Ch.143143. Divine Punishment (1)

Let’s turn back time for a moment, to when Anat collapsed and the Handmaidens of Pleasure were born.

《…Begone.》

BOOM!!

Anat, weakened to the level of a mere transcendent rather than a god, blasted the monstrosities around her with magic and checked her surroundings—the state of the research district.

The condition of the research district was utterly devastating.

Awoooooo!!!

Grrrrrrrr…..

Red werewolves and wolves had appeared everywhere, along with bizarre monsters that looked like crosses between trolls and wolves.

《……..Haaa.》

After sighing at the sight of people—who somehow didn’t seem that numerous—being slaughtered by these creatures, Anat was about to sweep them away with magic when—

“Found you, god!!”

*Anat, goddess of wisdom, strategy, knowledge, and invention.

《Who… are you?》

Before her appeared a warrior in black armor emanating an ominous aura.

Despite completely concealing his face with a helmet, the warrior’s murderous gaze was palpable, and to her eyes, he appeared to have at least one foot in the realm of transcendents.

‘…This can’t be. How… the Emperor?!!’

But what truly shocked Anat was something else—the Emperor’s severed head hanging from a hook at the warrior’s waist.

The Emperor, the Great Emperor, the priest-monarch who had led the Rom Empire to its golden age.

The Emperor who had earned the favor of the pantheon by creating the vast interests of the Rom Empire—she had sensed his presence disappearing earlier, indicating his death, but…

To see the Emperor in such a state, unable to resurrect, was an immensely powerful shock to Anat.

The fact that this warrior had killed the Emperor, who possessed power equal to a god’s immortality…

‘…Does this mean I can die too?’

Since Anat’s divine nature had been damaged, weakening her to the level of a mortal, it meant she could very well be killed by this warrior.

And… perhaps because of this?

‘…Ugh.’

Experiencing the fear of death for the first time in her life, Anat made a sound that showed not the slightest hint of divine dignity—as she observed the warrior.

Those eyes burning with hatred and vengeance like a raging fire. The black armor that appeared to be at least level 3, and the equipment hidden within it.

And the greatsword in his hand, presumably a divine weapon…

‘…What is that thing?’

Through her exceptional eyes as the goddess of wisdom, she confirmed the soul-destroying power latent in the greatsword. Seeing this, Anat had to steel herself.

Since she could die if she foolishly clung to her pride in this situation, Anat activated her divine power to assess what means she could use.

By this point, barely five seconds had passed since the warrior’s appearance.

As the goddess of ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge,’ she possessed eyes that could observe all things and penetrate their essence.

Eyes that could be considered the original version of all innate special visions that people are sometimes born with—”eyes that can see what cannot be seen.”

With such eyes, Anat gazed at the black-armored warrior, almost completely—

《…Oh? You saw it, didn’t you?》

《Aaaah what is that what is that it can’t be no no no no—

—Who, who are you?!!!》

After observing the warrior—Bjorn’s soul and making eye contact with ‘that,’ Anat, seized with terror, flew into the sky as if having a seizure.

True to her epithet Minerva, the Owl Goddess, Anat spread owl wings from her back and soared upward, quickly beginning to chant magic.

《—Hup!!》

Bjorn exhaled loudly, similarly spreading shadowy black wings from his back, and flew up to pursue Anat, rushing toward her.

From the magic circles that Anat, goddess of magic, deployed all around using her divine power, spells that mortals couldn’t use even if they devoted their entire lives came flying.

A phoenix made of flames that could directly burn souls flew at him, along with icicle spears that twisted causality to be in a state of “already hit.”

Golden lightning that ignored all resistances, defenses, and immunities, and lasers that were classified as ‘magical’ attacks but not ‘magic’ attacks.

Casting spells recklessly without concern for the aftermath, Bjorn naturally encountered attacks that could each lead to fatal wounds, but…

[Chaos—!!]

Bjorn released an aura of Chaos power from his hand, reverting the magical energies composing these spells back to their original form.

Though quite crude and forceful, this was also a form of magic nullification—Dispel.

Meanwhile, despite nullifying the magic somewhat crudely, the brief time inevitably spent doing so gave Anat another chance to unleash her magic.

《Come forth!!!》

What she summoned was her familiar and subordinate, also a mid-level servant she cherished enough to give her own epithet—Minerva.

Apart from being able to use level 4 magic to a limited extent, it was a mid-level magician-type servant that could hardly be considered distinctive, but…

《Minerva, enhance me!!》

Anat’s intention was to strengthen herself—in other words, to apply buffs.

While the enhancement ratio of buffs increases with higher ranks, each spell still has a basic enhancement ratio.

In other words, Anat’s goal was to cast enhancement magic on herself using relatively little cost, and use this as a foothold.

And according to that purpose, the four summoned servants—Minervas—cast spells with all kinds of skills as if they weren’t even considering a prolonged battle.

Magic that improved overall cognitive ability, increased reaction speed to stimuli, reduced casting time, and boosted magical attack power.

After each cast one enhancement spell without incantation, they were about to cast another enhancement spell, but…

《—《High Magical Defense》?!!!》

KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAK!!!

Before they could, a massive Chaos-attribute aura slash flew in, and Anat unhesitatingly abandoned the Minervas to protect herself with magic.

—KWAJIK!

It was an attack that struck such a wide area it could be considered a shockwave, yet it destroyed Anat’s highest-level defensive magic in a single blow.

‘What exactly is this… Chaos?’

While Anat understood that this insane level of attack power came from the Chaos attribute she had just seen, what could she do about it?

Her firepower was overwhelmingly inferior, and she was confident she’d be cut down within three seconds if she engaged in close combat.

《《Hall of Wisdom》!!!》

Therefore, to organize her thoughts and devise a countermeasure, she used a miracle derived from her divine power—accelerating her thought processes to the extreme.

Her thoughts accelerated to the point where her surroundings seemed to freeze momentarily, giving her quite a lot of time.

This miracle of thought acceleration, which provides different amounts of time depending on the caster, could give her about 6 hours of perceived time when cast by herself.

So Anat needed to come up with a countermeasure within that time, but…

‘…What do I do now?’

To be honest, she had no idea what to do.

Thought acceleration shines when one has sufficient information about the enemy and knows well the various moves the opponent might make.

In other words, rather than a dramatic miracle that occurs in crisis situations, it was more accurate to see it as a unique technique for utilizing available methods appropriately.

And based on that thought acceleration… Anat had almost no options left.

If she tried to interpret the Chaos attribute, she might accidentally encounter ‘that’ again, and there was little a mage could do against a warrior who had already closed in.

Teleportation magic was completely blocked, perhaps due to the influence of that barrier, and if she clumsily tried to engage in close combat, she would simply be defeated.

No matter how good close-range spells a mage could learn, close combat for a mage was a problem that couldn’t be overcome by such means.

‘What should I do… what should I do…’

As Anat was desperately racking her divine brain at full power, trying to devise some method—at that very moment.

Creak…!

《…Huh?》

At the sudden unexpected sound from outside, Anat wore a dumbfounded, blank expression.

For good reason—the accelerated flow of thought suddenly began to stutter, and in an instant, the accelerated time returned to normal—

—THWACK.

“…That’s one.”

Anat’s thoughts dissolved before her rising field of vision and fading consciousness.