Hummmm!
An eerie red glow began emanating from the Star of Bethlehem fortress, a structure forged from the combined efforts and resources of Christian churches and monasteries throughout the world.
The heavens grew dark and oppressive, while an intangible malice gradually spread through the glowing clouds along the horizon.
Chaotic, disordered magical patterns, AIM diffusion fields, and Honkai energy particles began converging. Under the influence of a mysterious force, they condensed together along predetermined trajectories.
They resembled a viscous liquid flowing through specific channels, an enormous mass of multicolored clouds slowly writhing, or a vast pool of spray paint spilled across the ground.
The brilliantly colored energy transformed into magnificent, rainbow-hued garments, like iridescent clouds and neon lights. Around the enormous cross-shaped fortress, intricate and dazzling patterns of countless different shapes were etched into existence, collectively forming a gigantic, specialized ritual that was rapidly expanding and growing.
Visually, it was breathtakingly beautiful.
Like a blessing bestowed by the heavens.
But what Ollerus saw was the profound darkness concealed beneath that dazzling beauty.
The devil always appears in this world wearing the face of an angel. —The Bible
At that instant, Ollerus felt as though his consciousness had been thrown into a blender spinning at tremendous speed.
Fragmented images poured continuously into the depths of his mind. Before his eyes appeared cities burning and collapsing into ruin, along with hundreds of thousands of mangled, distorted faces screaming and wailing as blood-colored flames consumed them.
Among the cities collapsing and being destroyed in the flames of war were Vatican City, Calais, Gravelines, Accra, Lomé, Portolovo, Malabo, São Tomé...
Among those screaming in agony within the blood-colored flames were believers of the Roman Catholic Church. The shattered faces of Cardinal Pietro Yogdis and Pope Matthai Reese were unmistakably among them.
And with every passing moment, new faces continued to appear.
They included armed personnel lost by Academy City, soldiers of the American coalition, French troops, England's magical combat units, Russian clergymen, and innocent civilians unfortunate enough to be caught in the devastation...
Ollerus suddenly understood. These were the people who had lost their lives in this world war.
Immediately afterward, countless overlapping voices seemed to roar and scream beside Ollerus' ears, overflowing with hatred and resentment. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions... Or were there hundreds of millions?!
"The Fish of the Last Supper... Not only did you destroy Vatican City, but you seized control of this ritual as well?"
The magician known as Ollerus immediately recognized the true nature of the magical wavelengths blossoming above the Star of Bethlehem fortress. He could no longer maintain his previously nonchalant expression.
Although the throne of Magic God had been taken from him, he remained a magician whose constitution approached that of a Magic God, a monster capable of wielding a Magic God's power using ordinary magical energy alone. Under normal circumstances, apart from genuine Magic Gods, there were fewer than five things in the world that could make him take matters seriously.
Yet, as it happened, every incident Ollerus was currently confronting was troublesome even for him.
Especially when he used his Odin's Throne (Hliðskjálf) spell to observe Fiamma of the Right transforming into the mobile control center of the Star of Bethlehem fortress, while a golden angel began modifying the enormous magical array that Fiamma had partially activated, using Christian churches and monasteries scattered throughout the world as its anchors...
And particularly when that silver-haired magician in green robes appeared, Ollerus forced a few words through clenched teeth. "Crowley... Does that bastard even know what he's doing?"
"I'll say it again! Get out of my way, Selene!"
Crack!
A rainbow-colored beam descended from the heavens. That was her answer!
"This path is closed."
An endless torrent of Honkai energy erupted, gravitational fields twisted and fluctuated, and streams of high-energy particles from solar radiation burst forth.
Rumble!
Accompanied by an enormous sonic boom, the Voidstar Anchor tore through the cloud formed by the breaking of the sound barrier. Rapidly fusing Honkai energy particles shredded all surrounding matter as the weapon hurtled downward with tremendous force, slamming into the sword of light below.
Bang!
Under the crushing impact, Ollerus was forced to lower his body. Gripping the sword of light condensed from his magical spell in one hand, he stared in astonishment at the tall, beautiful woman before him. Despite her graceful, feminine figure, her vast and seemingly inexhaustible strength gave him an overwhelming sense of familiarity.
Olympian mythology. The Titans.
Jötunheim. The fire giants.
Odin's Throne spell was his masterpiece. Ollerus knew better than anyone what kind of damage anyone struck by his attacks would suffer. The impact would affect every part of her body equally, from the surface to the center. Furthermore, his reflection spell would force Selene to endure the same amount of force that she had unleashed against him.
Ordinary magicians and espers, no matter how powerful their magical spells or supernatural abilities, could never withstand an attack that directly targeted their flesh and internal organs!
