Chapter 116: Storytime

TheMangaGod

So, after beating my brain to mush starting and restarting this chapter, I decided to do it in a format as if it were a story since, technically speaking, it sort of is. And, as a story, some of it may or may not be the complete truth or even an outright lie since the one telling it has a pretty obvious bias on top of her not being THAT old so some of it would be just stuff, she was told rather than stuff she witnessed. Unreliable narrator aside though this chapter is mostly factual with the lore that I've had in mind for Gods and Demons with only a few pieces of information that will be clarified down the line. Enjoy!

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- Arachne Hidden Village, Riyuegu Xiamen Holy Manor - Rose's POV -

[Long, long ago, when the Universe was young-] - Undine

[How long?!? Were we right with the 13.8 Billion year estimate?!?] - Karen

[R-Really?!? 13.8 Billion? How could anyone possibly figure that out?!?] - Malaise

[So, the thing is when you take a large enough sampling of data from the stars and <galaxies> around us you can track those back to find out when they were all at the same place using complicated mathematics. There are actually two estimates for the age based on-] - Karen

[Ahem! Excuse me!] - Undine

Taking a deep breath before she started speaking the sentient puddle started far earlier than I expected, although also a bit later when I thought of it. So, if the Universe was young then Gods were NOT the creators most likely, otherwise she'd have started her story BEFORE the Universe at all.

While I was thinking these kinds of thoughts Undine was immediately interrupted by my adorable slime ex-girlfriend that was ever the massive science nerd. Although that came with the territory considering she was going to college for Chemical Engineering. 1I don't remember if I put this in an earlier chapter, I think I did and I'm fairly certain this is what I said at that time too, but I couldn't find the chapter so if I done goofed let me know. Karen, excited by getting an answer from an actual (possible) witness to the Big Bang instantly latched onto the age of the Universe first and if I didn't get her under control fast this entire conversation would derail immediately.

Luckily, I was beaten to the punch by said sentient puddle as she irritatingly cleared her throat while glaring at the slime of similar consistency to herself. Karen, putting on a look of irritation herself at being interrupted mid-rant, immediately turned towards the source of her frustration as the overwhelmed bookish fox girl she'd been vomiting words at attempted to reconcile all the new information that she'd just been told. I would probably have to listen to a whole rant about relative motion and how that relates to the maths later. Damn.

[-the two schools of... what?] - Karen

[Can I finish?] - Undine

[Go ahead. Kare Kare I know you're excited, but we'll ask those sorts of questions later. Please continue.] - Rose

[Tch! Fine...] - Karen

Putting the confusing topic of science to the side for now I diffused the bomb that was Karen before she could unleash hell on her poor victims. She hadn't had an opportunity to fully rant about science crap in quite a while and I could see her struggling to keep a calm face as she barely held herself back. Luckily, we had a first-hand (maybe) account here, so she decided to hold her metaphorical tongue for now.

[Ahem, anyway... where was I?] - Undine

[...when the Universe was young?] - Zhizhu

[Ah thank you my young Devotee, so when the Universe was young the first Gods came into being. Consciousness springing up out of the void of space many of them were unable to separate themselves from the concepts that birthed them. Gods of Light and Gods of Dark endlessly came into being then dispersed afterwards. Until him, until the first to be aware. Lord Melodias and his companions were the first to recognize themselves, the first be aware of their own existence. They were also the first natural Gods. Their explo- Yes?] - Undine

Okay so first of all, what the fuck?!? Second of all, fuck the what?!? I know we just started but "concepts that birthed them", "natural Gods" what the what?!?

Already confused even though it hadn't been long at all I immediately stopped Undine with a hand before asking the questions already floating to the top of my brain.

[Okay so I'm gonna need a bit of an explainer here before we move on. First what did you mean by "concepts that birthed them" and what's a "natural God"?] - Rose

[Oh, right I thought you might have already known this because of your parentage. Gods are conceptual beings.] - Undine

[....!] - Everyone

- Arachne Hidden Village, Riyuegu Xiamen Holy Manor - Rose's POV -

After calming everyone down from the shock of learning that Gods were the same as Demons, I asked Undine to explain. I mean if they are both conceptual beings then what's the difference?

[Hey if Gods are also conceptual beings, then what's the difference between them and Demons?] - Veronica

[WE ARE NOT THE SAME!] - Undine

[Eek!] - Veronica

[Woah, crazy lady.] - Karen

Exactly! Happy that I wasn't the only person to see the similarities between the two types of beings I was just as shocked as everyone else when the sentient puddle graduated to a scary sentient puddle, her voice startling us while a wave of mana scared us stiff.

[A-Ahem. Anyway, there is a massive difference between Gods and Demons! We Gods personify goodness and light while the Demons occupy the darker emotions and concepts of the Universe. Don't you dare compare noble beings like myself to the wreche-d and vi-le demon-s like...] - Undine 2 I put in the dashes to show that she was suddenly realizing how much danger she was in, did it work to make her speech seem more halting?

[Like whom exactly?] - Love

Freezing as she realized what she had just done to my group of friends Undine immediately backed off in embarrassment, although she was adamant that we did not mistake her point as she more calmly, relatively anyway, illustrated how different Demons and Gods supposedly were.

Unfortunately for her however she was directly next to one of those wreched and vile demons and as she realized what she was saying her already transparent face became paler while the grin on Love's face got larger. And it wasn't a friendly one.

[I-I-I-I...] - Undine

[You what?] - Love

[Love, stop antagonizing the poor lady, and Undine quit it with your superiority complex and just continue. We're already surprised enough as it is.] - Rose

[As you wish child... heh.] - Love

[R-Right well anyway, your second question was about natural Gods, right?] - Undine

Fed up with how much the conversation was derailing I brought everyone back on track as Love continued to intimidate the God before him. Staring at me for a few seconds after I told him to stop, he finally agreed after a bit then smirked at the still terrified God that was following my orders as if they were Gospel. I'm sure seeing one of his mortal enemies bowing to a much weaker mortal like this was immensely entertaining for the sadistic Demon. Regardless I couldn't spend every second trying to corral these wild animals, so we needed to speed this up if we were to get anything done.

[Yes, and I'll try and keep the questions to a minimum until you're done explaining everything.] - Rose

[What abo-] - Karen

[You too!] - Rose

[Understood. Well as for your question there are two types of Gods, the type that is born a God and embodies a concept in its entirety, and the second type.] - Undine

[Second type?] - Malaise

[A being that has become a God after birth.] - Undine

- Arachne Hidden Village, Riyuegu Xiamen Holy Manor - Rose's POV -

Wait become a God? So those isekai where the main character attains Godhood are actually a thing?!? Was Master Lao Shi a natural God or did he get it during his life? What about Undine?

[W-What type are you?] - Urz

[Me? I'm the second type unfortunately. I was once a very powerful water spirit eons ago that, through the course of defending my home, became a God. It was too late to save my family though.] - Undine

[I-I'm so sorry.] - Rose

[It's fine, it's been so long that I've nearly forgotten them at this point... they, no... never mind. Anyway, let's continue.] - Undine

[Yeah.] - Rose

Oh, that's adorable. Urz and Argent had been completely lost for most of the conversation so far, both of them not being in the loop as far as my identity was concerned but of the two Urz had also been the most attentive. Since I'd met her, she struck me as the quiet, shy type but despite that she seemed to have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Seemed quite driven to learn actually. And here she was asking questions of an actual God, surging pride brought to mind a meme from an anime a few years ago "I raised that child." 3Chika FTW

Undine's answer, however, was less pleasant, the flash of pain that crossed her pain noticeable despite her quickly bringing her expressions back to neutral.

[So, as you've probably guessed by now the God's Spark is a literal representation of the concept that the 2nd type of God embodies, my own being Compassion and Water.] - Undine

[So, you left behind a portion of those concepts? Inside me?] - Rose

[W-What was I supposed to do?!? This brute forced me to- I-I mean uhhh, never mind.] - Undine

[Love, stop it! So, what exactly will that do to me?] - Rose

[I'm... not sure? I don't think I've ever heard of a Dragon absorbing a God's Spark but for a Demon it greatly increases their abilities.] - Undine

And there it was, lots of exposition but it seemed that I'd somehow absorbed a portion of the concepts that made up Undine. And it was mostly Love's fault. As for what it would do to me? Both Undine and Love shook their heads.

While this was happening though I didn't notice that realization was finally dawning on both Argent, Urz and Zhizhu's face. 

[D-Demon? So, you're really...?] - Urz

[T-That's a lie, right? Right?!?] - Argent