……..

The Fire God Nova is currently incarnated in a cow’s body and living in the surface world.

The one humans call Fire Cow Phalaris.

(Good grief, it has finally gotten silent.)

The cow that was left alone in the dressing room -Nova- remembers the girls that were frolicking just a few moments ago.

Everytime Nova sees that, he couldn’t help but think ‘why are humans so noisy?’.

Humans are probably living beings that can’t live without enjoying the enjoyable moments. When everyone gathers, they have fun.

Today’s live event must fall in that same category.

(They are a wretched living form… Keh.) (Nova)

And so, now that those girls had left from the room, the place was incredibly silent.

At a corner of the room, there’s a mountain of presents from the live audience.

No matter which it was, they were for Phalaris.

After the raid of the Demon Lord Michael the other day, just with Phalaris helping them out on a whim, the humans gave out truly exaggerated gratitude.

(Hmph, they are truly simple people.) (Nova)

Phalaris snorted and looks at the mountain of presents.

Handmade stuffed dolls of Phalaris, letters of gratitude, drawings of Phalaris and the hero facing the Demon Lord, flower bouquets, and collections of autographs.

They were mostly the works of children, so most of the handmade ones were things made with rough skill.

(Giving me a bunch of things that I can’t eat. If you are going to bring something, bring food.) (Nova)

Of course, within the presents, there were the types of food Phalaris likes the most, but the caretakers of Phalaris separated those and have stored it at a different location.

The things that are at the room are the non-comestible type, but even with that, it was still packed up and has become a mountain that rivals the height of Phalaris himself.

But well, Phalaris has gone out of his battle form and it is currently only the size of a calf though.

(…Hmph, they are really a simple bunch. Those fools.) (Nova)

Nova participated in the battle against the Demon Lord out of a whim.

The arrogance of the Demon Lords for going against his will as a God and their plans on ruling the surface world had picked a nerve of Nova, but there was also a part of him that simply wanted to rampage.

And yet, the humans got happy on their own, gave him their gratitude, and treated Phalaris as their friend.

The simpleness in their way of acting was truly amusing in the eyes of a God.

(Hmph.) (Nova)

Nova, who was going ‘like hell I will play along with them’, turned around and headed to his bed. It is at one of the corners of the room, and in terms of position, it would be at the opposite corner of the mountain of presents.

When Phalaris arrives at his bed, he bites onto his blanket and drags it right at the front of the mountain of presents and sleeps on top of the blanket.

(A bunch of guys that can’t take a hint. Hmph.) (Nova)

And so, as he lies down on his blanket, he looks at a doll that was badly made within the mountain of present and snorts again.

***

(Good grief. I can’t continue looking. It is way too pathetic.)

A sudden voice resonates directly into the soul of the Fire God Nova.

The unpleasant tone of that voice immediately blew away the quiet feeling the cow had.

(Coacervate huh.) (Nova)

Nova immediately knew who was the owner of that voice.

Water God Coacervate.

Just like Nova, he is one of the six Gods that created this world.

You could say they are brethren, but Coacervate was the kind of filthy God that you wouldn’t want to accept are of the same kind.

(The brave and resolute Fire God Nova, that was feared in the past for his utmost tyranny, has now turned into a cow and living a pet life. Truly a pathetic sight. I can only think of it as you losing your pride as a God.) (Coacervate)

Nova narrowed his eyes and scanned the dressing room, but he couldn’t find anything that could be Coacervate. But he could tell that there was a presence creeping about the walls.

(…Fearing Entropy and not getting attention from Inflation, you have finally ended up in my place huh. What’s your business? I admit I don’t have anything to do, but even if that’s the case, I don’t have the time to waste on trash like you, you know?) (Nova)

Coacervate self-proclaims as a cunning God, and finds the most joy in scheming.

Since the Genesis era, he has been making Gods and humans dance on the palm of his hands, and with that, he began to boast that ‘I am intelligent’.

Because of that rotten personality, the Water God is thoroughly hated by the other six Gods.

Of course, for the Fire God Nova, his brethren Coacervate was nothing but the target of disgust.

