Chapter 3: At Wish’s End

《My liege, the young master is safe. You needn’t worry.》

《Got it. Look after him for me.》

I continued dodging the attacks from the gigantic tree arms while Kohaku spoke to me telepathically. Gould had made those arms using a green crown skill, then had used a red crown skill to power up his strikes and infuse them with fire. Even though I was managing to dodge the punches, each strike sent broken tree roots flying into me. They didn’t cause great damage to me or anything, but they did sting; it was enough to affect my focus.

I’d attempted to shoot at Gould any time I saw an opening, but every time, he would block the bullets with those huge arms.

“Gluttonic Feather.”

Several gold feathers shot off from the wings on Gould’s back and fired toward me like shuriken.

Realizing I couldn’t dodge them in time, I erected a barrier with [Prison] to block them instead. It was possible to use the spell so long as the barrier was localized around me.

The moment the feathers hit the barrier, they exploded like little balloons, spreading a liquid that consumed part of the barrier.

“Tch!”

I immediately leaped backward. Those feathers had the same characteristics as Gluttony Slimes, so they could consume anything and convert it into their own energy. Their bodies pulsed for a while before they eventually reverted to their feather shapes and returned to Gould’s back—I was pretty sure he was absorbing the mana they’d eaten from my [Prison].

Being able to consume the opponent’s strength and turn it into your own is a nasty move. Even worse now, considering that’s not the only threat here.

“Spatial Distortion.”

The space in front of Gould and the space in front of me started to distort. Gould crossed that distortion in space to launch a right straight that I had no choice but to take up close.

“[Accel]!”

I used acceleration magic to boost to the side and speed up my processing ability to just barely dodge the fist in the slowed-down space. It was all well and good that I’d dodged the fist, but the wind the punch generated knocked me off- balance. Gould took that chance to once more send his gold feathers after me.

Talk about playing dirty!

Just before I fell to the ground, I opened a [Gate] beneath me and fell straight into it. Even if it only stayed open for an instant, I could manage.

Naturally, my exit point was right above Gould.

Time to get a taste of your own irritating medicine!

I took out a huge rock about the size of a minibus from [Storage] that I’d kept aside while helping clear a landslide the other day and…

“[Gravity]!”

…slammed it right down on Gould after making it several times heavier. The tree roots cracked and crunched as the rock embedded itself into the ground. I thought there was no way Gould could have survived that, but then it began to shift.

When I landed on the ground, there Gould was in front of me, lifting up the rock. I was shocked at the strength on display—that rock had to have been several hundred tons.

Is this what the red crown skill is truly capable of?

Gould flung the rock right at me. Unsurprisingly, I did not want to get squished under my own rock, so I used [Accel] to dodge the incoming attack.

“Blazing Finger Shot.”

When Gould snapped his fingers, ten fireballs shot out of them and flew right toward me.

Ten whole fireballs at once?! Is this the red crown skill too?!

I used [Prison] to block the incoming attack. I was afraid they would set the surrounding roots on fire, but it seemed fine.

Then, all of a sudden, I heard my barrier crack.

No way?! Are those fireballs infused with divinity?!

My barrier lasted until the eighth fireball, but then the ninth shattered it entirely and the tenth had an easy opening to strike me.

“Divine Providence!”

I slashed the last fireball with a divinity-infused Brunhild.

Slashed in two by the blade, the last fireball flew past my left and right and exploded behind me.

Jeez, that was way too close for comfort! Is this menace able to use divinity for more than just erosion?

Wait, no…was the power of erosion quite literally eroding Gould? That meant he could be on his way to becoming the wicked god himself!

That wasn’t good. I was the curator of this world. If I let a wicked god be born in my first year of godhood, the other deities would never let me live it down. There were already gods that didn’t think too highly of me, so messing up here would be devastating for my reputation.

Personally, though, the power of the fallen god Gould had gotten his hands on wasn’t even my fault—it was the god of destruction’s fault for not managing to dispose of all of the fallen god’s fragments. He should be the one taking the blame here, not me.

Thankfully, Gould wasn’t fully a wicked god yet. Honestly, he couldn’t even be counted as a wicked devout, which meant it would still be okay for me to be the one to take him down.

“Come forth, sacred treasure.”

At my call, the platinum sphere that had been protecting Kuon flew into my hand. Though I had lent it to the kids, this was technically my sacred treasure that I had created, so I could use it just as well as they could.

“Sacred treasure equip!”

The ball separated into threads, then rethreaded into the gunblade that I’d made for Kuon. It was designed like a blade with a gun barrel attached to the top, and the bullets it shot out were all made from divinity. If I shot them like this, Gould’s Gluttony Slimes would just absorb them, so I made sure to coat them in my Divine Providence, turning them into divine armor-piercing bullets. And to go a little bit further…

“Copy.”

“What?!”

The floating gunblade moved in a circle, leaving behind copies of itself as it went. It eventually left me with nine of those sacred treasure gunblades floating in front of me.

《My liege, the young master is safe. You needn’t worry.》

《Got it. Look after him for me.》

I continued dodging the attacks from the gigantic tree arms while Kohaku spoke to me telepathically. Gould had made those arms using a green crown skill, then had used a red crown skill to power up his strikes and infuse them with fire. Even though I was managing to dodge the punches, each strike sent broken tree roots flying into me. They didn’t cause great damage to me or anything, but they did sting; it was enough to affect my focus.

I’d attempted to shoot at Gould any time I saw an opening, but every time, he would block the bullets with those huge arms.

“Gluttonic Feather.”

Several gold feathers shot off from the wings on Gould’s back and fired toward me like shuriken.

Realizing I couldn’t dodge them in time, I erected a barrier with [Prison] to block them instead. It was possible to use the spell so long as the barrier was localized around me.

The moment the feathers hit the barrier, they exploded like little balloons, spreading a liquid that consumed part of the barrier.

“Tch!”

