CHAPTER 299: WINTER MOON’S DEMON

[Grave of the Old Faith]

By the time the Protagonist respawned, I already made it to the cathedral doors.

Despite his death, and the slight reversal of time that followed, the entrance remained open, unlike the garden gate from a while ago.

The same went for the drainage of the black waste itself―It was simply due to the fact that major changes like that seemed to persist through deaths, as well as any shortcuts opened prior to respawning.

So then, it wasn’t as simple as a pure resetting of time?

Rather, there was no need to go so in-depth overexamining like this for nothing.

This was how respawning functioned in the game, so this was how the transfer of the Protagonist’s "ability" into the reality of this Illusory World would be translated.

’I just need to locate the cross around here he keeps respawning at...’

It was just a slight problem that the cathedral was so large.

Hearing faint crackling noises occur behind me at that thought, I gave it a glance. When I looked behind me, the outside ruins gradually began to be populated with monsters other than the disgusting leftover slimes―namely, crowds of petty undead emerging from the eons-old sludge.

Imagining their origins wasn’t complicated, seeing their tattered wear, and it wasn’t particularly something I could call an obstacle.

’If he slips past, they could at least buy some time obstructing him.’

Leaving the matter there, I walked through the doors to separate us. Sadly, this supposedly holy ground floor of the cathedral was also caked thickly in remnant dark waste and sludge, making it feel like I was walking around with my boots full of moisture.

Even taking into account the tremendously high ceilings and walls, which would ordinarily be enough to leave me with a sense of awe, it was in just as disastrous a state as the ruins outside, stench and all, with not a single statue or stained window left untarnished by whatever that waste was that flooded here.

’It’s just sad, really.’

To the point where it would undoubtedly be considered profane to invite a deity to step down and contaminate its presence here.

[Enki, if you’re that bothered, couldn’t you consecrate it yourself?]

Perhaps reading my passive thoughts on the other side, the Librarian posed a question.

"It’s not like I’m particularly bothered. Because I have the Blessing of a goddess myself, I only thought..."

The ends of my words trailed off. As I spoke, something about what she said occurred to me.

’Consecrate it myself?’

It was indeed true that I possessed divine energy, and with the now-natural ability to produce it proactively with every beat of my heart, it was also true that I possessed more of it than ever.

But, even so, what good would that...

"...Hey, wait. That’s not a bad idea, actually."

Realising something, I summoned the Holy Sword, which had in fact evolved longer ago than I thought.

Moonlight Thule was what you could call an "item-specific Skill". It was extraordinarily powerful, but it required divine energy rather than magic energy to activate, and not just a small amount of it either.

Divine energy was a resource accumulated generally absorbing it through the atmosphere, similar to magic energy, but there were also many different ways depending on one’s divine affinity to speed that process up; in my own case for example, being exposed to moonlight and low temperatures would increase the natural rate of regeneration.

However, as Divine Blood would also be included, it effectively meant that my divine energy would replenish constantly so long as my heart continued to beat.

For that reason, even if I expended all of my divine energy right here, I wouldn’t have to worry about not being able to recover it.

On top of that, Divine Blood was a Trait that infused my divine energy into my blood.

In a similar vein, Mana Corruption was a Skill that infused my blood with magic energy.

In fact, due to Heart of a Witch, it now was both that were generated by my beating heart.

With Divine Blood, my divine energy was turned from a spiritual force to a physical one, and the same went for my magic energy with Mana Corruption.

Ergo, it was now only possible for me to use either energy through the expenditure of my blood, or at least, only possible whilst I had blood flowing through me.

So then, if, whilst I wielded this Divine Sword of the Winter Moon, I mustered those equalised, compulsorily combined forces.

The forces, containing both ’demonic’ and ’divine’ elements.

"―――!"

Summoning them to empower me fully, my body overflowed with an explosive power at the emergence of two auras, individually black and white but together appearing grey.

Like that, rather than one having dominance and being tainted by the presence of the other, it felt more as though the two had been forcibly combined into one harmonious thing.

Was that why the internal clash of antithetical energies hadn’t killed me yet?

Regardless, this aberrant unification of properties exploded out, naturally being absorbed by the Holy Sword in my hand.

Thereupon, the weapon’s divine ice melted, and shifted to become something new.

Transforming first the hilt, pale wrappings ended in a small crescent at the pommel, and on the other side above it, a transparent, jagged crossguard of black ice, illuminant white runes buried within.

From there, a spine of something black extended, forming the opaque backbone of the double-edged sword, stretching roughly four feet in total and tapering to a razor-sharp point, decently longer than previously; and similar to then, dense, white ice returned, surrounding the spine and spreading into space on all sides to fill out the blade.

Throughout it, faint black cracks ran thinly, imitating semi-structured veins.

The edges were only slightly jagged, and compared to what it was like when it was only susceptible to divine energy, this new form appeared far neater, cleaner...

"..."

And, as if attuned to myself, felt far more fitting in my grasp.

Item - [Divine Sword of the Winter Moon’s Demon]

It was somewhat unexpected, but not something I would be struggling to accept by this point.

I only lightly skimmed the description of the again-evolved sword. Even if there was plenty of time to be spent here either way, it was technically true that I was under a certain pressure to maintain pace.

It could always wait until I had returned to the Library, so with that in mind, I skipped the other quite lengthy details straight to the in-built Weapon Skills.

And there, having actually taken the place of Moonlight Thule――

*Fractured Thule

―Or rather, perhaps it too had evolved with the addition of demonic magic energy.

There were two additional Weapon Skills that were listed alongside it, but this was the one I had planned to use from the beginning.

"Hhh..."

Closing my eyes gently, I manipulated the paradoxical combination of energies to coalesce at the Divine Blade.

See, by the design of the source material, bosses and other native entities were unable to destroy or even just affect the wider world in a serious way, the sole exception being if it was originally intended.

’―Keep building it.’

However, even if I existed within its essence at this moment, I was not an entity from this world.

’―More. Use all of it.’

The fact I could destroy the Protagonist’s respawn points and persist through his time-resetting death was confirmation enough.

"..."

I was not restrained by those same limitations.

By the time every drop of divine and magic energy I could muster had been gathered in the blade, an overwhelming pressure was applied on the surroundings.

Ferocious winds emanating from the weapon in my hands, a stark chill in the air that penetrated all the way to one’s bones, the presence of something far greater, and at the same time, something deeply sinister.

Crackle~!

The black sludge beneath my feet that covered the whole floor of the cathedral was freezing in real time, and even some of the closer walls and windows experienced the same phenomenon.

I was not skilled at handling either energy, let alone such an immeasurable amount of it.

Having both combined, and squeezing it all into one blade, it was only natural to lose some through leakage.

It was surprisingly tough just to endure holding it without letting it go.

Perhaps that’s why, the moment I uttered the words, I felt incomparable relief.

"...Fractured Thule――"

I swung the blade horizontally while activating the Weapon Skill only because that’s what I liked to do with its previous form, but despite that being its first slash in its evolved state, I never ended up seeing it.

’Huh――’

By the time I motioned the blade, that nigh-uncontrollable force had already slipped.

"――――――!!!"

In a fraction of an instant, the only thing visible were those words.

[You Died]