Free Web NovelChapter 245: Chapter 245 - Answers and Questions
Eden’s brow furrowed. "Wait. Wait wait wait! I don’t get it!" He put his hands out, stopping them from continuing their story. "How could no one know!? If the Dark One raided the temple and fought the Time Goddess, surely, that would be a loud and visible confrontation?"
Merath lightly shook his head. "No." He brought his head up, keeping eye contact with Eden. "You see, Gods are forbidden from direct conflict with one another."
"W-what?" Eden was baffled. "Hold on. If that’s the case, that part makes sense, but then how did the Goddess die?"
"That," Lumi replied. "is the trillion Em question."
Merath continued. "Indeed. There is no way for them to attack each other. That is a law of the universe, not a rule that can be broken by willpower or strength. That is how the question that has never been answered came to be. If gods cannot fight each other, how did the Goddess of Time die?"
He shook his head. "It remains one of the great unanswered questions," Merath said quietly. "I have spent considerable time on it. I have no satisfying answer."
"Perhaps..." Eden began to ponder outloud, but soon stopped himself, knowing he would be commenting on things beyond his league.
"Perhaps what?" Lumi urged him to continue. Whatever Eden said would certainly be wrong, but who cared? He wanted to show that Eden was free to express his thoughts.
"Well, I was just thinking..." Eden began, "And I know I’m wrong, but I was just thinking, could it be that she reached the end of her lifespan? Or otherwise, the Dark One already knew something would happen at that date? And then he was opportunistic, taking advantage of her absence to start a war she could not reverse?
"I like your thinking." Lumi praised. "It couldn’t be the case, but I like it."
"Oh..." Eden looked down. "I knew I wasn’t going to be right. Shouldn’t have said anything."
"Nothing is wrong with expressing your thoughts." Lumi corrected him. "And to explain, unlike us, Gods can’t die from old age. As for something else happening to her, that indeed is the question, as we know of nothing that could possibly kill a god."
Eden sat with that for a moment. Sol made a soft sound on his shoulder, and Eden reached up absently to let the phoenix press against his hand.
Lumi moved on. "The third god is the Goddess of Life."
He paused, then continued contemplatively. "She is sealed away. She’s not dead, for her death would be profoundly noticeable throughout the world. However, she is, indeed, sealed."
"W-why?" Eden was baffled. Sealing the Dark One away was one thing. He was a villain threatening the world. Who would seal the Goddess of Life?
"She sealed herself." Merath replied to him. "Infact, during the old war, she lent her great power to the heroes. This severely weakened her, causing her to take her world tree away and rest under a seal."
He looked straight at Eden. "The problem, however, is that she told the world, very specifically, that she would be restored and free in seven hundred years. It has since been seven hundred and fifty-nine years. No one has seen her, nor has her voice been heard. No one can locate her. Her followers pray and receive nothing. Every attempt to reach her has produced no response." He spread his hands slightly. "She is simply gone. Where, or why, nobody knows."
"Gone." Eden repeated. "Gone, like the Goddess of Time was suddenly gone one day? Are we absolutely sure she’s alive?"
"Absolutely sure." Merath replied to him. "To be specific, if she died, the lands would wither away. As that has not happened, she is alive."
He added, "I will not pretend this is not deeply troubling. However, the unfortunate reality of the situation is so. No one knows what to do about it."
"Tch." Lena clicked her teeth and frowned. "And I suppose efforts had already been made to find her."
Merath nodded. "That is so."
With that out of the way, Lumi continued. "The fourth god is the God of Light."
He stopped there for a moment, watching Eden’s face. "Also known," Lumi continued, "as the Dark One."
Eden went very still. Then he sudden snapped straight. "So that’s why he’s called a god! Darn it, darn it! I thought, I thought it was just a way of saying he’s powerful. We’re talking about the same one, right?"
"The same one," Lumi confirmed. "He is a god. The being that the entire world knows as the Dark One, the source of all of this, is the God of Light."
Eden was quiet for a long time. Sol shifted on his shoulder, pressing closer, sensing the discomfort.
Merath let the silence sit for a moment before continuing. "The Dark One started a war. He turned his power against the world that he was a god of. Dark magics of a scale and severity the world had never seen struck the land."
He paused. "When the devastation began, the world did what it always had done when confronted with catastrophe. It looked to the Goddess of Time."
"To reverse it?" Eden questioned.
"To reverse it." Merath confirmed. "She had done so before, in smaller ways. Restored what had been destroyed. It was within her power. If anyone could undo what was being done, it was her. But she was already dead. She had been dead. And no one knew." frёewebηovel.cѳm
"Okay." Lena had been following along, and there was something she absolutely could not reconcile without making sure. "So to confirm, the Goddess of Time was an existential roadblock in the Dark One’s plans."
"Yes." Merath confirmed.
"Which means," Lena continued. "He had everything to gain from her death."
"Yes." Merath once again nodded.
Lena took a deep breath. "And the Dark One began his invasion pretty much immediately after she died."
"Approximately, yes." Merath nodded.
Lena’s expression went flat. "And you are both telling me he had nothing to do with it? The one being with the motive and power to do it, and it wasn’t him just because he supposedly isn’t allowed to?"
"When you put it that way..." Even Eden was starting to be convinced by her logic. "It does seem likely it was him."
"To be clear," Merath had to interject. "We know he must have had something to do with it. However, we know without a single shadow of a doubt that the law that gods cannot attack each other is absolute."
Lena wasn’t convinced. "And you’re sure of this?"
Merath’s gaze became slightly more stern. "Yes, I already said so."
"Alright," Lena put her hands up as if weighing a scale. "How sure are we talking?"
"Absolutely sure!" Merath snapped. "How many times must I repeat it?"
"Maybe ten more times." Lena didn’t give in. "I don’t know, Merath. Wouldn’t it be quite the shame if the entire world was operating under false assumptions which causes us all to die later? How do you know that gods can’t attack each other, anyways? Are you a god? Why are we so certain regarding the rules that gods operate under?" freēwēbnovel.com
"The gods said so!" Merath replied, weary. "They said so, alright? Every single one of them!"
"Oh," Lena rolled her eyes. "So we’re just believing them, now?"
Merath couldn’t help himself. "And what reason would they have to lie!?"
"Excuse me..." Eden softly spoke, though he was ignored.
"You’re messing with me." Lena stated, blankly. "You’re messing with me, right? What reason would someone have to lie?"
"A god." Merath corrected.
"Alright, let’s look at the list of gods." Lena began to count. "We have the God of Light, wait a minute, that’s an evil bad guy! And evil bad guys have no moral incentive to tell the truth!"
"And the others...?" Merath urged, since her theory meant nothing without explaining the others collaborating the statement.
"Perhaps," Lena replied. "They simply figured it was best for global stability if the people didn’t live in fear of their gods killing each other."
"Um, one second..." Eden tried to interject again, but couldn’t.
"Or perhaps!" She continued before Merath could even get a word in. "There is a restriction, but there’s a loophole, and no one knew that before no god ever tried acting against another until the Dark One tried!"
Merath took a deep breath, closing his eyes, before opening them again. "Lena. If that was the case, the Goddess of Life would have said something. She was still active for years after the Dark One attacked. And not only was she never attacked once by the Dark One, she never attacked the Dark One directly either."
"Everyone!" Lumi yelled out, and patted Eden on the back. "Eden has been trying to say something."
Three pairs of eyes suddenly found their way to staring at one very awkward boy. "Um..."
"Chirp!" Sol reassured Eden.
"Right." Eden perked up, and started. "Is there any reason to believe... it HAD to be the dark one who killed her?"
