Encountering A Strange Phenomenon

Suddenly my vision darkened and I felt my mind grow faint.

And not long after, I opened my eyes in a place I had never seen before.

A clear blue sky. Not a single cloud.

An endless, vast meadow stretched out, flowers and green grass rippling like waves with every breeze, evoking a paradise.

In the middle of the meadow was a low hill. A tranquil wooden cottage perched atop it added to the charm.

‘What is this?’

A paradise? A place I wanted to stay and rest.

There is no being that could bring me—a participant in the Battlefield of the Gods— to a place like this. Precisely, no one except the Creator.

And yet, the place I came to when I lost consciousness is something like this?

No one appeared. I waited just in case, but the being who invited me here did not show up.

Only the occasional breeze reminded me this place was not frozen in time.

I had no choice but to move toward the cottage on the hill.

Strangely, I didn’t feel urgency. For the first time since entering the Battlefield of the Gods, I felt completely unhurried.

Relaxed. Comfortable. And leisurely.

After walking like that, I was at the cottage before I realized it.

It had seemed quite far, but it took no time at all to get there.

About to knock, I realized out of habit I hadn’t even spread my senses.

I spread my senses, inspected, and opened the cottage door. The door opened smoothly with no sound.

Inside were six people—men and women. No, five of them were chatting quietly, and one lay face down on the floor. Like a dog.

“Oh? You’re here?”

“Ah… it’s you?”

“….”

“Did he look like that? Oh my, he’s my type.”

“Huh? I’m your fan!”

The five looked at me and reacted individually. Before I could ask what they were doing or who they were, two women each grabbed an arm and I was led away obediently.

‘Obediently? Being led? Me?’

They were definitely women. Not even warrior-type women. I was easily led by those two. I tried to force my way out, but it was pointless.

Before I knew it, I was pulled under the table where the five were gathered. There, a man knelt like a servant or dog.

“First, how are you so good at punching? Huh?”

The woman who said she was my fan leaned in so close her lips nearly touched and asked with sparkling eyes.

I pushed the woman’s forehead with a finger and looked around. The five’s gazes differed, but all shared a note of fondness toward me.

“Wait! Shouldn’t you explain what’s going on first?”

“Ah? Ah… I see. You don’t know where this is. We hurried because we assumed the owner would know. Sorry. Hehe.”

An endlessly bright woman. The one who chattered at her own pace suddenly bowed her head and offered an apology.

Then, in a bright voice like a tinkling bell, she began to explain the situation.

“So this is your mental image… and this guy broke in here… sniff… it’s hard. I know what it is but I can’t explain it. Sword-pervert, you explain.”

No, she tried to explain. She failed, of course.

“Who’s calling me a pervert!”

“Hmph! The kind of pervert who makes swords wail is the real pervert!”

“…Ugh. Enough. Nice to meet you. I’ve long forgotten my name. Everyone called me the Sword’s Wail. You can call me that too. Anyway, this is your mental world. The manifestation was done by that bard Sophia who followed us around, but the owner of this place is clearly you. And we’re just borrowing it for a bit. Sophia did it for us—she squeezed her way in.”

He pointed at the man lying on the floor as he spoke.

But so many words came at once that it took my head a while to process them, like when the talents ‘Insight’ and ‘Analysis’ don’t work.

The statements the man casually uttered were that astonishing.

“…Wait. So this is my mental world or something? And you say you’re the Sword’s Wail? The soul stone? The Sophia you mentioned—are you saying that Sophia? The Creator’s chronicler? A god?”

As I pointed out things one by one, the man’s expression brightened as if he understood.

“Right, you notice quickly. We are indeed the five beings of the soul stone. And that Sophia child is a god… well, she has been outstanding since before. That’s all correct.”

He nodded in affirmation.

I almost wished he’d denied it. It’s not unreasonable to want to deny the current situation.

“…What on earth is happening? This Battlefield of the Gods is…”

Maybe he heard my grumble. The man who introduced himself as the Sword’s Wail grew serious.

“Hmm… it seems something is happening. For us it’s nice to come out into a mental image from the soul stone, but you might find it a bit… unsettling.”

