Bennett was sent flying about 10 meters before landing on the ground by adjusting his stance midair. Isaac stumbled around with her uninjured body, vomiting out a considerable amount of blood.
“Keup, uweghhh……!”
Her eyes were bloodshot, and both her nose and ears were bleeding. It looked like she had taken some serious damage, but she wasn't dead. Isaac looked up at the sky and smiled.
“Heh, haha⋯⋯.”
[I definitely saw you being slashed, though⋯⋯!]
“I evaded by leaping through time and space, and came back. In return, I endured terrifying moments in a dark, fearsome void⋯⋯but thanks to that, it has brought me closer to Him⋯⋯.”
Isaac looked like she pushed herself too hard just to avoid Bennett's attack, as she clutched her body and shivered in pain. But, the fanaticism shining bright in those eyes became ever deeper.
“More, more...! My God, you can take everything from me-! Haha, ahahahaha!”
Rippp, rip.
Additional cracks formed in the space, and two additional bubbles squeezed out through the cracks. Now there were a total of five bubbles circling Isaac.It moved in unpredictable directions as it began to grind and erase everything around Isaac in their path. It resembled a storm acting upon space, almost like a natural disaster.
“⋯⋯Now we have two more.”
[I'll, I'll do something about it.]
"Niolle⋯⋯?"
[I’ll draw her attention.]
Flutterrrrr.
The pages of the grimoire in Niolle's hands began to turn on its own. Strange phenomena occurred around her, as red lights leaked out.
Eyeballs sprouted from thin air, a terrible laughter echoed, and from the ground, a human mouth appeared, grinding its teeth. Just like Issac, Niolle seemed to draw even greater power from an Outer God.
“Niolle, why aren’t you using the Goddess’ Cryst⋯⋯.”
[We can save the world, right?]
Despite bleeding from her nose, Niolle smiled faintly. She spoke haltingly with the shape of her lips, thus allowing Bennett to understand her.
[Thanks to Tara, I don’t have to kill many people. I was able to save them. My heart aches for those who have already died. Still... I think I'll be able to sleep well once this is over.]
So…
[Because this is the last time, even for using ominous power like this⋯⋯. So, here’s the crystal. Bennett.]
Knowingthat Bennett was a Black Wizard, and that he used magic by harming his own soul, it seemed like she wanted to give it to him.
Niolle silently finished the incantation.
『Swallow』.
Clack.
C-clack. Crunchh. Crack.
Large mouths appeared out of thin air, crunched on Isaac's bubbles and busted them. There were times when the mouth was torn apart or exploded from within, but each time, a new mouth appeared, gnawing like hyenas on a corpse.
As the magic of the Outer God destroyed each other, only one of Isaac’s bubbles remained.
[I’ll leave the last one to you]
“⋯⋯Leave it to us."
Bennett ran in. His longsword emitted a brilliant light as he infused it with Mana, and accelerated by stomping on the ground with all his might. Every step he took resounded with a ‘Boom’.
“Isaac──!"
“DIE, YOU DISRUPTORS──!!"
Isaac fired the last remaining bubble towards Bennett.
Bennett laughed. The reason why he pretended to be aggressive,emitted light and even screamed, was to attract her attention. Because they were a team of three.
Bennett locked eyes with Tara. While Isaac was distracted by the clash of magic, Tara got behind her.
"⋯⋯⋯⋯!"
When Isaac sensed her presence and turned around, it was already too late.
Tara clenched her fist. After gathering the last dredges of Divine Power in one fell swoop, she took a step forward, twisted her waist, and thrusted her fist out.
“THIS IS FOR ABRAHAM-!!”
Booom-!
A glowing fist struck Isaac's face. Isaac's body flew and then fell to the ground, twitching a few times before going limp.
The ominous power surrounding Isaac and the bubbles that cut space disappeared in a flash as if they had never existed in the first place.
Tara collapsed on the spot.
Bennett was busy dealing with the remaining fanatics. Since the duration of the Transmitted Metamorphosis had a bit of time left, she should be able to protect him until he cleaned up the battlefield.
It's over.
Now that she has used up the rest of her powers as the Saintess, she must prepare for her life as a young lady with nothing. Although she had never really done anything befitting the title of Saintess, she still saved the world. So of all the Saintesses, she may have been the most frugal in her usage of Divine Power.
While thinking as such…
She drew her future in her mind as she waited for Bennett.
===============================================================
After the battle was over, Tara pulled out the sealed Demonic Sword. Because she needed a sword to confirm the kill.
Even though Tara struck her with the intent to kill, Isaac still clung to life. Therefore, Tara aimed the Demonic Sword at Isaac’s neck.
At that moment, Isaac opened her eyes in a sudden jolt.
Bennett gently grabbed Tara's body and retreated, while Niolle wiped the blood from her nose and opened the grimoire once again. I might have to sacrifice myself and launch a final suicidal attack── With that thought in mind, everyone raised their guard as much as possible.
Isaac muttered with unfocused eyes.
“Dad, Dad, let’s go see the stars together. Together⋯⋯.”
