Since she couldn’t find a bed more comfortable than the compartment in her carriage within Deya City, Aisia decided she would just sleep in the carriage for the next few days.
“Truth has been notified as well. Hopefully, tomorrow we can find some useful details from her.”
While at the church, Aisia made it clear that when Truth released the God’s Miracle, she would not assist.
As the most crucial part of the Divine Selection Ceremony, the appearance of the God’s Miracle gathers a vast amount of Faith Power from the believers.
However, new Saintesses generally aren’t skilled at guiding Faith Power. At this time, a senior must step in to help.
Only after collecting enough Faith Power can the entrance to the Seat of the Goddess of Life’s Divine Domain be opened, allowing the new Saintess to pay homage to the Goddess.
The previous affinity for the Element of Life was just a small bonus.
It is only then that the Saintess will receive the full Blessing of the Goddess of Life, and the Goddess herself will let all the faithful know that the Ninth Saintess is her personally chosen one.
So Aisia was keen to see whether Truth could complete the Divine Selection Ceremony on her own, while also planning to study her carefully.
But if Truth couldn’t open the Divine Domain entrance by herself, Aisia would reluctantly step in at the last moment to help.
“Whoosh whoosh…”
Suddenly, a violent gust of wind swept through the carriage without warning.
A shadow instantly appeared beside Aisia, rapidly expanding until it was almost twice her size.
With a final “pop,” the shadow burst like a balloon, revealing a black-haired girl dressed in a pitch-black magician’s robe, lying on Aisia’s bed.
“Hi~ Did you miss me, darling?”
Aisia’s shadow guard, Omili, a Ninth Rank Elementalist, tugged on Aisia’s long blue braid behind her like a delinquent.
Aisia puffed her cheeks and yanked her braid back, seeming quite used to Omili’s teasing.
“What are you doing here? If there’s nothing important, get out. I want to sleep!”
Aisia had long wanted to replace this shadow guard, but Omili’s skills were exceptional. Her support speed was unmatched by any other guard.
So whenever they left the central city cluster or traveled to other countries, Omili was automatically assigned to protect her.
The reason was that as an Elementalist, Omili mastered the rare elements of Space and Shadow.
Whether providing support or escaping, she was incredibly fast.
“Why sleep so early? Stay and chat with me.”
Omili skillfully rested her head on Aisia’s lap.
“By the way, that Ninth Saintess is so cute. How about it? Will you consider my previous proposal?”
Aisia used both hands to push Omili’s head off her lap.
“No way. No one but Wisdom would agree to something like that!”
Every Saintess shared the same frustration with Omili: whenever she encountered a cute, petite girl, she would secretly try all sorts of ways to get the Saintess to cling to the girl.
Face-to-face closeness. Omili would chuckle like a lecherous middle-aged man, and nobody could understand what she was really thinking…
Before arriving in Deya City, Aisia had thought about how to get along well with her juniors, but then Omili suddenly appeared in front of her, shouting strange phrases like, “Just cling! You have to cling!”
“What nonsense. Wisdom’s always got the ambition but no courage. Among the Saintesses, I think you’re the most promising. Just try it. Maybe the Ninth Saintess will go for it?”
Among the eight Saintesses, Aisia’s personality was the purest and most straightforward.
Unless Omili brought up such lewd topics first, Aisia wouldn’t think in that direction.
So this girl was her breakthrough point for realizing the “all the loli Saintesses clinging together” plan!
Omili touched Aisia’s cheek again. Tsk tsk, so soft. As expected, lolis were the best.
As a high-ranking mage mastering both Space and Shadow, Omili was often asked by fellow adventurers:
“With your strength, why would you willingly be the Goddess of Life’s subordinate? Shouldn’t you be exploring unknown frontiers or breaking through to King Rank?”
Indeed, Omili was among the strongest Ninth Rank mages. Although her stats were average, her mechanics were powerful!
She wasn’t the type to obediently serve a deity. But the Goddess of Life’s taste was impeccable, and the chosen Saintesses were always the type Omili liked.
She recalled her first encounter with Aisia in the royal capital church.
At the time, Aisia was not yet a Saintess, and Omili saw her sitting with legs spread on Fifth Saintess Wisdom’s stomach.