I immediately leaped backward. Those feathers had the same characteristics as Gluttony Slimes, so they could consume anything and convert it into their own energy. Their bodies pulsed for a while before they eventually reverted to their feather shapes and returned to Gould’s back—I was pretty sure he was absorbing the mana they’d eaten from my [Prison].

Being able to consume the opponent’s strength and turn it into your own is a nasty move. Even worse now, considering that’s not the only threat here.

“Spatial Distortion.”

The space in front of Gould and the space in front of me started to distort. Gould crossed that distortion in space to launch a right straight that I had no choice but to take up close.

“[Accel]!”

I used acceleration magic to boost to the side and speed up my processing ability to just barely dodge the fist in the slowed-down space. It was all well and good that I’d dodged the fist, but the wind the punch generated knocked me off- balance. Gould took that chance to once more send his gold feathers after me.

Talk about playing dirty!

Just before I fell to the ground, I opened a [Gate] beneath me and fell straight into it. Even if it only stayed open for an instant, I could manage.

Naturally, my exit point was right above Gould.

Time to get a taste of your own irritating medicine!

I took out a huge rock about the size of a minibus from [Storage] that I’d kept aside while helping clear a landslide the other day and…

“[Gravity]!”

…slammed it right down on Gould after making it several times heavier. The tree roots cracked and crunched as the rock embedded itself into the ground. I thought there was no way Gould could have survived that, but then it began to shift.

When I landed on the ground, there Gould was in front of me, lifting up the rock. I was shocked at the strength on display—that rock had to have been several hundred tons.

Is this what the red crown skill is truly capable of?

Gould flung the rock right at me. Unsurprisingly, I did not want to get squished under my own rock, so I used [Accel] to dodge the incoming attack.

“Blazing Finger Shot.”

When Gould snapped his fingers, ten fireballs shot out of them and flew right toward me.

Ten whole fireballs at once?! Is this the red crown skill too?!

I used [Prison] to block the incoming attack. I was afraid they would set the surrounding roots on fire, but it seemed fine.

Then, all of a sudden, I heard my barrier crack.

No way?! Are those fireballs infused with divinity?!

My barrier lasted until the eighth fireball, but then the ninth shattered it entirely and the tenth had an easy opening to strike me.

“Divine Providence!”

I slashed the last fireball with a divinity-infused Brunhild.

Slashed in two by the blade, the last fireball flew past my left and right and exploded behind me.

Jeez, that was way too close for comfort! Is this menace able to use divinity for more than just erosion?

Wait, no…was the power of erosion quite literally eroding Gould? That meant he could be on his way to becoming the wicked god himself!

That wasn’t good. I was the curator of this world. If I let a wicked god be born in my first year of godhood, the other deities would never let me live it down. There were already gods that didn’t think too highly of me, so messing up here would be devastating for my reputation.

Personally, though, the power of the fallen god Gould had gotten his hands on wasn’t even my fault—it was the god of destruction’s fault for not managing to dispose of all of the fallen god’s fragments. He should be the one taking the blame here, not me.

Thankfully, Gould wasn’t fully a wicked god yet. Honestly, he couldn’t even be counted as a wicked devout, which meant it would still be okay for me to be the one to take him down.

“Come forth, sacred treasure.”

At my call, the platinum sphere that had been protecting Kuon flew into my hand. Though I had lent it to the kids, this was technically my sacred treasure that I had created, so I could use it just as well as they could.

“Sacred treasure equip!”

The ball separated into threads, then rethreaded into the gunblade that I’d made for Kuon. It was designed like a blade with a gun barrel attached to the top, and the bullets it shot out were all made from divinity. If I shot them like this, Gould’s Gluttony Slimes would just absorb them, so I made sure to coat them in my Divine Providence, turning them into divine armor-piercing bullets. And to go a little bit further…

“Copy.”

“What?!”

The floating gunblade moved in a circle, leaving behind copies of itself as it went. It eventually left me with nine of those sacred treasure gunblades floating in front of me.

The next moment, the area suddenly changed. Gould, battered and broken, was crouching on the ground. We were below the altar, right where we had been fighting earlier.

Is this…Reset, the white crown skill?!

Everything that had just happened had been overwritten. It wasn’t a simple reversal of time, but a complete altering of history. The events of me striking Gould and cutting the ring in two had never happened.

Several feathers fell from Gould’s wings and turned into dust. The price for Reset had to be big.

Suddenly, a bright light assaulted my eyes—the ring had begun shining again.

While I had to shield my eyes just like before, Gould ran straight for the ring with no hesitation. He wasn’t trembling with joy like he had been originally, though.

“Wait!”

I dashed toward the ring even as I was being blinded. I couldn’t run well while shielding my eyes, but if I used [Accel], who knew what direction I’d end up going.

Dammit, I should’ve gotten the god of glasses to give me a pair of shades!

Amid the dazzling vortex of light, Gould reached the ring. “Wait for me…Edda, Ryuuri!”

Gould dove into the ring, the light getting larger and brighter.

Did he get away?! What should I do?! Do I chase after him? But I have no idea what time it’s connected to!

I looked back and Granny Tokie gave me a small nod.

It’s okay? Is it really okay? I guess I can use Spatial Translocation to come back whenever I need to… Well, I have the goddess of space-time’s approval. It’ll all work out somehow!

Having made up my mind, I flung myself into the ring just as Gould had.

After I experienced a gross twisty sensation, everything went black. All around me was pitch darkness. I couldn’t tell down from up. I felt so floaty that it was like I was in space.

Even though there was no light, I could still clearly see myself. It felt like I was being dragged along by something.

I thought I was in total darkness, but I could see a faint light in the distance that was the size of a pinprick. It reminded me of a star in the sky. Whatever was dragging me along seemed to be heading in that direction.

So this is what it’s like inside of a time tunnel. I feel like I’ve jumped down a manhole only to be dragged through some sewers… Huh?!

“[Prison]!”

