How a Villain Defies Destiny Chapter 161

 

[You must have felt it too, but my power is superior to magic, yet it falls short compared to divine power.]

 

Meanwhile, she continued her explanation without stopping, even as I stood there stunned.

 

[The reason you had almost no divine power at all was exactly because of that.]

 

Because she had been incomplete.

 

She said that although she could use authority equal to the gods, she had no divine power, which was why it had affected even me, whom she had blessed.

 

Indeed, even after the divine crest appeared on me, I hadn’t been much different from an ordinary person.

 

I couldn’t use the abilities of the god who had given me the blessing like Selene could, and I was so ordinary that I couldn’t even distinguish between divine power, magic power, or holy power.

 

The only fortunate things were that I could absorb Yves Leblanc’s divine power and that the holy relic had reacted to me despite my lack of divine power, allowing me to survive the trial.

 

‘Wait a minute. Then why did the holy relic react to me as well?’

 

While listening to her story and retracing my past actions, a sudden question came to mind.

 

It was from the early days of my possession, when I had almost been sent to the guillotine according to the original story due to Selene’s scheme.

 

Thanks to the holy relic that Enheduane had brought, I had barely escaped execution.

 

However, according to her explanation just now, it should have been impossible for the holy relic to react to me, who didn’t have even a speck of divine power.

 

[The answer is already in your thoughts right now. Didn’t you notice?]

 

‘Yes?’

 

[You absorbed Yves Leblanc’s divine power before the trial, didn’t you?]

 

‘Eh?’

 

[The divine power Fenrir sensed was all Yves Leblanc’s.]

 

Now that I thought about it, when I had first absorbed Yves Leblanc’s divine power, no light had come from me at all.

 

‘Wow, if I hadn’t meddled and offered to help Lord Yves Leblanc, I would have died, according to the original story.’

 

[That won’t happen, so don’t worry. You won’t die.]

 

‘What do you mean by that?’

 

[You received my blessing, even if it’s only half. There’s no way you would die easily.]

 

She let out a bright, cheerful laugh and added, She said the only thing she lacked was divine power.

 

[In other words, like Selene, who received Nanna’s blessing that governs time and gained the ability to turn back time, you, who received my blessing that governs the underworld, also awakened your unique ability the moment the divine mark appeared.]

 

It seemed that I possessed something like immortality.

 

‘But if my head gets cut off, do I come back to life? Or do I possess another body?’

 

[Both are possible, but I probably restored Laura’s body, didn’t I?]

 

‘Why?’

 

[Because she was the child who suffered the most repeatedly. I hoped that, if possible, she could be happy too.]

 

It was unexpected.

 

That even a god could feel compassion.

 

And that thought seemed to have been completely read by her.

 

[Is it that surprising?]

 

Deciding there was no point in hiding it, I answered honestly.

 

‘The only gods I’ve met are Lady Astarte and Lady Nanna, but neither of them seemed to feel even the slightest sympathy for humans.’

 

In fact, when I first met Goddess Astarte, I had thought she was the closest to the image of a god I held, a benevolent savior who punished evil, protected good, and extended a helping hand to humans in despair.

 

But that had been a misunderstanding.

 

Sending me to Kephri wasn’t to stop Nanna’s evil deeds, but simply to send a rescue signal asking for help because she herself was trapped underground.

 

Moreover, judging from Kephri’s attitude, it was highly likely that Astarte hadn’t even asked him to help me stop Selene’s regression.

 

Probably because, to Goddess Astarte, the suffering of a mere human was none of her concern.

 

[Sorry to interrupt the serious atmosphere, but just so you know, Kephri is also a god. To be precise, he is a divine incarnation.]

 

I thought there couldn’t be any more shocking news.

 

She didn’t even give me time to dwell on the sense of betrayal I had felt in the cabin and continued dropping one bombshell after another.

 

‘Didn’t the oath prevent gods from directly interfering in the surface world?’

 

Of course, when I learned that Kephri possessed divine power far surpassing Selene’s, I had briefly suspected he might be a divine incarnation.

