Chapter 445: Heavenly Mandate (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 445: Heavenly Mandate (4)
Isabelle.
The people of the Salamander Continent knew nothing of her true story.
Who she was, how she had lived, and what the one called the Saintess was doing amidst the continent's chaos—it was all a mystery. Having briefly revealed herself during the war with the Kronos Empire, she had fallen into profound contemplation immediately after witnessing the fall of Odelia.
That day, after a long period of prayer, she accepted the reality in her heart: she had to walk a path of thorns.
‘The forces of evil are baring their wicked fangs. Soon, the passage to the Demon Realm will open, and the demons, freed from their constraints by Alexander, will invade this world. The fact that a mere lackey like Alexander could use magic powerful enough to obliterate the capital of Odelia proves this. The time draws near. The dark era that will determine the survival of this world—just as God foretold.’
Her eyes trembled as she stared into the abyss of truth.
Because she knew the dangers lurking in the shadows, she had spared no effort to prevent them. But fate could not be defied. The malice she had barely managed to suppress was now erupting in all directions. The machinations of Alexander and the Demon King to swallow this world were tightening a noose around her neck.
The oracle had stated:
[Thus speaks God: In time, one who acts on God's behalf will appear to resolve the tribulations of this world. But if that moment is missed, the world will never escape the abyss of despair.]
The one who acts on God's behalf.
This was the heavy reality she had to bear.
Unwilling to burden the ignorant with such a harsh truth, Isabelle had to make a choice to thwart the impending conspiracy. In reality, even she could not fathom a true solution. Though blessed by God, her personal power was feeble, and the darkness threatening the world was far too massive for humanity to withstand alone.
She raised her head.
Looking up toward the heavens, she spoke to God.
“From the moment of my birth, I accepted a life lived for this world as my Heavenly Mandate. Once, I believed I could resolve every disaster that befell this land, but I no longer think so. Your servant is but a weak human. It is impossible for me alone to ward off the coming despair. Therefore, I will leave for the Demon Realm. To buy time for humanity—currently entangled in war and chaos—to reorganize their forces, I will risk my life to keep the embers of hope alive.”
She knew it better than anyone.
This choice.
It was nothing short of suicide.
The moment she crossed over into the Demon Realm, returning to the Earthly World would be impossible. The soldiers who followed her would share that doomed fate. Yet, accepting this truth was her Heavenly Mandate. For Isabelle, hailed as the Saintess by the people since her very first breath, no better path came to mind.
No answer came.
And from her past experiences, Isabelle knew this silence was God's will.
Because she was moving in the right direction, God remained silent.
Simply by granting her special power, God had taken on severe constraints, so Isabelle tried her utmost to discern His will on her own. There was no more time to delay. After lingering in the place where God's blessing rested, she stood up and faced the people watching her.
Among them was Leo, the Knight Commander of the Royal Knights.
The man who had stood faithfully by her side through the passing years approached her with a fraught expression.
“...My Queen. Why not return to Arcadia? The oracle always demands your sacrifice, but now that the Kronos Empire has declared a ceasefire, there is no reason for you to remain here.”
“No, I cannot do that.”
She shook her head.
She had already accepted her Heavenly Mandate.
Though this choice would force a bitter sacrifice upon those who followed her, Isabelle had no choice but to reveal the grim reality.
“To obliterate Odelia's capital, Alexander used 9th Circle magic, which belongs to the forbidden realm. This means the worldly constraints have been lifted. That is likely why they waged a continental war despite knowing we would intervene. We are out of time. The moment they achieve their goal through the mass slaughter of humans, there will be no way to stop the darkness from falling upon the continent, even if we borrow God's power.”
That day, Isabelle and her soldiers set out.
It was a noble sacrifice that no one would ever know.
The people of the Salamander Continent remained ignorant of Isabelle's devotion, yet she embarked on her doomed journey regardless.
* * *
Many things happened in the world.
The collapse of Arcadia, the Second Continental War, the death of Alexander, and more.
