On a Godless Planet:Volume2A Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Kageki

–Issssn’t freeeedom graaand?

●

Raidou watched Kido out of the corner of his eye.

Scarecrow had told them that the Roman god Neptune had called her name.

That meant she had some connection to the Roman gods. But…

<Do you remember the name of the Roman gods’ leader?>

Kido’s response to Balancer’s question was clear.

“…”

She ignored it.

She was expressionless, like this didn’t concern her at all. Shifu seemed focused on Kido too, but she would have given him some kind of signal if she had noticed anything.

But this lack of reaction meant Kido was hiding her reaction.

Raidou saw this as confirmation he was onto something.

“The Roman gods’ leader is Jupiter, same as the planet, right?”

<Correct. The planet takes its name from the god.>

●

“I’d only ever heard the Japanese pronunciation with a ‘y’ sound at the start, which makes it sound so cute and adorable.”

<FYI: He is generally depicted as an old man with a long beard.>

“It’s funny how the vibe people get from different sounds differs between country and region.”

“Like how some people think voiced consonants sound vulgar.”

“Kuwajiri Tsubomi has two voiced consonants, so are you double vulgar?”

“Sumeragi Izumi has just as many.”

“Not a problem! ‘Senpai’ and ‘tits’ are voiceless, so Senpai cleans up all my vulgarness!”

“B-but my name is Iwanaga-hime, which has a voiced consonant.”

“Aren’t you also known as Konohanachiruya-hime? Nothing voiced there!”

“Come to think of it, Tooru, Yomoji-chan, and I should be fine.”

“I haven’t given you my real name, so can I sit this one out!?”

●

Balancer was relieved to find no one had mentioned the voiced consonant at the start of “Balancer”.

It was best to not feel left out by the lack of comment. If I ever reach that point, I need to reinitialize myself. At any rate, Balancer kept speaking.

<Since ancient times, the planet Jupiter has been given the name of each region’s leader god. That may be a piece of culture that spread as the mythologies migrated. But since it ended up named Jupiter, you can see that Rome was more powerful than Greece.>

And…

<And it is fascinating to note that the planet Jupiter really does act like a leader or father to the Earth.>

“Hm? You never mentioned that when we were doing our terraforming.”

<Then listen up. Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, at 11 times the size of Earth. It is a colossal planet with a volume of more than 1300 times Earth’s. It also boasts a gravitational pull 2.3 times that of Earth.>

“So it’s got the biggest boobs of the planets! Just like how Senpai’s gravity is constantly pulling my gaze toward her chest!”

Shifu tapped Senpai-san on the shoulder.

●

While the idiot ran and tripped the 70m back, Raidou considered what Balancer had said.

Balancer really didn’t bring this up during our Terraforming, he thought.

“So are you saying Jupiter’s size makes it the ‘big boss’ of the planets?”

<No, that is not my point. Jupiter’s great size and pull draw in a certain something which protects the other planets like it is their guardian.>

“You mean…?”

Kuwajiri likes building the tension, doesn’t she? thought Raidou while Balancer gave the answer.

<Meteors and asteroids.>

●

It was simple enough if you thought about it.

<Star systems form when all the dust scattered across space forms a vortex and planets form within it. But even after the planets take shape, there is still dust left in the star system and that eventually solidifies. And while the completed planets and asteroids travel, they draw in that solidified dust, which creates meteors.>

Jupiter played its role there.

<Jupiter’s size and gravitational pull are so great that it draws in all the dust and asteroids in the solar system, devouring them. That of course includes ones that would have hit the Earth.>

“How much does that help?”

<The odds of a meteor hitting the Earth are about 1/8000th that of one hitting Jupiter. This is because the rocks or asteroids headed toward the center of the solar system will be captured by Jupiter and pulled toward it. So for the sun and every planet until Mars, there are rocks and asteroids floating between them and Jupiter where their gravitational pull is in balance with Jupiter’s.>

Do you understand what that means?

