Tara glared at Isaac with her eyes boiling with anger. There was one last thing she wanted to ask her. Something that she was never able to understand.
“How, how could you do such thing to Abraham⋯⋯ To your own father?”
“What do you mean ‘how’? What is it that you wish to say?”
“How could you? How could you kill your own family....... And do such terrible things that mocked his death?! How could you do that, without even blinking an eye!"
Isaac spoke in a soothing tone.
“There’s no need to be caught up in trivial concepts like family, Tara.”
"⋯⋯What?"
“He would’ve only lasted 10 years. Perhaps 20 at most?”
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
“Even if he was lucky, Abraham would have died within 30 years. All while being trapped in a human body. Soon to be buried in the ground, his flesh would decompose, leaving only his bones to rot away. After a hundred years, his body would turn into dust and wither away, with nobody left to even remember his name.”Her gaze shifted as if it was traveling through times that had passed long ago. Humans would die after living for a mere hundred years; whatever they had left disappeared fleetingly. Human struggles would become more worthless as time marched on ruthlessly.
“There is no reason to strive and feel somber for something that’ll disappear one day. In the end, the only existence who remains noble in the entire universe is the Great One.”
The destruction of everything in tens, hundreds of billions of years.
So, to one who worshiped the Evil God that had been intertwined with the universe and its history, everything seemed gray and worthless.
“I do not understand why people get so worked up over this relationship called family that ultimately amounts to nothing more than dust.”
"ISAAC──!!"
“Even if you think family is important, you do not need to be so mad, Tara. My father’s soul will be together with the Great One eternally. Even until the end of the universe. He shall remain in His embrace for a long time. It was rueful that I had to give him suffering but⋯⋯ now I only feel proud.“
The wicked Saintess, who had witnessed the OuterGod in the night sky and explored its existence in depth, now folded her hands over her chest and spoke reverently.
“Because that was the right thing to do.”
Tara gazed upon such wickedness. A girl who was chosen by chance. A girl who received power by chance. A girl who would no longer be a Saintess. She thought about the times with Abraham. After she reflected on the old man's smile and his attitude of living for others, even until his last moments.
She clenched both of her fists and declared.
“If you don’t know the value of what you gave up⋯⋯ I’LL SHOVE THE MEANING OF THAT VALUE INTO YOUR HEAD──!!"
With Tara’s cry, the battle began.
===============================================================
“I saw His traces in the stars. Though our insignificant, pathetic human brains cannot fully comprehend His traces, I feel connected to the Great One.”
Rippp. Rip.
Space trembled with an uneasy sound, shattering as cracks appeared behind Isaac. And through the gap in the space, something in the shape of a translucent sphere flowed out.
Wooooong-!
Three human-sized bubbles that traveled through time and space. Small fragments of the Evil God. Yet, its mere existence distorted time and space, decomposing it and scattering it to dust.
These floated and circled around Isaac. She introduced herself as she danced in the starlight at the center of it all.
“I am Isaac, the Saintess of the Order of the Silver Twilight.”
“──Dodge!”
"⋯⋯!!"
Tara instinctively threw herself to the side. The bubbles, which seemed dull at first glance, shot out in an instant. It completely erased the ground where Tara was.
The cross-section of the hole was smooth. If even the thick ground could be erased so cleanly, a person wouldn't even be able to scream as they were erased from the world.
Bennett swallowed hard. After all, he would end up like that if he failed to Parry even once.
“Let’s make an offering. So that the Great One can be satisfied even by a little!”
As Isaac shouted and waved her hands, the fanatics took out their sacrificial daggers. They killed and murdered civilians to gather power. Right when they were about to send that power they had gathered to their Saintess…
“I think you’re underestimating the power of Saintess but⋯⋯!”
Tara held out the Holy Emblem and raised her divine power. A golden glow shimmered around her.
“It’s a power that I got with pure luck. That’s a fact. But you need to know what it means to be called a Saintess and respected for that alone.”
She borrowed mana from the Goddess. That meant...
Metamorphosis was a technique where one’s soul was dyed with their own beliefs, manifesting a special mana emitted by the transformed soul. Since Divine Power was a ‘special mana’ that came from a god in the first place──.
This meant that she could borrow the Goddess’s Metamorphosis.
“Inherited Metamorphosis (承繼羽化) - 『Cogwheel : Homeostasis』!”
Squeaaak. Squeak. Thud.
A huge cogwheel appeared behind Tara, making sounds as if it was all rotating together. Then a mark appeared above everybody’s head except the fanatics.
“This is⋯⋯?!”
“It doesn’t matter, just make an offering!”
Upon hearing Isaac’s order, fanatics stabbed citizens with their daggers, the daggers only making scratches as if they struck tough leather. And even that wound was healed, being engulfed in a golden light.
