The Goddess's Blessing
Light bloomed.
It rippled from the shrine spirit's body, and the lake began to stir. Mana of absurd, overwhelming power surged into motion, gathering at last upon the water.
"Wh-what is it doing?"
"It seems to be trying to summon something into its own body."
"Into itself?"
"The sealed Goddess cannot appear here in person, so it's summoning only her consciousness — temporarily, into the shrine spirit's body."
"So... possession?"
"Something like that."
It wouldn't be an easy feat under ordinary circumstances, but for someone as extraordinary as the Goddess, it seemed well within reach. More than that — humans and spirits were beings she herself had created. Possession, then, would likely come more readily than it might for any other vessel.
Even so, calling the Goddess down into a body was no simple matter. I could see now why it had been said that luck would be required. Even if it could be done, a host of conditions would have to align. And even then, few beings would be capable of it — and none would be able to sustain it for long.
The mana is settling.
And then the golden mana around us rip.
The imprint of a being.
A presence so intense it seemed to declare: I am here.
Mana that should have been invisible, unsatisfied with remaining unseen, bloomed until it was visible to the naked eye — as if to explain, in no uncertain terms, that this was a being of an entirely different order.
The shrine spirit, whose eyes had been closed, opened them slowly. Those pupils felt as though they belonged to an entirely different person.
They say the eyes are the proof of the soul. There is a saying that the color of a soul is reflected in the eyes — that the eyes speak more than the mouth ever could. In other words, the being standing before us now was not the shrine spirit.
I dropped to one knee without thinking. Seeing me, Livia followed suit just as naturally.
The manner of speech had changed completely. So had the air around her. At those words, Livia and I rose at once.
"Are you... the Goddess?"
Livia's voice was a little clumsy, as if the shock had caught her off guard. The Goddess, wearing the shrine spirit's body, smiled faintly and stepped down to meet our eyes.
"Grandia..."
"So the Goddess had a name..."
I hadn't known either. Then did the Evil God have a name as well? Everyone had always simply said "the Goddess" or "the Evil God." No one had ever thought to ask. Looking at it now, those were titles — offices — not names at all.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Olivia... and Lois."
"You know who we are."
"I don't possess any special power that lets me see all things in the world. But what I can see, I see."
"Are your wounds all right, Goddess?"
"To my shame, it's true that my recovery is incomplete compared to the Evil God's."
"May I ask why?"
This time, I was the one who spoke.
"If you and the Evil God are truly equals — and if, as I suspect, the monsters have their own Hero and Saintess in full — then you two stand on even ground. If you inflicted similar wounds on each other, your recoveries should have been similar as well."
"I see. That's a fair question. ...It's because I was a fool who only ever attended to the danger immediately in front of me, and never thought about what would come after."
"Meaning...?"
"The Evil God doesn't care how many monsters die. I, however, could not simply watch humans perish. So I forced myself to intervene, again and again. As a result, my recovery has lagged behind the Evil God's."
"...It's true. There have been a few occasions when humanity was blessed with something close to a miracle."
There was the story, for instance, of the black dragon's assault in ages past — how lightning had suddenly fallen from a clear sky and struck the beast dead-on, saving the Hero of that era from certain death. And there had been other crises besides, moments when humanity had stood on the brink of catastrophe, only for something miraculous to occur. The Church had always called those events the Goddess's miracles.
"So you were protecting humanity."
"I merely lent a little of my strength. It was you who fought, and you who won your own survival. Rising with help is still rising by your own power."
"...Let's return to the matter at hand. The present situation."
"The Evil God recovered faster than I did, and has been preparing a great many things."
"And more important than anything else — do the monsters truly have a Hero and a Saintess?"
"...They would. But the Hero of Monsters would not have existed at the very beginning."
Would not have existed? Did that mean that, at first, there had been no one worthy of being the Hero of Monsters?
"The Hero of Monsters may have formed a direct contract with the Evil God, and may still be alive to this day."
"You know who that Hero of Monsters is, then."
"...There is a possibility it was the First Hero."
"What?! You mean... my predecessor? The First Hero? You're saying he's the Hero of Monsters now?"
"I said there is a possibility."
The First Hero was said to have been the strongest of every Hero who had ever lived. But the first Demon King was likewise judged the strongest of his kind — and the two of them, the stories said, had slain each other.
But just as Livia had survived... the First Hero, too...
The First Hero, too?
Wait.
No. That was speculation. It had happened then as well? Even if history repeated itself — could that possibly be true? It couldn't be. It mustn't be.
