Chapter 61

Iron Man

A Hero.

A soul who appeared when a world faced a crisis, born with a powerful talent suited to that world’s theme. That was how the status window had originally defined one.

Lee Shin did not know what had caused Hephaestus, who had been collapsing only moments ago, to rise again.

He did not know what had changed the dwarf’s heart or what had transformed within Hephaestus when he went from being a Hero Candidate to a true Hero.

Only one thing was certain.

His eyes had changed.

A new flame was burning within them.

『What would you have me do?』

For Lee Shin, that alone was enough.

Then Hephaestus spoke to the god who had answered his prayer and remained by his side, even after he had briefly succumbed to despair and thrown such a pathetic tantrum.

“....”

“I want to create a new reason for the Iron Men to live.”

『A new reason?』

“What I do best is create things. I can feel that something within me has changed. Right now, I feel as though I could create anything I desire. Absolutely anything.”

『....』

“I want to use my talent to create something for them. Something far greater than fighting to trample others or conquering foreign lands... something greater than anything designed by the Evil God who created them.”

“A reason that will make it unnecessary for them to fight battles in which they must inevitably hurt one another. A reason why we will no longer have to fight among ourselves.”

As Hephaestus spoke, his eyes shone more brilliantly than ever.

They were far brighter than when he had insisted they needed to terrify their enemies, or when he had done nothing but hammer out stronger weapons to take their enemies’ lives more efficiently.

Lee Shin thought that perhaps this was closer to the dwarves’ true nature.

“No matter how vast a kingdom ants build, it can disappear beneath the water carelessly poured by a child. Even if someone painstakingly builds a sandcastle on the beach, a single wave can reduce it to nothing.”

“Nevertheless, ants continue building their homes, and children continue constructing sandcastles.”

『....』

“Not every small thing changes the world. Some small things disappear without leaving any trace, while others are dismissed as insignificant and ridiculed. But that does not mean they are all meaningless.”

『....』

“Some people discover the key to changing the world in something small. Sometimes, something tiny and insignificant changes everything.”

“The most important thing is to keep fighting in your own way. To refuse to give up and continue confronting whatever stands before you.... That is the conclusion I reached.”

Through the words of an old man who had reached the twilight of his life, Hephaestus had found his own answer.

He might bend, but he would not break.

He would always stand firm.

It was an answer perfectly suited to another name borne by the dwarves:

The Children of Steel and Flame.

The wind could extinguish a blazing fire, but it could also breathe life into a dying ember.

Looking up at the sky, Hephaestus spoke.

“But this little blacksmith still has no idea what he should create. Therefore, I dare offer this prayer to you, my God.”

“What is the new path that they must follow?”

『....』

「Your soul shines brilliantly.」

“Give me your commission, and I will create anything you ask.”

Lee Shin remained silent for a moment.

As he observed the world, he sent a message.

「[Lilith♥]: You want me to come right away? Ah, but I was in the middle of harvesting a rather satisfying amount of despair.」

「[Lilith♥]: Yes, sir! I’ll come running immediately!」

It was time to borrow a little help from his new friend.

And while he was at it—

「A demon is nearby.」

「“You are the natural enemy of demons.”」

「The activation requirements for the skill [True Justice] have been fulfilled.」

He might as well receive a buff too.

「TIP: Huh? You can use it like this...?」

It was a strategy Lee Shin had considered ever since the community function expanded to allow communication with demons.

As long as there was a demon friendly toward him, he could activate [True Justice]—a skill powerful enough to serve as a finishing move—whenever he wanted.

Although he had not been certain it would truly work this way.

「TIP: Wow! Nice play!」

「TIP: ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و」

In any case, it was time to end this quickly.

This meaningless battle that only made everyone miserable.

“Why are you so persistent?”

Mars asked as he rose with a heavy thud.

A strained voice answered from far away.

“...Who knows?”

An old man stood beyond the cloud of dust.

An old man whose years had nearly run their course.

“You cannot kill me,” Mars said.

“That’s true.”

“You cannot stop me either.”

“I can’t deny that.”

“Then why do you continue trying? All you’ve done is knock me down with that insignificant fishing line. Isn’t that all?”

“A few minutes... Do you truly believe anything can change in those few minutes?”

Mars was right.

