Overgeared

Reidan Desert.

Hayate’s body lay neatly in the middle of those who were still recovering after the battle. His eyes were closed, and his chest was unmoving.

Hayate’s body wasn’t breathing. It had lost its soul, no longer serving any purpose. It was nothing more than a corpse.

“...It will soon start to rot,” Zeratul told the others. He grimaced, despite the high levels of arrogance he, as the Martial God, displayed.

Thanks to sharing drinks all night, he could somewhat grasp how the people around him felt. Just as the eight gods who had descended alongside Zeratul to challenge Grid had already demonstrated, gods were surprisingly capable of empathizing with others. It was just that, most gods didn’t even get the chance to socialize with humans. For many, the idea of living alongside humanity wasn’t even conceivable. For them, Asgard was the core of their world, their most valued place. Therefore, they rotted for the rest of their lives in Asgard, like frogs in a well.

“It can’t be too late to save him...”

The tower members didn’t disagree with Zeratul’s opinion. However, they also noticed that Hayate’s condition was perilous, and they couldn’t conceal their anxiety.

Nevertheless, no one suggested going to find Hayate right away. They trusted and respected Lauel’s advice, that the right thing to do was leaving the search for the soul to Knight.

They also understood the importance of their task. They were to focus on the body’s recovery, and they kept wondering to what degree they needed to recover in order to help Grid.

“......”

The people’s reactions were making Zeratul feel disappointed. Humans, ephemeral beings with such short lives. Even he, who had been born with eternal life, was always anxious and obsessed over the title of Martial God. Meanwhile, humans appeared to be more altruistic and wiser than him. This was because they managed to overcome their own limitations by trusting others and cooperation with their people.

Zeratul believed the humans’ way of thinking was worthy of imitation.

‘Should I try contacting them...?’

His mind wandered in the direction of the eight gods who had cooperated with him when he had publicly challenged Grid. Maybe they had opened up their hearts to him a little bit. Of course, it could be mere sympathy. It seemed very likely that they would only accept cooperating with him if there was some type of reward to be earned.

Still, it was true that they did him a favor. However, he never considered their feelings. He just struggled on his own to be recognized as the Martial God.

He was only ever focused on himself, and never paid attention to others...

“......!”

Zeratul was startled from his thoughts, eyes suddenly widening at the sight before him.

The others reacted similarly.

Hayate’s body, which had been lying dead, suddenly jumped up from his seat.

“I-Is he back?”

The tower members, the apostles and the Overgeared Guild all felt skeptical before allowing themselves to feel thrilled.

Hayate’s eyes were unfocused. The people couldn’t detect breathing, let alone life.

“Something’s wrong.”

Zeratul frowned and slowly rose from his seat.

Step.

forward, heading in the direction where tattered armor had been discarded. It was the dragon armor created by Grid, though it had been torn to pieces by Trauka, reduced to nothing but a lump of scrap metal. Therefore, it was no longer functional.

then that Zeratul understood the

driven by the will of

will of

while

on the armor, it slowly melted away, losing its shape like

and Biban

“Don't worry.”

has been

was rising from beyond

Absolutes who vaguely sensed

***

felt different

bay. His heart was hammering in his chest. Energy flowed throughout his body.

and he could grip the sword hilt better than before. It seemed that the ways with which he could grip the hilt had increased considerably from the last time he’d picked up a

which had already been trained to achieve the best form possible, was now reaching its peak. He felt rejuvenated, like his body

[It feels strange...]

Hayate’s body. Just by looking at the way his fingers wrapped around the hilt of the sword, he could tell that

reconstructed when the body was in the

Hayate’s ankle length coat. It was as white as snow, though it appeared red in Dominion’s eyes. It was the aura

at the essence of the soul. When Hayate’s body had been reconstructed, the same could be said about the dragon armor he’d been wearing. This configuration

surface in this state isn’t the right choice to be made. You will most likely hear the sound

bells. Dominion was talking about Chiyou’s appearance. He was confirming that

don’t you go to heaven with

beginning. Hayate had regained his body. Of course, this didn’t make it impossible to take

he resurrected. The only ones who could reverse the death of humans were Rebecca, a god of the beginning, and Raiders,

felt back then wasn’t wrong. It was Mother

to say that he was trying not to be interested. This was because Judar wanted Dominion not to care about the world. It originated from the time when humans had a sincere faith in the

that

care about matters involving other gods, nor did he care about ruling Asgard, so would decide to remove himself as much as he could from such issues. After all, he was the

large. I promise to keep you safe, somewhere out of Judar’s

Dominion was directly disobeying Judar’s orders. The Valkyries were genuinely shocked. Then the silent Hayate asked a question. “Do

[Of course I know.]

aren’t you helping

[Help...? My mother?]

He had a certain rigidness in his expression,

realize that Dominion saw Rebecca as the embodiment

made sense. After all, he owed his very

or everything in this world, Dominion believed they were

must be

loneliness when it comes to the god of the beginning

Dominion frowned.

has a history of sealing the refraction dragon. It will be the same this time. Most importantly, she is the embodiment

Rebecca. Since she was made of light, she couldn’t

Hayate sighed.

your back to what’s really happening?” Hayate rarely raised his voice. His deep, gentle eyes became fierce. “Or are you