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44.61% My 13th Reincarnation: The Gods Won't Let Me Die / Chapter 29: The Lesser Gods

章 29: The Lesser Gods

"Hello?"

Hng...

"Can you hear me?"

My head hurts. Getting a meeting with the gods isn't usually this bad.

"I'm terribly sorry. You're not really supposed to be here, but I couldn't think of another way."

What?

An involuntary twitch tells me that my movements aren't restricted, the way that they usually are, when I talk to Gaia. If I can move... maybe I can see, too?

I open my eyes to a bright light. Is this what dying looks like?

I blink hard. With some difficulty, my eyes adjust, and I'm able to see an outline of my environment through the strong rays of light.

Large pillars with detailed engravings hold up a ceiling of something that looks like marble. Beyond the building I'm in, which reminds me of a Greek temple, is the rough outline of a landscape. Large fields line the the hills and meadows. Wheat, rye, and some other, more colorful crops. Looking at it makes my headache flare up again.

"Ugh."

"Please, have a seat, Shawl."

Shawl, huh? This must be the guy that called me here, then. I guess the young nun wasn't mistaken in the gender. I look over in the direction of the hoarse voice.

Standing in the middle of the room is a man? I think?

It's hard to tell because his head is large and flat, like a mask. A stretched, toothy grin is inset into it. This person... he's a god. I've never heard him talk before, but I've seen him during some of my reincarnations, standing beside Gaia. Why is he contacting me?

"ARGH!"

My head hurts. It's hard to think properly.

"Oh no, this must be quite awful. I'm so very, very sorry. I didn't know it'd be this bad for you."

He's talking, but the mouth on the mask isn't moving. It's rather unnerving to have such a polite voice coming out of a face like that. I can't tell if he's mocking me or being genuine.

"I'll try to be quick, then. I'll send you back as soon as I'm done, I promise."

"Done? With what?"

"I need to tell you something, and it's important, so please listen carefully. She's deceiving you. She's been lying to you - *we've* been lying to you. That woman isn't Gaia, the goddess of creation. She's just another one of us lesser gods.

I know what she promised, but she lied. That's what she does. She isn't nearly powerful enough to do what you want. Do you understand?"

Through the pounding in my head, I manage to get out a muffled response.

"Yes. I understand. Now send me back."

"Right, I'm sorry. I'll send you back now."

The bright light seems to fade away and, despite the pain, I feel myself getting tired. I collapse to the ground.

"Don't trust her."

Don't trust her.

---

"A-are you okay?"

There's a concerned voice beside me. I'm back on the cold stone tiles of the church. The pain in my head is fading, and I let out a relieved breath.

I open my eyes. That young nun is standing beside me. The one that brought me to the church.

"I'm sorry, I- uhm- I didn't know you were still... here..." she trails off at the end.

I push myself into a sitting position. My neck hurts a bit and my back feels tense.

"How long have I been here?"

"Wh- uh- I don't know. Have you been here since I left you??"

"Yeah."

"Oh- wow- that'd be..." she counts on her fingers, "about 7 hours."

"Seven *hours*?"

"I think so, yes."

Interesting. Time doesn't usually pass faster when I'm communicating with the gods. The entire exchange was just off. My head. That place. That man. And...

Don't trust her.

Right. Gaia. Or not Gaia, according to that man- or god, I suppose.

What did he say? "She's just another one of us lesser gods."

Very interesting.

"Uhm..."

Right. The girl.

"Thank you for your concern. I'm perfectly fine. I must have fallen asleep during my prayer."

Partial truths are ever so handy.

"Ah-ha-ha, yeah, that happens to me, sometimes."

It does???? What kind of nun are you???

Whatever, who am I to judge.

The girl helps me get to my feet and I leave the church behind, my mind cluttered by thoughts.

First thing's first, what that guy - let's call him "Smile" - said. I can't just take him at his word. He could be working for Gaia. He certainly seemed to be before. Or maybe I was just assuming?

What a mess.

Okay, assuming, for now, that I trust him; what does that mean? Gaia - or Not Gaia - lied to me? She and Smile are something called "lesser gods?" Well, that would imply the existence of "greater gods."

Greater gods, huh? You know, if Not Gaia can't bring me back to Sofia, they might.

"You're not really supposed to be here," Smile had said. I wonder if that was their world. Where the gods live.

It did hurt like hell, but if Smile's ability to bring me there is similar to celestial magic - possibly even the exact same thing - I should, theoretically, be able to replicate it.

Turning the corner, I trudge down the long street of traders. There, every thought of the gods and Sofia is driven out of my head, as two people half tackle me.

"There you are, Seb!" Vol says.

"Where have you been?" Elizabeth asks me, her blank expression laced with a hint of curiosity.

"Yeah, we were starting to get real worried."

