Chapter 82

Above the Citadel Republic.

The airship, Artabus Ship.

Using the celestial stone imbued with the divine power of the celestial god Aldehir as its power source, the airship floated as usual, carrying out its observation duties today as it always did.

To be precise, the celestial god is an incomplete god. Born from incompleteness, it desires to be perfected, but no one knows if that day will come before the end of the world.

How vast is that sky? How mysterious are the phenomena that occur in the sky?

Why does lightning strike, thunder roar, the sun shine, and rainbows form? And why do the stars in the sky move like that?

Looking at the sky, people encounter many mysteries. This longing for mystery is an emotion that all humans, regardless of culture or race, possess to some extent.

That sky is so mysterious. I want to know why.

That emotion gathered and gathered, giving birth to a god who longed for mystery. A god who yearned for the secrets of the sky was born.

Thus, the celestial god Aldehir wished for its followers to explore astronomy. The more the mysteries of the sky were revealed, the stronger this god’s power became.

Similarly, the Three Divine Gods and the Evil God Oberta, regarded as the five great gods of the continent, are gods who attained divinity through human myths. They are fundamentally different from Aldehir, who was born from desire and aspiration.

Thus, they found each other difficult to understand and avoided contact. Among the gods born from faith, Aldehir was significantly different from those born from humans.

Just as the Three Divine Gods could not understand the Death God, and the Death God could not understand them, Aldehir was actually more similar to the Death God, having not been born from resentment or negative emotions.

“Here, come over here. Try to capture the image of the sun a bit more.”

It’s only natural that a strange god has strange followers. The Pope of the Aldehir Church, Nergal Foem, despite his position, personally wore glasses and handled the equipment.

He skillfully set up various lenses and tilted the large telescope toward the sun. Of course, if you look directly at the sun through a telescope, your retina will melt. Now, they had to observe only the image captured through the lenses.

“You do it, Your Holiness. I’m busy right now. I need to maintain the altitude of the Artabus Ship.”

It’s only natural that a strange cardinal of a strange god is strange.

The Aldehir Church’s cardinal, Omen, flatly refused the Pope’s request, appearing genuinely busy. The reason they had to come all the way to the stratosphere to observe the stars was that ground-based observations were hindered by light pollution and clouds.

“Inonom, divine punishment will fall!”

“Let it fall! It’ll just be a few lightning strikes. That guy won’t strike more than three times because he doesn’t want us to die.”

The followers of this strange god even mercilessly mocked their own deity, knowing full well that no divine punishment would come.

Aldehir, as long as its followers maintained their curiosity about the sky, didn’t care if they cursed in front of it. Its way of thinking was different from humans’.

“Look at this damn guy. At my age, I have to get my hands greasy doing this…”

“Ah, old man! Please stop grumbling and just do the work! Who doesn’t get their hands greasy?”

Since the deity doesn’t assert authority, the followers are even more casual with each other.

The Aldehir Church has a very relaxed hierarchy among its clergy. A regular priest can meet the Pope at any time, and the Pope writes letters directly to regular priests. Anyone with a curiosity about the sky is accepted regardless of status. Within the church, everyone is more or less a comrade.

A large comrade united under the goal of exploring the sky.

Naturally, the Pope of such a church was a man more sincere about the sky than anyone else. In his youth, he assembled a hang glider and flew through the sky with it.

Even earlier, as a child, he tried to imitate birds by collecting feathers from the mountains to make large wings and attempt to fly.

“Do we really have to drag the Artabus Ship out here in broad daylight? What kind of suffering is this because of the Pope’s stubbornness? It’s daytime now! Everyone should be sleeping!”

The reason this cardinal is so irritable with the Pope is that it’s daytime, the time when Aldehir Church followers, who usually observe constellations, should be sleeping. Trying to sleep but being dragged out for astronomical observation, the priests below were sulking and not even speaking to the Pope.

“There are parts you can’t see properly from the ground.”

“Fine, if it were stars, I’d understand! But the sun? What difference does it make whether we see it from here or the ground? How can light pollution, clouds, or atmospheric scattering block such bright light?”

“A few days ago, I saw something strange on the sun. It hasn’t been visible lately, so I wanted to see it from up here. Maybe it would be visible from here.”

