The Goddess Department's War
The Former War God was rendered utterly speechless by the absurd outcome. ‘Are all members of the human imperial family like this? Can they really strip naked in front of a man they’ve never met before, completely sane? And all just for rank and power?’
The imperial princess continued as if she had read his very thoughts.
The imperial princess wore a seductive smile, yet there was no sincerity behind it. She was, after all, a member of the imperial family that ruled over others.
The Former War God judged that although she lacked the raw power of the demon race and her beauty fell short of a succubus, her authority and determination held clear value.
“You pass.”
At once, her expression turned perfectly blank as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Her posture straightened with refined grace. She placed both hands lightly on her hips as though wearing a dress, tilted her head slightly, and offered a courteous bow. Her fully exposed breasts swayed softly with the motion, yet she displayed no emotion whatsoever. The way her hands rested naturally on her bare waist while maintaining perfect balance was impossibly elegant.
‘How amusing.’
The Former War God’s gaze shifted toward the War Saintess who served him directly. Having watched the imperial princess carry out his ridiculous command so easily, the saintess stood with her mouth agape in shock.
“Can’t you strip the other saintesses?”
“M-me?”
The War Saintess stammered, completely at a loss.
‘I didn’t expect much anyway. I knew from the moment she blocked my seven-circle spell with that brute-force seven-circle “Holy.” If a planet is falling, you narrow the range of the defensive magic to destroy it. How do you expect to protect an entire capital by spreading it so thin?’
Ziiiiiiing!
When the Former War God raised his hand and the magic circle began to heat up once more, the faces of the saintesses turned deathly pale. Their bodies had been offered to their god; any contact with a man was strictly forbidden. The divine power of the deity they served protected them from contamination through male contact, keeping them virgins until death.
‘Gods with severe purity complexes tend to lock their saintesses—the focal point of their power—inside the temple.’
Such women would never strip before a man they had never met, even if it meant risking death.
‘Sealing at least half of them should quiet things down a bit.’
The War Saintess, having read his intent, turned white as a sheet.
‘In this harsh world, just turn into a stone pig and sleep quietly.’
Perhaps because she was his direct subordinate, she read his thoughts remarkably well. She frowned deeply and racked her brain with desperate intensity.
Paaaaaah—!
The magic circle blazed across the ground as the petrification spell activated once again.
“Wait! I’ll do it!”
“Huh?”
Click—!
Surprised by the unexpected answer, he canceled the magic circle and stared at her.
‘That’s the face of someone who’s found hope. Very interesting.’
Even the imperial princess beside him turned to look at the War Saintess with curiosity. The added pressure made the saintess take a deep breath before speaking.
“Please issue the command again.”
The Former War God’s expression hardened instantly.
‘So it was all nonsense after all. I’m the idiot for getting my hopes up even for a second. As expected, fanatics who worship gods are useless.’
The imperial princess’s blank face cracked with disbelief as well. The Former War God snapped his fingers again, reactivating the magic circle.
Click—!
The magic circle on the ground manifested at a speed incomparable to before, beginning to consume the bodies of the saintesses and shrine maidens.
‘I’m so annoyed I won’t even give them time to scream.’
The shrine maidens, whose resistance to magic was weaker, had already turned completely into stone. The saintesses resisted desperately, but the petrification had already climbed past their waists on more than half of them. The imperial princesses and knights watching the scene froze in complete terror. Forgetting their own nudity, they trembled violently at the sight of the growing number of statues around them.
Even the saintess before them had turned to stone up to her stomach. The imperial princess beside her was visibly shaking. It seemed they had yet to witness true horror.
‘Useless fools. Just stay as stones.’
The Former War God’s will was firm. A saintess could not defy the will of her god. Yet she rejected that will and cried out desperately.
“That’s not it! Please command me as a god—!”
“What?”
Click—!
Srrrrrr—!
At the unexpected remark, he canceled the magic once more. The fully petrified statues slowly reverted to human form, and those halfway turned returned as well.
‘I’ve lost count of how many times these women have defied my expectations today.’
