Lena’s gaze turned contemplative. "What do you mean?" She considered his words. Well, who else was strong enough to kill a god if not the Dark One? If she wanted to look at all the possibilities, they could say, despite it being ridiculous, that the Goddess of Time killed herself. Alternatively, the Goddess of Life...?

But the Goddess of Life would run into the same problem as the Dark One would. Therefore, it wasn’t a particularly valid pivot. That left only one option left. "Do you mean that the Goddess of Time killed herself?"

"What?" Eden was entirely taken aback.

"What?" Lena asked back, confused. "Isn’t that what you were getting at?"

"No?" Eden was nearly speechless. It was only a chirp from Sol that brought his mind back to the present. "So! My thought process was, if it’s really the case that gods cannot attack each other, then the killer has to be a mortal, no?"

"Think about it!" Eden continued. "The world keeps going on and on about the six heroes that sealed the Dark One away. Well, if those six mortals can seal a god, what’s stopping the commanders under the Dark One from killing a god?"

"You’re a genius!" Lena immediately jumped and clapped her hands. "That’s right! She was killed by the Dark One’s commanders!"

"Right!?" She looked to Lumi to see if she would receive confirmation. However, what she saw on him was an expression she had never seen before. His eyes were closed, his brows knitted together in... fear?

She snapped her face to Merath, but the man had a small frown, with an unreadable expression. It wasn’t quite pity. It was more... regret? Or a wish for things to be different?

"What?" She put her hands on her hips and demanded an explanation. "Why so quiet!?"

"The problem..." Lumi began, though he found it difficult to speak. In his head, the same images kept repeating endlessly.

The Dark One.

The way he effortlessly evaporated demi-gods into nothingness. The way he struck down Empress Aria, who was the strongest asset the alliance had, with little effort.

The way he proceeded to coldly begin the destruction of all. Remaking the entire world in his image, getting rid of literally everything other than his allies.

A god had power beyond comprehension. The power of a god was absolute, and it was not something you could so easily subvert. Lumi had found that out personally in his past life, as he himself got killed, alongside all the other demi-gods.

Lumi did not believe that the Commanders under the Dark One could possibly kill a god. They were certainly strong, stronger than any player had become, and even stronger than the Chief Knights under the Empress.

But only that. They could be fought. The Empress, who could not scratch the Dark One, was able to fight his strongest commanders to a standstill.

That alone emphasized the massive power gap between gods and mortals.

That was the entire reason he had been feeling so much dread regarding his regression. He was obviously supposed to save the world, but how? If a god could be beaten by simply being strong enough, then the world wouldn’t be threatened by the Dark One. He would have been killed outright all those years ago.

It was because gods were so powerful that they were even here considering how the hell they were supposed to defeat the Dark One. For now, he could only grit his teeth and move forward, doing whatever he could.

The best case scenario was if they could somehow find the Goddess of Life. Since that was the same as doing nothing, considering they had no leads, he had a different idea.

To guide the players, prevent them from doing damage, organize them, free them all from the system, and join Empress Aria in dismantling the operations of the Dark One’s commanders and the Wings of Darkness.

If they could entirely prevent the Dark One from escaping his seal, that would be for the best. If they couldn’t, then it had to be remembered that Empress Aria was in fact a deity in reserve. She was the closest thing to a god that wasn’t a god. If she could grow into her powers more, perhaps one day she’d be able to pose a threat to the Dark One.

Or at least, seal him again. This was especially so because he wants to focus efforts into finding and assisting the rest of the ancient heroes. Thus far, only Rena had been released. But Rena immediately set off to do her own thing, and she would have been released anyway.

As for Merath, he was the one that spoke after Lumi had begun yet trailed off. "It is a reasonable argument. However, it doesn’t take into account the massive power gap between gods and mortals. I was present back at the old war. The power of the gods is insurmountable. There is no way that a few mortals could slay a god, much less silently, with no one noticing."

"Oh..." Eden frowned and looked down. Alright, his theory was shot.

"No!" Lena countered on the spot. "I disagree."

"How?" Merath didn’t understand. What was there to argue about?

"Eden said it." Lena retorted, "Everyone acknowledges it. The six heroes sealed away the Dark One. Then can you explain to me how exactly it’s so impossible to kill a god, if a mere six mortals sealed the biggest threat to all of existence? A god?"

Merath took a deep breath. He regulated his emotions, and spoke in a heavy tone. "Six heroes did not appear out of nowhere and seal the Dark One."

"What." Lena couldn’t handle the 180. Isn’t it common knowledge? Didn’t they literally just say that it was so? Then how is it not so?"

Merath elaborated, speaking with a frown. "Six heroes, the absolute strongest mortals that existed at the time, confronted the Dark One. They were backed by the resources of the entire world. Any resource that existed, they had access to it. They had hundreds of millions of soldiers with them."

He continued, gravely. "They were being actively boosted and supported by the Goddess of Life. And they had collected all the Will Stones, which as you know, are extremely important artifacts that contain the lifeblood of this world. They used those, alongside all that they had, and the Goddess of Life’s power, to seal the Dark One."

He emphasized this last part, because it had to be said. "All that, to seal a god. Not to kill."

"Ah..." Eden looked on with empty eyes. "That’s what... it took?" He looked over to Sol, and idly petted his Phoenix. "Then how are we supposed to...?"

Lena wasn’t as fazed. "Alright. I admit it. He’s strong. But-"

She received a glare from Merath for continuing. Even Lumi looked up, not in anger, but confusedly. He knew that Lena was smart, very smart. So why was she...? 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Lena continued, confidently. "I have the answer. He’s strong, but... who exactly said all the gods are equal in strength?"

"...what?" The breathless response came not from Merath, but Lumi. Lena looked over to her man, confused. "Lumi?"

Lumi didn’t immediately respond.

Lena frowned. "Think about it." She spread her arms in an all-encompassing gesture. "Everyone, think about it. Sure, the Dark One is that strong. But what if the other gods are massively weaker than him? Enough to be killed by mortals?"

"In fact... doesn’t it make sense?" She made a pinching gesture between her fingers. "The power to manipulate time is already an unsolvable, reality-warping power of the highest magnitude. If time is her domain, then it isn’t raw power, now is it?"

"Lena..." Lumi was compiling over the information he knew. Gods were strong. He knew that. The Dark One was strong, he knew that. Now, how strong was the Dark One compared to other gods?

That was an impossible question to answer, because he had never, nor could he witness, a different god take action. He could only vaguely assume that the Dark One was stronger based on the fact that somehow, through this twisted game he had played, he had prevailed against the others, leaving them dead or gone.

"Lena..." Lumi repeated her name yet again. "I think... you are a genius."

She grinned. "I know I am." She tilted her head, seeing him so somber. She stared blankly for a few seconds, unsure on what to do. Eventually, she spread her arms out. "Aww, come here, hubby."

She didn’t wait for him to respond as she immediately wrapped him in an embrace. "Darling, darling~ sugarplum~" She nuzzled him. "I can tell you’re really stressed~ don’t you worry that hard, I’m here to go through life and death with you every step of the way, okay?"

She leaned back, to stare at him in the eyes. "So whatever it is, don’t keep it to yourself. Let’s suffer together."