Chapter 1718
Chapter 1718
The battle between the Overgeared World and Asgard—it was natural to consider the odds of the Overgeared World to be low.
Grid and the apostles were illustrious in many ways, but their opponents were the celestial gods. However, they had already won two battles. A disappointing defeat followed, but even that impressed the people. It was because the god who defeated Piaro appreciated Piaro.
Grid’s epic that started to be written out of nowhere proved it.
[Overgeared God Grid is writing the 23rd epic.]
[The beginning of the epic comes from the enlightenment of a god who serves the Martial God.]
[The God of Abundance, ‘Aldro,’ who invaded the surface with the Martial God, said he would regard an apostle of the Overgeared God as a teacher.]
“......”
Aldro, who had grabbed Piaro’s hand and raised him up—a faint smile spread on his face as he felt the worship of the humans from their shouts. Then his expression hardened before he knew it. It resembled the expression of a victim who was robbed of a house deed by a scammer.
“Cough...”
Piaro witnessed the change in Aldro’s expression right next to him and felt embarrassed. It was because he felt strength entering Aldro’s hand that was holding his hand. It didn’t matter. People were interpreting the situation at will.
[The declaration of ‘Aldro,’ who previously served the Martial God, means that the apostle of the Overgeared God is comparable to the Martial God.]
It was like in hell. The large-scale epic created by the humans who witnessed Grid’s steps was like a type of scripture. It was a scripture that wasn't written based on Grid’s own point of view, but instead the point of view of the believers who served him. The content had to be somewhat (?) distorted and most of the situation was interpreted in Grid’s favor. It was still the same now.
Piaro explained to the bewildered and speechless Aldro. “This wasn’t distorted by my god...”
“I know.” Aldro interrupted at once. “Everything is my responsibility since I am standing in front of human beings.”
Unless they were a chief god, most gods couldn’t descend freely to the surface. It was because a god could intervene in the world and challenge the hierarchy of a chief god. For Aldro, this trip to the surface was an opportunity he was bound to be greedy for. He was determined to take some risks in order to win the opportunity that didn’t come easily.
In the first place, the Overgeared God was an easy opponent. His reputation had spread through Asgard from the very beginning. He felt that he was nourishing Piaro and the Overgeared God in real time, but he decided that this wasn’t a big deal. The gains he received were also great.
‘I’m glad I didn’t end up like Zeratul.’
Aldro’s golden eyes swept toward the sky. His beautiful eyes, captured on camera, only projected the blue sky, but Aldro’s vision was showing him Grid’s state in detail. A certain emotion automatically sprang up. It was an emotion he didn’t easily feel when he saw the other gods who had reigned since the moment they were born.
Respect.
Aldro stared silently at Grid before bowing his head very slightly. Of course, it wasn’t as reverent as when he bowed to the goddess.
However, this was enough. An unstoppable wave followed.
Wahhhh!
The continuing shouts of the people grew even louder. There were even people who threw off their jackets at the unbelievable succession of events. On the other hand, the gods were calm. Apart from the lowest god who first stepped out, the others didn’t show much agitation even when Zeratul retreated. Usually, a true god had the extraordinary ability to control their emotions. Therefore, they were able to live for thousands of years in the quiet Asgard.
Zeratul had visited the surface over the past few hundred years and built up followers primarily because he wanted to ease his boredom. Zeratul was born only after Chiyou left Asgard. Fortunately, he was born as a chief god from the beginning and freely enjoyed the right to ‘freedom’ that had been given to him. Meanwhile, the other gods were accustomed to such constraints.
“I hope we can achieve an equal score just once. I think I am the only one who is serious here, so I’ll step out.” The situation was 2:1. One god felt the need to continue winning and stepped forward. It was a woman with long pink hair. She was very beautiful, but her thick and transparent eyelashes especially attracted people’s attention.
“Jude. Get married.” Jude, who was escorting the soldiers under the stage, talked nonsense out of the blue. Apart from the knowledge stat that had recently became named and was rising, he was still pure. He was instantly fascinated by Melory, the Goddess of Love.
"C-Captain!" It happened as the soldiers barely managed to stop Jude from breaking onto the stage...
“Why are you smiling like that?”
There was the sound of light footsteps and Mercedes soon stood on the center of the stage. She had a beauty that didn’t fade even in front of the Goddess of Love, who naturally released charm. Thanks to this, people were reminded of Mercedes’ huge presence and regained their minds.
In fact, the big stage felt filled with just Mercedes and Melory alone. The presence of a beauty who made them happy just by looking at her?
Rather than that, it was the aftermath of divinity.
The stage was filled with the pink divinity scattering from Melory and the orange divinity scattering from Mercedes. It was gorgeous and warm, but not vulgar.
“A human virgin. You need to smile like me. Isn’t it a waste of that pretty face to be too arrogant?”
“I’m not a virgin. I have a dear husband.”
“That is a relief. I thought you were an old virgin due to your fierce and spiteful expression.”
“...An old virgin...”
