Chapter 18: Talking about Gods, Demons and the Lord of Rakshasa
When it came to the question of what exactly a god is, Hikigaya had indeed given it some serious thought.
After all, gods seemed to pop out of mythology quite frequently.
Of course, if he had read the light novel Campione! before he transmigrated, he would've realized that compared to Kusanagi Godou, his frequency wasn't all that high.
At the very least, he would occasionally have a godly encounter every half month or so, whereas Kusanagi Godou barely ever stopped—right after dealing with a war god, he went straight into confronting Melqart; after returning to Italy, he ran into Athena; and back in Japan, the divine encounters continued. Even though he hadn't obtained a single Authority since the war god, the frequency of his battles was absolutely absurd.
Naturally, such a person probably wouldn't exist in this world anymore—after all, Hikigaya had already made up his mind to snipe the gods first.
Still, fights aside, he genuinely wanted to understand what the hell gods really were. If someone claimed they were simply created by humans weaving myths, there was no way he'd believe that, even if you beat him to death.
He was more inclined to believe that gods, just like god slayers, were products of certain rituals—transformations of beings that originally existed in this world.
And now, finally, there was a nine-tailed fox who seemed to know a thing or two.
She even confirmed Hikigaya's suspicions—pretty much spot on.
Indeed, they were entities known by human magicians as spirits.
And no, these weren't the winged fairies from novels, or those pretty girls and flamboyantly gay guys.
From a magician's point of view, this world contains a thing called spiritual energy. For example, land rich in spiritual energy is fertile; without it, it's barren.
What determines the amount of spiritual energy is the natural spirits, beings truly born of heaven and earth.
As fantastical as it might sound, given that gods exist, this isn't that far-fetched.
According to Tamamo-no-Mae, if you treat spirits as a species, then naturally, just like humans, there's a range of strength among them—the more powerful, the rarer. In ancient times, the most powerful of these natural spirits could trigger extraordinary natural phenomena. The human ancestors created a ritual called mythology to worship these beings as gods, hoping for their protection instead of destruction.
Naturally, if a spirit wasn't strong enough, the ancestors wouldn't bother worshiping it.
As a result, a small number of powerful spirits accepted the bindings of mythology. In return, through this ritual, they established a domain of life and deathlessness—also known as the divine realm—and became high and mighty gods. As long as mythology continued to exist, this domain would remain eternal. These spirits, now bearing divinity, became immortal. Even though they retained their power to influence nature, their fundamental lifeform was no longer a spirit—they had evolved into a higher lifeform.
Basically, "first come, first served." After all, mythology wasn't written randomly by the ancestors, and those people didn't live forever either. Once they were all dead, it became difficult to produce new gods. The evolution of later mythology was fundamentally different from the original crafting of myths. Simply put, it was the difference between the construction phase and the operational phase.
In this way, the vast majority of spirits remained as they were—whether due to lack of power or just bad timing—and continued to live and die naturally in this world, like any other creatures of the land.
Of course, some were dissatisfied—not every ancient, powerful spirit made it in time.
"So, you guys who missed the boat resorted to gaining immortality by obtaining human worship, huh?" Hikigaya asked, running through the forest with Miura in his arms.
Interesting. No wonder the nine-tailed fox gave off such a similar vibe to gods.
So that's how youkai came to be.
It felt just like how an old neighbor got rich from stocks during a boom, and by the time you got in, you lost everything.
Wasn't it exactly like that? Mythology was like a divine stock exchange—just without the whip of godly punishment. Once you became a god, as long as the myth didn't vanish, you'd be one forever. Whether people still believed didn't even matter. Gods were incredibly chill—it was just like switching job positions. As long as the "Divine Realm" corporation stayed afloat, everything was A-OK. Benefits were guaranteed, and you could even take trips for fun, no time limits.
In comparison, relying on worship was way lower-tier. You had to ensure humans never stopped worshiping you, and even your power and life depended on it. Theoretically, if worship was constant—or if incense offerings were abundant—you might match a god's power. But the problem is, humans are flaky as hell. The moment they stop giving a damn, you're done. Forget just reverting to your original form—your life could be at risk. Long periods of being forgotten would inevitably lead to your dissipation.
It sucked. It seriously sucked…
However, according to Tamamo-no-Mae, god slayers had it better. That ritual was like a backdoor to the mythological system. Through a reverse process, they used the power of gods to alter their own human essence, making themselves closer to gods. The more gods they slew, the closer they became.
Sure, it had the flaw of needing divine power for advancement, but it was way better than surviving on worship or relying on human fear like youkai did.
Tamamo-no-Mae clearly felt this deeply…
"That's how it is. Totally unfair, right!" The former world-class youkai sighed on Hikigaya's shoulder. "I had it so rough. One moment of carelessness and I lose everything."
"Dummy. Who told you to play empire-building instead of focusing on worship?" Hikigaya ruthlessly mocked her. "Didn't you know? For humans, any attempt by divine authority to interfere in secular affairs has always been soaked in blood?"
"But haven't the Rakshasa Kings throughout history also ruled as kings on Earth?"
"That's exactly why you're dumb. Having people fear and worship you is a completely different thing from trying to seize political power. For men, not having power for even a day is intolerable. For power, they'll strangle their own sons, murder their own brothers, even applaud while their parents die in front of them. Most human elites are like that. No matter how fierce a youkai is, it can't compare. If you try to take their power, of course they'll fight to the death, no matter how strong you are."
Hikigaya thought Tamamo-no-Mae had lived all those years in vain. Since ancient times, few high-ranking humans truly feared gods. Even when they did, it was only under the condition that those gods didn't compete for power.
The polite ones offered worship. The impolite ones just declared themselves gods. Ancient Egyptian pharaohs did exactly that.
Wasn't it the same in Japan? Shintoism made the emperor a god. That divine branding is what helped them survive the darkest ages and become the oldest royal lineage in human history.
So Tamamo-no-Mae had totally asked for it. She'd gambled and lost everything—down to her underwear.
Chatting all the way, Hikigaya finally saw the outskirts of Chiba City.