Chapter 51

“Ares! You came!”

A voice full of hope from the Saintess echoed from behind.

It seems the hero’s name is Ares.

“…Well then, Lord Ares, I apologize for the request so soon after our meeting, but please, slowly place your holy sword on the ground, interlace your hands behind your head, and kneel. If you don’t, I will kill this Saintess.”

If this were a story, this would be the moment where the relationship between the Saintess and the hero would be explored, but unfortunately, I have no interest in that. Let’s proceed with matters as efficiently as possible.

…They probably won’t make any bold moves while their comrade’s life is being threatened. However, I don’t believe they will comply easily.

But, within the hero Ares’ inner conflict, there should be room for negotiation.

…That was supposed to be the case, but…

“Do you think I will bow to evil?”

However, Ares made a decisive choice. Without a hint of hesitation, he let a massive amount of holy power rise from his body, surrounding him, and then raised his holy sword towards me.

…Hey, hey. I can’t believe he’s already deciding to strike down the Saintess without a second thought.

“Saintess, it seems the hero squads are rather dry-hearted, aren’t they?”

“…Hmph. This is why those of evil…”

The Saintess laughed derisively through her nose.

“You could never understand, especially not a cold-hearted man like you. This is the ‘trust’ that can only be built between good people…!”

Then, the Saintess began to release an enormous amount of holy power from her body. It wasn’t being converted into holy magic or anything.

At first glance, it seemed like she was just wasting it all, but…

“I see, forced expulsion of magical power…!”

The principle is similar to vomiting to expel poison from the body. She’s expelling the foreign substance of magic that entered her body, along with her own energy. As long as she continues releasing holy power, she will not be affected by magic.

However, once she has expelled all her holy power, not only will she lose her resistance to magic, but she will also be fatigued and find it difficult to move.

It’s a double-edged sword.

However…

“I believe in Ares…! He, the hero, will surely save me…!”

“Leave it to me, Artemis.”

It seems these two are in tune with each other. They exchanged a defiant smile.

…No room for negotiation, then. It can’t be helped.

“Zombie Soldier!”

[—VooOOOOO!!!]

At my command, a war cry reached me.

The Zombie Soldier that had been knocked away by Ares earlier pushed the rubble aside and rose to its feet, causing the ground to tremble as it charged toward Ares.

But…

“Justice will always… prevail!”

Hero Ares swung his holy sword powerfully on the spot.

A flash of blue light covered my vision, and the slashes scattered, overlapping and expanding in all directions.

The Zombie Soldier that took the brunt of it collapsed face-first onto the ground.

[U… Vau]

Then, Shes , who had been protecting me by spreading his arms in front, also fell to his knees helplessly.

…As expected, it seems impossible for me to suppress this.

“Such a pity.”

…But still, this is the path you chose. I hope you won’t complain later.

The light from the hand that was touching the Saintess turned from purple to black.

It was the color of pitch-black darkness, erasing all concepts of justice.

～In a pitch-black world～

“—Ah, what a terrible outcome.”

When I sighed and muttered this, the Saintess, standing in front of me, pointed at me and laughed mockingly.

“Have you finally realized, Kiwi  Alaya!? This world is governed by God! Evil can never prosper! You will meet your miserable end in the face of the unity of Ares and me!”

“…No, that’s not what I mean by ‘terrible,'”

I let out a deep, heavy sigh.

“The truth is, even now, I’ve never directly killed anyone with my own hands.”

“…Huh?”

“I’ve always tried my best. To minimize the number of deaths as much as possible. I chose the path of a Dark Healer, not to harm, but to save.”

“…Ha. You’ve never killed anyone, and you’ve tried to save others. So does that mean you think you’re the one in the right? You heretic, what right do you have to say that?”

“I’ve never thought of myself as righteous. But… well, I do recognize that I’m considered evil in your eyes. And with that recognition, I choose to act as evil.”

I looked around, observing the dark, narrow space. In this world, which had no time and only seemed to consist of me and the Saintess facing each other…

“What…!? What is this place!?”

It seems the Saintess has finally realized the shift in the situation. Her expression twisted in fear.

In this lightless place, I could still read her expression, probably because this world is outside the realm of physical laws.

“Kiwi  Alaya! Was this your doing!? What have you done!?”

“Simply put, I offered you, as a person, as a ‘sacrifice.'”

“Sacrifice…?”

“As a result of that, I never expected to be talking to the ‘sacrifice’ in such a dark ‘spiritual world.’ Most likely, a link was formed when I tried to use the power I gained from you… But I still don’t know what’s happening in the real world or how time is flowing… There’s still much to study.”

I said, crossing my arms, addressing the Saintess.

“In any case, this is a rare opportunity. So, I’ll take full advantage of it. This ‘Mythical Dark Heal’ experiment is going to be a very valuable source of data.”

Immediately after, the Saintess’ body started to slowly disintegrate into diamond-like dust, starting from her feet.