Andrea had never felt fear from demons.
From the moment he first held a sword and stood on the battlefield until now, he had encountered many forms of demons and beasts but had never felt afraid of an opponent.
Even facing a high-ranking demon, a classification he first heard from Clara, he felt no fear. The fact that it was sturdier than other demons and had incredibly fast reaction times didn’t bother him; if he had faced it alone, it would have been extremely difficult, but that wasn’t something to be afraid of.
If he didn’t swing his sword, he would die. If he didn’t run, he would die. If he couldn’t win, he would die. If he had time to be afraid, he might as well swing his sword one more time. Not being able to focus entirely on the opponent in front of him meant getting closer to death.
Of course, that wasn’t easy. Andrea had seen countless times when people couldn’t calmly execute such actions. And sometimes, those moments led to death.
Just because that feeling wasn’t fear didn’t mean it was good.
He didn’t know what had happened between Clara and that high-ranking demon. How she knew the classification “high-ranking demon,” how high-ranking demons were born, or why certain attacks wouldn’t work… those reasons remained a mystery.
But he understood one feeling Clara had for sure: the anger she held towards the high-ranking demon.
And probably, if Clara had charged at the demon alone, she might have lost her life because of that emotion.
There were two entities confronting them, and because of that, they couldn’t focus on just one. If she hadn’t been distracted by blocking the attacks coming from both sides, she could have easily dodged a bare-handed attack from an opponent charging at her unarmed by throwing her weapon and armor away.
If the area Clara first got hit hadn’t been her chest but her abdomen, she would have been dead before she could even heal herself.
Clara was doing her best to inflict even a little more pain on the demon, her body battered and bruised; it was a typical sight of someone consumed by rage.
“…….”
Still, Clara staggered and managed to stand up, led by Andrea’s hand. It was surprisingly light. It was astonishing that she had been able to tackle the high-ranking demon with her shoulder just moments before.
Seeing her dazed and slack expression, it seemed less like she had regained her reason and more like she had completely exhausted herself from excessive excitement and fatigue.
They say that when a person is severely injured, their brain releases narcotic substances; perhaps there were limits to what holy power could do against that.
Clara started to walk, heavily leaning on Andrea. Although she wasn’t fast, she was thankful to be walking at all, beginning to make her way toward the distant cavalry.
Then, she spotted a magic point rising in the sky.
And from that magic point, she saw a woman walking out.
A woman cloaked in black mist.
Upon seeing her, Andrea’s heart started racing. Sweat gathered on his forehead, and goosebumps rose on his arms.
For the first time, Andrea felt fear standing on the battlefield.
An instinctual and primal fear with no premonition or reason. The opponent wasn’t even wielding a weapon or showing any aggressive posture. She was just talking normally, yet he couldn’t suppress the fear.
And, though it was groundless, he thought that if there was a witch, it would be her.
Lowering his right hand to grip the sword hilt tightly, he tried to pull his left hand, which supported Clara, behind him to shield her when—
“I found you.”
Clara said that.
She looked like she was grinning from ear to ear as she looked at the witch.
“What…”
Before Andrea could even ask what she meant by having been searching, Clara had already released herself from his grasp.
It was so hard to believe that she had been leaning on him just moments ago; Clara stood steadily on her own two feet.
Clara lifted her arm and pulled away the hand of Andrea gripping her arm. For some reason, Andrea couldn’t resist.
Now that he looked closely, Clara’s skin was glowing.
Her chainmail, tattered and torn, had exposed skin emitting light.
He couldn’t tell when that had begun. He had been watching Clara intently just moments ago.
Clara walked forward.
With every step she took, the light grew brighter. Her hair glimmered golden, and her slightly visible face became obscured by the radiance, making it impossible to discern her features.
He was sure he had just seen Clara’s face, but he couldn’t remember what it looked like at all.
His vision blurred, and tears dripped down.
It was not because he felt any particular emotion; it was simply a bodily reaction. At least that’s how it felt to Andrea. Like the fear he felt upon seeing the witch, it was sudden and without any warning.
Turning his gaze, he saw Lee Ji-An, the male student who fought alongside him, also shedding tears. He didn’t seem to know why he was crying either.
This was probably—
The memory of the footage shown to him by Priest Turner when he had first gone to meet Clara resurfaced. Clara’s voice changing, and the bewildered faces of people around her as they cried. According to the priest, Clara’s hair had shone golden, and her face had been hidden by the radiance that day.
Just like the witch, Clara seemed to walk upwards into the air.
Not wrapped in black mist, but rather as if stepping on light—a completely contrasting sight.
“What, what’s going on?”
Just as Andrea had felt fear upon witnessing the witch, it seemed the witch reciprocated that emotion.
The witch didn’t look down upon those beneath her like some bug.
“I, I couldn’t have heard this…”
The witch muttered, as if questioning the absurdity of the situation, but there was no one to respond.