This was especially true of Selene's fighting style, which involved casually unleashing attacks equivalent to at least hundreds of thousands of tons of TNT with a flick of her fingers. Between the resulting impacts and the reflected force, an ordinary mortal body would have been reduced to minced meat long ago. Even someone possessing the constitution of a Saint could not withstand it!
Besides, Selene was not a Saint, contrary to the speculation of the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian believers.
Others might not recognize the difference, but how could Ollerus fail to notice? There was not the slightest trace of the Son of God's miracles or the characteristic wavelengths of stigmata emanating from Selene.
But why?
Why isn't she affected at all? My attacks definitely struck her body, yet she's only becoming more and more comfortable fighting me!
Puzzled, Ollerus raised his head and met those crimson, diamond-shaped pupils gleaming with reflected light. Forget signs of exhaustion. All he could see was soaring fighting spirit and what seemed like limitless energy.
And an almost ecstatic eagerness to beat him to death.
Hummm!
"Recognize it now? You're awfully desperate. That is the treasure of the Roman Catholic Church, perhaps even of Christianity as a whole. Oh, I forgot. You're from the Norse tradition, so you probably don't give a damn about those old fossils and their followers in the Vatican who are still wallowing in the medieval Church's former glory."
Her voice was bright, confident, and full of heroic vigor.
Once battle began, Selene's usual leisurely demeanor was quickly replaced by blazing ferocity. That fire came not merely from the powers she wielded, but also from her sheer enjoyment of combat, her eagerness whenever a worthy fight presented itself.
One could only say that a perfectly balanced, all-around warrior like Selene, with no weaknesses whatsoever, was the most troublesome kind of opponent for Ollerus and everyone else.
Selene had indeed taken the impacts from the countershock and reflection spells, but to her, they were no worse than a mosquito bite. As for the attacks targeting vulnerable internal organs and striking from the inside out, unfortunately for Ollerus, Selene had never bothered manifesting such unnecessary things in this Phantom Spirit avatar.
"Ahahahahaha... Excellent! Come at me again!"
"..."
Selene was thoroughly enjoying herself. Ollerus, on the other hand, was having a miserable time.
Against a genuine Magic God, this Phantom Spirit avatar would stand absolutely no chance of winning. Everyone else was either an ally or too uninteresting to fight. Only against Ollerus could Selene truly cut loose with this body and enjoy herself to the fullest.
They were evenly matched, with Selene perhaps even at a slight disadvantage. But Ollerus probably would not dare fight with genuine killing intent. He was the "Emperor of Good People," after all. Otherwise, if both of them truly abandoned all restraint, they could quite literally plow the surface of the planet.
All Ollerus could do was keep his output slightly above Selene's. Whenever Selene increased her power a little, he increased his own a little, almost like feeding troops into battle piecemeal. It was not that he lacked the desire to unleash his full strength. He was genuinely afraid of bringing disaster upon the inhabitants of the Indian Ocean region.
He had considered suddenly raising his output by several orders of magnitude to catch Selene off guard, but that proved useless. Not only had Selene endured it, she had retaliated with an even more powerful "sun," several orders of magnitude stronger.
Consequently, it looked as though he was being completely overwhelmed, and the frustration was unbearable! Yet he could not simply leave.
His other signature technique, Fairy Transformation, was equally useless.
It was a spell constructed around the fact that Christianity had inadvertently diminished the status of pagan gods. Anyone struck in the heart by Fairy Transformation would gradually collapse from within and be dragged back down into the realm of humanity.
However, Fairy Transformation was effective only against Magic Gods and those approaching their level. Selene was not a magician at all. Her powers operated according to an entirely different system.
"What's wrong?"
Selene raised her hand, watching the blond man repeatedly glance toward the Star of Bethlehem fortress from the corner of his eye. Another Voidstar Anchor took shape amid lightning and flames, and she seized it in her grasp.
"Trying to recover the ritual stolen from the Roman Catholic Church? Hmm, I suppose that does suit your style. You insist on the principle that 'extending a helping hand to those in danger is a fundamental law of this world.' What a truly compassionate man."
Judging by Ollerus' actions, he was indeed an extraordinarily compassionate and kindhearted person.
He should have become a Magic God, but because he stopped to rescue an injured kitten and became occupied searching the streets for a veterinary hospital, he ultimately missed his opportunity to attain that position. He was also the kind of person who would completely annihilate an army of a million soldiers to save a child he had never even met.
His compassion was so excessive that it made him seem like a complete idiot with something seriously wrong in his head.
Yet the price he paid for his compassion was an overwhelming reliance on violence to solve his problems. In terms of methods, he was hardly any different from Selene.
