LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 83
In the Primordial World, there was only chaos.
A massive force within a star, endlessly cycling clusters of starlight. From within, the largest fragment broke away, taking on form and will.
Daughter of the World.
First Goddess.
She whispered to the tiny starlights looking at her in the chaos where nothing was predetermined, “The world was divided into sky and land.” Hearing this, the tiny starlights believed they were standing on the ground and gazing at the sky for the first time.
“Daughter of the World. Then what flows over there?”
“That is the sea.”
“Daughter of the World. Then what is that heat over there?”
“That is fire.”
“Daughter of the World. Then what is the warmth that arises when we are together?”
“That is love.”
As the Daughter of the World shared knowledge about the world with the shapeless starlights, her power rapidly diminished. As the stars began to change their perception of the world, it consumed the strength akin to creating the universe.
After exchanging a thousand questions with the starlights, the Daughter of the World became weaker than before.
The image of the world that the starlights gazed upon was no longer endless chaos.
The starlights frolicked, inscribing what the goddess had taught them onto the world. They transformed themselves to resemble what they believed to be the most beautiful—the appearance of the Daughter of the World.
They were no longer formless starlights, but humans with golden and silver eyes.
With everything imagined coming to be, there were no boundaries between dreams and reality. In the golden and silver starlight, there was no separation between life and death.
An age where everyone emitted starlight.
They called the first age [Age of Gold].
The Daughter of the World who guided them was called the Goddess of [Start].
As everyone could remember when spoken, they left no records. Since anything desired materialized at mere thought, they made no objects. They feared not death, for even if their bodies crumbled from their lifespan, they would be reborn with the starlight. They desired nothing else, as they believed their own form to be the most beautiful.
The First Goddess loved the first humanity, shaped by her words and reflecting her image. An era where the boundaries between humans and gods were blurred. They frolicked together in the same world.
For 20,000 years, the goddess simply loved humanity.
“……..”
“……..”
Yuki and I sat beneath the lighthouse, calming our emotions and quietly listened to the goddess’s explanation.
Age of Gold.
It was clearly a tale of beautiful humanity frolicking in an ideal world, loved by the goddess. Yet, for some reason, my heart didn’t race.
‘Didn’t they live aimlessly, consuming what the First Goddess provided for 20,000 years?’
And the world where the first humanity, created by the goddess, existed looked like…
“Listening to the explanation, the first humanity seems like magical girls…”
Yuki mumbled, her eyes puffy from crying.
Yuki was still angled awkwardly, possibly holding negative feelings towards the goddess. But the goddess was completely oblivious to such intentions.
“That is correct. The First Goddess structured the evolution ritual.”
“Evolution ritual? [Magical Girl HAZARD]?”
“Yes, that name was also decided by the First Goddess just before she burned herself away.”
“……..”
Even after hearing that I came from a place similar to this world and learned about its future, the goddess maintained her expressionlessness.
“The Age of Gold soon met its demise. The first humanity, who had lived in order for too long, desired to return to chaos.”
The first humanity, worn out and in despair after 20,000 years of living. The joy and pleasure that lasted eternally became numbness, filled only with emptiness and pain.
The first humanity exploded countless starlights to create their own death, believing it could end their emptiness. They thought that if they wounded the perfectly circulating star, their eternal life could also come to an end.
Death.
Rejecting the world created by the goddess, the first humanity inflicted wounds upon the stars to create death.
Due to the will of humanity rejecting the goddess, the Goddess of [Start] lost the right to intervene in this world and was banished to another dimension.
From the explosion of the massive starlights, a fragment rose, and the second Daughter of the World was born.
An age where humanity consumed all starlight and lost the god-like powers, and the concept of death began to dominate. They called this era the [Age of Bronze].
The second Daughter of the World was called the Goddess of [Death].
