Goddesses were weapons—living weapons.

According to the history books, they appeared during the Great Civilized Era, at the time of the First War of Subjugation. For thousands of years since then, they would reawaken when the Demon Blight arose, then, their duty fulfilled, they would return to sleep in their coffins. Apparently, though it was not understood why, they lost most of their memories during this long slumber. Whatever the case, they were the guardians of this world and its inhabitants.

Each goddess had the ability to call forth something from some unknown place to fight against the Demon Blight—in other words, they had the power to summon. According to Temple scholars, goddesses were a type of gateway.

The nature of their summons was different for each goddess. Some brought forth humans, while others manifested natural phenomena such as lightning or storms. There was supposedly even a goddess who could summon visions of the future.

They required no instructions or manuals to operate them. Once a Holy Knight made a pact with a goddess, they instinctively knew what their goddess could summon and what they were capable of.

In that moment, I understood it all.

“Teoritta?”

That was the name of the young girl with golden hair who had sucked my blood.

“Yes, my knight.” She brushed back her hair, causing sparks to fly.

“Xylo.” She knew my name as well. “What sort of blessing do you desire?”

I saw the glitter of steel behind the flames in her eyes. Swords. Countless blades of steel: famous swords, cursed swords, treasured swords, holy swords—waiting far off in the void to be summoned.

“Go on. Pray for what you desire.”

The goddess of swords, Teoritta. That was all I needed to know. I understood exactly what she could summon.

“A fence,” came my brief reply.

Teoritta and I shared a basic sensation outside of intent or volition. You might call it a kind of mental picture. It allowed us to share knowledge of such things as each other’s abilities or our next move in battle. I knew this feeling well. This was what made goddesses humanity’s trump card.

Simply summoning something powerful wasn’t enough. Sharing that ability with someone versed in war and military strategy and allowing them to operate it was what made their powers unparalleled.

“What have you done…?!”

The young soldier with the Holy Knights was furious—or perhaps it would be better to say he was in a state of grief. His face was twisted in despair. If he had the energy, he probably would have lunged at me.

“What have you done?! Forging a pact with the goddess—”

“Shut up,” I shot back. “I didn’t have a choice.”

I’d be revived if I died, but not them. None of the surviving soldiers were capable of fighting. They were completely drained. Either way, there was no time to scrutinize the morality of my actions.

“Xylo, the n-n-next wave is coming!” shouted Dotta, his staff held aloft.

“I know.”

The fuathan were almost here. Their jiggling, dark bodies ripped through the forest like a tidal wave of mud.

“Is it just me, or do they seem even more ferocious than the last batch? What are we gonna do?! We’re gonna die!”

“Like hell we are, dum-dum,” I replied confidently, and pointed at the incoming fuathan. “Teoritta! It’s time to push back! Give ’em everything you’ve got!”

“‘It’s time to push back,’ you say? I like the sound of that.” She grinned happily and rubbed at the empty air with one hand. “Words fitting of my knight. Allow me to grant you a blessing.”

A sound like air ripping rang out. Immediately, silver rain fell from the sky—a rain of hundreds of swords. Even in the darkness, the blades glittered brightly enough to block out everything else, searing their image into the back of my eyeballs.

With this much steel falling all at once, there would be no way to dodge. The swords mercilessly tore through the fuathan’s bodies all at once. The sound of rending flesh and ear-piercing cries harmonized like a chorus of death before the blades pierced the ground, creating a barricade between the fuathan and us. It was exactly what I had ordered. We now had a fence to protect us, and more than half of the fuathan were dead.

“Whoa! Incredible…!” Dotta grimaced and grabbed his nose. The muddy fluid from the fuathan’s bodies now covered the ground, letting off a terrible stench. “So this is what a goddess can do, huh? She’s so strong…!”

“Yeah. But that doesn’t mean we can slack off. Shoot, Dotta!” I shouted while sprinting toward the fence of swords. “Don’t let them get any closer. Annihilate every last one.”

I grabbed a sword stuck in the ground and raised it into the air with my right hand. My last job had beaten into me the correct techniques for throwing spears and swords.

I used my sacred seal to infuse the object with power. Just speaking for myself, there was no way I could miss from only twenty or thirty steps away. I twisted my waist and used the movement of my upper and lower body to launch the sword.

