Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Chapter 17: Let’s Get Ready for a Counterattack, Part 2

A few days later.

「We have no chances of victory here.」

「EEEEEEEHHHHH??????!!!!!!!」

Aur was finally able to move around for a bit, and that was the only comment he had for Lilu when she told him about everything that transpired when he was unconscious. Upon hearing such shocking words from her master, Lilu’s eyes opened wide.

「No way! B-But I’ve already told everyone! That 「Aur in not a kind of man who would challenge someone without being absolutely confident in his victory」!」

「Of course I am not such a man. But try to think with your head instead of your pussy for once, will you?」

Aur scorned Lilu the same way a teacher does his overly enthusiastic student, minus the sexual harassment.

「The enemy this time is a God of Heaven. An omnipotent, almighty being. Someone who could go toe to toe with the likes of the Sorcerer King. Not some measly remnant that Melizand manipulated, but the genuine article himself. How can we possibly win against something like that when he bitch-slapped us like it was nothing once already?」

「Uuuuuuu...」

As much as she didn’t want to, Lilu had to nod in agreement with her master’s words.

「But..」

Spoke her next sentence with absolute confidence.

「You never know unless you try. And as long as you will try, the possibility of winning will not be zero.」

And she looked at him with her large, honest eyes. Seeing her unwavering belief in him, Aur could only smile wryly.

「Are you making fun of me?!」

「No, I am not. What I said was not a lie, but at the same time what you’re saying is not wrong either.」

「And by that you mean..?」

Using his mentor impression once again, Aur explains to Lilu who just frowns her eyebrows.

「As we are now we cannot win against him, but that does not mean that all of the roads to victory are blocked for us. If we truly want to win, there is only one thing that we’ll need. Can you guess what that thing is?」

「Uhm.. information?」

Aur shook his head and looked at Lilu with his amber-colored eyes.

「Faith that you can win.」

Without faith in your success, every attempt at trying would be meaningless.

「Faith, huh? In other words, belief, the one thing you’re not good at, Aur.」

After all, he was a man whose life creed was: 「Don’t believe in other people, they will betray you without fail」. So if that was the case, then wouldn’t it be kind of contradictory for him to believe in victory? Thinking like that, Lilu cocked her head to the side and placed her finger on her chin.

「Ah, that’s it!」

To her words which were melodic like a flowing water, Aur smiled quietly.

「So that’s what you’re going to do.」

So that’s how it’s going to be.

「..All right. I understand.」

Lilu quietly whispered to herself.

And thus began the Demon Lord Aur’s journey to challenge the God of Heaven himself.

* * *

But then..

「No can do.」

「Absolutely impossible.」

The Ice Queen Zana and priestess Tena who has the gift of foresight expressed her denial almost in unison.

「No matter what you might try to pull out, it will not change your fate. Staying here is the best possible option for all of you right now.」

「My foresight tells me the same. While going back to Yamato with the help of the Goddess of Fortune is definitely possible, then once you do that, your demise will be as certain as the fact that the sun rises in the east.」

Best Hand and foresight. The bearers of those two abilities told Aur exactly the same thing.

「This time you’re up against the worst enemy possible. He can see everything and make everything possible, that is what it means to be both omnipotent and almighty.」

Tena tells that to Aur with a grave expression.

「If he really is so omnipotent and almighty, then why won’t he come here to finish me off?」

But when Aur asked that question, she couldn’t retort to it in any way.

「An omnipotent and almighty being, capable of destroying me and everything I have created with a mere snap of his fingers. If he wanted, all he has to do is to come here and raze my Dungeon to the ground. But he is not doing so. Why?」

Tena thought about that for a while. To be honest, she wanted to know the answer to that problem as much as Aur, but how can a mere mortal predict what a God is actually thinking? Nevertheless, she tried her best to come up with a possible explanation.

「Right now I can think of three possibilities. First one, he might not deem you worthy of being destroyed by him personally. Second, he might have a reason for keeping you alive. And the third possibility is that maybe he cannot enter your Dungeon.」

Aur came closer to Tena, who counted the possibilities on her fingers.