It was Mercedes, who had the desire to become a mother. Then she suddenly became worried. She was worried that she was too old to have a child. She was in her 20s when she first had Grid in her heart, but she didn’t realize the fruits of love until she was in her 30s. Of course, her natural beauty had been tempered with swordsmanship and martial arts. She looked in her early 20s to anyone and would remain young forever. It was just a matter of feeling...
Yes, she knew it.
Even so, an unpleasant thing was an unpleasant thing.
“An old virgin...” Mercedes had an even colder look and created a chill. The transparent eyes, which were hard to see due to the orange divinity, attracted Melory’s attention.
“You are the master of Keen Insight. I thought you were a new apostle because you were exercising the miracle of bearing the Overgeared God’s divinity.”
It was hard to hope for victory...
No one heard Melory’s faint words. The clothes of the goddess were just a piece of thin cloth that fluttered. It was a piece of cloth that barely covered her pure white body. It meant she could capture everyone’s eyes and minds with just one step. Even Grid, who was in the sky, gulped.
Mercedes’ expression hardened even more. It was because her mind had always been directed to Grid first.
One light step taken by Melory caused a tremendous aftermath.
The Goddess of Love—her life was unexpectedly not beautiful. Sometimes she felt rewarded to connect love between others, but in most cases, she was in a position to receive the love of others.It was even from other gods. She had to go through too many unwanted things.
From a certain point on, she felt the need for strength to protect herself and it was none other than Zeratul who gave it to her. It was because Zeratul, who enjoyed showing off his martial arts, wasn’t stingy in teaching other gods, unlike the noble Chiyou.
The fake Martial God who believed himself to be real as a belated created subject—many gods gossiped and laughed at Zeratul behind his back, but Melory was genuinely grateful to him. This was even though Zeratul might’ve taught her the martial arts to show off, not for Melory’s sake. It was true that Melory received his help.
Random blows followed by high speed movement—Melory’s linked attacks as she wielded two short swords in reverse was very fast. The dual swords were appropriately utilized to cut, stab, and bump. It boasted a tremendous skill as if accelerating the moment a flower bloomed.
“......”
Mercedes felt that Melory’s expression wasn’t like a god. Rather, it was a fierce look with gritted teeth. It wasn’t much different from humans. It was just like Grid.
“These are skills honed by hard work.”
What type of life was lived by the celestial gods? Mercedes had always wondered this, but at this moment, her question was resolved in a small way. At the very least, she was convinced that the life of the ‘lower gods’ was vastly different from the life of the gods that humans imagined.
Mercedes also started to respond with all her might. She couldn’t be careless against an enemy who put in as much effort as she did.
“Hah...”
Exclamations poured out from all over the stage.
The invisible fight between Grid and Zeratul.
The confrontation between Kraugel and Baralo, who showed an overwhelming scale of swordsmanship.
The battle between Piaro and Aldro, who used nature.
The previous confrontations were areas that people found difficult to understand. In particular, in the case of the battle between Grid and Zeratul, even the apostles and gods couldn’t read the flow properly.
On the other hand, the battle between Mercedes and Melory was easy for anyone above a certain level to understand. It was closer to a pure skill contest. The flow was systematic like a textbook. This meant it was quick but easy to read. It was thanks to Mercedes ‘matching the breath’ with Melory.
Melory wasn’t a difficult opponent for her, who had been on the stage with God’s Descent from the beginning.
Then it ended. Melory ended up dropping both swords. It couldn’t be helped.
“I... I am a useless god.”
She was a lower god before being the Goddess of Love. There was too little room for intervention in the world for her to weave a human and human love. She almost always had to stay quiet in Asgard, which encouraged conflict every time. She couldn’t even repay Zeratul for his grace.
Melory’s pink divinity lost its light. It gradually dispersed. It was a phenomenon created by the god’s desire for extinction.
Grid recalled the faintness of Chiyou’s divinity—as if he had no divinity—and became somewhat nervous. He wanted to go down to the stage right now and soothe Melory. It was both pure sympathy and an investment for the future. It was a time when the yangbans were starting to set foot in the Overgeared World, so wasn’t it possible for the gods of Asgard as well?
However, Grid couldn’t go down to the ground at all. It was because his wounds hadn’t recovered yet. There was also a concern that Mercedes might misunderstand.
His heart—Mercedes immediately guessed it.
“It isn’t that you are useless. It is that you haven’t found your purpose yet. I know because I’ve had a similar experience.”
It was the time when she was a knight of the Saharan Empire. She often felt skeptical as she played the role of oppressing small kingdoms and wiping out minorities. Of course, she didn’t express it, but she was aware that her purpose wasn’t correct. It felt like her existence was both a nuisance and caused harm. She didn’t have high self-esteem because she wasn’t loved even by her parents, so her heart was always in pain.
Therefore, she vaguely understood Melory. Her sincerity was also conveyed.
“...Thank you.”
The one who reached out to the loser this time wasn’t a god, but a human being. Every scene was recorded in Grid’s epic and the status of the apostles rose exponentially.