Chapter 389: The Appearance of the Enemy

“Here it comes!”

Seeing the anomaly in the light source in the sky, everyone on the ground shuddered and held their breath.

Anima even approached Shien and whispered,

“If that child fails, please don’t hesitate.”

Shien naturally understood what she meant.

“A Lilith who has completely lost the possibility of regaining her rationality is just a brutal evil god, a disaster for the world, so you don’t need to have any psychological burden.”

Anima whispered in Shien’s ear, her voice gentle and compassionate, giving him a feeling of maternal acceptance.

However, Shien didn’t respond to Anima’s words.

He himself didn’t know if he could bring himself to destroy the [True Mark] entrusted to him if Beatrice truly failed.

Of course, Shien was still someone who could objectively accept reality.

Therefore, if Beatrice failed, he would accept the consequences and wouldn’t struggle pointlessly because he was unwilling to believe reality or couldn’t give up hope.

However, acceptance was one thing, not struggling pointlessly was another. It didn’t mean that Shien would directly give up and destroy the [True Mark].

Perhaps, at that time, Beatrice would indeed be gone, and Lilith would become a true menace, but as long as he had the [True Mark], Lilith could be reincarnated and resurrected by his side, right?

At that time, perhaps Lilith’s rationality would also be resurrected along with her, and be rejected by her, allowing Beatrice to reappear?

With this in mind, Shien made up his mind.

“If she truly fails, I will kill Lilith here, but I won’t destroy the [True Mark].”

Shien said these words, leaving Anima speechless, and looked at Airi.

Airi, receiving Shien’s gaze, naturally knew what he wanted to say.

“Alright.” Airi said decisively. “I’ll help you when the time comes.”

Shien was relieved.

Relying on his own strength alone, defeating Lilith would be extremely difficult.

But with Airi’s help, it would be much easier.

After their previous confrontation, Shien already knew that Lilith, having lost her rationality, had a serious weakness. Once she started fighting, she would only recklessly unleash her power without restraint or adaptability.

With such a weakness, if he and Airi joined forces, defeating her shouldn’t be impossible.

Thus, everyone stared intently at the light source in the sky, no longer speaking.

The light penetrating from the light source became increasingly brighter, creating swirling dark clouds in the roaring sky.

A beam of light shone down from the vortex of dark clouds, enveloping the light source.

Soon, the light source trembled violently, and at its most intense tremor, it collapsed as if reaching its limit.

The light source, like snow melting under the sun, like scattering snowflakes, gradually disintegrated.

Within, the small goddess with twelve black wings and a robe reappeared.

Everyone present widened their eyes as they looked at the small goddess.

Because they discovered that the once violent and turbulent evil aura now undulated around the small goddess like a silent darkness, appearing extremely docile. Řᴀ₦óᛒËȿ

If the previous evil aura was a natural disaster, a storm, a flood, or an avalanche, then the current evil aura was the beautiful scenery after the storm.

Tranquil, peaceful, clear, and mysterious, these were its current portrayals.

Everyone had the same feeling.

“This is a goddess.”

Indeed, this was a goddess.

Sacred and inviolable.

Untainted by the mud.

Aloof from the world.

Beautiful, pure, and natural.

This was the current Lilith.

“Swish!”

Suddenly, Lilith vanished from mid-air.

She transformed into a shadowy figure of darkness, as if traversing the limitations of time and space, instantly appearing before Shien and taking form.

It happened so suddenly that no one could react.

Including Shien, who only felt his vision darken, and then the girl appeared before him.

“Bang!”

The next moment, with a muffled sound, the small goddess collided with Shien.

“Ugh…!”

Shien cried out as he was knocked to the ground.

“Hey!”

“Mr. Shien!”

Leisha and Lasha’s expressions changed simultaneously.

“D-dangerous…!?”

Elise, the most timid, exclaimed and prostrated herself on the ground.

Only Airi and Anima seemed to sense something, one relaxing her face, the other showing joy.

Shien felt a small body hugging him.

He quickly understood what was happening.

His heart finally settled completely, and he looked down at his arms.

There, the small goddess hugged him tightly, her head slightly raised, her brilliant hair fluttering in the wind, her large amethyst eyes staring at him.

Those eyes, as before, were calm and gentle, clearly reflecting Shien’s face, as if he was the only one in her eyes.

“Beatrice?”

Shien wrapped his arms around the small goddess, hesitated for a moment, and called out tentatively.

The goddess continued to stare at him, then after a while, she parted her lips slightly.

“Lilith…”

The voice he had only heard once came from the small goddess.

