Chapter 56
World Collision (6)
It was because of the nature of souls.
In the World of Stars, gods were not absolute.
Even within a world they had created themselves, gods could not exercise omnipotent influence. The inhabitants of those worlds—the gods’ creations—did not blindly obey every command issued by their creators.
It varied depending on their level of faith, but if they received an absurd order or one they could not accept, the inhabitants of a world sometimes rejected their god’s voice.
Of course, this also depended on how they were created. If they were given the condition, “Obey the god’s commands unconditionally,” those souls would be born as creatures that ignored everything else and listened only to their god.
However, doing so would completely eliminate their autonomy. Rather than living creatures, they would become tools that existed solely to obey their god. Their souls would be so utterly passive that they could do nothing without divine commands.
Naturally, they would never develop on their own.
That was why, when creating worlds and their inhabitants, most gods controlled them through various mechanisms instead of imposing the condition, “Believe in the god unconditionally.”
Some used [Culture]. Others employed [Religion] with specific doctrines, while still others designed unusual forms of [Politics].
After all, the ideal arrangement was for a world’s inhabitants to develop on their own, with their god occasionally providing direction.
Beliar was no different.
To control the inhabitants of his world, Beliar established a [Religion] built upon the doctrine of obedience. Accepting the associated fanatic penalty, he turned some of his believers into [Fanatics]. He also wielded [Fear], openly displaying the authority he possessed as an evil god.
Furthermore, to implement his preferred strategy of conquest, Beliar had imposed several conditions when creating the Iron Men.
The quality he valued most when creating them was fearlessness.
He believed that a warrior race destined to wage endless wars had no need for fear.
However, if he had simply imposed the condition “Possess no fear,” unforeseen side effects might have arisen. They might have felt no fear toward their own god, or they might have refused to evade any attack during battle.
Such unforeseen consequences were precisely why flawless design was always paramount when creating worlds and living beings.
The solution Beliar devised was the instinct to “fight from the moment of birth until the moment of death in pursuit of a stronger body.”
He believed it was perfectly suited to creating beings that did not fear death, never avoided battle, and ceaselessly pursued greater strength.
Until now, the Iron Men had behaved exactly as Beliar had intended.
They had performed most satisfactorily.
But...
‘Damn it.’
Now, that very instinct had become a fatal weakness.
‘Were the dwarves always capable of something like this?’
The Iron Men did not fear death.
To die while fighting in pursuit of greater strength was glorious to them.
Put another way, however, losing their “powerful and perfect bodies” was even more terrifying to the Iron Men than death.
There was nothing glorious or dignified about it. It was a denial of their very reason for existence.
‘Damn them.’
For the first time since their creation, the Iron Men had witnessed members of their own kind whose bodies had been ruined.
There was not the slightest trace of glory in those forms. The sight inspired an indescribable revulsion within them.
It was incomparably greater than the fear a human felt upon seeing a corpse.
It was, quite literally, a fear worse than death.
「Warning! Warning!」
If even the slightest possibility existed that the dwarves could reduce the Iron Men to such a state, their morale would plummet.
It would also disprove the doctrine of Beliar’s religion, which promised that every Iron Man would receive a “perfect body” at the end of the war.
It was a truly dreadful crisis.
Even during the dwarves’ most radiant era, when they had been far more powerful than they were now, they had never employed such a deadly weapon.
The ones holding the chains and shackles.
If the Iron Men at the top of the hierarchy began to waver, the foundations of Beliar’s world would collapse.
Its chains and shackles would break.
...
And then—
「The party is returning.」
「The [Reconnaissance Unit] has returned.」
A massive Iron Man appeared behind the other two.
[Deserters.]
Mars.
The commander who had never once suffered defeat.
[Did you think you would find glory in flight?]
Crack!
The moment Mars appeared, he seized the two Iron Men by their heads and yanked upward. The joints connecting their helmets to their armor tore apart, and their bodies collapsed limply to the ground.
The two heads dangling from Mars’s hands swayed lifelessly from side to side.
Mars stood still and surveyed his surroundings. He then cast a peculiar glance toward the sky before lowering his gaze once more.
[Why are you all looking at them like that?]
An ominous light gleamed in Mars’s eyes.
[These two are deserters. They were failures with wretched bodies who infiltrated our ranks while concealing their identities. I found their deception displeasing, so I personally stripped away their outer shells and exposed their true forms. The moment their appearances were discovered, they fled in terror.]
[...Failures?]
[Yes. They must have believed they could rise through the ranks by distinguishing themselves on the most sacred reconnaissance mission. Because of them, we lost kobolds who were vital to the reconnaissance unit. We lost lizardmen as well. All because of these idiotic failures!]
Beliar narrowed his eyes as he stared at Mars.
‘That bastard...’
Mars was lying.
Why?
‘He understood the situation.’
Despite having only just returned, his mind was remarkably sharp. He had sensed the peculiar atmosphere and instantly realized how to reverse it.
The mood around them gradually began to change in response to Mars’s words.
[Failures...?]
[Then those creatures, barely surviving inside shells made of scrap metal... dared to infiltrate a sacred mission, only for Mars to uncover their true identities?]
[Of course. There is no deceiving Mars, the undefeated commander.]
The Iron Men’s morale, which had been plummeting, began to rise again.
So did their faith.
Mars spoke once more.
