Chapter 207
Chapter 207
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 207
Chapter Title: Goddess Analysis -4
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Combat is a battle of time.
It's about using your time efficiently while wasting your enemy's, rolling a snowball of advantage until you seize victory. Against a deified foe, you have to be even more precise.
Even though we have a deified powerhouse on our side, the enemy is borrowing power straight from the goddess herself. With the effects of that 『Cogwheel: Freeze』 still unknown, I have several options.
Simply put, attack or defend.
Chop off their head before they pull any bullshit.
Or take the hit, analyze the effect, and counter.
Is this goddess deification offensive or defensive? Maybe a debuff spreader? Or a brutal counterattack type?
Crackle, crackle. Crystalline ice, vivid as fresh frost, was still creeping along the fabric of space. I could feel the biting chill from the visuals alone. Time was ticking.
At that crossroads...
"Hey, what the hell is that ability?"
"Why do you think I'd know?"
"You've been acting like you do since earlier."
I chose to ask Evil God-chan, who seemed like she knew.
She opened her mouth readily, as if happy to answer. I'd figured she'd dodge it twice, but she was surprisingly straightforward.
"I don't know exactly. My memories aren't complete."
"Ugh."
"...Give me back 93%! Anyway, the goddess wants to maintain the status quo. 'Eternal silence.' That's for sure. So I remember all her abilities being draggy and boring."
"'Eternal silence,' huh..."
This was the second glimpse of the goddess's deification. Previously, Tara had used 『Cogwheel: Homeostasis』 in the session, and now 『Cogwheel: Freeze』 was active right in front of us.
Homeostasis had provided unlimited healing and protection over a wide area.
I'd taken it as an AoE buff and heal from a game, but focusing on status quo maintenance... it might revert targets to their state at cast time.
Literal recovery—rewinding to a prior state.
If so, the high priest's 『Cogwheel: Freeze』 was probably less about bludgeoning with ice and more about locking things in place, immobilizing them.
High chance it's defensive.
Then I have to strike now. Before the guard fully solidifies. I committed to firepower projection.
"Go, Evil God-chan! Rush in and smash!"
"...I was gonna anyway, so don't order me!"
Evil God-chan kicked off the ground and charged.
Crunch, cruuunch.
Mid-charge, she roughly yanked out the dragon scales sprouting from her arms. Red blood flowed, but she now had a handful of sturdy, handy daggers. And—
Shwick!
She hurled them with exquisite speed, scattering scales everywhere. It was prime use of the intel I'd planted for her role as Hee Young-hyun in the wuxia session.
"Gah!"
"Grahhh!"
The priests blocking the way with scriptures and maces screamed as scales embedded in their bodies. The human defensive line wavered.
Some scales targeted the high priest's vitals, but—
A massive golden shield appeared, blocking the scales. A divine spell Tara had used in the session—high cost, as I recalled. But it held firm.
I began chanting behind it, extending mana like spider silk. But it wouldn't penetrate around the high priest. It froze solid like iced streams.
Wide-area mana freeze... Is that 『Cogwheel: Freeze』?
A skill designed to kill mages. Pure defense outperforms Roderus's mana materialization. But it has weaknesses. Two, actually.
One, the freeze radius expands gradually. Still crackling outward like blue branches, but not fast.
Two, outside the radius, you can spam spells freely.
High priest's plan: Hold out with divine magic until freeze engulfs everything. Ours: Smash it before then.
Magic Tower Master's power would make it easy, but—
"...Erase it?"
"Give me a bit more time. I want to extract info first."
Yuna's beam would wipe any lootable data, so I'd handle it without borrowing power for now.
Switch targets. Not the high priest—regular priests prostrating at the altar.
Sly mana drilled through their mental barriers, then gripped their pulsing minds, hooking in.
Pop. Locked tight. A twitch of my fingers tugged the taut line, like a firmly reeled fishing rod. The channel was connected.
Not like goblin-hunting days. Yuna boosted my brain capacity, and the Yuri rescue op leveled me up.
Inject malicious info, then—
"Cry out your faith and move. Kill your false prophet—show your repentance and belief!"
Squeeze. Fist clenched, I yanked them all at once.
