He and It Chapter 62: A God’s Marriage (33)

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Chapter 62: A God’s Marriage (33)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

Roche was about to say something, when his figure was dispersed by ripples of divine power in the air. Sa’gya sank to the surface, and instantly returned to his white sea otter form, then in the space of a breath rose rapidly, and in another breath he was about the size of an island!

However, Sa’gya didn’t stop there. He sank deeper and deeper, and grew bigger and bigger, while the sea monsters in the abyss scurried away and let out terrified cries of grief.

The landscape began to change. The first to rise was the edge of the land at sea level, a more than ten meters high tidal wave of indignation, whistling, flooded the land. Washed away the mountains and forests, and then the inner ring of land. Every second, there was a loud noise of a mountain, breaking up from under the great ground.

All the people were in fear. The demons fled for their lives, and hovered in the dark clouds of the sky, while the people prayed to the Gods of the Sky, the Earth, and the Sea. All to no avail. The land of Kaleva was like a fragile eggshell, which was now about to be slowly pushed and crushed to dust by an external force.

“What’s going on here?” The young neo-gods were equally alarmed. They were running around, gathering with each other, trying to find an answer to the question. “What the hell is going on?!”

“Where’s the Earth Goddess? Where’s the God of the Mountains and Rivers? Where’s the God of the city-states, whoever it is? Is there anyone who can come out and explain?!”

“This is not a problem up there, it’s coming from the ice sea!”

The end of the world might not have such a magnificent sight. The clusters of volcanoes that had been silent for thousands of years of winter erupted one after another. Thick smoke and ash muddied the sky into a gasping, dark red color, and high long tsunamis practically collided with each other while the low-hanging cloud mountains of the firmament inspired successive, hail-like blizzards and heavy rains. The only thing in the sky and the earth were the howling winds, but those wind spirits weren’t there to celebrate, they were there to flee for their lives.

The sun looked down in awe, and the moon was forced to squeeze its way up into the sky from the rising waters, yet neither celestial light could penetrate the thick cloud cover. It was in the midst of that total chaos that He looked down upon a giant. An unrivaled giant, who had placed the continent on his belly as well, and blasted it high out of the sea!

And Ugo, God of the Skies, sighed long and sadly, “Mother Goddess, what is this for!”

–It was Sa’gya. Sa’gya, who could not even be described by the shallow word “gigantic.” Every part of him, every movement, was of a magnificence and vastness beyond the comprehension of mortals, and there was no other sound in the world but the roar of his agony. 

Whether on Earth, or here, sea otters have a habit of picking out their favorite smooth stone, using it as a dining table, and then placing the shells they find on top of it, and lifting the stone to start smashing.

At the moment, the continent of Kaleva was Sa’gya’s “dining table,” and even though it was empty, with nothing on it that he wanted, he only had to lower his arms, and the whole piece of land, like a rootless piece of flotsam, could be smashed into three pieces by him!

“Negotiate, go talk to him!” The Earth Goddess hissed and struggled, as she tried to summon a shred of compassion from Sa’gya. “Lord of the Ice Sea, I beg you for mercy! Have I not placed my demons at your disposal? Have we not kept our word and never disturbed your peace? We do not know what we have done wrong! I beg you for mercy, I beg you!”

“Give him back…” Every word that came out of Sa’gya’s mouth was like a hundred thousand thunders roaring in unison, “Give him back to me!”

“Then give him back!” The Earth Goddess screamed hysterically. “Whoever took him, give him back to Him, give him back to Him right now!”

In the midst of all this chaos, finally a wind spirit who couldn’t bear the agony of the burning, screamed out the answer.

“Lord Roche!” it shouted. “It’s Lord Roche who snatched a human from that island!”

In the Storm God Palace, Yun Chi was still exploring things.

He wondered if it was homesickness. The God Palace was certainly beautiful and elaborate, but after seeing too much of it, it was just that, no matter how amazing the artwork was, it was no match for the simple furnishings of the Strange House, for that was the home he had handpicked and furnished with Sa’gya.

