CHAPTER 200
Babiyen and Aranseol.
To think I’d see these two again beneath this sky.
A surge of deep emotion washed over me, and a lump formed in my throat.

How were they able to move while the Transcendents were looking down on us?
I had already proven the answer with my own body.
Because they had gotten tangled up with me, they had died and been revived countless times.
Having grown accustomed to resurrection, they were likely able to quickly break free from the fear of death.

"You're both safe."

"That's our line!"

Babiyen, wearing a hood over her head, ran up to me.

"What in the world is going on here? This girl stepped out as soon as her eyes opened, only to find the sky like that and everyone frozen stiff, unable to move."

Even in this situation, her chattering didn't stop.
It was very much like Babiyen.

"It's this bitch's doing."

On the other hand, Aranseol was silently glaring at Asheria Eve, who was piggybacking on me.
Despite Aranseol's piercing gaze, Asheria Eve casually gave a little wave of her hand.

"Yeah, it's her doing. She pierced the sky of the Transcendents' realm using the Sky Castle."

Aranseol had stayed in the Sky Castle the longest out of all of us.
So, there was no way she didn't grasp the current situation.
As Aranseol placed her hand on Danmyung, I reached out and stopped her.

"The situation is urgent right now. First, let's move."

"Move where? Where to?"

"The Holy Land."

When I answered Babiyen's question, Aranseol looked back at me.
Her pupils wavered for a moment.
It was a face that looked as if she had already guessed what I was going to do.

"Harua, don't tell me..."

Seeing her reaction, I let out an awkward laugh.

"I have to try whatever I can."

The world was on the verge of annihilation.
It was a situation where I had to do whatever it took.

The Holy Land.
It was the place where one could speak most closely with a Transcendent.
The very ground we were stepping on was originally said to be a Transcendent as well.
Therefore, the Holy Land was the place where the power of the Transcendent of this earth could reach closest to the sky.
If it was there, I could communicate with the Transcendent.
Maybe I could turn this situation around, even just a little.

Of course, I didn't know if this would actually work.
Transcendents were inherently unpredictable, anomalous beings.
Even if a human found a talking ant fascinating, nobody knew if they would actually listen to that ant's request.
But if I didn't even try, nothing would be solved.
I had no choice but to hope they would be favorable toward me.

"That sounds incredibly dangerous just hearing about it! Does Harua really have to be the one to do it? The Saintess is there too, isn't she?!"

At Babiyen's shout, I looked up at the sky.
Could Lua even move under this sky?
Unfortunately, not only would it take too much time to hope for that, but there were no guarantees either.

"I have to."

So I would do it.
I would do everything I could to achieve the goal I had set from the very beginning.
That was the whole reason I had made it this far.

"Are you done with your lovers' quarrel?"

Asheria Eve summoned the Dimension Eater.
The creature obeyed Asheria Eve's glance and quietly tore open space.
Beyond the other side of the spatial rift.
The Holy Land came into view.
It seemed we couldn't teleport directly to the center of the Holy Land like we did with Ririran's spatial magic last time.

"Are you taking her with us too?"

When Aranseol asked about Asheria Eve, I glanced at the woman on my back.
Having already achieved her goal, Asheria Eve looked like she couldn't care less about what happened next.

"Since this bitch is the one who caused all this."

If I could use her, even just as kindling, I had to try.
Aranseol stared at Asheria Eve for a moment before nodding.

"Give her to me. I'll carry her."

With that, she took Asheria Eve from me.

"I liked Harua's back better, though."

"Stop flirting with someone else's man."

To cut off Asheria Eve's nonsense with a single strike.
As expected of Aranseol.
I decided to save my admiration for later and quickly stepped through the portal opened by the Dimension Eater.

Right after a brief wave of nausea, the surrounding scenery completely changed.
The Holy Land we had visited before.
It had been restored to its former state, taking on the appearance of the Grand Cathedral.
As Babiyen and Aranseol crossed over right behind me, we immediately sprinted toward the cathedral.

Along the way.
We saw countless believers bowing their heads toward the sky.
They were displaying endless worship toward the Transcendent they served.
Since they were face-to-face with the very god their religion worshipped, it was a natural reaction.
Still, thankfully, no one blocked our path.
Thanks to that, we were able to reach the center of the Holy Land with ease.

In front of the entrance to the Golden Garden.

"Lua."

We encountered an unexpected figure.
A statue-like woman standing all alone in front of the Golden Garden.
She was there.

"Haru."

Lua looked back at me, Aranseol, and Babiyen.
So she could move after all.
However, her vibe was different from usual.
Lua's eyes looked somewhat hollow and distant.

"A revelation has arrived."

A revelation.
The Embrace of Holy Light had delivered a message.

"Haru, the most agonizing penance is surely coming for you."

An agonizing penance?

"What, that's just my everyday life."

It was nothing new.
Ever since I came to this world, there hadn't been a single moment where I wasn't enduring some kind of penance.
But this time, the look in Lua's eyes was different.

"Haru, you will have to make the final choice. All I can do right now... is pray."

Just as the other believers did.
Even the Saintess couldn't do anything but pray to the sky.
It meant the situation had deteriorated that badly.

"Don't worry."

I lightly patted Lua's shoulder and stepped forward.

"I'll fix this and be right back."

It was baseless confidence.
But right now, it was a confidence I wanted to hold onto.

