Chapter 13 — I Thought It Was Starting to Get Kind of Warm...Wait, This Isn’t the Time For That!

The Seat of the Divine King was the sacred ground around which the Axis Church was based, functioning as the Church's headquarters. Situated in the capital city of the Kingdom of Manii, it held the reins of the largest and most influential religious sect in the world.

In the past, the Divine King had lived there. After she sacrificed herself to seal away the Dark God Albagarma, she came to be revered as a symbol of the Church, and in the thousand years that followed, the institution continued to expand.

As the name suggested, the icon of the Axis Church was the pole thought to pierce through the planet. The cylindrical buildings of the Axis Church were all modeled after it. At present, the Seat of the Divine King was composed of numerous such cylindrical structures in a complex, interconnected pattern of black and white. Its magnificence was enough to overwhelm and inspire reverence in anyone who looked at it.

At the highest level of the Seat of the Divine King was the office of the Archbishop. In the Divine King's absence, the church was run by a council of ten Archbishops. Normally each resided in the territory they were responsible for, but there was always one present at the Seat of the Divine King itself, with the individual stationed there being regularly rotated out.

The current Archbishop presiding over the capital was a man named Holaris. He stood at the window of his office, looking outside. Being in the second largest building in the capital, he had a free view of the cityscape. There seemed to have been an incident of some sort down below, as a large portion of the streets and buildings had been destroyed, but Holaris was beyond caring about such minor things. After all, he had just learned that humanity's future was at an end. He could feel in his own flesh that the Dark God Mana had been resurrected.

Most of humanity didn't know that the monsters of the Underworld had long ago made it to the outside world. If those beings had truly wanted to destroy the kingdom, it would have been easy. But Holaris's role had been to entertain Mana where she was, locked up far below. For that reason, he had infiltrated the greatest religious organization on the planet, seeking to gain the right to manage entry into his mistress's lair beneath the city.

She couldn't leave on her own, so any change in her status had to be brought in from outside. However, having people rush into the Underworld in a disorganized fashion would be no fun, so rules were needed. To that end, he had allowed people known as Explorers to embark on "adventures" to the world below, presenting them like an offering to her.

But even that would now come to an end. With Mana returned, the Explorers were no longer relevant, and there was no point in him continuing to play his role as Archbishop.

What would Mana do when she reached the surface? As nothing more than a servant of hers, Holaris had no idea what she was planning. But he would faithfully follow any orders he received.

He waited patiently for her appearance.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Umm...I released the seal, but...did anything actually change?"

Having been given authority over the entire Underworld, Hanakawa had destroyed the barrier trapping Mana there. But while the sphere of dull light surrounding the bed in front of him had indeed vanished, Mana had already been able to come and go as she pleased. It didn't seem like his actions had accomplished much.

"My brother gave me strict instructions not to leave. The barrier was a symbol of that. But now that the lock is open, it means my brother is allowing me to leave!"

"I don't understand your logic..."

The brother she spoke of, the Dark God Albagarma, was long dead. It didn't seem to Hanakawa like there was any point in keeping a promise she had made to him, but it seemed she couldn't be satisfied until the seal was formally released. She had been prepared to keep her promise for all eternity, but now that someone who held Albagarma's key had used it in his name, that promise no longer held.

It seemed strange to him, but Hanakawa decided to stop overthinking it, since it was merely the logic she had built up inside her own head.

"W-Well, now that I've released the seal, you'll spare Master Lute, will you not? Would you mind if we departed, then?"

"Yes, please do. Looking at such an ugly, fat person is quite unpleasant, so I recommend you get out before I change my mind."

"Wow...people have always treated me poorly, but that's the first time I've been called 'ugly' to my face. It's kind of depressing." Still, Hanakawa didn't have time to sit around and feel down about it. He had no idea how long Mana's indulgence would last. "N-Now then, Master Lute, let us depart. We've freed Lady Mana, so all that is left is to leave her to rage until Takatou dies. I don't know if that will be all that happens, but no doubt his life is like a candle in a strong wind! So, Heal!"

Hanakawa used his healing magic on Lute, who was still curled up on the ground. But the missing arms didn't reappear. Upon closer inspection, he saw that there was no blood nor any sign of injury. Everything past his companion's elbows was gone, as if that were simply his new normal state.

"Come on, do your best. You want to see Takatou die, right? Aren't you going to get your revenge now?!"

"R-Right. That's right. I came all the way here for that..." Lute rose unsteadily to his feet and began walking alongside Hanakawa.

First, they had to get out of this dark room. Hanakawa glanced back. Though Mana was paying them no attention, they couldn't take their time. But, perhaps because he was taking such care to remain unnoticed, the exit seemed particularly far away.

"What the...is it getting a little hard to walk?" It felt like his feet were bogged down. Although it was hard to tell in the dark, it seemed like they were sinking into the ground. "Eugh, this is kind of gross..."

The feeling under his feet soon became more distinct. The sticky, gel-like sensation was impossible to ignore, but he didn't want to look down.

"Now that her seal has been released, Lady Mana's body is expanding."

"What?! Then, that means the floor..."

"It's just a guess, but she's probably getting ready to give birth to my lord."

"I really don't want to think about it, but that means this place..."

"Is inside Lady Mana, yes."

