Ubermensch – Chapter 167

Chapter 167

After the situation was roughly sorted out, Mason asked Yooha,

“By the way, why did you suddenly stop the broadcast?”

“Excuse me? Stop it?”

“My followers were making a fuss, saying something happened to you. Enough to make me descend. You know, because you turned it off without singing the ending song.”

“The food I ordered arrived. So I turned it off a little early.”

“…And the break?”

“There was a problem with the internet connection. I decided to take a break while waiting for the repair.”

“…”

Mason looked at Randy.

“Hey.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you have anything to say?”

“I’m glad it was a misunderstanding!”

Mason sighed.

๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑

Mason had a conversation with Izzet.

“Come to think of it, I’ve never seen the other Elder Gods in action.”

“Oztalon-kke prefers a direct confrontation with the Destroyer, but others prefer supporting roles.”

“Hmm…”

“Goddess Bastet’s main task is to help women threatened by cultists. Especially if they are celebrities, she sends an apostle like me to protect them.”

“So, her main activity is protecting her followers rather than fighting the Destroyer?”

“Yes. That’s why the other Elder Gods respect Oztalon’s nobility and bravery in fighting the Destroyer on the front lines.”

“There’s no need for respect. It’s just that I can’t help but step in when I see people in danger.”

“That’s what’s so admirable about Oztalon-nim’s nobility.”

Izzet’s eyes sparkled with admiration and respect.

Mason coughed awkwardly, his expression uncomfortable.

It was quite unsettling to meet someone who admired, no, worshipped him.

‘Maybe Randy’s personality would be more comfortable.’

Just as Mason was having such thoughts, which were a bit unfair to Izzet,

“Ah, hold on.”

Mason focused his mind.

And then, he heard Nick Peterson’s prayer in his ear.

“Call me anytime if you’re in danger. As my follower, you are also under my protection. Understand?”

Mason spoke to Izzet.

“Our agent has infiltrated.”

“The Destroyer Cult?”

“No, the Cthulhu Cult. He’ll pray again if he infiltrates the Destroyer Cult.”

At that moment,

Growl.

Yooha’s stomach growled.

“Ah, um… that…”

She blushed.

“You haven’t eaten?”

“No…”

Mason looked at Randy.

“Go buy some food.”

“Me?”

“Should I go then?”

Randy grumbled.

“Just in case, please assign someone to protect me.”

Izzet frowned.

“Are you talking about me?”

“Yes.”

“You’re just trying to get me to go with you because you want to be with me, right?”

“Yes.”

He wasn’t wrong, though.

Since Randy had come into contact with Yooha, he was also under Mason’s protection. After a moment of thought, Izzet cast a spell of invisibility.

“…”

Looking at the disappointed Randy, Izzet said,

“Let’s go, mortal.”

“…Yes.”

Silence fell over the room for a while. Unable to bear the silence, Yooha cautiously spoke up.

“Um, noble Oztalon-nim?”

“Call me comfortably. Just Oztalon.”

“Yes, Oztalon.”

Yooha cautiously asked,

“What do you do, Oztalon?”

“I mainly save people from the Destroyer’s forces. Flying through the stars, crossing dimensions.”

“Why do you do that?”

Mason hesitated momentarily.

It was too long, too complicated… and too personal.

But, he said with a smile,

“Because I like people.”

“Why?”

“I was once human too. The people I loved were also human. So how could I not like people?”

“Then, why does the Destroyer hate people?”

“…”

Mason flinched.

That question, innocent and pure, struck a chord that Mason had never even considered.

Why does the Destroyer massacre people?

He too was once human and had loved people. Why did he become a monster who annihilates people just because they are human?

‘What kind of experience would make me like that?’

Mason sighed heavily.

“Well, I don’t know either.”

“You don’t know even though you’re a god?”

“I’m not a monotheistic god of the Abrahamic lineage. I’m a polytheistic god, like those from Greek and Roman mythology. Not omniscient nor omnipotent, just an ordinary god.”

Yooha laughed.

“How can a god be ordinary?”

Mason said with a soft laugh.

“The world is vast.”

At that moment, the front door opened and Randy entered.

Seeing the scratch marks on his face, Mason sighed and asked,

“What did you do?”

“I was curious about cat tongues, so I offered her hot Americano… Sob, sob.”