“The dagger won’t penetrate!”
“I, I have to offer a s-sacrifice⋯⋯!”
Unlimited healing and protection that applied to all allies within the range, including civilians. What Tara came up with as a way to prevent fanatics from sacrificing people was to prevent all living sacrifices from dying in the first place.
“Is this…… healing over a wide area and an increase in resistance?”
[They won’t be able to make offerings easily now. However, we probably won’t be able to stop Isaac’s power that cuts through space.]
“That’s good enough. It’s our turn now⋯⋯!”
Bennett ran toward Isaac,quickly closing the distance, while Niolle casted magic from behind to keep Isaac distracted.
"vir, C'thls, I'n-!"
Crack, Swoooosh-!
With an ominous incantation, a crimson red spiral spear, made out of twisted pieces of flesh, was shot towards Isaac. In response Isaac snapped her fingers, causing the bubbles surrounding her to move forward.
The spiral spear was swallowed by the bubbles and disappeared as if evaporated.
[The attack is⋯⋯!]
“How can this be? Bubbles that carve out space and not only act as a means of offense, but also a defense⋯⋯!”
Wooong-!
A bubble flew at Bennett. As he tried to close the distance by charging, he had to change his direction due to a threat that completely obliterated the ground.
Three bubbles were summoned around Isaac. She used two of them for defense and one for offense.
Projectiles were swallowed, approaches were repelled, and even if they did approach her, they would die if they were hit just once.
To break through the all-encompassing formation, it was necessary to forcibly create an opening.
"V'ine, N'ihl⋯⋯."
Rumbleeee!
Walls of bone and flesh sprang up around Isaac, obscuring her view and hiding Bennett and Niolle from sight.
“A mere spell like this! All I have to do is to erase it with the Great One’s power⋯⋯!”
Isaac rotated the two bubbles clockwise. The barrier that touched the bubbles disappeared as if it had been removed by an eraser, which opened up her previously blocked vision. However in that brief moment, Bennett ran out from her blind spot.
Two bubbles were used to remove the obstacles, and there was only one bubble in reserve around Isaac. It was fired straight at Bennett.
Woooong-!
Bennett calmly took a breath as he watched the space-distorting bubble approaching him.
Compared to the spells of ordinary fanatics, this was a significantly enhanced form. The difficulty of Parrying and the risks of failure were much greater. But regardless, it had to be done. After all, only then could a decisive strike be delivered..
As he entered a state of extreme concentration, everything seemed to be in slow motion.
An empty space created by the atmosphere being swallowed up by a bubble caused a wind that felt like he was being sucked in. He felt a few strands of his hair fluttering toward the bubble.
From the perspective of one who faced it, the one clear advantage that her bubbles had over the spells of ordinary fanatics was their distinct outlines. Unlike the spells of ordinary fanatics, which distorted space with their translucence, her bubbles carved our space itself, making them appear starkly black.
After calculating the trajectory, he carefully touched the cross-section of the bubble at an angle with his sword.
Bones rose near Bennett's feet, conveying Niolle's message. 27, 49, 6. A line of numbers that indicated the correct location and timing of Parrying.
As he focused carefully, he felt the powerful force of the bubbles making his skin sting. The certainty that everything would be erased just by touching it. It was like the feeling of sticking his head straight into the jaws of a dragon.
He was nervous but didn’t panic.
"『Spatial Expansion』."
He squeezed some magic into the gap of space. For a moment, he thought the bubble's trajectory had changed as calculated, but.
Rip, Rippp.
The Spatial Expansion Magic couldn’t endure the output strength and screamed. He still couldn’t change trajectory sufficiently yet. If she pushed in right now, he wouldn't die, but his right arm would certainly be gone.
Then.
"『Wild Dog that Protects the Goddess』⋯⋯!"
Tara's magic made up for his only problem, the durability. The image of a dog's head rested on Bennett's blade. He clashed with the bubble and pushed it out. He felt an enormous weight like a mountain pushing down on him.
He gritted his teeth, stopped breathing, and used all of his strength on his longsword to shake it off.
Sceaaaaaach ──!
With a strange noise, the bubble rose up into the sky. At the same time, Tara's magic was shattered and golden particles scattered around.
Beyond that, he saw Isaac with her eyes wide open. Because she couldn’t even imagine that the power of the Great One that she served, would be deflected by a mere human.
She was completely defenseless.
Swoosh-!
“Go to hell──!”
Bennett's blade slashed Isaac diagonally from her shoulder to her hip.
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
But there was no sense of him slashing anything. He didn't even feel any resistance against his blade. It was as if his sword just slashed through thin air.
Tooung-!
When Bennett realized the situation and tried to cut down Isaac once more, an intangible shockwave burst out and sent him flying.
***
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