Chapter 205

I can't feel the Od...

Just as Amakusa was pondering this in his heart, he sensed the presence of light in the darkness, like twinkling starlight, distant yet countless.

But he felt that these points of light were still too small to illuminate or dispel the darkness, and that he needed the brighter light of stars.

That is --

"Please allow me to introduce myself once more. I am a follower of the Lord, and the former Ruler was granted Flesh and left in this world, Amakusa Shirou."

Golden Heroic Spirit.

Revered as the strongest deity in the Americas, the existence of the Fifth Sun—

Those who had failed to become Saint nodded powerfully to him and bowed once again with deep respect to the darkness where the light was.

The next second—

The transformation of all things into new life manifested in the pitch-black world. Tiny rays of light, like grains of sand, extended into even finer filaments, intertwining and coalescing, instantly transforming into a vast ray of light that burned away the darkness, appearing as daylight— the Sun.

"Not bad, very good." Standing beside Novia, Tlaloc, who had changed from civilian clothes into priest's attire, gave Amakusa a cold look. "Skinning her or taking her heart... the problem is, you can't have both."

As soon as the Black-Haired Girl finished speaking, as if she had guessed what Novia was going to say, she immediately leaned close to his ear and whispered:

"After all these years, your temper has improved quite a bit. What? Back when we first met, you dared to fight me and severely injure me. Now, as your god, I have violated the rules you set and willingly accepted your punishment, yet you use Jeanne d'Arc's words to excuse yourself. Since you, as my master, indulge me so much, then it's perfectly reasonable for me to skin these guys or take their hearts at will, isn't it?"

There was no malice in Tlaloc's voice, only pure provocation, like a serpent tempting Angel to fall.

He seemed a little annoyed that he hadn't been able to find a reason to 'punish' Novia yesterday.

Earlier, before Amakusa made his voice, the people inside the room were Tlaloc, Abigail, Novia.

Novia hadn't originally planned to decorate the interior like this, but due to Tlaloc's insistence—

"As the Fifth Sun of the Americas, the strongest Sun that commands us, we must let these Heterodox Faith know of our reverence for you."

Although Novia could have refused Tlaloc's request outright, she figured it wasn't a big deal, so she let her have it, and also lent her her abilities to help Amakusa demonstrate his status as the Fifth Sun.

"How about we summon Quetzalcoatl to show off our power? Hmm... and my brother, getting him to perform the old eulogy shouldn't be a problem, although he might not want to, but he has no choice but to do it because of your request. Alright, that's settled then--"

"Forget it, it's just meeting someone, no need to make such a fuss."

Novia used this excuse to refuse when the girl was making plans with great enthusiasm.

"That won't do. If other pantheons see this, they'll think we're not united. We must have Quetzalcoatl and my brother, no, also the Lord of the Flayed, and those animals from the north—"

"Having you is enough."

Although it was a simple sentence, it still made Tlaloc's heart skip a beat. Her cheeks flushed a rosy hue where Novia couldn't see. She looked at Novia with expectant eyes, but the look vanished just as quickly.

"Then I'll change into the priest's robes..."

Abi, who couldn't possibly get a word in edgewise, had a multitude of complaints running through her mind.

Whether she was unhappy or happy, she wanted to unleash all those emotions through words, turning them into a bad child.

That's clearly the case.

Looking at his brother's face now, he couldn't think of a single curse word.

She felt that as long as her brother was there, everything would be alright.

As long as my brother is by my side, that's enough.

Abigail shook her head and continued eating her dessert.

Back to the present, after Tlaloc uttered that 'provocative' remark, Novia merely glanced at her before addressing Amakusa below in a dignified tone:

"In the rules of the Americas, to converse with God requires the resolve to offer one's life, Amakusa Shirou."

Amakusa showed no displeasure or surprise at this; he simply nodded firmly again and said:

"Of course I know, Favia Tonatiuh, the Fifth Sun God of the Americas."

"You actually know that name...?"

Wearing her priestly robes Tlaloc performed her duties well regarding the divine matters, and she said this after Amakusa finished speaking.

Over the years, this name has long been buried in the river of time.

"Because I've been to the Americas."

And so, Amakusa began to tell her story.

Sixty years have passed, and Amakusa, who has gained Flesh, has traveled to many places, including the continent known as the Americas.

Arrive at Tenochtitlan, a city that has existed since the past and is now known as the Water City of Mexico.

Witnessing many fellow believers living in harmony with those of the Americas Faith, which should have been considered Heterodox Faith, Amakusa, sitting on an Amakusa somewhere in Texcoco, also known as the Moon Lake, gently enveloped by the music of the Ritual, saw white fluff and colorful confetti falling and fluttering, more beautiful than snowflakes.