[Don’t tell me you trembled in fear after seeing these wretches. Were you afraid that if you crossed into the world beyond, your precious bodies might also be damaged?]
[...]
[How could such a thing happen when the Great One watches over us? Do you truly believe mere dwarves could damage us—the most perfect creations of the Great One? If that thought crossed your minds even for an instant, you should be ashamed.]
Everyone fell silent at Mars’s words.
He looked up at the sky.
[Great One, I, Mars, make my report. Those tiny creatures can never stand as our enemies. Those inferior beings of flesh and blood shall be trampled beneath Your creations of steel and erased forever!]
A thunderous cheer followed Mars’s declaration.
Mars had always been renowned as a hero among the Iron Men. As his voice, overflowing with conviction, spread through the crowd, the atmosphere reversed in an instant.
But...
‘That was a lie as well.’
He could not deceive Beliar’s eyes.
Beliar had just experienced a chillingly real crisis.
It made him realize that the dwarves had changed. He also understood that it could be genuinely dangerous to pursue a victory while merely trying to secure a convenient profit.
A crisis always restored one’s reason.
With his thoughts now cold and composed, Beliar sent his voice so that only Mars could hear it.
“Mars, were the dwarves truly insignificant? Were they not even worthy opponents?”
Mars looked up at the sky again.
Instead of speaking aloud, he conveyed his thoughts silently.
Even so, his meaning reached Beliar.
[They are formidable.]
“...”
[We must commit our full strength, Great One.]
Mars’s eyes continued to gleam.
[You once told us that every victory is glorious. The process itself does not need to be glorious. Whatever form a victory takes, only its result brings glory.]
[I do not believe the course of this war needs to be glorious or honorable. As always, no matter how victory is achieved, every victory is glorious.]
This time, Beliar did not cling to his pride.
Instead—
“Tell me your plan, Mars.”
He decided to become somewhat serious.
“I shall act according to your judgment.”
***
Hephaestus’s strategy had worked, allowing them to neutralize two Iron Men at the very beginning.
What followed, however, had not gone nearly as well.
[My God, four dwarves have died.]
Four dwarves had been killed.
By nothing more than a reconnaissance unit.
‘Damn.’
Unlike the two Iron Men who had recklessly charged forward, the third had remained calm and held his position.
He was the one who had done it.
[My God, that lump of iron... There was something different about him.]
“Different?”
[He smelled like a hunter. An appallingly relentless hunter.]
“...”
[He appeared to be extremely dangerous.]
Just because a world belonged to a vicious and emotional god did not mean all its inhabitants shared those traits.
Every world inevitably produced talented individuals.
Even in Lee Shin’s world, there were countless people whose personalities differed from his and who thought in completely different ways.
The same would naturally apply to Beliar’s world, which was vastly larger than the Small World.
‘A dangerous enemy.’
Ding!
A message arrived.
「TIP: The [World of Chains and Shackles] is a military world.」
「TIP: Although the opposing world possesses relatively low levels of [Technology] and [Culture], capable [Generals] sometimes emerge from such extreme military worlds.」
「TIP: Souls of the [General] lineage commonly possess outstanding ‘warfare capabilities.’ They frequently become the most troublesome adversaries on any battlefield.」
Troublesome.
That was how the status window described him.
「Enemies have entered the [Small but Deadly World].」
As if determined to demonstrate exactly why he was both troublesome and dangerous, Mars immediately began to act.
「Enemies have left the [Small but Deadly World].」
「Enemies have entered the [Small but Deadly World].」
「Enemies have left the [Small but Deadly World].」
「Enemies have entered the [Small but Deadly World].」
In the span of a single hour, the warning announcing an enemy incursion sounded no fewer than sixty-eight times.
Lee Shin had no way of distinguishing which of those sixty-eight alerts were genuine and which were false—or whether all of them were true, or all of them were false.
[A signal from the west!]
[There’s one in the east too!]
[No, over here as well...!]
The Land of Steel was a fortress zone constructed to provide an impenetrable defense.
After confirming the existence of that fortress, which had been built with an extreme emphasis on defense, Mars had no intention of fighting fairly.
[Attack! We’re under attack! This one is real!]
The enemies repeatedly crossed into Lee Shin’s world only far enough to set foot inside it.
Then, the instant the defenders relaxed their vigilance even slightly, they launched an attack and devastated the surrounding area.
Rather than greedily pushing farther inward, they inflicted damage and immediately retreated to their own world.
They fought in a manner that forced Lee Shin’s side to suffer losses unilaterally.
They were slowly shaving away his world from the outside.
Considering the disparity in their overall strength, if the conflict continued this way, Lee Shin could see no possible path to victory in this World Collision.
Watching the situation unfold, Lee Shin recalled something his father had once told him.
It was supposedly the highest compliment one could give in a game:
“What a shitty way to play.”
That described the current situation perfectly.
Fortunately, Lee Shin had a solution.
“Are you ready?”
The enemy was not the only side capable of guerrilla warfare.
Lee Shin’s forces also had a legion-class entity capable of operating alone.
An immortal being who could not die and could single-handedly confront large numbers of enemies—one of the most powerful combatants among all of Lee Shin’s believers.
[Hug me!]
Well, calling him a living creature was somewhat questionable.
In any case—
[Just leave it to Jude, my God!]
Lee Shin had no intention of simply taking the attacks without fighting back.