NOVEL NEXT Ch. 89
Chapter 89. God of the Dead
The meeting of two gods ruling the afterlife.
Though their worlds differed, their creations could only watch this majestic moment in hushed awe.
This suffocating pressure… How long has it been?
Even I, who’d faced countless powerful foes, struggled to stand under their aura.
Ironically, these overwhelming beings were focused solely on each other.
“It’s been a while, Ragnad.”
“Brother, have you been well?”
A short, ordinary greeting, yet it carried millennia of emotions.
Their subtle wariness never eased.
Once a single entity, they now stood as gods of opposing essences—order and chaos.
Close yet distant, bound beyond brotherhood, they instinctively guarded against each other.
“It’s rare for you to come up from below. What, here to fight me?”
“Don’t say such hurtful things. I’m just here to take one soul.”
Ragnad’s flaming sword pointed at Ernst.
Hel sighed, shaking his head.
“What a troublemaker. Why didn’t I catch him sooner?”
He turned to me and said, “Did you have to drag him into this?”
I hesitated briefly before nodding.
“I had no choice. To find Ernst, I needed his daughter’s soul.”
“Fair enough. I’m not blaming you. It’s my fault for not managing this world properly.”
As Hel reproached himself, Nidra, with a gaping hole in his body, staggered and flew up.
“My God! Please punish me! This is all my fault…”
But Hel looked at him calmly and gestured quietly.
“Enough. Tend to your wounds.”
Hel stepped forward heavily.
His aura pressed down on the surrounding air.
“If it’s a deal, I’ll acknowledge it—wanting to meet Ernst’s soul. But I go first.”
Ragnad smirked coldly, resting his sword on his shoulder.
“Nonsense. I go first. I arrived first, after all.”
“Must we spill blood here? Over a mere human soul?”
As he spoke, the Black Sea swirled around Hel, rippling.
“You know well. I’m your destructive side. What do you think I’d do if you talk of bloodshed?”
Ragnad let out a short, rough laugh.
Hel’s expression grew grimmer.
“Fine, well said. I am you, and you are me. If you oppose me, I won’t back down.”
“Agreed. So I’ll take that mage’s soul.”
As Ragnad finished, thousands of Sludges rose from the Black Sea.
They climbed over each other, forming a ladder to the warship.
“…”
Hel’s eyes flashed as he watched silently.
The ashen sky split, and golden beams rained down like a storm.
Zzt, zzt, zzt!
The beams pierced the Sludge horde, black ooze splattering everywhere.
“Raise protective spells!”
“We’ll die at this rate!”
The battlefield descended into chaos with golden light and relentless Sludges.
The humans caught in between raised barriers to barely protect themselves.
“Eek!”
“Veroni!”
In the chaos, Ernst saw his daughter’s soul and bit his lip desperately.
He cast an amplification spell, shouting loud enough for the gods to hear.
“Please stop! I’ll go! I won’t run!”
His cry echoed, but the gods remained locked in a silent standoff.
After a brief silence, Ragnad spoke first.
“Enough.”
With that single word, the Sludge horde sank quietly into the sea, as if it were a lie.
The golden beam storm ceased abruptly.
“Fighting you is welcome, but doing it over a human soul is too petty a cause.”
Ragnad glanced at Ernst and continued.
“You meet him first. Then send him to me. He’s disrupted this place’s order, so you won’t let him off easy.”
Hel nodded in agreement.
“Fine. I’ll wait. When it’s done, send the mage and his daughter’s soul.”
Ragnad, needing no further words, slowly descended.
Landing, he approached me, his sharp gaze piercing.
“Did you orchestrate this? Making Hel and me meet?”
“No way. How could a human manipulate gods?”
Ragnad snorted derisively.
“Hmph, cunning bastard. Well, that’s why I like you.”
Before he finished, a black vortex enveloped him.
It shimmered and vanished with him.
Thus, the tense standoff of gods ended unexpectedly peacefully.
“Evan, let’s talk for a moment.”
Of course, my talk with Hel was just beginning.
***
Leaving behind the human he’d sought for centuries, Hel began speaking with me first.
This matter was significant enough for even Hel to address.
“Honestly, I didn’t expect you to involve Ragnad.”
“As I said, I needed Ernst’s daughter’s soul to find him. And since she was in Ragnad’s hands, I had no choice.”
“…Can’t blame you. I asked you to find Ernst. And you did so definitively.”
He’d expected me to use any means necessary.
There was no reason to fault my methods now.
“But it was close. You know you nearly triggered an apocalypse?”
“If we’d left Ernst alone, an even bigger disaster would’ve happened. He was determined to contact his daughter’s soul.”
“What a mad human. Crazier than anyone I’ve seen.”
Hel hadn’t imagined Ernst would lead to a confrontation with Ragnad.
Perhaps that’s why he seemed eager to deal with Ernst quickly.
At that moment, I cautiously spoke.
“Um…”
“Hm? Don’t worry. You fulfilled my request, so I’ll reward you. I’ll send you back to your world.”
I shook my head.
“Not that. I’d like some time.”
“For what?”
“I have something to discuss with Ernst.”
