Ch.168Black Magic War – 5

“…..”

Christine stared ahead with empty, unfocused eyes, waiting for the centipede made of human bodies that would soon appear.

No, perhaps it would be more accurate to call her Christina now, not Christine. Christine’s mind was being worn away to that extent.

The pain felt when immense divine power dwelled within her body? That was manageable. If she steeled herself over and over, she could maintain consciousness, albeit with difficulty.

The anxiety from repeated regressions? That was fine too. Wasn’t this the path she had chosen after being told it was absolutely impossible? She had the confidence to repeat it as many times as necessary.

However, what truly troubled Christine was something else entirely.

“Are you alright, Holy Maiden?”

“I’m fine. Are you alright, devotee?”

“As always. Why did you come here? I trust you won’t give me some absurd excuse about sightseeing in the forest.”

“If I said it was a momentary whim, would that satisfy you?”

“How could it? When the Holy Maiden disappears like this, there are many people who become frantic. Please be more careful in the future.”

“I’m truly sorry about that. But today, I just felt I had to come here. Might this not also be part of God’s plan for me?”

“If you say so, I have nothing more to say, but…”

This was the problem. Mental integration.

Christine, or rather Christina, who had already almost completely taken over Christine’s mind, was having such a natural, everyday conversation with the boy.

She never wanted this. She didn’t want to converse as an equal with the one who was like her god. She wanted to submit to God unilaterally, bowing this worthless head.

But Christina not only spoke with the boy as an equal but treated the deity as if he were her subordinate, and the boy accepted such treatment naturally.

Christine, trapped in this body and forced to witness it all, felt like she was going mad. The problem was that there was no way to overcome this situation on her own.

Through repeated regressions, Christine’s mind was on the verge of completely assimilating with Christina’s, and she vaguely realized that complete erosion was not far off.

At most, after four or five more times, Christine’s memories would disappear without a trace, and only Christina would remain.

And Christine still couldn’t accept the divine power dwelling in her body.

“Holy Maiden, then I shall escort you. Let’s return to the castle. It’s dangerous here.”

“Alright. I’ll go. We’ll return secretly, of course?”

“Of course. Really… if you understand how important you are, couldn’t you exercise a bit more restraint?”

Even as the boy sighed, Christina wore only a benevolent smile. This too was not Christine’s will.

If at first she had only intermittently lost control of her body, and only after receiving the statue, now the times when she couldn’t control her body at will were far more frequent.

At most, she could move her body as she wished only for brief moments when she was next to the deity, so Christina’s behavior was nothing but a direct reflection of her own personality.

That was also why Christine could thoroughly understand the characteristics of her ancestor.

She had thought that since the woman was revered as a Holy Maiden and treated with all manner of adoration, she must be an extremely ascetic and dull woman in private, but it was nearly the opposite.

In front of people, she naturally acted according to the image of a Holy Maiden, but in front of the boy, she was completely different.

She played pranks on the boy and even made subtle physical contact. Each time, she would chuckle at his flustered reactions—she had a rather ordinary personality.

If it had been the usual Christine, she would have torn at her own body seeing such behavior, but since their minds had largely assimilated, such a disaster didn’t occur.

Instead, she thought it was natural to behave that way.

‘This is just repeating what I’ve done in the past, so even such behavior toward God is merely repeating actions I’ve already taken… Wait, what?!’

Christine, startled by her own thoughts, bit her tongue. Only when the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth did her mind seem to clear.

What had she just been thinking? That she considered herself Christina, and thought it natural?

In this absurd situation, Christine felt dizzy. The side effects of memory assimilation were more serious than she had imagined.

Though she knew she shouldn’t let things continue this way, there was no other option. Once again, Christine couldn’t withstand the divine power dwelling in her body.

Two more attempts passed.

Christina opened her eyes in the forest.

Since her eyes were always covered with bandages, perhaps it would be more accurate to say she began to perceive the world around her rather than opened her eyes.

“Hmm… why am I here?”

She tilted her head in confusion. She clearly remembered God’s revelation telling her to come to this forest without informing anyone.

She remembered following that revelation, secretly leaving the city and arriving at the forest, but she couldn’t recall at all why she was standing here like this.

Perhaps she had been about to kneel and pray, asking God what she should do next.

She remembered the motion of kneeling on the ground, but when she came to her senses, she was standing upright on both legs. It felt as if a chunk of her memory had completely vanished.

—Rustle.

“Eek?!”

Christina flinched and shrank back when she heard the sound of someone stepping on dry leaves in the distance. The forest at night was already eerie, and the desolate scenery made it even more so.

But what emerged from the other side of the forest was the boy, looking at Christina with an expression of disbelief.

“What are you doing here, Holy Maiden? If you’re so easily frightened by my footsteps, why on earth did you come here alone?”

“…Huh?”

“Pardon?”

As Christina tilted her head in confusion, it was the boy who seemed more bewildered.

“Ah, no… Why are you coming out from here, devotee?”

“What do you mean, why am I coming out from here? Naturally, I came looking for Holy Maiden Hildegard.”

“That’s not what I mean… Wasn’t a monster supposed to appear here? Like, something that looks like a centipede made of human bodies…”

“If what appeared here had been such a monster instead of me, the Holy Maiden would have already gone to meet God. Didn’t you seal all your divine power in preparation for the final ritual?”

Upon hearing the words “final ritual,” the Holy Maiden quickly cleared her throat and turned her head. It was an attempt to hide her expression that was threatening to turn gloomy.

