On a Godless Planet:Volume2B Chapter 38
Chapter 38: Megamind 02[edit]
–I have made up my mind.
●
The smell of dirt entered the river.
<River, ver?>
They sure are cute, thought Demeter. Our local river spirits tend to be freaks who absorb all the water. These innocent ones are much nicer. But…
“Oh!? What do you mean this is your defeat!?”
The riverside was a mess. The multiple pressure strikes had again destroyed the flattened riverside.
The river water had already overflowed and receded, a lot like after heavy rain. Of the two giants, the one belonging to Bilgamesh disappeared.
“Then the battle is over.”
The giant armor was spatially stored. The 50+ meter giant and its ether light disappeared like a book closing.
Bilgamesh himself dropped down from above and easily landed on the rocks and gravel of the riverside.
“That was an excellent battle. Are you unharmed?”
He didn’t even seem ruffled.
“Wow. His shirt’s still tucked in.”
If even his side was shocked by this, it must have been something unusual. Demeter gathered that much. But…
“Athena! Hey! Get on out here!”
She rapped her knuckles against Athena’s god of war.
“Are you hurt or something!? Well!?”
●
…Shut up, aunt!!
The god of war cockpit did have an emergency direct control system built in.
From there, she used a spell to replace herself with a data entity while she was extracted into the god of war’s interior, but she still received the feedback from the god of war when she returned.
In the worst case, she would lose body parts corresponding to the god of war’s damage, but with a Dodekatheoi machine, that would never happen. Instead, she received circulation feedback.
The circulation from all that intense movement was a lot like being made to exercise by an external force. And harsh exercise at that. There was even a possibility of dying from shock as soon as she was recomposed in the cockpit, so it was best to take her time while “returning” after a fierce battle.
She had made a quicker recomposition this time to help her aunt save face, but…
“Hey! Athena! You could at least say something!”
There was a reason why she was staying inside.
…All this sweat is really itchy!!
She could handle the circulatory burden. Because she was young. Her hunger had gotten pretty bad, but not so bad that she couldn’t just casually ask the Shinto group if they had anything she could eat. But when she prepared to leave, she noticed something in the cockpit lights.
…You can see right through it!
●
To match the rules of this divine world for her real manifestation, she generally wore an inner suit for clothing.
It showed they were involved in the terraforming and they might have had to “move” to the real world, so an inner suit had been the best choice. But…
“Balancer! Explain!”
<Explain what, exactly?>
“Don’t look!!”
When the screen appeared she slammed them against the console in front of her. She realized that wasn’t being fair, but she still turned the screen away from her.
“Why would you give me clothing that turns see-through when wet!?”
<Eh? I didn’t? It’s a breathable material, but that isn’t enough to make it see-through.>
“Then why is it see-through now?”
The screen thought for a bit. Or it looked like it. And finally…
<Oh.>
They started to turn her way, so she slammed them against the console with godspeed.
<D-do you think I’m a bug or something!?>
“If you’ve figured something out, you can just tell me.”
<Good point,> said Balancer. <Athena? Have you summoned this god of war since arriving here?>
“Hm? I ran it through a battery of tests to ensure the combat proof from the virtual manifestation was valid here too. I didn’t finish in time for the battle against Kido Abinae, though.”
<How odd.>
“What’s odd about that?”
<I just checked the god of war’s settings, but you have it set to turn you into a data entity with your inner suit still on, correct?>
“Of course. Having to take it off and put it back on when boarding and disembarking would introduce unnecessary risk.”
The way her aunt was wordlessly rapping her knuckles against the armor was terrifying, but that aside…
<In that case,> said Balancer. <Were you in any water inside the virtual cockpit?>
She considered it and realized she had been. But…
“Why would that matter?”
<Well, if your data entity includes your clothing, when the god of war’s OS sends you to the virtual cockpit space, your clothing data is sent along with you. And there are times when the clothing is influenced by the data in the virtual cockpit.>
“And?”
<And the inner suit I supplied you is a quality garment that will have little to no noise when a divine protection is applied or it is converted into data. Unfortunately, that makes it more influenceable by other data. So if you got wet in the virtual cockpit and did not let yourself dry off before returning to your physical body, your clothing would be restored with the “water” data included. And that restoration would count as a type of divine protection, so your inner suit was given the rather meaningless qualities of plain water.>
Um, thought Athena. And…
“Meaning?”
Balancer sighed.
<Why should I bother explaining for a goddess who slammed me into a console?>
“Ahh! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! How many times do I need to apologize!? And are you saying letting my inner suit dry won’t help!?”
