Chapter 614 - 614: Battle Royale

That was the theory, anyway.

Ever since Ankhseram first proposed what could essentially be called the "find a divine inheritor and make them take over your job" plan, progress had been painfully slow.

Finding a perfect divine inheritor was about as easy as finding one of those mythical "perfect vessels" from another world.

In other words—

not easy at all.

Over the past several centuries, the inheritors chosen by the gods had died, been crippled, or otherwise failed one after another. Then Acnologia came along and practically swept the board clean.

Forget finding a perfect inheritor.

Keeping one alive long enough to mature was already difficult.

Of course, this had always been a project that required patience.

A few centuries barely counted as the blink of an eye to a god, so most of them were perfectly willing to wait.

Ankhseram, however, had apparently never possessed that kind of patience.

When Plan A progressed too slowly, he personally launched Plan B.

The result was the Divine Crystal bracelet now wrapped around Ankh's wrist.

Gather the powers of many gods into one body.

That path could likewise produce a completely free god, and the eventual rewards would be hundreds or even thousands of times greater than the perfect-inheritor method.

Naturally, the difficulty rose by the same absurd margin.

It was a dangerous road that only Ankhseram had been reckless enough to walk without hesitation.

Gods like Yuluye and Falutbeth had chosen the safer option.

Wait patiently.

Find the right successor.

And eventually retire.

As more knowledge concerning perfect divine inheritors surfaced naturally in Ankh's mind, he began to understand why the gods were so patient when choosing their replacements.

And if one of his companions happened to inherit divine power and become vastly stronger in the process…

Well.

Ankh was definitely curious.

So he accepted Yuluye's invitation to watch the trial.

Yuluye raised one arm.

Pure white radiance immediately enveloped all three of them.

Their figures vanished from the cavern.

When the divine light faded again, Ankh found himself standing somewhere entirely different.

It was difficult to describe the place as ordinary space.

Chaos stretched in every direction.

Beneath his feet flowed what looked like a river of stars, while an endless night sky surrounded them from every angle. Countless distant stars shimmered at impossible depths, making it impossible to judge either distance or direction.

This was a fracture-space hidden inside the Old God Ruins.

A special observation realm from which the gods could watch everything happening inside the trial.

The stellar river beneath Ankh's feet began to flow.

Then its surface transformed.

Images appeared within it.

Ankh's companions were currently scattered throughout what looked like an enormous extradimensional dungeon.

Layer upon layer descended into the depths, and terrifying magical beasts born under prolonged exposure to divine power wandered through its corridors.

The deeper the dungeon went, the stronger those monsters became.

Ankh even spotted several whose raw magical presence rivaled members of the Ten Wizard Saints.

He looked toward Yuluye.

"How exactly are you planning to test them?"

Falutbeth's lips immediately curled upward.

"Obviously…"

She answered as though the solution were self-evident.

"With the most traditional human performance whenever treasure and ruins are involved."

Her smile widened.

"A treasure hunt…"

"…and a battle royale."

"..."

Ankh swallowed his first response.

Then he leaned slightly toward Yuluye and lowered his voice.

"This crude mess was your idea?"

Yuluye's smile became painfully awkward.

There was even a trace of the indulgent resignation of a man who had long since learned that arguing was pointless.

"She wanted to watch it."

He whispered back.

"So I let her design it this way."

"Besides, we can conduct the real inheritance test ourselves during the final stage."

"Hey!"

Falutbeth turned toward them.

"I'm a god too! Whispering doesn't mean I can't hear you!"

She glared for a moment, then cleared her throat and immediately returned to her elegant, composed demeanor.

"The point is that this arrangement is not arbitrary."

Her voice became calm and measured.

"A human being's true concepts of good and evil are most easily revealed when they are placed in genuine danger."

"And when valuable treasure is involved, greed naturally emerges alongside fear."

"That is precisely when darker thoughts begin to surface."

Ankh nodded slightly.

Falutbeth looked pleased and continued.

"Under those conditions, beliefs that normally seem immovable may suddenly change."

"When someone finally makes a choice, we can clearly see where they truly stand."

"And at the same time…"

"We can judge the weight of their sin and virtue."

Ankh thought about the people currently inside.

His expression became slightly strange.

"I have a feeling you're not going to see the kind of drama you're expecting."

"Impossible."

Falutbeth was completely confident.

She smiled.

"As long as the benefits placed before them are tempting enough, humans—creatures overflowing with emotion—cannot possibly remain perfectly balanced between two extreme positions."

Ankh shrugged and decided not to argue.

Then he pointed toward the full map of the dungeon reflected beneath their feet.

"There are other people inside too?"

Across the dungeon's eighteen levels, he could see Laxus and the others.

Dimaria was there as well, clearly searching for something.

But several additional figures moved through other areas of the dungeon with their appearances partially concealed.

Falutbeth nodded.

"Five others."

"One is the inheritor of the God of Time. She entered through divine power."

"The remaining four possessed alchemical objects containing traces of divine power. The dungeon recognized them and allowed them through as well."

"They also satisfied the preliminary screening outside."

Ankh narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

Aside from Dimaria, those four strangers felt rather strange.

Their Magic Power didn't seem remotely impressive enough for people willingly entering a place this dangerous.

If anything…

they looked weak.

"If you intend to capture that little divine inheritor, wait until the examination ends."

Falutbeth suddenly grinned.

"If she passes my test, I might steal her away from Chronos!"

Ankh and Yuluye both turned toward her.

Then the two exchanged a look.

And sighed at exactly the same time.

"I'll announce the rules to our newly arrived humans first."

Falutbeth ignored them completely.

Her consciousness gradually descended into the galaxy beneath their feet.

...

Inside the examination grounds—

or, for convenience, the Twin Gods Dungeon—

the separated participants were each trying to understand their surroundings.

Laxus ran one hand over a moss-covered stone wall.

He frowned.

Then, without hesitation, he drove a lightning-coated fist straight into it.

BOOM!

The stone looked damp and half-rotted.

Yet it didn't move at all.

Instead, the wall swallowed his Lightning Magic like a living creature.

A second later—

black lightning, even stronger than what Laxus had released, erupted from the floor beneath him.

Laxus didn't dodge.

He simply stood there and took the reflected bolt head-on.

Electricity crawled across his body before disappearing into him.

He looked down thoughtfully.

"These structures absorb magic and return it."

His eyes narrowed.

"If we fight carelessly in here, we could end up getting hit by our own attacks."

He had just begun searching for the others when a beautiful, gentle voice drifted into his ears like a passing breeze.

"Humans who have entered this dungeon…"

"Welcome."

"You are now participating in the trial of the gods."

Laxus immediately looked around.

There was no visible source.

His expression became cautious.

Even while marveling inwardly at the strange methods available to actual gods, he listened as Falutbeth calmly explained the rules.

"Passing this trial is very simple."

Her voice echoed through every level of the dungeon.

"All you need to do…"

"…is leave this dungeon alive and unharmed."

The words lingered ominously in the air.

"This dungeon contains a total of eighteen floors."

"At present, each of you has been placed somewhere within the first ten levels."

"If you can reach the deepest level…"

"The eighteenth floor…"

"Then you may leave."

---------

Read 40 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.

patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator