Ever Kire’s bisected head and body tumbled to the floor with a dull thud.
A moment later, Simon landed, his Jet-Black cloak settling around him. He planted his greatsword in the ground and finally let out the breath he’d been holding.
He looked down at his palm.
’The sensation was unmistakable.’
He had personally struck her down with the Greatsword of Ruin, a weapon that negated every form of regeneration and recovery. It was over. He clenched his fist, the finality of the act sinking in.
"Are you okay?" Lethe asked, walking over.
Simon nodded and straightened up. "What about Ever Kire?"
Lethe gestured with her chin. Ever Kire’s severed body lay in a growing pool of crimson blood. The Saintess of Harvest, who had been trapped inside her, had been thrown clear by the impact and now lay unconscious a short distance away.
"Saintess!"
"I shall see to her," Lethe said. She knelt and carefully examined the fallen Saintess. "Her essence has been stolen, but she is alive. She is merely unconscious, it seems."
As if on cue, a shimmering light—the Saintess’s essence—rose from Ever Kire’s corpse and shot toward the sky. The Holy Raiment she wore dissolved into nothing. When a Saintess died, her essence would wander the continent in search of a new, worthy host. This seemed to be confirmation that Ever Kire was well and truly dead.
Simon felt a wave of relief.
’But one thing still bothers me.’
The distorted reality Ever Kire had created was not collapsing. And the Saintess of Harvest remained unconscious.
[Yes. Yes.]
Simon flinched, his grip tightening on his greatsword.
[That was an amusing diversion.]
The blood on the floor surged like a reverse tide, flowing back into Ever Kire’s body as her head and torso seamlessly reattached. As if time itself were rewinding, the dead woman rose to her feet and casually cracked her neck.
Simon’s jaw dropped. "H-how! Regeneration should be impossible...!"
[This isn’t regeneration,] Ever Kire smirked. [I simply made the fact that you cut me with your sword... cease to exist.]
She laughed, a sound that seemed to mock the very fabric of the world.
A spear of pure light descended from the sky with a sharp crack, punching a hole through Ever Kire’s back. Lethe stood nearby, her arm outstretched and her expression like ice.
"There are limits to your nonsense, I say—!"
[Really.]
Lethe’s eyes widened in horror. The corpse that should have been on the ground was now standing directly in front of her, one hand gripping her chin, a terrible smile spreading across its face.
[Do you really think it’s nonsense?]
Lethe’s body froze in shock.
"Lethe!"
Simon charged, swinging the Greatsword of Ruin, but Ever Kire was already gone, reappearing at a safe distance as if she had never moved at all.
"Damn it!"
Lethe furiously scrubbed her chin with her sleeve, as if trying to wipe away a disgusting stain. Ever Kire just smiled sweetly.
[I am another god.]
She spread her arms to the heavens.
[An equal being, created by the great goddess Deva herself from a piece of her own flesh.]
An ecstatic expression crossed her face as she placed a hand over her heart.
[From the moment I was born, I knew I was not of this world. I longed to return home, but Deva would not permit it. I had a mission.]
Her childhood—abandoned by her parents, left to rot in the sewers, enduring violence and abuse while cultivating drugs—she had once resented the goddess Deva for her suffering.
But now, she understood.
[In truth, it was all original sin! This world was heaping its sins upon me, a god, so that I could one day pass judgment without hesitation!]
Her face contorted in rapture as she dragged two fingers down her cheeks, her nails tearing away skin and drawing blood.
[It was all part of the great goddess Deva’s plan! Yes! That was it! First, I will destroy you, the necromancers who serve filthy death, and all of Kizen! Next, I will absorb Efnel, which distorts the goddess’s will, and spread a new gospel! I will purify this world and build a new paradise! What do you say, child of the goddess?]
She looked at Lethe, extending a hand in invitation.
[It is not too late. Open your eyes. Forget the blinding teachings of Efnel and serve my revelation. Do so, and I will grant you a position even higher than that of a demigod....]
’Haaah.’
Lethe let out a long, weary sigh and gave her the middle finger. "Eat shit."
Ever Kire sighed dramatically. [A pity. In the end, you too are contaminated by distorted teachings, unable to see the truth.]
