Second World-Novel



"Huh? Are you truly the designer of Second World?" Jack asked.

"Stop spouting nonsense. There is no such thing as a Godkiller," Wilted said. "From its name, I assume it is something to kill a God?"

"Your assumption is not wrong. Master used one to kill a God during the war."

"He did?! Tell me everything about what happened!"

So, Jack told her Greed's tale about what happened when the Gods were tussling up there in the sky.

"Pride and Greed switched sides…? Hope died…? This… This is a lot to process," Wilted uttered. "But the most worrying thing is that Hope is gone…"

"Yeah, I know. Now the Good Gods have no advantage over the bad ones anymore," Jack said.

"That is not why I said it is worrying. You asked me before about the main quest, didn't you?" Wilted asked back.

"Yeah. What about it?"

"Leading the underworld force are the seven devils, and leading the seven devils is Lucifer."

"Yeah, I know. I also know that Lucifer is a being of God's level. Are you worried because the bad Gods will increase their number by one and thus gain an advantage over the good ones? We don't have to worry about that since the main quest is no more, correct? The underworld force won't be invading."

"So, you know. But my reason for worry is not that Lucifer will aid the bad Gods. If he comes into the upperworld, he will also treat the bad Gods as enemies. The reason for my worry is that the only God capable of stopping Lucifer is Hope. If he is gone, then Lucifer will be unstoppable."

"Oh…"

"But you are right. Since the main quest is no more, the underworld force won't be invading… Let's hope it stays that way. Anyway, my partner and I truly didn't design the Godkiller. We put the Gods as the caretakers of this world's balance system. Why would we design something that can kill these beings?"

"Well. Even if you said so, the fact is still that Godkiller exists. I take it that Master is the one who created this tool. Is it an alien entity?"

"No. He won't be able to create an alien entity of that power. The world system won't allow it. He must have created the tool by modifying something already existing in this world. You mentioned Fear created it using a recipe, right? Then it is part of this world. Even so, I can't imagine how he circumvents the world system to create such a powerful item. We design the Gods so that they can only be killed by one another, no other things in this world can kill them. So, he will need to create an item at the level of a God… Wait, unless…"

Jack was just silent without sending Wilted any messages. He could see the girl was deep in thought. He didn't want to disturb her thought process.

"… I understand now," Wilted said. "That's why Master invaded the Council of Virtus. I have always wondered why he bothered to spend his resources to take such a risk. Earning the ire of a divine faction is no small matter."

"Are you saying the reason is to create this Godkiller?"

"The Godkiller will need a component at the level of God's power. Divine treasure is one such item, but he needs those treasures to become a God, he won't waste those divine treasures to kill other Gods. But there is another thing with a power of that level. It is the divine heritage."

"Divine heritage? So, Master destroyed the Council of Virtus to get that thing?"

"Most likely. The divine heritage is the essence of a God in the rare case they die because of fighting one another. However, Gods are immortal. They don't truly die. Their essence returns to the altar of their most devout followers. In this case, their divine faction. Inside this altar, this essence hibernates. After several hundred years, give or take depending on how much prayer they receive, they will come back to life again."

"And this essence is what Master used to construct the Godkiller…"

"I can't think of another scenario. This should be it. It explains everything that had happened."

"Since Hope dies, there will be now another divine heritage that Master can use to create another Godkiller," Jack said. "We have to prevent him!"

"Two. Goddess Joy was also gone from the start. We can't be sure if Master hasn't invaded her divine faction. If he had, then there is a chance he has another Godkiller."

"We have to find out! Give me the locations of Hope and Joy's divine factions. I will go and check," Jack said.

"I can give you the coordinates to Hope's divine faction, but for Joy's, I don't know where is the location of her divine faction," Wilted replied.

"What? How can you not know? For a creator, there is a hell of a lot of things that you don't know. Why do you know the location of one but not the others?"

"Because this is now the real world, not something that follows a predesignated program. A lot of things change!" Wilted talked back. She was upset by Jack's words.

"I apologize," Jack realized he had been too blunt. "Give me the coordinates for Hope's divine faction. I will try to find Joy's faction myself."

Wilted sent him the coordinates. She said, "As I said, a lot of things have changed. I can't guarantee Hope's divine faction is still at the coordinates I sent. I know Joy's is no longer at its original place because I tried going there and it was not there. Perhaps they have relocated because their Goddess was gone. As for Hope's, I've never gone there."

Jack understood. It was the same as Greed. After finding out the truth about this world, Greed's reaction was even more extreme. He wiped out his followers, which meant his divine faction was no more.

"That's okay. I'll take it from here," Jack said to Wilted and ended the chat.

"How is it?" Grace asked.

Jack repeated to her what Wilted had said.

"I can help you with the location of Joy's divine faction," They heard a voice from behind. They turned and saw John. This guy had somehow sneaked through the perimeter formed by the other guild members and come close to them.

"You know the coordinates?" Jack asked.

"I have Hope's knowledge, remember?" John replied. "Hope kept tabs on the locations of the other divine factions, so he knew where Joy's one is after they relocated."