CHAPTER I
11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8KaaDrbhhf
“Welcome, otherworlders.”
They opened their eyes. They were no longer in the conference hall. The wooden ground was replaced by clouds, and the concrete pillars replaced by marble ones that supported nothing. It looked like some open air theater.
“Where are we?” asked Akane.
“Where’s Ray-senpai?” asked Kenji.
“You called?” Ray was standing behind them. They all turned to face him.
“Why did—Ray-senpai?” started Airin.
The person beside them was undoubtedly Ray, but at the same time, very different. His golden locks had given way to lustrous silver hair, his brown eyes had become green, and his ears had gotten a little longer and slender. Even his attire was different. Whereas he had been wearing a T-shirt and jeans, he was now wearing a sort of colored tunic with brown pants, along with some sort of cord around the waist.
“Surprised, eh?” he smiled.
“Elves exist?” Kendou was confused.
“Sure, they do.” said the previous voice, somewhat oppressive.
A person appeared next to Ray. He stiffened. The person had childlike features, and their voice was neutral.
“Hi kid. Are you a boy or a girl? Are you some god’s kid?” asked Airin.
“Hey, watch your tone!” exclaimed Ray, absolutely shocked. All heads turned to him in surprise.
“Let them be. They know not.” The child smiled and when they spoke again, the oppressive tone was gone.
“Hi. My name is Vaal. I’m the guardian deity of portals.”
“Then you’re not someone’s kid?” Airin was still confused.
“I was born before you, child. I am not an offspring, I am a part of existence itself.”
“Are you male or female?”
“Could you rather refrain from asking personal questions? That question is an insult in itself.” Ray, standing next to Vaal, looked quite nervous.
“How’s that?” Yuri’s interest was piqued.
“Let them be, son of Van Ness.” Vaal said to Ray as they turned to Yuri. “Only inferior beings that need to reproduce have qualities such as gender. To ask a superior being for their gender is an insult to their superiority. I would recommend that you don’t go around the new world asking for the deities’ genders, no matter how they’re portrayed. You could be cursed by some.”
“Another question.” pursued Yuri. “What do you mean by son of Van Ness?”
“Would you guys allow us to go back to the main subject, namely, why we’re here?” chimed in Akane.
“I agree with Akane.” Ray was more than happy to change the subject.
“Of course. Let’s have some tea first.” Vaal snapped their fingers, and a table appeared with nine cups of tea. “Sit, we’ll talk.”
Ray suddenly stiffened. “Great Vaal, it is one thing to be standing by your side, and another to have tea with you. If only you’d send me back…”
“Now, now, let’s not be shy. Sit, son of Van Ness, and let’s have tea. You elves are often too reverent. It gets annoying. It sometimes makes me prefer the disrespectful humans.”
The group stared at the two in complete confusion. Shaking, Ray sat down as far from the deity as possible.
“My dear Ray, would you sit next to me?”
At this point, Ray completely fainted. “Aniki!” exclaimed Kenji. Vaal sighed.
“Honestly, these elves… Well, back to your question, I’ll start with the history of the new world. Jupiteria is a world that possesses mana. In other words, magic exists there. Mana can be used in a myriad of ways. We deities could not overlook the possibility of mana being used with malicious intent. For this reason, upon creating Jupiteria, we allowed mana to be stained with intent. Mana stained with malicious intent builds up and creates what we call miasma. When the miasma concentrates, it gives rise to monsters which attack humanoids, as a way of punishment.” Vaal explained as they showed them a little animation with puppets made of clouds.
“I have a question.” stated Akane.
“Go right on.”
“Say a group of people use mana with malicious intent. Miasma builds up, and monsters become rampant. Should the whole world suffer for the mistake of one group of people?”
“Great insight, and to be honest, we didn’t think of this when we first created Jupiteria, which—”
“Huh?!” exclaimed all seven.
“We deities cannot fully comprehend humanoids.”
“Some deities you are…” murmured Akira.
“It’s not like you humanoids comprehend being genderless.”
“He’s got a point there.” said Airin.
Vaal’s eyebrow twitched. “See?”
“Airin…” sighed Yuna.
“Ah… uh… I mean, they… Vaal… uh… Lord Vaal’s got a point.
Vaal, still slightly irritated by the gender attribution, continued. “Back to Jupiteria. Merely a few decades after its creation, Jupiteria was filled with miasma, monsters were rampant, and humanoids were on the verge of extinction.”
“Malice is everywhere in the human race, jealousy over lovers, hate, etc. Humans only would have destroyed the continent, and I’m assuming there are elves and beastfolk on the continent, possibly dwarves too. Am I wrong?” Yuri was already gathering intel.
