Chapter 55

World Collision (5)

“There is no being in this world that fears nothing. If they do not fear death, then it must be because there is something they fear even more than death.”

Hephaestus proposed an ingenious plan.

“Or perhaps they simply haven’t discovered what they fear yet.”

“There is something I learned from Raymond.”

Hephaestus asked only one thing of Lee Shin.

A sacred relic.

It was a request that required an enormous amount of divine power, but Lee Shin trusted his believer and granted it without hesitation. The greatest blacksmith now had a new tool at his disposal.

“Without respect, no soldier can be born.”

“No one living in this world wishes to vanish without leaving anything behind.”

Hephaestus had learned the history of another world from Raymond—the wars that had taken place on Earth, their history, and the horrors they had wrought.

After hearing about them, Hephaestus discovered a weakness hidden within the Iron Men’s nature.

A weakness that would prove fatal in this war.

“A race that spends every moment from birth until death striving to obtain a more perfect body. Creatures whose sole reason for existence is that pursuit... Those are our enemies, the Iron Men.”

『That’s right.』

“Then let me ask you this. How do you think the Iron Men would treat comrades who returned from battle grievously wounded—comrades whose bodies were no longer perfect, but broken?”

The dwarves had no way to kill the Iron Men.

Their bodies were made of steel.

“There is a saying among blacksmiths.”

But were their souls also made of steel?

“No sword is immune to rust.”

The strategy Hephaestus proposed could also be seen as a question posed to the enemy world.

“No matter how sturdy the armor or how sharp the sword, it will eventually rust. Unless someone wipes away the rust and hones the edge, even the greatest of weapons will eventually become useless.”

How will you treat your rusted swords?

How will you look upon your broken weapons?

“Those who worship only hardness and sharpness will inevitably break one day, never even realizing that they themselves are rusting.”

Lee Shin asked in response to Hephaestus’s words.

『What if they respect the returning soldiers? What if they honor their service, refuse to turn their backs on them, and treat them with the utmost sincerity?』

Hephaestus answered.

“Then it would mean that they, too, are great.”

***

Aside from the various defensive installations, traps designed to immobilize the Iron Men had been placed throughout the fortress zone—the Land of Steel.

The dwarf priests had created small zones by pouring into them their authority over steel and flame. The moment anything made of steel entered one of those zones, it became incapable of movement, suspended in midair like a butterfly trapped in a spiderweb.

It was an authority similar to Eve’s Declaration of Peace.

The traps had been prepared to prevent the Iron Men from forcing their way through the defenses, and two Iron Men from the reconnaissance unit had foolishly charged straight into one.

“Damn it.”

Fortunately, the two Iron Men had avoided the worst possible outcome. They had been captured by those wicked, irreverent dwarves, but such inferior creatures possessed no means of ending an Iron Man’s life.

“What an utter humiliation.”

“At least we survived.”

“Of course we did. How could such inferior and insignificant creatures ever harm us, the creations of the Most Great One? Mere beings of flesh and blood...”

The thought alone seemed to enrage them anew, and the Iron Men repeatedly snorted in fury, their voices thick with agitation.

“But why did they release us instead of keeping us prisoner?”

“They were afraid, obviously! Had they continued to insult us, the Great One would have sung His wrath upon them!”

“Ah, so that was it.”

“Yes. We owe everything to Him.”

The two Iron Men walked through the dense forest, their bodies producing metallic creaks. Every step they took was accompanied by the grating sound of steel scraping against steel.

“What do we do now? Charge again?”

“No. Now that we know those cowards have laid traps, we should return to our world for the time being.”

“I suppose so. In bodies as wretched as these...”

The Iron Men looked at each other’s bodies.

At the forms Hephaestus had mercilessly hammered apart.

“...Even our bodies when we were newly born weren’t this bad.”

“We look like failures.”

The bodies that had once seemed capable of withstanding storms and lightning were gone. Their forms, once resembling works of art, had been reduced to wretched pieces of scrap metal.

They creaked with the slightest movement. Their hollow interiors were plainly visible through the numerous holes riddling their bodies, and after being dismantled and reassembled several times, their proportions had become as ridiculous as those of malformed toys.

“Walking is difficult.”

“I can barely turn my head. If I twist my body like this... Urgh!”

Crash!

The Iron Man, who had been shambling awkwardly, toppled over with a tremendous noise. Sprawled face-first on the dirt, he stared at his trembling legs.

They were unnaturally thin compared to his upper body.

Hephaestus had deliberately ruined them so that he could not walk far without someone else’s help.

“I-I’m sorry, but could you help me up?”

“What an appallingly pathetic thing to say. No matter how damaged you may be, how can a descendant of the Great One reach out to another for help? Get up yourself. On your own.”

“But...”

The fallen Iron Man started to say something, then stopped.

“Find your own way back. Tsk.”

Leaving only those words behind, the other Iron Man departed first.

This, too, was exactly what Hephaestus had intended.

He had damaged them both, but one had been left in a far worse condition than the other.

“Still... isn’t this too cruel...?”

That way, the two who had been released would never band together.

‘...It’s all right. I can endure this.’

