The Goddess’s world of pure white was strewn with shards of broken stone—the shattered and crushed remains of the angels who had once served her, now pulverized until they were nearly reduced to sand.
“To hell with you! To hell with all of you!!!” the Goddess shrieked as her foot came down on an angel’s head. The air filled with a small cloud of rock dust as the angel shattered under the force of her heel. She stomped and stomped, her hair wild and her breath ragged. In her current state, she looked less like a Goddess worthy of human faith than ever before.
The cause of the Goddess’s divine rage, of course, was the crushing defeat she had suffered at the hands of Kanata Aldezia. Or, to be more precise, she had been defeated without ever reaching Kanata herself. Her elite army of knights had been unable to lay a single hand even on the people of Kanata’s homeland. Worse, the effort of creating so many artificial champions had cost her nearly all of her ability to interfere in the world below. And all the while, Kanata had been saving people and providing succor left and right, stealing the faith that rightly belonged to the Goddess herself!
The old scheme of using the magic beasts of the Dark Continent to slaughter humanity for their harvest of souls was no longer possible. With Zag’giel alive and well, and still in possession of the Profession Demon King, there was no chance of an army leaving the borders of the Dark Continent. Indeed, the Goddess no longer had the power to challenge Kanata at all. At this rate, she could expect her strength to continue to decline as long as Kanata remained alive, if not longer. And knowing Kanata, she would undoubtedly live a long, healthy life...
“How could this be happening to me?! To me?!” the Goddess wailed. Smashing the angels had done nothing to alleviate her shame. After all, the Goddess’s angels didn’t speak. No...to recover from an upset like this, she would need to torment some pitiful humans, to see their faces twisted in anguish. With her ability to manifest in the mortal world exhausted, however, even that sport was denied her.
The other three gods were surely aware of what had happened. After all, they had already taken such pains to chastise her for her earlier failures. No doubt they would all be eager to eliminate her, to increase their own portions of souls and faith...
“Damned pests, hiding in the heavens and devouring my souls!” the Goddess spat. After all, it was she who had taken the role of Goddess, raising humanity for the harvest. The other three did no work whatsoever—so why should she give her portion of souls over to the likes of them? This, too, would have never happened if it weren’t for that girl—that bug in her perfect system.
“Damn yooooouuuuu!” she screamed. “Kanata Aldeziaaaaaaaaaa!!!” Everything had been set up perfectly, if only that girl hadn’t come to this world. “I’ll kill her! Yes... That’s what it’s come down to now! I’ll use every last bit of my power to materialize in the physical world, and kill her myself!”
“Well, someone’s in a mood!” came a boy’s voice from behind her. The Goddess turned around to see the god who favored the form of a young boy, perched theatrically atop one of her broken angels.
“S-So...” she said. “You’re here...”
“Yes, well, I apologize for showing myself in uninvited,” the boy said. “But I believe you owe me an apology as well, do you not?”
“I-I haven’t failed yet...” the Goddess protested. “I was on my way to attack the girl myself when you showed up...”
“You might as well not bother, honestly,” the boy said. “Humanity’s faith in you is weakening by the day. You may be a supernal being, but as you are now your power on the ground is far from absolute.”
“I have enough power left to defeat a single human!”
“The whole reason things went this badly is because you were too afraid of that single human to confront her directly in the first place, you know,” the boy said, sighing with exasperation. The Goddess’s face twitched, but her colleague had more to say. “That said, after that battle, I’m more certain than ever. It’s her.”
“Her?” the Goddess asked. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten? Or perhaps you’ve been trying to forget...” the boy said, teasing.
“Just tell me! What do you mean, her?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Other than our present issue, I can think of only one other her who’s ever managed to defy us.”
“You don’t mean...?” the Goddess said. Kanata Aldezia was a monster capable of driving off the gods themselves, but before her there had been someone who had managed to escape their grasp—the most virtuous, most beautiful, and strongest soul thus far in human history. She was to be the finest feast the gods had ever had, and yet...
