On a Godless Planet:Volume1B Chapter 31
Chapter 31: Death Bringer
Your delivery of disaster is here
●
“Join us in compromise, Eshita-kun. We will both destroy ourselves as things are, so let’s compromise.”
Tenma watched Omokane speaking.
“We want to continue the terraforming and we have no intention of letting Sumeragi-kouhai go. And we want to ensure the safety of Shinto as a whole while we are at it. So if we are invaded, we will resist to the best of our ability. We will make whatever arrangements are necessary to accomplish that. Such as…”
“Such as have the human create mythologies as a form of terrorism?”
“Exactly. We are not a powerful mythology, but we will use everything at our disposal to protect our rights. I am prepared to say that as many times as it takes.”
And…
“You should understand that you won’t gain anything if you simply do what the DC wants.”
Yes. That was true enough.
“If that human is allowed to create mythologies as she pleases, the rest of the gods will question the DC’s management skills. Then someone would appear to support us, beginning a conflict between the DC and a new force that includes Shinto, who you harmed.”
“So you aren’t going to give up that human no matter what?”
“Do you think we would do all this if we were willing to do that?”
She really is a villain, thought Tenma.
And Omokane continued speaking.
“So I suggest we compromise. Let us return to what Sugawara-kouhai was saying.”
●
“If this goes the DC’s way, Shinto will fight back in every way we can. We will make sure the DC suffers some losses no matter what. That will be the point of our resistance.”
“So you want me to back off as a ‘compromise’?”
“No. …Sugawara-kouhai, explain it for her.”
“Basically, I think we should make use of this situation. Eshtar, you know our situation here and you know what methods we will use if we resist. So…”
So…
“If you act as an intermediary between us and the DC and you promise to not take the human by force, we will support you as a manager of the human-driven terraforming and we will provide you with all resultant information before anyone else.”
●
Eshita immediately deemed that an interesting idea. However…
“You want me to be your puppet?”
“That will be up to you.”
“So you want me to be your manager, but you’re going to treat me like this?”
Oh, no. I’m starting to feel chilled, so this is a serious case of dehydration. I doubt I’ll die, but I’d rather not get an even worse headache.
“So you want water?”
“Yes. Obviously.”
“I would be willing to give you some if you agreed to our compromise plan.”
“For real!? Then I agree, I agree! Now gimme the water!”
Omokane turned toward the others and the human tilted her head.
“Wasn’t she about to protest before!? Wasn’t she gonna make something go boom with a mystical power? She was, wasn’t she!?”
“Let’s just count ourselves lucky she didn’t actually use that spear of death.”
“I was only pretending! I was acting on a whim! The fact that I’m so active is my big selling point as a goddess, so I do stuff like that all the time!”
“She’s not kidding about that, by the way. So be careful, everyone.”
“Hey you! Don’t just spill the beans like that!”
Omokane nodded a few times and then snapped her fingers.
“Strip her.”
●
Stripping her was Shifu’s job.
“Eh!? Wait! Don’t just take advantage of me because I’m feeling all woozy!”
“Now, now, just stay still, okay? I’ll have you stripped in no time.”
“Shifu-senpai, when Eshtar visited the underworld, she had an article of clothing removed at each gate, which also stripped her of her power. She appears to be wearing 7 articles at the moment, so removing around 3 of them should halve her power.”
“H-hey! Stop giving her advice, Miss Flat Chest!”
“Kuwajiri, is that how people see you?”
“Shifu-senpai, go ahead and remove her inner suit too.”
“Eh!? What!? What did I do!? Hey, hey, hey!”
“Wow, this stuff is heavy after soaking up all that sweat.”
“Eh!? Ahh! Stop that! Ah ha ha ha! That tickles! Ah hee hee hee ha ha ha ha! Geh!”
“She laughed so hard she choked?”
“We definitely need to snap a photo now that we’ve stripped her. For insurance purposes. Oh, and Eshtar-kun, only we are here to see this, but Kubiko-kun is monitoring us from a remote location, so if you try anything, this photo will be spread all over the world. Now, I would much rather not do that, but it’s insurance.”
