Chapter 1077
Episode 254: The Selves of the Sun God (Part 1)
June 12, 1804.
Since securing Beltian, Jin wasted no time and headed straight for the western sea of the Lutero Federation to support Kinzello.
However, he didn’t bring all his troops from the Beltian battle.
Ban, Ameris, and Lucy stayed behind to stabilize Beltian’s restraints and move him to the designated location where the cathedral’s power source should be.
The remaining forces were redeployed across the territory to prepare for Ziphl’s retaliatory massacres against civilians. So only three of them went west: Jin, Murakan, and Bligiet.
“Ah, this hurts my pride. We’re just getting started, and you guys have already captured Beltian and come to help?” Orgal remarked as he watched Jin and his companions disembark from the flagship Sara.
Orgal knew how to summon the selves of the Sun God who had ceased to exist, thanks to his experience in battles across multiple dimensions and his own solar energy. But he wasn’t as fast as Bligiet.
That’s why Nepdol was only just beginning to awaken.
“Well, what’s there to be proud of? Our Kinzello’s always been busy getting beaten by you guys anyway. I guess it’s better for my sanity to just think of it as a good thing. Since it’s come to this, let’s capture Nepdol even faster than Beltian,” Orgal said, downplaying himself, but Bligiet was stunned by his abilities.
“I never imagined a mortal could find a Sun God who had ceased to exist. Impressive, Orgal Remilias. Not even Jin or Ban here could pull that off.”
“Compared to you, the creator of this world, I’m insignificant, but I’ve lived quite diligently across many dimensions. Now, let’s wake him up. Everyone, prepare for battle—and if you haven’t been to the bathroom yet, go now. Tsk, seeing Beltian, the self of destruction, get beaten so one-sidedly, Nepdol won’t be much different. He even has primordial memories.”
“Nepdol will communicate much better. Maybe we won’t have to be as cruel as we were with Beltian.”
Orgal then began releasing an invisible energy into the sea, just as Bligiet had done when awakening Beltian.
“Phaaaah!”
The entire sea trembled, and whirlpools bloomed like flowers all around.
Within seconds, the massive whirlpools were dyed with solar energy, rising like dragon spirals. The sunlight poured out, instantly bathing the entire ocean in a dazzling golden glow.
“Wow, what a spectacle. Absolutely beautiful.”
“Did a mortal… really wake me?”
A voice echoed from the air—it was Nepdol.
Soon, he appeared, surprisingly in a form resembling an octopus.
His smooth, golden head emerged first, cutting through the sea, followed by equally radiant tentacles rising beside it.
“I still can’t get used to how this guy looks. They say he takes this form because he’s the creature who loves the sea the most.”
“That’s right, Orgal.”
“But surely there were cooler forms than an octopus. Like a whale, maybe…”
While the group was momentarily stunned by Nepdol’s appearance, he scratched his head with two nearby tentacles and quickly assessed the situation.
“Bligiet, another self to recreate the world with. What’s going on? Why are you bound to mortals and helping them?”
Unlike Beltian, Nepdol didn’t react with immediate hostility.
Jin and the others kept their weapons holstered for now.
“Dear Nepdol, I woke you from a long slumber to show you something.”
“Show me something…? No, that’s—”
“Yes, primordial memories.”
“Ugh… sob…!”
Compared to the self of destruction, the self of reconstruction was more vulnerable to primordial memories.
Jin recalled what Bligiet had said hours ago and shook his head.
“Though they’re vulnerable right after awakening from a state of non-existence… it seems the Sun God’s selves suffer from severe depression.”
Nepdol wiped tears repeatedly with his glowing, octopus-like tentacles.
The group felt an odd sense of unease watching this giant golden octopus with human-like eyes and tears wiping away like a person.
“He’s kind of cute, don’t you think, kid? Strawberry Pie secretly likes cute things. I want to show it to her once he’s safely restrained.”
“Yeah, she’d probably like that…”
For a while, the shimmering solar energy flickered like a rainbow as Nepdol broke down in tears.
“Nepdol, do you remember? We created this world because we were lonely. And we felt love. That love was perfected precisely because the world was imperfect. All existence has flaws, so the ability to love each other is an unchanging truth from the beginning until now—even before we scattered like this…”
“Sniff… y-yeah, Bligiet. Love is about filling each other’s rough edges and empty spaces. You can only get in where there’s a gap…”
At that, Bligiet wiped her nose with her thumb and stepped forward, extending her hand.
