The Sleeping Pointy-Eared Princess, Part 9
*Rumble!* Sensing Yohan's movements, the giant shifted its colossal frame. Not to be outdone, Yohan unfurled his wings and soared high into the air.
*Flash!* Targeting the ascending Apostle, the giant fired a rapid succession of beams from its hollow eye sockets. Yet Yohan evaded them with ease, performing acrobatic maneuvers in the air as if he had been flying his entire life.
"It is as natural as if you have wielded them thousands of times," the Goddess remarked, her voice tinged with quiet admiration.
Truth be told, Yohan himself hadn't expected to wield his authority so effortlessly. Maybe it's because I've flagged the bastard in front of me as absolute evil, he reasoned.
But now was not the time for idle thoughts. Yohan climbed to an altitude where the giant's entire body fit within his field of vision. The titan he had been forced to look up at this whole time was now beneath his feet.
"Let's do this!"
After a brief gaze down at the massive form below, Yohan pivoted sharply. He transformed into a streak of pure light and plummeted toward the giant.
Giant or not, this was nothing more than the final, desperate struggle of a dying, wicked god. He felt a pang of pity for the elves of the Dawn Dew Tribe whose souls were being desecrated even in death, but there was no other way. In fact, for the spirits destined to be consumed as fuel for the giant's beams, putting them out of their misery like this was a mercy.
"Here it comes again!"
"Doesn't matter!"
Blinding flashes erupted as multiple beams of light shot toward him. But the moment they collided with Yohan's outstretched Light Sword, they shattered into countless harmless threads of energy.
"Drop dead!"
Panicking, the giant thrust both arms forward to block him, but Yohan pierced straight through its hands and drove his blade deep into its core in a single, fluid strike.
*Ruuuumble!* With a gaping hole torn through its chest, the giant disintegrated in an instant, scattering dirt and ash in all directions. Simultaneously, the souls of the dead hovering around the titan were swept up in a wind infused with the Goddess's divine power, evaporating into nothingness.
Only Yohan remained in the boundless, empty void. A heavy silence descended over the area. The giant, which had seemed to be the guardian deity's trump card, had been destroyed without putting up much of a fight. And the guardian deity who had summoned it remained utterly silent, as if she had vanished from this world entirely.
"..."
Yohan pondered. Was this really the end? Had the guardian deity died from that single blow?
"No, wait. This is—"
"Hold on, this is a trick! We must leave this place immediately!"
"I was just about to say the same thing!"
Yohan and the Goddess had reached the exact same conclusion at the exact same moment.
"We must return at once! Falco and Billy are in danger out there!"
"I get it, so just tell me how the hell we get out of here!"
"Shatter the space itself! With the power of an Apostle, it is well within your capabilities. The master of this pocket dimension has vacated her post, so there will be none to hinder you."
Right. I don't know the exact physics of it, but if my Goddess says it'll work, it'll work. Yohan nodded firmly and pointed his Light Sword forward.
"Let's go!"
Flapping his wings with a powerful stroke, he charged forward just as he had when destroying the giant.
In an instant, Yohan accelerated to a speed far exceeding human perception, reaching the boundary of the pocket dimension in the blink of an eye.
*Thud!*
"Oof!"
Before he knew it, his head collided violently with something solid, causing him to let out a pathetic groan as he bounced backward.
"Damn it, that hurt like hell!"
Rubbing his aching head, Yohan immediately analyzed the situation. To the naked eye, it looked like the same empty, dark void as the rest of the space, but an intangible barrier stretched across, blocking any further progress. In other words, if he could shatter this invisible wall, he could escape this godforsaken pocket dimension.
Raising both of his Light Swords, Yohan swung them forward with all his might.
*Clang!*
"Ugh!"
The intangible wall was harder than any material Yohan had ever encountered in his life.
*Clang!*
"Hrrgh!"
