Chapter 249: What Kind of God Do I Want to Be?

"How is it? Cool?" Magna stood before Renna in his full Magus outfit, eagerly waiting for her opinion.

Renna looked him up and down for a while, seemingly trying to find the right words.

His clothes looked like a mix of a Witch’s outfit and Shadow armor, something she had never seen before. The mask covering his face beneath the hat’s wide brim made the word she had in mind seem even more fitting.

"You look intimidating."

If she hadn’t known it was Magna beneath those clothes, she might have mistaken him for a monster in human form.

"Right?" Magna lifted the mask, letting it disappear inside the hat and revealing his satisfied smile.

That was exactly the reaction he had wanted.

Intimidating meant powerful, and looking powerful had been his main goal when designing the outfit. If he was going to face a monster, he had to look like a worthy opponent.

Now that his clothes were ready, he reached into the robe’s pockets and took out the 2 miniature gun-shaped artifacts Titus had given him long ago.

He would have liked to edit those too. Unfortunately, he had no mana left.

Their ice effects would still be useful against the monster, though, so changing them wasn’t really necessary.

Getting them to work again was the bigger problem.

They had stopped functioning, almost as if their batteries had run out. After studying artifacts, Magna had realized that was more or less what had happened.

Artifacts were designed to draw on the energy stored in their materials rather than the wearer’s mana. Once that energy ran out, they could no longer function.

That gave every artifact a limited lifespan, though it usually took a very long time to reach that limit. Even the lowest-quality artifacts held enough energy to last a century.

So why had his stopped working after only 12 years?

He could think of 2 explanations. Time might have passed much faster for him while he watched the creation of the universe. Perhaps what had been 12 years outside had actually been a century where he was.

Or the artifacts had already been old and close to the end of their lifespan.

He thought the first explanation was more likely. Titus probably wouldn’t have given him 2 old weapons that were about to stop working.

Whatever the reason, he needed a way to restore their energy.

"Do you know a way to recharge these?" he asked, holding them out to Renna.

Her book hadn’t mentioned anything about that. He hoped she knew something she simply hadn’t written down.

Unfortunately, she shook her head.

"When our artifacts start running out of mana, we usually take them to artifact masters to have them restored. I don’t know how they do it."

Magna sighed and returned them to his pockets.

Even with his editing spell, he didn’t know how to recharge them. It wasn’t as simple as replacing a material, so for now, he would have to rely on his fists and spells.

"So, what’s your plan now?" Renna finally asked the question that had been on her mind. Before he could answer, she added firmly, "Don’t tell me you’re going to face that monster alone."

She had watched him prepare his clothes without interrupting him with questions. Now that he was finished, she needed to know what he intended to do with them.

Magna chuckled under her doubtful, judging gaze.

"Face that thing alone? No way. Come on." He waved a hand before adding in a quieter voice, "I’m just going to try to lure it away from the camp."

"Are you out of your mind?" Renna snapped. "How is that any different from facing it?"

She knew his body was unimaginably strong. With the boosts from his new artifacts, his overall power must have more than doubled.

But even knowing that, she wasn’t about to let him go out there and try to save the entire camp on his own.

"If you’re trying to be a hero or something..."

"Hero? No, no, no." Magna shook his head, trying to clear up that misunderstanding before she went any further.

He had no intention of becoming a hero. He had never even considered himself a particularly righteous person. He cared about his own life, enough that someone might call him selfish.

Even now, his reason for wanting to face the monster was selfish.

’Sorry, I can’t tell you all of this is happening because of me, and now I need to fix it.’

Since he couldn’t explain that to her, he gave her a bitter smile instead.

"If you have a better plan, now’s a good time to tell me."

When she hesitated, he continued.

"You have to accept that I’m the only one here who can do this. The others wouldn’t even be able to get close to that thing."

Renna’s response caught in her throat. She wanted to argue, but he was right. She didn’t have another plan.

All she could do was face the Desolation and hope they could stop it. Retreating and abandoning the camp could lead to something even worse.

Still, that didn’t mean she could accept him taking the risk alone.

"Look, if you feel guilty because of what Lady Melisandre said, you shouldn’t. You didn’t know what would happen when you moved that rock or opened that entrance, whatever it was. You don’t have to risk your life for us. It’s not your responsibility to save us."

She was trying to talk him out of a suicide mission. Instead, without realizing it, she had touched on the very reason he felt he had to go.

’If only you knew the truth.’

Her reassurance only made the pressure worse. It actually was his responsibility, even if she had no way of knowing that.

If he ignored the pleas of his own creations and looked the other way, what kind of God would that make him?

At the very least, he didn’t want to be the kind of God he had been while playing God Simulator.

***

GenF: New Magus set’s illustration in the comment section if you want to see it.