Calculated Madness

Regular gods were faced with a particular dilemma once they descended to the Lower World - they were nearly powerless. The only thing extraordinary about the new bodies that they had been granted was their ability to produce Ichor, but except for that, they were wholly mortal vessels.

While they could still make use of their Divinities, because they had almost no mana or Divine Energy to rely on, the influence that they could have on their surroundings was very minimal. Even most of their Arcanums couldn't be manifested here in the Lower World, as the laws of it prohibited their entry. Only a few of them, which were mostly utility-based, were judged not to be too huge a danger by these laws, and therefore free to be used.

Not every god necessarily had an Arcanum that fit these requirements, so a few ended up entirely helpless once they descended. That was all well and good, as their very goal in coming to the Lower World, in numerous cases, was to experience a life quite similar to a mortal one, less fettered by their Divinities. In the end, however, most still ended up getting preferential treatment from the inhabitants of the Lower World, so a truly mortal-like experience was seldom achieved.

Right now, the usually high and mighty Petbe finally got a chance to taste it, and it was anything but pleasant. Due to her weakness, she had been figuratively trampled upon. She was unable to resist her captor and was treated with blatant and unconcealed disrespect. It was absolutely horrible!

During the time when Petbe had been mentally cursing her current state, the Lower World, and - first and foremost - him, Isaac had been primarily focusing on working on his mana cultivation. In recent times, he hadn't had even close to enough time to catch up to his total amount of available mana drops, so he was lagging far behind. Still, it only took him close to an hour to finally break past the 10,000 drops threshold.

He had expected there to be some sort of bottleneck here, which would then raise the grade of his Foundation Establishment by one after he broke through it. But by the time that he got to this point, he breezed past it without encountering any kind of resistance. As he had been somewhat prepared for this to happen, he immediately figured out what had most likely occurred - due to the unusual way in which his Development Ability had ranked up last time, he had basically skipped this bottleneck. Only when it came time for the next one would he be confronted with that familiar pressure yet again. All in all, he had saved himself a bit of discomfort and a few minutes of time. It wasn't impressive by any means, but still better than, well, absolutely nothing.

This entire time, Isaac had been using his system to chat with Ais, to take a closer look at some areas of the map and to inspect the items newly added to his inventory. Thankfully, mana cultivation didn't require almost all of his focus anymore, like it did in the beginning stages when the brain that he had had access to had been far inferior.

'Looks like I picked up something interesting.'

A smirk played across his lips as he finally arrived at one of the latest items to have been added to his collection - a certain dagger that had been hidden underneath the captured goddess' clothes. He had only given it a quick glance before, and after mentally classifying it as a potential danger to the prisoner's life, he had put it away. This time, he gave it a much more thorough examination.

Hilt included, it was around 25 centimeters long. The blade made up about seventy percent of the length. What stood out about it was that it didn't have smooth edges, rather, it had toothed ones - like a saw, just a lot rougher and bigger. There were even barbs on the teeth, which made the dagger's prime purpose obvious - to cause pain. It wouldn't be incapable of taking a life, but it would make the act of killing a lot less efficient than what was usually striven for. Both the blade and the hilt were a dark grey in colour, almost approaching black, and it was unknown which material they or the pitch-black sheath they came with were made out of.

However, the unusual appearance wasn't the reason for Isaac's interest. Rather, it was the Divine Energy that he could feel originating from it. It didn't have any visible form, and only conveyed feelings - hatred, conviction and justice. While the weapon was stored in his inventory, none of this energy could move or interact with this world in any way, so it was perfectly safe to observe. It was unnecessary to take it out as well, because everything that he had stored could be observed via usage of any of his senses at any time of his choosing.

There was one quite likely hypothesis for what this dagger could be - one of Petbe's Arcanums. Although Isaac had so far only had limited contact with them, he was aware that some could take a physical form, like Hel's shroud, for example. The reason as to why he thought it to be his prisoner's was quite simple - which god would give away their Arcanum? He could barely even fathom such a thing happening, especially after taking most deities' personalities into account. Before he could decide on what to do with this surprising gain, Isaac's expression suddenly turned serious and he sat up straight.

'Seems like all the actors for the second show are assembled.'

Far away, at the very edges of the area that his Eyes of Hermes covered, more than ten black robed figures had just passed by his dispersed mana. They were approaching from every direction very quickly, but still cautiously. It would have been impossible to perceive anything amiss had he not created that personal Magic of his.

