Chapter 201: Fallen Angel: Estasia (3)

As he watched the crumbling castle, Aicliffe had a complicated expression on his face.

He wanted to be the emperor.

And now, he had only a few enemies left in front of him.

The Duke of Colt, who supported the third prince, had already fallen, and the Duke of Obtos, who backed the first prince, was also losing his power.

Moreover, the royal forces were also dwindling due to the simultaneous rebellions.

“What a pity.”

The emperor’s throne that he had longed for was no longer far away.

The noble factions that were like iron walls collapsed in an instant.

The emperor’s authority that seemed eternal was gradually eroding.

To the divine will, human power was nothing but a castle on the sand.

In the end, for the gods, the human empire was worth only that much.

“It turns out that the glorious empire I dreamed of was an illusion.”

He only had to move forward a little more to reach the emperor’s seat.

The world had been moving to make him the emperor.

And the empire he faced at the end would not be the old empire he had admired.

The future empire would be the same.

He would someday become the emperor of a ruined empire.

Because the god he made a contract with allowed it.

“Did I have nothing I could do with my own power?”

But he wondered if he was really necessary for that process.

Anyone who stood in this position could have become the emperor.

Even a street rat from a back alley, or a farmer from a rural village, could become the emperor by being here.

In the end, for the great being, he was just a part that was there.

And the contract with the god would follow him for his whole life.

“I’ll have to change the state religion when I become the emperor.”

Everything stemmed from Aicliffe’s own choice.

He promised his future to a great being.

He also vowed to offer anything as a price.

He obtained the empire that way, and even that it played on the palm of the god, it was all Aicliffe’s choice.

***

The Temple of Abundance, located in Crossbridge.

For days, he fought in the endless battle, his face covered with blood and burns.

Drip.

He dragged his sword, Ascalon, along the ground and looked at its tip.

The divine artifact, bestowed by the heavenly goddess, never dulled no matter how many enemies he cut down.

It was something he could never dream of when he was a mercenary.

“Kill the hero!”

“Prepare the miracle!”

In front of him, the heretics were keeping their distance from Ascalon.

He had killed countless heretics with his own hands, but there were still many of them left.

The apostle of the enemy he had defeated before must have healed by now.

He had wanted to fight against the cult, but he never wished for the battle with these pests to drag on so long.

His desired opponents were the evil god and his apostles.

Not these annoying heretics who threw their lives away.

“——Ascalon.”

He called the name of the artifact and swung his sword vertically, sending a huge wave of magic that shook his legs.

Boom!

With a loud noise, some of the heretics blocking his sight fell down.

The remaining heretics were regrouping and approaching him.

Tsk. He clicked his tongue and lifted Ascalon, waiting for the enemies to come closer.

“——O goddess, guide me.”

Fwoosh—.

A familiar prayer sounded from behind him, and a warm light wrapped around his body.

The holy power that enveloped his whole body slowly healed his wounds.

The sacred light infused his weary body with strong vitality.

He felt his mind clear up and turned his head to glance behind him.

“Didn’t I tell you it’s dangerous?”

The saintess of abundance was standing behind him, having come closer without him noticing.

Gilford spoke in a grumpy voice to Serena, who had appeared before him.

They had never gotten along well, neither in the past nor in the present.

They were only working together out of necessity.

Serena approached him and whispered in his ear as he heard his voice.

“We should get ready to move soon. Finish off the heretics as quickly as possible.”

She told him that they had to deal with the heretics fast.

It was the first time Serena had taken the initiative to talk about the strategy.

Gilford asked her in a puzzled voice, wondering what she was talking about.

“What are you saying?”

“The evil god is descending.”

“…”

He closed his mouth as he heard that.

It was the most shocking news he had ever heard.

It meant that the heroes who had defended the holy land had failed, and that the cult of the evil god had achieved their goal.

The evil god who had ruled over the world from the sky.

No one could predict what would happen if he descended to the earth.

“You’re the only hero who can stop the evil god. You don’t want to miss this opportunity, do you?”

Serena added more explanation to the stunned Gilford.

She said that he was their only hope.

Gilford’s face became even more grim than before.

