Ch.168Heaven’s Boundary – 2

“What is this… No, who…?”

I tried to speak, but the words kept swirling in my mouth and dissipating. This happened repeatedly. My lips simply wouldn’t part. My head was beyond complicated—it felt like it might explode.

This woman, who resembled the goddess yet emanated an even stronger divine power—I knew nothing about who she was, where this place was, or what that goddess outside had been.

Not to mention why the woman before me was tightly bound in iron chains.

The woman was leaning against the wall with her arms spread wide, and chains like snakes coiled around her entire body, extending to the temple’s walls, floor, and ceiling to secure her in place.

Looking closer, her body was in terrible condition. Her hair was disheveled and had lost its color, and her once pure white dress was now covered in red and black stains.

“You feel confused.”

A haggard smile crossed her face. She seemed to have already resigned herself to never escaping the chains.

“I can understand your feelings, but there’s no time, so you must gather your wits now. Please listen to me. The fact that you found me… means this was destined to happen. The me outside would have tried to stop you somehow.”

“Wait. What do you mean by ‘the me outside’? What does that mean?”

The woman silently looked in a particular direction.

At that spot, the goddess appeared. She still seemed restless, alternately looking at the chained woman and me standing before her with a half-tearful expression.

“As you can see.”

“This is…?”

“Look at my condition. To function outside, I had no choice but to create another me. More precisely, you can think of her as the version of myself to whom I transferred all my emotions so that she could do anything necessary to preserve herself.”

The goddess approached the chained woman—no, the real goddess. But she only came close, seemingly unable to bring herself to touch the body.

“The best decisions require reason and clarity, but conversely, survival requires instinct and emotion. That’s why I separated my emotions from myself. I can feel fear gradually building in this body, so even that has its limits, but you needn’t worry—it’s not because of you—ugh?!”

A piercing groan cut off her words. The goddess’s body twisted, her face contorting in pain. The chains wrapped around her entire body tightened even more, as if trying to eat into her flesh.

After writhing in agony for a while, the goddess exhaled heavily and forced a smile once the chains returned to their silver color.

“…I’ve shown you an unseemly sight.”

“What just happened…?”

“It’s due to the restrictions placed on me. The fact that we can have this conversation at all is because she is allowing it—that’s the reminder, I suppose.”

Her emaciated fingers grasped the chains extending upward from her wrists. A cold metallic clank echoed through the space.

“I have no hope left. The restrictions placed on me are increasingly consuming my body and soul. I’m reaching the limit of suppressing them with divine power and avoiding the truth in my speech. So, I will tell you only the truths I can still speak.”

Her eyes, half-broken yet still retaining their light, turned toward me.

“The identity of that magical energy you mentioned, slightly different from that of the demon sword—your current suspicion is correct.”

“Is it really—”

I reflexively started to ask if it was true but stopped myself. Saying what I wanted to say now would only waste the precious little time we had.

“However, its origin will differ from what you think. An entire world was absorbed by a single human, and now it no longer exists. The source of the magical energy has transferred from the world to a single human.”

It was a puzzling explanation, likely phrased that way to avoid the restrictions placed on her as much as possible.

The idea that the world I had once possessed was absorbed by a human raised questions about who could do such a thing. I also wondered if there was anything left to absorb in a place where nothing existed except me.

“The one who brought you here is also that human’s doing—”

—CRACK!

The goddess’s lips froze before she could finish. Simultaneously, the other goddess’s form scattered and disappeared. Her eyes widened, and blood trickled from between her half-open lips.

With the sound of something being torn away, the goddess’s chest began to heave.

“That… woman… never… trust… her…”

—RIIIP!

Even in such a state, the goddess tried to continue speaking while looking at me, but her waist bent backward sharply, and something burst through her chest, causing her to collapse weakly against the wall.

Her face, unable even to close its eyes, slowly fell forward. Blood flowing from the hole stained the pure white dress red, forming a large pool around her body.

And the thing that had torn through her chest wriggled and stood before the pool of blood.

It looked like a small slime. The creature extended a tentacle to tap the goddess’s corpse, then suddenly began to expand its body. In an instant, it took on a form.

A head formed, hair hanging behind it turned golden, the blue skin changed to peach color, and a dress covered the previously naked flesh.

It was the form of the goddess.

Even down to the dress reddened by blood.

“…”

Once the perfect form of the goddess was complete, the monster—awkward with the concept of arms and legs—turned to look at me. There was a large hole in its chest.

