"It's over."
As Cao Cao fell, a black halo appeared behind Zeroy, absorbing his soul. The True Longinus was stripped from him and taken into Zeroy's hand. The other members of the Hero Faction also lay dead, their souls dealt with in the same way.
"Patchi, let's leave here first."
After taking the Holy Spear, Zeroy didn't spare it another glance. She immediately turned to Patchouli, signaling her to trigger their contingency.
Behind Cao Cao stood Indra. While their relationship wasn't as close as Vali and Azazel, Cao Cao, as the wielder of the True Longinus, was undoubtedly on Indra's watch list.
Successfully killing him proved Indra's attention was not constant. Yet with Cao Cao dead, Indra would surely sense it no matter what. He might not choose to avenge him or even target her, but there was no reason to stay and wait.
They had prepared countermeasures both for failure and for success.
...
On an uninhabited island far from the place of Cao Cao's death—
After several teleportations, Zeroy finally had time to look at the spear in her hand. She poured her will into it, wanting to see if the weapon was truly usable. If it was, she could leave the mission unfinished. It all depended on whether it was worth 100,000 Points and two draw chances.
The moment she sent her consciousness into it, the spear changed, blooming with soft and holy light. For an instant of nothingness, Zeroy's awareness plunged into an infinite, pure-white space. Nothing surrounded her but gentle white light. No boundaries, no gravity, no sound—only endless white stretching on like a blank canvas, silent and mysterious.
She frowned slightly, golden hair swaying in the glow, emerald eyes scanning the void, alert and puzzled. This wasn't anywhere she'd seen before, not even like a real place.
"Where is this? Inside the spear?" She muttered to herself, eyes darting cautiously around. Her voice neither echoed nor faded, as if absorbed by invisible walls. There was no one, nothing. The blankness was unsettling.
Zeroy raised an eyebrow, breaking the oppressive silence: "Hey, anyone there? God of the Bible? You're the one who pulled me in, right?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, the white light in the void began to twist and flow, gathering two meters before her. The glow pulsed like a living thing, shaping itself into a hazy humanoid form. Zeroy narrowed her eyes, stepped back, her Striker Unit manifesting unconsciously in her hand as she watched warily.
The light first sketched graceful curves, a figure with striking contours, then the outline of a waterfall-like cascade of hair. Finally, the light particles drifted away like a soft breeze, revealing the true form within.
A statuesque woman stood before Zeroy. Her hair was silver, pure as moonlight, cascading softly to her waist. Her red eyes held deep warmth, and a gentle smile curved her lips, soothing all unease. Her face bore both the allure of maturity and an ageless, eternal air.
She gazed at Zeroy tenderly, exuding a mature gentleness like an older sister, yet with a mother's embrace. She wore a simple yet elegant white dress, its hem swaying in a nonexistent breeze, radiating an indescribable holiness. The entire space seemed to warm with her presence, as if even the void had been given life.
"You… are the God of the Bible?"
A flash of surprise crossed Zeroy's eyes, her guarded tone easing, replaced by astonishment. In her mind, the God of the Bible should be a stern old man, or an indescribable abstraction, or perhaps a gentle and handsome youth.
At the very least, God should have a dignified form—he could be kind, sure, but this world's God was supposed to be a good-natured elder. Not this elegant, red-eyed, silver-haired goddess out of a fantasy story.
Why was the God of the Bible a red-eyed, silver-haired big sister? Zeroy found it absurd. So God was a girl?
The silver-haired goddess's smile deepened slightly, as if reading Zeroy's doubts. She spoke slowly, her voice like a clear spring flowing through a valley, carrying an ethereal echo: "Appearance is only a facade, dear Zeroy."
"So you really are the God of the Bible?"
"Yes and no." The goddess slowly shook her head. "I am only a trace of His will, a fragment of His power, a sliver of His law, a shard… of His soul."
"A super-mini God of the Bible?" Zeroy summarized the abstract explanation.
"Mm. You can think of it that way."
"What do you mean, 'appearance is only a facade'? I don't think this is your real form…" Zeroy frowned. She did like this form—a lot. In fact, it was exactly her type. And precisely because it matched her tastes so perfectly, it felt wrong.
Why are you even wearing pantyhose—one black, one white?! Too pandering! If this was the real God of the Bible, then the world itself was her XP.
"Whatever you're going to say or do, switch back to your original form first."
"This is my original form." The goddess shook her head. "He has no gender, no body. His form depends entirely on how the outside observes Him. What you think I look like, what you want me to look like, is the form I take. So this is my original form."
"…" Zeroy frowned, thinking for a moment. "Then your true body—what does it look like?"
"It was the first light at the dawn of the world—" A ball of gentle sunlight appeared in the goddess's hand. "If one must seek an original form, then what you see now is it."
"…Emmm, fine." Zeroy nodded after a moment of silence.
As long as it wasn't something weird, just a ball of light—there was no way to assign it a gender anyway. That worked. No need for her to turn into that ball of light either. She was pleasing enough to look at as she was.
"What did you pull me in here for?"
...
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