Chapter 213

“The new arrivals on the battlefield were none other than the gods who once had Indra as their leader—the Lokapalas.”

“Lokapalas? Why are those guys here?”

After Indra’s self-sacrifice of pulling out his own heart, the Lokapalas, who had vanished somewhere, have now appeared. Why are they showing up now?

“As far as I know, there’s no one among us who knows the reason…”

“I heard they went into hiding after Indra committed suicide…?”

“Why are they appearing here now?”

The children seemed bewildered by the sudden reappearance of the Lokapalas.

These guys, who’ve been in hiding for the past ten years—why have they shown up now and jumped into the battlefield?

I don’t know. But if we observe their actions calmly, we might figure out what they’re thinking…

“The Lokapalas are joining the battle… Oh no! They’ve started attacking the Ennead!”

As Sylphid shouted in surprise, the Ennead seemed startled by the ambush from behind.

There was Olympus fighting at the front line, and now the Lokapalas suddenly appearing from behind. Surrounded by two forces, the Ennead looked quite confused but continued the fight.

For the beleaguered Olympus, this unexpected intervention by the Lokapalas was like a lifeline.

Even though the gods of the Ennead were powerful, it was too much to handle two forces at once—they began to fall back little by little.

“Hmm… This changes things.”

“Exactly. The gods of the Ennead are strong, but they can’t take on both forces simultaneously.”

“But why are the Lokapalas participating here now? They haven’t shown a hair of themselves for 10 years!”

I stared deeply at the fiercely battling gods, lost in thought.

Maybe…

“Could it be that Indra arranged something beforehand?”

“Indra? The guy who pulled out his own heart, the leader of the Lokapalas?”

“Yeah. If Indra prepared something ahead of time, it would make sense, wouldn’t it?”

Though I don’t know what Indra was thinking—if someone could rip out their own heart and offer it, how could we understand their mind?

Still, judging by their actions, it seems they planned something.

While chatting with the kids, the battlefield gradually quieted down.

It seemed the Ennead wanted to swiftly defeat Olympus, but the new enemy, the Lokapalas, made it impossible.

From Olympus’ perspective, thanks to the unexpected ally, the Lokapalas, they managed to survive the crisis.

Thus, the fierce flames of the battlefield slowly faded.

But this doesn’t mean the war is over.

With the tenth anniversary of Indra’s sacrifice approaching, the gods won’t stop fighting until they offer Baal’s fragments again.

—

“So, you’re saying they started a war to offer Baal’s fragment to the Goddess of Life?”

“Right. At first, the god named Indra offered his heart containing Baal’s fragment, and everything went smoothly, but problems arose starting from the second time.”

The Dragon Priestess spoke calmly.

A god’s heart? That’s something incomprehensible to me, a human.

“There were three gods holding Baal’s fragments back then. One of them locked himself away in his territory without moving an inch.”

“Three… All three were incarnations of Baal?”

“Correct. Odin, Zeus, and Amun. Those three, along with Indra who had already ripped out his heart, formed the core of four gods around whom factions gathered.”

“Four gods…”

“One of them, Odin, stayed locked away in his realm with the Aesir gods following him, refusing to step outside. Most of the Aesir were battle-crazed, so engaging them head-on would surely result in heavy losses.”

“Odin…”

That name sounded familiar. I think I came across it while researching the legends of giants.

“That’s why Zeus and Amun ignored the locked-away Aesir and waged war against each other to eliminate the other. In the process, countless gods’ interests became intertwined, escalating into a massive war involving most of the gods.”

“So that was the War of the Gods?”

“Exactly. The War of the Gods. What started as such nearly ended within a day with the victory of the Ennead, but thanks to the Lokapalas who joined to help Olympus, the Ennead survived.”

“Ennead? Olympus? Lokapalas?”

At my question, the Dragon Priestess explained patiently.

“Remember earlier when I mentioned the four gods holding Baal’s fragments forming factions? The ones following Zeus formed Olympus, those following Amun formed the Ennead, and the ones who followed Indra, who performed the heart-removal ritual first, formed the Lokapalas. Then there were the Aesir who followed Odin, making up the four major factions of the Divine Hall.”

