“Luminarly, that’s the spear you usually used, right?”
“Yes. It was originally a divine artifact that paired with Elearis’s Holy Lance Eclipse, but when I became her proxy, that spear was the one transferred to me.”
Listening to Melfina’s explanation, it seemed that after Mel finished her role as proxy, Luminarly was supposed to be transferred back to the world of gods according to the original system. However, that transfer did not happen. It’s likely that Mel’s fall meant she was outside the jurisdiction of divine power, making the transfer impossible. Mel herself came to this conclusion after some time.
“After respectfully burying your body, I wandered the world to escape Elearis’s notice. Fortunately, even after falling, I was able to conceal my wings and halo, so hiding myself wasn’t too difficult.”
“Indeed, with Mel at level 90, ordinary soldiers or adventurers shouldn’t have been able to find you… But how did you manage to avoid Elearis, who was a goddess back then? If Luminarly wasn’t returned, wouldn’t she have searched desperately?”
“Even as a Reincarnated Goddess, I wasn’t omnipotent in the mortal realm. I couldn’t descend without using a golem, and I couldn’t defeat the Demon King directly. Even defeating me indirectly as her proxy required considerable power, a kind of trump card, so to speak. For a while, she could only communicate with Delamis’s shrine maiden through oracles and have people search for me.”
“Ah, gods were indeed troublesome beings. I didn’t have that impression thanks to Mel’s excellent golem.”
“That golem was based on Elearis’s body. Yes, it was indeed too excellent…”
Don’t be discouraged, don’t be discouraged. I hugged her tightly.
“What happened after that?”
“…The first thing I thought of was revenge. Against Elearis, against this world… For several decades, I kept running while holding Luminarly, gradually increasing my power without appearing on the main stage. I only lit the black flame within me, with your mementos as my only solace…”
“…”
“I thought I might as well become a Demon King. If I followed the same path as you and became a Demon King, perhaps I could trample this world and take revenge on Elearis… More than anything, I thought I might see that engagement ring again… But one day, I realized. Revenge is just self-satisfaction. Doing this wouldn’t bring you back to life. Doing this wouldn’t make you happy…”
“I see, so that’s why you returned from your fallen state?”
The passage of several decades seemed to have brought Mel, who was at the depths of hatred, a sense of calm. And then, she aimed to become a god to improve the world’s system.
“N-no… Rather than becoming a Demon King and destroying, becoming a Reincarnated Goddess would allow me to revive you, and perhaps create a world where battles with strong individuals you loved would occur more frequently. And, well… I hadn’t returned from my fallen state…”
“…”
Mel, you’ve come up with something even more amazing with the calm you were given. No, I’m happy about it. My wife is more active than I ever imagined.
“I understand why you tried to become a god. But becoming a god isn’t easy, is it? I don’t know the details myself either…”
“That’s correct. One doesn’t become a Reincarnated Goddess by wanting to; it happens when the gods themselves encounter a problem, and the Chief of Angels determines that continued operation is impossible, causing the god to retire from their seat.”
“Retire’ sounds like strange wording… Do angels decide when a god retires?”
“The journey with you started with paid leave. Uh, in modern terms, it’s like a board resolution to dismiss a director, isn’t it?”
So, angels are under the control of gods, and at the same time, they act as their supervisors.
“However, those who become Chief of Angels are extremely mechanical; they don’t bring any emotions into their decisions.”
“…Are they actually like robots?”
“Visually, they don’t look much different from humans like me. However, upon becoming a chief, their emotions are stripped away. This is to ensure they can always make the correct judgment and avoid favoritism.”
“Isn’t the society of angels stricter than that of demons?”
“Even so, it’s an honor for angels. It wasn’t for me, but those who desired it did so joyfully.”
What a black company and salaryman spirit. Angels are so different from what I imagined…!
“To make Elearis step down as Reincarnated Goddess, I needed to cause her some kind of problem. So, I focused on the Divine Pillars that she had newly incorporated into the world as a system.”
“Divine Pillars, those are like the divine wolves Sera fought, or Goun’s divine beasts?”
“Yes. The Divine Pillars were established not only to defeat Demon Kings but also to protect those beyond the reach of heroes from evil monsters.”
“The definition of ‘evil monsters’ was vague, though. Sera’s touch activated them too.”
“Um, that’s… my fault…”
…What?
“While in hiding and increasing my power, I learned how to use Luminarly’s abilities. As you know, this holy spear has the power to sever evil hearts and turn them good, and to directly annihilate evil beings. What I discovered was an application of the power to sever evil hearts. If I can cut out evil from a target, do you know where that evil goes?”
“If it’s purified, wouldn’t it just disappear?”
“No. Evil energy doesn’t disappear; it’s sealed within Luminarly. Luminarly has a purification effect, like a ‘Black Book,’ where it’s cleansed little by little over time. Little by little… I focused on the unpurified evil energy contained within Luminarly. I wondered if I could transfer this dark energy, siphoned from wicked people, to others.”
Earlier, Mel had linked Elearis’s downfall to the Divine Pillars. Could it be…?
“As I suspected, it was possible. Or rather, it might have been possible precisely because I had fallen. From then on, I spent time searching for the locations of the Divine Pillars and injected them with this evil energy. Shortly after, incidents of the Divine Pillars malfunctioning occurred in various places. As I had hoped, the Divine Pillars began attacking everything, regardless of good or evil. Although the Divine Pillars have now lost much of their divine power and are greatly weakened, at the time, they possessed power equivalent to that of a divine proxy. A large number of angels were mobilized in response to the emergency, and the situation was quickly brought under control, but the damage in various regions was immense. And then, the Chief of Angels made a decision. They decided that Elearis, who had created the system of Divine Pillars, should be removed from the seat of god…!”
The reason Elearis was removed from the seat of Reincarnated Goddess was that Mel had misused the Divine Pillars she had created. Ah, I know. I know perfectly well that now is not the time to bring this up. Mel is telling me this despite her shame. I am not a Demon King right now; I am a rational battle maniac. I can understand that much without difficulty—
“…Were the old Divine Pillars that strong? How strong? Stronger than the Dragon King?”
I failed.
On December 2nd, there will be an announcement about The Black Summoner on Nico Live hosted by Overlap.
For details, please check the activity report.
