Chapter 26 - The False God (3)
Translator: Marctempest
Editor/Proofreader: TempWane
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Chapter 26: The False God (3)
According to the original history, the corruption of Yulistia lasted for hundreds of years.
The Krase family, which sought to stop it, was also destined to disappear within a few years.
The Serpent God was the root of all evil.
Fittingly for such a dire situation, Lysithea Krase, the head of the Krase family, suffered from anxiety and pressure.
Even if she was capable, the trials she faced were too cruel for a young girl.
It was during such a time that a change occurred.
The cursed artifact known as the music box, the Serpent God’s servants, and the massacre.
All of it was tied to a woman named Quellière.
······!
The moment she first saw the woman Sigila had brought, she gasped sharply.
Lysithea, who was raised in an aristocratic household, had a keen sense of aesthetics.
That sense of beauty seemed to collapse in an instant.
It was then that she understood why Sorab described her as “brilliant.”
Even that stoic man couldn’t help but be in awe.
‘Get to the point.’
True to what she’d heard, Quellière was nonchalant, almost coming across as arrogant.
With tension simmering beneath the surface, the conversation began.
It was brief but astonishing.
A power passed down through certain members of the Krase lineage—the “eyes.”
An ability that had been refined from the traits of their ancestors, who had built the city as merchants in ancient times.
It was the power to discern truth.
‘You can’t get more.’
Quellière held critical information.
Lysithea pushed herself a little and activated her eyes to their full extent, immediately accepting the truth of those words.
It was bitter, but the existence of several such cursed artifacts made no sense in itself.
Confusion came next.
When she asked Quellière where she had obtained the artifact, her answer was also the truth.
‘I received it a long time ago.’
Her gaze carried a faint sadness.
She truly seemed to be recalling a distant past—not just years ago, but an era that could no longer be revisited.
‘Yes, a long time ago. There’s no one left who can give it now.’
Sadly, those words were also true.
Was the person who gave her the music box dead?
What kind of relationship did they have with Quellière?
It was disappointing that there were no more artifacts, but Lysithea quickly set aside her regrets.
She brought up something more important—the real reason for her visit.
‘…Do you know about the Serpent God that has taken over the city?’
The days had been bleak.
Looking back, there was only sorrow and despair.
Her father’s sudden illness, the struggle to hold the family together amidst infighting with two patriarchs.
The grotesque pig and the vile skeleton were, sadly, not easy opponents.
Those two families had grown by leeching off Krase’s power.
Yet, there had still been hope.
If only the Serpent God hadn’t appeared.
The sudden arrival of that entity had derailed everything.
The support is ready. But there must be no interference.
In that sense, Anasha’s assistance was a golden opportunity.
Lysithea knew Anasha harbored an unusual hatred for the Serpent God and had managed to secure cooperation.
The ducal knights of the duchy.
Sorab was the most skilled fighter she knew.
Even he was tense in the face of not one but six adversaries.
Was there truly a monster even they couldn’t defeat?
Could you assist in subjugating the Serpent God?
‘No.’
She even asked Quellière for help, feeling that failure here would mean the end.
The answer was rejection, as expected.
Quellière had no personal ties to the city or its people.
‘…No.’
But then, something strange happened.
The same word, spoken in a different tone.
After refusing, Quellière suddenly bolted from the room after hearing Anasha’s words.
Did she change her mind?
There was no time for such naive assumptions as the situation unfolded rapidly.
Following after her with Sorab, Lysithea was met with chaos.
“Why have you come all the way here…!”
The Serpent God had invaded the outskirts of the city.
This had happened before, but this time was different.
The god was rampaging.
The day she had desperately hoped would never come had arrived.
What on earth had Anasha done?
Had she provoked the false god’s wrath?
Regardless, there was no time to dwell on it.
That thing would not retreat unless it was utterly destroyed.
“…Sorab, call for reinforcements.”
The final battle against the Serpent God.
It had to be avoided, but the city’s survival depended on it.
She gave the command with resolve, but no response came.
“Sorab…?”
Perplexed, she turned around, only to see snow swirling in the air.
