Part 2
Lilyxila
WHENEVER LILYXILA asked the “Voice of the Holy God” about the six Great Sages and the evil god Fallen, she got the same response.
Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 4 is unable to provide that explanation.
She didn’t know if that meant the voice was unable to tell her or if it was intentionally withholding the information. However, after she pestered it with a bunch of tangential questions about the six Great Sages, the voice finally caved and gave her a single answer.
They are a bunch of fools who fear and despise Fallen without knowing anything about it. You will never see the truth for what it is either. I am going to use Fallen to exact revenge on the other Great Sages, along with the entire world. And you are to be my sacrifice for that purpose.
The voice of the Holy God sounded completely different than usual. It had always answered Lilyxila’s questions flatly and emotionlessly, but this time, a fierce hatred burned in its voice.
The first time Lilyxila heard that hatred, she was ten years old. From that time on, she began to wonder if the revered voice of the Holy God that her entire country worshipped might not have been as virtuous an entity as they were all led to believe.
But by then, Lilyxila had already come to rely on the voice of the Holy God and its prophecies about the future for a majority of her decisions. In turn, the country began to rely on Lilyxila and the voice of the Holy God in her ear, meaning they entrusted her with many decisions regarding national politics. No matter the suspicions Lilyxila carried about the voice of the Holy God, she couldn’t avoid continuing to rely on it.
Over time, the voice of the Holy God began to issue orders to Lilyxila that became more and more disturbing. She was forced to send Holy Knights to other countries and intimidate them into agreeing to treaties that heavily favored the Holy Land. It even occasionally forced her to declare war against a few smaller countries.
It wasn’t long before Lilyxila’s hands were stained with the blood of both her foes and her countrymen.
By this time, Alphis had fulfilled her vow to become a Holy Knight and joined the saint’s forces. But Lilyxila’s words and actions gradually became more and more twisted due to the Holy God’s influence. As an upstanding and honest knight, Alphis found it increasingly difficult to obey Lilyxila’s orders.
Even so, Lilyxila kept Alphis at her side. Many of her troops wondered what made the blonde knight with the short hair so special. But Lilyxila believed Alphis’s straightforward and honest nature would deter her from taking drastic actions before she did something she would regret.
By then, Lilyxila had retreated deep into herself and refused to show any weakness or true emotion to anyone, including Alphis. Even so, she found herself more at ease when Alphis was around.
Because they thought so differently, Lilyxila often found herself butting heads with Alphis—but not because she was a willing target for her frustrations. Rather than employing someone who would carry out an immoral task without question, she would rather entrust her orders to someone who would carry it out under the guidance of their own moral compass.
At the same time, this made Lilyxila believe that Alphis’s naive nature needed to be corrected. While she liked her kind personality, she did not want a softhearted, gullible knight as her closest confidant.
Seven years passed, and the two of them remained in this predicament. Then a major event occurred that changed the course of Lilyxila’s life.
I’m shocked. Did you really think you could outsmart me? I chose not to interfere more than I needed to because I wanted to respect your wishes as much as possible. But it seems like that’s causing too much trouble, so I’m changing tactics. You should know that you have no choice but to comply with my orders to the best of your ability. If you’re planning some kind of petty rebellion, then I need to make you understand why that is a foolish choice.
Kill Illusia. If you lose your battle for his Sacred Skill, then I’ll turn my Spirit Servants against your Holy Land and raze it to the ground.
The voice of the Holy God reached out to her around the time she allied herself with the Ouroboros Illusia and set out to defeat the Demon King slime. Fortunately for her, Illusia was a reasonable conversation partner. She thought that by joining forces with him, she’d be able to outwit the voice’s plans. That was when the voice of the Holy God began to threaten her.
However, Lilyxila knew that when push came to shove, the voice of the Holy God would force her to fight for the Sacred Skills without any pretense. To prepare for this, she set up a trap for Illusia during the battle with the slime in case she was forced to betray him.
“Forgive me, kind dragon,” Lilyxila murmured, standing alone in the cathedral. She could no longer let anyone know her true feelings. She was stained with far too much blood.
Because it was difficult to relay information about the voice of the Holy God to Alphis, she rarely ever let herself show her true emotions to her anymore. And by staying silent, she felt like she was excusing her own brutality, which made her feel even worse.
Thus, Lilyxila trapped Illusia in a battle with the Demon King slime in an attempt to kill him. Her plan was unsuccessful, but only just; the wounded Illusia was forced to flee the city.