“Insurance sure is convenient.”
“I belieeeeve the word for it is eeeevil.”
“Girls sure are ruthless against other girls.”
“There, all stripped.”
●
Eshita was allowed to keep her inner suit and shirt.
Two articles of clothing meant she was less than a third as powerful as her original state.
But she had gotten water. And more snacks too, so she let out a sigh.
“Ahh, that’s a lot better.”
<Your data entity body was created by us, so any critical deficiencies can be replenished more rapidly than would be biologically possible. Please drink as much as you like.>
“I will,” she said while emptying her first bottle and turning her thoughts to what just happened. “I’m surprised by this.”
“By what?”
That should be obvious. It had to do with the human over there.
“I honestly thought you would be treating the human worse. Since we’re gods and she’s human, I thought you would be holding her more tightly in your grasp. Y’know, to use her like a tool or a slave.”
“Sorry to disappoint you! Oh, but I am a slave to Senpai’s love! Yes, I am a tool that speaks through the language of love! So you weren’t all wrong! Right, Shifu-senpai!?”
“Eshita-chan, do you want some Potelong?”
“These are soooooo good! I love their simplicity!”
“Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Don’t ignore me!”
“Anyway, I didn’t expect you to be so accepting of such a moron.”
“Yeah, I’ve gotta agree with you there.”
“I’m half-god and half-human, but even I see the gods as capricious beings that mostly cause problems.”
“We get along pretty well with the humans, so it feels like these things get more relaxed with the later mythologies.”
“I know what you mean,” said Eshita. “Now. What is this compromise you’re proposing?”
●
Omokane sat directly in front of Eshita with Raidou and Sugawara on either side of her. She set down a beer case and sat on that to put herself at Eshita’s eye level.
“I already explained what I want. I want you to remain here as an inspector so you can act as an intermediary between Shinto and the DC. In exchange, we will provide a guarantee of our continued work on the terraforming and we will provide the DC with all relevant data and results.”
“Heh heh. So you want me to be your accomplice?”
“Wouldn’t that be easier for you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well.” Omokane snapped her fingers and pointed at the pair of 5th Generation half-god, half-humans seated behind her. “I mean them. You came here for them, didn’t you?”
●
“Hm? What does she mean?”
“They mentioned defecting earlier, but I’m not sure.”
“Let’s just say things back home are a bit of a mess.”
“The goddess who let us escape…has been captured back home.”
●
Eshita took a deep breath.
This meant they had known her situation from the beginning.
…Well, I just have to deal with it then.
She was more or less ready for what was to come. Ready to become their “accomplice”, that is.
“He means Shamash, the Mesopotamian sun goddess. She’s my twin sister, she has a higher rank then me, and she’s really kind. In a motherly way.”
So…
“She educated Bilgamesh and, when the gods were going to bring death to Enkidu, she opposed the idea and worked to dissuade the other gods.”
“My mother was Aruru the Creator God, but I was also saved by Shamash from time to time.”
“Anyway,” said Eshita. “In the Earth Age mythology, I sought Bilgamesh’s hand in marriage and was refused and Enkidu was so mad about it she basically cussed me out.”
“Of course I did.”
“Ohhh.”
That about summed it up.
“And that is what led the gods to bring death to Enkidu.”
She summoned the spear of death to her hand.
●
Eshita could tell everyone had grown cautious.
So she just came out and said it.
“This is necessary.”
“For the mythology recreation?”
That was part of it, but this about something else.
“Shamash and the others were captured for the crime of letting those two escape. Shamash in particular was immediately confined. And the highest gods of Mesopotamian mythology arrived at a decision. If Enkidu dies to recreate the myth, then Shamash can go free.”
“So it’s all about your dumb pride!”
“That’s the way of things with gods. Being important is dumb in so many ways.”
So…
“So to avoid being like that, Shamash took the full blame to protect the others who agreed with her.”
