“It would be hard to say it was a good judgment.”
A voice echoed through the black space surrounding me.
It was a pleasant voice. If she had been a singer, she would have been popular for sure. Not that I knew how well she could sing.
“Judgment or not, if I hadn’t moved, Erica would have been in a dangerous situation.”
I looked around the black void, feeling an odd sense of familiarity, as if I had experienced it before.
… Right, this was how it felt inside Arlil’s consciousness in the elf region.
I illuminated my surroundings with Holy Power, but all I saw was a blank white floor. In the distance, even places untouched by light were just empty space.
“Is that girl’s life more important than yours? A being who receives the full attention of the Goddess, a nightmare for demons and beasts, isn’t your own life more important? If one of you must survive, it would be far more beneficial for humanity if you lived.”
“Are you seriously saying that?”
I frowned. I didn’t know if the other person could see me, but of course they could. With a voice resonating throughout the space, they must surely be a tremendously powerful being. If Arlil had the ability to talk to a human, I imagined it would feel something like this.
“Regardless of my abilities, or Erica’s, it ultimately comes down to just one life.”
“Hmm.”
Annoyingly, the voice seemed to agree.
“Indeed, seeing your unwavering thoughts, I can understand why Ariel dragged you into this world.”
After that remark, the light I had conjured shot up into the sky and gradually brightened, tinting the heavens white.
The world engulfed in darkness slowly became colored with light.
Hmm.
At least it didn’t look like I fell into the sea.
“I’ve extended the time you feel indefinitely. If I leave your consciousness, you’ll fall straight into the ocean.”
As I turned towards the source of the voice, a handsome man stood there, surprisingly fitting with the voice. Black hair, pale skin, red eyes, dressed in a black suit, with a well-trained physique.
Among the men I had seen since arriving in this world, he was certainly in the top tier of handsome. Perhaps more women would choose him over Jian if they were compared side by side. There was something mystical about him. With a sharp fang, he looked like he could be the protagonist in a vampire movie.
“Of course, you can’t stay in this state forever. If you stay too long, your brain might fry. I have something else to do, so I can’t leave you like this. Still, there’s no need to rush. It should be more than enough time for a conversation.”
“… So did you come to save me because you have something to do?”
“Well.”
The man paused for a moment in thought.
“I can’t do anything directly for you. You’ve already fully unlocked your abilities. With your complete physical form, my interference would only throw things out of balance.”
“…When I first got here, I got tired extremely easily and couldn’t even defeat lower demons.”
To call Lina a “lower demon” was a bit unfair, considering her skills, especially since she had been in a subordinate position to a witch.
She was a created being specifically made to infiltrate the Academy, so her skills were excellent. Compared to other lower demons who had no time to grow because they died young, comparing her continuous training and growth to typical lower demons made no sense.
However, Jian could open up future abilities to dodge exploding bombs, so if I opened up mine, I wondered if I could at least defeat someone like Lina.
“Your abilities aren’t simply a matter of physical prowess. If you want, I could enable you to use physical skills beforehand, but do you want that?”
“… No.”
Winning with that would be meaningless and I would definitely feel a sense of discomfort as if I had cheated.
The man shrugged, continuing.
“So, my purpose in coming here isn’t to save you directly; it’s to offer guidance. Well, it’s guidance, but more so to buy you time to think.”
As he spoke, the man casually sat on a chair that seemed to come out of nowhere.
Wait, I hadn’t seen him sit down at all.
I didn’t even have a memory of facing him while sitting.
“… Are you perhaps what I think you are?”
“Isn’t it strange? Your role of Demon and the name Baal is exactly as you wrote it, yet you don’t know my face.”
“…….”
So it was like that after all.
… This situation is as dangerous as Jian’s when the shells fell on us in the forest of the battlefield? The God must be personally intervening to give us time?
But looking at his face, he seemed completely unfazed. It looked like he was ready to have tea leisurely!
“Is this a dangerous situation right now?”
“Well, let’s assess.”
Baal raised his right hand.