The shrine maidens freed from stone collapsed and wept. The saintesses who had been half-petrified slumped down as the tension left them. The surrounding princesses and knights were in much the same state; the weaker-willed ones clung to each other, shivering.
‘Are these things even useful?’
When he glanced at the imperial princess, she gave a subtle nod.
‘She really reads my mind. What an unpleasant woman. Still, I made a promise, so I’ll leave her be.’
The Former War God looked at the saintess and asked again.
“Explain in detail.”
“Yes! You must open your divinity fully and then issue the command.”
She now looked like a fresh recruit standing at perfect attention. Her eyes gleamed with determination and her movements had become sharp and precise.
‘Experiencing the fate of tens of thousands hanging on her own hands seems to have sobered her up. Well, it’s her final request as my direct saintess. I suppose I can grant this much.’
“Full Divine Authority Release—!”
The Former War God’s hair shifted from black-gold to pure golden. From his back emerged twelve pairs of wings formed of condensed light and one pair of translucent wings. It was proof that he was a highest-tier god, nearly reaching the rank of Main God.
His overwhelming divine power filled the Survival Magic Tower completely. The demons watching from the Golden Magic Tower all fled in panic.
‘Lower demons exposed to this divine power would melt or suffer fatal injuries. Only high-ranking demons could endure it to some degree.’
The saintess before him was influenced and synchronized with that divine power; her eyes began to glow with golden light.
“All of you, strip naked.”
“Yes, my god.”
The saintess resonated with his divine power. Standing before the very object of her faith caused her abilities to surge to their absolute limit. It could be considered a form of awakening.
‘Oh? But the War Saintess doesn’t possess any ability like mental domination, does she?’
The authority of the War Saintess was “Battlefield Domination.” As the name suggested, it raised the morale and capabilities of allies on the battlefield; it could not dominate minds. Yet from her lips flowed words infused with holy power.
“The great god has declared that humans are purest and most beautiful at the moment of their birth. As they live, they commit sins and grow distant from heaven. The more one clings to worldly material and desire, the farther one drifts from god and draws closer to the demon god. The moment one becomes closest to god is when one returns to that pure state of birth.”
‘Huh? What is this long-winded speech?’
From the War Saintess’s mouth came a solemn voice and holy power, exactly like a pope or archbishop delivering a sermon to the masses.
“The great god commands you to cast off all the filth of the mortal world and greet him in your primordial form. Let us all greet our god with pure flesh alone. Glory to our god.”
‘What the hell? It’s just wordplay—!’
The Former War God was dumbfounded by the ridiculous situation.
‘She must be trying to amplify the saintess’s affinity with my divine power to increase its influence. But there’s no way they’d strip just from words like these, right?’
Yet that was exactly what was happening. The saintesses and shrine maidens below the city began removing their robes without the slightest hesitation. With utmost reverence, they disrobed before the saintess standing before them. The silver-threaded vestments—woven with threads that held the power to destroy evil—slipped from their bodies. They folded the garments neatly and placed them beside their knees.
The firm breasts and legs revealed carried no hint of desire or emotion. Their eyes glowed golden, illuminated by divine power. They removed their undergarments without hesitation, folded them carefully, and laid them atop their robes. Only the silver coronet—proof of their sainthood—remained upon their heads. Their silver hair gleamed, and their exposed breasts and most intimate places emitted a faint silver glow as they received the divine power.
‘This is a ritual performed in a state of complete trance. It is a divine descent technique unique to saintesses, born from minds exalted by faith in god.’
Now fully naked, the saintess quietly knelt and spread both arms toward him, speaking as if chanting a hymn.
“God is great. Fulfill His will.”
Ooooom—! Ooooom—!
The saintess’s ritual grew brighter and more elevated.
“God is great.”
A vast holy power resonated throughout the magic tower as the saintesses began to chant.
“Fulfill His will.”
The holy power synchronized with his own divine energy surged with immense authority before being drawn into the Cosmic Tree. The tree absorbed the pure holy power of the saintesses of humility along with his mixed divine power, doubling its growth rate.
Kuuuung—!
The lake rippled powerfully as the Cosmic Tree grew into a complete sapling.
