Chapter 37

Bernard was worried. Out of habit, he began polishing his new staff, crafted from dragon bone—though it was already gleaming. His unease stemmed from an uncompleted quest, the very one he had assigned to Saji in the city of Ymir. After the ritual, the boy was supposed to be sent to Hell. And once he died there, the quest would automatically close, marked as failed.

But eight months had passed, and the quest remained open. That meant one thing: the boy was still alive!

The worst kind of enemy wasn’t just any foe—it was one whose sole purpose was to kill you. What they had done was necessary. All the other participants had succeeded. Ten new gods had been initiated. Everyone else had escaped after completing the ritual. The Witnesses left no traces.

It had been fifteen hundred years since humanity learned the truth about other worlds. A group of gods, seeking to leave this one, had discovered a method from one of the Witnesses: Die as a god, be reborn in this world, pass through the realm of the gods, and reach the Island of Freedom—where a portal awaited.

"Beyond it, you will find answers to all your questions." Bernard still remembered Izumi’s words, even now.

At first, everyone mocked the Witnesses. They joked, assigning them absurd tasks. But gradually, they grew stronger. Izumi was so powerful that even the gods couldn’t gauge his level. He proved that killing a god was possible. Bernard himself had volunteered for that fight. Gods believed in facts—no one would die just to test a Witness’s claim.

Observers of the battle calculated that Izumi simultaneously wielded over four thousand streams of consciousness. The fight lasted nearly a day—only because the Witness chose to demonstrate the gap in their strength. Bernard had tried everything: shattering Izumi’s shields, launching astral attacks on his mental form, scorching the air, and attempting to incinerate him. But Izumi simply ignored it all. He breathed magic—literally. It didn’t matter. Even underwater, he remained unfazed for nearly an hour, enduring strikes without reaction.

The other gods sought to punish the arrogant Witness. Their combined magical assault scorched a desert into existence and bored kilometers deep into the earth. The heat and mana resonance were so intense that fire elementals dissipated the moment they formed.

Then, Izumi killed Bernard’s avatar with a single strike. It was madness. He lifted his power restrictions, annihilating all life within ten kilometers. The mana resonance boiled under his might. From the astral plane, he drew a 130-meter-long stake and hurled it into Bernard’s avatar—killing both his physical and mental forms at once. Even now, millennia later, the stake radiates an aura of mental damage so potent that not even gods dare touch it.

When Bernard revived, he remembered nothing. One moment, he was a god; the next, a mortal. Returning to one of his temples, he learned that years had passed. His followers had turned to other gods.

True to his word, Izumi waited for Bernard’s return.

"When the time comes, I enter this world and take the chosen. Now, those chosen are your Witnesses. I arrived the moment they showed promise. Akashi refused to leave alone—once he gathers his group, we will depart your world. You may leave as well. From this day, Bernard, you are a Witness, like them. Your first revival cycle is one year. After that, you will possess their abilities… and may assign quests, sharing your knowledge."

Now, what terrified Bernard was the possibility that the boy might return from a place of no return. Witnesses had raided Hell before, but even they had to replace their mental bodies if they died there. Banishment to Hell was the ultimate punishment. But what if someone escaped?

What if the boy could send Bernard to Hell? The thought chilled him. No god had seen Saji since—meaning he was still there.

A god couldn’t leave the world they were bound to—that was why rebirth as a Witness was necessary. One of Izumi’s conditions was that gods must fall in battle to the new wave of Witnesses from other worlds. No intentional surrender.

"The weak will not pass." His words left no doubt: he wasn’t joking.

And now, a new wave had arrived. They hailed from the same era and world as the previous Witnesses. The plan was in motion—new gods had emerged. They were the old gods’ hope for rebirth… and escape from this world.