The False God (Part 3)
In the true course of history, the corruption of Uristia would have stretched on for centuries. The Crase family, determined to halt it, faced a fate of vanishing within mere years.
The Snake God had been the sole culprit.
Fittingly, the head of the Crase family, Lacitea Crase, had endured years of torment and suffocating pressure.
Though endowed with talent, the trials inflicted upon the young girl had been far too harsh.
At that moment, change arrived.
The appearance of Orgol and the henchmen of the Snake God, and the ensuing slaughter.
All of it converged on the woman named Quillere.
-······!
The instant Sigilla brought her before everyone’s eyes, Sigilla drew a sharp breath.
Lacitea, raised in a noble house, possessed an exceptional aesthetic sense. The very notion of that sense collapsing in an instant sent a shiver through her.
Only then did she grasp why Sorap had called her “glorious.” Even that stone-faced man had no choice but to sigh in admiration.
“Take her away.”
Her voice remained as calm as if she were discussing the weather. With tension coiled tight in her belly, she began to speak.
A short yet astonishing time had passed.
The power of the “Eye” passed down through generations of the Crase bloodline. The talent of their ancestors, who had built a city through the trade of ancient merchants, had evolved into this ability.
It was the Eye that discerned the truth.
“Can’t save her.”
Quillere held critical information.
Lacitea forced her eyes open to their limit, and so she accepted the words at once.
It was bitter, yet it made perfect sense that only a handful of such relics should exist.
The next shock came swiftly.
When she voiced her question about where Quillere had obtained it, her reaction was genuine.
“I received it a long time ago.”
A trace of distant nostalgia lingered in her gaze.
She truly seemed to be recalling a past event.
Not merely a year or two, but a distant era that could never be revisited.
“That was a long time ago. No one is coming back for it.”
Sadly, her words were also true.
Had the person who gave her Orgol died?
What connection did Quillere have to that person?
The absence of the item was regrettable, but she quickly set the sentiment aside.
Lacitea turned to the real topic.
“···Do you know about the Snake God that has taken control of the city?”
Desperate days.
Even in retrospect, nothing but sorrow and grief filled the memory.
Her father’s sudden, grave illness. The brutal clash between the two great houses while the family was reeling from the crisis.
The ugly swine and the vile skeleton were, unfortunately, no easy prey.
The two houses had grown by nibbling at Crase prestige. Still, hope had existed.
If not for the Snake God.
Suddenly it had appeared, and everything had crumbled.
“Support is provided. But interference must not occur.”
In that sense, Anasha’s aid was a perfect opportunity.
She knew Anasha harbored intense hatred toward the Snake God, yet the girl had succeeded anyway.
The duke’s knights.
Sorap regarded himself as the finest combatant he knew.
Even he would have to steel himself against six opponents. Did such a monster truly exist that they could not be caught?
“Could you perhaps assist in the extermination of the Snake God······.”
“No.”
Yet if this too failed, she asked all the same.
The result was refusal.
Naturally.
She herself and the city had no connection.
“···No.”
Yet something strange happened.
The same words, but a different tone.
The woman who had refused suddenly moved. Right after she had heard the members of the Anasha party.
Had her mind changed?
Such a convenient thought was impossible; events had moved too fast. Lacitea, following Sorap, saw only chaos in her own eyes.
“Why all the way here······!”
The Snake God had charged all the way to the city’s outskirts.
It had happened before, but the quality was entirely different. The god had gone berserk.
Had the day she had prayed would never come finally arrived?
What exactly had Anasha done?
Had she even provoked the Snake God’s wrath? There was no time for half-measures.
This could not be allowed to stand.
“···Sorap, support immediately.”
The final battle against the Snake God.
It had to be avoided, yet the city’s life itself was at stake.
She gave the order with resolve, but no answer came.
“Sorap······?”
Curious, she looked back.
A blizzard roared.
Lacitea blinked, then gazed skyward. Snow fell. It settled on Sorap’s head.
