The Saintess Awakens (7)
BANG! BANG!
Deafening explosions ripped through the air one after another, loud enough to split eardrums. Benjamin had no idea what was going on. All he could tell was that the acrid stench of scorched powder mixed with the mouthwatering smell of meat cooking—no, no, no! The smell of a god cooking—no! That wasn't it either. Something had just detonated, that much he knew.
He had no clue what Isaac was actually doing, but there was no doubt whatsoever that this brat was causing a catastrophe.
And oh, he understood perfectly well that this child was committing an act of unfilial treachery beyond all answer!
In the end, Benjamin could only press a hand to his forehead.
"…Isaac. What, in the name of everything, are you doing?"
"Ah, don't open your eyes yet! You mustn't see this!"
"You don't even call me uncle anymore…"
"Your eyeballs will fry from the heat!"
"I am your uncle, you brat…"
At that, Isaac patted him soothingly, as if that were the whole reason he was sulking.
"The face value's all yours anyway, Uncle! Nobody's going to look at you as a parent—staying young is a good thing!"
"Isaac… that is not the occasion for that particular remark…"
"So don't go thinking about dying, alright? Live. Yeah?"
"After raising you, I couldn't die even if I wanted to!! You insufferable brat!!" Benjamin finally snapped, the veins standing out on his neck. "Don't you dare commit unfilial acts on your father's behalf!"
"Relax! Grandpa knows perfectly well how well I treat him!"
Benjamin clutched his head as though gripped by illness.
How on earth did this creature come out of that brother and that sister-in-law??
Well—it didn't matter now. As the commotion died down around them, Benjamin asked wearily:
"May I open my eyes yet?"
"Yeah, should be fine now."
Isaac dusted off his hands. He'd covered Benjamin's eyes in the first place on the excuse that the higher-tier fire magic might singe his eyeballs—but the real reason was something else entirely.
I can't let him catch me using magic.
Not that Benjamin, a Rank 0 defective, could feel mana anyway—but even the most useless clod would find it strange if flames went off right in front of his face, wouldn't he?
Right on cue, Benjamin opened his eyes and screamed. Right before him, an eel—no, a god—hung charred pitch-black in midair, drifting… What?! What was that, and how?!
The roar of a lion burst from Benjamin's foaming mouth.
"Isaac! What have you DONE!!"
"Ah, it caught fire all on its own."
"Does that even make sense?! Tell me the truth!"
"Ah, well, actually, I was making grilled eel and gave it a light sear."
What in the—?!
Benjamin's mouth flapped open and shut at this sin crying out for divine punishment, but Isaac only chuckled. Puh-heh.
The magic this body can currently manage is roughly 8th tier.
And 8th-tier fire magic? Against a human, it would flash-evaporate every drop of moisture in the body and melt them down to the bone. Of course, that still wasn't enough to burn a god.
So he'd condensed the dragon's mana into his rattle and layered it on for extra punch.
That was how he'd sweet-talked Sapien out of her mana, and to guarantee the effect, he'd deliberately seared the thing from the inside out.
Granted, compared to the Skeleton King's hellfire, it's barely a campfire…
But when you seared a god's own supreme-tier divinity straight into its internal organs, it was going to hurt like absolute hell.
No need to feel sorry for it.
If anything, it had this coming. All it had to do was quietly trigger the awakening. What was all this "living sacrifice" nonsense?
Isaac frowned and laid a hand on the god's tail.
Just as I thought.
Sensing it directly, he could now confirm it with certainty.
The living sacrifice has nothing to do with awakening.
Yes. The awakening mechanism itself just boils down to regurgitating an awakening stone. The sacrifice was never necessary.
[!]
In plain terms: the thing could draw power without devouring anyone, yet it had demanded living offerings purely as a delicacy.
Which means it stopped being a god ages ago.
Anyway, once he stripped out its internal organs, he could finish the awakening here exactly to his own taste…
The moment Isaac's fingers began to wiggle, Benjamin recoiled in horror.
"A priest killing a god is forbidden! You'll be punished!"
"No punishment. And I'm not going to kill it. I'm just going to strip out the innards."
…Isn't that somehow worse?!
But then—
KUGUGUNG!
"!"
The god everyone had assumed was finished rose to its feet.
As the god hauled itself upright with a rumble, Isaac arched his eyebrows in exaggerated surprise and settled into a wary stance.
"Well, look at you. You've been stuffing yourself with living sacrifices all this time, and it actually made you stronger, huh?"
"!"
"What the hell are you talking about, you—?"
The god sneered down at Isaac.
"!"
At the god's words, Isaac rolled his eyes around in his sockets. So it comes to this, huh.
Well. Fine.
That was, in truth, the flaw of this sigil.
He had contracted with the Supreme God—but the mark itself was territory the Supreme God had staked out on its own initiative. As a warning, it was absolutely effective in its own right, but Isaac couldn't yet draw on the Supreme God's power.
In a word: against a maddened moron so far gone that warnings simply didn't register, the mark meant nothing.
So Isaac scratched at his head and let out a long sigh.
Aaahhh, I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. Nothing for it, then.
Whisper swept the surroundings with a worried gaze.
Yes, yes, I know. But magic isn't only about smashing things to pieces. Puh-heh.
Then it happened.
