Benett flew about 10 meters through the air before regaining his posture and landing on the ground. Isaac staggered with an uninjured body, then vomited a bucketful of blood.
"Kugh, uweeek...!"
Her eyes were bloodshot, and blood flowed from her nose and ears. She seemed to have suffered serious damage but wasn't dead. Isaac looked up at the sky and laughed.
"Heh, haha..."
[I clearly saw it hit her...!]
"I escaped through space, then returned. As a price, I had to tremble in fear for a while in a terribly dark and frightening space... but thanks to that, I feel closer to Him..."
Having apparently overexerted herself to avoid Benett's attack, Isaac hugged her own body and trembled in pain. Yet the fanaticism gleaming in her eyes had grown deeper.
"More, just a little more...! My God, take everything from me if you wish-! Haha, ahahahahaha!"
Crack, crack.
Additional fractures appeared in space, and two more bubbles squeezed through the gaps. This brought the total number of bubbles circling around Isaac to five.
They moved in unpredictable directions, beginning to grind away and erase everything around Isaac. The sight resembled a spatial storm, almost like a natural disaster.
"...Two more appeared here."
[I'll, I'll try to do something about it.]
"Niore...?"
[I'll draw their attention.]
Flaraararack.
The pages of the grimoire clutched in Niore's hand began turning by themselves. Red light leaked from it, causing bizarre phenomena to occur around them.
Eyeballs emerged from thin air, terrible laughing sounds were heard, and mouths appeared on the ground, grinding their teeth. Like Isaac, Niore seemed to be drawing even greater power from the outer god.
"Niore, why aren't you using the Goddess's crystal..."
[We can save the world, right?]
Niore smiled faintly while blood dripped from her nose. She spoke haltingly, mouthing the words. Benett could understand them.
[Thanks to Tara, we can save people without killing many. Those who have already died, it breaks my heart. But still... when this is over, I think I'll be able to sleep well.]
So.
[Since this is the last time... using this disgusting power... the crystal is for you, Benett.]
She had learned that Benett was a Dark Mage, and that he used magic by chipping away at his own soul. It seemed she wanted to make a concession.
Niore finished her silent incantation.
"Devour."
Snap.
Click. Crunch. Crunch.
Large mouths appeared in the air, biting and popping Isaac's bubbles. Sometimes the mouths were torn apart or exploded from within. But each time, new mouths appeared, gnawing like hyenas attacking a carcass.
After the outer gods' magics counteracted each other, only one bubble remained around Isaac.
[The last one, please take care of it. Everyone.]
"...Leave it to me."
Benett leaped forward. He infused his longsword with mana, making it emit a brilliant light, and accelerated with all his might, stomping the ground with each step. Each footfall made a booming sound.
"Isaacââ!"
"Die, you interferersââ!!"
Isaac shot the remaining bubble toward Benett.
Benett smiled. His pretense of excitement, emitting light and shouting, was to draw attention. They were a team of three, after all.
Benett made eye contact with Tara. She had approached from behind Isaac while the magician's attention was diverted by the magical battle.
"...!"
By the time Isaac sensed the presence and turned around, it was too late.
Tara clenched her fist. Drawing upon the last remnants of her divine power all at once, she stepped forward, twisted her waist, and extended her fist.
"This is for Abraham-!!"
KWANG-!
Her glowing fist smashed into Isaac's face. With the full force of her body behind the punch, Isaac was lifted off the ground and slammed into the earth. After convulsing a few times, she went limp.
The ominous power surrounding Isaac and the space-carving bubbles disappeared as if they had never existed.
Tara collapsed on the spot.
Benett was busy dealing with the remaining fanatics. Since his Inherited Ascension still had considerable time left, he would be able to protect them until the battlefield was cleared.
It was over.
Having used all her power as a Saintess, she would now have to prepare for life as a young lady with nothing. Though she hadn't done many saintly deeds, she had saved the world, so perhaps she had used her divine power more efficiently than any other Saintess.
With such thoughts in mind.
She waited for Benett, imagining the future.
===============================================================
After the battle ended, Tara drew the sealed cursed sword. She needed a blade for the confirmation kill.
Although Tara had struck with the intention to kill, Isaac was still breathing shallowly. So, Tara pointed the cursed sword at Isaac's neck.
At that moment, with a twitch, Isaac opened her eyes.
