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Dina was the Goddess’s avatar, born from an elven father and a human mother.

In regard to how many avatars there had been before her, even she did not know.

In all likelihood, up until this point, each time was the same. The womb of a human who was already on land was borrowed and used to give birth to an avatar. When the previous generation passed away, a subsequent avatar would be born once more.

Dina registered all previous generations of avatars as “herself”. Similarly, the Goddess also considered all generations as “herself”. After all, the avatars were clones of the Goddess, and as such, all of them were essentially the same person.

Although she possessed the name Dina, given to her by her birth parents, that was nothing more than a name attached to the new body that she currently occupied. She thought nothing special of the name itself.

As a consequence of all of this, she did not feel all that grateful for the parental love that she had received nor did she have a sense of guilt for leaving her hometown behind without saying anything to anyone once she came of age.

After all, she was the Goddess’s clone. To her, she had no parents.

After leaving her hometown, she travelled around the world as the proxy of the Goddess. At times, she passed judgement upon and punished people; at times, she rewarded and blessed people.

It was at this time. The time when she discovered the existence of Ruphas Mafahl, who was gaining prominence in those recent years.

Notwithstanding that she was just an adventurer, she was re-enacting a story of a heroic tale which was not among the countless number of established “Goddess’s scenarios” by going around and saving several countries. The list of magical beasts that she had defeated included even the likes of the renowned Dragon King Ladon.

She might be considered a risk factor.

After regarding Ruphas’s existence as a risk, Dina infiltrated the kingdom which Ruphas had founded and used mind manipulation on the people to make sure that her existence was not detected. On the off-chance that she bumped into someone and was temporarily detected, she also implanted a fake memory which made people think that “she was an advisor” in order to avoid suspicion. With this, she roamed around the Mafahl Tower just as if she was some kind of background object and successfully undertook the extremely bold and daring activity of observing Ruphas Mafahl from close by.

After observing Ruphas in this way, Dina reached a single conclusion.

This woman was extremely dangerous. Way too dangerous.

So dangerous that if she was left alone to her own devices, there was a risk of her overturning the very foundation of the Goddess’s scenario.

Dina thus thought of eliminating her… however, the more that Dina observed her, the more that she was made to understand how much of an impossibility doing that was.

As a clone of the Goddess, she had power equivalent to a level 1000. She also possessed various special skills in her position as the representative of the Goddess.

Yet even then, she could not imagine herself winning against Ruphas Mafahl.

Irrespective of whether she was to use memory manipulation, perception manipulation, arcane magic, divine magic, or even a power which went beyond the concept of time to delete the enemy’s existence, she did not think it would be effective.

As the stand-in for the Goddess, Dina’s power should have been absolute. At the very least, even if she was against the likes of Alioth or Megrez, whilst she might fall behind a little in pure battle prowess, she still had sufficient cheat-like power to come out victorious unconditionally.

But in the end, all of that was strength which was permitted and operated under the specification of the Goddess’s rules. She was only peerless and invincible because others also operated within those rules.

As such, if she was to be against Ruphas who operated whilst disregarding those rules and restrictions, her invincibility was not invincible enough.

The only way is to… move the ouroboroses… but they’re…

As a last resort, Dina had access to the most powerful unique skill.

The name of the skill was [Rasalhague]. The effect of the skill was to activate all the ouroboroses simultaneously.

Exactly. As the stand-in for the Goddess, she had the ability to wake the ouroboroses.

Not only that, after waking them up, she had the authority to give orders to them.

However, to do so signified destroying Midgard. Once done, there was no going back.

Just by moving, the ouroboroses would deal fatal damage to Midgard.

As such, even for the Goddess, it was a last resort.

If possible, she did not want to take such an action. Thus, she wondered if there were any other options available.

It happened during one of those days when she was pondering that question.

Dina overheard the words of Ruphas and Megrez, who were discussing their course of action for the future. Those words invited the slightest disturbance into Dina’s psyche.

“So there’s an outbreak of an epidemic at an elven settlement in the east, huh. We may need to do something about it.”

It was just the slightest bit of agitation.

It was truly just the slightest disturbance. It was such a small effect that even Dina herself was unable to understand why she was feeling what she felt.

