How Could the Villainous Young Master Be a Saintess?

That was why he had been able to come out through that door.

Vinny stared at the translucent green pearl in his hand, a crystal-clear bead with half of an olive-colored radiance flowing through it. Inside it was stored the remaining half of the golden-elf girl’s soul she had entrusted to him.

This Soul-Heart had fallen out from inside his collar. That meant Milian must have slipped it onto him while she was still on his back. She had pretended to pinch him, but in truth, she had silently placed her Soul-Heart on him so he would be able to pass the ancient gate’s judgment.

After being captured by that monster and dragged into the Demon God Realm, he had originally only had half a soul left. Milian had placed her entire soul onto him, causing the ancient gate to mistakenly judge him as a life-form that did not belong there.

To keep him from getting suspicious, she had even deliberately acted as though she was completely fine, as though everything before had just been her pretending because she wanted to slack off.

And Vinny had also thought that with that big golden idiot’s brains and personality, there was no way she would try to outsmart him.

Staring at the olive gleam flowing inside the Soul-Heart, Vinny was met by a silence like death.

What happened to an elf after losing a Soul-Heart?

Milian had told him before that an elf’s Soul-Heart was the most important thing an elf possessed. Handing that over was equivalent to handing over life itself.

If even humans could not survive once separated from the soul, then what about an elf?

What would happen to Milian had already been decided the moment he was teleported back to Tyrelis Continent carrying her Soul-Heart with him.

When he thought back to the look that had flashed across her face as they entered the ancient gate together—that reluctant, resolute expression—it overlapped with her final, emotionally shattered, tear-choked plea for him and Shicodale to be happy together.

“That golden-haired idiot... since when did her acting get so good?” Vinny lowered his gaze. “Staying alone in a place like that, waiting for herself to slowly go insane... she must be terrified out of her mind.”

“Why the hell are you pretending to be noble?”

“You idiot.”

The blue-haired young man’s silence and the monster’s crunching of stone formed a bizarre main melody together.

Quietly, he tucked the golden-elf girl’s Soul-Heart into his clothes and protected it close to his chest. Then he lifted his eyes and fixed them, without saying a word, on the bronze-winged monster that was still savoring the flavor of the rocks of Tyrelis Continent.

“CLACK, CLACK.”

The bronze monster knew that after arriving in this world, it had a more important task to carry out. Its master had ordered it to completely tear open the unstable space in this place, instability caused over long ages by the extraction of [Divine Authority] and sacrifices to the Demon Pillars, and to let all its own kind in.

But clearly, it did not think that matter was especially urgent. After witnessing just how fragile the creatures of this plane really were, it felt that such a thing could be done anytime. What mattered most right now was filling the bottomless stomach inside it, a hunger as deep as the void itself.

Countless eyes grew all over the bronze monster’s body. Even beneath the mane on its back was a clustered patch of tiny eyes like a sky full of stars. The monster chewing rock and iron chains suddenly paused. It realized that the vision returned by the eyes on its back had been flooded by a blinding cherry-colored brilliance.

“WHOOSH, WHOOSH!!”

The monster twisted aside, narrowly dodging the cherry-colored beam that came as swiftly as a flying feather before it could strike.

But because of that, the “delicacy” in its hand was shattered by the impact.

“?!” The bronze monster let out a shrill howl. It had been interrupted while feeding, and it was enraged.

It smelled something unusual.

For the first time since rampaging unchecked across Tyrelis, this creature smelled something called “threat.”

Dragging its huge body around, it turned the countless little bean-like blinking eyes toward the shining cherry-colored radiance in the air.

A pair of immaculate white wings spread wide, sweeping away the pink brilliance. In this pitch-black underground darkness, the sacred cherry-blossom angel bloomed with dazzling light.

She wore a pure white ceremonial dress and stood in the air, arms folded, looking down from above the monster. Her pink-jade eyes were filled with pity and indifference as she calmly gazed upon the disorderly thing that had emerged from the chaotic anomaly space below.

“How blazing a fire does it take to fill your greed?”

The smile she always wore was gone without a trace. The pink-haired girl was like a seraph that judged sin without the slightest bias, examining the monster before her.

It seemed not to understand Vanessa’s words. Or perhaps it did.

Its giant fangs split the corners of its mouth wide, and with a beat of its wings it shattered the ground. The gale it kicked up gathered into a storm.

The bronze monster reached Vanessa in a speed the naked eye could barely follow and thrust out its black bony spike.

This exiling spike from the Black Abyss could cut any life-form’s soul perfectly in half and banish it to its master’s domain, turning it into nourishment for its homeland.

This was the “power of the void” bestowed upon it by its master.

No mortal weapon could block it.

