The journey to the Holy Kingdom ended surprisingly quickly.

Along the way, minor beasts and monsters appeared, but they were of little concern. Just by releasing my energy, they fled in fear.

The real challenge began now.

We had to sneak into the Holy Kingdom.

However, no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure out a way to infiltrate the Holy Kingdom unnoticed.

It was obvious why.

The only entrance to the Holy Kingdom was a gate carved into the massive wall surrounding it.

That gate was guarded by thorough inspections.

If it were just Ellie, it wouldn't be much of a problem.

But the issue was our companion, Belial. She was none other than the Saint of the Holy Kingdom. There wasn’t a soul in the Holy Kingdom who didn’t recognize her face. Even if we could silence the Holy Kingdom's knights, the disturbance would certainly alert the Demon God.

Of course.

Breaking through the wall with my power was out of the question.

Whether or not I could breach the wall was irrelevant; if I revealed my power at this distance, the Demon God would surely notice.

It was truly a predicament.

We had reached our destination but couldn’t enter. It was an ambiguous and frustrating situation.

As I was contemplating, the Saint manipulated the carriage and headed towards a deep part of the forest.

The area was a forest right next to the wall.

However, it was far enough from the main gate that there wasn’t a soul around.

[What is this place?]

"This is an escape route I dug."

Saying that, the Saint let her divine power flow into what seemed like an ordinary patch of ground. With a rumbling sound, a hidden passage opened.

It was a rather sophisticated tunnel.

The tunnel leading into the cave was smooth, as if coated with something, and the massive tunnel extending endlessly emitted a faint glow.

I could tell that everything was crafted from divine power.

'Did she use divine power to carve the tunnel and make it glow?'

Using the bright, illuminating properties of divine power, she had carved the tunnel and placed glowing divine markers at intervals along the way.

The process itself wasn’t surprising.

But the scale of the tunnel was beyond imagination.

"W-where does this lead…?"

As we entered what seemed like a narrow tunnel, we were greeted by a massive cavern.

The effort required to create this was unimaginable.

Everywhere, divine power had been intricately shaped to mimic furniture, and there was even a small pond in one corner of the cavern.

"This was originally made to escape the Pope's watchful eye. Life under his scrutiny was too suffocating, so I created this secret hideout for myself."

This was more than just a secret hideout.

There was an excessive amount of divine power illuminating the cavern.

It was such a vast quantity that, even for a Saint, it would have taken more than a day or two to create.

It must have taken a very long time.

And she had to do it while avoiding the Pope's attention.

Perhaps sensing my thoughts, the Saint nodded quietly.

"Yes, it took me about ten years to make this. But it was somewhat enjoyable. Back then, I needed something to pour all my energy into."

The Saint said this with a bitter smile, as if recalling old memories.

The reason was clear as day.

Ellie and I remained silent.

There was nothing we could say.

We couldn’t relate to what she had gone through, and empty words might only come off as mockery.

Belial noticed our silence and smiled brightly.

"It's all in the past now, so it doesn’t matter much. And do you know what the best part is?"

[What is it?]

"The best part is… this tunnel is connected to the underground of the Holy Kingdom!"

[……!!]

This unexpected news caused Jörmungandr’s eyes to widen, and Belial, pleased by his reaction, continued her explanation with a joyful hum.

"For some reason, the Pope was extremely afraid of the underground of the Holy Kingdom. When I was younger, I didn’t understand why he was so scared, but now I think he feared the Goddess."

Since the Pope was a traitor, it was only natural that he feared the place where the Goddess’s power was believed to be strongest.

As a result, the young Saint was able to avoid the Pope’s surveillance and find a temporary place to rest.

And that place was here.

"While I was down here, I got curious about the outside of the Holy Kingdom."

So she dug a tunnel.

She spent ten years completing a tunnel that led outside the Holy Kingdom.

It was a difficult task for the young Saint.

But with the power of the Goddess, whom she loathed so much, it wasn’t impossible.

Belial smiled sweetly.

