Ch.1123One Step More, Forward

I knew it.

No, I had known it.

Just as Astraea had been watching me through the Stigmata of Astraea she left on me, Elpinel had been watching me through Durandal.

…Well, actually, I’m not the only one being watched.

She’s watching Lacy, Perlien, Demian, and perhaps even Duke Valdemar. She must be incredibly busy voyeuring so many people.

Too busy to even speak a word to her saint, to her sharpest sword.

…So, I don’t really need to care about it on my end.

O celestial Elpinel, if you so desire to voyeur the mortal realm, go ahead and watch to your heart’s content.

“…Your divine core. I think I’m starting to figure out where you’ve hidden it.”

Once again, my sword will kill a god.

—-

【 With such a thing, with such a flame, you think you can destroy me, ME…! 】

Invidius, burning away in the flames of Heaven’s Wall.

Perhaps attempting one last struggle, he shattered the ground beneath his feet and hid deep underground, away from the eyes of heaven.

“Hiding underground? Ha, that might have worked before the fire caught, but what good will it do now?”

Without hesitation, I jumped into the massive hole Invidius had created to pursue him.

There was no reason to hesitate.

If he had attacked from deep underground from the beginning, it might have been different, but with his entire body already on fire, how could hiding underground extinguish those flames?

If by some chance he could extinguish the flames underground, he might at least avoid them reigniting, which would have some meaning…

But would that really be so easy?

Even Varnir Freyus, who had the full support of the World Tree, couldn’t extinguish the flames on his body despite turning the entire forest into a desert in his struggle.

Like karma flames or holy flames, Heaven’s Wall’s fire is a persistent and destructive flame that cannot be extinguished by ordinary means.

Other than the one who lit the fire directly removing the flames, I question whether there’s any way to extinguish them at all. So, there’s nothing to worry—

…No, that’s wrong. That’s careless thinking.

A being as powerful as an evil god wouldn’t act like some regressed mental patient, blindly hiding without realizing it’s already too late.

Surely he can’t be that pathetic and miserable. There must be something, some method he has in mind by digging underground.

I should proceed with that assumption.

There’s no harm in being cautious. Even if my concerns turn out to be just excessive worry, I lose nothing by it.

With that thought, I heightened my vigilance and searched for Invidius’s presence deep underground with sharpened senses.

【 Grrrrrr…. 】

Ah, there he is.

As I had anticipated, finding him wasn’t difficult. Rather, it was too easy.

Even in the darkness underground where no light penetrated, the flames on his body burned as bright as the sun, emitting a brilliant white light.

However…

“…Ha, what is this now?”

The form of Invidius I found deviated greatly from my expectations.

– Guuuung…!

Where had he discarded that mechanical dragon body that imperfectly mimicked Fafnir?

Invidius had become a massive, streamlined mass of flesh, without even a face, wings, or limbs, pulsating softly as it burned.

‘That side had a mechanical egg, this side has a flesh egg…? Why are they both regressing in pairs?’

It was a shocking and bizarre appearance, like he had not only regressed to infancy but returned to before birth.

He must have some plan to appear like this… but I really can’t imagine what he intends to do in that state.

…Well, I’ll find out when I cut into it, won’t I?

I approached him with Durandal’s blade gleaming golden.

The wound in my abdomen had almost completely healed, and overwhelming power flowed from the longsword in my grip, but my energy still showed no signs of proper recovery.

To defeat him in this physical state, I needed to approach directly and swing my sword rather than keeping my distance.

– Jzzzzzzzz!

That’s when it happened.

The mass of flesh, which looked like an egg being cooked, began to melt from the top down like a candle, emitting vibrations that sounded like buzzing insects.

So there was some method after all!

– Tzgeoooork!

The melting flesh split open. The egg-like mass revealed its wet innards and opened like a flower bud just beginning to bloom.

– Kuuung…!

The flesh petals spread into six parts. The sticky, heavy mass of flesh collapsed to the ground, shaking the earth and raising dust.

And from within.

【 At last, I’ve shed it…. 】

Something black carefully rose.

A mass of tentacles glistening with dark mana twisted and intertwined to form a human-like silhouette, and above its head, a halo of flesh rotated slowly, pouring down black liquid.

That body was covered in dark mana, dripping black mist and glistening, while not even a spark remained of the blazing white flames.

The flames of Heaven’s Wall were only burning the fully opened, flower-like mass of flesh he had discarded.