But at that very moment, Ruphas directed her sight towards Dina’s direction and their eyes met.

She’s looking at me…? No, that’s impossible. My perception manipulation should be perfect. Even if I somehow appear in a person’s vision, they should register me as an advisor, forget about me and move on.

“What’s wrong, Ruphas?”

“… No, it’s nothing. Let’s leave it at this today. You guys go ahead, I’ll follow shortly.”

“Alright, sure thing.”

After immediately shifting her line of sight away from Dina, Ruphas sent Megrez out of the room first, then closed the door behind him.

She then turned back to look towards Dina and prompted a question.

“… Since when have you been standing there?”

“!?”

– She was busted.

After realising that fact, Dina’s heart jumped in surprise.

How is that possible? It’s impossible. No, it has to be impossible.

After losing her composure, Dina subconsciously stopped moving for a moment. Furthermore, due to this pause, her chance to flee the scene was snatched away from her.

By the time Dina came to, Ruphas, who had already closed the distance between them, placed her hands on the wall as if to prevent her from getting away and was staring down into her eyes.

“You don’t look like someone of the demon race, huh. You. Who exactly are you?”

“I, I’m…”

Dina was momentarily lost for words. At that very moment, the thought that flashed within her head was of the warmth and smiles that she had received from her parents.

The ones who treated her not as the Goddess’s clone but instead as an individual known as Dina, and poured their love out for her.

Why…? Why was it that, at this very moment, she was recalling those memories?

She should have thrown them away. Along with the name “Dina”, she should have thrown away the parents who had given birth to her current body.

Was she fearing death at this moment? Was she being fearful that she would never be able to meet them again?

… That can’t be.

Death was not something to be feared. After all, she was the Goddess’s clone. Even if she was to be killed right here and then, her next “self” would be born.

Even if she was to be killed, it would just mean that one more avatar became unusable. There was no concept of death for her.

After telling herself that, a smile crept up on her face like it was plastered on.

“… Allow me to introduce myself, Ruphas Mafahl. My name is Alovenus. The creation goddess, Alovenus. Although, this body is just an avatar.”

“Is that so?”

“You did well in noticing my presence. I thought I had hidden myself quite well.”

Donning a sneering mask on her face, she feigned complacency and composure.

If you want to kill me, then go ahead and kill. If you do so, the next avatar will be born immediately afterwards and begin taking action.

Yet, Ruphas did not take any action. She merely looked at Dina with great interest.

“I only noticed just now. Just for a brief moment, your emotions wavered, allowing me to see through your concealment. … Is there something at this elven settlement?”

“No, there is nothing.”

“Really, now? I don’t believe it’s completely unrelated to you being a half-elf though.”

After Ruphas replied as such, she touched one of Dina’s ears.

Due to this sudden physical contact, Dina’s shoulder instinctively trembled.

“On the outside, you look just the same as every other human, but if you touch your ears, you can feel the slightly pointed tips. Not only that, but your cartilage also has a slightly different strength to it. Unlike humans, elves have a more distinct pointiness in their ears and, in support of that, their joints and cartilage are stronger than that of humans. It seems that this feature is inherited even by half-elves. Also, elves’ ears are more sensitive because they have more nerves running through them.”

“Y, you’re well informed.”

“One of my close friends is an elf, you see. After playing around with his ears a few times, I noticed the difference in joints and cartilages.”

After all of this, Ruphas removed her fingers from Dina’s ears. However, her body was still in the same position.

From the look of things, it seemed that Ruphas had no intention of letting Dina go. In the meantime, Dina was looking for any favourable opportunities but was unable to find any chances to make an escape.

“Your agitation must have been because of the epidemic, huh? Do you have an acquaintance in that settlement?”

“………”

“Do you want me to take a guess? In all likelihood, one of your parents, if not the both of them, is in that settlement, correct?”

“Tsk!”

Dina tended not to show her emotions on her face, but even then, for the briefest moment, she was unable to successfully hide the disturbance in her heart.

Ruphas was able to detect this disturbance with her sharp awareness, allowing her to be convinced that what she had just said was correct.