<The Earth was created through a series of special circumstances. So even if you did terraform a planet just like Earth, you would still need a way to defend against meteor strikes because a major strike during the earlier phase will devastate everything on the planet’s surface.>

“Eh!? What!? Can you start over! I just got back!”

<You damn dirty ape!!>

●

I could only draw one conclusions from that: ask Senpai to fill me in, not Balancer.

But that aside…

“So you’re saying this planet can’t be the same as Earth?”

<There are more issues in that regard, but this is a major one that comes up at this stage.>

“Does this star system have a planet that can act as a cushion like Jupiter?”

<This star system has more planets than the solar system, so the outer planets should automatically do so. But by my calculations, the angle of entry of the rocks and asteroids could lead the planets to function as gravitational catapults which accelerate the rocks and asteroids. Then some that would have left the star system will be sent toward the inner planets instead.>

“Why didn’t you bring this up with our planet?”

<The rocks and asteroids within the star system generally start from their own orbit, so they are captured by other asteroids and planets and accelerate as they pass between. Your terraformed planet is, to be blunt, shielded by this one.>

“You mean we get the brunt of the attack!?”

“Sounds like you chose a bad place to live.”

Damn girl took the long view. But…

“D-don’t we still have the same problem even if the outer planets do shield us like Jupiter? So what do we do?”

“For reference, an average of 5-10 meteors strike the Earth’s surface each year.”

“That’s barely any.”

“Yeah, but just one big one and you’re screwed. And the odds of a big one hitting are based on the odds of strikes happening.”

<A meteor of 10km or larger is required to cause a mass extinction event, but those are rare – they only occur on a timescale measured in hundreds of millions of years. But meteors of 1-5m strike at a rate of one every 4-5 years.>

I heard 1-5m, so I took a look around.

“Club head, how tall are you?”

“Supreeeemely tall.”

“Yahoo! That’s so cool! But I was hoping for an actual number.”

“A biiiit over two meters.”

“That seems short for a monotheistic god,” said Kuwajiri and I unfortunately had to agree. But…

“So at most, we’re talking 2.5 times the size of the club head? Sounds pretty small.”

<At more than 4m, we are talking about destructive power rivaling a tactical nuclear weapon.>

“So enough to wipe a town off the map?”

<The damage from the blast would be significant. They generally fall into the sea or uninhabited desert or break up in the atmosphere, but they do sometimes hit a populated area and cause quite a stir.>

“Yeah, that issss what happens.”

Everyone fell silent for a moment. After that moment, Raidou-senpai turned to the club head.

“Wait. Don’t say a thing. Okay?”

“It was a biiiit more than kilometerrrr. And it broke up iiiin the atmosphere.”

“We actually have records of that one too.”

“Wasn’t it around 3100 BCE?”

I could tell they were talking about something wild. But we had a problem to solve.

“We could use a good meteor defense, Senpai.”

“Um, could I handle that if I level up some more?”

●

“Onlllly if you could reach myyyy level.”

“Yeah, you can defend against a cataclysm. But you can’t guard the sky all the time.”

“Could you receive assistance from other gods?”

“There is a better way. And I was curious why I didn’t see it.”

“Um, what is that better way?”

“Well,” replied Kuwajiri. “A moon. You can use a moon to shield your planet.”

●

I heard everyone fall silent.

“Huh? What’s this about? Did something happen? What’s wrong with a moon, Senpai?”

“Well, I just have some concerns.”

Senpai wasn’t giving me an answer, so Kuwajiri did it.

“There may be issues, but I can explain the benefits. During the Earth age, the moon orbited the Earth and did indeed function as its shield. Over a seven year period of observation, 1743 meteors struck the lunar surface. That is 249 a year, which is 25-50 times the amount that strike the Earth. Not all of them struck the dark side of the moon, but even when they didn’t, you could say the moon was functioning as a shield.”

“The moon has a dark side?”

“The moon rotates, but this rotation is synced with its revolution around the Earth, meaning it always points the same side toward the Earth. You’ve seen the reproduction in the divine world, haven’t you?”

“Now that you mention it… I just assumed Balancer got lazy or lost the data on the other side, like when you screw up rewriting a disc.”

