Ch.998The Benefits of Unification

======[ Haschal ]======

“Celestial Pegasus, descend.”

Making her entrance by shattering the monster’s spine with a meteor-like diving attack, Persiella proudly puffed out her chest, announcing the arrival of the Celestial Pegasus to this land.

I didn’t bother to deny it.

When someone who just saved my life wishes to be called the Celestial Pegasus, why wouldn’t I grant such a simple wish?

Rather, I should be grateful. Had she not ambushed the monster and severed its spine, Demian’s group would have been in grave danger.

Timely support when help was desperately needed. Honestly, shouldn’t one be grateful for that?

Even Hersella seemed to feel a hint of gratitude, as that insolent being refrained from raging about another impersonating the Celestial Pegasus and instead remained silently acquiescent.

[ Have you lost your mind…? Tactless and insane…? Hmm, I see. So that’s how you view me. ]

Oh, I guess not.

[ Your words were cut off earlier, weren’t they? I’m curious. What exactly were you going to say…? Go ahead, finish your sentence. I’m so curious I can hardly sleep. ]

The harsh words I had spat out in frustration at Hersella’s joking attitude during a critical situation.

Hersella, as if completely ignoring Persiella’s Celestial Pegasus claims, was mercilessly interrogating me, fixating only on those offensive words.

[ Hmm? Why so silent? Shouldn’t you finish what you started? Now you have the leisure to do so. I’ve personally set the stage for you. Come on, speak. ]

‘……’

[ What’s wrong? I said speak. ]

Her tone was like that of a tattooed older woman emptying a schoolboy’s pockets of his entire savings. I remained silent like someone who’d swallowed honey, overwhelmed by her pressure.

I chose to exercise my right to remain silent rather than utter the curses that would have followed—a thousand times wiser choice.

…Of course, how often can one escape with silence alone? Certainly not now.

[ I said speak. ]

Hersella’s voice grew more menacing. It was the voice of a wife who had stayed up all night waiting for her husband who had come home secretly at dawn after staying out without notice.

It was a warning that she was ready to destroy my spine with divine power if my answer wasn’t what she wanted.

‘…Um, well, you see… I’m sorry.’

I apologized like a dog with its tail between its legs.

My intuition, now heightened after awakening my demigod status, warned me that I would regret it if I offered excuses instead of an apology.

[ I’m glad you know how to apologize. ]

Fortunately, that seemed to be the right answer, as Hersella ceased her interrogation with a slight snort.

It was truly fortunate. Honestly, if she had responded with something like “What exactly are you sorry for?” I would have been in serious trouble.

But thanks to my quick apology, that didn’t happen, and I was able to breathe a sigh of relief and focus on the battle again.

No, not battle—more like watching a battle.

“Keu…Kruooooah!”

The World Tree’s monster writhed, reconnecting its shattered back as its lava-like flesh, hidden beneath its rocky exterior, fused back together.

“Hmm? I intended to sever its body in half, yet not only did it endure, but it continues to thrash about.”

Persiella smiled admiringly as she enveloped herself in her mana transformed into cold energy. Her blue membrane wings glistened, covered in ice.

“What a sturdy beast. A worthy sacrifice to herald the arrival of the true Celestial Pegasus!”

“Kuaaaaaah!”

“Frost Dragon Scale Tempest!”

A blizzard raged like a storm and lightning rained down endlessly.

The dragonborn Celestial Pegasus, now stronger than before, clashed head-on with the World Tree’s monster.

—-

“That dragonborn is…”

“Blue hair, mask, and ice magic… Isn’t that the dragonborn Haschal fought? The one calling herself something like Hosoin?”

“…I think you’re right. Does that mean she’s an enemy?”

“Well, at least for now, she seems to be an ally. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Thanks to Persiella’s sudden appearance and taking on the World Tree’s monster, Demian and Ophelia gained a brief moment to catch their breath.

Instead of joining Persiella against the World Tree’s monster, they retreated slightly to regroup, revealing their wariness toward her.

…Come to think of it, there was no guarantee that woman was our ally.

Right now, I was grateful she was fighting the monster in our place, but who’s to say she wouldn’t turn her blade on us next after defeating it?

After all, when we parted last time, didn’t she grind her teeth and swear to throw me in a chicken coop someday because of the humiliation I’d inflicted on her?

…Hmm. This was no time to feel relieved.

Relief and gratitude? Rather, it was an extremely precarious situation.

In my current physical state, I had no means to resist if Persiella decided to throw me somewhere worse than a chicken coop.

– Guuuung…!

So I released the energy of Karma of Murder toward the sky, signaling Demian’s group. A signal that I was here and needed their help.

“Is that… Haschal?”

“Who else could it be? If he’s calling us, he must have won.”

Demian and Ophelia seemed to have noticed it. Thanks to my enhanced senses, I could roughly understand what they were saying just by reading their lips.

