Parasite Gods
Sonora whispered into her ear.
“Don’t fall for the Pope’s lies. What he accepted wasn’t me—it was the evil god Balakgas.”
“Then… why did he lock you up?”
“Because I possess the power to reject an evil god’s strength. He wants you, Isabella, to kill me. If you try to kill me, I won’t be able to refuse.”
“I… I would never do something like that.”
“Then leave this place with me. You should be able to undo the lock here.”
“The lock?”
“That thing. That’s what’s imprisoning me.”
Sonora pointed with her finger.
There, something glowed with a dark light.
“A star…”
“A fragment of Ruin. That’s what’s holding me captive. It has the power to devour divinity. When you touch it, you must release every last scrap of divine power.”
Release the divine power.
It meant Isabella would have to abandon the divinity she held as a member of the Knights of the Golden Rule if she wanted to touch that fragment.
Isabella’s pupils trembled.
“Don’t you want to save me?”
“I…”
“Then hurry and release your divine power…”
Riiip!
At that very moment, space tore open, and a massive hand appeared at the same time.
“Guh—guhhk…!”
It seized Sonora by the throat.
“So—Sonora!”
Isabella spun around in shock.
And she saw him.
“Hyunmyeong…?!”
Park Hyunmyeong.
He had clearly been standing right beside her.
Why had he suddenly appeared by tearing through space?
Then the Park Hyunmyeong who had been with her…
Gone?
…He had vanished.
Her thoughts froze for a moment.
What on earth was happening?
“H-how did you… my ‘barrier’…!”
Sonora cried out.
One who tears the barrier and crosses the boundary.
Yet this barrier was imbued with a god’s power.
He had trespassed upon a force that should never be trespassed upon.
Sonora’s—no, the Outer God’s—eyes snapped to the left arm of the man who had appeared so suddenly.
In that instant her eyes filled with utter astonishment.
“W-wait. Th-that power in your left arm… How do you wield His authority?!”
Even if they crawled like dogs, mortals could never tear a god’s barrier.
Only a god of higher rank could accomplish such a thing.
That was why the Goddess’s barrier still remained over the Holy City Adrium even after Ruin’s appearance.
The Goddess’s barrier existed to keep anything evil or petty from entering.
But Outer Gods were different.
Gods from outside.
Omniscient, cosmic beings.
No one knew where they came from.
Some said they had descended from the Heavenly Realm; others claimed they were gods born from ruined worlds.
What was certain was that they were not bound by the ordinary laws of the world—and that the moment they appeared, they sowed even greater chaos.
That was how a petty Outer God had been able to slip inside the Goddess’s barrier and take root in the Holy City.
“Impossible. ‘He’ would never permit a mere human to wield His power…!”
Yet even they had rules of their own.
An Outer God, for instance, could only reveal its existence when the world’s chaos reached a certain threshold and a vessel existed to contain it.
Just as the Outer God had appeared by using Sonora’s empty body as a vessel, so now, using the man before its eyes as a vessel… ‘He’ had appeared.
Moreover, ‘He’ had planted only His authority into the man’s left arm.
That meant the man possessed a vessel large enough to hold ‘Him’, and an overwhelming rank sufficient to wield even that authority.
“Where is the real ‘Sonora’?”
The man’s eyes turned on her.
At the same time the Outer God’s eyes shook with mad intensity.
Simply looking into those eyes made it feel as though her soul would be sucked away—as though the truths of the universe themselves were contained within them.
How could a mortal’s soul be so vast?
The Outer God thought.
All this man possessed was the power dwelling in ‘His’ left arm.
‘He’ was a lofty existence whose name must never be spoken—whose name could not be spoken.
Though the authority in that left arm held the power to tear through and transcend every barrier…
“…Can you truly harm me?”
The Outer God smiled leisurely once more.
If he killed her, the real Sonora would die as well.
And if all he could do was tear the barrier, she was confident she would not lose.
Ssshhh!
Like a ghost, the Outer God’s form turned transparent.
Two enormous wings then burst from the Outer God’s back, free of the hand of the man called Hyunmyeong.
“I have already obtained the Goddess’s authority.”
Whoooosh!
Particles of light poured down.
Sacred, like a benevolent goddess.
An absolute domain that those who wielded the power of light could never invade!
Even beings who possessed divinity—could they dare harm the Goddess of Benevolence?
Humans never tried to leave the Goddess’s embrace.
“Goddess!”
“Protect our Goddess!”
Outside, the noise suddenly swelled.
That very uproar was proof she now held the Goddess’s divine rank.
From the moment Sonora’s body had arrived in the Holy City, every soul within it had begun to fall under the Outer God’s influence.
Now that she had drawn forth the authority, every person in the Holy City would rush to protect their Goddess.
“Kneel. You can never defeat me.”
A smile returned to the lips of the Outer God who had regained her composure.
That man could not defeat her.
To do so he would have to kill Sonora and every last person in the Holy City.
Could he walk that path of carnage?
At that moment—
“So Outer Gods are all parasitic gods, I see.”
The man who had defined her, Park Hyunmyeong, smiled just the same.
Huh.
Parasitic god.
It felt as though she had become a parasite.
Moreover, the Outer God could not understand the smile the man wore.
This was a moment of life and death.
He could never withstand the tidal wave that was about to crash over him.
And yet that composure?
Did he intend to flee using the authority that tears and transcends barriers?
“You said you obtained the Goddess’s authority?”
“I am already the very Goddess you follow and worship.”
The Outer God was already the Goddess.
The vacancy left by the two goddesses.
It had been decided from the instant the Outer God entered the Holy City Adrium and was accepted by the Pope, the highest apostle.
Now, what will you do?
If you kill me, the Goddess Sect will no longer be able to use divine power.
The Goddess Sect will dissolve, and evil will flourish all the more.
The owner of this body will not survive either.
Then he spoke heavily.
“Then I’ll have to take the Goddess’s power first.”
Take it?
There was a flaw in those words.
The Goddess’s power was not something that could be taken.
…Yet before long, the Outer God realized the words were no lie.
Rumbleee!
The ground shook, and something rose above the earth.
“….”
Something massive, steeped in overwhelming darkness.
*