Yes, that’s right. That person still didn’t know what that ritual meant. Christina forced a smile on her face and turned back to avoid raising unnecessary suspicion.

If he knew what that final ritual meant, would he grieve for me? Would he grieve for the woman Christina Hildegard, not the Holy Maiden Christina Hildegard?

With such thoughts, Christina followed the boy back toward the castle. She pretended to be cheerful, forcibly hiding her face that kept threatening to turn somber.

Each time, the boy would fidget uncomfortably, asking her to maintain her dignity, and Christina would laugh exaggeratedly at his reactions.

After all, this was now a time she could never return to. It wouldn’t be so bad to enjoy it a little.

Only after circling through secluded areas and finally reaching the back door of the temple did the boy turn to look at Christina.

“We’ve arrived. Please refrain from going out without an escort from now on. Wasn’t it you, Holy Maiden, who said you needed to conserve your strength?”

No. Even if I don’t want to move, I’ll soon be moving anyway. Christina murmured.

As if to prove her words, a blood-soaked soldier burst through the temple door and tumbled in.

“It’s, it’s terrible! Terrible— Oh! Holy Maiden, I apologize!”

Listening to the report of the blood-soaked soldier, which was now “familiar,” Christina sensed that her end was approaching.

‘Huh? Come to think of it, why do I find that report familiar…?’

There was no time to leisurely ponder the sudden question.

The large knight carried the bloodied soldier on his shoulder and departed, and before the boy could say anything, Christina preemptively insisted that she would follow as well.

The boy seemed to hesitate at her words but soon nodded as if he had no choice.

“If that is your wish, Holy Maiden, so be it. However, if you judge the frontline to be dangerous, you must flee without delay. Do you understand?”

Christina nodded, pretending to understand. It was a lie, of course. There was no need to flee or anything else; the life of the Holy Maiden would end there.

‘…Mother, do you truly have no regrets?’

As she followed the boy toward the castle wall, Christina’s heart grew heavier.

The deity of the Compassion Faith, the one whom the devotees called Mother, had issued a divine revelation that she would descend to eliminate this calamity that had befallen the world.

It meant preparing for divine possession.

This was possible because of the unprecedented talent of Holy Maiden Christina Hildegard and the numerous devotees of the Compassion Faith, the only religion on the continent.

But there were sacrifices. Conversely, it was a sacrifice possible only because of the unrivaled prestige of the Compassion Faith.

The goddess had demanded three things.

First, the oblivion of all devotees who believed in her. Second, the sacrifice of Holy Maiden Christina Hildegard. Third, the downfall of the Compassion Faith.

Divine possession, the direct descent of a deity to this world, required such sacrifices.

The first and second demands were already incredible, but the third was even more absurd. So much so that Christina had questioned her mother about the reason.

The reason was simple. When the first and second were fulfilled, the third would naturally be achieved.

The deity’s goal was not simply to drive away the darkness engulfing humans but to restore the entire continent to how it was before this incident.

That’s why there was a need to alter people’s memories as well, according to the deity’s explanation.

Using divine power to its limit, all devotees of the Compassion Faith would offer themselves to the deity and disappear, the Holy Maiden would vanish, and even the fact that the Compassion Faith had existed would be erased from human memory.

Without means to replenish the divine power that had been used, even the deity would disappear.

Christina had expressed the doubts she rightfully held about this explanation. Why would the deity volunteer for such a sacrifice?

The answer was simple.

—Because I have seen the future.

The deity never explained what that future was, no matter how much Christina pleaded or begged. She remained silent.

Even when Christina begged her to stay, warning that after the Compassion Faith disappeared, wrong beliefs would create wrong divinity, and that wrong divinity would create all kinds of heresy, the deity remained unmoved.

In the end, Christina had no choice but to submit to the deity’s will. After yielding, she immediately used the deity’s power to issue a divine revelation to all devotees of the Compassion Faith.

A revelation to forget the deity.

A revelation for their memories to become the power of the deity to defeat the calamity that had befallen the world.

After the revelation was issued, the influence of the Compassion Faith diminished day by day, and inversely, the divine power gathering at the goddess statue grew stronger. Everyone else’s memories were distorted.

By the time humans could no longer withstand the encroaching darkness and the frontline had been pushed back to the very last line of defense, only three people in the world remembered the Compassion Faith.

Christina deliberately concealed the name of the religion she believed in. When asked which religion’s Holy Maiden she was to possess such powerful divine force, she simply smiled and deflected the question.

And now, it could no longer be delayed.

“Holy Maiden.”

Ah.

“All devotees except one have fulfilled their mission.”

At that calm yet aged voice, Christina turned her head. There stood an elderly priest of the Compassion Faith, preciously holding the goddess statue in his arms.

He was one of the last remaining people who remembered the Compassion Faith.

Christina silently accepted the statue. It was an object imbued with the faith and memories of countless Compassion Faith devotees. And now, it would also be imbued with the memory of the last one.

The priest slit his throat with a dagger. Even though Christina tried to stop him, he had stubbornly refused to survive, saying that he was already old and wanted to die remembering the deity.

The old man’s final memory was imbued in the goddess statue.

“Just kill them all.”

A voice from the sky spoke with murderous intent. Christina sensed that the time had come.

After offering a brief prayer to her mother, Christina turned her eyes to the boy, whose face was filled with regret. Through the bandages covering her eyes, she could see the boy’s face waiting for her words.

‘Christine’ opened her mouth.

“It is not God’s fault.”