1+1=5, Two as One

I planted my hands against the ground and forced myself up. My fingers found my face, and I let out a breath of relief.

I almost died. Without the mask, that would've been instant death.

A long gash split my cheek open like a sword cut. Bright red blood spilled from the wound with a hollow, almost pointless ease.

Horus cocked her head.

"Oh? Still standing, are you? For a mere insect."

She smiled, and the killing intent in that smile was thick enough to choke on. Honestly, I was ready to give up.

Goddess or not, she was way too strong. From what I'd gathered, she was supposed to be weakened — just like Isis. And she's still this powerful?

My breath caught in my throat. Strength I could deal with. Technique I could deal with. But time stop? What the hell was I supposed to do about that?

Against a strong enemy, you use skill. Against a skilled enemy, you use raw power. Against someone who has everything, you use strategy. But Horus was something else entirely. Just existing in her presence made the energy around us drain away. It felt like standing in front of a natural disaster.

"Nngh... my apostle... hh..."

Isis was looking at me with guilt written all over her face. That pissed me off. I wanted to land at least one verbal hit on Horus.

"Horus, was it? You want to know why Isis never punished humanity?"

"Hah?"

"She loved nature. And she loved the humans who lived alongside it. She became a goddess to protect the things she loved, you ignorant fucking bitch!"

I put everything I had into that shout. Horus didn't so much as flinch.

"Is that so? What a worthless reason. Typical of an idiot."

"Watch your mouth, Horus. You can't even understand your own mother's will? And you call yourself her daughter?"

"If that cowardice is what she calls her will, then I shall ignore it!"

"What?"

"This world — humanity! — tore my mother away from me! I am a goddess! A noble being! And yet I was forced to lose something! I lost my mother, and with her I lost my power, my very form!"

Horus's rage was fully unleashed now. She ground her teeth.

"But then, at some point, I awoke again. I felt it — Mother had awakened once more!"

"Hey, Horus. You..."

"I am merely carrying out the judgment I could not finish in the past. You claim to be Mother's apostle? A hero? Don't make me laugh. If you are a hero, then stop me here. And despair! Feel the gulf between ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠god and man...!"

I was speechless. No — actually, she wasn't wrong.

I was human. Horus was a goddess.

Of course we'd see the world differently. It had been the same when I first met Isis.

"...Is this really what Isis would want? Truly?"

"It is what I want. So it matters not, mortal!"

The sun above her began to blaze like it had lost its mind, swelling as if it were about to explode. Then the vibrating sphere of fire burst, scattering light in every direction.

Wherever that sunlight touched, the ground erupted with a violent crack and heaved upward. Isis and I were both inside the blast radius. The damage hit us at the same time, and we went down.

Goddess of the Sun... plus time stop, plus she's a monster in close combat. What kind of broken character is this?

I pushed myself up, clutching my chest where the light had raked across it. A cough tore out of me.

"Khack— kack!"

Blood. Already?

Internal damage stacking up? From a single hit?

My knees almost buckled. What the hell was this. How was I supposed to win?

I looked at Horus. She was already right in front of me.

"Over already?"

Her kick caught me before I could even guard. I flew, slammed into the temple wall, and stuck there. The entire back of my body went hot and wet, like one giant bruise of pulped meat.

She came at me with sunlight coiled around her fist.

"Farewell, insect. I'll kill you, and then I'll rip the divine core out of that wretched woman as well!"

Nothing lived in her eyes but madness and rage. And underneath that — something familiar. Alienation.

No other choice.

I activated the necklace hanging at my throat. Lao had done it. I could do it too. Please. I had to protect Isis!

A beam lanced out of the necklace and shot toward Horus. She flinched in surprise, then punched straight into it.

For a brief moment the beam locked against her fist, holding her back. I used that sliver of time to dodge away and glance down at the necklace.

The specs were absurd, just like you'd expect from something Hokudia or whatever. Condensing mental power to the extreme and firing it as a beam... so that was what Lao had been spamming this whole time.

Thank god I can use the necklace too. It doesn't have all the functions it did when Lao wore it, but still!

Horus's voice cut in.

"What an amusing little toy. I saw something similar in the East. But... how much longer do you think you'll last?"

She closed the distance in a flash of light, same as before. I swung my sword to keep her at bay.

Horus casually swatted the blade aside with the back of her hand. Then came a front kick — a distance and an angle I had no hope of dodging.

Except she was already behind me. A sickening impact tore through my body.

"Guh...!"

What followed was indiscriminate violence. No form, no stance, no school — just raw brawling. And even so, I couldn't block with the sword in my hand. I couldn't even dodge. I just stood there and got the shit beaten out of me.

When was the last time I'd taken a beating like this? Not since the original Lashu's sparring sessions with his mother.

"Lashu, no! Horus, your grudge is with me, is it not?!"

"Heh. I figured it'd be more fun to smash the thing you care about. What, you think you worried about me even a little when you were sealed? You didn't give a damn about me. Less than an insect."

Horus wore a cutting smile. She had me by the collar, pounding my face in, and still had the leisure to turn her head and stare Isis down.

My sword never touched her.

It was the most ordinary, even crude kind of bare-knuckle fighting. And that crude brawling was threatening my life with every passing second.

A fist came at me, then seemed to vanish mid-swing — and a terrible sound followed.

"Grk...!"

"A human body is so fragile. How are you any different from an insect?"

Horus's fist was buried in my left shoulder. I clenched my teeth and staggered back. No strength in the left arm. It felt completely wrecked.

