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Book 3: Chapter 33: Correct Stance Of Belief
Book 3: Chapter 33: Correct Stance Of Belief
Book 3: Chapter 33: Correct Stance Of Belief
The small world that Sae isolated was originally the most lively and prosperous part of Aeria. However, it looked nothing like a ‘street’ right now.
The buildings were razed and burned to the ground. About three feet of the ground was lifted, leaving only dirt in its place. The land in the heart of the small world was gone and replaced by a huge semi-circular crater.
What seemed like the great destruction caused by a fallen meteorite was actually caused by the ‘battle’ between two little girls.
Everything had calmed down long ago.
The clouds of dust slowly dispersed and the figure floating above the crater gradually grew clearer. The petite figure flapped her wide bone wings violently, as though she wasn’t satisfied with the speed at which the clouds of dust were dispersing. The wind it conjured forced the dust to disperse faster.
Soon enough, sunrays pierced through the dust and shone behind Lilith, casting her shadow onto the bottom part of the crater.
“You lose.”
Lilith said to Thea who was lying at the bottom of the crater.
Thea remained silent, staring at the dark figure in the sky for the longest time before she finally managed to see Lilith’s silhouette.
She was unscathed.
Even the clothes on her body that were repaired by the black flames before were still in perfect condition, let alone the black armor on her arm and her huge bone wings that didn’t even have a speck of dust on them. It was as though the entire battle from earlier was just a dream.
It seemed like she didn’t just lose, she suffered an utter defeat.
Her belief in the goddess couldn’t even withstand a single blow from Lilith.
Lilith descended slowly and landed besides Thea. The armor on her right arm and the bone wings on her back turned back into black liquid, then melted into her body.
“Kill me please,” Thea said.
Her sudden words caught Lilith off guard.
Unlike Lilith who was unscathed, Thea was wounded all over.
The arrow which was transformed from her staff was directly blown into pieces by Lilith’s fist. Its broken fragments were sent flying back at Thea by the great impact. They left mostly cuts on her skin, save for some that were stuck in her flesh.
The largest fragment was stuck in her abdomen like a bloodstained dagger.
Although Thea was the saintess of Luminous Theocracy, she was still only a normal human being. On top of that, she was left feeling weak and vulnerable after using the Goddess Descent Skill.
If she was left untreated, the wound would probably kill her very soon.
Yet on her brink of death, Thea made that strange request.
“Why?” Lilith asked.
“Because I almost… killed you just now too, Lilith. So… isn’t it only right for you to kill me?”
Thea spoke weakly with great difficulty. She seemed to be using all her remaining strength to utter every single word.
It was then that Lilith could finally see the expression on Thea’s face clearly. Yet, she couldn’t put it into words.
Was it sadness? Regret? Relief?
Or maybe all of it?
Lilith didn’t know and couldn’t understand.
“No way.”
“Why not?”
“Aren’t you my friend? Who would kill their own friend?”
“But… didn’t I just nearly kill you?”
“Weren’t you under the influence of that magic? I know that wasn’t your personal intention.”
Lilith took out a healing scroll and used it on Thea without any hesitation.
The halo of the healing spell was so dreamlike. Naturally, the healing magic scroll made by the dragon queen herself for her daughter was extraordinary. The staff fragments in Thea’s body were pulled out right away without leaving any gaping wounds. The more serious wounds were all patched up in just a matter of seconds. The healing speed rivaled even the speed of Lilith’s self-recovery when she was in her best form.
The fatal wounds were completely healed, but Thea suddenly had an emotional breakdown.
“Why did you save me?!”
“Didn’t I answer you that question already? Because we’re friends,” Lilith replied with a smile.
“But… But… Lilith blasphemed the goddess!” Thea hid her face and wept, “You blasphemed the goddess… H-How can I be friends with a heretic who blasphemed the goddess? The Radiant Goddess would never allow this!”
Lilith suddenly felt as though she had committed a crime that was bad enough to be condemned by humanity, and Thea was an aggrieved family member who had to set aside their family ties to punish her…
It was then that Lilith finally understood the crux of the issue.
She gently put her hand on Thea’s shoulder that was wracked by her sobs, then spoke with her most gentle tone.
“Thea, do you know that I was also once a believer?”
Thea raised her head and widened her reddened eyes in disbelief.
“Really?”
“Of course. A very long time ago, I believed in a god named Jehovah. He was an old god with a severe eighth-grade syndrome.”
“Eighth grade?”
“That’s right. Jehovah really had a severe eighth-grade syndrome. He not only self-proclaimed himself as that title, but also compiled a book known as the ‘Holy Bible’ for his followers. All the nonsense inside could pretty much be summed up into a sentence: ‘I am the one who gave you everything you have, so you shall either obey me or die.’ In the end, he really did kill many people. Yet he didn’t carry out any of those dirty jobs himself, he left it all to his followers.”
Thea looked surprised. “Why did you believe in such a god?”
Lilith sighed, “I never believed him in the first place. But when I passed by the church on one winter day and saw the church handing out free bread and milk to his followers, it was that moment I knew that Jehovah was the god I was going to put my faith in.”