Overlord of biblical proportions: Return of the Biblical God (18)

Technically speaking, in Yggdrasil, the Angels were classified as monsters, That is, despite their very much humanoid appearance, they belonged to the heteromorphic races. Yes, the angels, the guardian of heaven, was, technically speaking, of the same race as a Lich.

Which meant that, seeing an angel fighting side by side with demons wasn't as impossible as it might seem in Yggdrasil. Of course, the Angels had an extreme predisposition to [Positive Karma] and [Holy Magic], as well as various abilities and quests that steered them towards more being allies and interacting with the human races. But again, technically speaking, there was nothing preventing angels from becoming allies with the undead, insectoids, or even the illithids.

Heck, such a scenario was actually rather common in the world of Yggdrasil.

Naturally, for the humans, it was more customary to see the Angels as the ultimate ‘good’ and ‘holy’ force, but in Yggdrasil, such a rule was less iron-clad than one might assume.

For this very reason, many Angels possessed an appearance fitting their ‘monstrous’ nature. Of course, not every Angel looked as grotesque as some of the more… ‘Standout’ monsters. Although exceptions did exist, most angels bore a mark of ‘otherworldliness’. For example, the ‘Guardian Cherub’, a four-faced being with four arms and four wings, one of the more common monsters of the Angel race.

Exceptions to this rule included certain angel subtypes like the ‘Seraph of Mercy’, Players playing the Angel race, who could customize their appearance with cosmetic items. And, of course, NPCs, whose creators, after paying the appropriate price, could design their appearance however they wished.

However, even if such was the case, and even if the number of wings an Angel had wasn't exactly correlated to their power level in Yggdrasil; at this moment, as Momonga gazed upon the girl who had assumed her true form before him, there was no way he could mistake her for any other kind of paranormal being.

He was face-to-face with an angel.

And, as evidenced by the large number of pristine, softly pulsating white wings behind her back; an angel of one of the highest ranks.

As if noticing his attention, the luminous glow of the girl's wings intensified, illuminating the area around Momonga. An Aura effect, no longer suppressed, began to show its effect around him; fortunately for him, the Aura effect was below the seventh-tier magic, meaning that it couldn’t cause him any damage… However, despite there being no sense of pain, being near her made Momonga uncomfortable.

Perhaps due to the knowledge that he was in the presence of his theoretical worst counter, or perhaps because of his own race, and lore descriptions of his vulnerability to [Holy Magic]. Just the sheer knowledge that if she suddenly pulled out a mace or some other [Bludgeon] damage weapon, that is on fire, he would be shit out of luck; transmitted a sense of displeasure from being so close to such a power.

Thankfully, it was nothing more than a mental discomfort, Momonga wasn’t actually feeling any pain, nor was he under any status effect, and he was very much immune to mental discomfort… Somewhat.

Being in close proximity to such a [Holy] being, caused a surge of nervousness in Momonga, though it was instantly suppressed a second later. With the sudden bout of clear minded-ness, it allowed him to quickly run through all the known facts about [Angels] in his mind while watching, as if in slow motion, the white wings of the Angelic being before him quiver.

Hopefully it was nothing more than an instinctive reaction, rather than the preparation for an attack…

Actually, wait, isn’t most of his knowledge about [Angels] directly from Yggdrasil? They would basically be useless here!

Think, think, Momonga! There must be something… The Demons!

The Angels and the Demons are supposed to be at war, right? And since no one had won, yet, it would be logical to think that they are equally powerful, and for the Demons, Momonga had a lot of information about them.

Regarding the Demons and how strong they are; Demiurge had relayed the information obtained by Pandora’s Actor from Rias's mind to him, and the girl proved to be quite knowledgeable on the subject. In part, thanks to her being a Demon herself, and mostly by being the younger sister of the strongest demon. And more than that, Momonga had directly encountered the strongest female demon as well, Serafall Leviathan, and had confirmed firsthand that this information was accurate.

Of course, there’s every possibility that the Demon was still hiding their full strength, that Sirzechs and Serafall were not the strongest amongst them. But, since acting on unknown unknowns is practically impossible, Momonga would simply have to do with what he knows.

