While Shiomi stood there thinking, Scáthach had already noticed that he'd finished dealing with Orion's request. She lifted her wine cup and called out to him.
"My beloved disciple, come have a drink!"
Scáthach's tone was bold and hearty, giving her already striking beauty an added air of gallantry.
"Ah…"
Shiomi snapped out of it and quickly walked over, but instead of taking the cup Drake offered him, he leaned in close to Scáthach and whispered.
"Master, I need to step away for a bit. Please keep an eye on Ritsuka and Mash for me."
"What are you going to do?" Scáthach asked, clearly surprised.
Shiomi glanced at the Chaldea girls enjoying the open-air picnic around the campfire.
"It's nothing urgent. I'm not entirely sure yet. I'll explain when I get back."
"As you like." Scáthach gave a small nod.
Shiomi then excused himself, saying he had something to take care of and would skip the drinks for now. He turned away from the campfire and headed into the forest outside the village, not toward Storm Border, but in a completely different direction.
Ritsuka and the others noticed his departure and felt puzzled, but Scáthach brushed it off with a few casual remarks, smoothly diverting their attention.
As Shiomi walked alone through the forest, he could still feel that gaze upon him. It blended perfectly with nature, making it difficult to detect unless it chose to reveal itself.
The reason Shiomi could sense it was simple…
When he emerged from the forest, he found himself on the deserted beach on the opposite side of Astraea Island. From here, the massive silhouette of Storm Border was nowhere to be seen.
He found a fallen tree at the edge of the forest and sat down.
"If you have something to say, please show yourself," he spoke clearly. "I don't know why you'd appear here at a time like this, but since I don't sense any hostility, I assume you're not here to attack Chaldea."
The night sea breeze swept across the shore, and the sound of the tide rolling in and out echoed from afar.
For a moment, it seemed as though Shiomi were merely talking to himself.
But not long after, accompanied by a series of soft footsteps, a goddess stepped out from the shadows, her presence carrying an impression of deep emerald green.
"As expected, you noticed me. Resonance born of divine authority isn't so easily erased," Demeter said calmly.
Unlike their skirmish on Hecate Island, or the clash at sea two days earlier, Demeter looked unusually composed tonight. Her gentle, nurturing aura was intact, and she radiated neither hostility nor danger.
"You seem… quite different from before?" Shiomi said, genuinely surprised.
"Thanks to you," Demeter replied with a faintly sorrowful smile. "The aftereffects of being integrated by Zeus and having my divine core forcibly altered have been temporarily suppressed. But I won't be able to act freely like this for long. Once Zeus notices the anomaly, he'll summon me back to Olympus."
"From the sound of it, the gods of Olympus aren't exactly… on good terms with one another?" Shiomi caught the implication in her words.
Demeter let out a quiet sigh, then continued with a gentle smile. "While I can still maintain my own will, there are things I wish to say to you—a newborn god who has yet to be fully formed. May I sit?"
"That's strange. Aren't gods supposed to do whatever they want?" Shiomi gestured for her to sit.
"How we treat humans is different from how we treat other gods," Demeter said frankly.
Toward humans, gods naturally maintain a position of condescension. But that stance could no longer be taken with Shiomi, who could no longer be considered purely human—even though Shiomi himself continued to firmly uphold the standpoint of 'humanity.'
After Demeter sat down, Shiomi continued, "You mentioned 'integration' earlier. What exactly does that mean? As far as I know, the Olympian gods aren't native to this planet, but beings that came from the distant reaches of outer space."
"That's correct. We were originally created as an interstellar fleet, meant to save our creators from an impending extinction," Demeter said. "However, before our departure, those sentient creators had already perished. With no creators left to carry, we set out into the star-filled sea in search of a new world, and eventually arrived in this universe."
It was clear Demeter intended to share critical information with Shiomi. She spoke without hesitation, revealing even more.
Even this much was enough to leave Shiomi speechless.
What level of civilization could have created beings like these Machine Gods…
If he were to make a somewhat flippant comparison, the only thing that came to mind was the civilization depicted in a certain world-famous fantasy tokusatsu series.
"The journey was too long, with no end in sight," Demeter continued. "Countless companions lost functionality along the way and ultimately perished. We understood this, and accepted that one day, we too would meet the same end."
"But before that, you discovered this planet?" Shiomi asked.
"In truth, this planet only met seventy-eight percent of our required landing conditions," Demeter nodded. "Even so, we descended here in what was nearly a crash landing. We encountered the humans of what would later be called Greece, were worshipped as gods, and eventually took root on this world."
"So this form—so close to human, yet not human at all—isn't your true appearance," Shiomi said in understanding. "Artemis's state… that's your original form, isn't it?"
"That is our original form—our 'True Form,'" Demeter replied. "To wield our full power, we must return to it."
"I see. But if that's all, then you're simply gods who settled on this planet," Shiomi said slowly. "Yet you also mentioned 'integration.' Did some irreconcilable logical contradiction arise among you as Machine Gods, eventually escalating into a conflict on the scale of a war between gods?"
He asked cautiously, probing to see how Demeter would respond.
"Originally, we would indeed have lived alongside humanity on this planet as gods, and one day departed as gods…" Demeter's expression darkened with a heavy shadow. "If 'that' had not arrived…"
"That?" Shiomi echoed.
"The predator that descended upon this planet fourteen thousand years ago," Demeter said.
"The White Giant… the star-devouring predator?" Shiomi's pupils shrank sharply. "Then was the Holy Sword of the Planet never forged?"
"You really do know a great deal…" Demeter said quietly. "It wasn't that the Holy Sword of the Planet was never forged. Rather, before its forging was complete, the White Titan was already defeated."
She paused for a moment before continuing.
"Unwilling to accept defeat, Zeus forcibly integrated the authorities of the Twelve Machine Gods, gaining the power necessary to strike down the White Titan."