“And you plan to deal with those two here in order to free Shamash?”
“She’s my twin sister. Well, she’s sometimes my brother instead, but that’s a long story. Anyway, I’m still free, so rescuing her is my job. That’s why I came here with this spear while the other gods are working out how to continue with their official duties.”
“Wait, did you steal that spear?”
“N-no! I left a note saying I took it!”
“Eshita-kun? Um, if you didn’t come here as an inspector, then everything we’ve discussed here goes out the window.”
“I did! I swear I did! Please believe me!”
“With everything you’ve pulled in the past, that’s honestly hard to believe.”
“Like destroying a mountain or stealing the wisdom god’s wisdom.”
“But she’s also surprisingly pathetic since she picked a fight with her other sister and lost.”
“Stooooooooooooooooooop!”
“Anyway,” said the flat-chested knowledge god who had supplied the finishing blow against Eshita’s reputation. “This explains something I had been confused about: why Bilgamesh and Enkidu came here. That was part of Shamash’s plan, wasn’t it?”
“Hm? What do you mean by that?”
“Well,” said the flat-chested knowledge god. “Eshtar is part of the myth about death being brought to Enkidu.”
But…
“She, Bilgamesh, and Enkidu also have the story of Enkidu descending to the underworld but returning.”
●
Kuwajiri had a simple question.
“Why did Bilgamesh and Ki choose Shinto after deciding to defect?”
You could always say “they just did”.
You could also say they had nowhere else to go.
But that was not the case.
She finally felt like she understood what had been bothering her about this.
“In the myth of Enkidu returning from the underworld, Ishtar receives Gilgamesh’s help in building a mansion and then throws a party to celebrate, but some musical instruments are dropped into the underworld during the party.”
“Hold up! What kind of world are we talking about here!? Are there just holes to the underworld in your backyard or something!? That’s horrifying! You wouldn’t even see that in Hoshi Shinichi’s short-short stories!”
“You mean like the hole from Oi, Detekoi?”
Seeing the idiot and the girl shaking hands annoyed Kuwajiri a little bit. I don’t get that reference.
“Ohhh, feeling jealous, Kuwajiri-chan?”
“I will endeavor to read more and more broadly from now on.”
Anyway, she had to get back on topic.
“So Enkidu went down to collect those instruments, but he failed to obey the rules of the underworld and couldn’t return.”
“Do you know how many rules they have down there? It’s impossible to remember them all.”
“I was gonna suggest bringing a cheat sheet with you, but you only had clay tablets back then, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, that wasn’t an option.”
Probably not.
“Anyway, Bilgamesh noticed, spoke to the gods, and somehow managed to get Enkidu back from the underworld.”
“That reminds me a lot of the Shinto story of Izanagi and Izanami in Yomi.”
“Yes. As humanity grew in number and migrated across the earth, they passed down the basic story of ‘returning alive from the underworld’ even as it evolved from culture to culture. Shinto’s version came a lot later, so its details had changed considerably, but the basic ideas are still very similar.”
“The story of Enkidu’s return from the underworld began with Eshtar, so if she performs the mythology recreation for that story, she will be able to bring Enkidu back from the underworld.”
●
“Kuwajiri, but dead is dead. How does she bring Enkidu back from being dead?”
“Yes, dead is dead. But we have an example right here of that rule being broken. I am referring to the human – that idiot over there. Humans can be rolled back.”
And…
“Enkidu is a half-god, half-human made by a god. That is not the same as that fully-human idiot, but she still has a human element to her. So we just have to bring Enkidu over to Shinto and apply the rollback system. I do not know the odds of that working, though.”
<There would likely be problems, but the way the system works would make it possible.>
That meant they could do it.
●
“That is Sun God Shamash’s plan, isn’t it?”
Eshtar nodded.
“My sister did not lament the fact that she was captured. She said the gods had no choice but to do it. But she said I could rise above that since I’m ‘a delinquent’.”
“So you’re like the delinquent with a heart of gold who takes in a stray dog?”
