A blast of pure chaotic energy flew through the skies, the wounded angel hurriedly dived down to avoid it... A flying saw came from his blind side and beheaded him...

"That's the third one..." I said to Luminous-sama.

"So it is..." He replied. His complexion was horrible, it was hard to believe that this was what was left of him.

My mothers flew towards the next angel, waves of adventurers advanced through the ground, massacring the forces of the Empire that were desperately trying to make a last stand to hold the capital against the invading forces... A mostly futile effort.

And we? We kept looking... Neither me nor Luminous-sama could turn our eyes away as the massacre continued, as the hopes and dreams of those living within the Empire quickly became dimmer and dimmer... Soon enough, there would be nothing left. Soon enough, they'd give up even on praying, for we could not answer their prayers.

"Have you ever... Felt like you didn't want to be a god?" I asked Luminous-sama.

He answered immediately, "More times than I can count."

I sighed, "We're the same on that regard... Far too many times..."

He gently patted my head, "Aren't you a bit too young for feeling like that? Wait a few thousand years to start regretting your own divinity."

It was kind of him to say that, but I had just received another sacrifice... Jin tried offering half of his remaining lifespan in exchange for the power to defeat the royal knights of the empire... He was hardly human these days, and had mostly lost his attachment to life... "I wonder about that... I just rejected an offering from one of my most devoted followers, you know?

"I... Don't like it. I don't like being someone that depends on people's devotion to live... I don't want to see them worshiping me while betraying my teachings... I don't want to be an useless person who can only watch, as I see destruction unfold left and right.

"Yet that is my role, isn't it? To be a spectator, to be one to watch the mortals fight their battles, to bless my worshipers as they send me offerings, but to not let them betray my teachings, nor interfere directly with their lives... It is my duty...

"I hate this duty. I really wish I had never become a goddess..."

The fourth angel had just fallen, stabbed in the heart by a sword... Luminous-sama sighed, "You may be right... But don't you feel happy when you are able to aid your followers when they need you? When they're properly following your teachings and working hard towards their goals?

"I believe there is something wonderful in that." He may have said that much, but there was no sign of a smile on his face.

"I don't... dislike granting blessings to those that wish for them... but I'd much rather aid them directly instead.

"And... I don't like knowing that you will disappear because your followers have gone so astray in their ways, that major forces decided to annihilate them. It's not right." I replied to him... Would I also suffer this same fate in the future? I hardly have enough followers to maintain my body right now... I wouldn't need to lose many to disappear for good.

He gently caressed my head as we saw one of the Empire's generals fall, "So it isn't... But many things in life aren't right... It just so happens that immortals happen to be unaffected by most of them... But not all."

"Not all indeed..." I sighed, "Say, if you had the chance to save them from this... Would you?" I asked him as another angel fell down. It wouldn't be long now.

He thought for a while before replying to this one... "I think I wouldn't. As much as I wish for their happiness, this is their just desserts for all their hatred towards non-human races. To save them, would just be me being unfair to those that are fighting for the safety of their own families right now." He was not wrong.

However... "Even if it means you'll die?"

"Even if it means I'll die." He instantly replied. The immortal that was faced with his own mortality, accepted death with grace... But the mortals that were faced with the inevitable, struggled until the end.

"I see... Thank you for keeping me company, Luminous-sama, I'm glad I got to know you." I told him honestly.

"Thank you too, for helping me out with my duties to the very end, even when your own family is fighting directly against those that you were trying to protect." He replied with a tired smile.

We saw the last 2 angels fall... A meteor fell on top of the Imperial Palace, instantly blowing it up.

The humans were despairing, wallowing in fear... Some were making a hopeless last stand, others tried to run as they bet on the small chance that they'd somehow escape without being seen... Without being aware that their life force was being tracked, and that moving farther from his allies would just make them an easier target.

And others... Just crouched down and accepted the inevitable... The Empire was done for, and so were its people.

"No mercy!" Mom shouted as she threw waves of pure chaos at the nearby civilian houses, destroying them, killing the children, the elderly, the priests, the human supremacists, the moderates, the ones that sought a reform... No quarters, no distinction, no holding back. None would survive.

