Ch.257Chapter 257 – Descent (3)

Christina, with her wings of light spread, slowly descended to the ground.

Then Sera shouted with a face that looked like she was about to cry.

“Chris!”

“Sorry I’m late, everyone.”

Chris said with a gentle smile.

Then she stood beside me and said.

“I apologize for being late, Sir Kay.”

“It’s fine, you got here pretty quickly.”

Chris smiled brightly at my words.

Then she clasped her arms behind her back.

‘…Hmm?’

The shape of Chris’s clothes seemed a bit strange.

Something that wasn’t on her upper body before seemed to have reappeared, and it even felt oddly large…

“…Please don’t stare at my chest too much.”

“…Sorry.”

Chris looked at me and smiled lightly as if it couldn’t be helped.

After that, she walked past me and stood in front of our group.

Then a mouth formed on the pulsating silver heart and began to shout.

[So you’ve finally appeared, false goddess.]

“Yes.”

Chris answered quietly.

[False one, do you know what you have done? Do you know what you’ve committed? Why have you appeared here?]

The voice flowed rapidly from the heart.

[Do you know that your very existence is a blasphemy against divinity?]

“I know.”

Chris said quietly.

“I’ve intruded upon a position reserved only for gods, so I have no defense against being called blasphemous.”

[If you know that, then you should be ashamed and remove yourself, as is right.]

The pulsating heart condemned Chris.

[The sin of trespassing into the divine realm is not light. There will be no salvation for you from me.]

The silver heart finished speaking.

And Chris stepped forward and said.

“…I don’t need your salvation.”

Chris looked at the heart with clear eyes and said.

“Salvation doesn’t come only from your hands.”

Chris’s clear eyes looked at me.

“And I’m not ashamed.”

Looking back at the heart, Chris said.

“This was my choice.”

Chris spoke quietly.

“Because I wanted to help everyone, because I wanted to save everyone, this is the path I chose for myself.”

Chris spoke with conviction in her voice.

And her words continued.

“Even though Lady Evgenia’s will was involved in my becoming like this, the choice was still mine.”

And then Chris quietly added.

“Even if others call it blasphemy, I will stand proud.”

There was no wavering in Chris’s eyes.

“I won’t regret my choice.”

With those final words, Chris reached her hand out to me.

Something like a pattern appeared behind her back, and golden energy burst forth from it.

And she quietly began her incantation.

“‘As one who bears the stigmata, I pronounce.'”

The light emanating from Chris was transmitted to me.

“‘I shall save the innocent who has been wrongfully accused of heresy.'”

As her incantation ended, the light shone more intensely and enveloped me.

Soon, something disappeared from me, and Chris looked at the heart with a resolute expression.

“With this, Sir Kay is no longer a heretic.”

One who bears the stigmata can revoke a heresy judgment.

The method to nullify a heresy judgment, as told by the priest who guarded Evgenia’s seal.

“You can no longer condemn him as a heretic by your standards.”

[How dare you, wench.]

The silver divine power trembled as if displeased.

[I will erase you from this place too, false goddess.]

“I won’t disappear so easily!”

Several eyes appeared on the silver heart.

Immediately, beams of magical power began to shoot from the eyes.

Silver weapons and fists flew toward Chris.

And Chris calmly extended her staff.

A sacred golden barrier unfolded, deflecting the beams.

Golden shields appeared, blocking the weapons and fists.

She blocked the god’s attack with divine protection.

Then Chris pulled the staff back to her body and incanted again.

“‘Fly as if with wings and spread goodness far and wide.'”

Golden wings appeared behind her back again.

Immediately, Chris began to fly through the air, creating shields around the heart that continued to fire beams.

The indiscriminate beams bombarding the surroundings disappeared, unable to penetrate the shields Chris created.

After blocking the opponent’s attacks for a while, Chris finally raised her hand as if spotting an opening, and a massive golden greatsword began to fly above her hand.

The greatsword flew rapidly toward the heart, and the heart shouted upon seeing it.

[You’re just a fledgling who has newly acquired divine power! You’re still far from enough!]

The sword Chris launched touched the outer surface of the heart and then vanished.

This time Chris launched a golden fist, but it too disappeared before reaching the surface.

