“Now, Dilfred. It’s as you saw through Limnet just now.”
Beneath the waterfall falling on the dense forest of Nature’s Keep, I turned to the God of Depth, who was still lost in his thoughts.
“This god-killing god, who calls himself Romuen, the God of Culling, has snuck into the Round Garden of Principles. I don’t know who he is, but there should be no denying that the God of Bloom’s divine domain was invaded, and gods were destroyed.”
Dilfred looked this way, but his Divine Eyes were still lost in the depths of his thoughts.
“Or do you still believe all that was my doing somehow?” I asked.
“Nay. Your chaos only affects the order of this world. It isn’t something that directly harms the gods,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Then did my subordinates directly eliminate them?”
“Nay. I watched you and your party travel here from the Divine City of the Sprouting Palace. There was no time for you to destroy the gods in the Celestial Canopy.”
I grinned. “In other words, there is someone else in Da Qu Kadarte that is destroying gods and disturbing order.”
Dilfred folded his hands in thought.
“Couldn’t they be, then, the one stealing the firedew?” I asked.
“I can’t deny the possibility...”
Tapping the back of his left hand with the fingers on his right, the God of Depth sank into his thoughts again.
“But the God of Culling’s existence doesn’t contradict the chaos you possess either,” Dilfred said. “The firedew was either stolen or affected by your source.”
That was reasonable enough. The God of Culling might be killing gods without having anything to do with the firedew.
“Then how about this: I’ll investigate who is stealing the firedew. If I find them, you’ll help me locate Delsgade and Everastanzetta,” I suggested.
If the God of Depth was speaking the truth, the decrease in firedew flow was the most important matter to him. If that could be resolved, he should be willing to cooperate in the search for Delsgade and Everastanzetta—as long as he wasn’t the one who hid them in the first place, that is.
“What if you cannot find the thief?” he asked.
“If I can’t find them, then it means they don’t exist,” I said. “You’ll be proven right and I will leave this place without protest.”
I drew a Zecht circle that outlined the terms just mentioned. Dilfred stared at the circle with his Divine Eyes. Without the Zecht, there would be no other way of guaranteeing I would leave peacefully.
“You have one day,” Dilfred said eventually. “Take any longer and there’s no telling what will happen to Da Qu Kadarte.”
“Deal.”
I added more details to the Zecht, and Dilfred signed it.
“I’m not familiar with the Round Garden. Do you have any idea where to look for the God of Culling?” I asked.
“With your strength, I’d like to search the Withered Desert.”
“You suspect the god there?”
Dilfred nodded. “Specifically, Anahem.”
Sasha tilted her head in question. “Isn’t Anahem the God of Demise that just attacked Eleonore and the others? He did it because he believed Ennessone stole the firedew. Isn’t he protecting the order of the Round Garden, just like you?”
“Aye. But only the Four Principles can interfere and control the firedew. If someone is stealing the firedew, it can only be one of the four of us. And the most suspicious of us is Anahem,” Dilfred said, with his usual logic. The fact he did not hesitate to include himself as a suspect was clear evidence for why he was called the Wise God.
“Hmm. You think he attacked Ennessone to cover up his own crimes?” I said.
Suspecting others before others suspected him—it was a possible theory.
“Why do you suspect him specifically?” Misha asked.
“I’ve sensed an abnormality in the Withered Desert for some time now. In my Eyes, it appears a contaminant has snuck into his divine domain. But Anahem refuses to cooperate in determining the root of the abnormality. He keeps telling me not to meddle.”
Misha nodded. “That’s just Anahem’s personality.”
“Aye. Normally, that would be fine. We don’t interfere with each other’s domains normally. But with the decrease in firedew and the appearance of the God of Culling, we need to search and stare into the abyss of the matter.”
Things would be resolved quickly if the God of Demise really was the God of Culling, but I doubted the answer would be so simple. Anahem’s actions made it seem like he was just asking to be suspected.
“Why couldn’t you identify the contaminant yourself?” I asked. “You should at least be able to look at it, even if you can’t interfere. With your power, Anahem can’t stop you from searching.”
“If I could do that, I wouldn’t need to speculate. I am no match for Anahem—I doubt I could even defeat him here in Nature’s Keep.”
Hmm. He didn’t look that weak to me.
“The Goddess of Birth didn’t seem to have any trouble overwhelming him in the Mother Sea though,” I pointed out.
“Aye. Sources go through a cycle of death and rebirth. That is, they are born, deepen, die, and change. As long as demise is located at the end of deepening, my order will never surpass Anahem’s order.”
That made sense.
“So the Four Principles have their own compatibility.”
