Chapter 640
"I am the proof that that so-called goddess is a fake, Lete."
Lete thought he was being ridiculous.
A necromancer who wielded the power of Darkness, clad in holiness, wearing holy undead armor—standing before a wavering Saint and declaring that he was the standard of faith.
That boy was a fool.
It almost seemed more believable that the giant was the real Dave, given the strange and overwhelming power he radiated.
Yet, as if a lie, her heart felt at ease.
A man who walked the boundary between priest and necromancer. She didn’t know why, but the goddess had promised him such strength.
—Unless the goddess herself reveals, humans cannot know the goddess.
That was the teaching of Professor ‘Rahol’ of Efnelle. The goddess was a being who transcended human reason and understanding, and could never be fully grasped by mortal thought. That was Lete’s faith.
But what stood before her now was—
A god forged from human thought. A god made so that humans could believe in it.
At last, Lete stood upright.
The irony of a necromancer becoming the measure of faith.
And yet, with that boy in his pure-white cloak fighting by her side, she felt certain her resolve would not waver.
“Enough with the stubbornness.”
She spoke brusquely, unwilling to admit her own feelings, but the boy only gave her a gentle smile.
[How amusing, human.]
The voice of Ever Kire resounded.
[I thought the power to distort and reveal belonged to me alone.]
“No.”
Simon raised the Greatsword of Destruction.
“My power is real. Neither distorted nor fabricated.”
Chuhk!
He leveled its tip at the distant goddess’ neck.
“Don’t lump me in with you. Fake.”
[You dare to blaspheme me? This world itself is the reality, the truth! And soon, it shall truly become so!]
Ever Kire’s ability could turn distortions into actual events.
What they were seeing was not yet ‘reality’. It was another future, branching off like a divergent path.
Only those directly caught in it, the people inside the arena, were affected so far.
But if Ever Kire’s plan succeeded, the impact would spread beyond to all others. Roke Island would collapse, and the false goddess would descend into reality.
Before that could happen—
“I’ll stop it.”
Once again, the battle resumed. Simon stomped down hard and shot forward.
His target—the goddess’ neck, far beyond the island.
“Simon!”
Lete caught up and shouted.
“Your legs won’t reach that far! Ride!”
“Ride what?”
With a sweep of her hand, a white magic circle bloomed. From within burst a sleek, smooth-bodied white dragon.
It was ‘Ran’, Lete’s contracted Divine Beast, her strongest under her major in Divine Beastology.
“Ran!”
—Kyarrng!
Though the cry was still youthful, the body had grown immense. Before Simon could even mount, Ran lowered its head, hoisting him up.
“You’ve gotten so big!”
—Kyarrrng!
As Simon patted its head, Ran showed delight. From the tail, Lete shouted:
“Hold on tight!”
Whoooooooosh!
The white dragon soared like a trail of starlight. The sheer speed and rushing winds made it hard to keep their senses. Everywhere Ran flew, pure-white streaks were left behind.
[Mortals must not challenge the gods!]
The goddess raised her arms, and around her appeared the stars of Lete’s power.
“Tch.”
Lete clicked her tongue.
“She dares reproduce my ability without even the Saint’s essence.”
“That’s not all.”
Simon pointed below.
Across Roke Island, stalks of grain began rising. That was the power of the Saint of Harvest.
“It seems that false god can absorb every kind of holy authority and make it her own.”
If that entity became reality and absorbed all of the continent’s white magic.
She would truly reign as a god.
“Living a lifetime forced to believe in such a grotesque god?”
Lete stretched her hand back.
“I refuse to live like that.”
“Then we must defeat her here.”
The goddess’ offensive began. Starlight burst around them, and countless comets, leaving long tails, rained toward Simon, Lete, and Ran.
“Fake authority!”
Lete thrust her hand forward, summoning comets of her own from behind.
The two stellar barrages collided.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!
“Kh…!”
Simon grit his teeth. The blinding flashes threatened to burn his eyes, the deafening blasts to tear his eardrums.