The name of this monster could not be pronounced in human language. Roughly translated, it meant Abyss-Dweller.

It let out a horrifying roar unlike that of any creature from this plane and streaked through the sky with thunderous speed, a series of sonic blasts exploding behind it.

In the next instant, the black spike was about to pierce the cherry-haired angel’s body.

Then came a dull impact.

The Abyss-Dweller realized that this was not the sound of prey being skewered.

A radiant cross-shaped holy shield stood between the angelic girl and the spike, blocking it.

The brilliant holy shield condensed on Vanessa’s arm. The monster raised its spindle-shaped head, as though it could hardly believe it.

Then the cross shield with its pure white wings knocked its bony spike aside and rapidly enlarged in its vision.

Vanessa dove downward, gathering all the strength in her body and smashing the Radiant-Cross Holy Shield viciously into the Abyss-Dweller’s head.

“BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!”

The Abyss-Dweller felt an immense force slam into it and sent it plummeting straight toward the ground, where it blasted out a hideous crater.

That strike carried all of Vanessa’s fury.

The Abyss-Dweller was smashed into the pit, yet immediately stood back up. It seemed that level of attack had not truly injured it at all. It had only been caught off guard.

Watching from the air, Vanessa showed no surprise and not the slightest emotional fluctuation.

Her goal had already been achieved.

“If I can hit you, that proves you can be killed.”

Vanessa looked down at the creature below with emotionless eyes.

That was right. To her, this thing only counted as a living organism. Nothing more.

Something like this possessed no spirituality, no beauty of life, and no capacity to understand human emotions or values.

Its existence was solely for destruction and slaughter, aiding evil.

Milian’s memory flashed through her mind. Vanessa lowered her gaze and clenched the holy shield in her hand.

She did not want a tragedy like that to happen a second time.

Why the Demon Pillars were so desperately trying to invade Tyrelis Continent—she did not know, and she did not care.

She only knew one thing.

They absolutely could not be allowed to succeed.

No wonder her ancestors, the Dawn Saintesses of every generation, had laid down that rule: any person or object tainted by the Demon Pillars, anything connected to the Demon Pillars, required no questioning and deserved absolutely no mercy.

From the instant they stepped onto this continent, their sins were already beyond forgiveness.

When she had knocked the monster into the crater, Vanessa had landed not far away. She pulled the ice spear that had been embedded in the rock free, kicked the spearhead up, and caught it in her hand.

Shield in one hand, spear in the other, the girl faced off against the monster that came charging out of the pit.

The creature dropped to all fours. It had been utterly enraged by what had just happened. The violent wind raised by its wings made it impossible to stand steady, and its claws tore at the ground, flinging up huge chunks of earth.

Seeing this, Vanessa raised the Radiant-Cross Holy Shield. Beams of light bloomed from it and continued gathering power. Then she lifted the shield and charged.

[Stored-Light Smite]

A violent shockwave erupted.

The fluctuations produced by the collision of the two forces tore the ground apart and shaved flat the walls of the entire underground institute.

The holy shield slammed hard against the monster’s claw. Vanessa felt as though she were trying to stop a high-speed train with her bare hands. The monster drove her backward and sent her flying.

As it continued to carry her away, Vanessa flicked out an ice chain from her palm, freeing herself from the monster’s claw. As she landed, she rolled once, then beat her wings and flew back into the air.

Fortunately, with the Radiant-Cross Holy Shield taking the brunt of it, she had only suffered some impact force.

But this monster’s strength was terrifying. When it grabbed her and rammed her toward the wall, part of the white ceremonial dress she wore had shattered apart.

As expected, magic was not especially effective against this monster.

While Vanessa was considering this, the little eyes on the Abyss-Dweller’s back suddenly fired dense void rays like a rainstorm.

The creature did not even need to turn around. It had already caught her position with the little eyes behind it and locked onto her.

That made it almost impossible to guard against.

Although she was not hit, Vanessa could tell that each of those rays had an effect similar to the monster’s black bony spike. Any hit would shave away half a soul and send it to that void-filled Demon God Realm.

Fortunately, Vanessa’s reflexes were extraordinarily fast. She raised the shield to defend. The Radiant-Cross Holy Shield spread open its wings, demonstrating exactly why it was a [Divine Armament]-class weapon.

The void rays from the abyss struck the holy shield, and the shield, with its wings spread wide, absorbed them all.

That was one of the Radiant-Cross Holy Shield’s enchantments: [Original Sin Backlash]. It absorbed any kind of energy and reflected it back to the caster, who would then be unable to dodge it.

At first Vanessa had suspected it could only reflect magic.

The result exceeded her expectations.

It could even reflect the attacks of a Demon Pillar minion.

