I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 426: The Harsh Reality

Celestial Plane, inside Kurohana’s plane.

Whoosh!

As a beautiful woman stepped out of the rift, carrying an intricately crafted longsword in tow, a woman that looked similar to her appeared not long after, nodding as she said to the woman that had just arrived, “Welcome back, Kurohana.”

“It’s not like I’ve been out for a long time, Shirohana,” Kurohana could not help but chuckle as she replied. “If anything, it would be more fitting if you said that to Haihana. Speaking of which, where is she right now?”

“In the galaxy opposite the galaxy she dropped in at first,” Shirohana said in response, only now paying attention to the sword Kurohana had brought with her. “Is that the weapon?”

“The one and only.” Kurohana nodded with a smile, soon telling Shirohana to head out to the Hall of Greater Divinity and inform Nix that she would be able to accompany her in the skirmish pretty soon. Shrugging her shoulders in response to the order, Shirohana soon left the plane, allowing Kurohana and the longsword to be alone.

“So, how does it feel to be back in this place?” Kurohana asked Aurus in a slightly mocking tone.

“Feels like utter shit,” Aurus said in response, anger evident in his tone. “Even more so after knowing that I was used like a puppet all this time.”

“Not just any puppet, but a powerful puppet,” Kurohana corrected Aurus in a slightly joking manner, though that did not change Aurus’s stance in how he viewed her. Naturally, before all of this, he viewed her as the savior that allowed him to live again. Now, all he thought was that she was a bitch who wouldn’t mind making other people look like a fool.

“Try all you want to make me listen, but I won’t,” Aurus told her not long after. “After all, I’m not even sure if this life I’m going to live from now on is a lie as well. Perhaps, even my past life is all a lie to you.”

Hearing Aurus’s words, Kurohana’s eyes could not help but widen a bit from his final statement, though she quickly returned to normal as she had to find a way to make Aurus cooperate with her. After all, the main reason why she chose Aurus as the main material for her weapon was because of the war.

“Not everything is a lie,” she said in a solemn tone, wanting Aurus to understand that she had only influenced a few of the factors in his life in order to arrive at this end. However, rather than take it at face value, Aurus thought that Kurohana was mocking him once again, so he went into a rage, telling her, “Not everything is a lie? Of course, for a god like you, you could totally say that as you play with mortals on the daily. But how about me? An Inanimate that isn’t even worth a fucking speck of sand in this world we live in? Don’t you think there’s a possibility that my whole existence is a lie? The people I’ve met is a lie? The system I’ve received is a lie? Maybe this conversation between us right now is a lie as well?!”

“If not everything is a lie, then prove to me that this isn’t a lie, Kurohana! Show me that my life is not a lie!” he screamed soon after as a faint aura of black and white surrounded him. Seeing this, Kurohana could not help but let out an inward sigh as she quickly threw Aurus into the air before making a few gestures with her hands, muttering, “May the Greater God of Systems grant me the authority to modify the system of the being in front of me.”

Whoosh!

In less than a second, a few gray strands were shot out of her hands, quickly wrapping Aurus as the power he had been accumulating until now had quickly dissipated into thin air, landing on the ground with a hollow clang. As for the gray strands, they returned to Kurohana, forming a small gray ball that seemed to contain something so profound yet intangible.

Hearing nothing from Aurus after he fell from the ground, Kurohana stood in place for a bit before allowing to small gray ball to hover over the orb she usually watched the world of Erudinia from. After that, she went towards Aurus and picked him up, asking him, “Now, are you willing to listen to me?”

Unsurprisingly, Aurus did not respond to her at all. In any case, she would still explain everything that led up to this point to Aurus, lest she wanted to be backstabbed by the weapon she wielded in the climax of war. Letting out a sigh, she then started to explain her circumstances in the most sincere tone Aurus had ever heard so far, inwardly surprising him a bit.

