A God That Upends Stability

Before getting into it, they took a short break since Azu and Elza had only just woken up.

Elza tilted her cup back and swallowed a drink of water mixed with apple vinegar.

Her throat moved with each gulp.

"Ahh, that's good…"

"Looks like you can move again."

"I'm sorry to have troubled you, Finn-chan."

"Don't worry about it. That's what being a team is about."

Elza bowed her head deeply.

Finn waved a hand dismissively in acknowledgment.

Azu, too, drained the drink she'd been given with a satisfied exhale.

"So, fill me in on what happened while I was out. From the looks of things, it went well, but Alexia and Evalin-san couldn't tell me the details."

Finn and Azu exchanged glances.

That alone made it clear neither of them fully grasped the situation either.

"Honestly, I have no idea what happened either. I can tell you what I saw, though."

"It was all a blur for me…"

"Ahem. I'll explain properly."

Elza straightened her posture and turned a serious gaze our way.

He'd heard she'd collapsed from exhaustion, but she seemed to have recovered well enough.

"I had a suspicion from the moment I saw the forest spirit's transformation. The cause of this whole incident was a Monster Pit that opened spontaneously."

"A Monster Pit, as in the thing Spartia is supposed to be suppressing? The impossibly huge hole that monsters crawl out of…?"

"A miniature version, yes. It was about this big, so I managed to force it shut with a prayer using everything I had. If it had been even a little bigger, it would've been beyond me."

Elza made a circle with the fingers of her right hand.

Barely wide enough for a single finger to pass through.

It was hard to believe that a hole that small had driven the forest spirit mad and done all that to the forest.

"You can do something like that?"

"Yes, though it's extremely exhausting… I couldn't do anything about the one in Spartia, but preventing new Monster Pits before they form is one of the Church of the Creator King's core missions. That said, they almost never occur under normal circumstances."

"If something like that popped up out of nowhere, there'd be a much bigger uproar. That's no joke."

"It really is. I was shocked myself. I believe a plant that was receiving some kind of power from the Monster Pit was spewing the poison, which corrupted the forest spirit. Azu-chan's strike confirmed its destruction. That's also why Master's curse was broken."

So the Church of the Creator King had a role like that.

It had once been the largest religion, and its remnants were widespread enough that the name was well known, but between the Church of the Sun God's persecution and everything else, the details were murky at best.

So it was all being left unchecked now, then.

A frightening thought.

"That weird sprout, no wonder it was so hard."

"As long as the cosmic order remains intact, stability should hold. Monster Pits don't just appear out of thin air."

Evalin cut into the conversation.

"The Creator King lost to the Sun God and disappeared. The gods who'd worked alongside him did the same. The wounded Sun God fell into slumber, and with that, the age of gods came to an end. Even so, the order the Creator King laid down has remained stable all this time."

"There's only one conceivable reason. The Sun God's power, which had been weakened, is growing stronger again. The Sun God's power surpasses the Creator King's. If it's regaining its strength, its mere existence could be enough to destabilize the world."

"That can't be… I thought it was over."

Evalin seemed a little shaken.

Having enjoyed peace for so long, this clearly struck a nerve.

Having stayed detached from the outside world, she likely hadn't known about the Church of the Sun God's movements.

"I believe this incident was a harbinger. I used everything I had to suppress it, so it should be fine for a while, but once the Sun God fully recovers its power, my seal won't hold."

"So it's basically a plague god that causes trouble just by existing."

"It is a god that came to this world with malicious intent, after all. It never bothered to restrain its own power…"

Elza's expression darkened.

"You speak as though you witnessed it firsthand."

"I've simply seen what was preserved in the lore."

When Evalin pointed that out, Elza offered a thin, dry smile.

"Just hearing about it doesn't make it feel real, but we actually encountered the forest spirit and the Mosquito Monsters firsthand… I can tell the cause wasn't anything normal."

"I want to thank you again. I might not have been able to handle this alone."

"No matter how strong an elf is, fighting a nearly immortal enemy while being swarmed by sheer numbers would be difficult. I'm glad you didn't do anything rash."

"If I'd had even one more elf, we could've managed, but I couldn't reach anyone."

One more and it would've been enough? Impressive.

Actually, that might've been true.

Evalin alone had been worth several Alexias in combat.

Thinking about it that way, it seemed like they could brute-force just about any opponent.

"… We're getting off track, so let's bring it back. The bottom line is that the Mosquito Monsters are gone, and the forest spirit that was generating them has been dealt with. Correct?"

"That's right. The spirit has been destroyed, so there shouldn't be a recurrence."

"Good. Evalin-san, in that case, I'd like you to remove the boulders you placed in front of the mines. The cause was something else entirely, so I'd ask that you allow the burning stone mining to resume."

"Oh, I forgot about that. If it wasn't the source of the contamination, I suppose it's fine."

"Please. It's a matter of whether many people can survive the winter or not."

He'd expected as much.

For better or worse, she simply didn't have much interest.

No ill will behind it, but they'd need to go together and get her to actually lift the blockade.

To be safe, they rested a few days before heading back to the mining city.