episode_0276

A dark, cold, yet vast space of space whose volume cannot be measured. Shining stars sparsely filling that space. Akasha suddenly couldn’t stop sighing.

“Ugh….”

There may be some stars that existed naturally, but it makes me feel uncomfortable to think that a significant number of them were created by Stella.

“Why are you sighing all of a sudden?”

“It’s because it’s stuffy.”

Akasha sighed even more deeply towards Stella, who seemed to appreciate her sighing.

“He is indeed my lifelong nemesis. I had no idea it would be this tight.”

“It’s so embarrassing that I’ve become your lifelong nemesis. Aside from that, the last thing I want to say is.”

It was difficult for Stella to estimate Akasha’s power in her own way. Obviously, in the past when he faced Akasha, he won by a landslide in every case, but now the situation was incredibly intense.

It is fortunate that her personality does not allow her to be buried in past results and belittle her opponents, but Akasha’s current achievements have soared to the point where she can tear her opponents to pieces before they even realize it.

‘It’s a lot more annoying than I thought. It’s magic mixed with faith…’

Stella also had experience living as a god for quite a long time, but this was the first time she had experienced the combination of magic and faith. It’s natural.

Only beings from another dimension could become a god by receiving faith, and magic was a science and concept unique to this dimension.

Since the two qualities that could not intersect in the first place became one due to the Irregular called Akasha, no one could have predicted its power.

“Quukkeut.”

And the person using it was also the one who couldn’t predict it. Akasha could not help but be surprised by the magic she had recently used, which seemed to have no ‘limits’, unlike the magic she usually used.

In figurative terms, it could be said to be like giving wings to a tiger, but this time, the metaphor feels inferior. This was the result of having faith in a dragon rather than a tiger’s wings.

Magic uses mana as a catalyst to create a magic formula and manifest it as a phenomenon. It is an extremely mathematical and sensuous discipline.

However, when faith was added to the catalyst, it became possible to crush most things into one ‘hope’.

In other words, Akasha’s current inaction is ‘the art of immediately causing the phenomenon she wants as much as her magic allows.’

Stella’s divine power, which is the result of her faith, is also the power to achieve what she desires in a comprehensive sense, but in Akasha’s case, its effectiveness was different in that she became the subject of her faith.

And the most important thing that cannot be ignored is the fact that Akasha is a dragon. In the first place, if we put faith aside and compare, dragons, the pinnacle of living creatures, had nothing to lose to beings from another dimension.

“Phew….”

Stella took a breath once again and created a star. The large mass and energy itself became a vicious and destructive weapon.

However, Stella’s seemingly absolute power could not cause any damage when Akasha prayed for ‘safety’ through magic.

Akasha, who initially destroyed Stella’s planet herself, has now realized that prioritizing her own preservation is the most effective.

No matter how much faith you mix, the essence is magic and that means it requires the consumption of mana. And no matter how dragons are, they do not have infinite mana.

In other words, the reason the two could not compete was entirely due to the total amount of Akasha’s magic power and faith. The amount of mana and faith that must be consumed to wish for Stella’s rise is an amount that Akasha cannot handle, so the two end up having a meaningless confrontation.

The reason Akasha can leisurely observe the stars in the universe is because this tug-of-war shows no signs of ending.

‘Of course it can’t be like this forever.’

It is true that praying for safety was the most efficient way to consume mana and faith, but it was a wasteful resource anyway. Therefore, they both knew that if things continued like this, the tide would turn towards Stella.

‘What on earth are you planning?’

This was what confused Stella’s mind. From her perspective, no matter how much she thought about it, there was no reason for Akasha to be dragging her feet now.

‘There’s definitely something there.’

The Akasha that Stella knew was never someone who moved without thinking. Even in a history that has been bumped into and broken several times so far, Akasha has always had something to take with her.

In most cases, the only thing they wanted was information, but they stole other people’s faith, went up to outer space where gods live, committed murder of gods, and even stole their faith. Are they doing this again just to get information?

Stella’s answer was ‘absolutely no’.

‘There’s a trick… I have to figure it out.’

The problem was that Stella had no way of finding out. Since the attack didn’t work in the first place, no threats or negotiations were made, and even if they did talk, they would only end up with meaningless complaints like before.

The fact that they only talked about it in the first place meant that Akasha would not give Stella even a single bit of information.

In the end, draining Akasha’s faith and mana just a little more like this was the best Stella could do right now.

‘What a disaster.’

For a moment, the thought of simply using overwhelming faith to drive out the faith mixed with Akasha’s magic and create a star to reduce Akasha to a handful of ashes crossed her mind, but she could not put it into action.

This was because the anxiety that something irreparable might happen if she did so tickled the back of her head. Stella, who had never lost this sense since long ago, had no choice but to be self-respecting.

‘It’s definitely because of the scheme he’s hiding.’

“Stella?”

Stella reacted sharply to Akasha, who suddenly spoke to her without any hesitation.

“What is it?”

“I’m asking just in case, but aren’t I making a big mistake? Time is on your side.”

“Time is not on anyone’s side.”

“No, it’s okay. I was wondering if you were under the illusion that my side would be at a disadvantage if we continued to face off like this.”

Stella blinked her eyes once at those words. I was actually thinking that and then I heard something like that, so it was quite a successful facial expression management.

“That’s enough. After using this new tool a few times, I am now confident that I will never be killed by you. Unless you’re spewing out massive amounts of faith.”

Stella questioned whether Akasha was also thinking about what she was thinking.

“What if I would do that?”

“You can’t do it. I know the essence of your faith. Isn’t the concept of divine power spreading throughout the underworld itself your faith? The faith you wasted on me will become a burden on humanity. To the extent that the priests of the church are temporarily unable to use their divine powers.”

“That’s speculation.”

“It is a reasonable inference. I don’t know how you figured it out, but I guess that’s actually why you’re keeping me alive. As you said, I have already cooperated with forces that humanity cannot resist without divine power.”

Only then did Stella figure out the identity that gave her chills. If he had forced his faith and killed Akasha, he would have lost the means to resist when the demons attacked the underworld.

“You were putting your life in the balance. I could have left everything to Prinia and killed you.”

“That’s impossible. No matter how much Prinia flies and crawls, it cannot handle the re-invading demons.”

“Why do you think that?”

“After that guy created something absurd called ‘the end of the world,’ the cause and effect itself that could interfere with the underworld disappeared, unless he borrowed a tree or something. Maybe you didn’t even understand that much? Why do you think I’ve been showing myself to you all this time and getting beaten up?”

“…….”

“The reason why Prinia is not showing up right now is probably because she is trying to close the hole in the space that I have created a lot. Unless the main body comes in person, they will be busy blocking the passage with trees or something like that.”

“Okay. Why are you keeping quiet until now and then suddenly speaking so softly?”

“Didn’t I say it before? I’m now confident that you won’t be able to kill me anymore.”

As soon as Akasha finished speaking, Stella realized what he was going to do next and ran away. Sure enough, Akasha began to run away, just as Stella had expected.

“Stand there…!”

“Kkeuk! Please follow me as much as you like. I would be grateful if you would kill the gods in the aftermath of their attacks on me.”

Akasha ignored Stella and planned to rob other gods of their faith.