The Divine Sea Swallows the Evidence
As Saintess Israfil played her flute, the sky began to ripple.
It was like waves, like swells. The trembling sky gradually took shape, unfolding into an entire scene before their eyes.
"They also call Israfil-nim the Master of the Divine Sea, they do."
Lethe, hands clasped together, gazed up at the sky with a look of rapture.
"The Master of the Divine Sea?"
"Yes."
The sky rippled, and then, astonishingly, began to transform into a vast, boundless ocean.
Ripples spread across the surface everywhere. Fish splashed about, leaping and playing above the water. The divine sea beasts, which bore wings instead of fins, had forms and colors entirely unlike the fish of the continent. Some were enormous, whale-like creatures reminiscent of dolphins.
Splash! Splash!
Shwaaaaaaa.
Everyone stood transfixed, staring up at a spectacle none of them had ever witnessed in their lives — something so avant-garde and overwhelming that it defied description.
The ocean hung in the heavens as if gravity itself had been inverted, and not a single droplet of the leaping spray fell earthward. It was as though two separate worlds were gazing upon each other. Standing there in a daze, one could hardly tell which side was the true ground.
'...Damn it all!'
Raite alone, the only one who knew what was about to happen, was grinding his teeth.
'You intend to wipe out the evidence entirely, is that it!'
Israfil's flute performance surged toward its crescendo.
In the very center of the vast Divine Sea, a great black shadow appeared. The fish that had been swimming so peacefully scattered and fled. And then—
-BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!
A colossal white whale, its size beyond any possible estimate — a body as large as a decent-sized city — leapt from the Divine Sea.
White in color, covered in scales, and bearing countless wings upon its back, the whale passed through the surface, soared past the sky, and began descending toward the ground.
"Lethe!"
The moment Simon threw himself forward, the Sky Whale descending from the Divine Sea swallowed the Blood Heaven Sect's headquarters whole.
KUKWAKWAKWAKWAKWA!
Water and mud sprayed in every direction. The entire sect compound was engulfed in the whale's gaping maw, and the creature, turning about, ascended once more toward the heavens where the Divine Sea waited.
"MY EVIIIIIIDENCE!"
Raite tore at his own hair, fury erupting from him in waves.
The whale made it safely back into the Divine Sea, and by the time everyone who had been crouched on the ground raised their heads, the Blood Heaven Sect headquarters had vanished without a trace.
Bobbity-bobbity.
Before long, bubbles like soap froth came pouring down from the surface of the Divine Sea. The villagers who had been held captive in the headquarters, along with the suffering experimental subjects, were descending to earth, each sealed safely inside a droplet.
When Israfil played her flute once more, the Divine Sea slowly closed, and the sky returned to what it had been.
'...Haha.'
Watching it all, Simon's soul simply left his body.
So a power this monstrous could actually exist in the world.
"Ugh, get off!"
Lethe shoved him away with her palm and wriggled free. Israfil, having wiped out the entire Blood Heaven Sect in a single stroke, was descending to the ground along with the water droplets.
"...Lethe."
"What."
"You said that saintess there is my mother's direct junior, remember? Could my mother use power like that in her prime too?"
Shaking her snow-white hair, Lethe tilted her head.
"The Essence of Saintess changes the type of power it grants depending on the bearer. The Miracle Holy Water inside teacher Anna did go to Saintess Israfil, but I've heard their abilities are different, they are."
"What was my mother's, then?"
"I wasn't around in that generation, so I couldn't rightly say. She was said to be the strongest saintess of her era, though, and if the rumors are to be believed..."
Her voice dropped low.
"They say she didn't open the Divine Sea. She opened heaven itself."
Israfil came down to the ground with her prisoners in tow. The moment the soap bubbles popped, their wounds were already healed, clean and whole.
The Heresy Inquisitors fell to their knees in unison and prostrated themselves.
"We behold the closest daughter of the Goddess!"
Israfil nodded with a smile. Her eyes remained closed — whether because she could not see, or for some other reason entirely.
KWAAAAAAANG!
With everyone else flat on the ground, one man stood alone, towering like a mountain. Raite hurled the cross-blade from his hand to the ground.
The violent gesture split the earth in two and sent landslides rumbling down from the slopes all around.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
He advanced with murderous, heavy footsteps.
'Ugh, Director!'
'This man's about to do something catastrophically stupid.'
Several of his close subordinates raised their heads, watching Raite with anxious eyes.
Snatch!
Raite strode up to Israfil and, before she could even extend her hand herself, seized it and lifted her up. Then, dropping carelessly to one knee, he pressed a kiss to the back of her hand and rose to his feet.
'Wh-what kind of brute force is that?'
He had technically performed the rite, but acting that way before a saintess — a being half-divine — could easily be called insolence.
Yet Israfil simply kept smiling, eyes closed, exactly as she had been.
"It has been a while, Director Raite."
"What is the meaning of this."
Raite growled through gritted teeth. His fury was at a level where laying hands on a saintess right then and there would have surprised no one.
"This was a lawful heresy inquisition, carried out under a properly issued warrant! It was the golden opportunity to drag every backer and every secret behind the Blood Heaven Sect — the organization shaking our very Federation — out into the light!"
She smiled brightly.
"There are no other backers behind the Blood Heaven Sect, you see. The Blood Heaven Sect is simply the Blood Heaven Sect."
"Even so—!"
Blood rose in Raite's neck.
"Opposing the war is one thing, Saintess, but this goes too far! Annihilating the evidence! Obstructing a legitimate investigation—!"
Cutting him off mid-sentence, she turned her head.
"Come out here, Lethe. And your companion as well."
