[Whew. So this is finally it, huh?]
I grinned as I looked at the one who'd given me so much trouble throughout this whole ordeal, now about to become the final sacrifice for that grand quest.
[...Yeah. You won.]
The man answered with a somewhat deflated yet utterly expressionless face.
[Hey, don't give me that "I've seen it all" look, okay? You can just join the next Perfect Lord anyway, right?]
As I spoke, I raised my beloved sword.
I'm not soft enough to let a rabbit I've already caught slip away through a moment's carelessness.
[Kugh... Next time? Don't make me laugh.]
Sure enough, he had one last trick up his sleeve and tried to pull something out from his chest. But...
Swish.
My beloved sword Repleta was much faster, slicing clean through his body, straight through his chest.
[It's over...]
I watched his body crumble away.
That final gesture, reaching his hand toward the sky as if trying to grasp something. I couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh.
This isn't some movie or something...
Ding-a-ling.
A cheerful melody rang out.
At last, all the quests were complete. The final winner of the Perfect Lord, the ultimate quest for 14 billion users, had been decided.
A brilliant halo of light wrapped around me. And then a solemn voice echoed.
[Congratulations. Code name, ID: Artemis. I shall bestow upon you divine status.]
I showed a satisfied smile.
***
That memory again.
I sat up in the massive bed, holding my forehead. The cloth covering my body slid down, revealing my bare white skin, but that wasn't what mattered to me right now.
Ever since that day, I've lived for hundreds of millions of years under the name Artemis, but I always have that same nightmare. When I learned that what I believed to be a virtual game was all real, and that everyone I'd cut down with my own hands were users, souls seeking divine status, the shock of it all...
If I'd been human instead of a god, that shock might have been enough to break my mind completely.
The place where I lived, the planet called Earth, was destroyed by an attack from Chaos the moment I logged into that new virtual reality game. Naturally, having died the instant I logged in, I thought it was the prologue to a new VR game, that it was part of the gameplay. I never imagined it was real.
Of course, looking back, it wasn't like there weren't red flags. There's no way a VR game would exist where you can't log out or summon a GM. But I never thought my original world had been destroyed and I'd been transported to some completely random place.
Still, the situation I believed to be a game was incredibly tense and thrilling. Various skills, a leveling system, quests—it was a world full of elements that made sense for a VR game. Right up until the end, I held onto that slim hope that maybe if I became a god, I'd be able to log out...
But in reality, it was a survival game, a test to become a god. Though even if I'd known that, I probably still would've sacrificed others to survive. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here now.
It's a truth everyone wants to believe is fiction. And the fact that this didn't just happen to me alone helped ease my guilt, if only a little. Earth was simply the first place in the countless dimensions of the universe where this Perfect Lord project was implemented for the species called "humans."
The Perfect Lord, held every ten thousand years. Since then, I've spent my time honing my divine authority, creating my own world, and finding joy in raising my divine subordinates.
If there was one thing I regretted, it was that when I first created my character customization, I didn't make it as close to my original appearance as possible.
The body—no, the divine form—that makes up my current self is close to my ideal type that I created thinking it was a game. Normally, when playing games, I preferred female characters over male ones, and that preference was directly reflected in this result. If I'd known this would happen, I never would've done that.
In the end, I got a female body instead of my original gender. Thanks to that, I've had to live hundreds of millions of years in abstinence and endurance. Even now, the reason I can't sleep deeply and toss and turn remembering that day is because of the sexual desire that's built up in this body.
The virgin goddess Artemis, who has maintained her purity for hundreds of millions of years. Other gods see me as a symbol of restraint and chastity, but my secret that not a single god knows—except for Father Odin—is this.
***
Odin, the World Tree who granted divine status, divided among the gods the role of governing dimensions. This was to create representatives who could maintain the order of the systematically functioning world, as the World Tree's lifespan was coming to an end.
It was also to suppress the troublesome force in the dimensions called Chaos. Originally, more than half of the countless dimensions existing in the universe had been consumed by Chaos.
Dimensions consumed by Chaos literally have their causality destroyed and become closed spaces where reincarnation is no longer possible. Feeding on the cries and despair of souls drifting within, Chaos grew in power and tried to destroy all order in the world.
To stop them, the current gods passed trials and received divine status from Odin. Thanks to Odin's choice, the dimensions that had been consumed by Chaos have defeated most of Chaos by today and have even reclaimed past dimensions.
However, it wasn't all smooth sailing. Unexpected misfortune also occurred then. While fighting Chaos, some gods became tainted by Chaos and rejected the existing order, advocating for a new one. Odin designated them as demon gods.
Once again, the dimensions faced Ragnarok, a war between the original gods and the demon gods, and with the gods' advantage, the war reached a ceasefire.
It was to stop the growing power of their common enemy, Chaos. And as they acknowledged each other somewhat and the ceasefire lengthened, conflicts decreased, but since gods don't possess the concept of forgetting, that resentment could never be erased.
The one who benefited most from the battle with Chaos and Ragnarok, the war of the gods, was me. Unlike other gods, I was interested in becoming stronger from the start, so to gain greater power, I trained endlessly, fought, and won. Countless dimensions tainted by Chaos were turned to order because of me, and many demon gods lost their divine status and vanished, stripped of their divinity. If the war had lasted longer, I probably would've become even stronger.
Actually, the reason Ragnarok ended was because Odin, the World Tree who directly granted divine status to both gods and demon gods, couldn't bear watching them disappear and proposed a ceasefire himself.