I tried, again and again, to reject the hypothesis that had risen in my mind. I had no grounds to deny it. But I had no grounds to confirm it, either — and so I wanted to dismiss it as nothing more than a passing delusion of my own making.
"Goddess."
"Yes."
"The First Hero... surely he didn't..."
"..."
A very brief silence. That silence seemed to serve as an answer in itself.
The Goddess looked at me with a terribly sad expression. I looked back at her.
Is it true? Is she trying to tell me that what I just thought is the truth?
"I see."
"...Huh? No, I didn't get any of that. This is why smart people are the worst. Can you unpack that so I can actually follow?"
"The cursed fate between Hero and Demon King began long after the Evil God and I had already been sealed. I never imagined that humanity — already beyond my control — would do such a thing."
"What 'thing' did they do?"
"Humanity of that era feared the Hero who had struck down the overwhelming enemy known as the Demon King."
"..."
At those words, Livia's eyes went wide. She understood.
"Don't tell me."
Livia looked down at her own body. A hole through her head. A hole through her heart. One arm gone. Taking in that state of herself, she looked at the Goddess with dead eyes. The Goddess met her gaze and nodded.
"He was betrayed by humanity, just as you were. And the Evil God seized that opening and made the Hero into his own limb."
"Why did you leave him like that?"
"My words no longer held any meaning for him. To the First Hero, already wrapped in rage and loathing and hatred, my goodwill and my longing for the light were nothing but hypocrisy — irritating sermons he no longer wished to hear."
The First Hero had been betrayed, and he had been furious. Of course he had. He had given his entire body for humanity's sake. What he received in return was condemnation, mockery, and betrayal. They had not even managed to kill him properly. And so the First Hero had surrendered himself to that rage, and chosen the path of betraying humanity... no. The path of revenge.
He was not the one in the wrong. Even if a Hero stood here now who had not fallen, who still wished to live in the light — that the First Hero had fallen into rage was a separate matter entirely. If anything, his was the more human response. The more just one.
"Then why has the First Hero — now the Hero of Monsters — done nothing all this time?"
"That is likely the Evil God's scheme. He seems to be keeping the First Hero hidden as a trump card. Even if the Hero happened to encounter humans, he would simply slaughter them all — and then there would be no one left who had seen him."
"I see. With no witnesses, anyone who died in the Monster Realm would simply be assumed to have been killed by ordinary monsters."
Claws and weapons left different wounds, true — but it wasn't as though no monsters fought with weapons at all. The Demon King Army Cadre Livia had fought in Elvenheim had conjured a spear from mana. Monsters who fought with weapons in hand were, surprisingly, not unheard of.
"And so the First Hero became the Evil God's subordinate, and the Hero of Monsters — and his strength is transcendent. There is only one reason I have revealed myself like this."
"What is it?"
The Goddess approached Livia slowly. She met Livia's eyes, and extended a hand toward her.
"A blessing?"
"The Hero of Monsters on the Evil God's side has most certainly received a blessing. I, in place of a blessing, bestowed the Holy Sword I once wielded. At the time, I hadn't the luxury of granting a blessing besides..."
That made sense. Unlike the Evil God, who had granted a blessing once to the First Hero and thereafter only occasionally to a Demon King, Grandia had blessed a Saintess every generation, chosen a Hero, and — when true danger loomed — stepped in herself to aid humanity. Of course she would have had no surplus to spare.
If you take my hand, you will become far stronger than you are now. You will leave the realm of humanity behind and become something akin to my own kin. You will become a true Hero, and you will wield the light.
Your lifespan will no longer be human. Your life will stretch longer even than an elf's, and in more ways than one you may cease to be a person at all. But at the very least, you will be able to save the world. That much is certain.
I said nothing. If Livia asked me about this choice, that would be one thing. But to speak to her of my own accord would be nothing more than my own desire dressed as counsel. I knew that.
Whether offering a blessing that had never originally been granted to Heroes — offering it to Livia alone — meant the situation was that dire, or whether it meant Livia herself was special, I could not tell.
What would Livia say? At the very least, the Goddess did not seem to harbor any malice. She seemed to be speaking in earnest.
Livia was silent for a moment, looking at the Goddess. The Goddess spoke to her.
"Will you accept the blessing?"
Livia answered at once.
"Huh? No thanks."
"Oh."
The sound escaped me before I could stop it. I had thought she might refuse. But I hadn't expected her to refuse on the spot.