On a Godless Planet:Volume2B Chapter 43
Chapter 43: Hellfire[edit]
–That’s a pretty good “look behind you” gag.
●
“Why do you think that?”
“Because your Echidna form looks a like a snake, but even though the name means ‘viper woman’, which sounds like something straight out of an enka, you haven’t used any venom or snakelike spells! That made me think your true form isn’t the Echidna, but some other god! And you only have that form because this is your manifestation as part of Greek mythology!”
Izumi took my hand.
“You have that god’s name in your name, don’t you!?”
“…!”
He called my name.
“Kido Abinae. You can get Echidna by rearranging that into Ekidona, but then you have an Abi left over. Abi? A bee! Yikes! No, wait! I need to calm down!”
“Yes, you really do need to do that.”
“Okay, all calmed down.”
“That was fast!”
“Yup! I can switch modes with the click of a button! Clicky, clicky, clicky, click! Okay, that wasn’t as funny as I thought it would be, so I need to calm down! …Anyway, um, Abi is your real form, isn’t it!? Just like Mr. V’s wife was hidden in the water monster, I bet Abi is hidden inside the Echidna! I’m right, aren’t I!? There’s some water god called Abi, right!?””
“It’s Api actually.”
●
I spoke to Izumi in order to reveal it all.
“The Scythian people once lived north of the Black Sea in Eastern Europe. One of their gods was Api, the goddess of rivers and seas. She later spread across Europe, becoming the Echidna and other half-human, half-snake beings.”
●
Balancer decided it was finally safe to emerge.
They appeared before the knowledge god and Senpai-san, who seemed satisfied behind her rock.
<The Scythians were equestrian nomads who moved from Eastern Europe to Asia during the 8th century BCE. They were the first people to ride and fight battles atop the horses that had previously only been used to pull chariots, carriages, and farming equipment and their combat techniques lead directly to the later European knights. …That said, they were a hunting people, so their primary industry was pillaging. They were like the Vikings of the hills, so they did many things that would be considered barbaric by modern standards and they were feared by Greece and the other nearby peoples.>
“The 8th century BCE perfectly matches the time of Hesiod who the Norse knowledge god mentioned earlier.”
<Correct. They committed their barbaric acts with iron tools in a time when Europe was still mostly using bronze tools, so in Hesiod’s time, they were a serious external threat.>
“And the Scythian’s water god…was Api?”
<Yes. The Scythians did not have a written language, so their culture must be worked out from archeological excavations and records in Greece and other nearby regions, but we do know what Api looked like based on carvings and other depictions. And…>
Balancer considered just saying it but decided it would be best if they saw it for themselves.
<Api’s appearance went through changes as her stories traveled to other regions, but her original form is an extremely fascinating one. You can have Kido show it to you later.>
Meanwhile, a light began to shine. The faint ether light came from behind Senpai-san and it gradually intensified. It was…
“A released manifestation!?”
●
Demeter noticed it even as she fought.
In the “Greek” festival being held in her virtual cockpit, a Revelation Board opened in front of the takoyaki stand. She read what it said.
“ ‘At the human’s demand and to facilitate the terraforming, the following item has been granted with the highest authority’!?”
What was this?
This came from a position above the DC. It came from the gods’ authority system that Balancer indirectly controlled.
And it was granting…
“ ‘Kido Abinae’s divine rank shall be transferred from Olympus to Shinto’!”
●
“Yes.”
I viewed the Revelation Boards appearing all around me and gave approval.
A light shined beyond the rock behind me, indicating Kido-san’s released manifestation.
“There is something a Shinto god can do to help. By going through Sumeragi-kun.”
●
Light passed from the hand Izumi took to my shoulder and then on up the rest of my arm.
It peeled away my body and sent it scattering into the air where it illuminated my surroundings, but below that…
“Kido-senpai!”
There was skin. And clothing. And light.
“Yes, this is my true form!”
The light wavered and rippled as it washed across my body. And…
“Released manifestation.”
The pure sound of sacred ground surrounded me as my body took shape.
Why could I do this? I thought I knew the answer.
“Because you are Shinto, you managed to purify me.”
Wickedness was purified and converted into happiness.
A believer was a god’s messenger. Thus, Izumi had brought me Douhai-san’s goddess-class purification. But that was only one reason for this. There was another crucial factor.