"I thought it was starting to get kind of warm — wait, this isn't the time for that! We have to hurry!"

But even as Hanakawa tried to rush, their feet were sinking deeper into the floor, making it almost impossible to progress.

"At this rate, even if Lady Mana doesn't intend to harm us, we'll be recognized as foreign objects and eliminated. I'm going to kick you out of here. Make sure you run as fast as you can."

"B-But where should I run?!"

"You have authority over the whole Underworld now, remember? You'll know where the shortcuts are. They should be connected to all of the floors, so once you reach the first floor, getting out will be easy."

"Th-Then we should go together..."

"Impossible. At this rate, we'll only end up dying together. Or what? Are you saying you have the strength to get me out too?"

"I mean, but still..."

"See you."

Without sparing another moment for goodbyes, Lute kicked Hanakawa forward. The Sage candidate flew straight out of the palace, landing on his face outside and sliding across the ground.

"Master Lute!"

Hanakawa immediately picked himself up and spun around. The white palace had turned into a lump of red and black. Now looking like freshly butchered meat or an exposed organ, the structure was no longer able to support its own weight. Before long it had completely collapsed in on itself.

And the destruction didn't stop with the palace. Although slowly, the same transformation was spreading across the entire Underworld. It wouldn't be long before the city and everyone in it was swallowed up.

At this rate, Hanakawa would inevitably find himself consumed by that growing sea of meat. With a shrill scream, he fled for the surface.

◇ ◇ ◇

On the sixth level of the Underworld, in the dining hall of the Sage candidates' fortress, Sion was continuing to explain the situation.

"Of course, ordering you to kill each other right now would be unfair. There are some in this group who could kill everyone instantly, after all. So, let's set the start time to one hour from now. You will not be allowed to attack anyone during that hour. Anyone who breaks the rules will be automatically disqualified. Oh, and I'll disable all of your skills until then as well. We have to keep things fair, don't we?"

After a stunned moment of silence, the students burst into frantic chatter.

"What do you mean, kill each other?! There's no way we'd do that!"

"That's right! Why should we have to do something so horrible?!"

"Yeah, what's the point?!"

Once the first complaint rang out, more quickly followed. As if encouraged by each other's dissent, the students continued to voice their displeasure.

"Naturally, I'll set it up so that you're forced to cooperate. Let's see...how about we separate the event into one-hour blocks? After the first hour, I'll kill everyone who hasn't killed someone else yet. How does that sound?"

"Then you should just die." Seiichi Fukai, the Death God, slowly rose to his feet.

"Oh, that's fine too," Sion replied. "If any of you can manage to kill me, your ordeal will come to an immediate end. That won't increase the number of Sages, of course, but anyone who could kill me would be worth at least two Sages anyway."

"You're not going to say that our Gift won't work on you, are you?" someone else called out.

It was an obvious taunt, but a necessary one. Sion had complete control over all of their Gifts. If she nullified their abilities, they had no way of standing up to her. So they needed to extract some sort of promise from her, to provoke her into fighting on even terms with them.

"I won't, but...I still don't think any of you have a chance against me. Your chances would be much better if you just killed each other."

"Die!" Seiichi unleashed his power. Sion wavered slightly, but that was it.

"It...it didn't do anything! You liar!"

"Oh no, it worked just fine. I could have killed you before you even activated your power, but I thought I'd see what happened if I just let you hit me. I was a bit curious about your skill."

"What the hell?! Why didn't it affect you?!"

"I told you, it worked fine. I did die just a second ago. But all I had to do was come back to life, right?"

"Die! Die, die, die, die, die!" Seiichi used his power over and over, but Sion casually stepped towards him, unperturbed. "What's going on?! How are you still alive?!"

"Ah, I guess I never told you what my power is. To make a long story short, I suppose you could say that I level up automatically on my own. Every millisecond, I level up again. When that happens, my health and magic are restored and all status effects are removed. If I'm dead, it simply brings me back to life."

Seiichi could do nothing but keep telling her to die. He had nothing else in his arsenal.

Unbothered, Sion continued walking towards him. "I suppose that's about the limit of an Instant Death ability," she observed, coming to a stop in front of him. "Now then, should the rest of you really be standing around gawking? I've brought down all of my magical defenses. If you want to kill me, now's your chance. Of course, if you try, I'll fight back. Like this."

She threw a straight punch, too fast for Seiichi to dodge. With a dry snap, his head popped off and flew across the room as the rest of his body dropped to the ground. With Sion's abilities, there was no real need for her to get so close and physically attack him. But a spray of blood and brain matter was the best way to create a feeling of death and despair for the others. It was an easy-to-understand warning.

"Now, let's get the rules straight," she said with a smile, as if killing Seiichi had been nothing special. "Once this explanation is over, you will have one hour until the trial begins. During that period, you are not permitted to attack each other. I will personally kill anyone who breaks this rule. The trial will take place right here on the sixth level of the Underworld, within the walls I'll be setting up. I will kill anyone who goes out of bounds. One hour after the trial starts, I will eliminate anyone who hasn't killed someone else yet. Every hour, the combat zone will shrink. If you are outside the new zone when the boundaries change, you'll die. The last survivor will be the winner and will not be killed. That concludes the explanation."

The Sage candidates immediately fled the dining hall.