Gacha Addict in a Matriarchal World

Chapter 136: The God Of Earth (2)

Whurrr.

A small warmth rising from deep within my body. It is the now familiar sensation of a Power being engraved.

…But this was not the end.

Suddenly, my vision turned black. I was certainly on Lydia’s back, but when I came to my senses, I was standing on the ground.

No, could I say that I was stepping on the ground? Clearly, I was stepping on empty air.

The strange thing was that despite this, I perceived it as ground.

It wasn’t just ground in the sense of a floor. It was solid rock and soft soil. Small pebbles rolled around, and between them, plants grew or insects crawled – that kind of ground.

It was a peculiar sensation that made me perceive it as ground, even though I couldn’t see or touch anything.

The moment I realized this, the sensation expanded and filled me with slight enlightenment.

“Bur, buried alive!!”

I made a fuss for no reason, but nothing changed. It was still dark and cozy here.

…Cozy?

While tilting my head at the suddenly added sensation. Suddenly, a light appeared in the darkened view.

A muscular boy with horns on his head. And a woman as huge as a mountain, looking at him kindly.

I instinctively realized. This is Asterios and the Goddess of Earth.

Asterios embarks on his journey, and the Goddess of Earth watches quietly. And I look down on both of them from above.

It’s a slightly dizzying view, like a frame within a frame. However, it wasn’t uncomfortable.

The story of the boy Asterios in front of me flowed quickly.

The boy was extraordinary from a young age, and as he grew older and became a young man, there was no one in the vicinity who could match him.

However, this was only among ordinary mortals.

His power was not enough to stand against gods and their armies.

In the end, Asterios and his clan began to traverse the continent to escape the endless war.

To the east. To the east. Continuously to the east.

Towards the territory of the God of Earth, where the highest mountain range and the broadest plains of the Pan Continent existed.

What followed were events well known in history.

The hybrid-humans barely managed to reach the territory where the God of Earth resided. They had lost the glorious mountain range, but the vast plains and the underground tunnels beneath them remained intact. ?

The Goddess of Earth and her followers willingly accepted the beastmen who refused to partake in the war.

However, the War of the Fallen Gods did not end, and Asterios volunteered to become the guardian of the burrow.

The Goddess of Earth, who had quietly watched his pilgrimage from before, willingly shared her power with him.

Now collapsed, she planted the seeds of the mountain range she had reserved for Asterios, so they could be reestablished at any time.

Thanks to this, he could wield power akin to a small mountain.

With a single stomp, the ground cracked, and his strength, which could support even the weight of a mountain, shattered anything in its path. His body was like a rock, unbreakable and tireless.

“A true monster indeed…”

An overwhelmingly powerful being, incomparable to the Minotauros I had faced.

But he was not an eternal being.

His mortal body gradually grew old, and now he approaches the brink of death.

The Goddess of Earth was still gazing at Asterios.

Though she never took her eyes off Asterios, there were times when she had to focus on other things.

It was during battles with other gods.

The one bearing the burning halo. The god who seemed to be the God of the Sun swallowed the God of Fire, evaporated the God of Water, and now even aimed at the God of Earth.

“This is why the world is doomed.”

It was an unbelievably absurd battle.

Nuclear explosions happened every second before my eyes, and the gargantuan, so large that it warped the sense of perspective, silently endured it while attempting to counterattack.

Seeing what I only knew in my head with my own eyes now made me question it even more.

“How did mortals survive such a battle?”

It’s a wonder that the Pan Continent still retains its shape, considering the people crawling within it are still alive.

A clash of such powerful forces that raises such doubts.

The answer to this question was soon revealed.

A battle so fierce that it altered the terrain. Yet, amidst the chaos, the God of Earth and the God of the Sun continued to protect their followers.

Indeed. Absolute devotion to one’s god. That is the only path for mortals to survive.

If their gods were a bit more selfish, if the opposing gods were a bit more ruthless. Or…if one side eventually lost and its followers were left defenseless.

In that case, over 90% of them would face inevitable death.

It was such an overwhelming, literally mythological battle, but surely, everything couldn’t just be left to the gods, could it?

The power of a god can be innate, but it can also be accumulated through faith. In other words, if you kill all of a god’s followers, the god’s power weakens accordingly.

Even among mortals, battles occur based on this simple logic.

Those who follow the God of the Sun, regardless of race, wear golden halos behind their heads and charge while spewing flames from their weapons or body parts.

And opposing them are the legions of Earth spirits who can be resurrected almost immediately as long as they have enough energy.

The Fallen Gnome I faced wouldn’t have even been a lackey for this legion.

Since I watched it through a video, an exact comparison is impossible, but the spirits that seemed to be leaders had blows as powerful as the high-level magic shown by Benny or Morgana.

A scene of insane power inflation where such strength is displayed with basic attacks.

However, overall, the Earth spirits were at a disadvantage.

It was natural since the enemy had thrown all their combatants into the fray, while only the Earth spirits, who could revive upon death, were gathered here.

