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“……!”

The Goddess rose from her body, covered in slimy green filth.

The sensation was far from the cleanliness typically maintained by her divine form, but she didn’t care one bit.

A hero, dashing through the battlefield, enveloped in radiant light as she vanquished the monsters.

Despite being the most powerful knight and commander of the kingdom, crucial in the war, she shone brightly, drawing the attention of monsters while saving her comrades.

Though wounds continued to accumulate on her body, she pressed on without a second thought.

And that hero, [Knight Ren], was none other than Star Lord Ren in her past life.

“Me…?”

It was the life before the Goddess was reborn as a Star Lord.

“I… remember.”

The Goddess recalled the distant memories that had faded away.

In her human days, monsters born from the Abyss invaded the kingdom she was sworn to protect.

The monsters, created by the unknown darkness of the Abyss, were driven solely by a murderous instinct towards sentient beings, including humans, and swept across the continent.

Driven mad by a collective consciousness linked to a single Queen, these monsters obliterated humans without a care for their own bodies, embodying terror itself.

“……”

Ren stared blankly at her past self, wielding her aura blade to slash through the monsters.

A hero devoted to the victory of the battlefield and the safety of her allies.

“This is how it was…”

Even though that nobility was herself, she couldn’t help but be in awe.

The hero of humanity was right in front of her.

Centuries had passed since she was elevated to Star Lord.

Enveloped in the lethargy of the Divine Realm, her heart, which she had forgotten, was stirred by a great ripple.

She realized what she had forgotten.

What achievements she had accomplished in her past life.

What kind of being she was.

-Kiirrk.

At that moment, a sleek, mantis-like monster sprang forth from among the other monsters.

“……Elder Guardian.”

According to the Goddess’s memory, only three of these top-tier monsters existed, serving as the Queen’s elite guard.

‘Why is it here now?’

But it hadn’t appeared in her memories of this battlefield.

Something was different from her past.

-Kiirr…

The Elder Guardian, seemingly uninterested in the other monsters, flapped its wings and charged right at Knight Ren.

Chaeng!

The sharp blade of the monster’s exoskeleton clashed with Knight Ren’s aura blade.

As a soldier refined from the Abyss’s vast resources, the strength of the monsters’ weapons was enough to contend with the aura blade.

-Kiieeeek!

At that moment, a giant monster aimed to unleash a breath attack toward the area crowded with soldiers.

If the monster’s acidic breath engulfed them, they would all melt away.

“Tch!”

Knight Ren clicked her tongue and unleashed a blade of wind, tearing through the giant monster.

But paying attention to one side of the battle came with a heavy price.

Kwaack!

“Gah!”

The Elder Guardian’s blade, fighting against her, severed the arm that held her sword.

Ren’s weapon flew far away.

Thud!

It landed right in front of the Goddess’s avatar.

!!!

“No way…”

The Goddess gasped in shock.

This was something that hadn’t happened in her past life.

They hadn’t crossed paths on the battlefield, and thus the loss of her physical form was yet to occur at this point.

“This should happen during the Queen’s lair invasion operation…”

[Test]

[Story]

[Abyssal Erosion]

Only then did the Goddess understand.

The overseer had said that this story, containing her narrative, had been corroded by the existence of the Abyss.

Initially, she thought it was merely because the monsters in the story were creatures originating from the Abyss, but it seemed the power of the Abyss had twisted the tale.

And as a candidate for the overseer, the role bestowed upon her, the task she was to accomplish in this trial was to resolve that distortion.

The Goddess gently grasped Ren’s sword.

This cool yet warm sensation.

Her beloved weapon, which she had long forgotten.

Crack!

At first, the sword had expelled her due to her being a non-owner gripping it, but now it recognized her will and quietly accepted her.

-Kiieeeek!

Discovering that countless monsters had noticed her grasping the sword, they rushed towards her.

[Wield the Sword]

The intangible power stemming from the sword sought to move her body.

It was a combat tutorial for the first battle in a virtual reality game.

“No.”

The Goddess unleashed the power of the sword, shattering all that assistance.

“I don’t need it.”

This was a battlefield she had visited once before.

She was no longer the duller version of herself that had spent time in the heavens.

With a whoosh!

The Goddess swung the sword, crashing it into the ground.

The moment she gripped the sword, her body brimming with magical power.

