Chapter 409: Sunset

When the Evil God chose to plunge downward regardless of the cost, the Supreme Seat roared to life—as though the entire structure itself had awakened.

This place was located within the Grand Cathedral of Aimier. Yet anyone who stepped inside would be shocked to discover that this space was, impossibly, even larger than the entire Holy City.

A false yet tangible sky, man-made sun, moon, and stars, and a terrifying depth like an endless abyss—all of it displayed the “miracle” of human creation pushed to its utmost limits.

But beneath this miracle lay something buried—a certain 【Taboo】.

Something that must never be touched by that Evil God bearing the revered name of Abundance!

“The Mother of Abundance is diving at high speed!”

“Depth—ten...”

“Twenty...”

“Thirty...”

“Fifty!”

“She’s still accelerating!”

Just moments ago, the Astral Observatory had already linked into the site, and the instruments built specifically for observing Evil Gods had locked tightly onto her figure.

In their agitation, the observers even forgot the rule forbidding them to utter an Evil God’s sacred name. But right now, none of them cared. If calling out that name could make the deity spare even the slightest attention toward them, they would immediately broadcast the four words “Mother of Abundance” across the entire world through amplification magic.

Yet at this moment, the Mother of Abundance was clearly more stubborn than a raging bull.

“Your Majesty!”

The clamor faded away like a receding tide. Amid the descending sea of Holy Light, the Pope’s pale brows and hair were stirred by the wind, and his expression once again turned utterly cold.

He extended a thin, withered hand and made a grasping motion.

In that instant, it was as if the entire Supreme Seat fit within his palm.

“Ulrons!”

“Present.”

A detached voice echoed, and some vast existence descended at once.

The Holy Domain—unfolded!

A golden gate appeared before the Mother of Abundance.

Unlike the ordinary gates the Pope usually invoked—those meant merely for human passage—this one was immense, as if cast entirely from molten gold.

Yet the gate was only the outward manifestation of that power; what it truly represented... was space itself.

Two separate realms had now been linked through that doorway. Should the Mother of Abundance pass through, she would be instantly transported to the surface of the waiting Sea of Holy Light!

But the Mother of Abundance did not pass through directly.

From the hem of her gown, dark as the night sky, thick and grotesque tentacles suddenly extended outward. The faceless visage split open further, its fissures tearing wider, and countless fleshy buds writhed like a nest of serpents.

The observers screamed in agony as blood streamed from their eyes, as though they had glimpsed something no mortal should ever behold.

The Mother of Abundance continued to descend. Her body, now hideously swollen and deformed, crashed directly into the golden gate!

Boom!

The golden door shattered. Black fissures spread across its surface, and the entire space let out a cry of unbearable strain.

Yet as the space fractured, the Mother of Abundance herself split apart into countless severed limbs, her entire form dimming slightly.

Immediately after, a second gate materialized. The Mother of Abundance hesitated not for a moment—she didn’t even wield her Authority. Relying solely on that projected body, she hurled herself into the gate once again with brutal force!

“Second gate shattered—depth eighty!”

“Third gate shattered—depth one hundred!”

“Fourth gate shattered—”

“—Tenth gate shattered—”

“—Seventeenth gate shattered, depth... three hundred and thirty!”

“Damn it, we’re running out of time!”

As the seventeenth gate shattered, even the voices of the observers began to sound tinged with despair.

Through their instruments, they saw that after the golden door broke apart, a small fragment of the Evil God’s body still forced its way through the fractured space and continued descending.

And the remaining distance... was no longer enough to deploy another Holy Domain.

It seemed that the Evil God’s desperate gamble was finally about to bear fruit—Her goal was on the verge of being achieved.

In this situation—

“Let it be.”

The Pope suddenly spoke. “Let Her go.”

“Eh?”

At those words, the observers—who had been clinging to hope in the Pope—were left stunned.

Though their ranks were not high enough to know what exactly lay beneath the Supreme Seat, they understood one thing clearly: whatever the Evil God sought so recklessly to touch could not possibly be anything good.

To simply let Her do as She pleased—

“It’s fine.”

Facing their confusion, the Pope’s eyes remained calm.

In truth, even in the face of crisis, the Pope had only been momentarily taken aback when he first learned that the Evil God’s true body had intervened.

But that was all—just surprise.

Because everything was still within his control.

Though, admittedly, this particular trump card... he would have preferred not to let her reveal it on her own at such a time.

Rubbing his temples, the Pope sighed softly.

“She’s already here.”

...

Beyond the seventeenth gate, the projection of the Mother of Abundance had been reduced to a single shattered and feeble remnant.

Yet even from that crippled face—misshapen and incomplete—one could still read an unmistakable emotion: excitement.

It didn’t matter that only a fragment of her body remained. The amount of power left was irrelevant. What mattered was reaching that thing—yes, as long as she could touch that, she would be able to...

But then, the Mother of Abundance’s ruined form suddenly froze in place.

It wasn’t because another space-severing gate had appeared before her.

It was because—

A letter had appeared.

An utterly ordinary-looking letter.

Yet the moment it drifted out from who-knew-where, every movement of hers—ceased.

It was a passive halt—an involuntary stillness. The emotion called excitement remained frozen upon those countless writhing flesh buds. The deity seemed unaware of Her own suspension—or rather... it was only She who had stopped.

Because accompanying the appearance of that envelope—came a vast and ancient tolling of a bell.

The Eternal Bell!

