Isavel pushed open the doors of the Goddess Temple and walked out.
Adela still stood waiting outside the archway, her hands folded neatly over her stomach.
She maintained the exact same posture she had when Isavel first entered.
Her platinum-blonde hair shimmered with a soft, warm luster under the light.
Hearing the doors open, Adela slowly looked up.
“Lady Goddess.”
‘No wonder,’ Isavel thought. ‘No wonder Adela has been so respectful from the very beginning. She knew my identity from the moment she saw me.’
Isavel paused for a moment before speaking softly. “From now on, just call me Isavel.”
She was herself, and the Goddess was the Goddess. Even if she was the Goddess’s reincarnation, she was no longer that person.
Adela’s movements stiffened for a fraction of a second, but she eventually bowed in obedience. “Yes.”
“Take me to where they are training.”
Isavel walked forward, the hem of her black robe sweeping across the polished floor.
Adela stepped forward to follow. “Please, follow me.”
Soon, they navigated through the intricate corridors of the Divine Court and arrived at a vast, open area.
Isavel froze slightly at the sight before her.
It was a massive platform floating in the void. A giant magic circle was inscribed across the floor—it appeared to be the Judgment Array that Sana had demonstrated once before.
At this moment, the members of the Rose Knights were positioned at the key nodes of the formation.
They all had their eyes tightly shut as they rhythmically channeled the magic within their bodies.
This magic flowed like blood, circulating through the magic circle along specialized pathways that resembled veins.
Isavel watched in silence for a while before asking quietly, “What kind of training is this?”
Adela answered from beside her, a hint of subtle pride in her voice.
“The Judgment Array. It is one of the highest-tier battle formations left behind by the Goddess. It allows the users to overcome greater foes with lesser numbers by pooling the strength of everyone into a single body, briefly shattering the limitations of their ranks.”
She paused, then added, “Furthermore, the magic concentration in this training ground is thirty times higher than in the outside world. With Sana’s guidance, they might even reach the threshold of a Demigod very soon.”
“A Demigod?”
Isavel repeated the word under her breath, her voice so soft it was nearly drowned out by the humming of the magic circulating through the Training Ground.
‘Only after truly stepping into the realm of the gods do you realize… the gap between a Demigod and a True God isn’t a matter of quantity. it is a qualitative chasm.’
Previously, she had assumed that if the Rose Knights all became Demigods, they would be able to kill the Abyssal Dragon.
Thinking back on it now, that notion was utterly absurd.
Even if they mastered the Judgment Array, it was impossible for them to break into the realm of the gods and harm the Abyssal Dragon.
From the very beginning, this had been a scam.
Standing in the distance, Isavel’s gaze slowly swept across the familiar faces within the formation.
Leanna, Iserine, Teresa, and Meilin… Every one of them was giving their all to save the world, never knowing that they were intended to be sacrifices from the start.
Isavel’s hands tightened inside her sleeves.
‘Since I am the Villainous Saint, I should do something I actually like.’
She changed the subject, her voice returning to its usual calm. “Is the flow of time here the same as in the outside world?”
Adela shook her head slightly. “I am not sure of the exact ratio. The time magic possessed by the Divine Court has long since become fragmented. If the ‘outside world’ you refer to is the reality beyond the Ancient Battlefield…”
She looked up at the starry sky, a trace of worry flickering in her eyes.
“The flow of time should be different. After all, the creatures in the Ancient Battlefield undergo a constant cycle of life and death, which helps the Abyssal Dragon accumulate the power needed for its resurrection.”
“Therefore, theoretically, the dragon’s lingering will instinctively accelerates the flow of time in this region to speed up that cycle and hasten its own revival.”
Isavel fell silent for a moment. Suddenly, she asked, “Do you know where the Root of the Abyssal Evil Dragon is?”
Adela’s body stiffened almost imperceptibly.
She turned her head slowly to look at Isavel, her eyes filled with questioning and a need for confirmation.
“Do you… intend to cut it down?”
“I just want to try.”
Isavel’s answer was flat, as if she were discussing an insignificant trifle.
Adela stared at her for several seconds before finally nodding. “Please follow me.”
They did not disturb the training knights as they quietly withdrew from the Training Ground.
Adela led Isavel through several hidden corridors in the deepest part of the Divine Court, eventually arriving before an unremarkable stone door.
The stone door bore no decorations, only a single, deep claw mark.
The aura lingering within that mark caused a primal sense of dread in anyone who approached it.