「I think the third one is the most probable. Whatever the reason behind it might be, he seem s to be unable to physically enter my Dungeon.」

「That some optimistic thinking for someone like you.」

Zana gave Aur a skeptical look.

「Maybe so, but I have a reason to think so. Even though he declared himself to be omnipotent and almighty, he still seems to be missing some kind of power. It wasn’t that long since he awakened after all, so he might not be in his prime yet.」

His power was made of the four lesser Sun Gods.

The Pure White Kukuru, the Goddess of the rising sun and her immortality. She won’t perish no matter what and her power could be infinitely increased.

Golden Igaruk of the Zenith, all-knowing and all-seeing.

Red Atom, the God of the setting sun who could see into the past.

And finally the almighty Black Oohime, the Goddess who’s hidden in the ground, controlling everything and governing its movements.

「Kukuru and Oohime are easy to understand: immortality and almighty. But what about the other two? Igaruk can see everything in the present and Atom in the past, but what about...」

Aur’s gaze inadvertently headed towards Tena.

「Wait, wait, wait! I’ve told you already that my foresight is not as powerful as you think. It definitely can’t be..」

「I’m aware of that. Don’t worry, I’m not accusing you of secretly being the fifth God of the Sun.」

Tena’s foresight is indeed handy, but it has too many drawbacks to be called a godly power. Even if she wanted to, she wouldn’t be able to use her power to correctly predict their enemy’s next move.

But still..

「I’m saying that he still lacks one thing: being truly almighty.」

「... I see. That makes sense.」

Tena nodded, despite not being totally on board with Aur’s line of reasoning.

「There is the sea, but it has it’s Goddess, Tatsuki, so he can’t cross it. There is the boundary, but it has it’s Goddess, Misha, so he can’t travel through it.. is that what you’re trying to say?」

The God of Heaven who once ruled over the continent of Rafanis was the sole absolute existence. In other words, he has obtained the powers of all the other Gods and made them his own. But now, he has yet to obtain the powers of the last two Gods of the continent of Yamato, so he cannot be called truly omnipotent and truly almighty. And since he couldn’t get his hands on Tatsuki’s and Misha’s powers then he is unable to enter their respective domains.

「But that does not change the fact that you still cannot win against him? Even with some elements missing, he is still pretty much invincible.」

Zana’s face got warped with disgust as she was saying that last part.

「Even with my power, I see no way out of this situation. I even left my country and my people to help you.. but there is no way out for us.」

If there was a way, her power, the blessing of the Moon Goddess Marina would have shown it to her already. But no matter how much she or Tena tried, the answer was still the same: the best course of action was to stay locked up in the Dungeon. To put it another way, there is nothing that Zana could do an no way to do it. Try as hard as she might, she can’t break the current situation in their favor.

「So you give up. That’s fine, I won’t scorn you for it.」

「... I’m not giving up. I just don’t want to die in vain like.. like..」

No matter how absolute your power may be, if you are a God you’ll still need your people to have faith in you. It is highly unlikely that all of Himuro’s citizens will be killed, but their lives are undoubtedly going to get more difficult than ever.

「Do you think I will die in vain, just like Sakuya?」

「I.. everything points towards exactly that conclusion.」

Lilu raised her hand to slap Zana across the face, but Aur raised his hand to command her to stop.

「If so, then maybe try stopping me from heading towards my own destruction? I you beg me like the good slave you are, I might even seriously consider it.」

「Why would I ever do that?! I’ve told you already, I will never bow down! Not to you and not to anyone else..!」

Zana shouts in response to Aur’s provocation.

「Yes, of course you won’t.」

Aur whispered triumphantly into her ear.

「I just wanted to hear you say it.」

Of course you did, Lilu thought as she looked at the scene where the Demon Lord left the room while laughing like a madman and Zana continued to throw litanies of curses towards him with her face dyed crimson red.