“I am your mother, so separate from your worship for Douhai-san, you worship me as your ancestral spirit. That is why I was able to achieve a released manifestation.”
The scattering ether light was proof enough of that.
“Izumi. Your worship has blessed us as mother and child.”
●
I viewed Kido-senpai’s new form.
“What do you think?”
She swayed her body to show off a black dress-style outfit decorated with blue and gold.
She wore a wavelike hat, a tights-style inner suit covered in tattoo-like patterns, and wavelike sleeves and skirt with plenty of drapes and frills.
“There’s water…”
Water appeared and disappeared in midair to further decorate the white frills.
“I am a water god, after all. I control the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the eight rivers that flow into the Black Sea.”
Kido-senpai was clearly excited, which made her so pretty and so cute. But...
“Um, Kido-senpai? I can’t help but notice it’s kinda see-through in places.”
“I-it only looks that way because it is dark out and the shadows look darker!”
“But,” she added, grabbing the two sides of her skirt in her hands and lifting them to show what was between.
“I have legs, not a snake body like the Echidna and other forms derived from her. So this is not a monstrous form. I want you to remember that.”
“Sure! I’ll remember it like crazy!”
Just then, someone approached from upstream. It was Senpai.
“Um, Kido-san! Sumeragi-kun! They’re still fighting at the dam- oh, congratulations, Kido-san! But do you have to wear something so see-through!? Even mine covered up more than that!”
“Th-those are shadows! And how much did you show Izumi!? Um, but…”
Kido-senpai’s expression changed and she gave Senpai her usual sharp look.
“You need my power? Very well. I will show you all my true form and the power the Greeks feared.”
“Um, are you sure you want to do that, Kido-san?”
“Yes,” replied Kido-san with a raised-eyebrow smile I hadn’t seen on her before. “I will never call myself a monster again. I will be your mother forevermore.”
●
It was a direct hit.
The temple pillars supported by Demeter’s god of war were worn down enough to collapse.
The water monster provided an endless supply of cannon blasts and physical blows from the lake and pulled back to evade the attacks from the dam.
“…!”
The blast she fired upon falling back broke the balance.
A pillar near the center of the 32 broke and the ones on either side of it soon followed.
The divine defense used in the Gigantomachy was destroyed by the accumulation of time and powerful blows.
●
What do we do? was the question on Raidou’s mind.
Yomoji would be their best bet. His absurdity could drop a meteor onto the entirety of Lake Okutama, cause a volcanic eruption, or drop it all into the abyss.
“But your absurdity can’t defeat that water monster, can it?”
Shinsei responded from the pile of collapsed dirt linking the dam to the downstream area where Sumeragi and the others were.
“Myyyy authority is over caaaataclysms.”
“Eh!? You mean you can’t directly defeat this thing!?”
“I can oooonly bring direct death to myyyy believers.”
“So you’re an evil god but only for your believers?”
At least he’s consistent, thought Raidou, but this also seemed more like it was an issue of Shinsei’s tastes, which was frightening. But…
<Excluding his blessings, Yomoji’s authorities are mostly specialized environmental ones. Meteor strikes, plagues, droughts, and floods all count as environmental changes in the myths.>
“I’m trying to focus on defense here, but that list sounded a lot more like what a demon would be doing.”
Sorry. I’m so used to him I didn’t even notice.
“We don’t get that reaction much anymore…”
<But in that sense, Yomoji would indeed have trouble taking a specific life.>
“Yeah…which is why he does things like drop them to the depths of the earth. Since that’s control of the environment.”
<He could use his absurdity to eliminate the water monster along with the environment around her, but Lake Okutama is the foundation of Tokyo’s water supply. So after his absurdity, he or I would need to restore the lake. But if we did that…>
“The water monster would be resurrected as a part of the environment?”
<We could try to screen her out, but as a spirit, she is closely linked to the phase. I would prefer to restore the portion of her that has gone wild after defeating her.>
So what could they do?
The enemy was still firing her water cannons and approaching to continue the direct physical attacks.
“Her next shot will break a hole in my defenses!”
●
“On my signal, remove one of your Synkomidi Theons!”
Demeter could tell the thunder god’s suggestion was the best one.
“And reapply it!?”
“We’ll attack while you set up a reapplication rotation! …Shifu!”