“The four major factions of the Divine Hall…? I never saw any records of that anywhere.”

“At the time, most records were erased, so you won’t find them. Any remaining records are either small bits that weren’t fully erased or intentionally exposed information.”

The Dragon Priestess’s words were quite shocking.

I knew the current gods of the Divine Hall were different from the past ones, but deliberately erased? Was the information about Baal also wiped out? For what purpose?

“This isn’t the time to talk about that part, let’s move on. We were discussing the War of the Gods, right?”

“Ahh, yes.”

And so, the Dragon Priestess continued her story.

“The war between Olympus and the Ennead lasted a long time, about a year.”

“A year…”

“Of course, it wasn’t nonstop combat every day. Even gods need rest, especially in a life-or-death war.”

War… The War of the Gods…

Human wars are terrifying enough; how horrifying must the War of the Gods be?

I couldn’t even begin to imagine.

“The War of the Gods dragged on for a long time. Many gods lost their faith and declined, some even fell. The gods who should have nurtured humans and gathered faith were instead dragged into the war. Losing faith was inevitable.”

“Faith…”

“To gods, faith is life, currency, and power. Losing it was fatal. Still, eventually, a victor was decided.”

The Dragon Priestess continued speaking as if it were no big deal.

“The victor…”

—

“Me! Zeus! I defeated Amun!!!”

The war that lasted over a year finally came to an end.

Zeus’s spear made of lightning pierced Amun’s heart and transformed into a powerful bolt that burned away Amun’s divine body.

Despite Amun possessing Baal’s body, he couldn’t withstand having his heart pierced and his entire body incinerated—or maybe the thread holding together the shattered remains of Baal’s body simply burned away under Zeus’s lightning.

Amun’s body, which contained Baal’s fragment, crumbled into pieces.

“The war is over!!”

At Zeus’s triumphant cry, the surviving gods of Olympus cheered.

A war where many gods sacrificed themselves. Not only the gods of Olympus and the Ennead, but also many unaffiliated gods fell.

The faction hardest hit was undoubtedly the Lokapalas—almost all of their members were destroyed.

What was Indra thinking? What did he ask of those who followed him?

To fight risking their lives like this—and not even for themselves.

Even though Indra had already reincarnated as a human, I wanted to find his soul and ask him if possible.

“For the Goddess of Life! Though it’s late, I shall offer you this fragment of Baal!”

Zeus unfurled the cloth draped over his shoulder, gathered the scattered remains of Amun’s body (Baal’s body), placed them on the cloth, and tied it up.

“I hereby offer Amun’s portion of Baal’s body to you!”

I extended my hand toward the Baal fragment Zeus offered, and the body floated through the air to arrive before me.

The shattered remains of Baal’s body… Hmm. Now I understand why Amun resembled Baal so uncannily—it was because this was Baal’s body.

Well, it doesn’t really matter anyway.

“The body’s completely disarrayed. Amun did well to piece it together and use it.”

“Hmm. It looks like some parts are missing though.”

I grabbed the soul seeping from Baal’s body and handed it to the Grim Reaper who had approached quietly, then rearranged the fragments to reconstruct the complete form.

Most of the body was intact except for the heart and one eye.

Likely, Baal’s eyes are with Odin.

The heart is with Indra—who currently has it…with me.

“Therefore…”

After assembling the body, I took out the heart Indra offered and inserted it into the hole left by Zeus’s lightning strike.

Now the body is complete except for one eye.

“Looking at it now…he’s rather tall.”

“Hmm. You’re right.”

Even though the soul is missing, it’s fortunate we could gather this much.

We’re still missing an eye and a crown, but collecting those is just a matter of time.

“By the way, more gods lost their deity status in this war than expected. Is that alright?”

“Hmm… Were there any gods we absolutely needed to keep among those who disappeared?”

“There were a few. They haven’t completely vanished yet…”

If they haven’t been completely annihilated or sent to the Underworld, it should be fine.

“If they’ve only lost their deity status, I can probably revive them later, so let’s collect them for now.”

I can share my faith to restore their deity status. We should use the remaining faith for this purpose.