Ch.899Divine Grace

**Kreaaaak! This light. This energy…!**

The golden pillar of light made Amitamir stop fighting and open his mouth wide in shock. His eyes bulged so dramatically that he even momentarily stopped flapping his wings.

**I remember. I haven’t forgotten! The cursed power of the human gods! The divinity of the last ascenders!**

His gaze shifted from shock to hatred. It was the look of someone who had just encountered the mortal enemy who had slaughtered their entire family.

**You dare interfere with the mortal realm again! You who forced the rule of non-interference, and now you even summon the celestial punishment!**

For someone who was only buried for eight hundred years, he harbored surprisingly deep resentment. His capacity for grudges was inversely proportional to his massive size.

Considering a dragon’s lifespan, eight hundred years would be equivalent to about 10 years for a human…

Actually, thinking about it, his resentment was understandable. For nearly a tenth of his lifespan, he had been buried alone underground, occasionally feeding on whatever monsters appeared.

At that point, even Buddha would become angry enough to throw an elephant at his enemy.

Of course, I had no reason whatsoever to be sympathetic. He was buried underground for eight hundred years because of the human gods? Well, that’s just the result of losing in the competition between species.

He wasn’t even a death dragon back then, and feels it was unfair to be lumped together with them?

Not my problem. If he felt wronged, he should have behaved better before getting buried.

All that talk about being a “good dragon” who suppressed his nature through discipline—that was only “good” from the dragons’ perspective.

Whether good dragon or evil dragon, none of them helped humans who were enslaved before Carolus rose up. At least not that I knew of.

In the end, even a “good dragon” was merely a bystander who could become a threat to humans at any moment.

It was absolutely natural for the human gods to bury them underground.

So I had absolutely no reason to sympathize with his rampaging desire for revenge against the human gods and humanity.

—-

While Amitamir was howling and having a fit, I experienced the true nature of the goddess’s blessing inside the pillar of golden light.

A crystallization of power flooded into my exhausted body. The sensation of divinity flowing into me was similar to when I defeated the evil god’s right arm and the starlight whale.

My wounds closed and disappeared at an incredible speed, as if time was rewinding. Dizziness, thirst, fatigue, and hunger vanished completely, and my mind became astonishingly clear.

And then.

*Crack! Crackle! Snap!*

“Ugh…!”

The sensation of all my bones twisting and muscles tearing apart at the cellular level. My skin split and fell away, while muscles and bones broke and regenerated repeatedly, transforming into something completely different.

Into something stronger.

Into a body suitable for containing divinity.

I instinctively understood that this sensation was the process of my body—which had already surpassed human limitations—evolving to an even higher level.

*Crunch! Crack! Squish!*

So I gritted my teeth and endured the excruciating pain throughout my body. It didn’t last long. Perhaps because of the enemy before me, the evolution process proceeded at an astonishing speed.

…Though that probably made it tens or hundreds of times more painful than it would have been otherwise.

Anyway, after enduring and enduring, when the pain finally disappeared completely.

*Woooong…*

As the pillar of light was absorbed into my body and vanished, I opened my eyes and stretched out my curled limbs.

With a hissing sound, my cracked and blackened skin scattered like ash in the wind.

Revealing pure white skin beneath. The smooth, hairless skin gleamed with a lustrous sheen, and the muscles and bones within were compressed to such incredible density that they surpassed even black iron.

Moreover, the muscles and bones hadn’t just been compressed—their very structure had subtly changed. Even with the same movements as before, I could now exert greater strength, more quickly.

Literally a body that had evolved to be optimized for combat. Judging by my eye level, I seemed to have grown a bit taller too.

Completely healed injuries, rapidly increasing strength, and an evolved body. The blessing Astraea had bestowed upon me was truly transcendent.

She said she would help, but I never expected such generous assistance. It was so impressive that I wondered if she was trying to buy my faith with her grace.

I unconsciously looked down toward Astraea’s stigmata, about to express my gratitude—

“Oh.”

I let out a single sound of dismay as I stared blankly at the area around the stigmata.

…More precisely, at my breasts, which had grown significantly larger. They were so enormous that I might be called a cow rather than a wolf.

Wait, why the hell did THESE get bigger?

Looking at the heavily bouncing flesh with its weighty presence, any feelings of gratitude completely vanished.

As expected, I shouldn’t have trusted a goddess. Damn it.