Chapter 88 (1/2)
“… Wait Heaven? hell? Don’t tell els and demons around too?”
Isaac looked around as if he heard a joke, but the response froh into the silence and gulp down the rest of his wine Of course you couldn’t exclude heaven and hell in a fantasy setting like this
“The war against Heaven and hell had been ongoing since ages past It is told there was a bridge which connected our world to Heaven and hell before the 7 Days of Calamity”
“It is told?”
“Because I’ve never seen it It was similar to a Gate except once opened, it would remain so until it was forcefully closed – hence why it was called a bridge Many ere fought in an attee We know that for certain, since it is a testi individual whose birth predated the 7 Days of Cala that could be called the oldest in the entire world
“… A dragon?”
“We call it the Old One”
“A dragon huh… I do want to see it one day”
Isaac ions were a staple in a fantasy world Mazelan, on the other hand, shook his head with sincerity
“… I wouldn’t recommend it They are a race with a difficult personality, to say the least Anyhow, even this bridge that connected Heaven and hell crumbled in the face of 7 Days of Calaate as their alternate route”
“So you’re fighting against not just the Expeditionary Force but Heaven and hell too”
“Correct”
“But do des?”
“You’re asking if they look like deels?”
“Yes”
“We don’t know We’ve never seen their true forms All we know is that both are sons of bitches”
Isaac seemed curious as to why Mazelan was so hostile to them
“Let me explain it to you”
Mazelan first lined two salt shakers next to each other He then placed a knife and a fork on either side of the salt shaker on the right
“Now, the salt shaker on the right is the world we are in currently The shaker on the left is your previous world”
Mazelan then sprinkled soht together in a line
“This pepper is the gate which connects our worlds This is e call our world Middle World”
“Then the knife is hell and fork is heaven”
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PR Note: Here’s a si Moyo
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“You catch on quick But hell isn’t a harsh world where only barren deserts exist, and heaven isn’t a place where everything is sunshi+ne and rainbows Both are no different from the world we live in They are worlds wherehuels or demons that live there, but huht Of course, the races that live in those worlds are completely different froht? I’otiations if both are sentient beings similar to us”
Mazelan profusely rejected Isaac’s opinion by wildly shaking his head
“That’s impossible Think of it more carefully We are the Middle World Below is hell, and Heaven above Where do your world’s people think people go when they die?”
“Heaven if you’ve been good and hell if you’ve been… huh?”
Isaac’s words faltered, and he couldn’t finish his thoughts Mazelan smiled bitterly and nodded
“It’s as you predict To those from hell, this world is Heaven and to those of Heaven, this place is hell The reason why this is a problem is because that truly is the case Those fro they can to climb up here, while those who fell from Heaven will do whatever they can to escape from hell and return back ho the problems of Heaven and hell even before the 7 Days of Calamity, and this tradition has remained unbroken The Expeditionary Force is merely a new addition to our list of ene that, you only mention information about heaven or hell as mere fairy tales to the public”
“They passed through the bridge unscathed before the 7 Days of Cala the same method as you”
“Same as in?”
“If they came to our world via Type 1 invasions before the 7 Days of Calamity, they now invade us as Type 3 invaders”
“So soht Not only that, but they also retain all of the powers they possessed back in Heaven or hell But their nuth of the Middle World is too powerful for theels and de more troublesome methods”
“How so?”
“Like I said before, to the denizens of hell, this world is heaven But the eies in our world”
“So others’ ht Type 3 invaders retain all of the original owner’s memories and experience the moment they arrive, so they immediately hide themselves in fear of Central”
“That doesn’t sound like a nice heaven toalone These demons use the same method every time Perhaps they have some information network that we aren’t aware of”
“What’s that?”
“First, they secretly disseic that can suth are a dime a dozen The demons would share some of their poith them and let them do the dirty work, while the deative e of the victims And those who have formed contracts with demons are called ‘demonic turncoats’ by Central or ‘warlocks’ by the rest”
“H from personal experience”
Mazelan hesitated to continue for a moment when Isaac said his cheeky response
“Truth be told, Warlocks are on the easier side of fighting It’s very easy to find thee drunk on their neer And the more we kill these warlocks, the easier it becole to hide its overwhel power”
“Hm? How do you find them when the power is sent back to the demon?”
Isaac asked his question, and Mazelan quickly used the brief
“They are powerful individuals strong enough to clith They aren’t like ordinary folks They don’t have any pohen they first in to change in a wayan unmistakable aura around the andbut short ones by distributing their power to the warlocks, allowing theth”
“Hm So when you kill these turncoats, the power returns back to the original owner”
“That’s right Although it takes ti if we continue the chase But the bigger problee I understand deels usually nice since they’re from heaven?