<This was a glitch based on a rare interaction between the god of war OS and an irregular physical restoration, so I will work to fix this. I don’t want anyone abusing the exploit. I will summon you a new outfit this time, so please change into that. Will that be acceptable?>
“Yes! It will! Perfectly! So give me those clothes!”
●
Demeter saw Victorious Empress’s lower chest armor open up.
Banging on the armor and yelling must have finally paid off. Her niece appeared to be unharmed as she descended onto the riverside. Except…
“Um…Athena?”
“Oh, aunt! I can explain!”
“Why are you wearing a red micro bikini?”
“I said I can explain! It was a bet! I lost a bet!”
<Has this goddess completely lost her mind?>
“Balancerrrr!!”
“I didn’t expect you to actually wear the red micro bikini.”
“Th-this was your fault, wasn’t it! Hey! Fix this!”
“If you insist,” said the human. While wiggling. “Listen carefully. What you need to do is make a peach symbol with your hands like this, okay? And then you say, ‘Open the door of fantasy and go on an adventure! The power of miracles is physical strength! Strength solves all problems!’”
“‘Open the door of fantasy and go on an adventure! The power of miracles is physical strength! Strength solves all problems!’”
“Why would you say that without even asking what it would do?”
<She seems to have a habit of agreeing to things without thinking first.>
“It took seeing someone else fall for it to realize how mean that is…”
“How dare you!?”
“Hey, how about you calm down some too?”
●
“Anyway,” interrupted Tenma.
They were supposed to be negotiating. The battle was over. She would rather not think about the micro bikini.
But Demeter gave her a sharp look.
“You said that was your defeat. We aren’t just going to let you give us the win. Why not see this through to the end?”
That probably is how she feels, thought Tenma. Even if they lost here, they could still start an all-out war. But…
“If we hand them victory, that option is off the table.”
“Correct. The best way to stop something from happening is to lose, not to win. Especially when your opponent winning prevents them from doing anything more.”
That was the current situation.
“It looked to me like Athena’s god of war is an entirely physical fighter. That would suggest Demeter’s is either a spell user or plays a support role. What does it mean for both sides that Athena’s god of war effectively took a fair amount of damage?”
Without the use of Athena’s physical fighter god of war, the Olympus inspectors are no longer prepared to deal with the water monster. Winning here requires them to handle the water monster on their own, but now that is effectively impossible for them. So…”
“Yes,” nodded Tenma. “How about you tell us what is going on, Olympus inspectors?”
●
“Wait.”
Kido stepped out front.
“Learning that will involve all of you in political trouble.”
“That is why I am asking,” said the negotiator, still looking at her negotiating partner. “If we do not have all the answers, more and more problems will arise. If those things pile up enough, we will be unable to avoid that trouble and it will have developed into a major issue. It is important to nip this in the bud while we can.”
“––––––”
Kido was at a loss for words, but she did have a thought.
Izumi is surrounded by strong people.
But another voice rang out.
“Temanko!”
The negotiator gained an awfully profound expression while still looking at her negotiating partner, but Izumi kept talking.
“We haven’t come to any actual harm yet because Kido-senpai is protecting us! Don’t forget that!”
“––––––”
Honestly, thought Kido with a slight smile. How often is he going to show his concern for me?
She looked over to see Douhai-san nodding her way. It’s like she’s my upperclassman telling me that’s just how Izumi is. And…
“Understood.”
The negotiator nodded and spoke to her negotiating partner.
“What are you planning to do once you capture the water monster? Or does the water monster herself contain some kind of secret? We can start with the ‘assumption’ that she is Mr. V’s wife Salacia.”
●
“This is only my speculation, but I believe Olympus mythology attempted an experiment.”
What kind of experiment?
“To let the gods achieve a released manifestation without needing believers.”
●
Tenma heard a “huh?” from someone.
It was from Enkidu.
“There’s no way you can reach a released manifestation without any believers. Senpai-san’s the only one to manage it because she has the human there.”
“Correct. No humans is the same as no believers, so you cannot achieve a released manifestation.”
“That’s right.” Demeter laughed once and shook her head. “That human there is the only one we’ve made. So a released manifestation experiment would be impossible.”
“You would think so, but there is another way.”
Tenma raised her right hand. This was going to be a tightrope walk from here on. Each word choice and decision she made could worsen their political standing after Kido protected them. So…
“Auth Spell: Constellation Prayer.”
●
…A data processing Auth Spell!
Multiple Revelation Boards appeared by the negotiator’s hands. They continued to appear and arranged themselves like a bound book.
“––––”
The negotiator read through them. Her eyes clearly gathered and comprehended the data even as it continued to accumulate.
And the still-multiplying Revelation Boards began to shuffle and reformed a book.
Demeter heard a voice.
