Several months ago, just a few days after Rygar used the Celestial Sealing and began acting against Hitogami's plans, the malicious god was already drastically changing his own plans.
Shortly after realizing that something had directly interfered with his vision of the future, Hitogami spoke with his main pawns without reserve, to update them on the situation.
He needed to reorganize his board, adjust every detail to prevent Rygar's actions, which had become an imminent threat to his existence.
But, surprisingly, it was not Hitogami who was responsible for Rudeus Greyrat's sudden change.
On the same day Rygar's daughter, the Immortal Fairy, traveled back in time, she used special methods to send a message directly to Rudeus.
After all, it would not be only Rygar who would be affected by the effects of the temporal return.
The entire world would begin to face unpredictable changes.
Rudeus's descendants were too important to be ignored. Therefore, the Immortal Fairy decided to send an anonymous warning, in the form of a letter.
The letter described, in detail, some of Hitogami's machinations against Rudeus, especially those that were about to come to fruition — things that Rudeus himself could easily verify.
Among them, there was mention of a rat with Magic Stone Disease hiding in the basement of the Greyrat Mansion, and also a Rank S Dungeon about to emerge near Sharia.
In Oldgar's timeline, the Greyrat family had managed to overcome those events in different ways — but not without losses.
With the changes brought by the temporal return, the course of the world was different, and Rygar's daughter did not want to cause situations that could completely erase Rudeus's descendants from future ages.
The warning was made anonymously, carefully written to lead Rudeus down a path very similar to that of the alternate line.
It was important to preserve a future in which Rudeus would still confront Orsted and Rygar, and eventually become a subordinate of the Dragon God.
Obviously, no one knew this — not even Hitogami, not even Rygar.
---
Hitogami's first reaction upon discovering that Rudeus had learned of some of his machinations was not anger.
On the contrary — the Man God saw an opportunity.
When Rudeus confronted him mentally about what he had discovered, Hitogami simply revealed everything.
He no longer cared about hiding anything from that man. At the moment, he had other priorities.
The Man God needed to kill Orsted and Rygar as quickly as possible.
After Rygar's disappearance from his Divine Vision, Hitogami could see his own death approaching faster.
The Beast God and the Dragon God would be on his neck in a few dozen years if he did not react with everything he had.
So, he issued an ultimatum to Rudeus.
Hitogami threatened to directly manipulate his apostles to brutally slaughter the entire Greyrat family if Rudeus refused to help him eliminate Rygar and Orsted.
And he was not bluffing.
If the Man God decided to call in some favors he had and fully dedicate himself to killing his descendants, Rudeus would have no way to resist.
In the future, Rudeus only managed to resist with Orsted's help — and even then, with some risks.
The only reason Rudeus had survived until that moment was because Hitogami had been acting calmly, trying to eliminate his descendants with the minimum possible damage.
But now… that no longer mattered.
The Man God no longer had all that time.
He needed every force and resource at his disposal, even if that meant sacrificing valuable pawns.
Upon hearing the threats, Rudeus became apprehensive and hesitant.
He had witnessed how his family had been in serious danger thanks to Hitogami's machinations not long ago.
Now, he was not only trying to subtly manipulate his actions — he was directly threatening to brutally massacre the people he loved.
Roxy was pregnant.
Sara was about to join the family.
And Lucy, his daughter, was still only a baby.
How could he protect them all from a God who could see everything?
Hitogami could observe his thoughts, his intentions, his fears, and know, with exactness, whether he was being sincere or not.
Faced with that, Rudeus made his decision.
Even reluctant, he decided that he would do anything to protect his family.
He would kill Orsted and Rygar.
And so, a new phase in his life began. Constantly afraid, Rudeus began to give his all, believing that if he did not try hard enough, Hitogami would turn his weapons against his family.
He did not know that the Man God was, at that moment, too busy with other threats to really care about him.
But Rudeus believed in the threat — and that was enough to move him.
To protect his wife, his daughters and everything he had built, he prepared for the inevitable.
The first step was to eliminate the easiest.
Orsted.
At least, that was what he believed.
In Rudeus's vision, Rygar had entire armies following him.
Orsted, on the other hand, was alone, a simpler target.
To be honest, Hitogami did not expect much from Rudeus.
Currently he only saw him as a useful, predictable and emotionally vulnerable piece.
But, as the days passed and Hitogami observed Rudeus's extensive preparations, he began to think that he might have misjudged him.
Rudeus Greyrat had established three priorities in his preparations to face the Dragon God Orsted.
The first priority was to build the Magic Armor. And in that regard, he had outdone himself.
With the help of the best geniuses, the Armor was a technological and magical masterpiece. Even Hitogami gave several suggestions for improvements to its design.
With it, Rudeus Greyrat could be considered a genuine threat to the Dragon God.
I mean… as much of a threat as one could be against someone about whom nothing was known.
The second priority, however, failed spectacularly. Gathering allies.