Santiago had made a dramatic entrance, but there was nothing he could do against Mars.

Forget killing him—he could not even wound him.

All Santiago could do was use his Big Catch skill to knock Mars down and cling to him so that he could not advance.

As Mars had said, all he could do was buy time.

When asked why he continued doing something so meaningless, Santiago answered.

“We don’t know that.”

“You... don’t know?”

“Soldier of steel, you neither age nor eat, so you may not understand. But beings of blood and flesh are destined to die from the moment they are born.”

“....”

“No matter how much they eat, they soon become hungry again. No matter how much they drink, they eventually grow thirsty. No matter how much they rest, they will someday become exhausted.”

“Even the most beautiful woman eventually grows old and haggard, and even the mightiest warrior eventually becomes aged and weak.”

“Living creatures fear hunger, thirst, aging, and death.”

“How imperfect.”

“Yes, they are imperfect. But they continue living despite that. They constantly put food into their stomachs and continually adorn themselves, doing everything they can to survive every moment even though they must someday die.”

“Isn’t that fascinating?”

Mars paused at Santiago’s words.

Then, without realizing it, he muttered,

“...Why do they live that way?”

He was not being sarcastic.

He asked because he genuinely wanted to know.

Why did beings born so imperfectly struggle so fiercely to live?

The Iron Men lived to acquire stronger bodies.

They conquered foreign lands to construct their bodies from better materials. They enslaved craftsmen to obtain bodies of superior workmanship. They fought without end to wield greater power.

That was the reason the Iron Men existed.

Then why did living creatures struggle so desperately to exist?

“Who knows? This old man doesn’t know either.”

“...You don’t know? How is that possible?”

Santiago smiled faintly at Mars’s question.

“It is possible. That is precisely why we live—because we don’t know.”

“Life has a predetermined end, but it has no predetermined answer. That is why we live.”

“If the answer and the destination were already decided, where could anyone find meaning?”

“Life is like sailing across a boundless ocean without a destination. If you decide that your life is meaningless, then it becomes meaningless. If you declare that your life has value, then it becomes valuable.”

“That is what life is.”

“That is the answer this old man found.”

Mars could not understand.

The meaning of life was determined the moment one was born.

That was why Iron Men who failed to acquire strong bodies were despised as failures, and why every Iron Man had to fight regardless of the circumstances.

It had already been decided that this was the answer.

It had been decided by the greatest being of all—the one who had created them.

Mars had seen many failures.

The Great One had said that they were defective creations whose flaws resulted from being born impure.

But Mars knew the truth.

Not all Iron Men were the same.

Some were born with delicacy rather than bravery. Some feared constantly fighting others. Some suffered irreversible injuries in war and became permanently damaged.

Every one of them had different circumstances.

Every one of them had a story of their own.

Every one of them had their own reasons.

They simply had not been accepted within the World of Chains and Shackles.

Meaning and value... are determined by the answers we choose for ourselves.

For some reason, those words continued circling inside Mars’s mind.

They were words he could not cast aside.

As he dwelled on the old man’s voice, Mars was suddenly lifted into the air again and slammed into the ground.

This time, Mars could not tell whether he had fallen because of the old man’s ability or because of what the old man had said.

『Mars! Kill that damned dwarf!』

『Shatter that pathetic body and proudly drench yourself in its blood and flesh! That is the only glory permitted to your kind! The only glory!』

The Great One’s voice resounded.

But it had been a long time since His voice had been capable of completely dominating Mars’s mind.

Countless questions and doubts surged like a storm, along with a voice Mars could no longer ignore.

Mars slowly muttered,

“Then... what do you live for?”

The old man soon answered.

“Children.”

“Children who have not yet been stained by the world. Small beings who possess limitless possibilities and need not live the same life I did.”

“This old man lives for the small and the young.”

“I don’t know how they will grow, how they will live, or what meaning they will choose to live for.”

“And that is precisely why they are more valuable than anything else.”

Small and young beings.

That was a concept Mars did not understand.

Every Iron Man heard their god’s voice from the moment they were born.

Every Iron Man had to become strong.

Every Iron Man had to struggle eternally.

Beneath those commandments, they were created in the form of the Iron Men beloved by the Great One.

Anything else was considered blasphemous.

A world that did not operate that way was almost impossible to imagine.