“Aye. Put differently, depth outweighs birth, demise overcomes depth, change surpasses demise, and birth exceeds change. This is the unwavering law of Da Qu Kadarte’s order, and of this world.”
The deepening of sources referred to the growth of magic power by diving into the abyss. And what that meant was the ultimate peak of such growth, what waited at the end of deepening, was demise; after all, the stronger one’s magic was, the closer their source approached ruin. And even then, the strongest power couldn’t surpass demise itself. The light of a dying flame can overcome the darkness itself—but there eventually comes a moment when it meets its end.
“The only place and opponent that the God of Depth cannot see into the abyss of,” I summarized. “I can see why he’s your biggest suspect after me.”
Even if Anahem wasn’t the God of Culling, the abnormality in the Withered Desert was still curious. It wouldn’t hurt to investigate it regardless of what it actually was.
“Misha and Sasha, you two head to the Mother Sea and meet up with Eleonore. Anahem might head there before we reach the Withered Desert.”
I looked at Misha, who nodded in understanding.
“Got it,” Sasha replied.
“Let’s get going,” I said to Dilfred. “Which way is the Withered Desert?”
Dilfred pointed to the forest. “Firedew leaves dance into the abyss of the spiral forest. The end of Nature’s Keep is the beginning of the Withered Desert.”
Where he pointed I could see tree leaves moving strangely in the air, as if drawn deeper into the forest—most likely to the center of the spiral.
“Follow me. You must look with your own eyes as you walk through the forest, or you’ll never reach the abyss.”
Dilfred started walking. I lined up beside him.
“Be careful,” Misha said behind us.
I waved a hand in response. “You stay alert too. Da Qu Kadarte is vast. If you need help, I won’t be able to help you quickly like I did with the Goddess of Termination.”
“W-We know! It’ll be fine this time,” Sasha grumbled as we left.
Dilfred and I walked for some time among the trees of Nature’s Keep. It was a strange forest made of different connected worlds; what appeared to be connected paths actually branched off in vastly different directions, making what seemed like the correct path forward change instantly. And what was the actual correct path into the abyss changed with every passing moment.
“The depths are a sequence of branching paths,” Dilfred explained. “The correct way through changes every time. Sometimes, you’ll think you’ve dived deep into the depths, only to notice you’re still in the shallows.”
“Hmm. And that’s the order of Nature’s Keep,” I replied.
“Aye. Only I, the God of Depth, can travel to the depths of the spiral forest without getting lost.”
Dilfred held out an arm, signaling me to stop. I strained my Eyes to see a new world had suddenly connected to the path before us. It probably led somewhere else in the forest. I glanced around at our surroundings, but still couldn’t see a correct path anywhere.
“Sometimes, the shortest path is to remain still.”
After some time, the connected world vanished, and the God of Depth resumed walking. He would walk, stop, and sometimes turn back. And in this way, he selected the correct path down the spiral forest. At the very center of the spiral was a thin puddle that seemed to extend endlessly in all directions, reflecting the white clouds overhead like a mirror.
No, they looked like clouds, but upon closer inspection, they were something else. What was actually reflected in the water mirror were white sand dunes. Firedew leaves carried by the wind fluttered in the reflection of the mirror—and the trees inside the mirror caught on fire. The fire then spread to nearby trees, burning away all their leaves.
In the sand dunes of the reflection, the firedew leaves burned up and became sparks to be carried away by the wind.
“Here is where the forest connects to the Withered Desert. Are you ready?” Dilfred asked.
“Whenever you are.”
Dilfred floated into the air until his body was reflected in the water mirror. Just like the firedew leaves, the Dilfred in the reflection burned up in flames, and the body on this side vanished. A moment later, he stood on the sand dunes and looked at me.
“It doesn’t hurt,” his voice said.
Marveling at the strange sight, I used Fless to float up. At the same time, I sent Misha and Sasha a Leaks.
“I’m about to enter the Withered Desert. You know what to do, right?”
“Search Nature’s Keep while Dilfred is away?” Sasha asked.
“He might have hidden Delsgade and Everastanzetta somewhere in this forest. The decrease in firedew flow could be his doing, and all this God of Culling stuff could be his own deception.”
“But this domain belongs to the God of Depth, right? Won’t he notice if we move around like that?”
“The God of Depth’s Divine Eyes can see deep, but not wide. If he leaves the forest, he won’t be able to see us,” Misha said, answering Sasha’s question.
I reflected my body in the water mirror, speaking to Misha and Sasha as my reflection went up in flames.
“The God of Depth has already left Nature’s Keep. Search all you want.”