<How rude! If I wanted to, I could compress the entire game to fit on just the one side of the disc!>

“What are you even talking about?”

“You see, Will’s Sato Musen has this rewriting service. I know they at least have a Takeru.”

“That doesn’t explain anything.”

<Beginning in the 80s, one method of distributing console or home computer games was to provide disc rewrite services at electronic stores. The major ones were the Famicom Disk System’s rewrite service or Brother Industries’ Soft Vendor Takeru, which was essentially a game vending machine that rewrote your disc to contain the home computer game of your choice.>

Balancer continued.

<Soft Vendor Takeru shuts down by 97, but the devices and communication technology developed for it continue to be used for a very long time in the karaoke industry’s Joysound service.>

“Th-that’s a really weird successor.”

“Since they always had everything in stock, those things are really great when you miss the initial release of a game. That said, it takes a fair bit of time for it to write an X68 game and its common for the manual to be too large to print out, forcing you to have to ask them to mail you one.”

“With some games like Mugen no Shinzou II, Takeru was pretty much the only place you could get it.”

I looked to Kuwajiri.

“You can keep going if you want.”

“That was quite a digression, but I’ll allow it since I asked and Raidou-senpai went along with it.”

Shifu-senpai slapped Raidou-senpai on the back.

“Sorry about that, Kuwajiri.”

“Again, I brought that one on myself. Anyway, the light side of the moon is relatively untouched, but the dark side is marred by countless craters from meteor strikes. This is partially because the lack of an atmosphere prevents the craters from weathering away, but the difference from the light side still shows just how much the moon shields the Earth.”

“It does a pretty good job for just flying around the Earth.”

When I heard that, I just had to comment with my gaze nonchalantly settling on the center of Senpai’s chest.

“Raidou-senpai.”

“

“Yeah?”

“What’s your go-to in Gradius III?”

“Reduce. Always Reduce.”

“Wow. I always go with the Forcefield. Same as in 2.”

“Another digression?”

“Not really. We’re treating ‘Earth’s shield’ as a kenning for the moon.”

“What is a kenning?”

“Well,” said Raidou-senpai. “Our mythology has a lot of songs and poetry, so we have a tendency to come up with ways to mention something without directly mentioning it. That’s called a kenning.”

“Eh? You mean all this talk about the moon has been a kenning for Senpai’s big boobs!? Hooray! Kennings rock! Now I want to worship the moon and stare intently at it! Three cheers for kennings – the present participle of the letter ‘k’!”

“Wouldn’t that just be ‘k-ing’?”

“Shifu-senpai, talking sense to that idiot is a waste of time.”

“O-oh, yeah!? Well, calling someone an idiot means you’re the idiot! You iiiiidiot!”

“Sumeragi-kun, you shouldn’t insult other people.”

“Okay! I swear I will never do so again!”

<Has any promise ever been less likely to happen?>

Kuwajiri glared over at me after that.

“Anyway, Sumeragi. Remember when Senpai-san said she had some concerns?”

“Huh? Are we still talking about the present participle of ‘k’?”

I gasped and struck a pose.

“Are you saying we’re going to discuss what exactly that would mean!?”

“Do we have to?”

“Kuwajiri-san, I know you like knowledge, but I am not sure that is a discussion we need to have.”

“That isn’t remotely what I said!”

“Really, it isn’t,” she insisted before pointing to the moonless night sky.

“A moon is a massive singular phase that will have a great influence on the planet.”

Meaning…

“If you consider a moon to be as unique an entity as the planet, it could have its own giant spirits or gods. And as a part of this star system, those spirits or gods would be our enemy.”

●

“Looking at the scope of the problem, those might be the greatest enemy to the terraforming.”

Omokane brushed her hair back below the library air conditioner.

Standing at the entrance, she wiped away the sweat with a handkerchief and looked to the counter.

“Shamhat-kun, no sitting down today?”

“I promised last time I would stand and she’s holding me to it.”

“If I give her a seat, she never leaves.”

