The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

"Hey."

As he held those books from the divine realm, Shien asked Lucy a question.

"Is it really impossible for Nien to be the Highest God?"

It's a question that Shien really wanted answered.

"If Nien was the Highest God, then wouldn't all the questions surrounding my summoning be pretty much answered?"

That's what Shien believes.

"… True. If we were to talk about a way to activate the ritual beyond the three methods already mentioned, then the only possibility left is if the Highest God herself did it."

Of course Lucy understood Shien's meaning.

If it was the Highest God, then it'd be easy for her to activate the Hero Summoning ritual on her own.

After all, she was the one who made the ritual in the first place. The ritual itself was sealed away by the Highest God at the ends of the divine realm. Putting aside the fact that only the Highest God could even enter the barrier, the Highest God could probably even supply all the magic power required by herself.

Since the Hero summoning ritual operates by borrowing the magic power of the world, then as the one who created the world in the first place, why wouldn't the Highest God be able to satisfy the conditions for using the ritual?

Thus, if there really is a fourth method for activating the Hero summoning ritual, then the only possibility is that the Highest God personally enacted the summoning.

And if it's the Highest God herself who did the summoning, then the ritual wouldn't need the magic power of the world, nor would it end up causing any sort of commotion.

In that case, if Nien was actually the Highest God, then all the mysteries behind Shien's summoning would basically be answered.

However…

"Putting aside all the differences between the goddess Nien that you mentioned and the legendary Highest God, let's just talk about the summoning itself: Just what's the motive for it?"

Lucy brought up the most fundamental problem here.

"Just as previously mentioned, the Highest God Omnis has only one natural enemy, the Demon King. Thus, she only cares about the Demon King. And besides the Demon King, there's no other existence capable of being a threat to that omnipotent goddess."

Even if the world is destroyed, Omnis could restore it, good as new, with a snap of her fingers.

Even if all life died out, Omnis could instantly resurrect everyone. At worst, she could create new life, new races.

So long as it's not something that's destroyed by the Demon King's powers, then the Highest God Omnis could easily control their all to her whims.

That's what omnipotent means.

To put it bluntly, there's nothing in this world that she can't do.

Even for the other worlds previously mentioned, the fact that Omnis couldn't interfere with them is only because those worlds are independent existences. They're not touchable by magic, nor are recognized by magic. It's not that they resist magic, but rather that they don't even exist within the concept of magic, that they're rejected by magic. They're like the dead leaves that had fallen from a tree. They won't take in any more nutrients, so naturally, no matter now much one waters them, there will still be no way to make them grow anymore.

Thus, the Highest God Omnis truly is literally omnipotent. It's just that she had a natural enemy, is all.

And the Demon Kind is that natural enemy.

Currently, the Demon King is dead, having been defeated by the Hero's Holy Sword. Highest God Omnis even used her own powers to suppress the Demon King from reviving. She basically removed all possibility of the Demon King's revival from fate itself. Now that her natural enemy is destroyed, there's no possible reason for the omnipotent goddess to even need to summon a Hero anymore.

Since there's no need, then why would that goddess summon Shien?

"It's exactly because she's too omnipotent that there's nothing that we can possibly think of that would need the Highest God to secretly utilize the Hero summoning ritual to summon you for."

Lucy stated her opinion.

"With no motive and no reason, there's nothing to imagine or judge on. Thus, I think the possibility that Nien is the Highest God Omnis is low by anyone's estimation."

That's Lucy's opinions on it, and Vivian probably thinks the same too, right?

Otherwise, there's no way that the two of them would have been so certain in denying the possibility that it's the Highest God who was responsible for the summoning.

Now though, Lucy wasn't quite as sure anymore.

It's because not even the three great goddesses knew a thing about this matter. In that case, the only possibility left is if the Highest God who was responsible.

The problem then though, is that if it's really the Highest God who acted, then just what's the cause and reason for that? Just what had happened to make her do such a thing?

If those questions can't be answered, then there's no way that they could be certain that the goddess Nien who activated the Hero summoning was in fact the Highest God Omnis.

"Then, could it be that some other threat popped up?" Shien thought it over and proposed, "Even without the Demon King, isn't there still the Hero?"

Shien's meaning was simple.

"Is there the possibility that it's something like a Hero who became a threat to the Highest God Omnis?"

Shien doesn't believe that all Heroes are good guys after all.

Given the usual tropes, there might appear a Hero who turned evil. That or the Hero who killed the Demon King was then corrupted by the Demon King's power, and thus became the new final boss. Aren't those things possible too?

And that kind of Hero ended up becoming a threat against Omnis, so she had to reactivate the Hero summoning to deal with the Hero that became a threat to her. Is that really not possible?

"You… You really have quite the imagination…" Lucy seemed to have gotten quite a scare from Shien's blind guessing and so hurriedly refuted him, "But I have to tell you that those imaginings are completely pointless, you know?"

"Why?" Shien immediately asked.

"It's because not even the Hero can threaten the Highest God." Lucy spoke definitively, "The Hero's Holy Sword could indeed defeat the Demon King and her demons. Its Holy attribute could cause them damage and prevent them from reviving, but it has no such effects against the gods."

"Given that, then even if the Hero was strong enough to slay the Highest God, she could easily still revive within the next breath, so there's basically no way to actually beat her."

"Hero, Demon King, and Goddess. The three of them have a mutually countering matchup."

"The Hero's Holy Sword can defeat the Demon King."

"The Demon King's power can negate the Goddess's abilities."

"And the Goddess can completely ignore all threats from the Hero."

"Thus, the Hero is the Demon King's natural enemy. The Demon King is the Goddess's natural enemy, and the Goddess is the Hero's natural enemy. That's the relationship between the three of them."

"Naturally, the possibility of the Hero getting corrupted by the Demon King's power that you brought up is also completely impossible. That's because the Holy Sword would automatically purge all corruption of that kind. A Hero who had turned evil could even be rejected by the holy powers of the Holy Sword, thus resulting in the Holy Sword shattering and disappearing."

"After all, the Holy Sword is a power born from the concept of ‘Hero'. If a Hero turns evil, then the Hero would no longer really be a Hero anymore. After having lost the concept of ‘Hero', the Holy Sword would naturally also disappear. How could such a Hero then threaten the Highest God?"

Lucy explained all that in a single breath before comforting Shien.

"Don't overthink it anymore. Rather than contemplating those completely impossible thinks, you're better off considering the possibility of the Demon King reviving."

"Didn't that goddess named Nien also say it? That the reason she summoned you is to defeat the Demon King?"

"Logically, the Demon King indeed cannot be resurrected. However, we've already confirmed that your issue might have involved secrets at the level of the Highest God. Given that, we might need to consider any possibility, no matter how unlikely it might be."

Lucy's words made Shien once again fall silent.

"Sigh…"

In the end, Shien could only sigh. He looked out the window and muttered to himself.

"I really wish that I could get a life hack as well…"

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