Heavenly Stars,
You have paths and you have homes.
What are you thinking as you hang in the sky?
“Constellation Prayer.”
What appeared next did not belong on an open-air riverside.
A vast library. Countless bookcases radiated out with an ether wind wrapping around them. Innumerable books automatically pulled themselves from their shelves while foreign bamboo writing strips came apart.
“Come.”
Writing flooded out in so many media: paper, wood, bamboo, leaves, cloth, leather, stone, and anything else that could be written on. They all floated up in ether form and, when chosen, created a new page that flew over.
It all came to God of Education Tenjin Michizane.
“––––”
The negotiator looked up with a single book in her hand. It contained…
“I will now present my speculation.”
●
Tenma flipped through the book in her hand, absorbing the information through her eyes.
…I was right.
It generally fit her speculation. Constellation Prayer was a data processing spell that linked data together to arrive at the optimal answer from among the vast quantity of past data. And its conclusion matched her own. That settled it for her, so she explained.
“Can you achieve a released manifestation without any humans? The answer is a simple no.”
“Hah. Of course you can’t.”
“Correct. A released manifestation is impossible without humans. Because that is a rule set in place when Balancer created us gods.”
●
“Wait!? Really!?”
<It would have caused problems down the line if I hadn’t made that rule. If the gods could reach a released manifestation without humans, they wouldn’t need humans at all.>
“B-but I need Sumeragi-kun even if we ignore all that! Especially on the mental front!”
“How sweet!!”
“Um, excuse me, Senpais, but I am trying to negotiate, so would you mind reducing the volume a little?”
“What!? You want to reduce Senpai’s volume!? Nothing has ever been more impossible! They can grow, but never shrink! That’s the unbreakable rule of big boobs worship! I mean, you’ve been with us for more than 24 hours now, right? You thought they were unreasonably large at first, I’ll bet, but now they’ve started to look normal, haven’t they!? Welcome to the entrance to big boobs worship, where the news and the boobs are always big!”
“Feel free to ignore that as natural noise pollution and continue with your negotiation.”
“…”
“Okay.”
“W-was that you saying okay to taking the plunge into big boobs worship!? I hope it was!”
“Yes, yes. We need to be quiet.”
●
Tenma nearly got so distracted she lost her spell.
…Human-senpai is too dangerous.
She had been a human herself not that long ago, but a much higher quality human. I was cultured.
But anyway…
“Well? Satisfied? Without humans, we can’t do released manifestations. That’s a rule set in place by Balancer, so there’s no way we could get around it. So why are you accusing us of trying to do it anyway?”
“What an odd thing to say. I was speaking with that rule in mind when I said the Olympus rulers were trying to achieve released manifestations.”
“Do you know what it is you’re saying?”
Demeter’s tone dropped.
“We are on the DC, so accusations like this could get your rank reduced. In the worst case, we could even go to war with you.”
“That you would do so is honestly impressive.”
“Hah. Then explain what you think we did. All you have our accusations that don’t make any sense. Are you waiting for me to admit to something?”
“Fine, then,” said Tenma. “Salacia is the key.”
“And who is that?”
“Salacia is Mr. V’s wife.”
“Who is this Mr. V you keep mentioning?”
Tenma looked to Mr. V, who placed a hand on his head and gave a quick bow. So…
“It is short for Mr. Vomit.”
“And who the hell is that!?”
“Hey! Mr. Vomit is Mr. Vomit! Because he took a water beam to the gut, went down on all fours, and puked! And don’t you forget it!”
Shut up, Human-senpai. But Demeter tilted her head and…
“Do you mean Neptune?”
“Some people call him that too.”
“Everyone calls him that!!”
Such a closeminded god, thought Tenma, but she had to keep the conversation going.
“How did Salacia become a water monster?”
“Oh? Got any proof that water monster is Salacia?”
“We have Mr. V’s word that she is.”
“Oh, really?” said Demeter. “So what is this trick that you claim Salacia is the key to? What trick do you claim we used to try and reach a released manifestation? If you have nothing, then your accusations mean nothing!”
●
“What if they’re trying to kidnap Sumeragi-kun to get released manifestations?”
“We discussed this before, but didn’t we decide it wouldn’t work because he would always choose you again even if they erased his memories?”
“Oh, yeah. That’s right!”
“How sweet!”
“Um, excuse me. I really, really hate to interrupt and I know this is going on a bit long, but if you wouldn’t mind keeping your voices down…”
“Our underclassman is reaching unheard-of levels of politely phrasing a complaint.”
●
Tenma took a breath before continuing.
“The DC has a human, doesn’t it?”
“…What?”
“Eh? You mean they’ve got a copy of me!?”