“Are you calling me a dog?”
“Then you weren’t supposed to protest on a whim earlier, were you?”
“I wasn’t thinking straight! Cause I was mad! It doesn’t count!”
She was not going to let that slide. But…
“My plan was to get some results as an inspector and then free my sister by placing Enkidu in the Shinto system to…roll her back, did you call it? And this is close enough to what I wanted, so I’ll go with it.”
“We came here on Shamash’s recommendation. She said there was a chance of Ki surviving if we used the Shinto rollback, so that was our plan. But we didn’t expect Eshtar to show up as an inspector and, given what she’s pulled in the past, we couldn’t exactly trust her.”
“So she’s a walking disaster?”
“Hey! Hey! You can’t just blame everything on me!”
“I believe we shall approve Bilgamesh-kun and Enkidu-kun’s defection. In fact, I just did. The higher ups gave me emergency authority to make that decision, so I can do that.”
“I appreciate you doing that even after knowing my plan. If I brought her death without your permission but after she defected, it would mean I had killed a Shinto god.”
“Oh, so that’s why you were willing to accept Bilgamesh’s defection but not Enkidu’s earlier.”
“Yes, I planned to ask Balancer to act as an intermediary in that case. I would have needed a forced intervention to make this a mythology recreation of Enkidu’s return from the underworld.”
I see, thought Kuwajiri. This goddess is an idiot, but she can be clever at times. But…
“Um, but are you sure?”
Senpai-san raised her hand and turned toward Enkidu.
“If we do this, it means bringing death to Kidou-san, doesn’t it?”
●
Ki honestly didn’t like the sound of that.
The whole rollback thing felt like a mess.
You would lose some of your memories, so she and Bilgamesh could not remain the same as they were before. But…
“But…it’s far better than being separated by death.”
She understood that perfectly well.
A tablet-style Revelation Board appeared by Eshita’s face. she glared at it and then shattered it, but…
“Word from back home?”
“Yes. They piss me off so much. When have I ever done anything in a less than flawless fashion?”
Don’t look to me for agreement there.
But Omokane-san responded while opening a Revelation Board and quickly performing a few operations.
“They expect you to betray them, don’t they?”
“Yeah, it certainly seems that way.”
“Betray them how?”
“They think Eshita-kun will allow Bilgamesh-kun and Kidou-kun to escape. I imagine the only reason they are not directly intervening is because Eshita-kun is here as an inspector. If they stopped an inspector on her level before she actually betrayed them, that would qualify as a serious internal conflict. They would be shaming themselves for no reason.”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“Hey, wait! Yeah! That indirectly proves I really am here as an inspector, doesn’t it!? See, I told you!”
“Why can’t you prove it yourself?”
“Lack of trust.”
“Lack of trust.”
“Probably lack of trust.”
<Definitely lack of trust.>
“Wow, lack of trust across the board! Hey, Mucho! That’s a rare accomplishment!”
“Really!? Yay! I’m the best!”
“Hey, wait! I’m super trustworthy! Who do you think you are, insulting me like that!?”
“Gods?”
<Your creator.>
“You’ve got me there!”
“B-but, um, isn’t it bad your local gods are checking up on you?”
“Amazing, Senpai. Only you would try to steer the conversation back on track from that.”
That compliment made her kind of happy.
●
“Thank you, Sumeragi-kun. Although I’m a little worried that just means I have trouble reading the room.”
“Not at all! The problem is that no one else even tries to read the room because they’re too caught up in their own ego! You can be as proud of this as you can your looks, your personality, and your boobs!”
“Aren’t looks and boobs the same thing?”
“Don’t you get it!? This means there’s way too much I need to praise her for! Listen! Her looks cover so many things, like her hair, her eyes, and her eyebrows! And looking down a bit, there’s her sexy lips with the lower one being a bit fuller and even her thighs which seem to have a bit more adductor muscles than is strictly necessary! We’d be here all day if I praised her for them all! My fondest wish is to have more time to praise her! Do you get it now, Kuwajiri!?”