The God of Awakening lunged with murderous ferocity—and Isaac, as if he'd been waiting for exactly this, charged out to meet it.
TEONG!
The god's violent movements unleashed waves of blinding light that swept the area. Everyone nearby shrieked and shielded their faces.
"Kghk! A barrier!"
The god had thrown up a barrier to isolate Isaac—but with mana loaded into one hand, Isaac only tipped his head back and laughed, thrilled.
"The brat's laying down a smoke screen for me all on its own!"
"Isaac!"
"Benjamin, eyes shut!"
At last, as Isaac launched himself at the god, the light in his eyes changed. His pupils warped into something like demon eyes, and his magic core churned violently in response.
Pure mana drawn straight from the Skeleton King's magic core—not something gathered and stored on the outside.
DUUUM!
That mana surged along his magical vessels, rising from the world of the unconscious into the world of awareness, and pooled in Isaac's hand.
As though the very truths of the cosmos were converging into a single point, the creation of a spell was wrought within Isaac's palm.
"You're the one who's dying."
Isaac used the crashing waves as stepping stones and hurled himself at the god's torso. And the instant that body and his hand drew close—
⟨ Advent of the Dead ⟩
TEEEONG!
Isaac's hand slammed down onto the god's flesh.
And then, something astonishing happened.
From the point where his palm touched, the god's body began to rot at terrifying speed.
The living, made dead. Holiness, made filth. The glorious light that belonged to a god—the ashes of ruin that belonged to the master of death.
The god's very essence had begun transforming into that of the undead.
The god shuddered, utterly flustered. It clearly could not comprehend what was happening to it.
And understandably so—because this power of death…!
The God of Awakening froze solid.
Then, perched at last upon the god's face, Isaac smiled a smile that crawled down the spine.
"You're nothing but a lower god, after all."
[…!!]
"How dare you bare your fangs—at me, of all beings."
As Isaac leapt down into the sea, the god thrashed in unbearable agony.
Its holy power drained away. Its sanity followed.
It was becoming one of the dead—the legions of the Immortal King.
This was the power to turn one's enemy undead: the authority of a Lord of the Dead. A magic unique to the Skeleton King, one that turned the very curse laid upon him against his enemies.
The power was certain—but so was the price.
And sure enough—
"Bwaaarrgh!"
"Isaac!!"
Isaac vomited blood in a steady stream, and Benjamin rushed over in alarm.
"Isaac, are you alright!"
Shit… this is exactly why I wanted to end it without resorting to my own power.
For this body, whose magic still sat at roughly the 8th tier, the strain was far too great.
But well—this would be more than enough to shut the throat of one measly lower god for good. He'd even converted it to undead from the inside out, quietly, so nothing would show.
Yet a god was still a god. Even as it warped into the Skeleton King's wraith, it flailed in a final struggle.
The god summoned its last reserves of strength and hurled itself at Isaac. This time it wasn't merely trying to devour him—it meant to tear his body apart.
Isaac gasped for breath.
That bastard had eaten living sacrifices, so it was pointlessly durable.
The spell's already been cast, so all I have to do is hold out—but will the timing hold?
Just then, Benjamin threw himself in front of his nephew, shielding Isaac with his own body.
At that sight, turmoil broke out where Eli stood as well.
"What just happened? What did Isaac Eshua do that a god would—!"
They were too far away to see clearly. If even the cardinals couldn't sense the energies at work, the ordinary priests couldn't have begun to guess what was unfolding.
But Eli, head of the Blue faith, intuited the truth at once.
This feeling… it's black magic.
There was no escaping those eyes. And yet, even so, he could roughly piece it together.
What is supreme-tier divine art to mortals is mere magic to gods—so the boy must have bent his mind along those lines.
But if things went wrong, Isaac could well be punished for the sin of attacking a god.
Granted, the god had tried to devour Isaac—someone who was never a designated sacrifice—so it had violated the covenant itself, and that side had no leg to stand on. Which was precisely why that side would rather pray for Isaac to die at the god's hands.
And from a priest's standpoint, too, a cleric who attacked a god deserved to be left to divine punishment. Under normal circumstances, Eli, as a cardinal, ought to have handed the matter over to the god's judgment.
Then the god closed in, jaws wide enough to rip Isaac's and Benjamin's throats out.
Eli moved at that very instant. Just as Benjamin dragged Isaac into a protective embrace—
BOOOM!!!
"!!"
Blue lightning poured down from the heavens.
A supremely potent anti-demon holy art clamped the god's throat shut.
At last, its breath severed, the dragon staggered and plunged into the lake.
SPLASH!
Water sprayed high and rained back down, and Benjamin stared, stunned, at Eli—the man who had felled a god.
"Father…!"
"Are you hurt."
"…Father, this is…"
Eli knew exactly what his son was about to say, and said nothing.
The truth was, Eli had intended to abandon everything the moment the god descended. As one who served the divine, defying a god was simply unthinkable.
But was this thing truly a god?
Which of the two was the greater sin?
"Father, this is a god."
At last Eli spoke, gazing down at the fallen god.
"No. This thing is no god."
"…What?"
"This thing is nothing but an eel whelp."
Benjamin stared at his father in shock—and Isaac, still retching, managed one parting remark.
"Ugh, dammit… you stole my finishing blow."