After making sure that Ryuu, who was observing the situation from afar, was currently being ignored by the approaching enemies, Isaac smiled to himself and jumped to his feet. The sound of his boots hitting the wooden planks caused Petbe to flinch, before shooting a confused but wary glance his way.

"Now that everyone's here, it's time to send you on your way home."

Without further explanations, he pulled her up from the ground, grabbed one of her bound arms and carried her outside of the building like a handbag, right into the middle of the street. His speed was fast enough to make her surroundings seemingly blur a little.

One of the enemies was currently only about ten meters away, while the rest was situated around the inn that he had been staying at in what resembled a circle. All of them were shocked at his unanticipated emergence, as they hadn't expected to be noticed. This brief moment of hesitation had already sealed their fate.

'Damn it, this is because we didn't take out the rat hiding in the distance, isn't it!?'

Manu's expression turned sour. Due to their goal being to rescue their goddess, they had decided to leave everyone else that they met on the way alone. Even though they had been quite sure that the green-cloaked Elf was an ally of Blackshaw, as long as she didn't attempt to hold back their group, then her death could be postponed until after Lady Petbe had been retrieved.

"Go!"

While his Vice-Captain was a bit distracted, Mosi quickly managed to become clear-headed again and to bring Manu's mind back to reality. Right after this word had left Mosi's mouth, however, he frowned deeply. He didn't really want to admit it, but it looked like his worst worries were coming to pass…

'This is wrong, this isn't how it should play out. Don't tell me…!'

Even though he knew what was about to happen, he wasn't fast enough to stop it. It was what he had been most afraid of, and also the one thing that none of them could guard against in the least. That was why they had planned to make it a surprise attack, as that was their only way of preventing this terrible development. In the event that the ambush failed, their only option was to hope for their enemy to be reluctant to cross this final line.

As Mosi was accelerating in Isaac's direction, the calmly smiling man had already pulled out his sword from its sheath and slashed it into Petbe's chest, directly through her heart. From there, he continued forcing it upwards, through the rest of her ribcage, her bountiful assets, her throat, her skull and even her brain. No part of her body was able to offer up any resistance at all.

Usually, Isaac would have preferred a clean and swift decapitation - but he was pressed for time right now. Even after beheading her, her heart would still beat for a few moments, during which she most likely wouldn't yet be recognized as dead. The same could be said for the heart. If it was damaged beyond repair, then the brain would still be capable of working for a while, until the entire body gave out. The easiest way to his goal was to destroy both in quick succession.

Because she was still gagged, Petbe couldn't even scream out in pain, only forced panting and grunting noises could escape her mouth. The agony set in a split second after Isaac's attack, but by then, everything was basically already over. Petbe's screams were only momentary, as almost instantly, she lost the ability to feel any sort of pain. Or the rest of her body.

'This bastard!! He actually dared to kill me!'

It happened almost simultaneously. A pillar of golden light, made up of pure Divine Energy, disintegrated Petbe's body and shot straight into the sky, far further than anyone could follow with their eyes. Isaac had been pushed a couple of steps away, while it forced all of the close spectators to freeze in their tracks, immobilized by its might - by the sheer difference in the two beings' hierarchy of life.

Mosi and Manu were within ten meters of Isaac when this happened, while the one who had previously been closest to him, an Executive, had fallen back to support the two from a distance. Right after the golden energy pillar's appearance, all the black robed attackers felt their various stats fading. Their Falna turned inactive. It happened far too fast to even be called gradual. From a moment to the next, it was like they had been crippled, even though they were still far superior to regular humans. But with more than 95 percent of their power inaccessible due to their unresponsive blessing, they were basically helpless.

With a small smirk, Isaac kept an eye on the pillar using his Eyes of Hermes. At the same time, he suddenly disappeared from the spot and charged at the nearest enemies, the now powerless Manu and Mosi.

They couldn't even see the reaper's scythe approaching. Only after their heads hit the floor did they, very briefly, realize what had happened… before their minds faded into darkness. Less than a minute later, all of the Executives had been slain as well, and Isaac found himself right next to the spot where he had killed Petbe. All of the bodies had been stored away, so as to not allow them to explode. Although the bombs' power would be reduced by a lot due to the opponents' loss of stats, even a regular human that was implanted with them was still dangerous enough - at least for the environment.

