Chapter 378: The Devil’s Whisper

Egostic reveals to Celeste that there is a new ruin of the Sun God.

Then, back to the present.

We were on a street in Europe, in the back alley of some building.

“Is this it?”

A ramshackle back alley lined with European-style brick buildings.

There, Celeste stood, her long silver hair flowing, uncharacteristically dressed in plain clothes.

…I don’t know if it was because her face itself was shining, but even in plain clothes instead of her saintly robes, she looked holy unlike everyone else. Of course, the plain clothes were new to her.

Anyway, I smiled at her and opened my mouth.

“Yes. That’s right. This is the ruins of the Sun God I discovered.”

“…How the hell do you know about this place?”

Hearing Celeste’s incredulity, I entered the ramshackle abandoned house in the back alley.

It was a dark place of crumbling boards that looked like it had been abandoned for a long time.

I walked wordlessly to the end of the seemingly deserted street.

Finally, I saw a blank wall in front of me and I put my hand on it.

……

I felt something stirring.

What should have been an empty wall had suddenly become a large door.

A wall of ruins, just like the one I had seen before.

…As in the original, this door is only visible if you know it exists.

Of course, that’s all I can do as a fake.

With that thought, I turned my head and smiled at Celeste, who was standing behind me.

“There you go. The gates to the ruins are open, so let’s go in.”

“Egostic…you’re real.”

Celeste said in disbelief as she looked at me, who had so casually discovered a new ruin that even she, a Saint of the Sun God, didn’t know about.

She nodded and walked over to me.

“…Yes. Let’s go in.”

With that, I opened the door.

Immediately, a pure white light enveloped our bodies and we were sucked into the ruins.

*

“This is it…”

It was a large cavity of ochre-colored bricks, weathered by the winds of time.

In this Sun God’s ruins, which seemed to be connected to another world, Celeste first snapped her fingers.

With that, her outfit changed from a t-shirt to a traditional saint’s robe.

“Phew…”

With a sigh, she was back to being the sassy, mysterious saint.

Looking around, she spoke in a slightly wary voice.

“I won’t lose my powers here, right?”

“Haha, yes. Probably, you’re safe here.”

“…Well, that’s good to know, but…I guess it doesn’t matter.”

After a moment, she looked back at me, gave me a small smile, and said.

“Because you’re with me.”

…Of course, that was only for a second, then she turned her head and started walking away.

“Let’s go, I wonder what’s in here.”

“Haha. Yeah.”

And with that, I smiled quietly and followed behind Celeste.

We entered the ruins.

Just like the previous ruins, this underground ancient ruin, which was off-limits to ordinary people, was…quite large, especially with all the murals.

…And these were the ones I was aiming for.

“…Wow.”

Celeste looked at the ruins filled with such murals with admiration.

As she looked around, she began to mutter and speak to me.

“…These ancient ruins, who made them, when and why?”

“Didn’t you investigate the ruins last time?”

“I did…after you left…I organized a separate survey party. Only…”

Celeste ran a slender hand along the wall, her voice filled with doubt.

“Surely, with these murals and the size of the ruins…There must have been a lot of people who believed in the Sun God, so why is it that everyone has forgotten about him now and only believes in other gods?”

At her incomprehension, I shook my head and replied.

“…That much is unknown at this point, but based on the few surviving texts of the Sun God…modern religions have quite a bit in common with the doctrines of the Sun God.”

“Yeah. I know that, I guess…modern religions are all derived from him, but why…why have all the records been lost, except for a few books?”

“…”

With that, our conversation stopped for a moment.

We just stare at a large wall with a huge mural on it, the result of a slow walk through the ruins.

Looking at the mural

‘…..’

I felt my heart pounding in my chest.

‘Yes. This is it.’

This is it. This is my chance to plant the seed of doubt in her mind, the seed that would bring everything down.

This is what I’ve been preparing for all along.