Benett wrapped his arms around Tara and pulled her back, while Niore wiped her nosebleed and opened her grimoire once more. Everyone raised their guard to the maximum, thinking Isaac might sacrifice herself for one final suicide attack.
Isaac mumbled with unfocused eyes.
"Daddy, Daddy, let's go see the stars together. Let's go together..."
"...?"
"The stars are talking to us, Daddy. Isn't it amazing? Since you're busy, I'll be friends with the stars..."
"...This is."
[She seems to have gone mad. After using too much magic.]
This was the end of a priestess who served an evil god. Looking at Isaac babbling nonsense, Tara gripped the cursed sword tightly.
"I'm going to kill her."
"...Wait."
"Why?"
Benett recalled Abraham's dying wish to take care of his daughter. While he couldn't spare an Isaac steeped in evil, perhaps an Isaac who had become simple-minded and incapable of doing anything could be allowed to live.
"That woman is Abraham's last blood relative. If she disappears too, nothing will remain in this world to bear witness to Abraham."
"Are you saying we should let her live? No, I can't do that. Move aside, Benett."
"Living might be a more painful punishment for her. I don't want blood on your hands either."
"...I said move! Hey, let go. Won't let go? Damn, you're so strong... Are you using force on me because my divine power is gone?! Niore, say something..."
With her wrist caught by Benett, Tara turned her head to bring Niore into the conversation. Niore was looking up at the sky with a vacant expression.
Tara naturally looked up at the night sky as well.
"..."
The night sky was still bizarre and ominous, distorting into increasingly horrific forms with each passing moment. They had definitely disrupted the ritual.
"...Why, why?! We stopped it, didn't we...! Benett, what's happening?!"
"We definitely destroyed the ritual's foundation. We did stop the ritual!"
"Then why is the sky still like this?!"
Panicking, Tara grabbed Isaac by the collar and shook her.
"Hey, come back! Pull yourself together and explain what's happening! Explain and then die!"
"Daddy, uuu... Daddyyy..."
[Benett. Did we... miss something?]
"Miss something..."
"Come to think of it, why did the Silver Twilight Cult... try to erase Abraham's research?"
[That's because he could use the alpha value to banish outer gods...]
"Conversely, it could also be used for summoning. They had time to burn down the mansion and kill Abraham. If they had just collected the research materials left in the mansion, they could have used them."
[But they didn't. They were blindly trying to erase it. Without thinking of using it...]
People pursue stability and eliminate risks when they can achieve what they want just by maintaining the status quo. If that's the case.
"...Does this mean the evil god will naturally descend as time passes... even without performing the ritual? Why?"
Adding to this, he needed to consider the message written in blood at the place where Abraham was sacrificed:
'You have given us a blemished female goat, so we shall gratefully offer it.'
The meteor crater selected as the ritual site. Niore's mention of the entity known as the 'Black Goat.' She had clearly stated that this goat was considered the wife of the Viceroy.
"It was... the opposite."
From the beginning, something that attracted the evil god had crash-landed on Earth. Even before the Silver Twilight Cult called it.
It was continuously calling forth the Viceroy drifting through space, and because of that, the evil god in the form of a giant bubble was drawing closer to Earth with each passing moment.
It was the opposite.
What the party should have targeted was the opposite.
"We shouldn't have tried to stop the ritual... we should have researched the alpha value. To send the evil god back. We weren't supposed to be on the defensive, but on the offensive...!"
[...]
KRRRRRRRRRRRKââ!
The sky screamed and distorted. Looking up, they saw that the moon had somehow become two. The starlight shone eerily.
Living beings that sensed the world's change cried out in terror. Dogs began to bark, and birds flapped their wings frantically, hastily leaving their perches. Frogs croaked, and insects burrowed into the ground to hide.
All sorts of cosmic monsters descended to the earth on the moonlight.
There were too many to handle. What would happen next was clearly visible. Humans would have to live for survival. The civilization, laws, and order of cities would lose meaning in the face of violence, and that void would be filled with pain and hatred.
But it was too late to stop all of this.
If only they had paid more attention to Abraham's research.
If only they had protected him from Isaac.
If only they had devoted even some time to researching the alpha value.
Then, could they have resolved the situation before the city collapsed?
The stars laughed. Tara trembled in fear, feeling the void of divine power that would no longer come. Niore covered her ears with both hands and crouched down.
And Benett, cursing his past complacency, muttered:
"We may have been buttoning the wrong button from the very beginning..."