“I want to hear everyone’s opinion.”
The god in the form of a giant crow, Malphas, the God of Horrific Construction, moved his massive body and sat down.
Three gods were seated beside him.
In front of Malphas sat a woman with blonde hair.
“You must be shocked. I didn’t think I’d get to see Barbatos get his ass kicked… and whether he’d die, well, that was a surprise too.”
The goddess with blonde hair, Soliana, chuckled.
“But, I still can’t believe it. Barbatos is a strong one.”
Soliana continued.
“What do you two think?”
The gods on either side reacted in their unique ways.
The God of Flames and Sorrow, Omertha, with fiery hair, slowly opened his mouth.
“Why even ask? If we come across such a bastard, we just need to kill him. There’s no need to spare those who dare oppose the name of a god.”
As soon as Omertha finished speaking, the small woman next to him, nearly all white, spoke up.
The God of Frost and Trials, Hene, with red eyes shimmering softly, said,
“Right. Is there any need to spare him? We decided to clean up half of the Intermediate World’s continents anyway. Before next year ends.”
The continents of the Intermediate World.
Not just the continent of Geherhen where Duke Yuma’s Astes Empire is located, but erasing half of the continents in the Intermediate World. That’s how Yuma and the gods of the Outer World perceived the situation, and all the gods in the Divine Realm referred to themselves as the Eight Deities.
“To completely break the barrier laid out by the Outer World folks, we need that level of divine power.”
Ragnarok.
The godly war of gods. The instigators of that war were the Eight Deities.
On the other side were the quarter of gods who disagreed, occupying half of the Divine Realm, the Outer World faction. And on the Outer World side, there were powerful barriers established that even equivalent gods couldn’t breach.
The barrier did not break even when all the Evil Gods and the gods beneath them attacked.
The Evil Gods and their subordinates could only speculate. More than one Outer World god was probably using their very existence to maintain that barrier.
From the perspective of the Evil Gods, the presence of the Outer World beings within the barrier was simply intolerable.
Those who had fled after being defeated in the battlefield of the gods. It couldn’t just be cast aside as mere inconvenience; those beings were gods.
It was a god.
When preparing a countermeasure and striking back, it wasn’t something that could be shrugged off.
The biggest reason Malphas gathered the [Eight Deities] here was because there was an issue that had to be taken into account in this situation.
The birth power increases when leading beings of the Intermediate World, but it also increases when leading them to ruin.
Half of the ruin will eventually be filled by creation someday.
Malphas finally brought up that issue.
“It’s an human who killed two of the Eight Deities. One of those beings from the Outer World might have intervened and created it.”
Upon hearing Malphas’ words, Hene narrowed her red eyes set in a pale face and spoke.
“That’s correct. Unless those guys helped, it’s impossible for a human to possess the power to defeat our gods… Moreover, the one he killed this time wasn’t just any of the Eight Deities like Incrinew. It was the war god Barbatos, who was stronger than all of us here.”
The war god Barbatos.
The influence Barbatos had over the Divine Realm was far beyond what Yuma, the one who killed him, could ever imagine.
Among the Eight Gods who sparked the war, he was the one who fought at the forefront.
Excluding the two deities who aren’t present here now, there was no god on god combat that could match him one-on-one.
And such a god was killed by a human.
It wasn’t mere coincidence. This was a fact that all four deities present found hard to accept. Malphas had witnessed it in real-time through the crows he had spread across the Intermediate World.
The human named Yuma overwhelmed the war god Barbatos.
And at the end of that overwhelming, he ultimately led him to his demise.
The fire god, Omertha, with flames dancing on his head, clicked his tongue.
He was a god. The very idea of a god having fear of a human was absurd. Not only fear, but even the feeling of being disturbed was un-godlike.
Yet he didn’t like the fact that he perceived that human ‘Yuma’ as a stone that annoyed him.
“I have to admit he’s strong. It’s undeniable that he killed Barbatos… however, he’s just a human. Even if the beings from the Outer World helped somehow, there’s not even a slight chance of him awakening divinity… There’s no possibility of him coming directly to this Divine Realm to kill us.”
Omertha continued to state his organized thoughts.
He went.
“If that guy is strong enough to handle it, then all he has to do is turn the entire continent he’s standing on into ash. If he realizes that everyone is dying because of his existence, his mind will surely wear down. He might even go insane in a frenzy.”