“Surely, the miracle of humans had already departed…”
Suddenly, Andrea recalled the wild attacks of the beasts that escalated once Clara had decided to go to the front lines.
The high-ranking demon, which had revealed itself just when Clara was expected to come to the front lines.
His suspicion that there might have been someone inside the church colluding with demons.
If it was true that there had been a discussion about Clara within the church, why had they approached Clara so carelessly?
They must have heard the rumors about Clara potentially calling forth miracles.
—Perhaps,
Perhaps they simply didn’t “believe.”
In ancient tales, those with deep faith were said to fall for the temptations of the demons and become witches. It is a story from mythology, so its truth is hard to confirm, but if it is the case, then witches were essentially those who had forsaken their faith.
Such individuals could not be expected to believe in the power of miracles or the descent of a goddess.
Perhaps the belief that miracles had departed from humanity was what the witch had in mind when she turned towards the demon kin.
“……I see. Yes, that must be it.”
The goddess has not forsaken us.
Despite countless betrayals, apostasy, and doubts, He has ultimately stayed by our side and sent us a messenger.
Before he even realized it, Andrea had tightly clasped his hands together.
*
The witch couldn’t comprehend the current situation.
At first, she thought of them simply as delicious prey. Losing a high-ranking demon was a bit painful, but it wasn’t like she couldn’t produce more. That was her nature; as long as she existed, she could just create new ones. She only thought it would be nice to have one more usable host.
No matter how strong a human was, they could not defeat a witch like herself. In that sense, aside from the young nun, the other two were quite good prey, considering they had come along. Clara Anderson was a nun with outstanding holy powers, so she had expected her guards would be strong.
She had anticipated she might lose her “son,” in the worst-case scenario.
However, she had not expected to see the object of worship she had forsaken so long ago standing right in front of her.
It had been a long time since humans had failed to perform miracles.
Even the tales of heroes who had supposedly performed miracles a hundred years ago were just acknowledging acts utilizing immense holy powers as miracles, weren’t they?
No, no, no. That woman is not that. She couldn’t possibly be. Just someone with tremendous holy power.
“Is that really so?”
The woman standing in front of her, smiling as if she had read her thoughts, spoke. She couldn’t be certain. The shining light emanating from her face obscured her expressions.
But she could infer that the voice held a tinge of laughter.
“Y-you’re…”
“Perhaps I am who you thought I might be.”
An endlessly gentle voice devoid of any resentment.
“A, ah….”
No, no, no, this cannot be. It must not be. It cannot be happening.
“NO!”
The witch swung her arm. From the magic point, slender black waves of magic poured forth, issuing from her gesture. Although they couldn’t turn into beasts or demons, it was enough to take human life. No, it was far more than adequate.
If the target was a living being, it would be strange if the magic didn’t devour them and turn them to ash.
And, as naturally as one would expect, that bizarre event took place.
When the pouring magic reached near the woman, it simply vanished. As if darkness had been extinguished by bright light.
“A, ah…”
Should she run?
That thought crossed the witch’s mind.
But even if she did, she didn’t believe she could escape. Even attempting to enter the magic point behind her, escaping to a different dimension felt like an impossible escape.
While she was frozen in place, the woman had already approached her and gently held her cheeks in both hands.
It wasn’t hot.
Despite the immense holy power that could accompany destruction, it wasn’t hot. Instead, it was soft and warm.
Yes, it was that feeling from when she was still human, holding onto her faith in the goddess.
“Holy power is to summon the divine’s strength through belief and make it one’s own. What transcends the magic one possesses is already a fragment of miracles.”
The woman wiped away the tears streaming from the witch’s eyes with her thumb.
“You have always been using that power. As if it were natural.”
The witch could only stare at the woman without being able to say a word. Light. There was light there.
“P-please… show mercy…”
She squeezed her voice out, begging.
Perhaps the light seemed to smile at that moment.
“Yes, of course. I shall forgive you.”
As soon as the witch felt relief, the woman’s face vanished.
The light disappeared. And underneath it lay nothingness. It was as if a place where a face should be had been cleaved open, revealing a deep, black hole. It felt like if she approached even slightly, she’d be sucked in.
“But will I forgive you?”
A man’s voice emerged.
Just like that, the relief and warmth she felt moments ago felt like lies, replaced by an instinctive chill overcoming her body. The instinctual fear made her shudder.
While she had felt the descent of the goddess when seeing the light, she couldn’t comprehend anything at that moment.
“Y-you…”
The only thing she could guess was that this was no longer the person who had stood there just moments ago.
The light shining from her body, the halo seen behind her head, and the golden hair were all intact, yet only the ‘man’ spoke with an empty face.
“Do you know what power you have wielded all this time?”
The power of the demons.
“What an absurd assumption.”
The man said, holding a smirk.
“If you think it is a power that stands against the gods, then logically that must have come from the gods as well, no?”
“What… is this?”
A grip began to tighten on the hand holding the witch’s face.
