Gods

The distant sky was dark with thick clouds, sagging beneath their weight. Howling winds swept in with them, dragging the clouds along until they formed a heavy, black mass that blotted out the sunlight.

There seemed to be only a faint glimmer of light between heaven and earth. It wasn't even noon yet, but the world looked like dusk at sunset—dim and oppressive.

Thunder and lightning flashed from time to time, shaking the sky and clouds. The clash of thunderbolts produced brief flashes of light that illuminated the dense clouds, revealing a colossal figure lurking within, its silhouette unmistakably divine.

Behind him, the sky was bright with sunshine. Before him, it was as dark as night. Leon stood at the boundary between light and darkness as deafening thunder crashed beside him. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the fresh scent of rain and soil.

Watching the god concealed in the distant storm clouds, Leon lowered his Holy Spear, tightened his grip on the Holy Sword of the Stars, and traced the Rune Script he had just learned in the air.

The Holy Sword of the Stars' keen edge gleamed with a frigid light. Clear, crystalline magical energy gathered along its blade, flowing together like a surging torrent and radiating dazzling brilliance. As the sword filled with magic, its golden glow grew stronger and more dazzling.

Holy and murderous.

Before the battle began, he would strike first and deal the so-called god a heavy blow.

"Almost enough magic..."

The Holy Sword had nearly reached its limit. At this point, he could unleash a beam of light and destroy the False God in the sky with a single strike.

That was right.

After so long under his teacher Scathach's tutelage, and with his own diligent efforts, Leon had successfully learned Rune Script and could use it to channel the magic of the Greater Source.

Of course, he hadn't mastered it as thoroughly as Scathach, and he couldn't use some of the more remarkable Magecraft. He had only learned to draw the most basic runes and use them to indirectly manipulate the Greater Source.

That was all Scathach had taught him over the past year or so: the simplest, most fundamental techniques. Leon had specifically asked to learn them, since they were the first skills he needed to master.

Magic manipulation.

He could use the magic in the atmosphere to charge the Holy Sword, then unleash its true power and fire an unstoppable beam of light with the Roar of the Planet. That was all he could do for now.

It was practical, and it gave his combat strength an immediate, obvious boost.

Now that he had learned Rune Script and could use it to manipulate magic, Leon wasn't sure whether Scathach knew. He thought he had hidden it well, and she probably hadn't noticed. Otherwise, she would have rushed to challenge him.

Likewise, even Merlin's Clairvoyance couldn't see through him, so Merlin wouldn't notice either. As his bedmate, Morgan probably didn't know, since he had deliberately kept it from her.

He was still inexperienced. Charging the Holy Sword took a long time, and he had to focus completely on guiding the magic. He couldn't use the technique freely in battle; it was only useful as a finishing move that he could charge up well in advance.

Leon had kept it as his last resort.

Now that the False God had revealed its true form, there was no need for Leon to keep hiding this ability. And a god formed from the remains of a chief deity was certainly a worthy target for the Holy Sword of the Stars.

Just as Leon was about to launch a surprise attack and hit the figure in the sky with everything he had, he received an urgent message from Merlin.

"Merlin, what is it? I'm about to fight that so-called god."

There was a trace of annoyance in Leon's voice. The thought of battling a god had him trembling with excitement, his hot blood almost impossible to contain.

Merlin had contacted him just as he was at his most fired up. Something unusual must have happened in Britain, something even Merlin found difficult to handle. That was why he had reached out to Leon to make a decision.

"My king, I'm terribly sorry to interrupt you in the middle of battle. The situation in Britain has turned far worse than I expected..."

Merlin spoke with deliberate gravity. Leon's heart sank, and he thought, Just as I suspected. Morgan must have pulled something again.

But even with his mind prepared for bad news, what Merlin said next still far exceeded his expectations.

Merlin stood on a low hill by the shore. He shaded his forehead with one hand, blocking the sun. His features were hidden in shadow, his teeth slightly clenched and his expression grave as he stared toward Britain.

A humanoid stone giant stood on the island, carrying the chalk-white royal capital atop its head. Its impossibly mighty body pierced the clouds, creating a scene as if it were splitting the heavens and the earth. Merlin's Clairvoyance took in every detail.

"My king, Britain has stood up!"

"Huh?"

Merlin described the general scene he had witnessed. Leon's eyelid twitched, and his scalp prickled. For a moment, he was completely stunned.

Even though he had prepared himself for anything, Merlin's words brought his thoughts to a halt. Only after he had sorted them out could he think again.

Britain...

Had stood up?

"Merlin, what happened?"

