Chapter 411: Apostle Meeting (3)

The armrest of the chair Kai was gripping let out a painful creak.

“

Huuu

...”

Kai steadied his breath for a moment to calm his anger, then asked, “Then is Helik’s occasional anxiety related to all this?”

She was the Solarian God, a supreme being. Thus, Kai had never understood the moments when she showed signs of dependency. He couldn’t understand what could possibly make such a high-ranking god feel fear.

Roby once said...

Not to make Helik cry, that she was a tender-hearted girl with many wounds.

"Helik is afraid that someone close to her might abandon her again, that she might be betrayed."

"Muldine grew jealous of the fact that his younger sister became a greater being and was more respected by humans. In the end, he tried to kill the only sister he had."

"Ha, haha..."

Kai let out a hollow laugh.

So that was the reason she stubbornly played the role of a middle-aged man, afraid her followers would abandon her if she seemed weak. The reason she held back even when she wanted to eat something delicious or ask for something.

“So Helik constantly walking on eggshells... is all because of that bastard Muldine?”

She was someone betrayed not by a stranger but by her own family. The fear that the other person might abandon her, the anxiety that betrayal could come at any time, the loneliness of knowing she might be alone in the world again. Those were the parasitic traumas that had long eaten away at Helik’s heart.

The temple fell silent. As Kai grew angry, the killing intent that rose from him filled the air around them.

“Brother, your bloodlust is too strong,” Chelantia gently scolded him, but Kai did not calm down.

No, he couldn’t calm down.

“Helik, you see, has been smiling a lot these days,” Kai slowly let the words fall, like reading from a book. “She’s been asking more favors than before, and she even grumbles comfortably now.”

He could feel that she had opened her heart to him.

“Last night, Helik told me she was worried about me. She told me not to go after Muldine. That he would kill me.”

How must she have felt saying that? What must it have been like to try and stop someone who wanted to kill her family for her sake? Kai didn’t know what she felt at that moment, but there was one thing he knew for certain.

“Patrick, you wounded Muldine even though you knew he was Helik’s family. Is that true?”

“It is.”

“Why did you do it? You must have known Helik would have been heartbroken if Muldine died.”

In response to Kai’s question, Patrick replied without a moment of hesitation, “Because the pain he would cause her in the future seemed far greater than the sorrow she would feel from his disappearance.”

“I see...”

His thoughts aligned exactly with Kai’s. For Helik to smile with peace, Muldine had to disappear. Even if he was her family, even if it meant she would end up hating him, he still had to be erased no matter what.

“Do you know anything about how a human can surpass their rank?”

No one answered Kai’s question.

“That is something even we do not know.”

“However... After living in the Heavenly Realm for a long time, I feel like I have a vague idea.” Shimizu quietly raised her hand and began to say, “The gods who live in the Heavenly Realm, even the lowest among them, each have a conviction of their own.”

“Conviction...”

“We had convictions too. I had the conviction to protect my allies. Cherantia had the conviction to comfort the souls of the dead. As for Patrick, he had a rather violent conviction—to leave no enemies behind and ensure nothing would come back to haunt us.”

“Then why weren’t you able to become gods?”

“That, we don’t know. But one thing is certain. There is no such thing as a god without conviction.”

In other words, having a conviction was the minimum condition to raise one’s rank.

“Besides, you are the fourth apostle of the Solarian Church. I believe it’s time you began to form a conviction of your own.”

“My own conviction...?”

“Yes, the conviction that shaped the current you, and the one that will guide your future self. Think about both.”

“Thank you for your advice.”

As Shimizu nodded in response, Cherantia added, “A Solaris Cleric can possess their own holy relic once their conviction is formed.”

“A holy relic? You mean like the ones you three have?”

The three nodded at Kai’s question.

“A holy relic is a weapon that symbolizes an apostle’s deeply embedded conviction.”

“A weapon infused with conviction is no different from a partner.”

“An apostle’s combat strength differs greatly depending on whether they possess a holy relic or not.”

“A holy relic...”

Kai had never once considered creating a holy relic of his own until now. No, before that, he had never even thought about what his conviction truly was.

“Holy relics... They don’t form overnight, right?”

“Of course not. Conviction itself doesn’t form overnight to begin with.”

“When you gain firm belief in your conviction. When you decide to follow that path for the rest of your life.”

“At that moment, another holy relic is born into this world.”

The heartfelt advice from the previous apostles was definitely helpful to Kai.

“Thank you for your wise words.” Kai bowed his head deeply with sincerity.

The apostles each looked at him with warm gazes.

“

Oh

, and this is more of a personal question.”

“Feel free to ask. There’s no need to hold back between us,” Cherantia raised his muscular arm and gave a friendly smile.

“Okay. If Muldine were to disappear... what would happen to this world?”

Muldine was the god of darkness. He governed over night, the moon, violence, and shadows as a high-ranked god. What would happen to the world if such a being vanished overnight? This was a question born from Kai’s curiosity.