Here, there was no difference between day and night, only the specific moment that lasted long here. At that moment, the sun was setting outside the shrine, and the evening sunlight, like the remnants of a burnt-out fire, hung mournfully over the sky.

According to Yun Chi’s biological clock’s estimation, such a sunset had already lasted for more than seventy-two hours, so at least three days and three nights had passed in the outside world-unless the flow of time in the Divine Palace was different from the outside as well.

Roche had something to go out for, but unfortunately, the retainer he left behind was still faithfully following Yun Chi closely, refusing to relax even one step. It wasn’t as if there were none of the God’s Divine Favorites who had come to trouble him in the past. All of them were shoved straight to the side by Yun Chi, one by one.

“If you don’t want me to be an eyesore here and draw away all of your Lord God’s attention, then point me to a clear path out of here, and we’ll stay out of each other’s way,” Yun Chi squatted down, gazing at the Divine Favorite who had been knocked down by himself, and asked softly, “How about it? My request is very reasonable, right?”

“…Even if you say so in the moment, sooner or later you will change your mind one day,” The Divine Favorite froze for a long time, then spat out that sentence, climbed up and ran away.

I’ll change my mind, my ass.

Yun Chi stared inexplicably at the other party’s rapidly scurrying back, his heart very angry.

There was nothing he could do. Wherever he went, the guards followed behind him. Yun Chi was annoyed, but he couldn’t think of a way to get rid of them.

Along a long corridor of gold and carnelian, Yun Chi turned left and right, and suddenly his vision opened up. A heavy door different from the gorgeous style of the Shrine appeared in front of him.

According to Yun Chi’s eyes, this palace was beautiful, but it was too elaborate and extravagant, which made people tired of looking at it. However, this gate was completely different. The bronze reliefs were ancient, simple and dotted with plain silver, on which the craftsmen, with unparalleled skill, had inscribed the sights and sounds of the world. The winds and spirits had wandered through the forests, mountains, rivers, and the sea, and also through the mundane world of mankind. All the stories of sadness, joy and separation, of life and death, were gathered in the panels of the door to stand the test of time.

Yun Chi couldn’t help but walk over. “What is this place?”

The guard behind him hesitated for a moment, but felt that there was no harm in answering, so he whispered, “This is the hall where the divine calendars are stored.”

Divine Calendar?

Yun Chi was interested.

“I’m going to go in and have a look,” he said. “Let’s get in here, shall we?”

The guard did not answer immediately, so Yun Chi said to himself, “I’ll take it as a yes.”

In order to impress Yun Chi and demonstrate his strength and power, Roche had indeed given orders to allow Yun Chi to enter any corner of the Shrine, so the guards had to fulfill Yun Chi’s wish and open the door for him.

The bronze door made a heavy muffled sound and moved a crack large enough for people to pass through. Yun Chi walked over and saw that the thickness of the door was close to a dozen meters, and if it was suddenly closed, it would be able to crush a line of people walking through it into a thin slice of flesh.

The craftsmanship of the Divine Generation was truly incomparable to human power…

He entered the inner chamber and saw tens of thousands of starry lights that fluttered on candelabra like a dim sea of stars, and illuminated the huge mural of the sky behind them. The frescoes finely depicted the detailed process of Roche’s rule within the realm as the God of Storms. Thousands of painters rose and fell in the clouds, continuing to work around the clock, so much so that the ground close to the mural was splattered with a line of pure gold paint.

When he looked more closely, Yun Chi could actually see himself in what they were painting. Roche, wearing a feathered crown, had snatched a young boy dressed in white with golden seals on his ears from an island with blurred terrain, and riding on a gusty wind. He was taking the spoils of war with him and running to his divine palace…

“This is actually real-time painting?” Yun Chi asked incredulously.

“That’s right. The Divine Calendar records the history of the Gods, so it’s natural to synchronize it with their actions.” Beside him walked a woman with her sleeves rolled up, covered in gold paint and silver dust, with her long hair sharply tied back. “I am Lord Roche’s royal painter. You are His bride, right?”