With that, I composed myself, and as I stared at the mural, I spoke quietly.

“…This mural, unusually, has words on it.”

I said.

“Una die descenditur,” I read, calmly, in Latin.

“Una die descendit Deus et dedit nobis gratiam…One day God descended and gave us grace.”

With those words, I looked again at the mural that accompanied them.

A group of what appeared to be humans kneeling, and at the end of it, a man with his head painted as the sun and his arms outstretched.

Celeste was looking at it, her face filled with emotion.

“…After all, God must have descended to this world in the past.”

With that, I continued to read the words.

The Sun God descended and gave us laws and precepts.

The Sun God is with us, showing us the way to live our lives.

The Sun God loved humans and gave each one of them power…

And so it was.

The words on the mural spoke of how much the god loved humans, and how he led them himself.

I looked at it, then I turned to Celeste and smiled.

“…Now I see. I guess God really did love humans.”

“Yes…I suppose so.”

She replied with a warm smile, her eyes, however, were fixed on the mural, unmoving, as if trying to etch that image into her eyes.

…Yes. She must be thrilled.

To be chosen by the Sun God, despite her background, to be his chosen one…She didn’t know the details of what he was like, what he wanted, how he made this world.

And so, for the first time, she learned more about him.

The god of the mural was depicted as a man, though his face was in the form of the sun….

And something common to all the other murals, including this one was that God co-existed in this world in human form and led humans directly.

Clearly, He loved humans.

Yes, he did.

This was important.

With this, I was going to plant the seed of a rift in Celeste’s mind.

“…There’s a series of murals over there, too. Shall we continue on?”

“Yes. Let’s go.”

And so we did.

I walked with Celeste, looking at the paintings of people praising god. I smiled, and was about to speak when I realized.

“…That’s very strange.”

Celeste spoke first.

“How is it that God could love and be with humans so much, and then… and then just disappear, leaving all of his creatures behind?”

She muttered that, puzzled.

Listening to her words, I smirked.

Okay, it was time to start.

“…I guess. He must have had something going on, but there’s one thing for sure, right?”

“What’s that…?”

“That He still loves us.”

I said, and suddenly stopped in my tracks and looked back at Celeste.

“…Oh.”

And at that moment, she, who had been following me, stopped right in front of me, just as I stopped.

Taking advantage of the moment, I ruffled her silvery hair as it fell in a natural motion and muttered.

“Didn’t He speak to you, Celeste, when He chose you, saving you in your hour of need, and telling you to unite the world?”

“…Yes?”

She looks up at me with a puzzled expression on her face at my words spoken so close to her, but she doesn’t push me away or reject me.

…Okay. That’s it.

In order to move forward in a relationship, it’s necessary to make the first move.

Now it was time to drive the wedge.

“This must be because He still loves the people of the world. He will return to this world and save them all. What do you think, Celeste?”

“…You’re right.”

Celeste smiled slightly, looked up at me, and spoke.

I smiled back, and continued.

“…He definitely told me that He would come back to this world soon.”

“Then again…perhaps it was His will for you, Celeste, to bring the world together before then, so that His faith and love could spread more quickly.”

“…I guess you’re right. After all, I knew God was like that.”

Celeste still affirmed my words.

Seeing that she was convinced by my words, I smiled even more deeply.

Now, in Celeste’s mind, through the words on the mural and my persuasion…the image of the Sun God is now firmly established.

He has always cared for people, helped them since ancient times but disappeared for some reason.

Then he returned, saving a damsel in distress, bringing the world together, and soon returning to this world to shower it with love.

Clearly, he was a good God who loves humans and wants to save them.

That’s the God you like, Celeste.

‘When he…tries to destroy humans.’

He is completely different from what I thought until now. He is so filled with hatred for humans that it is hard to believe that He is the same God. He has become no different from the god of destruction.

I smiled quietly at the thought.

This was the beginning of my grand plan to have a saint defeat her own god.