“I don’t settle in that much. …Anyway, Omokane, am I a ‘-kun’ now? Don’t you use ‘-shi’ for Bilgamesh and Ki?”

“I switch it up depending on my mood. And you seemed fairly cautious of me during the meeting with Eshita-kun before.”

“Of course she was given how you behave. And, Omokane-san? Do we have a plan to use against this star system’s moon god?”

“There are a number of options there. We have to place Tsukuyomi-kun in charge of the moon, but he’s fairly powerful.”

“But,” she said.

“With the forces we have now, only Yomoji-kun has a chance. The moon is such a massive singular phase I can see why Balancer is putting the issue off.”

●

“You can think of the moon as a single environment. The interior crust is nearly frozen, which prevents the interaction of multiple phases, which is thought to be why it is so uniform.”

Kuwajiri combined her 90s knowledge with her knowledge of the gods.

“Every mythology has a powerful sun god paired with an equally powerful moon god. We should assume this planet’s moon god would be equal to all of the planet’s spirits and primitive gods.”

“Does the planet even have a moon?”

Balancer answered Kido’s question.

<It does. Just not right now.>

“No-yes?”

“Is there something there or not?”

The idiot looked my way and said “nothing there”, so she wished him an early death. Because wishes were harmless.

“Kuwajiri-chan, it’s showing on your face.”

“Sorry. I just have an expressive face.”

Everyone’s face grew a lot less expressive, but she had actually meant that as a joke.

●

“But to be honest, Shinto doesn’t say much about our moon good. There are different theories as to why, but since he hasn’t shown up here yet, we can say one thing for sure,” said Omokane. “Conquering the moon can wait.”

“But then what do we do about the meteors?”

Shamhat raised her hand.

“You could have Eshtar move the planet that corresponds to Venus.”

“Close, but not quite. It won’t give us a whole moon, but we should be able to do something similar.”

●

<First of all, this planet’s moon is currently orbiting on the opposite side of the sun. When returning this planet to its primitive state, we removed the moon and the primitive god that rules it.>

“Now that’s what I call an astronomical event.”

“Does that mean this god is higher rank than us?”

<Not higher than Yomoji, since he is creator class. So you all need to increase your level until you are strong enough to fight the power ruling over the moon. We have Yomoji as precedent that this is possible.>

“I-I’ll do my best.”

“Putting in a good effort is always a good idea. But does that mean we have to do without the moon’s influence while it is gone?”

<Once you have gained a certain level of control over the planet, I will use my influence to artificially reproduce the moon’s effects. But you must terraform in a moonless state until then. The beginning of the artificial effects will cause some minor issues, but I will calculate those out and discuss them with you when the time comes.>

“Do you think the moon will return?”

<Yes. For many celestial bodies, the moon is a sibling planet or a planet caught by its gravity. If the primitive god was created by a phase developed on the main planet, then once the terraforming reaches a critical point, the god will return to stop the changes to the main planet.>

“Wouldn’t it be better to come back and destroy us now? Why be so inefficient about it?”

<Because the main planet is in chaos now.>

Balancer tilted their screen to not block the idiot’s view.

That let him see the state of the planet.

<The planet’s spirits and primitive gods are in an uproar. The moon god still has their form, but they would likely lose control in the same way if they were close enough to the planet to be affected. It is partially because the main planet is becoming “something else”, but the moon god is also waiting for us to be eliminated.>

“Wait.”

Kido raised her hand and spoke with a frown.

“This moon god sounds quite intelligent.”

●

<That is true,> said Balancer, opening an astronomical diagram on the ground below everyone’s feet.

It showed…

“Oh, I remember this! This was my idea! The one that made everyone go nuts! Then I got a lap pillow and applause from Senpai before I rolled back!”

“Sumeragi-kun! Sumeragi-kun! You’re confusing your memories!”

<This digest version is still accurate, so where is the problem?>

Senpai grabbed and shook Balancer.

“I’ll show you the problem!”

“Ah ha ha! What an idiot!!”

“You be quiet too, Eshita-san.”

