Gods

Using what little wood he had gathered, from an isolated tree in the middle of this plain, cutting into firewood, a reasonably large fire was made.

It wasn't long before the night came, that's when Hilda came back, spending almost all the money away, she was carrying a species of wild boar that Satoru had never seen before, her tusks were much larger than Satoru had ever seen, also possessing fur thick whites.

In this world, many animals were known by unique names, even though they were different, that was the difference between a world that didn't know how to differentiate species, were either different or were the same thing. It took a while for the meat to be ready to be roasted, but when it finally started, they all gathered, it must have been the first time in a long while the dark elves had had a decent meal.

While all this was done, Envy was having fun with the children, even teaching the games Satoru had taught her.

As for the rest of the dark elves, as they were close to a river, drinking water was not a problem, even washing and removing the filth from their bodies was good, the male elves stayed asleep because they had spent the night awake. Luckily the meat was enough for everyone to eat, apart from Satoru, which he preferred to leave for others.

When finally it was time for the majority to go to sleep, only the leader of the dark elves, Satoru and Hilda decided to stay to decide a course, after all, they had to continue even if it was late into the night.

The atmosphere between them wasn't one of the best, but it couldn't be done about it, as only one of the elves knew the correct direction, but in that instant, Gileon cursed himself for having a good memory.

"So which way are we going to go?"

Being the first to speak, Hilda faced the elf.

"W-well, that is, there are two paths: one faster and one safer."

Satoru and the daemon looked at each other and then discussed something just between them.

"Which one is the fastest?"

"W-well that would be across the mountains, there are old mines that can take us to the other side in a day."

Satoru put his hand to his chin, old mines were already dangerous by nature, but it sure would be good to cross the mountains in just one day.

"How much safer?" Satoru asked, as a precaution it was better to check the benefit of both."It will take 3-4 days, but we'll be able to get around the mountains."

"Hilda, what do you think?"

"Mines can indeed be dangerous in many ways, however, it's a good option if we want to go fast, after all, there's no way of knowing if there are soldiers behind us."

Nodding, the dark elf kept silent the entire time a human and a daemon talking as friends was an extremely rare sight these days, especially since there are no more daemons on this continent, at least as far as Gileon knew.

"If we go over the mountains, how much is the total travel time?"

"Well, even the mountains should have around one more day if we don't stop anymore, after them it's already possible to see the forest where we hide until then it would be another day of walking, joining the passage through the mines, it's something around 3 days, of course, we'll have to abandon the horses to go through the mines."

"The mines seem like a good option to me, but it would be better to take another break tomorrow, you don't need to take the whole day just enough to rest and eat." Satoru proposed looking at Hilda who nodded.

When deciding which route to take, the chosen path was the mines, the sooner this journey ended the better it would be. As everyone prepared to start heading towards the mountains, Hilda suddenly called Satoru.

“Has something happened?” Concerned, Satoru asked.

Hilda had the same rigid expression as always, with her arms crossed she looked at the cart.

"The mines we are going to can be quite dangerous, they once belonged to dwarves, but no one knows why they were abandoned."

"Do you think we have to change the route?" asked concerned he, dwarves was known for the weapons they made and the value they placed on their mines, so abandoning one was considered a bad omen.

"No, though, if something happens, take Envy and run, got it?"

It was not very natural to see Hilda worrying so much, but if something happened Satoru would have to deal or run away, not liking the idea of ​​abandoning someone, he would hardly fulfill what he was having to promise, but seeing that Hilda worried so much he could at least try to calm her down.

“It's okay, I promise."

“Okay, if something happens, yell.”, said Hilda as she mounted the horse. Without really understanding why so much concern, Satoru felt as if he had raised a death flag, sometimes it was good to think that life is not like a novel or manga.

⊛⊛⊛

Without any problem, they all continued their journey, to the mountains to which they went according to Hilda, they were old dwarf mines that were forgotten, even before the war broke out, now only what was known were superficial stories.

Two days later, they finally reached the foot of the mountain and were now preparing to climb the stairs that would lead to the mine's entrance. Releasing the horses from the cart, Satoru set them free, as he would no longer use them.

"Big Brother, in your world was it common to have to go through mountains?"

"Eh?" what a random question, where did this suddenly come from?"

"I just wanted to know more about your world, that's all."

As they talked, the climb began, Hilda would follow everyone, while Satoru led the way. Due to the wear and tear of the steps, the climb was a little dangerous, but it was admirable how excellent the dwarf architecture was, even after more than two decades abandoned without any kind of care, it was still so tough and well made.

But if Satoru was impressed by the stairs, he was fascinated by the marble doors in front of him, at the top of the stairs, the doors that reached 10 feet high had carved into them, countless dwarf figures.

Even with so long abandoned, having gone through all kinds of weather conditions that could happen on the mountain, it remained intact as if nothing had happened.

Seeing no way to enter the cave, everyone but three people started to worry, staring at the door closely, Satoru didn't see anything that easily opened the door, with that in mind he chose to go to the more crude form.

Putting the maximum strength in his arms, his muscles swell and the doors start to move backward, having no idea why such a heavy door, Satoru kept pushing, it was the first time he had used this much force.

When he finished opening them, he turned back and saw the elves startled, he couldn't blame them for this reaction, he was already so used to the unlimited capacity of his body, that he even forgot the lack of common sense that the skills of the Void they gave him.

Not being able to do much about it, Satoru looked at the dark corridor of the mine, it seemed to be fully worked as the door was, but walking in the dark was not the best of ideas, that was obvious, but not having much choice.

