Chapter 106: The Celestial Realm (2)

“It’s not certain they were angels. The Celestial Realm has many races, after all. But… Branch Leader, you said this bat is your familiar, correct?”

“Yes.”

Ion poked Baba lightly, and it recited the line he had programmed.

“Yep. I’m a familiar. A super special and amazing familiar. For real. How else could a bat talk like a human? Dam Ion used magic to make me his familiar.”

“A familiar with remarkably advanced language skills. However, if you go to the Celestial Realm, you will have to leave this bat here with that mongrel. The Celestials deeply despise bats…”

“Why? Why do they hate bats? Cute, amazing, special bat! Why hate? Shock. Betrayal. Despair.”

Baba’s eyes widened in shock. The Sovereign gently stroked its tiny head with her finger to comfort it. Even if the Celestials hated bats, the Sovereign clearly didn’t; she seemed to like them.

“I heard that long ago, the Demon King’s familiar was a bat. Unlike your familiar, it was enormous and ferocious. It breathed fire, its claws rotted flesh on contact, its ultrasonic cries burst eardrums… Wherever that bat passed, not a single blade of grass remained.”

“I don’t know that bat. I’m not like that. I’m a good bat…”

Baba wriggled out of the Sovereign’s hand, flew to Ion’s palm, and burrowed into the cave formed by his curled fingers. It often sought this enclosed space for comfort. Ion fiddled with Baba as he answered.

“Yes, then I’ll leave him behind.”

“…!”

The bat in his hand jolted as if struck by lightning.

“Betrayal! Dam Ion betrayed me! Shock and horror! You can’t do this to me. I’m a good bat. No fire, no poison!”

“Wait here with Bran. I’ll just check what I need to check and come right back.”

“Dam Ion is taking Sanse?”

“Of course.”

“Betrayal, betrayal! Leave Sanse too! I can’t trust Dam Ion anymore! Trust collapsed! No one in the world is trustworthy!”

“Be quiet for a second.”

Ion gently squeezed the flailing bat. Baba began to wail. When Ion’s palm grew wet, he grimaced and loosened his grip.

The limp bat flew up, flopping dramatically, and landed on top of Bran’s head. While the tiny bat sniffled sprawled out, Bran froze solid.

The Sovereign watched the scene with fascination.

“Why is that foul-tempered mongrel… staying so still?”

“That foul-tempered hybrid loves bats. Must be a demon-realm trait. They say the Demon King cherished bats too. Anyway, if the warnings are over, I’d like to enter the Celestial Realm now.”

“You’re not going to comfort him while he’s crying?”

“If I comfort him now, we’ll waste the whole day. Better to finish quickly and comfort him later.”

“…One more thing.”

The Sovereign’s voice grew heavy.

“Celestials are few in number, so their affection for kin is extremely strong. Once contact is made, they will not want to let a kin like you go. …This is only if contact succeeds, but I’m telling you in advance.”

Ion brushed off the first part.

He didn’t know how strong Celestials were, but he was confident he could escape if they tried to confine him.

But…

“If contact succeeds…?”

“The Celestial Realm is not a place you can enter just because you want to from this side.”

The Sovereign smiled bitterly.

“I have never once entered the Celestial Realm. Neither has the previous Sovereign, nor the one before… Not a single one of us has ever set foot there. To be accurate, we were never able to. We can only communicate briefly when a Celestial chooses to leave the Realm of their own will.”

“…That’s not communication. That sounds completely one-sided.”

“You are correct. It is extremely one-sided…”

The Sovereign rose from her seat. Her pearl-embroidered velvet dress rippled softly like waves.

“You’ll understand when you see it. This way.”

Ion stood up with a suspicious expression. Bran flinched and crept closer; Commander Setra followed, keeping a wary eye on Bran.

The Sovereign crossed the prayer room and approached the marble statue at the front—an imposing depiction of Lord Elida gazing down upon the world she created. It was so massive it filled the entire wall, radiating grandeur and reverence.

Both pillars flanking the statue were carved with scenes from Elida’s creation myth. The Sovereign walked to the right pillar and touched the part depicting Elida breathing life into the world.

RUMBLE—

A hidden mechanism activated. The huge statue slowly slid sideways.

What appeared was… another wall, also painted with Elida’s creation myth.

Is the “Gate to the Celestial Realm” on this wall? While Ion examined it closely, the Sovereign suddenly crouched down in front of it, completely unconcerned that her velvet dress was dragging on the floor.

“Right here.”

“…?”

Ion stepped closer, puzzled, and looked where she was staring.

There was a mouse hole.

Not a dog door; literally a mouse hole, barely the size of a palm, just above the floor.

“This is the ‘Gate to the Celestial Realm.’”

“…”

Ion blinked slowly and sank to the floor.

This palm-sized hole… was the entrance to the Celestial Realm?

No way.

This must be the inactive state.

Some spell, skill, or aura ability would enlarge it.

