〈 Chapter 437 〉 Deity and Priest
[The Edge of War – You can permanently maintain the technique of embedding purity with an understanding beyond reason.]
Aslan glanced at the message that appeared in the corner of her vision and glared at the message that floated beside it.
[Ongoing Main Quest]
[! Head to the Throne of Gods, Kehil]
[! Defeat the High Priest of the Veil of Mercy, Lewena]
Though sudden, the situation wasn’t incomprehensible.
The quest that now loomed before Aslan’s eyes could be considered, in a sense, the final main quest.
It was a directive to head toward the Throne of Gods, Kehil, to determine the fate of Geladridion and herself.
Furthermore, it revealed the changes that had befallen the current world.
The frozen lands of the old empire would be thawing, melting away distant realms.
From these melted distant worlds, monstrous aberrations would burst forth and spread across the land. Every priest in the world would be heading toward Kehil, following their master’s command.
It was absurd, baffling, and most of all, inconvenient.
Under normal circumstances, it should have been so.
But Aslan calmly lowered her gaze and looked ahead.
There stood Ash.
“This is…”
A murmuring voice came from behind.
Ereta’s characteristic soft voice expressed her bewilderment aloud.
That must be the typical reaction. But Aslan didn’t feel that way.
Instead, she focused on Ash.
Her sclerae were stained black, giving her what’s known as inverted eyes.
The universe embedded in her irises stood out due to the darkened lenses, and the woman briefly closed her eyes before opening them again.
“Hah, hahaha…!”
Her exasperated laughter ceased, replaced by joy, exhilaration, and some vague emotion.
The woman laughed as she rose. The severed legs and arms had regenerated, and the torn areas had returned to normal.
Smooth, white limbs stretched out. Even the half-frozen face returned to its original form.
The tattered rags that once covered her body tore away, revealing her nakedness.
The ominous power emanating from her exposed figure was unmistakable to Aslan. She realized it stemmed from the Dark Ram.
She could also foresee what would happen next.
Over Ash’s pristine white body, a black garment began to form.
It was a familiar outfit. It was the same one Ash always wore, but now dyed black.
Moreover, a halo grew behind her back.
Crack!
The ground beneath the halo cracked, crumbled, and was devoured.
The darkened halo radiated an ominous authority unlike anything seen before.
Facing this, Aslan calmly gripped the hilt of the sword in her right hand.
Beyond the flames flowing along the blade, dense characters were etched onto the steel.
She had obtained the balance of war and knowledge.
Likewise, she had attained divine power.
The final main quest had begun.
Ash stood before her, serving as the boss replacing Lewena.
Ereta was visibly bewildered and berating herself, while Lewena frowned in subtle irritation.
In contrast, Aslan appeared calm, almost indifferent.
Because she had anticipated all of this.
Ash completed her regeneration, and a look of weariness crossed her face.
Just as she opened her mouth to say something, Aslan called out.
“Lewena!”
Lewena disappeared.
Merging into the shadows happened in an instant, faster than even the blink of an eye.
Before Ash could move her gaze to follow the vanished woman, a dark abyss emerged beneath Aslan, Ash, and Ereta.
Something was being planned.
Ash lowered her stance, intending to kill or hinder Aslan before it unfolded.
KWAHAAAAAAAA!
The abyss surged upward, swallowing them whole.
The rapid change in the situation.
As the surroundings turned black, Ash’s darkened halo blazed, incinerating the shadows.
The shadows writhed and retreated.
Rarely having entertained independent thoughts, Ash finally began to think for herself, attempting to discern the intent.
“Drop it!”
Aslan’s voice cut through the shadows.
An indistinct sense of displeasure emanated from within the shadows themselves.
What to drop?
Why was it displeased?
Instinctively, Ash expanded her halo for defense.
She was confident that she could counter any attack.
Given the visibility of Ereta and Aslan’s attacks in this shadowy space, she believed she could see and evade them.
Indeed, her judgment was not wrong.
