The Eye of Argos
"Aurelia Vensar. The First Cardinal of Order. The oldest follower of Order, and the godmother of the current Pope... She is the leader of the Consilium Ordinis."
It was the exact moment Renatus spat out her name.
Sssssssshhhk!
The sound of something incredibly sharp tearing through the air echoed. The girl whipped her head toward the source of the noise.
Worn stone bricks. Browned vines. Renatus's brain matter scattered over velvet-colored flesh. Above those mundane sights...
The very air... was tearing open.
The girl acted instantly.
Bang!
She brought down the thunder. The catalyst pierced the empty air, passing straight through to leave a useless mark on the ancient brick wall behind it.
The rupture in space remained unchanged.
Flustered, Seraphina flipped the selector switch. Full-auto. She finished aiming, braced the stock firmly against her shoulder, and was just about to pull the trigger when—
"...Did you resort to this method because you cannot see it yourself? Heh, indeed. When it comes to the manipulation of divine magic, it seems this old body still holds the upper hand. I told you long ago to stop modifying your authority so recklessly, yet you still ignorantly ram raw power into it..."
Renatus's words stayed her finger.
He acted as if he knew exactly what was happening. The old man's response did not stop there. With a few swift movements of his hands, he drew out threads of golden light and flung them toward the tearing void.
Shhh—
The threads woven from golden light stitched the wound in space shut. The tearing, widening rift was sewn back together.
Even the ear-piercing screech subsided for a moment. From Renatus's reaction, the girl realized what it was.
"Could that be...?"
"...Argos. It is Aurelia's divine authority. Though at this point, it is hard to even recognize its original form," Renatus explained.
"It allows her to project her gaze and steal the sight of others. It should be impossible to target me, protected as I am by the grace of Order... but Aurelia's eyes must already be scattered all across the Continent."
A mix of incomprehension and a faint sense of inferiority laced the old man's voice.
And with good reason. An existence that could project countless gazes and intervene from afar—on the Continent, such a being was called a constellation, or a god.
Even with the aid of a relic, for a mere Cardinal who had not even ascended to mimic the authority of a constellation...
And for those eyes to be spread across the entire Continent.
It was a truth that would leave anyone with even a passing knowledge of constellations utterly dumbfounded.
"...I see."
Yet even this shocking revelation could not startle the priestess of the evil god.
Seraphina replied flatly.
She had already witnessed something far greater. A gaze that tore through space was certainly mystical, but compared to the silver light that had painted the entire world, it was nothing more than a parlor trick.
The awe that even Renatus could not escape failed to reach Seraphina. Only a faint flicker of annoyance at her vengeance becoming slightly more difficult showed on the girl's face.
The old Cardinal noticed this as well. At that moment, a resolve formed in his heart.
The resolve to die. The resolve to let her live.
...Even the great Order will understand, just this last time. He reassured himself and spoke.
"...Seraphina. Beware of the seven who belong to the Council. Those who bear stars in their eyes. That golden pentagram is the proof that they have borrowed the power of an abomination."
Renatus understood. Seraphina would not give up. The silence of one old man would not stop her quest for vengeance.
If so...
"Later, search the Mother Superior's office at the convent. If you turn the staffs of the statues of the three chief gods, a path will open. There, you will find some wealth... and a Sacred Relic passed down to me by the previous Cardinal. It is the symbol of the 18th Cardinal and the proof of the Mother Superior, so it will surely be of use to you in some way..."
He would pass down everything he knew.
So that the girl's seemingly impossible vengeance might become even a fraction easier.
"Furthermore, there are quite a few Cardinals within the Order of Order who oppose the Council. Though they were not as vehement as Ods, the 4th and 26th Cardinals also spoke out against the Council's wishes. Perhaps you might find common ground with them..."
The old man strove to convey everything he knew. The girl silently committed his words to memory.
That one-sided conversation was the final act of apostasy Renatus would ever commit.
For decades since entering the Order of Order, he had acted solely according to the will of Order. Now, prepared for death, the Cardinal committed his very first act of self-will.
The old man conveyed his sincere feelings to his goddaughter. It was a brief moment of sincerity. He had barely spoken a few words, but his squeezed-out authority and mana were already tolling their final bell.
"...There is no more time. Seraphina. My child. It is time to end this. Here. Aim for these spots."
He gestured while looking into the girl's ruby-red eyes. The face. The heart. The core. The key points where the divine authority of Order resided. He showed her where the evil god's gift must be directed.
As the master of this authority, Renatus was certain. If these points were destroyed now, he could die. That horrific object bestowed by the evil god could end his old life.
Surprisingly, there was no fear of death. He had lived a long enough life—more than enough to imagine and prepare for his end.
"You must destroy them simultaneously. At least, finish it before the other parts can regenerate."
Renatus exhaled his final breath with a look of relief.
"...Yes. Do it just like that."
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three claps of thunder rang out. Precise and sharp.
Seraphina caught her breath as she looked at the old man's ruined body.
A gruesome sight, with gaping holes torn through his head, chest, and abdomen. The blood that had suddenly splattered in all directions seemed even redder than before.
...He's gone. Truly.
No regeneration occurred. Instead, as if paying the price for the repeated regenerations up until now, the old man's corpse rapidly withered away.
The spilled blood and scattered flesh all dissolved into golden particles. The authority of the constellation was returning to its master.
In Renatus's case, since his entire body had been reconstructed by the authority, nothing but a handful of bone ash remained where the golden light faded.
