Chapter 84 : The Call of the Goddess Religion

At this rate, humanity will be completely destroyed by attacks from demons flowing out of the star’s wounds.

Because demons flowing out of wounds made using primordial starlight can only be eliminated with starlight.

The three goddesses except the goddess of [Beginning] will desire humanity’s complete destruction to escape this throne and return to the flow of the star.

The goddess of [Beginning] had regretted ever since being banished.

[I’m sorry.]

[I’m sorry I couldn’t teach you how to live for tomorrow.]

[I’m sorry I didn’t realize until you were so desperate.]

The goddess of [Beginning] became incomparably weak after tens of thousands of years of solitude. She could only use part of her authority by using the fragments of the world remaining in her body.

The goddess of [Beginning] plucked out both her eyes on the throne where she could only observe the world.

Two brilliantly shining red jewels.

She imbued the two jewels with authority that only the goddess of [Beginning] could handle.

In one jewel, she barely managed to contain a small authority to endlessly turn back time, limited to very small scale targets. In the other, she barely managed to contain a small authority to change the world.

And she hid her heart containing the greatest power in a soul wandering another universe, without the three goddesses knowing.

She hid the jewel containing the power of [Revival] in [Flame], concealing it in the girl with the strongest heart. So that she could convey the contents of the ritual, which the three goddesses would surely distort, to the successor.

She hid the jewel containing the power of [Revelation] in an empty girl born in the land hidden in the sea before the star’s wound appeared. So that she could help the successor while being minimally affected by the curses the three goddesses would scatter.

She hid the heart containing the strongest power of [Deception] in a soul from another universe with a fate strongly drawn to this world. Hoping for someone who could love this world despite being unrelated to the star’s will.

After completing all preparations, the goddess of [Beginning] rose from her seat.

[…]

The power left to the goddess of [Beginning] was too feeble. This was the limit of what she could prepare while evading the eyes of the other three goddesses. If it wasn’t sloppy enough to be easily interfered with, they wouldn’t agree in the first place.

She knew the girl bearing [Revival] might face the goddesses’ endless malice and despair.

She knew the girl bearing [Revelation] might not understand human hearts and lead the successor astray.

[I’m sorry.]

It was the price for not realizing why humanity despaired in the most brilliant age.

The goddess of [Beginning] declared before the three goddesses with her already plucked eyes closed:

[I wish to test before the pus flowing from the star’s wounds destroys humanity.]

It was a lie.

The goddess of [Beginning] desperately wanted humanity to survive more than anyone.

She wanted to at least create a final refuge for them.

[I tear my body into ten thousand pieces and make the four largest fragments apostles to protect the world where humanity will live.]

[They will watch over humanity’s direction from within the hearts of girls bearing the greatest fate, as long as they themselves are not threatened.]

It was a lie.

She had already made [Revelation], the apostle of [Beginning], take root in an empty girl.

She hid [Deception], the successor, in a soul wandering a far universe beyond the reach of the three goddesses’ eyes.

So that [Revival]’s power, having witnessed everything, would awaken earlier than this trial the moment it touched the world.

[The final age when humanity will live under the world’s pus. I will plant goddess fragments in ten thousand girls with the qualities to lead that age and test them.]

[The girl who overcomes all trials will become the goddess of the next age and lead everyone.]

[We must watch over humanity until the cycle when the star returns to the same position after the trial begins. That is the only rule of this trial.]

May the successor meet all arrangements and lead humanity to the final domain while evading the eyes of the three goddesses.

[The name of this ritual is…]

A name that could connect by fate to a soul wandering a distant universe.

<Magical Girl HAZARD>

The goddess of [Beginning] did not know what meaning this name had for that soul.

But she only hoped that name could guide the soul.

[I’m sorry.]

Because her own death was the final means to interfere in this world, the goddess of [Beginning] gave humanity one last chance.

[I’m sorry.]

When the goddess of [Beginning] tore her own body into ten thousand pieces, they became ten thousand seeds growing in the hearts of ten thousand girls. So that they could appear as Glass Stars in the trial that would someday begin.

[I’m sorry.]

Only by choosing to disappear herself could the goddess of [Beginning] return to the humanity she loved as seeds of Glass Stars.

The other three goddesses sitting on thrones declared they would agree to and watch over [Beginning]’s incredibly sloppy trial. They too had weakened after being banished from the star for a long time. So they each threw in a curse into the sloppy trial created by the goddess of [Beginning].

[I will test whether girls do not covet each other’s power by twisting their fates.]

The goddess of [War] cast a curse of struggle.

They must not perish even if they can steal and use each other’s starlight.

[I will test whether girls do not lose their starlight even in trials by twisting their dreams.]

The goddess of [Plague] cast a curse of trials.

They must be able to find their own dreams even if the fates of those with Glass Stars are twisted and filled with sorrow.

[I will test what the world humanity will head towards will be like by twisting the apostles’ world.]

The goddess of [Death] cast a curse on the world.

