Casita’s needle stopped spinning. Until an hour ago, it had been a place within the region of a god. The sight left after the otherworldly landscape was sucked back into the tower was as if a disaster had swept through the land. Even if everything was taken back, there was no way to bring it back its original landscape.
Dohyuk was lying down on the ground.
“…”
He looked like he was dead, but he was alive. It was just that his body was injured and fatigued, and more importantly, he just wanted to lie down and look up at the sky.
And then came the sound of footsteps.
“What are you doing here.”
“…”
It was a Bermuran who approached as he spoke to Dohyuk. The High Priest of the nearby city was controlled by Aruga.
“Being inside him that long… I don’t think it will do any good to him.”
“He’ll be honored even if it damages him. A mere priest from a remote city will never get a chance to have me in his body.”
“…Why did I even ask,” Dohyuk scoffed coldly. This arrogant God did not need to care about a mere priest.
“You did good work. It was so pleasing to hear Kelsed’s agonized screams. He probably did not expect that.”
Aruga was astonished. Under normal circumstances, Dohyuk would have died the moment he appeared at the center of the region. But all the forces of the region was preparing to fight a war at the outer border of the region. As Dohyuk appeared at the center, he immediately activated ‘Seeker of the Core’ and reached for the Godly Item. Kelsed tried his best to stop Dohyuk, but without his followers around, there was not much that he could do.
After the Godly Item was taken, the needle began to spin. Kelsed and his world were pulled back into the tower.
“Was Kelsed the reason why you called me here?”
“It’s not much. I just had a few bad ties with him. You did well.”
“…”
Dohyuk narrowed his eyes.
“If you want his Godly Item…”
“What are you talking about. Why would I want that fool’s stupid item?”
Dohyuk then stood up immediately and before Aruga can speak anything, he kicked Aruga’s leg.
“W-what are you doing!”
“I’m sure you didn’t come all the way here to compliment me.”
And what he was using was the High Priest of a city. There was no way Aruga would take control of the priest and come all the way here without any reason. He knew Dohyuk would come to him in his city later anyway.
“Footsteps,” Dohyuk mumbled. He then turned to where he first heard Aruga’s first footstep. If he came directly from Aruga’s city, then the footstep should not have come from that direction. And he realized the footstep was certainly trying to make the least amount of sound as possible.
“Let me go! Let me…!”
Aruga shouted as he tried to free himself from Dohyuk who stepped on him, but Dohyuk quickly found a heavy leather pouch on Aruga’s body. There were metal coins inside.
“You bastard.”
“…”
Dohyuk gritted his teeth in rage. Aruga became silent. About 50 gray coins were inside the pouch. Everything became clear. The reason why Aruga was here wasn’t because of Dohyuk. Either the chickenhead had a way to track down the coins, or he knew where they were hidden within the region. After Kelsed lost, he took control of High Priest who had speed and stealth to come in and collect those coins.
But he never guessed Dohyuk would be lying down on the ground where he had finished his job.
“H-hear me out… this is…”
“Let’s be clear.”
Dohyuk held back his rage and spoke coldly, “Honestly, I don’t even need to deal with you anymore.”
“…!!”
“Even if I break the deal right here and now, what bad will it do? It’s not like five months ago. Even if you become my enemy, I don’t see any threat in it and I don’t think it’s too hard to find a new ‘partner’ either.”
Dohyuk was right. His forces were very powerful now. They were now powerful enough to ‘invade’ another god’s region with their own might. With this said, if Dohyuk offered the same deal with other gods, not many would turn him down.
The High Priest’s face turned pale. Before he could speak any further, Dohyuk icily spoke up again.
“Let me ask you this.”
It was a chance to take the advantage and draw out information that was hard to acquire otherwise.
“You all are gods. I don’t consider you as so, but you are still the most powerful ones in your respective worlds.”
“Y-yeah.”
“Then why do you want these coins?”
It wasn’t only that. Until now, Dohyuk thought these gods were doing what they were doing just for fun. But after fighting many of them, it didn’t make sense. Most gods that Dohyuk met valued their resources in a mere one region too much. If Dohyuk were in the same situation, he would have killed any intruder with all of his power from the beginning. If any of the gods Dohyuk faced did this, he would have been killed a long time ago.
But they didn’t do that.
“I could see that from Vehume’s lair also. That wasn’t just picking out a few warriors. What he was trying to do was to plan for the long run.”
“…”
“I mean, if what you were doing was just for fun, why would you barricade in your region and try not to waste your power? What makes your master use the coins to bring you all out?”
Aruga then spoke.
“…We are falling apart.”
“Falling apart?”
“I… after I finished the illumination the Lord God bestowed upon us… it has been 600 years since then.”
600 years. Dohyuk learned that time had the same magnitude in other worlds as it did on Earth.
“After the illumination, our race did become superior. They were much more advanced in physics and intelligence than the original ‘humans’.”
That was as so. The Bermurans and even Vehume’s vampires were probably not that much different from the humans from Earth.
“But… everything dwindled. Our numbers thinned out as generations passed. I just thought we had become more superior beings as long-living animals breeded less.”
But it wasn’t only the number of people. Civilization also dwindled.
“I thought your city was still more advanced than the others.”
“…Centuries ago, most of our buildings had about the same size as those walls. Our cities were larger.”
Dohyuk asked back in surprise, “So, you’re stupid ‘godly power’ didn’t work?”
“The power… what it brings is only a miracle.”
It moved mountains and divided the seas. This magic did not bring about civilization. Aruga was strong and smart, but creating a civilization was not the outcome of superhuman being’s power or intelligence. It was from those who lacked, that required studies and trials to achieve civilization.
“Most of my cities’ current buildings should have perished long ago. But…”
“You brought it back with your power.”
“Yes.”
Just like how Dohyuk rebuilt Gangnam within his city, Aruga also recreated his old city. But it didn’t last long. Even if he rebuilt it, it didn’t mean fixing and maintaining it had also revived.
“The building and tools… there’s no one left to fix or create them. Or rather, there is no one who ‘wants’ to learn how to do it, right?”
Aruga did not answer, but Dohyuk was right. If these buildings were to deteriorate, what then? There was only one way, and that was to bring it back with godly power again.
And that was where the problem was. The power required to recreate the city was enormous. Dohyuk did not use his power to create the Gangnam. It was through Casita and his infinite amount of power that allowed Dohyuk to do that.
And if it wasn’t for that, there was no way Dohyuk could’ve recreated his old city.
“…It’s a bad cycle.”
The city and civilization required a huge amount of faith to create. But as the number of people also decreased, there was only one way to overcome the situation.
