The Trapped God

“Kill me, using any means necessary.”

“…Excuse me. Your Majesty.”

Thinking he was surely teasing me, I got provoked and took a step forward, saying.

“If you’re joking around because you think we can’t use magic or weapons in Midvalen, you should stop. Or you’ll get more than you bargained for….”

“Ah, Awakener.”

A dry laugh echoed through the room.
The blood-red eyes slowly turned towards the man behind me.

“In this tiresome city, there is nothing that I do not know. So please, release your wolf and have him bite me.”

…Huh? I looked up at Baalzeph with a flustered face.

Even if Loktis had told him Karvan was a beast-kin, there was no way he could know his race.

‘Especially, the fighting skills of that beast-kin s*ave were truly impressive.’

Then, could it be that he knew Karvan was a Varg from the very beginning?

But, if so, then why does he want to be killed?
I understood his intentions even less.

“…Excuse me. Baalzeph. No, Your Majesty. Please think again.”

I didn’t even know why I was trying to persuade him.
That’s how flustered I was. To be asked to kill him in exchange for Midvalen.

I wondered what on earth he was talking about.

“We just need this Midvalen back, you see? We didn’t really intend to kill you, so if you could just leave quietly….”

“I cannot leave this city of my own will.”

“…Pardon?”

“So, please kill me. I wish to gain my freedom at last. I beg of you.”

Baalzeph, who finished speaking firmly, spread his arms wide.
As if saying, ‘This is the target, so pierce it’.

Having no choice, I looked back at Karvan.

“…He’s asking to be killed?”

【’Karvan Baharga’ has summoned <God-Slaying Sword>.】

As if this was what he wanted, the man nonchalantly flicked his hand and summoned the God-Slaying Sword.
Swoosh, the gathering mist took the shape of a sword, and as he tossed the scabbard aside like a flick, a cold aura began to swirl around him.

【’Baalzeph von Bloddyhen’ is an untargetable object for normal attacks.】
【’Baalzeph von Bloddyhen’ is an invalid target for skills.】

However, none of that mattered.

【’Karvan Baharga’ casts <Ice Shatter>.】

Crash!

The tip of an iceberg summoned from thin air smashed down onto the throne.
Baalzeph, who had been sitting with his chin raised arrogantly, was crushed without a trace.

【…From the darkness, ‘Baalzeph von Bloddyhen’ appears….】

However, even after trying dozens, hundreds of times, Baalzeph was sitting on the throne in ‘Midvalen’s Audience Chamber’ again after a few seconds.

His face became more and more distorted.

…Strange. I also looked at him with bewildered eyes.

Could it be that he can’t be killed because he’s the main NPC of the Neutral City?
Come to think of it, since weapons cannot be drawn and skills cannot be used inside Midvalen, the NPCs here naturally don’t get attacked and don’t die.

However, Karvan’s skill, which could tear apart even Observers, had killed Baalzeph miserably several times.

【…From the darkness, ‘Baalzeph von Bloddyhen’ appears….】

However, after just a few seconds, Baalzeph reappeared perfectly fine.
It seemed this was his respawn location.

“Do you understand now.”

When Baalzeph was torn apart by the God-Slaying Sword for the one hundred and thirty-first time and reappeared on the audience chamber chair a few seconds later.
He spat out the words as if chewing them.

“I am a being bound to this city. For an eternity. Robbed of my freedom, unable to even leave this cursed city, a being who must live enduring your rudeness. …Forever!”

For the first time, emotion filled Baalzeph’s perpetually dry tone.

“Tormented by you lowly, selfish, and fickle beings!”

I had never seen the always-dry Baalzeph so agitated.
It was as if a dormant volcano was erupting.

“So I placed my hope in you. And now, you come offering freedom yourself. I am beyond disappointed.”

“…You placed your hope in me?”

‘All you ever placed on me were vicious daily quests, what are you talking about.’ I looked up at the suddenly angry Baalzeph in bewilderment.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you referring to the holy artifact commissions?”

“…Haha. Did you provoke and incite me, shouting that you had done no wrong, and now you have forgotten it all. As expected, you are the same. Awakener.”

“I incited you?”

I understood less and less.

I swear, I had never talked back to Baalzeph once in the entire year.
If I got on his nerves, I would be kicked out immediately and thrown into the wild fields to be tormented by the Observers, so would I be crazy enough to defy him?

“I thought I was always polite! Not even once….”

“▒ou!”

Ugh.

A sharp, tearing noise made me instinctively cover my ears.
Baalzeph shouting incomprehensible words made my head ring.

“▒fter▒, I wai▒ed so lon▒, and you pro▒oked me…!”

“Ah, ugh, c-calm down, Baalzeph! First, let’s talk….”