Lysithea blinked and looked up.
Snow was falling, resting gently on Sorab’s head.
A belated reply reached her ears.
“Let’s wait and see.”
Following his gaze absentmindedly, she saw Quellière’s back.
*
In the Four Seasons War, attributes were crucial.
An attribute was an affinity, and affinity could amplify combat power several times over.
And I was the Snow Maiden.
Naturally, I was of the snow race, snow itself.
This meant I was deeply aligned with the elements of snow and winter.
Both were weaknesses of the Serpent God.
…That’s why I stood here.
If it were any other petty god, I wouldn’t have dared to challenge them.
But it was the Serpent God—only the Serpent God made this possible.
The coldness of the catalyst tingled at my fingertips.
This relic was the finest attribute catalyst.
It was time to show the creature the extreme power of its polar opposite.
“…Quellière.”
The scene I arrived at was utter chaos.
Five minutes before the carnage broke loose.
As I feared, the Serpent God appeared to have gone berserk.
Thankfully, Anasha and the knights were alive, but if this continued, the city would be doomed.
“I’m sick of this.”
I was annoyed.
This nonsensical cleanup duty was wearing me down.
I hated the god who had sent me here and despised the false god pretending to be divine.
“…What? Why are you here—no, wait. Are you planning to fight the Serpent God? You can’t. That thing is on a completely different level than its minions.”
“Anasha.”
“Yes, I understand. We can regroup the soldiers with the ducal knights, and… if you’re willing to help us, even if sword energy doesn’t work on that monster, your magic might—”
“Be quiet.”
“…What?”
Anasha was desperate.
I could understand her urgency.
But she was noisy and said too much.
Her words were utterly useless.
Other players in this fight were irrelevant.
I intended to go all out.
To defeat the Serpent God, I had to reshape the environment itself to my advantage.
There would be no distinguishing friend from foe.
If they didn’t want to be caught up, they’d best stay out of the way.
“Stand aside.”
Driven by impulse, I approached the creature.
Fine, let’s do this.
If it got too dangerous, I’d run away.
If necessary, I’d use transformation magic to escape—what could that thing possibly do to stop me?
Its large size made it slower.
The creature, now determined, wriggled to summon its minions.
“Quellière!”
Ignoring Anasha’s shout, I intensified the snowstorm.
It was for safety, and it worked.
The small black snakes froze or visibly slowed.
My control over magic was still clumsy.
By rights, I shouldn’t have been able to wield snowstorms or ice spears yet, but now I had no concerns.
Because I had the catalyst.
“Attribute control enhancement” was one of the catalyst’s two abilities.
I could feel everyone’s gaze on me.
In the past, I would have recoiled under such attention, but as Quellière, I remained unshaken.
The Serpent God, sensing the threat, glared at me with narrowed eyes.
【Disgusting…】
The current climate was entirely incompatible with it.
The voice of the false god was unlike a human’s, chilling to the bone.
But I didn’t show it.
Instead, I confronted it boldly.
“Filthy snake.”
The guard was strong.
The Serpent God’s eyes flared with venom.
A crimson light, the symbol of frenzy, flickered in his gaze.
I flinched, but since I had come this far, I decided to release my pent-up anger and speak.
“Filthy trash, less than dirt. A speck of dust not even fit to be fertilizer.”
Snow poured down in torrents.
Amid the sharp, cutting winds, only my voice echoed.
Three veins bulged on the Serpent God’s brow.
【A mere creature… I am the god of this land…】
What nonsense.
There were no gods left in this world.
If the true gods had seen this lowly being proclaim himself as one, they would have clicked their tongues in disdain.
“Pathetic.”
I spat the words with sincerity.
That was all it took for the Serpent God to lose his grip on reason.
【Kiaaahhh-!】
He roared and charged.
It was a simple outburst of rage, but the intensity was far beyond anything human.
“Kyaaah!”
“Protect the citizens!”
“Quellière, this way, quickly!”
The screams of terrified people, the ducal knights preparing for battle, and Anasha’s voice filled with concern.