[Fall, false goddess! Do not deny my absoluteness!]

All the eyes on the heart’s surface simultaneously fired beams at Chris.

Chris immediately created a shield to block the beams.

Golden and silver divine arts danced.

The battle flowed with Chris blocking the enemy’s attacks and counterattacking when she saw openings.

Whether she had grown stronger after becoming a goddess, the enemy’s attacks couldn’t even scratch Chris.

Perhaps because of this, thinking it couldn’t defeat Chris head-on, the heart began to deploy its tentacles to mix into its attacks.

Chris flew around, cutting off tentacles and blocking divine arts well, but eventually one tentacle broke through and wrapped around her leg.

“Oh no!”

The tentacle tried to slam Chris down.

Just as Chris quickly tried to wrap her wings around herself for protection—

“Don’t forget about me.”

I jumped in, tore off the tentacle, and caught Chris.

Then I rotated my body so that I cushioned her as we crashed into the ground.

Thanks to my thick armor, there was no pain, and Chris, cradled in my arms, shouted.

“I-I’m sorry, I’m still not used to this…!”

“It’s fine.”

As I immediately got up, a warm light touched my body.

Chris had cast a healing spell on me, worried I might have been injured.

As she realized the state of my body, Chris’s expression darkened a little.

“…You’ve pushed yourself too hard! You need to rest now…”

“That’s the problem right now.”

I pointed at the silver heart as I spoke.

“That thing is using the Red Templar Knights to tie us down.”

“Yes. And it’s trying to self-destruct.”

Chris said with a grim expression.

“…Whether it was planning to self-destruct from the beginning or not… it’s been gathering power for an explosion during our fight. We need to either defeat it quickly or escape…”

“What’s the scale?”

“At least this entire area will be gone.”

Chris said with certainty.

“In the worst case, if I use all my power, there’s a small chance I could protect our companions here even if it explodes…”

“How much of a chance?”

“…Being optimistic, fifty-fifty?”

Chris lowered her eyes slightly as she spoke.

“You see, although my divine power has increased tremendously, I’m still not familiar with this power, and coming here immediately makes it a bit difficult to use my full strength right now.”

Chris spoke apologetically.

However, there was an even more troubling problem than whether Chris could prevent the explosion or not.

“The scale is the issue.”

If this entire area is blown away, it’s questionable whether we can protect Lorona, Lirina, and Mask, who was just knocked away after taking a hit, in time.

There was also a high possibility that the Red Templar Knights currently fighting Eina would be caught up in it.

‘…Eina wants to save those guys.’

In the explosion, only those currently under Chris’s protection might barely survive.

Even that chance is fifty-fifty.

“So we still need to smash that heart.”

Somehow, we need to destroy the heart.

As I said that, Chris nodded and replied.

“Actually, destroying it seems quite difficult too…”

“Difficult?”

“It doesn’t look like it, but its armor is thick.”

Chris said that, then looked at the heart.

“…I’m sorry. With my current power, it’s hard to penetrate it.”

After catching her breath, Chris quietly added.

“And I can’t save Cara who’s been absorbed in there.”

“Cara, huh.”

She had been our adversary continuously since we came to this country.

“Ah, well, the Cara inside me asked me to save her sisters. I also feel a bit unsettled about it. That Cara just doesn’t know that you’re a good person, Sir Kay, and also…”

Chris quickly waved her hands as if making excuses.

She seemed to think she was making an unreasonable request.

I carefully asked her.

“So you want to save her, right?”

At my words, Chris slightly bowed her head.

And then, unlike before, she spoke with determined eyes.

“Yes.”

Eyes that, unlike before, firmly asserted her own position.

Despite being an enemy, she wanted to save her.

That’s what she was saying.

Looking at those eyes, after thinking briefly, I answered.

“…If we capture her alive, we might be able to extract some information.”

As the saint of the Emiris Order, she likely knows information we don’t.

If we can save her, we should.

“Thank you.”

“…Don’t misunderstand?”

“I’ll take it as that.”

I had said it as an excuse to myself, but Chris answered with a smile.

“I’m sorry for making such an unreasonable request.”

“It’s fine.”

…I couldn’t refuse a comrade’s request.

Anyway, now that we had decided on a direction, it was time to think again.

