Arknightcraft Modpack
Chapter 475: The Possibility of Godslaying
By the time Steven arrived at Nian's door, the sky was already showing faint traces of dawn.
Before he could even knock, the room seemed to come alive. The door opened on its own, and a sudden pulling force surged out from within, dragging Steven inside.
After another dizzying blur, his vision cleared—and once again, he found himself standing at the entrance of that familiar volcano.
This time, however, the hotpot that had once been set up there was gone. In its place stood a massive smelting furnace, radiating waves of heat.
Nian, wearing nothing but a simple wrap across her chest, peeked out from behind the furnace. A sheen of sweat clung to her skin, lending her a different kind of allure, while her tattooed arms—like vivid body paint—stood out sharply in the fiery atmosphere.
"You look like you haven't slept all night," Steven remarked.
He made no attempt to avert his eyes over her light attire. If Nian herself didn't care, then him putting on an act of ascetic modesty would just feel pretentious.
Besides, her outfit was obviously chosen for convenience while forging his equipment, the kind of attire any blacksmith would wear.
It was just that, compared to the burly, muscle-packed men Steven usually imagined when he thought of smiths, Nian's fair skin and slender, graceful figure were worlds apart.
Then again, in a land filled with Originium Arts and supernatural techniques, combat power couldn't be judged by body type alone.
Unless someone reached absurd, Ultraman-level proportions, even the most ripped musclehead could still be beaten senseless by a small child wielding Originium Arts.
"I got a bit too excited and lost track of time," Nian replied, yawning as she stretched. "I made something really good, after all. But why are you here now? Didn't I already tell you that you won't be getting your stuff until the day after tomorrow?"
She still looked a little groggy from pulling an all-nighter, though confusion outweighed the fatigue on her face.
"Or what, did you come up with another movie idea and couldn't wait to tell me?"
She pulled out a can of red liquid from who-knows-where and took a sip. Even standing nearby, Steven could smell the sharp, spicy aroma wafting from it.
So this was her daily drink? Hotpot-base-level spice?
Honestly, if Nian were actually human, Steven was convinced she'd be dealing with hemorrhoids by now.
"Nope," Steven said. "I've got something else on my mind. Thought I'd come ask you."
Dropping the joking tone, he smiled lightly and made it clear he hadn't come just to chat.
"Oh?" Nian raised an eyebrow. "Something that needs me specifically? Did you run into a Feranmut? Or did you do what you usually do and go beat up yet another god?"
Nian grabbed a towel from beside the furnace and casually wiped the sweat from her body before lifting her head to look at Steven.
"Let's make this clear first, this isn't a free consultation."
"There's no such thing as a free lunch. If you want answers from me, you'll have to pay the appropriate price."
"Of course," Steven nodded without hesitation. "I like that kind of straightforward attitude. I pay, you answer—everyone wins."
He reached into his inventory and took out a diamond and a Netherite ingot.
"These are top-tier forging materials," he said, holding them up for her to see. "And I can guarantee this—both are absolutely one of a kind in this world. Other than getting them from me, there's no other way to obtain these minerals."
Steven gestured with the diamond and Netherite ingot, confident that a self-proclaimed master smith like Nian wouldn't be able to resist the temptation of completely new forging materials—especially ones this rare.
Sure enough, Nian accepted them. She studied the two materials with intense curiosity for a long while before looking back at Steven with the gaze of someone who had just discovered an untouched gold mine.
This guy was full of surprises, far more than she'd expected.
And just as Steven said, the most important point was that even someone like her had never seen these materials before. Even without discussing quality, their sheer rarity alone made them more than worth the price.
"Go on," she said, casually placing the materials beside the furnace. A very friendly smile appeared on her face. "I'm satisfied with this payment."
"It's simple," Steven said. "I ended up provoking the Deathless Black Snake of Ursus, so I wanted to ask you—do you know any way to completely kill it, in every possible sense?"
"If I remember right, Kal'tsit called it an evil god. What I'm doing could be considered eliminating a menace for the people, right?"
He delivered a revelation that would shock just about anyone, all in a relaxed tone.
Even Nian needed a good few seconds after he finished speaking before she fully processed what he'd just said.
"…Say that again?" she asked.
"What I mean is—how do you slay a god?" Steven replied calmly. "Not you, of course. I'm just asking whether there's a method."
He could understand why Nian might not accept what he'd just said, so he repeated the question—this time making a point of clarifying.
"…Sometimes, I really don't understand what kind of nonsense is going on inside your head."
After confirming from Steven's expression that he wasn't joking, Nian pressed a hand to her forehead, a headache forming as regret washed over her for accepting his payment so readily.
"Why can't I ever keep my hands in check… Now look at this. Your question really is a tough one. Or rather—you actually asked the right person."
She pursed her lips.
Steven wanted to eliminate the evil god Black Snake that roamed the tundra.
And she?
From a certain perspective, her own goal wasn't so different—to destroy her original body, Sui, the entity that had split itself and given rise to her and her siblings.
In that sense, Steven really had come to the right place.
"So then, what's the method?" Steven asked. "Kal'tsit said that to deal with a troublesome god like that—one formed from the collective will of the entire Ursus people—you have to strike at the root. Wipe out Ursus itself, and only then can it be completely destroyed."
"Still, I wanted to ask if you have any other ideas. Something a bit more straightforward and clean, preferably. At the very least, I'm not prepared to start massacring cities or exterminating a nation just yet."
Steven laid out the solution Kal'tsit had given him. It was partly an explanation, and partly putting a last-resort option on the table in advance.
Nian listened carefully as Steven finished recounting Kal'tsit's method. Her brows slowly knit together, and she looked at the boy with a visibly worried expression.
All things considered, it was fortunate he hadn't chosen that route. Forget everything else, if he really did that, Kal'tsit would probably want to tear him apart and eat him alive.
"What Kal'tsit said isn't wrong," Nian admitted. "For a god like the Black Snake, this type of existence, the most efficient and decisive solution is to destroy its foundation. Once the roots are gone, it naturally fades away."
She nodded in agreement. At least from her perspective, if one were to speak of a truly reliable way to eliminate that thing, this really was the only option that could be called realistic.
"As for other methods…" Nian dragged out the words, then waved her hand. "It's nothing more than brute force. When your strength reaches a certain level, there's no such thing as true immortality. If you could smash this entire world with a single punch, then you could probably smash it too."
"Of course," she added immediately, "we both know that's just a joke. So if we set aside those two methods, then there's only one last possibility."
Nian pursed her lips. This final path was precisely what she herself was researching right now. Having someone to share it with gave her a faint, inexplicable sense of pride and excitement.
It felt a bit like showing off some obscure knowledge in front of a friend—an oddly satisfying kind of joy.
"As for this last method," she said, "it's what I mentioned to you before: making proper use of this world's authority."
She raised a finger and pointed toward the sky, finishing her hint there.
"To put it plainly," Nian continued, blinking, "as long as you possess an authority related to things like death or destruction, it can work even on a god like the Black Snake."
She paused, clearly aware that "authority" was not an easy concept to explain. But this, precisely, was why gods were called gods in the first place—because they governed authority. To preside over such powers was the very meaning of their existence.
"Authority over death, huh?" Steven narrowed his eyes. "Yeah… I think I get it now. Good thing I've played FGO."
Nian's explanation sounded cryptic, but Steven could more or less grasp what she was getting at. Without years of internet-induced genre literacy, there was no way he would've understood her just now.
So if he could somehow pull off something like the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception… would that mean he could truly slay a god?
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Note: Character Illustration is in this Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iuyfwNVFHzIi9H4rWNT_lAm7jTSiah_M
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