To my request, Hel responded, “Alright, I’ll give you one day. Finish your business within that time.”
“That’s enough.”
While Hel and I spoke,
Ernst was surrounded by many.
All had some connection to the name Ernst, big or small.
Chief among them was Gaiard, burning with rage.
He approached Ernst without hiding his killing intent.
Ernst knelt before him, pleading earnestly.
“I don’t have much time. Please, before the god changes his mind, let me have time with my daughter. I beg you.”
Gaiard’s eyes still blazed with hatred.
He gritted his teeth, ignoring Ernst’s words, and reached for his throat.
“Why should I care about your situation…”
Just then, Lilith swiftly cast a magical chain, binding Gaiard’s arm.
Other mages joined, restraining him.
“Let go!”
“Ernst, we can’t hold him long!”
Gaiard resisted, grinding his teeth, but the mages’ combined effort forced him to keep his distance.
Thus, at last, Ernst faced the daughter he’d sought for so long.
“Veroni…”
His voice trembled, on the verge of tears.
But his daughter, Veroni, showed no emotion.
Her hollow eyes gazed at Ernst as if the name were unfamiliar.
“It’s been a while.”
Her voice was cold.
“My daughter…”
Ernst reached out with trembling hands to embrace her, but grasped only air.
As a soul,
he couldn’t hold her.
Realizing this, his heart shattered, and the tears he’d held back spilled.
“Ugh…”
“Why cry now? I’ve been dead for centuries.”
Her words stabbed his heart like a dagger.
“It’s all my fault. My greed caused this tragedy… It’s all my fault…”
Tears falling, he carefully drew a rune on the deck where she stood.
His hands shook, and each tear that fell blurred the rune.
The mages tensed, wondering if he was up to something, but Lilith watched quietly.
That’s an 8th-circle Soul Bind Release… Why use it on his daughter?
A high-level spell that could undo magic binding a soul.
As the rune completed, a faint light shimmered and vanished.
No visible change occurred, but a small miracle bloomed.
“Daddy… It’s Daddy!”
Life returned to Veroni’s eyes.
The cold, empty gaze vanished, replaced by a childlike, radiant smile.
Her warm voice pierced Ernst’s heart.
“I’m so sorry… Because of my greed… It’s all my fault for making you this way…”
“Daddy’s crying.”
His tears seemed to release centuries of guilt and love.
The mages watched in disbelief, and Romen, realizing something, sighed deeply.
“Ah! No way! This… foolish human!”
Lilith turned to Romen.
“What? You know something, don’t you?”
Romen looked at them with sorrowful eyes, speaking softly.
“I once saw Ernst researching neurodiversity, particularly human cognitive development…”
“And?”
“He was obsessed with it but suddenly stopped. I now understand why.”
Lilith’s face froze, as if all the puzzle pieces had clicked. She gasped.
“No way… Did he use soul magic on his daughter? That taboo?”
All the mages’ faces filled with shock and horror.
Soul magic.
A forbidden taboo for mages, a covenant and law.
Tampering with souls was akin to invading divine territory.
No reason could justify such prohibited magic.
“Romen!”
Romen gave a bitter smile and nodded.
“It seems so. Seeing her now, I’m certain.”
“To hell with him. To use such magic on his own child, no matter how flawed!”
As Lilith raged, Romen revealed his complex emotions.
“Ernst was the greatest mage of his time. Everyone called him a genius, and he was. To such a man, his child being ‘imperfect’ was… hard to accept.”
“Even so…”
The title of greatest brought boundless glory but also crushing pressure.
A single mistake could topple one from that pedestal.
“I can’t rationally understand his choice, but that fear… I might empathize with it.”
Ernst was arrogant.
The world praised him, and he took it for granted.
To him, his daughter had to be a ‘perfect legacy.’
As brilliant and exceptional as he was.
But she wasn’t.
She learned to speak slowly and didn’t know how to meet eyes.
Her small hands couldn’t grasp the world’s rules, shattering Ernst’s pride.
He couldn’t accept it.
He denied the reality that such a child came from a genius like him, and ultimately, he chose to defy fate.
Soul magic.
He opened the forbidden door and tampered with his daughter’s soul.
Selfishness cloaked as love.
The price was harsh.
The child who counted with her hands was gone.
In her place was a genius who grasped complex formulas and high-level magic instantly.
But her emotions vanished.
Joy, sorrow, love—gone.
Only cold reason and a twisted psyche filled her.
He tried to undo it.
But her death came first, and Ernst wandered here to reclaim her soul.
Time couldn’t be reversed.
But he wanted to restore her tainted soul.
“I’m sorry, Daddy’s sorry…”
Veroni tilted her head, smiling brightly.
“Don’t cry. It’s sad.”
It was far too late, but he wanted to set things right now.
“I’ll follow you soon. This time… I won’t leave you alone. We’ll stay together.”
Ernst’s hand reached cautiously toward her soul in the air.
Though he couldn’t touch her, his heart surely did.
But a sharp voice cut through the serene moment.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
The remnant of Ernst’s past mistakes.
The Red Count, Gaiard Lecan.
His sins were not yet resolved.