Just seeing this scene made the boy so happy he almost cried.

He then learned the origin of the festival from the surrounding residents --

"The Sun God ascended to the sky to defeat the Water Monster Mipactli, and then never returned."

In folklore, mythology refers to Divinity stories about humankind and the changes in the world. In a broader sense, "mythology" can refer to any ancient legend that expresses a nation's ideology through stories. The gods in mythology often possess superhuman powers and are idealizations of Primitive Man understanding and desires.

Although it may seem false to ordinary people outside the Mystery, its meaning remains and has always existed there.

Therefore, in Amakusa's view, although it is fictional, it is also a very small, very grand, and very important fairy tale of love and courage.

Amakusa Shirou remembers saying the words he had to say when joining the Church: "We have always been a 'community,' and the 'community' of the Holy Church is established for each of its members, and for all those in the world who are suffering, unfortunate, or confused about the Future. It was founded solely for people."

That was not a covenant required by the Lord, but a covenant between the Holy One were entrusted by the Child of Man to establish the Church as an organization and those who joined the Church.

Amakusa first learned of this from Western merchants and Missionary, To this day, he still feels that it is beautiful for beings to say such things, and that the world is made more beautiful because of it... Despite what has happened since, he still believes this.

Then, the Ruler had gained a physical body and traveled the world, made a rare move after witnessing all of that. He felt that his actions were somewhat inappropriate, though perhaps not entirely inappropriate, since there were also local Church believers from the Americas participating in the Ritual.

In short, on that day, bathed in the dim, warm light of Twilight, Amakusa Shirou softly said:

"The world you left behind is indeed beautiful... However, Lord, please forgive my praise of Pagan God."

Subsequently, through the Ruler's research on local Faith, along with analysis from the Magecraft World and within the Association, it was learned that the Fifth Sun God of the Americas Tonatiuh, could be interpreted in other ways besides being Supreme Being destined to be born in local mythology. This Sun could be seen as Deity created by the people of the Americas after they came into contact with the Church and adapted it according to their own system.

Or perhaps, the Central and Central and South America Pioneer of Central and South America, only mentioned by the locals, were deified in the region, their existence seemingly a mixture of the Church's God, the deeds of Savior, and the name of the founder... But in any case, their existence is merely similar to that of the Church's God.

After the narration, Amakusa Shirou earnestly said to Novia:

"Your Excellency Favia, you are in the same boat, aren't you? The time when your legend flourished coincided with the Spaniards invasion of Central and South America. Although the Age of Gods had already passed by then, according to my knowledge in the Church, even in the 19th century, Monster comparable to the Deity of the Age of Gods appeared in the Gevaudan region of France. They were ultimately destroyed by the Church together with the Count of Count of Monte Cristo."

Completely unsuspecting, Amakusa Shirou continued earnestly.

"From this it is not hard to see that in the Sixteenth Century, in the isolated the Americas, the Water Monster did indeed come back to life, and you must have destroyed it."

So, Your Excellency Favia, you are also aware that selfishness, prejudice, and Pride are irresistible aspects of human nature. You must have also witnessed the massacre of the Americas by the Spain, and how they stood by and watched the Water Monster rise from the dead. This way, you could find an opportunity to legitimately appear in an era where the Age of Gods age has vanished and eliminate the Outsider who Faith you...

Yet you have boundless compassion for everything, good and evil, those who deserve pity and those who deserve hatred, even those who wage war for profit, because everyone is just an ordinary human being, an ordinary existence, even the Spaniards are no exception.

Yes, you must have chosen to have compassion for everything, to love everything, to believe in humanity, and to believe that they will one day reach 'there'.

Just like me, no, it should be that I am just like you, so right now I can end human Sorrow ahead of time and usher in true 'redemption' ahead of time. The Third Magic Soul Materialization, not Half-Baked immortality, but a complete immortality that abandons the decaying Flesh. And it is not targeted at a single object, but shared by all of humanity. Regardless of good or evil, emotions and selfish desires will fade, vanity will become meaningless, and it will be Perfection peace.

All humanity will become beings where only souls survive. The struggle for resources will disappear, and disputes arising from differing ideologies will inevitably vanish as well.

The chain of Revenge will be broken, the world will undergo dramatic changes, and the direction of those changes will likely lead to eternal peace.

This is my plan. Please help me, and like me, you yearn for a better future for humanity.

How should I put it? Amakusa Shirou, as expected of the Ruler who had Church sixty years, had managed to guess a great deal about the former Favia based on this information and his own insights, and the proposal sounded extremely tempting.

However, Novia responded immediately to this:

"I cannot condone this kind of redemption."

"Why are you so selfish? You shouldn't be like this..."