I felt a sudden chill run down my back and quickly deployed a barrier around me. Something hit it.

“You insolent fool! Why have you followed me this far?!” Gould was suddenly floating in the middle of the darkness. When did he get here?!

Gould’s body had finished regenerating, but the wings on his back could barely be called wings anymore, since they were so ragged. All the crown skills required a price, including the regeneration of his body. Something like Reset must’ve cost a much greater price than the other skills. There was no way he could use those wings as a substitute anymore. The next crown skill he used would use Gould himself as the price.

“I cannot let it end here! I will do whatever it takes for just one more chance!”

“What is it that you’re going this far for? Reviving the wicked god won’t achieve anything, you know?”

Granny Tokie had already said she wouldn’t allow it, after all. She’d just throw him into an endless time corridor and have him wander there forever. Gods weren’t allowed to interfere with a wicked god in the mortal realm, but a different dimension like a time tunnel was a completely different matter. This was the realm of the goddess of space-time now.

“I don’t care about the wicked god! I… I will retrieve what I have lost! That is my only wish!”

What he’s lost? What Gould—no, Chrom Ranchesse has lost… Does he mean his memories?

During the invasion of the Phrase five thousand years ago, Chrom Ranchesse lost his memories as the price for the white and black crowns’ rampage. Was he trying to get those memories back? But how? Was he going to return to that time and stop him from doing anything?!

You can’t do that!

I felt bad for what happened to him, but that moment was an important part of our history. If the white and black crown skills never activated, the world barrier wouldn’t be restored—it would completely change the course of history. Never mind just changing the course of history, if the barrier became so damaged that even the time spirits could do nothing about it, the god of destruction would completely destroy the world. Even Granny Tokie couldn’t do anything if it got that far.

Even if Gould wasn’t intending to destroy the world, it would be the inevitable outcome if he managed his plan. Or, no…what if that was his goal?

“Changing time will result in the destruction of the world… Is that your wish?”

“I don’t care what happens to the world! I will do whatever it takes to save Edda and Ryuuri!”

Edda? Ryuuri? Who are they? Why do they sound familiar…? Oh!

I reached into [Storage] and took out the ether film we’d found in the underground lab in Xenoahs, then ran mana through it. It displayed a man and a woman on either side of a young smiling girl. Edda and Ryuuri were the names etched into it.

“We found your underground lab, you know? Edda and Ryuuri are your wife and daughter, right?”

“Huh?!”

I showed Gould—Chrom Ranchesse—the film, then threw it at him. It floated through the antigravity space and landed right in Gould’s hand.

“Edda…! Ryuuri…!” Gould mumbled, his voice trembling as he looked at the ether film. Tears didn’t fall from his eyes, but I felt like I saw something shiny.

Did I just imagine it?

“I lost both of them that day. I still have the image of them being sucked into that vortex of light cast by the crystal man burned into my mind.”

He was likely referring to Gila, the Dominant Phrase. Albus mentioned that Gila’s particle laser had completely evaporated Chrom Ranchesse’s wife and kid.

“I will get them back. I have sacrificed so much to reach this point. I will cross time and space to save them. I will let no one get in my way!”

“Hang on… Your goal is to bring them back, right? To not let them die?” I asked Gould, who was burning with desire, his right hand morphed into a sword.

“I have no other goal! No matter what happens, I will—!” “Do you…not know?”

“Know what?”

If he didn’t, then this was truly tragic. In fact, given the way he had been speaking, it seemed very likely that he didn’t know. Were Chrom’s memories from after the rampage missing? Was the transfer of memories incomplete? The gold Gollem standing in front of me had no idea what happened to his wife and child following that incident… Had he made the whole world his enemy just to bring them back?

“Do you remember what you did after you lost your family?”

“After I lost them? I… I transferred my memories to the gold crown… No, wait, why do I have no memory of that? But…I have Chrom’s memories?”

“How did you fight the crystal man who killed them?” “I… I…?”

Gould stopped moving as he tried to search his memories. It seemed he was starting to understand himself. Gould wasn’t human—a Gollem shouldn’t forget anything. All of their memories were stored in their Q-Crystal. If the memory existed, then he should be able to remember it. But if the memory didn’t exist…

We’d thought that the gold crown had only received Chrom Ranchesse’s memories before his rampage. From the sound of things, though, he didn’t transfer them until after. Maybe it was because the man himself realized his memories were fading and wanted to preserve them. Unfortunately, those memories had gone so wild that they only transferred up until the moment his wife and daughter had died.

I wasn’t sure if it had been intentional or if it had simply been an issue of the volume of memories, but whatever the case, it had created a tragedy.

“We have the white crown with us,” I told him. “The black crown ended up being reset, but thankfully, the white crown still has its memories from five thousand years ago.”

“The white and black crowns?!”

“Yeah. The two crowns that were with Chrom Ranchesse five thousand years ago. According to the white crown’s memories, he made their abilities run rampant when his wife and kid were killed. It forced the Phrase—the crystal monsters—back into the dimensional gap, and the world was altered so that your family never died.”

“They… They never…?!”

Gould’s eyes went wide. He was likely struggling to accept that not only had everything he’d just done been pointless, but that his goal had already been achieved long ago.

This Gollem wasn’t Chrom Ranchesse himself, but just a Gollem with his memories transferred into it. Still, I couldn’t help but sympathize. I was pretty sure that if my family all died in front of me, I’d do anything to bring them back, no matter who tried to interfere and no matter what I had to sacrifice.

“When I first woke up, a thousand years had already passed… Using the memories I had, I tried to use the power of the black crown to head to the past, but it went out of control and I was thrown into the future instead…”

He’d tried to go to the past with Parallel Shift? I remembered Granny Tokie had said once that it was harder to travel to the past than the future. Trying to go a thousand years into the past would’ve been quite the difficult task. The power of the black crown must’ve gone berserk, causing a timequake which sent Gould to the future instead of the past. It would’ve been at that time that the other gold crown—our Gold—was created.

