The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 413

Umbra continued,

“The End God and the Human God. The two of them probably had almost equal power.”

There was no proof.

But I could be certain.

The Human God would have been born with power that was on par with the End God.

“No… Since it was said that the Human God won in the end, should we assume that the Human God had slightly more power?”

The result was the proof.

The End God was defeated by the Human God.

This meant that the Human God was born with power equal to or greater than the End God.

“Unfortunately, I can’t predict what happened after the Human God was born.”

“…Yes.”

I could speculate about the birth of the Human God based on the information I already had and the information I got from you, but I couldn’t speculate about what happened after that.

Because there was no information about it. It was impossible to guess.

“All I can guess is that the two were hostile.”

The Human God defeated the End God.

Based on that information, the two would never have been on friendly terms.

“I don’t know how long the battle lasted, but somehow the Human God would have defeated the End God. I don’t know how he defeated him, but Veil said so, so it must be true.”

“Yes.”

If Veil was right, that’s how it would have happened.

“The problem is likely to have occurred here.”

“…Problem?”

What problem was she talking about?

“I’m talking about the reason why the End God’s power came to reside in the body of Veil Stole, who has been resurrected.”

I paused for a moment to think.

“…Indeed. The only time the End God could have played a trick was then.”

It was like how Veil cursed my teacher before he died.

The End God must have also played a trick on the Human God in some way before he died.

“Did he cast some kind of curse… by giving his power to the Human God? Or maybe he designed it to reactivate in the distant future…”

“It’s hard to say for sure about the method right now. With the divine power the End God possessed, anything was possible.”

“…I see.”

That was true.

The method wasn’t something to think about right now.

The important thing was that the End God did something back then.

That was all.

“And this is purely my gut feeling, but I think the reason why the Human God split into two might be related to that.”

“The reason why the Human God split into Veil Stole and my teacher… Ray Bell Bytenner?”

“Yeah.”

Umbra nodded with a strangely confident expression.

“What’s the basis for that?”

“None. It’s just a feeling.”

Even though she said there was no basis, her eyes were sparkling with conviction.

“I don’t think a god who was born with enough power to defeat the End God would have split his body in two of his own volition for no reason.”

That was also true.

There must have been a definite reason for splitting the body.

“Unless the Human God was as crazy as the End God and split his body in two because he was bored after his enemy disappeared…”

“…That’s unlikely.”

“It is. The Human God, who was called a hero god, couldn’t have been such a psychopath.”

You can’t determine someone’s personality by their title, but a person who was called a hero god wouldn’t be a psychopath.

“So, I made a hypothesis. The End God’s power was involved in the Human God splitting into two.”

“…It’s too logical to dismiss it as just a feeling, isn’t it?”

“It just seems logical. There’s no proof. This is in the realm of emotional reasoning, not deduction. Take it with a grain of salt.”

Her grasp of the situation was excellent.

And her ability to be objective about herself.

She was perfect in many ways.

The Goddess Umbra.

She seemed to be an even more outstanding person than I had thought.

“And if I were to add another emotional guess here, the Human God wouldn’t have been in perfect condition after defeating the End God.”

“…That’s highly likely. Considering who his opponent was.”

War destroys the loser, but it also devastates the victor.

The Human God wouldn’t have been in perfect condition either.

“In that state, it would have been difficult to resist the End God’s trickery.”

“…Is there something like a last burst of divine power?”

A last burst of divine power.

The sun is brightest before it sets.

It means squeezing out the last bit of power before death.

“Yes, there are even divine techniques that use one’s life as a price.”

A divine technique that uses one’s life as collateral.

“If the End God squeezed out all his power at the very end to play a trick… there would have been no way for the Human God to resist.”

“That’s right.”

I understood.

“Anyway, due to some kind of divine technique used by the End God, the Human God was split into two…”

“Wait a minute.”

I interrupted Umbra at that moment.

“There’s one flaw in that hypothesis.”

“A flaw?”

“Yes. It’s something that happened a long time ago, so I haven’t had a chance to tell you, but it contradicts that information.”

That hypothesis completely contradicted that information.

“What information is it?”

“It’s information about dragons.”

“Dragons…? Those pathetic lizards with no personality or intelligence?”

“No. That’s not it.”

It seemed that dragons didn’t exist in the era Umbra lived in.

I thought we lived in the same mythical era.

It seemed that dragons were a new species that was conceived after the birth of the End God.

“I think you’re confusing them with drakes. Dragons and drakes are different.”

“What’s the difference?”

“It’s easier to understand if you think of it as the difference between monkeys and humans in the modern era.”

The origins of the species may be the same, but it’s hard to see them as the same species.

“In short, a dragon is a drake that has developed a personality… a lizard that has become an intelligent being.”

“It’s a little different… but for now, you can think of it that way.”

There was no need to explain the details about dragons right now.

“Anyway, the existence of dragons existed in the mythical era… or, to be more precise, at the end of the mythical era.”

“I understand that much. So?”

“Those dragons have recently begun to reappear in modern times.”

“…Remnants of the mythical era now? How?”

“By putting souls into artificially created bodies, they have somehow succeeded in materializing their forms.”

“Ah. Not resurrected in their complete state, but just their forms?”

“Yes.”

“Then… it’s not impossible.”