Seraphina stared blankly at the ash. She looked down at the final remains of the man who had once been her godfather.
This was surely what she had wished for, over and over, while locked away in the correction facility. The very thing she had desperately desired while unable to eat, drink, or sleep had finally been accomplished.
So why did she feel so hollow?
Ultimately, the girl could not find the answer. She was not even given the time to ponder it.
Sssssshhhk—!!
The Cardinal had turned to ash, and his divine magic had vanished with him. The temporarily stitched space tore open once more.
The void parted. The thing hidden behind it opened its eye. The brilliance of its awakening vibrated through the surroundings.
Just how much divine power had been poured in to break through Renatus's interference? As the space ruptured, a torrent of golden light flooded out.
A massive wave of energy swept through the entire dungeon.
Having once been trained as a priestess of Order, Seraphina could feel the sheer scale of this power. She realized just how colossal the divine energy contained within it was.
I don't know how large this dungeon is... but this power might leak all the way to the outside.
Yet even that immense brilliance was merely a prelude.
The foreplay was over. The authority immediately began to manifest its will.
An eye opened.
It was the only way to describe it. What had been closed, using space itself as an eyelid, now revealed a massive eyeball. Reality manifested from the intangible. A lens as large as Seraphina's entire upper body scanned the surroundings.
Its focus, initially lingering on the dungeon walls, eventually settled on Renatus's remains. It seemed to project an indefinable sentiment as it gazed upon the trace of bone ash.
Of course, even that was but a fleeting instant. In the blink of an eye, the lens shifted its focus directly onto the girl.
Flash—
The glare pierced Seraphina's ruby-red eyes, striking straight through her optic nerves and into her brain.
What she felt was a colossal status, far beyond anything human. Golden divine energy shone like a halo behind the eyeball.
A pressure reminiscent of a private audience with a constellation bore down on the girl, but...
Seraphina did not bother to avoid the eyeball's voyeuristic gaze.
Running away won't save me. In that case, I might as well...
Face it head-on.
She took her stance and braced the Thunder Staff against her shoulder. She aimed precisely at the pupil that threatened to suck her in.
Its eye was blue. A deep, dark blue that contrasted sharply with Seraphina's own. The girl engraved every detail of that eye into her mind.
The pupil, dark as the deep sea. The iris, rippling like ocean waves. She perfectly memorized the vivid golden pentagram floating at its center.
So that she would never forget the target of her vengeance.
...Aurelia.
The girl pulled the trigger.
Just wait. I will come for you.
Rat-tat-tat!
Thunder rained down.
The closed eyelid projected across space might have evaded the thunder, but the physical eye could not.
The golden star burst apart miserably under the gift of the evil god.
After the eye vanished.
Seraphina let out a soft sigh and stared into the empty air.
The sudden drop in emotion after burning so hot washed over her. It was something she would eventually get used to, but not yet.
"Whew..."
Seraphina took a deep breath to organize her thoughts. She calmed her heated mind and assessed the situation coldly.
I drove the eye away for now. But will I be able to do this in the future?
Renatus had said that Aurelia's authority was to steal the sight of others.
Even the eye tearing through space was merely a secondary measure. If her eyes were scattered all across the Continent to begin with, shooting them all down would be impossible. Not to mention the immense divine power backing them.
When the power of Aurelia alone felt this daunting to overcome...
...What if everyone in the Council possesses this kind of power?
Just what would they be capable of? She couldn't even begin to imagine.
Seraphina realized anew how monumental the vengeance she had declared truly was. How impossibly high it loomed for a single girl to achieve.
Ultimately, her thoughts converged on a single point.
I need power. I must receive more power from my God.
The Thunder Staff bestowed by the evil god was undoubtedly an exceptional weapon. A crystallization evolved solely for slaughter. A manifestation of pure malice. Such an item could not be easily found in any other order.
Yet even that was not enough. A single girl could not defeat the massive order of the Great Constellations.
She needed more power. More blessings.
But... how? What on earth do I have to do?
What must she do to please the evil god of another world?
And how could she increase her own strength?
Surprisingly, the girl's dilemma did not last long.
This was because an answer common to all religious orders already existed.
Believers. Believers who worship the evil god.
Believers and faith nourish a constellation. This was the very reason the orders of the Continent exerted so much effort into proselytizing.
The more believers there were, the more power the constellation could wield to intervene.
Of course, the three Great Constellations don't seem to have such restrictions, and the same probably goes for the evil god of another world, but...
Seraphina thought a bit differently. Given the personality of the god she served, wouldn't he actually quite enjoy having followers who worshiped him?
Whether he used their foolish cries as a lullaby, or betrayed their steadfast faith to enjoy the sheer drop of their despair.
He would probably toy with them in one way or another... so it is worth a try.
Having made up her mind, Seraphina moved immediately.
The Council was already aware of her existence. The eye with the golden pentagram had seen her.
Of course, they wouldn't know who Seraphina was or in what context she stood here. A Hunt Down Order wouldn't be issued immediately.
But an investigation would begin. Time was not infinite. She had to gather as much strength as possible in the meantime.
I will spread the faith and gather believers. As quickly as possible.
Seraphina resolved and pressed forward.
An opportunity to achieve her goal arrived sooner than expected. Just a single day later.
After escaping the dungeon and wandering through the forest, Seraphina discovered a village.
"Aaaah!"
"G-Goblins!!!"
"Everyone, evacuate! To the central hall! Hurry, hurry!"
A village under attack by monsters.