Chapter 76:
Tara glared at Isaac with eyes simmering with rage. There was one last thing she wanted to ask her—something utterly incomprehensible to her.
“Why, why did you do such a thing to Abraham… to your own father?”
“What do you mean by ‘why’? What are you trying to say?”
“How could you kill your family… and commit such a horrific act that mocks his death?! How could you do that without a second thought—!”
Isaac replied soothingly, as if stroking a stray cat.
“There’s no need to be tied down by trivial notions like family, Tara.”
“⋯⋯What?”
“Was it ten years? Or perhaps twenty?”
“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”
“If he were lucky, Abraham would have died within thirty years—trapped in a human body. Soon enough, he’d be buried underground, his flesh decomposing, leaving only bones to rot away. After a hundred years, he’ll turn to dust and vanish, with not a single soul left to remember his name.”
Her gaze seemed to traverse eons, reflecting on the fleeting nature of life. Humans live so little—barely a hundred years—before disappearing, their legacies fading away. The larger the span of time, the more futile human struggles appear.
“What reason is there to toil and lament for things that will inevitably vanish? In the end, the only being who will remain in the vast universe is the Great One.”
The eventual destruction of everything in tens or even hundreds of billions of years.
Thus to someone who worships the Evil God intertwined with the fabric of the universe and history, everything appeared to be grey and devoid of value.
“I don’t understand why people get so worked up over familial ties, which really amount to nothing more than dust in the end.”
“ISAAC──!!”
“Even if you hold family in high regard, there’s really no need for your anger, Tara. My father’s soul will forever be entwined with the Great One. Until the very end of the universe, he will linger in that embrace for eons. While it’s unfortunate that I had to cause him pain, I can’t help but feel a sense of pride.”
The wicked Saintess, who had witnessed the Outer God in the night sky and delved deeply into its essence, clasped her hands over her chest and spoke reverently.
“Because it was the right thing to do.”
Observing such wickedness, the girl chosen by mere chance—the girl who had been granted power by mere chance—would soon no longer be a Saintess. She recalled her past with Abraham, the old man’s laughter, and his dedicated way of living for others even in his last moments.
She clenched her fists tightly and declared.
“If you don’t recognize the value of what you’ve sacrificed… I’LL SHOVE THAT MEANING DOWN YOUR THROAT──!!”
With Tara’s cry, the battle ignited.
===============================================================
“I saw His traces in the stars. Though our pathetic human brains can’t fully grasp His essence, I feel a connection to the Great One.”
Rippp. Rip.
Space trembled with an uneasy sound, cracking behind Isaac. Through the rift, something in the form of a translucent sphere floated out.
Wooooong-!
Three bubbles the size of humans traversing time and space—a minuscule fragment of the Evil God. Their mere existence twisted time and space, decomposing whatever they touched and scattering it to dust.
They floated and circled around Isaac, who danced in starlight at their center.
“I am Isaac, the Saintess of the Order of the Silver Twilight.”
“──Dodge!”
“⋯⋯!!”
Tara instinctively threw herself aside. The bubbles, which appeared slow-witted at first glance, shot forward in an instant, completely wiping out the ground where Tara had stood.
The edges of the hole were smooth. If even the thick ground could be erased so cleanly, any human would vanish without even a scream.
Bennett swallowed hard. If he failed to parry just once, he would be left in that state.
“Let’s make an offering. Just a little offering to please the Great One!”
As Isaac shouted and flailed her hands, the fanatics pulled out their sacrificial daggers. They murdered civilians to gather power, about to send the collected energy to their Saintess…
“I think you’re underestimating the Saintess’s power, aren’t you…?!”
Tara held out her Holy Emblem and summoned divine energy. A golden light shimmered around her.
“It’s power that I obtained purely by luck, and that’s a fact. But you must understand what it truly means to be called a Saintess and revered for it.”
Drawing mana from the Goddess meant…
Metamorphosis was a technique that dyed the soul with one’s beliefs, manifesting unique mana radiated by the transformed soul. Divine Power was simply that—a unique mana borrowed from a god.
This indicated that she could utilize the Goddess’s Metamorphosis.
“Inherited Metamorphosis – 『Cogwheel: Homeostasis』!”
Squeaaak. Squeak. Thud.
A massive cogwheel emerged behind Tara, producing sounds as if all its components were meshing together. Then, symbols appeared above the heads of everyone except the fanatics.
“What is this…?!”
“It doesn’t matter! Just make your offerings!”
Upon Isaac’s command, the fanatics stabbed the citizens with their daggers, but the blades merely left superficial scratches, as if striking tough leather. Even those wounds healed, enveloped in a golden light.