Eventually, during the cycles of the spirits dying and reviving, a considerable number of the Sun’s forces crawled into the burrows.

Of course, no matter how many or how strong they were, they all fell into traps or were crushed by Asterios. In the burrows, he was invincible, no matter how old he got.

At the moment when I held my breath, watching a war scene more grandiose than any movie I’d seen on Earth, a sudden wave of ominous color, looking both purple and bloody, swept across the battlefield.

Those mortals who were struck directly began to go mad and mutate in order of their weakness.

“…Madness, isn’t it.”

All beings on the battlefield, except for those blessed beyond a certain level or possessing exceptional mental fortitude, transform into monsters.

Spirits fall into corruption, and humans turn into demons with purple skin and distorted extremities.

The God of the Sun, taken aback by this, withdrew his forces to regroup, while the Goddess of Earth, though equally shocked, reverted the corrupted spirits back to earth.

Thus, the battle somehow ended, and the Goddess of Earth turned her gaze back to the burrow. Just as she was about to commend her champion and celebrate their survival as usual…

The Goddess of Earth saw it. Her champion had become a horrific monster, destroying everything they had fought to protect.

At that moment, Asterios was now the Minotauros that I know.

He had received the Goddess of Earth’s strongest blessing without succumbing to madness.

Horns twisted like those of a demon. Breath mixed with the dust of decay. With each step, a building crumbled, and countless people died, their blood lapping at his ankles.

The terrified Goddess of Earth hastily pulled the seeds of the mountain range from Asterios’s body and lifted the survivors to the surface.

Thus, Asterios was sealed in the underground city, leaving only the labyrinth as a passage. Or rather, Minotauros.

Though I didn’t expect to see it in such detail, this much of the story is well known. Why show this again…?

“Ah.”

A lofty view overlooking everything in the world. Thanks to it, I could see the Goddess of Earth, whose image was not recorded in any history book.

She was crying.

As if the world had collapsed. As if her heart had been torn out… Or like a woman who had lost her beloved.

It was only then that I realized everything. The one showing me this scene was not the already dead Goddess of Earth.

Using her power as a medium, the Goddess of Love, who had only observed everything in the War of the Fallen Gods, was delivering a message to me.

“…What do you want from me?”

A single word spoken, clearly conscious of the Goddess of Love. Simultaneously, the past from a thousand years ago disappeared, and the curtain named darkness also lifted, revealing the scene after the ending credits.

The first thing that came into view was a shabby bed. Inside it, a man and a woman were lying peacefully as if they were asleep.

It was not Minotauros, but Asterios in his boyhood, and the small woman was tightly embraced in his arms.

Lying down, she was a mountain range; standing up, she could peek beyond the clouds. But now, the Goddess of Earth had a figure even smaller than that of an average woman.

Was the name of the comprehensive blessing Asterios received called the Seed of the Mountain Range?

Perhaps. Perhaps indeed. The Goddess of Earth might have wanted Asterios to grow as large as a mountain range.

So that he could become her equal. Thus, not as a god and its follower, but as a man and a woman. To become eternal companions.

Contrary to expectations, Asterios ended up becoming just a slightly larger mortal and ultimately a crazed monster.

Yet now, here they are. Lying side by side in a perfectly fitting bed.

It was possible because the Goddess of Earth had faced death, lost all her power, and shriveled.

However, in any case, their eyes finally met at the same level.

Now, the Goddess of Earth no longer needs to just watch Asterios sharing love with someone else.

Asterios also has no reason not to accept the Goddess of Earth.

As if to assert this, the two were tightly embracing each other at the very end.

The moment I took in the sight of the two looking like lovers, I just knew.

If everything in the Labyrinth is merely a shadow cast by the flames of space-time on the remains of the gods.

The two before my eyes must be the ‘reality’ beyond such flames, the source on the second floor.

The Goddess of Love, who manipulates the space-time of the Labyrinth, pushed me inside the stage set.

“…Why?”

The moment I voiced the question I had at the beginning once more.

From the empty void, a sudden pale pink light descends and falls atop the Goddess of Earth’s head.

She looks like a newlywed bride veiled in white.

“Is this what has been bothering you?”

As the Goddess of Love, it must have troubled her that their love ended in tragedy.

But lacking the strength to intervene directly, is she asking me for help?

I am neither a priest nor someone significant enough to officiate, but perhaps just this once, it might be okay.

Focusing the remaining divine power into my fingers, I made the sign of the cross.

“May your love be blessed, unwavering like the towering mountain ranges.”

Paaa-!

Was this the correct answer? Unlike when I was dragged into this space, the surroundings started to turn white, and my entire sense of perspective began to blur.

My vision grew hazy. Beyond it, a sepia light started to radiate.

The light emitted from the point where the Goddess of Earth and Asterios touched. This soon became a small seed that flowed into me.

And.

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“Gasp!”

I woke up on Lydia’s back.

Along with the Seed of the Mountain Range firmly rooted in my soul.