“At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if you ignored my words, but I’ll still speak up. The Celestial Plane is a plane normally only accessible by those at the Divinity level. As a goddess, I have all rights to stay in the Celestial Plane… however, I need to have the minimum amount of strength to truly have the right.”

“Naturally, as a Greater Goddess, I already have that much strength, yet for some reason, I aimed to become stronger. I wanted to stand out more amongst the great number of Greater Gods and Goddesses there were. With that, as a divine blacksmith myself, I thought about the easiest way to achieve that.”

“To forge a masterwork weapon.”

Taking in a quick breath, she continued, “Naturally, as a masterwork weapon, all of the materials I use to make it have to be the very best… even the soul that would be residing it. With that, after a long time of searching for the most compatible being for it, I found you.”

“Now, you might be wondering, ‘Why me?’ Well, let me tell you this. Out of all the beings I’ve come across so far, you’re the one with the purest soul I’ve ever seen. Perhaps that’s the reason why you excelled in that game of yours, utilizing your sharp wits and quick reflexes to the brim to be known by many people as the Shadow Executioner.”

Hearing words related to Infinite Stick Evolution took Aurus by off guard. However, he could not help but soften up a tiny bit after hearing a goddess praise him. But of course, Kurohana wasn’t done.

“And with that, I chose you, allowing to undergo the cycle of reincarnation, being reborn in a world similar to the game you played,” she said. “As there was a limit as to how strong you could be before I would lose control of you once I started crafting the masterwork weapon, I manipulated a bit of your fate to hamper you a bit. In this case, I made you act like a fool at times… sometimes a bit more than usual.”

At this point, Aurus could not help but inwardly frown.

“But just as I thought everything was going to go smoothly, the Celestial Plane has received news that demons have started to infiltrate. In fact, even the world you were in has been infiltrated by the demons. Fortunately, they were far away from you, so I didn’t have to think about it too much.”

“However, as someone who fought against the demons back in the past, I can say for a fact that they have the power to eventually bring the Celestial Plane to its demise. If they were to become victorious, not only would us gods die, the multiple stellar structures scattered throughout this universe would cease to exist as well.”

“Even the world from your past life would not be spared.”

“And thus, I’ve changed my frame of mind into where my masterwork weapon would be turned into a demon-slaying weapon,” she said, letting out a slightly long sigh. “As every second counts in the Celestial Plane where the threat of demons are looming, I could not help but let out an inward sigh of relief once you were finally transformed into a weapon.”

“However, you’re only suitable to be wielded by a mortal, perhaps a Transcendent if one was forced to do so. With that, I’ll have to forge you once more, allowing you to be on par with weapons gods and goddesses would normally wield. However, in the long run, you would eventually surpass them, perhaps even become the strongest weapon in the Celestial Plane. After all, you’re an Evolving Ignition type weapon. From the name itself, you know that you’ll slowly become stronger the more you’re used.”

Staring at the blade that slightly glistened from the bright white of the plane to the intricately crafted hilt that radiated a faint green glow, Kurohana then told Aurus, “Right now, I’m not asking for your forgiveness. I wouldn’t even be surprised if you hate me to the core. All I want is your cooperation as the survival of every being in this universe is at stake.”

After a minute or so of silence between the two, Aurus finally responded, asking her with a tone of slight hesitation, “And… what if everything you’ve said so far is a lie as well?”

“I’d rather just die,” Kurohana said after pondering a bit, prompting Aurus to let out a chuckle out of nowhere, catching the former by surprise.

“To think a goddess would say that they’d rather die… if this is still a lie, then this has got to be the most interesting lie there is.”

“I still think you’re the worst being to ever live in this universe, but since you’re saying it’s for the sake of survival…”

“Then you’re basically giving me no choice but to agree, right?” he said, prompting Kurohana to lightly smile in response. Soon, a solemn aura emanated from her, allowing Aurus to feel the magnanimity that came from a divine blacksmith.

While that was happening, the small gray ball slowly descended, being absorbed by the orb soon after. At the moment, the image on the orb was focused on…

Argentum.