"⋯⋯?"
“The star is talking to me, Dad. Isn’t it interesting? Dad is busy, so I’m going to be friends with the star⋯⋯."
"⋯⋯This is.”
[It seems like she’s gone mad from the excessive use of magic.]
This was the end of the Saintess who served the Evil God. Watching Isaac spout nonsense, Tara held the Demonic Sword tightly.
“I’ll kill her.”
"⋯⋯Wait."
“What.”
Bennett recalled Abraham's last words, to take good care of his daughter. Sparing the Isaac who turned evil was a bit difficult, but perhaps the Isaac who had become a harmless idiot was a different story. He thought it might be okay to keep her alive.
“That woman is Abraham’s last blood relative. If she’s gone, there will be nothing left in this world that would prove Abraham’s existence.”
“So you want to keep her alive? No, I can’t do that. Get out of my way Bennett.”
“Keeping her alive could be a worse punishment for her. I don’t want to get blood on your hands.”
“⋯⋯I don’t care, so move! Hey, let go of my hand. Bitch? Let go. Fuck, you’re stupidly strong for no reason⋯⋯! You’re doing this to me now because my Divine Power is gone huh?! Niolle, you say something too⋯⋯."
Tara, whose wrist was grabbed by Bennett, turned to try and drag Niolle into this. But Niolle was looking up at the sky with a somewhat dazed expression.
Tara also looked up at the night sky.
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
The night sky was still bizarre and ominous, as if it was distorting itself into more terrible shapes by the minute. The ritual has been disrupted already, so why?
“⋯⋯Why, why?! We stopped it already⋯⋯! Bennett, what happened?!”
“The axes of the Magic Circle were properly destroyed. The ritual failed!”
“Then why is the sky still like this?!”
Tara panicked. Then she grabbed Isaac by the collar and shook her.
“Hey, get yourself together! Snap out of it and explain what’s happening! You can die after you’re done explaining!”
“Dad, oooeugh⋯⋯ Daddyyy⋯⋯.”
[Bennett. Was there something⋯⋯ that we probably missed?]
“Something that we missed⋯⋯."
Confusion. Even though they stopped the ritual, the Evil God was still getting closer. Were there any clues that could explain this situation? Bennett's thoughts wandered into the past and remembered Abraham's research.
“Wait, why did the Order of the Silver Twilight⋯⋯ try and destroy Abraham’s research?”
[Because the Evil Outer God could be repelled using the Alpha value⋯⋯.]
“Conversely, didn’t they say it could be used for summoning? They had time to burn down the mansion and kill Abraham, after all. Even just securing the research materials left in the mansion would have been enough for them to use.”
[But they didn’t. They just blindly tried to erase it. Without even thinking about using it⋯⋯.]
Pursuing stability while excluding risk is done only if you can achieve what you want just by maintaining the status quo. That meant…
“⋯⋯Does that mean that even if there’s no ritual⋯⋯ the Evil God would descend anyways? Why?”
Additionally, what we need to consider is the phrase written in blood at the place where Abraham was sacrificed.
‘As we have been given a flawed female goat, we are naturally grateful, thus offering this to you.’
A meteorite pit was chosen as the location for the ceremony. Niolle's reference to the being called the ‘Black Goat'. That very goat was believed to be the Viceroy’s wife.
"It was⋯⋯the opposite.”
From the start, something that attracted the Evil God had crash-landed on Earth already. Even before the Order of the Silver Twilight tried to callHim.
It continued to call the Viceroy that swam in the universe. Because of this, the Evil God, taking the shape of huge bubbles, was steadily approaching Earth with each passing moment.
It was the opposite.
The party should’ve gone the opposite way.
“Instead of stopping the ritual⋯⋯ we should’ve thought about sending the Evil God back by analyzing the Alpha value. We were the ones that needed to attack, not defend⋯⋯!"
[⋯⋯⋯⋯.]
Crrrrrrrrak--!
The sky screamed as it was being torn. When they looked up, it looked like there were already two moons. The starlight shone eerily.
All life that sensed the changes in the world cried in fear. The dogs started barking, and the birds hastily fled. The frogs croaked, and the bugs burrowed into the ground to seek refuge
All kinds of monsters from across the cosmos descended to Earth via moonlight.
Their numbers, so overwhelming they were, could not be faced. What was to come was already far too clear. Humans would have to live for the sake of purely survival. The civilization, laws, and order of the city would lose its meaning in the face of violence and that void would be filled with only pain and hatred.
But it was already far too late to stop this.
If only they had paid a little more attention to Abraham's research.
If only they had protected him from Isaac.
If only they had invested even just a little time in calculating the Alpha value...
Could the incident have been resolved before the city fell?
The stars wore a mocking smile. Tara trembled in fear, feeling the empty void where her divine power used to be. Niolle sat down and covered her ears with both hands.
And Bennett muttered, blaming himself for his complacent past.
“Perhaps, I have made the wrong decision from the very start…..”
***
https://ko-fi.com/genesisforsaken