It truly was.

And then—

『Are your souls truly made of steel?』

An unfamiliar voice echoed in Mars’s ears.

『Victory and growing stronger... If those two things are all that exist, what awaits you at the end?』

It was the voice of a god.

『If you burn and destroy every corner of this vast universe until only your kind remains, would that truly be ideal?』

『Living forever atop all those corpses in bodies that can never break... Is that the ending you desire, Mars?』

It was the voice of a god other than the one Mars served.

『What will you do once you have trampled everyone else and only your kind remains?』

『Will the survivors fight one another without end, following the purpose of your existence, until you determine who among you is the strongest and only one remains?』

『Will that final survivor stand atop the ruins of a destroyed world and enjoy eternal happiness?』

『Is your soul truly made of enough steel to endure such a world?』

A world in which he was completely alone.

Could Mars endure such a world?

Of course not.

Throughout countless World Collisions, Mars had lost comrades with whom he had shared both hardship and joy.

When he lost a close friend, Mars had experienced a sense of loss he could not describe.

The Great One had called it an honorable death, but Mars had felt only emptiness when he realized that someone who had always been beside him was gone.

Rather than honor or envy, he had felt futility and loneliness.

Mars missed the conversations he had shared with his friend more than the moments when he had achieved valuable victories.

They had once trained together to improve their techniques. Yet rather than rejoicing over the useful skills he had acquired, Mars remembered being happy simply because he had spent time with his friend.

He no longer remembered the martial arts or weapon techniques he had learned then.

But he clearly remembered the pointless conversations they had shared beneath the dark night sky after their training.

Steel did not exchange jokes with other steel.

Steel did not miss steel that had disappeared.

Not unless something was trapped inside that shell of steel.

『When you grow stronger than before, does your pleasure come purely from the fact that you have become stronger?』

『Or does it come from the satisfaction of being rewarded after working hard?』

『Or are you happy because others have finally acknowledged you?』

『Perhaps it is a complex emotion born from all those things together?』

Mars could not answer.

He could not give a clear answer to any of those questions.

『There are people in my world who are similar to you.』

『In that world, money is regarded as strength.』

『Most believe that success and accumulating great wealth are the sole purposes of life. They believe that possessing and enjoying more than others is the only reason they exist.』

『Have you still failed to find your answer?』

『Are you still lost?』

The Great One’s voice could no longer be heard.

With only the unfamiliar god’s voice reaching him, Mars spoke for the first time.

“...Yes.”

An answer soon came.

『There is nothing strange about that.』

『Because that is how all souls live.』

『They live that way even though they must inevitably die and cannot take any of their wealth with them beyond death.』

『Only when death finally stands before them do they realize that other things were truly important. Only then do they understand that the world contained many things of greater meaning.』

『You will continue asking questions from now on. And you must always be the one to find their answers.』

Beside Mars, there was something small and fragile.

That small being called Mars “Daddy.”

『I will merely show you a path that someone else has already walked. It may become your answer, or it may give rise to another question.』

At the same time, Mars’s consciousness began to recede.

Far away.

So very far away.

“...Ah.”

***

The next moment, Mars opened his eyes in a world of dreams.

It was a world created through the combined activation of the dream demon Lilith’s authority and Lee Shin’s skill, [True Justice].

It was far more elaborate and realistic than any dream world an ordinary dream demon could create.

As an Iron Man who had never once slept in his entire life, this was Mars’s first dream.

Within that dream, Mars was a living creature made of blood and flesh.

His body was no longer hard, nor could he replace it with another whenever he wished.

Everything felt unfamiliar to Mars.

He still could not understand why the opposing world’s god had cast him into such a dream. Nor could he understand whether even a god should have been capable of creating such an astonishing miracle.

While those questions remained unanswered, the dream surrounding Mars continued.

This lifelike dream took place in the world of humans.

Mars was also human.

In this world, humans called him a firefighter.

Firefighters extinguished fires and rescued people in danger. Since no supernatural powers existed in this world, however, they had to perform their duties through extremely primitive means.

At first, Mars wondered whether dying would allow him to escape this dream.

Strangely, however, he did not want to do that.

He wanted this unfamiliar experience to continue a little longer.

The duties of a firefighter were not difficult.