While time flowed rapidly on the outside, Isabelle and the soldiers who had followed her into the Demon Realm gradually lost all concept of time.
They killed.
They killed, and they killed again.
From the moment they set foot in the Demon Realm, demonic creatures rushed them like ravenous beasts, and Isabelle unleashed her Divine Power to slaughter them. Many conditions were required for the Demon Realm and the Earthly World to connect. With most of those conditions already met—such as a dimensional passage, a dimensional collapse, and rampant chaos in the Earthly World—Isabelle's Divine Power was the only thing preventing the passage from fully forming.
It was a journey soaked in blood.
With each passing day, the number of soldiers dwindled. Drenched in gore, Isabelle felt her very life force draining away.
‘O God.’
She called out to the heavens.
She prayed for the strength to endure.
God pierced through the dark mana to grant her boundless strength, allowing her to hold out against the relentless onslaught of demonic creatures. However, even that reached its limit. Once the 3rd Legion Commander began to move in earnest, her forces were tracked down. They were forced into a desperate, bloody struggle every single day, unable to even sleep.
In the end, she lost all her soldiers.
She and Leo continued the fight alone. They tried desperately not to lose hope, but the moment of absolute despair inevitably arrived.
“Cough!”
Leo hacked up a mouthful of blood.
Demonic corpses were piled like mountains around him, but Isabelle's gaze wasn't fixed on the dead enemies. She only saw the horrific wounds tearing Leo's body apart. Her breath caught in her throat. Seeing even the stalwart Leo reduced to this state, she could no longer suppress her emotional turmoil.
“...This is wrong. You cannot die like this.”
As the Saintess, she had always strived to remain resolute.
Because the people did not view her as a mere mortal, she had wished to be the infallible beacon they desired.
But now, she could not be the Saintess.
Leo was a companion of many years.
From the very moment her life as Isabelle began until now, he had never left her side.
“...My Queen. No, Isabelle.”
Leo's face suddenly regained a sense of peaceful calm.
It was by no means a positive sign.
Terminal Lucidity.
On the absolute verge of death, Leo was burning the last embers of his life force.
“The Isabelle I remember was so tender-hearted. Because people lauded you as a Saintess and looked to you as their sole hope, you always forced yourself to appear strong—even at an age when you should have been throwing tantrums to your parents. My heart always ached for you. Even when you resolved all the problems facing the people of Arcadia, it was never for your own sake.”
He smiled warmly.
All the soldiers, including himself, had known the truth about Isabelle.
Because they knew she wasn't an invincible god, no one had opposed her decision to leave for the Demon Realm. She was trying to sacrifice herself as the Saintess once again. Even knowing that following her meant courting certain death, Leo and the soldiers had wanted to stay by her side until the very end.
It was pure loyalty.
After she had sacrificed so much for humanity, they refused to let her face the devastating cold of dying utterly alone.
“Urgh.”
He spat out another mouthful of blood.
His complexion turning deathly pale once more, Leo looked at Isabelle with hazy, fading eyes.
“My Queen. I only wished for you to be happy. Not as the Saintess, but as the human Isabelle. I am sorry... I could not fulfill that wish for you...”
He could speak no further.
Having struggled to force out those last words, Leo's head fell limp, unable to finish his apology.
It was over.
Everyone was dead.
Isabelle was left entirely alone in the darkness, and she could see no way forward.
“I am sorry, everyone. But to ensure your sacrifices were not in vain, I will not turn away from my reality as the Saintess Isabelle.”
She pushed herself up, heavily leaning on her sword.
She wiped her blood-stained face.
She was going to die.
But even if she died, she would drag down at least one more of them with her.
Some might call it foolish, but this was the life she had chosen as the Saintess Isabelle.
* * *
And now, in the present.
She was completely cornered.
The 3rd Legion Commander had finally appeared before her, and the demonic creatures under his command had driven her to the absolute brink.
Flash!
Rumble!
“Kieeeek!”
“Keek!”