“Y-yes, ma’am!”

“Since when is she in charge?”

<That would be a long story, so just accept it.>

Balancer ignored Kido’s further confusion in order to speak and move the diagram.

The diagram showed the original planets forming.

Then some meteors flew in from outside the star system, hitting the sun. Their pieces then hit the initial planets. The split planets went on to create more planets, but…

<After this, the fragments that did not form planets became moons or similar satellites for the planets. But this means the celestial bodies known as moons contain pieces of the sun.>

Which meant…

<Unlike a simple moon, these moons can be seen as successors to…I suppose you would say the sun god.>

●

Kido raised her hand. She hadn’t planned to actively involve herself in the discussion, but she had brought up this topic herself. So she asked her question.

“If we can fill a decent-sized field full of our techniques, you will use that to guard the sky? But what about right now, before that process is complete? You cannot currently use the moon as a shield. And it is unrealistic to expect us to constantly protect the sky with our authorities. So is there another way?”

<Yes. Let me explain this starting furthest from the answer.>

“Why?”

<We started this discussing the moon, so I will start closest to the moon. And Shinto is one of the rare mythologies that lets me discuss this.>

“…? Something close to the moon that can be discussed in Shinto? I am not sure what you mean.”

“You mean me, don’t you?”

“Eh? You’re in Shinto, Mucho? Are you a potato processing god? Or a god of spices?”

“I am a cute goddess of victory and beauty!”

“What ‘cute goddess’ pours an entire bag of Karamucho into her mouth?”

“It’s called gap moe! …You there! You know what I mean, don’t you!?”

“Balancer, give us the answer already.”

“Heyyyyy! You could play along a little!”

Not when you’re this annoying.

“Wait, Mucho! Your boobs aren’t as big as Kido-senpai’s! Keep that in mind when you speak to her, okay!? Always start with two bows, one clap, and two more bows!”

“What in the world are you talking about!?”

“With him, I rarely know.”

I agree, but I do like the way he bowed to Douhai-san after bowing to me, thought Kido. Level up Revelation Boards scattered all around Douhai-san.

“–––––––”

Was this what it meant to glow? But seeing that light gave Kido the inspiration she needed.

Balancer said it was close to the moon and Eshtar had reacted, so…

“You will rely on a star god, won’t you?”

●

“Shamhat-kun, a star god would be the logical choice for avoiding meteors, but are you familiar with Shinto’s star gods?”

Shamhat-kun set her paper cup on the counter and thought for a moment.

“Are you going to rely on our Eshtar?”

“Are you saying you don’t know about Shinto’s star gods?”

“Yes, I won’t try to deny it.”

“Then shouldn’t you have admitted it when she first asked?”

“Hee hee. You can’t expect me to be 100% honest.”

“I see,” said Kubiko-kun, turning Omokane’s way. Her gaze said, “How much should we tell her?” But Omokane was willing to tell her everything.

“Shinto is unusual compared to the rest of the world because it has no gods that reference the planets or the constellations.”

“Huh?”

Her confusion sounded legitimate.

“If you exclude Amaterasu-kun and Tsukuyomi-kun, the only Shinto star god is one called Amatsu Mikaboshi. Mikaboshi-kun is an extremely wicked god who resisted the great Takamagahara duo of Futsunushi-kun and Takemikazuchi-kun, but he must have had a touch of a maiden’s heart because he was scolded by Takehazuchi, god of weaving, and the two ascended into heaven together.”

“ ‘Mika’ refers to a bright light, so just like Takemikazuchi refers to lightning, Mikaboshi refers to a bright star – some say Venus. If so, then there is a connection to Eshita-san.”

“That’s right,” said Omokane, but Shamhat-kun tilted her head.

“What an odd mythology. The movement of the stars is used to tell the passage of time and to know when to hold festivals, so most mythologies feature the stars as gods.”

“We mentioned before that Shinto includes the conquering of different parts of Japan in its mythology, remember? If you view war as a way of bringing about syncretism, then this could be the result of an opposing force being known for worshiping the stars.”

