6 Prologue 6: The Gods

There was a time when the Mood Goddess and Sun Goddess ruled over the Other World, which one day turned into a hatred that destroyed both of them until the only things left were Divine Swords.

When the World Dragon threatened to destroy the world in its entirety, a change occurred that no one had expected. The second attempt both the Druids and Beasts did at summoning ended up choosing the same person they had chosen twice before.

Alex Stuman was summoned as both the Beast King and the Grand Hero, both at the same time.

No one had seen this coming, not even the Earthling in question as he had done everything he could to save the world after being split in both body and soul before becoming two entities.

The drawbacks to such an unfathomable situation couldn't be underestimated... Sure, he was in two places at once despite being unaware of such an absurd situation himself. It was how he unwittingly cooperated with someone separated by thousands of miles away from himself without ever actually knowing who they were. However, being split into two existences wasn't a 'natural state' to be in.

Both the Grand Hero and Beast King of the current generation suffered through the same problems despite being empowered by their Divine Swords. It ranged from a heavy decrease in their overall lifespan as well as weakness from the body itself.

More prone to catching diseases, having a physical and magical ineptitude in battle, being unable to even walk, etc... The two of 'Alex' suffered a lot more than he did in the past as both present incarnations of him chose to wear an armour that could act like their life support to survive for much longer. In their positions as Grand Hero and Beast King, a lot of things were done for the future.

Even though Leonidas Family who were acting as the Beast King's arms and legs were people 'Alex' despised, he put aside his feelings for the sake of a good greater than just himself. Thus, they were able to cooperate with Druids for a short time.

The Beasts, now referred to as Daemons, were a chaotic bunch that were hard to control, but the summoned Beast King who proclaimed himself as the Daemon Lord brought a new wave of structure for society. It was new policies to control them that allowed them to not become extinct after the actions of the previous Beast King caused the alliance between the Mystic Races to break.

The Grand Hero no longer allowed the Druids to stay separated as he instated himself as the Jade Emperor, creating a new monarchy to bring together the remaining Mystic Races as they fought a hopeless battle against the World Dragon.

Even as members of each race were dwindling by a dangerous amount, the Jade Emperor stood strong as he unified the remaining races. It was to the point that a new term was used to refer to them:

'The Celestials.'

If one was to speak of the greatest achievement Alex had as two summoned individuals in this Other World, it was allowing the many Celestials and Daemons to survive for much longer than what many thought possible against the World Dragon.

The Daemon Lord and Jade Emperor became the two beacons of hope as they even created new Artificial Races for the sake of pragmatically surviving in such grim times. The four new Races became servants used both as food and slaves.

Ironically, Alex only came to like 'himself' after being split into two and he had to judge his counterpart by actions rather than personality. It's actually funny how much 'being himself' was different from 'seeing himself' superficially.

Others would find creating a sentient life-form for the sake of sustenance and slave labour was cruel to do. However, a ruler who had to take care of lives other than his own had to disregard morals.

Idealism can feed your heart, but it couldn't do the same to the stomach. No one would even argue after having the same choices presented to them in the fairly long lifetime the Jade Emperor and Daemon Lord had that they were perfect paragons.

It was a hypocritical worldview... one that no one thought was wrong through self-justification in the war against the World Dragon. As the 'Creators' of a new race, they found it normal that they had full right to sacrifice of the artificial for their survival.

How else would they avoid extinction?

The 'Alex' who ruled both sides believed this too.

It was only after the Greatest Light appeared that the Jade Emperor and Daemon Lord were both humbled as individuals. The identity of their saviour was unknown, but it couldn't be ignored that the dark ages had finally ended for them.

The sky was finally taken back by the Mystic Races and those who had survived the onslaught had become friendly with each other over time. It was the new Celestials who no longer saw themselves as mere 'Mystic Races' but branches of one whole.

Those who had finally seen a world beyond the darkness cried tears of joy as they celebrated with a banquet. Finally, the Jade Emperor could meet the ally he fought with for years without meeting could finally get to know the man 'so much like him'.

It was too bad that he was betrayed the moment banquet started as the True Celestials stabbed him in the back. Those who were unaware only knew that Jade Emperor was found assassinated, and the hands of the Daemon Lord was bloodied red.

No one other than the conspirators of the faction that blamed the Daemons for the birth of the World Dragon knew the truth, except maybe the new Gods that were born the day of the great banquet.

With the Daemon Lord being killed and his nation being attacked with the combined force of the Celestials, Alex's body and soul finally 'snapped' back together like his two halves had been connected by a rubber band all this time.

The Divine Swords stolen from him returned to their rightful owner. However, being 'complete' as an existence was a worse circumstance to be in when each half of him had owned a 'Godly Will'.

The will of the Moon Goddess that had been lying dormant in the black Divine Sword of Eternal Darkness, which was to eradicate the Beast Race entirely, uncontrollably attacked his body, and the Divine Sword of Infinite Light had done the same!

One person could never handle these swords forged by contrasting Gods who hated each other's guts. It was due to this that they ended up nearly destroying and erasing Alex from reality.

