The Right Hand of the War God
The Goddess Department’s war cry echoed like a deep hum—uuuwoooong! Tremendous fighting spirit and divine power swirled around her. ‘Even without a connection to the Chief God of the God Realm, her divine power is overwhelming. Well, her authority is “Divine Power Manipulation,” inherited from the Main God of the Divine Realm’s “Reality Manipulation,” so connections don’t matter. A fraudulent authority that can rewrite used divine power as unused.’
The saintess of the Main God, who commanded two hundred million believers, unleashed her divine power without limit. The resulting force rivaled that of a perfect eighth-circle lower god. Moreover, her physical training had reached nearly seventh-circle levels. ‘Honestly, the Main God’s saintess makes a fitting War God’s saintess. Cold and decisive—that suits the role.’
The War God’s saintess seemed to have nothing left to say; her mind looked ready to snap. “A… a… a…”
She believed punishment must follow a failed outcome. “You made an effort, so I’ll only seal you.”
Crack!
The petrification magic activated once more. Even as the War God’s saintess turned to stone from her own refusal, the Main God’s saintess remained utterly still. She showed no mercy to those she had already marked as enemies. Naturally, the War God’s heart darkened with rage.
‘No mercy is needed for a foolish beast that bares its teeth and tries to bite even when it knows it cannot match me. I like the power, but I must crush and annihilate her completely. Since the hostage rebelled and died, I can just tell the Main God’s saintess to send another.’
I was the one punishing her, yet my own saintess had been disregarded and reduced to this state. It left a bitter taste. Reading my thoughts, she turned her pleading eyes toward me even as her lips began to petrify.
‘You fool! The reason you’re becoming stone right now is because of that woman’s arrogance. How long are you going to keep being so indecisive?’
To the War God, his own pope and saintess were truly hopeless idiots. ‘I made her temporary pope because she lacked ability and only ever scolded her. Yet she never once harbored rebellious thoughts toward me.’
Even the War God’s saintess pleaded on behalf of the one who had turned her back on her. As another stone statue was completed, the princess stepped forward again.
“A moment, generous god. I have something to say.”
“…What is it?”
When the War God paused the petrification and looked at her, she bowed her head lightly and continued. “It doesn’t matter who strips the unified saintess, does it? You never specified a particular person. May I do it?”
“…If that is the case, then do so.”
The War God reversed the process turning the War God’s saintess to stone. She collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. He found the sight pitiful. ‘You still don’t resent her? A good child like you would be better off sleeping peacefully than living in this cruel reality. You don’t belong in a world where people sacrifice others for survival and their own desires.’
A bitter emotion filled the War God’s heart, one who knew the harshness of reality all too well.
“You can grant an additional reward this time, can’t you?”
The princess spoke as if it were obvious. Though it irritated him, she clearly deserved it. “What do you want?”
“I wish to stand at the War God’s right hand.”
Her words sent shock through everyone present. Even the War God’s saintess forgot to breathe and simply stared at the princess in astonishment. ‘A genius fit to be an emperor. She read that I don’t want to seal the War God’s saintess and is trying to extract the maximum power from the situation.’
She walked a dangerous tightrope against a War God who could crush her at any moment, yet showed not a trace of tension. ‘She treats the life-and-death power struggles to stand above others as an everyday matter.’
The War God didn’t particularly like the princess, but he was curious about the outcome. “I’ll allow it inside the Survival Magic Tower. Do it.”
The War God actually lifted her body through the air and placed her at his right side. Once more, the princess’s charisma surged and overwhelmed the room. ‘Her charisma has become incomparably stronger than before.’
Believing she had obtained the power she desired, the princess’s will was now reinforcing her ability. ‘At this rate, she might even be able to control seventh-circle transcendents.’
The knights and retainers, lacking resistance to charisma, already looked upon her as an absolute ruler. The other princesses bit their lips until they bled and glared at her. The princess looked down at them with the confident smile of a victor, then pointed at the Main God’s saintess with her hand.
“I can’t reach her, so would you bring that over for me?”
What she indicated was the Main God’s sacred relic held by the Main God’s saintess. ‘It’s not a difficult task, so I’ll grant it.’
Whoosh—!
Thud—!
When the War God pulled the relic toward himself, the Main God’s saintess’s entire body was dragged along with it, still clutching it tightly. “Huh?”
The War God slammed her to the ground to separate her from the relic.
Thud—! Thud—!
Unable to withstand the pulling force, the Main God’s saintess tumbled and rolled across the floor. Even as her body became covered in blood, she refused to let go. But the human body had its limits, and eventually she lost her grip.
“Aaaah! Give it back! Please!”
The Main God’s saintess, now deprived of the relic, wept and begged. Watching this, the princess spoke in a cold tone. “I’ll return the relic, so strip.”
“Y-yes! Yes!”
She actually began removing her clothes. ‘This wasn’t simply the attachment a saintess had for her sacred relic.’
As if answering the War God’s question, the princess continued. “I conducted an investigation into the hero’s party that defeated the Demon King. She is the Main God’s illegitimate child. The relic is proof of that.”
“???”
The War God’s expression clearly said he had no idea what nonsense she was spouting. ‘The Main God, who’s completely under his wife’s thumb, had an affair?’
