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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: TushChen
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He intended to blow up the Valtarian Imperial Palace’s guest house along with the entire Holy Kingdom envoy.
It was clearly a bluff.
A ploy to force me to back down.
He had taken the Pope and the prospective saintesses hostage.
It was a despicable tactic, befitting an apostle who worshiped the Disaster God of War.
Gael gritted her teeth and glared at Edanant.
‘He’s going to blow up the Valtarian Imperial Palace? If a massive explosion occurs, there will be countless casualties, including the Holy Kingdom personnel staying at the guest house…’
What if it wasn’t a bluff?
What if he was truly desperate?
The Earth Mother Gael was a benevolent goddess who genuinely loved all her followers.
Therefore, she couldn’t help but be terrified by Edanant’s threat, which used mass murder as leverage.
“Do I look like I’m joking around?”
Click.
Edanant said, raising the detonator.
Gael screamed inwardly and stumbled backward.
“W-Wait…! Are you really going to detonate it?!”
“Of course. Considering the humiliation you’ve inflicted upon me today… I want to pull the trigger right now.”
The standoff between Gael and Edanant resembled a negotiation between a terrorist and a hostage negotiator.
I’ll detonate it.
I’ll motherfucking blow this damn place up.
A tense situation unfolded in the silent rear garden of the Imperial Palace.
No one could have imagined that the apostle of the Disaster God and the Earth Mother’s possessed body were on the verge of a catastrophic confrontation.
“Lierre, here I come to yo-”
“Stop!”
Gael instinctively screamed, imagining the horrific scene of the prospective saintesses, raised like precious jewels in a treasure chest, being sacrificed.
No.
I can’t sacrifice my children…!
Even for the greater good, she couldn’t accept sacrificing her beloved followers.
However, she wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice the vermin of the Disaster God, who had infiltrated from the outside.
‘That bastard…! His eyes are serious! He’s really going to blow up the Valtarian Imperial Palace!’
His golden eyes radiated a dangerous madness.
He was serious.
He was truly going to self-destruct.
Click-
The trigger of the detonator made a chilling metallic sound.
It was halfway pressed.
If he pressed it a little further, the explosives strapped all over his body would detonate simultaneously.
It wasn’t an exaggeration or a bluff.
Gael gasped for breath, overwhelmed by the pressure of the hostage situation that held the lives of countless beings in the balance.
“Why did you choose me as the hero? Tell me honestly.”
“T-That’s…”
“When I first heard the oracle, I thought you were trying to destroy both the Saintess Party and me. But after thinking about it carefully, something didn’t add up. If you truly aimed for mutual destruction, you would have first exposed the Saintess Party’s attempt to resurrect the calamity of Death to the kings of each nation.”
“……”
It didn’t make sense.
It was too clumsy for a plan aimed at the mutual destruction of the Disaster God of War and the Saintess Party.
What was her true objective?
He questioned the Pope’s intentions, recalling the oracle he had announced.
As if to prove his suspicions, Gael groaned, bombarded with questions.
The one true god, her true intentions exposed by the apostle of the Disaster God, trembled with rage.
“Mutual destruction? I would never sacrifice Beatrice!”
“……”
“My goal is only one. To use you, the foreign substance who infiltrated from the outside, to prevent the world’s end. That way, I can save Beatrice.”
“…That’s a childish plan.”
Was it a common trait among creator deities?
Gael genuinely loved her followers in the mortal realm.
Just as Broyan cherished his creations, the Luinongs, like precious jewels.
But boundless love always led to tragedy.
Just as Broyan had confined the Luinongs to paradise due to his overprotectiveness, Gael constantly intervened in the mortal realm, using her position as the one true god to save the followers of the Holy Kingdom.
‘If she’s from the same generation as Lierre, she must have lived for thousands of years… but her mental age is barely that of a high school girl. How did she manage to drive out all the other deities and claim the throne of the one true god?’
There was no trace of divine dignity.
The Earth Mother Gael reminded him of a young maiden whose head was filled with a flower garden.
He even wondered if the author who wrote “The Lady of White Blessings” had created the Earth Mother Gael as her own persona.
After all, authors often subtly insert their own personalities into their works.
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The Alliance Council meeting concluded successfully.
The Earth Mother’s oracle was quickly spread by the kings of each nation as they left the grand hall.
A new hero of the Holy Kingdom had been chosen.
The Demon King of Death would soon be resurrected from the cursed land.
The crowds, upon hearing the oracle, recalled the terror wielded by the Demon King of Death and expressed their fear.
And they began to express their expectations for the new hero who would confront the Demon King.