The two swords shattered, and the new Gods were born into the world above the realm even the myriad Mystic Races could perceive. They revived the near-dead 'Hero' who had saved the Mystic Races even if he failed to save the world by himself. On top of that, they breathed new life into him to reward him for his efforts all this time.

The youngest of the 'Godly Siblings', the Karma Goddess governing fate, named Void, gave him the fate of immortality. Even in the worst situation, he would be able to survive. This was more complete immortality than the regeneration of Blood Celestials as no one could possibly kill him unless they were able able to distort destiny itself.

Chaos, the third brother born before his younger sister, Void, used his authority over creation to create a new body for him. This Twilight God with a fickle personality gave him the ability to adapt himself both physically and spiritually to the techniques he possessed. This was akin to giving Alex potential beyond mortal comprehension!

Afterwards, Harmony, the second oldest sibling and sister born before Chaos, used her authority over life to give him the physical and spiritual tenacity to be able to survive anywhere in the world. As even 'fate' couldn't erase the possibilities of him dying again, she as the Life Goddess made him never able to truly die, unlike before...

The first to be born among the Godly Siblings and the most enigmatic being among them gave him one more blessing. Unlike the others who had only given him a helpful blessing, what he imparted onto Alex as the Eclipse God was the ability to 'destroy himself' on both a macro and micro level. When asked the reason, he replied that it was just his way of making sure Alex didn't oversaturate his skillset.

His younger siblings didn't understand, but the Eclipse God, Enigma, knew that degradation was also needed if they wanted him to truly be able to live free of burdens. Being at the top was lonely, so he gave his 'father' the choice if he ever wanted to be weak. So long as he desired, even his other Gifts would be suppressed to turn him into a Human.

These gifts came at a price though, as there was one thing they needed him to do in the Other World. The only difference was that there was no longer a time limit for him to 'fix' the world.

They reincarnated passed him onto the Other World's cycle of reincarnation, hoping for the best.

Then they watched over him as he nearly died even before his birth and could only survive by relying on the gifts he had been given for assistance. The monicker of a 'Fallen Celestial' really didn't suit him at all, but those around him still called him as such.

It may seem strange that he was born in such a way despite having the protection of karma, but his gift had been destroyed in the years before he was actually born again through reincarnation into the Other World had altered along with the Karma Goddess. The unreadable Eclipse God had betrayed his little sister and stole her karmic authority, keeping the authority of fate to himself!

It was outrageous enough that even the Life Goddess and Twilight God almost had a falling out with him until he calmed them down with his words. Despite backstabbing his own sister, he spared no effort in protecting her after she 'fell'.

Even going as far as to rewrite the Other World so that no one could ever force another into doing sexual things with them. He used it so fate would destroy anyone regardless of their magic or ability.

It was a golden rule that really altered society at its foundational level, allowing Void to worry less as the Fallen Goddess worked her way up back to her godly stature using nothing but a sword in hand.

It was after that she was called the 'Sword Goddess', someone responsible for the faith called the Sword Church. She never forgave Enigma for his actions and always watched the two-faced older brother while watching his actions carefully.

Never would she ever let him step out of line ever again...! That was what she promised herself.

Alex also heard of her 'fall' and didn't blame her for the fact that the 'Immortal Fate' he was given didn't work. Eventually, he made a name for himself as the Calamity Crusher after years of heroism.

That was until more than a thousand years later when he came back to them in order to 'retire'.

"This is all YOUR FAULT!" The sword maiden in a kimono, Void, pointed at Enigma angrily, ready to split him in half for what he had done. The only reason Alex had to go through so much was because of the Eclipse God hogging 'karma'.

Even though he could just as easily alter fate to give Alex more fortune, the 'God' never did so...!

"I had no choice." The half-black-half-white faced Eclipse God with a top hat responded calmly.

"You DID have a choice! You could have given him fortune so that he could finish our task easier."

"That wouldn't have worked."

"Why not?!"

"His fate had already been tangled enough before we met him. It was necessary to not affect him with our the karmic authority unless we wanted his mind to become twisted." He replied quite convincingly.

Enigma wasn't the type to actually say a lie, but more than that: The eyes of the Alex they brought into the world looked nothing like they initially did after he returned to them. They should probably be happy he hadn't truly lost his heart after so long...

"...Now what?" Void sighed as she put down her sword, feeling uncomfortable as she sighed.

"Hey hey, brother, you aren't thinking of using your Apostle, right? Even HE won't be able to do anything to change the traditions those Celestials have set down. He'll just be hunted down like a Daemon." The fickle-natured Chaos wearing a military uniform spoke out to him. He didn't want to get any of their Apostles involved in this 'task'.

"I am of the same opinion as this idiot." A sweet and gentle voice came from the woman wearing wooden slippers and vines beside him. Chaos didn't even bother retorting as Harmony was just naturally against him for no particular reason.

Maybe it had to do with how he kept on winning all the board games and any bet they made together.

It wasn't that he was good, she was a bad player at games and was a sore loser about it afterwards.

"Alex will come back."

"Really?!!" Everyone was surprised as it shouldn't be possible for him to 'divine' that after he left.

"When?" Void asked, yet he only shook his head:

"I believe in him." Was the last thing Enigma spoke before leaving his siblings to their own devices.

They hoped his words will eventually come true...