Core Keywords (4)
Meanwhile, there were still those struck by Eden's divine power who refused to repent.
"Ugh... I don't want to. I don't want to go back."
Eden said.
"Foolish soul, don't you know the end of corruption is only emptiness?"
"Uaaah! Just leave me alone!" — was it even pain?
They'd rather die than live an ascetic life again.
'The Satan Church. Truly vicious. To rot a person's mind this far...'
The priests shouted.
"I want to enjoy this more!"
Even a brain soaked in pleasure regained razor-sharp reason the moment it was cornered.
'I have to kill that woman.'
Their expressions changed at once; they shed pathetic tears and reached out with both hands.
"Ah—I repent, O God!" Nade shouted.
"Eden! Don't be fooled! Turn the barrier into physical force!"
She doubted too, but she couldn't push away even those who claimed repentance.
"I was foolish. So please die, you damned woman."
A chilling sense that could not tell good from evil brushed cold against Eden's nape.
Nade stepped forward.
"I'll do it!"
Before Eden could stop her, thunder rolled and a massive bolt of electricity shot skyward.
—You idiots!
When the Incarnation of the Reborn Thunder God let out a cry, the pale priests staggered back.
But the minds that craved only pleasure, beyond the fear of death, beat at their bodies as if whipping them.
"Aaah!"
Unlike the priests charging in despair, Nade's emotion went cold.
"Judgment of the Thunder God."
The Incarnation of the Reborn Thunder God dispersed into electrons and seeped into the air at the speed of light.
"Ugh!"
The priests halted, shaken by the unpleasant tingling on their skin.
Nade held out her hand.
"Those who will not repent, do not come closer. Disobey my order and you will be judged."
The priests looked at one another.
When nothing happened, one stepped forward with desperate eyes.
"I repent. I was foolish— KRAAANG!
The moment he took a step, blue lightning struck down on his head.
As the fallen priest's limbs trembled and flailed, Eden's eyes widened.
'What is that?'
The force was still fierce, but the Reborn Thunder God's wrath was perfectly controlled.
"Nade, what is—?"
"Thunder God's Judgment. It's like a lie detector. It reads the opponent's brainwaves and reacts automatically. If you lie to yourself..."
KRAAANG!
Another bolt hammered down onto someone's head.
"This is what happens." Nade's explanation carried its own binding force; the priests could not move.
"Don't try any tricks. I don't have the ability—or the generosity—to embrace everyone like Shirone."
That was the finishing blow.
While the evil priests were immobilized, those who had truly repented fought desperately.
"O God! Do not forgive me!"
They didn't want to leave pleasure, and those who had managed to escape felt utterly devastated.
Iruki paid no mind.
'This side, that side—it's all gods here.' He simply subdued the enemies before him to help realize Shirone's dream.
'Cancellation.'
As Amidal's ability Dreamer was canceled again, the priests' divine power took effect.
"Graaah! You bastards!"
The demonic race's fury at those who once used them like slaves pierced the sky.
"I'll kill you all!"
Amidal drew his short sword at his side and bent his torso.
"Take this—my ultimate technique!" He gripped the hilt tightly, imagining a storm of blades.
"Infinite Sky Cleave!"
A technique meant to shred hundreds of meters with sword energy.
"Yahaa! Yahaa!"
He snapped the blade in and out of its sheath rapidly; the priests hastily halted.
"Aaah! Faster! Faster!"
Onlookers stood dumbfounded.
There was no sword energy in reality—only a boy wildly swinging a blade.
Iruki said disdainfully, "What are you doing?"
Realizing his ability had been canceled again, Amidal flung the short sword away in frustration.
"Damn it!"
"Playhouse games with your friends. I'll send you home soon enough."
"You bastard!"
As the priests tightened their encirclement, Amidal glared at Iruki and ground his teeth.
"It's really going to work, you—!" The priests' divine power struck at once; moments later a sound like crushing bone echoed.
Iruki turned his head.
"Shirone?"
Three Satan Church leaders, their emblems flashing in the sky, were locked in fierce combat with him.
Preacher Elka peered into Yahweh's heart with her mirror.
'If we convert him, it'll be huge.'
If Yahweh joined the Satan Church, the ideological war would end then and there.
'What does he want? To play together, perhaps.'
In her mirror, Shirone appeared with a sad face, shedding bloody tears.
'So detestable.' She felt like the kind of woman the world wanted to kill.
"In any case—turn him into...!"
Her eyes flashed with anger; she slammed the mirror reflecting Yahweh with her fist.
"Make him a wicked demon!"
The shattered mirror sent a powerful shock through the reality of Shirone's heart.
"Ugh!"
Euprafus, an elder of the Satan Church, lengthened the magi that Marit had gathered into a spear.
"The Emblem Spear."
The spear, blood-red like gore, streaked toward Shirone.
Hand of God blocked, but the center of the palm of light burst and tore open.
Elka's mouth twitched into a smile.
'We're the Catacomb.'
The Yahweh assassination organization.
'Mariu is different from magi. This weapon is made of the emotions of the humans you love. Therefore...'
Unlike the magi Yahweh carved from his heart, it could clash with Miracle Stream.
'The Satan Church has roughly thirty million followers.'
No matter how powerful Shirone's Ultima was, it wasn't enough for him to handle that alone.
