Chapter 155: The Great Shrine and the Creator God

The next morning, we went to the Great Shrine, where the Creator God was enshrined. It was much bigger than the Shrines of the Sea God and Martial God that I had seen before. It was truly befitting for the supreme deity of this world.

It was said that long ago, this was the only shrine built on this land. No one knew when the people started to gather and live around it. They formed a city there, which would become the present day Holy City, forming a circle with the shrine standing right at its center.

A lot of folks already gathered around the Great Shrine.

The morning rites were about to start.

People had three chances to enter the Great Shrine in a day.

The Hour of the Morning Rites

The Time of the Saint’s Miracles

The Hour of the Evening Rites

We came during the Hour of the Morning Rites since it was said to be the time when it was least crowded, but there were around a thousand people already gathered here.

I wondered whether the Creator God would still hear my voice amidst everyone else if these people prayed to him all at the same time.

Well, I already lined up with the folks who came here for the morning devotions, so there was no harm in trying, I guess.

Just when we were waiting for the gates of the Shrine to open, I could sense the movement of a colossal amount of mana. The Holy Barrier covering the entire Holy City was reinforced a few seconds later. Seira probably received mana from the Creator God, and it was because of that mana that the barrier was strengthened.

In the past, I heard from Seira herself that it was part of the Saint’s job.

It wasn’t actually difficult to manipulate the mana to reinforce the barrier, but if she failed, there was a high chance that it would endanger the lives of tens of thousands of people living in the Holy City, so she was also under a lot of pressure.

A hundred years had already passed and even now — no, it was already two hundred years since Seira became a Saint, and she had been continuously doing this since that time.

It wasn’t something anybody could copy.

The priests opened the gates of the Great Shrine after a while. The people who gathered in front entered in droves.

Seira wasn’t there when we entered the Great Shrine. I was a bit curious, so I searched for her mana —

She was right below us, underneath the Shrine.

Seira’s mana seemed to be rooted on the spot.

I couldn’t sense the mana of the Holy Knights around her, either.

What was she doing?

It bothered me a bit, but my magic detection ability wasn’t that sharp. It was just enough for me to pinpoint the vague direction and distance of the source.

Tina’s magic detection was excellent so she could gauge whether the person was standing or sitting despite the distance of a few kilometers, based on the movement of the mana.

I could ask Tina to check what Seira was doing right now, but I decided against it, in the end.

There was a bathroom in the cellar below us, and if Seira was purifying her body there —

It was just looking at her mana, so it didn’t mean that I was peeping on her, but still, it didn’t seem ethical to me. Plus, I was hesitant to make Tina do it.

Seira’s mana remained motionless, so it was probably that she was either in the bath, or maybe lying down and resting.

It was not a good idea to peek at her based on her possible situation, even if it was just the movement of mana we were talking about.

I was bothered about Seira, but I decided to focus on greeting the Creation God for now.

──＊＊＊──

The morning worship service ended.

The Creator God didn’t manifest.

Well, even if it was said that only a few people attended the morning rites, they were still around a thousand. It would surely turn into chaos if the Creator God suddenly appeared in the midst of them, so maybe it was better this way.

Still, my dungeon management plans were already in a stalemate right at the initial stage. If I didn’t meet the Creator God, then making the negotiations would be impossible.

I had been quite naive.

The Sea God and the Martial God appeared easily enough, so I had let my guard down.

The Sea God was usually in his Shrine whenever I visited him at the bottom of the Ocean and the Martial God’s standard was clear enough, since he would manifest if the fire in his Shrine was extinguished.

I also brought Divine Beast Shiro, considered to be the divine messenger of the deities, and Hakua, who was the person that Creator God directly appointed to manage the dungeon, with me so I expected that he would at least call out to them but……….

“Halt-sama, did you receive any oracles?”

“Nah, there’s nothing. How about you, Tina?”

“Me neither…”

Tina also received a few words of praise when the Demon King was defeated, but she didn’t get anything now.

“I didn’t get any oracles, too.”

“Yep, same thing for me.”

Shiro and Hakua didn’t receive anything, either.

The plan failed.

What should I do now?

The service already ended, so the people started to leave the temple. It seemed that we couldn’t stay here. Just when we were about to follow the throng of people around me and leave the Shrine —

“That person over there, can I have a bit of your time?”

An elderly man called out to me

He was clad in an ashen robe, and the hood covered his eyes, so I couldn’t really see his face.

“Please come with me, along with your companions.”

It was a kind voice, and for some reason, we didn’t have the slightest desire to go against him. We followed the old man.

Who? — that thought didn’t even cross our minds.

There were several pathways on both sides of the Great Shrine, and the old man entered one of them.

There were holy knights guarding the entrance of the other pathways so that ordinary people wouldn’t be able to enter, however, there was not a single holy knight in the pathway that the old man walked through.

We were probably seen as we entered, but no one came to make a fuss about it.

We walked without a single word. After a while, the old man stopped in front of the wall, and he acted as if he was opening a door.

A pure white door suddenly appeared on the wall that was supposed to be blank, and the old man entered through it into a space.

Our feet naturally followed him, and when we noticed it, everyone was standing inside a pure white space.

I already came here many times before — it was the Divine Realm.

“T-this is?”

Tina anxiously looked around.

Leafa and Luna drew closer to me and gripped my arm and clothes.

“No way…this is…the Divine Realm?”

Mai and Mei, who were Spirits, realized where we were.

“Indeed.”

We whirled around when we heard a voice behind us. The elderly man wearing the ash colored robe was shutting the door where we came in.

We could no longer see the Shrine’s wall after it was closed, and the door itself vanished, as if it wasn’t there in the first place.

“It’d have been troublesome if I manifested then. Sorry about it, but I had to bring you to the Divine Realm.”

The old man took off his hood, and an white-haired elderly man with a snowy beard smiled at us.

“Long time no see, Haruto.”