Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 679: Divine Will

Minhyuk had planned to meet with Pope Kronad and build enough favor with him so that he could ask the man to awaken Obren, who had fallen into a long and deep sleep.

To his dismay, Obren had exerted control over Minhyuk’s body. Minhyuk’s hair grew longer until it reached his waist. His eyes went entirely black, and the whites of his eyes could not be seen. He then released his wrath and summoned around ten million Evil God’s Books and started to bombard Kronad with attacks.

Rumbleeee—

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

Just like the missiles being fired by drones, the lightning bolts and blazing flames shot fiercely from the ten million books! However, Kronad just stared at the bombardment with a blank and empty gaze. Then, he grabbed the brilliant and dazzling sword in his hands and swung it.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!

At that moment, millions of sword lights shot up to the sky and scattered the attacks from the Evil God’s Books. Then, a huge golden mirror appeared in front of Kronad.

[Kronad’s Mirror]

[Kronad’s Mirror has sealed the Evil God!]

[Evil God Obren, who had used your body to show his wrath, falls back into a deep slumber once again!]

Rumbleeee—

At the same time, Minhyuk’s appearance, his waist-length hair and jet-black eyes, returned back to before as he regained his control once again.

“Haaa… haa…” Minhyuk gasped, as he collapsed on the ground.

Even Pope Kronad looked like he was exhausted, as he turned to Minhyuk and asked, “You’re Kronad’s friend?”

“That’s right.”

Kronad nodded slowly at Minhyuk’s answer. He thought, ‘So, he made a friend again…’

Kronad was quite surprised. He thought that Obren would never trust anyone again. In fact, Kronad would feel that way if he were in Obren’s shoes.

‘Does this mean that you have given this man your trust and faith?’

Kronad slowly opened his mouth.

“Me too…” He said with his dry and coarse mouth, “I was once Obren’s friend.”

“…”

At that moment, Minhyuk recalled something. When he first met Obren, the god told him that someone had used him before abandoning him and sealing him in the Puzzling Seasoning Jar.

Then, Kronad continued, “I was also the one that killed Obren.”

“…!”

***

Kronad and Obren had been friends. Yet, Kronad was also the one that killed Obren. Those words were obviously very, very shocking.

Then, Kronad, with a bitter smile on his face, asked, “Will you listen to our story?”

[Obren is slumbering inside the Puzzling Seasoning Jar that you possess.]

[You can watch the Evil God’s story through a video.]

[If you do not wish to view the story, please say ‘I reject’.]

“I accept.”

Minhyuk wanted to know more about Obren. That was why he readily accepted it.

[You have chosen to accept. You can now watch the video.]

[Your character will be in an ‘invincible’ state during the duration of the video.]

Minhyuk slowly closed his eyes as a bright light appeared and wrapped around his body. Then, the story started.

[A long, long time ago, Athenae gave birth to Obren, one of the Six Monster Gods.]

The figure of Athenae giving birth to Obren appeared in front of Minhyuk. There was disbelief in Athenae’s face after she saw Obren.

“This child is the one that has the most power among the Six Monster Gods…?”

Athenae knew plenty of things. She was aware that the Six Monster Gods and the Absolute Gods would be the key figures of this world. The Six Monster Gods would be considered the ‘evil’ ones while the Absolute Gods would be considered as the ‘good’ ones.

However, Athenae had different thoughts as to who was ‘good’ and who was ‘evil’. After all, those things were something that one could not judge by themselves. It was just that these gods were born with evil powers.

That was how Obren was born into this world. He was such a pure, innocent, and naive boy, that no one would believe that he was one of the Six Monster Gods. Athenae continued to give birth to the rest of the Six Monster Gods, while Obren grew older and turned into a young boy.

One of the Six Monster Gods killed one of the gods just a few days after they were born, while another descended to the world of humans and only came back after slaughtering an entire kingdom. As for Obren, he just stayed there and read a book.

[Obren was too soft-hearted. He did not know how to kill. He was just a boy that wanted to descend to the world of humans to feel the sun, see the sky, and sail the seas. Just like that, thousands of years passed by.]

Thousands of years was an extremely long time. During that time, Obren had always remained alone. The rest of the Six Monster Gods had kept their distance away from him after knowing that he had different ideals from them. As for the Absolute Gods and the other gods? They also shunned him and kept away from him, just because he held the title of ‘Six Monster Gods’.

[He had always been alone.]

Always. Obren always kept to himself. Even during the banquets where all of the gods gathered, Obren would just sit in the corner and quietly read his books.

[He laughed alone.]

Obren would often giggle by himself as he read his book.

[He always cried by himself.]

Sometimes, he would cry by himself. During those times, he would blame himself while wondering why the other Six Monster Gods pointed and cursed at him.

One day. Obren decided that he wanted to go down to the world where the humans lived. He wanted to float in the sea, look at the sky, and run on the ground.

Obren, with his fine and dashing looks, descended to the human world. However, during the process, he had lost his favorite book. This book was called ‘The History of the Continent’, a book that detailed the happenings in the long history of the human world.