Regarding the Angels… Well, despite looking into the Church, Nazarick had no such convenient trove of information on their combat capabilities and how strong they are, therefore, Momonga could only rely on speculation, comparisons, and conjectures; something he usually preferred to avoid with all his might.

Though that doesn’t mean that there is no information about the Angels whatsoever.

Officially speaking, the Seraphs were considered on the same power level as Satans, meaning, drawing a comparison to Serafall, the girl before Momonga should be somewhere between level seventy and eighty. If that were the case, by using a pure damage-dealing ability, even if it wasn’t mana-efficient, for instance something like, [Triple Maximized Magic: Reality Slash], Momonga could, if not outright kill her, then at least inflict irreparable and massive damage. Something which would allow him to dispatch her quickly afterward if necessary.

Furthermore, he has Shalltear, not only one of the strongest NPCs of Nazarick, but also one that he had fought alongside with the most. He has a good chance of eking a victory, no matter the circumstance.

Plus, considering that this time he didn’t need to worry about a potential enemy ambush as Shalltear hadn’t reported one, and the presence of high-level rogues capable of using advanced concealment abilities could, for now, be discounted as unlikely; Momonga was strongly leaning toward the idea of simply attacking the girl and capturing her for interrogation, or at worst, just dealing with her for good right now.

The problem lay elsewhere.

The Angel had already called him ‘Father’, and then ‘Daddy’, a title that an Angel would only use for one being, the Biblical God, someone that he was supposed to be. And Shalltear was close enough to hear this.

If he were to attack this Angel now, Shalltear, within her understanding, would see Momonga attacking one of his ‘former NPCs’ after she had addressed him as the Biblical God. The consequences of this scenario ranged from bad, Nazarick might conclude that the Angels had somehow betrayed him and start a war of annihilation against yet another faction, this time involving the church and thus millions of ordinary humans; to catastrophic. If Shalltear, even if just for a moment, entertained the thought that Momonga might not actually be the Biblical God… Well, Momonga has no idea where that would lead, and the unknown is perhaps the scariest aspect of anything.

Sure, perhaps, Momonga no longer had to worry about any betrayal coming from Nazarick, he had to worry about their unshakable loyalty instead. Just one wrong question or conclusion could threaten the entire elaborate web of lies he had wrapped around himself regarding being the Biblical God…

He truly has no idea how they would react to it!

"Daddy?" The Angel, damn it all, he didn’t even know her name! How could this possibly be justified, not knowing the names of his NPCs that he had once supposedly created?!

"Ahem, yes, my daughter…" Momonga swallowed a nervous gulp, despite the fact that his physical body shouldn’t have been capable of such an action at all, the nervousness was getting to him.

The fact that she had earlier mentioned something about ‘dispelling doubts’ meant that she wasn’t entirely convinced that Momonga was the Biblical God. Therefore, excuses about losing his divine form or something similar would only work against him, heightening her suspicions instead. If he were to assume his true ‘true form’, that is, the form of the skeletal Overlord that he was most used to, which could be nothing other than undead, his lie would collapse instantaneously.

Perhaps he could further change his form using [Create Body]? It had allowed him to create his human body, it also should… No, even if he could justify his missing [Divinity], the absence of which the Angel before him must have felt, perhaps by claiming that he was far too powerful for her to perceive, or that he had concealed his true strength; which was technically true thanks to the Ring of [Perfect Unknown] he is wearing, he still wouldn’t be able to take on the exact form she expected to see.

After all, what was God supposed to look like!? Any mistake in his disguise, if he were to look different from what the Angel was expecting, and the whole act would hit a brick wall!

Momonga felt as though the shadows around him were stretching out into dark tendrils, striving to strangle him with their grip, as if he were slowly sinking into inky despair; but once again [Emotion Suppression] came to his aid, dispelling his hopelessness and instantly pushing it aside. And in the absence of hopelessness, he might even mistake it as bravery and confidence!

If conventional plans couldn’t help him at this moment, then unconventional ones would have to do!

Momonga stretched out his hand, and the ring on his finger glimmered. Under normal circumstances, it might have seemed unremarkable, but at this moment, it felt to Momonga like the most magnificent object he had ever seen in his life.