The ‘man’ pulled the witch’s face closer to his own. And looking firmly into the empty eyes of the witch, he spoke.
“I am your forgotten divinity.”
That was the witch’s final statement.
*
One of the two individuals suspended in the air dropped down. Even from afar, it was clear that their body had frozen without any movement; they were most likely dead.
The witch had died.
Lina felt a complicated mix of emotions about that fact.
Though she was born from the witch’s power, she had never thought of herself as the witch’s daughter. It would be foolish for a tool to consider the being that created it as a parent.
In reality, she had treated it as such.
“…….”
Last night, when she was being beaten, she thought she was truly going to die.
No, truly, she had thought she was going to die, especially when she had been used as a shield by having her hair pulled.
When she saw that Clara was right in front of where she had fallen, her breath caught in her throat.
But, Clara was stronger than she had thought.
What happened to the high-ranking demon was unclear, but considering the witch had appeared directly, she probably wouldn’t have been any different.
“Lina, are you alright?”
Selena, kneeling beside her with a concerned expression as she leaned against a vehicle, asked.
“I’m not okay…”
To be honest, her whole body hurt. Healing might occur much faster than a human’s, but it still hurt. After all, she had fainted from the pain.
“Student, do you really not need holy water? Sister Clara said no, but…”
A soldier, who appeared to be a bit older but was uncertain of his rank, approached with a canteen, asking hesitantly.
If I drink that, I’m going to die. Can Clara handle it?
Although, it appeared he was completely unaware of the situation.
Upon seeing Lina shake her head silently, the soldier awkwardly withdrew the holy water.
“……”
Selena bit her lip. Her expression showed just how pathetic she felt for being unable to do anything. Oh dear, after trailing around with Ji-An these past few weeks, it seemed she had developed a knack for reading Selena’s expressions.
…Still, I didn’t plan on calling her Selene even if I died.
“Look!”
Satsuki, who had climbed onto the nearby armored vehicle to look at where the witch had been, muttered.
…Selena, Satsuki, and Ji-An had clearly been swept into the portal in the living room.
And they had nearly died.
I heard a voice saying,
“Since I suspect your loyalty, I’ll kill your friends right before your eyes.”
…But I never thought of them as friends.
Why had I made such a desperate expression back then?
If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been beaten so badly, and these kids wouldn’t have had to go through all this.
If I had just lived alone without getting close to anyone.
In the end, it was learning swordsmanship from Ji-An that had led to this.
Lina thought that all the blame lay with her.
“Hmm?”
One soldier holding his gun, tensed by Satsuki’s words, muttered.
The figure slowly descending towards them in midair seemed to be Clara. In fact, she had expected this to some degree. After all, she had shown her a miracle the previous night.
It was dazzling but, paradoxically, impossible to look away from—a warm light.
Even Lina, born from a magic point, could feel warmth and gentleness emanating from her.
“……Sister?”
The soldier, marked with a cross on his chest, murmured.
To be honest, her appearance made it tough to identify her. Her hair color was a distinctly different golden hue from Clara’s, and the radiance pouring from her face obscured recognition.
“Clara!”
Selena, who was sitting next to her, sprang to her feet, her voice filled with certainty.
Clara descended gracefully, kneeling before Lina and gently cradling her puffy face in both hands.
The pain vanished instantly. The eye that had been nearly impossible to open swelled up, now able to open fully. The throbbing pain in her broken right arm had also disappeared.
This must be the power of miracles.
Clara truly could do this.
“…….”
Though the pain had completely subsided and her wounds were healed, Clara remained silent, merely gazing at Lina. It was impossible to discern her expression, engulfed as it was in light; all Lina could do was guess that perhaps Clara was smiling.
“……Thank you.”
Wondering if perhaps Clara desired an answer, Lina spoke, almost inaudibly, so only Selena wouldn’t hear.
Upon hearing her words, Clara finally removed her hands from Lina’s cheeks.
And then—
crack
—Clara’s palms broke apart.
They weren’t entirely broken. Rather, it was as if round wounds had formed, with smaller cracks spreading around them like eggshells breaking. From those wounds, light far brighter than Clara’s shining face began to spill out.
“Clara!”
Selena gasped upon seeing that sight. But she couldn’t do anything about Clara. It was such a precarious state that it felt like if she held her hand, she’d crumble apart.
“……Ah.”
Clara sighed as if she knew this was going to happen.
Then, in an instant, the light surrounding Clara vanished.
As if it were fleeing in haste from Clara’s body.
“……Ah.”
Once again, Clara uttered, this time revealing her expression—a bittersweet smile.
Blood dripped from the gaping wound in Clara’s hand.
Without paying any mind to her own hand bleeding, Clara looked towards Selena and Lina, asking,
“Are you all alright?”
As if that was something to say while blood dripped from her gaping hand.
Lina’s anger flared to the top of her head at Clara’s words.
It was a feeling she hadn’t experienced in a long time.
Strictly speaking, it had only been two weeks.
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