Chapter 76
Chapter 76
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: S2. A Grudge Brushing Against the Stars -7
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Tara glared at Isaac with eyes boiling over with rage. She had one last thing she wanted to ask—something she simply couldn't comprehend.
"Why... why did you do that to Abraham... to your own father?"
"Why? What are you talking about?"
"Killing your family... and then desecrating their deaths like that—how could you commit such a horrific act without a shred of hesitation?!"
Isaac spoke as if gently chiding her.
"There's no need to be bound by something as trivial as family, Tara."
"...What?"
"Ten years? Or was it twenty?"
"......"
"Even at best, Abraham would have died within thirty years. Trapped in that frail human flesh. Buried in the earth, his flesh would decompose soon enough, leaving only bones to rot away. After a century, his body would crumble to dust, scattered to the winds, and no one would remember his name."
Her eyes shifted as if journeying through endless ages. Humans lived fleeting lives of less than a century before dying, leaving behind traces that vanished into nothingness. The larger the scale of time, the more futile and meaningless human struggles became.
"What's the point of striving or grieving for things destined to vanish someday? In the end, only the Great One endures eternally in the cosmos."
Dozens, hundreds of billions of years from now—the annihilation of all that had been prepared.
To a servant of the evil god who had traversed the universe and history alongside it, everything appeared as worthless shades of gray.
"I just can't fathom why you're so worked up over a family bond that's worth less than dust."
"Isaac—!!"
"Even if you do cherish family, there's no need to get angry, Tara. Your father's soul will remain by His side forever. Until the universe itself ends. It will endure for an eternity. It was regrettable that he had to suffer... but I even feel a sense of pride."
The wicked saintess who had glimpsed the outer god in the night sky and delved ever deeper into its mysteries clasped her hands at her chest and spoke with devout reverence.
Gazing upon her, the girl who had been chosen by mere chance, granted power by coincidence—and who would soon no longer be a saintess—recalled Abraham and their shared days. She remembered the old man's warm smile and the way he had lived his life for others until the very end.
Then, clenching her fists tightly, she declared.
"If you have no idea how valuable what you discarded truly is... then I'll ram it straight into that thick skull of yours—!!"
With Tara's shout, the battle began.
"I beheld His traces from the stars. Even a puny human mind couldn't fully contain them... but I felt the connection to Him."
Crrrack. Spliiit.
Space trembled with an ominous shudder, fractures spiderwebbing behind Isaac before shattering open. From the widening rifts, semi-transparent orbs forced their way through.
Vrrrroooom—!
Entities that warped and decayed time and space into dust merely by existing—a minuscule fragment of the evil god. Three bubbles the size of a person, traversing spacetime itself.
They bobbed gently, swirling around Isaac in lazy orbits. Bathed in starlight at their center, she danced as she introduced herself.
"I am Isaac, the saintess of the Silver Twilight Church."
"—Dodge!"
"...!!"
Tara hurled herself aside on instinct. The bubbles, which had seemed sluggish at first glance, rocketed forward in an instant, cleanly erasing the ground where she had stood.
The cross-section of the resulting pit was flawlessly smooth. If it struck a person, they would vanish from the world without even a scream.
Bennett swallowed hard. One failed parry, and that would be his fate.
"Offer up the sacrifices! So that He may take even a sliver of pleasure from them!"
Isaac swept her hand through the air with that cry, and the fanatics drew ritual daggers from within their robes. They intended to slaughter the civilians and funnel the gathered power to their saintess—but at that moment...
"Looks like you're underestimating what a saintess really is...!"
Tara thrust her cross forward, channeling holy power. A golden radiance flickered into being around her.
"Sure, it was just luck that I got this power. But you need to understand what it means to be hailed and revered as a saintess for that alone."
Borrowing magic power from the goddess. That meant...
Uhua—or feathering—was a technique born from dyeing one's soul in conviction, manifesting as a unique magical energy emitted by the mutated soul. In that case, holy power, which borrowed that 'unique magical energy' directly from a god...
...meant one could borrow the goddess's own uhua.
Clank. Grind. Thud.
A colossal cogwheel materialized behind Tara, accompanied by the grinding of interlocking gears. Markers appeared above the heads of everyone except the fanatics.
"This is...?!"
