Chapter 319
Chapter 319: I'll Just Straight-Up Fabricate a Goddess
The vast sky erupted in a burst of lightning, and the furious air current, carrying its purple thunder, roared at the holy angel like a wild beast.
A purple colossal beast covered in needle-sharp fangs shattered space, leaving a trail of void as it sliced through the blazing bolts.
Then, all at once, that thunderous beast fully condensed into a hundred-meter arrow, and a sky-rending blast exploded outward—the rolling thunder echoing madly through the air.
The angelic Devotee, hanging beneath the black clouds, still radiated holy and righteous light.
And yet, with each shockwave, the enormous angel's body seemed to shudder along with it.
The body wreathed in holy light faintly began to show signs of fracturing.
But the assault was not over.
One bolt of thunder after another transformed into blazing purple-black lightning arrows, carrying with them a desperate power like a detonation, crashing headlong into that gold-radiant angel.
Each time the thunder erupted in the air, the Knights and ministers whose minds were shrouded in malice found themselves shaking uncontrollably all over.
Their turbid eyes, amid the rolling thunder, gradually cleared.
Their hazy minds slowly broke free from the chaos, and reason returned to their bodies.
In that moment, the golden angel in the sky also sensed the change in the Knights and ministers.
The justice that had once filled its eyes dimmed accordingly by several degrees.
Amid wave after wave of thunder, every last minister and Knight came back to their senses.
In that moment, they all fell together into a state of utter bewilderment.
What... had just happened?
What on earth had they been thinking just now?
How could thoughts that filthy and repulsive have ever arisen within them?
The Knights looked at the Demi-humans, who were still on guard against them. They opened their mouths—but could not speak.
Their limbs felt as though they had gone limp. In that moment, a deep and profound doubt toward the justice they had always held in their hearts welled up within them.
They had actually wanted to eliminate these Demi-humans? Simply because of... that envy?
That—how was that possible?
They had, in the end, failed to hold fast to their own hearts.
They had betrayed the virtues and convictions of a Knight.
If that was the case—could they still call themselves qualified Knights?
Were they still worthy of the silver-white armor they wore, and the longswords at their sides?
Some Knights found this truth impossible to accept. They crouched on the floor, both hands pressed to their heads.
Curling their bodies inward.
And broke into deep, wretched sobs, carrying the pain of one who has lost all faith in themselves.
The ministers, for their part, were trembling even more violently than the Knights, their eyes filled with fear and panic.
What on earth had been going through their heads just now?
They had actually wanted to drag every person here down to the grave with them?
Had actually wanted everyone here to die?
Had even entertained the idea of letting the Princess die in their place!?
What a monstrous and treasonous thought!!!
Right now, Viktor was here.
Even if every one of them had died, Viktor would not have stood idly by and watched the Princess perish.
Those treasonous thoughts of theirs constituted an absolute and unforgivable taboo.
They could afford not to care about the Princess—but if any of them had truly nursed the desire to kill even the Princess along with the rest—
Even if they had survived—
They would have been hunted to the ends of the Empire.
And at this point, the ministers and Knights finally looked toward the brilliant white light blazing in the distant sky.
It was the dazzling and scorching radiance produced by lightning bolts colliding with one another.
Where the black-purple dual lightning coiled around itself, a miniature blazing sun seemed to have been rapidly ignited beneath the dark clouds.
The light instantly swept across the sky in all directions—like the most brilliant daylight breaking upon the world.
Heavenly light poured through an enormous fissure, as though it had split the clouds above into 2 halves.
This terrifying sight left everyone present completely dumbstruck.
The white light blazed outward, sweeping through the gorge with the mighty force of thunder, and spread far beyond it.
Rocks were ground to dust by the surging energy; space itself seemed forcibly compressed into a thin membrane; the shockwave surged and sent the thunder crashing skyward.
Boom—!
The white light gradually dissipated. The enormous gorge, having taken the full brunt of the fierce impact, had been torn apart, with broken stone and debris ceaselessly raining down toward the ground.
And just like that—half of the gorge vanished from the world.
The golden angel that had once blazed with colossal radiance now became incomparably frail; great swathes of its golden holy light had been blown apart.
Whatever remained of its strength was now peeling away from its body in layers of crumbling skin, gradually falling off.
The twin-winged angel had lost more than half its body; its righteous form had lost the authority it once commanded.
All that remained was the black, writhing mass of flesh—drip, drip, drip—dropping from its body into the depths of the gorge below.
Viktor still stood tall and proud in the heavens above, electric light flickering behind him.
