“I don’t trust you!” Sasha interjected sharply. She glared at the God of Depth. “You gods are always the same. Any disturbance in order and you blame the ‘Misfit’ like it’s all Anos’s fault, but who do you think made the world peaceful in the first place?”
Dilfred listened silently without any change in expression. Sasha continued without waiting for a reply.
“Gods? Order? No, it was Anos! The gods didn’t do a thing. All you do is stand by and watch order take place. When the world was so in conflict, it was breaking apart, the gods left it to neglect. And now you want to blame its ruin on Anos?”
Her eyebrows raised in anger.
“Don’t make me laugh,” she snapped furiously.
“Goddess of Destruction, Abernyu. Your feelings are most reasonable,” Dilfred said, affirming Sasha’s rage. “The Demon King saved you from the hell of destroying the world with your own hands. Thus, you refuse to believe he would take the same path.”
Sasha snarled at Dilfred’s rationale.
“I said you can’t be trusted. It doesn’t matter if the world was at war, or if the people were trapped in an eternal hell—as long as it was according to order, the gods wouldn’t even lift a finger!” she exclaimed.
“Aye. I am a god of the Four Principles, the foundation of all order. But I ask you this, Goddess of Destruction who discarded her order. What is peace?”
Sasha answered immediately. “A smiling world. When everyone in the world can laugh and be happy.”
“That is most reasonable. However, that is peace as defined for mortals, not gods.”
The emotionless words sparked more rage in Sasha’s eyes.
“Calm down, Sasha,” I said, placing a hand on her head. “Different species may not always have the same values. He may have a point here. This man was able to lower his head despite having his divine domain invaded by an enemy. For a god without love or kindness, that’s quite reasonable.”
“Maybe so... But I still don’t like him,” Sasha grumbled.
Hearing me called the cause of ruin had probably triggered her emotions from back when she was Abernyu.
“I appreciate your anger, but let me handle this,” I said in her ear.
Sasha blushed in surprise. “S-Since you insist... I guess I can hear him out...”
She looked down without argument. Or so I thought; she whirled around to point a finger at Dilfred.
“But nothing more!” she emphasized before turning away in a huff.
“Now it’s my turn to ask, God of Depth,” I said. “What is peace to a god?”
“As you may know already, for us, peace is order,” Dilfred replied. “A world where order is not at danger. The peace we desire is a world where the wheels of order spin as they should.”
“Even if the order is cold and freezes the hearts of the people?” Misha asked.
“Aye. Surely you understand this, Goddess of Creation. What change people experience us gods only see as equal in value. There is no difference between life and death, nor joy and sadness.”
Misha looked at the God of Depth with clear pity.
“Hmm. So you’re saying you don’t care about what happens to the humans, demons, spirits, or draconids?” I said.
Dilfred lowered his gaze without answering right away.
“Nay. Allow me to correct the misunderstanding,” he said, looking up at me again. “If I were to make an example easy for mortals to understand, then imagine we are now stage managers for a play. Whether it is a tragedy or a comedy, onstage, all life has the duty of playing their role. Watching the play invokes emotions, thoughts, and inspires philosophy. It would be foolish for a stage manager to discriminate between tragedies and comedies based on their own preference.”
“I see. As long as the play keeps going, nothing else matters,” I said.
“Aye. There are no greater or worse roles. Both tragedies and comedies are equally wonderful. The purpose of the gods is to keep the play going—that is, to maintain the order of the stage. Out of pure coincidence, this results in more tragedies produced than comedies. We have no motives, including the desire to purposefully hurt mortals.”
The God of Depth spoke as though he were explaining the obvious.
“But this isn’t a play. The people of this world are alive. Their pain is real,” Misha said.
“And there are stage managers who become enchanted by the actors, just like you. Not to mention your attempt to stand onstage yourself. Pure insanity,” Dilfred said, dismissing her words. “However, neither pain nor happiness last forever. When the curtain falls on a mortal’s life, their role vanishes. They are assigned a new role for the next stage. What is there to grieve?”
His tone was dead serious; he truly believed, from the bottom of his heart, that there was nothing to grieve.
“Life is meant to cycle. A source is born and gains depth—that is what it means to grow. At the end of that depth is demise. After a source meets its demise, it changes into a new shape. And a new life is born.”
Dilfred looked up at the blue firedew dancing through the sky.
“Mortal life repeats like this for eternity. Changing shape, changing form, changing hearts. The mortals may call it loss, but that transience itself is what gives them life. If they try to use tyranny to avoid that loss, what awaits them is the true end.”