"It was Morgan... After Morgan revived Vortigern, she took him into the Spirit Tomb. Once they entered, Morgan blocked my Clairvoyance... I haven't seen anything since."

"I even sent a clone to try to stop her, but Vortigern saw through it in advance and destroyed it as well... Morgan has completely taken control of Vortigern."

Leon turned and looked toward Britain, where the sky had grown somewhat dim. He hadn't seen it with his own eyes, but Merlin's account let him picture the general situation.

But even with Morgan controlling Vortigern, the two of them together weren't all that powerful. How had they caused such a huge commotion?

"Morgan's certainly bold. What exactly is she trying to do?"

Leon was puzzled and was about to discuss it further with Merlin.

But when he turned back, he saw a bolt of lightning flare in the dark sky ahead.

That was...

The god's attack!

From far away, the bolt looked no thicker than a thread. In an instant, it was right in front of Leon, as thick as a house.

From where he stood, the bolt had started as a speck of light and expanded in the blink of an eye until it filled his entire field of vision.

Everything before his eyes turned white. Leon swung the Holy Sword on instinct and felt a heavy impact in his hands. A piercing shriek rang out as the lightning struck the sword. Blue-white and golden light intertwined, neither giving way.

He even felt a faint numbness in the hand gripping the sword. Perhaps it was only his imagination.

With one slash, he knocked the lightning away. It hit the ground in the distance, leaving a black-and-red scar. Every tree and plant along its path burned away. The ground melted and glowed red, with faint flames flickering across it.

"My king, are you all right?"

Merlin's Clairvoyance couldn't see Leon, but the god's figure was concealed by a barrier as well, so he couldn't see that either.

He could only infer a little from the attacks falling out of the sky and the violent eruptions on the ground, and even then, he could only guess at Leon's general condition.

The delayed rumble of thunder finally reached Leon's ears, mingling with Merlin's voice. Leon looked up, keeping his eyes fixed on the indistinct outline in the distant dark clouds.

"I'm fine, Merlin. I just didn't expect a god to resort to a sneak attack."

"As long as you're safe, my king. Everything depends on you now."

Merlin wiped his forehead, then realized he hadn't been sweating at all. He let out a long breath and continued explaining to Leon.

"It's a Machine God. Even if it has parts from an ancient chief deity, this god is ultimately a new construction. Its thought processes are still mechanical. Human emotions, ethics, and interests mean nothing to it. It only has instructions it must carry out."

Leon dodged another attack from the sky as he listened to Merlin's explanation. He understood at once. So it was like a mechanical intelligence, like AI. The gods of the Greek pantheon were all things like this.

He had known that already, but seeing one right in front of him still left him marveling. The Moon World really did like to do things differently.

"Does this thing have a detection range that far?"

Leon estimated the distance between himself and the Artificial God in the sky, but the clouds were too thick to see through. He couldn't tell exactly how far away it was. It looked incredibly distant, at the very limit of his sight.

Merlin offered his theory. "The god's detection system is highly sensitive. Perhaps it sensed some enormous energy source on you."

Merlin recalled his earlier attempt to investigate. The god had detected him the moment it finished activating, and that was what had gotten him. He relayed the warning to Leon.

An enormous energy source?

Leon looked at the glowing Holy Sword in his hand. Wasn't that it?

The Holy Sword's vast stores of magic must have been detected, prompting the god to make its judgment and attack immediately.

Now that he had been exposed, he had no choice but to attack head-on.

Leon made up his mind and immediately set off, sword in hand, toward the depths of the distant storm clouds.

As the god launched one attack after another, Leon either blocked them head-on or dodged in time. He dealt with the lightning that came at him from time to time while keeping in contact with Merlin.

"You don't need to worry about me. It's just one god."

The battle hadn't grown intense yet. As long as the attacks remained long-range, Leon could still handle them while splitting his attention.

"The most important thing now is Morgan. How did she do it?"

Merlin looked toward Britain and took a deep breath. After a moment's thought, he slowly explained, "My king, I suspect Morgan revived Vortigern specifically to extract the concept of the Will of the Island from him. Then she combined it with the enormous Magecraft circuit in the Vein Corridor deep within the Spirit Tomb. That's how she caused such a tremendous upheaval."

"Her ultimate goal should be to use the physical depth of the Spirit Tomb, along with the concept left behind by the Dragon of Albion—a passage that pierces the surface and the World Within—to completely open a route between the two sides and let the true Ethereal of the Inner Sea of the Planet surge out, bringing Britain back to the Age of Gods."