The Gods of Creation have been divided in two factions for a long time: the ‘pro-human side’ and the ‘human subordination side’. Being classified in the ‘human subordination side’ together with Coacervate was a disgrace that Nova couldn’t endure.

(No no, I simply came here to confirm something. About your apostasy, Fire God Nova.) (Coacervate)

(Apostasy?) (Nova)

(‘Humans are the slaves of Gods’, ‘the Gods decide how to use the humans’. Even though we had those things in common, the you lately has been acting in a way unlike you. So I got anxious about whether you would end up being subservient to Entropy and change your doctrine, so I have come personally today to hear your thoughts.) (Coacervate)

His tone was gentle, but the contempt that was behind those words, there’s no way it could be hidden.

That was the peculiar unpleasantness of these God called Coacervate.

• 287: Question and answers of the Fire and Water

(Don’t underestimate this Fire God Nova!!) (Nova)

Even if Nova knew Coacervate was trying to provoke him, he couldn’t not bite.

(I don’t care what happens to the humans! Spreading and burning everything, that’s the destruction and rebirth which is the essence of fire! The battle just now was because the Demon Lords pissed me off more than the humans. It had nothing to do with the humans!) (Nova)

(Hearing that relieves me. As I thought, a blazing ferocity is the characteristic of you, the Fire God. It is great to see that it is still alive in you.) (Coacervate)

A ‘kusukusukusu’ laugh resonated once again mixed with ridicule.

(Hmph…if your business is done, leave. Just listening to your slimy vocal sounds sends disgust down my spine.) (Nova)

(Now now, don’t be like that. We got to see each other after so long. Why don’t we have a small harmless talk?) (Coacervate)

(Don’t want to.) (Nova)

Nova was so against the idea that it showed in his tone.

(Now now, don’t be like that…… Right, how about this talk? About the Demon Lords.) (Coacervate)

With those words on the table, Nova couldn’t simply feign as if he didn’t hear it.

(…Now that I think about it…) (Nova)

Nova slowly raised his cow body.

(There’s such an emergency situation. There’s no way you wouldn’t ride on it —as the self-proclaimed cunning God.) (Nova)

In the first place, the one who proposed the creation of the monsters was none other than Coacervate.

The era moves forward, the civilization develops, and humanity has grown enough to live on their own strength, and with that, they began to pray less and less to their Gods.

That was a serious problem for the Gods.

That’s because in that span of more than a thousand years, the Gods had gotten used to being prayed by humans, so they are unable to maintain their existence without the prayers of humans.

If the prayers continue to stagnate in this rate, the Gods might not even be able to stay as Gods.

In that case, let’s have the humans pray to the Gods again.

For that sake, there’s the need of a problem that would make the humans pray to the Gods ‘please save us’.

That problem is the monsters.

(If monsters attack them and threaten their lives, the humans will once again cling onto Gods, and the humans will send their prayers. You were the one who presented this to the other Gods, Coacervate.) (Nova)

(Yeah, and thanks to that, you were able to secure a set amount of prayer as well, right?) (Coacervate)

It is unpleasant for Nova that it was just as Coacervate says.

It is true that, in those times, Nova looked down on the humans as no more than garbage, so Nova ended up agreeing to the proposition of Coacervate not only once but twice.

Quasar and Mantle also agreed to the proposition of Coacervate with their own plans in mind.

And that’s how the era of a long battle between the four element monsters and the humans began.

This is a story from a hundred years ago.

(And with that as the seed, the Demon Lords were birthed. Seriously, your plans always end up turning the table at some point.) (Nova)

That was the best attempt Nova had to bite against Coacervate.

Monsters were pseudo-life forms without a soul created solely to wring out prayers from humans.

They were birthed as a pure mass of divine power, lacking a soul and a will.

They are completely different from the humans and fauna.

It is plenty enough with the humans being the living beings outside the framework of the Gods.

And within that framework, the monsters were true to the word tools created by the Gods that shouldn’t be able to become more than that.

(But even with that, monsters escaped from the framework of us Gods.) (Nova)

That’s the Demon Lords.

In the span of a hundred years, with a repetition of birth and death of millions of brethrens, the ultimate monsters were born.