“Whatever you say. I’m not anyway.” Yun Chi looked around. In Sa’gya’s treasury he had seen murals like this on the walls, but they were of important events, not such a titanic account.

What narcissism, Yun Chi thought.

He shook his head and asked the artist, “This mural, is it only one layer?”

The artist let out a laugh and pointed to the highest part no one could see. “See? What you see is only the last layer of the present. Above it, there are one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine more layers. Lord Roche’s divine calendar is counted precisely from the time of His first birth.”

“And what about the underground,” asked Yun Chi. “What is the basement for?”

The painter said inexplicably, “There is no basement here.”

Yun Chi thought it was funny. “There’s no basement. Then what’s that dark passage?”

He reached out with one hand and pointed to a staircase by the wall that led down.

Following the direction he was pointing, the painter turned her head and looked back at him again in surprise.

“There…There’s nothing there, Lord, but flat ground.”

The guards behind him also nodded their heads neatly, corroborating the painter’s answer.

Yun Chi blushed.

What the hell? Gaslight effect, huh? Trying to manipulate me by denying the truth to make me doubt myself, huh?

I’ve only been here for a few days, ah. You really can’t see that you people here are making it easy, ah!

He sneered as he strode over. The best thing to do when facing this kind of person was to fling the truth in their face…

“–Oh my god!” Yun Chi had just stepped on the stairs, when his feet suddenly went airborne and he tumbled straight down.

From the perspective of the painter and the guards, the floor seemed like a smooth swamp, and as soon as Yun Chi stepped on it, he was instantly engulfed by the swamp.

“The Lord is gone!”

“Someone! Someone quickly! The Lord has suddenly disappeared!”

“Quickly go and report to the Divine Lord! Something has happened to the Lord here in the Divine Calendar!”

Yun Chi didn’t know anything about how the chickens were flying and chaos was going on up there. All he knew was that even though he had the Divine Clothes to protect his body, he still fell from such a high place that his buttocks hurt, and he had to lie down on the ground for quite a while before he could get his strength back.

“Holy shit…” Yun Chi bared his teeth as he climbed to his feet. “What kind of luck is all this, and it just happened to me…”

He looked around and realized that this seemed to be an abandoned secret passage. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but the torches on both sides of the path were still burning brightly, as they illuminated the path to the front.

“Divine Anointing.” He observed the torches. After being with Sa’gya for so long, Yun Chi had become literate. The raw materials used to make the torches were exactly the same as the candle oil used for illumination in the Strange House. The flames lit with that paste would not be extinguished for ten thousand years.

Yun Chi carefully took a torch and shone it around himself.

“Where exactly is this place…?”

He pondered while he walked forward, and after an unknown amount of time, his vision suddenly opened up, and the murals of the Divine Calendar rushed at him as if they were unfolding galleries.

“Mural paintings! There are murals here too.”

Yun Chi raised the torch in his hand high, to reflect the picture in front of him.

The protagonist of the picture was a male god completely different from Roche. He wore a crown and rode the howling winds, looking down high over the sea while the humans bowed in worship on their fishing boats.

“God of Storms, your humble servant beseeches you, grant us the serenity to sail…” Yun Chi strained to recognize the mottled writing. “God of Storms? This one’s a Storm God too, so he’s…Oh.”

Yun Chi responded, “Roche is 4th generation, so that makes you 3rd?”

He proceeded to look back, and it had to be said that the divine calendars of the old gods were pressed against the new ones.

In Yun Chi’s eyes, what was recorded on the frescoes were all unimportant things, but compared to Roche’s two thousand layers of height, the Third Generation’s divine calendar was pitifully small, and it was obvious that it was a short-lived ghost.

Wait. If that’s the case, maybe I can find Sa’gya’s past?

When he thought of that, Yun Chi hurriedly began to search.

“… Found it! It’s this one!”

The Divine Calendar carried the past experiences of the gods with extraordinary, documentary-like precision. After the new god of the third generation descended to be born, it had several disputes with the old god of the second generation. The new gods were bloodthirsty while the old gods were still powerful, but after a long period of friction and conflict, the second generation of old gods, led by Sa’gya, were willing to follow the Mother Goddess Irma’s rules and surrender their divine authority, retiring to their corner of the world.