"May your penance..."

Lua simply prayed quietly as she watched my back.

The Golden Garden I had seen once before.
As soon as I stepped inside, a chilling aura crawled over my entire body.
The gaze that I had only felt from the sky until now.
I was feeling that exact same gaze from the ground itself.
Who did this gaze belong to?
I didn't have to think long to figure it out.

"Looks like this one has woken up, too,"

Asheria Eve declared with a sly smirk.
The entity she was saying had woken up.
It was the Transcendent that was the very world we had been standing on all this time.

"I thought the Transcendent of the world we lived in was dead?"

"That was something nobody really knew."

As she said, the death of a Transcendent wasn't something within our realm of comprehension.
We had just vaguely assumed it was dead because there had been no reaction all this time.
Did the Transcendent of our earth open its eyes because the other Transcendents started focusing too much on this place?

My mind became complicated, but I continued to push forward into the Golden Garden.
The further I went, the stronger the crushing pressure on my body became.
It was the same for Aranseol and Babiyen.
As they followed me, their faces were gradually darkening.

Even if they had become able to move under the Transcendent's pressure by no longer fearing death.
If they were crushed by an unfathomable power, there was simply no countermeasure.

"Babiyen, Aranseol."

"This girl isn't leaving."

"I'm going with you to the end."

However, despite my call, the two of them absolutely refused to back down.
They had faces that said they already knew exactly what I was going to say.
Was it impossible to stop them?
If so, there was nothing I could do.
Leaving behind the sight of their faces contorted with sweat and pain, I kept walking.

We finally reached the center of the Golden Garden.
The atmosphere there was different from usual.
The Golden Garden, which used to have a heavy pressure but still felt somewhat warm and comforting.
But now, it felt incredibly desolate, as if all its light had been stolen away.

Ruuuumble—

At that moment, another tremor echoed from the sky above.
It meant the Transcendents were digging further into the hole in the sky out of sheer curiosity.
There wasn't much time left.
If we delayed even a little longer, the sky would tear completely open, and the Transcendents would start poking around with their fingers.
If that happened, human civilization would instantly end.

I stepped onto the altar in the center of the Golden Garden.
Was it because a new hole had been torn open?
The Transcendents didn't seem to pay much attention to the original hole, the Holy Land.
This was true for the Embrace of Holy Light and the other Transcendents as well.

"Looks like it's quite different from what you expected."

I ignored Asheria Eve's mocking voice.
As I noted, the Transcendents in the sky were no longer looking at this place.
But that was fine.
Just one.
The gaze of exactly one Transcendent felt clearer than ever.
And it was coming from the endless depths below.

"I heard that we are the seeds of the Transcendents."

This was ultimately just a human hypothesis.
There was no way to know if the Transcendents actually thought so.

"If you planted these seeds, at least..."

Still, I had to bet everything I could.

"Please, at least listen to this prayer."

It was an intuition.
An intuition that beneath this altar, there was a way to reach the Transcendent.

"Aranseol, Babiyen, destroy the altar."

Aranseol swung her sword without hesitation.
Babiyen raised her staff and poured out fire magic.
Consequently, the altar shattered into pieces, revealing its interior.
There was an endlessly deep hole there.
The hole in the Holy Land wasn't just in the sky.
There was another hole stretching deep underground.
A hole large enough for a person to easily enter.
Staring into that hole, I steadied my breath.

Babiyen looked at me with anxious eyes.
It was a look that said she knew what I was about to do.
Aranseol was the same.
She alternated her gaze between the hole beyond the altar and me.
Looking at the two of them, I gathered holy power in my grasp.
Not my usual holy power, but the very first holy power I had obtained and absorbed back then.
The holy power of the Transcendent residing in this earth.

"You both worked hard coming all this way."

I had no idea what would happen inside.
So, the moment I tried to tell them to step back, both my arms were tightly grabbed.

Clench.

"Where do you think you're going alone?"

"Harua, aren't you underestimating us a bit too much?"

Both had faces that showed absolutely no intention of backing out.
However...

"This time, I really don't know what will happen. Even Resurrection Magic might be meaningless."

The situation was different this time.
We had to go down the hole and face a Transcendent directly.
There was no guarantee that anyone would make it out safely.
But Aranseol and Babiyen's expressions remained unchanged.

"Harua, I didn't fight this hard for a world without you in it."

Those words were true.
Aranseol had fought with the same goal as me up until now.
It was a goal that would be meaningless if either of us were gone.

"This is a life you saved. From the day we met at the Stardust Society, this girl would have been dead if it weren't for you anyway.
And now you're telling me to live while you sacrifice yourself? Do you really think I'd accept something like that?"

The day we first met at the Stardust Society.
Babiyen was a naive girl with her head in the clouds.
But the Babiyen from back then was no more.
The woman standing before me now was someone who had truly bloomed on her own, no matter what anyone said.

Meeting their gazes, I couldn't say another word.
These two would follow me no matter how much I tried to push them away.
That was why I couldn't push them away anymore.
After all, we had worked so hard until now just so we could be together.

"Alright."

In the end, I yielded to their words.
Instead, I decided to do one thing first.

"First, let's toss that bitch down."

Asheria Eve, who had been looking away and pretending not to listen.

"Huh?"

I'd throw her into the hole first.
I didn't care about checking for safety.
She was just pissing me off.
You go first.