It released a flash of light at the center of the fuathan horde, then exploded. This blew up a few more, allowing us to shave off several groups of enemies in a single throw. Bits of fuathan flesh, blood, and dirt mixed together to form a terrible scene.

“Geh… I feel like I’m gonna throw up again, but for a whole different reason,” Dotta said, unleashing more bolts of lightning from his staff.

His aim was total garbage, and he was doing a terrible job of slowing down the enemy. But thanks to the fence of swords, we still managed to avoid their attacks. Whenever a faerie tried to leap over the barrier, I sliced them down myself with one hand.

At that point, a few fuathan started to flee the battle. Even they seemed to understand how much more firepower we now had on our side.

“I-is it over? Can we relax?”

“Yeah. But come on, Dotta, you really have the worst aim. You didn’t hit a single enemy during the second half.”

“Heh-heh… Yeah, uh… To tell the truth, I don’t really like hurting people.”

“What are you talking about? You break into people’s houses and steal from them. I know you killed people during burglaries.”

“I don’t like hurting people, but I put in the effort to do it anyway back then. I think I deserve some praise for my hard work…”

I didn’t think hard work was the issue here, but it was probably a waste of time talking spirituality with Dotta.

The fuathan were running away, and it seemed safe to say we’d survive the second wave. Dotta dropped to the ground and desperately tried to catch his breath. He was a real chicken at heart.

“How was that, my knight?”

The goddess Teoritta stood before me, puffed up with pride. Looking at her more closely, I noticed how short she was. Her head only reached my chest.

“Were you touched by my blessing? Awed by my grand power, which annihilated the faeries and protected you? …I give you permission to praise me and worship me to your heart’s content.”

She spoke with extreme arrogance, but she looked almost like a child. Her eyes, the color of fire, sparkled as she thrust her head in my direction expectantly.

“Xylo, I have given you permission.”

I knew what she was trying to say. I could see the image in my mind.

“Rub my head and sing my praises,” she continued.

In other words, she wanted me to give her head pats and tell her what a good girl she was.

But if I do that…

I hesitated. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.

Goddesses valued human praise above all else, and humans knew and took advantage of that fact. But that didn’t matter to the goddesses—they needed that praise. Without it, they couldn’t survive.

Was it really all right for me to go along with that? I felt like a hypocrite.

“Oh. Xylo, Dotta, you two are still alive?”

An unpleasant voice stung my ears the instant I reached out to touch her. It was our commander, Venetim.

“Why do you sound surprised?” I asked.

“Yeah, you don’t even sound like you care! Why don’t you spend some time on the front lines, Venetim?”

For once, I agreed with Dotta.

“Y-yes, I understand you two are working extremely hard. I will consider it.” Venetim sounded a little intimidated.

“Talking outta your ass again, huh,” I said. “Was that supposed to be a joke?”

“Even I could tell that was a lie,” Dotta chimed in.

“Ha-ha-ha. We can continue this conversation another time. More importantly…”

He forced a laugh and changed the subject. What a worthless piece of garbage.

“Getting back to the previous topic… What are you two doing now? You still need to save the Holy Knights… If they’re wiped out, we’ll be in a lot of trouble, right?”

How could he be so flippant about this? He was just as involved as we were.

“Yeah, no way,” Dotta groaned. “We’re getting out of here. If the Holy Knights wanna fight and die, that’s their problem.”

“I know, I know. But aren’t you forgetting something? If over half of them die, that means both of you die as well, and who knows what they’ll do after they resurrect you. They might burn you alive all over again for all I know. And that would really hurt…I assume.”

“Ngh…” Dotta wrapped his hands around his head and looked at me. “What should we do, Xylo?”

“Wipe that pathetic expression off your face! What is there to think about?” Teoritta scolded. She must have understood what was going on from Dotta’s whining. She glared at him and stuck her finger right in his face. “There is no need to run away. We must move straight on to our next battlefield. Isn’t that right, my knight?”

“All right, I heard both of your opinions, so could you be quiet for a second?”

I couldn’t gather my thoughts with both of them babbling at me. I took a deep breath and decided to deal with Venetim first.

“Venetim, think you could negotiate some sort of deal for us? It’s the only thing you’re good at, after all.”

“Very well. Give me some time, and I will see what I can do.”

“Hey! Don’t you lie to me. You’d never agree that easily!”