Here, at last, Yun Chi saw Sa’gya’s complete image in the picture. He looked no different from the statues in the temple, with his white hair, lowered eyelashes, bejeweled shell in hand, and robes that resembled an unending wave.

The first generation of the Sea God, Lunotar, was knocked out of a golden egg by the maiden of creation, and so the god retained his beastly form into the second generation until the third generation of gods was born in natural human form.

Having retreated to the barren islands, Sa’gya’s brothers and sisters then merged their shrines to form a small nation of sea wanderers. Stripped of their divine splendor, their godly finery and elaborate rituals, they changed back to their original appearance. Sea otters of all sizes swarmed the island’s interior, with only Sa’gya still retaining the power of the Sea God, seated on the throne of the Shrine, his brow furrowed with misgivings.

“You cannot keep it forever, Brother.” The God of Wisdom and Virtue – at the moment a white-faced brown sea otter – was smashing shells on his belly with a stone, eating them and admonishing him, “The Mother Goddess’s royal decree must always be obeyed. What is it for you to procrastinate so? It’s not good for you to keep the third generation of the Lord God waiting.”

Young Sa’gya said, “I know, but…”

He looked at the round sea otters rolling around all over the floor, and couldn’t help but sigh deeply.

“I have yet to come to terms with Him, and there is always the power left to protect you,” Sa’gya said. “Delivering the godhood and priesthood too soon would be tantamount to letting it be slaughtered.”

“At the mercy of whom?” The God of Love and Beauty, a sea otter with an elegant body and flawless fur, asked. “The first generation of gods went to accompany the Mother Goddess long ago, and in a little while we too will set sail for the endless void where we will live. This was the case in previous generations, so would the new gods still dare to go against this law?”

“Actually, what Elder Brother said is not unreasonable…”

“Ah, if I had known, I wouldn’t have handed over the priesthood so quickly!”

“You fool. Who told you not to leave anything behind?”

The Goddess of Malice hid behind a pillar and snickered as the temple erupted into a dispute and a noisy fight. Sa’gya pressed the corner of his forehead from a headache and announced, “Alright! In three days, I will discuss this matter with the newborn Sea God. Everyone stop!”

Three days later, Sa’gya left the temple as promised. Before he left, he heavily guarded the island. No one was allowed to leave inside or enter from outside without his permission, and only after making all those preparations did he set out for the new god’s palace.

The sea otters, under the protection of their big brother, played and frolicked to their heart’s content, catching food from the bottom of the sea and enjoying it on the reef. But unbeknownst to them, there had been maliciously prying eyes in the sky, staring scornfully at that place.

Yun Chi moved his torch and saw a multitude of new gods gathered above the clouds, commenting on the scene below.

“So it turns out that the old gods who are so high and mighty and hold themselves to be senior are nothing more than beasts of burden.”

“Even so, there are still a large number of believers who refuse to give up, and vow to follow them…”

“Because of these beasts, our priesthood is still incomplete. Unfortunately, by the time the second-generation Lord God returns the divine power, they’ll be nothing!”

“A second-generation Main God? Haha! Taking off that skin, won’t it be this clumsy look as well, right? Like this, they are only worthy of being prey under my arrows…”

Amidst all the vitriol, only the Goddess of Peace did not interrupt. She saw the foolishness of war in her compatriots and was unable to bear it, but was also unable to defy her brothers and sisters. She turned her cloud without a word, took the God of Fortune’s hand, and quietly withdrew from the gathering.

On the other hand, Sa’gya had made an agreement with the newborn Sea God that he would retain the priesthood sheltering his family, while the new generation Main God swore to the Goose River of Dhanera that he would be friendly with the old gods.

Yun Chi shifted his torch slightly, misplacing his gaze. It was clear that he already knew the ending, and at the moment of final revelation, he was still afraid to look on at the overly vivid truth.