As her eyelids shifted, a moonlike radiance seemed to ripple through Selene's bright pupils. She received a communication from Aleister, informing her that he had finished adjusting the Fish of the Last Supper, the foundational ritual originally possessed by the Roman Catholic Church.
After amplifying it two billion times, just how powerful will Aleister become?
'Sebas, are the preparations for the worldwide broadcast complete?' Filled with excitement for what was about to happen, Selene sent her thoughts across thousands of miles of ocean.
'Everything is ready, Milady.' The responding voice was deep, yet showed not the slightest trace of age.
'What about the real-time special effects team?'
'They are ready as well.'
'Then let's begin.'
Hummm!
Selene flashed a radiant smile at the grim-faced Ollerus. "Whatever happens, Ollerus, thank you."
"What? What do you mean?"
The next instant, brilliant light erupted from Selene's entire body. The decorative patterns of her battle armor, which had previously resembled a suit of light armor, became considerably more intricate. The armor itself also grew much thicker and heavier, resembling a suit of heavy plate armor. Combined with its elaborate patterns, it radiated an imposing sense of divine sanctity.
Six platinum angelic wings unfurled once more. They became even more magnificent and dazzling, growing so broad that, when folded together, they could completely conceal her body.
Whoosh!
Selene bent her right arm, casually holding the Voidstar Anchor horizontally beside her body. She sliced through a cyclone and swept the spear sideways with a thunderous roar!
The flames and scorching heat from the explosions were instantly scattered by the violent hurricane, dispersing more than half of them.
A solar halo even appeared behind Selene's head. Her lips curved into a smile that made her beautiful face seem both dangerous and strikingly heroic, while the spearhead pointed directly at Ollerus.
"Ullr, Norse god of winter, show me your powers over ice and snow! I've gone out of my way to fight you using the authority of the sun, yet you keep directing your attention thousands of miles away. How terribly boring."
It's time to put on a proper performance!
Apart from Imagine Breaker and the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the malice within people's hearts was another source of Fiamma of the Right's power. The stronger humanity's malice became, the stronger Fiamma of the Right would grow.
It was somewhat similar to Vento of the Front's Divine Punishment, which involved deliberately provoking hostility and malice in others.
The Fish of the Last Supper ritual that Aleister intended to activate required the hatred of every Roman Catholic believer. In other words, all of these methods depended upon the malice in people's hearts.
And Selene intended to draw that malice out. That was precisely why she had deliberately adopted this appearance.
Humans were visual creatures, after all. Appearance shaped their first impressions of others.
During a worldwide broadcast, imagine watching a sacred, magnificent, radiant, righteous angel wielding a weapon against a sinister-looking magician. And that magician was using ancient Norse magic, no less. If you were a Christian believer, which one would you think was the villain?
Give him a sinister, hellish filter, give Selene herself a bright, heavenly filter, then reinforce the impression with a little public opinion manipulation.
And there you had it. Problem solved.
The next instant...
CRACK!
Selene moved. Gripping the Voidstar Anchor in one hand, she brought its dazzling golden shaft crashing against the weapon imbued with Ollerus' proudest spell. Roaring particles of light devoured one another, spraying brilliant sparks in every direction.
"What exactly are you trying to accomplish?"
As for Ollerus' question, Selene's attitude was simple. We're broadcasting worldwide right now. I have no interest in answering you.
At the moment, all she wanted was to put on a spectacular performance while enjoying the battle.
'Oh, right. Sebas, mute him. And while you're at it, give him one of those sinister 'Heh-heh-heh' villain laughs.'
RUMBLE!
Every collision unleashed shock waves powerful enough to shake the surrounding seas. The isolated island chains scattered across the southern Indian Ocean cracked apart under the violent tremors. Even the continental shelf buckled and surged under the friction, rising and falling like ocean waves.
Visible waves of sound, intensified by one earthshaking explosion after another, transformed into blinding white light. They spread outward from the two combatants like solid walls of compressed air.
The sky was torn apart!
The atmosphere was swept away!
The ocean exposed the dark, ancient seabed that had lain concealed beneath its waters for countless millennia. Innumerable fissures split open across the ocean floor, resembling bottomless black abysses that spread all the way to the distant horizon in the blink of an eye!
The ocean churned with an unending roar, as gigantic torrents raised monstrous waves thousands of meters high!
It was like a battle between gods.
And in a sense, that was precisely what it was. Ollerus was the Danish name for Ullr, who, in Norse mythology, was the god of winter, snow, archery, and hunting, although he gradually faded from human memory.
As for Selene, she was the goddess of the full moon in Olympian mythology.
A Norse god against a Greek goddess.
And every moment of this spectacle was already being captured by several Academy City satellites in low Earth orbit, their instruments locked onto the battle, before being transmitted to every corner of the world.
The malice of the entire world was being guided.