‘The dimensional divine power flowing from the Cosmic Tree seems to have increased several times over.’
It was an unexpected development. Over a hundred billion units of divine power had been unleashed and temporarily fused with the Former War God.
“This is divine power integration through unified faith. It is the great miracle of the supreme god that Lady Granzoa, who was once the goddess of all elves, revealed to every temple.”
The proud tone of the War Saintess sent a chill down the Former War God’s spine.
‘So this is the integration technique they tried to use to collapse the tower’s dimensional barrier and kill me?’
From his perspective, he would have truly died if he had remained idle.
‘The unleashed divine power doesn’t quite reach the level of a Main God, but if I had taken it head-on, dropping below six circles would have been inevitable.’
Had he faced it with his divine authority fully released, the outcome might have differed, but as a ten-circle dark sorcerer, there was simply no answer. At the time, he had not yet transcended ten circles, so even with divine authority released, he could only have fled. Afterward, he would have been hunted down by the Demon King and the gods.
Eyes gleaming with golden light all turned toward him at once.
“O great god, issue your command! Even if it is the fires of hell, we shall leap into them with joy.”
The Former War God was now genuinely afraid of the shrine maidens.
‘Tens of thousands of saintesses are kneeling naked, spreading their arms toward me. The biggest problem is that they are completely sane right now.’
Having entered an awakened state as saintesses, their faith and loyalty to god had taken absolute priority over all reason.
‘In that state, they truly won’t hesitate to do anything.’
When the Former War God released his divine authority, the golden light faded from the saintesses’ eyes. Yet they did not change their posture—arms still spread while completely naked. They simply yearned endlessly for their god and the divine power they had felt moments ago.
‘They look ready to do absolutely anything just to feel that divine power again.’
The War Saintess spoke in a voice full of pride.
“O great god! Your command has been carried out.”
“Failure!”
“Pardon?”
As the bewildered War Saintess lifted her head, he pointed toward one spot.
“Just as you thought, my dimensional divine power overwhelms that of all other gods. However, right now it is still weaker than the Main God of the Divine Realm.”
There stood a woman of sculptural beauty, as if carved from silver. She wore a silver robe adorned with golden threads and held a holy relic in her hands as she prayed. She was the Integrated Saintess who had once been part of the hero’s party.
‘She is an incredible woman who could wield infinite holy power as the saintess of a Main God possessing twenty billion divine power.’
The saintess of the Main God of the Divine Realm had refused to participate in the ritual integration with the Former War God and the other saintesses. She alone remained clothed, standing in lofty solitude.
‘It’s similar to the situation with the imperial princess earlier. Problems always arise when you work. Still, to have come this far… I may have underestimated the War Saintess. Now then, you handle this cleanly as well, just like the princess did.’
The Former War God waited with some expectation, but the saintess had fallen into a complete panic.
“What do I do? What should I do? How do I fix this?”
“…”
Watching the War Saintess repeat the same words in her panicked state, it seemed there was no solution.
‘Ah—! Just how much does the War God’s church need fixing? This is truly exhausting. My head is starting to hurt.’
His direct subordinate had worked this hard; punishing her unconditionally felt wrong, yet doing nothing would make him unfit as a superior.
‘The greatest virtue of a superior is fair and just rewards and punishments. No exceptions can be made for emotion or personal ties. If you show leniency to lovers or family, the organization collapses in an instant. It was because they abandoned fairness that the Divine Realm became such a mess.’
Whether she knew his complicated thoughts or not, the War Saintess continued to babble nonsense.
“Integrated Saintess. I’m terribly sorry, but could you please remove your clothes?”
“I refuse.”
“Please, I beg you. Just take them off.”
“I refuse.”
The saintess of the Main God of the Divine Realm spoke with absolute finality, as if she would not even entertain the request. Since she had likely been chosen for combat ability to fight the Demon King, she would have no concept of mercy.
“Everyone else has taken theirs off. It’s unfair for you to remain clothed alone.”
“I respect their choices. I refuse.”
The saintess of the Main God of the Divine Realm stared at the Former War God with a defiant gaze.
“If you wish to strip me, do so with your own power, O God of War and Elves.”
“…”