"Doesn't matter—offer the sacrifices now!"
The fanatics lunged at the citizens with their daggers, but the blades merely scraped against tough leather, leaving shallow scratches. Even those wounds were swiftly enveloped in golden light and healed.
"The knives aren't cutting!"
"We have to offer the sacrifices...!"
Unlimited healing and protection for all allies within range, including the civilians. To thwart the fanatics' burnt offerings, Tara had deployed the perfect counter: rendering all living sacrifices unkillable.
"Area-wide healing and boosted resistances...?"
[They won't be able to offer sacrifices easily. But we can't block Isaac's space-carving power.]
"That's enough. It's our turn now...!"
Bennett charged straight at Isaac, rapidly closing the distance, while Niore unleashed spells from behind to keep her pinned.
Skreeeech, whiiiiiir—!
With the eerie incantation, a crimson spiral lance—twisted like writhing meat—hurtled toward Isaac. She flicked a finger, sending one of the orbiting bubbles forward.
The lance vanished upon contact with the bubble, evaporating into nothingness.
[The attack...!]
"Those space-carving bubbles serve as both offense and defense...!"
Vrrrroooom—!
A bubble streaked toward Bennett. In the midst of his charge to close the gap, he was forced to swerve away from the ground-erasing threat.
Three bubbles encircled Isaac. She was using two for defense and one for attack.
Projectiles were devoured, approaches were repelled, and even if one got close, a single solid hit meant death.
To pierce this seamless offense-defense formation, they had no choice but to force an opening.
Shraaaatter!
Walls of bone and flesh erupted around Isaac in multiple layers, blocking her line of sight to Bennett and Niore.
"Trifling spells like this—I can just erase them with His power...!"
Isaac spun two bubbles clockwise. Wherever they touched, the walls dissolved like eraser strokes, clearing her vision. In that fleeting moment, Bennett burst from her blind spot.
The two bubbles had been spent clearing obstacles, leaving just one hovering near Isaac. It launched straight at Bennett.
Vrrrroooom—!
Staring down the approaching space-warping bubble, Bennett steadied his breathing with calm precision.
This was a far more enhanced form than the spells of ordinary fanatics. The parrying difficulty—and the risks of failure—were exponentially higher. But he had to succeed. It was the only way to land a sword strike.
As he entered a state of ultimate focus, the world slowed to a crawl.
Air was sucked into the bubble, creating a void that pulled with vacuum force. Stray strands of hair fluttered toward it.
If there was one advantage her bubbles had over the fanatics' spells from the defender's perspective, it was their sharply defined contours. Unlike the semi-transparent distortions of lesser spells, these space-carvers appeared pitch-black.
He calculated the trajectory and angled his blade carefully against the bubble's surface.
A bone sprouted at his feet, conveying Niore's message: 27, 49, 6. A sequence indicating the precise position and timing for the parry.
Up close, the bubble's immense power stung his skin like needles. He could feel the certainty that mere contact would erase everything. It was like thrusting his head into a dragon's maw.
Tense, but without panic.
He wedged the spell into the crevice of space. For a brief instant, the bubble's trajectory bent just as calculated—but...
Crrrack, crrrraaack.
The space expansion spell buckled under the overwhelming output, shrieking in protest. It hadn't deviated enough yet. If it barreled through like this, he wouldn't die, but his right arm would be neatly severed.
That was when...
Tara's spell bolstered the deficient durability. A hound's head formed over Bennett's blade. It pressed against the bubble, shoving back. He felt an immense weight, like pushing a mountain.
Grinding his teeth, holding his breath, channeling every ounce of strength into a defiant upward swing of his longsword.
Screeeeech──!
With a bizarre screech, the bubble rocketed skyward. At the same moment, Tara's spell shattered, scattering golden particles.
Beyond it loomed Isaac, eyes wide in shock. She could never have imagined the power of her revered Great One being repelled by a mere human.
Utterly defenseless.
Whish—!
"Fall into hell—!"
Bennett's blade carved a diagonal slash from Isaac's shoulder to her hip.
"......"
Yet there was no sensation of severing flesh. No resistance at his fingertips. It felt like slicing through empty air.
Thoom—!
As Bennett grasped the situation and swung again, an intangible shockwave erupted, hurling him backward.