Those enormous hands of thunder filled with purple lightning seemed capable of seizing anything within their grasp.
Bolts of lightning and drifting electric arcs leapt through the air, darting at tremendous speed.
Viktor quietly observed the black angel that had lost half its body, his expression calm.
After such a fierce assault, it was now on the very brink of death.
The special power possessed by the Calamity of Lightning was capable of delivering terrifyingly explosive single-target damage.
And the 【Radiant Lightning Arrow】 just unleashed had come within a hair's breadth of completely annihilating the creature.
That thing was a massive collective composed of 10,000 Devotees unified in thought.
In a single instant, nearly all 10,000 Devotees had come close to dying under that one spell.
But that also illustrated, in its own way, just how extraordinarily deep the HP bar of this twisted creature truly was.
The collective assembly of 10,000 Devotees had achieved a Level of even 60.
But regrettably—
A Lv60 formed by massing together—
Did not mean they had already attained the 6th Tier.
Compared to a true 6th-Tier, they were clearly far too weak to qualify.
Though their tankiness was not bad.
At the very least, they did manage to match a 6th-Tier in terms of durability.
And now, as countless minds had recovered and come back to their senses—
In the wake of that terrifying and overwhelming spectacle—
The ministers had finally understood.
What that holy yet foul angel truly was.
"So this... is the true form of the Goddess's Devotees."
Beneath that assault, the angel's entire body was blanketed in black, twisted flesh.
Viscous, reeking liquid dripped steadily from its broken limbs.
The flesh wings formed from tangled tentacles had come apart and scattered; countless forcibly severed tentacle stumps kept tumbling down into the gorge below.
Witnessing the Goddess of Justice—always so radiant with golden light and righteousness—reduced to something so profane and defiled, everyone was plunged into deep and speechless shock.
So this was what the Devotees of the Goddess of Justice truly were. This filthy.
It left every person present feeling sick to their stomach.
Many of the ministers, at this moment, suddenly understood:
Why the Empire did not permit any religious sect to take root and spread within its borders.
Because they were nothing more than monsters—ones that could beguile the hearts of people, and breed wicked thoughts within them.
They weren't even worthy of being called 'people.'
Auréliane gazed through the window of the first-class carriage, her eyes filled with starlight, watching Viktor still standing tall in the sky.
Once again, the performance of Teacher Viktor left her with boundless admiration.
As long as Teacher was by her side, she would feel the sense of security he brought her every single moment.
Suddenly, a jet-black like the depths of an abyss surged in from one side—like a storm of black ink rising up—swallowing everything whole.
Auréliane immediately sensed something was wrong.
Because the 【Eternal Furnace】 within her heart could no longer draw in any Magic Power.
The Magic Power around her seemed to have been severed by that black barrier.
What would happen if a Mage could no longer use Magic Power?
The answer was self-evident.
She instinctively perceived the danger and cried out sharply toward Viktor outside the train:
"Teacher!!!"
But the warning came too late.
The black barrier seemed to completely cut off all surrounding Magic Power.
The purple-black thunder giant hand behind Viktor also began, at this very moment, to gradually fade.
The furious thunder around them slowly died down, and the air above the entire gorge gradually returned to stillness.
All that remained was the still-restless wind, stirring Viktor's Coat, making it swing ceaselessly.
Viktor kept both hands in his pockets; the thunder giant hand behind him, which had already begun flickering, slowly withdrew.
And yet Viktor himself still floated in the air, standing firm and unbroken.
In that moment, through the pitch-black sky, several streams of golden divine light suddenly shone through.
Just as before, they pierced the heavy clouds and slowly descended.
At the sight of this sudden development, countless people widened their eyes in simultaneous shock.
"That—what on earth is THAT!!!!"
A minister pointed at the sky in terror.
In that moment, everyone saw it.
10 sacred silhouettes, glowing as though wreathed in gold, broke through the clouds and floated into the sky above.
Their pure white holy light seemed to carry the power to redeem all creatures of darkness; their lofty and imposing frames radiated authority and an inviolable majesty.
The 10 angels that had descended were identical in form to the one that had just appeared.
They blanketed Viktor's surroundings, encircling and closing in on Viktor—who could no longer use Magic.
The instant those 10 angels were spotted, countless people felt the impossibility of what they were seeing.
Even a single one of those things had already driven them to that level of despair.
Now, 10 angels had appeared at once.
How was Viktor going to deal with this!?
All of a sudden, from their ankles, each of the 10 angels extended a golden chain.
They wound themselves around Viktor's wrists, shoulders, ankles, and neck, binding him completely.