By now, the pillar of light had disappeared.

'It lasted for about twenty seconds and only at the very end did her Divine Soul move upwards, at a speed that I couldn't follow at all…'

Deep in thought, Isaac went over the most significant system notifications that had appeared.

[ Achievement Progress: Kill 1000 Level 5 monsters. (1/1000) ]

[ Achievement Progress: Kill 1000 Level 6 monsters. (1/1000) ]

[ You have destroyed a divine lifeform's mortal vessel.

Hidden Path 'Revolutionary' has been unlocked.

Related achievements have been unlocked.

1000 AP rewarded. ]

[ Quest 'Destroy one mortal vessel of a divine lifeform.' completed. 100 AP rewarded. ]

-----

The last time that she had borne witness to a god being returned to Heaven had been quite a few years ago, during one of Orario's darkest eras. This most recent sight made Ryuu recall these memories, causing both anger and sadness to well up inside of her heart. With slightly trembling hands, she finally managed to turn off the recording device that she had been using.

A memory crystal. It was one of the many products that could be made using high-quality magic stones, and it functioned in a similar way to a camera with the ability to replay. By injecting mana into it, it could show whichever scene had been recorded within. Of course, not everyone could produce these, and they were usually worth a pretty penny. Still, most factions in the city had quite a few of them at hand. Finn had given this one to Isaac before he had left, as it was necessary for his plan.

'Why did he want to record all of this?'

No matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn't understand the reasoning behind his decision. For a mortal to kill a god was a crime, no matter how corrupt or 'evil' the deity in question had been. Logically speaking, Isaac should have been doing everything in his power to cover his tracks, so he could potentially get away scot-free. Creating a recording which would undoubtedly spell trouble for him if it got leaked was simply madness. Even before this, he had already let her spread rumours about his kidnapping of Petbe - but they were only word of mouth, after all. Unless undeniable proof could be found, he could still deny any and all claims leveled against him.

Before she could come to any other conclusion, the madman in question had already arrived next to her. With a slight nod at the crystal and a relaxed smile on his face, Isaac snapped the Elf out of her ruminations.

"Thanks a lot for the help, I appreciate it. Can you hand this to Syr when you get back?"

Not waiting for a response, he grabbed the recording device from her hand and stuffed a sealed envelope into it. A moment later, he had already turned around with a wave and disappeared from the spot, leaving the flustered Ryuu all alone.

'He just grabbed my hand, didn't he!?'

Although his action had been very far from actual physical intimacy, and she had been wearing gloves, this already almost crossed Ryuu's bottom line, so it took her a while to calm down enough to finally be able to think clearly again.

Once she did, a sigh escaped her lips.

'Oh well, I'd better get going. It's no use blaming him for his transgression anyway…'

A sharp glint flashed past her eyes for a bit when she looked back at the spot where the goddess had been slain. All around it, the heads of the Black Blade's members were scattered across the floor, scaring off most of the very small number of people that had made it here by now.

-----

For the first time in many years, a deity had fallen in Orario. Due to the vast amount of people who had seen the pillar of light shooting into the sky, this matter couldn't be concealed. This brought a lot of worry and insecurity to parts of the populace that still remembered the old days, when such a sight had been a little more common for a time.

Some people were delighted to seemingly have a more chaotic era approaching, while some felt curious as to who had committed this crime. Some others even started to hatch their own plans to get rid of a few eyesores. Should this particular deity slayer get away with their exploit, then they might just follow in their footsteps.

Of course, the force that was the most affected was the Guild. As the prime lawmaker and law keeper of the city, it had a reputation and duty to uphold. Now that such a monumental event had occurred, it had to do everything in its power to find out who did it, and to swiftly bring them to justice.

Before even an hour had passed, lots of quests had been posted for the adventurers, to investigate what had happened. Rewards had been put up for any information that would lead to an arrest, and for handing over the criminal. By late evening, almost every citizen had already heard about this, as the Guild did their best to loudly announce their peacekeeping plan to the entire city. Even the name of the slain goddess, Petbe, was revealed, so as to make the search for clues easier. With Ouranos in the city, the identity of a departing deity could easily be ascertained.

The area where the goddess had been killed, along with the area that contained her old mansion, was soon swarming with all manner of people. Profit-seekers, self-proclaimed warriors of justice, detectives that wanted to get to the bottom of this... even various gods and goddesses were abound. Most of the influential familias of the city sent some of their people as well. The Loki Familia had a group led by Gareth take part, to keep up appearances.