Adela produced a silver token similar to the one used to open the storm passage and pressed it against the door.
The stone door slid inward without a sound, revealing a staircase descending into the depths.
The stairs seemed bottomless, and the aura surging up from below was thick with extreme malice.
Even though she had never set foot in the Abyss, Isavel knew that whatever lay beneath these stairs came from its deepest reaches.
“I can only take you this far,” Adela said, stopping at the threshold. Her voice was noticeably strained. “Further ahead is an area I cannot touch.”
Isavel nodded and stepped onto the stairs alone.
The Abyssal Dragon had used its remains to create this Abyssal Ancient Battlefield, while the Goddess had used her remaining power to suppress those remains, preventing its aura from ravaging the entire battlefield.
Therefore, beneath these stairs lay the remains of the Abyssal Dragon—its ‘Root.’
The stairs continued to descend.
At first, she could see faint bioluminescent moss on the stone walls, but as she went deeper, the light vanished entirely. Only pure darkness remained.
It wasn’t merely a darkness caused by a lack of light; it was a living darkness. It seemed to have been infected by the dragon’s aura, becoming extremely eerie.
It coiled around Isavel’s ankles, attempting to crawl up her robes, but it was gently dissipated a second later by the divine power naturally circulating around her.
In that darkness, after an unknown amount of time, the stairs finally reached their end.
Before her was a massive underground cavern.
In the center of the void stood an entity that defied description.
It looked like a colossal, rotting black tree root, over several hundred meters in diameter and reaching all the way to the ceiling.
Upon closer inspection, the surface of the root was constantly writhing, as if covered in countless tiny, twitching tentacles.
The ceiling of the cavern was like a starry sky, embedded with dense clusters of Soul Crystals.
Countless tiny tentacles reached up from the root, acting as bridges that connected the Soul Crystals to the root, continuously siphoning the power of those souls.
This was the Root of the Abyssal Evil Dragon.
It used the remains left behind at its fall, combined with the death and souls accumulated over millions of years in the Ancient Battlefield, to grow an ancestral anchor connected to the Abyss.
One day, on the other side of the Abyss, a dragon would be nurtured by this root, roaring from the deepest depths to finally shatter the Abyssal Seal and descend upon the mortal world.
Isavel stood at the edge of the cavern, staring at the root.
She slowly drew her pitch-black long blade.
The blade remained a pure, void-like black even in the absolute darkness, reflecting no light, yet appearing capable of cutting through the darkness itself.
Unfortunately, after becoming a god, the power of this blade was starting to seem insufficient.
Shaking her head, she channeled the small amount of divine power remaining in her body.
This was the first time she had truly utilized the power of a god since merging with the Divinity.
A silver-white light erupted from her palm, spreading from the hilt across the entire blade.
The light wasn’t blinding, yet it felt like the most noble presence in existence.
Everywhere it touched, the surrounding darkness was forcibly pushed back, creating a domain of pure light.
Isavel gripped the sword with both hands, pushing her divine power to its limit.
Then, she swung the blade down!
‘Strike!’
The black blade, wrapped in silver divine power, carved a perfect arc through the air and slammed into the base of the dragon’s root!
However, the moment the blade touched the surface…
Vwoom—!
A low resonance echoed through the cavern.
The blade did indeed cut into the root’s surface, carving a wound several meters long.
Thick, black, viscous blood poured from the gash, emitting a pungent, acrid smell as it hit the ground.
But that was all.
The moment the wound was formed, it began to heal at a visible speed.
The surrounding tentacles writhed frantically to fill the gap.
The Soul Crystals embedded in the ceiling flared with intense light, providing the energy for the repair.
After three seconds, the wound had completely vanished.
The Root of the Evil Dragon was perfectly intact.
In fact, due to the ‘stimulation’ of the attack, the surface writhing became even more active, as if silently mocking her futile effort.
Isavel sheathed her sword and watched the entity return to its original state.
With only her current divine power, it was indeed impossible to cut it down.
She stood in the dark cavern and fell into a long silence.
Much later, she retraced her steps back up the stairs.
Adela was still waiting outside the stone door, maintaining the same posture as when she had seen her off.
Seeing Isavel return alone and noting that the Abyssal Ancient Battlefield remained unchanged, no surprise showed in her eyes. It was as if she had already foreseen the result.
She took a step forward and sank to one knee before Isavel.