“Sugawara-kun, I would love to learn more about your Auth Spell.”
“Ah ha ha! She’s ignoring you!”
“Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! What’s with this weird double team!?”
“Sumeragi-kun, calm down, calm down.”
“Okay, I’ve calmed down. Everything’s fine. Just looking at you calms my heart like a soft drink!”
“What qualifies as a soft drink, anyway?”
<In Japan, it is legally defined as a flavored, non-dairy beverage with an alcohol content of less than 1%.>
“By that definition, tomato juice and soy milk surprisingly qualify as soft drinks. On the other hand, soup is a food, so it would not meet the ‘beverage’ part of the definition.”
“Do you like tomato juice or soy milk more?”
“Senpai! Which do you like more!?”
I really wasn’t sure what to say when Sumeragi-kun directed that question my way out of the blue. I wasn’t cut out for thinking on my feet like this.
“Well, um, if I had to choose…soy milk?”
“Correct. Soy isoflavones activate female hormones, so that seems to fit my image of you. Sumeragi, on the other hand, would probably be better suited with a highly-caffeinated calorie-free cola.”
“Yes, that does sound about right.”
“Really!? Then I’ll paint myself cola colored and stuff myself inside a plastic bottle, so buy me at a vending machine!”
“Hitting the button on the machine and having you fall out sounds downright horrifying.”
“Hey! Hey! Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!”
Worrying that Sumeragi-kun would get stuck in there seemed like the wrong thing to focus on. And…
“And it’s done. Their defection has been approved by the virtually-manifested Heavenly Gods.”
●
“That went through quickly. Did you threaten them again? Your leaders really like to avoid trouble with the other mythologies, don’t they?”
“Threaten them? Let’s not be silly.” Omokane laughed. “I think Amaterasu’s conservative side is a good thing for our top authority figure. But she’s being a little cleverer about it this time, Raidou-kun. This is about Shamash.”
“Shamash? What does she have to do with it?”
Curious, are you?
This had to do with them too, so Omokane tapped her Revelation Board without letting them see what it said. She had been using it to contact multiple people via divine transmission.
“Listen up. Shamash is a sun god, but also a goddess. And women will form connections with other women. The male-female ratio of sun gods throughout the world is approximately 2:1, but in the virtual manifestation world, the female sun gods and other significant goddesses have been improving their standing and getting their name out there fairly well. So I went through some other Shinto goddesses with real manifestations to let Amaterasu know that a fellow sun goddess is in trouble.”
“You Shinto gods sure do love setting up a bunch of hidden groundwork instead of tackling your problems head on, don’t you?”
“Our weak position makes that a necessity. Unlike the big-name mythologies who can act Machiavellian for fun, we have to do it to survive. …Anyway, even conservative Amaterasu is willing to act if it will leave another mythology indebted to us. So while the Mesopotamian gods have captured their Sun God Shamash to save face, I doubt they will be able to keep that up for long.”
“Their laundry won’t ever dry otherwise.”
“Yes, and they can’t put their futons out to air out either. Anyway, the Mesopotamians might outwardly say Shinto is pushing our luck, but we can at least establish a connection between Takamagahara and Shamash.”
So…
“Grant Enkidu death, Eshtar. That will settle everything.”
●
…Does it really have to come to this?
Ki – Enkidu – En Kidou had to be “granted death”.
There was no avoiding it.
There was no other option.
But this bothered me.
“Um…is there really no other way?”
“You mean about the rollback?”
“Kidou En’s name has been entered into our rollback system as a special entry. Bilgamesh has not since no request was made, but we should be able to do the same with him. The odds of success are-”
“No, um, I’m not asking if it will work.”
I explained what was bothering me.
“If she’s rolled back, she’ll lose some of her memories and be confused about a lot.”
Also…
“When someone you care about doesn’t remember you or you later realize they’re missing some memory you shared, it really gets you down.”
“Senpai! Has that ever happened with me!?”
“Um, well, uh.”
