episode_0231

**The Saintess of Bloody Tears**

“Wha… what is this?! Where did that spear fly from?! Wait… your eyes… why aren’t they yellow?!”

“…..”

Adoleth, perplexed by the blue spear that suddenly flew in from outside and impaled itself inside, was even more flustered that Viola’s eyes were still brown, not yellow. Normally, when one accepted Camilla’s divine power and became a saintess, their eyes would mostly turn yellow, but Viola’s eyes remained unchanged, which was puzzling. Then, Adoleth suddenly realized that the spears embedded inside were Viola’s doing, making her even more baffled. This was because it meant that Camilla’s divine power had no effect on Viola at all, and Viola still harbored hostility towards her.

“Im… impossible!!! That’s Goddess Camilla’s divine power…!! She accepted that divine power into her body… how can she reject Her power…?! How…?!”

“….Earlier, when I was pierced by the spear… my body automatically healed itself… and now my wounds are healing themselves again… I thought I was fighting alone… but that wasn’t it…”

“What are you talking about, Viola…!! What have you done?!”

“….The experiences of those within me… they forgave me and sacrificed themselves to protect me… Ah… To realize so late that I am still a person with a valuable life…”

“Answer me, Viola!!! How did you escape Her power…?!”

As Viola just murmured, looking at her own hands, and didn’t answer her questions, Adoleth summoned a spear of light in her hand and charged at Viola. At that moment, blue spears suddenly shot up from the ground, startling Adoleth and making her stop in her tracks. Viola placed both hands on her chest and mumbled, gazing at the dark sky.

“There was still divine power within my body… my own divine power, in the name of their experiences… And… as my mind calmed, I realized… that I have now become a person with independent divine power, unaffected by Camilla… Now, you and Camilla will never be able to manipulate my emotions again.”

“Wha…? What in the world is that…?! Wh-what is that blue energy…?!”

As Viola turned her head towards Adoleth, stating that she and Camilla could no longer manipulate her emotions, and began to emit a blue aura from her arms, Adoleth was greatly flustered and even began to feel a slight fear of the energy she had never seen before. Then, Viola made a gesture of spreading her hands, and as she spread them, she began to transform her energy into the shape of spears, causing Adoleth to be greatly astonished by the blue spears.

‘Is… is she materializing energy…?! Into spears with physical forms…?! Our divine power can only create spears of light… What in the world is this?!’

“I thought I had to keep fighting for others. But that wasn’t it… I couldn’t give up this fight, even for myself. To not lose myself, to not forget who I am… Now… now I understand everything…”

Viola touched the spear made of her own energy, beginning to understand why she was fighting and why she shouldn’t give up. And as her reason for fighting became clear, Viola took a deep breath, raised the spear towards Adoleth, and spoke.

“It seems I’ve become a saintess imbued with divine power, just as you wished. But strangely… no, I feel it myself. I haven’t become a saintess with Camilla’s divine power. I’ve become a new saintess, one that never existed in this world.”

“Nonsense…!!! Do you think it makes sense for divine power that isn’t Goddess Camilla’s to exist in this world?! All divine power is the great and sacred power that comes from Goddess Camilla!!! There is no divine power that doesn’t originate from Her!!!”

“You might be right. The divine power I currently possess is a power that arose from confronting my own atrocities and conversing with them through Camilla’s divine power. So this blue divine power could be divine power derived from Camilla’s divine power… or it could be the divine power of my own heart. But the important thing is that my current divine power is absolutely different from hers.”

‘…..Wha… what is it?! Her aura has completely changed from when she was fighting me just now…!! Everything feels calm… no, cold… What is this pressure?!’

As Viola calmly looked at the blue divine power continuously emanating from her hands, explaining in a calm voice that she didn’t know how this divine power was created but that it was no longer connected to Camilla, Adoleth was utterly bewildered by the strange pressure she felt from Viola, whose aura had completely changed from when she was fighting just moments ago. Then, realizing that she, who had received Camilla’s divine power, felt pressured by Viola, a saintess with alien divine power, Adoleth became enraged and roared, unleashing divine power from her entire body.

