#1180 End Prophecy

It’s getting a bit chilly these days.
Looks like autumn in this other world is about to end.

This past year has been wild, especially with all the stuff going on in the Farm Kingdom, and everything felt more hectic than usual. Still, I never neglected what needed to be done.

We finished the harvest at our farm without any issues, so I’m planning to share some of our stored crops with the pioneers who are living on-site in the Farm Kingdom.
Starting next year, I plan on rolling out serious farming over there, too.

We also threw the usual big birthday celebration for the kids.
As gifts, I gave my eldest son, Junior, a DX Super Alloy Thousand-Armed Kannon figure. My second son, Norito, got a special set to recreate episode 28 of ZZ Gu*dam. And for my third son, Shotaro, who’s still a baby, I prepared a rattle equipped with the latest smart features.

They were all absolutely thrilled, which made the effort I put into making those gifts worth it.

There was one more thing I needed to do before winter really set in.
And that is spending some time playing with the earth spirits.

Earth spirits are these spiritual beings that have taken up residence on my farm.
They govern the workings of nature, and normally they’re incorporeal, totally invisible to the naked eye. But around here, thanks to the mysterious powers of the gods, they can take physical form. We can see and interact with them.

“Time to pway!”
“A divine pwaytime!”

When they take form, the earth spirits appear as adorable little girls.

But maybe because they’re beings so closely tied to the earth, they head back underground come winter to rest and recharge until next spring.
Which is why, every autumn, I make it a point to have a grand ol’ time playing with them while they’re still here.

All right, everyone! Let’s play!
What do you wanna do?!

“Wet’s wace!”
“Wet’s pway tag!”
“Wet’s do high-gwound tag!”
“Wet’s do cowor tag!”
“Wet’s pway kattenkyokotsu kawamatsushinjuu!”

And that’s how we ended up playing all sorts of games together.

Huff... pant... Wow, running around playing all day at my age is exhausting...!

So how was it?
Did you have a blast, earth spirits? Think you played enough to last you through the winter?

“We had so much fun!”
“We’re totawwy satisfied!”
“We got in pwenty of ‘shuumatsu’ pway!”

Good to hear.
As long as the earth spirits enjoyed themselves, that’s all that matters.

…Hm? "Shuumatsu?”

Just now, did one of them say “shuumatsu”?
As in “weekend”?
But then again, when the earth spirits talk, half the time it doesn’t mean anything. It’s probably nothing, right?

They say a lot of weird stuff that’ll freak you out if you pay it too much attention…

“We mean the ‘ending’ kind of shuumatsu!”
“The end of the world!”
“We’re heading for the apocawypse!”

?!
That’s ominous!

What does that even mean?
Is this just another one of their borderline bizarre statements?

They always drop weird lines, but this one is next-level…
Guess I have no choice but to probe a little further.

“This is our wast year of seeing evewyone.”
“Next year, nobody will be awound.”
“You’ll all keep wiving on in our hearts.”
“We’ll leave our memowies at tomowwow’s doorstep.”

…
The more they talk, the more anxiety seeps in!

Hearing spooky stuff like this from adorable little spirits is horror-movie level creepy!

What is happening? What’s going on in this world?!
Somebody answer me, pleeeaseeeeeeee!!!

***

“…It appears something is amiss in the Spirit Realm.”

At times like these, I can always count on Sensei, the Lifeless King.

Ask him anything, and he usually has an answer. Our very own walking encyclopedia.

“The Spirit Realm… you say?”
“Indeed. The earth spirits are just one part of the broader category of ‘spirits.’ It’s likely they’re sensing something off coming from their realm.”

Ah, I see.
So the root cause might be in the Spirit Realm?

“It’s the endddd.”
“It’s dooooom.”

Yep, the earth spirits are still spouting dangerous-sounding stuff.

Man, isn’t there some way to fix this? It’s unsettling hearing such grim words from these cute little beans.

“So, what exactly is the Spirit Realm? Is that where the gods live?”
“That place would be the Divine Realm. They do sound similar, but the Divine Realm and the Spirit Realm are completely different.”

So says Sensei.

“It’s said that the gods created this world and have kept it running ever since… or so everyone believes. But that’s not entirely accurate—about half is true, and half isn’t.”

Huh.
Makes sense to me, given what I know of these gods and their personalities.

“If the gods influence how the world came to be, the ones who directly carry out that influence are the spirits. Spirits are the building blocks of nature itself. Earth, water, air… the reason these elements are so full of life is because the spirits dwell within them.”

…
Right. Now that I think of it, the earth spirits first gained physical form when the Underworld God Hades pulled some stunt.
Because of that, I’d always had the fuzzy impression that they were under Hades’s jurisdiction.

“Of course, there’s a hierarchy; gods are above spirits. Because gods can command them, they can manage and sometimes reshape the world as they please. But conversely, the only reason they can act so omnipotent is because they have the spirits’ power beneath them.”

...
Hmm. So basically…?

“Well, how should I explain this… if you imagine a kingdom, the gods are like the kings who come up with plans and issue orders, while the spirits are like the laborers who carry those orders out. Although, the spirits do keep the world going even without those orders, so it’s not a perfect analogy.”

So, what’s the point of having gods around?
It won't matter if they’re gone, is that it?

“At any rate, gods and spirits seem similar but operate in different jurisdictions. There is a direct superior for the spirits called the Spirit King, who resides in the Spirit Realm and plays a central role in keeping the spiritual side of the world running.”

The Spirit King…
Maybe that’s why the earth spirits are acting all weird...?

“Something might have happened to the Spirit King in the Spirit Realm. If a disturbance occurs there, it immediately affects all spirits. If it were the gods acting weird, you wouldn’t see the spirits behave like this.”

True.
Plus, the gods are nearly always acting a little nuts anyway—if that caused chaos every single time, we’d never get a break.

“Judging from what the earth spirits are saying, it doesn’t sound too peaceful. I wouldn’t recommend ignoring them.”

I’m with Sensei on that.
If we take their words at face value, it could be something on the scale of ‘end of the world.’

It’s like hearing those doomsday prophecies.

There’s no way am I letting that happen when our Farm Kingdom is finally coming together. And I’ll be damned if everything ends before I get to see Junior, Norito, and Shotaro grow up.

If there’s a crisis threatening the world, I’ll smash it into oblivion!
Because I’m a Saint!

“To figure out what’s really going on, we’ll need some way to connect to the Spirit Realm,” Sensei says helpfully.

Right now, all we’ve got is a vague sense of dread, and the only real evidence is…

“Danger is cominggg.”
“It’s super dangewousss.”

…those scattered mutterings from the earth spirits.

We need clearer and more detailed information.
And hey, if it turns out to be fake news, that’d be totally fine by me.

Wait, that’s it! The Spirit King!
If we could just talk to the Spirit King, we could maybe figure this out in one go!

Sensei, let’s try talking to the Spirit King!
You can summon them the way you usually summon stuff, right...?!

“I’m afraid not. The Spirit King, unlike deities, doesn’t appear so easily. It has no distinct shape, much like the earth spirits, and being at the core of the world’s operations, it can’t just casually descend to the physical realm.”

So, the Spirit King’s even rarer than a god, huh…
This is definitely not gonna be simple.

But one way or another, I’ve gotta make contact with the Spirit King!!!