Chapter 378: Other Worlds

Ryan kept his gaze fixed on Sophia from his side of the table, processing her question. He leaned his back against the chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

"It’s possible that the one responsible for creating the deities the church serves is the same one who created the dungeons. If so, then they would feed on that god’s power, wouldn’t they?" Ryan replied calmly.

Sophia listened to his theory without moving from her seat, keeping her fingers interlaced in her lap. She tilted her head and gently shook it.

"Huh, normally it would be logical to think that, but at the time we didn’t know the origin of the races, the one the Saint investigated," Sophia said in a calm voice, resting an elbow on the table.

At the mention of that title, Ryan narrowed his eyes slightly without changing his serene expression.

’William’s sister,’ Ryan thought immediately, remembering his ally’s connection to that woman.

Sophia noticed his silence and leaned forward slightly over the wooden table. "Do you understand what I mean, Ryan?"

Ryan didn’t answer immediately; instead, he looked down at the table for a moment. He recalled the information he had obtained so far, silently reviewing both the purpose of the dungeons and the origin of the races.

Every piece of that story was beginning to fit together with the guild master’s words. Ryan looked up at her and uncrossed his arms.

"According to the information William gave me, the god Silva murdered two of the gods created by Etymon, but..."

Ryan paused with his hand on his chin to organize his thoughts, while Sophia watched him intently from the other side of the table, waiting for him to continue.

After a couple of seconds, Ryan lowered his hand back to his chair and spoke again.

"If my hypothesis is correct, Silva isn’t the kind of god who would give his power for the benefit of humans, even if he’s just using them. That means he probably... deceived or somehow forced one of the gods he supposedly murdered."

Hearing that conclusion, Sophia’s eyes sparkled, and she clasped both hands together on the table. "Fascinating. You deduced exactly what I had in mind," Sophia said with an excited expression on her face before turning serious again. "I also believe that the god Loha, or Gail, is the one who was inside that dungeon."

Ryan frowned instantly upon hearing those names linked to the incident. He rested his palms on the wood and leaned his body forward. "Wait a second, are you saying a god attacked you in that dungeon? That’s the entity not even Rohan could defeat?"

Sophia wiped the trace of excitement from her features and slowly nodded as she remembered that encounter.

"It’s exactly as you assume, Ryan. One of those gods was in that dungeon, and because of him, we stopped fighting each other. Even though Rohan attacked him, it didn’t do anything to him. The demon king thought that if he let that thing out, it would destroy the world. So he sealed the dungeon with all of us inside," Sophia explained in a serious tone, holding Ryan’s gaze.

Ryan sat rigidly, imagining the strength of a being capable of forcing Rohan to seal himself inside the dungeon with his enemies. Sophia let out a short sigh before continuing.

"However, that god had no interest in killing us; he simply said it wasn’t his obligation to finish us off. And then he vanished," she concluded, opening one hand on the table.

Ryan blinked a couple of times upon hearing such a sudden resolution when they were all on the brink of death.

’He just let them go like that?’ Ryan thought with bewilderment, trying to understand that deity’s attitude.

He leaned back against his chair again and rested an arm on the table. "I see, but to act like that, it must be a god who isn’t loyal to Silva. If that’s the case, leaving you alive was just a whim, or he thought you were too insignificant."

Sophia frowned slightly at hearing such a blunt way to describe their survival, though her shoulders soon slumped in resignation.

"Don’t put it that way. Though, it might be true—to him, we were mere insects. So, for several days, we called a truce to get out of the dungeon. We stopped fighting each other and split up. The current king and I tried to clear the dungeon, but Rohan opposed us managing to reach S-rank," Sophia recounted, tracing a finger over the table.

Ryan nodded silently, understanding that no demon king would allow two humans to grow stronger right in front of him during a truce. He tilted his chin up slightly with interest. "That makes sense, but how did you get out of there, then?"

Sophia tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and crossed her legs under the table again before answering.

"Well, it turns out Ophelia thought that if the entity in there was responsible for powering the dungeons, then the way he arrived and left led her to deduce that the world’s dungeons were connected. If we destroyed a dungeon’s core, we would open a path to another dungeon that wasn’t sealed," Sophia said, gesturing with her hands as she explained the plan.

Ryan listened to the theory without interrupting her, though he raised an eyebrow as he imagined the danger of destroying the foundation of such a place.

’I don’t think doing that is so simple,’ Ryan thought, crossing his arms as he waited to hear the outcome.

Sophia lowered a hand and pointed her finger at the stone floor of the room where they were talking. "Dungeons usually have between 20 and 100 floors, but when we enter, we always assume we just have to go up. We never had a reason to try going down. Why would we do that? Down to where?"

Ryan followed her gesture to the floor and then looked back up at her face. Sophia closed her fingers into a loose fist on the table as she remembered working together with Rohan’s group.

"So, joining forces, we began destroying the floor of the dungeon’s first level, trying to find a core. Whatever served as the anchor for that dungeon’s power," she added, maintaining a firm tone amid the silence of the house.

Ryan grew more interested as he pictured both sides digging deeper into the sealed dungeon. He uncrossed his arms and leaned forward.

"Did you manage to find that core?"

’This reminds me of the old saying, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," or something like that, although in this case it was the situation that forced them to cooperate.’

Sophia slowly shook her head, and her gaze took on a distant look as she remembered what was beneath that destroyed floor.

"No. But Ophelia wasn’t wrong either. I mean, when we destroyed enough of it, we didn’t exactly find a core; rather, there were many portals floating around. From where we stood, we could see that they led to breathtaking places none of us had ever seen."

Ryan’s eyes widened slightly at that revelation, staying silent as he processed the existence of those pathways. Sophia held his gaze from across the table and lowered her voice a bit.

"Up until that moment, we had never considered the idea that other worlds existed. But there was no other way to describe what we were seeing. However, one area was familiar. One of the portals led to a forest, which I recognized," Sophia concluded, dropping both hands onto the table.

’Now I understand why Ophelia brought up the idea of other worlds existing when she first met me. But why would there be portals to other worlds inside a dungeon? Or were the portals always there, and the god just happened to be inside that dungeon?’