[Vol. 8] Chapter 139: The Soaring Bird
Even though this was the trial space created by the goddess, based on what the enemy said earlier, it seemed that he had used some kind of high-level power to block the goddess’s sight. He had isolated this place from the outside world. That’s likely why he dared to show up so boldly and attack the trial participants.
Now, there was only one option left. Fight with everything she had.
Miss Shadow was not afraid of death. She was not the type to hesitate. Once she understood the situation clearly in her mind, she reached for the short sword on her back without any delay.
Seeing this, the Illusory Being who called himself "The Humble Humbold" paused for a moment. Clearly, he was also afraid of that terrifying Primordial Artifact. But in the end, he did not stop her.
Because this was exactly what he wanted.
As one of the top commanders and strongest fighters of this mission, the Humble Humbold, chosen by the Primordial Will, was far more powerful than any regular Illusory Being. He was also much smarter and better at planning than the others.
This divine trial held great importance for the Goddess Church. The rules and secret monitoring were extremely strict. Even with all the special tricks of the Illusory Beings, only two of them, [6273] and Humbold, had been able to sneak into this world created by the goddess.
Yes, other members of the World Sustainers had also joined the larger mission, but Humbold didn’t care about them or how they acted.
The mission given by the [Lord of the Void] was simple. Do everything possible to destroy or disturb the trial, hurt the powerful forces protecting the Origin Realm, and prepare the way for a bigger attack later.
Thanks to their secret information network, the Illusory Beings had already identified several people who might become future heroes chosen by the goddess. Those people were marked as targets that must be killed.
The human girl now standing in front of him, called Shadow, was one of those targets.
In fact, Humbold had been watching Shadow for a long time. He had even arrived before [6273], who had disguised himself as one of her friends and tried to ambush her. But Humbold had hidden himself all this time and never showed up until now.
These weak trial participants, these not-yet-mature chosen heroes. To Humbold, they were nothing more than bugs he could crush at any time. What he truly feared was the being watching over this trial by the Goddess.
Humbold didn’t know much about this goddess, who was said to be born from the Primordial Light and ruled the Origin Realm. Actually, even the whole World Sustainers group knew very little about her.
He believed that the idea of her being formed from light was just a silly lie made up by ignorant people. But the power she held, divine power, was definitely real.
On the day the goddess had first appeared, Humbold had secretly watched from the shadows and witnessed something unbelievably powerful.
From that moment, he was sure. This goddess was strong enough to match the [Lord of the Void]. So, while inside this trial ground created by Her, Humbold didn’t dare to act carelessly.
In his original plan, this attack didn’t even need his help. [6273] alone was strong enough to easily complete the mission and kill most of the goddess’s future heroes. With the help of the [Lord of the Void]’s power, he didn’t need to worry about being noticed by the goddess, at least not right away.
Even if the goddess discovered them and destroyed [6273], it wouldn’t be a total loss. At the very least, they would have tested her strength and learned more about her.
But things didn’t go the way Humbold expected at all.
From beginning to end, the goddess didn’t react at all to their killing and chaos. Maybe her control over this trial space wasn’t as strong as Humbold had feared. Or maybe her divinity wasn’t actually that strong, and she couldn’t break through the [Lord of the Void]’s protective power right away.
That was definitely good news.
Still, Humbold had planned to stay hidden. But he never imagined that a completely normal human, a young girl who had just reached legendary strength, would be hiding a Primordial Artifact inside her.
A weapon so powerful it made even him afraid, and she used it to instantly kill [6273] in one blow!
Because of that, Humbold had no choice but to show himself and take action.
Even if it meant taking a risk, he absolutely could not let this girl go.
Primordial Artifacts were the strongest treasures in existence. They were given by the creator at the beginning of the world, meant to help mortals challenge even the gods.
Even someone as strong as Humbold, even the [Lord of the Void] Themself, would never ignore the power of a true Primordial Artifact, even if the person holding it was just an ordinary human.
Turning decay into wonder, to fight against gods without being a god. This is the true magic of the Primordial Artifact.
However, in this world, everything has a cost. For every miracle, there is a price. Behind that one moment of bright power, the human must pay a price far greater than anyone could imagine.
The Humble Humbold was almost completely sure that the girl in front of him had lost the ability to use the Primordial Artifact again, at least for now.
After testing the situation earlier, he also realized that the goddess didn’t seem able to break through the protection of the [Lord of the Void] to interfere. That’s why he dared to appear openly in front of her.
He didn’t avoid a direct fight or try to sneak attack her. Instead, he tried to make her draw the artifact and fight again. Not because The Humble Humbold was kind or admired her talent, but because the Primordial Artifact was extremely valuable.
Even though beings like him, called ‘Illusory Beings’ from the group of World Sustainers, couldn’t use it. He could still take it and offer it as a gift to the [Lord of the Void], and in return, he would receive a great reward.
[6273], a top soldier of their group, was strong enough to use Tier 6 power even in a world that rejected outsiders. According to the plan, [6273] should have died in battle against the goddess. Instead, he was killed by a human girl, the very target he was supposed to eliminate. This was clearly a huge failure in command.
If the “Humble Humbold” didn’t fix this mistake, even with his high status in the group, he would be punished by the [Lord of the Void].
That’s why he decided to take a risky path, to steal the Primordial Artifact.
But artifacts have a will of their own. You can’t just kill the owner and take it.
A Primordial Artifact is actually a special kind of being. A divine force that lets a human borrow its power.
But unlike real gods, its power is more limited, and it only works when both the user and the artifact work together.
If someone kills the owner and tries to forcefully take it, the artifact might get angry and destroy itself, or return to the [Tree of Creation], the place where all things began. At that point, the weapon would become useless, just a piece of junk.