She slowly spread her arms out to her sides.
[My sin is great.]
Her arms seemed to lock in place as the red cross materialized behind her once more. She ascended with it, rising high into the sky.
[I shall take this island of demons as my paradise and pass judgment.]
With those words, her body and the cross dissolved into the air.
"Be careful! We do not know from where she will attack!"
"Right."
Simon and Lethe remained on high alert, scanning their surroundings.
The ground began to heave violently with a deep, continuous rumbling. Boulders and debris were ripped from the earth and thrown into the air.
"What is she doing now, I wonder?" Lethe murmured, erecting a protective barrier.
Simon’s eyes scanned the horizon, and his face went pale.
"The island...!"
It was rising.
The sea churned into a maelstrom below them with a deafening roar. A hurricane-force wind tore across the landscape. With a sound like the world tearing apart, the entire island lifted from the ocean. Weaker sections of the rock face crumbled and fell away as the main landmass of Roc Island ascended higher and higher, like Efnel’s own sky islands.
’She can do something like this?’
Simon’s mind reeled. The sky grew darker as they rose past the gray clouds. Bolts of pure white lightning cracked around them, but there was still no sign of Ever Kire.
"...Simon."
Lethe’s voice trembled as she pointed with a shaking hand. Her face was a mask of pure terror.
"L-look. Ahead."
"Where? I don’t see anything."
"Not right in front. Farther."
Simon’s eyes followed her gesture, and then they widened.
It was not on the island. It was in the sky above, emerging from a rift in the heavens that had torn through the clouds.
’Ah.’
A figure was emerging. A being from another dimension.
It had faded golden hair and arms that hung down at an unnatural length. Simon knew who it was supposed to be and glanced at Lethe. She looked utterly broken, on the verge of a complete mental collapse.
’That’s definitely...!’
The goddess. He had seen her likeness in countless statues and holy relics. It was unmistakably the goddess Deva.
The indescribably massive being looked down upon the world, and Simon felt a wave of divinity more powerful than the sun, a presence he had never imagined possible.
’Is that really a god?’
It was the perfect incarnation of the being humans had worshiped for millennia. Its lower half was lost in the void, only its colossal upper body visible as it loomed over the island. It had facial features, but its eyes were pits of abyssal black, mostly hidden by its hair.
"Lethe!"
She collapsed to her knees, her body wracked with tremors. "What’s wrong?"
"...The divinity in my entire body."
She gagged, clutching her throat. "It’s telling me."
"Telling you what?"
"That thing..."
She looked up at the divine being, her eyes filled with a primal fear.
"...is not a fake."
The goddess spread her arms, and a brilliant light pierced through the dark clouds, flooding the world with an overwhelming tide of divinity.
"I cannot attack it."
"Snap out of it, Lethe!" Simon yelled. "You know this isn’t real! It’s just another one of Ever Kire’s creations!"
But his words seemed to fall on deaf ears. She could only tremble in fear.
[It is only natural for the Saintess of Stars to react this way,] Ever Kire’s voice echoed from the heavens as she materialized in the air. [Divinity is a power born from the great goddess. Any who wield it can feel it.]
Ever Kire smirked.
[The fact that their very source is before their eyes.]
The sight was one of absolute terror: the goddess’s colossal hand descending through the gray clouds with a low rumble, reaching for the island itself.
[Come to my embrace, child of the goddess.]
Its palm opened, preparing to swallow Lethe whole.
In response, Simon swung the Greatsword of Ruin, launching a desperate slash of black energy at the descending hand.
As the deep blue slash streaked toward the goddess’s palm, Simon seized Lethe’s shoulder and hurled them both aside.
The massive hand slammed into the empty ground with a deafening crash, the impact alone enough to crumble the distant school building and reshape the very terrain.
He glanced down at Lethe; she was in terrible shape.
He recognized the signs instantly. ’A divinity slump.’
This opponent was anathema to a Priest, powerful enough to cripple even a Saintess like Lethe. Simon slid to a halt, his feet carving grooves in the earth.
