381. Consecration
381. Consecration
- 1 -
During Shue's Transcendence Ritual, bloody water had overflowed throughout the entire world.
During Saya's, countless lightning bolts had filled the sky and struck down.
I had watched it all. From the safest place.
Anticipating the third was not difficult.
... It was just quieter than expected. To a dreadful degree.
Kang!
Another nameless crown fell.
Before my eyes, an endless staircase stretched out.
At the bottom of those stairs, countless graves were arrayed. Graves of those someone had killed for me.
Those who had been assisting with the ritual were nowhere to be seen.
During the first two, there had at least been others around.
This time... it was just the two of us.
Cheolkeok. Cheolkeok.
The one climbing the high stairs was Evangeline, a blue cloak draped over her shoulders.
The end of the cloak, so large it dragged along the stairs rather than merely brushing her feet, became stained with ash every time it touched the steps.
But her head never once turned back; she looked only to the top of the stairs.
Only at me.
Kagak. Kagak.
In one hand, she held a long sword as tall as her own height.
If one could call it 'holding,' that is—with the blade tip pointed downward, dragging it haphazardly along the stairs.
It was the complete opposite of how she usually polished and maintained it, without so much as a speck of dust or a single scratch.
Like a pilgrim who had cast aside her most precious possession and walked the path of truth.
Now, in this moment.
Only one thing mattered to her.
"..."
I was seated upon a high throne.
Around me, the shattered thrones of others lay scattered, and only my throne at the center remained intact in form.
They were the traces of the kings she had killed and broken for my sake.
Seated there, I silently looked down upon my knight.
Sarak.
I swept my hair back behind me and surveyed my surroundings.
An inner world blanketing the entire area through the Transcendence Ritual.
In Evangeline's inner world, there was only me and her, utterly.
In this moment alone, even my other close aides and her comrades were all secondary.
Her world. At its center, only I existed.
Ddubeok. Ddubeok.
The same fleeting moment passed over and over.
When I closed my eyes and opened them, Evangeline had already ascended dozens of steps.
It repeated again and again.
It was her pure will to shorten the time her master had to wait.
Kang!
Having drawn near to me, she first threw her sword to the floor.
Then she shed the heavy cloak, and one by one, she cast off the armor she wore.
Pauldrons, breastplate, gauntlets... everything that had protected her fell to the floor with a clatter.
Of her armor, only the boots remained, but even they vanished like dust.
As if armor was no longer needed on the path to her master.
Chararak!
The chainmail and leather inner armor fell clamorously to the floor.
Every scrap of clothing she wore turned to dust and disappeared, piece by piece.
And at last, upon her body as she stood before me.
There was nothing.
"Master."
"Eve."
Without any concern for her own nudity, she knelt before me.
There was no shame whatsoever. Only absolute trust in me and total devotion.
Her body was, in itself, living art.
Full breasts that maintained their resilience even without support.
A waist that traced an elegant curve even without being cinched.
And yet, befitting a knight who had roamed battlefields, firm and solid muscles further accentuated that beauty.
It was a body I had seen countless times already, and held countless times as well.
Sarak.
I rose from my seat.
The dress that had covered my body slipped loose, and long black hair took its place.
The sensation of hair brushing against my skin was vivid.
- 2 -
The Master rose from her seat.
Following her movement, long black hair naturally veiled her body.
That image was more beautiful than any goddess dwelling in the heavens, more enchanting than any dream demon of the abyss, and more majestic than any monarch of this world.
Seureureung.
She picked up the sword that stood beside the throne.
One side was a blade of true silver, adorned with white silver and blue gold.
The other side was a blade that absorbed all light, adorned with dark iron and red gold.
A sword of duality, just like me.
A sword symbolizing the master who contained my everything and offered her everything in return.
I bowed my head reverently.
The Master raised that sword and placed it upon my head.
"A Rite of Lord and Vassal, performed in bare flesh."
A low yet clear, and sweet, voice seeped into my ears.
"How brazen. Just like you always are."
Flinch.
Desperately suppressing the shudder that ran through my entire body at that voice, I felt an immense power slowly filling my interior.
The ritual being performed in reality, outside the inner world, was forging a new vessel within me.
"But, including even that..."
The pinnacle of this ritual was now.
"...is what makes you the Evangeline I love."
I skillfully suppressed the impulse.
The urge to offer my everything.
The passion to leap up, crying my Master's name, kiss her feet, and swear eternal love and loyalty.
Now was not the time.
"I'll be counting on you, going forward too."
In the most casual of tones, the Master touched the sword to both of my shoulders in turn.
"Eve."
Upon my head, a laurel crown had been placed before I knew it.
A crown made of shadow, yet shining more brilliantly than any jewel.
The end of the Transcendence Ritual.
When I closed my eyes and opened them, the surrounding scenery had already returned to that of reality.
- 3 -
The Kiza-Hinnes Front.
- Kill them — !!
- Do not fall back!!
There, the Allied Forces, comprised of more than half demonkind, clashed fiercely against the Holy War Army, composed purely of humans.
The Allied Forces with their demonic elements were slightly outnumbered, but the tide of battle seemed favorable to them.
That was because ogres and trolls several times larger than humans stood firm at the vanguard like a fortress wall.
"Goddamn it, those monster bastards! They won't be pushed back!"
"Fire arrows! Pour magic on them!"
But the battle was flowing in a strangely peculiar direction.
