The Heavenly Saintess.
She is special even among the saintesses.
When speaking of saintesses, they are existences blessed with foresight by the First Saintess, who was a true prophet. Other saintesses have extremely limited powers of foresight, lacking the value of 'prophecy' that ordinary people expect. Instead, they dispel the darkness that befalls the world within their respective domains.
The Saintess of Gold, who prevented the collapse of the world economy by blessing gold.
The Saintess of Purification, who drove out the black water and drastically reduced the mortality rate of the injured.
The Furred Saintess, who prevented racial conflicts by showing that blessings descended upon beastmen.
All dedicated themselves to world peace, and everyone honors their noble will. The reason saintesses are respected is not simply because they are saintesses. It is because the deeds they accomplished were good and just.
However, the Heavenly Saintess is a little different.
She is a true prophet.
Seeing the future in her dreams, she has opened her eyes only five times. Each time, the world overcame a great crisis. She prevented war, overcame plagues, and endured famines.
Calmly warning of disasters, she fell asleep again. Until a reason arose for her to open her eyes.
Swimming in the stopped time while asleep, opening her eyes when a crisis strikes to leave a prophecy and sleeping again—the true prophet of the Holy Emperor's Court. The saintess closest to the First Saintess.
Only Shei didn't know, but the Heavenly Saintess opening her eyes was a scoop that would make front-page headlines in every newspaper.
Such a Heavenly Saintess came directly to Shei, blessing her and simultaneously giving her guidance.
[Jiseon, who obtained the Demon God, is insignificant. No matter what means she uses, she has lost to us.]
The Heavenly Saintess spoke assertively, as if she had already seen the result. Although it was an explanation with a jumbled timeline, Shei, who had also seen the future, somehow found it easy to understand.
[The problem is 'how'. If the saintess uses her power directly to stop her, it will bring decline and ruin even faster.]
However, the Holy Emperor's Court cannot use its fearsome power to kill someone. If they did, faith and belief would turn into fear and terror.
Even in the very previous iteration, Jiseon had gathered forces to oppose the Holy Emperor's Court, and before that, she had tarnished the authority of the Holy Emperor's Court.
The conflict itself is a problem. Winning does not solve everything.
Especially if it involves an aloof existence like a saintess, even more so.
[However, this too is fate. Oh, First Saintess who blessed us. If this is the fate you have ordained.]
The Heavenly Saintess, clasping her hands together in prayer, smiled softly and said.
[Shei, I want to ask of you. Chosen as the disciple of the Sword Empress, you have the power of fate to confront Jiseon.]
It meant they would block her with Shei's power, not the power of the saintess or the Holy Emperor's Court.
Of course, Shei also wants to stop Jiseon. However, whenever she recalled the sight of Jiseon holding Jizan, her legs went numb. That was not an enemy Shei could stop at her level. Shei, who hadn't even mastered a single Cheonbangyeong, could not defeat that powerhouse who would shake the world.
"...I can't win."
[You have won, Shei.]
The Heavenly Saintess said. That was both a prophecy and a blessing. She would realize a little later, but it was Meiael's authority that promised success as a 'blessing'.
However, Shei couldn't readily step forward. No matter how great the blessing was, Shei knew her own inadequacy better than anyone else.
Watching her, the Sword Empress placed a hand on Shei's shoulder.
"Disciple."
"Yes?"
"Fight."
"Yes??"
"Answer."
"Yes!"
There was no right to refuse. With her master watching, Shei became a Holy Sword Knight and boarded the fate of confronting Jiseon.
Shei coincidentally caught a cultist who had infiltrated the Holy Land. They were remnants of an evil god who worshipped the black water. Claiming that the black water was a superior resource and blessing above all else, and that everyone should revere it, they summoned an ancient dragon.
It was an incomplete summoning, so it wasn't powerful, but it was more than enough to defile the Holy Land, Lakion. Shei, who happened to be nearby, blocked the ancient dragon.
The ancient dragon wasn't fast, but it was heavy and powerful. Shei's qi techniques could not inflict any damage on it. While she was struggling hard, something miraculously fell into Shei's grasp.
Shei swung Cheonaeng reflexively. Although it was her first time meeting Cheonaeng in this iteration, the qualification Shei had acquired did not disappear even through the regression. Cheonaeng raised a massive storm and split the ancient dragon apart.
"Why aren't you helping...!"
"It's experience."
Thanks to the Sword Empress not stepping in, Shei's presence stood out. Shei received the saintess's blessing for her merit in capturing the cultist, and as the fact that she was the Sword Empress's disciple became known, she received the expectations of many. Right on time, Jiseon came, and Shei, as an anticipated rising star, ended up confronting Jiseon.
It felt exactly like swimming in a flowing river. As she solved the incidents that came her way, Shei unknowingly became a hero. This fight was framed not as Jiseon's challenge against the Holy Emperor's Court, but as a battle between the destroyer of the Holy Emperor's Court and the guardian of the Holy Emperor's Court.
Shei, riding the flow, also did not doubt that she had to fight Jiseon.
Until right before her eyes, a giant snake made of rocks and soil rushed in.
The earth dragon approached, leaving a long trail on the ground. With a single surge, the earth shook, and buildings and trees toppled over. If something entered its wide-open mouth, it would be ground to pieces inside the writhing snake and become part of the earth. What an earthworm does in the soil, that earth dragon did to whole villages.
