Chapter 75: Dungeon? Gaia?
After pulling over a Guild member and whispering a few words to them, Eina took out paper and a pen from the pocket at her chest and began recording Torajirou Shiro's testimony.
"The god sent back to Heaven was actually Soma-sama..."
Since Torajirou Shiro had brought Liliruca to the Guild immediately after the incident happened, the Guild Headquarters had yet to receive that information.
After they spoke for a while, a high-ranking Guild staff member came to Eina's side and whispered something into her ear.
Once she finished speaking, the staff member remained there and waited.
"Torajirou-san, Ouranos-sama has agreed to meet you. Please follow her."
Then Eina looked at Liliruca with some difficulty.
"Her name is Liliruca Arde."
"Then Miss Liliruca will be temporarily kept under Guild supervision."
Even when dealing with a criminal suspect, Eina still used polite language.
Torajirou Shiro's evaluation of the Guild rose slightly.
After nodding to Liliruca, Torajirou Shiro looked at the Guild staff member waiting nearby.
The other party also gestured to him and said,
"Torajirou-san, please follow me."
After that, she led Torajirou Shiro through a doorway near the window and into a deeper hall.
After turning several times through a staff-only corridor, a crimson carpet embroidered with golden thread entered Torajirou Shiro's view.
The carpet stretched all the way into the depths of the passage, toward a dim staircase leading underground.
The Guild staff member brought Torajirou Shiro there, then took her leave.
The conversation from this point onward was not something a staff member like her should hear.
Torajirou Shiro descended the dim staircase.
Ahead of him was a stone hall that gave off a profound sense of history.
Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it an altar.
Large marble slabs covered the floor, and torches in all four corners flickered with crimson flames.
At the very center of the altar stood a massive stone chair, serving as the core of the place.
Upon that divine seat, a burly old god cast his gaze toward Torajirou Shiro from beneath his hood.
"What business do you have here, adventurer? Or should I call you a young god?"
In the lower world, only one person could freely use divine power.
That person was Ouranos.
Every other god who wished to use divine power had to receive his permission.
In his eyes, anyone who wielded divine authority could be called a god.
As for someone like Torajirou Shiro, who could use the power of fate but was still not skilled enough with it, he was no different from a newborn god in Heaven who had yet to learn how to use his own abilities.
In an instant, Torajirou Shiro's muscles tensed.
He was ready to run at any moment.
He had two possibilities in mind.
The first was that the other party could not see through Torajirou Shiro's special nature.
In that case, he would follow the original plan, hide the truth, and probe Ouranos's attitude toward the matter.
The second was that the other party had seen through his special nature with divine power.
If that was the case, then all the plans he had made before were useless.
The following conversation would depend entirely on Ouranos's personality.
And that was the worst possible outcome.
Torajirou Shiro would not blindly trust the Ouranos he knew from mythology.
After all, in mythology, Ouranos represented the sky.
Yet now, he sat in command deep underground.
Just as the atmosphere became tense enough to snap, Ouranos spoke again, dropping another shocking statement.
"All gods descending from Heaven are recorded. A newly born god should not be able to descend to the lower world. Where did you come from?"
His deep, heavy voice shook the air.
Unlike the gods outside who only knew how to eat, drink, and play, perhaps this was the true face of a god.
Overwhelming pressure pressed down on Torajirou Shiro.
"So what? Now that you know all this, what do you want to do?"
Since he had already been exposed, Torajirou Shiro simply asked about his purpose directly.
"I will not ask about your identity or your objective. I can also allow you to make some small moves under the Guild's watch."
Ouranos suddenly changed the direction of the conversation.
"But in exchange, you must subjugate the Black Dragon when Orario's future disaster arrives."
This was the conclusion he had reached after observing Torajirou Shiro.
At the very least, Shiro would not go around slaughtering people in Orario like a madman.
If it had been some other evil god who came here, Ouranos would never have made such a promise.
Even if that god truly had the power to defeat the Black Dragon.
In Orario, the Black Dragon held the title of King of the Sky.
Alongside Behemoth, the King of the Land, and Leviathan, the Ruler of the Sea, it was one of the Three Great Quests.
Behemoth and Leviathan had both been subjugated by Zeus Familia and Hera Familia several years ago.
Now, only the final Black Dragon remained.
"There are plenty of powerful people in Orario right now, aren't there? In a few more years, if they gather together, they might even reach the level of combat power Zeus Familia and Hera Familia had back then."
Torajirou Shiro asked,
"So why go out of your way to commission me?"
Ouranos sighed and shook his head.
"The Dungeon needs new hope. The current Orario cannot defeat the Black Dragon."
His gaze seemed to look toward a much more distant future.
"In a few years, Orario will face a future darker than the Great Feud. And I will die at the Black Dragon's hands."
Ouranos spoke with absolute certainty.
"What do you say? Will you accept this commission?"
Ouranos's heavily wrinkled face was now incredibly solemn.
Because this concerned Orario's safety, he revealed the image of the ruler of the sky that ancient people once held in their minds and negotiated with Torajirou Shiro.
"Since you've put it that way, of course I'll agree. But you'll need to sign a contract with me using divine power."
Even Shiro had not expected things to take such a sudden turn.
When he came to probe the Guild's attitude, he had been seen through completely.
He had already been prepared to grab Liliruca and run.
Yet in the end, he had somehow reached a cooperation agreement instead.
After Ouranos sent someone to call Loki over to sign the contract on Torajirou Shiro's behalf, Torajirou Shiro relaxed slightly.
He lowered his head and began thinking about the Dungeon instead.
A Dungeon that could birth monsters and possessed a will of its own...
Ouranos was certain he would die at the hands of the King of the Sky...
Torajirou Shiro connected the clues in his mind.
Combined with the mythology he knew, a bold hypothesis appeared in his heart.
He raised his head and said to Ouranos,
"Ouranos, when you were in Heaven, did you ever hear the name Gaia?"
Ouranos seemed puzzled as to why Torajirou Shiro would ask such a question.
He shook his head and said,
"There is currently no god by that name. At least, before I descended to the lower world, I had never heard of one."
"I see..."
Why was Ouranos, who represented the sky, able to suppress the Dungeon when the other gods could not?
Why could the Dungeon produce monsters endlessly?
Why would the Dungeon riot whenever divine presence was released inside it?
"Did you discover something?"
If Ouranos had only been somewhat puzzled just now, then now his curiosity had been completely stirred.
Judging from Torajirou Shiro's expression, he had definitely understood something.
But Ouranos had only just promised not to ask about his affairs, so going back on his word now would not be appropriate.
Of course, it would be a different matter if Torajirou Shiro chose to say it himself.
"Nothing."
Torajirou Shiro still did not tell Ouranos what he had discovered.
After all, if he said that the Dungeon might be an incomplete god that had not yet been fully born, it would definitely cause an earthquake across all of Orario.
…
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