All of it blurred past my ears as my thoughts accelerated.
The fight couldn’t drag on.
The Snow Maiden had inherently limited mana reserves—a limitation of being a decorative character.
In that sense, this moment, when he had lost his composure, was an opportunity.
“Haa…”
Gripping the catalyst tightly, I extended my hand.
The relic’s second ability was ‘Attribute Amplification.’
It consumed the relic’s inherent energy to enhance elemental power.
Sssss-!
A much colder breath than before was exhaled.
The Serpent God, touched by the frosty trail, lost his balance and stumbled.
【Cursed… and impure…】
But it inflicted no significant damage.
He quickly rose, glaring at me with the hatred of a mortal enemy.
The provocation of ‘opposition’ had clearly worked.
I glanced around.
All eyes were on me and the Serpent God.
The fate of humans and monsters hinged on our battle.
The situation wasn’t favorable.
“Another way…”
This wasn’t enough.
The blizzard was indeed a critical blow to him, but he wouldn’t die from just this.
He would die if left in it for a long time, but my mana wouldn’t hold out that long.
I had already used a significant amount.
Even setting aside the cold breath, maintaining the blizzard was a constant drain.
If I kept using it sparingly, it wouldn’t solve anything.
…I had to pour it all out at once.
All at once, completely.
Taking a deep breath, I opened my hand.
Magic began to coalesce into the form of a ‘spear.’
【I shall proclaim your end-!】
A snow-covered street.
The pitch-black Serpent God, contrasting against the pure white, slithered forward in an assault.
Slow. The world felt slow.
It was as if time had been sliced into tiny fragments.
As the enormous figure approached with each moment, the ice spear grew larger.
Radiant light flowed from the catalyst.
The relic’s inherent energy was structured to recover gradually after use.
Since amplification was a refined power, it couldn’t be used freely.
The key point here was that I hadn’t fully utilized this relic before, and…
…the relic had been dormant for at least several centuries.
Its energy should have been brimming.
I invested all of it into the spear, pouring my mana into it as well.
At the very least, I expected to create a spear two or three meters long.
“Ah…?”
But something was wrong.
It grew wildly beyond the size I had imagined.
Even if I poured everything into it, the accumulated energy should have limits, yet this was far beyond that.
Was it due to the settings again?
Pure mana, refined elemental power, a singular phenomenon… I couldn’t discern what was at play.
Before I could figure it out, mana and energy swirled chaotically, culminating in…
…not a spear but something more akin to a ‘pillar.’
【Shaaaa-!】
Time resumed.
In front of me, the Serpent God lunged, his gaping mouth aimed at me.
The crimson glow in his eyes left an afterimage in a straight line.
I set my sights on his gaping maw and pulled my arm back.
It was a throwing stance.
The spear of air moved in sync with my hand.
Thinking back, it was a tenacious grudge.
His minions had tried to kill me for no reason, dragged me to the empire, and now here I was again, face-to-face with him.
It felt as if something would finally be resolved only if he died.
“This… is your grave.”
The moment I released my hand.
The colossal ice spear shot forward at breakneck speed.
A sound of air ripping apart echoed, and it pierced into the Serpent God’s mouth.
【Kiaaaahhh…!】
Upon impact, a tremendous explosion swept through the area.
The ground trembled, and powerful winds surged.
The scene resembled an unprecedented calamity, causing people to huddle in fear.
*
“Quellière, is Quellière alright?!”
As the swirling dust and snow settled, the shock subsided.
Anasha, who had recovered first, looked into the distance.
When the billowing dust finally cleared, everyone saw it.
The Serpent God, with a blue pillar lodged in his mouth, lay motionless.
The ferocious rampage seemed like an illusion, as he didn’t move an inch.
He was dead.
“…”
The citizens, as if witnessing the incomprehensible, stared blankly.
They struggled to make sense of what they had seen.
Anasha and the ducal knights, quicker to grasp the situation, shifted their gazes.
Before the corpse of a god, there stood Quellière, nonchalant as if it were nothing.
Her eyebrows raised, she gazed into the void.