Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 147

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 147
* * *
Beyond the distant sky visible from the Surface lies another world. Just as beneath Remordi, hidden deep within the earth, there exists yet another realm.
Beneath Remordi dwells the world of corpses and phantoms.
And beyond Udeta….
* * *
Thump, thump. A sensation of drifting through empty space. Throughout that span of time—whether eternal or merely a fleeting instant, I could not discern—my thoughts crystallized into a single, inescapable conclusion: Plan A’s success rate had plummeted to zero percent.
That life rarely unfolds according to one’s wishes is science. Pure science. And I was dedicating my very existence to proving it, wasn’t I? Damn it. The pain I’d felt in my final moments had evaporated without a trace.
Yet unlike when I existed as a mere spirit, I wasn’t entirely devoid of sensation. What I felt was weightlessness—the sensation of drifting across a still lake, or through quiet, windless emptiness….
How strange.
“….”
My vision was dark. It felt as though my eyes were closed. Well, what did it matter? I repeated the thought obsessively. From now on, I would never devise a Plan A again. It would be Plan B or Plan C, without exception. Why waste effort on futile schemes from the start….
My body felt impossibly heavy. Yet despite this weight, I drifted. It was peculiar. Especially my head—it was the heaviest of all. And within my head, my left ear in particular. My earlobe….
“…?”
The earring? My thoughts snapped into sharp focus as though someone had flipped a switch in my mind. Everything became crystalline in an instant.
‘That’s right. The earring.’
I tried to open my mouth. I would have, if my body had obeyed me. But it still refused to listen. I thought with fierce intensity.
Move, arm!
‘….’
Legs!
‘….’
Damn it. Would anything move at all?
‘….’
Nothing. I abandoned my attempts to move my body and instead turned my focus inward.
‘Oh, there’s hope…!’
Coursing through my body was unmistakably divine essence. Half of it was what I’d received from Auredhian before the altar in the Temple during those final moments. The other half came from an unknown source. No, wait—I corrected myself. It felt remarkably similar to a presence I recognized. Raulus’s divine essence, in fact.
But as moments passed, I realized it differed from Raulus’s essence. This was far vaster, overwhelmingly oppressive and sharp, yet undeniably sustaining my breath—a presence so gratefully moving it brought tears. This was….
‘Ah.’
I understood in a flash. Divine essence from beyond Udeta. Beyond Udeta. The Divine Realm.
‘Mother. Then I….’
Had I actually crossed beyond Udeta? My suspicions proved correct. Despite planning with every conceivable contingency, the limits of my imagination had become painfully clear. Events were unfolding that I had never anticipated, even in my wildest dreams.
‘Ah, but first….’
Yet there was still something I had to do. Though I’d failed to drag Hades’s captured body to Barishard Temple, I still had to proceed to the next phase. And if this truly was the Divine Realm, or even if I was merely crossing beyond Udeta, all the more reason to act.
Phase two of the plan: Raulus’s counter-summoning. The moment my resolve solidified, I moved the divine essence within me. The essence that had been cradling me protectively began to surge like waves. A sharp pain pierced near my ear. A cry escaped me involuntarily.
‘Ugh, it hurts!’
But simultaneously, I heard it clearly. A sharp crack. I didn’t need to see it to know. The crimson-violet jewel embedded in the center of the silver cross—it was fracturing.
‘Ah.’
Almost at once, something severed within me. I knew instinctively. My summoning contract with Raulus had been broken. My role ended here. Whether I’d held on properly, what would become of me going forward—I didn’t know.
Had the counter-summoning succeeded…? Amid the pain of my ear tearing away, my final thought was this: Had Raulus truly returned to the Divine Realm? If so, might he discover me, lost near Udeta…?
My consciousness severed there.
* * *
The entrance to Udeta flared with brilliant light.
“Your… Your Majesty.”
