Chapter 56: The God Who Protects the World
Uldin was a God-slayer who possessed the Authority to command dragons. His skill lay not only in domesticating and controlling swarms of dragons but also in merging these Divine Beasts into a single, much more powerful entity.
Since commanding too many dragons simultaneously consumed a vast amount of Divine Power, he usually maintained only three dragons available for immediate deployment. When facing gods or other God-slayers, it was difficult to predict what kind of offensive the enemy might launch. To flexibly utilize various Authorities in battle, maintaining a count of three dragons was the most optimal balance.
Now, those three dragons had merged into the Great Dragon beneath his feet, carrying him and the other two God-slayers as they roamed haphazardly through the Astral Realm for a long period. By now, he had fully adapted to moving within this world.
The plan to drag a group of gods and God-slayers into the Astral Realm had not worked out nearly as well as the instigator had hoped. The various gods and God-slayers had entered different faerie domains, only to regroup later through various coincidences.
During the resumed battle, they happened to spot the radiance of the Divine Sword of Salvation. In short, after a series of coincidences, everyone was accounted for. And then, they met a new Faerie King.
Like the masters of other domains, the ruler of this faerie realm was not particularly welcoming toward them. Both the gods and the God-slayers felt it. Upon entering this place, the space they occupied was immediately imprisoned by the King of this world.
Perhaps due to the principle of specialization, Emperor Jun was far more professional in this regard than Aisha. Behind the two gods, the three God-slayers, and the dragon beneath them, dark caverns resembling voids appeared, swallowing them all in one fell swoop.
Having thus expelled the intruders, Emperor Jun did not immediately close the passage to God-knows-where. Instead, he turned his focus directly back to Hikigaya and the King of the End.
"You two may leave as well."
As he spoke, a familiar sense of vertigo dominated Hikigaya's senses. A moment later, he found himself back at the edge of the hills. Not only him—the others had returned as well. The Great Dragon and the two deities appeared in the distance, while the figure of the King of the End manifested atop the hill in front of Hikigaya.
Perhaps Hikigaya should call Him Rama. It was clear that He favored this form. Considering the opponent's identity, Hikigaya felt the setting of "King of the End" was quite fitting.
"Can we continue as quickly as possible?" Prince Rama sighed. He glanced at his teammates in the distance, who had already begun clashing. "Though the power of the Earth Mother Goddess is insufficient, if I do not end all of this, I will be forced to exist for eternity."
"Are you saying that if that Goddess dies, you will disappear?" Hikigaya asked.
"No, but if the essence she used to summon me is exhausted, I believe I will vanish," Prince Rama answered.
In the Vedic period, the Aryans entered India with boundless glory, their power at its zenith. This gave them an optimistic and affirmative attitude toward life. They vigorously promoted the worship of celestial gods, attempting to pave the way to heaven through hymns of praise, hoping their lives after death would remain happy and prosperous.
The indigenous inhabitants of India, however, mainly practiced ancestor worship. As the Aryans gradually integrated into Indian culture—the result of the first major collision in Indian cultural history—the Aryan celestial gods still held the dominant positions in the Vedic pantheon, but the local folk gods also gained a place.
Eventually, the celestial gods and the ancestors stood on equal footing, gradually forming two major divine groups: the Solar Lineage and the Lunar Lineage.
The gods of the Solar Lineage included Surya, Indra, Savitr, Vivasvat, Mitra, Vishnu, the Ashvins, Ushas, the Adityas, and more. The gods of the Lunar Lineage included Shiva, Varuna, Yama, Nirrti, Agni, Rudra, Ganesha, Pushan, and others. Both lineages were objects of worship and sacrifice in Brahmanism, receiving collective devotion.
Near the end of the Vedic period, something very important happened in India: Vishnu was elevated to replace Indra, the King of Gods, as the supreme status in the Solar Lineage. Rudra evolved into Shiva, replacing the important deity Varuna in the Lunar Lineage. Later on, the worship of Vishnu was further replaced by the worship of His avatars, Krishna and Rama.
Prince Rama is Vishnu.
In Indian mythology, He is the Protector of the World, the guardian of gods and humanity. He props up the earth, protects mankind, slays demons, rescues the gods, and reclaims the three worlds. Now, He is the protector of the divine order.
Having answered Hikigaya's question, Rama moved once again. The Great God Vishnu was a man of few words and decisive action.
To Hikigaya's shocked eyes, He began to transform.
Ultimately, Prince Rama disappeared, and what appeared before Hikigaya was a massive Divine Beast in the form of a boar with terrifying tusks. But it was not a mere Divine Beast; like the avatar of Prince Rama, it was one of the ten incarnations of Vishnu. And it really was called Varaha (the Boar).
Functionally, it was very similar to the Authority of a certain someone in another timeline who was supposed to become the seventh God-slayer. Hikigaya realized he had truly never expected to encounter this thing.
After all, ever since he had ruined the event where Kusanagi Godou was to become a God-slayer, he thought he would never see the "Boar" skill again. But now, he saw it.
The giant boar merely gave a slight flick of its hooves, and the hill went flying. In fact, the entire earth went flying.
Vishnu, manifested as the Boar, thrust his long tusks into the ground and heaved. Suddenly, this land fell into the terror of being dominated by a mudslide. Hikigaya was also tossed into the sky.
He reflexively delivered a slash, parting everything that stood in his way, only for his blade to come to an abrupt halt upon the Boar's hide.
This was the first time since Hikigaya had usurped Set's destructive power to shred all things that his attack had failed.