“Right! The reservoir lake’s water level has fallen enough to muddy its water, so my iron harvest will work!”
I see, thought Demeter. Muddy water wouldn’t be ideal for that, but it was enough to count as harvestable land. That meant a harvest god’s authority could function. In Shifu’s case, that meant she could create a harvest of gold and iron.
So…
“Now!”
Demeter immediately dispelled a Synkomidi Theon. And immediately afterwards…
“…is what I’ll say when I want you to do it!”
“Heyyyyyyyyy!”
“Just kidding. But a little extra time can’t hurt, right?”
The thunder god raised his hammer.
Out ahead, the colossal water monster launched her water cannons and charged toward them. At her size, it was unlikely this second attack from the thunder god’s hammer could fully destroy her, but…
“Thunder god’s hammer!!”
With those words, a wide-range thunder attack shot out in front of him.
●
As Ki watched from the south, she noticed the thunder god’s attack was not a slash.
“A wide-range attack!?”
Unlike his first attack, this one covered the 2km width of the lake ahead of him.
Shifu was responsible. Her black hair had returned to its usual golden hue.
“She used a gold harvest!”
That was exactly what happened.
There was still water down at the valley floor that had been a lake, but it was surrounded by slopes of mud and dirt. On the north and south, the two lines continuing from the dam to the back of the lake erupted with twin harvests of gold.
They formed thick walls that gently trapped the charging water monster between them.
However, these did not obstruct the water monster. To open a path and to neutralize the walls, her water and mud body passed through to the other side of the golden walls.
“…!”
She continued on.
Her giant body ignored the walls as it flowed toward the dam.
“That didn’t work at all! It isn’t even guiding her through!”
“Just keep watching!”
As if to prove Ki right, a new power arrived.
From the heavens above.
Then the thunder god sent out a wide-area electric attack that wasn’t quite a lightning strike.
The air split and the electricity thundered as it caught up and spread out.
“There!”
But the thunder god released his sword above the water monster’s head.
The lightning he had contained with his hammer was released as pure electricity.
This wasn’t a direct hit. Instead…
“The electricity is being scattered and bent by the walls on either side!?”
They were lightning rods. Those two had previously used this major attack during their battle against Ki and Bilgamesh.
The harvest walls surrounding the water monster guided the lightning. Which meant…
“The transfer of heat causes the water to evaporate and extreme high-voltage passing from one side to the other causes electrolysis on a divine protection level. The latter does not have enough time to produce its full effects, but the water monster’s water is so full of mud, lake water, and other impurities that the electrolysis rate is higher than an experiment with simple tap water. So with Shifu-senpai and Raidou-senpai working together, it should act as a significant blow.”
●
The golden pillar walls melted even as they achieved their purpose.
Along those long pathways, the water monster burned. And between them…
“…!?”
Her giant body was significantly broken down.
Into oxygen and hydrogen.
Those two elements thinned out her body. Her water body instantly turned to foam, but that foam gathered to form air and pushed the remaining water down between the harvests.
At the bottom of the harvest walls, the remaining water reformed into her but now fallen on her rear.
A voice spoke to her there.
“I’m smart, so I know two useful facts here.”
It was the thunder god. From atop the half-destroyed dam, he tossed something down between the harvest walls: a lit match.
“First, hydrogen is extremely flammable. And second…furnaces that supply their air through a tube take in accelerated oxygen so it will burn more fiercely.”
So…
“You’re fueling your own evaporation.”
●
A great ball of fire blossomed blue.
On the lake, the blue fireball wavered as it raced upstream through the golden pathway before shooting up into the sky.
It burned.
The surrounding air burned red as it scattered like a firework while the blue fire ascended into the night sky. And…
“Kaboom!”
Shifu sighed while watching her harvest walls scatter away as ether light.
“And that took too much out of me to do much more.”
“I’d suggest getting something to eat, but our camp was probably washed away in the debris flow.”
“We could ask the river spirits to search for our stuff.”
“The cooler was already empty anyway. Oh, but we do have to return the tents to the astronomy club, so it’d be great if they could find those.”
There were probably a lot of similar tents out there, so it was hard to say how well that would work. The river spirits probably couldn’t tell one tent from another. Then someone else hopped up nearby.
“Well, that’s that! We’ve tied up all the loose ends now, right?”
Eshita-chan smiled with her back to the hot and steaming lake.