The newborn Sea God took over the power and strength of the old gods, and at that moment, he finally took full control of the Ice Sea, which indirectly weakened the barrier Sa’gya had left behind.

“Thank you so much, my friend! I must keep you here for the feast,” The Sea God said cheerfully. “You will be generously rewarded for your right choice!”

The new gods who had discovered the breach were like blood-thirsty eagles, and the fire of long disagreement and resistance, kindled by contempt, hatred and greed, flowed through their veins. The Goddess of Peace never imagined that she would leave behind the spark called “war” because of her intolerance.

The new gods swarmed down. The God of the Hunt blew the horn of the roundup. The old gods were caught off guard and were brutally slaughtered in the palaces and on the shores they called home, calling out the name Sa’gya. Their death cries spread across the sea, and their golden blood flowed everywhere, turning the water into a haze of despair.

After that battle, the third generation of the new gods finally got what they wanted, as they fully claimed their rightful power and rank, and returned richly laden with flayed skins.

Are gods always perfect and never wrong?

Not so, for humans were created with reference to the gods, and the gods love and hate hundreds of times more than humans do, and the consequences of their mistakes were hundreds of times more severe than those of humans.

At the banquet, Sa’gya sat in a state of anxiety and fear, as if something terrible had happened to him. He tried to leave, but the newborn Sea God stubbornly stopped him, ordering the stunning maids to pour him wine.

Seeing this tragedy and knowing that the three remaining Wind Gods were involved, the West Wind, who roamed the Vault of Heaven, finally couldn’t bear the thought of the formerly powerful Old God ending up in such a miserable state, and snuck into the banquet to break the news to Sa’gya.

Yun Chi let out a shuddering breath.

The Sa’gya on the mural was once again the large white sea otter with round ears and hairy paws that he knew so well, but this time, Sa’gya was not displaying this form to show his cuteness. He crushed the golden cups and overturned the banquet table. His huge figure completely burst open the magnificent undersea God’s Palace. The battle quickly came to a head, and Sa’gya tore apart the new god alive, swallowed him in his belly and tyrannically ending the reign of the third Main God.

He ran wildly back to the island where the sea otters lived, gathered up the bones of his family from the blood mixed with seawater, clutched their skinned bodies to his chest and howled in remorseful mourning.

He had mistakenly believed in the oath of the new god, thinking that it was still the age of the ancient times, and that both men and gods followed the barbaric and pristine rules, and that having promised what they promised, they must do it, even if they drained the last drop of blood from their bodies…But that world had long since passed away, along with its aging gods.

Sa’gya, shedding tears like blood, caught up first with the Hunting God in the clouds, who realized that he was in trouble and fled frantically. He tore his body apart, followed by the God of War and the God of Blood. The remnants of the Spring, Summer, and Autumn Gods fell into the sea. The bones and flesh of the South, East and North Winds were thrown into the volcano. The Famous Gods wailed, and the Nameless Gods begged for mercy…Yun Chi hardly recognized his great sea otter. The sun shrank fearfully into the void. The moon hid silently at the bottom of the sea, and all the stars simultaneously wept and prayed for Sa’gya’s forgiveness and understanding.

No beam of light dared to penetrate such darkness, and no surviving god dared to poke their head out and speak out on behalf of his fellow man. The world was drenched in the blood of the gods. The Winter God escaped death by lying dormant, while Peace and Fortune protected a number of ignorant new gods, trembling in fear and hiding in the Palace of the Gods. The West Wind knew that it had caused great trouble, and also went up into the infinite void to confess its sins to the Mother Goddess.

When she saw that the third generation of gods was about to be slaughtered, Irma finally appeared.

On the mural, the figure of the Maiden of Creation was shown, wearing a golden light on her head. She sighed three times at Sa’gya, who was bloodstained and mad as a demon.

On the first breath she said, “Sa’gya, the souls of mortals are in the care of the earthly Dhanera, but the essence of the gods is something that even I cannot undo. It is an established fact that your kindred cannot be brought back to life, for the concept of ‘death’ is as old and defiant as ‘birth’.”

