The Pantheon—a collective formed by countless religious orders united as one.
As such, it contained a variety of factions made up of those with similar inclinations and doctrines.
If one were merely an ordinary member, one could simply ignore all those complicated circumstances and focus solely on one’s life of faith.
But in any organization, the higher one rose, the more important politics inevitably became.
And if that position was not only a seat on the steering committee that determined the direction of a vast organization called the Pantheon, but also a post representing a particular faction, then it was only natural that one would become busier whenever anything happened.
Just like the person here now, seated in the back of a car driven by a chauffeur, on her way somewhere.
‘It’s annoying, but it can’t be helped. That bastard Heinrich had to go and say something unnecessary…’
A woman with ash-gray hair, Adeline Schneider, gently closed her eyes and rubbed the space between her brows.
Both one of the Pantheon’s ruling Twelve Committee and the Secretary of the Beoncheonhoe’s North American branch, she had been spending her recent days so busy she scarcely had time to breathe because of what had happened.
‘How on earth did he summon a Gold Dragon? To think he could bring not only himself, but even an entirely separate being to Earth. Unless there was truly divine intervention, summoning a creature of that caliber should have been impossible.’
That was an incident on an entirely different level from when a certain black magician had previously summoned a Bone Dragon.
That, too, had been quite an exceptional event and caused a tremendous stir, but this time, a living resident of another world possessing complete intelligence had appeared on Earth. It was, in every sense, historic.
In such a situation, it was only natural that the claims put forward by the one who had caused such a miracle—Heinrich Saint Landguard, the Saint of Auterica—would carry even greater weight.
Wasn’t that precisely why she was now so busy managing her faction, because the matter had even been brought before the steering committee?
‘Tch, nothing ever goes smoothly because of those fanatics. Traitors who, despite being Earthlings, fell for the temptations of an outer god and defiled this land… And now they’re fluttering their ears at the nonsense of an outsider from another world.’
Adeline’s brow furrowed.
Though she had proven her ability and faith over many long years of activity in the Pantheon and risen to her current position, she had never once thought of the other clergy as her comrades.
She had merely been forcing herself to endure, waiting for the proper time in accordance with the will of her god.
‘At any rate, this has become troublesome. The name of the Beoncheonhoe is being openly mentioned here and there, too. If the fanatics in this place start acting on their own, things will get tiresome…’
In truth, calling them clergy was putting it kindly; among priests who used divine power, there was not a single one who was not mentally ill.
Of course, that included herself, a special case though she might be.
‘Only bad rumors about users of black magic have spread through the world. But if you really get down to it, divine power is no less severe when it comes to mental contamination.’
The side effect of divine power was fanaticism.
Compared to black magic, it simply did not show outwardly as much. It was an open secret that most clergymen were, in a genteel sort of way, insane.
From the very beginning, if one borrowed and used power from a divine being whose level was unfathomably higher, it was only natural that the user would be influenced by the object of their faith.
Moreover, in a system where the deeper one’s faith, the stronger the divine power one could wield, becoming a high-ranking clergyman was virtually synonymous with no longer being of sound mind.
“Hoo.”
With a low sigh, she leaned back against the seat and raised one hand to cover her eyes.
Just thinking of all the things she had to do from now on made a headache come creeping in.
‘…It’s fine. For now, it’s only in the discussion stage. Besides, with nothing decided yet, they won’t be able to easily pinpoint me, one of the Twelve Committee.’
She could stall for time that way, and at the same time, frame the real “followers of the evil god” whom she had already identified in advance.
She would have to keep a somewhat low profile in the meantime, but since it was not yet time to act rashly, that would likely be the best course for now.
‘How troublesome. Heinrich… I will be sure to repay you for this… Hm?’
Then, at a certain moment.
As if cutting through those complicated thoughts midway—
Screeech—!
The car she was riding in suddenly came to an abrupt stop.
Her upper body lurched forward violently with the inertia.
At that, Adeline’s eyes, already displeased, sharpened upward.
“What is it all of a sudden?”
“I-I’m sorry, Priestess. Someone suddenly cut in front of us, so…”
At the chauffeur’s answer to her calm interrogation, her eyebrow twitched.
