episode_0205

The Black Saintess and the Black and White Saintess

“Hmph….!!”

Aria, who had been invited into Tesia’s mental world, had already been bothered by the Rascal incident, which refused to leave her mind. Now, Tesia had clearly provoked her, and Aria displayed not just hostility but genuine murderous intent. She shattered all the checkered cube-shaped boulders Tesia was throwing at her with her staff, trying to get closer to Tesia. However, each time she approached, Tesia would continuously retreat, maintaining her distance from Aria. When Aria tried to get closer again, Tesia would again back away, throwing floating checkered boulders at Aria and speaking.

“You and I have a slight resemblance, Saintess Aria. I, too, am the type to truly express hostility when provoked. And to think we are both connected to black… If you had become a Child of Light and continued Goddess Camilla’s will with me, we would surely have gotten along well.”

“I have no interest in your goddess anymore…!! Lord Zeke is far cooler and more magnificent than some old-fashioned god!!”

“Old-fashioned god…?! To call the Goddess-nim you once served such a thing… It makes the fact that I had my eyes on you before pathetic…!!!”

When Aria insulted Goddess Camilla as an old-fashioned god, Tesia’s face twitched in irritation. She then threw even more of the surrounding floating boulders at Aria. At that very moment, Aria powerfully swung her staff, instantly shattering ten boulders twice her height. Tesia flinched in surprise and said,

“….!! My boulders are incredibly strong, yet they shattered like cookies… I certainly understand why Goddess Camilla desires you…!! But to use such formidable power not for Goddess Camilla but for a lowly human… It is truly regrettable and unfair!! Omnipotent One in the Heavens!!”

“….!!”

Tesia expressed genuine regret that Aria was using her power for Zeke instead of Camilla, then began to pray with her hands clasped together. Yellow light began to emanate from the boulders around Tesia, and Aria, realizing Tesia was doing something, gripped her staff tightly with both hands and began to prepare something herself.

“Omnipotent One in the Heavens… With your power, I wish to punish the heretic…”

“Omnipotent One in the Heavens… With your power, I wish to punish evil…!!”

“Grant me the power to punish that one!!!”

The moment both finished their prayers, a yellow beam of light erupted from Tesia’s boulders towards Aria, and Aria, too, swung her staff, firing multiple beams at Tesia. The two people’s beams then clashed and began to cancel each other out. Tesia, seeing this sight, felt intrigued that their powers were equal and that they had similar attacks, and she smiled broadly as she spoke.

“What incredible power, Saintess Aria…!! To think even our attacks are so similar…!! Indeed, between you, the perfectly black Black Saintess, and me, the black and white Saintess, who combines both black and white, who will win?! Aren’t you curious?!”

“I’m going to kill you and leave this place. Is there any need to be curious!?”

“That’s also what we want, so it doesn’t particularly matter!! All I have to do is trap you here!!! Like this!!”

When Aria glared at her and said she would kill her and leave, so there was no need for curiosity, Tesia said it didn’t matter since she only needed to bind Aria, then flicked her finger upwards. The ground where Aria stood began to rumble, and the checkered patterns began to rise directly from the earth. As they slowly formed a lid to trap her, Aria swung her staff, trying to break the floor that had become a wall. However, when the wall didn’t even scratch under her power, Aria flinched in surprise. Tesia, sensing what was happening inside, chuckled and said,

“You won’t be able to break that wall with your power. All the boulders I just threw at you were like fragments of my will. But this floor, on which we stand and which is trapping you, is my strongest will…!! Do you really think you can easily break through my will to worship Goddess Camilla?”

“It’s just a slightly bothersome wall. Something like this can be broken not just with power, but in other ways too. Omnipotent One in the Heavens. Grant me the power to protect those I cherish with your strength.”

‘…..? That prayer… a shield…?’

Aria suddenly began to chant a prayer, claiming she could break the wall in a way other than brute force. Tesia, hearing the prayer, realized it was a prayer to create a shield and was bewildered. At that moment, as Aria, trapped within the checkered wall, finished her prayer, a shield appeared, enveloping Aria and began to grow in size as if pushing the wall outwards. As a result, perhaps because the shield’s power was strong, cracks began to appear in the checkered wall. Tesia, seeing this, flinched in surprise and became flustered.

“Wha—What?!”