“Stripped of their mortal bodies and reduced to pure soul, humans have no power whatsoever. In that state, they should be helpless to prevent us from enjoying their succulent essence,” the boy explained. “But one soul somehow managed to get away...”
When the current gods had unseated the native gods of this world and transformed it into a great harvesting ground for human souls, one human woman became aware of what had transpired. Before she died, she made a deal with a god from another world, allowing her soul to escape from this world ruled by soul-eating gods.
“Do you remember what she said?” the boy continued. “When she stood in front of all of us, right before slipping through our fingers?”
The Goddess remembered well enough.
The woman had met their eyes directly before vanishing into the dimensional rift, and said, “In my current state, I am no match for the likes of you. But mark my words, I will be back. I will gain the strength to defeat you, no matter how long it takes.”
It had been a thousand years since she had delivered that declaration.
“It can’t be!” the Goddess exclaimed. “Do you mean to tell me she spent a thousand years gaining power?! A human psyche could never withstand it!”
“Balance is the principle behind all worlds,” said the boy. “Most likely, she spent the past thousand years being reincarnated into one utterly miserable life after the next. She would have spent the time powerless, wretched, utterly victimized, again and again for a millennium. And with each life, her soul would have grown progressively heavier, until she attracted the attention of the otherworld god once again. Or rather...” he corrected himself. “The god in question may have been aware of her plan from the very beginning. They know what we have been doing, after all. We must consider the possibility that they acted as an accomplice in this.”
“But how could one person endure such a hell?” The Goddess balked.
“With each life her memories would have been worn down, until she forgot who she was entirely,” the boy agreed. “And yet, even so, she chose to return here. It’s terrifying. Utterly beyond the scope of common sense. All I can say is, there’s a reason they called her the First Saint...”
Images of that day were filling the Goddess’s mind—images she wanted desperately to forget. That woman prophesied her return as she escaped the reach of the absolute gods. It sent a shiver down her spine. Physically, the black-haired Kanata resembled her in some ways, but not in others. Her unwavering posture, however, made it easy to imagine that they were the same person.
“As she is now, she has the strength to defeat us,” the boy said. “I don’t know if she has her memories or not, but she’s stolen our faith bit by bit, thwarted our harvest, and reduced our strength. No doubt she is simply waiting for an opportunity to attack us directly.”
“In that case, why are we wasting time?!” the Goddess demanded. “Stop acting like this has nothing to do with you and help me! If all four of us work together, surely we can defeat even her!”
“Yes, that is our plan,” the boy said.
For a second, the Goddess’s face lit up, but then he continued.
“You, however, we do not need.”
“Excuse me?” Her expression froze.
“After all of your failures, we’re beginning to think you’re bad luck to have around,” the boy said. “We’ve decided to put you to a better use.”
Rings of light appeared around the Goddess’s wrists and ankles, binding her in place.
“Wh-What are—?!”
“We’ll be putting what’s left of your power to our own use,” the boy told her. “All of us are in agreement on this.”
“D-Don’t be absurd!” the Goddess spat. “Who do you think has been working this whole time on your behalf while you pigs did nothing but stay in the heavens and feast on the souls I prepared?! If you think you can get away with this—”
“Of course we can get away with it,” the boy rejoined. “The three of us have spent the last thousand years preparing ourselves for her return. We’ve even been limiting the amount of souls we consume, to have as many as we can to convert into strength.”
“In other words,” said the god who took the form of an old man, appearing behind the Goddess and placing a hand on her shoulder, “you have not the power to resist us.”
“You’re just about the least appetizing Goddess I’ve ever seen, but I’ll still be glad to devour you,” said the god who took the form of a young girl, licking at the Goddess’s exposed neck.
“Your sacrifice won’t be in vain,” the boy assured her as he placed his hands on the Goddess’s cheeks. “I promise you, we will defeat our enemy.”
“S-Stop it!” the Goddess pleaded. “Noooooo!!!”
Her screams echoed throughout the white realm, accompanied by the sounds of greedy consumption.