Chapter 228
"Hey, Southern One.""What?""Isn't this kinda cheating?"
The now-familiar floating garden—the game board of the gods.
Five deities had gathered there.
Four of them glared at Kefri, the Goddess of Wisdom, who sat unfazed, reading Earth’s manga with a bored expression.
"It doesn’t break any rules.""It doesn’t, but come on!? That’s supposed to happen way later, right!? How is this possible now!?""Who knows?"
Even as the God of War, Akam, complained, Kefri remained calm—though internally, she herself had no idea why her champion had managed to infiltrate the Spirit Realm with his companions.
She played dumb, but truthfully, Kefri didn’t understand why it was happening at this stage.
"Don’t play coy. Did you give your champion that knowledge too?"
If there was foul play, Metel, the Goddess of Mediation, wouldn’t stay silent. Annoyed, Kefri reluctantly closed her manga (featuring a ghostly figure in an unusual pose) and finally addressed the situation her champion had caused.
"If you’re asking whether I directly gave him the knowledge, then no. But the method does exist within the system—if one researches it, they can obtain it. So in a way, yes, I allowed it. My champion knows how to enter the Spirit Realm. But the method we’re aware of follows the intended path: defeating the sealed entity in the Western One’s continent."
This wasn’t an excuse—Kefri herself hadn’t expected this turn of events.
Though, if asked whether she hoped for it, she’d admit she did.
"Ahhh, right. That thing the old man in the Western continent is guarding like a treasure."
If this was truly an unforeseen exploit, Kefri stood to benefit. Had it been an outright violation, she’d have been in trouble—but since the Spirit King himself had invited them in, there was no rule-breaking involved.
Still, the gods were displeased. Their intended route required defeating the entity imagined by Paffle, the Goddess of Love, to gain an audience with the Spirit King.
"That’s one of the Evil God’s trial mechanisms, right? But it’s so tough that by the time you can beat it, going to the Spirit Realm barely matters anymore."
Entering the Spirit Realm itself wasn’t forbidden.
But the timing and method were too convenient, and the other gods weren’t happy.
"But gaining access now could severely disrupt the balance. This is a critical issue for our competition."
Goldos, who had sent his champion to the East, spoke for the group. The other three (minus Kefri) agreed.
"Still, it’s not against the rules.""Exactly! Senior Kefri hasn’t done anything wrong. She hasn’t even exploited a loophole—this is purely the rules’ fault."
But even if they agreed, they couldn’t blame Kefri.
The Northern champion was busy with tribal conflicts.The Eastern champion was engrossed in commerce.The Western champion aimed to conquer the continent.And the latecomer, Love’s champion, was still finding their footing.
"You’re all wasting time on unnecessary things. My champion is focused on growing stronger and has scheduled the Evil God’s defeat into his plans."
The others’ champions had taken detours, and now the gap was widening.
They knew panicking wouldn’t help—but this development was disastrous.
"...Southern One, I have a question.""What is it, Eastern One?"
Goldos voiced the doubt weighing on them all.
"Is your champion truly human?""Senior Goldos, what do you mean? For this competition, the champion’s soul must be human, right?"
The question was critical. Lies held no power among gods.
The others’ reactions would hinge on Kefri’s answer.
"He is human. That much is undeniable."
Kefri met their gazes squarely. She knew her champion was human.
"...I see. My apologies. It’s just that your champion is too versatile.""Yeah, I thought so too. My champion has plenty of talents, but they’re all combat-related. Yours excels in everything. The range is absurd."
Kefri couldn’t blame them for doubting. If Libertà had been another god’s champion, she would’ve been suspicious too.
"Human talent depends on the soul. Eastern One, you suspected I’d created a Chimera Soul, didn’t you?""...There have been cases in past battles. That’s all."
The concern was the Chimera Soul—a fusion of souls, merging talents into a superhuman hero.
Only gods could manipulate souls, and in the past, one had tried to create such a being to win the throne of the Chief God.
At first, it worked. But merging souls was impossible, even for gods.
The conflicting powers rebelled, the hero went berserk, and the result was self-destruction.