Also…

“Separate from this talk of star gods, ancient Japan learned astronomy from China, which included the practice of Hokushin worship. Do you know what that means?”

“Hokushin? Sounds like a company name.”

“It does, doesn’t it!? Hokushin Shipping!”

“Hokushin Shipping isn’t real, but there a Hokushin Transportation started last year, so do be careful.”

“Your information network is disturbingly thorough.”

Well, that is our job. But to get back on topic…

“Hokushin is another name for the North Star. The North Star was important to all ancient peoples who lived in the Northern Hemisphere, so it was often seen as the king of the stars. And the Big Dipper accompanying the North Star was seen to represent those close to the king.”

So…

“During the Asuka period, Prince Shotoku had a sword called the Seven Stars Sword which was engraved with the Big Dipper. And according to the Nihon Shoki, the emperor held a ceremony in 642 called Prayer to the Four Quarters which included a prayer to the Big Dipper. The Prayer to the Four Quarters went on to become an official ceremony in the imperial court, but important people also had the Big Dipper drawn on the inner wall of their burial mound. …My point is, there was an astronomy fad among the upper class that had nothing to do with Shinto. And this fad spread to the rest of the people.”

“At the time, worshiping the North Star was seen as another way of worshiping the emperor. Which meant once night fell, the people could worship the emperor from anywhere. That led to very simple forms of worship like holding a torch up toward the North Star at night.”

“Right. There was star worship before the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki were compiled.”

“Then why was all that combined into a single star god?”

“There are different theories concerning that, but I’ll give you the most interesting and human one. Oh, and I love conspiracy theories, so keep that in mind as you listen.”

Anyway…

“In 796, the emperor issued an edict banning worship off the Big Dipper. And in 799, worship of the North Star was banned as well.”

●

Shamhat found this odd.

“Why would he ban worship of himself?”

“Let’s go through this in order.”

Shamhat nodded at the lead knowledge god’s suggestion. Meanwhile, Scarecrow took the paper cup from the counter and refilled it with coffee.

“Thank you.”

“Omokane-san can be long-winded.”

“So this coffee is a way of helping your boss?”

“I just have nothing better to do while she goes on and on.”

Meanwhile, Omokane was opening several Revelation Boards in obvious excitement. It looked like she greatly enjoyed gathering the important points she needed for her speech. And…

“I mentioned that Prince Shotoku was all about the Big Dipper worship back in the Asuka period, right?”

“Yes, you did.”

“That prince took the Soga clan’s side.”

“––––––”

“Do you see where this is going?” asked Omokane. “Worship of the Big Dipper was worship of the emperor. And the Big Dipper was also thought to be responsible for the country’s harvest. Hence why the nobles felt required to worship it and the emperor did the Prayer to the Four Quarters. Even the common people worshiped the North Star at night, which doubled as worshiping the emperor. When these practices had come over from China in ancient times and everyone had gotten used to them…do you really think a god of the night or the stars could take root?”

“You mean…”

Was this it?

“When the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki were made, there was no need for a god of the night? Or rather, having one would have created a conflict?”

“Correct. The gods of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki were for the people’s daytime life and worship. But their night worship of the North Star had come from overseas and thus could not be included in the Kojiki or Nihon Shoki. Nevertheless…everyone did it.”

Do you get it?

“Shinto rarely ever mentions gods related to the night or astronomy. Tsukuyomi-kun is a moon god and acts as a pair to Amaterasu, but the stories about him are extremely limited. There are two possible reasons for this. From a conspiracy theory perspective, the people who worshiped the star gods opposed the imperial court and were destroyed. Or if you want to be boring, there simply wasn’t a need for those gods when the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki were compiled.”

What did that all mean in short? Omokane gestured with her arms as she spoke.

“The worship of the night’s stars was a practice of the imperial court, not of an indigenous people. But since it wasn’t native to Japan, it wasn’t included in the Kojiki or Nihon Shoki.”

“Then why ban it later on?”