Screeech!
"Guh, grrraaahhh!!"
"My head, my head hurts... Heretic? I'm the heretic...?!"
Priests clutched their heads, staggering, then flipped their eyes back one by one, losing reason. Even those wounded by Evil God-chan's scales.
I showed them visions of the goddess sternly rebuking them. Sorrow at their worship of a fake, their souls doomed to hell unsaved.
Repent now, do what's right, and she'd forgive mercifully.
To earn salvation, they charged the high priest.
"Repentance! I'll repent, Goddesssss! I was tricked by that fake!"
"I'm not a heretic! I'm not a heretic, aaagh!!"
Humans lost to blind murderous rage look more beast than man. They threw their whole zombie bodies at him, desperate for even a scratch.
Pounding the barrier, clawing with breaking nails if unarmed. With such sturdy reinforcements, Evil God-chan griped.
"Damn it, you idiot! These guys are in the way!"
"Brainwashing... Illusion mage? If your faith was as unshakeable as the earth, cheap illusions wouldn't sway you. Disappointing."
A chill flashed in the high priest's eyes.
Both Evil God-chan and I read the attack prelude from him.
Golden dust converged into three spears. Two at me, one at Evil God-chan.
Whiiiish!
I scattered chaff. Illusions smeared visual-audio targeting, spawning lookalikes of me.
While I Where's Waldo'd the meta dodge, Evil God-chan used brainwashed priests as shields.
"Told ya wandering helmetless is dangerous. See? Using the brainwashed pals effectively!"
"...Shut up!"
Mana blocked, so physical it is. But physical damage blocked by divine shield. If I were Red or Gold Tower, I'd stack with rock Gatling. But illusion-only means find a bypass.
The clue came earlier. When Evil God-chan threw scales, priest summoned shield. Scales were outside Freeze target.
Considering Evil God-chan's info-based lifeform nature, a gap appears.
Compress malicious info into holograms, materialize as brittle black daggers—but direct illusion hit on strike.
Dagger-shaped scrolls. Multiples.
I scattered info-daggers everywhere. Manipulated brainwashed priests to grab them, charge. Shouted—
"Hee Young-hyun! Myriad Plum Blossoms!"
"...You found another trick, you—!"
Evil God-chan charged eagerly. High priest looked deeply troubled.
"Not an illusion mage...? Or dual-studied Violet and Gold Towers? That jack-of-all-trades crap won't reach mastery...?!"
Misread it. He took the info-daggers as Gold Tower formation magic. Makes sense—no one's heard of physical illusions.
Thanks to holing up in Violet Tower and Academy. My name and powers unknown lets me stab like this nine times outta ten.
Ten controlled priests rush and stab. High priest repels with divine spells, inflicts damage—but instant-killing suicidal humans ain't easy.
Especially weak-offense divine magic.
In the chaos, Evil God-chan deep-breathed into a dance. Kicked fallen info-daggers airborne, caught, spun, hurled.
Caught bounced shards mid-jump, repaired realtime, rehurled. Body traced circles, daggers flew everywhere.
How not call that dance? Short of true Myriad Plum Blossoms, but ace throwing.
And—
"Guh—?! Urp..."
A blind-spot dagger grazed the high priest's cheek. Malicious info seeped in. Eyes spun, hand clamped mouth, retching began.
It landed.
Loaded it with ten rollercoasters' worth of vertigo. Like being shaken in a giant bottle.
Disrupted focus makes blocking daggers harder. Momentum shifted our way. Whittle down slow.
"Still weaker effect than expected...?"
"You—I'm! Trying! Hard! To throw! You do—something! More!"
"If you hustle alone, we win! I'm covering backup from rear—hunt hard. Fighting!"
"Hey—!!"
High priest's face twisted.
Thought he'd win? Probably. With goddess deification. We hadn't even summoned deification's headliner.
Realm gap means auto-win? Look at me—no deification needed to be badass.
That flashy ultimate? Don't even need it!
"...How, without deification. Damn, the goddess... is useless after all! My faith wasn't wrong. If the broken goddess lacks power, I'll take hers—!!"
High priest grabbed the golden chalice. Queen's info-liquid sloshed. Evil God-chan freaked.
