No wonder Lairs and Velti had both cooperated so readily and handed their power over to him.
So they had all been on the same side!
"Velti's always been like that. Later on, She stopped liking the Divine Realm and preferred hiding inside human dreams instead. She said dreams are the boundary between reality and illusion, so they're comfortable to stay in."
"And Lairs too. I heard He created some kind of world of stars, filled it with all sorts of living beings like He was raising children, then ran off into the cosmos to wander around every day. Haven't seen Him in ages."
Ankh looked back over this strange and fantastical story of the gods, a story that somehow carried an oddly fragmented feeling, and another question rose in his mind.
"Then what about now? Why have all traces of the gods disappeared completely?"
"Ah… that's because later on, the gods simply couldn't agree on what to do with humanity, so a war broke out between the two factions."
Ankh frowned. "I lost?"
"Uh… not exactly."
Yusalk suddenly became a little evasive and mumbled, "The result of the war was that the Divine Realm shattered. Although the gods' strength didn't decrease, their divine bodies were no longer as immortal as before. Of course, even like that, no human could hurt a god…"
"As for what happened afterward, I don't know either. Everyone's probably like me, looking for fun in the human world, right? Zous's faction is probably trying to rebuild a new Divine Realm, slaughter humanity, gather the laws together, and eliminate dissidents."
"As for your side… I heard you wanted to create a great god of freedom that gathered the divine power of all gods while remaining unbound by the laws and the Divine Realm."
Ankh's heart stirred.
He could not help gently touching the crystal necklace on his wrist.
So this was what Anko had entrusted to him.
It did indeed fit Ankhseram's ultimate goal rather well.
The divine power would not be lost, emotions would not be discarded, and the new god would no longer be restrained by the cold, emotionless laws…
As for this story, it sounded as though the laws of all things had originally tried to automatically filter out impurities within the laws themselves—in other words, gods who had developed "emotion"—only to be turned upside down by those gods who had gained selfish desires.
And even now, when the gods seemed to have vanished, this divine war probably had not truly ended.
Ankh glanced toward Yusalk, who looked quite satisfied after spilling everything, and asked, "In that case, are you a god from Zous's side?"
Yusalk pouted and shook his head. "No. Back then, He always thought I was in the way."
Ankh remembered the strangely friendly attitude Yusalk had shown when they first met and asked in confusion.
"Then are you on my side?"
"Nope. Back then, you kicked me every time we met." Yusalk grinned foolishly.
Ankh: …
No, seriously, buddy…
Maybe this was why he lived so happily.
Still, that chaotic choice and personality suited his divine seat as the god of chaos and disorder quite well.
"Then as a neutral party, why do you keep going against me?"
Having basically gotten the answers he wanted and preparing to fight again, Ankh asked one more question.
Yusalk did not seem to notice Ankh getting ready.
He explained, "Because I met Soda earlier. He told me to lure you over to the Eclipse Gate. He said there'd be something really fun to watch!"
Hm?
Ankh froze.
Wasn't this kid a little too honest with his answers?
And that name sounded very familiar.
He seemed to have heard Seram mention it before.
Ankh quickly pressed, "Who is Soda?"
"Soda, the God of Souls, he's part of Zous's faction. Right now, He's hiding inside that person called Rogue."
Ankh's expression instantly turned grave.
A person who had returned from the future had a hostile god hiding inside him.
That god had even deliberately sent a not-so-bright god to lure Ankh toward the Eclipse Gate.
This was so blatant it was obviously a trap!
Was that how the version of himself from that other timeline had disappeared?
But that timeline did not seem to have Rogue, so had this Soda been hiding in the royal capital long before now?
Ankh's heart suddenly tightened, and he quickly asked, "Where is Rogue right now?"
Yusalk answered honestly, "At the Eclipse Gate. He gathered a lot of soldiers there. Once the moon comes out, he's going to open the gate."
Hearing this, Ankh immediately abandoned Yusalk, activated his Time God Take Over, and rushed madly toward the Eclipse Gate.
As a fellow god, Yusalk had natural resistance to Seal of Time.
Seeing Ankh turn back into that "familiar god" form, his eyes instantly lit up.
After struggling with himself for a moment, Yusalk also broke into a run and chased after Ankh.
Compared to Zous, Yusalk still preferred clinging to Ankhseram.
Zous was not gentle at all and always ignored Him.
Ankhseram might love beating Him up, but at least he always took Him everywhere to play…
So…
'Follow him, follow him!'
'There would definitely be something fun to watch!'
Yusalk followed beside him like a faceless black shadow.
Ankh glanced at him and asked, "Are you going to stand with Zous?"
"Mm… I don't know. But I already promised Soda earlier…"
Ankh looked at Yusalk seriously and said, "In that case, I have a request too."
"Yusa!"
Hearing the familiar nickname, Yusalk immediately shook his head happily and patted his chest.
"What is it? Say it."
The Great Bullshitting Technique, activate!
"After the Eclipse Gate opens, more than ten thousand dragons will rampage through the human world. On top of that, there may be other schemes that leave even me unable to provide aid. Is that really what you want to see?"
Yusalk hesitated. "Actually, I kind of do—"
"No, you don't!"
"Of course you don't! Human chaos is one thing, but because of this, you might lose me, your dear friend. How could you possibly be willing to let that happen?"
Yusalk felt that something about this was not quite right, but the phrase "dear friend" made Him feel so delighted that He floated a little.
He chuckled and said, "How would I lose you? You're the hardest one to kill among us."
"Of course you could lose me. As someone who loves humans more than anyone, I will have to stop every dragon and face the trap designed by Zous and the others. Even if I don't die, I'll have to hide for hundreds or thousands of years."
Seeing Yusalk start to waver, Ankh continued whispering in His ear in a tempting tone.
"Think about it. If Soda makes it so I can never appear in the world again, how much fun will this world lose?"
"Think about it. If I'm gone, and my faction disappears too, then Zous will dominate everything and create a world full of puppet-like humans. Would that be interesting?"
"You are the god of chaos and disorder. Is a society that follows the will of gods and remains as still as dead water really what you want to see?"
"If this world is to have disorder, the most important thing is that it must first have an 'order' capable of being disordered."
That line was a little convoluted, but Ankh believed that Yusalk's clever little brain should still be able to understand it.
Sure enough, after imagining the kind of new world Zous and the others would create, Yusalk could not help shuddering.
"Whoa! That sounds so boring!"
A world without waves, a world that only moved according to the gods' intentions—even evil would not be able to disturb such a world.
Then what meaning would His existence have?
His sworn enemy, Lainelk, the god of peace and order, might like such a world…
But Yusalk absolutely would not!
Yusalk immediately looked at Ankh with determination.
"Tell me what you need me to do! For the sake of the fun days ahead, I can temporarily stop playing around right now!"
'Bullshitting complete~'
Ankh nodded in satisfaction.
'A teachable child.'
And in his heart, he silently thought:
'Praise the God of Emotion…'
---------
Read 40 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator