“God’s Declaration.”
[The God of the Perilous Hammer], Morg has activated the divine rite.
A heavy voice followed, like a massive blunt instrument.
“Confession of Sin.”
Kugugugugugung!!
Silver hammers floated ominously over the heads of the Knights of the Zeparos Kingdom and the Join Tribe.
Morg’s divine right, [Confession of Sin], had a peculiar nature.
It was peculiar right from the outset, as it handed over the establishment of the divine right to the target.
Conscience.
The damage inflicted on the divine rite subjects depended on their feelings of guilty conscience. A being like a God wasn’t swayed by such things, thus not included as a target.
Paaaat.
Above the heads of all the members of the Zeparos 2nd Knight Brigade, a ‘Scale of Judgment’ floated.
“…What the heck is this?”
The Knights and Join Tribe members stared wide-eyed at the cross-shaped scale hovering above their heads.
[Confession of Sin] was, quite literally, a divine right that made people confess their sins.
It calculated the weight of the subjects’ conscience, guilt, and total amount of sin, dealing damage equivalent to that weight.
The weight of sins one admits to.
It was a divine right that forced them to bear that karma.
“Recite your sins.”
There was no way to avoid recalling them.
One’s forgotten sins would also flood back, and that was the power Morg possessed.
Malef, a knight of the Zeparos Empire, recalled the past stirring in his mind.
To be precise, the sins of the past.
A boy had rushed at him.
In his memories, Malef had trampled that boy again and again.
The reason was simple. The boy had obstructed his path to enjoy leisure. So he stepped on him.
Stepping on commoners was something he had done countless times. The boy’s face morphed into a woman’s, and then into an old man’s face once again.
All the misdeeds he subconsciously recognized as sins began to surface.
Malef’s memory continued.
Kyaaaaah!
A scream echoed in his ears. It was the soldier’s wife.
The memory of violating her filled his mind.
Creeeeeak—
A chilling sound resonated above his head. The weight shifted to the guilty side, not the innocent.
The more he knew he was a sinner and the more crimes he committed, the more the weight tilted towards guilt.
Kuwung.
Two characters appeared above Malef’s head.
[Guilty]
As the letters hovering above Malef’s head vanished, a gigantic hammer appeared.
With a loud bang, a massive hammer appeared.
“Uh…?”
KWA-BOOM!
Malef’s body was quite literally flattened.
Blood and guts spilled across the floor. Malef was not the only one crushed by the execution hammer; a thousand out of one thousand five hundred knights and soldiers met the same fate, crushed alongside him.
Those who believed they had committed sins.
And all those whose sins outweighed their lives ended up executed.
In contrast, among the Join Tribe, there was only one being leaning towards [Guilty].
Aures, aged 512, observed the giant hammer with a deep sigh.
“…I sincerely wish for the future of the tribe.”
Aures felt the memories of sins long past awakening in his mind.
What he did was simple.
He killed people—those who screamed in fear upon seeing him.
There was a time when he considered being born as a rare Join Tribe member a curse.
So, he massacred a group of humans who were frightened and swinging their swords at him.
Limbs spread out on the ground, twisted human skulls.
Aures, a member of the deeply introspective Join Tribe nicknamed ‘Sage,’ killed thirty-two humans simply due to an inferiority complex.
With a face showing a sense of detachment, Aures closed his eyes. Thick fur rested on his eyelids.
“I haven’t repented enough….”
The massive hammer smashed down on Aures’s head.
CRUNCH!
The chilling sound of bones crushing filled the air.
Giant feathers fluttered wildly. Crimson blood pooled into a large puddle.
*
Duke Yuma was soaring through the sky, riding the griffin Ethan.
Sitting behind him were Cloney and Hestia.
High above the Zepharos Kingdom in the Eigeil continent.
Yuma gazed at the red flower created from the deaths of a thousand humans and one Join Tribe member.
Blooms crafted from completely flattened corpses.
“I’m late.”
Though he could check which continent he was on with the power of the Deity known as ‘Map,’ the landmass of each continent was vast.
He barely discerned the exact location of the Zepharos Kingdom, caught in the location veil spread by the [God of the Perilous Hammer] and [Flaming Doom].