As the chime descended, from within the envelope stepped forth a faint, ethereal figure.

Long pale hair, eyes red like amber, dressed in pink, strawberry-patterned pajamas; her body... that of a little girl.

Her age—unknown, but no less than a thousand years.

“Oh my, oh my.”

The white-haired, red-eyed old loli planted her hands on her hips. Without so much as glancing at the frozen remains of the Evil God nearby, her gaze instead fell upon the distant Pope.

Despite the vast distance between them, the Pope could almost see the blinding smugness on her face.

“In the end, it still comes down to this old bag of bones to step in.”

The old loli sighed with dramatic melancholy, as though lamenting the decline of the age.

“The younger generation these days—so spoiled, so delicate—not a single one worth their salt.”

“......”

The “youngster” of several hundred years, the Pope, felt his temple twitch, closed his eyes, and chose silence.

......

......

Everything, at last, settled to rest.

Though the process had been somewhat perilous, the outcome was... comparatively favorable.

The projection of the Mother of Abundance, captured with Meladomir’s assistance, was now gravely mutilated. Yet as the sworn nemesis of the Goddess Aimier, even the Evil God’s broken remains still held tremendous value.

Only, after taking a brief inventory of the losses, the Pope discovered a small imperfection.

His calm gaze turned toward Meladomir, who was looking around like a country girl visiting the capital for the first time—peering here and there with curiosity.

“What.”

Meladomir crossed her arms. “Not allowed to look?”

“No. None of this is secret to you. It’s fine to look. What I wanted to say is...”

The Pope said evenly, “Respected Archmage Meladomir, weren’t you a little late in ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ coming?”

He gestured to the side—toward the Lost Land, Kanteville.

At this moment, on the barrier protecting Kanteville, countless cracks spread from a single, enormous hole clearly visible at their center.

Only—the moon’s shadow was nowhere to be seen.

Because earlier, in his pursuit of the Mother of Abundance, the Pope had withdrawn all of his power, and coupled with the tremors of the Supreme Seat itself, that moon—which had already been embedded up there like a slapped ornament—quite naturally... fell straight into Kanteville.

“Late? Isn’t this just right on time? Perfect, actually. I was curious to see how far your Holy Domain’s construction had come.”

At the Pope’s rebuke, Meladomir arched a brow and let out a cold laugh.

“What, are you blaming me for arriving late and making you lose a piece of the moon’s remains? Hmph, petty. It’s just a lunar fragment—your Church never had much use for that sort of thing anyway. So it’s gone; big deal. What, are you expecting me to compensate you for it?”

“Compensation isn’t on my mind. As you said, it’s only a fragment of the moon.”

“However, what I do want to ask is...”

The Pope paused, his expression twisting into something peculiar as he said,

“Did you perhaps forget that your disciple... is still in there?”

...

“Mm... ah...”

“Does it still hurt?”

Looking down at the lovely girl beneath him—her face flushed red from her first time—Muen asked gently, with a note of tenderness.

“Mhm... no...”

Liya answered instinctively, her dewy eyes already hazy with confusion.

“Then... does it feel good?”

“Mhm... you... bad...”

Liya gave Muen’s arm a soft tap, murmuring, “No... don’t—slower...”

“Hm? Don’t go slow? Then I’ll just have to speed up, won’t I?”

Muen mischievously increased the pace.

This burst of wind and lightning speed was clearly still something Liya, a newcomer on the road, couldn’t quite control.

But she could no longer slow it down on her own. Maybe because of the strong wind, her little head tilted higher and higher, revealing the white curve of her neck—like a swan’s.

Looks like the initial velocity’s reached its peak. She’s about to take off.

Muen’s lips curled up. He suddenly leaned down and captured those cherry lips.

The moment he captured her, a nimble little snake slipped in on its own, moving instinctively without its master’s awareness.

Muen savored that little snake as his hand naturally found its way to the round twin peaks—but they were far too majestic for one hand to grasp.

Soft and full, they filled the gaps between his fingers completely.

Seeing that everything was ready, right at the edge of ignition, Muen leaned close to Liya’s ear and gave the command to take off:

“Liya, you really are quite lewd, aren’t you?”

“Mmh... I’m not...”

Liya forced her eyes open and shot a reproachful glare at Muen above her.

But it seemed that very mix of shyness and anger became the final spark—everything reached the highest point of the clouds at last.

The two legs that had been wrapped around Muen’s waist suddenly arched upward, her pale insteps stretched taut, and from between her slightly parted cherry lips came the most beautiful sound in the world.

Seeing that, Muen couldn’t help but show a satisfied, contented smile. He reached out and pulled her into his arms again. Though the girl had yet to fall back down from the clouds, Muen intended to seize the moment—one, two, three, four—one more time.

“So hot...”

The girl shifted slightly, letting out a soft, unconscious murmur of pleasure.

“Hm?”

Hearing that voice, Muen’s movements suddenly stopped.

Hot?

He hadn’t surrendered yet, had he?

Muen glanced down with a strange look.

He was confident in himself, sure—but wasn’t that the kind of thing you said at the beginning? By now she was clearly used to it, molded perfectly to his shape...

As he looked at the fine sheen of sweat slowly appearing across Liya’s pale skin, Muen seemed to sense something—his body went rigid as he turned his head.

“No way...”

The corner of his mouth twitched.

Because in his line of sight, the sun that should’ve been hanging high above the great tower... seemed to have suddenly grown much larger.