“You’re right. We deities would have stopped the moment miasma appeared. We did not expect humanoids to be this stubborn. We granted purification to the world, but peace did not last long.”
“Of course, we never learn our lesson. What happened next?” Akira was also interested.
“The world was once again overrun by monsters and this time, we granted purification magic to the head priest of our worshippers. He traveled around, purifying the miasma, and at the end of his work, passed on the magic to his successor. That is what has kept the miasma at bay for a long time, but now, the miasma builds up faster than it can be cleansed, especially at borders between races.”
“So you have a religion dedicated to you. Is it to you, to the deities in general, or there are religions for each deity?” asked Yuri.
“Worship is directed to deities in general. Offerings are presented to the deity one needs a favor from. I would have liked to have a religion to myself though.”
“What has all this got to do with us? You’ve just got to appoint more cleansers, right?” Airin was indignant.
“It would solve that problem, but there’s more than that. The humanoids cannot handle the monsters that the miasma has started generating and the forests are being poisoned. The elves are losing their homes, as well as the forest spirits and gnomes. We need someone who can regenerate full forests, defeat monstrous beings.”
“You could do that by granting extra power to a native. Why us?” Yuri was as logical as ever.
“Curiosity did influence our decision, and your deity, Eorthan, told me your world is getting overpopulated. Our population is declining and we can make use of new bloodlines. Seven people are enough. One conscious person can bring about five lives, five become a house, houses become clans, clans become nations. Plus, you are familiar with the trope.”
“Will this ever end? Can we just go back?” Kendou was already reeling from too much information.
“It’s not that easy. Besides, it’s not my problem. You willingly entered the conference hall after all.” Vaal crossed his arms, pretending to pout.
“We were tricked!” It was Akira’s turn to be indignant.
“Is this guy really a deity?” Airin was skeptical.
The world around them flickered between grayscale, and full color as Vaal’s face grew bright red with anger. “First, I’m not a guy. Second, yes, I’m a deity. Third, keep this up and I’ll drop you into a miasma-infested forest until you learn some manners!” Vaal’s face returned to its normal color.
“Airin, he’s actually angry! You’re going to get us killed!” Kendou was trembling. At the mention of “he”, Vaal’s eyebrow twitched again, but they stayed calm. Their eyes shifted to Ray’s unconscious form. Vaal’s voice softened.
“The poor boy paid a great price to bring you. Sending you back would kill him, as it would be a powerful spell backfiring, not to mention that elves still lose their habitat. If you choose to go with him, your existences would be erased from Earth as if you never existed, causing no pain to anyone. Eorthan will make sure of that.”
“I’ll go, if it means Ray-senpai will live. After all, no one will remember me from earth when I leave.” said Akane.
“I’ll also go. I’ve still got Kendou. You’ll come, won’t you, Kendou?” Akira looked at his brother.
“Yeah, I’ll go.” Kendou looked away with tears in his eyes. “I’ll miss mom and dad though.”
“I’ll not miss my opportunity at an isekai life.” Airin was jumping up and down, excited.
“Makes no sense to go back to earth when going to Jupiteria costs me nothing.” said Yuri.
Kenji punched the air with his fist. “I’ll save Aniki! What about you, Yuna?”
They all turned to Yuna, who was asleep with her head on the table.
“Yuna! Wake up! Will you come along?” asked Kenji.
Yuna woke up.
“It’s not a dream?” She looked around groggily. “We have to clear some sort of miasma, right?”
“There’s more than that, but basically yeah.” Akira replied.
“I refuse.”
“Why?”
“Why would I leave my quiet life in Japan for a popular hero life?”
“Ray—Van-senpai would die if you don’t.”
Yuna looked thoughtful for a while. Finally, she sighed and dropped her gaze.
“Fine. Only because Van-senpai will live.”
“Thanks a lot, Yuna.” Ray had woken up. “You guys saved my skin.” Then, remembering Vaal, he said “Thank you, Great Vaal.” as he knelt and bowed with his head to the ground.
“Well then, it’s almost time. I’ll—”Vaal started.
“Wait, what about our cheat skills?” asked a disappointed Airin.
“You’ll figure those out later. If I don’t send your souls now, the other deities would make a fuss, and your body may be born without a soul… it won’t survive. May all the deities watch over you.”
Vaal lifted his hands. A great wind started blowing, and their bodies started fading.
“I’ll be watching you.”
ns216.73.216.253da2
and then Add to home screen.