“First, you are falling head-first into the ocean from about 25 meters. That should be survivable. Your body is sturdier than you think. At least you won’t die immediately from hitting the water. My powers will lessen your pain too, so shock isn’t an issue.”
One finger bent down.
“The bombardment is still far away. There should be no shells falling nearby for at least several minutes, so you can rule out dying from being hit.”
Another finger bent down,
“Various beasts are gathering in the water. Some mindless creatures drawn by the explosion, some aiming to ravage the surface, and there are also beasts wanting to kill you. But for you, who can freely handle Holy Power, this shouldn’t be too much trouble.”
A third finger bent down.
“Even if you are attacked and torn by the beasts, as long as it isn’t instant death, you can heal yourself. So, death from injury shouldn’t happen either, though it will be painful.”
And then he bent down the fourth finger. Part of me wanted to yell that it was easy for him to say, but still, there was that one remaining finger. If there was no reason for me to die, he wouldn’t be emphasizing the fact on that one finger.
Staring at the remaining pinky finger, Baal spoke.
“You don’t know how to swim.”
The finger remained unbent.
“It’s the most basic requirement for survival in water, and yet you can’t do it.”
“… It seems you can’t give me swimming abilities?”
“Well, that’s because I’m giving you ‘future talents’ and do you have any plans to learn swimming in the future?”
As Baal waggled his pinky, he asked.
“….”
Well… I’d never planned to learn it in my lifetime.
At this point, suddenly changing my mind wouldn’t magically create that ability. If that were the case, Baal could have just enabled it without bringing it up in the first place.
“Just because you think about it for a moment in your life doesn’t mean you’ll become good at it. If that’s how the world worked, everyone would be overflowing with talent. There would be nothing they couldn’t do.”
So, he meant to say I wouldn’t have the talent to swim, both now and in the future?
“Isn’t there a way to fix the oxygen deficiency with Holy Power?”
You can heal illnesses, so if I could just fix my head from the oxygen deprivation…
“Even if we assume I could fix it the moment you are hit, the first thing that suffers from lack of oxygen is the brain. Without being able to breathe, could you make rational judgments?”
“You’re saying you’d ease the pain, right?”
“But that doesn’t reduce the damage. Do you know? The sea next to a mountain gets deeper the further you go out. It’s nearly impossible to find your way at a hundred plus meters in the dark. Even if rescuers come, who knows how long it would take?
Even without pain, having your lungs filled with water is not a pleasant experience. You might remember how to breathe, but all you’ll inhale is seawater. Are you ready to spend hours waiting to recover while inhaling and waiting for the rescuers?”
Uh…
I wasn’t confident…
I hated having water in my nose, ears, or eyes. If you asked me if I wanted to endure that in pitch-black waters, I would most definitely say no.
“… Then what’s the alternative? You didn’t come just to tell me ‘you will die painfully,’ right?”
When I asked, Baal chuckled mockingly. It was the kind of laughter that felt like it belonged to a teenage male protagonist trapped in a romance fantasy, boasting as if he had experienced all the gloomy and dark parts of the world. It made me feel even worse.
“You already have the ability to overcome that situation.”
… The only thing I excelled at over others was Holy Power. Or was he implying that with my incredible strength in my limbs, if I started learning to swim now, I could at least float?
“Well, I’ve seen it.”
Baal said playfully with a grin.
“Your borrowed body, Ariel, can even create stairs in thin air.”
… That was a goddess.
Comparing me to that was meaningless. Even if it was the goddess’s power, she performed it through my body. I knew I had also performed miracles before.
“Well, I won’t be as proficient. You’re not a goddess after all.”
But I would survive. As long as I didn’t drown.
“… And it would take a toll on your body.”
It’s not easy for a human without wings to fly. Making the impossible possible is a miracle. Naturally, the more extreme the feat, the more of a burden it would place on my body.
Baal offered no refutations.
“… So you came all this way just to tell me that?”
“Well, sort of. People falling from cliffs usually have very little time to collect their thoughts. Especially since you’ve never seen yourself lifting off into the sky. Ariel had taken control of your body back then, and your consciousness was asleep.”
