Chapter 213 Seal Temple
[God Realm] was shut down, and the uncontrolled monsters and demi-humans went on a rampage, causing the infrastructure to collapse, marking the beginning of humanity's decline.
However, even though knowledge and technology were lost, the method to defeat the [Evil God] was also lost, and the seal that was initially intended to be temporary had to be maintained permanently.
But fortunately, this was made possible with "minimal sacrifices".
This was because the [Seal Temple] was originally designed to operate independently.
――It's because if the [Seal Temple] was controlled online like other Magical Machines, or if the magical energy supply line was connected to the [God Realm], there was a possibility that the [Evil God] would take control of it.
It would be ridiculous if the tool used to seal the [Evil God] was controlled by the [Evil God] itself.
Therefore, humanity designed the [Seal Temple] as an independent system, separate from the [God Realm], with its own magical energy supply line.
In other words, they built a local network, a small God Realm――let's call it a [Small God Realm]――separate from the [God Realm].
For this purpose, hundreds of human weapons, including Aron, Caduceus, Gridavor, and Kirke, which were mass-produced for the battle against the [Evil God], were utilized.
[Seal Temple]'s central magic formula is possessed by [Magic God: Space-Time God Chronosphere], which is downloaded into one person, maintaining their self-information while disconnecting from [God Realm]. Chronosphere becomes the "core" of the system, and as the administrator, it reconnects with the new Psycho Line of hundreds of people, building a small but closed Psycho network.
Those who built the Psycho network collect magical energy and supply it as an energy source to operate [Seal Temple].
This is the central system of [Seal Temple], a Magical Machine.
To maintain this, the "core" Chronosphere, which resides in a human body, needs to be periodically replaced. To put it bluntly, it requires a human sacrifice every generation.
On the other hand, another problem arises.
The magical energy of the current [Small God Realm] builders, the 4 families, is insufficient.
Although they were created as weapons and have more magical energy than ordinary people, the truth is that modern humans are constantly being drained of their magical energy.
The 30% magical energy "tax" imposed by the Pangaea government on the entire population is still in effect, and the [God Realm] system automatically collects it. This is why some of the remaining "Terraformer" series units are still operational.
And there's the adjustment of physical abilities that comes with combat Jobs.
This True Identity is an application of magic through the "Jobs System", and those who possess Jobs are always consuming a certain amount of magical energy to automatically activate this magic. Moreover, the magical energy consumed by this magic increases according to the strength of the Jobs.
The members of the [Four Great Families of the Seals] have an additional 2 magical energy consumptions.
One is the magical energy required to operate the [Seal Temple].
The other is the magical energy necessary to construct the "Brain Support Device" required to maintain and manage the [Seal Temple].
A device is necessary to perform any operation on the [Seal Temple], and to put it another way, the control room of the [Seal Temple] is in a location that cannot be reached without teleportation magic.
Therefore, the members of the 4 families cannot afford to lose the device.
Recently, since the [God Realm] was closed, the nanomachines that were materialized through magical energy were lost, and humanity lost the Brain Support Device. This is because, unlike in the early days of device development, the manufacturing of nanomachines was replaced with magical energy-based antimatter generation due to cost issues.
But creating precise machines with antimatter and the like is not a technology that can be handled by individuals. It's an advanced magical application built by the [God Realm] system, and if communication with [God Realm] is cut off, the formula for generating nanomachines cannot be maintained.
Exceptions are only those like [Evil God] who have modified her own bodies, or large, modified magic creatures like dragons and giants. They didn't build devices, either. To maintain their physically impossible gigantic bodies and movement capabilities, reinforcement with nanomachines was necessary.
In any case, because of the two aforementioned reasons, the 4 families needed devices. However, by building [Small God Realm], they were able to successfully regenerate devices.
They gathered the old, antique Brain Support Devices that had become relics, and using those, they were able to write a system for device generation into [Small God Realm].
Incidentally, the reason they couldn't expand the number of people connected to [Small God Realm] beyond the 4 families is to prolong the "lifespan" of Chronosphere.
Only Chronosphere can manage [Small God Realm], and the replicated Chronosphere, separated from [God Realm], has overwhelmingly inferior performance compared to the original. It couldn't maintain a large network.
In any case, building devices was somehow managed, but the problem of magical energy quantity is separate. So, to reduce their burden, the 4 families prohibited themselves from getting Jobs.
Even without a job, they could use space magic thanks to the connection with Chronosphere and the download of magical formulas, as well as the device's computational assistance.
On the other hand, other humans who lost the device's computational assistance couldn't use space magic anymore.
* * *
"――So, the ones who built the [Small God Realm] for the sake of sealing the [Evil God] started living around the [Seal Temple] for management purposes, and later came to be known as the [Four Great Families of the Seals]."
Lucia closed her mouth.
That's how the [Four Great Families of the Seals] began, I guess.
Something, something, Chronosphere did something, and Lady Eva's ancestors did something... yeah, that's how it is.
Anyway, everyone was deep in thought in the quiet room, and I opened my mouth.
"So, what happens from here? Why did the people from the 4 families who were supposed to protect the seal cause a stampede?"
That's the important part.
I could ignore Lucia's prior knowledge about Fiona and other things, but what I came to hear was the reason behind the stampede.
"Uh... actually, from here on out, Zephy (Zephyr-chan) was supposed to explain."
"""......"""
Zephy?
We all looked at Zephy, the head of the Aron family, at the same time.
"...Lady Lucia, please stop..."
Zephy said with a face that looked like he failed to hold back a bitter smile.
"My descendants, or rather, something like my grandchildren... Well, it was my sisters who actually created children, but we were clones..."
Lucia said, glancing around her surroundings.
"...Since we've come this far, I suppose it's better if I explain it myself. It won't be a long story."
"That's right... So, please keep it concise."
"Yeah. Even Aaron should be able to understand it."
Even Aaron should be able to understand it... or so I thought.
* * *
The Chronosphere, which had established a system to maintain a permanent seal in the [Small God Realm], and the founders of the [Four Great Families of the Seals] were the ones who had built it. However, as an extremely long period of time passed, an anomaly occurred in the seal system.
That was the Chronosphere's "lifespan".
The Chronosphere was originally an existence that didn't possess human-like self-awareness, emotions, or the ability to make decisions on its own. The [Skill God] and [Magic God] of the "Jobs System" were also such existences, simply carrying out predetermined actions like machines.
However, after being isolated in the [God Realm] for a long time, and using human bodies as vessels, the fewer people there were to build the Psycho network, and although the influence was slight, the Chronosphere's mind gradually changed.
After the [God Realm] was shut down, the Chronosphere's sense of self started to change in a bad way――to put it simply, it was like an [Evil God] going out of control. To prevent this, they added a "mental shield system" to the [Small God Realm], but it was much weaker than the original [God Realm]'s system. The biggest problem was that it didn't have the ability to reset the self-information from the start.
As a result, the transformation of his mind progressed little by little, and about a few hundred years ago, he finally became convinced of his own "lifespan".
If this continues, he'll eventually go berserk like an [Evil God].
So, he decided to take action to solve the problem himself.
There were only 2 possible solutions.
One was the complete eradication of the sealed [Evil God]. If that were possible, there would be no need to maintain [Small God Realm], and he could disappear, avoiding the crisis of going berserk.
But if that were possible, it wouldn't be a problem. He should have destroyed the [Evil God] long ago. Therefore, this method was out of the question.
That left only one other method.
That was to release the closure of [God Realm] and initialize himself.
He thought that although there were risks, it wasn't impossible. If he could temporarily control [God's Remains] completely, he could use it to release the closure of [God Realm].
――However, this idea was mistaken.
Neither Chronosphere nor the [Four Great Families of the Seals] knew this.
[God Realm] was closed, and even the [Evil God] herself couldn't open it. He never thought that would happen. In reality, he had prepared a "Backdoor Job" key, but the Chronospheres didn't know about it.
Only Lucia, who was watching the [Evil God]'s actions from within, knew about this.
However, the Chronosphere, unaware of this, took action based on possibilities. He couldn't get an understanding from the 4 families. So, he started gathering allies little by little and took quiet action. First, he checked the [God's Remains] and its seal status. He also checked if the authority of "his" was valid against "Terrafomer007". He probably stopped the operation of the [Seal Temple] several times for that purpose.
It's likely that the Chronospheres didn't take hasty action because he had doubts himself.
However, his operational limit was mercilessly approaching. As he took action, he faced fierce opposition and resistance from the 4 families. But as he went through generational changes, the surveillance on himself relaxed, and he took action again.
It was a slow process, but using the [God's Remains] was a delicate matter that could lead to immediate destruction if he made a single mistake. The Chronospheres themselves didn't have specialized knowledge of magical science and technology, so they had to be cautious.
And so, the secret society Chronosphere gradually became active, expanding its scale with each move.