A belated reply reached her.
“I will observe for now.”
Following his gaze in a daze, she saw the back of Quillere.
In the Sa-gye War, the concept of attributes held absolute importance.
Attributes were compatibility; compatibility was a destructive force capable of reversing battle power several times over.
And she was the Snow Woman.
Naturally, she belonged to the race of snow and was snow itself.
A being utterly biased toward the attributes of snow and winter.
Both attributes were fatal weaknesses of the Snake God.
······That was why she stood here.
If the threat had been any monster other than the Snake God, she would never have dared to challenge it.
Because it was the Snake God, and because it was he alone, it was possible. The chill of the Catalyst felt like it had reached her fingertips.
This relic was the highest-grade attribute catalyst.
It was the moment to offer the Snake God an ultimate counter-compatibility taste.
“······Miss Quillere.”
The situation upon arrival was utter chaos.
Five minutes before the clash was to begin. Or so she had hoped, yet he clearly had entered a frenzy.
Fortunately the knights and Anasha remained alive, but the city would be finished if this continued.
“Disgusting.”
She grew irritated.
This unknown aftermath left her with nothing but a headache.
The god who had sent her here annoyed her as well, but the true gods were nonexistent. The Snake God, who mimicked them while still a mere monster, irritated her most.
“···Huh? Hey, why are you here······ No, wait. Are you planning to defeat the Snake God? No. That is no ordinary monster. It is on a completely different level from its henchmen.”
“Anasha.”
“Yes, I’m listening. With the knights present, the soldiers can reorganize positions······ If Miss Quillere helps, even if it’s a monster whose blades cannot penetrate you, your magic······”
“Shut up.”
“······Huh?”
Anasha had been desperate. She had roughly understood.
Yet she was noisy, and talkative. Every word was useless.
In this battle, the other pieces were irrelevant.
She had resolved to pour everything into her power.
To defeat the Snake God, the environment itself had to be turned in her favor. She could not afford to distinguish friend from foe.
If she was not the target, it was better to stay out.
“Stay out.”
Driven by impulse, she moved toward him.
Yes, let’s try once.
If it became dangerous, she would run. Even if she used a hideous transformation technique to flee at once, what could the brat do?
His size made his speed inferior.
The henchmen’s determined charge made her muscles tense.
“Miss Quillere!”
Ignoring Anasha’s shout, she intensified the blizzard.
For safety, and the effect was certain. The black snakes froze or stiffened visibly in the snow.
Her mana control remained imperfect.
She could not even handle ice spears or blizzards normally, yet she felt no concern now.
She possessed the Catalyst.
‘Attribute Control Correction’ was one of the Catalyst’s two abilities.
All eyes turned toward her. In any other nation she would have retreated, yet Quillere remained calm.
The Snake God narrowed his eyes as if sensing threat.
【Unpleasant······】
The current climate did not match him at all.
The monster’s voice was entirely unlike a human’s. A chill ran down her spine, yet she showed nothing.
Instead she advanced.
“Filthy snake.”
The volume rose. The Snake God’s eyes burned with malice.
A red light—the symbol of frenzy—flickered.
She flinched, but since she had come this far she decided to speak up.
“Filth that cannot even be used as fertilizer. Dust that is worthless.”
The avalanche poured down in sheets.
Amid the razor-sharp wind, only her voice echoed.
Three tendons bulged on the Snake God’s neck.
【A mere creation······ I am the god of this land······】
An absurd sound.
There were no gods left in this world.
Anyone who witnessed a mere monster claiming to be a god would have clicked their tongue in disdain.
“Monstrous thing.”
She spat the words with genuine contempt.
That was enough to loosen the Snake God’s mind.
【Kieeeek-!】
He roared and charged.
It was simple rage, yet its quality far exceeded a human’s.
“Kyaaah!”
“Protect the citizens!”
“Miss Quillere······! Over here!”
The screams of the panicked citizens and the knights who had entered battle formation.