Even demon teleportation circles start small and expand…

“As you can see, it’s only big enough for a hand, so how could we possibly enter? We simply wait for a Celestial to come out of the hole and communicate only then.”

“Why… why is it like this?”

At the question with neither subject nor object, the Sovereign smiled and raised one finger.

“From what I know, every single Celestial; angels, birdfolk, all of them; is about this size.”

“…”

Ion was too shocked and dumbfounded to speak properly.

Earthlings, Ideans, demons… except for giants, everyone was roughly human-sized, so he had naturally assumed Celestials were the same.

Bran burst into loud, delighted laughter.

“Those Celestial bastards really are literally d*ck-sized! No wonder they got conquered by demons— ARGH! Hey! Stop leaking divine power! You trying to collapse the building?!”

“Mongrels should watch their vulgar mouths. Even my patience has limits.”

“Fine! Just stop the divine power, damn it. You think I wanted to come here?!”

Bran got thoroughly scolded and retreated to the corner again.

Meanwhile, Ion took a deep breath and regained his composure.

They’re that small… denying it won’t make them bigger.

He had no choice but to accept it.

“Can’t we enter using miniaturization magic?”

“I once secretly asked a grand mage for help. The moment my foot touched the space, the spell instantly broke…”

The Sovereign answered in a completely different gentle tone from when she spoke to Bran.

“Let me try.”

On the way here, Ion had studied the ancient spells Teacher had written down whenever he had time.

Miniaturization was among them, so he tested it immediately. As expected, the moment he tried to enter the black hole; POOF! The spell dissolved.

“Is there no way to send a message from our side? How do you signal when you want contact?”

“Ah… there is one way.”

The Sovereign detached a small pearl from her velvet dress.

White holy power wrapped around it. She placed the pearl into the hole.

“If we wrap a pearl or bead in holy power and push it in, a Celestial would usually come out a few days later. But for the past 18 years, there has been no response to our signals…”

“Is this the first time?”

“No. There are records of communication being cut off for a hundred years in the past.”

“What happened then?”

“They said they were busy. They apologized for not responding and gave us one piece of technology as compensation… The device derived from that technology is the mana production device.”

The mana production device.

The very device that had driven Idea to the brink of destruction through mana oversaturation originated as a gift from the Celestial Realm.

If the Celestial Realm had also used that device… they would have suffered the same side effects from mana oversaturation as Idea.

“What did the last Celestial say 18 years ago when they came?”

The Sovereign gazed steadily at Ion.

“They asked if a Celestial carrying a newborn baby had crossed over to Idea. When we said no one had come, they simply went back. That was 18 years ago; around the same age as you, Branch Leader. Perhaps they were looking for you and your guardian.”

‘It wasn’t me. [Sorrow] said they brought me here.’

Even though Ion knew it wasn’t him, he was intensely curious about who they had been searching for.

“Wait a second. I just realized something insane!”

Bran suddenly shouted. The Sovereign scowled and released divine power, but this time Bran blocked it with demonic energy.

“No, I’m serious; listen! If there’s a half-breed of Celestial and human, that means someone actually fucked to make the kid, right? How the hell is that physically possible?!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Celestials are tiny! Humans are huge! How do a Celestial and a human even have s*x? The size difference is… inhuman— ARGH!”

Bran, complete with obscene hand gestures, was instantly flattened by divine power.

Baba triumphantly stomped back and forth over the crumpled Bran.

Bran’s crude question was quickly resolved.

Celestials apparently had “enlargement equipment” that allowed them to become human-sized. Hearing that, Ion remembered something.

“The miniaturization device…! The giants have equipment that shrinks their size. It’s scientific technology, not magic, so it should stay active even inside the ‘gate.’”

“The giants had such a device?”

“Yes. It might be at their stronghold. Idelfin hasn’t joined the Giant War yet, correct?”

“So far we have stayed neutral, but after hearing this, we cannot remain idle. War contradicts our doctrine, but I believe God will understand.”

Soon there would be news of Idelfin’s Holy Knights joining the war.

From Sara and Killia’s perspective, they might find it infuriating; Idelfin swooping in at the end to snatch the tastiest spoils.

‘I’ll just wait until the war is completely over, then ask Sara to let me rummage through the spoils warehouse.’

At this point, the giants must have already planned their withdrawal from Idea. They could invade again anytime, but the war against demons on their home continent wasn’t something they could postpone indefinitely.

Ion guessed the Giant War would end within a month or two.

“If we secure the giants’ miniaturization device first, I will contact you immediately. Until then, please stay at the Holy See.”

“I can’t stay here. I have somewhere else I need to be… Could I have a communication crystal?”

“Of course. I’ll give you one directly linked to me.”

Ion received a round crystal and almost buried it in Sanse’s pot out of habit, but slipped it into his leather pouch instead.

There was still one more thing to discuss before parting with the Sovereign.

“One last question. Do you know anything about the ‘System Age’?”