His frail body posed no problem. As a capable commander who had survived countless brushes with death, Mars quickly understood how to perform the responsibilities assigned to him.

It was far easier than a reconnaissance mission.

Two months passed within the dream.

Mars’s human colleagues praised him generously. Since their praise was surprisingly pleasant to hear, Mars gained some understanding of what the unfamiliar god had meant by “the recognition of others.”

Perhaps the Iron Men were also creatures who craved the acknowledgment of others.

He also learned that a human body could grow stronger through training.

He exercised as the others did and acquired a better body than the one he had begun with. As he looked at his increasingly defined muscles, Mars discovered that he felt satisfaction both from being rewarded for his efforts and from becoming stronger than before.

Emotions were not restricted to a single cause. They could be a combination of many things.

Considering that the feelings he had experienced in reality were not greatly different from those he felt now, Mars realized that the Iron Men were not completely unlike living creatures.

The pleasure experienced by the Iron Men was ultimately a complex emotion as well.

There were some things, however, that he found difficult to understand.

“Daddy.”

Mars had difficulty understanding family.

The Mars within the dream had already formed a family. Strangely, however, he did not live with a human of the opposite sex while raising his child.

Only Mars and a small child who resembled him lived in their cramped home.

That was because the wife Mars had married within the dream had died shortly after giving birth.

Mars wondered how he should treat this tiny child and eventually decided to handle the matter as he had when training soldiers of other races.

He would create a suitable environment in which the child could comfortably sustain its biological functions.

That proved more difficult than expected.

A human infant was far weaker than a lizardman or kobold. It would suddenly develop a fever and burst into tears regardless of whether it was day or night.

Mars constantly had to suppress the question of why living creatures devoted so much care to such a troublesome being.

But this was an opportunity that might never come again.

He was experiencing the life of a living creature.

It might be his only chance.

Despite the many difficulties, Mars continued caring for the child. In the process, he also developed a clear understanding of money.

Currency existed in the World of Chains and Shackles as well. Naturally, it also possessed the concepts of laborers and wages.

Adapting was not difficult.

This life was new in its own way, yet also resembled the reality he had known as an Iron Man.

The greatest difference was the child’s presence.

Mars often experienced emotions he could not explain as he watched the child grow with each passing day.

The child trusted Mars unconditionally.

It could do nothing without him. It was so imperfect and weak that it seemed incapable of surviving even a single day if he disappeared.

To this little human, at least, I seem to have become a god.

It was a blasphemous thought, but what did that matter?

The Great One would already have been furious that Mars had fallen prey to the unfamiliar god’s scheme.

It imitates everything I do.

The child quickly copied Mars’s speech and behavior.

Mars considered that only natural.

To this child, Mars was its entire world.

Mars was the only person from whom it could watch and learn. He was also the only person upon whom it could depend.

Such a being was utterly unfamiliar to Mars.

When only Mars and the child were together in that cramped home, Mars did not need to prove anything.

The child listened carefully to everything he said. It heard him, and it believed him.

Unlike his life as an Iron Man, he did not need to prove his strength or produce achievements at every moment.

To this child, Mars was always the strongest being, the greatest being, and the person who produced the most brilliant accomplishments.

It filled him with an emotion he could not describe.

The child grew steadily.

Before long, she could speak fluently.

She also passed through something called adolescence, during which she occasionally became sensitive and irritable. Mars accepted this after deciding that the effects of biological hormones were similar to those of a drug.

As the years passed, his biological body aged.

While the child continued growing, Mars gradually became old.

He finally understood what it meant to be a being whose death was inevitable.

Around that time, Mars experienced something remarkable.

Mars entered a burning building as usual, but because his body had weakened with age, he made a mistake.

His inadequate response resulted in a severe injury. For the first time, Mars learned how agonizing it was when a body of blood and flesh came into contact with fire.

But what felt even more unfamiliar than the pain was fear.

Strangely, as death approached, Mars became afraid at the thought that his life might end this way.

Why?

As Mars lay in a hospital bed and repeatedly considered the question, he eventually discovered the answer.

If he disappeared, the child would be left alone.

The thought of the child, who could not properly live by herself, gave rise to his fear.

He was also afraid that he would never again see her changing from one moment to the next.

It was a form of fear Mars had never considered before.

