Chapter 282 - Katara’s Drop

“It’s probably around here?”

I followed my instinct as I opened the book.

“Luna, can you read this page?”

I still couldn’t read a single word of this book, but I got a hunch that it was on this page.

“Yes, I got it!”

I handed the open book to Luna.

“If I’m not mistaken, this page contained information about medicine the last time I opened it here, and yet…”

Luna possessed a language comprehension skill that allowed her to read and understand all kinds of glyphs, words and letters. She also had an absolute memory skill coupled with that, so she recalled the contents and even the page number when she read this book before.

It was apparently just as Shiro said. The contents of the book had been completely overwritten.

“Information about the curses of the Evil God is currently written on this page.”

My hunch was right.

“Is there any info about a curse that has the same condition as Miu’s mom?”

“Hm, let’s see… *A curse that spreads to the people around a person after he or she is gradually drained of strength ending in death *— this must be it. It’s called [Post Death Diffusion Curse].

Ohh! We hit the jackpot, it seemed.

Still, [Post Death Diffusion Curse], huh…

Wasn’t it named as is?

Oh, right, even the [Static Status] curse cast on me was named as is, too.

Was the Evil God slipshod even about naming things?

Well, that didn’t matter anyway. We have to treat Miu’s mom and make her healthier as soon as possible.

“That’s the curse, I think. Is there anything written there about how to break it?”

“Breaking the spell using magic is… impossible.”

Magic won’t work no matter what kind, apparently. We couldn’t even use my own idea of revival after obliterating the entire body along with the curse, it seemed.

By the way, this method of breaking the curse by force was also recognized as the official way of undo some of the curses.

However, it wasn’t applicable to curses that took root in the soul. Miu’s mom was under this type of curse, so we had no choice but to find another way.

Luna said that *magic *wasn’t the way to go.

In short —

“Methods other than using magic must exist, then?”

“Yes. There are two ways to block the damage inflicted by this curse. First one is to take the cursed person to the Interstitial Space, and…kill her there.”

It was the method that Sitri and Sylph proposed against their will to save the world.

“That method is absolutely not allowed! What’s the second one?”

“The second one is to use an ultimate curse-breaker item, but…”

“Ultimate curse-breaker item?”

“It’s an item called [Katara’s Drop].”

“Katara’s Drop… never heard of it.”

“Me too. It’s written here that it’s an item that is almost impossible to make, in the first place.”

“— Eh?”

　──＊＊＊──

Divine Realm

Two men and one woman gathered together, conversing about something.

“No way, the Post Death Diffusion Curse has already been activated…”

The brown-haired beauty with a gentle demeanor was no other than the Earth God, in charge of this world’s land.

“Yeah, it’s way too early.”

The man who replied to the Earth God was the Sea God.

“There’s no explosive increase in the people’s population, and there’s no problems with food supply, either. The balance of this world has been preserved quite well.”

The brawny uncle who said that was no other than the Sky God who ruled of the skies.

Three of the Four Great Deities — the gods who were second only to the Creator God in terms of power — had gathered here. The fourth deity was no other than the Evil God.

The Post Death Diffusion Curse didn’t sound terrifying based on its name, but its effect was tremendous enough that even the Four Great Deities wouldn’t be able to stop it.

This curse was part of the system that preserves the balance of this world. Once activated, it wouldn’t stop until it obliterated the world’s population by half.

Originally, this curse was supposed to be something that would consume this world’s Evil God and would be automatically triggered if the world’s equilibrium had been disrupted because of reasons such as a rapid increase in the population.

The world didn’t experience any problem currently, and yet it had been activated for some reason.

Actually, part of the energy that had leaked when the Evil God reincarnated Halt had been the source that triggered the activation of this curse, but —

Since the Evil God was currently sleeping, the other three deities and the Creator God didn’t know anything about it.

“If there’s no problem with the world’s equilibrium, then I want to stop this curse.” (Earth God)

“Yeah, me too. We should stop it, definitely.” (Sea God)

“You know we don’t have a way to stop it with our power, right.” (Sky God)

“...Then we don’t have a choice but to negotiate it with Gramps Creation God, and kill the first one.” (Sea God)

If the world’s equilibrium was about to crumble, the deities wouldn’t be able to intervene even if the curse was activated.

However, there was no problem as of this time. Even if they were deities, it would pose a huge problem if they were to destroy half of the world’s population, even if it was as a prank. That’s because the prayers that would be offered to them would decrease sharply.