I hadn't thought it would be this bad.

I sent a telepathic message to Isis.

Goddess. Forgive me, but I need to borrow your power.

But my apostle. I cannot stop Horus on my own. I am sorry.

No — there's one way. And Horus doesn't seem fully restored either, same as you.

A way?

It was time to fire up LashuWiki.

In the original story and the game both, an apostle could synchronize with the god who sponsored them. That was why players who held a divine seat — a patron god — were so much stronger. Of course, you had to whale to make it work.

We become one and fight together. Then I can finish this with a killing blow.

Ah — Divine Descent! The same rite that shrine maiden performed!

Yes. It's the only way. I'm truly sorry...

Why do you apologize?

Because you're already hurting, and I'm making you use that power anyway.

Even through the pain, Isis smiled — a look of something like relief.

Do not say such foolish things. When you grow stronger, so do I. In return, I shall protect you, and care for you. That is a god's duty!

Then let's do this together. Let's make one plus one equal five!

I come to thee now!

Isis vanished — she'd turned herself into a spirit form. At the same instant, my body began to shine gold. Like I'd been plated in it. No — like I'd become the sun itself.

"Nngh, what?!"

Horus stumbled back in alarm. Birdsong filled my ears, woven through with a lush, living harmony. Then a power detonated inside my body, and for a split second I was high on it.

"Hah...!"

Caught off guard, Horus started studying me carefully.

"What— what is this?! You're supposed to be a mere mortal... no. That's Mother's aura? How?!"

Anything short of 100% and I'd still be weak. That was how it worked in the game, too.

Isis despaired.

Ah... so this method is the wrong one...!

I smiled. No. This was going to work.

Don't worry, Goddess. I'll win this. I swear.

But the synchronization rate...!

Sync rate, misunderstandings, old wounds — time takes care of all of it. So let's give this moment everything we've got. All right?

Ah... my apostle...!

I charged Horus. I came at her head-on, then cut hard to the side at the last instant. She reacted immediately — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so I kicked off the ground the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠other way and took her opposite flank. Front kick first!

"Hmph!"

She dodged. I drove the sword in with zero delay.

Horus tried to cross-guard. The blade left a cut on her arm anyway, and the force of it shoved her backward hard. Her face twisted.

"Impossible... why would I...?!"

"I'm your mommy."

The taunt made her grind her teeth.

"Know your place, you mongrel!"

Here it comes. Time stop!

The world around Horus began to change the way it had before. Everything faded, the color draining out of creation itself. But I was still shining.

I hammered sword strikes into Horus as she tried to throw a punch. One of the cuts slashed across her chest. She twisted just enough to slip past the rest and drove a sun-charged fist into me.

We both staggered, putting distance between us.

I checked the sync rate.

Still not enough. I wasn't sure we'd even hit 100% before I died.

The past flickered through my mind. I'd never succeeded at a single thing. I'd never kept a single dream. I hadn't even been able to trust the readers who'd been on my side. I didn't want to meet that regret again. I wanted to be able to look myself in the eye.

"A pair of failures fawning over each other! Vanish along with this continent!"

The sun above Horus's head began to vibrate. It swelled in an instant, ballooning as if it had no limit — nearly the size of a mountain. If something that big came down on us...

"Huh...?"

The sun, expanded to its breaking point, was absorbed into Horus. She and it became one. A golden aura flowed over her entire body like living sunlight, and her eyes burned with solar flare as she charged me.

A fist loaded with the power of the sun. That wasn't an attack. That was a catastrophe.

I fired the necklace beam to hold her off.

Lao used to spam this thing nonstop. He turned his heart into power — a wounded heart, a twisted heart. What about mine?

I poured every ounce of desperate will I had into holding the beam. It canceled out the force pouring from her fist, but she was still closing in, step by step. The beam alone wasn't going to stop her.

"How hard you struggle, insect...!"

The moment she was almost on me, I drove a front kick into her.

It didn't even look like it hurt, let alone knock her out. But it shoved her back. Horus sneered.

"This is the end. Farewell!"

Her power was still climbing. Behind her, the sun manifested again, condensing into a single point before unleashing its energy in a concentrated blast. Horus's body trembled as if she could already taste the victory.

One second left. I stepped forward.

Show and prove. For my goddess.

I kicked off the ground. Five meters between me and Horus.

Something stood in that space — a silhouette that grew clearer with every step, until the person I'd been before I came to this world was standing right there. I clenched my left fist and punched through him. Only then did I reach Horus.

I drove the sword forward. Up close, the energy pouring off her felt like it could erase the continent.

Horus saw me coming and threw a punch to match.

"Don't you understand it's useless? That's why you're a mortal...!"

The sword split. One became two. Two became three. Then it fractured into something close to infinity.

Maybe it was Isis's power. I saw it before it happened — Horus, torn to pieces. And then it did.

She was carved apart as if dozens, hundreds of blades had gone through her at once, her body left in ruins. She tilted her head with that same startled expression, then reached for me with a face twisted in fury.

"I can't lose— I can't lose to a mere human— Mom— Mommyyyyy!"

She screamed loud enough to shake the world, and her body began dissolving into light. When not even a handful of her remained — when she had vanished completely — I finally let myself breathe. Ah. We won.

We have done it! We have done it! Lashu, Horus has fled! We— wait? Lashu? Lashu...!

I looked up at the sky, flashed a thumbs-up, and blacked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out. I just... felt like doing that.