After her forces had regrouped, Lilyxila hashed out a new plan, gathered the necessary forces, and set out to the East to face Illusia in the Strange Lands.
The battle she faced there was more brutal and intense than any she’d experienced before. The Holy Knights, their ranks filled with faces and names Lilyxila knew personally, were killed one after the other.
At the end of the battle, Lilyxila used Metamorphosis to transform into the Legendary monster Holy Naga. By this point, she knew that tens of thousands of lives had been sacrificed for her cause. In comparison, changing her form from human to monster was a cheap price to pay.
If anything about transforming into a monster worried her at all, it was the fact that she would be transforming into a Legendary monster. The voice of the Holy God said it was always hoping for the birth of another Legendary monster. Lilyxila had wanted to defeat Illusia without using Metamorphosis if she could, but that option quickly disappeared in the face of her Oneiros foe.
And then, at the very end of their long fight, Alphis showed up to try and back her up. She knew it was hardly out of character for Alphis to come to her aid, even if she knew this battle was far above her abilities. But Lilyxila wanted to get Alphis as far away from this conflict as possible, no matter the cost.
Before she could, though, her worst fears came true.
‹Next time, that claw’s coming for you. You’re no match for me. Stay out of this.› Illusia deliberately missed striking Alphis and threatened her instead, wasting precious magic to save her from a meaningless fate. But Lilyxila, after sacrificing tens of thousands of lives, could not spare Alphis just because the two of them were friends.
“Just as I thought. You really are far too naive for your own good,” Lilyxila said, laughing with rage. But her comment wasn’t directed at Alphis—it was at herself.
Alphis lost her life in that battle. And she was killed by Lilyxila’s hand. After going so far in pursuit of her goals, Lilyxila was defeated.
She lay on the ground in front of Illusia, no longer able to move her body properly.
‹Well, it doesn’t look like you’ll be able to put up a fight anymore,› Illusia said.
“Ahh… I see. I’ve…lost, haven’t I?” Tears began to well up behind her eyes, as though she were someone entirely different from the stone-faced woman Illusia faced moments before.
“May I…ask something selfish of you?” Lilyxila rasped.
‹What?›
“Alphis. Please bring her…to my side.”
Illusia, being the good-natured dragon he was, brought Alphis’s body over to her from where she’d fallen a little distance away, and laid her next to Lilyxila’s still frame.
Lilyxila looked over at Alphis. Despite the harsh fall, her body was curiously undamaged. She was covered in blood, but her face was intact and familiar, and her limbs were not shredded beyond recognition.
It was then that Lilyxila’s tears spilled over. “…I’m so sorry, Alphis.” She put a hand on Alphis’s cheek. For the first time in a very long time, her words and actions toward her loyal retainer were completely genuine. Memories of their childhood together flowed through her mind one by one as she gazed at Alphis’s face, trying to etch every detail into her mind.
‹Maybe…I’m a fool for doing so, but I’m going to trust you one last time. So stay right there and don’t move. I’ll be back after I stop the fight.› Illusia said to Lilyxila.
“You really are a big softie, aren’t you? You and Alphis were more alike than you think… Do not…let everything go its way. You are valuable to it now. Use that to your advantage.”
The conversation between them ended, and Illusia flew away. But by the time Lilyxila responded, she’d already made up her mind about her next move.
She’d given everything for her cause. There was nothing left for Lilyxila in this world. She’d prepared the means to defeat Illusia at great cost to herself, and this was the result: wasting the lives of countless soldiers, and sacrificing all that she had, for nothing. As the general who led her soldiers to defeat, she needed to take responsibility. Lilyxila gathered the last of her remaining magic for one final spell.
“…Gravirion.”
A translucent black cube appeared around Lilyxila. On the other side of it, she saw Alphis’s peaceful face. It was at that moment that she remembered the words of her childhood self.
“You know, I’ve never felt like I had a real reason to fulfill my purpose before now. I was tasked with protecting Lialum’s citizens, but…I don’t know anything about them. So when I get older, I think I’d like to travel across the Holy Land and meet them. But…I don’t know when I’ll get the chance. So until I do, I’ll do my best to protect the people that my dear Alphis wants to keep safe.”
Those were the words her young self had said to Alphis on that fateful day.
“Ah…I see now,” Lilyxila said in a small voice. “The one person I truly wished to protect…was you, Alphis.”
Then the black light of the Gravirion cube contracted, crushing Lilyxila’s weakened body between their walls in an instant.