In the current situation, a way to destroy that heart.

And a method to rescue Cara as well.

‘…At least not in this form.’

It specialized in defense, and had destructive power too, but whether it could destroy the heart in one blow remained to be seen.

The activity limit was already approaching.

Before the limit was reached, I needed to somehow penetrate the heart and rescue Cara.

‘…There’s only that form.’

Among the forms I had originally considered for fighting Cara, the other one.

The problem was that it had one flaw, requiring help from something else.

“The weapon.”

If only the repairs on that weapon were finished.

And as if understanding the meaning of my words, Chris spoke with a slightly gloomy expression.

“…I was going to give it to you after the battle…”

Saying she didn’t want to push me too hard, Chris waved her hand once.

A golden ripple appeared in the empty air.

“This is…”

“With my help, the repairs were successfully completed.”

The familiar sword handle was visible inside.

+

Eina was fighting.

“Please, come to your senses!”

She knocked down a knight with a punch.

As the helmet shattered, the face of an old man was revealed.

And avoiding an attack aimed at her legs, Eina grabbed and threw the attacker in return.

“Everyone, please!”

Eina was pleading.

For the test subjects with her to come to their senses.

She knew that the brainwashing they were under wouldn’t be easily broken.

But hadn’t she herself eventually broken free?

So she prayed for a miracle to appear for them too.

“Please!”

So for their safety, Eina wielded her weapons against them.

Not to harm them, but for their salvation.

She tried to incapacitate them as much as possible while avoiding fatal blows.

In the midst of this, a templar thrust a spear at an angle that was difficult to avoid, and as Eina desperately tried to block the attack—

“Miss Eina, focus.”

It was Eve, stepping on the spear shaft to change its trajectory.

She spun around and tried to slash at the gap in the templar’s armor with her sword.

Of course, her counterattack failed as the enemy moved quickly.

And as if timing it perfectly, Sera threw something to Eina.

“This is…”

“Medicine. For now, take it!”

Sera had shared medicine to help them fight better in this situation.

Eina immediately thanked her and swallowed the medicine.

Then she kicked down a charging templar.

“Thank you, both of you!”

“We should be thanking you…!”

Eve said while blocking an enemy attack.

In the current situation, Eina’s presence was proving to be a greater help than expected.

Thanks to the enemy suddenly swallowing Phobia, Eve was able to join the front line, but the fight with the puppeteer had left her body in a state of great strain and fatigue.

Mask was fine, but he had ridiculously been blown away earlier and would take time to properly return.

If only the equally exhausted Sera and herself remained, it would only be a matter of time before they were captured by the templars.

And thanks to Eina, who was summoned by the enemy’s mistake and took charge of the front line, they could continue fighting more safely.

‘But this won’t work…’

Eve immediately calculated a move for retreat.

Soon that heart would explode.

The enemy wouldn’t have implemented such a mediocre last-ditch effort, so at least the power must be certain.

The best option would be to get outside the explosion range, but Eve honestly couldn’t guess how far that range would be.

‘…Kay might be safe.’

With that thick armor, he might be able to withstand the explosion.

Combined with Chris’s divine power, at least Kay might survive…

“Miss Eve!”

Eve, momentarily distracted by other thoughts, almost got slashed by an axe.

As she quickly ducked to avoid it, Sera lunged forward and grabbed the templar who had swung the axe.

“Heiyah!!”

And with a cute battle cry, she pushed and threw him with all her might.

“Let’s hang in there a little longer, Miss Eve.”

“Seraphina.”

“…If Kay, who went to receive Chris, returns, he’ll surely come up with something.”

Of course, that meant Kay would be pushing himself hard again, so Sera’s face wasn’t happy.

But at the same time, there was also faith.

Faith that he would find a way.

And as if responding to that faith, a strange sound began to be heard.

-Wheeeeeeee!!

The sound of something rotating at high speed reached them.

Though they had heard it a few times before, it was definitely the first time in the current battle.

Immediately recognizing the direction, Eve turned her gaze and could clearly identify the owner of that sound.

“Kay…!”

It was a different, sharper armor than before.

And in his right hand was a fiercely rotating lance.

Kay, blessed with golden energy flowing through him, was flying over Eve and Sera’s heads in an instant.