Instantly, an immense circle formed beneath Momonga's feet, as if drawn by millions of interweaving, shimmering lines that folded into words whose meaning eluded the gaze of any observer, no matter how intently they tried to grasp each individual shape. Again and again, the circle expanded around Momonga, covering half the street beneath both him and the angelic girl before him.

Composed of multiple rings rotating in different directions and at varying speeds, the circle’s very appearance seemed to bring an excess of magic into Momonga’s surroundings. It felt as though they didn’t belong to the surrounding world even more than the multi-winged angel did. Especially so when they rose upward, forming a three-dimensional pillar filled with countless lines and symbols, shimmering and interconnected, endlessly extending upward and outward like the pulsating heart of all magic.

With each tremor, it spilled more and more of that magic into the world. For any inhabitants of the world, it was a grand display, for any Player from Yggdrasil, it is the activation of a [Super-Tier Magic].

"There’s no need to worry. It simply takes time for me to assume this form — I’ve spent too long in another… One could say my true form has changed entirely. But we can discuss that later, can’t we?" Momonga replied, relishing how his [Emotion Suppression] removed any potential tremor from his voice, leaving only confidence in his tone.

"After all, I can assume my former form without any issues. For I am the Biblical God."

A moment later, one of the three small meteor symbols etched on Momonga’s ring burned out. Then, Momonga’s magical circle shuddered and rose upward, as if reaching for the heavens with greedy hands. Using the ring as a medium for his abilities, Momonga didn’t need to wait for the entire casting time of [Super-Tier Magic] activation. Even, arguably, the strongest spell of that category, [Wish Upon a Star], obeyed this rule.

Unfortunately, this advantage was offset by the fact that the ring Momonga used was a consumable item; holding three pre-activated [Wish Upon a Star] charges, the ring could neither be restored nor recharged. After three uses, it would essentially become useless, and even so, it was one of the most expensive and rarest consumable items in all of Yggdrasil.

Momonga recalled how he had spent his year-end bonus trying to obtain it through gacha, and how once he had finally acquired it, he had sworn to never use it at all, so ‘valuable’ had the ring proven to be in the end.

After that, Yamaiko pulled the ring on her first roll of the gacha, and Momonga fell into such a deep depression that, in the end, the ring became a living monument to the wasted months of earnings on his hand. A reminder that he preferred not to look at more than necessary.

However, now that the situation had cornered him into a seemingly inescapable bind, even expending such precious consumables became preferable to failure. Allowing himself to risk the destruction or exposure of Nazarick, or worse, the suffering of his NPCs? Momonga valued his consumables highly, but not that highly.

The angelic girl before him didn’t step back as she watched the display, which was already a good sign, since it suggested that she was at least already somewhat close to trusting him. But Momonga couldn’t afford to take any unnecessary risks. So, stretching his hand forward, he spoke slowly, “I wish…”

His magic, [Wish Upon a Star], reacted to the keywords, and Momonga froze for a moment.

What was he supposed to ‘wish’ for?

In the game, [Wish Upon a Star] was one of the most powerful and unpredictable spells, as each activation presented the Player with a certain amount of options of various random effects, the number of options tied to how much experience they would sacrifice. Each of the effects were incredibly potent, but not necessarily the best suited to the situation they’re facing.

And of course, as befitting the sadistic Developers, there were joke effects as well.

The ability to apply a permanent cosmetic effect without having to spend money on it was valuable, but completely useless if an enemy was bearing down on you. Likewise, unleashing a catastrophic attack wasn’t the most effective option if you wanted to heal an ally. Still, the list of effects was always vast, so Momonga reasoned that at least one of them would help him in his current predicament.

Memory alteration, charm, cosmetic effect, teleportation, whatever option presented itself under these circumstances, he would find a way to use it. However, in the instant he spoke the trigger words, Momonga sensed that the nature of using this ability had drastically changed in this new world alongside his transfer.

Something he hadn’t expected, a mistake to make in the heat of the moment.

