“Betrayed? By Whom?” Nakimo asked

Susan put on a wry smile before speaking the rest of the story.

After the goddess descended to the world and made the fifth continent their new divine realm. They summoned a representative from the four races to their new divine realm.

First to be summoned was the ruler of the elves.

The elf king spent three days and nights on their land, receiving instructions from the goddess one after another.

On his last day, he returned with three golden orbs. One from each goddess. These orbs contained divine blessings.

He was to return to his people and share these blessings among them.

The next to be summoned was the Dwarf king. He too spent 3 days and 3 nights on the land and returned to his land with three orbs of divine blessings.

The third was the demon king. Just like the ones before him, he too spent 3 days and nights before returning with 3 divine orbs.

Lastly, it was the human's turn. Unlike the other three races, we humans began to hate one another after the continent was split.

The only unifying factor was our faith in the goddess and so the task of representing us fell to the pope of the temple.

Like those before him, he spent three days and nights, however when he returned he had only two orbs.

“Don’t tell me that he stole one for himself,” Nakimo asked.

Susan's wry smile got even wrier, “He returned with a message from the goddess.”

“Message!?”

“Humans; in you is potential like no other. Believe in yourself and you will find the golden divine orb within.”

“That sounds like a lot of bull to me.”

“At the time humanity was coming from the hype of having been the most powerful race, so we believed it. Over time, however, that changed. Defeat after defeat. We were simply no match for the other races, but we held on to the words that were given to us. ‘Next time’ we said like some compulsive gambler. It was, however, about 100 years later that we learned the truth. One of our competitors, after having lost to a demon shouted the words he held dear, ‘Next time, we will surely win’ the demon laughed at those words. She laughed and laughed until she could laugh no more. Then she revealed the truth to us.”

“What did she say?”

***

“You foolish humans, do you still believe that? Are you that dumb?”

“What are you saying?”

“I am saying that it is a load of crap that you have been believing in. The golden orb that was supposed to be given to you was instead given to our demon king.”

“What are you saying? What blasphemy is this?”

“It’s not blasphemy. The goddess must have seen that we demons were worthy of another golden orb, so it was given to us.”

“Lies, Lies”

“Why don't you go and ask yourself. Filthy human. We demons, after centuries of living in your shadow now stand on top of this world.

***

“Wow,” Nakimo said in amazement. He never expected such a plot twist. “What happened after that?”

“The pope at that time, risking divine retribution traveled to the land of the goddess and demanded an answer. Two of the goddess confirmed that the third had bestowed two of her divine blessings on the demons.”

“But why did she do that?”

“It seems even a goddess couldn’t resist the temptation of a demon.”

“Eh… You mean her and the demon king?”

Susan simply nodded at Nakimo’ accusations

“The pope pleaded with the two goddess to provide humanity with another golden divine orb but they said it was impossible. Each of them could only produce four and they couldn’t be retrieved once given. Not without killing the race that held them.”

“Talk about receiving the short end of the stick.”

“The two goddess uggested we revive the old practice of hero summoning instead.”

“Summoning Heroes?”

“Yes. In the past heroes were summoned to fight for humanity's sake. It was these heroes who eventually married into royal households that pushed for the unity of all the races, however, two problems emerged when we began to summon heroes again.”

“Problems?”

“The heroes that came before the goddess descended were truly powerful people who could do wonders, but those heroes came from a faraway world, and with the mana we possessed at the time we could not summon anyone from that world. After a long search, we found another world from which we could easily summon heroes.”

“You mean my world.”

“Yes. However, your world’s potential was very weak, as a result when the heroes were summoned they were affected by this world.”

“How were they affected… ah… umm?”

“Is something the matter?”

“Ah no… I just got a headache… it must be from me trying to process everything I have heard.

“It’s not… I am pretty sure it’s from the sleep drug I put in your drink.”

“Eh? Why would you…”

“You haven’t figured it out yet?”

“…”

“The effects are that the heroes will display the characteristic was this world. Past heroes could recover their MP naturally even in areas devolved of mana but that is no longer case. Past heroes would also unlock a vast range of skills but that is now limited to the skills they obtain from the goddess. It is only the unique skills that are truly their own. The reason for this is the divine protection the gain from the goddess.”

“The divine protection?”

“It works in conjunction with the divine blessings that were given to us.”

Nakimo finally realized where Susan was heading.

She served a temple that worshiped two goddesses, but three existed.

The skills they possessed were granted by the goddess and only their unique skills were their own. The other heroes had skills but he didn’t.

Why was that?

The answer was simple.

The divine protection he had was from a goddess who hadn’t given humanity her divine blessing. This prevented him from gaining skills and it might also be the reason his level and stats were so low.

Nakimo fell to the ground. His breathing quickened. He could feel his heartbeat beat faster and faster.

Susan stood over his body, “I wasn’t sure if that was going to work with your unique skill against poison but I guess it does.”

“The goddess who never gave her orb to humanity and bestowed it on the demons… don’t tell me it was…”

“Yes… the same goddess who gave you her divine protection… the enemy of humanity. Delphi.”
With those last words, Nakimo passed out on the floor.

***

“Yahoo! that was entertaining don’t you think? He looked like a fish out of the water at the end...hahaha” Rania shouted

“Indeed it was. I wonder what will happen next.” (Selma)

“What’s there to wonder? This happens every time someone is summoned with Delphi’s protection.”

“But it can’t be helped, without our protection, those humans will be unable to live in this world. They would either die or get forcefully pulled back to their original world and die there.”

“True, true. And what of the star of the hour. Delphi, any comments.”

“…”

“Still a stick in the mud. It’s not our fault you got corned by that demon into giving humanity's divine blessing.”

Delphi glared at Rania

“Oi Oi Oi, don’t tell me you still believe in that demon.”

Delphi didn’t answer and proceeded to look on as Nakimo was stripped naked and dragged out of the inn into a metal cage.