“My name… Lilith…”

A simple sentence, spoken with difficulty, yet with a pleasant sound.

But these words made Shien smile, and everyone around him also smiled joyfully.

“S-she succeeded!”

Elise was the first to cheer.

“She actually succeeded…”

Leisha still couldn’t believe it.

“Congratulations.”

Lasha said concisely.

“That’s wonderful.”

Anima couldn’t hide the emotion on her face, seemingly relieved by the return of her fellow Divine Race member after ten thousand years.

Even Airi said,

“It seems the strongest evil god has returned.”

The evil god who had once caused the greatest disaster, turning the land into hell, had finally returned to her original form.

This also meant that a goddess comparable to a Demon Lord had appeared in this world.

“I really don’t know if I should be happy about this.”

Airi said these words, but judging from her relaxed expression, she probably didn’t really consider this a bad thing, right?

Unfortunately, the thoughts of others didn’t seem to matter to Beatrice now… no, it should be Lilith.

Lilith just looked at the human man before her, at his heartfelt smile, as if wanting to remember it forever, his face reflected in her amethyst eyes.

The image lingered for a long time.

…

“Hum!”

The transparent barrier enveloping Cosmos slowly vanished.

“Oh my god…”

“Cosmos…”

“Is it gone…?”

The citizens who had fled the city finally saw the situation inside the barrier. Looking at the wasteland reduced to ruins, they were all dumbfounded.

They wouldn’t know what had happened.

They wouldn’t understand the cause and effect of everything.

They could only stand there blankly, not knowing how much time had passed, still unable to recover.

No one noticed that on the summit of a mountain some distance away from Cosmos, a person was standing at the edge of a cliff, taking everything in.

“It seems it’s over.”

A tall woman, dressed only in white, like a ghost, standing barefoot, with fair skin and long, straight black hair, looked displeased, as if her fun had been spoiled.

“In the end, after causing such a big commotion, only a city was destroyed, without any serious casualties. This operation was a complete failure.”

The woman seemed dissatisfied with this result.

A voice replied to her.

“It was indeed a failure, but it wasn’t without serious casualties. My [Mirage] was almost annihilated, all members sacrificed, not a single survivor.”

Saying so, a gentle and refined demon man appeared behind the woman.

If Shien and the others were here, they would definitely be surprised, right?

Because this gentle demon man was Danas, whose head had been cut off by Shien.

Danas, along with his four Warfighters, appeared here nonchalantly.

“I told you before, leaving that rational half behind might lead to unexpected events. You just wouldn’t listen. Now, you’ve done all this work for nothing, my ally.”

Danas spread his hands and said helplessly.

The woman puffed out her cheeks and said with dissatisfaction,

“It’s because the magical lifeforms you lent me were too useless. They let some random noble from the Kingdom of Mitra take the other half, causing the beastmen priests to become enemies with the Kingdom. Who knew they would choose such a troublesome target.”

The woman’s words, though spoken in a petulant tone, sounded incredibly cold.

“You still hate the Hero and his country so much.”

Danas seemed to have no way to deal with the woman’s actions.

“Don’t you hate them?” The woman’s expression changed, and she looked at Danas. “I know you’re not really the leader of [Mirage], right?”

“Wrong. I am indeed the leader of [Mirage]. There’s no doubt about that.” Danas looked at the woman and chuckled. “However, that’s just the identity I use when acting outside. It’s a personal force I established while wandering around.”

“No wonder.” The woman suddenly realized and smiled. “I was wondering why the son of the leader of [Original Demon] would be wandering around with a [Mirage] for no reason.”

“I never thought that this wandering would lead me to you, who was betrayed by the Hero.” Danas smiled. “So, it was quite a fruitful trip, right?”

“Indeed, this time wasn’t completely without gains.” The woman turned her head and looked in the direction of Cosmos. “At least, we learned a good secret.”

“Yes.” The gentle smile on Danas’s face turned cold. “I didn’t expect that even now, a Hero would be summoned to this world.”

“Indeed.” The woman still had a smile on her face, but like Danas, it became cold and ruthless. “How wonderful. We have another target for revenge.”

“Let’s go.” Danas said to the woman. “As we agreed, after this operation, you’ll come to our side.”

“Don’t worry, I remember.” The woman said nonchalantly.

To her, it truly didn’t matter.

“As long as I can destroy the Kingdom of Mitra and the Hero, even if it’s hell, I’ll follow.”

The woman’s voice shook the atmosphere, making the mountain tremble.

“Very good.”

Danas’s cold smile finally softened.

The two then left together, as if they had never appeared.