Even if an attack were to come, Ash’s halo had sufficient power to resist it.
Any assault from the abyss within the darkness wouldn’t penetrate her halo, and Aslan’s attack would inevitably require close range.
Ereta’s attack could slice through her halo from afar, but the white flames were far more visible than any other attack present.
However, when the ground suddenly disappeared and a short fall began, Ash was taken aback.
The ground was near.
The thud of the fall was not loud.
At most, it was a trivial fall of about two meters, causing no significant damage.
But the moment she landed, Ash couldn’t help but panic.
She looked up at the walls surrounding her.
‘Where am I…?’
This place was unfamiliar, not just from memory but also beyond comprehension.
It was evident that this was some kind of fortress.
But why would any fortress install its thickest outer wall on the inside?
To Ash, whose limited knowledge already found this perplexing, it felt like a facility designed to trap and intercept something at its core.
This fortress wasn’t newly built. The scars on the walls suggested that it had been standing for quite some time and had been used many times.
But there was no time to ponder. Ash immediately reached out her hand toward the sound of breaking air.
CRACK!
With her extended hand, the tilted halo shattered whatever obstructed it.
It was a massive arrow fired from a ballista.
And that wasn’t the end.
Soon, she felt a thick aura of malice assaulting her entire body.
Her sensitive instincts, honed even before becoming a high priestess, sounded the alarm. Ash turned her head to look at the fortress wall.
She realized it.
All around the fortress wall—
From the gaps within the wall to its uppermost parts—
Countless weapons aimed at her from various points.
Ballistas, cannons, catapults, magic, staves, javelins, bows.
As if they had been waiting for this very moment.
Ash was startled, whereas Aslan remained calm, gripping purity tightly.
Aslan had anticipated all of this.
More precisely, she had foreseen that such a situation might arise, forcing the start of the final main quest against her will.
So she prepared.
She deliberately split up her traveling party, assigning each member different tasks.
To that extent, Aslan understood the Dark Ram.
Though she couldn’t fully grasp the identity or the source of the Dark Ram’s power,
having experienced it for twelve years allowed her to understand what it sought and how it moved.
Having endured it to the point of exhaustion.
Ash hadn’t been abandoned; rather, she had been led to abandonment.
To serve as the final obstacle in place of Lewena, who couldn’t fulfill the role of the final boss.
To force Ash to sacrifice herself, someone too formidable for even a well-organized army to easily defeat.
To make Aslan agonize over whether to delay the quest and prepare further, or to begin the final battle underprepared.
To consume her resources.
But Aslan didn’t fall for the Dark Ram’s scheme.
Aslan prepared.
The region where Ereta chased Ash to reach was the border between Duke Hudail’s Domain and the South Empire.
The target was obvious, and perhaps unstoppable.
If the one holding destiny truly desired it, Aslan knew she couldn’t stop it.
Still, she wasn’t about to sit idly by.
As she always did, she prepared.
Ash’s inverted eyes turned toward Aslan. Aslan’s teal eyes grew cold, focusing on Ash.
Ash’s face contorted, and just as a scream was about to escape her lips,
Aslan raised her sword first.
“Prepare for battle!”
An uncharacteristic roar from Aslan.
A shout echoing across the entire fortress.
As soldiers throughout the fortress took hold of their weapons at her command, Aslan cried out again.
“For Geladridion!”
Detailed orders were unnecessary.
The task at hand was clear.
Across the fortress, the twang of bowstrings resounded.
Arrows, javelins, throwing axes, maces, ballistas, catapults, crossbows, slingshots, and more—all kinds of ranged weapons unleashed their projectiles toward Ash.
Above them danced magic.
From fireballs, lightning arrows, rocks, ignition spells, and ice spears among lower-level spells,
to thunder strikes, comets, lightning bolts, and dragon’s breath—a variety of powerful spells.
It was as though thousands of phenomena converged toward the center of the fortress.