“Why do you only do things that women hate…”

“I’m curious!”

“Don’t be curious about things they don’t want to tell you. Even if you are, don’t ask until they tell you.”

“Tsk.”

Randy handed Yooha a chocolate hobbang and coffee.

“Wow! Chocolate hobbang!”

Yooha smiled brightly and ate the chocolate hobbang.

Mason stared intently at Randy.

“…Don’t I get one?”

“Gods eat food too?”

“I can eat. I don’t need to, but I can.”

“I’ll offer it as a sacrifice next time I pray.”

“Forget it, man.”

Mason grumbled.

Then, a prayer came from Nick.

“Okay.”

Static.

At that moment, Nick’s prayer was cut off.

Mason frowned.

“Izzet, protect those two.”

“What’s wrong, noble Oztalon?”

“I think there’s a problem.”

Mason stood up.

And the moment he took a step, Mason arrived at the place where Nick had last prayed.

It was a deep forest where no trace of human presence could be found.

“…”

As Mason focused his mind, he could sense the life signs of the creatures nearby.

But, there was no human presence within a 100km radius.

‘If it’s not a spatial issue…’

Mason focused his mind once more. He set Nick Peterson as the coordinates and succeeded in tracking him.

‘As expected.’

It was a different dimension.

Mason, keeping the spatial coordinates as they were, performed dimensional travel.

In that instant, he arrived at a familiar place.

“…Battlestar.”

It was the interior of a Battlestar.

Mason cast spells of invisibility and undetectability on himself and followed Nick’s coordinates.

The place where Nick was staying was the cargo hold of the Battlestar.

It had been transformed into an altar for the Destroyer Cult.

With numerous traces of human sacrifice visible, the fanatical fervor of those wearing masks and hoods swept through the area.

Mason found Nick.

He was trying to maintain his sanity while mimicking the religious ceremony.

‘Nick, I’m here.’

‘I’ll send you home.’

Mason dimensionally transported Nick.

Then, an executive of the Destroyer Cult, sensing something suspicious, yelled,

“Who’s there?!”

“Your enemy.”

Mason revealed himself, shedding his disguise.

A giant clad in lion armor and wielding a massive war hammer. He had manifested as Oztalon, the Guardian Deity.

“Oztalon! The foolish god who resists the inevitable purification!”

The lower-ranking followers charged at him with sacrificial daggers and various other weapons, while the higher-ranking executives chanted spells.

However, Mason shouted like a clap of thunder,

“Stop!”

Even though it was the Destroyer’s temple, Mason’s power was more potent than the absent Destroyer’s.

His power subdued the mortals.

Mason disarmed the mortals and forced them to their knees.

He asked the one who seemed to be the highest-ranking among them,

“Who are you?”

“I am Michael Fieldman, bishop of the Destroyer Cult.”

“Do you know that the Destroyer’s ultimate goal is to annihilate everything, including yourselves?”

“Yes. He said he would purify all that is unclean and then create a new and pure world.”

“Fools!”

Mason roared sternly.

“He is only interested in destruction. He doesn’t care about the next world!”

“Even so,”

Michael said with a disgruntled expression,

“What’s the point of living in this world anyway?”

“…!”

Mason was speechless.

It wasn’t that there was no logical response.

He was simply overwhelmed by the weight of malice and stress contained in Michael’s words.

At that moment, Mason realized the Destroyer’s true intention.

‘He is the Destroyer’s weapon.’

He was creating weapons.

A god who had vowed to save everyone, regardless of good or evil, as long as they were human. If the Guardian Deity, Oztalon, had a natural enemy…

‘It’s the malice of humans who desire destruction itself!’

They were humans who wished for their own annihilation.

Mason was a god who did not harm humans. So if a doomsday prophet who had given up on his own life appeared among humanity, and incited humanity to sympathize with the Destroyer’s evil deeds, there would be nothing Mason could do.

Oztalon, a god who would not abandon the many for the few, nor the few for the many.

He would not even kill the Destroyer’s apostles, the cancer cells spreading within humanity.

‘What should I do?’

Mason froze in place for a moment.

A problem he had never considered before stood before him.

He could almost hear the Destroyer’s mocking laughter.

‘How can I save those who wish for their own destruction?’