The chains snapped violently taut, as though intending to hang him suspended in the air.
In this moment, seeing Viktor suddenly bound by the angels, the onlookers' very heartbeats halted for half a beat.
Worry and disbelief intertwined within their hearts.
The diplomatic ministers' brows were practically knotted into one.
After all, if Viktor died, then they—these unarmed old men who were only good at talking—would absolutely have no chance of survival either.
Auréliane was even more frantic with worry.
Faced with a situation where Magic Power had been severed, she could hardly imagine how Teacher Viktor was going to break free from this predicament.
But suddenly, she sensed something obviously off again.
If Teacher couldn't use Magic—
Then in the very moment Magic had failed—
Why had he still been able to float in the sky?
Auréliane blinked.
Her gaze fell on Viktor's expression.
She saw that the corners of his mouth had curved ever so slightly upward.
As though he had already won, as though he had calculated everything in advance.
With confidence and a hint of audacity, he said calmly:
"You're finally here."
"I've been waiting for you all for quite some time."
The next second, the jet-black staff with the golden bird's head appeared in Viktor's hand.
Upon the staff, a phantom silhouette of a scale began to sway, and a golden radiance flickered on and off across that jet-black staff.
As though carrying an incomparably sacred aura, it shimmered with holy and enigmatic light.
Accompanied by that dazzling radiance, Viktor's voice suddenly rang out.
"Gwen."
The moment the words fell, everyone's gaze turned simultaneously toward Gwen.
She was incomparably composed. She took a single step toward the gorge beyond the train.
Everyone froze—and some Knights even cried out in alarm:
"Knight Countess Gwen! Don't!"
They thought Gwen was about to lose her life.
But they were wrong.
Gwen's footstep, accompanied by the clinking of her armor, landed steadily upon the open air beyond the train.
In that moment, it was as though a staircase paved in golden light appeared before her.
And extended steadily upward.
Step by step, the staircase bore her footsteps aloft, carrying Gwen upward one step at a time.
With each step she took, Gwen's body seemed to bear an enormous weight of pressure.
But equally, the holy light of the staircase grew ever brighter.
She walked as though bathed in sacred radiance, advancing steadily toward an ever-more-brilliant sun.
And at the end of that staircase lay the direction where Viktor stood.
Surrounded by 10 twisted Devotees wrapped in holy light, with the phantom scale on the staff swaying without cease, the holy light grew brighter and brighter.
Until Gwen, in the sight of all, crossed the 100th step of the staircase and arrived before Viktor.
She turned around, and gazed at the 10 Devotees around her, all radiating holy light.
Likewise, the Devotees' gazes turned toward Gwen.
As though a force of conviction filled the minds of the Devotees.
"God……dess……"
"God……dess?"
The next second, Weija's deep solitary eye flickered with a brilliant blue light.
Almost simultaneously, the staff in Viktor's hand blazed with a heavy and astonishing surge of Magic Power.
"Since you love your Goddess so dearly, then—"
"For the sake of the Goddess you revere above all—"
"Offer up your lives."
The scale in the sky could no longer contain its own radiance; holy light as brilliant as the sun flooded the entire world!
Countless people felt it.
Justice and conviction scattered across the entire world, scattered across the entire gorge.
A vast wave of Magic Power surged from within Viktor's heart—and this time, Viktor did not let it overflow.
Instead, he suppressed it completely within his own body, channeling it into the staff in his hand.
【Grand Prosperity】
Under the dumbstruck and awestruck gaze of countless onlookers, Gwen raised her hand and reached toward the phantom scale floating in the sky.
Carrying the holy light of the scale, it completely covered Gwen's body.
【Stairway to Godhood】
In that instant—
A curved golden crown was placed upon her head.
The descending gauze veil gently covered Gwen's eyes.
Upon her silver-white armor, a pair of tall, pure white, sacred wings slowly unfurled.
Gwen stood bathed in brilliant holy light, surrounded on all sides by drifting white feathers.
Even the blazing longsword in her hand began to rapidly transform.
The crimson flames that had burned upon it intensified even further, until at last they turned to a blazing orange—as though capable of purifying every last trace of filth.
Gwen gripped the longsword tightly in her hand; the wings behind her gently spread, and she floated suspended in midair.
The longsword was planted before her like a staff; within her composed gaze lay absolute authority—as though a divine spirit had descended upon the world.
A serene and sacred sound slowly rang out around Gwen—ethereal and solemn:
"Filthy souls steeped in sin."
"Your crimes are beyond forgiveness."