"Back then, I often sighed, wondering what I was doing. But in the end, it turned out to be a blessing!"

[You did well.]

"Hehe."

I crawled over and patted Belial on the head.

As if that was enough, the Saint, fitting her youthful age, laughed brightly.

Clap!

The sound of clapping drew everyone’s attention.

Ellie, sensing all eyes on her, shouted.

"Alright! Let’s go and finish this quickly!"

"Sounds good."

[Yes, let’s get it done.]

After all, it was simply a matter of placing the Goddess’s token in the underground of the Holy Kingdom.

I increased my size slightly.

Normally, I was a snake small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, but now I grew large enough to easily carry two adult women.

"Is it alright for you to grow that large?"

[Yes, after moving around like this, I’ve learned a bit about how to manage my body.]

More precisely, I had learned how to disperse my energy into nature.

Normally, it’s impossible to perfectly disperse divine power into nature. If a being of similar divine status existed, they would inevitably sense the divine power subtly spread throughout nature.

That’s why, during our journey in the carriage.

I focused on scattering my divine power.

When I shrink below a certain size, I naturally disperse my divine power into nature, so I researched how to completely conceal the traces of this divine power.

The result was successful.

I could now perfectly blend my divine power with nature.

At this level, even the Demon God would find it difficult to detect me.

[Get on.]

Carrying the two of them, I began to move slowly.

The vast tunnel was so long that it was hard to gauge how far it stretched. Belial’s claim that it took ten years wasn’t an exaggeration.

The tunnel was so enormous that it was hard to believe it had been dug by the Saint.

We proceeded with caution.

Moving too quickly and alerting the Demon God to our presence would have been a serious mistake.

Strictly speaking, the Demon God’s 'remnant' was an inferior being compared to the original Demon God. But even so, the Demon God’s innate detection abilities and wariness of me were likely ingrained, so I took great care to move as cautiously as possible.

The tunnel was silent.

Of course, a tunnel dug deep underground wouldn’t be noisy, but that wasn’t the kind of silence I was referring to.

[It’s… quiet.]

"Huh?"

Belial tilted her head at my words.

It was only natural.

There was no reason for a tunnel like this to be noisy.

But it was strange that even I found it quiet.

My senses had already surpassed the limits of normalcy.

If there were no constraints in this world, I could sense events happening on the opposite side of the planet.

I could even wipe out the world with a single gesture.

The reason I didn’t do such things was.

Because the numerous plausible constraints that made up this world made it impossible.

Even the primordial gods couldn’t whimsically manipulate the plausibility that formed this world.

This was why the Demon God hadn’t manifested in the human realm yet. This world was intricately structured.

The agreements made between all beings to protect the planet were in effect.

Therefore.

I normally kept my senses greatly restrained.

But even these restrained senses defied conventional understanding.

That’s why I felt something was off.

I assumed it was due to the magic on the walls surrounding the Holy Kingdom.

A wall with divine protection.

I thought it was because of this wall that I couldn’t hear any sound.

But.

As we dug through the wall.

And approached the inner depths of the Holy Kingdom.

I still couldn’t hear anything.

The laughter of children that should have filled the air, the sounds of merchants buying and selling goods, the prayers of people before the Goddess’s statues.

All those sounds.

Were like noise completely absent from my hearing.

What existed was a suffocating silence.

[Be careful.]

"……."

"……."

Finally understanding my warning, the two of them swallowed nervously.

Something unusual was happening.

With that realization, we passed through the endless tunnel, and at last, we reached the transparent barrier the Saint had secretly created.

"Ah…."

There.

Was an endless darkness.

A pitch-black, amorphous presence had engulfed the vast underground, turning the once white statue of the Goddess black and crumbling it to dust.

The remnants of the Demon God were nowhere to be seen.

The shattered door above ground and the sticky, tar-like black slime told us where it had gone.

The Demon God’s target wasn’t us.

It was the exact opposite.

With the Goddess’s power now gone, its target was the Holy Kingdom itself.