“I understand what the gods call peace now. The reason why you call me a Misfit and try to erase me is because I took out a god in my way first, isn’t it?” I said.
“Aye. You destroyed a god for the sake of giving demons peace. Our attempts to remove the Misfit are to protect the peace of the gods. Our two concepts of peace are incompatible. That is what I believed.”
“Oh?”
Believed, as in past tense?
“You mean there’s a way to achieve both concepts of peace?” I asked.
“Aye. My premise was wrong. As I said just now, the cause of the world’s destruction is you, Anos Voldigoad. Because of the chaotic disorder you possess, our endlessly conflicted world tilted from order towards destruction. If that chaos was removed, the world would possess less destruction, even if the Goddess of Destruction herself were still alive.”
Dilfred folded his hands together, tapping his fingers against the back of his other hand.
“According to Militia, the world was headed for destruction since before my birth. Is that my fault too?” I asked.
“To be precise, it is the fault of the source that became your source. When a source meets its demise, it changes. In this process, multiple sources can combine into one. Your source was originally made of separate, tiny pieces of chaos. Small enough for the gods to overlook. Whether those pieces originated from humans, demons, or magic artifacts is unclear.”
“So when those tiny pieces of chaos met their demise, they just so happened to change into a single source, huh?”
“Aye. And that source is you, the unwanted misfit who disturbs order.”
Multiple small pieces of chaos, trivial on their own, combined into one massive singular source of chaos, and in doing so pushed the world even closer to destruction.
“But you should rejoice. This incompatible peace between humans and gods can be attributed to a single factor,” Dilfred said, slowly pointing at me. “Misfit Anos Voldigoad, this should be your greatest enemy to destroy as well. If your source of destruction is removed from this world, peace will be protected for both of us.”
“It’s an interesting theory. It’d be worth considering if it were true. Do you have any definitive proof?”
Until now, chaos was a concept the gods were wholly ignorant of. It wasn’t something that could be easily spotted with either Magic Eyes or Divine Eyes.
“Chaos cannot be seen, so no proof of it exists. And thus my humble request to you: If you leave Da Qu Kadarte and return to the earth, we will discover the truth.”
“You think the firedew flow returning to normal will prove my source is the chaos?”
“Aye.”
It sounded like an idea was worth testing, but—
“When did you first come up with this theory, Dilfred?” I asked.
“My thinking has spanned eternity, but this current realization is recent—only after I noticed the decrease of firedew flow.”
In other words, when I was in Forslonarleaf. The thing was that Dilfred’s explanation by itself seemed sound, but the timing was rather odd.
“I don’t mind leaving, but I have one condition.”
“Speak.”
“Hand Delsgade and Everastanzetta over first.”
After a brief pause, the God of Depth replied with, “I did not take them. I do not know where they are either.”
“But a god did take them. Your theory makes enough sense to be tested—but only if the firedew isn’t being stolen by another god of Da Qu Kadarte.”
If someone stole the firedew at the same time I entered Forslonarleaf, it would be easy enough to make it seem like I was the one behind the disorder. After all—
“Gods do not disturb order.”
—is what all the gods believed. In short, Dilfred’s theory was built upon the assumption that whoever was disturbing the order of Da Qu Kadarte must have come from outside the Firmament of the Gods.
“Are you sure about that? When hatred awoke in the Goddess of Termination, she tried to destroy herself. There’s no telling what other gods would do the moment they start to really feel,” I said.
Dilfred looked down, lost in his thoughts.
“As soon as I leave this place,” I pointed out, “what’s to stop some god from returning the firedew flow to normal, making it look as if all the chaos can be blamed on the Misfit?”
The God of Depth listened with a look of deep contemplation.
“Perhaps they plan on closing all of the gates after I leave. Then, they can use Delsgade and Everastanzetta for their own motives. I’d wager they’re not up to anything good.”
I started walking towards Dilfred.
“In fact, they might even be out to create more disorder.”
I stopped and now close up, stared into his face.
“Your theory makes sense. So this is why I’m compromising. Find Delsgade and Everastanzetta and give them back. Then I’ll leave quietly.”
The God of Depth closed his eyes. It wasn’t an act of rejection, but of him sinking into his thoughts. As I thought, he was a rather reasonable god.
One more push, then?
But just as I opened my mouth again—
“Can you hear me, Anos? Uh-oh, what should we do if he can’t?”
“This is Zeshia... Zeshia speaking... Awaiting reply from Anos... If you can’t reply, send an SOS!”
A Leaks from Eleonore and Zeshia arrived.
“Hmm. Looks like we’ve got something else to do right now. Use the time to think carefully,” I said to Dilfred, then turned away to reply to the Leaks.