Indeed, when she looked through the windshield, a suspicious figure wearing a motorcycle helmet was blocking the path the car was supposed to take.
Yet even after grasping the cause, her stiff expression did not soften.
‘…When did he get this close?’
Though she was active as a clergyman, she too was a powerful being worthy of being called a superhuman.
And yet she had not sensed the other party approaching until she saw him directly with her own eyes…
Honk, honk!
“You there, what are you doing in the middle of the road? Move aside at once!”
While she was lost in thought like that.
The chauffeur, who had been carefully watching her mood, honked the horn and raised his voice.
Though it was clear he was tense at the extremely suspicious appearance of the other party, one of the Pantheon’s leaders was riding behind him right now, so he could not simply hesitate.
If he dawdled for no reason and earned her displeasure, he might lose his livelihood.
“Ahaha, I’m terribly sorry… Excuse me, but there’s something I’d like to ask.”
“Even so, what do you think you’re doing, suddenly jumping out into the road? What would you have done if there’d been an accident?”
“I’m sorry. I truly have an urgent matter, so I…”
At the other party’s repeated apologies, the chauffeur’s expression softened a little.
Perhaps because of the gentle voice that set the mind at ease, and the strangely languid manner of speech, the man gave off a strong impression of harmlessness.
“So, if I may ask, is the person riding inside right now the Secretary?”
However, at the other party’s following question, the tension that had slowly been loosening in the chauffeur tightened again.
An unidentified suspicious figure asking who was inside the car.
At a glance, he could not possibly be someone with good intentions.
“Secretary? I cannot tell you who is inside, but it seems you’ve got the wrong person. And let me warn you: the person riding here is far more exalted than you imagine, so you’d best leave while you still can.”
But the man who had received the answer to his question paid no attention at all to the chauffeur’s reaction.
He merely felt the aura emanating from the back seat of the vehicle surge as if about to explode, and slowly pulled up the corners of his mouth.
“…It seems I came to the right place after all.”
“See here! You don’t seem to understand. To begin with, the Pantheon is a religious alliance; there is no such post as Secretary, nor could there ever be—!”
The chauffeur, who had raised his voice at that irrelevant response, could not finish speaking.
Still seated in the driver’s seat, his upper body suddenly swayed, and then he lost consciousness and collapsed face-first onto the steering wheel.
Bwaaaaaaang—
The horn blared noisily.
Against that sound as a backdrop, Adeline slowly opened the rear door and stepped out, narrowing her eyes as she looked at the unidentified figure.
A man who had come knowing her identity precisely, wearing loose clothing that made it impossible to gauge his physique, and a helmet that covered his entire head.
‘He’s even activated a barrier before I knew it. Did he prepare it beforehand and only trigger it now? He was lying in wait with firm resolve from the start.’
On top of that, the other party exuded a subtly inhuman air, as though a part of nature itself had been compressed into one place.
Even for her, who had gone through all manner of trials—on land, at sea, and even in the air—it was something extraordinarily unfamiliar.
So before resorting to force, she opened her mouth first in order to gather as much information about him as possible.
“I don’t know who you are, but are you prepared to handle the aftermath? To think you would dare attack me, one of the Pantheon’s Twelve Committee. You won’t have an easy death.”
“Ahaha… I’m not really the type to think about what comes after before doing something. To be honest, even now I’m wondering if I came here for nothing. I even prepared an air-purifying magic tool on purpose, but it’s still hard to breathe. Truly, how does everyone live in a place like this…”
“Enough pointless chatter. So, what is your objective?”
Unlike the fiercely rising momentum of both sides, each sharpening their blades against the other, a calm conversation began to pass between them.
From the outside, it seemed like things might well be resolved peacefully enough…
“My objective, you say… What else could I possibly want, after coming all the way here?”
That atmosphere did not last very long.
One by one, translucent figures began to appear around the suspicious figure wearing the helmet-shaped magic tool with an air-purifying function.
They were beings no one would ever have expected to see in this world.
“What I desire has been only one thing from the very beginning.”
“…Spirits?”
Adeline’s face hardened.
Those were not merely mediocre lower-level spirits.
Super-high-ranking spirits, of a level even she could never look down on, were appearing in droves as if they had been waiting for this moment.
