"Well, we can certainly try to use the present tense, it's not like anything bad will happen even if it doesn't work." Olya explained, "But it's still a pretty big event, so we should exercise caution as much as possible."

"So, Shaid and Schnell, was it?" Meil clicked his pen, "How do you spell that?"

As Olya slowly spelled the letters of their names to him verbally, Meil jotted it down mentally, all the while suggesting possible ways to input the prompt on how to remind them. While that was going on, I was silently suffering on my own, though. Thing is, no matter what they write it won't work, because Shaid is already alive. You can't revive a living person, so fundamentally it'll just crash. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place here—Either I confess to Olya that I went behind his back and still revived him post death, or I just keep my mouth shut and try to secretly find a way to get Meil and I to exclude Shaid from the prompt without Olya ever finding out. Both options sound tough as nails...

"So far we have got: "The adventurers Schnell and Shaid, in spite of the predetermined rules forbidding it, with the full consent of the protagonist, revive in front of Olyahim's very Eyes." " Meil read aloud, "That should be it, no?"

"Sounds like we've covered all our bases with that one." Olya raised his hand expecting a high five, "Hm? No?"

"...Indeed." Meil awkwardly smacked the old man's palm.

"Cheh, alright!"

Uuurgh, they're really closing in on their answer fast! Goddamit, if only Meil wasn't so smart! He's solved the puzzle way too fast! I gotta be quick with this, I'm pretty sure telling Olya the truth right now is gonna ruin his good mood, so my only option left is to somehow talk to Meil one-on-one and explain the situation to him that way. Come on, Nelly—Now or never!

"A-Ahem, my Lord!" The voices cut me off as I was about to call out to Meil, "We feel a strong divine wave approaching this island. We suspect something powerful is coming right this way."

"So they made it, after all..." Olya clicked his tongue.

"Who did?" I asked.

"Never mind that, we still got time!" Olya hurried us, "Come on, just write the sentence down and we won't have to worry about anything anymore! It'll all be over with!"

"You're sounding kind of suspicious with that panicky tone of yours." I used the situation to my advantage, "Meil, c'mere a sec."

"No time for chatting now, do that AFTER you write the prompts!" Olya anxiously yelled.

Seeing his desperation made Meil suspicious as well, so he rather easily obliged to hear me out instead of the old man. We made sure to threaten not to write anything into the Books if Olya didn't let us have this brief chat between us, so he had no other option but to let us go, albeit with a warning to make it quick.

"...What is the matter, Nelly?" Meil asked once we walked a few steps away from Olya's earshot.

"Finally figured out that old bastard shouldn't be trusted?" The voices jeered.

"Wrong, I still wanna help Olya." I shook my head, "But in order to do that, I'm gonna need to tell you something—Shaid is alive, so make sure to exclude him from the wish."

"Is that all?" Meil nodded, "In that case, consider it done. I assume there is nothing else bothering you at the moment?"

Nothing else, huh... Well, I must admit this latest surprise from Olya did make me quite wary of him. Everything was fine until the voices told us about that mysterious divine intervention approaching, afterwards Olya got super scared for some reason. Well, if we're talking divine, we can only expect the company of the Gods. Olya did say they're super against Schnell being brought back from Hell, but for them to be this fast about it... Hey wait, so is that why he asked for Meil's approval? The "go ahead" of one of the Gods? Things are starting to make a lot more sense now, sadly.

"Voices." I turned to them with a serious expression, "If you could just check how many Gods are approaching the island right now, that would be swell."

"Gods?" Meil's Eyes shot up.

"Two, the Water and Fighting God." They explained, "Well, that makes three then, ahem..."

Three Gods in one place. So that only excludes the Knowledge God Selzion and the Meditation God Prylos. Still, what a roster. Just these two could very easily make this entire island disappear, along with everyone on it. Then again, I've personally met Auros as a kid, and apparently Allucius is good friends with mom, dad and Cene, so maybe I could convince them to let Olya and his friends go?

"What are the odds of me...?"

"It will not work." The voices cut me off, "The Gods are generous, but they're not naive. What Olyahim is doing is sacrilege at best, and world-shattering at worst—They won't listen to your pitiable attemtps at negotiation a plea deal for him."

"Elaborate." Meil frowned.

"In essence, reviving the Grandmaster Adventurer could very well bring a piece of Hell into this world along with him." They continued, "Though it is not confirmed since there was never such a case before, one could argue that combining a non-existant world with an existant one is equivalent to multiplying by zero."

"And anything multiplied by zero..." I gulped, "Is zero."

"Now do you finally get it?" The voices asked me, "Do you understand why my Lord should not be helping that old bastard with his selfish plans? Regardless of his intent being pure or not, Olyahim's willing to destroy the entire world if it means getting the chance to meet his friends again. He's not noble, he's a selfish moron."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Nelly, we should abort this plan, after all." Meil looked at me.