“By the way, Eshita-chan, what happened to your Karamucho?”
“When I went to get my clothes, I stuck it all in that cooler thing, so I win as long as we can find that.”
Dammit, girl, thought Shifu.
“Ah ha ha! Not even an emergency can get the better of my brains! But don’t worry! Once we find it, I’ll give you some Wasabeef! Cause you did so much work!”
<The Hikawa Campsite’s riverside tent site was destroyed, but the equipment farther up from the river survived, so you can spend the night there. Plus, I will return everything to normal, so I will try to get back as much of your washed-away luggage as I can.>
Oh, I appreciate that. But…
…Hm?
Shifu saw something quite large moving past the steam mist spread out before her eyes.
●
Shifu gasped. There was no mistaking what she was seeing.
“Are we in trouble?”
It was the water monster. She was smaller than before, but she had her full body and was standing up within the mist.
“What happened here?”
Demeko-chan had noticed too. Tooru had as well. But Eshita-chan hadn’t since she had her back to the lake.
“In trouble!? Why!? Ha ha! I’m so smart I think I’m going to ask if I can be the guardian deity of Karamucho!”
“Yeah, I’m not talking about that, Eshita-chan.”
Oh, this is the real deal. The water monster waved her hands to clear away the mist and slowly rose to what looked to be around 200m tall.
“Then what are you talking about? Oh, I get it! You’re saying I should become the guardian deity of Koikeya first!”
“Still not what I’m talking about. Look behind you.”
“Behind me?”
Eshita-chan turned to the right to look back. At that exact moment, the resurrected water monster swung her body in the opposite direction to clear away the mist there.
“There’s nothing there! Are you saying something was there!?”
“And there still is, but how am I supposed to tell you that?”
But how had this happened in the first place? Shifu heard a solid sound in the mist. It sounded like cracking and breaking plates.
…Oh.
Now she understood.
“Did she take the debris flow and muddy ground inside herself and then move it all to her surface so it would be baked!?”
That meant the water monster wasn’t swinging her arms to clear away the mist. She was flinging off the baked earth that was pasted to her body.
“She is surprisingly intelligent.”
“I think I know where she learned this.”
“Yeah, so do I,” said Shifu. “During the terraforming, we surrounded a flame monster with ceramic.”
“But Kido crushed that flame monster.”
“There must be some mutual influence between the real world and the divine world.”
That was the only explanation. And behind smiling Eshita-chan…
“–––––!”
The roar finally made Eshita-chan turn fully around.
“Oh, c’mon. What’s all that ruckus about?”
“–––––”
“Why am I always the first to discover these things!?”
“Literally everyone else already saw her.”
Meanwhile, the attack arrived. The 200m water monster launched a water cannon from the mist.
It pierced the mist and that hole expanded as more water blasts flew in.
That’s not good, thought Shifu because they didn’t have a real move to make here. The best they had was…
“Synkomidi Theon!”
That was a shield. It deflected and scattered the incoming attacks, but it provided no way of fighting back. Which meant…
“Shinsei! Can you use your absurdity here!?”
“I surrrre can!”
“Wait, you can!?”
“He can,” said Tooru. “He’ll blow away the water monster along with everything else and we’ll regroup while Balancer restores everything!”
That’s our only real option, thought Shifu. But…
“There are more! Four 100m versions!”
New water monsters were visible upstream past the hills on either side.
Four of them.
The were far enough to the sides to bypass Synkomidi Theon and they all launched attacks.
There were 32 water cannons in all. 16 from the main water monster and 4 each from the smaller ones.
The shells of water and dirt rapidly flew in, so…
“Find some way to dodge!”
As soon as Shifu shouted that, a color arrived: white.
It was in fact…
“The mist!?”
●
Athena saw blossoming flowers.
The white flowers shined in the moonlight. They were shaped like roses and made of…
“Mist?”
There were 32 in all. The number matched the number of water cannons from the resurrected water monster in the lake and the smaller ones on the hills.
They blossomed in the air before the attacks could hit Demeter and the others.
Nothing else happened. That may have been why the water monsters looked in a certain direction while maintaining a puzzled silence.
They looked up, toward a point atop the tall dam.
Someone stood on the central pillar of the Synkomidi Theon created by Athena’s aunt.
“Kido Abinae!”
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