The path to the outside existed in the Fifth Forest.
A massive forest where Giants lived.
Walking through the Fifth Forest for the first time in a long while, I recalled the battle that had once taken place here.
‘Black Order.’
The followers of the Greed Demon King had invaded the forest, intending to use Zeit to create Chimeras and dominate this place.
Back then, I hadn’t thought much of it.
But thinking about it now, the Greed Demon King knew exactly what was in the First Forest.
“Hmm.”
In the memories the Goddess handed over, there wasn’t much regarding the Demon King.
It made sense.
Thousands of years had passed since the Apostles of the Six Dragon Gods invaded this world and usurped the Goddess’s position.
In the end, the only way to find out was to meet him and ask.
“Did he say it would take about 50 years?”
Turkan had mentioned that it would take that much time to open a door from the Demon Realm and cross over.
Roughly 30 years seemed to have passed since then.
If necessary, I could always go find him myself.
Though the Demon Realm was unfamiliar since I hadn’t been there yet, I had Turkan, who had become a Demon King.
Snicker.
How would the Greed Demon King react when he saw Turkan, his former subordinate, coming to kill him as a Demon King?
“I’m curious.”
As I entertained various thoughts on the back of the Wyvern King, I reached the boundary of the forest.
It was a boundary I couldn’t cross before.
But as I became a Lesser Deity, the restrictions were lifted, and I could now come and go as I pleased.
Furthermore, I could now set it so that only those I permitted could enter this forest.
I no longer had to worry about the Black Order invading like they did in the past.
‘I don’t need to worry about the forest.’
That fact alone expanded my freedom of movement.
“Let’s go.”
【 We are crossing! 】
The Wyvern King flapped his wings vigorously and crossed the boundary.
He flew quickly toward the vast forest visible ahead. Then, the moment we passed a certain section, the scenery changed.
A vast field where not a single tree could be seen.
Aside from the grass, not a single trace of life could be felt. It was a bizarre space where life and death seemed to coexist.
The Wyvern King flew straight across the field.
As 30 years had passed, all the traces left behind from when the Black Order invaded the forest had vanished.
“How much further from here to the place where you met the Apostle?”
【 If we fly for 1 hour from here, a small village will appear. Past that village, if we fly for another 30 minutes, there is a medium-sized village. That is where I felt the Apostle’s presence. 】
“Was there no pursuit?”
【 No. I do not know if they simply couldn’t sense our energy or if they knew and ignored us. There was no pursuit. 】
If the Apostle had sensed the Wyvern King’s energy, they would have already swarmed here to find the Sleeping Forest.
Since they hadn’t, it seemed they hadn’t detected our energy.
‘It seems there’s a difference in skill.’
Since the range of perception varies depending on skill level, the information I could gather from this was that the rank of the Apostle the Wyvern King met was somewhere between the lowest and low rank.
“I should meet that fellow first.”
The field was so vast it felt immense.
It was impressive that the Black Order had found the location of the Sleeping Forest in a place where only grass grew and nothing else existed.
Even though the Wyvern King was not slow, we had to fly for 1 hour before a small village appeared.
‘I can see the Goddess’s intention.’
Why she made a place like this.
Why she hid in a place like this.
Searching for the path leading to the Sleeping Forest in a vast field of this size was truly like finding a needle in a haystack.
It was understandable why the Apostles had given up on searching for traces of the Goddess.
However, after realizing this, another question arose.
Why hadn’t the Black Order handed this information over to the Apostles?
“There’s a lot to find out.”
I turned my gaze toward the small village.
The green fields disappeared, and a pathetic forest with sparsely planted trees appeared.
Inside, there were humans living in small huts.
Their appearances were as pathetic as the forest.
The clothes they wore were so worn out it wouldn’t be strange to call them mere scraps of cloth, their hair was disheveled, and they were all thin, as if they hadn’t eaten properly.
I stepped forward to try and talk to them.
I deliberately made the sound of footsteps as I approached.
Upon hearing my steps, the humans recoiled with terrified expressions.
Step.
Step.
The middle-aged man at the front raised a wooden club while the others behind him quickly fled.
“I didn’t come to fight.”
“…”
“I’d like to talk for a moment. Is that all right? If you’d like, I can give you something to eat.”
The middle-aged man, who had been wary without answering, relaxed his guard slightly at the mention of food.
“Give us the food first.”
With a snap of my fingers, I took out the emergency rations Balak had made.
Rice balls made with various ingredients.
And even light drinks.
I placed them gently right where the man was standing. Still holding the club, the middle-aged man picked up a rice ball and put it in his mouth.
He chewed and swallowed quickly.
“…Haa!”
He froze, his eyes widening as if the taste was unexpected.
After being lost in emotion for a moment, the man checked his body.
It seemed he had eaten it first to check if it was poisoned.
“You can eat it.”
“…”
The people who had tried to flee earlier approached cautiously and ate the rice balls and drinks.
At first, they took a small bite warily.
But once they tasted it, they began to shove it into their mouths like madmen.
They quickly polished off what I had given them.
Looking at their expressions, it seemed insufficient, so I took out more and handed it to them.
“Eat as much as you like. There’s more.”
The middle-aged man then asked cautiously, “Are you… by any chance, from the Heavenly Dragon Tribe?”