What do I do? Should we take the 50/50 chance? Obviously, the answer is to run away and not help Olya if it means we might destroy the world if we don't, but on the other hand—We won't ever outrun him. Olya is immortal, whereas we're not. He'll get his way eventually, so the question becomes: Should we delay the inevitable, or just rip it off quick like a bandaid? Tch, damn everything, what's with this stupid question...!?

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"You guys finished chatting by now?" Olya hollered from his spot, "I'm running out of patience here. Would really like to meet my friends as soon as possible."

"Nelly, come on." Meil urged me to run away with him.

"I..." I darted my gaze from one person to another, "I don't know!"

"What is there not to understand, little girl?" The voices groaned, "Just be straight with us—Do you care for the world or not? Cause if it's the latter, then we'll be sure to lift you high up like we did last time, except we won't be putting you back on the ground as smoothly as we did that time."

"Now I'm getting death threats all of a sudden?" I glared back, "You know damn well this decision isn't that simple to make. Honestly, now I'm kinda leaning towards helping Olya more if it means annoying you."

"Nelly, this situation is serious, stop joking around." Meil grabbed me by the wrist.

"Let go!"

Yanking my hand free of his grasp, I just silently kept looking at him with absolute fear in my Eyes. Meil was Red in the face with anger, and it was getting noticeably hotter around us. Though I'm unsure of whether or not these two events are connected or not, I still felt the need to back away from him. I didn't want to get hurt, I didn't want him to hurt me, but... I know I'd probably deserve that much for being difficult like this. Sigh, if only there was a third option to resolve this issue...!

"Stop quarreling now of all times, what the hell!" Olya got fussy, "You gonna help or not!?"

"...We'll help." I turned around.

"Nelly!" Meil shouted.

"Hold on, you didn't let me finish." I continued, "We'll help you, but first you'll need to tell me something, Olya."

"Can't it wait a bit? Please?" He begged.

"Guess you don't want our help..." I shrugged.

I get it now. The third solution—Stall. With this, I somehow managed to buy the Gods a few more seconds to get here, and hopefully they'll know what to do. I mean, they're Gods, right? If anyone can kill the immortal Olyahim, then it's gotta be them, right? Oh, but then again, maybe not... Still, he's gotta be sealed, at the very least!

"Okay, fine, just ask me whatever you want already!" Olya motioned for me to hurry it up.

"Umm, let's see..." I teetered my head side to side, "Maaaaybe... Mn, but no, I already know that~"

"Come on, come on!"

"Right, I wanted to ask..." I kept muttering.

"What! What is it!?"

"You reminded us not to forget about Shaid when we were about to write the prompt in..." I gave him a sidelong glare, "But you never said anything about the voices."

"Eh?"

"Yeah, for someone claiming you're pretty damn regretful about it, you kinda totally forgot about us." The voices chimed in as well, "Not that we care though, but it's still disrespectful."

"Argh, I'm old, of course my short-term memory is shiet!" Olya lined up the excuses, "Hell, I told you already that I have to write all my regrets down cause I forget stuff easily!"

"Maybe so, but now we will need to readjust the wish." Meil added as well.

Good, we've effectively resetted the situation. Things are going well, but it's not over yet!

"Alright, whatever, so we'll have Shaid, Schnell and the Raamans come back. That should be all, right?" Olya recounted, "Wait, Deram. Gimme the Book real quick."

"Hmph..."

"Dude, learn to trust me for ONE SECOND." Olya yelled at him for not obliging, "Keep the damned pen with you if you're so scared I'm gonna write something bad in, geez! I just wanna make sure we got everything right! Ah, unless of course you want us to go about this plan haphazardly and possibly risk screwing something up?"

"Fine, I understand." Meil tossed him the Book of Fortune begrudgingly, "Huh? Hey, wait..."

Damn, should've seen it coming. Olya had a spare pen with him, but it shouldn't mean anything so long as he's the only one writing.

"I already got your permission, so I don't need you anymore." Olya started writing in, "Come on, Nelly. Let's do this."

"Aye aye." I started mirroring his writing, "Hm? Hey, what the-!?"

Why the hell am I writing as well!? Have I gone crazy, or is this a trick from the old man? Shit, I can't do a single thing but continue writing the wish into the Book!

"What is going on?!" Meil tried prying the Book away from me to no avail, "Olyahim!"

"A simple spell cast on her, don't mind." Olya smirked, "All's I did was write in that she would listen to my every word. Not that noticeable in her day to day life here, but when push comes to shove, I ought to have someone be willing to work with me no matter what."

Huh? So that's what happened! Wait, no wonder I kept trying to justify his behavior! The old man cursed me into following and executing his ideals! Dammit, when did this happen!? How long have I been under his control!? Meil, help, I don't wanna be responsible for the end of the world!