Chapter 98
Chapter 98
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: Sun for the Saintess
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Blazing white flames rushed toward Stella.
Holy Power was fatal to demons. It would be the same for Stella now, fused with a demon.
The carriage had been stopped for a long time.
The nuns knelt before the white flames, shedding tears and praying.
Pindenai and the Black Necromancer simply stared at it in a daze.
"Man, that's why I said we should just run."
Pindenai glanced my way, catching her breath as if everything was finally over.
The Black Necromancer nodded too, clapping in admiration.
[Who knew the souls would use the grace they received from the Saintess like this.]
"It wasn't using them."
The Black Necromancer must have thought of souls as consumables since she was a Necromancer too, so I corrected her tone.
"I gave them a chance."
I looked up at Stella, burning without a single scream or struggle.
"And what she built up has proven its worth in the end."
What Stella wanted was death.
I respected that and granted it to her.
Because she had given me, even if just for a moment, a chance to set down my burdens—a deep comfort and encouragement that touched my heart. I wanted to fulfill her wish.
I granted her desire.
I had repaid her grace.
Now it was time to move according to my will.
"Stella, now I will deny your wish."
She probably couldn't hear my voice, but I declared it as if centering myself.
Out of fear of the rest after death.
Because the demons, eagerly awaiting only her death, terrified her, she wished for complete annihilation?
Unfortunately, that wasn't some happy ending.
It was merely the lesser of two evils, avoiding the worst.
"A false happy ending."
She had wanted that, and I respected it.
But at the very last moment, I intended to twist it clearly.
I rolled up my sleeves.
Forcing out my depleted mana, the chains that had bound the upper demon coiled around my right hand.
The upper demon had already completely vanished in the clash with Stella.
[Wh-what are you trying to do?]
The Black Necromancer flinched upon seeing me move again, clearly signaling she hoped I wouldn't do anything more.
"I'm going to save Stella."
[B-but you already saved her! What she wanted was annihilation! So it's over now, right? You granted her wish!]
"No, that was just the lesser evil."
Stella's death was inevitable.
If she didn't die, the discomfort and pain of her flesh would only continue to torment her.
I had no intention of forcibly keeping her in this life any longer.
But after death.
As a Necromancer, there was clearly something I could do.
I wrapped the conjured chains around my waist. Being made of mana, they neither tightened nor felt heavy.
I handed the end to Pindenai.
"Pull when I give the signal."
"You're going in there?"
Pindenai pointed incredulously at the massive white flames. I nodded without hesitation and took a deep breath.
They weren't real flames anyway—just the manifestation of Holy Power.
Of course, jumping in bare-bodied would cause significant damage.
Even so, I had to go.
"You're insane."
Pindenai let out a hollow laugh, yanked the chain taut, and replied firmly.
"Five minutes. I'll pull you out for sure right before you croak. Do whatever you need to in that time."
"That's enough."
As I took another deep breath to plunge in, a thin membrane of mana enveloped my skin.
The abbess, watching me, knelt and pressed her forehead to the ground, tears streaming down.
"You're still fighting for the Saintess, aren't you?"
"......"
"I'm so sorry we can't do more than this."
The other nuns cast spells on me too, then bowed their foreheads to the ground, pleading with me.
"Yeah."
It was unexpected help, but it would surely let me endure a bit longer.
Carrying the nuns' hopes, I leaped toward the woman burning within the white flames.
"Urgh!"
An intense heat that numbed my entire body pressed in. No burns formed, but I could clearly feel my body rejecting it.
Excessive purity was poison to humans.
Holy Power was exactly that kind.
I clamped my mouth shut and closed my eyes, trying to block the heat seeping into me even if just a little.
I reached out, climbing onto her burning spider legs.
Her location was obvious anyway. My feet slipped or my hands grazed empty air midway, but still.
I pressed on toward Stella without stopping.
The Archdemon's left hand had completely burned away and vanished, while her remaining right hand clutched the Hertia Goddess's rosary she always carried.
"Thank you."
She said it calmly, eyes closed, bidding her final farewell.
"I'm sorry."
She probably couldn't hear me, but an apology slipped from my tongue anyway.
"Because I'm a Necromancer."
Truth be told, I had hoped she could live a living life. Maybe using Professor Per Petra's prosthetic body? But.
Stella had refused.
And there, I was certain.
Stella wasn't living—she was dying.
She had no more attachments to this life.
"I can only intervene after death."
I watched her passing.
The flames of Holy Power didn't stop at my skin—they swirled into my organs like a storm.
Without the nuns' support, I might have lost consciousness already.
