The next thing she knew, Atila was standing face-to-face with an exhausted-looking boy. She was immediately beset by a feeling of unease and confusion. As a dragon, she could tell at a glance that this boy was a god, but why would a god be here? And what could have left him so tired? Why was she standing in the middle of a forest, when moments ago she’d been standing on top of the pyramid?
As Atila reeled with confusion, the boy slowly began to speak.
“Seriously... You owe me a really big thank-you for this one.” He was immediately patronizing.
“Umm...I can tell that you are a god of some description, but besides that, I have no idea what is happening here,” Atila said timidly. A whine at her side seemed to indicate that Dai felt the same way as he trotted over to her.
“Of course you wouldn’t. That makes sense. Do you at least remember you were traveling with Yogiri Takatou and made it to the top of the pyramid?”
“Yes, I remember that much,” she replied. Everything after that was a blur, though. The Great Sage had appeared, and she had the vague feeling she had gone over to his side, but anything beyond that was lost to her.
“So, after that, a hero showed up to attack the Great Sage and you two got killed in the process.”
“Killed?!”
“You think it’s weird that you’re still alive, right? That’s because I just brought you back to life.”
At that, Atila found herself agreeing with the boy. She did very much owe him a great deal of thanks.
“You guys were totally vaporized, but it hadn’t been that long since you died, so I was still able to bring you back. Of course, it took a huge amount of energy to do so.”
That explained the boy’s current state. For a god to be so worn out, he must have expended a tremendous amount of energy. The only question remaining was why he would go to such effort for some random dragon and dog.
“A god can do pretty much anything in the world they rule, even bring the dead back to life, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. This is a special exception. Bringing you back a second time if you die again isn’t part of the deal.”
“What deal might that be? I cannot say I remember making a contract with you...”
“Not with you. It was between me and Takatou. I told him that you guys died, and he asked if I could bring back Dai with my powers as a god. I was afraid to lie to him, so I said it was technically possible, but extremely difficult. And of course, he told me to do it anyway.”
“I suppose I should offer my condolences...” Atila said.
“Anyway, he has a message for you: ‘Please look after Dai.’”
“Ah. If that is all, then sure.” Given the way things had gone, she couldn’t really bring herself to refuse.
“Besides that, you wanted to get along well with humans, right?” the boy asked.
“Yes, I believe we discussed something along those lines.” She and Tomochika had talked about it a bit.
“Dannoura asked me to help you out, so I’ll introduce you to a nice community. It’s a pretty small one, so it should be good for learning how to live alongside humankind.”
Atila absolutely couldn’t refuse an offer like that.
✦ ✦ ✦
The half-demons and vampires never joined Cavern Quest. For the time being, at least, they were capable of protecting themselves from the Seyla that rained from the sky. Once the world was completely overrun, life would get quite difficult, but they had emergency provisions to last them for a while, so they chose to hold out.
As a result, they knew nothing of what had occurred in Cavern Quest and only discovered at some point that the Seyla had been wiped out and peace had returned to the world. The damage wrought would take years to recover from, but that didn’t have much impact on the half-demons. Just as they had before, they would keep their distance from humanity and continue their subsistence lifestyle.
“Hello. My name is Kouryu. I’m the god of this world.”
A few days after the death of the Seyla, a young boy appeared to them. Risley and her family had been eating dinner when he suddenly popped into the room beside them. There was no need to question his identity. Everyone present could recognize his divinity at a glance.
“What business do you have here?” Euphemia asked cautiously. She was fully aware of how fickle and cruel the gods could be.
“I have a message for you from Yogiri Takatou. Do you mind?”
“From Yogiri?” Risley’s heart began to race. Though she had never met him this time around, before the reset, she had had very strong feelings for him.
“I killed Seyla,” Yogiri’s voice resounded around them.
“Wait...that’s it?” Risley asked.
“Yup,” Kouryu replied. “I don’t know everything that happened in this world since he arrived, but that seemed to be the only lingering issue he had to talk about.”
“Where is he now?”
“He went back to his own world.”
“He went home?!”
“And by the way,” Kouryu continued, “if you are thinking of following him, I will do everything in my power to stop you. This world is cutting every tie it has with him. That’s the first law I’m imposing on this new iteration.”
“Ah...I see...” Risley had no response. It was all so sudden, she couldn’t get her thoughts in order.
“Also, this is a bit of a different issue, but could you look after these two for me?” As he said that, a girl and a dog appeared beside him. “These are Atila and Dai. Atila is used to living in the human world, but she hasn’t learned human common sense yet, so I’d like you to teach her.”
“Pleased to meet you!” Atila greeted them as Dai gave a happy bark.
“Very well...” Euphemia seemed confused, but she seemed to understand they weren’t in a position to refuse.
“Okay, see you, then. I’ve still got lots to do.” Kouryu immediately vanished.
“Lady Risley...” Euphemia turned to her with a concerned look.
“I mean...if he says we’re cutting ties with him, there’s not much I can do,” Risley admitted.
“And if Lady Lain never existed in this world, we didn’t have much of a connection to him to begin with.”
“I guess not.”
In truth, Risley’s deep affection for Yogiri had already started to fade. The rest would be up to time to resolve.