After barely deciphering the curtain, he pinpointed the location of the Zepharos Kingdom.
Yuma immediately granted the [Blessing – Mental Barrier] to all of his companions who had just arrived.
As a divine being, Yuma was unaffected by the [Confession of Sin], but others were not so lucky.
Preparation was complete.
Yuma and his party slowly descended vertically on a griffon.
Swoosh—
The griffon flew low and landed on the ground.
A white divine energy surrounded Yuma’s entire body.
The eyes of the two gods, the kingdom’s knights, and soldiers all focused on Yuma.
Yuma looked grimly at the squished corpses of humans, flattened by Morg’s divine power [Confession of Sin].
There were the bodies of nearly a thousand people.
A heavy voice flowed into Yuma’s ears.
It was Morg speaking.
“There’s no need to mourn the deaths of these bugs. War God. You may not find their deaths particularly delightful since you were human before becoming a god.”
Morg continued.
“They confessed their sins of their own accord and simply died under the weight of their karma.”
Only then did Yuma shift his gaze from the corpses to Morg, the deity who took the form of a snowman-like Yeti.
Morg spoke on.
“Some were bugs who trampled innocent people just to feel superior… and there were countless knights who coveted soldiers’ wives. Quite fascinating, isn’t it?”
Morg could see all the sins that each human recalled as if they were his own.
Morg’s gaze turned to the soldiers. Unlike the knights, the number of dead soldiers was remarkably small, only about 200.
“Why do you follow those knights? Soldiers? They see you as tools to be used and discarded whenever they please.”
At Morg’s words, the soldiers flinched.
A strange current flowed between the knights, who lived lives fitting for ones not doomed by [Confession of Sin], and the soldiers.
Yuma lifted his right foot and slammed it down onto the ground.
Boom───
Dust exploded in a circular wave.
“Do not get caught up in pointless disputes; I’ll handle those two.”
Yuma passed by the crowd and headed towards the Join Tribe.
He gazed at the Join Tribe.
“Ah, it’s the Join Tribe.”
Yuma quickly fixed his eyes on the Join Tribe.
I looked at the Join Tribe.
I had somewhat favorable feelings towards the Join Tribe. This was my first time seeing them in person, but I had received significant help from the Join Tribe member known as Ardorlac.
In the past, while undergoing the process of becoming a god at the Transcendence Altar, it was Ardorlac’s spirit that remained within the altar that aided me greatly.
If it was a debt, then it was indeed a debt. Duke Yuma walked towards the Join Tribe.
Kregel, the leader of the Eger Tribe, gulped.
“Human.”
On the surface, he was clearly human.
But with the divine powers wielded in that body, he was undeniably a god.
Standing before the Join Tribe, Yuma spoke softly.
“Do you know Ardorlac?”
Kregel’s eyes widened.
Kregel’s beak dropped.
“Do you know… Lord Ardorlac?”
Yuma answered with utmost honesty.
“At the Transcendence Altar in the former Join Tribe kingdom, the Purma Kingdom on the Gehergen continent, I awakened my godhood. Ardorlac’s spirit, trapped in the altar, provided a great deal of assistance.”
Yuma scanned the Eger Tribe once more and continued speaking.
“I personally see it as a debt. So, I intend to clear that debt this time.”
Yuma waved his right hand in the air.
“Saving all of you this time should be enough to settle the debt.”
A massive white barrier appeared before the Join Tribe.
While using divine power offensively wasn’t entirely unrestricted yet, using it for defense had already become second nature.
Yuma stepped into the remnant space.
“….”
With a blank expression.
A thousand citizens of the Zeparos Kingdom lay dead.
The grotesque forms of their crushed physical bodies were engraved in Yuma and his group’s minds.
“…Your divine power is truly remarkable. You haven’t even been a god for long.”
Morg looked at Yuma and said.
“How are you able to bless all your followers like that? It’s breathtaking.”
Without hesitation, Yuma moved forward.
The three gods remaining in the Intermediate World.
He had already made up his mind about how to deal with them.
“Divine Authority Declaration.”
A white circle shot out fiercely.
“Fight for survival.”
