce what had happened to him in the other timeline, as well as more information about his past.
Yusalk carefully shuffled back.
Seeing that Ankh's face remained dark but he did not attack, he finally relaxed and grinned.
"Hehe. You really have changed quite a bit. In the past, you would've beaten me up at least once first."
Ankh looked at Yusalk, who had actually come back obediently, and asked in surprise, "Were we close before?"
Yusalk nodded vigorously. "You always liked going to lands of chaos to play with humans, so the two of us were together all the time."
In other words…
'Wasn't he basically my little follower?'
Ankh silently complained in his heart.
Then, since he finally had the chance to face a real god, he asked the question that had been bothering him all this time.
"Shouldn't gods be emotionless beings who simply follow the operation of the laws? Why do you and I seem nothing like that?"
Yusalk looked at him in surprise. "You forgot?"
Ankh nodded.
He did not mention Seram and simply replied, "My memories aren't complete."
"No wonder.... I was wondering how you could possibly not recognize me."
Yusalk continued showing his question-answering nature and began explaining like someone who loved teaching.
"The laws of all things were born in the Divine Realm. At the very beginning, the twenty-three gods were indeed strict, cold executors who maintained the operation of their respective laws without any bias. Rather than saying we were gods, it would be more accurate to say we were the laws themselves."
Seeing Ankh listen seriously, Yusalk could not help puffing out his chest proudly and continued in a solemn tone.
"But over the long river of time, a major event suddenly occurred and changed all gods!"
"The living beings of many worlds grew more and more numerous. They were clearly as weak as ants, helpless before the laws, but the abundant inner power they possessed gathered together and made the laws of all things acknowledge its importance. As a result, a brand-new law god was born in the Divine Realm."
"The God of Emotion!"
"However, before the God of Emotion could truly be born, it was extinguished because its power was not enough to stand equal with the twenty-three gods. But that power quietly merged into the gods themselves. Although the change was small, it truly happened."
Ankh nodded thoughtfully.
This was the difference in information between Seram and Yusalk.
"The fact that insignificant humans could generate a new law through their rich and colorful inner worlds caused the gods, who had gained tiny traces of self and emotion, to begin developing their own thoughts."
"Most importantly… the stillborn God of Emotion caused the gods of the Divine Realm to develop personal feelings. The selfless laws of all things no longer completely trusted the gods, and the divine seats began to waver."
"In other words, although the chance was as low as finding a single grain of sand drifting through the starry sky across countless worlds, the God of Emotion won humanity an opportunity."
"They too could become gods!"
"After all, apart from our unshakable power, gods and humans can theoretically both die… except for a few special cases."
"And the impartial laws wanted to use this chance to filter out the old gods who had developed selfish desires, then choose replacement gods from humans, whose power was weak enough that their emotions could be easily washed clean and controlled."
Then Yusalk abruptly raised his head, his voice turning serious.
"After that, the Divine Realm split apart and began to collapse!"
"Hm?"
Ankh froze, shocked by this fantastical tale.
That sudden?
Yusalk looked straight into Ankh's eyes and spoke of secrets unknown to anyone.
"Gods who gained emotions also gained their own intentions. One faction among the gods of the Divine Realm, led by Zous, the God of Destruction and Creation, advocated destroying humanity, remaking the world, and taking back all the divine power left behind by the God of Emotion."
"They wanted to create a new, puppet-like humanity with no emotions at all, cutting off any possibility of humans becoming gods, so the gods could once again sit securely in the Divine Realm."
Ankh sucked in a sharp breath.
Then he thought of something and pointed at himself in shock.
"By that logic…"
"That's right."
Yusalk looked at him with a complicated expression.
"The other faction, led by Ankhseram, the God of Life and Death, advocated integrating into the human world instead of remaining high above in isolation. You supported personally choosing successors to the divine seats and entrusting power to them. You also believed that emotion and humanity's existence in the world were not bad things, placing you directly against Zous's faction."
"That sounds… like I became the traitor of the gods' side?"
Ankh's expression turned complicated.
If he placed himself in that situation, it meant he had been a super high-ranking official for countless years, with the ability to keep holding that position for even longer.
Then one of the colleagues he had built everything with suddenly called on everyone to hand over power and retire.
Damn.
Had his original self been jointly kicked down to the human world by the others?
Yusalk saw the changing expression on Ankh's face and seemed to guess what he was thinking.
He smiled and comforted him.
"Don't worry. Among the twenty-three gods, a surprising number supported you. In fact, after gaining emotions, many gods felt they'd had enough of being gods and voluntarily went to the human world to live among humans. Some even chose a group of humans called… what was it again? Oh, god successors."
Ankh understood.
Although being a god meant holding authority and power, stepping down meant gaining an endless vacation and strength that did not drop by that much, even if it came with the risk of death.
This faction seemed to prefer a more colorful and unpredictable "divine life."
Then Ankh paused.
Suddenly, he realized something.
In other words…
Except for special cases, the gods represented by those god successors…
Were all his allies?