“My objective is the destruction of the Beoncheonhoe. In other words—”
While directing clear hostility toward her.
At a timing the Secretary had never anticipated, from an opponent she had never expected.
“Your death.”
The first strike came in a way she had never imagined.
Kwaaaang—!
Accompanied by a violent explosion and destruction.
***
‘Excellent. The response is far better than I expected.’
Harris, the High Elf who had crossed over to Earth for the first time in a while, slowly nodded his helmet-covered head.
Ordinarily, the spirits’ power should have been tremendously diminished, but perhaps thanks to the two instances of “Dimensional Barrier Easing,” the decline in their strength was not as great as he had thought.
Kwarururung—!
From the body of Watt, the spirit of lightning, a super-high-voltage current poured down, and Kali, the spirit of fire, spewed lava-like flames.
From Pascal, the spirit of wind, came razor-sharp gusts; from Decibel, the spirit of sound, heavy waves.
Hectare, the spirit of earth, Lumen, the spirit of light, and Liter, the spirit of water—newly contracted and steadily grown since then—also released their power as if refusing to be outdone.
“Ugh! Spirits, of all things. This is truly unexpected. And to control this many at the same time…? Just what kind of unique skill do you have that makes this possible?”
But that alone was not enough to easily deal with the Secretary, whose entire body was scattering sunset-colored radiance.
Like a messenger of god, she was a female warrior clad head to toe in armor woven from divine power, wielding a large shield and hammer in her hands.
With overwhelming defensive power based on pure divine power, she was enduring the spirits’ downpour of attacks and buying time.
As if time were on her side anyway.
‘That is… I see. So it was as I thought.’
And Harris, who had already used “Dimensional Barrier Easing” twice before, could sense a certain sense of incongruity in her divine power.
That thing every user of divine power had no choice but to accept.
The drop in efficiency caused by the phase difference between dimensions was not visible in her at all.
‘The Secretary’s divine power must come from the leader of the Beoncheonhoe. Since the foundation of that power is here on the same Earth, it only makes sense that it wouldn’t be affected by dimensions.’
Perhaps that was the decisive driving force that had allowed her to rise all the way to the Pantheon’s leadership.
From the very beginning, her conditions were different from everyone else’s, so reaching the top even without using her full strength would not have been difficult.
‘Well, if you look at it that way, Heinrich is in a similar position too.’
Inside his helmet, Harris let his star-shaped pupils gleam as he quietly steadied his breathing.
Certainly, with this air-purifying magic tool, it was far better than breathing bare-bodied, but as the being closest to nature, his respiration did not occur solely through his lungs, so it was still an ordeal all the same.
‘Using spirits seems to make it even harder. As expected, I have to end this as quickly as possible.’
Squeeze.
Amid the chaos that had been made of the surroundings by the indiscriminate bombardment of as many as seven high-ranking spirits.
He gripped Themis tightly, the bow made from a branch of the World Tree held in his hand.
In any case, he had already surrounded the area with a formation using the “Mu-yu Eight Trigrams Secret Art (Modified),” so there was no need to worry about needless damage.
The chauffeur and the car he had been driving, which had been in that very spot until a moment ago, had already been moved to a safe place using that power.
For him, who could freely manipulate the energy of nature through the “Mu-yu Eight Trigrams Secret Art (Modified),” the mystery known as formations—which artificially arranged the qi of nature to create the environment desired by the practitioner—was nothing short of the perfect match.
Had he not also received ample knowledge necessary for it from the Jegal Clan and Geumo Island?
Kiiiiiiik—
An arrow made from a branch of the World Tree was nocked onto the bowstring.
Against the tension that seemed ready to release at any moment, power began to concentrate rapidly within it.
Gooooo—
Pure natural force, the energy processed from it, and even the spirits’ various elemental energies were all sucked into a single point.
And the moment that destructive energy, compressed to its limit, was released.
———!
As if cleaving through space, a single line of light pierced the air.
Kwaaaaang—!
After one explosion passed.
Harris’s expression stiffened.
“Ah, I didn’t expect this…”
As he looked at the familiar figure that had blocked the way in front of the Secretary, who had been his target.