Doc Babylon had thought that the gold crown had been sent to the future when Chrom Ranchesse had gone on his rampage, but it seemed she was mistaken.

“Heh heh… Ha ha ha ha ha!”

Suddenly, Gould began laughing maniacally. It felt like he was laughing at himself as much as he was laughing at me.

“Are you telling me I did all of this for nothing?! After being thrown into the future, I made use of the wicked god’s power that I found and finally was about to see my wish through… And yet now, you say it was all for nothing?! Did you think I would believe such stupid nonsense?!”

“You…”

I could see the anger in Gould’s eyes. I couldn’t tell if it was aimed at me or…

Gould’s right arm morphed into a huge sword before he then disappeared into the darkness.

He did this before!

I jerked my body back the moment I sensed him, before something whiffed right by me. As he flew past, I thought I could see his red glowing eyes through the gap in his visor. He was probably using camouflage by turning his Orichalcum Slime body entirely black. He wasn’t able to turn his eyes black, so he’d put his visor down to try to hide them. In a space as dark as this, it would be near impossible to catch sight of him.

“Divine Providence!” “Gah!”

I unleashed the light of my divinity around the area. Now that Gould was visible, I dodged his incoming attack and fired the sacred treasure gun in my hand. The divine bullet hit Gould’s arm, tearing it off at the elbow.

“Give up already. Your goal was achieved well before now. Chrom Ranchesse should have been living happily with his wife and daughter in the past.”

Although I sounded confident, I wasn’t actually a hundred percent sure that was the case. Even if the Phrase invasion had been written out of history, there was no saying how he’d lived his life after that.

Unexpected misfortunes happened all the time, so for all I knew, his daughter could’ve gotten ill and died young, or his wife might have died in an accident shortly after. The only thing I could say for certain was that Chrom Ranchesse would have slowly been losing his memories until all of them were eventually lost, from the monumental knowledge he had as a Gollem engineer, to the knowledge of magic he had acquired by crossing worlds, to the precious memories he had with his family.

But if he was living with his wife and child, could he not have formed new memories to make up for them? The price to pay for using the white crown skill was the memories that had existed at the point of the skill activation, not any of the memories created after. Even if he forgot his name, his wife would surely have reminded him. Even if he forgot who he was, his daughter would surely have told him stories about his life.

He might have lost his life as the genius Gollem engineer, but I personally thought he would still have been able to live life as a husband and a father named Chrom Ranchesse. Maybe this was just me trying to make myself feel better about the situation, but…I’d like to believe that was the case.

“There’s no way I’ll believe that after all this time! If… If that is true, then…why am I here?!”

The crimes Gould had committed could never be excused. Even if it was for his family, it was never okay to sacrifice others for one’s goal. Still, I had no confidence I wouldn’t have made the same choice had I been in his shoes. I would have stained my hands red with blood even while knowing full well that it was a horrendous act. If I were to then learn that all of that had been pointless, I would lose the only moral justification I had for myself. If it turned out that I’d never had to do anything for my family, I would immediately be faced with the magnitude of what I had done.

Would I be able to bear it if that were me?

It could be that he wanted someone to judge him for his actions. Though honestly, maybe I was being selfish by reading it that way…

Suddenly, I realized the light to the left of us was growing brighter. The exit to the time tunnel was getting closer. I had simply been letting the river of space carry me to where it wanted.

I could guess where it was that Gould…no, Chrom Ranchesse had been trying to reach.

“Spatial…Distortion.” “Huh?!”

Gould created a portal with his raised arm and jumped in while I stared in shock. While he was in the time tunnel, this was the only space he could teleport within. Even if he headed for where we had entered, the torrent of flowing time in an incomplete time tunnel such as this one made it impossible for us to return to our original location without something like Spatial Translocation.

Which means there’s only one place he’s headed!

I whipped my head toward the light and saw Gould appear beside it before disappearing through the exit.

I was surprised not just by the fact that he’d used Spatial Distortion, but that he’d used it all with his body in that state. The feathers were no longer suitable substitutes for the price—and that meant he was going to use his own body.

Was he that desperate to return to the past? It could only be called an obsession at this point. An obsession that I was almost in awe of, really.

I couldn’t just stand and watch, though, so I immediately headed for the exit and made it to the past.

Am I in a forest?

I couldn’t see Gould anywhere, but there were little footprints in the damp ground. At the very least, it was clear that this was where he’d exited. It went without saying, but time passed differently within a time tunnel. I might have only felt that we’d exited a minute apart, but that could’ve been a huge difference out here. I did think it unlikely that our exit times had been separated by hours, though…

I looked around and caught sight of a large mountain range. It looked a lot like the one I saw near the lab in Xenoahs.

Are we near where Chrom Ranchesse lived?

“Groooooooooaaaaaaaaar!”

Suddenly, a roar that sounded neither animal nor monster rang out from deep in the forest.

Is it a magic beast?

If this was five thousand years in the past, then it could be pretty strong.

I think it came from wherever Gould’s footsteps are headed. Guess I should check it out. 

I used [Accel] to rush through the forest, being careful not to bump into any trees along the way. When I finally made it to an open area, I saw the two- headed T. rex I’d bumped into once before attacking Gould. Actually, it looked even bigger than the one I’d seen, and it had a horn, so it must’ve been a different species entirely. Perhaps it was a more primitive form.

Gould had morphed his right hand into a lance and was charging right at the T. rex. He managed to pierce it through its chest, but the lance broke off at the base in the process.

Blood spurted out from the T. rex’s mouth and chest as it collapsed to the ground. Gould collapsed at the same time. His body had already begun falling apart, with parts of it crumbling into dust. The Orichalcum Slimes making up his frame were paying the price. If I did nothing here, he’d eventually stop functioning entirely.