“No one can stop me from going to Lord Zeke, nor can they trap me. No one. Nothing!!!”

The moment Aria gripped her staff with both hands and struck the ground, the checkered wall that had imprisoned her completely shattered from the expanding shield. Tesia, who seemed not to have expected this, watched dumbfounded as Aria emerged from it and walked towards her. Aria then gripped her staff tightly in her right hand and charged directly at Tesia. Tesia, quickly regaining her senses, swiftly jumped onto a floating boulder before Aria could swing her staff, making the boulder float and escaping into the air. Then, she looked down at Aria, who was looking up at her from the ground, and said,

“Haa… haa… That was quite a shock. To think you could break through even my strong faith and escape… I never imagined my strong faith would crumble under your power…”

“It seems this faith I have for Lord Zeke is comparable to the faith in such an old-fashioned god. Rather, it’s a natural outcome, so it’s not even surprising.”

“Hahaha… While saying such things, aren’t you still using the divine power of Goddess Camilla, which our church uses? Without even knowing the essence of that power, or what else lies within it…”

When Aria asked how her faith in Zeke could possibly be compared to her faith in Camilla, Tesia found it absurd that Aria was still using Camilla’s divine power, and asked if Aria didn’t even know the details about Camilla’s divine power. Aria then unleashed divine power from both hands and said to Tesia,

“Blabber all you want. I am simply using the enemy’s weapon to strike the enemy and aid Lord Zeke. Ah… now that I think about it, I truly hated you all because you caused so much trouble for Lord Zeke, making him uncomfortable… So, I suppose I should express gratitude for giving me this power. Thanks to it, you are all about to meet your end, though.”

“To hear that the chaos we caused was such a headache… that truly delights me. We were deliberately moving in a chaotic manner, hoping all of you would feel that way… This is a reward for giving us that news…!!”

When Aria said they had recently caused her a lot of headaches, Tesia was genuinely delighted that their actions had caused confusion for others, just as planned. She then snapped her fingers, sending more checkered boulders flying at Aria. Aria swung her staff, once again destroying the incoming boulders. Then, seeing a boulder dragging across the ground and approaching her, Aria immediately swung her staff towards it. However, the boulder did not break. Aria flinched in surprise, then immediately blocked the boulder with her staff and said,

“Ugh…!! This is the same as the wall that trapped me earlier…!!”

“Do you know how beautiful the black and white pattern is, Saintess Aria? It’s because black and white hold two meanings. But if no one knows what is white and what is black, only seeing the checkered pattern… don’t you think it’s a truly good pattern to hide one’s true intentions?”

“I don’t care about that—!!”

As Tesia explained why she liked black and white, Aria declared she didn’t care and tried to push back the boulder that was pushing her with its force. At that moment, another boulder came dragging across the ground at high speed from behind her. Aria immediately moved sideways, and as she dodged, the two boulders collided and shattered. Tesia then made the boulders around her glow and said with a slight smile,

“Having watched your fight from earlier, I think I now understand your fighting style. To try and solve everything with brute force like that… Goddess Camilla taught us to cultivate knowledge in other areas besides power. Have you forgotten that too?”

“Omnipotent One in the Heavens….”

“It’s too late, Saintess Aria. Judgment upon the ignorant.”

When Aria began to chant a prayer, Tesia replied that it was already too late and snapped her fingers. About twenty checkered boulders around Tesia then unleashed beams of light towards Aria. Aria, startled as the beams fired before she could finish her prayer, swung her staff and deflected a few of them. However, several beams grazed Aria, and she felt pain each time a beam brushed against her body.

“Ughhh….!!”

“I wonder how long you can keep deflecting my beams, Saintess Aria!!”

Aria, who had been enduring the pain and deflecting Tesia’s beams, began to grimace as if she was growing overwhelmed. Tesia, seeing Aria struggling, chuckled and summoned ten more boulders, then indiscriminately fired beams at Aria, saying,

“You won’t be defeated by mere attacks like these, will you, Saintess Aria?! You are a Saintess of immense power, chosen to be a Child of Light!! If you were to kneel to such attacks, it would be a great disappointment to Goddess Camilla, who chose you, and to us!!”

“I don’t… care about that choice…!!”

“To collapse so easily… you don’t even have the power or ability to protect that man, Zeke, from us!! It seems I overestimated you!! Kya hahaha ha!!!”