"These bastards, for some reason they aren't fighting aggressively!!"
The Allied ogres focused more on protecting their allies with massive shields than on attacking.
The blades of the orc soldiers might shatter enemy armor, but they did not dig deep into flesh.
"Hey, those bastards are just taking hits—is this really okay...!"
"Shut up! Demon beasts are the enemy! Just kill them!"
The Holy War Army felt doubt at the Allied Forces' passive offensive, but that doubt was swept away and vanished beneath the outdated dogma that 'demon beasts are humanity's enemy' and fanatical rage.
The Holy War Army charged in a frenzy, and the Allied Forces held them back, strangely reluctant to inflict casualties.
Even so, the battle was fierce.
The numbers were not that far apart, and in a battlefield like this, if the combatants were individuals of a low enough level to be fighting as common soldiers, the demon beast side had a far greater advantage.
Then, that incident occurred.
Tututung — !!
Kukung — !!
The sky darkened.
"Ballista!!!"
"What the! Where were those shot from!"
"It's our side! Our side fired! Crazy!"
The battlefield was thrown into chaos.
Several ballista rounds fired from the Holy War Army's rear traced a parabola and fell into the very center of the battlefield.
It was an army that had only recently assembled. And a terrible mistake born from the absence of communication.
The consequences of that mistake would have been catastrophic.
If no one had stopped them.
"We!!! Will — block — them — !!"
A shout echoed across the battlefield.
A thunderous resolve to protect the comrades behind them burst forth.
Ogres and trolls, and other demon beasts with massive bodies, all converged on a single spot at once.
Kwang! Kwakwang!!
Gathering in twos and threes, they propped up enormous iron plates—dubious whether they could even be called shields—and blocked the massive spears and boulders falling from the sky.
The ballista rounds they blocked were deflected into the sky by the Allied mages, and the ballista rounds that burst in the air scattered highly toxic fumes and flames into the void.
Immediately after that explosion, a strange lull settled over the front lines.
"You lunatics! Where the hell are you aiming!!"
"I don't want to die hit by my own side! Dammit!"
"Do not fall back!! Do not fall back!!"
"Who the hell are you to give orders!!"
The Holy War Army's morale plummeted.
A schism between those retreating and those trying to keep fighting. They began to mill about in confusion, blaming one another.
Esther did not miss that moment.
"Now is the time! Expand the gains! Secure as many prisoners as possible!"
"But that will mean some of our people will get badly hurt, Your Excellency!"
"The monks and priests have already rushed forward! Quickly!"
The first battle ended in victory for the Allied Forces.
It was no ordinary victory.
It was a great victory, securing numerous prisoners with minimal casualties.
- 4 -
The first engagement was over.
"Aargh...! My arm! My arm!"
"Quit exaggerating! Who told you to block a ballista with your body? Were you dying to get yourself killed?"
"Wh-who else was there! There were elven archers behind me!"
"You were all supposed to go together and set up shields to block it! Did you forget everything you learned in training?"
On one side of the field tents, Allied healers and clergy were clustered around badly injured ogre soldiers, treating them.
Fortunately, their bodies possessed the capacity to endure injuries that would be irreversible for ordinary beings.
"Get moving over there. Quietly."
"I'm going, I'm going! Goodness, so impatient...."
"Count yourself lucky it's just this much. My friend got badly hurt blocking your lunatic sword-swinging."
On the other side, the Holy War Army prisoners captured in this battle were being herded into one area.
"..."
Esther was silently looking down upon the entire situation from the highest hill on the position.
"What's the Saintess doing, just standing still?"
"Shh. Her just standing there like that is better. Hey, you. Haven't you heard about the sick people who got up from their beds after holding the Saintess's hand?"
"Wasn't that just a rumor?"
"No, man. The Saintesses' power is real. It's not for nothing that the imperial and royal families go crazy trying to obtain the bloodline of someone who was a Saintess."
Merely by standing in place, she amplified the mana of friendly beings around her, made wounds heal faster, and boosted morale.
Originally a being called the living blessing of the Celestial Religion, a walking spirit meridian.
A Saintess's existence was, in itself, the most powerful weapon on a battlefield.
"Look over there...."
"...Orcs, trolls are bowing to the Saintess... is this really reality?"
One of the captured Holy War Army soldiers unconsciously muttered.
His face, lost in a daze, was comical, but the Allied soldier escorting him did not mock him.
Because he, too, had memories of being the same way.
"You people were trying to kill those kinds of 'people.'"
He simply said that.
Esther's blessing did not discriminate between humans and demonkind.
She was demonstrating, with her own body, the possibility of a new era—harmony and coexistence between demonkind and humanity.
Into the cracks of faith thus created, the Sun Church burrowed deep.
"「We wish to unfold our hearts. O Sun. Care for the shaded places.」"
As clergy reciting the new prayer walked about and extended their hands, the injured were restored regardless of friend or foe.
At the touch of a Sun Church priest healing his wounds, one Holy War Army soldier merely wore a blank expression.
Esther continued to survey the sight of the encampment with a composed face.
And quietly, she knelt upon that ground.
'Master.'
The wind blew.
Her platinum-blonde hair, freed from her helmet, fluttered beautifully.
'Were you watching...? We have won.'
The prayer was directed not to a goddess, but to a single person.
- You have labored greatly. My Saintess.
It was a prayer to which an answer always returned immediately.