“The dagger won’t penetrate!”
“I, I must offer a s-sacrifice…!”
Unlimited healing and protection applied to all allies within range, including civilians. Tara’s tactic to thwart the fanatics’ sacrifices was to ensure that the living wouldn’t die at all.
“Is this… area-wide healing and resistance boost?”
[Looks like they won’t manage to make offerings easily now. Still, we probably can’t stop Isaac’s ability to carve through space.]
“That’s sufficient. It’s our turn now…!”
Bennett dashed towards Isaac, quickly closing the distance, while Niolle cast spells from behind to keep Isaac preoccupied.
“vir, C’thls, I’n-!”
Crack, Swoooosh-!
With a foreboding chant, a crimson spiral spear, made of twisted flesh, shot toward Isaac. Isaac flicked her fingers, directing the bubbles surrounding her forward.
The spiral spear was consumed by the bubbles and vanished as if it had evaporated.
[The attack is…!]
“Bubbles that carve out space, capable of both offense and defense…!”
Wooong-!
A bubble soared towards Bennett. As he tried to charge closer, he had to change his direction to evade the threat that eliminated the very ground beneath him.
Three bubbles whirled around Isaac. Two were devoted to defense, while one was reserved for offense.
Projectiles were swallowed, approaches were thwarted, and if anyone dared come close, they would die with a single hit.
To break through the encompassing formation, he had to create an opening by force.
“V’ine, N’ihl…”
Rumbleeee!
Walls made of bone and flesh erupted around Isaac, obscuring her vision and blocking Bennett and Niolle from sight.
“A spell like this is nothing! I can wipe it out with the Great One’s power…!”
Isaac spun the two bubbles clockwise. Barriers that touched the bubbles evaporated like they’d been erased, clearing her formerly obscurred view. In that brief moment, Bennett surged forth from her blind spot.
Two bubbles had cleared away obstacles, leaving only one bubble in reserve. It sped straight toward Bennett.
Woooong-!
As he observed the space-warping bubble approaching, Bennett took a calm breath.
Compared to a typical fanatic’s magic, this was substantially amplified. The difficulty of parrying and the risks of failure were both significantly heightened. But it had to be done; it was the only way to land a decisive blow.
Entering a state of extreme concentration, everything around him transformed into slow motion.
As the bubble swallowed the atmosphere, creating emptiness, a wind swirled as if he were being drawn into it. He felt a few strands of hair fluttering toward the bubble.
From the perspective of one facing it, the single clear advantage her bubbles held over ordinary fanatic spells was their distinctiveness. While typical spells distorted space and were somewhat translucent, her bubbles cut into space itself, appearing starkly black.
He calculated the trajectory and carefully angled his sword against the cross-section of the bubble.
Bones sprouted near Bennett’s feet, transmitting Niolle’s message. 27, 49, 6. Numbers indicating the correct place and timing to parry.
As he intensely focused, the immense power of the bubbles became palpable against his skin, stinging him. He was certain that just a touch would erase everything. It felt like shoving his head right into the jaws of a dragon.
Steeling himself, he managed to remain calm.
“『Spatial Expansion』.”
He pushed magic into the chasm of space. For a moment, it seemed like the bubble’s path shifted as he had calculated, but…
Rip, Rippp.
The Spatial Expansion Magic failed to withstand the strain and screamed out. He still couldn’t sufficiently alter its trajectory. If it kept advancing now, he wouldn’t die—but his right arm would definitely be gone.
Then.
“『Wild Dog that Protects the Goddess』⋯⋯!”
Tara’s magic compensated for his lacking endurance. The image of a dog’s head appeared on Bennett’s blade. He clashed against the bubble and pushed back. The weight felt like mountains pressing down on him.
Clenching his teeth, holding his breath, and summoning every ounce of strength into his longsword, he unleashed it.
Zeeaaaaaark──!
With an otherworldly screech, the bubble ascended into the sky. Simultaneously, Tara’s magic shattered, releasing golden particles that danced through the air.
Beyond, he saw Isaac’s wide-eyed expression. She could never have imagined that the powers of the Great One she served would be deflected by an ordinary human.
She stood completely unguarded.
Woosh-!
“Fall into hell──!”
Bennett’s blade cut diagonally from Isaac’s shoulder to her hip.
“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”
Yet, he could not feel the sensation of slicing anything. There was no resistance against his blade, as if he had merely slashed through empty air.
Tooung-!
As Bennett grasped the situation and attempted to strike Isaac again, an intangible shockwave burst forth, sending him flying.
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