“Impossible! You four Base Elements can’t maintain yourselves unless you receive prayers from humans, right?!” (Haine)
I heard that from Yorishiro.
For the Gods, the prayers of humans should be a sweet poison. They drunk that delicacy to the point of drowning, fattened themselves with it, and not only that, they ended up unable to live without the prayers of humans.
Mother Earth Mantle is one of the four Base Elements.
If she steals the consciousness of people and makes them unable to pray, it would mean her doom.
“No need to worry, Entropy-san.” (Mantle)
Mantle answers calmly.
It feels as if she is a completely different person from the woman that was crying ‘I’m sorry’ just a moment ago.
“Grandma Wood’s second form doesn’t have such a poor making. It can assimilate humans and provide them with nourishment, along with absorbing the soul energy that is pretty similar to that of the prayer energy. We will be presenting each other with the things we both want. If I remember correctly, this is called a ‘mutualism’, right?” (Mantle)
“What are you even talking about?!” (Haine)
Mantle may call it the ultimate happiness, but there’s no way that’s the case!
Stealing the freedom of thought from the humans and leaving them in this state where they are simply alive, there’s no way that’s happiness!
“Entropy-san, I hate conflicts.” (Mantle)
“…”
“That has been the case even 1,600 years ago. The moment the Gods began fighting, I was simply scared. I thought: ‘who cares about humans, I just want the fight to be over’.” (Mantle)
Mantle wished for the fast ending of the battle, and took the side of the five Gods that had the advantage. I myself faintly understood this fact.
“But it is not as if I hate humans. They are intelligent, peaceful, and they respect a God like me. But even them, when there’s a clash in opinions, they soon enter into disputes as well. Why do people and Gods fight? That’s why I thought of this; the best way to live without conflicts.” (Mantle)
“And that is to turn humans into living corpses?!” (Haine)
“Eternal eradication of conflicts. That’s exactly the ultimate happiness! Even so, the violent Nova-san and the evil Coacervate-san would be against it and get angry, so I couldn’t find the chance to put it into practice. I…had no courage.” (Mantle)
‘But…’, is what Mantle says as she continues.
“That courage…you gave it to me, Entropy-san. You praised me for the first time! You agreed with me! That’s why I was able to hold my head high and challenge this great enterprise! I will have Grandma Wood swallow all the people that worship me, and bring them into a dream world where no conflict exists!!” (Mantle) <God damn it, Madara. So this is where you ended up!>
It is my fault?!
Did a weird switch get flipped because I told her words that are normally not told to her?!
While we were doing this, the giant tree had its roots wriggle without restraint and was capturing people one after the other. Moreover, the enemy of the people were not only Grandma Wood.
“The Golems are—!!”
“The Golems are attacking us! Everyone, get away!!”
The Earth monsters that were born from Grandma Wood, Golems.
They were originally exceptions from the monsters that attacked humans; they helped out in the livelihood of humans, and lived alongside humans. It was as if they were the friends of humans, but now, Golems have betrayed humans.
They take advantage of their big frame to grab the closest person to it, and give them to the roots of Grandma Wood.
The Golems that have been born from the earth Mother Monster are clearly the dependents of the Mother Earth God. The authority rights are higher for the God than the people.
Obeying the will of Mantle, the Golems transport the people to Grandma Wood as if they were harvesting humans. Also, as if saying they won’t be letting the people at the houses out, the door are being tightly closed.
Now that I think about it, I was told that the houses in this city are made from transformed Golems.
They are trapping the people inside until the root visits them.
Their lifestyle that relied heavily on Golems was proving to be their downfall at this moment.
“Now then, let’s all go together to the dream world. There, in exchange of receiving your soul energy, I will provide you all with unending happiness.” (Mantle)
That unending happiness you are talking about is a sleep that they won’t be waking up from!
Dark Matter gushes out from my hands.
“I will protect this place. In the meantime, hurry and run!” (Haine)
The words I said made the people of Ishtar Blaze dumbfounded for a second, but because of the fear of danger, they soon began running away.
“What’s wrong, Entropy-san? If you do that, my work will be hindered.” (Mantle)
“Obviously. I plan on getting in the way, after all.” (Haine)
It looks like the Fairy Mantle couldn’t understand those words of mine.
“I was careless. In the end, you four Base Elements all have a loose screw somewhere huh.” (Haine)
“What are you saying? Didn’t you…praise me?” (Mantle)
“And I am saying that was a mistake! Mother Earth God, Mantle! I will destroy that screwed up ideal of yours along with that giant tree!!” (Haine)
My dark matter is released.
This dark matter that holds a complete advantage against the fire, water, wind, and earth, is plenty effective against the earth Mother Monster, Grandma Wood.
But it wasn’t an effective method.
Grandma Wood had already assimilated several hundreds of people.
Even if I were to destroy it with dark matter in that state, it is absolutely impossible to achieve that without hurting the people.
I naturally couldn’t go into the desired offensive and ended up fighting a defensive battle.
Creating a wall with dark matter, it took my all to make sure the roots wouldn’t get close to the people, but my opponent is that giant tree. It can easily go around the defense line I created, and it can attack the people from anywhere.
At this rate, the situation will just gradually worsen.
I have to make a drastic countermeasure… is what I was thinking when…
“?!!! Owa?!”