On the second breath, she said, “The New Gods of the Third Generation did not keep their promises, and therefore, it is only fitting that they too should follow His promises to extinction, and this is permitted by Me, not your culpability!”

On the third breath she said, “Thy kinsmen have passed away, but I can make a little amends for thee. As you have never had a wife, I have made a prophecy for you that one day you will find the love of your life, and that for insurance purposes your beloved will be born from the human race, so that even death shall not separate you.”

Yun Chi, “?”

This speaks of me?

Sa’gya said with dead eyes and a disheartened voice, “Now that the wound has been inflicted, no matter how much compensation is made, it is too late. I will forget this prophecy, and you will forget yours, Mother Goddess. I will retire and await the day of my demise.”

Yun Chi, “???”

Yun Chi was filled with complex emotions, and didn’t know where to begin.

Irma smiled faintly, “You may forget, but even you cannot change an established fact, Sa’gya.”

“This established fact,” Yun Chi murmured involuntarily. “That hardly refers to me, does it?”

On the mural, Irma suddenly turned her face and gazed at Yun Chi with golden eyes.

“No, it’s exactly you, human.”

“Mom!”

When the painted figure suddenly spoke to him, Yun Chi couldn’t help but be shocked, and in his panic, the torch flew out of his hand and banged on the ground.

“You need not be afraid.” Facing Yun Chi, the Creation Maiden revealed her cunning side. “I’ve already shown you the cause and effect. Now, why don’t you go and find the love of your life?”

Yun Chi looked at her dumbfounded.

“That step that no one else can see…So you, you made me fall?”

There was no more reply, and as Irma left, the wallpaper in front of Yun Chi’s eyes withered and faded at a rapid pace, eventually leaving behind only the golden-colored meanderings, the silhouetted lines that shone like sunlight, lines that Yun Chi was uncannily familiar with.

They were the stone wall petroglyphs he had found in the jungles of Honduras, and which had transported him to this world!

But there seemed little time left for him to think; Yun Chi had already heard uncountable tumultuous noises, coming right from above.

“…I don’t know where he is! I don’t know! He’s lost!”

It was Roche’s voice, and who was the one talking to him?

Lost…Were they talking about me?

“You imbecilic fool!” Wrapped in her pure white, flawless fur, the Winter Goddess slapped Roche furiously. “How did I ever get a brother like you…? It’s unbelievable to the core!”

The crown she wore was askew, and her silver-white curls were woefully disheveled as the goddess glared at Roche with an expression that resembled a hideously vicious beast.

“Why did you mess with Him? Who do you think He is? Who do you think you are?!” The Winter Goddess was in a rage. “Where is His human? Where the hell have you been hiding him?”

“I said I don’t know!” Roche gasped violently. “He disappeared from the Divine Calendar Room and I’m looking for him! That False…That old God, I thought He was…”

“What did you think He was?” The Winter Goddess grabbed him by the collar. “He ate almost all the gods of the third generation, biting their heads off. How did the three brothers of the West Wind of the Ice Sea die? How did your predecessor die? You didn’t guess at all?”

“He…He wasn’t…I know that the divine war that erupted caused the second generation gods to die with the third generation gods…” Roche said incoherently. “He is the only Second Generation Old God still alive…”

“Who told you that?” the Winter Goddess hissed. “Where did you get that false information?”

Roche grit his teeth, “All the gods of the fourth generation say so…I’m not the only one who’s heard this! You asked me to look for it, but I’ve already rummaged through the Divine Palace and still haven’t found any trace of that human!”

The Winter Goddess looked at him steadily. The two gods faced each other for a long moment, then she abruptly released her pale, thin hand.

The goddess stepped back and calmed her ragged breathing before she turned her head and smoothed Roche’s collar almost gently.

“Greetings to you as well, my brother,” she said softly. “And may you rest in peace in the winds of Dhanera.”

Roche’s pupils trembled dramatically as the thin ice pick penetrated his heart, and spewed out a sudden shower of golden god’s blood!

Yun Chi gripped his torch tightly and sucked in a breath of cold air in shock.