“Ran!”
—Kyarrurrrng!
The white dragon’s sacred breath obliterated comets that pierced through.
“Simon! Take care of the ones above!”
“Got it!”
Simon swung the Greatsword of Destruction. With a slash that cleaved the sky, descending comets split with a shriek and plunged into the sea.
‘Just a little more!’
They pushed through the meteor storm, closing the distance.
But halfway there, the goddess doubled the number of stars.
“There’s too many!”
The endless lights around her were merciless. Could they possibly break through?
“It’s done!”
Lete revealed her trump card. A constellation-shaped magic circle glowed in her palm.
“W-what’s done?”
“Prepare to become a star!”
She slapped her glowing palm onto Simon’s back.
“Go!”
“W-wait, what are you—”
Simon’s body was engulfed in starlight.
And then—
─────────!
He was launched as a blazing comet.
A sudden spatial leap.
The goddess’ other stars missed him by a hair’s breadth. As Simon regained clarity—
‘Ah!’
The goddess was right before his eyes. His lips curled into a grin.
“Nice!”
Flames burst in his mind. He shed the holy light, returning to necromancer form.
The white mantle turned to shadow-black, Feer’s skull blazed with dark light.
The Core roared, flooding his entire body with Darkness.
His nerves surged, mind ablaze—optimized once more as a necromancer.
‘Through space itself!’
He accelerated midair, aiming for the goddess before him.
‘The sensation of cleaving apart!’
Srring!
The Ancient Undead’s strength was greatest in necromancer form. His strike carved from shoulder down through abdomen, and white blood spurted in fountains.
KIIIIIIIIIIIII!
The goddess’ shriek was more monster than divine.
[The target is too massive, boy!]
Feer’s voice echoed in his head.
[You can’t completely sever her!]
‘But I’m landing blows! Let’s push harder!’
Simon condensed Darkness into the greatsword and spun, firing it behind him. The blast propelled him forward.
Tuh-up!
His feet slammed against the goddess’ sloped abdomen. From the mountain-like body, two colossal eyes glared down, with Ever Kire’s visage faintly overlapped.
‘I will bring you down!’
Simon stepped off Darkness and leapt upward. Comets streaked at him, but he twisted and evaded.
Yet—
‘She’s too big!’
Her fortress-sized form showed no sign of closing distance.
[Above, boy!]
Simon looked up.
A palm the size of a world descended, warping space itself as it fell.
Simon immediately pushed power into the tips of his toes and vaulted upward, stepping off the goddess’ body.
Fwoooosh!
A gale howled as the goddess’ palm swept across, grazing her own body on the way down.
While Simon was suspended midair, unable to evade, a rain of comets descended toward him.
<Simon Follentia’s Original – Royal Guard>
He was ready.
Simon flung bones from his chest. Emerald-like phosphorescence flashed, and two skeletons formed, clamping onto his back.
<Royal Guard – Flight Mode>
With Cloud’s propulsion, he shot upward instantly, evading the comets.
[Kuhahahaha! Indeed, a fine combination!]
Simon kept swinging the Greatsword of Destruction, carving into the goddess with slash after slash as he ascended.
“I can do this!”
Her body became covered in innumerable cuts. In his trance-like state, Simon clenched his teeth, eyes locked on the goddess’ head.
He was almost there.
He could even see Ever Kire.
“I can—!”
Drrrrrrr!
Suddenly.
Simon felt space distort, just like when he first arrived.
His body was hurled backward, the surroundings stretched and warped like kneaded dough.
He couldn’t react.
The goddess’ palm struck him squarely. Simon reached out desperately toward her ever-receding form.
‘I was almost there…!’
[Boy!!]
Feer darted behind him instantly, while the Royal Guard’s Bone Armor abandoned flight to plaster itself onto Simon’s body for protection.
Kuuuuuuuuung!
His body was flung back and crashed into the ruined Roke Island.
KWAANG!
Kudududuk!