The members of the central organization were the ones from the [Four Great Families of the Seals] who were anxious about Chronosphere's lifespan. As time went on, the number of people who felt a sense of crisis about the current situation increased.
And, with the help of Noah, he had finally completed the device to interfere with the [God Realm] using [God's Remains]――the [Temple]――just recently.
The secret society Chronosphere was planning to execute their plan by taking [God's Remains] from the deepest part of the labyrinth and moving it to the underground [Temple] during this Stampede...
* * *
"So, in other words, the secret society Chronosphere was trying to maintain the seal on [God's Remains] to somehow extend Chronosphere's lifespan. The method to do that was to open up [God Realm] using [God's Remains]. To prepare and confirm that, they needed to stop the function of the [Seal Temple] several times, which led to conflicts with the Four Families and ultimately, the Stampede."
Lucia summarized the explanation up to this point.
"On the other hand, the Four Families opposed Chronosphere's idea, thinking that using [God's Remains] was too risky, and tried to stop them. During this Stampede, Ail and Logan, who had infiltrated the secret society Chronosphere, managed to destroy the [Temple] by using Aaron, which was a huge success."
[Temple]... she mean that facility where I fought Logan, right?
It seems that thing was a massive magical tool for using [God's Remains].
"By the way, the reason we couldn't destroy the [Temple] without using Aaron was because of the top-tier contract magic [Testament (Contract before God)] with Logan and the others. However, this was a secondary effect that could be avoided through combat actions. In other words, even with [Testament (Contract before God)], it's impossible to intentionally destroy something unless it's defeated in battle... That's what it means."
So, I was used as a tool for destroying the [Temple]...
As I thought that, I looked at Logan, who was with Lady Eva, and his murmur echoed in the quiet room.
"I see... So that's how it was..."
――I see?
Wait, Logan should know about the situation... Huh? The situation... Huh?
As I tilted my head, wondering what was wrong, Lucia opened her mouth again, and I put my doubts on hold and focused on her story.
"The truth is, Chronosphere's actions were based on a wrong premise from the start. Even if he uses [God's Remains], he can't open [God Realm]."
"......"
A heavy, oppressive silence fell over the room.
Most of the people here were against Chronosphere, but in reality, only the 4 families had been actively involved as a secret society. If it was said that their actions were just a foolish farce, it would be quite a letdown.
Well... for those who lost their families and friends due to that ridiculous farce, it's not something to laugh about at all.
"But, Chronosphere didn't know about this."
Lucia said, contradicting her previous statement.
"Rather, it's possible that Chronosphere had a different purpose altogether, separate from opening the God Realm. In fact, after this stampede, the Chronosphere that was residing in Jilva Caduceus has vanished."
"...Did his plan fail, so he got discouraged and ran away?"
To my question, Lucia shook her head, saying "That's not it."
"Chronosphere said he would repair the Temple with a magic after Ickle killed Aaron. But even now, the Temple remains broken. It's clear that Chronosphere has abandoned the Temple. If he really believed that opening the God Realm was possible, he wouldn't leave the Temple in disrepair."
"Is it that he didn't care about it getting broken from the start... because he didn't think it was necessary?"
"That's right."
I see...
...Wait, what's this? "After Ickle killed Aaron"?! Did Chronosphere have a grudge against me from the start? Was it because I was in the Temple, or because I couldn't resist and ended up breaking it? But why would he do that to someone he barely knew?!
Before I could open my mouth to say something, Lucia continued talking.
"That's what Chronosphere said to Ickle. If she could kill Aaron without a hitch, he wanted to bring Fiona to his side..."
Huh? A faint question mark appeared in my mind.
Fiona is a "Backdoor Job". However, the ones who knew that were...
"Yeah," Lucia nodded, her expression suspicious as she gazed at us, and continued.
"Chronosphere originally didn't know that Fiona was an important existence. Yet, he was trying to secure her..."
The ones who knew that information were only Lucia and the [Evil God]――supposedly.
"Hehehehe... Ahahah!! That's right!!"
It wasn't Lucia who continued speaking.
Noah Kirke, bound to a wheelchair, laughed with an indescribable, crazed, or furious expression, and said:
"That old man!! He's gone crazy!! Who knows when he went crazy, but he's been hiding it and deceiving us!! ——Damn it!! That old man is in league with the [Evil God]!!"
Lucia followed up after Noah's enraged outburst.
"Just considering the circumstantial evidence, I think that possibility is the highest."
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