"What you decide to do. You don't have to reach a conclusion right away. But do remember this: time doesn't wait. While you're deliberating, events will keep moving forward."
After receiving the Pope's full explanation, we gathered in the room we'd been assigned and put our heads together.
Apparently, this place—the headquarters of the Divine Word Church—had rooms prepared specifically for Heroes to stay in.
I wasn't officially recognized as a Hero in the public eye—or rather, I'd never even been here before, so I'd never used one—but this time, I was grateful to be given the use of a room.
Kathia and
Yet when it came time to actually discuss, nobody would open their mouth.
A heavy, oppressive silence dominated the room.
Understandably so. I had already told Kathia and Sue about the contents of the Taboo.
Once you knew that information, anyone would feel weighed down.
On top of that, what the Pope had told us about the future was more than enough to darken one's mood.
The Pope had made his decision to fight.
No—the fight had already begun.
It was a battle to kill God, to challenge a god.
To kill a god so that people could live.
The Pope had already finished weighing his options and taken action in order to preserve this world.
If we were to take the Pope's words at face value, the world had only two choices.
One was the collapse of the system, which
With this method, they could regenerate the world without killing the goddess who had been sustaining it until now.
However, the cost was that roughly half of all people living in this world would die as a byproduct of forcibly reclaiming Skills from human souls.
Moreover, many of those wouldn't simply die—they would have their souls shattered.
Having one's soul shattered meant Reincarnation was no longer possible.
It was complete death.
The other option was the plan being carried out by the Pope and a person called the Black Dragon—who was probably the one I'd seen in my dream, the one called Gyulie.
This wasn't so much a plan as it was a continuation of what they'd been doing all along.
Namely: crush Wakaba's plan, keep the system running as before, and return the world to its normal state.
With this method, they could regenerate the world through the righteous path without forcing sacrifices upon the people.
However, the goddess currently sustaining the system had already reached her limits, so there was no hope of saving her.
And the Black Dragon, who was to succeed the goddess as the core of the system after her death, would be in the same situation.
According to the Pope, if the goddess used up all her remaining power and then the Black Dragon took over the system and sacrificed himself, they could barely manage to regenerate the planet in time.
The shortfall would be covered by recovering the energy generated from the battle between Wakaba and the Black Dragon.
I had my doubts about whether that was even possible, but apparently the small-scale Another World that the Black Dragon could deploy had that kind of function.
And if even that wasn't enough, they would start yet another battle after this one to gather more energy.
In the form of the Divine Word Church versus the Goddess Church.
With the scenario that the Divine Word Church—which had been deceiving the people of the world all along—would be destroyed.
In other words, the Pope and the Black Dragon were trying to save this world through their own destruction.
On one side: a faction trying to save the goddess and the world by sacrificing half of humanity.
On the other: a faction trying to save the people and the world by sacrificing themselves and the goddess.
Neither option was sane.
Either way, the losses were too great.
"Isn't there anything? Isn't there some way? A way where we don't have to lose either side?"
The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them.
It was like a question about two people dangling off the edge of a cliff, where you could only save one.
Which one do you save?
Something like that.
Even though there was no way you could possibly choose either.
"There probably isn't. If such a convenient method existed, both Wakaba and the Pope would have chosen it already."
Kathia made a fair point.
I knew that.
In my head, I knew too that no such convenient method existed.
But even knowing that, I couldn't stop thinking about it.
"Big Brother can make anything possible, no matter how impossible!"
Sue said something like that.
The scary thing was that when Sue said it, it didn't sound like a joke.
What kind of eyes did she see me with?
"Sue, you need to learn to consider the time and place for making jokes."
"A joke?"
Kathia chided Sue while rubbing the bridge of her nose, but Sue just stared back blankly.
It wasn't a joke.
"Anyway. Something this important—I can't come to a conclusion right away. There's also the matter of Hylines and the others we left behind in the Elven village. Let's hold off on our answer for now."
I still didn't have the resolve to choose one side over the other.
If possible, I wanted to go back to the Elven village first and discuss this together with Hylines and the others.
If we had the time, that is.
That was when the ground shook.
"An earthquake?!"
A tremendous tremor rocked my body.
Because I was sitting in a chair, I didn't fall over, but the shock toppled furniture throughout the room.
Earthquakes were a first for this world.
But I quickly realized it wasn't an earthquake.
The tremor was a single jolt.
It didn't shake intermittently the way an earthquake would—rather, it felt like something had caused a massive explosion nearby.