“Even if Muldine disappears, not much would change,” Patrick spoke hypothetically, but his voice carried confidence.

“May I ask why you think so?”

“A god is not a being that causes phenomena or creates concepts.”

“Pardon...?” Kai tilted his head, not understanding.

Patrick explained again in simpler terms, “Let’s take the god of the sea, Aqua, for example. If Aqua disappeared from the heavens, would all the oceans in the world vanish at once?”

“

Ohhhh.

”

“A god is merely a being that represents a concept or phenomenon in the world. They are not the concept itself.”

“I see. Then even if Muldine dies, this world wouldn’t be affected at all.”

“

Pfft

,” Shimizu suddenly burst into laughter.

Everyone turned to her at the unexpected laugh, and she said, “Sorry for laughing. I just remembered something from long ago.”

“From long ago...?”

“Very, very long ago... Back when the idea of nations was first established.”

“How many hundreds of years ago was that?”

“Nearly a thousand years ago. Humans gathered into groups, and those groups grew like snowballs until they became nations. That was also when religion started to become truly active.”

“

Oh

, then...?”

“Yes. That was when I first heard Helik’s voice and founded the Solarian Church.”

Shimizu slowly closed her eyes with a wistful expression. A soft smile, like that of a woman in love, spread across her lips.

“Helik back then was far more mature than she is now. Even as a woman, I thought she was incredible. Though her body hasn’t changed one bit.”

“Wait, we’re still talking about Helik, right?”

“Of course. Though she looks like a child now, back then she had been personally asked by the Supreme God, her father, to manage humanity. Her sense of responsibility was especially strong. She pushed herself through an extremely tight schedule every single day.”

Where did that person go? Even Cherantia and Patrick, hearing this for the first time, couldn’t fully hide the surprise on their faces.

“I remember that her relationship with Muldine wasn’t that bad back then. After all, Muldine only began to resent her when the Solarian Church flourished while the Church of Muldine became comparatively weaker.”

“I see, but why are you suddenly bringing this up?”

“Because Muldine and Helik had the exact same discussion we just had.”

“You mean... about what happens when a god disappears?”

“Yes. It was slightly different but not far off. Anyway, are you going to keep interrupting me?” Shimizu slightly glared at Kai.

“My apologies. Please continue.”

“

Ahem.

Let me continue. At the time, Muldine and Helik made a bet. If I remember correctly, it was Muldine who suggested it first.”

“What kind of bet?”

“A bet to see which of the two was more needed in this world. Thinking back, I suppose that’s when Muldine started becoming wary of Helik.”

“But light and darkness, day and night, they’re both necessary to the world. How could they decide who was more essential?”

“The experiment was simple. They used a traveler passing by. First, they filled the surroundings with light, then, they filled it with darkness.” Shimizu smiled and looked at Kai. “What do you think the result was?”

“

Hmm

... I’m not sure. Did it not end in a draw?”

“

Oh

, why do you think that?”

“If it’s too bright around you, you can’t open your eyes. And if it’s too dark, you can’t see anything in front of you either.”

Shimizu unconsciously clapped at Kai’s answer. “Your insight is remarkable. I didn’t expect you to grasp the point of this story so quickly... You’re right. When Helik released her power, the traveler couldn’t open his eyes from the brightness. When Muldine released his power, the traveler could open his eyes but couldn’t see a single thing.”

“Then it really was a draw.”

In other words, intense light and intense darkness, a force that was too overwhelming was meaningless.

“No. The winner of the bet was Muldine.”

“

Huh?

”

“Why is that?”

Cherantia and Patrick, listening intently, questioned Shimizu.

“It’s simple. Why don’t we try a little test?”

When Shimizu snapped, the space filled with light. The three others tilted their heads, not understanding her intention.

Then, Kai noticed something and exclaimed, “

Oh

...

!

”

“You see something?”

Cherantia and Patrick turned their heads and followed Kai’s gaze. Soon they too noticed it and nodded in silence.

“It’s a shadow.”

“That’s right. What decided the outcome was the shadow.”

Wherever there was light, something always existed. That something was a shadow. The stronger the light, the deeper the shade of the shadow became.

“Muldine must have become certain through that bet that if only one of them could survive in this world, it had to be him. He realized that while he could flood the world with darkness, he could never flood it with light.”

“That’s not the reason he’s trying to kill Helik, is it...?”

𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

“I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think it’s unrelated. After all, it was right after that bet that Muldine began to take action.”

Kai held back his words as he also came to understand something through Shimizu’s explanation.

“No matter how strong the light is, a shadow still falls behind the object...”

But when darkness fills the world, there’s no space left for light to enter.

“It was just a bet, but it’s surprisingly deep,” Cherantia murmured.

Patrick nodded. “It is easy to fall into corruption, but hard to climb toward the light. That clearly shows human nature.”

“Balance...” Kai Kai murmured.

A fair state that leaned neither one way nor the other. Perhaps that was exactly what this world needed most.

The meeting with the apostles left Kai with many thoughts.