… That’s true.
I feel like I’d heard bits of conversation afterward, but because it wasn’t me, it felt unreal. I hadn’t considered myself capable of doing it again.
At least, in those few seconds of falling from a cliff, I wouldn’t have come up with any ideas.
… So his statement about giving me thinking time was indeed literal. Well, he practically told me how to do it.
“Then, since your purpose is achieved, I should be on my way.”
Baal stood from the chair.
“From the moment your consciousness returns, you will begin to fall again. No, rather than saying starting to fall, it’s more accurate to say you’re still falling, as what I’m doing is akin to temporarily pausing your fall. You won’t have time to prepare for anything.”
“I know that.”
Even if I knew, it wasn’t guaranteed I wouldn’t panic.
In response to my answer, Baal simply nodded.
I stood up alongside him. After all, this was just consciousness; no actual preparation in this state would help my real self, but I thought it was better to be tense rather than slumped in a chair.
“Oh, by the way.”
Baal turned slightly back towards me.
“I’d like to ask you one thing.”
Before I could respond, Baal asked what he wanted.
“Why don’t you ever ask all the questions about the Goddess Ariel’s voice that you can hear all the time?”
“Eh?”
I reacted as if that made no sense, and Baal shrugged.
“Just a matter of personal curiosity.”
“Uh…”
The reason I didn’t ask her everything…
“…Because it feels awkward?”
When I answered hesitatingly, Baal looked puzzled.
“A little awkward?”
I nodded.
“Well… there’s that. I could ask her just about anything, but if I did, it would be like asking every question in a test!”
If I had done that, I wouldn’t have needed extra lessons from Selena.
And aside from the feeling of cheating, there were things I didn’t want to know about. Like how much Baal contributed to my making… Of course, I still thought of my mind as a man, but this body was female for sure. I definitely didn’t plan on showing it to other men.
But the thought that he knew about my nakedness made me uncomfortable… so, overall, I thought it would be ‘awkward’ to know such things—whether it was about cheating or just simply not wanting to know.
“And if it’s really important, you’d probably tell me anyway, like you are now.”
Before sending me off, there must have been ways to cram my head full of information about this world. However, he had reasons for not doing so. Perhaps he was scared of a Greek tragedy ending? That those who knew the prophecy couldn’t escape it no matter what they did…
“I see.”
Baal nodded, seemingly satisfied.
“Certainly, if things don’t go according to plan, we can only help as needed.”
And maybe that’s my greatest strength. A human getting saved every time they face death because a God gets excited to help? It wouldn’t be weird for them to protest saying that was cheating.
Seemingly content with my answer, Baal merely turned without saying goodbye.
And at the same moment, I felt the water hit my head.
*
Was that splash I just heard Clara falling?
Amid the chaos, Erica couldn’t think straight.
Jian and Selena, Lina and Renah, Aurora, Satsuki, Ramihi,—they were all yelling about something, but her buzzing ears couldn’t catch any of their words.
Aurora, who was almost always with Clara, was crying. But she wouldn’t stop fighting. Raising her staff high, she chanted spells and pierced through the approaching beasts.
It was a stark contrast to Erica’s own demeanor.
What made her a healing specialist? What made her abilities incomparable to others?
She had come to the Academy because she didn’t want to be a burden to Jian, to just be a receiver.
She had worked hard to stand on similar ground and done her best to utilize her abilities.
When they mentioned looking for a place to vacation during summer break, she had immediately agreed to lend them a villa, excited to finally be of assistance.
But this was the outcome.
If only she hadn’t been in this situation, or if only she had been more confident, Clara wouldn’t have experienced this.
Despite being touted as a superior healing specialist, if no one got hurt, what was the point? Instead, she was just a liability, a burden.
No, in fact, given that her very existence had caused someone harm, she might have done even worse than just being a burden.
Clara.
The Saintess who had run to help when Erica was in danger without hesitation.
With overflowing Holy Power to heal others and a combat ability that was top-tier, wouldn’t she be more helpful than Erica herself?