“Ugh… fine. But is it even allowed for you who were in the inventory—no, the inner space—to come out like this? That doesn’t make sense. And before that, from what that woman said, can you normally see me?”

“First I’ll answer the easy question I can. We normally watch you. But don’t worry, we’re not peeping on you in bed. We can see you for about an hour a day or so. More than that would be exhausting… haha.”

“How…?”

“Hm? Well. If you ask how it just happens… how should I answer?”

It just does, apparently. How impressive are these men—no, these monsters—that from within an inner space, trapped in a soul stone, they can see their owner’s form?

“And as for other questions… um… in our time there was no such thing as a representative like you, so I couldn’t understand what that meant then. How should I explain… ah, here. Swallow this.”

The man called the Sword’s Wail pondered to himself and held out his hand. In his palm, a blue orb emitted a faint shimmering light.

“Huh? Don’t worry. It’s only storing memories. I told you, you are the owner of this place. Besides, we have no reason to do such things. We’re tired of living as souls now anyway.”

The Sword’s Wail confidently handed me the orb, and since my instincts gave no warning of danger, I picked it up and put it in my mouth.

Then memories flashed through my mind in fragments, like movie trailers.

“Hello, elders.”

“Stop calling us elders!”

…

…

“So the being who is supposed to guide us to the underworld is in danger right now? Because of an irregular?”

“Yes… I’m asking you.”

“As you know, we’re not in a position to decide such things. Moreover, no matter how strong that representative is, he wouldn’t be able to withstand all five of us…?”

“I’ll handle that.”

…

…

“So to summarize, the Creator, unable to tolerate the gods’ prideful behavior, introduced proxy warfare by deploying representatives? The representative assigned to guide us to the underworld this time is one He watches closely, and an irregular interfered? And that irregular entered the representative’s mental world in a soul state? And you want us to deal with that?”

“Yes. To be precise, we ask for capture rather than elimination. There are things to investigate. By the way, you all haven’t changed.”

“We’ve been like this ever since. It takes having flesh to change; living as souls, we don’t change much. It’s like time stopped. Well then, shall we go save the one who will save us?”

“Thank you.”

“No. Strictly speaking, it might not even be our place to ask you to do this. So I’m asking, Sophia. From what I heard you can’t interfere recklessly—are you sure this is okay? If you’re pushing yourself because of us, don’t do it.”

“No. He’ll probably be curious later anyway, Kim Han, so I’ll explain in detail. It’ll be easier for him to understand if you transfer the memories to him.”

Sophia began to speak in earnest. Perhaps the reason the man called the Sword’s Wail offered the memory orb was to show this.

“When Kim Han fought a god disguised as another representative, on the surface it was a dispute between representatives so we couldn’t intervene. We had no immediate proof that he was a god. Our suspicion was 200%, but you can’t set a precedent of intervening in representative disputes based on suspicion alone. We were pacing anxiously, but we didn’t expect Kim Han to defeat him…”

As Sophia spoke, she showed a surprised expression as if recalling that time.

“But the one who entered that representative’s body tried to invade Kim Han’s spirit. He even called himself Manus, the sinner. That gives enough justification for intervention. In fact, Kim Han’s patron god wanted to manifest immediately, and I had to stop her. Even if she were to manifest, there would be nothing to say to stop her.”

“Really? Sounds serious. If a god would manifest?”

“Yes, it’s foolish. If he had simply died, we’d have no evidence and couldn’t do anything… Anyway, subduing him would be no trouble, and please take this opportunity to give Kim Han some advice. It seems there’s a plan only Kim Han and the Creator know about. For that he needs to become stronger. Above all, as I said about this Battlefield of the Gods, one god has intervened and it’s a troublesome situation.”

“Really? The battlefield’s bard Sophia is troubled… Anyway, do we just use force and wait? It’s not a bad thing for us. Thanks to the Creator’s grace we’re trapped in soul stones and can talk to each other, but if we could escape these tiresome soul stones, we’d be even more grateful.”

“Thank you.”

The scenery changed to a bleak wasteland where someone was planting a tree. Looking closely, it was the man who had been kneeling on the ground.

Unaware that the five had arrived, the man continued energetically planting trees as he drew nearer.

“Is that you?”

