Chapter 46
Pew!
“Ugh!”
Another beam pierced my body.
A single ray of light erased half of me.
His power, becoming increasingly refined and potent.
He was getting used to manipulating Divinity.
Woooong-
I regenerated my body again.
My left half, incinerated by the Research Director's beam, returned as it was.
“Persistent, aren't you?”
He stood above, looking down at me haughtily.
“I told you. I’m immortal.”
“Hmph. For someone immortal, your regeneration seems slower than at first.”
He seems to be mistaken about something.
“So it was true. Even if you can't die, regeneration is a different story. It consumes Divine Power to return to a complete body. And the more it's consumed, the slower the regeneration becomes.”
He twisted his lips into a smirk.
“I'll devour you when your regeneration reaches its limit.”
He said so and fired beams.
Boom! Boom!
I erected numerous barriers, blocking the Research Director's beams.
“You seem to be trying to stall for time, but you won't succeed!”
Boom- Boom- Boom- Boom-!
Beams poured down like a torrent of light.
The barriers created by my imagination were also starting to reach their limit.
“It takes more than a day for the Divinity within me to be depleted! Plenty of time to absorb you!”
Pew!
Finally, a beam pierced through the barrier and reached me.
His smile deepened.
This guy.
Doesn't he think I could just disrupt the dream world and run away?
If I just leave, you'll die a meaningless death.
If I escape, there's no chance of being absorbed.
But if I do that, the Goddess of Wisdom can't shake off her past and awaken.
This was the only chance.
Lady Constellation… it’s urgent.
Please hurry up.
When will this be done?
It didn’t fail, did it？
Then-.
Bababababang-
A powerful explosion resonated from the Ground below.
……Done!
“……Impossible.”
His face hardened.
Having absorbed all of the Goddess of Wisdom’s Divine Power, he should also know.
What just happened down there.
“It can’t be. That bitch doesn’t have a shred of Divinity left.”
He denied reality, as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Ah, yes. There wasn’t a single shred of Divinity left.”
A mass of Divinity soared rapidly from the Ground towards us.
“But if she awakens her own Divinity, it's a different story.”
His face froze in shock.
He, who ascended to Divinity through underhanded methods, sacrificing countless lives because it was impossible to achieve Divinity on his own.
That's why he couldn’t accept it.
“That’s preposterous! That bitch, doing what even I couldn’t! Such a thing is impossible!”
This contradictory guy, a bundle of superiority and inferiority complex.
“I am the God of Wisdom! I’m the true pinnacle of intellect, a different class from vermin like you!”
Enraged, he raised both hands.
Thousands of light sources, created solely for destruction, materialized in the air.
As if proving that his previous attacks during our battle were fuel-efficient driving to slow the consumption of his Divinity, he burned his Divinity, preparing to unleash an attack of a different caliber.
But.
“You’re wrong.”
Woooong-
All those light sources were erased in an instant.
“You are not the God of Wisdom.”
A Girl, radiating a brilliant violet light, stood before me.
“Wisdom is to understand all things intellectually and to align one's thoughts and actions accordingly. You, who forcibly distorts your surroundings to suit yourself, can never be the God of Wisdom.”
“……You’ve regained it, Princess.”
The Girl, who had been imprisoned and suffered for hundreds of years, achieved her own awakening.
The true Goddess of Wisdom, who embraced everything within her and was reborn as the Goddess of Wisdom.
“Prince. Thank you.”
She gave me a sidelong glance.
“To die countless times for me. How much it must have hurt.”
It didn't hurt because it was a dream.
“I can take this as a love confession, right? You crossed the line first, Prince. You’re in for it later. I’ll show you all hundreds of my Goddess of Wisdom special skills.”
……Huh?
My brain overloaded, unable to keep up with her words.
“You, you bitch!!!!!”
Sizzle-
The Research Director, engulfed in flames of Divinity, roared.
“I won’t accept it! A lowly, stupid bitch like you couldn't possibly have achieved Divinity on your own! There must be some trickery!!”
Knowing more than anyone about the formation of Divinity, he denied it.
He couldn't accept that a mere test subject, whom he had so despised, had accomplished what he couldn't.
It would be a denial of everything he had pursued for so long.