In that place, humanity began to fight over now-limited resources. The battles escalated, but through the robust bodies still holding remnants of starlight, many legends were forged. As the Age of Bronze ended, the [Age of Heroes] began, where humanity began to yearn for the legends born from that place, rather than the battles.
With the age that worshipped and feared death itself coming to an end, the Goddess of [Death] lost her right to intervene in the world and was banished.
In her place, a third fragment rose and the Goddess of [War] was born.
After the Age of Heroes ended, humanity, now devoid of even the remnants of starlight within them, became frail. Even if limbs were severed, they could not regenerate, and with vulnerability to illness and poison, humanity began to fear plagues rather than wars. They focused on creating tools and weapons to protect themselves. They called this era the [Age of Iron].
With the age that worshipped and revelled in war coming to an end, the Goddess of [War] also lost her right to intervene and was banished.
A fourth fragment arose, leading to the Goddess of [Plague].
When humanity finally became so weak and selfish that they feared their own greed more than death, war, and plague themselves, the Goddess of [Plague] cursed that human greed would become the most dreadful plague and was banished.
[Start], [Death], [War], [Plague]
The four goddesses presided over the ages of Gold, Bronze, Heroes, and Iron, eventually entering the [Age of Greed].
The banished goddesses wished to re-enter the flow of the world, but could no longer intervene in a world that had entirely forgotten the goddesses who had guided them.
“That is the current era.”
The tale was so immense that Yuki and I were momentarily stunned.
Humans and gods.
In this world, the concept of gods existed as numerous personalities throughout history, and they were forgotten beings.
‘Is that why they hated the changed humanity that forgot them?’
As I was thinking this, Yuki seemed to have the same thought, questioning the goddess.
“Did the goddesses, except for [Start], wish to destroy humanity that banished them?”
“No. The demise began from the wounds left by the first humanity on the stars.”
The countless starlights that exploded to deny the world created by the Goddess of [Start]. Those left scars even greater than the gods upon the stars. Over thousands of years, the malice and desires of humanity seeped into those scars.
The goddesses called it the world’s pus.
The will contained within the stars always wished to spit that pus back at humanity.
They wished to eliminate all descendants of the first humanity who dared to injure the world and let malice rise. The karma committed by the first humanity to deny the world crafted by the goddesses had burst forth into the distant future.
“Then the monsters appearing in [Magical Girl HAZARD]…?!”
“The pus flowing from the wounds of the stars was shaped to destroy the wounded humanity.”
Wounds of the stars.
The traces of despair caused by humanity who lived in the mythic times, yearning for their own death. That karma was now seeking to annihilate current humanity.
“Because of the will of humanity that rejected the goddesses, the three goddesses who couldn’t intervene in the dimension sought for the world’s pus… monsters to naturally annihilate humanity and weaken their will so that they could return to the flow of the stars.”
I recalled what the puppet magical girl doctor had said about a world doomed to collapse anyway.
[Before the gods ruin the human world.]
It seemed the doctor had also figured out that both the monsters and the goddesses were in cahoots.
‘Could it be that the behind-the-scenes [War] magical girl didn’t provide accurate information?’
I asked the goddess, holding onto such curiosity.
“Does that mean humanity was fated to perish due to monsters emerging from the wounds of the stars, even before the goddesses?”
“Yes. The trial was merely a ceremony to prepare and forewarn humanity for the emergence of the monsters. Even if the goddesses hadn’t begun the trials, the monsters would have appeared.”
“Since it’s a world where humanity is doomed anyway, why hold such a ceremony…”
Wasn’t the collapse of humanity the direction the three goddesses wanted?
“The Goddess of [Start] wanted to give humanity a chance by betting all her fragments. For humanity to overcome the world’s pus and evolve. Making it seem like the three goddesses could easily disrupt it with seemingly flimsy rules.”
It had been tens of thousands of years since the first humanity had banished her.
Even after becoming weakened beyond compare, the Goddess of [Start] still wished to give humanity a chance.