“Your face is asking why. Well, it’s nothing complicated really. You called yourself an avatar, did you not? But you’re not made out of arcane or divine power. Which means that there have to be parents who gave birth to you. After knowing that much, even I can have a shot at figuring things out. Although…”

Once Ruphas got to this point, she looked at Dina with a slightly surprised face.

“For you to be agitated after hearing about your parents, that’s quite a human reaction, no? Could it be that even the Goddess has the ability to feel grateful? Or is it that… you’re actually a separate entity from the Goddess herself?”

“What kind of stupid thing…”

“It’s not particularly a strange thing now, is it? Even factoring in that you have the memories and the ego of the Goddess, from the very moment that you were born, you’re a separate entity who underwent a different path and experience in life.

Your parents are not the parents of the Goddess. They love you, not the Goddess. The things that you’ve experienced as yourself is your experience and not the experience of the Goddess. With all that, you’re already a different entity, no?”

What Ruphas was saying was not incorrect. However similar they seemed to be, the Goddess herself and her avatars were different. From the moment that they began to tread different paths, they were no longer the same entity.

For example, say there was a body without a will and the Goddess possessed that body in order to remotely control it. In those cases, indeed, it could be considered the Goddess herself.

But that was not what was happening. Due to how powerful of an existence she was, the Goddess was unable to see the finer details throughout the world.

Which was why she created the avatars. So that she could use the information from those avatars to observe the details of the world.

That was the reason the avatars were given free will of their own… and at times, they thought differently from the Goddess herself.

At the very least, if she was the Goddess herself, she would not have felt any concern for “Dina’s” parents. The Goddess most likely would not even have remembered their names or faces and would have simply registered them as one of many elves that each had the same appearance.

“You, what is your name?”

“I named myself just then, didn’t I?”

“No, you haven’t named yourself. You’re not the Goddess, after all. You have it right? Your real name.”

“It’s not my real name. It’s merely a fake name given to this body.”

“You’re pretty stubborn, aren’t you?”

Ruphas smiled bitterly and, for some reason, took out a vial from her pocket and pushed it onto Dina.

What Ruphas gave Dina was a medicine she had jointly developed with Megrez known as an elixir.

Not only could the elixir cure any illness, it could also increase the lifespan of the consumer. As this amazing product seemed like it was directly picking a fight with the Goddess, Dina did not see it very favourably.

“Hold onto that and go where you wish to go the most right now.”

“Are you telling me you’ll let me go free? A bit complacent, don’t you think?”

“Well, even if we continue to speak as we are, we’re not getting anywhere anyways. I’m expecting that the next time we meet, I’ll be speaking to the real you and not the Goddess’s avatar.”

“I doubt there’ll be a next time though.”

Dina gloated and then disappeared from the place.

Now that she had been found out once, the same approach was unlikely to work again.

She had to think of another way to observe her target. The next time she was caught, she would most likely be eliminated.

Utilising the X-Gate, Dina left the tower behind. Then, she looked around at her surroundings and was shocked.

It was because the location which she had just landed on… was the elven settlement where she was born.

She had come to this location subconsciously.

How could I have done something so stupid… even though I don’t care what happens to them.

She instinctively mocked herself for what she just did, yet her feet did not take her away from the location.

All she had to do was leave the place.

All she had to do was use X-Gate one more time and leave the place.

Although that was all there was to it, she was painfully reluctant to do so. She was unable to leave this place.

What is this? Did I get infected by emotions or something?

“… All I’m doing is checking what’s going on. I’m simply curious, that’s all.”

After making an excuse for herself, Dina took a step into the forest.

No doubt, they’re going to lecture me again.

They’re going to ask me what I’m doing here and why I’m finally bothering to show my face so late in time.

And that’s fine. If anything, I’d rather that be the case.

It was because if that was how things developed, she would be able to cut off her lingering attachments.

Right after she had such thoughts, another question came into her head.

Lingering attachments? What do I mean by lingering attachments? How stupid. There’s no way I’d have any of them. I mean, I’m the Goddess’s clone!

Eventually, she finally reached deep into the forest.

And what Dina ended up seeing… was the appearance of her withered father, who was all worn out from the illness, and the tomb of her mother, who had already passed away from this world.