"You mean from the accounts of the fourth disciple? In brilliant light as clear as…"
"I'm not talking about that rubbish!"
Sylvan almost choked on his words. The rare display of anger from Archon and that he called the officially recognized account of a holy disciple rubbish caused him to be petrified from fear. Even though he had fought countless monsters he still flinched from something so unexpected.
"Sylvan, I feel that as the captain of the Black scripture, you're entitled to know the full story behind the beings we call the Six Great Gods."
Archon finally turned around as he looked firmly at the baffled Sylvan.
"The other archbishops wanted to wait until you're a bit older. But I think you need to know this bit of information if you are to stand any chance against this foe."
Sylvan recomposed himself as he felt that he might be having the most important conversation in his life and absolutely couldn't afford to be taken back by what he was told.
"This is the true story of what caused the Six Great Gods to leave, or rather to die."
"Die?"
Sylvan only heard the first line of the story and was already mortified. The six beings that the entire population of the Theocracy had put their faith in were supposed to be immortal. The idea that they could die at all would get you crucified if you said it to the wrong person.
"Yes, die. And I ask you that you please be quiet and allow me to tell you the whole story as it will be quite a lot to take in."
Sylvan was still perplexed but nodded in understanding as he still had a responsibility as the captain of the Black Scripture to hear the whole story.
Archon, seeing the youngster's resolve, began to tell the true story of the six gods.
"Six hundred years ago, humanity was nothing like the powerful race that we are today. Food to beast-men and trolls and slaves to all other races that did not consider us tasty enough to eat.
"Humanity at this time only had one small nation and one stronghold where they lived as a satrapy of a nation of dark elves. I have no doubt that if these humans were under attack or threatened that the dark elves would just let them all die, seeing as those humans were just a giant slave colony to them and not worth the effort. These humans prayed to their ancestors or whatever gods they thought they had found and hoped with all their heart that a savior would appear.
On a day like any other, a girl was playing near the forest when she heard something in the woods. From the woods came out several goblins who were looking for easy prey. Although the girl tried to run, she was obviously no match for the speed of the goblins. Just when everything seemed lost, a mysterious light appeared between her and the goblins.
The girl saw in front of her six creatures that radiated a brilliance the likes of which we cannot even begin to imagine.
"With just a thought one of them eliminated the attacking goblins and saved the little girl's life. This little girl, not knowing the difference between danger and safety, befriended the six creatures and followed them around until they agreed to take her with them.
"This girl was called Maura, the very same girl that would be called the first Miko of the Six Great Gods.
"In the next few years these six creatures took notice of the appalling situation that humanity was in and decided to liberate us from the oppression of other races. whether this was done on a whim or because four of them had a human appearance, we still don't know.
"With strength that seemed to defy reason justice and reality itself, they expelled the dark elves from these lands and created their own human nation. Over the course of their stay, they crushed countless threats as if they were bugs and expanded the borders of the human nation exponentially.
"All this time Maura had not left their side and began keeping a detailed account of their words and actions along with six other humans that we now refer to as the Holy Disciples.
"They blessed humanity with a brand new magic system, new methods of agriculture and hundreds of other things, and in the end we accepted them as gods.
"However the fact that even gods are not omnipotent was proven. When Maura died…
"She had been with them for almost a century and had lived up to the incredible age of 95. They likely prolonged her life with their magic, but even they were apparently not capable of tricking death infinitely for anyone but themselves.
"The loss of Maura caused a great sense of depression and panic as they had many children. They foresaw that they would see each and every one of them die before their eyes until the end of time.
"Faced with this desperation they decided to put an end to such a horrible cycle that would continue until the end of the world, and deliberated the possibility of putting themselves out of their misery.
"Four of the Six Gods decided that death was a blessing that they had been able to avoid for long enough and took their own life…
"Of the Six Gods, however, one chose not to take his own life and instead decided to dedicate his existence to reviving Maura. This was the one we now call the God of Death, and the original leader of the Six Great Gods.
"His attempt to perform such a ritual resulted in Maura being revived as a horrible Undead that killed 3 of the original six Holy Disciples.
"Mad with grief and anger, the last of the Six Great Gods that had chosen to watch over humanity a little longer attacked and fought with the God of Death in a battle that until this very day has left an enormous mark upon the land.
"This was the God of Life. After he succeeded in killing his lifelong companion after that fierce battle, he left the fate of humanity to the last of the original Holy Disciples along with the knowledge that they were not god's only 'players'.
"He convinced him to tell the humans that the Six Gods had ascended back into their divine realm. His explanation was that humans would live happier knowing that someone watched over them and that god's protected them from evil and judged the sinners.
"After that he too ended his own life and left us with all of the god's weapons and items, such as the Five Legacies and the armor the Black Scripture uses, so that we could protect ourselves from evil."
Sylvan had listened attentively without saying a single word, but not due to not wanting to say anything. He just didn't have the words. After a long pause, he finally collected his thoughts and spoke, "What about their bodies?"
At this Archon shook his head.
"The bodies of the Six Great Gods disappeared after a while. We can only hope that they went back to whatever world that they came from and found peace."
"Archon-sama… why tell me this? This knowledge, if made known, could shake six hundred years' worth of theology to its core."
Archon turned around again and resumed watching the citizens of the Theocracy walking on the streets.
"Which is exactly why only the Six Archbishops and the God-Kin know. Funny, isn't it, that the people closest to gods are actually the only ones who know that the Six Gods are nothing more than just insanely powerful beings that took pity on humans?"
Sylvan furrowed his brows in anger as he boiled from anger after hearing this.
"Then… why tell me now?!"
Archon waited a bit before replying. He knew that the following would be a lot to swallow, maybe even more than hearing that the Six Great Gods were dead.
"Because I think that Ainz Ooal Gown is a being from the same world as the Six."
Even Sylvan, a God-Kin, felt as if he had fallen into some deep ravine. Such was the mental shock that he felt right now. His entire life had been turned upside down in a matter of minutes. Not only were his deities dead, but his next enemy is possibly on the same level.