Bell double-checked carefully—the soul had been completely shredded into nothingness, leaving no chance of resurrection.
His Authority had been reclaimed, his soul torn apart, and even his body killed with a pierced heart.
At this point, it was certain: Ikelos was truly dead. A death on both fronts.
His identity as a god had ended completely.
And his brief existence as a pseudo-god had ended before it could even begin.
Bell glanced at the heart in his hand, then stored it away in his four-dimensional space. After all, it was the heart of a god—perhaps it could serve as a rare material one day.
"Goddess-sama, Ikelos is confirmed dead."
"Really dead?"
Hestia jumped from her seat and hurried to the table. There she saw Ikelos's lifeless body, a gaping hole where his heart had been pierced.
From a purely physical standpoint, he was undeniably dead.
"Bell-kun, you're certain?"
"I'm absolutely certain Ikelos is dead."
Bell had feared making a mistake, so he had made thorough preparations to confirm it.
"The Mother of the World has reclaimed Ikelos's Authority, stripping him of divinity by force."
"After that, I personally shredded his soul. Without the protection of Authority, I was able to do it."
"Once I confirmed his soul was gone, I also made sure his body was dead. On top of that, I left behind some 'gifts' inside this vessel. If anyone dares tamper with it, those 'gifts' will give them memories they won't soon forget."
In truth, Bell had gone far beyond just a little preparation.
Whoa...
Hestia looked down at the corpse of Ikelos, and for once, a trace of pity flickered in her eyes.
But a god who had sided with Evilus didn't deserve sympathy. Even death was simply the consequence of his own choices.
"Still, I never thought you, Bell-kun, would come up with such a way to deal with Ikelos."
To pray and have the Mother of the World personally reclaim his Authority? Was that something anyone would ever think of?
Bell himself knew the choice was incredible. He had only tried it on a whim—and somehow, it worked.
"To be honest, I wasn't completely sure either. But the result matched exactly what I predicted."
Hermes shook his head slightly, a faint chill still lingering on his face.
"Bell-kun, that prediction of yours was far too reckless."
The Mother of the World had actually appeared at the final moment, siding with Bell and taking Ikelos's Authority directly. Such bias was almost absurd.
But from that alone, Hermes understood: in the eyes of the Mother of the World, Bell mattered far more than the gods themselves.
From this perspective, perhaps "Godslayer" really was a right granted to Bell by the World.
"Pfft... World, you really are biased."
Even Hermes couldn't help but feel a pang of envy.
Still, it wasn't a strong emotion. After all, if the World itself openly showed favoritism, who could endure it? Any god would feel sour in that situation.
And Bell hadn't used that prediction as a gamble for no reason, either.
"It's not overreach, just a prediction I made by analyzing my own value. In truth, my worth is enough for the Mother of the World to show me greater favor."
"If the Black Dragon is a trial given by the world, then when someone proves both their value and their ability to overcome that trial, the world will inevitably grant them some measure of favor."
"While the world may set trials in my path, a god like Ikelos could never be one of them. His existence—or lack of it—means nothing to the world."
How meaningless.
Hermes's mouth twitched as he glanced at Ikelos's still-warm corpse. With one sentence, Bell had denied Ikelos's entire worth—and done so with such venom.
Clearly, Bell didn't care in the slightest whether Ikelos held any meaning. To him, the god was nothing more than worthless.
"So, because Ikelos had no meaning, you assumed the world would side with you—and used that prediction as your final trump card against him?"
Loki had to admit, the boy had guts—he even dared to calculate the world into his plans.
"Exactly."
Bell accepted Loki-sama's words without hesitation, which only earned him a sharp eye-roll from her.
"You really do have guts. But what if the world hadn't answered? Wouldn't you have been left standing there with nothing?"
"No, I had other measures prepared."
After the matter with Loki-sama, Bell had learned to always have several plans ready before acting. He did have a fallback method prepared—it just wasn't as simple or efficient as praying to the World.
"Since you've got backup plans, next time use a safer one. My heart can't take this kind of strain."
Even Loki felt her legs go a little weak.
That had been the true, first appearance of the World itself.
A miracle no god had ever seen before, revealed in such a setting.
Even someone as bold as Loki felt weary now.
She'd never thought anyone could be bolder than her—but a child from Genkai had proven even more daring.
Bell himself hadn't expected it either.
He had treated the attempt as little more than an experiment, a gamble he assumed the World would ignore. Yet the World had not only answered—it had acted.
"...I'll be more careful next time."
After steadying his emotions, Bell pointed toward Ikelos's corpse.
"Hermes-sama, I'll have to trouble you with handling the remains of Ikelos."
"Hah? You want me to deal with it?"
"Yes. The death of a god must remain hidden. If word spreads, it could trigger an unprecedented earthquake in Orario."
That wouldn't just be an earthquake—it would set off every god in Genkai.
Though troublesome, Hermes didn't refuse.
"I understand. I'll take care of his body."