"And that giant on the island looks like a counterweight, a foundation meant to haul the Fairy Domain up from deep beneath the earth... Morgan intends to turn Britain into the Fairies' domain!"

Merlin laid out everything he had seen and surmised in one breath. His own theory shocked him. He shook his head and took a few breaths of fresh air before he finally recovered.

Though this was only Merlin's personal theory, Leon felt sure of it. Merlin was right. This was what Morgan truly intended to do.

Now that he understood, Leon couldn't help feeling genuine admiration for his wife once more.

"I really did underestimate her."

Morgan was doing all this to take Britain back. Leon already knew her ultimate goal.

But what he had never understood was why Morgan was so devoted to the Age of Gods, so determined to the point that she would rebel and betray him, her husband.

What was so good about the Age of Gods?

No matter how good it was, it belonged to the past. It wasn't an age in which humanity should exist.

The gods were no longer the world's protagonists. The age of humanity was coming, and that was the right path to pursue.

Rumble!

Lightning flashed and thunder boomed in the clouds.

Leon had reached the False God's location. When he looked up, he could see the immense figure ahead, its outline gradually emerging through the clouds that could no longer conceal it.

Whoosh!

The god seemed to realize that its lightning couldn't destroy the human on the ground. It broke through the clouds instead of staying hidden, descending into view.

Its feet stood as if on invisible ground, and the Machine God's majestic form hovered more than ten meters above the earth.

Now Leon could finally see the Machine God he would be fighting in its entirety.

It had a towering, humanoid body covered in metal. Its waist, knees, elbows, and other joints were exposed steel, built for ease of movement and giving it a smooth, mechanical appearance.

An oval emerald was embedded in the center of its chest like a heart, with tubes beneath the surface branching out around it like blood vessels. That must have been the god's power source.

Its imposing face had golden skin and clearly defined features. Silver components were joined to its cheeks on both sides, with two connections running down from beneath its eyes like tears. At a glance, it looked as though the god were silently weeping.

It held a lightning-shaped scepter in its left hand. But Leon paid particular attention to its right, which was conspicuously black and empty.

"I am the remnant of the great god Zeus on earth, a secondary incarnation bearing the love of the great god, an almighty god who commands all things from the sky."

"Detestable Descender, by my authority, I swear to burn you to ashes!"

The god's voice shook the heavens, resounding across ten thousand miles.

Leon stared at the god, whose form now stood out clearly in the sky. His lips tightened, and a trace of caution showed on his face. He said to Merlin, "I'll destroy this False God, then return to Britain immediately. Until then, I'm leaving Britain in your hands, Merlin."

"Absolutely. Leave everything to me, my king."

Merlin puffed out his chest, his voice brimming with confidence.

If Morgan had heard Merlin's theory, she would have been surprised that he had guessed her intentions so quickly.

He was right. That was exactly what she had in mind.

Although the Dragon of Albion's body remained in the present world, its soul had successfully entered the Inner Sea of the Planet. The deep hole Albion had dug—and the tomb formed from its corpse—thus held the concept of a passage connecting the two sides.

With that as a foundation, all she had to do was extend the passage Albion had made and dig a little deeper to reach the uncharted land of demons: the Fairy Domain.

She could simply bore a hole through the surface and connect the physical world with the Inner Sea of the Planet. Once the Ethereal gradually filled Britain, that would work, but it would take too long and leave too much to chance.

Leon might return to Britain at any moment. Better to speed things up, take a bigger step, and accomplish everything at once.

With that in mind, Morgan came up with her plan.

Rather than wait for Britain to gradually return to the environment of the Age of Gods, she would bring the Age of Gods, with all its abundant mystery, back to the surface in one fell swoop.

She couldn't accomplish that on her own, no matter what.

The concept of a Lord of the Island with no one else to support her was too limited. She needed an accomplice.

What if she added the concept of the Island's Will's human incarnation?

That would be enough.

So Morgan revived the incarnation of the Will of the Island: Britain's White Dragon, the Vile King Vortigern.

After setting up a means of keeping Vortigern under control, Morgan took the newly revived White Dragon of Britain into the Spirit Tomb.

Before they entered the Spirit Tomb, Vortigern had spotted the Incubus that had been lying in wait for so long.

Watching Vortigern destroy every last one of the Incubus's clones, Morgan's lips curled into a mocking smile. "You actually took the initiative to attack. Does that mean you've finally figured out where you stand?"

Vortigern waved a hand and replied calmly and solemnly, "It has nothing to do with you. I've just realized who my real enemy is."

"And that's an enemy we share!"