They possess divine power that rivals that of Gods and obtained self-awareness that monsters should originally never have.

Everything was outside the expectations of the Gods.

(The other part that pissess me off is that those damn Demon Lords surpass the current strength of us Gods. With the prayers drying up, our strength has decreased quite a lot from our peak times.) (Nova)

Nova challenging Michael alone and being unable to defeat him was proof of this.

The reason why Michael was driven off was because of the combination of powers between Nova and Mirack, and also the people living in Muspelheim; it was the result of changing all the emotions into strength.

(Entropy, Inflation, and Quasar; the bunch that are on the side of humans are doing strenuous efforts. They are desperately searching for methods to have humans go against the Demon Lords.) (Nova)

(Kukuku… It would be nice if such a convenient method actually existed, right?) (Coacervate)

(So Coacervate, what do you plan on doing?) (Nova)

Nova slowly began to understand the reason why Coacervate appeared there.

(Inflation created the system of God Heroes and is trying to use that as a trump card against the Demon Lords. Entropy and Quasar are quite cooperative about it.) (Nova)

(And, does that…go for you too?) (Coacervate)

The unpleasant question of Coacervate made Nova unable to push back his bitterness.

The one who gave birth to the second God Hero in the surface world in order to fight back Michael was none other than Nova himself after all.

(Is this your way of saying…you want to join in on this?) (Nova)

Nova saw that this is the objective of his visit.

The incarnation of Entropy -Kuromiya Haine- has set Coacervate as the one that’s most against them and thinks he won’t cooperate no matter what.

But for Nova, this just looked like a shallow read.

There’s no God as loyal to self-convenience as Coacervate. You could also call it selfish.

If the Demon Lords manage to eradicate humans, there will be no one to pray to Gods, and that would lead to the downfall of the Gods themselves.

Humans can live without Gods, but at this present day, Gods can’t maintain their existence without humans. That’s why, even Coacervate who at glance looks like he doesn’t care about humans at all, would never allow humans to be eradicated by Demon Lords.

(In order to maintain your own existence, you must protect the humans. For the sake of that, you have no choice but to cooperate with Entropy and the others in getting ready the God Heroes.) (Nova)

The reason why he asked this of Nova today must have been for that.

In the past, Nova was in the ‘human subordination’ side and shared the same beliefs as Coacervate. Now, he is in a somewhat close relationship with Entropy and the others.

If Coacervate works out things through Nova, he can still maintain a bit of pride and join Entropy.

Nova thought ‘this is truly Coacervate-like’.

(Of course, Entropy and the others won’t like it, but they are on the brink right now. They can’t reject an increase in allies. If you really want, I don’t mind passing your word to them.) (Nova)

Nova saw this as an opportunity to spite Coacervate, so his tone changed accordingly.

But that wasn’t the case.

Even after a 1,600 years knowing Coacervate, he still couldn’t see through the depths of his mind.

(Kukuku…kukukuku!!) (Coacervate)

(Hm?) (Nova)

(You are truly a stupid God, Nova. Did you think you saw through my plans with just that much?) (Coacervate)

Nova was stunned by this.

Coacervate can’t live without the prayers of humans. That’s why he should have no choice but to enter the side of protecting humans.

(It is true that I didn’t expect the appearance of the Demon Lords either. But there’s pleasant miscalculations. That’s exactly what the Demon Lords are -a pleasant miscalculation for us.) (Coacervate)

(What?!) (Nova)

(The Demon Lords arrogantly call themselves the new rulers of this surface world. And, they hold power worthy of that title. In that case, it should be fine to just give them the surface world. Thus…!) (Coacervate)

Coacervate pauses for a moment.

(The humans are already of no need. If they are going to be eradicated by the Demon Lords anyways, as a God, it doesn’t matter how I recycle them, right? This is survival of the fittest, the natural order; Entropy shouldn’t be able to complain with that. It looks like luck has finally turned to my favor. Hahahaha!) (Coacervate)

(What do you mean by that, Coacervate?! Just answer!!) (Nova)

No matter how many times Nova shouted, the Water God didn’t answer, and while there was a sticky sound coming from the walls, the presence in time disappeared.

Something bad was about to begin.

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