No, not "felt like." An explosion had genuinely gone off right next to us!
As proof, my enhanced sense of smell picked up the scent of something burning.
"Something happened! I'm going to check it out! You two, wait here!"
"No, we're coming with you. It's more dangerous to split up here. Let's stick together."
Kathia immediately proposed an alternative to my suggestion.
She had a point. Since we didn't know what was going on, sticking together would probably be less dangerous.
"Got it. Let's go!"
We left the room and rushed in the direction of the smell.
I didn't even have to think about which way to go.
Because violent explosions were going off one after another.
What on earth had happened?
What was going on?
My questions were endless, but the fact that this was happening at this timing meant it couldn't be unrelated to the fight between the Pope's group and Wakaba's group.
When we arrived at the source of the explosions, we found a half-naked large man and a girl in maid attire facing each other down.
Behind them stood the Pope, a woman shielding him, and a person of indeterminate gender with an androgynous appearance.
From the situation, it looked like the maid girl was the attacker and the half-naked large man had moved to intercept her.
"So you're the Hero. Stay back so you don't get caught up in this."
The large man warned us.
Did she take his opening his mouth as an opening? The maid girl lunged.
But flames that erupted from the large man blocked her path.
Even from a distance, the intense heat washed over us.
I thought the maid girl wouldn't walk away unscathed if that hit her head-on, but she had already moved to a spot away from the large man at some point.
I couldn't even follow her with my eyes.
"Class. Compatibility. Both favor me. Even if you miraculously break through here, there are two other Ancient Dragons present. You're cornered."
The large man pointed out to the maid girl.
There was something almost pitying in his words.
"..."
The maid girl cast a spell in silence.
Dark-element magic.
But the casting speed was abnormal!
In the span of a single blink, multiple spells were launched, hurtling toward the large man.
"How boring."
The androgynous person who had been standing next to the Pope swept them aside with a casual wave of a hand.
The gesture was like brushing away an insect, yet that single motion erased countless spells.
It wasn't that the maid girl's spells were weak.
On the contrary, they were devastatingly powerful.
The spells the androgynous person hadn't deflected—the ones that veered off course—tore through the building with tremendous destruction.
"This is bad. It's going to collapse."
Just one hit.
With just that single hit, the building was on the verge of collapse.
Combined with the massive explosion that had shaken it earlier, the sheer aftereffects of the battle alone had pushed the building past its limits.
"Nia! Take
"Yes, indeed. I may be tough as stone after Mother Earth, but I'm hardly suited for bodyguard duty, you know."
The woman grumbled as she hoisted the Pope onto her back and evacuated.
"You Heroes should flee as well."
"We will eliminate this one."
The person of indeterminate gender and the large man looked at us and said their piece.
Were these people on our side?
They were protecting the Pope, so they must be Pope loyalists.
And the maid girl, who was apparently their enemy, must be aligned with Wakaba's faction?
"
The large man took a step toward the maid girl.
But before he could, the maid girl turned on her heel and fled.
"Don't let her get away!"
The large man gave chase, and the person of indeterminate gender followed after him.
What should I do? What should we do?
"Shun! It's collapsing! We need to get out of here, now!"
"R-Right."
Kathia pulled at my sleeve, snapping me back to my senses.
There was nothing we could do here.
If we didn't escape first, we'd be buried alive.
"Run!"
We sprinted out of the building as it began to crumble.
"I'm glad to see you're safe."
The Pope, who had made it outside before us, greeted us as we emerged.
He was the one who'd been attacked, yet his expression hadn't changed—that same gentle smile.
That expression drove home the unfathomable depth of the Pope's character.
Here I was, completely dazed just from watching that brief exchange…
"The battle has already begun. The development is perhaps a bit swifter than anticipated,"
the Pope murmured as he gazed at the collapsed building.
I had thought I'd have more time to think.
But apparently not.
Right this very moment, the world was already moving.
And what I'd just witnessed drove that point home.
I was weak.
All I could do was watch their fight from the sidelines.
There was no way I could interject—not with my abilities.
A battle so intense that the mere aftereffects destroyed buildings.
With my power, I couldn't hope to stand against the maid girl, let alone the large man.
I felt it keenly.
I was weak.
I didn't have the power to change the world.
What—what—was there no other way?
Those incredibly powerful people were still being forced into a choice where one side had to be sacrificed.
And here I was, far weaker than them, thinking I could do something? The arrogance was staggering.
Two choices.
It was two choices.
I could only pick one.
That reality had been shoved right in my face.