At those words, Lethe and Simon, who had been hiding behind a tree watching for an opening to slip in, leapt out.
"Gratula mi kibilis. We behold the closest daughter of the Goddess."
Lethe, uncharacteristically formal, traced a holy cross and bowed deeply. Simon, catching on, followed the motions as best he could, though his eyes were fixed on Raite the whole time.
'Whoa. That is pure bloodlust. The eyes of a man who'd tear someone apart alive.'
At this point, honestly, it was Israfil who seemed the more impressive one — standing there with perfect composure in front of a man radiating that kind of killing intent.
Having finished her bow and risen, Lethe took the briefcase Simon handed her, stepped forward five paces, bowed once more, and then knelt before the two of them.
"These are the documents that were in the possession of Aloken, Bishop of the Blood Heaven Sect."
She held out the briefcase respectfully with both hands.
"Well done."
Israfil accepted the case with a smile. She had blown the sect's headquarters away — which meant this was now the sole remaining evidence.
"The future of the Holy Federation is looking very bright indeed."
Israfil looked pleased. Her gaze, which had been watching Lethe with evident pride, swept once over Simon as well, standing back behind her.
"What we grown-ups failed to accomplish, these young ones have managed. Their generation holds great promise."
"...Just open the thing already."
Raite snapped, his pride thoroughly bruised. Left to his own desires, he would have burned the documents before they could ever see the light of day — but this was a saintess's presence, and even he could not.
Israfil opened the briefcase and read through the document on top at a glance.
"How very interesting."
In a voice as soft as a spring breeze, she read the contents of the papers aloud, word for word.
"Leak information to the Heresy Inquisition Bureau, and the Director — the war hawk 'Raite' — becomes the first to witness the scene of the incident. Shape public opinion hardline against necromancers, and steer the Holy Federation and the Dark Alliance into war."
With the scheme laid bare so nakedly, Raite's fists clenched tight.
"It's clear now. The Blood Heaven Sect's true objective was to provoke a war between the Holy Federation and the Dark Alliance. And the Director himself very nearly ended up a pawn of the very cult he was hunting. Isn't that right?"
"......"
Raite closed his eyes and cooled his rage.
He could hardly stand there and declare, 'Actually, we were the ones using the Blood Heaven Sect.'
With the saintess having laid eyes on those contents with her own sight, the war had sailed clean out of reach. Insane as Raite might be, as the head of an organization he still bore the duty to accept defeat and minimize the damage to his people.
Israfil had read that reality too, and her tone carried the unspoken message that she would not dig into the Inquisition itself — that this was where it ended.
In the end—
"...Yes."
However much it burned his insides, taking the hand that was offered was the best move available.
"Then you may withdraw, Director."
Folding her hands together with all the grace befitting a saintess, she tilted her head slightly and curved her lips upward.
"I shall report to His Holiness the Pope personally."
"......"
In the end, Raite led his Inquisitors away in a trudge. His steps had lost all their force, but the smoldering expression and the chilling gleam in his eye made it clear enough — he would never, ever give up.
'...One way or another, I've survived another day.'
Watching Raite and the Inquisitors recede into the distance, Simon let out a long breath of relief.
"Rise, Lethe."
Israfil said.
Lethe, still kneeling on the ground, rose slowly to her feet. When Israfil smiled warmly and spread her arms wide, the girl's eyes lit up like stars.
"Israfil-nim!"
Lethe flung herself into her embrace.
It was a breach of etiquette before a half-divine saintess, but the two of them were clearly close even outside of formalities.
Israfil patted her on the back.
"I heard you'd been caught up in a major incident, and I was worried about you, Lethe."
Lethe, face still buried in Israfil's chest, lifted her eyes and pulled a sullen look.
"Really, now?"
"Of course."
"When I told you I was on a train the Blood Heaven Sect had hijacked, all I got was a 'hang in there.' But the second you heard they were trying to start a war, you dropped everything and came running."
"That was because I trusted in your ability, my dear."
Israfil kept her smiling face, eyes still closed. Watching them, Simon caught himself thinking how remarkably convenient an unchanging expression could be.
For a while, there was time spent with Lethe whining and Israfil soothing her.
If Lethe regarded Anna as some absolute idol — something close to her own true mother — then Israfil was more like a warm older sister she'd known since childhood.
"My darling Lethe~ when are you finally going to become a saintess and come play with me?"
Israfil asked, pinching Lethe's cheek. She answered with a grin.
"The day you retire, Israfil-nim! I want the Miracle Holy Water!"
"Blasphemy as casually as breathing, I see! I ought to nail you to a cross~"
"Before that, I'll die dragging every one of your embarrassing old stories into open court."
Israfil laughed out loud, and her gaze shifted to Simon.
"And this would be Lethe's companion?"
"Ah, yes, ma'am!"
Simon answered at rigid attention.
"Thank you for looking after our Lethe and keeping her safe."
"Oh, please, don't mention it! If anything, she's the one looking after me!"
"See that you stay that quiet forever, Lethe."
Simon smiled and bowed his head.
"Yes, I owe her a great deal. It is a tremendous honor to meet such an exalted daughter of the faith."
"Likewise. And your name is?"
"Ska Seraphino, my lady."
Just then, Israfil peeled Lethe off of her. Then, her feet never once touching the ground, she drifted through the air like flowing water and came to a stop in front of Simon.
Suddenly face to face with a saintess, Simon felt tension crash over him in a wave.
"Priest Ska."
"Yes."
"You..."
Her closed eyes opened, and abyssal black irises — dark as the bottomless void — stared straight at him.
"You look so very much like someone I once knew."