They seemed to be fighting over something.
Sunlight filtering through the church dome illuminated their intimate interaction, and Omili was stunned for a long time.
The close contact of pale skin, the tangled blue long hair and brown short hair, and the suggestive yet pure posture all made Omili’s heart race.
At that moment, Omili found her reason for following the Goddess of Life and understood what she would dedicate her life to.
“Sorry, the conditions the Goddess of Life offered were just too good.”
That day, Omili parted ways with her teammates. To this day, her former comrades still think she was coerced by the Goddess and vow to rescue her.
“Heh… Heh! Even if you praise me like that, I won’t agree. Besides, even if I did, Truth wouldn’t. She always keeps others at a distance, like she doesn’t want us to get too close. I tried to pounce on her once, but she bit me straight away. It hurt like hell.”
Inside the carriage, Aisia wanted to give up on this dim-witted guard, but Omili got even more excited, her curious purple eyes staring right at her.
“You pounced on her! And got bitten?! Tell me, tell me, where did she bite you? I became your Saintess guard giving up my freedom just to see this! Speak! Speak!”
Among high-ranking adventurers, there was a popular saying: “Only upon reaching Ninth Rank can you attain true freedom!”
As adventurers grew stronger, they inevitably encountered secrets of the gods.
Some began to believe gods were merely powerful beings monopolizing a force called Faith Power.
Furthermore, after centuries of primal demons frequently provoking the gods, with the gods launching repeated demon hunts yet failing to eliminate all demons, people realized the gods were not omnipotent.
They struggled against primal demons who were only Ninth Rank.
So some began trying to break free from divine rule, and the gods immediately branded them as Desecrators, isolating them from human society.
After over two centuries of conflict, with more Desecrators rising and gaining influence among high-ranking adventurers—strong enough to even poach Godchosen raised by the gods—these Godchosen revealed to the Desecrators the powerful Faith Power, the fundamental difference between gods and humans.
It was described as a “will-become-reality” force, utterly unbeatable by humans.
“As long as Faith Power exists, we will never see the light of day!”
Led by a King Rank Desecrator, Atheism began to spread from the borderlands into the central city clusters.
Many humans started questioning the gods, shaking their very foundations.
To avoid gaps in high-level combat strength and loss of Faith Power—and because it was nearly impossible to punish adventurers above Ninth Rank who were too elusive—the gods finally conceded after several negotiations:
“Do as you like, but don’t undermine our rule, or else we all go down together. At worst, we’ll spend centuries rebuilding order.”
To this day, Desecrators remain active beyond the Five Human Kingdoms, constantly seeking ways to counter Faith Power.
The remote city of Wangsheng City in the southwest continent became their base, openly researching Faith Power.
Yet the gods did not destroy that city. Instead, they continually sent missionaries to preach there, hoping to convert its residents.
But whenever a missionary stopped someone in Wangsheng City and said, “Would you like to learn about our great Goddess of Life?”
The locals would respond by showing their city’s specialty—a highly explicit anthropomorphic portrait of the Goddess of Life.
Through this strange cultural clash, combined with many exiles and intelligent races settling there, Wangsheng City gradually became an all-encompassing, abstract, open, and autonomous city…
There, you could see devout lizardfolk believers of the Goddess of Life spending money to buy her anthropomorphic portraits.
The Goddess of Life was furious—so furious that she almost wiped out Wangsheng City. Thankfully, the Order God intervened in time.
“Better to keep the rats all together than have them running wild everywhere. It’s easier to monitor and control.”
But just a few years later, as the Order God’s followers in Wangsheng City grew, portraits of the Order God also began circulating.
Since the Order God’s image was that of a reliable tough guy, his audience was mostly muscular Beastmen men.
The Order God, in turn, became furious—so furious that he nearly wiped out Wangsheng City. Luckily, the Goddess of Life stopped him.
“Better to keep the rats all together than have them running wild everywhere. It’s easier to monitor and control.”
Later, Omili learned that when she first saw Aisia and Wisdom, what Aisia wanted to snatch was the Goddess of Life portrait collection smuggled from the Black Market by Wisdom.
