Elio, uncomfortable but direct as the new leader, held the gaze of the being who claimed to be God.
"I killed him."
The silence stretched like a rope tensing to its limit.
God's expression remained unchanged for what seemed like an eternity, until finally he tilted his head and his lips moved.
"You kill... You killed him?"
The entire group instantly went on guard.
Elio, grateful to have recovered his leg in time, adopted a defensive stance. The tension in the air was so dense it could almost be cut.
But then...
"OK!"
God's cheerful voice, exactly the same enthusiastic tone with which he had congratulated them, broke the tension like a soap bubble.
The group exchanged confused looks.
OK?
Was that the reaction of a god to the news of the death of someone he apparently knew?
Before they could process this strange response, God had already moved on to another topic, as if Fathoran's death was an unimportant detail.
He addressed Elio directly, his tired eyes suddenly curious.
With a casual gesture of his hand, something impossible happened: Elio's book began to float, moving away from its owner and toward God's extended hands.
Gasps of surprise filled the chamber.
"Eliminating Locus while advancing? No, impossible with that rate of fire..." He paused a moment, noticing something else in the book.
"Wow, you have very expensive summons, how the hell did you get so much...? But first, how did you get...?"
Suddenly, his face lit up with what seemed to be a revelation. "I KNOW! Relays with the books in hand!" His expression changed to one of fascinated horror. "Hell, how many people did you sacrifice then just to get here? Is that it?" He looked at the group with both admiration and pity. "Damn, you won't be able to return home after such an enormous achievement, poor kids..."
Elio, observing this display of seemingly senseless ramblings, decided to intervene. "Excuse me... are you sure you don't want to know why I had to kill Fathoran?"
God looked at him as if he had just remembered his presence.
"Huh? Oh, no, I don't care. You surely had your reasons. Time tends to change people, usually for the worse." He waved his hand dismissing the topic before returning to his main obsession. "BUT more importantly, HOW DID YOU GET...?"
He interrupted himself, his eyes opening with new understanding. "Wait... How did you win this challenge at level 7? You shouldn't have the demons' elemental magic, only chemical magic..."
A smile began to form on his tired face. "OH! It's the wind mountain! I see! Common fire tricked the system! Hahahaha, what foolishness, you got it wrong and wanted to act smart with me little girl!"
His laughter resonated in the chamber, a sound that mixed genuine amusement with something close to madness. "Lucky you didn't get to the earth or water chamber first! Though I suppose the fire mountain could also let you bypass if you threw water at it..."
He stopped, shaking his head. "Wait, I'm getting sidetracked. Tell me then how you got here..."
Elio, completely bewildered by this strange monologue, decided to simply answer the question. With patience, he began to explain about the tunnel, the cores, the construction...
"There's a sea of... CORES?!" God's interruption was explosive, his laughter louder than ever. "Hahahaha, how stupid! OF COURSE there's a sea of CORES! Hahahaha!"
He doubled over with laughter, tears forming in his tired eyes. "One hundred years! One hundred years killing mosquitoes in a lamp! Of course there would be a sea of cores now! How did we underestimate the death ratio so much? The sacred summons are free now! Hahahaha!"
The group watched this display with a mixture of amazement and concern.
Micah leaned toward Mei, whispering: "Are we sure this is really...?"
"Who else could touch another's book like that?" she responded quietly, though doubt was evident in her voice.
Meanwhile, God continued alternating between laughter and mumbling, occasionally hitting his forehead as if he couldn't believe his own lack of foresight. "So simple! So obvious! And to think I believed they'd need at least 200 years to get here!"
He turned to Elio again, his eyes shining with a mixture of amusement and what seemed like pride. "You built a tunnel! A tunnel through the cores! Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"