Until this moment, Momonga had conducted numerous experiments with his abilities, but not with all of them, especially not with spells he couldn’t casually use. In particular, [Wish Upon a Star], being one of the strongest spells in all of Yggdrasil, came with an equally powerful drawback; each use could reduce the caster’s level by five.

That is, of course, if the caster wanted to actually use the spell effectively, the sacrifice of five hundred percent of their Experience bar allowed them a choice of ten effects, even allowing for greater wishes. And if you’re already using a super-rare item like a [Shooting Star], might as well go for broke, no?

In the game, this effect was costly, though not fatal as some Players would intentionally use similar level-draining spells to lower their levels to test new builds. But even then, back in the game, it still meant time spent re-leveling and taking risks as the Player becomes significantly weaker for a period after using such magic.

It was a hefty price to pay, for a spell that might even produce a useless effect unsuited to the current situation. The only way to negate the experience loss was through the use of consumables items like the [Shooting Star] ring, the rarest consumable in the game; or through the use of World-Class Items like [Avarice and Generosity], which could store excess experience points and use them as needed for leveling players or covering the experience cost of certain powerful abilities.

As a result, many Players didn’t bother learning the spell at all, opting for more predictable, albeit less versatile abilities, and treated it as a ‘weapon of desperation’ or a last ‘Hail Mary’ to overturn a desperate situation. And that’s precisely why Momonga couldn’t let it slip from his grasp and felt obligated to master it, because if there was one thing that set him apart from other Players with far more optimized builds, it was his sheer versatility.

However, upon arriving in this new world without having previously used this ability, Momonga suddenly realized, as with some other spells, that the effect of this ability had changed.

Momonga abruptly understood, as if it was branded in his mind, that no list of effects would be presented to him, instead, it felt as though he could wish for anything… Within certain intangible limits that he instinctively sensed but couldn’t articulate aloud. And furthermore, the more experience points he spent, or the more ‘charge’ in the ring he expended, the more significant and powerful the changes he could enact.

The sacrifice of all three, for instance, might allow him to enact literal ‘miracles’.

This realization nearly threw Momonga off balance before [Emotion Suppression] snapped him back to reality.

His lateral way of thinking, which had unexpectedly led him to this solution, also diverted his original plan from simply addressing the problem to potentially exacerbating it even further. Instead of wishing for the correct course of action, that is, removing the angelic girl, or capturing her for Nazarick’s intelligence-gathering, or something similar, Momonga made a somewhat hasty decision.

If he was already in a pit of despair, he might as well grab a shovel and dig downward until he broke through to the other side of the earth and came out on top.

“I wish,” Momonga intoned deliberately, snapping his fingers, “to assume the form of the Biblical God.”

***

Gabriel gazed at the magical symbols manifesting beneath her feet and in the air around her with a mix of caution and trepidation. How could she ignore them when, technically speaking, someone still unknown to her was clearly utilizing abilities of an extraordinary level right before her eyes?

Yet, at the same time, Gabriel felt no panic, perhaps foolishly so, as some other Seraphs might say; but she trusted the display of power unfolding before her. Maybe she simply wanted to believe that Daddy had finally returned to the real world so badly that she would ignore all danger. Or perhaps she just thought that, in any case, Satoru wouldn’t be able to escape the Heavens’ reaction, no matter what action he took at this moment.

It didn’t matter why she was feeling that way, what mattered was what was happening right before her eyes.

Gabriel had seen Daddy at work only a few times in her life, most of the time, he stayed in the highest Heavens, creating new Angels or managing the [Heavenly System]. These were actions of incredible complexity and majesty, but not particularly spectacular for an outside observer.

Only a few times had Gabriel seen Daddy wield truly formidable forces, when he punished sinners on Earth who defied his will, when he subdued all the earthly monsters, be they the [Heavenly Dragon Emperors] or the lesser creatures hindering humanity’s future…

And during his final battle with Lucifer.

In all these cases, Gabriel hadn’t been too close to Daddy; Michael was always at his side, hogging the spot. But each time, she could sense the forces Daddy commanded, and she could recognize them without any trouble.