'All for this moment.'
That was why Giorgi, leader of the Catacomb, had given up a direct confrontation with Yahweh and founded the Satan Church.
'Damn it!'
Shirone felt the instant the Emblem Spear flew at the speed of light to pierce him.
'Why?'
Was the unification of evil really this easy?
They'd burned their lives trying and couldn't lift even one human to Ultima.
'Why?'
Before he could find the answer, the Emblem Spear stabbed Shirone's side.
Euprafus shouted.
"Wooooaaah!"
A thrill nearly blew his mind—at that moment Shirone grabbed the spear.
"Not yet."
Giorgi's strategy was brilliant, but Hexa doesn't break from a mere thirty million.
"Yahaa!"
Agape's light flowed from Shirone's body where he held the spear and crept up the shaft.
Elka looked at the broken mirror.
"Huh?"
The light swelled like liquid, then exploded into a massive island of radiance that washed over her face.
"Kyaaaa!"
Her eyes, nose, and mouth melted away; she flailed as Shirone shouted, "I will never give up!"
As the Emblem Spear lodged in his side shattered, Hand of God was reborn.
Elka crawled on the ground, screaming.
"Maximus!"
Hearing the shout, Maximus flinched and remembered her orders.
—If we convert Seina...
We were to grant the greatest pleasure.
"V-Vicar!"
As Maximus's gaze hardened, Seina, who had been wavering, hurriedly stepped back.
"Seina, I—"
Even if she had passed Eden's barrier, no one could say whether she had truly repented.
"Don't come any closer!"
She placed her hand on the holy sword Astasia, but no sacred blue light flowed.
'She's lost divine power. She can't fight like this.'
Elka shouted again, "Seize her!"
At the same time, Maximus, eyes wide, rushed over and grabbed Seina's shoulder.
"Seina!"
Seeing the look of someone ready to die, Seina could not bring herself to draw the sword.
"I'm sorry."
Kneeling before her, Maximus wept as he spoke.
"I yielded to the demon. Go and behead the sinner who has defiled God's name."
Elka slammed the ground in frustration.
"Argh! This is—" Hand of God arced through the air and crashed into Elka, flattening her.
Eden shouted, "Seina! Dodge!"
Gultan, the Dark King who had fallen nearby, activated quantization and lunged at her.
"Nade!"
As Iruki shouted, the enchanter Marit ordered the priests, "Rush them!"
The priests who had feared the Thunder God's Judgment suddenly found their legs forced to move.
"No! Don't!"
Dozens of bolts scarred the air and struck at once; with popping sounds bodies exploded.
Through a vision clouded by blood and entrails, Maximus unleashed divine power.
"Begone, demon! Ugh!"
The holy sword Astasia shot up from behind and pierced Maximus's gut.
"Aah... ahhh..."
Seina, who had stabbed the high priest, released her grip on the hilt and slowly stepped back.
"W-why did I—?"
Gultan had touched her heart.
'Mental Crafting.'
He'd forced Maximus to stab so the heart's defenses would fall, then grabbed her roughly.
"Uhh!"
As the shape of her heart shifted, a crimson light flickered in Seina's eyes.
"...Satan."
'Done.'
Seina had been converted.
The moment Gultan and she vanished beneath the earth, Nade's lightning struck.
"Damn! She got away!"
Because their movement ignored space-time, their path couldn't be tracked.
Shirone leapt out.
"Mika!"
- Yes. Coordinates 39398749...
The portrait soldier transmitted Gultan's coordinates to Shirone as Gultan moved like a space jump.
'Complicated. He intends to evade pursuit.' Gultan drifted east, west, north and south at will, smiling like a victor as he looked back.
"Heh heh—there's no way you can catch—"
Shirone appeared.
"Aaaah! Aaaah!"
Startled, Gultan tried to space-jump, but Mika didn't lose his coordinates.
'He aimed for Seina from the start. To keep the Holy See's truth from being exposed.'
"Don't come! Please! Just once!" Shirone cried.
"Stop right there!"
Giorgi read aloud from the Devil's Bible.
"And the Lord said, 'Agrippa, why do you weep?' Agrippa answered, 'The woman I love has married my brother.'"
Devotional Book of Agrippa, Chapter 3.
"O lost lamb, cast away jealousy and hatred. Kill your brother and take your sister-in-law."
Agrippa said.
"If I kill my brother, people will condemn me. If I take the sister-in-law, I will lose my standing."
The Lord said.
"Now that all your brother's things are yours, none may blame you. You may bury the sister-in-law in the ground at night."
Agrippa knelt.
"I am afraid. I fear hypocrites will lock me in prison. I fear they will behead me."
"I will be with you, so you will not have to pay a price to get what you desire. Take whatever you steal. The refuge of murderers..."
Clack—the Devil's Bible closed.
"Melchidue."
"Captured?…!"
Just as Shirone's hand was about to reach them, Gultan and Seina were swallowed by red light and vanished.
"What the—?"
It wasn't quantization.
"Mika."
- None.
'None? What do you mean?'
- They're gone from the world. It appears they left the phase-space tied to coordinates.
'Hidden Code. But to create an ability this powerful...'
Shirone's brow furrowed.
"Giorgi."
Giorgi—he was Yahweh's demon.