Never Die Extra

Chapter 497

Evan’s Survival Ending (2)

The dungeon was maintained. Even if the Devil who created it died, it remained the same. For some reason, the power source of the dungeon existed independently of the Devil.

“They’re looking for you.”

One afternoon, when Evan was in the middle of his hectic wedding preparations with Arisha, Name visited. The rookie party led by Name was a team that was now working on the front lines related to the dungeon.

“Them?”

“The dungeon gods.”

“Oh, the dungeon.”

Evan frowned as he arranged a list of clothes for the wedding and reception. “Why now? I’m going to take on something else that bothers me.”

“Well, maybe it’s because they want to talk about compensation for hunting the Devil.”

Evan snorted at the words. Name must have already conquered the dungeon to the 100th floor and seemed too happy.

“Now I’m saying it because I think you should know, but your reward will be related to the dungeon.”

“The Devil is the one who created the dungeon.”

Anyway, Name’s answer was blunt. He spat out, looking into the eyes of a young man sparkling like obsidian.

“Did you want to kill him?”

“Yes.”

Name answered immediately.

“I wanted to punish the person who created the dungeon, which was the starting point for everyone.”

But Name lacked strength, and the Devil was a god. To destroy it completely, a god’s power was also needed. Not the gods who run away afraid of the Devil, but an existence who would defeat the Devil to protect humans with an indomitable will. It was Evan, not Name.

“But what made you…maybe the gods of the dungeons.”

“There’s only one thing they wanted to kill, but they don’t have any meaning anymore.”

“Oh, it’s an erasure.”

“But now it’s all gone.”

Name said so, hesitating for a moment, and asked Evan.

“Will new people continue to be born?”

“I’m not the God who created the God race’s children…”

“But you know everything, don’t you?”

Evan hoped that there would be no more people who regarded him as a god and served him. Still, at least everyone who watched the match with Devil that day thought Evan was absolute…and unless Enoch and the Dwarf followers from ancient times were prevented from building his temple, the followers would continue to grow.

He sighed silently, recalling the temple being built not so far from the headquarters of Astray, and answered honestly to Name.

“As the once-made Devil Rune continues to appear. Yes, new people will continue to be born.”

At Evan’s positivity, Name was sighing softly. A heavy sigh came after thinking of the hardships that the new generation would face. Maybe this guy was out of the shackles of his previous oppression. He was recovering his mindset that suited the main character of Yo-Ma Great War 4.

“That day, I saw your strength and thought, ‘This is what it is to protect the world. A person who changes history and leads mankind.’”

Then Evan tilted his head.

“Why are you talking about that all of a sudden?”

“Of course, that’s impossible for me, but I thought I wanted to be a little like you that day.”

“It’s not you who’s ashamed; it’s me. Don’t you know it’s cringe-worthy when you say that seriously?”

“I can’t afford to lose the great burden of defending mankind…”

No, he didn’t want to lose that big load on his back either. Ignoring Evan’s sour look, Name confessed his thoughts as they were.

“At least I want to save the children born with the same destiny as me.”

“You want to be king of the new generation.”

As if there had been such a Name from the beginning, when Evan naturally put it in his mouth, Name paused for a moment and nodded.

“The king…no. I think I want to set them free.”

“You know I’m already doing something similar, right?”

“This is the first thought I had when I saw the children you saved.”

Despite being born as children of the God race, the junior team was able to stay pure with Evan’s influence since their childhood. What Name felt when he saw them, who had lived a much different life from him, wasn’t envy or hatred, but sadness when he met the children for the first time. It was evident that even a little difference could lead to such a split in fate.

“But it will be impossible for me to save every child unless I run with your feet.”

“That’s a lot of confidence.”

“Help me.”

Name bowed to him. It was a very frank attitude.

“I want to save them.”

“Yes.”

Evan nodded coolly.

“We’re going to create an intelligence organization that only consists of them. Move with them.”

“…Thank you.”

“I’ll let you do it with Save.”

“I don’t like him.”

“No, you guys will do it together. Save, is he out there?”

Squeak. The door opened, and Save, in a neat priest’s uniform, came inside. One could see that he was a priest from the moment he was born. But that was due to the priestly suit of the newly created Zero denomination with the support of designer Ottpah (They couldn’t call him Evan directly, so everyone agreed to call him Zero).

“I heard god’s call and came.”

“We’re going to save the god race’s children. Tag along with Name.”

“Can Renail join us?”

“I don’t mean to separate couples.”

Save scratched his cheek embarrassingly at Evan’s mischievous remarks. The emotion of love was truly mysterious.

“How come I and this guy…”

However, Name still felt uncomfortable with Save, perhaps because of his natural rivalry as main characters. Save himself didn’t care as long Name wasn’t against Evan.

“He has great power and ability.”

“I’m glad you’re looking at my humble abilities.”

“Okay, that’s enough for this appointment. I’ll change your equipment, so go find the dwarves.”

“…Thank…you.”

Evan smirked and laughed again at the rare honest reply.