Satoru kept going forward until his foot suddenly sank into something, afraid it was a trap he jumped back, but to his surprise, the crystals that had previously been hidden by the pitch now lit up and brightened the entire room.

"As always ingenious dwarves, I'm surprised they built a lighting system and then abandoned the place."

Who said this was Gileon who was on Satoru's side, he was also very surprised when the dwarfs want something they spent their entire lives researching and building, their vocation to create weapons were what humans wanted the most, however it was far from being the true specialty of this ingenious race.

"You live near here, any idea why this was abandoned?" Satoru asked looking at the dark elf.

"Eh! W-well when we moved to the forest behind the mountain, it was like that, many elves in the past used this route to get to our town, but no one talked about the door being closed."

“That's weird, to say the least, whatever it is, stay behind me and don't get lost."

"Right."

Continuing to walk, Satoru was careful not to trigger anything else, the more he saw the place the more he wanted to find a dwarf and ask how they did it all, it was something totally out of step with the level of technology in this world.

When they reached the end of the corridor, it divided into two directions, left and right, the passage on the left looked like it had collapsed so there was no way to go there, while the right proved to be the only viable route.

As he watched, Satoru noticed something quite intriguing, on the wall at the end of the corridor there was a drawing of 7 people around the world. Realizing the human's curiosity, Gileon's face was bitter, the image seems to remind him of something unpleasant.

“Is there a problem?” Satoru asked worriedly.

"Oh no big deal, it's just not nice to remember them."

"Them?" Satoru turned her head in doubt, Envy who went to his side was also curious.

"The gods…"

"So these are the gods." As if he had been enlightened, Satoru began to associate the figures in the image more with the divine beings, which they knew so little, everything he had in the books was meaningless to him.

"Haven't you ever seen the image of the gods?"

"Do they have an image?" It was Envy who spoke this time.

Amazed by the people in front of her, the Elf looked at Hilda, who listened to the whole situation.

"Satoru, I think I'd better tell them right away."

Not understanding what was happening right in front of him, Gileon couldn't imagine what they were talking about.

"Well, it's hard to believe, but I'm not of this world, I was brought against my life, as for Envy, she grew up in the region affected by the ash of the volcano, for her everything is also new."

"Eh?" Another world? Is that true?” Confused, Gileon wouldn't have thought of it even if he was drunk.

“As surreal as it is, that's true,” Hilda agreed, all the elves were shocked by the statement, but it finally made sense to all the oddities they saw.

"Now let's walk, explain to me the story of the gods as we walk."

"I want to hear it too."

Satoru and Envy started down the hallway, still confused by what he had discovered, Gileon took a few seconds to process everything.

“A-ah yes, of course, well where should I start?"

"The reason for her strange expression when you looked at the image."

"Well, that… it's complicated, do you know who the gods are?"

"If I remember correctly, Orthix, goddess of beasts, Aiyir, goddess of fate and the future, Gormund, god of life, Ignis, god of fire, Emporium, god of water, Vella, goddess of wind and Dharien, goddess of Earth."

“Exactly, to all races, Gormund is a just and protective god, but one day, when everyone least expected it, Orthix sent a divine revelation, Gormund had come down to earth to honor the races for lasting peace, but he had been attacked and killed. "

"Wait! A dead god, who would be capable of such a thing?" Satoru suddenly stopped and stared in shock, Envy also sharing the same doubt.

Squeezing hands in obvious anger, Gileon didn't like to be reminded of that fateful day.

"No one, there is no one capable of killing a god, even if the god was off guard," Hilda answered, putting her hand on the elf's shoulder.

"So that means that…"

“That humans used this excuse for war, the fact is that Gormund did die, no one wants to believe it to this day, but the goddess Orthix may be ​​behind it and worse still on the human side." Satoru understood better the anger of elves and perhaps other races, but if the goddess Orthix was really behind it all, he couldn't even imagine what her goal was.

"The other gods didn't do anything to stop it?" Envy asked.

"The goddess Aiyir, disappeared, as for the other four, they didn't even show themselves, so most of the races lost hope, and stopped believing in the gods."

"Sorry I asked about something painful."

"It doesn't take so much, you saved us all even after what we did." Shaking his hands, Gileon didn't accept the apology, he didn't think he deserved anything like that, he wasn't worthy of such kindness.

"As for what happened to Hendrick, it's already done, but I hope you understand, it might be hard to believe, but not every human is bad."

Upon hearing this, the face of all the elves made it clear the fact that they did not fully agree with this, however, this was to be expected, you do not change a way of thinking from day tonight.

Amidst all the talk, the end of the corridor had finally arrived, leading to a reinforced metal door, Satoru then opened it and found a cave that also had a lighting system, even if more precarious.

It did resemble a real mine, however unfinished it felt. Going down first, Satoru could walk well on the uneven ground, but most couldn't due to weakness, two days of eating and sleeping well weren't enough to supply all the body's needs.

As they walked it was possible to see tools lying on the ground and even minerals left haphazardly, whatever had scared the dwarves, it shouldn't be a joke.

Amidst the silence of the abandoned caves, a sound resounded, it was as if something heavy had fallen to the ground. Afraid the elves backed away with the children, Satoru and Gileon went ahead to check what this noise could be.

When they arrived at the place they came from, they came out into a circular room, it was still inside the cave, but it was certainly quite spacious, having around fifteen meters in diameter.

This room had an upper part that was a few meters above the floor, it was more like a hallway that went down, to the bottom where there was a light and sound of something burning.

When the two got close and saw what was there, they understood right away that they would have to fight if they wanted to get through.