“Lady Goddess, without sufficient divine power, it is impossible to destroy the Root of the Abyssal Evil Dragon. It is an anchor established by the dragon using its own remains; it is its lifeline for revival.”
“Therefore, no matter what, I beg of you… set aside your unnecessary hesitation and absorb the magic of the Rose Knights. This is the only viable path, and it is the path the Goddess prepared for you.”
Isavel did not respond immediately.
She walked up to Adela and stopped. The distance between them was so close they could almost feel each other’s breath.
Isavel looked directly into Adela’s eyes and said softly, “If I do that, you will die too, won’t you?”
Adela’s body stiffened.
She lowered her gaze slightly, avoiding Isavel’s direct stare. Her long eyelashes trembled.
“I am already dead. What wanders this Ancient Battlefield is merely a soul captured by the Root of the Abyssal Evil Dragon.”
She lifted a hand, her fingertips brushing through her platinum-blonde hair. Her eyes were as calm as a still lake.
“Furthermore, the very reason for my existence from the beginning was to guide you toward saving the world. This is my mission and the obsession that keeps me here.”
“Then, what if I want you to live?” Isavel suddenly asked.
Her voice was still cold, but it was like a stone thrown into a pond, sending ripples through Adela’s eyes that could not be calmed.
Adela was stunned.
She opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to say that it didn’t matter, or that it went against the mission… but the words caught in her throat, causing her to lower her eyes.
Though she was the Saintess of the Divine Court, she was also human.
She could sacrifice herself for the world without hesitation, but if there were a chance for her to live, she would cherish it.
It was just that she had always kept that desire buried deep in her heart.
Moreover, many others in the Divine Court shared the same thoughts as Eldrin; they simply hadn’t acted on them.
Isavel took another step closer.
She reached out and touched Adela’s cheek, feeling the warmth provided by her soul.
“As the Saintess of the Divine Court, in the ages past, you and the Goddess—my past self—must have shared the deepest connection, right?”
“I may not remember my past life, but there must be many stories between us. After all those years of companionship, do you really not have a single selfish wish to live for yourself?”
The word ‘selfish’ made Adela bite her lip.
She bowed her head, the emotions in her eyes becoming increasingly complex.
Finally, she clenched her fists and whispered, “I… I am… a Saintess… I should not… think only of myself…”
Her voice trembled, showing that she was starting to waver. Seeing this, Isavel withdrew her hand, but her gaze remained locked on Adela’s face.
“That Saintess who could sacrifice everything to save the world is a thing of the past. That era has ended, and even the Goddess who held those ideals has vanished.”
Isavel spread her arms, and the majesty of a god instantly enveloped the Divine Court.
“The person standing here now is Isavel, the Saintess of the Oracle Hall. I am her, yet I am no longer her. Compared to saving the world, I care more about not watching the people I value die before my eyes.”
She paused, and her gaze softened once more. “Adela, that… includes you.”
Adela’s body shuddered. She hung her head low, her platinum hair falling forward to hide her face.
She didn’t speak, but her breathing grew rapid.
The weight of a mission held for countless years and the sudden “being cared for” tore at the very essence of her being like two opposing forces.
She had believed that her existence in this Ancient Battlefield was nothing more than a walking corpse, a tool existing only for a mission.
But now, someone was telling her through their actions that she was alive, that someone cared for her…
And that person was the Goddess she loved and respected most.
Her eyes grew red. She looked up at Isavel—this person who was both familiar and strange, who inherited the Goddess’s power but had abandoned her path.
Despite calling herself a Villainous Saint, for some reason, Adela felt that the current Lady Goddess was even more gentle than the one of the past.
The struggle continued in Adela’s golden eyes, but something more vibrant was gradually waking up.
A long silence stretched through the corridor, broken only by the faint humming of magic from deep within the Divine Court.
Finally, Isavel spoke again, breaking the silence.
Her voice had returned to its usual composure, but it no longer carried the previous heaviness.
Instead, it possessed a clarity that suggested she had found a new direction.
“Do you know how to leave this Ancient Battlefield?”
what confuses me is that it was established in the very first chapter that she is reincarnated from an average unassuming guy in her previous life before coming to this world. unless this is another one of those situations where they have been reincarnated twice, which the more i read novels seems to be an increasingly common trope (but i cannot fault it since it is a really cool plot twist every single time, though it does start to get a bit predictable) i wonder what the explanation will be. retcon? or maybe it never really happened and was false memories? or maybe it really is the aforementioned twice reincarnated trope?