Umbra nodded as if she understood.

“I understand. Continue.”

“Yes. I recently fought against those resurrected dragons…”

“And?”

“In the process, one dragon regained consciousness just before dying.”

“…Consciousness?”

Umbra looked at me with an expression that told me to continue.

“I don’t think you’re particularly curious about how he regained consciousness, so I’ll skip that… To get to the point…”

I took a moment to organize my thoughts and began to speak again.

“At that time, that dragon asked me to save his remaining brethren and transferred his power to me.”

“Power, you mean… mana?”

“Yes.”

The Red Dragon entrusted the rest to me and gave me all of his remaining mana.

“Immediately after receiving that mana, I had a strange dream.”

“What kind of dream?”

“It was a dream of the past, of the day the dragon species became extinct.”

“…Extinct.”

Umbra’s eyes widened slightly.

I was starting to understand something.

I could roughly tell what you were going to say.

That was the expression she had.

“In that dream, I saw the face of the god who appeared to exterminate the dragons.”

It was still vivid.

“That god had the same face as my teacher.”

His hair color and atmosphere were different, but his face was the same as my teacher’s.

“That’s the Human God.”

“Yes. I think so.”

One of the reasons why I concluded that my teacher and Veil’s past was the End God was also here.

The way he declared the destruction of the dragons looked like the End God to anyone.

That’s why I concluded that.

“And one more thing. There were beings called angels in that dream.”

“Angels?”

I recalled the words I had exchanged with the being called an angel before the Human God appeared.

“I’d call them a special kind of human with wings. They were called messengers of the sky.”

“If they’re messengers of the sky… does that mean they’re messengers of the divine realm?”

“I think that’s what they were.”

“…Has the divine realm been resurrected?”

“No. That’s not it.”

“Then?”

“…Um.”

How should I explain it?

Maybe because I skipped the previous content, it was very cumbersome to explain.

“…It would be faster to explain the contents of the dream from the beginning.”

I tried to explain it as briefly as possible, but it seemed difficult.

It would be better to just explain it in as much detail as possible.

“I’ll explain it from the beginning.”

I slowly began to explain what I had seen in the dream.

The existence of the angels. The conversation between the angels and the dragons. And the appearance of the Human God. All the way to the final death.

I explained everything without missing a single detail.

The explanation took about eight minutes.

“…The messengers of the divine realm are puppets?”

“Yes. That’s what the dragons said.”

‘I’d rather die than become a puppet of the gods like you.’

The dragons clearly said that.

“And the angel definitely reacted to those words?”

“Yes. He grabbed his head and was in pain. And then the Human God popped out.”

“…Okay. There’s definitely something there.”

Umbra’s expression became serious.

“Angels. Are they like… inferior copies of the gods?”

“It’s not impossible. If the vast divine power that was released after defeating the End God was used to create a species called angels, then everything would make sense.”

The existence of angels was an inferior version of the gods. It wouldn’t be a problem to conclude that.

“…And the dragons said, ‘I’d rather die than become like you,’ after seeing those angels.”

Umbra narrowed her eyes and fell into thought.

Her head seemed to be in a mess.

“Ugh. I don’t know what’s going on. Creating a new species in the divine realm with divine power? How is that even possible? And why did the dragons say that?”

Umbra scratched her head as if she was frustrated.

“…Anyway. I understand what you meant by the flaw. It’s that the Human God didn’t split into two immediately after settling things with the End God, right?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

After settling things with the End God.

The Human God lived as the Human God for quite a long time.

Until the species called angels was born, the species called dragons was born, and the species called dragons was destroyed.

The Human God was the Human God.

“…So, it means that the Human God didn’t split into two right away.”

Umbra stroked her chin and fell into thought again.

“Then, should we assume that the divine technique that the End God cast on the Human God took effect much later?”

“Ah. Not right away?”

“Yeah.”

Umbra turned her gaze to me.

“You said it yourself. The Human God you saw in your dream didn’t look normal at all.”

“Yes. I felt like something was missing.”

“So, it definitely wasn’t the feeling of a hero god, right? That’s why you mistook him for the End God.”

“Yes.”

“Then it’s certain.”

Umbra spoke with the expression of a detective who had found the answer.

“100% the End God cast some kind of divine technique on the Human God. That divine technique acted on the Human God’s mind, and he became half-insane.”

“His mind was gradually collapsing…?”

“That’s right.”

Umbra spoke with an even more confident expression.

“The end of that mental collapse is the split.”

The End God’s divine technique didn’t just break the Human God’s mind, it ultimately split it.

That’s what she was saying.

…It was certainly a plausible theory.

“Then, what’s the reason why the End God split the Human God? Was it to get revenge on the Human God who killed him?”

“He might have had thoughts of revenge, but his main purpose was something else.”

Umbra replied with an expression that asked why I was asking such an obvious question.

“Right now, the body of that guy, Veil Stole, is imbued with the End God’s energy, right?”

“…Ah!”

I understood.

What Umbra was trying to say.

“The End God’s goal is resurrection.”

The End God hadn’t given up.

“By splitting the Human God’s mind, weakening his power, and taking over the body of one of the two who had lost power, he’s trying to resurrect himself on this earth again.”

The End God’s purpose was beginning to become clear, albeit vaguely.