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The light illuminating the surroundings pushed away the power inside Saintess candidate Alice’s soul, which was causing chaos.

—The last salvation of a lost little lamb.

—I am not forcing anything, but there will be a luminous source of grace.

As a person serving God who had been cursed and was rejecting the flow of the world, Davey knew that he would not be able to receive God’s love even if he had received attention. The reason he had received the stigmata was not to make him a Saint, but for him to probably protect those who were loved by God.

—Is this…the way to treat those who are truly loved by God?

‘How troublesome.’

Davey froze at what showed up on the status window that suddenly popped up in front of his face. He was speechless. “...”

—Davey?

Davey couldn’t help but frown.

Saintess candidate Alice was returning to normal as the jewel embedded in her forehead began to break. She had declared that she was going to turn away from God, but the fragments of God’s will that Davey had summoned were forgiving her and embracing her.

Of course, there was no way that Davey’s attack could have been at full power; the holy fire should have burned Saintess candidate Alice away without a trace.

“What is this? Is this how you are going to be?” Davey mumbled like he was complaining, but he received no answer.

“Hup… Cough! Cough!” Alice moaned and rolled on the floor.

Alice was definitely alive. Davey could feel no trace of Deian, the self-acclaimed King of the Dead, who had used her body as a host to come back to life. Had he disappeared? No way. Deian had reached Materialization, the final stage of the 8th Circle. Although he ended up that way because he had fallen into every trap that Davey had set…

—He called himself immortal; there’s no way he would die this easily.

There were two possibilities: Deian had hidden so deep inside Alice that even Davey couldn’t find him, or he had run away to another host.

—Another host?

“His power is divided. He wouldn’t have been defeated so helplessly if he had his true powers.”

Deian wasn’t as powerful as the World Tree, but he was definitely threatening. If he had his original powers, he would be a pain in the ass that Davey would have to carefully prepare to block and kill.

“The enemy has resurrected, and I lost the one-time chance to kill the fragmented soul.”

‘Selfish.’

Davey could not understand, and he didn’t want to try. After all, God couldn’t understand him and was not trying to. All that existed right now was a simple deal.

—Hm… How ridiculous.

“God is neither human nor a being for humans to worship in the first place.”

The thing that people got wrong was the fact that Goddess Freyja was a god for humans.

—Now that you mention it, there were some demons that worshiped Goddess Freyja as well. So? What are you going to do? To me, the probability that there is another host seems highly unlikely.

Although he only had a fragment of his powers, Deian had managed to resurrect because his host was someone like Alice. Normally, there shouldn’t have been any scenario where he could have woken up.

Thud!

Davey grabbed Alice, who was on the floor, by the collar and slammed her against the wall. Then, he stared straight at her as she looked around in a daze. He said, “God abandoned you first?”

“...”

“But that God made a deal to save your life, you know?”

“That is…”

Beginning to understand the overall situation, Davey said calmly, “Let me tell you something interesting.”

Alice’s eyes slowly began to regain focus.

“Positions like Saintesses or Saints are chosen from birth. Just because someone is stamped with a stigmata doesn’t mean that they will become Saints and Saintesses.”

Needless to say, Davey was just someone who had a trace of God even though he held the title of an honorary Saint. He was not a true Saint as he wasn’t born with the love and attention from God. However, the woman in front of him was a different story.

“Cough… What does…”

“Also, you and Saintess candidate Lena were blessed to become Saintesses from birth in the first place.”

‘You expect a lot when you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth.’

God had given the two candidates a test; there was a saying that one needed to either be thrown into hardship or given power to reveal their true selves. There were two Saintess candidates on this continent: Lena and Alice. In Lena’s case, she was tested by being given hardships, and Alice, by being given power.

“What should I do? God has rescued you, but I don’t want to.”

“Kill me. I have nothing left anymore,” Alice mumbled monotonously.

Davey reached his hand toward Alice’s face and released a bright blue flame. He was casting [Prometheus], an 8th-Circle fire spell: the size of his spells had been dramatically reduced due to the strange waves surrounding the area that confused his mana, but fire-type spells had the greatest firepower out of any other spells. Everything about it was different, starting with the size.

“Is there a reason for me to keep you alive when you want to die? I’ll let you go with as little pain as possible,” Davey said calmly.

Alice closed her eyes.

Hwaaa!!

However, the shitty things did not stop here; a flash of pure light enveloped Davey’s hand and erased [Prometheus] like it was telling him that he couldn’t do that. Davey couldn’t help but frown at the holy power that was used by neither him nor Alice. This was a higher being’s interference.

‘Do not kill her. Let her live. Save her.’

Although Davey did not hear a voice, the will was clear. The holy power he was able to have from gaining God’s attention and dealing with her had caught up with him. Of course, he knew that he could not act selfishly as he had done a lot of things with that holy power, but he just could not understand.

“So fuxxing unbelievable,” Davey mumbled irritatedly and backed off.

Alice, who was closing her eyes, slowly raised her head. “But… Why? Why are you saving me?”

“Don’t ask me that. It’s frustrating.”

“You silenced every prayer that I’ve given until now! I desperately studied, worked, and practiced to meet your expectations! But why is the person who never even listened to me when I desperately called upon Him is making me more pitiable?”

Alice was not shouting at Davey, but crying out toward a God who did not answer her.

“There is one difference between you and Candidate Lena.”

Was it the ability and talent to handle holy power? No, that was wrong, since that wasn’t a criterion required to be a Saintess.

“Then, what do you think? A beauty that stands out from a crowd?”

“...”

“That’s wrong, too,” Davey said. As Alice remained silent, Davey went on, “From what I can see, Saintess candidate Lena will receive a stigmata pretty soon. However, now, it is unclear when you will get a stigmata. Find out the answer yourself. And, I think you’re misunderstanding something big-time, but…”

Davey grabbed Alice’s collar and shook his hand in the dimly lit space. He said, “You have received God’s love every second of your life.”