Sándor, the former North God, knew Orsted. And for that very reason, he refused to fight him. Now he was loyal to Princess Ariel, any action on his part could put the princess at risk.
He chose not to take the risk.
Perugius also refused. He said he needed to be alive for Laplace's return.
Moreover, his words made it clear that he had no hope that Rudeus could win.
Rudeus even considered bringing Sylphy to the fight, but gave up. He decided she should take care of the children — protect what he could not protect if he died.
The third priority was to formulate a winning strategy; this part went reasonably well.
He was aware that his chances were slim, but he did not think about giving up.
If everything went wrong there was the last plan. He hoped that Sara, with the final Magic Cannon, could kill the Dragon God at the right moment.
A few days before the final fight, Rudeus did something he had postponed for a long time. He called his wives during the night and told them everything.
His reasons, who he would fight and how he would do it. It was difficult to convince Sylphy not to go with him, but in the end, she understood.
If Rudeus were to fight with everything, the crossfire would be a constant concern. And someone needed to protect the family.
The next morning, Rudeus departed.
He left for the most dangerous battle of his life.
---
Two days to the north-northeast of the city of Sharia, there was an abandoned village that had been swallowed by the forest.
About forty years ago, a magical catastrophe caused the local forest to expand rapidly.
The village was quickly invaded, forcing its inhabitants to move.
In the following decades, the only visitors to this place were the monsters that roamed the forest and the occasional adventurers who came to hunt them.
Today, however, a man was making his way toward that village — a man with silver hair and golden eyes, wearing a white leather coat.
The man monitored his surroundings on alert as he approached his destination.
He was neither on horseback nor riding a carriage; he was simply walking, strolling calmly through the forest.
At times, his sharp, intense eyes looked at an object similar to a compass in his left hand.
No monster dared to attack him. Many bright eyes watched him from the depths of the forest, but when he approached, even the fiercest creatures fled like frightened squirrels.
"Is this it?"
Upon reaching the outskirts of the abandoned village to which his compass pointed, the man paused and studied it silently for a moment.
"Why would she call me to a place like this…?"
Slowly and cautiously he set foot in the ruined town. Its streets were overgrown with weeds and its fields were now thickets.
Large trees rose through the roofs of empty houses; others were so covered in vines that they resembled large green mounds of vegetation.
Soon, the man stopped once more.
He had reached the center of town, where a well would presumably have been located, but a distinct structure stood there: a tall, yellow cylindrical building, and it was the only thing in the entire town that showed no trace of vegetation on it.
From the condition of its stone walls and its front door, it was clearly recently built.
The man looked at the compass in his left hand and confirmed that its needle pointed directly at this tower. He reached for the doorknob with some caution.
"Nanahoshi, are you there?"
The interior of the tower was extremely simple. There were no windows or hallways.
The floor was strangely slippery, as if covered in some kind of oil.
Someone had left a series of bulging burlap sacks and something like an incense burner against the wall. The strange smell in the air seemed to indicate that the burner was actively in use.
"What is this place?"
Looking around the room, the man spotted another door on the wall in front of him. Cautiously, but without hesitation, he walked to it and reached for the doorknob.
Upon doing so, he felt a small twinge of pain. When he examined the palm of his hand, however, there was not even a spot of blood.
"Hm…? Am I imagining things?"
He entered through the door and found himself in a room with a layout identical to the first. Given that it was built on a slope, it seemed that part of this building was indeed underground.
The man grew ever more suspicious, but still advanced.
Some of the doors were equipped with traps so small they could have been meant for rats.
Avoiding them carefully, he continued, passing from one room to the next.
Eventually, he reached a very strange room. It was tall, circular and had no roof at all. When he looked up, he could see a slice of the sky above him. It seemed he was standing at the bottom of a chimney.
"What is going on here?"
Doubtful, the man frowned, but the needle of his compass pointed toward the center of the room.
A small box was there with a single sheet of paper beneath it. He cautiously approached and looked at the paper. Two words were written on it:
Man God.
He quickly grabbed the little box and opened it.
Thick clouds of smoke immediately poured out of it.
When he dropped it and took a defensive stance, the man heard a faint metallic chime. A silver ring had fallen to the floor beside the small box, which somehow continued to emit smoke with remarkable intensity.
The ring had probably fallen out of the box when it hit the ground. For some reason, it flickered with a faint red light — and the needle of his compass pointed directly at it.
The man reached out his hand to pick up the ring.
A fraction of a second later, there was a great flash in the sky.
The man instinctively pushed himself to the side, trying to leap away. But the slippery floor refused to cooperate. The soles of his boots completely lost traction.
A massive lightning bolt struck the Dragon God Orsted, triggering an electromagnetic shockwave that blew apart the entire building.
That was the beginning of the battle between the Magic King Rudeus Greyrat and the Dragon God Orsted.
And it was also the day when the Greyrat family officially became subordinates of the Dragon God.
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