Even the Holy Power, which I thought lacked physical force, couldn't be ignored in such vast quantities.
"Farewell."
And amid it all, Stella's final words reached me.
It was over.
Stella died like that, and her soul, freed from her flesh, began to dissolve in the Holy Power.
But I snatched her soul.
"If you're going to call avoiding the worst a happy ending."
Stella's eyes—her original ones, not the demon's—widened in shock as she snapped them open and looked at me. They were truly beautiful.
"Then I won't let you go."
Now a soul, able to see ahead, Stella stared at me in stunned disbelief.
As if asking why I was here.
I wanted to give her a gentle smile, but the pain twisted it.
[L-let go of me! I, I want to dissolve like this!]
"No, I can't let that happen. Vanishing like this wouldn't be a happy ending for you at all."
[I-it's what I want! I want to forget everything and completely dissolve!]
"Sorry, but."
Clink.
Another thin chain emerged from my fingertips. Mana was scarce, so it was short, but enough to link our wrists like thread.
"You are already among the departed."
And a Necromancer was one who commanded the departed.
"You belong to me, the Necromancer."
[......!]
I yanked my hand, and she tumbled into my arms, bound by the chain at our wrists.
With my other arm firmly around her back, I shouted skyward.
"Pindenai!"
Clank!
The chain at my waist pulled as if she'd been waiting. Clutching Stella tightly lest she slip away, I braced myself.
Stella and I burst out of the Holy Power flames in an instant and tumbled across the ground.
Thud! Thud!
"Did you pull too hard?"
The searing heat from inside faded, my body cooling. But there was no time to savor the relief.
I'd successfully extracted her soul from her corpse, but remnants of the Holy Power flames lingered on her spirit body.
I hurriedly pulled out Remegaton to stabilize her soul.
Though half-transparent, Stella's soul clearly hadn't dissolved.
Having grasped the situation, she gaped at me blankly.
To think Stella, always wearing that leisurely smile, could make such a face.
"Y-you, you, you!"
Stammering in panic, Stella scrambled up and charged at me.
[What have you done! Ruining the end Belica and I created like this!]
"That wasn't right."
[This won't work! Soon...!]
Shrieeeeeek!
Craaaaw! Craaaaw!
The dawn sky filled with demonic screams, like birds rising early to hunt worms. Chilling, drawn-out demonic cackles.
The demons who watched Stella's death approached like reapers to claim her soul.
In that moment, I stared straight at Stella and replied.
"So that's the look in your eyes."
Often, wounds lingered on souls after death.
It was a kind of illusion—trauma made manifest. That's why souls could wander with twisted or bizarre forms.
In any case, Stella's entire form was pristine.
Another testament to her immense mental strength.
"Wh-what?"
Flustered, Stella brought both hands to her eyes, then gasped seeing her left hand intact.
"Better than I imagined. It suits you."
[N-no! This isn't the time for that!]
Her face flushing red in panic, Stella whipped her gaze skyward.
Demons swarming like a flock of crows.
I held her close and replied.
"It's fine. I won't let them take you anywhere."
Our souls connected.
Even as a Necromancer who owned no souls, this once I'd make an exception.
Stella's soul would become mine.
[Ah.]
Linked inseparably through Remegaton as a medium.
Catching my breath, I replied.
"As long as I live, no demon can take your soul."
Linked by the Archdemon's legacy, Remegaton. Unless they killed me and shattered it, taking Stella was impossible.
"Still! You'll be in danger!"
"I won't die."
I gazed slowly at the sky, making promises without guarantees. But I truly believed it.
I had no intention of handing my neck—or her—to mere demons.
The demons might charge at me in frustration right away. Or they might see waiting for my death as another amusement.
But whatever they did, they'd have to break through the beings still scattered across the sky first.
"Since I got the Saintess's soul, time to reap the benefits."
White flames illuminated the dark night sky once more.
The remaining souls adorned the heavens as Holy Power flames, forming constellations.
[Ah.]
Stella looked up at those burning themselves to protect her, tears welling from the surge of emotion.
"I know it was hard."
I gently embraced her, looking up at the sky together.
The demons lunging for Stella's soul glared at the Holy Power flames consuming them, flying into a rage.
But those prepared for dissolution wouldn't back down.
Tormenting the Saintess's soul was entertainment, not a mission worth risking wounds or life. No demon had such zeal.
Faced with the flames charging in resolve to dissolve, they clicked their tongues and fled without engaging.
[Ah, aah.]
Tears streaming, Stella gazed at the sky. The sun hadn't risen yet, but as she had become their sun.
To drive away the nightmare darkness that tormented her every night.
They became the sun for the Saintess.