The sight of the ordinary-sized Bligiet reaching out to shake hands with the massive monster-like Nepdol was strangely moving.
“Nepdol, if you’ve rediscovered that precious feeling, then join me, join us. There’s no need to act like the destructive selves when we rebuild the world—you and I.”
Slowly, the hands and tentacles of the two Sun Gods moved closer.
But just as their hands and tentacles were about to touch, Nepdol suddenly lashed out, striking Bligiet like a fly.
“Ugh.”
“Cut the crap, you crazy bastard! Yes, love is beautiful because imperfect beings do it. But what’s reality? How have the mortals we created treated each other? They hated, killed, and insulted one another over trivial reasons! Such creatures don’t deserve to love or even understand it. This world must be remade!”
Bang! Splash! Crash!
As Nepdol shouted in fury, his tentacles relentlessly battered Bligiet.
Each time the sea churned violently from the blows, Bligiet bounced and sank like a fish.
“Ouch… that must hurt. In more ways than one.”
“Why are all creators like this? Immortality doesn’t seem to help much.”
“Graaah! Nepdol, I tried to treat you well since you’re also a self of reconstruction, but no! You’re my number two subordinate now!”
Bligiet shouted, forcing the primordial memories back into Nepdol’s eyes.
“Ugh, sob.”
Nepdol was overwhelmed by intense sorrow again, defenseless.
The alliance and Kinzello’s members reluctantly drew their weapons.
“Jin, how long until the restraint equipment can be reused?”
“Two days.”
“So we have to fight nonstop for two days. Let’s think of it as practice for coordination—we’ll have to watch each other’s backs a lot from now on. Except for you, I’ve coordinated with the other four comrades almost entirely.”
Jin didn’t answer but quietly observed Orgal.
Though this wasn’t the first time he’d seen Orgal fight since their alliance, it was the first time he saw him give his all.
Clad in a dense aura like armor, reminiscent of Helluram’s, Orgal leapt toward Nepdol.
His follow-up slash was so perfect that even Jin’s eyes widened in surprise.
“All those countless battles in other dimensions have been perfectly forged into this single sword.”
Each time Orgal swung, Nepdol’s massive tentacles were effortlessly severed.
Before solar energy could regenerate the wounds, soldiers from the Abyss Legion appeared out of nowhere, clinging to the injuries.
Orgal Remilias.
He was clearly the mortal who had fought the most battles across all dimensions.
“If he wanted, he could make our alliance suffer as much as the Tower of Stories.”
Jin felt relieved that Orgal had come on his own to form an alliance.
Though he didn’t fully consider him a ‘comrade,’ he felt it was safe to trust him to some extent.
Especially to face Ziphl, the Unified Ziphl, and the great evils.
Jin naturally fell into Orgal’s attack trajectory and began coordinating their strikes.
“Oh, our synergy is good from the start. I based it on the tendencies of Siron and Luna I’ve experienced before. Good choice.”
“Looks like if we keep hitting him like we did with Beltian, shrinking him down and subduing him, I won’t have to stay here for two whole days. What worries me more is the possibility of Ziphl and Ganesto barging in again, but they were already stretched thin during Beltian’s fight, so they probably won’t be a factor.”
“That’s true. If we capture Nepdol too, we’ll have more Sun God selves than Ziphl. But Bligiet, Beltian, and Nepdol combined still don’t compare to Malugia.”
“Still, we can control these three selves fairly easily, whereas Ziphl’s Malugia… Lady Elona is like a ticking time bomb in some ways, according to Bligiet.”
“Let’s hope that bomb explodes in our favor.”
Jin, Murakan, Orgal, and Kinzello leisurely took on Nepdol.
It took less than five hours to shrink him down to a size where he could be restrained.
“Kyuuuk, kyuu…”
Unlike Beltians, the miniaturized Nepdol kept its octopus form intact.
Now transformed into a golden octopus about the size of a watermelon, Nepdol looked so adorably cute that it almost felt wrong to keep fighting.
“Orgal, Murakan and I should probably head back now.”
[Yeah, fighting alongside you was pretty fun. I’m leaving Bligiet here. We’ll need to keep an eye on Nepdol together until the restraint gear arrives.]
“Are you seriously entrusting me with the two aspects of the Sun God and then just leaving?”
Orgal’s eyes flared the moment Jin answered, ready to shout that he still didn’t trust me.
But Jin caught the reaction, smirked, and replied lightly, “Just kidding. I trust you to handle things—finish this up well, Orgal.”