"How's the Celestial doing?"
Ever since Amber vanished into Tiamat's body, there had been nothing but silence.
The group outside couldn't help growing anxious. Ritsuka couldn't stop himself from glancing at Merlin, who was maintaining the magecraft holding back the Tide of Chaos.
"...I don't know."
Yet, the answer Merlin gave only tightened the coil of anxiety in Ritsuka's chest.
"Aaaa!"
Tiamat's voice rang out again. That sound, incomprehensible to human ears, pierced through their eardrums, sending a paralyzing wave through everyone's movements.
Ishtar, already struggling against the enemy, was sent flying, fresh wounds blooming across her body.
Not only that, but the Netherworld, once as cold as a snowy mountain with temperatures plunging to minus forty degrees, was suddenly growing uncomfortably, unnervingly warm.
"What's happening!?"
Ritsuka stared in confusion at the suddenly agitated Tiamat. Could she still have some trump card left to play at this stage?
Merlin's perception couldn't penetrate Tiamat's defenses much, but as a candidate for the Grand Caster, his exceptional magical senses picked up on something wrong.
It wasn't just Merlin.
Roman's voice now crackled with panic over the link: "What's going on over there!? Tiamat's magical energy is skyrocketing! The temperature has already tripled the output of Ishtar's Noble Phantasm! Get away from there, now! Ritsuka! A human body won't last long in that heat; you'll dehydrate in moments!"
He didn't need Roman's warning. Ritsuka could already feel his sweat glands crying out in agony.
Every inch of his body felt wretched, like he was trapped in an oven. Just breathing seared his lungs, each gasp stealing precious moisture from him.
Mashu, seeing his state, quickly scooped him up and carried him farther away. Merlin, meanwhile, frowned deeply at Tiamat.
What was going on? Had he miscalculated? But the Phoenix Celestial, wielding the power of consciousness, should have been their only hope of resisting assimilation...
Just as everyone registered the abnormality, an even more terrifying wave of heat scorched through the Netherworld.
Suddenly, an anomalous golden light erupted from Tiamat's abdomen. Understanding dawned on Merlin's face, his expression brightening considerably. "It seems the Phoenix Celestial has succeeded!"
Hearing this, Ritsuka, who had been on the verge of heat-induced delirium, forced his mind to focus. He looked toward the massive goddess struggling to rise in the distance.
He realized the golden light from her belly was none other than proof of something melting away under the extreme heat.
Sure enough, the next moment, a blaze of gold and crimson fire erupted from within Tiamat's abdomen. The surging black tide that had filled her form was utterly vaporized.
"But that is!?"
However, the figure that emerged before them was completely beyond anyone's expectations.
It was not the familiar form they knew. Her once-grey hair was now stark white, while the strands at her forehead and ends burned with a fiery red. Her eyes were no longer a clear, gentle light blue, but a blazing, intense crimson that matched the red in her hair.
Her white martial attire had been scorched away by the sheer, blinding heat that radiated from her, leaving only the barest scraps of cloth to cover her body.
But most striking of all was her current, distinctly non-human appearance.
Red feathers traced from the sides of her head down her chest to her left arm. Her hands and feet were covered in gem-like hexagonal scales, and her fingers and toes had transformed into golden, claw-like bone structures.
"Just what in the world..."
Ritsuka and Mashu stared, eyes wide with disbelief.
"Without a doubt... she is a god..."
Roman uttered these words for the second time, but his shock now far surpassed the first.
If Tiamat had reclaimed her form as an ancient goddess using her Beast Saint Graph, then Fu Hua had done the exact opposite—reaching the domain of the gods with a mortal vessel, an ordinary Saint Graph.
Just like Tiamat moments before, the dense aura of divinity surrounding her wasn't mere Divine Spirituality; it was the pure, unadulterated body of a deity.
Fu Hua's gaze swept over the others for only a moment before settling back on Tiamat.
She casually tossed the Holy Grail in her hand toward Ritsuka's general direction. It wasn't that she didn't want to get closer to them, but that she couldn't.
Though the divine chorus within her had shattered, leaving her mind unaffected, this was her first time wielding this power.
Even for Fu Hua, whose control over her strength was supremely refined, her current state was startling.
Power felt limitless, an unending tide. An unprecedented vitality coursed through her, giving her an almost transcendent sensation.
But this power brought her no joy... only a chilling sense of hindsight and a burning anger.
While she pitied Tiamat's plight, harming her disciple was an entirely different matter.
With that thought, only one purpose remained in Fu Hua's mind: to end Tiamat swiftly, and then focus all her efforts on helping Amber recuperate her consciousness.
As the temperature around her hand exploded once more, Fu Hua, hovering mid-air, drove her fist into Tiamat's flank.
Propelled by her strike, a firebird of far greater magnitude than Amber's Sword God materialized. The colossal bird, rivaling half of Tiamat's size, slammed into the Beast, wrenching another agonized cry from her.
"Get away from here, now!"
Merlin's pupils constricted. He threw up a magical barrier against the wave of scorching heat, feeling more strain from this raw temperature than he had from the Tide of Chaos.
But that was to be expected. After all, Tiamat was no longer a true goddess, while this heat was the mere spillover from the attack of a genuine deity—no, a Celestial. 'When gods fight, mortals suffer.' Merlin had never understood that phrase more keenly than he did now.
"Leave it to me!"
The wyverns were already feverish from the heat, dehydrated and disoriented. Ereshkigal used the authority of the Netherworld to swiftly carry Ritsuka and Mashu to a safer distance.
Watching as Fu Hua's single blow charred half of Tiamat's body to carbon, Ereshkigal couldn't help but swallow hard.
She'd boasted about holding back before, but seeing this... if Fu Hua had truly intended to kill her back then, even her own Netherworld might not have been enough protection.
"Everyone, head for the surface! This is a battle we can no longer intervene in!"
Merlin shouted to Ishtar and Anna, unceremoniously grabbing onto Ritsuka's arm as Ereshkigal's power lifted them upwards.
"I know, I know!"
Ishtar frantically dodged an attack from a Lahmu, rapidly ascending.
Ana used her chains as grappling hooks to pull herself upward.
"Aaaaaa—!"
Tiamat, having lost most of her body, seemed to finally perceive her own end. She let out a desolate, mournful cry. The Lahmu, sensing their mother's distress, swarmed toward Fu Hua in a frenzied, suicidal rush.
'Impermanence awaits all...'
Fu Hua sighed inwardly, yet felt not a shred of pity. She raised her left hand slightly. No Sword Heart was needed; her body alone gathered blazing flames from all directions, heat rivaling that of the sun itself.
'But its hour is now!'
A violently rising temperature, accompanied by a shocking pressure wave, ignited within the Netherworld. The group fleeing toward the exit only saw a terrifying, incandescent light erupting beneath their feet.
"Tiamat's Saint Graph... is going silent."
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T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.