I see. If you can’t extinguish the fire, you can just cut away all the burning flesh and bone. So that method existed.

[ Hmm, what is that now…? ]

‘…Must be a new power. This is like an onion with endless layers.’

A transformation completely different from the mimicry powers he had shown so far.

Rather than transforming his body itself, he had shed it like a shell, similar to a caterpillar shedding its chrysalis to emerge as an adult insect.

…That looks exactly like “metamorphosis.” The one Isabella used. The power of Lilith, another of the Four Evil Gods.

“How pathetic. Is imitation all you can do?”

First me, then Fafnir, and now Lilith’s power. At this point, he should be called the Evil God of Plagiarism rather than Envy.

Even the spatial devouring he first displayed was probably not his original power but an imitation of another being’s ability.

【 It’s neither shameful nor something to hesitate about. I simply observed, understood, and acquired what I needed from those who possessed what I required. 】

Invidius replied nonchalantly as he leaped up from the petals of flesh.

【 Even what you consider virtues like ‘learning’ and ‘inheritance’ are essentially the same thing! 】

“Nonsense. Without permission, that’s just theft.”

His aura had weakened significantly, probably from losing the power contained in the discarded flesh, but he still looked much better than when he was burning.

【 I shall devour you and with that power, reclaim what I have lost! 】

“If you valued it so much, you shouldn’t have challenged me in the first place!”

I charged at him, gripping Durandal.

【 Graaaaaaah! 】

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

In the dark underground cavern.

Using the burning flesh petals as illumination, a weakened god and an exhausted goddess clashed with what little strength remained in their arms.

– Chwaralarak!

Sweeping tentacles, flashing sword light. The ground beneath our feet was torn apart, and the air, infected with black mist, shattered into fragments.

Both of us sensed this would be our final clash, so we fought a desperate battle with all our might—

– Thump.

And suddenly, I realized.

My body, which had already reached its limit, was still moving beyond that limit.

Though I had no strength left to awaken my divinity, a tiny cross-shaped starlight had somehow bloomed in the center of my chest, faintly twinkling.

Was it thanks to the divine power of Ausrine, Goddess of Stars and Dawn?

No, that’s not it. Ausrine’s power is the blooming of possibility.

It’s a blessing that completes imperfect beings and forcibly raises them to the limits of power permitted to them.

It’s not a power that exceeds limits.

But what I needed now, what I was unconsciously manifesting, was precisely that power beyond limits.

The moment I realized it, I understood what I was doing.

The star dwelling within me was burning its own divinity as fuel, leading me one step further forward, if only for a fleeting moment.

Burning oneself to exceed the limits of possibility. That was the true form and ultimate expression of the divinity I had forged.

Not the power of Ausrine, Goddess of Stars and Dawn, but a new power created from her remnants.

Limit Break.

Led by the heat of burning divinity, my immovable body took one step forward and pierced through.

– Shunk!

The final punctuation mark to end this battle.

—-

A soft sound of flesh being pierced, convulsing meat.

The fading dark mana burned in twilight flames, swirling before scattering like an explosion.

This was truly the finale, a display like fireworks announcing the end of this insufferable battle.

【 Kuh, huk…! No, this can’t… be…! It can’t… end like this…! 】

“Haa… haa… So, your divine core was indeed here…?”

The lower right section of the halo rotating behind his head.

Invidius’s divine core was hidden there, in a corner of darkness almost touching the flesh part.

A concealment that struck at a blind spot where no one could predict—not even in the center but almost at the edge of the briefly exposed void of darkness.

It was a cheap but effective method. Even Fafnir, and even I at first, couldn’t even guess its location.

But the fierce battle where we both poured out every last bit of our power robbed Invidius of the strength to perfectly conceal his divine core’s energy.

Thanks to that, I was able to roughly determine where his divine core was and stab Durandal into it.

And not just with the power of severance, but with a blade wrapped in twilight flames that I unleashed at the cost of feeling like my vision would go white from exhaustion.

– Kwagak, kwachaang!

Durandal, infused with Leviathan’s flames, pierced through the darkness protecting the divine core, penetrating and burning it to pieces.

The destruction of a divine core—for an immortal being, this was a fatal wound equivalent to having both brain and heart pierced simultaneously.

The battle with Invidius, which had been so grueling it felt like it had lasted a full fortnight, finally came to an end.

And then.