Chapter 163

Servants of the Outer God

Beatrice rolled around on her bed today too, clutching her teddy bear. Beatrice’s bed was so wide that it would take about ten rolls before she could barely reach the edge.

‘Uselessly big. Making the girls work so hard.’

Beatrice recalled the maids who came in every morning carrying the massive mattress on their backs, groaning as they replaced it.

‘I told them so many times that I didn’t like the smell of new beds… Anyway, I never liked that Prophet from the start.’

She was sure she had respected and even feared her until recently, but once her heart had turned away, all of the Prophet’s actions seemed suspicious and displeasing.

This room where everything was colorless. If not for the maids who came in from time to time, smiling brightly as they cleaned, washed her, and braided her hair, it would have been truly unbearable.

Thump thump thump! Slam!

Just then, the door suddenly burst open.

Beatrice was shocked.

She had never seen anyone knock on her door so loudly in her entire life, and she had certainly never seen anyone slam the door open without waiting for a response.

‘S-such rudeness! They wouldn’t even treat a prisoner like this!’

Of course, Baek Jun-woo had intentionally treated Beatrice kindly when he captured her, but young Beatrice was simply shocked at the thought that she was receiving treatment worse than a prisoner would.

But when she saw who had burst in, Beatrice couldn’t bring herself to be angry.

“Linda?”

It was Linda, the maid who replaced her mattress every day and dried her with a towel after baths. She rolled in with a deathly pale face.

“Saint! Saint! You must flee!”

Beatrice just blinked in confusion.

“Huh? Why, why?”

“The Prophet has gone mad!”

“What?”

Beatrice unconsciously shot up from her seat.

“The Prophet is suddenly killing people!”

Linda grabbed Beatrice’s wrist tightly. Beatrice just blinked as she was led out of her room. It was Linda who, after baths, would dab her dry with a towel, so gently as if afraid she might break. That same Linda was now gripping her wrist hard enough to leave marks and dragging her along. Beatrice couldn’t understand the situation.

Once they left her room, the world suddenly became noisy.

“Find the Saint!”

“Stop them! Don’t let those mad ones get to the Saint!”

“Hey! Enough! Didn’t you hear what the Prophet declared? She said the Saint had fallen and betrayed the great destiny of destruction!”

“Stop talking nonsense! The Prophet is the one who’s gone mad! Didn’t you hear too? The news that she went crazy and murdered the maids! You need to get your head straight!”

“Hey… don’t do this. I don’t want to kill you.”

“What about me? I want to tear you impious bastards apart right now!”

It was chaos. People who had been brothers and sisters until yesterday were killing each other. Bodies stabbed to death, mixed with ash and ice powder from charred flesh, spilled across the corridors.

“Saint! This way!”

“Why… why is this happening?”

Beatrice blinked.

Right. She had harbored doubts about the Prophet. She had acknowledged that the revelations of ‘destruction and rebirth’ passed down by generations of Prophets might be lies. But that didn’t mean she had betrayed Ragnarok. While living practically under house arrest, she had thought it would be nice if Baek Jun-woo would come rescue her, but she had never once thought that constituted acting hostile to Ragnarok.

“The Saint has betrayed us!”

“Ha! Do you really think that makes any sense! The concept of the Saint betraying us is impossible! The Saint is Ragnarok itself!”

“But it’s the Prophet’s command!”

“Prophet? Our family has served the Saint for generations, not the Prophet!”

Even amid all this commotion, their arguing voices reached her ears clearly.

Right. Ragnarok was her homeland, and Ragnarok was no different from herself. That’s right. She had imagined it. If Baek Jun-woo came, many people might die. But she had also thought it was unavoidable to set Ragnarok back on the right path. She felt no guilt about the deaths of the believers. She was allowed to feel that way. She had always been taught that.

But these people are pointing swords at me? They’re killing faithful believers who follow me?

It felt like the ground was crumbling beneath her feet.

“Saint! Saint!”

Linda supported the Saint’s body as they walked. The inquisitors of Ragnarok rushed past them toward the barricades, risking their lives to protect them.

The world she had lived in all this time suddenly felt so foreign, Beatrice thought.

“You bastard! Don’t you know the Saint brought in Pathfinder? Say that again in front of our dead brothers and sisters!”

“Really? If that’s true, then that’s great! Because we can save the Saint’s life!”

When had things become like this? Had it always been this way from the beginning? The Prophet was scary, but… was she impressive enough to make Ragnarok’s believers draw swords against me? I thought that while I was still young and being protected, ultimately Ragnarok belonged to me… was that just a delusion?

Beatrice’s steps only grew more unsteady.

Just then, two warm hands covered Beatrice’s ears. It was Linda.

“Saint, don’t listen to such words. When did the Three Sacred Treasures begin? Originally, there was only the Saint. Ragnarok’s beginning was the Saint, and its end will be the Saint too. The Holy Grail, the Well of Wisdom Mimir—all of these were forces that joined later, weren’t they? The Saint who is eternally reborn to save us. Only the Saint is everything to Ragnarok. So you must never lose to such impious rabble!”

Linda ground her teeth as she guided Beatrice. They still had a long way to go.

“Saint. Please answer just one thing. Pathfinder has invaded from outside. Are they on the Saint’s side?”

Beatrice’s eyes trembled. Pathfinder had come? Really? Baek Jun-woo had… come to rescue me?

“Saint. Please tell me. It’s difficult to decide where we should evacuate.”

Facing Linda’s earnest plea, Beatrice barely managed to nod.

“Y… yes. Pathfinder is on my side.”

Even as she said it, Beatrice felt intimidated. She didn’t have her former confidence. Hadn’t she just heard? The sound of people shouting that she was Ragnarok’s traitor, that she had brought in outside forces.

But Linda smiled brightly.

“Ah! Thank goodness!”

She hardened her expression menacingly and shouted to the surrounding inquisitors.

“Head toward Pathfinder! Clear a path so the Saint can escape!”

The powerful mages who were inquisitors responded quickly to the command of a woman who wasn’t even a Mana User. Whether mage or not, what did it matter? It was a command from someone who served the Saint.

“Understood!”

No one, not a single person, showed any doubt.

To that loyalty she had taken for granted…

Beatrice felt like she was about to cry.

If asked why, she couldn’t answer yet… but she felt endlessly, hopelessly sorry.

* * *

One 4th Circle mage and five 3rd Circle mages. Each submarine was operated by a team of six. The submarines were shaped like flattened, streamlined fish, firing powerful beam cannons from their snouts and spewing close-range lightning magic that incinerated enemies from their bodies.

The high-ranking mages of 5th Circle and above moved individually. When the beam cannons fired by the submarines confused the enemies, they dove in to cut their throats one by one, playing the role of strikers.

Bang!

Boom!

Different races, calamities, and Ragnarok’s inquisitors were slaughtered from all directions. They were nothing but prey.

The deep sea turned red. It burned with magic.

But…

“Enough!!! We’ll reorganize our formation here!!”

Pan-Dalus’s booming voice shook the battlefield.

Until now, I had led as the field commander, but ultimately, the head of Pathfinder was Pan-Dalus. As soon as his command rang out, the mages who had been roaming everywhere abandoned their prey and withdrew.

‘Ah, good judgment.’

Only then did I calm my excitement.

‘We’ve gained the upper hand, but we’re fundamentally short on numbers. Moreover… the servants of the Outer God haven’t appeared yet.’

With the effects of <Sanctuary Declaration> ended, scattering to chase enemies would definitely not be a good choice.

“This is just the beginning! We’ll seize control of the underwater city! Build friendly magical formations and surround the gate!”

“Understood!”

We kept checks on the scattered enemies to a minimum. It would take the enemies quite some time to regroup. If we could secure the underwater city’s defense systems in the meantime, even if enemies emerged from the gate inside and the enemies we hadn’t eliminated formed an encirclement outside again, we could handle them adequately. The underwater city’s defense systems were powerful enough to deal with enemies inside and outside simultaneously.

“Raise the alert around the underwater city gate to maximum!”

The underwater city’s gate was a deep, deep trench carved through the heart of the city. Pathfinder’s elites surrounded the trench, keeping watch for any additional forces that might emerge.

Fortunately, securing control of the underwater city didn’t take long. Since <Opening Heaven> had reset the existing systems, barriers and such weren’t a problem.

-…I couldn’t find any traces of the underwater city’s main ego… Mister Nemo anywhere. I confirm the final extinction of Continental-class Ego Nemo.

Nadia said this. She seemed to want to speak in the same flat, emotionless voice as Lanciel’s Cube. It failed. Nadia’s voice trembled with shock and sadness.

“…I see.”

All I could say was “I see.” I hadn’t learned how to comfort people warmly like Earth people did. Nor could I make jokes about the dead in the wasteland style. Unlike us wasteland dwellers who live assuming death from birth, every single death would be heavy and unfamiliar to Nadia, who had taken immortality for granted.

‘I see’—that one phrase was my best effort, and that made me feel sorry.

-As of this time, the underwater city will be managed by dividing the spare resources possessed by Continental-class Ego Nadia.

Nadia declared this. Then she whispered with forced playfulness.

-Administrator… sorry but… I’ll rest for a bit. There’s not much to do anyway, so I’ll stay quiet unless it’s something important.

Without giving me a chance to comfort her, Nadia cut the connection. The one who broke the brief silence was the ego Nadia had divided.

-Nadia A greets you. We have secured control of the underwater city. Reporting on the underwater city’s defense systems. Available weapons for the current situation include: Trident Summoning x1, Annihilation Tsunami x1, Underwater Prison x2. Current posture is ‘Awaiting separate orders, but will take autonomous action to eliminate threats if the Administrator’s safety is threatened.’

In any case, even amid all this, Nadia had succeeded in perfectly seizing the underwater city. But I felt bitter. Nadia A’s voice truly had no emotion whatsoever. Natural for a temporary ego created by dividing spare resources, but… it felt sad somehow.

I shook my head vigorously.

‘I still have a long way to go before becoming an adult.’

If it were Mom and Dad, they would have just smiled at a time like this. A smile that said ‘what can you do?’ A smile like grass.

I tried to smile too as I stared at the trench connecting to the Tower of Covenant.

Would enemies emerge? Or should we advance while they holed up here?

How strong would the enemies be?

I gripped and released the hilts of my twin swords with nervous tension. Even in these deep waters, sweat beaded on my palms.

Now, everything up to this point had gone according to my plan.

We had defeated most of the forces Beatrice had told us about and secured a favorable position.

The only cards not yet revealed were the followers of the Outer God.

How would they be?

Would they fall within my projected range? Or would they far exceed it?

As I tensed up and watched the trench, a group was spotted at the bottom of the trench.

[Whooong!]

[Grooooong!]

Circles howled from all directions. They completed preparations to unleash a spell bombardment the moment those things entered range.

But all our preparations proved futile.

What emerged from the trench was different from what we expected.

With just those words, all our prepared spells evaporated.

A perfectly natural command.

The whole world obeyed. Even the dust floating in the sea froze in place as if time had stopped.

Clean, perfect pronunciation.

More than a spell, it was the ‘word of god’ itself.

No, wait. Since the Dragon Heart reacted unconsciously and spoke automatically… would ‘Dragon Speech’ be more accurate?

The girl who emerged from the distant trench with her followers, her white hair flowing. Beatrice’s eyes glistened with tears.

The first words that burst out, making me choke up, were something I hadn’t imagined.

“Tris…? Are you okay?”

I regretted it the moment I said it.

Tris…?

Making up a nickname on my own? We’re not that close…