Magic, at its core, differed from [Divine Power]; it wasn’t that they lacked some common denominator, but the difference between them was akin to that between a yacht and an airliner. Both utilized turbines and internal combustion engines as a means of transportation, but that didn’t allow them to be grouped into the same category, unless it was an incredibly broad one like ‘means of transport’. Or for [Divine Power] and magic, a ‘paranormal ability’.

Magic was best described as a ‘method of violating the laws of the universe’; drawing a rough comparison, magic wasn’t all that different from other physical laws. To move an object, work had to be done, a certain amount of energy expended, taking into account the object’s weight, the point of applied force, surface friction, and environmental resistance, in short, all the physical constants and variables present in any equation.

Magic performed much the same actions, only the ‘expended energy’ was replaced by the concept of ‘expended mana’, and the resulting effect could encompass more than what humans could achieve, such as ‘blessings for a long marriage’. It also factored in other physical laws irrelevant to ordinary physical actions, like the ‘position of the planets’ or the ‘resonance’ of the surrounding environment.

Any magic could be reduced to some abstract equation, and even the most magical beings of this world, like angels, ultimately adhered to this framework. They simply could solve the problem instinctively with much greater ease, and didn’t need to rely on formulas memorized by ordinary humans to create their magic.

However, [Divine Power] didn’t fit this definition at all. Despite everything, gods always remained problematic opponents, foes that every faction preferred to avoid clashing with; simply because [Divine Power] didn’t obey magical laws.

If magic was a way to ‘solve the equation of universal laws’, then [Divine Power] was a way to ‘skip straight to the desired answer’.

[Divine Power] didn’t require mana expenditure, didn’t react to changing conditions, didn’t adhere to common sense, and always surpassed ordinary magic to such a degree that they couldn’t even be discussed as entities of the same order.

Not that [Divine Power] lacked its own limitations, of course, but compared to ordinary magic?

Those limitations could practically be ignored.

And so, Gabriel instantly recognized that the ability Satoru… Daddy was using before her eyes was indeed [Divine Power].

Gabriel’s mind tuned out any words, focusing entirely on the metamorphosis occurring before her. Her inner gaze clinging desperately to any iota of the surrounding magic… and found no change in it or in the mana around her.

Satoru might have become an ‘absolute void’ in Gabriel’s perception, but that applied only to him personally. Gabriel could still sense mana around herself, a few meters behind her or in the next block over. Therefore, if Satoru had used mana, he would have instantly revealed himself as a charlatan.

No, the ability he employed was undeniably [Divine Power].

Alternatively, Satoru was currently using an ordinary spell, and the mana around him wasn’t reacting because he had used [Divine Power] just moments earlier to make it so immutable, which brought the situation back to the same conclusion.

Thus, Gabriel didn’t avert her gaze even when a brilliant flash of white light blinded the street around her, quickly fading into the distance.

Instead, she fixed her full attention on the figure before her, and she had to do everything she could not to start crying.

The man, somewhere between middle-aged and elderly, didn’t seem old. It would be more accurate to say that the term ‘old fox’ was invented specifically to describe such a figure. A man no longer young, but whose wrinkles didn’t detract from his appearance but rather added a charm that made girls half his age around the world eagerly hang his posters over their beds.

The man’s silver-tinged black hair appeared casually styled, with such artistry that it seemed a stylist had spent dozens of hours achieving this ‘carelessness’, meticulously arranging every strand to its position. His piercing gray eyes seemed to peer into the soul of anyone bold enough to meet his gaze, not with judgment, but with the incorruptibility of a judge who was both stern and loving, a Father who would always welcome you into his embrace, but whose single word of reproach could forever alter the course of his child’s life.

The clothing on his body was also familiar to Gabriel, a white, loose-fitting robe, devoid of any embellishments or golden ornaments, yet, it was so pristine that it appeared far more luxurious than all the regal insignias combined.

However, the main detail that captured Gabriel’s attention was the pair of wings behind the man’s back.

Although angels grew stronger with the number of wings on their backs, there was one exception to this rule, the one who didn’t need to prove his strength and who had existed before all angels simultaneously.

Two wings behind the figure slowly unfurled, and unlike the white wings of angels, the radiant wings of Seraphs, or even the golden wings of Michael, the wings behind the man were seemingly composed entirely of light. One could discern their shimmering silhouette, but not the individual feathers or clear edges.