The Pope, adjusting the lenses to focus, sighed in disappointment.

“But it’s still not visible. Maybe I was mistaken then. But I definitely saw something. Something like a living fireball moving around on the sun’s surface.”

“Then let’s go back and get some sleep.”

“That would be… Wait, wait, don’t lower the altitude yet. Stay here a bit longer. I see it now. It’s visible.”

The cardinal, wondering what the fuss was about, turned his head and his eyes widened. On the surface of the blazing sun, a tiny, grain-sized ball of light was squirming and crawling.

The size of the sun through the telescope was about the size of a watermelon, and if that grain was the size of a watermelon, the actual size would be unimaginably large.

“What… what is that?”

“I don’t know. Is it a living creature?”

“Impossible… That’s the sun, the sun! There can’t be living creatures on the surface of the sun. Even Grimudo couldn’t survive there.”

But to me, it looks like it’s alive no matter how I look at it.

Nergal swallowed his words. If that thing is alive, what is it doing on the surface of the sun?

Suddenly, a phrase popped into the Pope’s mind. When we gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back at us. If they were observing that thing now…

Conversely, why wouldn’t that thing be observing us and this world?

-Exactly as you think. That thing is watching this world.

At that moment, a boy’s voice echoed in the Pope’s mind. The god of the sky, or more precisely, the god who explores the sky, observed what was on the sun through the Pope’s eyes the moment he saw it.

-Fascinating. It was worth making you Pope. Another secret of the sky hidden behind the veil has been revealed today. My power has grown stronger as well.

“Aldehir, what is that? Is it a living creature?”

-I don’t know. Observe it a bit more.

The Pope grumbled inwardly. Other gods descend with majestic halos when delivering oracles, each word filled with awe, but their god doesn’t care for such pretenses.

It didn’t value such unnecessary procedures. If it wanted to talk, it would talk. This god, not born from humans, didn’t strive to win human hearts.

Anyone who longs for the sky.

To some extent, they were already followers of Aldehir.

-But first, deal with the problems on the ground.

Thus, Aldehir always speaks so calmly about everything.

Problems on the ground? What problems? This time, the Pope didn’t even need to ask.

A loud explosion echoed, followed by a series of deafening noises. The priests, startled by the near-infinite sound of destruction, rushed out to the deck and looked below.

Black dust filled the sky, pushing aside the clouds and replacing them with ash and smoke.

The Artabus Ship, which had been leisurely floating above the clouds, now seemed to be drifting on a river of black, dark sorrow and trials. No one, not even the wisest, dared to answer what was happening on the ground below.

“What… what is happening?”

Even the Pope was at a loss for words. Omen, who had been irritable earlier, now stood stiffly beside Nergal, staring blankly at the cloud of ash. This cloud became a barrier separating the ground from the sky, allowing no light to pass through.

Thus, from this position, they could see the stars beyond the sky but not the ground directly below. No one dared to speak of what might be happening on the ground now.

“Has something happened to the Citadel Republic?”

It was only after a long while that Omen spoke. The Citadel Republic was once excommunicated by the Church Country. Though the excommunication was lifted through the tacit approval of the goddesses and the power of offerings, having experienced such a situation once, it was only natural to prepare for a second time.

Thus, the Chancellor of the Citadel Republic spent a fortune to invite the Aldehir Church and supported them in building the Artabus Ship. They also lent lens craftsmen to mass-produce telescopes. So, for the Aldehir Church, the Republic was a reliable patron.

Of course, it was also important that if this patron were to fall, the Church would suffer losses.

But in such a situation, that was all secondary. Just thinking about how many people might have suffered, everyone’s minds were filled with dread. The thought of how many might have died sent chills down their spines, and their bodies trembled involuntarily.

“Let’s descend for now.”

No one objected to the Pope’s rare command.

Even the priests of the Aldehir Church weren’t so reckless as to act selfishly in such times. Everyone quickly began adjusting the altitude of the Artabus Ship.

“Let’s go… tend to the wounded and recover the dead.”

Coughing, the priests steered the ship through the impenetrable ash. The airship descended in a graceful curve. They were afraid to witness what was happening on the ground.

But one thing was certain,

Something they had never even dreamed of had undoubtedly occurred.