It smiled. It was a grotesquely distorted smile, like one made by a being that had never smiled before.

The strangeness didn’t end there. As if trying to imitate me, it stared intently at my right hand, then created an exact copy of Eternal in its left hand.

After examining the sword in its left hand, the creature raised its head.

—WHOOSH!

Then it kicked off the ground. Before my mind could catch up, my body reacted instinctively to block the swinging blade. A sharp metallic clang rang out, bringing me somewhat back to my senses.

I didn’t fully understand the situation, but one thing was clear: the monster before me was trying to kill me.

Mana infused into Eternal. My body accelerated. The world slowed to an extreme, and the creature’s movements froze. Opposing forces swirled around Eternal’s blade.

As the Polar Distortion aimed for its neck, its eyeballs moved sideways.

“…!!!!!!”

Almost simultaneously with the eye movement, its body began to move in real-time again. What had appeared as slow motion accelerated enough to catch up with me.

And mana infused into the Eternal in the creature’s hand, with opposing forces swirling around it.

“What the—!”

The copied Eternal intercepted my attack aimed at slicing through its neck. When the two Polar Distortions collided, a magnificent explosion occurred. The ground split, and the shockwave sent my body flying.

My back hit the temple wall, but the already damaged structure gave way instead of stopping me. I quickly corrected my posture before tumbling ungracefully on the dirt.

—RUMBLE…

I saw part of the temple collapsing. Dust rose in all directions. I thought of the goddess’s corpse still inside, but there were more pressing matters.

She was probably not dead anyway.

“…!!!!!!”

As expected, the creature seemed unharmed as it hopped out of the half-collapsed temple, flashing that grotesque smile at me while waving the hand not holding Eternal.

Watching it, I raised my left hand. I needed to confirm something. Sure enough, the creature focused its gaze on my left hand.

When a simple fire spell manifested in my hand, an identical flame soon appeared in the creature’s hand. It seemed fascinated by the flame, examining it from various angles.

‘I don’t know what this thing is, but…’

I extinguished the magic. I put away Eternal too. If it could copy Polar Distortion, there was no reason it couldn’t copy even more elaborate techniques. I had no intention of doing it any favors.

Instead, I clenched both fists.

When I opened my eyes, I saw a familiar scene. It was Laura’s room. The room was empty and extremely quiet.

I looked around. Not much time seemed to have passed; the sun visible through the window was barely different from when I had ascended to the celestial realm.

‘Phew.’

I sat down on the sofa, repeatedly clenching and unclenching my fists for no particular reason. I could still feel the sensation of knocking that creature down and burying the goddess’s corpse in a pit.

Though it had become a pointless act as the celestial realm itself collapsed due to insufficient power to maintain it.

I didn’t feel good. The goddess’s death was troubling, and I never discovered the true identity of that strange creature or found clear answers.

My mind was still unsettled. I had gone to the celestial realm hoping to resolve my questions, but instead, I returned with even more.

‘She said the one who brought me here was the same woman who absorbed my former world.’

She told me not to trust that woman, but I wouldn’t have anyway. How could anyone trust such a person?

—BANG BANG BANG!

My thoughts were interrupted. Urgent footsteps sounded outside the door, followed by loud knocking, and before I could answer, someone burst in.

“Mira! Are you in here?!”

It was Leona.

Panting as she rushed in, Leona spotted me sitting on the sofa and dashed over like she had a heat-seeking device. Her face was half-panicked, matching her urgent voice.

“You’re here! Thank goodness! Something terrible has happened! Really terrible!”

“Terrible? How terrible—”

I started to ask but stopped when I noticed the holy sword in her hand.

“Suddenly the holy sword… the holy sword…”

The holy sword she thrust forward had completely lost its light, with not even a trace of divine power emanating from it. Leona continued in a tearful voice.

“It suddenly became like this just now… Mira, you went to meet the goddess… do you know what happened?”

I do know. I don’t know the exact reason, but naturally, I have my suspicions. After all, I had just buried the goddess’s corpse with my own hands.

How could the holy sword maintain its power when the goddess was gone?

‘Wait… then what about Rosaria?’

Wasn’t the goddess also the source of Rosaria’s divine power? If Rosaria’s identity as a saint disappeared in this situation, the consequences were all too predictable.

“Mira! Something terrible has—oh? Huh? Hero?”

And once again, Rosaria’s voice as she burst through the door confirmed that my thoughts were not wrong.