Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Honestly, Hill finds it hard to believe that someone as iron‑willed as the God of Time and Space would personally descend to the mortal world just because of that petty mess with Uranus.

So when he discovered the God of Time and Space had actually given the Greek Gods some real assistance, he almost started doubting life.

William might still step in if he wants to just settle things once and for all, wipe clean old grudges... his temperament is actually pretty firm and brave, but maybe from spending too long in the army, he also gets impatient fairly easily.

When he does things, he tends to go to extremes, and if paying a bit of price now can reduce trouble later, William would probably be willing.

Of course, that has to be for friendly forces... but if it’s related to Toril and tangled up with that troublesome father‑in‑law, William helping out is perfectly normal.

But the God of Time and Space?

Heh~ that old giant who crawled his way through that era, the one thing he’s best at is not being impatient.

He’ll carefully weigh gains and losses, and once he’s sure it’s not worth it, then no matter who keeps bringing up those old stories, he still won’t care.

Helping Apollo and the others make Zeus half‑dead and half‑alive is fine, but... offending Heavenly Mountain, which originally had nothing to do with Teraxil, no matter how you put it, that’s a losing deal.

No matter how silver‑tongued Hermes is, given the God of Time and Space’s personality, he should at least have dragged Uranus in front of him before discussing anything else.

Logically, that’s exactly the choice that big shot should make... Hill can in fact deduce that bit of causality between the God of Time and Space and Uranus.

As for everything else, if the bride’s family and groom’s family can just be understanding of each other and give a little consideration when big things happen, that already makes them decent people; sacrificing your own interests for the other side—what kind of Saint would you have to be!

Besides, William isn’t some live‑in son‑in‑law.

The God of Time and Space is not going to bother that much.

So Hill has always been a bit confused.

But since Shaer, who should have some idea of all this, never said anything, Hill also wasn’t going to casually poke at someone else’s privacy.

And he was even less likely to bring up this kind of pointless question to Shaer in front of Celene.

Hill originally planned to take that question mark home and solve it there; he believed that as long as it was something that could be spoken of, William wouldn’t hide it from him.

Yet what he really hadn’t expected was that the one he’d been so focused on guarding against—AO, that big shot standing behind Celene—obviously already knew the truth long ago.

He might even have had his own reasons for not doing anything to William, who had lured Shaer away and still refused to show his face in Toril.

But AO himself clearly isn’t very familiar with William, and Hill can definitely feel that probing attitude he has toward him.

AO may be very good at putting on an act, but he rarely uses his two daughters for this kind of thing that’s pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

That’s why the truly Wise Ones in Toril are most afraid of Shaer and Celene stepping onto the field... once those two show up, Toril isn’t missing half its luck, the Path of Destiny for this round actually has a fairly high luck value.

Which means AO and the God of Time and Space very likely crossed paths at some point.

So then...

The only point of intersection would be: the River of Time and Space?

No matter past or present, the time the River of Time and Space has been in the hands of the God of Time and Space is both very long and very short... long from Teraxil’s perspective, short from that of the entire Multiverse.

Hill suddenly remembered something: the River of Time and Space that the God of Time and Space commands clearly does not belong only to Toril.

Otherwise, there’s no way he could so easily go to other Universes, or even come into contact with a World Without Magic.

And the River of Time and Space of the Multiverse only slowly became visible because more and more worlds appeared, more and more history accumulated... back then, there was only the River of Fate spanning the skies.

Once his thoughts extended to the River of Time and Space, Hill no longer had much to be confused about.

Since ages and ages ago, AO has obviously been very interested in Fate and Time, and he absolutely forbids any deities in Toril who hold these two Divinities from surpassing great Divine Power.

No—by this stage, those few can only barely be called at intermediate Divine Power.

If the River of Time and Space has produced a master, even if it’s only a future master, AO can’t possibly fail to pay attention.

And AO’s wariness toward these two is very likely born from certain experiences up on Heavenly Mountain.

So there must be some God of Order on Heavenly Mountain who excels at using Fate or Time to strike at enemies.

The guy of the River of Fate basically can’t be bothered to meddle in trivial matters.

If you interfere with Fate, he doesn’t care if you add a few more tributaries for him.

Tai Ji might be a river that counts as a bit of turmoil to the Master of Destiny, but it at most makes him glance a couple more times: still the sort who refuses to involve himself.

But the River of Time and Space is different... to him, space is only auxiliary, time is the most important foundation.

Once it has a master, the River of Time and Space will inevitably block outsiders from entering or even peeking in.

And the River of Time and Space definitely doesn’t want to sprout a few holes it can’t plug... there will always be someone trying to walk back into the past, to see whether history can be changed.

Maybe someone has succeeded before.

But no river ever wants to flow backwards, especially not while first using its own energy to patch up those holes, then starting to flow forward again.

Every hole is an injury.

So the very meaning of the God of Time and Space’s existence must be to seal all the loopholes outsiders might exploit.