"Don't drink iiiit—!!"
Gulp, glug.
Downed it.
Shame hit crit on her, but pointless thrashing. Ingesting queen remnants won't suddenly deify or unlock powers.
At best, ego clash turns him vegetable. I waited leisurely. Once he breaks, rummage brain for info—
"Damn, should've blocked it, idiot!!"
"What...? Nah, drinking that won't trigger anything."
"The goddess will sense my afterscent! I'm blacklisted, so she'll erase it!"
Sense it? Erase?
Click.
Click click.
Spine chilled. Like coolant flooded my marrow. Where? What's happening?
The sky.
Before we acted. The sky appeared. Underground facility, yet we saw blue sky.
"...『Divine Punishment』!"
A light pillar descended from the heavens. Onto the high priest.
KABOOOM!!
Ceiling and floor melted, superheated air blasted shockwave. Gust hurled me back; lighter Tower Master and Evil God-chan floated airborne.
"Wha, whoa?!"
"Told ya to block it, I told ya!!"
"Fuck, say so earlier, moron—! Tower Master, grab her!"
First, hugged nearby Tower Master tight, jumped to snag airborne Evil God-chan's ankle. Radiance lit the whole basement.
Divine power's low offense? True, but.
Like focused sunlight melts steel, overwhelming density/mass divine power annihilated all. High priest vaporized traceless in the light.
Yet the pillar continued, long after he was gone. Like 'that thing's' fragment demanded total dustless erasure from this world.
Luckily, Evil God-chan wasn't targeted. No signs of barrage our way. Despite proximity, undetected.
My head hosts a 'that thing' lump, yet unscanned.
Only direct 'that thing' manifestation in deification radius gets seen? Goddess narrowed detection tight. We're safe for now.
Then, a reckless idea flashed.
If 『Divine Punishment』 is goddess-sent, the pillar links direct to her. Climb it, read info...?
Ankled Evil God-chan as anchor to Yuna, pushed against gale step by step.
"What're you doing, idiot?!"
"...Can't leave empty-handed!"
Yuna protested from behind.
"D-don't. Dangerous! Y-you'll get hurt!"
Might get singed. But I saw goddess clearly hostile to 'that thing'.
The benevolent granter of divine power despite my shit-talk now blasts this overkill at a mere ping.
That sparks hope. Grasp goddess, weaponize against 'that thing'. Excise it fully from my head? Doable.
Then—
Happy end. No weird risks, just bliss eternal with Yuna and Yuri!
Reached pillar.
Deification canceled with caster dead; pillar thinned. Checked angles—no detection.
No blind plunge triggering second beam on my skull.
Deep breath, plunged hand into heat mass.
"Ah, hot..."
Sizzle. Clothes burned off, skin slowly melted. As expected—not that hostile. Instant-melt on priest felt balmy to me.
Relatively. Burning hand screamed agony realtime.
Poured mana. Rode pillar skyward. Like upstreaming raging waterfall.
Overclocked brain. Triple-braided mana for penetration, probed divine pillar weak points, shortest path. Computed per particle.
Working. Somehow...!
Shoved deeper—forearm, shoulder.
"Nngh..."
Sizzle. Roasting meat stench spread, skin charred to reveal muscle fibers. Touched it.
Vast, encrypted info clump in incomprehensible tongue. Too massive—even outline untouchable. Full read? Decade minimum.
So partial. Rip the weakest bit. Show secrets. Any hint to infer you.
A bit more—what's it mean?
Just a little, forward—
"Gah!"
Yank. Hood pulled, neck choked, dragged back—I tumbled from the pillar.
Looked up: Evil God-chan, arms crossed, foot-tapping. Why interfere? She held up two fingers.
Folded one, pointed at my arm.
Gruesome. Bone peeking. Deeper would've sanded left arm.
Folded second, pointed beside me.
"......"
Yuna stared, silently crying. Told not to, but fried arm anyway—hurt, wronged, sulking hard.
Should soothe now, but no time. Brain fully assembling info haul.
That ominous. Too scary for optimism. Goddess
Damage rate. Purge.
Maybe I've glimpsed impending catastrophe.