Crafted from pure light, they lacked any definite form, appearing as radiant masses behind the man, appearing two-dimensional to any observer incapable of perceiving pure light with their eyes. The sight was painful to behold, just as the human eye cannot perceive the absolute darkness of a black hole and can only liken it to a two-dimensional hole in their perception, despite understanding its three-dimensional nature intellectually.

And within an instant, Gabriel was enveloped by sensations she thought she had long forgotten but recalled even before feeling them anew.

An all-encompassing sense of peace and paternal love, combined with a strict yet affectionate oversight of an unwise child, always ready to forgive any mischief but to guide them onto the right path afterward, sometimes with a stern word from which there was no hiding, no matter how tightly one might cover their ears.

An almighty, holy force, a vast [Holy Power], enveloped Gabriel, effortlessly matching and then surpassing her own. It transformed the empty, rather dim street into a square bathed in heavenly light, a true descent of the divine onto sinful earth.

And all this time, Gabriel couldn’t tear her gaze away from the figure before her.

Looking at her Father burned her eyes, the light radiating from him was so unbearably bright and holy that even the highest among Heaven’s Angels, Gabriel herself, felt like a wretched sinner standing before her own final judgment, awaiting her moment of verdict.

Unable to withstand her thoughts, the realization, or the pressure, Gabriel fell to her knees, bowing so deeply that her forehead struck the asphalt beneath her. Her inhumanly enhanced body instantly shattered the surface under her, but Gabriel didn’t notice the impact, nor did she hear the crack of breaking stone beneath her.

Her vision was completely clouded by tears, so bitter that it was a miracle they only stung her cheeks as they slowly rolled down her face instead of searing through the ground with their anguish. Instead, they remained simple tears, falling onto the ground like droplets of rain.

But no matter how hot and bitter they were, with each tear that escaped Gabriel’s eyes, her soul felt a little lighter, a little brighter. It was as if the tears had become a physical manifestation of all her fears, all her pain, all her doubts, and all the decades spent in endless sorrow. It was as if those lingering doubts in her mind, the poisonous thoughts that after all the suffering she had endured, she would never find peace or joy again, were being purged.

As if, after all that had happened, she could finally rid herself of them, expel them from every dark and hidden corner of her soul, casting out the old pain and bitterness.

It felt as though, for the first time, she had awakened from a prolonged nightmare and woke up, discovering that the world was still beautiful, that everything in it had its own meaning, that all the fears of her past were behind her. And that the rising Sun over the horizon illuminated a wonderful new day, a new path forward.

“Father…” Gabriel couldn’t even be sure whether she whispered these words inaudibly under her breath or shouted them out loud before lifting her gaze and face from the ground, looking at her Father as if trying, with every passing second, to reassure herself more and more that the scene before her was real, genuine, not a delusion of a mind driven mad by bitterness and the longing to see her Father again.

A moment later, Gabriel rushed forward, forgetting her high status as a Seraph and simple human dignity, she lunged like a dog on all fours. She didn’t even attempt to throw herself into his embrace, instead clutching at the legs of the figure before her, wrapping her arms around her Father’s calves and burying her face against them.

Her body trembled with emotions so overwhelming that even the Enochian language couldn’t fully express them. “Daddy… Daddy… Daddy…”

Her Father, unmoving from his spot, lowered his gaze to Gabriel, then slowly raised a hand and placed it on her head, ruffling her hair.

“Umu… Aha. Good. Yes.”

At these words and this gesture, at this sensation, Gabriel pressed herself even harder against her Father’s legs, continuing to sob simultaneously in silence and somehow so loudly that the stones around her trembled under the strain, unable to withstand the flood of the angel’s emotions. Though they trembled not from the sound, rather, they simply couldn’t bear the pressure of a moment of truly biblical significance unfolding in their presence.

And only her Father continued to stand in place, glancing around before exhaling softly, still ruffling Gabriel’s hair, and muttering quietly to himself, though the words escaped Gabriel’s ears.

“I should have just stayed in Shalltear’s quarters…”