A numbing shockwave surged up his arms every time his blades struck the barrier. Yet, he gritted his teeth, swallowed the pain, and kept hacking away. He had no time to waste in a dump like this. He had to break out and get back to the real world immediately.
"Leaving a pocket dimension is akin to crossing between universes. Under normal circumstances, one would have to go through the proper channels, but we have no choice."
The "proper channels" meant going through the creator of this pocket dimension—the guardian deity. And she had already slipped out long ago.
"Aaaaargh!"
Yohan let out a feral roar, striking the invisible wall like a madman.
*Crack!*
After countless strikes of his Light Swords, a sound resembling shattering glass echoed from the tip of his blade. The pitch-black void began to fracture, offering a fleeting glimpse of the Great Forest in the real world through the cracks.
"It's working!"
Heartened by the sight, Yohan redoubled his efforts, raining down strikes. With each blow, the rift in space widened until it was finally large enough for a person to squeeze through.
"That is enough! Go, quickly!"
"On it!"
Without a moment's hesitation, Yohan threw himself through the rift. The moment he crossed the threshold, the inverted world snapped back to reality.
It had all happened in the blink of an eye.
A spherical barrier had expanded outward from the guardian deity, swallowing Yohan whole before vanishing without a trace.
"Yo—Yohan!"
Yohan and the guardian deity had vanished simultaneously. Realizing this, Falco and Billy screamed his name. But no answer came. Normally, he would have snapped back with something like, 'Why the hell are you calling me again, you annoying pests?' but the only sound that greeted them was the peaceful chirping of birds in the giant trees.
"W-What on earth... Falco, what just happened?" Billy asked, his voice trembling with panic. He hoped that she, having lived far longer than either him or Yohan, would understand what had just transpired.
But Falco only shook her head, her expression grim. "I don't know everything. Honestly, this is the first time I've ever met the guardian deity in person, too... *Urgh!*"
Having pushed herself up to speak with Billy, she suddenly groaned and collapsed back onto the forest floor.
"Falco!"
Billy rushed to her side, supporting her trembling frame. Entering the forest had only granted her enough strength to barely move; her condition was far from fully recovered.
"Y-Your fever is spiking again..."
"I'm... fine. I just need to rest." Falco placed a hand on Billy's shoulder to calm his rising panic. She looked at him and gave a weak nod.
Despite his imposing, muscular build—a gift of his troll heritage—Billy was, at his core, a young man much younger than Yohan. Falco reminded herself of this fact, which she had briefly forgotten. As his elder, and as his senior in the Church of the Unnamed Goddess, she had to set an example.
"Yohan will be fine. He didn't just vanish alone; they disappeared together."
"D-Do you really think so?"
"Perhaps the guardian deity did something similar to how Yohan opens his dimensional portals." Falco gently patted Billy's shoulder, offering what comfort she could. "So, if we just wait a little while—"
*Whoosh!*
She tried to reassure the anxious half-troll, but her words were cut short as that familiar black barrier materialized before them once more.
"Yo—Yohan?"
It was the exact same barrier that had swallowed the two earlier. Falco called out her companion's name, her voice trembling. As the dark shroud began to recede, a silhouette emerged. Both Falco and Billy prayed with all their might that it would be Yohan.
"I'm afraid I have bad news. You won't be seeing that friend of yours ever again."
Their hopes were instantly shattered. The fragile optimism on Falco and Billy's faces gave way to profound despair. The figure stepping out from behind the barrier was not Yohan, but the guardian deity.
"Where is Yohan? What did you do to him?!" Falco demanded, her voice cracking.
The guardian deity floated forward, closing the distance in the blink of an eye until she was right in Falco's face.
"I just told you. You won't be seeing him again." She reached out, gently lifting Falco's chin. "You look absolutely dying to know. Fine, I'll make a special exception and tell you."
The deity drifted back up into the air. Falco and Billy could do nothing but look up at her in helpless frustration.