Crack!
Kwadadadadadang!
Simon’s body bounced violently across the ground, bones scattering with every impact. Dust rose as he tumbled madly, vision spinning.
And then—his consciousness was cut off.
“Ah!”
Simon’s eyes snapped open.
Above, a sky red as blood.
Stars pouring down like the end times, thunderbolts striking unceasingly.
His vision was hazy, the stench of burning filled the air.
‘Did… we lose?’
Had Ever Kire’s fabricated world finally become reality?
Had he failed to prevent the tragedy?
As the final moments returned to his mind, Simon bolted upright.
‘No, the battle isn’t over yet!’
In the distance, he spotted a white-haired girl still fighting.
“Haaaah!”
Her arms raised high, she was hurling down stars.
The goddess, too, was casting stars upon Roke Island.
All across the island, fields of grain swayed—the power of the Saint of Harvest. Grains of wheat, shaped into holy essence, floated upward and streamed toward the goddess.
At least Lete is still holding out.
There was no time to remain fallen.
Simon forced his trembling, restrained body to rise. With a brittle crack, the bones bracing his waist shattered apart.
Suddenly, he came to his senses and shouted:
“Feer!”
There lay Feer, his body scattered in fragments of bone.
[Khhhrhh! Do not worry, boy. This much will recover with time!]
Half-buried in earth, Feer’s skull blinked faintly, his voice crackling.
“I’m sorry, Feer! Because of me…!”
Feer chuckled.
[Forget apologies—think what you can do now!]
“……”
Simon nodded, eyes sweeping around.
Feer was broken, the Greatsword of Destruction nowhere to be found. In this warped reality, subspace wouldn’t open, nor could he call Prince.
Could he really defeat Ever Kire and the goddess like this?
KWA-KWAKWAKWANG!
Kuuuuung!
Lete was faltering, her authority overwhelmed. The star barrages hammered Roke Island relentlessly. At this rate, she would be struck down first.
‘What should I do? How…’
Cough! Cough!
A dry cough rang nearby.
Someone was alive.
Simon rushed toward the sound.
“Ah!”
A petite, short-haired girl in a black uniform—
Sasha.
“Sasha!”
She lay under collapsed beams, coughing amidst the stadium wreckage. Simon raised Darkness to sweep the debris aside.
Thankfully, her Keyzen uniform had spared her from serious injury.
“Are you alright?”
“…Ah.”
But then—
“Ah! Ah! Aaaaah! AAAAAAH!”
Her state was not normal. Her body convulsed violently, then suddenly lifted into the air.
“Aaaaaaah!”
From her unconscious form burst streams of Darkness.
A textbook case of Darkness Divergence—her entire body on the verge of collapse. And at the end of the darkness, a faint white vapor flowed.
It was unmistakably—
‘Holiness?’
Simon’s mouth fell open.
He knew this holiness. The very same he had felt from the Saint of Harvest.
‘Why does Sasha… ah!’
He understood at once. The Saint’s essence that had escaped Ever Kire’s body, wandering this warped world, had chosen Sasha as its next vessel.
‘Of all people! Even if no priest was suitable nearby, to choose Sasha…!’
For Sasha, this was the second time being chosen by a Saint’s essence. Whether necromancer or priest, she truly bore great talent.
Simon wasn’t too shocked; after all, his own mother Anna had once suffered similarly after inheriting a second Saint’s essence.
“Ghhhk!”
Blood gushed from Sasha’s mouth. Left unchecked, she would die.
Just like back then.
Simon remembered the moment when Sasha had first gone berserk with the Saint’s essence and he had taken it into himself.
‘I’ll do it again.’
With the Legion Commander’s power unusable and the Royal Guard exhausted, it was his only option.
Desperately, Simon grasped Sasha’s hand.
“!”
The world around him shifted.
All sound vanished, the world turned pure white.
An empty void.
And then—
[Who are you.]
A wary woman’s voice rang out.
[How did you enter here?]
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters