Apostle of the Goddess of War

Ch.189 Apostle of the Goddess of War

Whoosh, whoosh!

"Aaaah! I will show you what happens if you act with clumsy skills!"

The bandit's sword was honest and unhesitating. It was orthodox swordsmanship that fully revealed his career as a former Holy Knight.

A warrior's method accustomed to confronting and slashing rather than avoiding attacks. Even without Divine Power, the momentum was threatening.

Screeech!

Achille did not avoid the incoming blade. Instead, she twisted her body slightly to deflect the sharpest point of the blade, then snatched his wrist with her left hand.

"What?"

The bandit was flustered. For a sword user, having their wrist grabbed was the most dangerous thing. It meant becoming defenseless.

Before he could even drop the sword, Achille strongly struck his upper body upward with her knee.

Crunch.

A sound of bones and flesh mixing and breaking was heard.

Crackle, crackle!

"Ghk!"

The bandit twisted his body in pain. He dropped the sword, which bounced in the air and rolled on the floor.

Achille moved behind the chief's back instantly like dancing. Then she struck the bandit's back waist hard with her palm.

The strength was not that strong. She merely struck a weak point with precise hitting. A critical hit landed.

Boom!

The bandit collapsed as is. The spot where he rolled was covered in dust and dug out.

The moment the bandit's huge body was cruelly embedded in the ground, Achille placed one foot on his back.

Tap.

"……!"

The match was decided in only three exchanges.

The bandit group watched this scene without even breathing. The Goddesses could not close their mouths.

The original Achille they knew was an existence who wrapped herself in holy energy and suppressed enemies with overwhelming sword energy.

However, the fight now without Divine Power was the peak of art.

The Goddesses realized again. That Achille was a Goddess who reached the peak of even pure strength and technique.

The concept she governed was none other than War. She was an existence who mastered all fields for war.

"Ugh. Damn!"

The bandit gritted his teeth and struggled to turn his body, but could not move under Achille's foot. Some of his limbs seemed already broken.

"I told you. I do not know mercy."

Achille's voice was cold, but her inside was stirred with completely different emotions.

'Haha….'

Surprisingly, fighting was enjoyable.

Achille fell into a strange ecstasy.

The unique smell of the battlefield mixed with blood, sweat, and dust.

The fear and anger emitted by the enemy before her eyes.

All of that made her feel alive.

Old memories arose one by one.

The pleasure of suppressing the strong with only her own body and technique without a single Divine Power.

'To think the act of moving the body purely to take is this enjoyable. Why did I forget?'

It seemed her essence as the Goddess of War was satisfied only at this moment.

It was as if instincts suppressed for a long time awakened again.

The moment her eyes shone brilliantly.

A strange thing happened in Achille's grip.

Rustle, rustle…

Above her right palm that grabbed victory, faint black energy rose like candle smoke.

Like moisture remaining after washing hands evaporating, black heat haze drew delicate waves and disappeared into the sky.

Achille looked at that heat haze inadvertently.

Black.

Strong light containing only purity, clearly different from the energy of Evil Gods or demons.

Unfamiliar yet familiar energy.

'This is… Divine Power!'

Achille opened and closed the hand where the energy disappeared. The slight thrill remaining in her hand made her heart pound.

"Not yet, not yet. I can fight more damn it…."

The groan of the fallen chief brought her consciousness back to reality.

Achille warned the villagers.

"Everyone throw away weapons. You are defeated. Since I broke your captain, this village is now mine."

At Achille's firm command, the Goddesses moved quickly.

The tremble of hands recovering weapons was still there, but belief in the overwhelming power Achille showed just now was born in their eyes.

'The Supreme Goddess is indeed different.'

***

"What? Crazy! What? What? What did you say!"

"Calm down. Kaili. I told you, properly."

Kaili's eyes popped out. Ruina was surprised at the fact that human eyes could physically pop out this much.

However, there was more surprising news separately.

The news that could make the calm Kaili react this violently was none other than—

"Pregnancy!?"

"Yes. It seems so."

"No way. No way!"

"Since a while ago… there is no news."

"Really?"

Kaili held her sister's hand tightly and asked. It was as if an earthquake occurred in her pupils.

"Yes. Really. The timing is similar too."

"Ah, um. Crazy. Crazy! Craaazy!"

"Watch your words. Lower your voice too. Someone might hear."

"Why? Should we hide it!?"

Ruina carefully looked around at the eyes.

"It's not certain yet. Besides, Brother is busy right now. I don't want to make him worry unnecessarily."

"You foolish sister. That's why you should say it. You should tell him news that will give him strength!"

Ruina wrapped her belly and smiled awkwardly.

Her belly was not big yet. However, somehow her heart was ticklish. It still felt like a dream, not reality.

"I don't know if this is really the right thing."

"Why, what again."

"It's just me becoming happy alone."

Kaili glanced at the foolish sister.

"You're talking nonsense."

"Haha, my belly will really get full."

"……Crazy? That's really not funny?"

"Sorry."

Kaili looked at Sister Ruina with a sullen face then asked.

"Can I touch it?"

"There's nothing there yet?"

"Still."

"Yes."

Ruina removed the hand covering her belly. Kaili brought her face close and lay down like when she used to act spoiled.

"……There's really nothing."

"I told you."

"Still, it's amazing. My sister is pregnant. I'm getting a nephew?"

"I know. Haha. Will it be a daughter or son?"

"Daughter would be good."

"Why?"

"Sons will only fight. Daughters are pretty, you know. And. It will be fun to dress them up."

Ruina nodded, agreeing.

"I know. I don't want him to grow up like Brother."

"Haa—"

Kaili buried her face in her sister's belly.

"Sister, I'm envious."

"Why?"

"Because you have Brother Sion. And you carry Brother Sion's child too."

"……Hey."

Kaili asked with a depressed voice.

"Can't I enter as a concubine later too?"

"What are you saying?"

"Why? I liked Brother too, you know."

"What!"

"Don't you think it's unfair for only Sister to occupy Brother? At least to me, right? This is a bit selfish!"

Ruina thought deeply.

She couldn't even imagine Kaili liking another man. Kaili was also a precious sibling like Sion. Except for Set, she couldn't imagine her marrying another man.

"Set is… not good?"

"Brother Set is just stupid."

"Haha."

"Not my type either."

"Okay, okay."

It was an assertion with no concession.

Kaili pouted.

"Allow me. This is really not right. Why do only you occupy him. I, I suffered together too!"

"I'll think about it more."

"Really?"

Kaili lifted her face. She blinked with an innocent face.

Ruina looked at Kaili blankly then tilted her head back.

"I don't know. Other women would be killed immediately if they said that. But Kaili… you… maybe somehow possible…."

Kaili grinned.

"You promised!"

"Not yet."

"You promised! Definitely… Hm?"

Then, Kaili flinched. She looked around here and there searching for something.

"What's wrong?"

"Sister. Did you not feel something?"

"What?"

"……Goddess."

"What are you saying?"

Kaili closed her mouth despite Ruina's question.

'It was clear. There's no way I felt wrong.'

Divine Power returned.

***

After occupying the village, while gathering bandits in one place and organizing the situation.

Achille stopped the chief's bleeding roughly and was leaning in the center of the village. Beside her, two Goddesses were standing guard very tensely.

Because the bandits might change their minds and eat them again suddenly.

"Novilla, Mesilla."

It was Achille who broke the long silence. Her voice was calmer than usual. She suddenly felt like a different person.

"Why?"

"Why! Are you saying attack?"

Novilla and Mesilla asked back, startled.

Achille shook her head then said.

"……I think something will come to mind."

"What?"

"My True Name."

The Goddesses together widened their eyes roundly.

True Name.

It was the basis of existence for gods and the source of power. Goddesses who lost their True Name cannot use their original power fully.

Since they were born from concepts, it was like losing their hometown.

"Really!? True Name returned?"

"No. It didn't return. But… I felt it subtly like knocking on a door."

Achille recalled the memory of the fight just now. The black heat haze that bloomed over her hand.

"I felt Divine Power subtly when I won the fight."

"What?"

"Divine Power?!"

Novilla and Mesilla could not calm their excitement.

They looked at Achille's hand as if it was hard to believe. Still, Achille's hand was just an ordinary woman's hand.

"It's not there?"

"It was there."

"It's not there!"

"I said it was. For a moment."

"Speak properly. So I can understand!"

Achille glanced at Mesilla who was pressing. She was confused if she was the Goddess of Waterways or the Goddess of Impatience.

"Haa. It's still a guess. When I won the fight, Divine Power gathered briefly in my hand."

"That is—"

"Yes. I am War… a Goddess related to it. My True Name will be related too."

Novilla inferred.

"You mean real power returned when you won the fight?"

"That's right."

"As expected! As expected, going on a journey was right!"

"Will it be the same for other Goddesses?"

Novilla thought calmly. Achille also thought a bit more.

"Maybe. If we strive again for what each governs…."

"Welcome news while listening. I don't know what I should do to regain peace as the Goddess of Peace, though."

"Peace doesn't fit this era anyway."

"Hmm."

Three Goddesses racked their brains.

Anyway, it was huge good news. Power welled up from where there was none in that hope light was born.

A faint smile lingered on Achille's lips. It was an emotion felt for the first time as a person, not a god.

"As before. War… fighting was somehow enjoyable."

"Really?"

"Yes. Shall I say I feel ecstasy."

Novilla asked.

"Is the fight itself enjoyable? Or—"

"The fight itself is enjoyable too. But what was more thrilling was definitely when I won."

"Is it a conquest for you?"

Mesilla intervened. Achille and Novilla nodded saying maybe.

"It doesn't seem like conquest. If it were, it would have come to mind immediately."

"True."

"I got a clue. I just need to keep fighting."

"So it became like that."

"Achille, you are the Goddess of War, but originally you fought to protect humans, right? This time too you subdued the bandit group to protect the weak somehow. Isn't it that you feel ecstasy not in enjoying the fight itself, but in the act of protecting and helping someone?"

"Ho."

At Mesilla's sharp point, Achille thought deeply. She only fought with a sense of holy duty always, never felt emotions about the act itself.

"It's a problem to think deeply. Maybe."

Achille's eyes became deeper.

Was it born from the heart to protect someone, not the essential desire as Goddess of War, not pure fighting instinct to prove strength and dominate without distinction of good and evil.

'Let's keep fighting while keeping beliefs.'