“Erica!”
Someone shouted her name.
And then they gripped her arm tightly.
It was Seo-A.
“Get a grip! I know you’re shocked, but don’t give up!”
At first glance, she seemed alright—no, that wasn’t it. It felt like she had never shown such a tense expression. Seo-A had always been the one to guide Erica with a calm and relaxed look.
“We’re almost there. For now, just think about surviving. Clara will be okay. For now, let’s just believe that.”
Even Seo-A’s eyes had sharpened.
… Right, Seo-A was Clara’s homeroom teacher. If anyone had the right to grieve for what that person went through, it would be her much more than Erica.
That’s right. She had saved her life.
If right now she lost hers, that sacrifice would be in vain.
Erica gritted her teeth. She tried to push energy into her weakening legs.
She roughly wiped at her fading vision with her hand. My palms were damp.
And then she looked straight at the approaching beasts.
And in that moment—
She saw a white light shining above the heads of the beasts that were surrounding them.
“… Huh?”
Seeing the scene, Erica couldn’t help but turn to find the source of that light.
*
Ah, damn it, I almost died.
I belly-flopped into the sea from head to chest and ended up swallowing a mouthful of salty water.
Still, thanks to Baal extending my time infinitely, I wasn’t overly panicked… but, in any case, I managed to surface before sinking. Even if I was drenched, it was a hundred times better than waiting to be eaten alive by piranhas underwater.
So… to sum it up, what I needed was imagination.
I knew very well that the power of miracles was something I could achieve if I just put my mind to it, and I had actually utilized miracles before, as long as it didn’t harm my body.
But the way I used it was still an extension of Holy Power.
At least—when I used my consciousness without handing it over to Ariel or Baal, the miracles I used felt like healing Holy Power, merely healing everything from demons to humans without going beyond that.
Most recently, I had enlarged Arlil’s size and destroyed half of the elf village. … To say that was “just” is a bit of an understatement. Still.
But thinking back, Ariel had shown me a form of miracle that was on a whole other level since she borrowed my body.
Light visible to human eyes but unseen by optical equipment, like what happened in that funeral hall.
Looking back now, it was a miracle that demonstrated to others that I had been chosen by the gods while simultaneously showing me an example of what miracles could be.
… How could she just show that and call it a day?
The video didn’t capture that light! It just caught me looking ridiculous, covered in spicy soup and stammering!
[……I’m sorry……]
Uh, saying that sounds a bit off. If she got all sulky, it would make me look bad for getting angry over something trivial. It would be weird for a goddess to sulk over what a saint said, wouldn’t it? It feels like the correlation is upside down.
On the other hand, given that this world stemmed from my notes, it might actually make sense.
…
…
… Well, in any case.
That’s right. Thanks to what Baal explained, I was currently flying through the sky.
With Holy Power… No, with the light of miracles wrapped around me. Thanks to that, the creatures and massive tentacles surrounding me were all starting to dissolve.
… Watching them melt away while wriggling was hardly a pleasant sight.
Is this how it’s supposed to be?
Baal did say Ariel had created stairs, but… no, how could I step on stairs that logically shouldn’t exist? It was probably just for effect.
Of course, I couldn’t keep using this indefinitely.
In fact, starting from the moment I began climbing the cliff face, my palms and fingers were already starting to tingle in an unsettling way. Still, I had made it higher than the cliffs, at least.
… Looking from this height, I saw that many beasts were already quite a distance away. At least they weren’t as numerous as the ones pouring out from the Magic Point on the battlefield.
But getting rid of them all with swords or bows would take a lot of time, and helicopters were already getting close enough to recognize their shapes.
If I messed up here, I might not secure a landing spot.
Though my arms were starting to tingle, I still had time. Right now, the feeling wasn’t nearly as sharp as earlier.
“Ha.”
Letting out a light breath, I extended both hands forward, shooting the light of miracles towards the beasts gathering below.
And just like that, the dark forms approaching my friends disintegrated before they could leave any trace behind.
Now that’s divine functionality.
Ultimate performance!
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