Chapter 141
When the flames of Aries dissipated, the avatar had already vanished. It seemed to have been successfully vanquished by Mesarthim.
Scorpius said, “Well, that was rather disappointing.”
However, this was the natural result. After all, up until this point, this was an opponent who was being dealt with by Aquarius alone. This time, there were four members of the Twelve Stars, including Aries, Scorpius, and Karkinos. Furthermore, Phoenix and Hydrus, who had already fought it beforehand, were capable in their own right. Therefore, there was no reason for it to be a difficult battle.
Therefore, Aquarius thought that this was natural and did not question it further. However, the change in the avatar’s expression during its final moments was rather troubling.
It…laughed? The avatar that has only ever sleep-walked without being conscious of its surroundings laughed?
Until now, all that the avatar did was strike back when attacked, but that was just an automatic defense. There were no hostile or malicious intentions. As an analogy, it was like how people would close their eyes when something came right before their eyes. Likewise, they would withdraw their hands quickly when they felt pain. In other words, this was just a reflexive action…The fire ouroboros was not conscious.
That was why this had never happened before. It had never shown distinctive expressions, such as laughing.
The ouroboros is sleeping…There’s no mistake. The seal hasn’t been weakened. Am I thinking too much? Was it just dreaming and laughing in its sleep…?
Aquarius glared at the fire ouroboros intently. Naturally, the latter showed no indication of moving. Even now, it was still sleeping soundly.
Then why? The ominous feeling wouldn’t go away.
“Hey, Aquarius. Let’s leave quickly. There’s nothing left to do here, right?”
“…Ah, yes…Let’s go back up.”
Since Scorpius was hurrying her, Aquarius decided to return. She ordered Ganymedes to move and looked back just once more.
There was…no change. The ouroboros was still sleeping.
Aquarius felt something incomprehensible, but she still left without further questioning the unchanging form of the ouroboros. Therefore, she did not notice.
After they had left…the ouroboros opened its eyes…and immediately shut them again.
♒
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“Then, first, let’s consider the future.”
This was the fairies' village, Alfheim.
Currently, the Fairy Princess Pollux and her elder brother Castor were gathered here. Terra, the son of the Demon King, Luna of the Seven Luminaries, and Virgo of the Twelve Stars were here as well.
Furthermore, in case of an emergency, Pollux had summoned three heroic spirits as guards, who folded their arms and stood behind her.
The first was Pavo of the Peacock. He originally had white wings, but due to excessive dyeing and fanciful decorating, his wings became fanciful like a peacock’s. He was exiled from the flügels as a result. He was a useless man in many senses of the word.
The second was Apus of the Bird-of-Paradise, who was a former flügel adventurer skilled in wind manipulation and specialized in Wood-attribute divine magic. As a fellow flügel and adventurer, there was a time when he had seen Ruphas as a rival. However, he was just a pathetic man who realized the difference between them and surrendered to her without a fight. Incidentally, he was the flügel who slashed Terra’s shoulder when the latter challenged Pollux.
The last was Corvus of the Raven. He was a strange guy who originally had white wings, but he dyed his own wings black after becoming captivated by Ruphas.
These three capable people had reached Level 1000. They were reliable and loyal followers who fought alongside Ruphas until the end of the battle two hundred years ago. As such, there was little fear of treachery.
Leading the three of them along, Pollux crossed her arms and leaned against a tree. She then spoke softly.
“There’s one important thing to consider. What will the Goddess-sama do next?”
“Th—That…Isn’t that something to be discussed with Ruphas-sama present?”
Virgo gingerly voiced her opinion to Pollux. The current conversation was important enough to direct the course for the future. She wondered if it was really fine to talk about this without Ruphas, who was at the heart of the issue. However, Pollux simply shook her head.
“It's not a problem. Ruphas-sama might not be consciously aware of it herself, but she actually knows everything and is moving accordingly. Our current conversation is merely a simple explanation for you people who may not know much about the Goddess.”
“Then, what about the other Twelve Stars?”
“Also not necessary. It would be counter-productive to casually tell those muscle-brains, especially Scorpius and Aigokeros. We wouldn't know what they might end up doing.”
Pollux implied that the other Twelve Stars were not really reliable. It was a rather harsh opinion to have of one’s comrades, but such discretion was necessary for the brains of the group.
One should believe in one’s comrades and leave one’s back to them. Indeed, that would be wonderful. It might even be beautiful. However, Pollux believed that unconditional trust was the same as giving up thinking altogether…Such beautiful and pleasing words were just sugar-coating problems.
Furthermore, the Goddess could control people and modify their memories. As such, abandoning suspicion was equivalent to telling the Goddess to take whatever actions she wanted…Such behavior was absolutely unacceptable.
To be blunt, there were only two people in the current group—Ruphas and Benetnash—who could be confirmed as definitely not on the Goddess’ side. Indeed, Pollux even doubted herself. There was no guarantee that her memories and thoughts had not been tampered with. In order to be completely outside of the Goddess’ influence, it would be necessary to be so absurd as to jump out of her control like the two of them.
“First, there's the methods used by the Goddess…This is actually easy to predict. Because, currently, she can only move the readied pieces. She can manipulate the weakness in one’s heart. She can also control one’s consciousness like what she did to me. Otherwise, she can command another piece that was previously prepared by her…Basically, there are these three types, but essentially, all of them involve acting through someone else.”
“Isn’t she omniscient and omnipotent?”
Surprised by the few options available to the Goddess, Terra directed a question to Pollux. It was the common sense of this world that the Goddess of Creation, Alovenus, was omniscient and omnipotent. However, Pollux shook her head.
“It’s close, but she’s not truly omniscient and omnipotent. How should I say this? …Because the plane of existence is too different, she can’t see everything. For example, if an entire world is a grain of sand, would you be able to grasp the detailed activities of every single person who lives there? If there is a foreign molecule that mixes into such a miniature world, would you be able to destroy only that molecule? …Impossible, right?”
“…Yeah, that would be impossible. Just poking it with your finger would destroy everything.”
“That’s how it is. If the Goddess-sama herself takes action, the world would be crushed by her finger and everything would be blown away by her breath. Since the Goddess-sama doesn’t want to destroy the world, she can only make minor adjustments and move really tiny handpieces very carefully.”
That wasn’t encouraging news. Instead, it was undesirable information that made them realize how much the power of the opponent exceeded their imagination. However, Pollux continued without worrying about their concerns.
“In other words, the Goddess-sama can only move her handpieces in that one pattern as she’s been doing until now. However, brainwashing and possession won’t work on Ruphas-sama. As long as Taurus is around, it would be the same no matter how many times she tries. Even if she controls me again, there’s nothing that can be done now that Benetnash and Ruphas-sama have teamed up.”
“In other words, she needs a more powerful piece?”
“You catch on quickly. Exactly, that's where the seals that we've been maintaining comes into play. By preemptively sealing them, we can restrict the Goddess-sama from moving her strongest card—the ouroboroses.”
Currently, the cards available to the Goddess were surprisingly few. Except for the Moon Ouroboros, all the other ouroboroses had been sealed. Furthermore, the fairy siblings, Parthenos, and Aquarius, who were originally on the side of the Goddess, had all joined Ruphas.
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