“Ah…”

I whipped my head around when I heard a small voice and noticed a little girl crouched under a large tree. She looked about seven or eight…right around Linne and Elna’s age. She had bright flaxen hair tied into pigtails and was wearing a pinafore dress.

I gasped as I realized that I recognized that child.

It’s gotta be her. It’s the girl who was with Chrom Ranchesse in the photo. So she must be…!

When I looked from the fallen Gould to the girl, she nervously called out to me.

“Excuse me, but this sweet little Gollem suddenly jumped out to save me when I was about to be attacked… Is it yours, mister?”

“You…know what Gollems are?”

If this was the Upright World from five thousand years in the past, then Gollems shouldn’t exist. Doc Babylon might’ve invented some support mechs, but they wouldn’t have been called Gollems. If she knew about Gollems, then…

“We have two little robots that look like him back home. They’re called Albus and Noir. They don’t work anymore, though…”

They didn’t work? So was this the world after the black and white crowns had gone berserk? I thought that Gould would’ve tried to go to the time before Gila attacked… Did our divinity clashing inside the time tunnel skew the time that the exit led to?

If Albus and Noir were no longer working, that would mean that Chrom never made another contract with them. The next time they would awaken would be four thousand years later, by the hand of Arthur Ernes Belfast, the current king’s ancestor.

If this girl knew about Albus and Noir, then there was no one else she could be.

“My name’s Touya Mochizuki. Would you mind telling me yours?” “Ah, I’m Ryuuri. Ryuuri Ranchesse.”

Yep, that confirms it. She’s his kid.

In other words…right where the time tunnel had let us out, Chrom’s daughter was in danger, and Gould, who had his memories, saved her. Was this all a coincidence? If Gould hadn’t created the time tunnel, Ryuuri might have died here. This really made it seem like Gould had arrived from the future to save his daughter. Was this something that had also been dictated to happen by history? Or was it truly all a coincidence?

“Ryuuri!”

“Oh, mom!”

A young woman who looked to be in her late twenties frantically dashed through the trees toward us. She had flaxen hair, the same as her daughter’s, tied back in a ponytail that went over her shoulder. She quickly hugged her daughter while looking fearfully at the body of the big T. rex. Those eyes looked just as cautious of me, though.

“Who are you?”

“He’s Mr. Mochizuki. He saved me.”

Ryuuri went on to explain everything that had happened. Her mother listened carefully, then bowed deeply toward me.

“My name is Edda. I’m Ryuuri’s mother. Thank you so much for saving my daughter. How can I ever repay you?”

“No, uh, it technically wasn’t me who saved her…”

I looked over at Gould, who was still lying unmoving on the ground. It looked like he was trying to move his body, but it was clear he’d reached his limit. It was taking all of his energy to make even those small movements.

I walked up and spoke to him, though I was still a little on guard.

He’s already begun falling apart… I doubt he has long.

“Like a hand? You want to see your wife and daughter before you have to go, don’t you?”

“Please…”

I used [Levitation] to lean him against the nearest tree.

“This Gollem is the one who saved your daughter. I arrived after everything was already over.”

“Oh, he’s in terrible shape. He got hurt this badly just to protect my daughter…”

I couldn’t admit that I was the one who had dealt most of the damage…

Regardless, it seemed Edda knew about Gollems as well.

Well, I guess that was obvious. She is his wife.

“Mister, does he have a name?” “Hmm? Oh, his name is Gould.”

Ryuuri walked up and gently took one of those broken hands. “Thank you for saving me, Gould.”

“Ryuuri… Edda…” Gould mumbled as he looked at the two with flickering red eyes. The flashing gradually decreased in speed until it finally came to a complete stop, his head drooping down as he stopped moving entirely. He had finally stopped functioning. Gollems had a sleep mode, but this was different. I couldn’t feel any mana from his G-Cube.

“He stopped moving…” Ryuuri said sadly.

“He was getting old. You had nothing to do with it,” I reassured her to keep her from feeling guilty.

I opened Gould’s chest with [Cracking] and took out the G-Cube. The device would usually be glowing a pale green, but this one was completely devoid of color and badly cracked. I could see a small core of an ominous color inside with a bit of residual divinity.

This must be the fragment of the god of erosion.

I crushed it all at once with my divinity, smashing it into pieces so small that it would be impossible for it to regenerate. With that, the mission from God Almighty was complete.

The destruction of a G-Cube meant the death of the Gollem. Unlike a hibernation state, the basic functions of the Gollem were recorded in the Q- Crystal, so those wouldn’t disappear, but all of its memories and experiences up until that point would be lost. It was like taking out the plug in the middle of one of those old games that you couldn’t save, which forced you to start from the beginning.

Since Gould still had his Q-Crystal intact, he could be brought back by inserting a new G-Cube, but he would be completely reset. Naturally, that also meant that Chrom Ranchesse’s memories would be gone. The Chrom-Gould truly died at this moment.

I wonder if getting to see his wife and daughter at the end was enough… 

Then again, Gould was a Gollem, not the man himself. His memories and emotions were all simply implanted into him. Thinking of it that way, this small Gollem might have simply been a pitiful puppet, merely acting out the former personality of Chrom Ranchesse. But personally speaking, those emotional outbursts he’d shown had been real. Could a soul reside in a machine? I wasn’t sure.

“Um, could I maybe take him?” “Huh?”

As I was sinking into a sea of thoughts, Ryuuri’s unexpected words brought me back to the surface.

“I want to build Gollems in the future just like dad did. If I have his Q- Crystal, I can have the Gollem inherit his traits, right?”

The girl was right, but Gould’s special traits had been installed at the same time as Chrom Ranchesse’s memories, so even if he was fixed, he’d probably just become a Gollem without crown skills like Gold.

“Are you going to try to repair him?”

“I might not be able to manage it right now, but some day…I want to see the one who saved me running around all healthy.”

“There’s nothing very special about this Gollem…but if that’s okay with you, then sure.”

“Thank you so much! I’ll do my best to fix him!”