We watched... We watched the end. The end of the Holy Empire of Men... and the end of its patron deity, Luminous.

AliceShiki

That's a lot sadder than what I was planning to be writing for Hikari in this series, I wonder why I can't avoid making her stories sad~

I guess... I just had some ideas that I always wanted to see come to fruition, and that was part of the goal of this series in the end. Not just to be Hikari again, not just to bring her happiness... But also to do the things that I wasn't able to do as her at the time of the guild.

Today's story was about the Raid to destroy the Holy Empire of Men... If there was one event-related regret that I had about AG, was that we never made this raid.

The Holy Empire was created in the first month of the guild as a major superpower that was human supremacist and hated all non-human races. They enslaved and enslaved people solely based on the fact that they weren't humans... They were a major antagonist of many people's stories, and many wanted to get rid of them for good... Since well, people often played with non-human characters and stuff, so they often had some tragic backstory involving the Empire in one way or another... Even some human characters hated them for other reasons aside from the Human Supremacy actually~

But well, some mess happened in the first month with a really OP player doing some crazy thingies like summoning mega powerful angels to protect the empire and waking up a mega giant island-sized evil dragon turtle or something and the plans for the Empire ended up getting delayed... Then once that was solved people started getting busy with RL, plans got delayed, people that were in charge of preparing the raid kind of never got to it... And eventually they quit the game and the raid never came to me.

I did plan to host it myself, but I also quit the game before it became a reality... It happened, I guess.

Also... It was kinda interesting to look at the goal of this raid this many years after it was supposed to happen... The raid wasn't originally meant to be an event actually. It would just be two characters with a grudge against the Empire mowing it down because they were mega OP and basically invincible. Transforming the Empire into a barren wasteland and whatnot.

But as there were the issues that delayed this invasion, and then other players joining the guild who had an interest in destroying the Empire, the plans were changed to a raid... And well, Hikari also hated the Empire herself. She hadn't really had many interactions with the people from there, but she loved her family and her family hated the Empire, that alone was enough for her to hate it too, so she was totally willing to help out in destroying the whole Empire.

But then... Time passed. Time passed and Hikari lost her memories, she lost her memories and later on became a goddess... And then she met with Luminous, who was actually a pretty nice god who wanted to help the people of the Empire, but couldn't do much because they totally distorted his teachings and most things they did had nothing to do with what Luminous wished for them to do. They were all misguided, and Luminous did not know how to help them go back to the path he wished for them to travel... Luminous did not want them to hate non-humans, that was their own doing, their own misinterpretation of his teachings.

And also... Hikari didn't really hate anyone now. She didn't share her family's hatred towards the Empire... She hardly knew anything about the Empire itself actually. The first time she heard anything, was when she had her first contact with Luminous. So her view of them was not of hateful Human Supremacists, but of poor misguided people that were going through a wrong path in life.

But well... The raid would happen eventually. The Empire would be destroyed. There was basically no way they could withstand the assault... And Hikari... Hikari is a goddess. She can't interfere, she can't fight... And even if she could, she wouldn't, for it was her own family that was destroying the Empire... Hikari was powerless.

She'd probably not even look at it in normal circumstances tbh, she'd probably just continue living her life, and maybe try finding more worshipers... But Luminous was one of the few deities she felt were nice among those that regularly visited the Pantheon's meeting area... She'd at least want to talk to him about the invasion... And I guess she'd stay by his side during it too~

That was the gist of this story I guess, a powerless girl watching her family do something horrible, while she watched the last moments of a friend that she didn't know much about... At the same time that she saw people despair over the inevitable outcome, and worried if that would not be her own future too.

I guess... We just can't choose what our family does in the end. We might not necessarily agree with them, but I think it's nice to at least hope they're always trying to do that which they believe is the best for us... It's nice to have hope I think, it's nice to try understanding their reasons and to feel like they're on our side... But it's hard to actually do that, especially when what they're doing is just hurting you instead of helping... I guess that's what Hikari was going through right now.

I have at least one more sad story for her. The other upcoming ones should be happy though, we'll see as it goes~