Collision (1)

“Amira, take the attendants and leave.”

Yona spoke in a cold voice while checking that some of the brown wooden floor still remained. Amira, who had been trembling with undisguisable fear at the ominous atmosphere, fled hurriedly at Yona’s words, and the attendants quickly followed suit and disappeared.

Despite the quite spacious audience hall, it was filled with murderous intent. Black demonic energy, not just ominous but grotesque, was welling up from Yona, and Ceres, facing off against her, was smiling ambiguously while emanating blue magical power from both hands.

“I said I would give you my head after everything was over, but if you ask for it so hastily, I can’t give it to you, can I?”

“You’re talking nonsense.”

If Yona were to become the False Celestial Deity, the aftermath was obvious. Yona’s consciousness would disappear, and once the False Celestial Deity residing in her body took possession of Yona’s body, whatever happened afterward, Yona wouldn’t know. So she doesn’t know whether Ceres would give her head as promised or not. From the beginning, such a promise—

“You never intended to keep such a promise anyway.”

Yona smiled coldly. Strangely, her mind was calm. She had thought she might lose her reason to anger when meeting Ceres, but that seemed to have been a needless worry.

Unexpectedly, Yona’s mood wasn’t bad. She didn’t lose her reason to anger towards Ceres, and the emotion she felt looking at Ceres now wasn’t anger in the first place. Rather than anger, it was more of a question that remained.

Why did she do it? Why did Ceres make such a plan? In the end, didn’t she realize that the False Celestial Deity was a necessary existence? Moreover, in Yona’s body now—

‘That’s right. Ceres probably doesn’t know that the False Celestial Deity has already awakened.’

But she had no intention of telling her that. Yona wondered what expression Ceres would make if she told her that the False Celestial Deity had already awakened, was now residing in Yona, and had already taken over her body once. Yona was curious but had no intention of telling her. If Ceres were to do something bizarre again because of that, it would be unpleasant.

“Do you intend to face me alone? Your courage is admirable.”

Yona didn’t respond to Ceres’s clearly provocative words.

She too had something she believed in— at least, those who had been harmed by Ceres should be the ones to strike her down.

Only then would this revenge have legitimacy.

Whooooosh…

A subtle sound of wind.

A bizarre groan carried on that wind.

A hissing sound like a tongue flicking.

“You’ve become quite adept at using Damian’s power. Congratul…”

Ceres stopped mid-sentence.

The demonic energy was revealing its form.

The demonic energy rising from Yona began to create patterns.

The snakes of the Azrami imperial family who died in this audience hall, melted in that bloody foam.

Those snakes were revealing themselves one by one.

That’s what evil spirits are like.

Things that don’t realize their own faults and can’t forget their resentment towards those who killed them.

Things that should be prepared to give up their own lives if they aimed for others’ lives, but have no such preparation anywhere.

Such beings, their souls, were now revealing themselves while being held captive by Yona.

And Ceres, seeing these revealed forms, was glaring at those souls without being able to continue speaking.

“How is it? It’s been a while since you’ve met. Want to say hello?”

Ceres couldn’t answer even to Yona’s words.

She understood roughly, but the shock was not small nonetheless.

She had smelled blood, but she didn’t expect them all to have died like this.

And she hadn’t thought that Yona would have directly killed these Azrami.

“You, did you… really… kill them yourself? The Azrami imperial family?”

Yona grinned at Ceres’s question.

She probably didn’t realize it herself, but Ceres’s voice was trembling finely.

Even though it was she who had made Yona like this, she couldn’t bring herself to believe that Yona had committed such a cruel act.

“Yes. I killed them. All of them. Why, are you surprised?”

The audience hall was covered in dark red mud, glistening with a black and red light.

This place was now Yona’s space.

“You’re insane. You.”

“Insane? I am very, extremely sane.”

Yona’s fingers formed a seal. Unlike Ceres’s magic which required drawing seals with her fingers each time, Yona, who had inherited Damian’s power, was not only very quick in activation, but the evil spirits of the Azrami rising from her had already fully revealed themselves.

Shaaaaa!

Ceres barely retreated from where the vengeful spirits were flying towards.

‘This, crazy…’

The Yona reflected in Ceres’s eyes was not in her right mind.

Well, the Azrami imperial family like this— judging by the number of those vengeful spirits, it wasn’t just one or two, it was literally a number that suggested she had slaughtered all the imperial family members except Amira.

Moreover, the fact that she was directly controlling those vengeful spirits, Ceres couldn’t even imagine how she intended to bear such karma.

Damian, though human, was a being without any humanity, so he could maintain his sanity while bearing so much karma. For a normal human, it’s normal to struggle with bearing the karma of just three or four vengeful spirits, and with such a large number, one couldn’t even maintain sanity. — That would be the case for an ordinary human.

From what she could see now, there seemed to be at least fifty.