Ryuuri had a wide smile as she rested a hand on Gould. She reminded me a bit of Quun as I watched her.

Edda spoke up next, saying, “Um…you appear to be knowledgeable on Gollems. Could it be that…you were acquainted with my husband?”

“Well, uh…kinda.”

I was an acquaintance of his in the future, in a sense, but that Chrom was just a robot with his memories implanted in it. It was a difficult question; I wasn’t lying, but I wasn’t really telling the truth either.

“I must apologize. My husband has forgotten a lot of things after an…accident.”

“Oh, no need to worry. I know all about that. I doubt he would remember me anymore. I just happened to pass by here—I wasn’t coming to meet him or anything.”

Edda looked relieved at my response. Judging from her reaction, Chrom’s memories must’ve been pretty much all gone by now. She must have thought it would be awkward if I learned here that Chrom didn’t remember me.

Though the truth was that we weren’t acquainted at all. I had to avoid meeting him.

“If you’ll excuse me… Say hello to your husband for me. Ryuuri, make sure you take good care of Gould.”

“I will, mister!”

I looked at Gould, whose body was so beat-up that I couldn’t see him as anything but a battered corpse. The gold color had already faded, much of its plating already detached from its body. The Gollem was almost completely stripped bare. Repairing something this damaged would mean turning it into something else entirely.

Would Chrom realize this was the gold crown if he saw it? Perhaps not if the memory loss was bad enough…

I didn’t approve of what he’d done, but seeing how willing he was to push his body to such a state to see his goal through, I found myself respecting at least his resolve.

After saying goodbye to the pair, I used Spatial Translocation and left the world of five thousand years ago.

See you, little gold Gollem. If the day ever comes that you regain the ability to move, make sure you protect them from at their side this time.

◇◇◇

I crossed my arms and sighed. After using Spatial Translocation to teleport away from the world of five thousand years ago, I ended up floating in pitch- black space.

Spatial Translocation was a divine teleportation skill that could cross even world borders. It allowed us to cross not just space but time as well.

Unsurprisingly, crossing to a different world and, even worse, a different time

was much more difficult than teleporting within the same dimension.

Now, what do you think would happen when someone as inexperienced as me were to try to do just that? Well, as we could see, I was now stuck in the gap between dimensions. Okay, maybe not stuck, but if I used Spatial Translocation again, I would just end up back where I started. It would be really embarrassing if Edda and Ryuuri were still there after such a dramatic farewell… And so, I’d been floating here for a while, trying to come up with some way to get out of this mess.

Dammit, I guess there’s only one option!

“Help me, Granny Tokieeeeee!” I yelled into the dark.

And then, as if she had been waiting for this moment, Granny Tokie appeared in front of me with a cheerful, “Yes, deary!”

“You were watching the whole time, weren’t you?” I asked, eyes narrowed. “Hee hee! I was curious to see if you would come up with anything.”

Well, sorry for failing! How was I supposed to just magic up a way to cross time?!

“It wouldn’t have been that difficult to come up with a solution: If you’re going to the future, cold sleep is always there.”

“You’re saying I should just stay frozen for five thousand years?”

That sounded horrible. There was always the risk I’d end up asleep for way longer than intended, after all.

Then again…Doc Babylon should be alive in Partheno around this time. Would she make me a cold sleep device if I explained the situation? Though asking such a thing of a scientist in the past sounds a lot like a certain movie with a time-traveling car…

Ugh, messing with the past would just be a pain. I’d be better relying on the gods here.

“Time travel while you still aren’t used to it is certainly difficult. I’m sure you’ll learn in due time.”

“How long is ‘in due time’ for you?” “Maybe about a thousand years?”

There it is—a god’s completely skewed sense of time.

At the very least, it seemed it wouldn’t happen while I was still on the mortal coil.

Regardless, Granny Tokie’s ability to traverse time went above and beyond a regular god’s, which made sense as the goddess of space-time. The Spatial Translocation used by gods like Karen and I could only go from humanity’s birth to its extinction even if we mastered it, which, to be fair, was already pretty crazy. But what was the range of time that Granny Tokie could move between? Would it be from the big bang to the total destruction of the universe?

While I was distracted thinking about that, Granny Tokie lightly clapped her hands, immediately moving us back to the altar where Gould had jumped into the ring.

That was all it took? Gould spent so much time painstakingly creating the time tunnel—he’d be in agony if he knew how easy it was for her.

“We have no need for this anymore.”

Granny Tokie clicked her fingers and the large glowing ring was crushed in an instant, destroying the time tunnel in the process.

“Wait, was it okay for you to be the one to destroy it? Weren’t you just talking about favoritism before?”

“You already dealt with the root cause of the issue. There’s no need to worry.

This is for the goddess of space-time to handle.”

I would’ve had to ask her anyway, I suppose. I wasn’t able to close rips in space-time yet, after all. This was definitely considered as her just providing support, right? She wasn’t allowed to step in and stop what Gould was doing, but it was okay for her to help with cleanup, right?

It’s really starting to feel like I’m going through training… I mean, I guess I am.

To the other deities, I was like a nepo baby who got in because the CEO was a relative. They were probably talking shit behind my back all the time. If I wanted to prove myself to them, I had to keep doing whatever I could.

It seems I’ve got plenty of time, though, so I just need to keep chipping away bit by bit.

Just as I’d found new resolve, there was a sudden large explosion outside. It seemed the fight was still continuing out there.

Wait, the summoned dinosaurs didn’t disappear with Gould?!

He must not have summoned them with regular summoning magic! He would’ve used the power of the black crown to open a gate between parallel worlds and led them through, so of course they wouldn’t disappear. It wasn’t like he’d even used mana to summon them.

“Stop loitering around here. Go help them.” “I’m on it!”

Just as I was about to jump away with [Fly], my mana was sucked up and I fell back to the ground.

I totally forgot about that.