For gods who are born eternal, this sort of job might be both tedious and boring.

But the God of Time and Space?

He’s been trained for this since forever.

This is a big shot who conquered the world with abacus and paper!

Even though his work is more troublesome now, what he’s using is a ’quantum computer’ that no one has ever seen before!

That guy must be working his ass off.

No wonder the God of Time and Space basically never goes out, always holed up in the Divine Kingdom burying himself in work.

Hill could finally sort of understand why William kept saying that Alchemy is the God of Time and Space’s idea of fun, his best pastime.

Heh~

He’d heard of scientists who take up some discipline completely unrelated to their main field as a hobby and end up getting really good at it, even outstanding, but Hill honestly didn’t want to see that kind of thing in real life.

Something you’ve busted your ass to learn is just someone else’s way to kill time... just thinking about it is infuriating.

Of course, that irritation isn’t because of anything else, it’s because even like that, he’s still better than you.

Fran has actually discussed Alchemy with the God of Time and Space, and he’s quite impressed with that one’s strength.

And in Fran’s eyes, Hill is just a crippled bear.

So... Hill automatically and conscientiously blocked out what William used to say, right up until today when he couldn’t avoid thinking about it.

So then, did a certain God of Order want to drill a hole, only to find the River of Time and Space already claimed—and claimed by a diligent, studious, responsible master—so they went for a dirty move?

And the God of Time and Space is definitely not the type to just sit there and passively defend.

Even if he successfully defended the first time, he’d still weigh whether certain enemies would come back later—and come back packing even more advanced weapons and ammo.

Striking first when dealing with an aggressive enemy is absolutely not wrong.

Besides, even if a God of Order loses a fight, can he really act like a normal loser?

He’d definitely spit vicious threats, definitely shout names... ah, how delightful, would the God of Time and Space be reminded of some not‑so‑pleasant history?

He’s seen plenty of bullies throwing their weight around.

However, with his head full of curiosity, Hill could only take one glance at the giant screen and then choose to keep his mouth shut.

This time, he was the one who sealed his own lips.

His wariness toward AO is absolutely high enough.

And his trust in himself is absolutely not.

In a way, Hill feels he’s worse off than Celene... after all, that one’s ability to tell blatant lies with open eyes is even better than Shaer’s.

As for him, unable to lie, with other people he can at least use some flexible wording and still talk his way around things—but with AO, absolutely not.

But Hill also has enough confidence: as long as he doesn’t take the initiative to speak, AO won’t directly try to dig for info from him.

Hill is never going to walk himself into the trap.

He’s finally managed to rely on his forefather and gained some ability to protect himself; he is definitely going to obediently stay on the safe side of that line.

Sure enough, AO didn’t pay any attention to the always‑silent Hill.

Of course, he even more naturally ignored Lansendel.

He just kept fine‑tuning that camera and set it to a truly perfect angle.

Just like Celene requested, you could see every one of the five Gods of Order’s hands clearly from where they stood.

And those five faces, though no longer blown up to the terrifying size they’d been earlier, were still clear enough for them to see every expression.

”Shaer, look, there really is a woman!” Celene called out without even blinking.

”One?” Shaer lifted her head again in a bit of confusion and took another look. ”How can you even get this wrong, it’s clearly two.”

”Only one is wearing a lady’s long dress!” Celene said very seriously. ”When it comes to those who like wearing men’s robes, whether they’re actually willing to admit they’re female is hard to say.

So you can only count one.”

”Sophistry.” Shaer commented blandly. ”She’s a God of Order—if she wants to be male, does she need anyone’s permission?

Just like you: if you want to become Celene‑na, no one’s going to meddle, right?”

”You wouldn’t meddle either?” Celene turned her head and smiled. ”Back when it was only us on Toril, would you have been willing to let me become male?”

”Since when was I ever able to control you?” Shaer didn’t answer directly.

”So, you wouldn’t be willing.” Celene smiled and nodded. ”Of course, I wouldn’t be willing either.

But if you want to do it, I wouldn’t stop you, and I wouldn’t think there’s anything wrong with it.

See... so why do you...”

”I want to destroy the world.” Shaer cut in with a lethal finisher.

”Ah... terrifying little sister.” Celene let out a wail. ”Aren’t they always saying people get stupid when they fall in love?

Why are you still so sharp, Shaer?”

”Even if she gets stupid, it’s not for you to see.” AO added idly, ”The giant screen’s been adjusted according to your request, and you’re still not looking closely?”

Hill raised an eyebrow in slight surprise... this God Above Gods might not have any scandals on record, but he really does know his stuff~

Celene didn’t really catch the meaning of AO’s first sentence, but her attention was still drawn back to the giant screen: ”I’m sticking to what I said—the problem must be with those two female Gods of Order.”

Sure enough, she hadn’t looked carefully the first time.

Celene’s mouth really is hard.

But she really forgets fast.