I couldn't go against the Lord's will. I had no choice but to comply. Thanks to that, unable to cultivate my divine power, I threw myself into other productive work. Other gods were busy with dating and whatnot, but as a god who couldn't forget past memories at all, normal romance was impossible for me. With my firmly ingrained concept of gender, I chose to be alone instead.
That said, it was also hard to find goddesses with same-sex preferences, and in the closed society of gods, as proud as they are, coming out would damage my social standing, position, and achievements too much. In a society of gods where forgetting doesn't exist, I know well that this would definitely be material to exploit until the moment of dissolution.
Thanks to that, I have a reputation as an exemplary goddess without a single scandal in hundreds of millions of years, but in reality, I'm going crazy from the sexual desire built up over hundreds of millions of years.
If I hadn't suppressed everything with the divinity I'd gained, I might have already fallen. Desire to the point where I could've been corrupted right away. I try drinking Valhalla's holy water that clears the mind, but it only helps briefly.
"Lady Artemis?"
A Seraphim with 15 pairs of wings drooping approaches me. No one is allowed into my chambers, but there's one being who can enter.
"What is it, Ariel?"
Among my divine subordinates, there are 10 Seraphim. I expressed my curiosity at the summons from her, who possessed the greatest power among them.
"The council of the gods hosted by Odin will begin soon."
"I see."
I hadn't forgotten. I'd just been lost in various thoughts, so time passed faster than expected.
"Shall we depart now?"
"Let's go right away."
I put on my toga and prepared to travel.
"Then the other Seraphim..."
"No. Let's just go together, just the two of us."
"Yes, Lady Artemis!"
Ariel follows me with a bright smile. My first child. Not that I actually got pregnant and gave birth to her.
Gods cannot become pregnant, and the angels who serve gods are born from divine stones in Valhalla. Each time a new god is born on the ten-thousand-year cycle, 10,000 angels are initially granted, and 100 are granted every ten thousand years.
So my age this year is 365,340,000 years. The same age as current Valhalla since its birth. By simple calculation, I should have 3,653,400 angels under my command.
But that's only possible when they're Angeles, the ninth rank of angels. Since creation, I've spent hundreds of millions of years on the battlefield. This was because Chaos's armies were powerful in the past, and it was a struggle for the survival of the divine realm and my own safety.
Gods consumed by Chaos lose their divinity and must be imprisoned in an endless prison of nothingness for eternity. That's the worst death for all gods.
Actually, quite a few gods disappeared that way, and I've faced such crises too. Chaos's armies were that strong, and their power was tremendous. But gods are beings as powerful as Chaos itself. Among them, the gods who reached the rank of Supreme God, including myself, led the decisive victories that allowed the gods to triumph in that war.
And I personally cut down Chaos's leader, Armageddon, with my beloved sword Repleta.
Anyway, there were many battles in that process, and my subordinates fought alongside me. I had to watch with sad eyes as countless subordinates disappeared, consumed by Chaos's erosion or unable to overcome the growth process.
In the end, I had to fight to protect my subordinates, standing at the very forefront as a vanguard and commanding the battles. Thanks to that, I was able to maintain and grow more subordinates than other gods. Still, the angels remaining with me number less than 1 million.
Compared to other gods who've reached the Supreme God rank, who command less than 100,000 angels, it's 10 times more, but I always feel sorry for the nearly 3 million subordinates I couldn't protect.
This was especially true for the first generation, the initial 10,000 angels granted at the beginning. Having to participate in battle right after being born alongside their inexperienced god, they suffered the most casualties. Their mortality rate exceeded 99%, and Ariel was the sole survivor among them.
Thanks to that, she became the first among angels to reach Seraphim status, and surpassed the 9 pairs of wings that Seraphim possess to have an incredible 15 pairs of wings. She had divinity equivalent to a High God, and Father Odin permitted her growth to High God status, but she chose to remain subordinate to me.
Of course, I would have happily agreed if she wanted independence. But when I heard her response that she'd stay, I can't express how happy I was. My heart leaned on her that much.
"Gate Open."
I activate the gate connecting my sacred land and Valhalla. Gods who received divine status of High God or above were each granted unique sacred lands by Father Odin.
Sacred lands are divided into three levels: the Upper Sacred Land is managed by the Supreme God, the Middle Sacred Land by Great Gods, and the Lower Sacred Land by High Gods.
Among them, the Upper Sacred Land named Astarte is the sacred land I currently govern, and it's the most prosperous and abundant sacred land in the divine realm, excluding Valhalla.
This was the result of me diving into productive work while other gods were preoccupied with useless things.
Countless gods who haven't reached High God status. The vast majority of gods reside in Valhalla, but Valhalla's divine district has been overcrowded for ages. Naturally, searching for other residences is inevitable, and a sacred land's appearance, convenience, various entertainment facilities, and housing quality determine whether they'll settle there or not.
Naturally, since I focused on decorating and building my sacred land, it was only natural that such gods flocked there. After Valhalla reached its capacity limit, the first sacred land to reach its limit was Astarte.
A tunnel of light through space-time forms. Once I pass through here, Valhalla will appear before my eyes. In human time, it's been 3,000 years since my last visit. But by gods' standards, that time wasn't very long. It was only enough time to think, "It's been a while?"
One step. Two steps. Just as I'm about to take a third step, the light tunnel disappears, and a new landscape reveals itself.
Majestically rising spires of light and a pure white city submerged in clouds. The homeland of all gods and Father's city. Valhalla comes into view.