I used my divinity to activate it, and I was able to fly away without a problem. I leaped off the altar and headed toward the exit of the huge tumbleweed. On the way there, I saw the bodies of triceratops mechimeras lining the path. They must have been the ones that Luli and the others took down. I couldn’t see them anywhere, but maybe they’d decided to join the fight outside once they were done? I couldn’t see Kohaku and Kuon anywhere either, so they must have all left.

I thought that Granny Tokie would have brought me back to roughly the same time I’d entered the time tunnel, but apparently not. Did she bring me back based on how much time had passed in my perception? Well, if she hadn’t, then I’d technically be older than everyone else…not that that mattered, since I was a divine being.

When I exited out to the rooftop of the towering tree, a pteranodon mechimera suddenly lunged at me.

“I didn’t call you over.”

I instantly shot its wings with a bullet infused with [Spiral Wind]. The hole I’d shot through it expanded until it could no longer fly and it plummeted to the ground.

“What the hell is that?”

The next thing I saw was a ginormous four-headed dinosaur. Its whole body was fused with mechanical parts, and it had four tails. Its heads and tails were made up of four different elements: fire, ice, lightning, and…machine? From the fire head came raging flames, from the ice head came a blizzard, from the lightning head came thunderbolts, and from the machine head came a laser beam. The Frame Gears were fighting a fierce battle against it.

I connected to the communications line with my smartphone and asked, “Yumina, can you hear me?”

“Touya?! Oh, I’m so glad you’re safe! I’d heard what was going on from Kuon and Kohaku. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’ve wrapped up here. What’s going on?”

“One of the dinosaur species is able to summon more of their allies through a rip in space, including that big four-headed one. There’s no end to them, so we’ve asked Yae and Hilde to prioritize the dinosaurs doing the summoning.”

A mechimera dinosaur that could summon reinforcements?

You’re one crafty little bastard, Gould.

Looking toward the edge of the battlefield, I saw Hilde’s Siegrune cutting the head off a dinosaur with a large dorsal fin.

That is one weird-looking stegosaurus…

Then again, was it even a stegosaurus? I didn’t remember them having huge dorsal fins like solar panels.

The dorsal fins of the other stegosauruses near Siegrune vibrated with a buzzing sound before a black hole appeared above them. Okay, it was definitely necessary to take those down before the big four-headed dinosaur. If they ended up summoning another one of those things, we’d be in trouble.

Sue was setting up a defensive wall against the gigantic dinosaur with Ortlinde Overlord while the Gerhilde, Waltraute, and Dragoon were on the offensive to try to hold it back. The Brunhilde, Grimgerde, and Rossweise were providing support from the rear. The Helmwige was flying through the sky, shooting down the mechimera dinosaurs in the air. The other Frame Gears were still taking down the Kyklops one by one.

Kohaku was taking down a whole bunch of mechimera soldiers, but…

Huh? Where’s Kuon?

《Kohaku, where’s Kuon?》I asked her telepathically.

《The young master is with Yumina.》

Oh, she brought him to the Brunhilde?

I breathed a sigh of relief. It would definitely be safer for him in the passenger seat of a Frame Gear that was generally remaining stock-still in the back rather than riding about on the back of a tiger right in the middle of it all. He’d seemed pretty exhausted.

“The god of erosion is gone, so there’s no need for me to worry about the Reginleif being taken over. Guess I should join in.”

I called out Reginleif from [Storage] and boarded it. Setting up my smartphone in the cockpit, I activated [Search].

“Search! Um…mechimera stegosauruses?”

I had no idea what phrase would work, so I just said whatever came to mind.

Technically, it works by feeling out what I’ve seen before, so it should work fine, but still, what a crazy input. 

“Search complete. Displaying results.”

Pins dropped on the map displayed at the side of the cockpit. “Target lock. Activate Fragarach.”

“Targets locked. Activating Fragarach.”

The locks on the crystal panels on Reginleif’s wings clicked off and turned into swords.

“Gladius!”

The crystal swords shot away like missiles, piercing the stegosauruses that were attempting to draw out more of their friends.

There are three of them over there. Looks like they’re trying to open a huge gate. Sorry, big guys, but I’m not letting you get away with that.

I controlled three of the Fragarachs to stab through their brains from above. The partially opened gate immediately shut, cutting off the mouth of some big, crazy-looking crocodile thing. The chopped-off part of its body plopped to the ground.

That was way too close for comfort.

Judging from the size of its mouth, it had to be as big as the four-headed dinosaur. Unless its mouth just happened to be really big and its body was actually tiny or something.

In any case, we likely didn’t have to worry about reinforcements anymore.

The only dangerous thing now was the big four-headed dinosaur. “Combat Arts: Divine Meteor Kick!”

The Gerhilde and Dragoon leaped into the air and delivered two spiraling kicks to it. It staggered back a few steps at the attack.

“Cannon Knuckle Spiral!”

Ortlinde Overlord’s right arm released from the mech and delivered a spiraling punch to the dinosaur’s chest. It pierced right through, creating a huge hole in its chest as it exited out the other side. The dinosaur collapsed to the ground with a booming thud.

Damn, they managed it before I even got the chance to attack.

All that was left was to clean up the small fry, then.

“We’ll now enter the cleanup operation! Everyone, don’t get carried away!

Make sure to take each one down in groups!” “Yes, ma’am!”

After receiving orders from Lain, everyone entered the battle. The enemy was falling apart, but we’d suffered heavy casualties ourselves. Many of our mechs were completely destroyed, their pilots having been teleported back to the Val Albus.

“Oops, no time to be thinking. Gotta help.”

It wasn’t right for the grand duke to watch everything from above. I unsheathed Reginleif’s two phrasium blades and leaped at the nearest mechimera dinosaurs.

◇◇◇

“Search complete. No results found.”

“Great. Lain, we’re done with the cleanup operation.” “Understood. Everyone, the cleanup operation is now complete.”