The gods who remembered the devastation couldn’t risk a repeat here.
But the suspicion was unfounded.
Goldos averted his eyes awkwardly, and Kefri let it slide.
"But at this rate, Senior Kefri’s champion will win by a landslide, won’t he?""That possibility has undeniably increased."
Paffle’s blunt remark made the atmosphere tense, but Metel agreed.
"Western One, do you have a plan to turn things around?""Let me ask you this—are your champions so weak they’d give up this easily? If so, my job just got easier.""There are issues. But my champion isn’t so soft as to surrender."
Had any god conceded here, Kefri would’ve been relieved. Unfortunately, these deities were all stubborn.
"True. Mine’s about to unify the tribes. Once that’s done, he’ll head to the central continent and catch up in no time.""My champion’s funds are steadily accumulating. When the time comes, he’ll make his move.""Unlike you seniors, mine’s just getting started. But don’t count me out~"
Just as the gods considered issuing divine decrees to counter Kefri’s advantage, Paffle pointed at the board.
"Seniors. Look at this.""..."
She gestured toward a certain ruin—a base for the Evil God’s cult, previously occupied by a bandit group who reported a strange object to their employer, a certain duke.
To the gods, this place was significant.
Mainly because it was a danger zone.
"It’s starting to move, isn’t it?""It is."
There, pulsing ominously, was a crimson egg-like object.
A trial mechanism by the Evil God’s side, designed as a late-game obstacle to test the champions.
It wasn’t supposed to activate this early.
Yet the seal was undeniably breaking.
The egg throbbed with life. It wouldn’t awaken immediately, but the seal was definitely weakening.
In gaming terms, it was as if the Grand Quest progress had silently advanced without their notice.
Sweat dripped down the gods’ brows.
"This is bad, right?""Very bad.""No, this isn’t the time for calm! This is really bad!!""What’s going on!? Why is Aži Dahāka activating!?""We don’t know! Southern One, did you do something!?"
The situation was dire.
This was not part of the plan.
"How insulting. Even I wouldn’t do that. What would I gain? My champion’s territory is the first to suffer.""R-Right. My apologies."
Aži Dahāka was a disaster monster, meant as training for the champions to prepare for the Evil God.
Its strength was enough to erase a continent’s civilization if awakened prematurely.
"Luckily, the limiters are still active. It’s progressing through the phased unlocking system, so we have some time.""What about the seal?""...I checked. It says the seal was lifted legitimately."
The gods panicked as they confirmed the details.
Aži Dahāka was meant to awaken—but not yet.
The four-directional seal should’ve been intact.
Yet it had been undone through proper procedures.
"...How? The only legitimate way to break it is with a saint’s sacrifice.""There was a saint among the sacrifices, wasn’t there...?"
Saints were rare. But due to an incident, one had been stranded in the Southern continent.
The gods scoured the world’s logs to understand how this happened.
"Found her. A quarreling couple traveling from the Southern to the Western continent.""Wow, they’re fighting hard. But why are they in the Northern territory?""Looks like after the fight, they abandoned the Western trip and headed East instead. They planned to apologize to their rival in the capital, maybe even reconcile.""But they got spotted by that man in an alley, dragged to his mansion, then taken to the Northern lands and imprisoned. Tough luck.""Indeed. Afflicted by divine punishment, her health worsened. The man grew bored and offered her as a sacrifice..."
They’d found the reason for Aži Dahāka’s awakening.
The gods could only mourn the girl’s cruel fate—a series of misfortunes so extreme it was almost unreal.
The rest was up to the underworld deities.
The real problem was that Aži Dahāka was awakening, and they had no way to stop it.
This was a catastrophe born of overlapping misfortunes.
If Jakaran hadn’t been in the Southern continent...If the Mad Jester hadn’t left the Western continent...If the Eastern noble hadn’t cheated...If the Southern champion hadn’t met a certain noble’s daughter...
Four misfortunes had converged to unleash disaster.
There was still time.
But no one knew how much.
The gods could only watch and ponder their next move.