The Elf Saint is a NEET, so I Forced Her to Work in Another World

The Shadow of a Great Man (Vol. 15 Prologue, 4th Arc)

***Cherflammen***

Amidst the swirling sands and the aimless winds that blew all over the dead world that was once home to the demon people, a dark figure stood. On his hand was a gladius, and his body wrapped in a set of broken lorica segmentata armor, barely clinging on its last strings. He never breathe, for gods didn't even need air. And on his head was a prominent bullet hole, inflicted on him by his unlikely enemy, now resting, buried under the desert sands of the old demon realm.

"..."

Anger never left Gaius' heart, even after he had shed his mortality. Those people who had wronged him still linger in his restless mind; those who betrayed him, those who worked to frustrate his plans, and those who gleefully watched him suffer. Now that he was immortal once again, he swore to his heart that he would repay the traitors in full.

Starting with that otherworlder...

Never letting go of his gladius, Gaius dug into the surrounding sands. Although his god-powers had left him long ago, his newfound immortality allowed him to bide his time. Even if it took him forever to search for Kuro's body, it won't matter.

They are forever trapped in this realm, anyway.

Gaius, fueled by his rage and misery, moved mountains of sand, armed only with his gladius and scooping it away with his broken armor. It was a long, arduous task, and soon, his surroundings changed as he overturned every nook and cranny of that region in the cold desert. Nevertheless, the former god of Chersea didn't stop to rest, and kept on digging.

And then...

"!!!"

When his gladius hit something hard under the sand, Gaius knew he had found what he was searching for. Although it was dark, having consumed Cherflammen's light long ago, the former deity's eyes had adjusted to this limitation. He only had to feel his way through the loose soil to confirm his hunches if his sight failed him. Removing the sand seemed to take forever, but it wasn't long before the frozen body of the otherworlder came to his view.

Greg 'Kuro' Santos. The Hero of Arles. The Rock of Chersea. The King of Cherwind. The Special Scholar of Cherflammen.

For someone who harbored no ambitions, this man sure attained more than what others desired, Gaius thought to himself. And this was his end...a frozen corpse in the land that wasn't even his own, abandoned by those people who professed their love for him.

Gaius couldn't help but smirk. The similarity between them was uncanny, yet he was still alive and the otherworlder, dead.

"This makes us different, Kuro," the former god muttered. "Ambition is what keeps me alive. Now, where has your love and loyalty taken you? Having fun in your sandy, freezing grave?"

Gaius let out a laugh, though it was out of spite. But of course, even with all the insults he hurled at the dead man, the corpse would never respond, making his efforts to taunt and ridicule Kuro a futile—if not foolish—act.

And honestly, holding himself triumphant over a dead body, and being a prisoner in this dark, desolate world, hurt Gaius the more he thinks about it.

"..."

So he stopped at his gleeful celebration. In this non-escapable prison he was in, his life as a mortal, or immortal, was meaningless. No matter how far he traveled, or dig down, the truth would remain that he was already at the end of his luck.

He may have escaped eternal condemnation to hell by becoming Chersea's god after his assassination. He may have averted being relegated to Chersea's history by choosing a mortal life, after his downfall by Cassandra's David hand...