Ch.264Reconstruction

“This is a bit rough, isn’t it…? Suddenly thrusting two at once down there. Not bad for a virgin?”

Isabella blushes and smiles.

Her mouth, split to her ears, was stained with ecstasy.

Frosting’s claws were deeply embedded in the middle of her groin, and beside it, a longsword’s blade had dug in, yet she felt no pain.

Well, I suppose wounds like these are nothing to a witch.

Isabella, resurrected through the netherworld’s escort, returns to her “complete state,” with all wounds disappearing without a trace.

And that restored complete state becomes registered as the new resurrection point.

That’s why she maintains her battle stance even after being completely annihilated and resurrected.

If not for that, she would have been naked right after resurrection.

Even the dark mana and stamina she consumed return, leaving behind only slight mental fatigue at most.

Though she couldn’t eliminate the pain of death, Isabella’s weathered mind had reached the point of finding pleasure in that pain.

Unless it was exceptionally excruciating pain, she would rather enjoy it.

“Ah… my body is burning up…! I want to embrace you!”

Four blades approach, targeting my legs and shoulders.

If I hesitate even slightly, I’ll end up like Claire.

[I refuse!]

Dark red tentacles burst from my back, blocking the blades while being torn apart.

Two seconds until the mantis’s forelegs reach me.

Enough time to achieve my purpose.

【Tale of Heroes – Defying Fate】

A sword that flows faster than the world’s time, severing the enemy’s life.

A good name for Hersella.

Following the compressed flow of time, the blade moves with lightning speed.

A blue arc draws a circle, cleanly cutting out the targeted flesh.

“Hnngh…!”

Isabella lets out a sweet moan as the blade rummages through her lower abdomen.

…Enjoy it while you can. From now on, you won’t be so relaxed.

The blades have come close enough to touch my hair.

I slide between Isabella’s legs, escaping the witch’s embrace while clutching the carved-out organ in my left hand.

The severed flesh comes out with me.

Blood pours out like a waterfall.

A strike that carved out about a hand and a half span from the groin.

It was as if I had roughly extracted only the reproductive organs.

“Mmh…, no. Why…?”

Isabella mutters in bewilderment while blood streams between her legs.

I suppose it is bewildering.

While I had Durandal stabbed in, I could have twisted it a bit deeper to chop up all her internal organs for instant death, but instead I just extracted her lower parts.

But that would have just been a repetition of how we’ve fought until now.

My purpose from the beginning was to carve out only this organ while keeping the witch alive.

Looking at the blood streaming between her legs, it was clear she would die from blood loss soon if left alone, but…

“Now, Lacy!”

“Elpinel, please forgive this blasphemy!”

A prayer hastily recited with hands clasped together.

Brilliant sacred light bursts forth like an exploding star.

Light so bright it was hard to keep eyes open.

A torrent of pure white light surged toward Isabella like a tidal wave.

“Hmm…?”

Isabella neither defended nor evaded, just stared at the wave of sacred light with a dubious expression.

An obvious judgment. Whatever attack it might be, something of that magnitude would instantly end her life. She probably thought she would resurrect immediately and counterattack.

How fitting for a follower of Lilith, the evil god of lust and pride.

Did she even imagine what her arrogance would bring?

The karma flame in my left hand burns the organ I’m holding to ashes without a trace—

Then, the tidal wave of light engulfs Isabella’s body.

Silently, very quietly.

—-

The flood of light that filled my vision slowly subsides.

Without causing any destruction.

“…What was that…?”

Isabella tilts her head.

The sacred light that collided with her body, despite its fierce momentum, didn’t tear even a single piece of flesh.

And for good reason—the miracle Lacy unleashed this time wasn’t an attack.

Rather, it was the opposite.

The bleeding stops.

Pure white light gathers at the witch’s lower body, filling the gaping wound in her lower abdomen with flesh.

Lacy’s healing miracle, unleashed with all her might, was rapidly restoring the witch’s injury.

“Healing? No, why? What is this, did you make a mistake in arranging the sacred power?”