“…Huh? You, you guys, what are you?”

“You bastard, what are you planting in someone else’s soul right now?! Perverted bastard!”

“…Gak!! How can this be. You, you guys, what are you! What is this…”

A one-sided beating. The Sword’s Wail didn’t start it. It was the woman who earlier said she was my fan—noble and dignified—who struck him.

“Kraah!! Aah! Ugh!!”

The man screamed in all sorts of ways. The woman swung her fists and feet with a smile that even seemed relieving.

Judging by the Sword’s Wail’s vision shaking left and right, he might have been shaking his head.

While one woman did that, another went around pulling up the ominous black saplings the man had planted, rubbing them between her hands until they turned to dust and disappeared.

“Hey, hey, stop. You’ll cause a Destruction if you keep that up.”

“…Ah, right. We were told not to kill, weren’t we?”

“Why would some fangirling puncher awaken divinity and be called by some absurd name like the Holy Touch? She should have awakened Force instead.”

Someone murmured quietly beside me, and this time the vision shook up and down. He must have been nodding.

The Sword’s Wail approached the man sprawled on the floor and delivered a one-sided notice.

“You’ll have to wait here a bit. By the way, this mental world is really desolate. How is it just a dustless wasteland?”

The footage ended there. Sophia appeared, and I had to acknowledge that these five were indeed beings contained in a soul stone.

Then is the one shoved down like a dog the same person who just traded blows with me, the one claiming to be Manus?

“Do you understand?”

“Yes. You saved me. Thank you.”

“Ah… well, as you’ve seen, we actually like this place better.”

I don’t know exactly what a soul stone is, but sentient beings dislike being trapped in a confined space. From their perspective, this place must be a blessing.

“Yes. Then may I speak with ‘that’ for a moment?”

“Ah! Yes, of course.”

I passed by the Sword’s Wail who had stepped aside and approached the guy who was still gasping from the beating.

Without meeting his eye level, I looked down and asked.

“Is it you? The one pretending to be Manus?”

“…Kim Han. Damn.”

“It’s you? But how did you get in? I’m a proper representative.”

“Your skill—it’s because of that.”

“My skill??”

“Yes. The skill that at the end cut the throat of the corpse I was in—no, the corpse I inhabited.”

“…Why?”

“What… you don’t know? That skill of yours—didn’t you know it deals damage to the soul? What kind of skill do you think could harm divinity?”

This was news to me too. I had known Deicide as a skill manifested by thickening one’s killing intent and adding will, and I had been using it that way…

Moreover, during the process of learning the two skills, hadn’t I experienced them firsthand? Neither Deicide nor Destruction felt like they struck the soul.

But with the result right before my eyes, it’s hard to deny it.

“You use your skill without knowing how it manifests? Are you the only weird one? Or is the guy I possessed an idiot? The one I possessed wasn’t like that.”

“…More importantly, why do you keep crawling into other people’s bodies? If you think of yourself as Manus, that implies you’re a god—don’t you have any pride as a god? First you inhabited half-corpses, now you enter enemies’ bodies?”

First, I should ask Bioss or Talis about Deicide and Destruction, so I returned to this guy’s issue.

It’s actually nonsensical. A god wearing a corpse to appear and kill a representative? No matter how low a god, they’d never do that.

‘Gods live and die by pride…’

“Pride? Ha! Before deep-rooted vengeance such things are meaningless. And you think you’ve won now? Heh. I too have a last resort. Kim Han, it’s not over until it’s over.”

With a sneering face, a force rose from the man’s body like a gathering flame.

“The original plan failed because of those monsters, but I can’t leave evidence. Moreover, this is your unconscious. Leaving deep scars here wouldn’t be bad either.”

He really talks too much. Is he some kind of explain-bot?

Why was I so calm? Because the heroes around me were utterly unperturbed. Two of the men were even asleep.

“Take care, Kim Han! See you with another me!!”

Just as the man’s aura seemed about to explode and I began to feel uneasy,

“Where do you think you’re going? You said everything you had? You’re really talkative.”

A woman’s clear voice rang through the cottage, and the aura of the man who called himself Manus vanished as if washed away, leaving a look of bewilderment on his previously twisted, demonic face.