Concealed within the black sky, the goddess revealed her full form between the clouds. She was simply too massive. Pier’s power alone could never sever something so colossal. For an opponent of such impossible scale, Lethe’s starfall authority would have been perfect, but her mental state was clearly precarious.
"Hah... hah..." Lethe gasped, biting her lip.
"Lethe! Fall back for now!"
"Don’t underestimate me," she retorted. "This much is...!"
She raised her arm high, pointing toward the heavens. As if drawing on a canvas, her hand traced a line across the sky. Divinity flared, and a cascade of massive stars began to plummet toward the goddess. Even while suffering a divinity slump, her mental fortitude was astounding.
However...
The moment the stars reached the goddess, they dissolved into shimmering particles of divinity, absorbed harmlessly into her body.
Simon and Lethe stared in disbelief.
[How dare you attack the mother who bestowed divinity with divinity itself.]
Ever Kire’s voice echoed across the battlefield.
At the sight, Lethe’s body began to tremble like a leaf in a storm.
[Kneel, young Saintess.]
Ever Kire spread her arms wide.
[Pay homage to your god.]
As if possessed, Lethe’s body began to slowly sink to her knees.
Just then.
"Lethe!" Simon roared, grabbing her face firmly with both hands and pulling his own close to hers. "Look at me!"
Lethe stared at him, her features comically distorted, as if she couldn’t believe what was happening.
"Is your faith so fragile that it shatters just from seeing that?"
"Let go! Now!" she sputtered, her face beet red as she frantically shoved his arms away. "What does a necromancer like you know?! That thing is the very source of divinity...!"
"Then what is this!" Simon demanded, raising one hand high.
’I can do anything!’
With a surge of power, divinity blossomed from his palm. Lethe’s eyes widened into perfect circles.
"You said only those acknowledged by the goddess can use divinity!" he challenged. "So what does it mean when I, a necromancer, use it?"
"...Th-That’s..."
"Think back. The first time I used divinity, what did you say?"
At last, her trembling lips parted. "...That there must be a reason the goddess gave you divinity."
"Exactly," he affirmed.
A deep rumble shook the earth, and Lethe’s eyes shot wide. Behind Simon, the very stars she had launched were being recreated by the goddess and were now hurtling straight toward them.
"Look out—!"
"I’ll prove to you that god is a fake," Simon declared, raising his greatsword and closing his eyes.
A torrent of divinity erupted from his body. Common sense dictated that this would endanger the undead armor he wore.
But instead, the holy power began to infuse Pier’s Bone Armor. The skeletal plates flashed with a white light, gleaming brightly. The cloak was dyed a brilliant white from the shoulders down, and the burning glow in the armor’s eyes shifted to pure white as well.
’Ah!’
Lethe’s mouth fell open. She was once again witnessing the impossible: a Divine Undead. How could a being of death contain divinity, the very energy of life?
Simon planted his feet firmly on the ground with a dull thud. Lethe had claimed to feel the source when she saw that goddess, but at this moment, as Simon manifested divinity, he was certain.
That thing was a fake.
He twisted at the waist, extending his arm. The white cloak whipped violently in the wind.
’The entire space!’
Simon’s greatsword moved. Compared to the descending star, it was no thicker than a toothpick, but the divinity it contained pulsed with an intense light.
’I can feel it... the sensation of cleaving through!’
With a deafening ’clang’, the star was split in two.
The massive celestial body broke apart, veering to the left and right. It soared past Simon and Lethe, carving enormous scars into the ground before shattering completely.
As the wind whipped past, Lethe couldn’t tear her eyes away from the sight of Simon, his white cloak billowing around him.
The goddess’s power. He had severed it using the very power she had supposedly granted.
"Not yet," Simon said, extending his arm. It was unclear when he had cast it, but his shining ’La Escrim’ was now streaking through the air. The goddess reached out to block it, but...
A sickening crack echoed through the air.
This time, it wasn’t absorbed. The divine spear grazed the back of the goddess’s hand, leaving a long, searing scar. Her cry of pain echoed through the sky.
"Do you get it now?" Simon asked, resting the greatsword on his shoulder as he turned back to her with a brilliant smile. "If that were the real goddess, she would have absorbed my power, too. Look at me, Lethe. I am the proof that she is a fake."

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