Not only Mazelan, but Yoo-rah, the Ehed in unison when Isaac asked his question While Isaac was dumbfounded by their response, Mazelan smiled faintly and answered the question
“That’s why they are a probles They are both complete assholes, but we naturally think those from heaven are nicer just because they look better”
“I guess that is prejudice in a way…”
Isaac sly people when they come too close, but they are more hospitable and even try to befriend them when they are handsome
“Can’t you just watch them since they would stand out froels come to our world as type 3 invader just like the deer the th thelike a holy power We theorise that it is what happens when one descends froher dimension, but we have no way to prove it so far”
“But wouldn’t rumours about it spread like wildfire if that’s the case?”
“Unlike the deels can hide it When done so, they even look plain or slightly handsome on the outside”
“When you say they have holy power, does it mean like we feel at awe or look up to thereatest problem Who usually comes to hell?”
“Really bad people”
“That’s why they don’t care whatthem, can’t you assist them and send them back?”
“We’d love to do that, but the probleion in this world?”
“That’s what buggedThe best candidate to do so is God But in this world, not only God but even deities didn’t exist It was simply overlooked by Isaac since it seemed like it’d cause more problems if he tried to look deeply into it
“Everyone tends to have a favourable ie of those from heaven, but they are most definitely not nice Based on testi in this world is excruciatingly painful for the their power into their bodies, but it is still painful nonetheless That is why they try to go back to heaven, and as ood, they were evil enough to the core that they were thrown into hell I told you before that they’d do whatever it takes right? I don’t knohat ate, but the siate from our world to heaven is to use s and not from tools such as mana crystals”
“Is that even possible? You’d need much more than a handful of candidates”
Isaac tilted his head, and Mazelan responded with an uncorit his teeth
“What happens to those that cast ic beyond their capabilities?”
Isaac’s face i that He ell aware since he once dreareatest archwizard in the past only to give up on it Mana is required by the caster in order to use ic, but they are injured if the reater than what the caster holds If the required reater than the caster? Not only does the ic drain all of the caster’sre Isaac’s expression
“It’d be impossible with one or two, but what if there were thousands or tens of thousands?”
“Won’t they know they’ll die if they cast it? I can i le person controlling ten h as it is But if the numbers increased beyond ten thousand, there was bound to be soels are coious order and te a path to heaven Central calls those who have been teelic turncoats,’ and the way they act is much more secretive than the warlocks Theit difficult to act upon, and we rarely have a good grasp on how far it has spread It’s a complete mess when one takes root in this world These fanatics would willingly becoelic’ turncoats believe they too will ascend to heaven, but do you think these angels would care about the this hell themselves? Sadly, we have li with theed his shoulders with disdain on his face He ell aware how martyrdoious order greerful enough, they could recruit as many martyrs as they needed Mazelan continued, the look on his face knowing that saying so was futile
“In this world where religion doesn’t exist, these angels know that they’d be killed before they could start if they boasted of being Gods or co from heaven That is why they prop up a puppet and try to manipulate the about angelic turncoats?”
“No Just poor oblivious souls who are dragged around and made to act like a hero”
“A hero?”
“Yes A hero Followers amass out of admiration for the heroes and their achieve if these followers truly aders of a God in their religious order They would increase their influence by converting those around theoes by Once the nu to coels reveal their true colors The Empire would have to make a difficult choice at this point”
“What is this choice?”
“We exterions cohtuises to hide the battles we had fought against these angels”
“Can’t you just watch these heroes from the start then? Won’t they stand out since they are technically heroes?”
Both Yoo-rah and the Emperor chuckled quietly, and Mazelan looked at Isaac with a peculiar expression
“Do you re he’d taken over all of the districts?”
“Ah, that guy? What was his naelic turncoats’ activities First is to choose who’ll be the hero Second is to assemble those who admire the hero Third is to brainwash those around the them into order Fourth is to spread the infection Fifth is to establish open worshi+p of the hero, creating and providing the hero with an ar loyalty Sixth is to manipulate the hero into a war This war, of course, is one that is destined to be lost, and even if it seems like they’ll win, they’ll force their hand to e is to trick the followers they have the last trump card to turn the tide of war and coate to heaven By the tie, they’ve already foranisation from the normal believers, fanatics and folloho are the elic turncoats, and the holy prophet or el Central had established that the man who approached you was a follower”
Isaac’s face crumbled when he heard those words
“They really are mad as you say To think they’d be so desperate to resort to worshi+pping elic turncoats’ realised their ation, we determined that all of the turncoats have withdrawn”