"I trapped him in my pocket dimension along with that bratty little goddess. It's a world only I can freely enter and exit... so they'll probably rot in there until they eventually starve to death."
"..." Falco felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. Her worst fears had been realized, and in the most horrific way possible.
"Now then. You there, green friend. Run along home. I'm feeling generous today, so I'll let you off easy. And as for..." The guardian deity shifted her gaze from Billy back to Falco. "Peony. Welcome home. Now, we shall rebuild our tribe together." She spread her arms wide, a grand gesture of welcome.
"Wait. Then what about the blessing currently inside my body?" Falco pressed. The reason she had suddenly fallen ill was because the blessings of two different deities were warring within her single vessel. Attempting to remove either blessing carelessly could trigger a violent, unpredictable backlash from the unstable divine energies. To safely resolve this, both deities had to withdraw their respective blessings simultaneously. But if Yohan and the Unnamed Goddess were trapped in another world, there was no way to safely purge the clashing powers.
"Don't worry, there's nothing to fear," the guardian deity replied, her tone patronizing, as if soothing a fretful child. "When a god dies, the blessing they bestowed perishes with them. Once that happens, all we have to do is stabilize my blessing inside you."
Falco and Billy stared at her in utter horror.
"You're insane," Falco muttered, breaking the stunned silence. It was an act of sheer blasphemy against a deity, but the guardian deity merely smiled back at her warmly.
"Falco is right. You're out of your mind," Billy chimed in, backing her up.
The guardian deity crossed her arms and glared down at him. "Hmm... I can forgive Peony. But you, green friend? You crossed the line."
*Grab!*
The moment the words left her mouth, she lunged at Billy, seizing him by the scruff of his neck. With terrifying speed, she hurled him through the air.
*Crash!*
"Billy!"
Billy flew backward, slamming violently into the trunk of a massive tree before slumping to the ground. Falco screamed his name, but the half-troll lay motionless on the dirt, unresponsive.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Falco shrieked, scrambling to her feet.
But the guardian deity simply floated just out of her reach, wearing a bright, innocent smile. "Just teaching a short-lived creature with filthy blood his place."
"..."
Falco clenched her teeth. Tears welled in her wide eyes and spilled down her cheeks. Her fists were clenched so tightly as she glared at the deity that her nails dug deep into her palms, drawing blood.
"Don't look at me like that. I held back, you know. I'm not a merciless god." She meant she had spared his life while teaching him a lesson. "Of course... if he wakes up and dares to defy me again, I won't be so forgiving."
A cold shiver ran down Falco's spine at those words. A single, heavy word surfaced in her mind to describe the sensation: fear.
The entity standing before her was undoubtedly the guardian deity of the Dawn Dew Tribe. Yet, the emotion Falco felt facing her was identical to what she felt when confronting a demon. At the same time, her own helplessness cut her to the bone. She was utterly powerless. She couldn't even bring herself to resist, and she found herself utterly pathetic for feeling relieved simply because Billy wasn't dead.
It was agonizing. Yohan and the Goddess had been forcibly exiled to another dimension, and Billy had been taken down in a single blow without a chance to fight back. And through it all, there was absolutely nothing she could do. Falco sank to her knees, collapsing onto the forest floor. Her knees scraped against a sharp pebble, tearing through her trousers and grazing her skin, but she couldn't even feel the pain. How was this any different from the moment she had been betrayed by fellow grave robbers and buried alive?
"...Yohan," Falco whimpered, calling out her companion's name in a sorrowful whisper.
The guardian deity merely looked down at her with pity. "You really have too many lingering attachments to the outside world. Or perhaps..." Her voice trailed off, her eyes suddenly narrowing with an overt, chilling murderous intent.
"This is impossible," she muttered, her voice trembling.
*Crack!*
Something that should have been impossible—something that should never have happened—was taking place right before her eyes.
*Shatter!*
The very fabric of space fractured. And from beyond the shattered rift, an Apostle, more furious than ever before, stepped back into the world.