“Okay, then go. I’ll go to the dungeon.”

* * *

When Evan got to the Sherden Dungeon, the priests and knights guarding it saluted with surprise. As expected, there was such an awareness in the way people treated him, unlike before. There were signs before then, but the day he returned to modern times and killed the Devil himself, they became overt. All the energies he had were united around the power of Annihilation, refined by the ability of his unique armor…sublimated into a completely different force.

Maybe it’s what could be called ‘god’s power’ or ‘divine power.’ Since the sublimation of power, everyone had taken that attitude naturally. Evan himself recognized it and tried to control it somehow, but it was still difficult. Should one say it was a newbie’s pain? Maybe he could get a little hint when he met the other gods in the dungeon. Evan sighed and entered the dungeon.

[Here you are.]

It was a paradise of light.

“Uh…”

Evan spoke in a daze as he faced those surrounding him.

“Now I can see your faces.”

[That’s obvious because we’re on the same level now. Come here, take a seat.]

The creepy-looking goddess beckoned to him. But it was the same God who gave him the job for the first time and had a great influence on him by giving him Heaven’s Press.

“Aren’t you the god of the *atl*ll or something?”

[You don’t have to trust that pile of data. Originally, a hidden name forcibly ends up with a lame joke like ‘Bald’ even if it is interpreted later.]

At the beckon call of god, Evan meekly sat down on the chair at the table. The gods sat on chairs around him in a natural motion.

“So why did you call me?”

[I called to thank you and give you a little explanation.]

“Oh, it’s like an after story, isn’t it?”

[I don’t know what that is, but…]

These people don’t know much about games.

[First of all, thank you for defeating the Devil.]

“You don’t have to thank me because I wanted to do it.”

[No. No matter what purpose it was, it doesn’t change that you played a big role in solving our work.]

“Work?”

[Yes.]

At that moment, the gods showed their faces to Evan in unison. Evan was engulfed in the thought that, somehow, he had seen their faces before.

“Huh?”

Why was that? The images of the gods had never been released in the main episode of Yo-Ma Great War 3, nor the DLC.

[You don’t remember us.]

[He didn’t care about us at the time.]

[Why would this child remember us? We were in a hurry to run away from the Devil.]

“…Run away?”

[Yeah, run away.]

One of the gods nodded to affirm.

[We are the gods who were summoned at that time.]

[Technically, we’re what the gods left behind.]

[And what allowed us, who couldn’t even be called gods, to suppress the power of the Devil and manage the dungeon…]

[It’s because you had the divine power.]

“No, wait, wait.”

Even Evan, who was now immune to most surprises, couldn’t help but be appalled by this story. These gods must have noticed the Devil’s tricks and came down to take care of the dungeon…the gods continued to explain to Evan, who was in turmoil with his head wrapped around him.

[You know it’s very difficult for a god to come down to the human world.]

[No summoning ceremony brought a god to the human world, the last time it was in the shrine.]

[Some gods, like the Great Mother Earth, sent power down to earth to enrich man.]

[And helped create a new race.]

At this, Evan became despondent. The existences in the dungeons that called themselves gods were nothing but fragments. But it was convincing. Considering their local influence and weak interference with dungeons…

“What do you mean my divine power helped?”

[Well, you established faith in the past and disappeared.]

[The faith of those who believe in you has continued to bloom ever since. You don’t know, but the faith you left behind was stronger than that of all other gods, and even now, all the faith that humans dedicate to the “Nameless God” is yours.]

Evan was breathing heavily. He wanted to believe it wasn’t true, but here it was. Was everything being replaced by faith in him?

[Yes, because you’ve already stepped up to the plate and saved the world.]

[All life on this earth owes you, and all who do not believe in a particular god are your believers.]

Evan couldn’t get his act together at such a distant story. But the story wasn’t over yet.

[And instead of a master who didn’t exist in that time, the faith flowed into us, a fragment of the divine beings that remained on earth.]

[We managed to open ourselves up, interfere with dungeons, and raise humans.]

[Of course, I didn’t know you were Zero, though.]

[I realized it the moment the Devil died.]

[That’s why we’re expressing our gratitude to you.]

Only then did Evan realize why the gods asked him to come.

[But now you’ve been reborn as a god.]

[Now all faiths will converge to you.]

[With that, we won’t be able to maintain the dungeon.]

[We want to ask you, again.]

[Please, will you give us the strength to maintain the dungeon?]

[The crisis is not over yet.]

Evan gently closed and opened his eyes. The answer was, of course, fixed, but before that, he wanted to ask them something.

“My aptitude is a wizard…”

[Because you’ve already made a tremendous mark as the Great Ancient Wizard in the past. The curse was reversed.]

“So, there’s no other victim in the world who’ll be fooled by such a pseudo-judgment?”

[Trust us a little more. Aren’t we the ones who made you an outsider? …That was your strength after all.]

Haha, it was a mess from start to finish. He couldn’t even figure out where the starting point was.

“Okay.”

The new owner of the dungeon spoke.

“Let’s try to run the dungeon.”