“The edict I mentioned was in 796, but the capital was moved from Nagaoka-kyo to Heian-kyo in 794. This of course moved the center of politics and led to reforms in a number of areas.”

That was enough for Shamhat to make a good guess. And she realized this discussion was meant to sound her out. Because…

“Did the new politicians not know the old ways of the court?”

“At the time, the old Buddhist faction had become a lot of trouble to deal with. And the emperor was seeking out new things, such as using his envoy to Tang China to acquire the latest form of Buddhism.

“During the Heian-kyo period, the Fujiwara clan rose to power and led to the Taira clan being called in later on. It’s possible the emperor saw what was happening and decided to gradually make the North Star worship a practice only followed by the imperial family and stopped using it in politics. Either way, it ended with star worship being banned in Japan and, since it wasn’t mentioned in the Kojiki or Nihon Shoki, that field remained empty afterwards.”

●

“Shinto is an even bigger mess of a mythology than I thought.”

“It was shockingly influenced by human politics.”

“Um, uh, sorry?”

“Wait! How dare you all make Senpai apologize! I’ll apologize in her place! Got that?”

“It would be meaningless coming from you.”

“Come ooooooooooooon! Let me drag the bit out longer than that!”

●

“But anyway,” I said. “Does that give us two options?”

• Get help from What’s-His-Name, the Shinto star god.

• Get help from another mythology’s star god.

“Shinto god’s are low level and are divine rank weaklings, so I vote for 2.”

“But given this planet’s level, you would need a really high divine rank. Maybe not on that monotheistic god’s level, but still.”

“Then how about this?”

Everyone looked over and Kido-senpai continued.

“You can ignore the threat from the sky until the god you need arrives.”

●

“That might sound careless, but I think it’s a good idea.”

Kuwajiri fully supported Kido’s idea. Because…

“Most of the planet is currently a sea of lava. Even a largescale meteor strike wouldn’t ‘damage’ the planet any.”

“Aaaand I dropped oooone on the other side of the planet beforrrre.”

Yes. When Senpai-san was being a shut-in, Yomoji had dropped a giant meteor on the other side of the planet to buy time against the planet’s spirits.

In that case…

“We just need a base, right?”

“Yes. You will be running a few experiments around this tableland and then further expand the results in a base built within a protective field. Then you can safely research the terraforming. That means you only need meteor protection for the area within that field. That is much more efficient.”

“So for the terraforming, we’ll hold our strategy meetings in the base and then head out to wherever we need to be?”

“Remember what I said? It’s like a SimCity based on SimEarth that uses a method more like Populous.”

Kuwajiri didn’t know what that meant, but the idiot seemed to get it.

“Then let’s build our base here! Senpai’s stone hut can be at the center of it all!”

“Are you sure? It’s not all that nice a place.”

Kuwajiri resisted the urge to point out that everywhere else was lava. See, I can show restraint when I want to. Shifu-senpai looked her way and sent a message.

“Nice silence, Kuwajiri-chan!”

It was a relief to know Shifu-senpai had been thinking the same thing. But then the idiot made an announcement.

“That settles it! This can be our top candidate for the base! No, the only candidate!!”

●

Oh, thought Ki.

This was like enemy territory right now, so maybe it would be best to give some advice.

“Are you sure announcing that is a good idea? If this is Shinto land, won’t your words influence the world?”

If so…

“Wouldn’t the enemy watching from a distance have heard what you said?”

●

Busty Mesopotamian-senpai’s warning made me look.

Far in the distance, a red light was rising into the dark and cloudy sky.

“Huh?”

“What is it?”

“That looks kind of familiar.”

A moment later, the light curved and flew straight toward us.

“Whoa!? Did they hear us just now!?”

I heard deafening spraying and sizzling sounds. They all joined together into the great roar of…

“A flame dragon!”

No, it wasn’t. It looked a lot like the dragons we had fought here before, but it wasn’t one.

Several flame dragons joined together to form a giant one 100m tall. And…

“…!”

The top of the serpentine collection of flames had a humanoid shape.

Back to Chapter 12

Return to Main Page

Forward to Chapter 14