As I'm dragged back to a breakfast stall by my two friends, I find myself gazing out over the ocean. The sun is rising at the edge of the water, its orange glow reflecting majestically across the shimmering surface. A lovely sight to look at when eating breakfast with friends.

What a beautiful world this is.


next chapter

章 30: Knockout

Where... what happened?

I try to move, but a pain shoots up my spine. At the same time, there's a knock on my door and I hear Vol's voice.

"Sebastian, are you okay?? What was that noise?"

I can't speak. I can't move. My whole body hurts. My room is a mess. Shelves are hanging off their hinges, my table is cracked in half, and all my notes are scattered across the floor. In the middle of the room, the light of a large machine is quickly fading. Out of the corner of my vision, I see the door opening.

"Oh gods- what happened?! Elizabeth! Get a healer! Now!!"

Exhausted, my head falls back against the wall and the room begins to fade away, as I fall into unconsciousness.

---

Since my "meeting" with Smile, a lesser god, a lot has been on my mind. He claimed that Gaia - that is to say, Not Gaia - was lying to me; deceiving me. But why would he tell me that? For what reason?

Lesser or not, she's still a god. If Smile knows that she's lying, shouldn't he be the one to do something about it? What, exactly, is he expecting me to do with that information? Why was it so important?

And why now?

Maybe he believes that I can do something about it. Why else would he go through so much trouble? It must be something I've done or found recently.

The celestial magic? That's definitely recent, but I can't cast it. Even if I've remembered the sequence, I can't cast arbitrary spells.

For me to cast a spell, I need Vol's help to engrave it onto the manacaster, but I don't even know what the spell looks like. It would have to be pretty different from what I'm used to, not to mention much more powerful than anything else I've seen. It would stand out like a sore thumb.

Actually, that kind of rings a bell.

I feel like I've seen something that matches that description before.

Something that's recent. It's right on the tip of my tongue. Maybe if I ask Elizab-

Oh. Elizabeth's sword. On the handle, there was that engraving of a spell. A spell that can transform the holder's mana into pure strength. If that's not divine, I don't know what is. To think it was right under my nose.

I'll have to get Vol to lend it to me for research purposes.

---

I open my eyes slowly, letting them adjust to the brightly lit room. I don't think being unconscious this often is good for my health.

I'm lying in a very white bed. I glance to the side. Vol is slumped over in a chair next to me. I wonder how long he's been here. I can't see Elizabeth anywhere. I'm ashamed to say that I'm kind of disappointed. I guess I expected her to be here.

Actually, how long have I been out? I turn my head to look out of the window. It still hurts quite a bit.

Oh, it's night. Elizabeth must have gone back home to rest. I guess I can't blame her.

Just as I think that, however, there's a creaking from a door further down the room. I turn my head to look at it.

"El-" I croak, my voice weirdly hoarse.

She just stands there, staring at me. She doesn't look too different, so I can't have been out for too long, right?

I try again, clearing my throat, "Elizabeth. What's wrong?"

"I don't understand."

Huh? I'm the one that doesn't understand. What's the matter?

"I don't understand. What is it?"

For once, she looks legitimately stunned. I push myself up in the bed to get a better look at her.

"The healers weren't sure you'd ever wake up again. They said your wounds were really bad."

"Must be some pretty bad healers. I don't feel badly injured."

I move some of my appendages around. My neck hurts a bit, but it moves just fine. She walks closer to the bed, slowly lifting her hand and putting it on my face, like a mother might. Looking at her this closely, her eyes strike me as being redder than usual.

"I'm fine. Really."

She doesn't say anything.

"Maybe you should wake up Vol," I suggest.

I wonder if this is the closest I've come to dying. To think that the thing that almost got me wasn't a greater monster, but a spell. Admittedly, it was a celestial spell. Or, maybe more accurately, an attempt at a celestial spell.

I had borrowed Elizabeth's melted sword from Vol with no problems. Copying down the spell, I realized that it seemed to consist of several smaller pieces. Patterns in a messy construction, much like the celestial sequence.

Working on it was a mess. Much less testing it. I quickly realized that it was too inefficient to have Vol make a new engraving every single time my last one turned out to be a dud, so I had him engrave the individual parts onto small puzzle pieces. It made iterating on ideas a lot faster when all I had to do was move them around.

It took quite a while of tinkering to get to a point where I thought I got it right. But no. Instead, I'm in the hospital again. For once, my lacking mana control comes in handy. The AM-store I used for testing wasn't powerful enough to cast the spell in full. If it had been, I might have blown up the building.

But I know I'm close. The spell didn't do what I wanted, but it did do *something*. I have to try again. I bet I can get it right.

Though, somehow, having Vol and Elizabeth looking at me like this. It makes me think.

Maybe it's time I told them the truth.

The whole truth, for once.


クリエイターの想い
MadCreativity MadCreativity

Hey, we're 30 chapters in! I hope I'm explaining the world clearly enough. If you're enjoying the story so far, feel free to leave a comment or vote for us.

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