“You’re saying I can kill the evil god with my own hands…?”

“The evil god will have trouble controlling his power right after his descent. Maybe you can reach him with the power of Ascalon, the divine artifact.”

Gilford had heard that before.

He had heard that Ascalon could even kill a god.

He also remembered that Ascalon had confirmed that.

And now, the saintess behind him was telling him the same thing.

“I don’t know if it’s a complete death. But it’s a sure way to keep them from setting foot in this world for a while.”

What kind of being was the evil god?

He was the one who had killed Gilford’s precious comrades through his apostles.

His dream of remaining a mercenary had also been shattered by the evil god.

He still vividly remembered the sight of Gaph, who had died in a miserable state, bleeding.

And now, he finally had a chance to face the evil god himself.

“A way to kill the evil god…”

He didn’t know if he could reach the evil god.

The operation could fail, and he could lose his life with his sword broken.

They were heroes who had failed to defend the holy land.

If his opponent was the evil god, it would be an absurd probability.

But still, Gilford decided to stake everything on that faint possibility.

“We don’t have time. We have to move fast.”

“…Fine. Let’s go.”

Gilford smiled.

He was a hero.

Before he swung his sword in vengeance, he was a hero who had a mission to protect the world.

***

After having a quiet meal with Estasia, I was drinking beer in my room.

I knew that I didn’t have much time left to enjoy like this, so I was spending a miserable time with beer.

Estasia, on the other hand, had piled up ice cream like a mountain.

I had allowed her all the snacks, thinking that it might be our last time together.

She had taken out all the ice cream from the freezer and opened the lids.

It was like a last supper for those who were waiting for destruction.

“Strawberry, vanilla… This time, vanilla…”

As I watched Estasia eat the ice cream one spoonful at a time, I remembered our first meeting.

She was summoned by an item whose name I couldn’t even remember properly.

She was so lazy that she went into a cave as soon as she came down to the ground, and only came out the next day.

She was the opposite of Kueberg, who worked hard from the first day.

Well, that personality was also part of what made Estasia who she was now.

“The goddesses must be in trouble. They only have useless angels to exploit.”

I said that to Estasia as I took a sip of beer, and she shook her head with a spoon in her mouth.

She was trying to deny what I said somehow.

She swallowed all the ice cream in her mouth and spoke with a troubled expression.

“Most angels are diligent.”

“Not the one I know.”

“I guess I shouldn’t have been born as an angel.”

She said that and scooped up more ice cream and stuffed it in her mouth.

Estasia, who was not an angel.

It was not an easy image to imagine in my head.

No matter what she looked like when she was born, Estasia would find a way to be lazy.

In the end, all the images converged to the Estasia in front of me.

“Isn’t there anything good about being an angel?”

“Angels have to pray every day and do their best in their given roles.”

“Don’t you just have to do what you’re given?”

“There’s no ice cream and strawberries are hard to get. Especially Aronia, she didn’t want to give me any strawberries.”

After all, no angel would want to share snacks with a lazy and gluttonous angel.

For Estasia, living here with minimal work and freedom would be a better life than being an angel.

She suited that kind of life well.

As long as this situation continued, I had no intention of interfering with her.

But I wondered how long this world would tolerate that.

-Available karma: 991247 / 999999 (Incomplete)

I looked at the screen of my smartphone, which I had tilted slightly.

As if to prove the fierce situation of the continent, the karma numbers displayed on the screen kept rising.

People were dying at an excessively fast pace for a war.

Most of it was karma caused by the massacre that Arcrosis was committing.

In a little more time, the accumulated karma would reach a million.

“Well, that’s the way of life you chose.”

“So I’m happiest now.”

Snicker.

I couldn’t help but smile.

She was always fun to meet.

Except for the fact that she annoyed everyone around her.

“Is it almost time?”

The numbers on the smartphone screen started to rise quickly.

The numbers were too close to count down.

I repeated the numbers on the screen in my head irregularly.

One. And then another one.

The moment the numbers I was slowly counting in my head all aligned to the same digit.

-Available karma: 999999 / 999999 (Complete)

-You have met all the conditions for the <Descent> skill.

I was able to face the message I had been waiting for so long.