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up!!! The power to judge all…!!”

When Tesia continued to mock her and even mentioned Zeke, Aria, provoked, ground her teeth and unleashed the divine power she had secretly gathered in her hands by spreading her arms. The divine power released from Aria’s hands transformed into beams of light, shooting down all the boulders that had been firing beams at Aria. Tesia, surprised, then used a checkered boulder to block Aria’s incoming beam and said,

“I’m surprised…!! I thought you were just swinging your staff to block the beams… To think you had such a surprise in store for me…”

“Hmph… My body is sufficiently warmed up now… Even if other Saintesses come, I can definitely protect Lord Zeke. From now on.”

“Warmed up? What do you mean—!!”

When Aria said her body was sufficiently warmed up, Tesia tilted her head as if bewildered, about to ask what she meant. But at that moment, Aria pointed her staff at Tesia and unleashed a powerful beam of light from it. Tesia, startled, immediately gathered the surrounding checkered boulders to block Aria’s beam. However, when her boulders failed to perfectly block Aria’s beam and instead clashed with it as if in a struggle, Tesia smiled broadly and said,

“Are you now unleashing beams powerful enough to even shatter my boulders? Truly… I can’t help but admire your potential!!! What else do you have?! And what attack will you launch next!? Perhaps because fighting you has stimulated the fighting spirit within me after a long time, I’m so thrilled I feel like my body is twisting with excitement!!!”

“Your composure… it’s truly infuriating, making my anger surge… How dare you act so relaxed after separating me from Lord Zeke… I want to chew you to bits to vent this rage…!! Omnipotent One in the Heavens!!! With your power, punish the rude one—!!”

As Tesia shouted, acting at ease and anticipating what she would do next, Aria, who had been continuously firing beams, grew greatly irritated and began to chant a prayer to amplify the beam’s power. But at that moment, a boulder dragged across the ground next to her, approaching at high speed, then struck her and passed by. Aria, hit by the boulder, floated in the air for a moment before crashing to the ground. She then trembled and writhed in pain, as if she had suffered great damage from the boulder.

“Ugh… Ughhh…”

“This is rather bland, isn’t it? That last attack, it seems the pain was similar to when the World Tree struck you, wasn’t it?”

“….?! H-how did you know…?”

When Tesia asked if the impact from the boulder was similar to the impact she had previously suffered from the World Tree, Aria was greatly flustered that Tesia knew she had fought the World Tree. Meanwhile, in the outside world, I continued to fight Rikarin. Her hammer and Trahan repeatedly clashed, and I was appalled that Rikarin was exerting strength beyond the level of an ordinary soldier, slowly beginning to tire.

“Haa… haaa… Damn it… Do all Saintesses these days receive combat training…? Saintess Krischa, Saintess Viola, why are they all so strong…?”

“Contrary to your thoughts, all Saintesses and Priests receive combat training, you barbaric fool. We don’t have the luxury of living in complacency like you. Since we are destined to lead the world, isn’t it natural that we train ourselves?”

“What…? You mean the trials Aria mentioned before, they really all have to go through them…? Then, those who couldn’t overcome those trials…”

When Rikarin said that all Saintesses and Priests were destined to lead the world and trained without exception, I recalled the trials of the Saintesses Aria had mentioned before and was greatly appalled that it was true. Then, when I asked about those who couldn’t overcome the trials, Rikarin let out a hollow laugh as if bewildered and answered me.

“Those who couldn’t overcome the trials? From the start, those fellows couldn’t overcome the trials because their faith in Goddess Camilla was insufficient. What concern is that of ours? They probably all returned to the earth.”

“….These… these crazy bastards, what…?! You talk about that as if it’s nothing?! You take young children and force them to undergo life-threatening trials… do you have any sense of responsibility for that?!”

“I heard you also lack a sense of responsibility… Now, who is lecturing whom about responsibility, you barbaric fool.”

“You damned bastards!!!!”

When Rikarin continued to scorn those who failed the trials, treating their deaths as insignificant, I became greatly enraged and challenged Rikarin about their sense of responsibility. As Rikarin jeered back, asking who I was to lecture about responsibility when I also lacked it, I somehow flared up, picked up Trahan, and charged at Rikarin again. Thinking that as long as these bastards were alive, the same things would repeat.