Diego’s faltering voice calling out to him went unheard by Auredhian—or rather, it never reached his ears at all. The plan Yerenika had so carefully constructed had unraveled from the very first step. Whether it had all come apart in a cascading failure or merely stumbled at the beginning remained unclear, but…
“Your Majesty, wait just a moment…!”
Diego seized him urgently by the arm.
“Let go.”
“The Princess entrusted us with a task, did she not? Please, wait just a little longer.”
His tone was almost pleading. And he was right. Auredhian spat out a low curse.
“Damn it…”
In truth, even if I rushed forward now, there was nothing I could do. That suffocating helplessness seized me once more.
A crack. But before that dark, roiling emotion could consume me entirely, I heard something splitting apart from somewhere. Auredhian’s head snapped toward the sound immediately.
[Ah. I was right to raise you strong.]
The wolf cub perched atop the altar, gazing up through the gaping hole in the ceiling at the night sky, murmured with delight. Now the voice reached Auredhian with perfect clarity. The cub lowered its head to look at him. Auredhian let out a small gasp.
“The eyes…”
The wolf’s eyes burned a deep crimson violet. The meaning was unmistakable. The summoning bond between Yerenika and Raulus had been severed.
[Very well then.]
Raulus rose from his lowered stance.
[I’ll go up and find your precious child. The moment I vanish, summon me again at once. If you are the summoner, I can manifest properly.]
With those words, silver divinity began to overflow from the wolf cub’s body. Brighter and brighter, dazzling to the eyes. I had no choice but to squeeze my eyes shut, then open them again.
“…!”
In that brief instant, the wolf cub atop the altar had vanished without a trace. Auredhian murmured as if to himself.
“…Counter-summoning.”
There was no time to think. He grasped the pendant dangling at his chest as though tearing it away. The silver cross set with a violet jewel was ripped roughly from its chain.
Auredhian hurled it onto the altar in one fluid motion. The cross traced a silver arc through the air above the altar, bouncing upward. Before it could even fall back down, his lips parted.
“Sheir.”
His baptismal name.
“Hah…”
Diego, standing behind him, flinched and clapped his hands over his ears. Auredhian paid no mind and spoke rapidly.
“Auredhian Lu Soledore, Sheir, Belgot.”
The Emperor’s full name, including his baptismal name, flowed forth without hesitation, swift and unbroken. A secret name never before spoken aloud.
Whiiiiiii— Raw, untempered divinity erupted into the air. Soon it raged like a tempest.
“Ugh.”
The sounds of Diego and the Holy Knights gasping as their lungs compressed under the crushing pressure reached his ears, but they were distant things. His thoughts were as tangled and chaotic as the raging divinity itself.
The divinity contained within the baptismal name rose boundless and immense, coiling once around the altar before shooting upward through the circular opening in the ceiling.
“…”
Auredhian gazed upward beyond the gaping hole. The stars that had paused in their motion began to turn once more. The round dawn sky rotated. As a sharp sound of tearing split the air in all directions, a blinding light erupted as though lightning itself had struck.
* * *
Raulus had many siblings. Among countless brothers and sisters, he was the strongest god. And he was also the god who loved humanity most, and thus the god who bestowed the most blessings upon the lands of mortals.
Raulus had cherished humanity for a very long time—far longer than when the Divine Realm first separated from the human world, longer than when the boundary called Udeta was first established. Certainly thousands upon thousands of years had passed.
Humans are small and endearing. They often did quite lovable things—offering sacrifices in my honor, relying on me in times of hardship. Watching these creatures, smaller than fingernails, each carrying their own burdens and struggling through their worries, was truly adorable. That is why Raulus had always been generous and magnanimous toward humanity.
Occasionally, witnessing irreverent acts would wound my feelings, but I had no desire to tarnish my benevolent image, so I refrained from petty displays of divine retribution—no curses, no calamities, no lingering resentment. This was how I had always chosen to think of myself.
Yet I was not the only god who cherished humanity so deeply. Among my siblings, there was one with such peculiar tastes. Though their way of loving humans differed considerably from mine.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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