But—

After absorbing the monster’s void rays, Vanessa held the holy shield, now filled with the opponent’s energy and ready to reflect it back at any time—

and chose not to do so.

‘Big Sister Vanessa, what are you still hesitating for? If this damned monster stays on Tyrelis Continent, it’s going to become a massive future disaster! Who knows how many more people it’ll get killed?’ the little angel’s voice sounded inside her head.

‘Just send its own attack right back at it! Doesn’t it love sending people into that void Demon God space? Then use this to send it back to its hometown!’

“No.”

Vanessa lowered the holy shield and did not activate the reflection effect.

‘Why?!’ the little angel could not understand.

“If I reflect its attack, then all I’m doing is sending it home.”

Vanessa enunciated every word.

“It rampages through this land of milk and honey, and then it gets to go home nice and easy? On what grounds?”

“Some people can’t even go home anymore. So why should it still get to have a home?”

‘Big Sister Vanessa...’

The little angel stopped halfway through.

Of course she could tell. Even though Vanessa’s face remained calm, she was already furious beyond measure.

This time, the cherry-haired angel was truly angry.

The little angel had never seen Vanessa angry before.

Ordinary people wore their emotions plainly on their faces when they got mad.

Vanessa was different.

The sign that she was angry was not a furious outburst.

It was that courteous smile no longer remained at the corner of her lips.

“It’s not going back. I said so.”

With that, Vanessa pressed her hands together. Her wings spread to either side, and behind her appeared an enormous goddess-shaped figure made entirely from pure light.

[Sanctified Heaven-Glory]

The monster, its countless tiny eyes still blinking as it prepared to attack again, was bathed in the goddess’s grace and radiance. Its limbs were stretched outward as though something were pulling them apart from both sides, locking it in place.

Under [Sanctified Heaven-Glory], no sinner could hide.

All that remained was repentance and reflection upon sin.

But this monster was different.

It did not think it was wrong.

It did not think it had done anything wrong at all.

It believed everything it did was correct—that this world was meant to be torn into pieces.

And so, not even [Sanctified Heaven-Glory] could completely suppress the Abyss-Dweller.

The Abyss-Dweller tore free from the prison woven from light and spread its huge mouth again as it lunged at Vanessa.

Using a voice that did not belong to this world, it released a bone-chilling roar.

‘Little girl, I have a place here where you can hide.’

The Abyss-Dweller’s navel split open. It was lined with sharp teeth, and eye-covered fleshy vines rolled out from inside and coiled toward Vanessa.

‘You must taste wonderful.’

Vanessa could not understand the Abyss-Dweller’s language, but she could roughly grasp what it was saying.

“There is not the slightest trace of kindness or humanity in your soul.”

Vanessa raised the holy shield high. Dazzling radiance burst from it, and the shield’s two wings shifted into a guarding posture.

BANG!

The Abyss-Dweller’s giant claw seized the shield. The eye-vines spilling from the mouth in its navel whipped around behind Vanessa, bypassing the Radiant-Cross Holy Shield.

It knew as well that this shield was abnormally troublesome.

So it intended to go around it.

‘Give it up, mortal. What you call “magic” is nothing but garbage energy kneaded together by low-dimensional creatures. It cannot hurt me.’

The Abyss-Dweller released another sharp, ear-piercing howl, this time carrying a distinctly mocking tone.

And yet—

just as the flesh-vines were about to strike Vanessa from behind, the holy shield flared with blinding light.

[Final Mercy]

The curtain of light formed by the shield rose abruptly, as though it had been waiting specifically for the Abyss-Dweller’s sneak attack. The instant its eye-vines touched the light curtain, a pulse of energy conducted straight through them and into its body.

The Abyss-Dweller shuddered for an instant from the impact.

But to it, all of this was still futile.

Even though this shield was strange enough to shake it, enough to force even it—a creation of the great Lord of Delusion—into a moment of stiffness—

the Abyss-Dweller guessed that this shield had very likely come from the hand of some other Demon Pillar.

But that was all.

As the most devout believer of the Lord of Delusion, not even this peculiar shield could truly injure it in the slightest.

That was what the Abyss-Dweller thought—

until the cherry-haired angelic girl raised one hand like a god, and in her palm bloomed a seven-colored glass-like flame whose outer blaze was cherry-white.

“It is no mortal thing.”

Vanessa looked calmly, without the slightest ripple in her eyes, at the monster from the abyss, and spoke one word at a time.

“This is congealed divine punishment.”

[Saint’s Favor]: [All-Gods Consecration Flame]

The Abyss-Dweller—this creature that did not even understand why it was afraid—found its body reacting before its mind could.

Its wings beat uneasily.

It fled desperately, trying to get as far away from that strange flame as possible.