The fallen Iron Man trembled as he laboriously forced himself upright. Even then, walking alone proved too difficult, leaving him with no choice but to pick up a fallen branch and use it as a cane.

‘As long as I make it back.’

Beliar had always told them:

I shall bestow boundless glory upon you.

Those who follow me shall witness the most radiant of endings.

‘He will give me a new body.’

He had faithfully carried out the Great One’s command.

Unlike Mars, the coward who had remained in place out of fear of mere dwarves, he had charged forward without hesitation and proven the valor of the Iron Men.

Although he had been reduced to this wretched state as a result, these wounds would surely be regarded as glorious scars.

After all, he had suffered them while obeying the Great One’s command.

‘Once I return, I will be rewarded for everything.’

If he endured this humiliation, he would be given a body even more magnificent than before. The other Iron Men would look upon him with envy and shower him with praise, endlessly asking how he had managed to be so brave.

Perhaps even the Great One Himself would acknowledge him.

If that happened, he could endure any hardship.

Yes, absolutely anything.

A fitting reward.

Recognition.

Respect.

If he received those things, what could there possibly be in this world that he could not accomplish?

With those thoughts in mind, the Iron Man continued walking.

Dragging his creaking body along...

***

“Just as I expected.”

Beliar smiled in satisfaction.

“I’ve been frustrated long enough.”

From the beginning, Beliar’s world had been far removed from a conventional world. Culture, technology, politics—such elements were virtually nonexistent.

It was a world designed solely for war and conquest.

That was also why Lee Shin’s interference had shaken it so severely during the preparation period. A world built from chains and shackles could hardly possess a stable foundation.

Had it belonged to another ordinary mid-to-high-ranking god who had not designed such an extreme military world, it would not have been shaken nearly as much.

However, every weakness came with a corresponding strength.

An extreme world always possessed an equally extreme advantage.

‘Now it is my time, you insignificant creature.’

Beliar’s military world possessed a special wartime state.

Regardless of the world’s overall atmosphere or the faith levels of its inhabitants, Beliar could maintain perfect control over his world as long as the Iron Men—the core of his legions—remained intact.

As befitted a world built from chains and shackles, all that had ever mattered were the Iron Men at the top of its hierarchy, the ones holding those chains and shackles.

As long as they followed Beliar, none of the lives inhabiting that world could ever defy his commands.

That would become even more absolute once the Iron Men achieved undeniable glory in the war.

‘But why haven’t they returned?’

Beliar had dispatched a reconnaissance unit into the enemy world.

It was not a large force, but every member had been thoroughly proven. They had distinguished themselves in numerous wars, and Mars, one of the finest commanders in Beliar’s entire legion, had accompanied them.

Nothing was more important than the initial reconnaissance if they were to overwhelm and crush the opposing world within a short period.

Beliar had learned that through countless campaigns.

[Great One, when shall we advance?]

Preparations to burn and trample the enemy world had long since been completed.

The difference in their sheer strength alone made victory inevitable.

Had that world not nearly been destroyed by the single dragon Governor Johan had brought with him?

The World of Chains and Shackles possessed no fewer than twenty-seven dragons.

If Beliar deployed even half of them, the dwarves’ world would be annihilated that very day.

Beliar considered victory a certainty. His only concern was achieving it as efficiently as possible while expending the bare minimum of his forces.

Even if he won by committing everything he possessed, the other gods of the World of Stars would never acknowledge the achievement.

Instead, they would ridicule him for having gone to such lengths.

Or perhaps they would see the brief moment of weakness after he exhausted his forces as an opportunity and immediately initiate another World Collision against him.

After all, it would be a chance to devour the world of a mid-to-high-ranking god.

Therefore, this victory had to be perfect.

Even if the beginning had gone slightly awry, the ending had to be flawless.

‘You dared stand before me without bowing your head. A mere creature of flesh and blood. A soul born from such an insignificant origin...’

This collision would end in annihilation.

After reducing the creature and its subjects to utter ruin, Beliar would bind them in chains and fasten them with shackles they could never break.

Then he would force them to serve his magnificent creations for all eternity.

Beliar let his imagination run wild.

It was an exhilarating future merely to contemplate.

And then—

[Great One... we have returned.]

The two Iron Men from the reconnaissance unit returned.

[Those insignificant creatures... dared to humiliate us.]

[Can you see what they did? They reduced our bodies to this...]

They had returned in horrifyingly wretched states.

[Sing your wrath, Great One. Pass judgment upon them...]

[If you would grant us new bodies so that we may avenge this humiliation...]

The Iron Men spoke with both arms raised high. In the middle of their plea, one of them began trembling violently, unable even to remain standing, and collapsed where he stood.

They had crossed into the enemy world and returned.

But Beliar was not the only one witnessing the state of the two returning Iron Men.

The other Iron Men who had been waiting for them were watching.

So were the soldiers of the other races serving in the legion.

Yes.

Every one of them was watching the pitiful forms the Iron Men had been reduced to.

As a result—

「Warning! Warning!」

「The Iron Men’s faith is declining.」

「The Iron Men’s morale is falling.」

「Extraordinary measures are required.」

A crisis had come for Beliar.