I used to think ‘sound wave attacks’ were ridiculous, but I just realized.
My hands were not free, busy covering my ears from the high-pitched frequency that felt like my eardrums would bleed.

“▒ill me, I ▒aid ki▒l me. So▒eone!”

Aaargh, my ears.

While groaning with my head bowed, ding, a status window popped up.

【Baalzeph von Bloddyhen (OneWhoCantDieWontDie)】

…What’s this?
The moment I tried to look at it more closely, someone wrapped an arm around my shoulder.

“Let’s get out of here for now. It seems your plan went up in smoke.”

Karvan, covering my abused ears for me, helped me up and headed for the door.

“Haha. Where do you think you’re going.”

However, my other shoulder was grabbed.
A hand like a dry tree branch.

【’Karvan Baharga’ casts <Ice Spear>.】

Baalzeph, with an ice spear sticking out of his head, dispersed like an illusion, but as we walked a few more steps, a voice came from behind.

“All choices have consequences.”

【…From the darkness, ‘Baalzeph von Bloddyhen’ appears….】

Flap, flap, flap!

With a loud flapping of wings, a swarm of bats flew in from all directions.
Karvan created an ice sphere to protect our surroundings, but we couldn’t see ahead.

“Take responsibility for choosing the Empire. Awakener.”

Ignoring the muttering Baalzeph, we barely made our way through the bat storm and grabbed the doorknob.

No, I thought I grabbed it.

“…Huh?”

I looked down at my hand that had grasped at empty air, bewildered.

【You cannot move to another field.】

The audience chamber door had somehow moved far away.
At the same time, rumble, the marble floor began to flip up like dominoes.

“Ack!”

What kind of skill is that? No, seeing as no status window popped up, it doesn’t seem to be a skill.
It seems this ‘audience chamber’ is his exclusive field, so he can rearrange the field at will.
Just like how Awakeners can freely rearrange the furniture in their personal space, the ‘Road Place’.

“Awakener. Stop the futile effort and let’s continue our conversation.”

The floor, which had risen like a tidal wave, stopped, covering our heads.

“As you can see, you cannot leave this place without my permission.”

“…What on earth do you want!”

I looked at it with tired eyes and demanded an answer from the vampire standing still far away.

“I believe I told you. Freedom. Liberation.”

“We tried to kill you, but we can’t do anything about you reviving by respawn. Go complain to the gods about that!”

“…I was neglected and forgotten under the pretext of ‘freedom’.”

Like a rule accidentally rearranged in chaos.
Baalzeph, standing with his hands politely folded amidst the chaotically flying swarm of bats, spoke.

“But you are an ‘Awakener’. A representative of the gods, are you not. Please summon the creator of this world. Please listen to my words.”

“…I’d like to, but first of all, I’m not an Awakener anymore, you see?”

‘Does he think a god is some kind of taxi, to come at a beck and call!’ I suppressed the words that came up to my throat and spoke clearly.

“I’m a ‘Defector’ now. A local, just like you….”

“No. You still have a chance.”

Those incomprehensible blood-red eyes stared at me with longing.

“In fact, there has always been a chance.”

“…I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Then do you know this? How cunning and vile that beast next to you is.”

“Who, don’t tell me Karvan?”

“He erased your traces, hid you. Cut down the Grim Reapers searching for you, and even broke their spirits to crush their will. So cruelly.”

Eh, what.
Wondering what he was talking about, I listened intently, then my tension dissipated.

“That was Karvan protecting me. Because the Grim Reapers were trying to kill me.”

“…Hahahaha!”

Even though I confidently explained that he was protecting me from the Observers, he burst out laughing, showing his uvula, as if something was incredibly funny.

“Oh, you pitiful Awakener. Don’t you want to know the truth?”

“What is it?”

‘What is it that he’s taking so long to say with such a gleeful face.’

“Listen carefully. That man, to your City of Awakening, to retur….”

Roll, thud, thud.

Baalzeph’s head, which had been chattering away cheerfully, rolled at his feet.

Aack!
Just as I was about to step back in fright, a large, hot hand covered my eyes.

“Even if you know the truth, nothing changes. Bi.”

The large body touching my back felt like a dead end.
In the darkness, only a voice of the same color as his could be heard in my ear.

“Wouldn’t it be better not to know from the start, than to know and be tormented.”

‘Ignorance is bliss’, is that what he’s trying to say?
I wondered what he was hiding now, and was a little curious, but I soon nodded my head.

“Yeah, I’ll just not know.”

Because I had resolved not to doubt him anymore.

“Because there’s no way you would do something bad to me.”

It was when I felt the man’s body pressed against mine slightly stiffen.

“…Ah!”

【’Karvan Baharga’s current location is being forcibly changed by ‘Midvalen Governor – Baalzeph von Bloddyhen’.】

With a pop! sound, the warmth of the body hugging me disappeared.