“Don’t be ridiculous!!! For me to feel pressured by a strange form of divine power…!! I can never accept it…!! I can never acknowledge you!!!!”

“Knowing your own weakness, knowing your own atrocities… and admitting them… It sounds easy, but I know it’s quite difficult… And you’re the same.”

“….?! Gwaaaahk….!!!”

As Adoleth, unable to admit she felt fear, charged at her, Viola extended her hand towards Adoleth. Suddenly, a spear shot up from the ground towards Adoleth, striking her in the abdomen and pushing her backward. Viola then immediately rushed at Adoleth, swung her spear, struck her, and sent her flying outside. The believers fighting outside were greatly bewildered to see Adoleth, even in her Sacred Radiance state, flung out of the Temple of Pioneering.

“Ah… Lady Adoleth?! Is someone in the Temple of Pioneering?!”

“What… what happened there… Why is a strange divine power being felt from the Temple of Pioneering…?! What is the identity of this divine power…?!”

While the believers were horrified to see Adoleth flung outside, Cecilia felt a foreign divine power emanating from the Temple of Pioneering and feared that a new saintess of the sect might have appeared. And at that moment, a figure soared from the Temple of Pioneering and headed straight for the retreating Adoleth. Cecilia then realized the figure was Viola and was greatly astonished.

“Vi… Viola…?! What is that divine power?! I’ve never felt divine power like this before…?!”

“Gwaaaahk….!! What kind of power is this…!!!”

“I feel pain from you, Adoleth. But it’s not pain from the heart, it’s pain from the body… I wonder if you, like me, can realize how terrible our atrocities are…”

“…..Damn it….!! Gwaaaahk!!!!”

Adoleth, still reeling from the previous shock, was greatly flustered when she saw Viola, who had flown towards her, raising her spear high, wondering if Adoleth could realize how terrible her own atrocities were. Simultaneously, Viola, maintaining a cold, doll-like expression, swung her spear, knocking the airborne Adoleth down to the empty ground. Adoleth, colliding with the ground, felt great pain and quickly began to get up. At that moment, several spears rose one by one from beneath the ground around Adoleth. Viola landed on the ground, blue tear-like marks forming on her cheeks, and spoke to Adoleth.

“If Camilla truly consumes this world, will life still exist afterward? Since you follow her, you must have worried about the future, Adoleth.”

“Gah… damn you all… To make that guy know my name… Anyway… Haa… haa… Do you think life will remain if my Light consumes this place…? Hahahaha…!! At least for me, who follows Her, life will exist…!!! And I will forever uphold Her will and illuminate this world with light…!! That is our mission…!!!”

“Following Camilla to illuminate the world with light… Adoleth. Such an ideal sounds wonderful… but if there’s no world to illuminate, that ideal is nothing but an illusion. If the world is consumed, how can there be a world to illuminate?”

“Hahaha… The answer is simple, heretic… Our very existence will become the world…!! We ourselves will become the world and illuminate ourselves…!! That is the mission and teaching Goddess Camilla has bestowed upon us…!!!”

To Viola’s question of how they would illuminate the world if Camilla consumed it and there was no world left to illuminate, Adoleth replied that Camilla’s teaching was for them to become the world themselves and illuminate themselves, as she began to unleash her divine power to its maximum. Viola then raised her spear towards Adoleth, created blue spears around herself with divine power, and launched them at Adoleth. Adoleth also created spears of light with Camilla’s divine power and launched them at Viola. Seeing her own spears collide with Viola’s and annihilate each other, Adoleth continued to hurl spears at Viola, shouting.

“Even if you can now threaten me with your new power… I am Adoleth of the Children of Light!!! If you create and throw spears, I can simply counter with similar abilities…!!! And I, as one of the Children of Light, possess infinite divine power!!! That means I can keep creating and throwing spears like this until your power runs out!!!”

“….These spears are like daggers made from the lamentations of the dead… Adoleth… The more people you’ve killed…”

“…..?!”

“The more daggers are created because of you. And don’t forget that those daggers are powerful enough to fill an entire world, and then explode.”

