Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

It would be a stretch to say that all of the Trials were clearly connected. But there was a clear connection between some of them. The second and fourth Trials had been especially related. The second Trial had given the entrants the opportunity to study deities of the past, and the fourth Trial had made them assemble a puzzle made in the deities' image.

Only some of them made or got a statue to make. Only those who had seemingly spent a lot of time inside specific statutes did.

Zach was one of them. He spent a lot of time inside Soara's statue and during the fourth Trial, he assembled a figurine in Soara's image. That figurine was currently resting in his pocket. He took it out.

A king in an empty world.
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That was what he had started looking for when he thought of the empty throne in the empty and sealed throne room.

It could be something else. An imprisoned king. A sealed king. A lonely king. It felt like it could be a million different things.

Zach held up the figurine of the robed deity.

At the same time, it felt like the throne belonged to Soara.

A king in an empty world.

That could be reinterpreted.

"...A ruler in a dead world."

In the second Trial, the entrants had seen all the other deities die. They had seen the ordinary, non-deities die to those aberrant monsters.

If the deities, who, reasonably speaking, were the strongest around, failed to defend and died, it was logical to assume that everything and everyone failed to defend and die. The aberrant monsters had killed everything in their mad rampage.

A dead world. An empty world.

However, there was one deity they had not seen die. The last deity. The deity of Death and Transcendence.

Soara of Death and Transcendence in a dead world.

Who else could rule a dead world if not a deity of death?

Zach walked up to the throne with the figurine in both hands. It seemed a little weird.

How would he have passed this Trial if he hadn't brought the figurine along with him?

Maybe carving a new one of stone from one of the pillars?

Zach didn't know. That was the only reason he hesitated in putting the figurine on the throne.

Yanael and Alzara couldn't say anything. They didn't know, either. They couldn't find a reason to advise against putting the figurine of Soara on the throne. But they also couldn't come up with something to support it.

In the end, it was all up to Zach.

He could wait a little. He wasn't in a rush since he had world essence energy to keep him from going hungry. There should still be a lot of time left before the next school year starts. He could take his time and see if he could come up with something else.

But it would just be a waste of time.

Now that he had the idea of putting Soara on the throne, his mind wouldn't let it go or let anything replace it.

Zach took a quick, determined breath before gently slamming the figurine down onto the throne.

After a moment, a deep and heavy sigh rang out in the room.

Zach looked around, startled. That sounded ominous. He didn't see any changes in the room. He turned to look at the figurine again to see if something was happening with that.

It was safe to say something had happened.

The figurine was gone. In its place was Soara.

Zach was overwhelmed.

The deity was taller than him, but not by much. The throne was on a stone dais slightly above the floor he was standing on, but Soara was sitting down.

Zach felt like he was an ant in front of a giant. His eyes widened and threatened to roll back in his head. His mind couldn't comprehend the existence and presence of a deity. It wasn't something a mortal mind could endure.

But Zach's eyes snapped back down. He hadn't lost his mind or consciousness. He kneeled.

Alzara and Yanael stepped in front of Zach and shouldered some of the pressure to ease the burden on their master. The only one they kneeled to was Zach. They looked at Soara with defiant gazes. However, they couldn't look at Soara's face.

It was veiled, but even just by trying, the pressure would be too much. As powerful as they were, and as non-mortal as they were by being familiars, a deity was on another level.

<Young man…Why did you not take this throne for yourself?> A soft voice, like a whisper in an old house, creeped around the room and crawled into Zach's ears.

He felt like he was about to lose it again. There was something about the voice that made his life force flicker like a candle in the wind.

"...It felt like something bad would happen if I did."

<Indeed. You would have had to prove yourself worthy of it by fighting the—by fighting the remainder of your natural life. If you had endured without going crazy, you would have inherited all there is to inherit, received all there is to receive, and achieved all there is to achieve.>

Zach's eyes widened. The only thing that kept him from passing out under the barrage of powerful words was the realization that he had made the right choice. Even if Yanael and Alzara had accompanied him, he felt like he would have gone crazy if he had been forced to fight for the remainder of his natural life.

Fighting for just several hours was exhausting. Fighting for more than a day seemed like it would take all he had. More than that? How? For the remainder of his natural life? Impossible.

The only thing that piqued his interest was what he would receive if he did it.

"..." Zach didn't know what to say.

<Now, you have forfeited that chance, young man. Or do you wish to give it a try?>