Anasha’s worried voice.
All of it passed one ear and out the other as her thoughts accelerated.
The battle could not be allowed to last.
She, the Snow Woman, possessed an insufficient mana reservoir by nature. The limit of a spectator character.
In that light, the moment he lost control was, ironically, the perfect opportunity.
“Haa······.”
Power surged into the hand gripping the Catalyst. She reached out. The Catalyst’s second ability was ‘Attribute Amplification.’
It consumed the relic’s internal energy to amplify attribute power.
Swaaaah-!
A far stronger cold breath than before erupted. The Snake God, brushing against the ice path, lost balance and toppled.
【Inoom······ How filthy and impure······】
It inflicted no significant damage.
He rose hastily, trying to suppress her as one might treat a spring flood. He had clearly been provoked by the counter-compatibility.
She surveyed her surroundings.
Every eye in the crowd was fixed on her and the Snake God. The victory or defeat of the two would determine the fate of human and monster alike.
The situation was dire.
“Other means······.”
This alone was insufficient.
The blizzard was certainly fatal to him, yet the creature would not die from it.
If she remained for a very long time, he might perish, but her mana could not endure.
She had already used a considerable amount.
Even setting aside the cold breath, maintaining the blizzard for so long was already taxing.
She could not keep chipping away at it like this.
······She had to unleash everything at once.
All at once, in one stroke.
She took a deep breath and spread her hand.
Mana gathered into the shape of a spear.
【I pronounce the end upon you-!】
The snow-covered street.
The pitch-black Snake God slid and slammed forward.
It was slow. The world itself felt slow.
Time seemed to fragment into individual moments.
With the approaching mass constantly advancing, the ice spear grew larger.
A dazzling light poured from the Catalyst.
The relic’s internal energy recovered slowly after being spent.
Amplification was a processed force; one could not use it at will. The crucial point here was that she had never properly used this thing before.
······The relic had apparently lain dormant for at least several hundred years.
Its energy must therefore brim with power.
She invested everything into the spear, pouring in every drop of mana as well.
She had expected a spear three or four meters long at minimum.
“···Ah······?”
Yet something felt wrong.
It had grown monstrously beyond the anticipated scale.
Even if she had poured everything, the accumulated energy had limits. This was not possible.
Was it the setting again?
Pure mana, pristine attribute power, a single phenomenon······ She had no time to identify what caused it.
After the mana and energy surged together like a storm.
It was no longer a spear but a pillar.
【Shwaaaak-!】
Time resumed.
Before her, the Snake God gaped and charged. The red afterimage left by his eyes stood on a straight line.
She aimed for the open mouth and drew her hand back.
A combat stance.
The spear in the air followed her hand.
Thinking about it, the grudge had been long and bitter.
She, an innocent woman, had her subordinates killed by his henchmen, been dragged across the empire, and returned here.
And now she faced the creature.
Only his death would feel like something genuine would finally be achieved.
“······This is your grave.”
The instant she released her hand.
The ice spear rocketed forward at blinding speed.
Behind the tearing sonic boom, it plunged into the Snake God’s open mouth.
【Kieaaah······!】
At the moment of impact, an unimaginable explosion swept through the square. The ground trembled under the shockwave, and a gale howled.
People shrank back, as though facing an unprecedented disaster.
“Quil, Quillere······?”
The swirling dust and snow fell, and the impact gradually subsided.
Anasha, the first to steady herself, looked toward the far side.
When the dense dust cleared, everyone could see.
The Snake God, impaled through the mouth by a blue pillar, lay motionless.
The frenzied movement that had preceded it had been nothing but a hallucination.
He was dead.
“······.”
The citizens’ eyes were dazed, as though they could not comprehend what they saw.
They strained to understand the incomprehensible.
Anasha and the knights, and those who had grasped the situation even slightly, averted their gazes.
Before the corpse of the god stood a somewhat aloof Quillere, as if it were nothing at all.
She raised her eyebrows and stared into the empty air.
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