“Won…? Against that monster, the Great Guardian Varnir Freyus…?”

Perneisia muttered blankly, her face filled with shock, disbelief, and bewilderment.

For a fairy, the defeat of a Great Guardian must have been unimaginable.

Well, he was skilled enough to warrant such a reaction. Honestly, if it weren’t for Heaven’s Wall, I would have lost.

“Yeah, it’s truly unbelievable.”

Ophelia responded to her words.

From their conversation, it seemed they hadn’t properly witnessed my battle with Varnir.

Fighting such a monster was already tight and precarious enough—they wouldn’t have had the luxury to pay attention elsewhere.

“How did he manage to defeat it?”

It was beyond their imagination.

If I explained that it was a demigod-level dogfight between demigods, would they even believe it? I wouldn’t, not until seeing it with my own eyes.

“Let’s move for now. We’ll… leave this to that woman.”

Demian spread his pure white wings and took flight, with Ophelia following, levitating with her floating magic. She was carrying Perneisia like a bundle.

“Huh, instead of helping, you’re dumping it on me and running away? How cowardly and despicable—truly fitting for a servant of such a master.”

Persiella mocked them in the middle of her fight. Saying how their actions were just like their master’s.

It seemed she was still holding a grudge about how I had tried to dump Amitamir on her.

How petty. In the end, she and her subordinates had retreated smoothly, and I had cleaned up the mess.

“Well, do as you please. I never needed your help in the first place.”

Still, though she mocked them, she didn’t try to interfere.

Or perhaps she couldn’t? Even though she had grown stronger, she probably didn’t have the luxury to interfere with them while facing a monster that was like an avatar of the World Tree.

Thanks to that, I was able to reunite with Demian’s group shortly after.

“You came…?”

“My God, Haschal!”

Demian and Ophelia were horrified when they saw me. I welcomed them with a strained smile.

“Doesn’t look like… you have any major injuries. Glad my training… paid off, huh?”

“The one with major injuries is you! Good heavens, your body is like a rag…”

A rag. A metaphor without a hint of exaggeration.

One eye was gone, my left arm was nearly severed at the shoulder, and my entire body was covered in cuts, tears, and crushed wounds.

Even my right leg showed cracks in the bone where it had partially healed.

“I know… just heal me for now. If that woman sees me like this, who knows how she’ll react…”

I gestured toward Demian’s holy sword, instructing him to cast a healing miracle without further ado.

One of the powers contained in Gram was the ability to manifest all the divine miracles of the Church of Elpinel.

While complete recovery might be impossible, he could at least restore me to a state where I could move.

Though not at the level of Lacy or Lena, Demian’s healing was quite effective, living up to the name of a holy sword.

“Will that be enough? In this forest, the power of divine miracles…”

Is reduced, he meant.

The cause was obvious. The World Tree was interfering, just as it had blocked the communication between me and Astraea earlier.

“I know that… just do it…”

I frowned slightly in irritation and instructed him again, and only then did Demian hurriedly point his holy sword at me and cast a healing miracle.

One wasn’t nearly enough, so he cast it ten times in succession.

– Hwaaak!

The moment the brilliant white light touched my body, it instantly transformed into a hazy mist. My damaged body was greedily absorbing the healing power contained in the sacred light.

– Zeuruuk.

Blood vessels that had been leaking blood reconnected, and torn flesh stuck together and began to heal.

Lost blood was replenished, and missing flesh was filled with new tissue.

My heartbeat and breathing stabilized. Even my vision, half of which had turned black, began to brighten again, albeit hazily.

Vitality was returning to my body.

Conversely, Demian’s complexion had grown slightly paler after repeatedly casting divine miracles that consumed his karma.

Anyway, I had regained enough strength to stand again. Strength to stand and wield a sword.

That was enough.

Previously, even if my wounds healed, I would have remained powerless until the consumed karma was replenished, but now I could fight again as long as my body was healed.

“…Yes, now I feel like I might survive.”

Once unleashed, the demigod status had transformed my body and the power of Good Karma within it into something entirely different.

The divine power of the stars.

While the power of Karma of Murder wasn’t mine to begin with and thus remained unchanged, the Good Karma accumulated in my soul had been completely transformed into the power of stars without a trace.

And that power continued to exist in that state even after I suppressed my demigod status and returned to my original form.

Good Karma was originally a blessing—a fragmented, altered form of Ausrine’s divinity that I possessed.

Now, having inherited Ausrine’s divinity itself, I was essentially a living embodiment of Good Karma.

Karma was me, and I was Karma.

In other words, for me now, using power—manifesting Defying Fate or Sky Slash—meant consuming my own physical strength.

Unlike before, when I had to rest until my karma recharged even after my physical strength recovered, now the recovery of physical strength was synonymous with the recovery of karma.

Thanks to this, I could rapidly regain my strength just by treating my wounds and catching my breath.

Of course, to recover to full strength, I would still need to rest properly.