Alice was blessed by God in everything she did, having a sure-fire way to break through hardships. Unlike normal cases, where everything would go wrong with one screw-up, she had this insurance called God.

From exceptional beauty to power that could save a lot of people, divine holy power, Alice did have a lot of forces helping her even without her knowing. The reason her soul and body had not been destroyed when she had accepted the soul of Deian, the King of the Dead, was because of God’s blessing.

“If you want, there is a way to escape that trivial amount of love…” Davey said calmly, and drew a shape of an inverted cross on Alice’s wrist.

The inverted cross didn’t shine or anything since Davey didn’t really do anything, but it seemed like Alice knew what it was. It was funny that he was offering it when he had a stigmata, but…

‘I will do it if you want, Goddess Freyja.’

“There is a way to turn away from Goddess Freyja so that even she can’t protect you.”

“That is…”

“If you do, all the love from God that you have received until now will disappear. The blessing and luck that have unknowingly protected you will disappear.”

“Why does that matter?! That blessing and light disappeared when you appeared!”

“What a joke.”

Slap!

“Kyahh!”

Davey slapped Alice without hesitation and stared at her coldly. He snapped, “Then, was it my indecisiveness that just saved you? Don’t make me mad.”

God was forced to overstep and intervene directly because nothing could be done about either God’s blessings or the natural flow of the world.

“The reason why it didn’t work out like how you wanted this time is simple.”

It was because this was a test that Alice had to face without the blessing of God.

“The studying you have done up to now was to have the authority and dignity of a Saintess among humans.”

What Saintess candidate Alice had to study now was how to interpret and embrace the divine will. She had been given everything, so she didn’t know how it felt not to have something.

“Think carefully.”

Davey pushed Alice into the cracks and scanned the broken space silently.

—Do you think you can just leave it like this?

Perserque asked Davey. It would be stupid to leave this place alone when Deian wasn’t fully destroyed, but…

“I don’t want to really touch it.”

After expressing how he felt, Davey threw himself into the cracks after Alice had completely disappeared. He took a step forward, then stared at the blue sky and the vast plains of the forest. He commanded, “Rinne, run wild. Send this message to the rest of the Decepticon Fleet.”

“Rinne on standby. Combat ability is highly rated.”

“Burn the entire corrupted forest. It’s too troublesome to purify it with holy fire.”

Davey did not want to use holy power for a while from now on. Goddess Freyja was the one who had started it. There were traces of Deian left and he hadn’t disappeared completely, but calculations aside, Davey did not want to intervene anymore. It was best to be separated from each other when angry.

‘Okay, let’s be separated for a while, damn Goddess. Do you think I won’t be able to do anything without holy power?’

—But it seems like you’ve received a lot of love as well.

“I don’t know. It feels like the only love I received was going to the Hall.”

Perserque would never know how hard Davey had tried to possess this kind of power.

* * *

Most of the Undead collapsed upon losing their master. They all returned to the earth after Grell Orfan’s death. There still were Undead wandering around because they still had some strength left in them, but they no longer posed a threat to the allied army.

The only problem was the Undead that King of the Dead Deian, who seemed to still be alive, had created: the Frost Wyrm Wyvern that had run away alive and the transcendental Undead with unbelievable power that were asleep under the ancient ruins. Whatever it was, it would cause chaos, but none of them had been seen for some reason. It was as if they had run away to gather somewhere else.

The alliance was able to restore the mountain fortress without difficulty since most of their enemy had disappeared. However, they were struggling with the aftermath of this incident. They had to receive high-level purification magic or receive low-level purification magic intermittently for a long period of time in order to heal the land, which was corrupt with deadly energy.

Publicly, Saintess candidate Alice had been kidnapped by Deian before returning alive. Regarding the best case scenario, Davey should have returned alone with the statement that Alice had bravely died in battle. However, she was now alive and protected alongside the other Saintess candidate. It would be too troublesome for Davey to do anything now.

Although religion could sometimes be the pinnacle of unfairness, the one thing that the heroes of the Hall, who looked like they were going to destroy the universe, never thought to do was to challenge the authority of God. There was nothing more foolish and stupid than a creature attacking its creator; that was God and the will of the world.

Davey rested his head on Perserque’s lap, who had become larger, and relaxed as everyone else was busy dealing with the aftermath.

—Your head probably looks like it’s floating in the air to other people.

Perserque said with a gentle smile. She was supporting Davey’s head with her lap. Other people who could not see her could only assume that Davey’s head was floating in the air.

“Let me pout for once.” Davey was overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness and disappointment. It had been a long time since he had felt this irritated and helpless.

Bleep!

—Purification of the corrupted land.

“I’m not doing it.”

Bleep!

—Purification of the corrupted land. Exerting force.

“Try me.”

Davey turned off the status window in irritation, but it illuminated once again. Then, what was written in the ‘Notes’ section of his status window changed.

—Purification of the corrupted land. Dealing with the aftermath of the demons.

“I’m not doing it. I’m not going back for a while, so deal with it yourself.”

Goddess Freyja had interrupted Davey at an important time. She knew about Davey’s hot temper and that he wasn’t going to let this slide, so why was she asking for his help now?

Davey, who was scoffing, paused for a moment. He looked at the crazy deal made by the divine will. “God damn it.”

This was the reason why he hated working with guys who played in the big leagues.

—Will unlock the four divine beasts with qi if purified.

“Losing is the same thing as winning… Heh. I’m not going to accept your deals unless I really like them.”

Davey stood up and walked away. Watching him, Perserque mumbled like he was ridiculous.

—Look at that flip-flop…