Sasha was shocked enough to blurt out, “What? How nonsensical.”
“Don’t even start. Look, I know, I know. Talking about who’s the strongest seems so immature, but there’s somethin’ I wanna figure out.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re writing a novel about an invincible summoner.”
“’Course I’m not. I just keep hearin’ people bring up disturbing crap about doom an’ the end an’ whatnot lately. Had a drunk grumblin’ to himself about it at work, too.”
“So you’re wondering what could bring about the end?”
“I figure a princess of one of the eight grand kingdoms has got to know about the mythos. You’d at least know more than me, considering I only go to temple once in a blue moon.”
“You overestimate my knowledge.”
“Then which caused more damage: the fire giants or the hearth goddess’s mistake?”
“Why, the hearth goddess, of course.”
“See, you’ve already got me beat. I know ’bout the Supreme God and Pandora, obviously. But what I wanna know is whether there were any others linked directly with the end of the world.”
Then Cyril chimed in, “Myfila and I told him there weren’t any.” He brought a cut of steak to his mouth. Then he quietly told Sasha our theories until now.
“The prime suspects I would say are the origin elementals, the World Serpent, and also Leviathan—though I suppose someone who couldn’t so much as pierce Pandora’s armor should be struck from the list. Leviathan likely wouldn’t be able to destroy anything like the sun or the planet.”
“What about Pearla, the goddess of love and trickery?” she asked.
“I suppose she could be called the biggest ‘nuisance’ in the mythos, but we figured battle prowess was ultimately most important. The power to directly bring about the end of the world… No matter how smart or sagacious Pearla is, she wouldn’t have any future after being tossed into a wasteland on her own. Pandora, on the other hand, would destroy the wasteland and the rest of the world with it.”
“Do you mean that Pearla commanded Pandora to cause those calamities…?”
“So talking about who could directly cause the world’s destruction on their own or in a small group, there aren’t actually a lot of candidates.”
“You’re right. It really does narrow it down with those conditions.”
The drunk I’d come across at work and Bernhart Hadcheck had both talked about similar ends.
I’d told Cyril and Myfila about the strangeness I’d felt about what he’d said so we could talk about the world ending. Cyril laughed it off, saying it was silly, but since I wouldn’t back down, he ended up humoring me and talked it through.
It wasn’t like I was actually worried the world was gonna end or anything.
It had to be a coincidence anyway. Some sort of fool’s practical joke.
Sasha took a bite of her simmered fish as she thought. Eventually, she swallowed, then finally answered, “I’m in agreement with Cyril and Myfila.”
I didn’t try to argue with that.
“Ah, well. If you say so, Sasha, then it must be true,” I grumbled softly as I forced myself to accept the conclusion.
“However, that’s only true if we limit the discussion to gods and monsters.”
“Yeah?”
“Did you two forget?” she said to Myfila and Cyril. “Do you remember the Supreme God, Zen—who fought Pandora—as being a good god? There was one particular story of his brutal deeds that might come to mind.”
Despite Sasha’s clue, nothing came to mind for me since I barely knew anything about mythology. Besides, weren’t most of the stories dealing with the Supreme God pretty violent?
“Right…the Six Executioners of Metal…”
I’d never heard of whatever Cyril had said just then, so I just pretended to by saying, “Right, the Executioners,” and nodded.
Myfila started to count off on her fingers. “Um…the Grace-Crusher of Iron, the Dawn-Guide of Gold, the Angel-Eater of Silver, the Night-Delusion of Copper, and—”
“The Incantation-Inciter of Lead, and the Dream-Lurker of Salt.”
Wait, I hadn’t heard of any of these before. What was up with that? What the hell were these guys?
They’d probably noticed the confusion on my face. Sasha continued gently and politely as she explained as though giving a sermon at the temple.
“The Executioners were dealt with cleanly even in the mythology, and there are many who dislike the story, so it seems the temple sometimes glosses over them. This is what has been said about them: The Supreme God, Zen, formed the Six Executioners of Metal from the corpse of a perished god to cloak the sky, the land, and the oceans. These were the Grace-Crusher of Iron, the Dawn-Guide of Gold, the Angel-Eater of Silver, the Night-Delusion of Copper, the Incantation-Inciter of Lead, and the Dream-Lurker of Salt. By the evening of the morrow, the Executioners one and all fell to the Legendary Beast of the Last Realm—and they say the perished god was the goddess Yana, who was Zen’s mistress and sacrifice.”
“But wait, didn’t she already go through a ton of terrible stuff?”
“Exactly. That’s exactly why women in particular dislike the story of the Executioners. She gave everything to the man she loved, and in the end, even her own corpse was used by him.”
“So that’s why I had no clue. The temple must’ve been tryin’ to be considerate of the little ol’ ladies around.”
“The Supreme God’s popularity among women is catastrophic enough as it is, after all.”
“But, Sasha, could these Executioners actually destroy the world? ’Specially if they got clobbered by Pandora?”
“They did fight Pandora through an entire night. The other gods who’d banded together were killed with one strike, so I daresay the Executioners put up some fight.”
“Right, right.”
“And the Supreme God also used his lover’s corpse to create them. He wouldn’t have done that believing they had no chance… Though, I may personally just want to believe that.”
“Hmm. So I’m not sure it’s them, but seems like a good lead.”
I kept working on my stir-fry and felt relieved. It wasn’t like Zen’s relics would suddenly make an appearance in this age. Worst case, even if they did by some blunder, it wasn’t like any human could use a god’s weapon or anything.
“Guess I’m just worryin’ too much…,” I said to myself, and that was where our debate about the strongest being in mythology ended. Our mealtime conversation drifted to discussing the summons festival, which was starting ten days from now.
“Even if it’ll give us a chance of winnin’, we’ll only resort to it when we’re in dire straits. If we managed to beat you, Sasha, I’ve got no clue how upset you’d be with us.”
“We still decided that there was value in trying it,” Cyril added.
“We’ll just use all options available to us, same as always.”
“Hold on. What in the world are you three up to this time—?” Sasha looked at us dubiously as we started making insinuations on what was coming.
We all smirked like kids hiding a mischievous secret. And as though we’d timed it perfectly, we all said, “Don’t worry. We aren’t breaking any of the festival’s rules.”