Goddess

★ Lake Brunstalk Cathedral ★

「——That guy fled over here.」

「——Tsk, what a quick bastard.」

The temple knights were running around the cathedral, trying to catch the invader. But they haven’t been able to see the invader clearly, let alone catch them.

「You guys are not good enough to keep up with me?」

Zerry opened a window and threw out a vase, and it fell on the balcony downstairs causing a loud noise. The screams of the maids who seemed to be evacuating could be heard. The vase must have been quite expensive.

Confused by the sound, the knights lost track of Zerry’s location again. By the time they stepped into the room where the vase was, she was long gone.

Sowing confusion was one of Zerry’s specialties.

「..But the situation is getting worse.」

Looking outside the window, in the distance, she saw Eva and Captain Maxim fighting the knights.

Due to the small number of temple knights, and the temple knights fighting each other due to Eva’s magic eyes, the battle was somewhat even.

But, how long will it last?

Eva was exhausted, and her knights were running out of breath.

「I’ll do what I can, but..」

While running around the huge cathedral and causing confusion, Zerry advanced deeper and deeper.

Her purpose was to keep the temple knights focused on her so they don’t go after the others, but before she knew it, Reiji and the others had disappeared, and she began to wonder if what she was doing was helpful.

「Bochan.. where did you go? ..Hmm?」

Zerry stepped out into a hallway with extravagant decorations.

Tap, Tap.. the noise of someone’s footsteps.

It was the Pope herself, walking barefoot.

She was hollow-eyed and emaciated.

(!?)

However, what was even more surprising to Zerry was that–

「Your Holiness.」

The nun who ran up to her and helped her walk was none other than Non herself.

Non headed to a room in the back while helping the Pope.

(Why are you here.. ah, no, I’m pretty sure Non-san was supposed to be here! But when did she become so important to become the Pope’s attendant!?)

Bewildered, Zerry even didn’t notice the person sneaking up behind her.

★

The Vision Ogre turned around and hit the goddess with his fist.

Together with the impact, light overflowed. I couldn’t keep my eyes open, so I deployed【Dark Magic】to see what was happening.

A barrier formed around the goddess.

There was a slight crack on it.

「I gave it my all, but.. this is all, huh. It’s a bit of a shock.」

『———What are you thinking, Vision Ogre?』

The crack immediately closed.

「It’s not that difficult to understand. Me and the dragon are just tired of bowing to you.」

『———Are you betraying me?』

「Our contract is already over.」

『———How unfortunate.. Vision Ogre. I thought you would be able to make a calm decision, unlike the dragon.』

The goddess raised her hand, but nothing happened even after a few seconds.

「It’s no use, goddess. My puppets should have destroyed the Cathedral’s sorcery by now.」

Sorcery-based creatures of black flame created by Vision Ogre. They should have been fighting the shadow dragons, but if the Vision Ogre ordered it, they would stop fighting immediately.

In that case, it would be easy for the shadow dragons and the puppets to start destroying the cathedral.

However, the shadow dragon’s attack, which blew up warships, would result in many casualties.

Thus in advance, I asked the shadow dragons to only destroy the sorcery tools that affect the mind.

『———I see. I have understood that you carefully planned to betray me.』

It was as the goddess said.

The Vision Ogre intended to betray the goddess from the beginning.

I just didn’t tell anyone—not even the shadow dragons.

The Sage told me this when I went to meet him:

——I do not know what the Vision Ogre is thinking. I am sure he’s astounded at us for being too attached to you. But.. I also think that the Vision Ogre has already had enough of obeying the goddess.

The Vision Ogre must have thought that I must have come with a plan since I borrowed the power of the dragons. That’s why I emphasized that I was “ready”.

Indeed, I am ready.

Ready to defeat the goddess.

『————I can say naught but that you are foolish. You and the dragon could have lived quietly without suffering.』

I sensed a slight “irritation” in the goddess’ voice.

The goddess, the “transcendent”, was irritated.

The goddess raised her hand again.

「It’s not going to work—huh!?」

The Vision Ogre held his chest and crouched down.

His body shrank as if air was escaping out of a balloon.

「A-Are you okay!?」

When I tried to run up to him, the Vision Ogre asked me to stop with his hand.

「Y-Your job is to deal the finishing blow on the goddess!」

The Vision Ogre stood up and unleashed his fist.

Light burst forth.

A high-pitched, cacophonous sound pierced my ears.

「——Goho!」

「Vision Ogre!」

Vision Ogre coughed blood from his mouth, having already returned to the size of an old man.

I ran over to the Vision Ogre who was on his knees, and looked up.

The goddess was standing there, shining – but the barrier surrounding her had a big crack.

『———Foolish.』

「Whether it’s foolish or not is for me to decide. Move out of the way, boy.」

Roughly pushing me away, the Vision Ogre stood up and thrust his hand into the barrier.

「I finally found a use.. for this long, long life.」

「!」

At the same time, purple flames rose from his body. The cracks in the barrier widened and shattered with a hard sound.

「Go, boy.. you are the..」

Vision Ogre collapsed on the spot.

I couldn’t just leave him like that.

However, as he said, this is our first and last chance.

「I’m going.」

I jumped through the broken barrier.

The goddess was right in front of me.

「..Child.. of..」

I couldn’t hear what the Vision Ogre said.

Because I lunged forth with the dagger tightly in my grasp.

「OOOOOOOOOOO———」

And then the goddess—no, the goddess and I disappeared.

★　White Space ★

「They disappeared....?」

「Haa, haa, haa..」

「Anastasia! Are you okay?」

Anastasia collapsed on the spot as soon as the enemies they were fighting disappeared. Dante ran up to her as she breathed violently.

「I-I was almost at my limit..」she said.

It was a symptom of running out of mana.

「Don’t talk– Mimino! Give me a mana potion–!」

「——Stay with me!」

Dante saw Mimino lifting up Vision Ogre, who was a little far away.

He was seriously injured. It seemed to be a fatal wound.

The Vision Ogre’s eyes were shut, and he didn’t move.

「Stay with me! Open your eyes! I’m going to pour the potion into your mouth!」

Mimino took a bottle out of her pocket and put it close to the Vision Ogre’s mouth.

The next moment, the ground shook, and the white space began to flicker.

「W-w-w-what..!?」

The potion slipped out of Mimino’s hand and rolled across the ground. Cracks began running through the ground.

In the next moment, the white began disappearing with a floating feeling.

「Waah!?」

Dante flailed his arm in the air but could not grab anything, and soon his feet touched the grassy ground.

「W-We are.. back here?」

They were back on the lakeside of the cathedral.

Eva and the temple knights were nearby.

The shadow dragons and black flame lifeforms were nowhere to be seen, but the surroundings were deathly silent.

「What is going on....?」

The reason was clear.

It was supposed to be dawn.

It was supposed to be clear skies.

Instead, black clouds hung in the sky.

Lightning ran through the clouds like a dragon.

And blood-red light leaked from the gaps between the clouds.

「What is about to happen..?」

A lukewarm wind blew. Dante felt a chill run down his spine.