It had. But…
“You’ve made things even better after going through that, so it’s all right. But…”
“And you think it couldn’t be that way for us?”
“Bil, she’s saying we can’t know what it’s like until we’ve been through it ourselves.”
“Sorry. I’m not trying to one-up your tragedy and I did kind of talk down to you there, didn’t I? I just think it would be better if there was some other way.”
“Could we reach a political resolution?”
“Not a chance. The gods back home will see the usage records for this spear.”
Eshita-san put back on the clothing hanging on the fence around the air conditioner, so she probably needed her strength back to throw the spear. She sniffed at the collar and nodded, so they must have managed to dry off.
Tenma-san placed a hand on her chin at what Eshita-san had said.
“Could you attack a part of Kidou-san’s body – like her hair – instead?”
“I’m granting her death, so the spear won’t disappear as long as any living part of her remains.”
“Why would you create a spear that has to kill someone!? You Mesopotamians are scary!”
“Yeah, I won’t deny we can be a pain sometimes.”
“Just do it,” said a voice.
“I’m okay with it.”
●
This is probably how it has to be, thought Ki while looking to Shamhat.
“Hat. When I was originally more of an animal than anything, it was you who brought me back to my senses and let me get to know Bil and the others.”
So…
“If I do lose my memories, fill me in on everything I lost.”
“So I’m your guardian?”
“I’d say educator.”
“I can do that, but I never did teach you all that much. I mean, you gained a lot more afterwards and that’s what really matters.”
Shamhat nodded.
“But I will make sure you can gain all of that again.”
That settled it. Ki decided it was best to get it over with quick before she could have second thoughts.
“Bil, I’ll see you again.”
“Of course you will. That’s why we are here.”
At least he was as strong as ever. I need to be strong too.
Then she turned toward a certain goddess.
The one they called Senpai.
“Thank you for worrying for me, even if this was already set in stone.”
“No, um, I, uh.”
“I think I was more talking to myself than anything.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
Ki recalled why she had come here.
“When you care about someone, it’s only natural to want to be with them and improve your relationship with them.”
“––––––”
Did that trouble her? But Ki decided to offer her a silent prayer: Unknown goddess of a later mythology, may your kindness bring you happiness.
Then Ki realized how shockingly little hesitation she felt.
…Oh, I get it.
She might lose a lot from this, but it would free her from the bonds of eventually being “granted death”.
●
I turned toward Senpai.
“Senpai, do you want to do something about this?”
“Eh? Yes, I know this is the only option, but I still want to do something about it. That’s probably just who I am.”
“You’ve got real courage, Senpai-chan.”
“Yeah, you really do.”
“Eh? No, I’m just gutless.”
That isn’t true at all, I thought. Senpai really is the best. Because…
“Everyone feels the same way you do, but we’re all making excuses to avoid it. So I’m proud of you for being able to come out and say it!”
●
…I’ll finally be freed from that.
No, she already had been now that she was in the rollback system.
Everything will be okay now, she thought while turning toward Eshtar.
She spoke to the goddess standing with black spear in hand.
“Do it.”
“C’mon, at least look a little scared.”
They both smiled at each other as they got ready. Eshtar swung her arm a bit to extend the sleeve of the clothing she had just put back on.
“I’m ready.”
Ki breathed in and shut her eyes.
And then…
“––––––”
If this is what death feels like, then it’s not all that bad really, she thought.
She would change things in order to survive.
●
Eshita chose to throw the spear.
That was partially due to the distance between them, but mostly because she didn’t want the tactile feedback of directly stabbing the spear into Ki. She also vocally psyched herself up.
“Ready, set, boom!!”
She threw it. And immediately…
“Ready, set, boooooom!!”
The idiot pushed Enkidu out of the way.
…What!?
This of course came as a shock. Because the idiot was now in the path of the thrown spear.
There was no way to stop the idiot or the spear.
“Sumeragi-kun!?”
That cry rang out just before the black spear stabbed half of its length into the human.
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