The apostles except [Revelation] will grow within girls bearing the greatest possibility of destruction. Yet they must be able to protect humanity.

A trial begun by one goddess’s lie and sacrifice.

A trial overseen by three goddesses’ curses and cynicism.

That was the beginning of <Magical Girl HAZARD>.

* * *

“…”

“…”

The story that began in the morning only ended when the sunset began to hang over the horizon beyond the sea. Yuki and I told the Divine Maiden we needed some time to think and came to the edge of the island.

“Hikari.”

“Yes?”

“About the story of… me that you said you saw before coming to this world.”

“Yes.”

“What kind of story was it?”

A witness who only conveys information to the successor.

A role meaningless even at that if the successor already knows the story of this world.

Yuki, who had been hanging her head and unable to say anything since hearing about the meaning of [Revival] from the Divine Maiden, quietly asked me. Her tone was calm, but undisguisable wretchedness seeped through.

“A wonderful story of a scarred girl believing in hope and moving towards tomorrow.”

“…”

“A story so wonderful and meaningful that I could never forget.”

“I see.”

“Yuki.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t worry too much about goddesses and such. What’s important to me is the current Yuki.”

“…Okay. Thank you.”

I watched the sunset side by side with Yuki for a while.

The evening in the Goddess’s Garden was so quiet that I even had the scary imagination of being left in a destroyed world.

‘The goddess of [Beginning] was once omnipotent but didn’t understand human hearts well.’

She only loved, rather than guiding.

Unable to endure that gap, ancient humans abandoned their divinity themselves, wounded the star, and became sinners and mortals. The star’s wounds became demons threatening humanity over tens of thousands of years.

[I’m sorry.]

The single strand of salvation created by the infinitely weakened goddess of [Beginning] was tainted by the curses of the three goddesses. The arrangement left even while bypassing all those curses was only a feeble refuge.

‘I guess the goddess of [Beginning] did her best in her own way. Guiding the first humans to become… magical girls. And preparing detours anticipating interference from the three goddesses.’

What the goddess of [Beginning] didn’t anticipate was that I, the successor from another universe, already knew this world’s story, bringing about results greater than all those things.

In the end, nothing had changed.

All the things so far were a story begun by my own complete will.

And the things I will do from now on are greater than what the goddess of [Beginning] prepared.

“What are you going to do now, Hikari?”

“Well, I do have some things in mind.”

Clink

In my bosom was the silver conch shell handed over by the magical girl of [Revelation].

The key to control the Goddess’s Garden.

‘I’m not going to hide here and just wait for destruction to pass.’

‘If that is the successor’s will.’

Having confirmed that the scale of the best ending I envision and the ending the goddess envisions are different.

I had no intention of unconditionally following her will.

[Revelation] didn’t particularly oppose my intention.

“I don’t intend to do as the goddess wishes. If everything I’ve done so far was entirely my own will, then from now on I’ll save everyone by my own will too.”

I declared proudly, grasping Yuki’s hand.

“Because that’s the way you taught me. Because magical girls are beings who give hope.”

I declared with all my might to Yuki, who had lost her confidence.

“So your journey wasn’t meaningless. Even if it wasn’t the journey prepared by the goddess, I came this far because I heard your story.”

“…Yeah!”

Hearing those words, Yuki finally relaxed her stiff expression and smiled gently as usual.

“By the way, it’s a waste.”

“Yuki, what do you mean? A waste?”

“To think such land was just a refuge to save only a small number of people… If that’s Hikari’s intention, we probably won’t have any use for this island.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hm?”

Yuki turned to look at me, tilting her head. Her hair, slightly damaged at the ends and sticking out, came down with a swish, revealing her white nape.

“A goddess is a goddess, and we should make good use of what’s given.”

“Make good use…?”

Clink

I playfully shook the silver conch shell in front of Yuki’s eyes as I spoke. The sunset glittering on the silver surface of the conch shell made it feel somewhat mischievous.

“If she said she’d entrust it to me, we should use everything – the goddess’s name, the land. She said there are no returns. And I’m going to work [Revelation] really hard too.”

Because she ignored people in trouble, I wouldn’t be satisfied until I worked her so hard that her expressionless face relaxed. I’ll work her until the Divine Maiden makes a sad face and begs me to stop giving her work.

“What are you planning to do? Can you tell me?”

Yuki looked at me warmly as she said that.

“Well, first…”

Yuki and I talked in a quiet corner of the island until the sunset was completely gone and starlight twinkled.

And we decided to carry out the things we decided that day.

The magical girl of [Revelation] shut herself in the lighthouse and silently began the work I ordered. I aimed to create a space even more wonderful than the Sky Garden by fully opening the Goddess’s Garden to various magical girls.

One week later.

I decided to invite UN ambassadors to the Goddess’s Garden to hold an emergency general assembly.

The proposed agenda was the truth about magical girls and recognition of the establishment of a magical girl autonomous state.

They accepted the proposal.