Because of his injuries, Mars could no longer work as a firefighter.

Even after Mars developed defects and became what the Iron Men would consider a failure, his child did not abandon him.

Why?

Mars’s child was a woman. She could easily have found another man with whom to live.

Nevertheless, she calmly accepted the burden and cared for Mars.

Mars could no longer walk properly without her help. He even struggled to eat by himself.

But she never once lamented her circumstances.

Mars suddenly remembered the soldiers of the other races—the living creatures he had trampled throughout his life.

Despite being unable to repair their bodies as easily as the Iron Men, those creatures had always rushed passionately onto the battlefield.

Although they did not possess immortal bodies, they sometimes displayed courage surpassing even that of the Iron Men.

Was it because they knew there would be someone to care for them, no matter what injuries they suffered?

But there was still one thing Mars could not understand.

Mars had felt fear in the face of death.

Yet the living creatures from the worlds he had destroyed had often charged forward without fearing even death itself.

Where had their courage come from?

It did not take long for him to discover the answer.

At the age of twenty-eight, Mars’s daughter asked for his permission to marry.

She asked him while they were in the middle of a crosswalk, where the green light was flashing repeatedly.

Mars intended to grant permission without hesitation.

But just as he was about to answer, an enormous truck approached from the other side.

With his damaged body, it was impossible for him to evade it.

Mars pushed his daughter away without hesitation.

There was no uncertainty.

He did not even feel afraid that colliding with the truck would bring all of this to an end.

It felt like the most natural thing in the world.

“Ah.”

And Mars understood.

He realized why those he had killed had been able to display such courage.

Why beings without immortal bodies could throw themselves toward death.

Why there had been neither hesitation nor fear in their eyes.

When Mars regained consciousness, he was lying somewhere on the ground.

His daughter was crying and muttering something.

She was soon to be married.

Mars imagined what her child might look like. He wondered whether she would live in a better home than the one they had shared and whether she would avoid suffering as she had while caring devotedly for him.

He imagined all the things he could not possibly know.

None of them could be known yet.

Everything was unknown.

And as Mars imagined those unknown things, he finally understood the old man’s words.

I don’t know how they will grow, how they will live, or what meaning they will choose to live for.

And that is precisely why they are more valuable than anything else.

Something beautiful because it was unknown.

Something more valuable than anything else for that very reason.

Thus, Mars’s dream ended.

It had been a far shorter life than the one he had lived as an Iron Man.

He had possessed no powerful body, nor had he fulfilled any particularly honorable mission.

But Mars had learned one thing with absolute certainty.

Even such a wretched ending was more radiant than the ending the Great One had offered him.

This life shone more brightly than a life spent endlessly repeating the same struggle, merely exchanging one shell for another, trampling others, and reducing everything to ashes.

Yes, this life....

This world that the god had shown him...

Was greater than his own.

And Mars awoke from the dream.

The dream Lee Shin had shown Mars was not newly invented or fabricated.

It was the life of someone Lee Shin had once truly observed.

“How was it?”

Silence passed for a moment.

After awakening from the dream, Mars slowly answered.

[I realized that my soul is not made of steel.]

Those words carried many meanings.

For some reason, they also sounded bitter.

[And it occurred to me that our ending had been destined for misery from the very beginning. It was only natural when the contents within us were so different from our shells.]

Why had souls of steel not been placed inside their steel bodies?

Would it not have been better for them to be born as emotionless killing machines?

Mars’s voice carried such lamentations.

Lee Shin did not know why Beliar had given the Iron Men emotions either.

If Beliar had truly intended to use them as he did, it would have been better to remove their emotions entirely.

「TIP: A god’s creations resemble their god.」

「TIP: Beliar is an exceedingly emotional Evil God. The Iron Men are the result of his internal emotions being reflected in his creations—his desire for others’ recognition and his desire to surpass everyone else. In that sense, they are creations produced strictly according to the laws of the stars.」

The status window answered Lee Shin’s question for him.

Ultimately, Beliar had forced such an attitude and such cruel goals upon his children despite not possessing a heart of steel himself.

That was what had created the contradiction.

It could be summarized in a single sentence:

Beliar was unqualified to be a god.

[Perhaps... it would be better if the Iron Men disappeared.]

Lee Shin did not know what conclusion Mars had reached within the dream.

Ultimately, that was something each soul had to decide for itself.

But judging by Mars’s current state, his thoughts did not seem to have moved in a positive direction.

Coming to hate oneself at the end of a long period of wandering....

Lee Shin had seen many people reach such a conclusion.

Mars appeared to have arrived at something similar.

Even if Lee Shin left him alone, he would win the World Collision.

Mars’s faith already seemed to have fallen to its lowest point. If Lee Shin abandoned him now, the apocalypse would end, and the World Collision would conclude with Lee Shin’s victory.

Then the World of Chains and Shackles and all its inhabitants would be completely annihilated.

“There is no one who would be better off disappearing.”

That was not what Lee Shin wanted.

“You simply still don’t know.”

Mars sat blankly on the ground and stared up at the sky.

Then someone emerged from behind Santiago, who stood facing him.

It was Hephaestus.

“Keep searching for your answer. If you still cannot find it, it is all right to live without knowing.”

“Until now, you lived for an answer that someone else had already decided. From now on, live to find an answer that you can accept.”

[But it is already too late for us....]

“It isn’t too late. And if it truly is, entrust the future to those who come after you—just as Santiago said.”

[Those who come... after us?]

Mars looked bewildered.

Hephaestus approached and held something out to him.

I didn’t know he could create something like this.

Hephaestus had advanced from a Hero Candidate into a true Hero.

According to the status window, a Hero was born with a powerful talent suited to the theme of their world.

And the defining theme of the [Small but Deadly World] was undoubtedly craftsmanship.

After all, its dwarves were descendants of the ancient Dwarf race.

Astrape, the sacred relic bestowed by Lee Shin.

It amplified the effects of Hephaestus’s traits and skills as the Blacksmith of Flame and allowed him to freely hammer and reshape any metal.

Until now, Hephaestus had used the hammer only to destroy the bodies of the Iron Men.

After advancing into a Hero and acquiring a new authority, however, Hephaestus used Astrape not to destroy something, but to create something.

It was a commission from Lee Shin.

And it was greater than anything Hephaestus had ever created.

「Hephaestus is using his unique skill, [Masterpiece].」

Hephaestus held something translucent in his hands.

It was about the size of his palm. Upon closer inspection, it possessed tiny eyes and a tiny mouth, with a small piece of iron attached to its head.

Mars recognized it immediately.

[...How can this be?]

It was a new Iron Man.

Not an Iron Man who had been born complete, brainwashed by the Evil God’s will and driven toward a twisted purpose from the moment of birth.

It was an infinitely immature and imperfect infant Iron Man.

「Skill: Masterpiece」

「Unique Skill—Hero Exclusive」

「“The greatest blacksmith can create anything.”」

「Effect: Consumes accumulated Eternal Flame to produce a [Masterpiece]. When Astrape, which contains the power of the Creator God, is used, [Life] can be bestowed upon the creation.」

「Currently accumulated Eternal Flame: 0」

Lee Shin presented his own answer to the lost lamb.

No one could know whether it would become a new answer for Mars, or whether Mars and the other Iron Men would use Lee Shin’s answer to discover entirely different paths of their own.

But one thing was certain.

[Just what... are you?]

This was more than enough to give them a new reason to live.

[....]

「Mars is the most influential believer in the [World of Chains and Shackles].」

Status-window messages began appearing.

「The yearning of steel that wandered endlessly through a cold and barren world reaches you.」

Silence passed for a moment.

Mars carefully accepted the infant Iron Man from Hephaestus and stared blankly at it for a long time.

Then he looked up at the sky and spoke.

[I am a soul who knows nothing of how vast the universe truly is. But today, I have become certain of one thing.]

[At least within my world, you are the greatest god, unfamiliar god.]

And then—

「Mars’s faith has fallen to 0.」

「Mars has betrayed his god.」

「The apocalypse has been halted.」

「By the laws of the stars, the god Beliar has lost all influence over Earth No. 22, the [World of Chains and Shackles].」

Those words announced the end of a long battle.

「The collision between Earth No. 444, the [Small but Deadly World], and Earth No. 22, the [World of Chains and Shackles], has ended.」

「“The [Small but Deadly World] is the greater world.”」

「Victor: Lee Shin」

At the same time, they also announced a new beginning.