If they were to destroy the first person that had been caught in the curse — and that was Miu’s mother — they would be able to save the world.

The Sea God considered obliterating Miu’s mom from this world. He thought that there wouldn’t be any other way other than this method.

“Well, that human named Halt is trying to break this curse as of now…” (Sky God)

“Hm? Halt is there?” (Sea God)

“Yes. He’s accompanied by his 10 other comrades, as well as the human that had the Post Death Diffusion Curse.” (Earth God)

“Oh, I see… Then, this case is already good as solved.”

“Eh?” (Earth God)

“Hey, Sea God, do you know that human?”

“Yeah. He’s a Bakemono who visits Gramps’ place from time to time to play.”

“W-What?”

“Huh? W-What nonsense. There’s no way a human can do that.”

“He can, that’s precisely why he’s a Bakemono. That guy can probably undo curses that’s impossible for us.”

The Sea God was proud for some reason.

“...Let’s say that that human can enter and leave the Divine Realm freely, it’s still impossible for him to break the Post Death Diffusion Curse.” (Sky God)

“And why is that?”

“There are two ways to break that curse, and the first method is the one you, Sea God, proposed — to kill the first infected person. The other way is to use Katara’s drop.” (Earth God)

“If it’s Halt, then he’ll find a way to get Katara's drop. That’s the kind of guy he is, after all.”

“That’s why I’m saying it’s impossible. Katara’s drop is an ultimate curse-breaker item, and a human won’t be able to collect all the materials given their lifespan.” (Sky God)

“Hard to get materials, huh… For example?”

“First would be [Yggdrasil’s Fruit]. Even the Yggdrasil’s leaves aren’t something ordinary humans will be able to get their hands on, let alone the fruits.” (Earth God)

“...If it’s Halt, he probably has them already.”

“That’s impossible! Yggdrasil only bears one fruit once every one thousand years, you know!? There’s no way a human can conveniently have one now. Well, there is an exception, but —” (Earth God)

“What’s the exception?”

“There’s a way to force Yggdrasil to bear fruit. This method had only been used once since this world had been created. In the first place, only the elves could threaten Yggdrasil to do so —”

Elves didn’t live under Yggdrasil in the past. They were previously a race that traveled around the world in hiding, persecuted by other races and attacked by monsters.

In those days, Yggdrasil didn’t allow any monster to approach it, much less people.

There was a person who dared to force Ygddrasil into submission, and made it promise to bring the Elves under its protection.

That person made the Elves vow that they would take care of the tree and devote their faith towards Yggdrasil. The Elves flourished under the protection of Yggdrasil since then.

“The current tribe of Elves are fully devoted to Yggdrasil and had such great faith in it that there wouldn’t be a single elf that could seriously threaten to burn it down. So, getting the fruit of Yggdrasil is absolutely impossible!!” (Earth God)

“...Then let’s suppose Halt got the fruit, just for argument’s sake. What else does he need?”

“Well, I guess I’ll just tell you since we’re at it. There are a handful of things that would be impossible to get aside from Yggdrasil’s fruit. [Nine-Tailed Fox Fur], [Colored Dragon’ Scale], [Holy Water]. Well, those materials are relatively easy to get, you might say.”

There are nine-tailed fox fur and colored dragon’s scales circulating around the world, albeit rare. Those were materials that had been obtained after heroes defeated them in the past. Holy water was available for purchase in the Holy City and other places, albeit expensive.

“The problem would be the following. It would be impossible to get Spirit Water that only the Water Spirit King produced, and claws of the Ancestral Dragons. And that’s not the end of it.”

“Are there any other materials they need?”

“No. It’s not only the materials, but even the manufacturing method. They had to melt all the ingredients using Primal Fire… but the only container that can hold Primal Fire must be made from Scarletite.”

“In short, if Halt and the others had to gather Yggdrasil’s fruit, Nine-Tailed Fox fur, Colored Dragon’s scale, Holy Water, Spirit Water, Ancestral Dragon’s Claws, then chuck them all into a container made of scarletite then boil it all together, they’ll be able to make a super duper rare item, is that it?”

“Yes, that’s right. In short, it’s absolutely impossible.”

──＊＊＊──

“Hmmm. Is this okay?”

“I think it’s fine since we followed what’s written in the book to a tee.”

“Alright, then. We finished making Katara’s drop!”