“Heavenly Dragon Tribe? What’s that?”
Thinking I was pretending not to know, he raised his guard once again.
“…I apologize. If you’re just doing this for fun, please, just play with me alone.”
Terror was etched in the man’s eyes.
A massive fear that something had carved into him.
I suspected it was likely something the beings called the Heavenly Dragon Tribe had instilled in humans.
“I want to hear about the Heavenly Dragon Tribe. If you give me a proper explanation, I’ll give you more food.”
“…The Heavenly Dragon Tribe is the noble bloodline that rules this world. They are great beings and gracious ones who allow us humans to live on this land.”
“Where are they?”
“…Even I do not know that. The place where the Heavenly Dragon Tribe lives is a place that no one can enter or even look at.”
From the sound of it, the Heavenly Dragon Tribe seemed to be the Apostles ruling this world, and the humans appeared to be living as the Apostles’ slaves.
In that case, had the Black Order been destroyed?
“Do you know about the Black Order?”
“Yes. Those wicked bastards do not know the grace of the Heavenly Dragon Tribe! They are a force that accepted the murky darkness to slander the heaven-like Heavenly Dragon Tribe.”
So the Black Order was a faction opposing the Heavenly Dragon Tribe.
I had found out why the information about the Sleeping Forest hadn’t been passed to the Apostles’ side.
While I had more questions, it didn’t seem like I would get the answers from the man before me.
His knowledge seemed limited, and he was so gripped by fear of the Heavenly Dragon Tribe that it didn’t seem possible to get proper information.
“Do you know where the Black Order is?”
“…If you go straight this way, there will be a village. That is one of the Black Order’s strongholds.”
After confirming the direction the middle-aged man pointed, I took out more rice balls and handed them over.
I left them behind and moved on.
I used Telepathy to contact the Wyvern King, who was waiting nearby. When I asked for the location of the village where the Apostle had been, it matched the direction the man had just given me.
“I’ll handle the rest from here on my own. You go back.”
【 Understood. 】
I used Fly magic to move quickly.
In an instant, I crossed the space and the medium-sized village the Wyvern King mentioned appeared.
Unlike the first village I saw, the houses were certainly a bit larger, and there were many things that gave it the feel of a proper village.
‘There are a lot of people.’
I used Search magic to find the presence of the Apostle. A massive building, the tallest in the village.
I felt the presence of an Apostle in a place that looked like a temple.
‘Lesser.’
Unless I revealed myself first, that fellow couldn’t find me.
I erased my presence and used Stealth.
After completely erasing myself from this world, I moved into the village.
I looked around as I walked.
Humans who didn’t seem much different from the ones I saw earlier existed here as well.
‘Humans are enslaving humans.’
Those wearing black priestly robes were harassing and toying with those dressed shabbily.
‘The priests of the Black Order.’
Every time they toyed with the slaves, negative energy flowed out from the slaves.
Fear, despair, and resignation.
These energies turned into Demonic Power and flowed into the priests’ bodies.
“You bastards! Is this all you’ve got? This won’t do. You need to be beaten more to snap out of it.”
“I should go play with your daughter.”
“I… I’m sorry!”
“It’s fine. No need to be sorry. I’ve already made up my mind.”
The slaves couldn’t even bring themselves to talk back to the priests. They simply bowed their heads with expressions of total defeat.
The fear was engraved so deeply that they couldn’t even think of dying.
I began to understand, one by one, why the middle-aged man I met earlier had been so extremely wary and why they lived in such a place despite starving.
“Fire.”
I used a light spell to set the priests’ heads on fire.
“Aaaaagh!”
“What is this!”
“Bring water! I said bring water!”
“It won’t go out with water!”
“Bring the Black Holy Water!”
The village became noisy with the sudden commotion.
Knights rushed out from inside the temple and poured black water that felt like Demonic Power onto the priests’ heads.
However, it was useless.
The flames blooming on their heads did not go out and instead consumed the priests.
The priests were burned black.
The knights drew their swords as they looked at the surrounding slaves.
“What did you do?”
“We… we don’t know anything.”
“Did you come into contact with the Martial God Religion?”
“No!”
“Lies! Who else but those people would do something like this? Drag these fellows away.”
Taking advantage of the chaos, I moved inside the temple.
Thick Demonic Power was flowing from within.
I couldn’t even guess how much they had exploited the slaves’ negative energy to harvest it.
‘Is it that way?’
Following the Apostle’s energy, a hidden space appeared. Following a path that wouldn’t be easily discovered, I arrived at a small clearing.
A corpse lay fallen in front of the clearing.
They hadn’t even been able to close their eyes, as if they had been taken down in an instant. I felt the Apostle’s energy from the corpse.
‘An Apostle serving the White Dragon God.’
The identity of the Dragon God ruling this world was revealed. As I walked further into the clearing, I saw two people.
An Apostle in white armor with small horns growing from his head.
In front of him, a handsome man with blond hair was kneeling. The Apostle grabbed the man’s hair and curled his lips into a smirk.
“Have you decided?”
“…Our humans will not join hands with you.”
“…Kgh, fine. Then die. These pathetic species never take an opportunity even when it’s given.”
I released my presence and looked at the Apostle.
“Can someone help me understand exactly what’s going on here?”