While avoiding the vengeful spirits rushing at her and forming seals, Ceres was preoccupied with thinking about how to respond to Yona.

‘…Is there no choice?’

She needs to forcibly insert at least the consciousness of the False Celestial Deity.

To make even a little of the False Celestial Deity dwell in the current Yona, Ceres thought she had to do something now.

But Ceres was trying to come up with a method, not even dreaming that the False Celestial Deity was already residing in Yona.

‘If only I had the Dagger of Destruction, it would have been easier…!’

It’s useless to think about something that’s already gone, something she had already given away,

Ceres finally scattered the seal she was drawing and began to draw a new seal.

Her fingers moved busily, drawing a reversed pentagram.

Drawing a circle, and then a smaller circle inside it, five points of contact touching the inner circle.

And quickly connecting those points with lines completes the pentagram.

As the reversed pentagram began to emit light, Ceres extended her palm towards Yona.

The reversed pentagram, gradually changing from blue light to purple, revealed its shape and began to spin.

“You brought this upon yourself, Miss Yona…!”

Right foot forward, and left foot half a step back.

Ceres, who had firmly balanced her weight with feet shoulder-width apart, pushed her hand into the reversed pentagram.

Immersing her hand in the tightly stretched magical power, Ceres grasped the core of that power and crushed it with all her might.

Paaaaaang—!

With a sharp bursting sound, the core shattered, and the spinning reversed pentagram exploded with its inherent magical power. Following the circuit of the seal Ceres had drawn, the magical power rotated and finally gained directionality, blasting towards Yona with tremendous force—

‘It’s quite useful.’

Yona hadn’t listened to Alevian’s advice in vain. So she knew Ceres was drawing a pentagram but let it pass. Even if she overpowered Ceres here and now, Yona would also be harmed, and moreover, this was the imperial palace of the Katus Empire, so if a big fight broke out and Ceres were to die, that would also become a big problem.

At least, she didn’t want to cause any more damage to Amira than this. Amira hadn’t really done anything wrong, had she? Even while thinking that her own soft-heartedness was a problem, Yona asked Alevian for a way to subdue Ceres with minimal damage to the palace, and after a moment’s thought, Alevian slowly opened his mouth.

In that case, Ceres will likely charge with great force at once. So…

No sooner had she thought of this than a giant leaped down in front of her.

With a thudding landing sound, the giant stood in front of Yona, holding a large shield that reflected the red light around them.

“Alec, please.”

“Saintess, trust me.”

Yes, my knight.

Alec probably didn’t hear Yona’s murmur, but as soon as her words ended, he gripped his shield again.

The magical bullet of the reversed pentagram flying towards Yona struck Alec’s front.

It wasn’t large, about the size of an adult’s head, a flame ball that any decent mage could use.

Alec glared at the trajectory of the approaching magic with both eyes, and finally, when it was about to reach him—

Clang!

Alec received the magical bullet with his shield, which had been oiled heavily, wiped repeatedly, and polished to a shine.

It was a somewhat unconventional response to counter the magical bullet with a shield that was essentially a lump of iron, but Alec had the shield technique to make it possible, and at this moment, he proved it.

The magical bullet deflected by the shield changed its trajectory and flew into the darkness created by Yona, scattering flashes of light.

Eventually, the magical bullet that hit the ceiling was absorbed into the dark curtain and disappeared without leaving a trace.

Thud!

The floor dented and shook as Alec took a powerful step forward.

As Alec’s footprint was deeply imprinted on the sunken ground, black cross patterns rose around him with a booming sound — and began to fly around Alec.

Every time Yona muttered an incantation, black crosses appeared around Alec.

Like the buffs that appear around cathedral knights going into holy war, Yona sprinkled buffs towards her knight, enveloping him with protection.

“Here I go, Ceres.”

“—I’m not at a level where I need to be addressed so casually by you.”

“Alec, go!”

With Yona’s sharp shout, Alec began to dash towards Ceres.

Dark red demonic energy rose like smoke from the hammer in his hand, and demonic energy was also flowing from Alec’s mouth as he ran with heavy footsteps.

“I didn’t expect you to have created a knight as well. Indeed, I thought you were going to face me alone, but you had something you believed in.”

Ceres crossed her arms and drew a seal. There wasn’t time to draw it out long, so every time she drew a seal, purple spears appeared from the circular formation that spread out.

In Yona’s space, dimly lit with red light in the darkness, magical spears shone with a vivid purple light.

Those spears were aimed at Alec, and Alec continued his charge towards Ceres while glaring at the tips of those spears.

Every time Ceres took a step, seals were drawn from her toes.

The number of magical spears kept increasing, and now the spears, taut as if drawn on a bowstring, instantly rushed through the air towards Alec.

The black cross patterns that had been floating around Alec’s body suddenly spread out, enveloping his surroundings.

The cross patterns blocked Alec’s front as if to intercept the incoming magical spears, and finally, the magical spears collided with the cross patterns.