As he scoured the earth to find his book, a man approached him and said, “It seems like you dropped this.”

For the first time, Obren held a conversation with a human. Despite his young age, the young man that approached Obren had a head of white hair. He was garbed in a pristine white priestly robe and displayed a bright smile as he looked at Obren.

The two continued their conversation, as the man introduced himself, “My name is Kronad.”

***

Kronad had been chosen at a young age by God Athenae. Blessed with tremendous holy power, he was someone that could hear the voice of God Athenae. Because of that, he was named as the first pope of the Athenae Religion, despite his young age.

He was very, very strong, and he used that power to gather plenty of priests and believers to serve and worship Athenae. Through his efforts, the Athenae Religion was able to establish itself all throughout the continent, growing quickly in size. It was because of Kronad that the Athenae Religion became the greatest religion.

Then, one day, as he prayed to Athenae, Kronad began to wonder if these lands truly belonged to the gods? In the end, he wanted to understand why he worked so hard, if everything would eventually belong to Athenae. After all, these were the priests and believers that Kronad had carefully gathered and nurtured, not Athenae.

‘Why is it like this? What did God do for me?’

Kronad began to doubt his faith and everything that he was doing from that moment. Eventually, he started to fall into the abyss of darkness. He was a pope with the power to cut down even the gods, which bred ideas and thoughts that he initially should not have.

He thought, ‘We are the masters and owners of these lands.’

These lands belonged to the humans. Soon his thoughts turned awry.

‘We must drive out the gods.’

To do that, they needed a key figure to help them drive out the gods. Kronad decided that it should be none other than himself. Thus began his mission to meet and persuade the other religions’ popes and strongest paladins to drive out Athenae and the other gods.

Due to the humans’ natural characteristics, all of them believed in the tremendous power that ‘Pope Kronad’ wielded.

‘Perhaps we can become the gods of these lands?’

‘It will be us and not them that will be the gods…?’

As a result, these thoughts plagued their minds. It was because of those thoughts that Kronad began to win the support of many of the popes, saints, and paladins. They began to create ‘Evangel’, the temple that would go against the gods.

[Evangel. It is the most powerful and greatest temple in existence. A temple that existed in the legends that was said to have the power that could rival several gods and popes together. Surprisingly enough, Pope Kronad was able to recreate the Evangel and make it appear in reality. He almost finished the temple. However, he faced a road block during its creation. To complete Evangel, he needed the divine power of an ‘Absolute God’ level being.]

So, Kronad began his investigation regarding the world of the gods. That was when he found out about the being that would most likely become the Evil God, ‘Obren’.

“It seems like you dropped this.”

Kronad sneered in his mind, when he encountered Obren in their land. However, he showed a bright smile to Obren and said, “My name is Kronad.”

Their meeting had been part of Kronad’s plan from the very beginning.

***

[Obren was genuinely happy to have met a friend in Kronad.]

Kronad took Obren to the sea, who delighted as he enjoyed the cool breeze that blew from the sea. Sometimes, Obren would go to human festivals with Kronad to drink, dance and play. Obren was lonely no more.

[He was no longer alone.]

[He no longer laughed alone.]

[He no longer shed tears alone.]

The Obren that always laughed and smiled by himself, the Obren that cried by himself, Obren could now laugh and smile with his friend Kronad, as well as the popes, saints and paladins that the man introduced to him. Obren treated them as his friends, family, and most precious people.

One day, Kronad took Obren to a place where they could gaze at the stars. The two of them lay down on the ground and watched the stars. As he looked up to the skies, Obren said, “I’m happy. I’m very happy, Kronad.”

“I’m also happy when I’m with you.”

“Kronad.”

“Huh?”

“Thank you.”

“…”

Kronad remained silent at those words. Then, he looked at Obren, who asked him, “No matter what happens, I won’t leave your side. How about you? Is it the same for you?”

Kronad only answered the question after a while, “…Of course.”

The two continued to watch the starry sky like that.

Minhyuk continued to watch the video in front of him. There were times when Minhyuk would cry, and times when he would burst out in anger. Minhyuk’s eyes had grown bloodshot as he neared the end of the video.

Step, step, step, step—

Once the video ended, Minhyuk began to approach Kronad. Kronad watched as Minhyuk approached him and grabbed him by the collar.

Tighten—

The words that he saw in the video made a huge impact on him, as they appeared in his mind once again.

[That day was the eve of the war between the gods and the humans.]

[That day, Obren killed the gods and slaughtered hundreds of millions of human beings and truly became the ‘Evil God’.]

[That day, the one that stood at the center of the storm was none other than ‘Kronad’.]

Who was evil and who was good? Who were they to judge that?

Pope Kronad, who’s level was beyond Level 900, was the strongest NPC that Minhyuk had ever encountered.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaang—

However, Minhyuk slapped the man in the face as hard as he could as he roared, “Mot**rf*cker! Is this the friendship that you were talking about?!”