Chapter 1182 — Enya, Full of Experience
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
It had to be admitted: on the vast majority of topics prone to controversy, "I have experience" would always carry more persuasive force than "I don't think that works"—and when the experience in question was one no one else could possibly replicate, that persuasive force multiplied a hundredfold. The moment Enya uttered the words "I have died," the room fell instantly silent. Amoen and Myrmina, let alone whatever she meant to say next, could not even keep their expressions from stiffening. Only Gao Yang retained a nominal right to speak, since he too had died—though he had never been a god...
Presumably this business of doing sit-ups inside a coffin was an experience that could not be shared with Enya...
The awkward silence lasted nearly half a minute before Myrmina finally ventured, hesitantly, to break it: "That... your argument is certainly persuasive, but at present you are..."
The former Goddess of Magic deliberated for a long while, and at last managed to arrange her words into coherence: "At present you are alive again, are you not... Since you have already risen from death, then our worry that the God of War might return is also..."
"It is precisely because my humanity has returned that I know what the death of divinity means," Enya cut her off before she could finish. "My 'return' was the result of having deliberately reserved and condensed my humanity in advance, and only the human part could return. What stands before you now is not so much the resurrection of the former Dragon God as a backup of one of the Dragon God's personalities. The God of War, by contrast, had already descended into complete madness before His arrival and was struck down outright on the battlefield—He could not and had no opportunity to make such preparations. His fall meant the mutual annihilation of both His humanity and His divinity; it is very difficult for Him to achieve a return through so-called 'sanctuary activation.'"
Here she paused briefly, letting her gaze drift slowly across Gao Yang, Amoen, and Myrmina, and her tone grew gravely solemn: "It is true that the gods of this world are continually reborn and return. So long as mortal thought still harbors elements inclined toward blind reverence and the worship of the unknown, the soil for the endless birth of gods will remain. I have witnessed with my own eyes generation after generation of War Gods, Death Gods, Elemental Gods, and others endlessly reborn—but such rebirth requires the passage of an entire civilization's history. A thousand years or a hundred are nowhere near enough; the reshaping of thought is not so simple."
Amoen mused in silence, and a few seconds later could not help asking: "Do you have confidence in that as well?"
"I do," Enya nodded, her expression utterly grave. "I have seen them die."
Amoen & Myrmina & Gao Yang: "..."
"...You have now uttered the two most persuasive sentences in the world," Gao Yang could not help pressing a hand to his forehead, his face helpless. "You have died, and you have watched them die... All right, I admit you are right."
"Since you put it that way, I have no further objections," Amoen said at last, rousing himself from his astonishment and nodding slowly. "But this matter still demands caution upon caution. What you mean to explore is, after all, a divine sanctuary. Even if every sign now indicates that mortals have developed an 'immunity' to the God of War's divinity, we cannot be certain whether a sanctuary in the process of gradual collapse might harbor dangers beyond divine contamination..."
"I am well aware of that," Gao Yang nodded slightly. "Everyone taking part in this plan knows it. We will make every preparation—at least, every preparation that lies within our power."
Enya looked at Gao Yang, then at the two former gods seated to her left and right, and finally her gaze settled on Myrmina: "Myrmina, you..."