Extremely close, but no. The DC did not have a copy of Human-senpai. Instead, they had…
“When a mythology and its related mythologies begin terraforming, they submit to the DC as much data as they can on themselves, as well as what methods and materials they will be using. Of course, some secrets are kept like Senpai-san or with gods or artifacts that would bring disaster if their name became known.”
But…
“But for the most part, everything is submitted. Both to inspect it and as a backup in case something goes wrong and most of them are lost.”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is that the human is left with the DC as well.”
What did she mean by that?
“I am referring to the data manual used when Human-senpai rolls back. What you could call his base form is left with the DC as a backup.”
●
“What of it?”
Demeter took a deep breath. The chilly nighttime river air filled her lungs before she spoke.
“Of course it is. The DC keep copies of data material for reproduction. That way, if Shinto lost a battle with the planetary spirits and the entire terraforming was lost, we would have a backup for use with the next terraforming project.”
So…
“I don’t like being accused of wrongdoing just because we keep backups, so could you quit it with the baseless accusations?”
Besides…
“Besides, that data material is the same as simple clay. It has no mind or soul. It’s a piece of meat used for an incarnation. How could we receive human worship from that?”
“True, it is no more than a material. But…”
●
I heard an “oh” from Kidou-san.
…Eh?
The negotiators were discussing whether or not Sumeragi-kun’s human data material could be used to bring a god to released manifestation.
Kidou-san shouted an answer.
“It’s the same as us!”
Her answer echoed across the river.
“We’re half-god, half-human! A similar method was used to bring us from a virtual manifestation to a real one! When we were given our real manifestation, the human’s data material was woven into our own divine data material!!”
What would happen then? Tenma-san nodded and explained.
“The system probably keeps the human data within the god like a pet. So instead of making the god half-human like with the Mesopotamians, it creates a human within the god. Then when the god gains experience and rejoices, the self-congratulation passes through the human part to become worship for themselves. The god is installed with an internal human worship system.”
But…
“Salacia-san is a water monster…right?”
“Yes. Which is why they want to capture her. The human part corrupted the god, creating something that is neither god nor human. In Shinto terms, she would be a nameless Hiruko. So if Salacia is not quickly captured, their plan could come to light. And if they capture and inspect her, they might learn how to ensure it works better next time. …That should sum it up.”
●
Athena gasped.
…Aunt!?
Her opinion was that it couldn’t be true.
“My aunt! My aunt only-”
Before she could finish, her aunt held out a hand, telling her not to intervene.
“Ha ha!”
Her aunt laughed.
Laughed loudly.
“Ha ha! An amusing tale! But entirely without evidence! Unless there is any you failed to mention!?”
●
“I have no evidence. Hence why I called it speculation. But…”
“But what!? Do you have something more to say!?”
“Mr. V there can tell us if I am right or not.”
●
Shifu looked to Mr. V.
He stood entirely still with his head somewhat lowered. And…
“Hey! Neptune! You know what happens if you give the wrong answer here, don’t you!? Olympus will cease all protection of Roman mythology!”
Wow, thought Shifu.
Roman mythology was the prototype for Greek mythology. What would happen if that link to the prototype was lost?
“The Roman gods are not very powerful. They have few believers in modern times, so they lack the strength they had during the height of Rome. If they are required to provide the same level of authority as Greek mythology…”
“They won’t last long. At the very least, they will be forced to reduce the number of real manifestations to reduce the overall authority burden.”
“But isn’t this a great opportunity for them?”
Shifu more or less understood what Eshita-chan was getting at. That’s a real Eshita-chan way of looking at it, she thought, but…
“You mean they can escape their submissive position where they’re basically Greece’s underlings?”
“U-um, they have my support!”
That was the natural position for Senpai-chan to take. And Eshita-chan would support them too. So…
“What? Is Mr. Vomit joining us? But isn’t he a little old to pass as a student!?”
That one earned a quiet laugh in response.
From Mr. V.
●
Mr. V sucked in a breath.
If he went against Demeter’s claim here, Roman mythology would lose Greece’s protection, but it would also become free.
…You could say we will be freed from mythological slavery.
That was one of his greatest desires.
Something “wrong” had applied pressure from above for so long it had become “real”. If they could regain their true selves here, then this was an option worth considering, no matter how great the burden would be.
So he considered it and arrived at a decision. He opened his mouth to state that decision.
What would he do here and now?
“Demeter, enough of the lies.”
Interlude[edit]
“ ‘Enough of the lies’ sounds like a line from an ’80s pop song.”
“I could totally hear it in the intro to a Takeuchi Mariya song.”
<Is there any moment so serious you two wouldn’t make fun of it?>
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