Chapter 46: The Domain of the God
Hikigaya felt that he must have some sort of fate with tour buses.
Just over a week ago, he took a tour bus to Chiba Village, and this time, it was a tour bus again.
However, this time his companion had changed to Seishuin Ena, and the driver had become a sorcerer.
By the way, he had left under the "blessing" of Hikigaya Komachi, who said, "Another date? Good luck, onii-chan!"
And now, Hikigaya was reading the materials brought by Seishuin Ena.
If Hikigaya's understanding of Osiris came from books on Western mythology in this world, then the materials from the Historical Compilation Committee were legitimate research documents. However, the perspective from which they conducted research was completely different from secular mythology studies, even though they borrowed heavily from that domain.
This was only natural — the secular world and the magical society had completely different views on mythology.
To secular scholars, mythology was a primitive expression of ancient people's religious doctrines, while to those in the magical society, it was seen as a ritual — a fusion created to fulfill the needs of both parties. In other words, mythology was something constructed by both humans and gods, serving as the foundation of the divine realm and the gods.
Gods didn't need human faith, but without mythology, there would be no undying gods — only overly powerful beings. According to the committee, these beings were originally powerful, highly intelligent primordial spirits with strong willpower before becoming gods.
The so-called proof was that spirits indeed existed in this world — spirits that were highly connected with nature and could be considered part of the natural laws.
For example, earth spirits, which could be found everywhere — their quantity determined the level of earth-based spiritual energy in an area. Under certain conditions, these spirits could manifest as highly condensed forms of energy. If there truly existed such powerful primordial spirits capable of taking humanoid form, then it was entirely possible that once worshipped by humans and backed by mythology, they would become gods.
At the same time, the committee also believed that just as humans had distinctions between good and evil, these primordial spirits did as well, which is how they eventually became the good and evil gods of myth.
From their perspective, Osiris was likely a god evolved from a fundamentally benevolent primordial spirit.
As for research on Osiris, the document used as reference was the Pyramid Texts of ancient Egypt.
These were one of the three major hieroglyphic carriers left from ancient Egyptian civilization. As the name suggests, they were hieroglyphs carved inside pyramids, consisting of a series of spells related to funerals, rituals, and magic. These could be seen as a large religious compilation from Egypt's Old Kingdom. The other two types were the Coffin Texts from the Middle Kingdom and the Book of the Dead from the New Kingdom, both of which largely derived their content from the Pyramid Texts.
Their research value was undeniable — in the eyes of those in the magical society, they were incredibly precious, because they not only contained spells and rituals from ancient Egypt, but also hymns to gods and fragments of ancient myths. Through them, sorcerers could more confidently deduce the original form of deities.
For Hikigaya, this was also the most valuable knowledge.
He realized that his previous thinking was somewhat mistaken — it was biased to judge Osiris solely based on the concept of divine rank.
It was more appropriate to judge by characteristics — Osiris should be seen as a god who simultaneously symbolized both life and death in nature, and symbolized the continuation of royal power in authority.
Moreover, he wasn't originally a native Egyptian god — he was likely from Syria, possibly a local sun god. His name had meanings like "place of the sun," and another theory said his name came from a word meaning "power" in some ancient land, thus giving him the title "the strong one." Since his wife, Isis, symbolized the personified throne, Osiris was also known as "holder of the throne."
No matter how you looked at it, he wasn't as simple as Hikigaya had initially thought. More precisely, what Hikigaya knew was only the Osiris from the Heliopolitan Ennead pantheon. In that system, Osiris was one of the Great Ennead, and his son — once the great god of Upper Egypt — Horus, was one of the Little Ennead.
But even earlier than that, Osiris had already been a god of ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians worshiped more than two thousand deities, but only around thirty were worshiped nationwide as main gods. Osiris was one of them. His status wasn't the most exalted, but his image was the most stable. Throughout thousands of years of Egyptian history, worship of him never ceased across all social classes — a feat that even supreme gods like Amun and Ra did not achieve.
He had to admit — the insights he gained were indeed substantial.
By the time Hikigaya finished reading and digesting this knowledge, familiar mountains were already visible outside the window.
Compared to last time, the atmosphere here didn't feel very friendly.
There seemed to be something like emotion mixed in.
The parking spot was no longer the one from last time — it had already been swallowed by the forest.
The tour bus could no longer enter Chiba Village.
When Hikigaya got off the bus and looked around, all he could see was forest.
The extent of the forest's expansion in the area was visible at a glance.
The speed was also visible to the naked eye, as Hikigaya watched a new tree rise from the ground not far from him.
This forest gave him the feeling of being very angry — extremely unfriendly and full of hostility.
"It rejects humans and anything related to them," Ena walked up to Hikigaya and asked, "Do you think the god is inside?"
Hikigaya thought that was an unnecessary question.
Sure, godslayers fought gods, but that didn't mean they had built-in radar for locating them, okay?
So he replied, "Do I look like I have an antenna growing from my head? Anyway, what kind of rejection are we talking about?"
Ena rolled her eyes at him and pointed to the side.
It was a car — or at least, it used to be.
Now it looked like it had been through some kind of bondage play — the frame was severely deformed and torn apart. To put it more vividly, it looked like a giant wad of crumpled-up toilet paper.
"Clear enough…" Hikigaya raised an eyebrow, then walked toward the forest.
As soon as he got close, the trees began to change.
They twisted — they came "alive." Their branches writhed, and some even tore their roots from the earth.
It looked like they had really bad tempers...
But Hikigaya was quite happy — it meant they still regarded him as a human. Didn't she say it rejected humans?
Those sorcerers from the committee were always polite on the surface, but clearly didn't see him as a person at all — their eyes gave it away. Hikigaya really hated that.
What part of him didn't look human?
But one thing was certain — this was indeed the domain of a god, because Hikigaya felt it — his body suddenly became excited.
Even more excited than when he encountered Osiris' giant eye — a surge of power gushed endlessly from within him.
Just like that night.