 

However, the oath made between the gods seemed stronger than an oath that could change according to a god’s will, so I had simply assumed there was something I didn’t know and brushed it off.

 

[Kephri was born before the oath was made, so the gods agreed to make an exception for him, apparently?]

 

‘Why is that a question?’

 

[That oath was made before I became a god.]

 

‘Ah…’

 

I had momentarily forgotten that she had been born later than the existing gods, and let out a small sigh.

 

At the same time, curiosity about why only she had been born later began to creep up in a corner of my mind.

 

‘Still, since it’s a question that deviates from the main topic, I probably shouldn’t ask…’

 

That rational thought followed, but it seemed she had already noticed.

 

[It’s okay to be curious. I was going to tell you all of this anyway. The truth is, I was human.]

 

‘That’s impossible…’

 

I realized that everything she had said until now had been nothing compared to this.

 

It was far more shocking than the fact that she didn’t know Nanna’s goal, that my immortality was my unique ability, or that Kephri was a divine incarnation.

 

Since I was currently in a soul state, I had no mind to lose, yet I genuinely felt as if my consciousness had gone hazy for a moment.

 

She, however, continued speaking without concern.

 

[The reason the gods suddenly issued an oracle and branded magicians as disasters was all because of me.]

 

Because she had been a magician. Because a human had become a god.

 

The existing gods did not welcome the birth of a new god, so they killed all the magicians on the surface to prevent another being like her from appearing again.

 

They labeled anything related to magic as heresy and tried to erase even the traces of magicians.

 

‘That’s too… cruel. Just for that kind of reason…’

 

Was it because I was human?

 

I didn’t know how threatening a new god was to the existing ones, but I couldn’t understand them at all for driving innocent magicians to death.

 

[Exactly! When I later learned the truth, I was so dumbfounded too.]

 

Even though she was now a god, she, who had once been human like me, clicked her tongue in sympathy and chimed in agreement.

 

[Anyway, the existing gods despised me terribly, and I, who had just become a god and knew nothing, was immediately driven down to the underworld.]

 

Since she had lived alone in the underworld the entire time without any interaction with them, she said she couldn’t easily guess what schemes Nanna might have.

 

[At first, I thought Nanna was a villain who enjoyed watching humans desperately struggle to escape their suffering… But the more I watch, the stranger it seems.]

 

‘In what way?’

 

[For one, it feels like she has a clear purpose.]

 

That was something Nanna had also revealed to Selene.

 

‘She only gave vague hints like whether I was doing well or straying from her intentions…’

 

As I recalled the scenes I had seen on the screen, she interrupted my thoughts.

 

[What you saw was also part of my memories. And as you know, gods are generally selfish.]

 

They were gods who felt no guilt even after killing innocent humans and treated human suffering as entertainment.

 

She said that at first, she had thought Selene’s repeated time loops were simply Nanna’s whim.

 

It was because gods who lived in eternity, unbound by time and space, sometimes fell into unbearable ennui.

 

[So every time Selene suffered, I thought the vague hints were meant to give her hope that she could end the regression, only to plunge her deeper into despair.]

 

‘Oh… That makes sense.’

 

Thanks to learning that gods had no human-like morals or goodwill, I could sympathize with her argument.

 

[But after continuing to watch, it seemed Nanna didn’t care what kind of reaction Selene showed.]

 

‘So it wasn’t just giving humans trials out of boredom?’

 

[Right. Rather, it looks like she’s conducting some kind of experiment using humans without breaking the oath.]

 

‘What kind of experiment could Selene’s romance possibly be?’

 

I was genuinely curious.

 

Observing human love wouldn’t let her conquer the world or make her stronger than the other gods of equal rank.

 

[I didn’t know either, so I stayed quiet and watched for a while, but eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and called you into this world.]

 

‘Do you think I… can stop Selene’s regression?’

 

Because of the overwhelming flood of shocking information, I had momentarily forgotten.

 

The question I had absolutely wanted to ask the being who had possessed me.