Looking down at her rapidly healing groin, Isabella kept tilting her head in confusion.

“Anyway, thanks for the recovery!”

Perhaps judging she could now fight properly, the blades protruding from her back all pour toward me at once.

Along with dozens of attack spells positioned in the air.

Explosions ring out like a downpour.

I deflect the blades with Frosting and cut through the spells with Durandal as I retreat.

While staring at the witch’s groin, now glowing pink from the white sacred light.

So far, everything was going smoothly.

Both cleanly carving out the witch’s lower abdomen and casting the healing blessing on that state.

Neither Lacy nor I were sure if Elpinel’s miracle would work on the witch’s body… but surprisingly, the recovery speed was very fast.

As if Elpinel, sensing our intention, was gladly cooperating.

Then what about the result?

Could this bug-like method work in reality?

We would know as soon as the healing was complete.

“Mmm… Elpinel’s grace dwelling between my legs, isn’t this like rubbing bodies with Elpinel? Lilith would be pleased.”

“Y-you blasphemous whore!”

Lacy rages at Isabella’s mockery.

White flames seemed to burn in her eyes, distorted with fury.

Shadow blades and spears of sacred light collide and shatter.

Ophelia, who had awakened as a high mage, steps back to gather mana.

Perhaps because she had just awakened, she seemed to have consumed quite a bit of mana with her recent high magic.

Isabella, seemingly enjoying herself, flicks her tongue while shooting magic forward and swinging her insect arms wrapped in dark mana backward, facing all of us at once.

According to plan.

Though Lacy was so angry her hands were trembling…

She hadn’t forgotten what I had asked her to do, and instead of attacking Isabella directly, she only neutralized her magic.

Ophelia, who hadn’t heard the strategy explanation, had also paused her magic casting.

I too was merely deflecting her insect arms without penetrating inward.

The healing miracle, unhindered by any interference, finally completely restored Isabella’s lower abdomen.

…No, not restoration. This shouldn’t be restoration.

—-

Perhaps even priests don’t know this, but healing miracles, unlike recovery potions, are not essentially “powers that regenerate wounds.”

If that were all, it would be embarrassing to call it divine grace. If it were just similar to potions that can be made through alchemy, how could it be called the power of a god?

Recovery potions that promote cell regeneration in wounded areas to heal injuries have clear limitations.

They struggle to restore organs that have completely disappeared, such as extracted eyes or disintegrated arms.

If a severed arm is reattached, it can heal, but otherwise, only the wound at the amputation site heals quickly.

However, with enough time and enormous sacred power, divine miracles can restore even such injuries as if they never happened.

More precisely, they don’t restore—they create anew!

Yes. The power of creation that consumes sacred power to produce organic matter. That is the essence of healing miracles.

They read the memories and information remaining in the injured person’s body, identify the most ideal form of the wounded area, and materialize it.

That is the mechanism behind healing miracles.

This is also why old injuries are not easily healed.

Because the memories that need to be read are too far in the past, requiring that much more sacred power to restore already degraded memories.

The reason I referred to the brain regeneration interrogation method I heard from Ludwig as the Theseus brain was because of this mechanism.

Repeatedly regenerating a carved-out brain with healing miracles is essentially replacing the existing brain entirely with a new one created from sacred power.

So then,

what is the most ideal form of Isabella’s wound?

The answer was right before my eyes.

A transparent pink, like new.

The flesh recreated by Elpinel’s power was tightly closed without a single gap.

“…No, wait…! This is, what…?! What on earth did you do?!”

Perhaps she finally noticed something was wrong when the miraculous light finished its work.

Isabella’s smiling expression instantly changes to shock.

Her flushed complexion turns pale, and her blackened eyes shake like waves.

Just seeing that face, I could be certain.

Success.

The source of Isabella’s immortality.

The power that gave her absolute confidence.

The netherworld’s escort has been broken!

“How does it feel to be a virgin again?”

Baring my canines, I unleash the mockery I had been holding back.

Toward the witch who had fallen from immortal to human, a slash filled with exhilaration flies.