So if he wanted to get the artifact from this girl, he couldn’t kill her. She was the key to keeping the artifact working.
The only way was to trick her into using up all her power, then knock her out and capture her alive. After that, he could take her to the [Lord of the Void] for further handling.
As one of the top hunters, chosen by the great will that had destroyed many enemies across countless worlds, the Humble Humbold trusted his own judgment and power.
He could tell this girl was very clever. And because of that, he believed she would try to use the artifact again in a desperate final move, which would then backfire and hurt her badly.
That would be his perfect chance to strike.
But if by chance she somehow used the artifact again, then The Humble Humbold would have to face its power head-on.
He was sure that, unlike what happened to [6273], he wouldn’t be killed in one hit, but he would still suffer heavy damage.
So he had to stay alert and prepare for anything.
However…
Just as both sides were tense and ready to move, and the grey-blue-haired girl was gripping her short sword tightly behind her back with a serious face. A loud, beautiful bird cry suddenly rang out, like sunlight breaking through the dark!
"Screeeech!!!"
With that cry, a pure white, beautiful giant bird slowly flew down from the sky, like a holy savior.
It shone with brilliant, glowing light, like a second sun hanging in the sky, filling the dark forest of the [Gate of Ghosts] with bright daylight.
"What?!"
"Is that...?"
Both Miss Shadow and the Humble Humbold recognized what it was right away. Their energy suddenly changed!
That holy, shining white bird, was the same one that had arrived with the goddess during her descent to the Holy Capital. It was her divine guardian beast, always staying close to her.
And now, in this trial ground made by the goddess, for her divine guardian to appear here, above them… the meaning was clear.
She had come!
And she had come fast, too fast!
How could she react so quickly?
Could it be that the protection given by the [Lord of the Void] hadn’t worked at all?
The Humble Humbold didn’t understand how this happened, but he did realize one thing for sure.
This was a trap from the start!
So without hesitation, he moved.
"Swish swish swish swish swish...!!!"
He gave up on the idea of capturing the girl alive and taking the artifact. Over a hundred sharp tentacle-like spikes shot out like a rainstorm, attacking Shadow from every direction. All aiming for her most vital points in a deadly final strike!
It looked plain and simple, but it was actually a strike at the level of a pseudo god. Just the invisible force before it hit already caused sharp pain all over Miss Shadow’s body. There was no doubt, this was an attack she could neither dodge nor block.
If it touched her, she would die!
“!?”
A cold chill rushed over Miss Shadow’s skin, stronger than anything she had felt before. She had just relaxed a little when the divine bird appeared, but now her nerves tightened again.
As a trained warrior who acted fast and without hesitation, Miss Shadow made the only choice she could if she wanted to survive.
Instead of relying on others, she chose to take her life into her own hands!
“Clang!” The blade of her weapon, still in its sheath, shone once more!
But just then, a huge and powerful force suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It pushed the shadow power that had just risen back into the short sword, as if someone was standing behind her, forcing the blade back into its sheath with their hand.
The shadow vanished, and the girl was slightly shocked. But that tiny moment of delay was enough, she no longer had time to react.
She could only watch helplessly as hundreds of sharp tentacle spikes shot toward her like poisonous snakes from all directions!
Then suddenly, a figure floated down from the sky. She moved with light, graceful steps, but her speed was even faster than that god-level attack.
She raised one hand— “Fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh!!”
A huge number of smooth, thin white feathers flew out from her body like a dancing snowstorm. They turned into sharp blades in the air and cleanly sliced through every tentacle shot by the Humble Humbold.
The white feathers didn’t stop there. They flew in beautiful curves, each different but perfect, and then suddenly turned back, heading straight for the tentacle-covered monster!
“Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!”
The terrifying creature, who had looked impossible to beat just moments ago, was now completely unable to respond. Even though its tentacles thrashed wildly, it could only block a small part of the feathers.
The rest of the white feathers sliced through its tentacles and muscles without mercy,
leaving countless wounds. Strange blue-green gas, like blood, sprayed everywhere!
Finally, in one moment, all the feathers flew back into the hand of the mysterious figure, then disappeared completely.
“...?”
Only now did Miss Shadow have time to look behind her in surprise. But there was nothing there. The force that had pushed her sword back into its sheath, was it just her imagination?
...Of course, it wasn’t.
In truth, Miss Shadow didn’t have the strength to use her [Blade of Shadow: Phantom Edge] twice in a short time. If she had forced it, she would have coughed up blood from serious injury, or even died from the weapon’s backlash.
Someone became aware of this and, certain that the other reinforcement present could step in to protect her in time, intervened at the perfect moment to stop the girl from harming herself.
There were very few people who could do something like that, who had the power and reason to act, yet chose not to show themselves.
In Miss Shadow’s heart, she had already guessed who it was.
“…Thank you for watching over me.”
She quietly whispered, not knowing if the person could hear her.
Then, freed from danger, she turned her attention forward again. She looked carefully at the one who had saved her, the one who appeared between her and The Humble Humbold, and had beaten the monster with just one powerful move.
It was a girl.
A very special-looking girl.
She looked about seventeen or eighteen years old. Her long, snow-white hair shone brightly and flowed like a bird’s tail down to her waist. She wore a white dress made of what seemed like pure feathers.
It was spotless and fit her lively, graceful body perfectly. She was beautiful, no doubt a stunning young woman.
But what was most surprising was her arms. From her shoulders down, white feathers just like her dress grew along her arms.
They stretched outward like wings, a bit like a harpy or bird-person from the beastman tribes, but without the usual vicious look.
Instead, she looked holy… and something unmistakably divine.