Chapter 089: The Third Round's Representative—From the Heian Era
With King Solomon's soul vanishing completely from this world, many truths were buried alongside him.
What was Satan's true nature?
Why did so many humans despise Satan?
A calamity of such magnitude should not have gone unrecorded in history.
No matter how well it was concealed, it couldn't have been erased entirely—yet no one had ever heard of such a thing.
Moreover, how did Beelzebub come to possess so many modified demons? Who provided the resources?
Was the mastermind behind Satan's creation the same one pulling the strings from the shadows?
"He claims to have gone mad—do you think it's true or not?"
In a conference hall, Shiva leisurely sipped his tea, nibbled on snacks, and spoke.
It was truly unexpected—to go mad so abruptly, and at such a suspiciously convenient time.
"Do you think it's related to Satan?"
Hades, fingers interlaced and chin resting on his knuckles, responded in a low voice.
Regarding Satan, the most knowledge lay with the Heavenly Realm. There, rumors persisted that one day Satan would invade Heaven and attempt to overthrow the Lord.
In other words, the reason for his madness might have been Satan-797.
"Was it caused by the Underworld's 13th Taboo?"
"No, I don't believe so. I doubt the 13th Taboo could drive someone to madness."
Hades shook his head, dismissing Zeus' speculation.
The thirteenth was indeed a terrifying cursed virus, but he didn't believe it could drive a god of that level to so-called madness.
Moreover, was it truly madness? Or was there some other issue?
Since they hadn't personally witnessed the scene in the heavenly realm, they couldn't confirm whether this was a lie or not.
But regardless, this incident was likely connected to him.
Most of the information about Satan seemed to have originated from that pantheon, and now King Solomon—the very human once blessed by that god—had made his appearance.
No matter how you looked at it, he was involved.
"So, will the battle of [Ragnarök] continue?"
After saying this, Shiva drained his cup of black tea in one gulp.
"Is that even a question?"
Zeus, who answered, had a fierce glint in his eyes, brimming with determination.
"It seems we've underestimated humanity."
Hades also let out an intrigued hum.
"So, no objections then?"
Shiva cracked his neck and swept his gaze across all the gods in the meeting.
No one responded immediately—not because anyone was hesitating, but because the sudden silence was the best answer.
Unanimous agreement!
The battle of [Ragnarök] would proceed as planned!!!
Now, all that remained was deciding the next representative.
Hm? Trying to summon him?
Of course, he refused.
Akashic Records.
Göll stared at the unresponsive summoning panel before her, her expression tinged with sorrow.
"He really is gone..."
Not only had he secured a victory for humanity, but he had also resolved a crisis in the heavens. There were no words left to praise such a king.
Yet, to achieve such a feat, he had endured unimaginable hardships.
Directly wielding the root of all creation in the universe—such an act was said to be incredibly dangerous, with the risk of being eroded and consumed being utterly terrifying.
"Sister?"
Brunhilde was attempting to repair the small phone-like terminal, but her methods made Göll's lips twitch slightly.
Shouldn't proper repairs involve tools like screwdrivers, carefully disassembling it and fixing any short circuits or malfunctions?
But her sister's idea of "repairing" it was gluing the shattered pieces back together.
"Repair complete!"
She declared cheerfully after sticking it all together, leaving Göll speechless.
That's it?
She really wanted to complain.
"Eh? Ehhh?!"
Göll's eyes widened in shock as the phone, which had been broken into several pieces, actually began repairing itself. The cracks fused together, vanishing like healing wounds.
In the blink of an eye, it was restored to its original state.
"Sister Brunhilde, what is this?"
"Explaining it properly would be a hassle, so just think of it as something like the self-repairing liquid metal from human sci-fi."
Brunhilde, who had said this, then nervously tried to wake the screen.
But since they were already in the Akashic Records, couldn't they just use the Akashic system to investigate anything they needed?
Why bother repairing this sub-terminal? For convenience?
It wasn't like there was only one of these—they could just grab another.
The real reason Brunhilde wanted to fix it was for the data inside—the massive influx of human records that had been abruptly cut off when it overloaded.
And this data wasn't in the Akashic Records.
No, wait—of course, the Akashic Records had it. The problem was, how was she supposed to know which humans to look for?
Although the data was transmitted here, it wasn't backed up in the main system, so how would she know which individuals were sent to the sub-terminal?
That's why she wanted to repair this sub-terminal.
Power on?
No response?
As expected, it wasn't going to be that easy to restore.
Poke, poke, poke, poke!
"Ugh..."
Göll was speechless again—seems like it wasn't properly fixed after all.
"Damn it!"
Brunhilde angrily slammed it onto the ground.
"Huh? Sister, it seems to be responding."
"Hmm?"
Brunhilde picked it up and flipped the screen, which had been pressed against the ground. Indeed, there was a response, but it still seemed to have major issues.
"No good. A massive amount of data is missing."
It was as if countless personal records had been set ablaze.
Even though the fire was extinguished, every single record that hadn't turned to ash still had portions burned beyond recognition, making it impossible to confirm specific identities.
Still, Brunhilde managed to glean some information from clothing and other distinguishing features.
She determined which era these people were from and under which pantheon's jurisdiction they fell.
Were these humans from the Heavenly Realm's domain?
And that era—wasn't it when the so-called "trials" for humanity were taking place?
Were these people who had failed the trials and died?
So, why did they hate Satan? Why not resent the Lord instead?
Was it because they were too well-conditioned? Were they all fanatics, blindly believing whatever the Lord said, convinced that Satan was the reason they failed the trials?
Speaking of which, wasn't that Lord also insane?
Feels like there's some kind of conspiracy at play.
"Sigh~"
No more investigating. Time to prepare for the third match.
As for the third round, Brunhilde had already decided on her candidate.
A figure from the Heian period of the Far Eastern island nation.
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