“Isn’t Sir Edanant the hero of the Valtarian Empire who defeated all the apostles of the Disaster God? I believe he will surely prevent the Demon King’s resurrection!”
“The Earth Mother has spoken, so it must be true!”
The kings gathered on the outdoor terrace of the Imperial Palace praised Edanant.
He had defeated the mine and saved the Platinum Princess.
He had protected the Valtarian Empire’s Imperial Capital from the apostles of the Disaster God.
The achievements Edanant had accumulated so far were more than enough to prove his noble qualities as a hero.
Therefore, the kings praised his achievements and expressed their confidence, almost to the point of complacency.
‘They know nothing…!’
Normally, she would have nodded along with the voices praising Edanant, feeling a vicarious satisfaction.
But this time was different.
Ludmilla, leaning against the balcony railing and observing the scene, grimaced, expressing her displeasure.
It was because she foresaw the catastrophe that the Earth Mother’s oracle would bring.
‘Edanant and the Saintess Party will face a tragic future, their blades pointed at each other. Because the ones trying to resurrect the calamity of Death… are the Saintess Party.’
She had learned from Edanant that the Saintess Party, who had suddenly disappeared, were attempting to resurrect the Disaster God of Death in the Demon Realm.
Although she hadn’t heard the reason why.
Edanant, appointed as the Holy Kingdom’s hero.
The Saintess Party, trying to bring back the Disaster God of Death they had defeated.
They had to kill each other.
It had become an unavoidable fate with the delivery of the one true god’s oracle.
The holy one true god couldn’t possibly be unaware that Edanant was an apostle serving the Disaster God of War.
She knew.
That’s why she had delivered such a cruel oracle.
She intended to eliminate both the Disaster God of War and the Disaster God of Death.
Ludmilla deeply cursed the one true god’s cruelty, using Edanant as a scapegoat.
‘Moreover, if he were to fight Maximilian… Edanant would even bear the curse of fratricide. Covered in the blood shed by his comrades.’
Why?
Why did Edanant have to be cursed by the divine will?
She couldn’t understand.
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t comprehend the one true god’s will.
Edanant, who had desperately fought against the cruel and ruthless cult forces and saved countless people, deserved blessings, not curses.
But the benevolent one true god, for some reason, seemed determined to shower him with only cruel curses, as if refusing to allow him even a moment of happiness.
It was unfair.
Could there be any greater injustice?
Edanant deserved to be happy, acknowledged for his good deeds.
Ludmilla felt her heart gradually sinking into a dark hatred.
But she didn’t stop hating the Earth Mother, who was forcing a curse upon her beloved.
“…Lowly insects.”
The dark hatred eventually escaped her lips as a chilling voice.
Hatred and contempt.
Arrogance that looked down upon all beings except herself.
She felt animosity towards the crowd in the Imperial Palace, who were simply praising the Earth Mother and celebrating the selection of the new hero without knowing the truth.
She even felt a surge of curses towards the kings, who were carelessly raising their glasses and imagining a rosy future.
-Despise them endlessly. Hate and loathe them without limit.
A voice echoed in her mind.
It was the voice she had heard when she was chosen by the Red Dragon.
But something was different.
The Red Dragon’s voice, which had been filled with piety and sublimity, had transformed into a vile rage.
No-.
It wasn’t a transformation.
It was the calamity, once reduced to a puppet of the one true god, returning to its original form.
“……!”
She felt a piercing headache and nausea that twisted her insides.
Her head spun.
Her steps faltered, as if she were about to collapse.
Ludmilla, as if driven by something, rushed into the dressing room and slammed the door shut.
“What is this…?”
Ludmilla, gasping for breath, raised her head.
And then, she saw her reflection in the dressing room mirror.
Blackened sclera.
Crimson pupils that gleamed like blood.
The transformation was identical to the one Edanant had undergone when he summoned the Disaster God’s divinity.
Ludmilla, staring at her blackened eyes, trembled, speechless.
-We’ve finally broken free from that damn bitch’s curse. It must be thanks to our constant contact with Lierre.
Ludmilla’s reflection in the mirror vanished.
In its place, a hideous monster covered in red scales appeared.
Nine eyes.
A grotesquely split mouth.
The monster even had three heads.
There was no trace of the sacred appearance of the guardian dragon that symbolized the Valtarian Empire.
The Red Dragon, freed from the one true god’s curse, had revealed its true, hideous form.
“Get out…! Now!”
Ludmilla smashed the mirror.
The horrifying image vanished, and her blackened eyes returned to their original state.
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Wow, that’s a plot twist