When I reported the end of the battle to Lain, she announced it to the rest of the knights. We could all finally relax. The knights hopped out of their cockpits and immediately got to stretching their bodies. It had been the first extended fight they’d been a part of in a while, so that made sense.

Let’s take a half-hour break before we start pulling back.

I was exhausted too…

I put Reginleif in [Storage] and sat myself down on a big rock nearby. Then, I let out a relieved breath.

This breeze sure feels nice…

“Daddyyyyyy!”

“Wait! Daddy’s really tired right now! I can’t take a tackle!”

When I saw Steph charging toward me, I immediately rattled out words to try to get her to stop. Somehow, it was enough to stop her from using [Accel], so she was running toward me at a normal speed. If I got hit with a Steph Rocket right now, I’d definitely go flying.

Her little legs finally reached me and she leaped into my chest. How much nicer life would be if this was the usual extent of her tackle hugs…

I caught sight of Gold coming up behind her and I felt my chest seize for a moment. Gold was Gould’s parallel world self created with the black crown skill. Chrom Ranchesse’s memories had been erased when Steph accidentally rebooted him, so you could argue that he was the real gold crown.

But…no one would ever know which was really the copy. It could be that Gold was the one created by Chrom Ranchesse and Gould was the one created from the parallel world. There wasn’t a whole lot of meaning in following a train of thought like that now, though.

Quite ironically, Gold had been able to stay on the straight and narrow precisely because his memories had been wiped. Guess we had Steph to thank for that one.

Everyone else exited their Frame Gears and walked over while I was busy being a doting parent.

“You put an end to him, you did?” Yae asked. “Well…pretty much.”

I told everyone about what Gould had tried to do and what his goal had actually been.

“I must say…it is quite the sad outcome,” Lu muttered.

“No matter the reason, the atrocities he committed cannot be forgiven,” Yumina firmly stated. “But…I understand the sentiment.”

I was a little relieved knowing that they felt similarly to me. There would be those out there who viewed the reason as stupid and others who thought he didn’t deserve even a shred of sympathy. Everyone had their own values they believed in, after all. What was most important in life and what was worth risking one’s life for were entirely down to each individual.

“I see… So Chrom had his own sweetheart, did he?” Silver quietly mused from Kuon’s waist. It was easy to imagine that he had all manner of conflicted feelings about his creator. “D’ya think that Chrom was able to pass on peacefully?”

“Couldn’t say. At the very least, his wish was granted, so I imagine he was satisfied.”

Silver was most likely referring to the Chrom Ranchesse that manifested through the memories implanted in Gould. Could souls reside in Gollems? I couldn’t see anything with my divine sight, so perhaps not. However, stories did say that souls resided in objects, so I didn’t think it was right to completely deny the possibility. There were legends of tools that became imbued with a spirit after long years of use and turned into a tsukumogami. Though, in a world like this, those were basically just monsters.

“It’s great that we won the battle, but dealing with all the damage is going to take a painfully long while,” Leen sighed as she looked out over the destroyed Kyklops and the mechimeras.

Personally, I felt it was fine to just leave them to rot. The problem was that the mechimera soldiers had been summoned from another world, and it was highly likely that the Kyklops were made using knowledge related to the wicked god. It would be a pain in the ass if someone with bad intentions were to collect them later, so the safest course of action was to store them, then drop them off at Babylon to be processed and discarded.

“Good work, everyone. I see you managed to finish the enemy off.” “Granny Tokieeeeee!”

Granny Tokie suddenly appeared behind me, and Steph immediately went to tackle her.

No, don’t! Or…is it…fine?

The old goddess took Steph’s tackle like it was nothing, and was now smiling down at the girl as she patted her head. Apparently, being a higher-tier deity made you impervious to Steph’s super tackles.

“It’s time for me to do my job. The distortion of space and time should soon settle. Once it has completely abated, I will return your children to the future.”

I could feel the air growing heavier the moment Granny Tokie said those words. The children visibly drooped as well. We all knew that our farewell was near.

There was nothing we could do about it, though. This was a determined future. We fought this hard for that future. And yet, I couldn’t deny that the thought of our children leaving was painful. We had gotten so used to them being by our sides that we would feel empty without them in our lives.

“How long will it take for the distortions to settle?” I eventually asked. “Hmm, probably about two to three weeks? To be safe, I would say a month.”

A month, huh? I had a feeling that Granny Tokie could send our kids back much earlier than that, but she was kind enough to give us extra time to create some lasting memories with them.

“How about we all go on one last trip together?” I suggested. “A family trip?” Linze asked, her eyes bulging in curiosity.

“That sounds good! Let’s not make it anywhere nearby. Maybe somewhere in the western continent that we haven’t been to befo—”

“No, I want to make one more trip to where I took us on our honeymoon,” I said, interrupting Elze. That was enough to make the girls look at me in shock.

“H-Huh?! To Japan?!”

“Can we go there with the children?!” “It is possible, it is?!”

“Ohhh, great idea! Great idea, Touya!” “That means we can show our in-laws…!”

“Yes! We can show them their grandchildren!” “We must get ready immediately!”

“Hee hee, I’m looking forward to this.” “Good job, Grand Duke.”

Compared to their overjoyed mothers, the children were left watching in confusion.

Right, I’ll have to explain it to them too.

There was the question of what to do about Allis. Should I bring her as Kuon’s fiancée? It was a family holiday, so maybe that would be weird… No, she was basically family in the future, anyway. Besides, she’d definitely want to join us. But then Leylle would be left by herself. And if I did bring Allis, how would I persuade her father? That would arguably be the biggest hurdle.

Was my only choice to ask Melle for help? If the husband was begged by both the wife and daughter, he would have no choice but to surrender. Or at least, that was how it was with me, so I imagined it was the same for him.

A trip to Japan with a bunch of kids in tow. This was starting to sound like I was leading a school field trip.

Wait…will I have to become a child again? Huh? Am I the one who’s going to need to be led around?