How could a human woman become pregnant by a god so powerful that even the highest-ranking goddesses could not conceive from him? It was impossible by any divine logic he knew.
“As you’re thinking, an ordinary human could never handle the Main God who possesses two hundred million believers. She was created by extremely diluting a single drop of the Main God’s essence and directly injecting it into the former Main God’s saintess’s womb. An artificial demigod saintess manufactured to defeat the Demon King.”
The princess looked at the relic in her hand as she spoke. “Because of her overwhelming divinity, it was this relic that taught her how to use divine power, and it was all she had her entire life. The Main God never acknowledged her as his true daughter, and her mother, the former saintess, died shortly after giving birth to such a powerful demigod. She was treated as nothing more than a powerful divine weapon.”
The relic vibrated violently with rage. The souls of all the unified saintesses throughout history who had been bound to it were furious.
“As long as the Main God’s saintess has this relic, she will obey any command. Even if ordered to apostatize. Her faith lies not in the Main God, but in this relic that replaced her mother.”
The relic the princess respectfully offered trembled as if weeping. The War God accepted it in silence and applied tremendous pressure.
“Even so, as the Main God’s relic, it holds up quite well.”
Crack—!
Aaaaaah—!
The souls of the saintesses residing within the relic screamed. He had no intention of sparing the foolish demigod, the Main God’s saintess, who had challenged him yet remained obsessed with the relic. He only acknowledged those who were truly strong.
‘I despise weaklings who must rely on something to survive. The Main God’s relic can be replaced anytime.’ Now he would make her pay the price for challenging him by killing her horribly.
The princess, intimidated by his violent killing intent, stepped back in confusion. She had never imagined the War God would destroy the relic that allowed him to control the demigod unified saintess.
At the relic’s screams, the Main God’s saintess shrieked and launched herself into the sky. ‘I’ll completely shatter it and kill you too.’
The War God’s fighting spirit and killing intent filled the space. Then an incredibly earnest plea reached his ears.
“I ask for one final chance, my god.”
The War God’s saintess stood there, tears streaming down her face as she looked at him with utmost piety. ‘This foolish War God’s saintess still wants to save the woman who ignored her while she was turning to stone?’
Disgusted, the War God tossed the relic in front of her. “There will be no more chances given the same way. And if you disappoint me again, you will not be forgiven either.”
Even under the highest-ranking War God’s killing intent, his saintess wept as she carefully picked up the relic and embraced it. “I will do my best.”
“Go.”
The War God’s saintess carried the relic toward the other woman. When she placed it down in front of the Main God’s saintess, the latter rushed at it like a madwoman. “Just a moment. Here it is.”
Once the relic was handed over, she clutched it with both arms and only shed tears. The War God’s saintess examined her injuries and manifested healing.
Fwoooosh—!
A sacred, warm light enveloped them. All wounds healed in an instant. At that level, her healing power was among the highest even among saintesses. ‘The War God’s saintess having a healing authority superior to her combat ability is truly laughable.’
The one who wielded divine power was human, and it changed according to that human’s nature. ‘No matter how I look at it, that child doesn’t suit being the saintess of the cold-blooded War God. She would have been better as the saintess of a god of mercy or healing.’
This was the result of the previous War God, that parasitic brother-in-law, choosing an overly submissive saintess who exceeded his own ideal of womanhood—without even realizing how wrong that choice had been.
“It’s not fair.”
The princess sat down beside the War God’s right side, knees neatly together. “Now she’ll strip if you tell her to. This wasn’t her doing.”
“……”
To the War God, the princess was a woman with truly enormous courage. She was gradually expanding her territory from the precarious position he had permitted. “What you want is to become the emperor of the Empire?”
“Before I came here, that was the case. But after arriving and seeing this place, I want to build a nation here. I will establish an eternal empire that will never fall and serve you as the Main God forever.”
Her tone was polite and completely unfeminine, as if she had already become emperor. ‘She really is a clever woman. In this place that keeps expanding without any threats, establishing an empire would be easy.’
The endlessly expanding interior of the Survival Magic Tower was already large enough to house an empire. Moreover, since intelligent beings neither died nor aged, with a little effort, an empire of billions could form in no time—provided the War God accepted outsiders.
“If you wish, I will conquer all the empires outside and offer them to you. Five hundred billion humans will serve you as their Main God.”
The scent of thick blood wafted from the princess’s words. Her goal was to become the emperor who unified all nations of the Middle World. With a hundred thousand transcendents possessing eternal youth, it was certainly possible. ‘A unified empire that worships only me as its Main God is appealing. Of course, that would require killing more than half the current population in the process. Without that level of sacrifice, a unified empire cannot be achieved.’
If a clever princess became emperor, she would routinely purge rebels, so there would never be a day without bloodshed. “Just give the order and I will accomplish it just like before.”
“Hah! Do you really have that ability?”
At the War God’s words, a crack finally appeared in the princess’s smiling face. It was the first time he had expressed doubt about the absolute confidence in her own ability based on charisma. “There is no title of empress that I would follow among those here.”
“Is that really true?”
“The other princesses’ charisma and abilities are inferior to mine.”
“That’s true for now. If those who have grown stronger oppose you, will you kill them all?”
“Of course I will. There is only death for traitors.”
“That’s why it won’t work.”