"The lad's truly mad. What do the young'uns call it these days? A 'madlad'?"

The Dwarf murmured to himself as he surveyed Orario's situation. It had been a long time since this hornet's nest full of adventurers had well and truly been stirred up. Lots of veterans had flooded the streets and this usually deserted part of the city was nearly packed chock full.

-----

"Lord Ouranos, what do you want me to do?"

With their disembodied voice, Fels addressed their god. They truly didn't know how to proceed at this point. Originally, it had been planned for them to slowly approach Isaac, to contact him and to bring him into their fold. But now that the young man had committed a crime of such magnitude, they knew that they weren't qualified to make a decision pertaining to the matter. The foremost protector of the city, Ouranos, had to decide Isaac's fate.

Both Fels and Ouranos had been observing what had happened to Petbe - most of this city was under their constant surveillance, after all. Even though there were multiple blind spots, the area around the Boar's Foot wasn't one of them.

For a while, there was silence, and the elderly god showed an indecipherable expression. He seemed to be deep in thought, contemplating the young man's plans. Finally, he came to a conclusion and a small but hopefully smile stole itself on his face.

"Let us give him a day at most. I am convinced that he will make a decision that is favourable for us. Contact the gods of all the most influential familias once the time is up, and invite them to a meeting. We will decide his fate together."

Unhesitatingly, Fels nodded and faded away into the surrounding darkness.

"It will be done."

Once he was all alone, Ouranos muttered to himself, the amused smile on his lips growing ever brighter.

"I shouldn't be wrong about his intentions. He even looked directly at our means of surveillance a couple of times. I would be extremely surprised if he didn't notice them for what they are. It is refreshing to finally have another promising, intelligent person around."

Minutes later, Ouranos' manner of speech suddenly changed, as if he was talking to someone directly.

"I trust that you won't disappoint me. After this, it will finally be time for us to meet."

-----

Isaac sat on the roof of the Pantheon, just out of sight from anyone on the north-western main street. Next to him, there was a white owl with heterochromatic eyes. One of them was blue while the other one was yellow.

From its beak, he had just heard an unfamiliar, deep male voice - it wasn't hard to guess who it belonged to.

"Sounds good to me. Then I'm off."

With the same relaxed smile that he had been sporting after Petbe's execution, Isaac hopped down from the roof and landed in front of one of the Pantheon's entrances, startling some of the adventurers and the Guild staff that were hurrying about.

Not bothering to pay them much attention, he quickly made his way through the crowd and into the building, until he finally got close to the counter that he had been looking for. A certain Amazoness was sitting there, currently preoccupied with an enormous pile of documents on her desk.

"Hey there, Yolanda. Sorry to interrupt you when you're busy like this."

Noticing someone knocking on the wooden counter in front of her and hearing a familiar voice, the slightly worn-out Amazoness looked up from her workload and soon spied an adventurer that she was responsible for.

A look of surprise flashed past her eyes. Days after she had seen him here following their first meeting, he had announced that he had ranked up. What was he here for this time? It couldn't possibly be for that same reason, right? Yeah, she was definitely just being paranoid.

Smiling to herself for even considering this ridiculous notion, she stood up and returned his greeting.

"Welcome back, Isaac! Ya don't come here often, ya know? As ya dungeon advisor, it would make me happy and my job a lot easier if ya stopped by more frequently, so I can check up on ya progress. Oh well, anyway, what can I do for ya?"

A slightly mischievous smile played across Isaac's lips as he replied, while stretching himself in a relaxed manner.

"I got two matters to report to you. Let's start off with the less important one. As of yesterday, I've become Level 3."

The poor Amazoness first stared blankly at him, then his words suddenly settled in. The smile on her face froze and, slowly but surely, she fell backwards. What stopped her from making a scene were multiple nigh-invisible platforms of condensed air that kept her standing straight involuntarily

Then, finally, a scream escaped her lips.

"Are ya kidding me? AGAIN? Ya're already Level 3!?"

Contrary to what had happened last time, her words didn't grab anyone's attention. It was as if nobody had heard her, but she didn't even notice this - she was only gawking directly at the man in front of her, unable to believe her ears at all. This was more than just an unheard-of record-breaking pace - it was insanity!