That power was more than sufficient to support her rapid and bizarre movements.

-Kiieeek!

-Kick!

-Krrrrrr…!

A brilliant line cutting through countless monsters.

At the front was the Goddess, finally able to reach Knight Ren.

Boom!

There, her past self was struggling against the Elder Guardian, having lost her sword and fighting with only her remaining hand.

Knight Ren was stronger than the Elder Guardian, but she was still growing weaker.

The blood loss from the wounds sustained while helping others in previous battles, along with the recent severing, was slowly consuming her body.

[Save Knight Ren]

“I was going to do that without saying.”

The Goddess gripped the sword tightly and intruded into the battle of the two powerful beings.

-Kiirrk!

In a situation where victory was in sight, the Elder Guardian trembled its wings in rage at the sudden new ally.

Knight Ren looked slightly surprised but then smiled and worked in tandem with the Goddess, unleashing a flurry of strikes.

When Knight Ren blocked the Elder Guardian’s blade, the Goddess would slash with her sword, and when the Goddess blocked, Knight Ren would crush with sheer strength.

Even as beings meeting for the first time, their coordination was as organic as one body.

The Elder Guardian could withstand this assault for only thirty seconds.

-Kiirr…

The broken pieces of the Elder Guardian scattered in all directions.

Grrr!

As the highest-ranked entity, the Elder Guardian’s death sent all the monsters on the battlefield retreating.

The Queen had acknowledged her defeat and ordered a retreat.

“Lieutenant! No pursuing! Clean up the battlefield and tend to the wounded!”

As the highest commander, Knight Ren issued multiple commands and then approached the Goddess with a bright smile.

“Soldier! Your performance just now was outstanding. If it weren’t for your help, I would have been done for against that dreadful creature!”

“……”

The Goddess remained silent.

There were many things she wanted to say, but she couldn’t bring herself to voice them.

Facing her past self stirred far too many emotions within her.

The Goddess silently extended the sword she held.

“Hmm?”

Knight Ren looked at the sword and then displayed a slightly surprised expression.

“I thought it looked familiar; is this my sword? This is remarkable. I never imagined there would be another who could wield this cursed blade apart from me.”

Knight Ren reached out and took the sword.

Then she fell into a moment of thought.

“Now that I think about it, it seems better for you to wield it.”

“……Me?”

“I’ve lost the primary hand I used to wield it. But you haven’t, right? More importantly, considering how adept you are at handling that sword compared to me, wouldn’t it be better for you to use it?”

Knight Ren said this, then offered the sword back to her.

“Go on, take it.”

With a reluctant attitude, the Goddess accepted the sword yet again.

To pass over a weapon that made up a significant part of her power to a soldier she had just met for the greater good of protecting humanity was sheer nobility.

‘……Was I such a person?’

It stood in stark contrast to the version of herself that had shacked up in the Divine Realm, wasting time.

*

After the battlefield had been organized, a strategy meeting took place in the commander’s tent.

Originally, this was a gathering reserved for high-ranking officers above the level of lieutenant, yet the Goddess was dragged along by Knight Ren, sitting quietly in a corner despite being a mere soldier.

“With this battle, we’ve decimated their main force and taken control of the crucial passage leading to their territory’s heart.”

Knight Ren unfurled a large map and began the briefing.

Her severed arm had been replaced with a chrome-colored prosthetic created by alchemy.

“However, the monsters function like cells under a singular entity. Merely reducing their numbers won’t deliver a significant blow. They’ll quickly recover their forces and pounce on us again.”

Knight Ren pointed to a spot on the map, marked in red with a long rod.

“To end this war, we must kill the Queen who commands them.”

As the main force drew the attention of the monster horde, an elite unit would be dispatched for the Queen’s assassination.

This operation had also been executed in her past life, succeeding in killing the Queen and driving back the Abyss.

‘But the price was my life.’

In the final moment, she chose to sacrifice herself in a deadly embrace with the Queen.

That noble act saved humanity and secured a place for her in history as she was raised to the status of a deity.

A vastly different existence from that of the incompetent Goddess she had become.

That was Knight Ren.

“And the key to this operation lies right here.”

As Knight Ren explained the strategy, her finger pointed to a particular place on the map.

Following her direction, the eyes of all generals, officers, and advisors focused upon it.

“Eh? …Me?”

At the end of her fingertip sat the Goddess Ren.