Aisia was very curious about its contents and was shockingly surprised in her young mind:
“Is this the Goddess of Life? Why isn’t the Goddess wearing any clothes…”
To shut Aisia up, Wisdom bribed her with a promise to fully support her becoming the next Saintess, although Aisia never intended to report Wisdom and quickly forgot about the portraits.
Mainly because Wisdom was genuinely guilty.
As it turned out, Aisia truly had Saintess potential, becoming the Sixth Saintess after Wisdom, and Omili successfully enlisted as her guard.
Then Omili began using the portrait matter to blackmail Wisdom into doing all sorts of strange things…
“Ah, damn, why is this new guard so mean!”
Wisdom always ended up crying in the end, and Omili would spend a long time comforting her.
After all, she wasn’t a bad person; she just wanted to see the loli’s happy smile and cling to another loli.
Making beautiful things cry was the last thing Omili wanted to see!
Since Wisdom cried too easily, Omili shifted her attention to the other Saintesses, enjoying very happy days.
Now, her newest target was Truth, the upcoming Ninth Saintess.
Shooing her off:
“Stop getting close to me! She only bit my face a little!”
Aisia, lying on the bed, pressed her hands against Omili’s face, trying to drive away this annoying pest.
“Why aren’t you out protecting Truth? If that Assassin Fish from Wangsheng City assassinates Truth, you’re finished!”
Wangsheng City openly opposed divine rule. The birth of the Ninth Saintess was the last thing they wanted, and since Deya City was quite close, they didn’t want the Saintess’s influence spreading to Wangsheng.
They’d rather the Saintess die, so Wangsheng’s Desecrator faction sent their strongest assassin.
“Don’t worry, I’ve severely injured her. She probably doesn’t dare approach Deya City now. Plus, I set up magic around the church that blocks Shadow Space detection and added shields.
As long as no one inside the magic’s range actively connects to Shadow Space, that big fish will never find Truth! So then, Truth bit your face and then what?”
“Nothing else! You better go out quickly…”
“Rumble rumble!”
Suddenly, a tremendous sound roared outside, like a violent wind sweeping through. Aisia was stunned.
“Wind?”
Deya City wasn’t supposed to have such strong winds.
She looked at Omili, wanting to ask what was happening, but Omili just frowned, looking very serious.
The next moment, with a flicker of Space elemental power, Omili instantly disappeared from the carriage…
……
Deya City’s central square was holding the Saintess Festival, with joyful locals everywhere and some lavishly dressed outsiders.
The nobles were meeting in a luxurious private hotel, discussing Deya City’s future and how to please the Saintess.
They wanted to seize this once-in-a-century opportunity.
But at that moment, a fierce gale swept in through the windows, blowing out the expensive Snow Blossom Wood windowpanes, sending the nobles scrambling under tables in fear.
“What’s going on?!”
From the crowded streets below, shocked voices echoed:
“What is that?!”
From the central square to the road leading to the Church of the Goddess of Life, a faint, transparent giant fish flashed at an almost instant speed, crashing into the magical shield above the church!
The wild wind was caused by the terrifying speed of that fish, scattering street vendors and people everywhere.
Within about a second, the clear sound of shattering glass echoed above Deya City.
Omili’s magic shield protecting the church was shattered.
The giant fish’s form then transformed into a tall girl wearing a black-and-blue floral dress, wielding a one-meter-long rapier.
She carved an arc in the air and charged straight into the church!
“How is this possible? How could my Ninth Rank shield be broken so quickly by that Eighth Rank Assassin Fish?!”
Omili panicked. Was this the true strength of Wangsheng City’s top assassin? And how did she see through her blocking magic? This was impossible.
No profession in this world was omnipotent.
Every class’s strengths and weaknesses were obvious. Omili refused to believe an assassin from Wangsheng could see through her shield.
Either someone was helping her, or someone inside the church was actively connecting to Shadow Space!
In less than half a breath, Omili blinked into the church. But even at that speed, she was too late.
In the quiet church, standing on the shoulder of the Goddess of Life’s statue, Aisia saw Truth under the moonlight.
Truth’s expression was calm, curiously watching the suddenly appeared Omili.
But one thing was glaringly out of place—Truth had a slender rapier piercing through her chest, dark red blood slowly staining her Saintess Robe.
The Assassin from Wangsheng City had plunged the rapier through Truth’s chest from behind.