Viola explained that her blue spears were manifestations of the lamentations and daggers of the dead, and that the more people Adoleth had killed, the stronger the daggers of the dead would become. With that, she instantly summoned well over a hundred spears. Adoleth was greatly startled to see countless spears, almost filling the space in front of her, floating around Viola. Viola then raised her spear towards Adoleth again and began to continuously launch the blue spears.

“Hwaaaahk…..!!!”

“One who understands the human heart can truly become a saintess, Adoleth. Not just by receiving divine power from someone…”

Adoleth summoned and threw spears, and even directly grabbed spears of light with both hands to try and deflect Viola’s spears, but Viola’s blue spears were simply too numerous. Yet, Adoleth didn’t give up and continued to deflect Viola’s spears. As a result, Adoleth, covered in cuts all over her body, was panting and barely holding onto her life after deflecting all the spears.

“Gasp… gasp… Th-this crazy monster… Just… how much power does she have…!!!”

“You said earlier that you were a saintess of the Children of Light, didn’t you…?”

“…!! Oh… don’t come…!!! Don’t come!!! Holy Spear!!!”

Adoleth, feeling great fear as Viola slowly walked towards her and asked if she hadn’t said she was one of the Children of Light earlier, hastily summoned four spears of light around herself and tried to throw them at Viola. However, Viola swung her spear powerfully, shattering all of Adoleth’s spears and destroying them. Adoleth froze, dumbfounded, and Viola looked down at her with an expressionless face and spoke.

“I am the Saintess of Bloody Tears. A saintess who reflects on past misdeeds… who continues to remember their forgiveness… who has realized the immense power of despair and sorrow… And a saintess who has decided never to erase the scars in her heart, so as not to repeat those actions again…”

“N-no….!! No!!! I can’t die like this….!! G-Goddess Camilla….!! Please… please save me like you did before….!! Pleeaase!!!”

As Viola slowly raised her spear towards her, Adoleth recalled how Camilla had personally saved her when she was dying from illness before, and pleaded with Camilla to save her. Viola’s spear then aimed at Adoleth, and as the tip of the spear touched the ground, Adoleth collapsed. However… Viola didn’t stab Adoleth, but stabbed beside her. Seeing Adoleth unconscious from the fear that she was about to die, Viola plopped down and sighed, saying.

“Haaaah…. But I can’t bring myself to kill her, knowing how believers and saintesses are created… Anyway, this power… To think I’ve become a saintess again after all…”

Because Viola knew and had experienced how Camilla forcibly manipulated emotions to create believers, she couldn’t bring herself to kill Adoleth, even though she was an enemy. Viola, almost completely drained of energy from having unleashed so many spears on Adoleth just moments before, sighed and looked at her hands. Then, feeling the blue tear-like marks on her cheeks disappear, Viola felt a strange sensation from having become a saintess imbued with divine power once more. Soon, however, she smiled and murmured, looking up at the darkened sky.

“Still, this divine power was given to me by those people… it’s not Camilla’s divine power, so maybe it’s fine… Haaaah… The Saintess of Bloody Tears… I named myself that, but it feels a bit embarrassing, doesn’t it?”

Viola felt a strange shyness and embarrassment about having called herself the Saintess of Bloody Tears to Adoleth earlier. Then, she saw a vision of the victims who had died because of her waving at her from under a nearby tree. Viola smiled and waved back. The visions of the victims then all began to disappear with smiles on their faces, and Viola collapsed onto the ground, sighing.

“Sigh… I should go help Lady Cecilia and the others… but I poured too much power into defeating just Adoleth… Still, I brought down one of the Children of Light, reducing the sect’s forces by one… so I guess I’ll have to leave the rest to them…? Anyway, I’m really glad I could be of help… Haha…”

Viola realized that her body was no longer able to move. She felt satisfied that she had at least defeated one of the Children of Light, thus reducing the sect’s forces, and entrusting the rest to those still fighting on the battlefield, she lost consciousness. Thus, Camilla’s divine power unexpectedly triggered Viola’s awakening, resulting in the truly bizarre outcome that Adoleth was defeated thanks to Viola’s awakening as the Saintess of Bloody Tears.