Not holy or bright, but the sheer offensive power humans could muster against the greatest servant of a deity.
Faced with the countless projectiles raining down like rain, Ash clenched her teeth.
She twisted her body to avoid the most threatening projectile flying through the barrage.
!
An arrow slicing through the air—an oddly large arrow the size of a short spear.
Predictably avoiding it mid-flight, the projectile curved and struck Ash’s halo.
Even the reinforced halo suffered a chunk of damage, broke apart, and eventually hit the ground.
KWAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!
Devoid of divine power, yet potent enough to shatter mountains and knock deities off their perch.
A crater formed, the shaken earth trembled violently, lifting everything above it.
Only Ash remained grounded as a great cloud of dust obscured her vision.
But before it completely blocked her view, she saw it.
On the wall, standing confidently with her shirt discarded, aiming her bow—the Dragonkin.
Blind, yet capable of shooting down even gods.
Tiamat.
Ash decided to eliminate Tiamat first.
The most dangerous threat was this Dragonkin.
But even her movement was denied as a barrage of projectiles continued to pour toward her.
Countless arrows, bolts, and magical spells.
Thinking naively that closing the distance amidst the rising dust cloud would suffice, it proved otherwise.
For the dust cloud lingered where Ash’s halo spread.
Had this been anticipated? To maneuver, she needed to block the barrage.
When the spread halo stopped the projectiles, it extinguished the forces embedded within them, reducing them to nothingness.
Thud.
Amidst those sounds, an alien noise intruded.
A sound akin to hurling something colossal and fiery.
Sensing the oddity, Ash extended her hand.
KWADDDDDDDD!
WHOOSH!
The hurled object shattered her hand and broke through her halo, veering off.
Emerging through the dust cloud, it was an axe.
A two-handed axe imbued with white flames.
Passing by and severing Ash’s arm, it boomeranged back to its owner with vicious intent.
As it returned, Ash’s position aligned perfectly with its trajectory.
KWAD!
Her arm regenerated, her leg was severed. Predicting her attempt to twist her waist to dodge, it cleanly sliced her leg.
Tilting, as she regained her balance, the dust cloud had already dispersed.
Beyond the cleared dust, a storm of malice rained down upon her.
Truly, it was directed toward every angle around her.
Only then did she realize.
This fortress was designed to project firepower, ignoring any feeble attempts at concealment.
The clearing where Ash stood was akin to an execution platform.
It was peculiar, considering it was at the heart of the fortress.
“Accelerate.”
Her thoughts couldn’t continue.
A familiar male voice rang out, followed by a chilling sensation at the nape of her neck.
KWADDDDDDDD!
Sensing the danger, she turned her head only to find a sword cutting through her halo effortlessly.
A grayish streak.
It was the purity wielded by Aslan.
The fragmented halo scattered, revealing Aslan’s teal eyes meeting Ash’s inverted ones once more.
Ash’s judgment wasn’t wrong.
Ordinary fortresses would lose their advantage the moment something fell into their center.
Even fortresses prepared for internal invasions couldn’t effectively counter internal attacks from their core.
Except for this one.
This fortress was immense, resembling both a grand ship and a prison.
Once, it contained an absolute ruler—more accurately, a fragment of it.
The name of the fortress was Liam.
It belonged to the Empire’s Budonggong, a fortress where not even a piece of a deity could escape.
At the very center of the fortress, Aslan stepped forward, gripping purity with both hands.
And she whispered.
“Reverse the Shadow.”
Then, the characters engraved on the pure blade darkened like a shadow.
The permanent effect of the Edge of War, the balance left by war and knowledge.
Aslan’s fervor burned, blending obscurity and white light to carve a slash in the air.
KAGAGAGAK!
The slash traversed through time.
A simultaneous four-hit combo.
Severing Ash’s arms, carving through her halo, and deeply gouging her.
Ash’s eyes widened, and Aslan still stood without a shadow.
‘This time, no one dies.’
Purity shot toward Ash, chasing the shadow.