“You dare interfere with this body's thousand-year plan! I'll incinerate you both with God's fire!”
He raised both hands.
The flames gathered, forming the shape of a sun.
He held aloft the gigantic sphere of the sun with both hands.
“Burning even the Core at the center of his Divinity. Has his rage paralyzed his reason?”
Divinity can persist even if sacrificed, by absorbing other Divinity.
However, the Core of Divinity is the very Concept of existence.
If the Core is burned, his annihilation is certain.
“It doesn’t matter! I'll just incinerate and devour you all here!”
Even if he wins and devours others, he will be annihilated.
He's crossed a river of no return.
“Ugh.”
The Goddess of Wisdom focused, reaching out towards the Research Director’s sun, but it wouldn't budge.
“……He’s too strong.”
A final attack, wagering annihilation.
It was an immense power that even she, who had awakened as a complete God, could not block.
Then.
“Princess. Can I have your hand?”
“P-Prince?”
I took her hand and interlocked our fingers.
“Wh-Whoa! I-In, In such a dangerous moment, having such a lovey-dovey scene is, is romantic, but it's also, how should I say, dangerous, and we don't have time for this...b-but if it's with you, Prince, I don't mind dying...a, and I never thought your hand would be this warm and soft, so, so that…….”
She began rambling, spilling out a torrent of words.
Well, she had been locked up in a room for so long, unable to even come out, so it might be difficult for her to have a proper conversation.
Especially now, after overcoming all those hardships and ascending to Divinity.
“I’m sorry, Princess. We don’t have time.”
Lady Constellation. Please.
[Dream Storyteller puffs up her cheeks with a pout, displeased.]
[Dream Storyteller replies that she will only do it because it's for her precious Apostle.]
Woooowoong-
The remaining Divine Power of Lady Constellation gathers within me.
[Dream Storyteller, depleted of Divinity, falls into a temporary slumber.]
Thank you always.
After bidding farewell to the sleeping Lady Constellation, I looked at the Goddess of Wisdom.
“Princess.”
“W-Whoa!”
Why is her reaction so intense?
She’s become cool and collected after achieving Divinity, but her behavior is a bit off.
“Let’s blow him away together.”
“Huh?”
“My imagination, and your Wisdom, becoming one.”
“Wo, becoming one with Prince……! Haaawoo……”
She seemed a little out of it, making me wonder if I could trust her, but she was all I had right now.
Bwaaaaaaam-
An intense power surged around us, hand in hand.
“A last-ditch effort?! It’s useless! Nothing can stop my sun! I alone am the pinnacle!”
The sphere of annihilation hurtled towards us.
“No.”
My imagination has limits.
Fragmented imagination, knowing only the Concept, without knowing the actual structure or principles.
But it changes when combined with the Divine Power of Wisdom.
The Goddess of Wisdom, who embodies everything down to the last detail.
That power takes form.
“It’s higher.”
I pointed my finger upwards.
“……What!”
Above the sky.
Beyond the atmosphere.
A mighty power coalesces.
“Prince's magnificent imagination! It’s so amazing!”
“……Please save those words for later, Princess. You're breaking my concentration.”
I conceived it.
And the Goddess of Wisdom completed it, a weapon of destruction that even mocks Gods.
Our greatest collaboration.
Satellite Cannon.
Ἴκαρος [1]
“I-Impossible! An attack higher than my sun?!”
“Go! The fruit of our love, born of Prince and me!!!”
Boooom!
From an altitude surpassing even the sun created by the Research Director.
A spear of light, launched by us, descends from space.
“It can’t be… It can’t be!!!!”
Crushing the arrogant monument he created.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Ah, I found him!”
The Goddess of Wisdom, rummaging through the debris of the buildings, picked up a wriggling piece of charcoal.
“He’s still alive, thankfully.”
He’s still alive？
This guy's really tough.
She smiled brightly, as if happy that the Research Director was still alive.
“What are you going to do with him?”
Having witnessed her entire life, I saw all the Misdeeds the Research Director committed.
The suffering she endured because of him was immeasurable.
Throwing him into the Weekly Boss type might not be enough.
“Prince.”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever heard of Personality Jelly？”
……Huh? What jelly?
[1] Icarus in Greek.