Omertha shared his first hardline strategy regarding Yuma with the gods.
“And no matter how I think about it, just because Barbatos is dead… doesn’t mean we are going to die to him. With the four of us here attacking from the Intermediate World, do you think that human will endure? He would die in an instant.”
The gods slowly nodded at Omertha’s words.
Even if Barbatos was dead, with the four gods present, there was no way they couldn’t kill Yuma.
Not a single god had doubts about that possibility.
First, they were calm. They had built up so much. They knew so much. While they were confident of victory, there was not a single god present who suggested descending to kill that guy right now.
Discomfort.
The discomfort towards a type of human they had never seen before made the gods hesitant to take action.
Of course, the biggest reason was that it was none other than the fallen god Barbatos who had died at Yuma’s hands.
Excluding the two who were not present, there was no god who could win in a one-on-one confrontation against the fallen god.
The blonde goddess, Soliana, recalled the two gods in her mind.
When it came to overall abilities, there were clearly two gods who were stronger than Barbatos.
‘…If they stepped up, no matter how much of a killer he was, I could definitely finish him off.’
However, even so, she couldn’t rely on the two.
Like the three around her, she had the desire to possess strength that surpassed the two.
Moreover, the knowledge that they were aware of their own greatness and didn’t even attend meetings like this soured her mood.
That was also why the other gods, aside from Berthios, recalled the two who were not present but didn’t voice it out loud.
The god in the form of a giant crow, Malphas, slowly opened his mouth.
“First, let’s send the gods we have under us down to the continent and keep an eye on things. And soon, let’s make sure to burn half of the Intermediate World.”
The other three gods nodded at Malphas’s words.
They decided to send down their subordinate gods, meaning the second-tier gods.
The hierarchy of gods had three tiers, with the third tier being the lowest. However, just because they were lower didn’t mean first-tier gods could order them around.
They were just lower in rank. A god was still a god.
It took quite a bit of time to bring down the gods that were held below.
To the gods, it might have felt like just a moment, but to humans, it was a pretty long time.
It’s not like they were in a position to give absolute orders.
Now, the members of the [Six Deities] who had become deities were all deep in thought as they returned to their territories.
Barbatos, who belonged to the ranks of absolute power, was dead. The fact that a human killed Barbatos was too shocking to shake off in just a day or two.
*
Duke Yuma stared at the being before him.
Kneeling before him was Garenmoon, the Great Angel with a huge build and blond hair.
Yuma was seated in a chair. Garenmoon continued to kneel before him.
The master of the celestial realm, Arten, pondered deeply for three days. Who could he send that wouldn’t provoke the anger of the human who killed a god? After much deliberation, he sent his right-hand man, Garenmoon.
Whether Yuma would even care about sending his left arm was uncertain, but it was a choice made to show he was trying to be respectful.
Yuma spoke while looking at Garenmoon.
“So, what’s the message from the celestial realm that you brought?”
Garenmoon’s golden eyes stared into Yuma’s purple ones.
‘Too calm.’
Is this the vibe of someone who killed a god?
Garenmoon finally spoke.
“Our Celestial Sovereign wishes to apologize for the offense committed against you, Duke Yuma.”
Yuma had to rewind his memory a bit to recall the time when a messenger was sent to him and Bell from the celestial realm.
The impression of Barbatos in that battle state had been so strong that his memory of the encounter with the messenger had faded.
Once he recalled it, it was clearly not a matter to be settled with just words.
From Yuma and Bell’s perspective, it was about annihilating their personality and turning them into puppets.
Deciding to pile on some wickedness again, Yuma said,
“Seeing that the Celestial Sovereign didn’t come personally, it seems like he doesn’t really intend to apologize.”
Of course, from the perspective of those on the receiving end, it wasn’t wickedness. It was a threat coming from someone who had killed a god.
“Uh, the Celestial Sovereign cannot leave the celestial realm. Thus, I was sent as his closest aide.”
It seemed to be a similar predicament to the Great Demon King who couldn’t move from the demon realm.
Yuma spoke again.
“Compensation.”
Garenmoon’s eyes widened.
“Excuse me?”
“If you’re going to apologize, you should have brought a compensation plan too.”
As Yuma said this, he mulled over what he should get from the celestial beings.
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