How could you refuse like this? As the Sun God who could have used the Present World of the Water Monster to solve the misfortune of the Americas, yet chose to destroy the Water Monster to avoid even greater casualties, forced to watch people kill each other, how could you possibly refuse like this...?

"Is that so?" Novia said with a gentle expression upon hearing this. "I can certainly be described as a very selfish person."

At this moment, Amakusa Shirou suddenly asked the man in front of him with a hint of guilt:

"Aren't you angry?"

"No, because I don't deny that, and you only embarked on this path for the sake of humanity. However, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, I have denied your dream, but even so—"

The blond man's smile looked so beautiful that Amakusa Shirou felt he truly meant it, and it wasn't just empty talk.

I will still be watching over you.

Even if your journey is destined to be wrong, it doesn't matter.

This brief, concise answer, coupled with the man's smile, looked so dreamlike.

In an instant, Amakusa's expression changed a little too quickly.

Jeanne d'Arc of Amakusa had just told Amakusa that the Fifth Sun before them was an enemy. Although Amakusa didn't know why this France Saintess would say such a thing, he had a feeling that it wasn't true.

Although my dream has been denied, I've had enough time to postpone it. My true self is about to complete the Greater Grail, and I will surely show you that this dream is indeed correct.

However, for some reason, even though Novia's smile remained unchanged, Amakusa felt inexplicably uneasy.

The next moment, Novia slowly walked up to Amakusa and said:

"So, I've come to find you, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada."

In fact, Amakusa Shirou's use of the illusion technique of the Red Faction Caster, suspected to be the great demon Tamamo no Mae -no-Mae, was essentially meaningless to Novia. However, ordinary Deity couldn't see through it. For example, Tlaloc was standing next to Novia, didn't even notice. Otherwise, she wouldn't have just made a few empty threats to 'provoke' Novia by skinning her and tearing out her heart. Tlaloc, who felt that this would undoubtedly be a great humiliation to Novia, would have been so angry that she would have actually skinned Amakusa and torn out his heart.

But only a deity descending to a lower realm or creating a fragment of a spirit could create such an illusion, just like the human body created by the Tezcatlipoca.

At the same time, within the Greater Grail lies a space distinct from the real world, a place where the laws of physics, Magecraft, and even existence itself have been churned into something else entirely, and the Ruler plans to transform the Greater Grail into the Heaven's Feel, resides within it.

It would be more accurate to describe it as swimming rather than walking, as Amakusa Shirou continued forward despite the sensations of his skin peeling and his muscles dissolving.

Amakusa Shirou could still feel the pain in his arms, but for him, only this pain could connect him with reality and himself.

The world is still full of suffering. His father, mother, sister, and the 37,000 people who were brutally murdered wanted him to stop.

However, Amakusa rejected their words of sympathy and their invitation to stop. He covered his ears to avoid hearing what they were saying. He had naturally anticipated such temptations, and he thought that as long as they remained lost here, their deaths would be in vain. He shook off these temptations.

Amakusa could not possibly not be in pain, could not possibly not be heartbroken.

However, he believed he would definitely arrive, because he held onto a desire that he was determined to achieve.

"I can walk, wherever I want, whenever I want."

Amakusa Shirou knew that he couldn't actually love everyone like the Americas Sun God.

He hated them, hated them for killing his beloved, yet he also wanted to save her.

Therefore, in his journey, Amakusa Shirou poured out his deep love for those who killed his beloved, out of compassion for those he should have hated.

He forgot his hatred, transformed it, and even so, his killing intent remained so strong. But in order to save humanity, Amakusa Shirou decided to betray 'himself'.

His hatred will not disappear; he retains his way of being a human being there, casting it aside, sealing it away, and turning a blind eye to it.

As the Ruler of these matters, he firmly believed, gazing at the Greater Grail not far ahead.

His long-cherished dream is about to be realized—

Incredibly fragile, tiny strands of light intertwined and coalesced, arriving here from a distant place.

Amakusa Shirou subconsciously looked up and felt once again that these lights were too weak to illuminate the darkness; he needed the brilliance of brighter stars.

Next, the light from the converging filaments coalesced, generating a tremendous radiance that instantly transformed into a massive beam of light, scorching everything in its path, like Star.

A gigantic Sun appeared in the sky above the Greater Grail space.

"I'm here to deny your dream, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada."

277: The Ownership of the Greater Grail (5k)

"So, you had already anticipated this move?"

In front of Amakusa, Novia, with the appearance of a giant Sun, stood before the Greater Grail.

"Yeah, I know, Amakusa."

He answered quietly, as if talking to himself.

"Even I, Amakusa Shirou, the Ruler of the Fuyuki Holy Grail War, who has waited sixty years for this day and planned so many things, am I too?"