A single human's will is fate in itself. Only its strength differs.
Jiseon's power, having obtained Jizan, was now a fate that would shake this world.
"Fight and win? Against that?"
Shei looked at the Sword Empress, trembling with fear. The Sword Empress nodded firmly.
The Captain of the Holy Sword Order of the Sky, Cryos.
A master who had attained the truth, and the strongest of the Holy Sword Order who served the Heavenly Saintess.
The Holy Emperor's Court chose holy knights as the means to project power into the secular world. Among them, the Holy Sword Order was special.
Existences taken in after being observed and blessed directly by the saintess's foresight. The Holy Sword Order was chosen solely by the saintess's foresight, regardless of faith, origin, or power, and each possessed something special.
Cryos's special trait was 'strength'. Itself.
As a respected holy knight, he went out alone to meet Jiseon. Saying that since Jiseon was alone, it was only right for him to go out alone as well, he stood alone before the giant earth dragon.
"Jiseon. You are one who receives great respect even in the Earth Mother God Cult and is called an Immortal. For such a person to inflict terrible destruction on the Holy Land of the Heavenly God. It is unbecoming of an Earth Mother follower who builds virtue and faith on the earth. What kind of evil spirit is disturbing your mind?"
"Must one also send respect to a tower built on lies?"
Seen from a distance, Jiseon was cloaked in transcendent power. Rocks and mounds of earth floated around her, and every time she moved Jizan, the ground split wide open. She spoke, revealing her anger without hiding it.
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"In the past, when the Overlord tried to bury 200,000 prisoners of war, he called the Great Abbot of the Earth Mother God Cult to oversee the funeral. At that time, the Great Abbot was enraged by the atrocity and reported to the Earth Mother God to bury the Overlord and his soldiers under the Bottomless Pit. However!"
Jiseon raised Jizan and pointed at Lakion. Just that, but cracks formed on the floor, stretching all the way to Lakion, and Lakion's Great White Wall vibrated precariously.
Cryos shouted in dismay.
"Stop! If you do that, thousands of innocent believers will die!"
"Innocent, you say. That would be so. The sins were already buried and disappeared dozens of generations ago. They must have thought they would never be revealed. But I have seen them! The sins and conspiracies committed by the saintess, buried under the Bottomless Pit!"
Jiseon was no longer the benevolent and magnanimous Immortal. Having brought Jizan out from under the Bottomless Pit, she was an existence that directly represented the anger and sorrow of the Earth Mother followers who had declined over the past few hundred years.
"You killed the Great Abbot of the Earth Mother God Cult, distorted the tragedy as the wrath of the Earth Mother God, made the Earth Mother followers ostracized, and filled that vacancy. You hatched a massive and filthy conspiracy to become the faith of the world! Who on earth will judge this injustice! The Heavenly God? The Empire?"
That would never happen.
The Heavenly God is the god of the Heavenly God Church, and the Empire is the guardian of the Holy Emperor's Court. Who would judge the order created by the Holy Emperor's Court in their names?
That was why Jiseon stepped forward directly.
"It won't happen. Then, I shall do it with my own hands! It is time to return the faith you stole!"
With that, the siege of Lakion by the Earth Mother followers began.
The fight between the Earth Mother followers and the Holy Emperor's Court. The powerful figures of each country, even though they had received reports in advance, vaguely expected that the fight would not escalate.
Speaking of Earth Mother followers, they were gentle and merciful, and the believers of Lakion were dignified and just, so they said that even if the two fought, it would end peacefully with debate and duel.
Perhaps they were the people who kept the most childlike innocence.
The battle was brutal and tragic. Holy knights and Earth Mother followers, the Holy Sword Order and monks fought against each other. Objectively, the holy knights had overwhelming power, but the relic of the Demon God turned the earth to their side. The monks, who had mainly trained in Earth Qi Arts, fought feeling the grace of the earth filling their bodies.
Divine power protected the holy knights, and earth magic supported the monks. A battle of heaven and earth. Right in the middle, Cryos and Jiseon waged a truly earth-shattering battle.
Cryos's sword principle was the Flawless Sword. Not a single drop of blood stains the blade, not a single speck of dust clings to it. A sword of purification and repulsion that drives away everything approaching the blade with tremendous Repulsive Qi.
Nothing could approach his radius while he wielded the Flawless Sword. Even standing was not allowed.
With that fearsome power, he slashed the earth dragon, pushed back the dust storm, and pressured Jiseon with a wind-wrapped slash. Jiseon's right arm was slashed and her ankle tendons severed by Cryos's Flawless Sword. He truly deserved to be praised as the Captain of the Holy Sword Order of the Sky and the world's strongest holy knight.
However, the opponent was a Demon God.
When Cryos slashed Jiseon's ankle, the ground split wide open, and a bottomless space swallowed Cryos. Cryos, who had disregarded defense and attacked, could not avoid the Demon God's sure-kill strike.
As Cryos was swallowed by the Bottomless Pit, morale plummeted and the front line was pushed back. Before everyone could even grieve over the tragic death of the holy knight, what was deployed next was—
[Cryos. Did you rest well? Thank you, as always. Now, pass your fate to the next hero.]
It was Shei.