She swept away the shrieking demonic creatures in a single blow.
The Divine Power piercing through the dark clouds was incredibly potent, but even after she obliterated hundreds of monsters, countless more rushed in to fill the void. Her breath grew ragged. Her entire body was in such a battered state that it was hard to find a single uninjured spot, and her blood-soaked hair had long lost its once-brilliant color.
Thud.
Thud, thud.
The world shook.
As the 3rd Legion Commander approached, Isabelle felt a suffocating, overwhelming pressure unlike anything she had ever experienced.
“Human wench. You managed to endure until now thanks to God's favor, but this is a world where divine intervention is not permitted. So, accept reality. We will annihilate you and every other human in the Earthly World. The realm you fought so hard to protect will be reduced to a mere plaything for our amusement.”
The Dimensional Laws.
The demons did not care about such things.
The chaotic phenomena caused by the dimensional collapse were, in fact, the exact future they desired.
It was over.
Staring at the massive, black-tinged monstrosity, Isabelle knew she could hold out no longer.
Suddenly, she remembered Leo's words.
On that day, he had spoken to a struggling Isabelle.
“My Queen. Do not try to shoulder everything. Even if you lay down the heavy burden of the oracle, humanity will somehow find a new path, just as our long history has proven time and time again.”
She had not answered him.
She had only smiled in silence.
Leo believed that Isabelle simply couldn't bear to lay down her burden as the Saintess, but in truth, her feelings were entirely different.
One day, Isabelle had heard the tales of Roman Dmitry.
The life he had lived, the path he had forged, and a strength so fundamentally different from her own. Watching him refuse to bow before Alexander, Isabelle realized that perhaps she was not the protagonist of the oracle. The one who acts on God's behalf. She lacked the power to achieve the purpose God desired. But if it were Roman Dmitry—the man born into a mere barony who had nevertheless achieved impossible feats—it would be possible.
She had looked up at the sky.
She had clasped her hands in prayer and waited for an answer, but God had said nothing.
Only then did she realize the truth.
She was not the protagonist.
She was merely a tool meant to buy time until Roman Dmitry appeared.
But even so, that, too, was her Heavenly Mandate.
She accepted God's will.
Isabelle only wished for her people to be happy.
Even if she wasn't the protagonist of the oracle they hoped for, she wanted to remain true to the life she had lived. That was Isabelle's existence. For someone called a Saintess since birth and universally hailed as the savior of humanity, a life of selfishly thinking only of herself was utterly unimaginable.
Even knowing she was not the protagonist, she had marched into the Demon Realm.
Amidst the splattering blood and agonizing pain, she firmly believed her actions were right.
It was all for the sake of humanity.
She could smile, knowing that even if she fell here, Roman Dmitry would be there to finish the fight.
“...I will at least drag you down to hell with me.”
Rumble!
She channeled every last drop of her Divine Power.
The Demon Realm and the Earthly World.
They were separate dimensions.
She knew that if she drew upon any more of God's power, her mortal body would be destroyed by the backlash of the Dimensional Laws. The Dimensional Laws were not simply established by God. They had been woven into existence by something far older at the dawn of time, and God merely played the role of managing them.
“Insolent creature.”
Thud.
The 3rd Legion Commander stepped forward.
A sinister crimson glow spewed from the eyes of his monstrous face, illuminating his massive, muscular frame.
He gathered his mana.
The dark, undulating energy surged explosively, preparing to clash head-on with Isabelle's divine light.
The situation was on a razor's edge.
It was then.
Flash!
Rumble!
A few dozen paces away.
With a deafening roar, the Boundary of Dimensions suddenly ripped open.
* * *
For a moment, her mind could not process what was happening.
As space fractured and a dimensional gate appeared, Isabelle could only stare, momentarily forgetting the grim reality of her impending death.
And then, she saw him.
Someone who should never have appeared here.
A miracle she had never once dared to imagine.
“H-how are you here...?”
Step, step.
Beyond the Dimensional Rift, Roman Dmitry revealed himself.