Chapter 361
If it were truly an injury or a situation similar to Berserker's, it would be easier to handle, but that's not the case.
In this situation, there really isn't much better way than a direct confrontation.
"Be careful!" Li Pu said. "My current range of perception is at its lowest."
After creating clones, Li Pu discovered another, even more frustrating, drawback: her perception range! The perception ability the system had given her decreased exponentially after creating clones. Not only did the perception range decrease, but the clarity of maps also suffered. Previously, she could perceive things more than two kilometers away from herself as the origin; now, her perception range was only five or six meters away from herself, and even that was barely visible.
The decline can be described as quite significant!
"I don't want to be..." Li Pu was saying when he felt a sharp pain in his chest, and a yellow stick, dripping with blood, emerged from his chest. "Ah, I recognize this thing, it's Lancer's 'Gordian Rose'..."
Lancer! Saber's alarm went off immediately. She switched to combat mode, turned her back, and stood behind Li Pu, facing Lancer, who had somehow infiltrated behind them.
"Lancer!" Saber shouted angrily, "Is this how a knight acts? While we were doing everything we could to rescue the children kidnapped by Caster, you dared to ambush the Foreigners! The code of chivalry is to protect the weak! To protect children! To be fair and just! You..."
Saber was about to continue scolding Lancer when she noticed that Lancer's face was ashen and his right hand, holding the Gáe Dearg, was trembling uncontrollably.
He seemed to be stopping something, or rather, resisting something!
"Your Master?!" Saber instantly understood what was going on and said, "What a shameless and insidious fellow!"
"Stop talking!" Lancer suddenly shouted. "He is, after all, my Master, Saber! Please do not belittle my Master so casually."
"And I'm very sorry for attacking the Goddess. I can't resist the Command Spell Seals for long." Lancer gritted his teeth, each word seeming to burst out slowly. "Please take the Goddess and escape from here as soon as possible. I'm not sure if I can hold on..."
Just as Foreigner had once told him, Lancer's Master had never intended to trust or understand Lancer. After learning of Caster's whereabouts, Kayneth saw this as a golden opportunity! If Lancer could cooperate with Caster to hold off Goddess and Saber, he could directly confront Kiritsugu. Defeating Kiritsugu, Servant of the two Servants without Master, would render them helpless without a fight.
As for the Goddess's strange Noble Phantasm, 'Wish,' it alters reality by granting wishes.
I will absolutely not give her Master the chance to make a wish!
Lancer, of course, strongly opposed this, as Caster had become a public enemy! His behavior was even more despicable to Lancer! He could not tolerate the act of taking a child hostage and using him as a human shield. Lancer naturally believed that they should join forces with Saber and the Goddess to defeat Caster first.
However, Kayneth did not agree. He was too lazy to persuade Lancer to act according to his plan, and only needed to use Command Spell at the crucial moment.
On the surface, he agrees, telling Lancer to go find Saber first, but at the moment they get close, he suddenly uses Command Spell to force an attack...
'My Master...' Lancer was filled with immense sorrow and pain. He was powerless to resist the sudden Command Spell and attacked the Goddess before he could barely control his body and refuse further pursuit.
"Madam, please treat Belldandy first." Saber immediately decided, "I will take care of Lancer."
"Don't waste your energy," Li Pu said weakly. "This is a fatal wound... and the 'Destroying Yellow Rose' carries a curse effect, keeping the injured person in a perpetually wounded state. Your healing spells will be ineffective!"
"This clone won't last more than a few minutes. Saber, you must take Lancer and move away with your wife as soon as possible while Lancer can still resist the Command Spell."
"I'll try to contact them in another way..."
Before he could finish speaking, Li Pu's clone vanished into thin air.
"I'm sorry..." Lancer said, forcing a smile, "Please do it as soon as possible..."
While he can still put up a fight...
On the other side, Li Pu, who had just arrived above Caster, sensed the situation on Saber's side; one of her clones had been killed. The injury was relayed back, and Li Pu was helpless against this sudden attack.
She had no choice but to dismantle all her clones, because the injury was not merely a physical one, but also a cursed wound.
The curse was a perfect match for the Honkai power within her that was being suppressed by divine power, and the combination of the two made Li Pu's situation even worse! She had to use more divine power to temporarily suppress the curse. She couldn't completely remove it, but as long as she could temporarily suppress it and ensure that the wounds were temporarily healed to offset the 'injured state' debuff, that would be fine.
Even so, the consequences of her clone's injury forced her to land prematurely and appear before Caster.
"Oh? Someone I've never seen before." Caster stopped and looked at Li Pu, who had suddenly landed in front of him, with interest. "I think I can smell a bit of a saint's scent on you."
"My name Belldandy! The Goddess who weaves destiny." Li Pu said nothing more.
Already injured, she knew all too well that Lancer wasn't the only one lurking in the shadows; Assassin was also present. She had to finish this quickly! Now that she was injured and cursed, her strength was greatly diminished. If Assassin got involved, her situation would truly be dire.
"Belldandy? The legendary Goddess of Fate?" Caster suddenly went berserk, pointing at Li Pu and hysterically shouting, "My prayers! My cries have gone unanswered! Time and again I have knelt before you, begging for fate to favor my saintess, but you have never heard me! You have watched her tragedy unfold! Now I am about to welcome back my saintess, and you appear before me!"
"I understand! I understand! It must be you! You bewitched my saint!" Caster roared. "How tragic! You ugly and evil Goddess of Fate! Haven't the suffering you've inflicted on my Jeanne been enough?! Now you want to take my Jeanne of Arc and make her your puppet!"
"Ugly fate! Goddess who wove this fate! My saint! You will pay the price for your actions!"
Completely impossible to communicate with! Li Pu had originally hoped that he could use his status as Goddess to buy some time for Saber on the other side, but now it seems that revealing his Goddess status has touched a nerve with this guy!
"Protect, Reject, Restrain!"
Before Caster could make any further moves, Li Pu launched the first attack. To maximize the effect of Divine Art, it's best to combine it with chanting, but time was of the essence; she had to rescue these children as quickly as possible!
Li Pu slammed his staff into the ground, and a spherical protective shield instantly unfolded, enveloping the children.
When the protective shield touched Caster, he felt a burning pain! Just like when he was burned at the stake, he instinctively scrambled away from the deployed shield.
"Bastard! Bastard!" Caster roared hysterically, grabbing his hair. "Damn gods!"
"Wake up, children trapped in nightmares," Li Pu whispered. "In the name of the Goddess, I bless you with peace, health, courage, and optimism!"
The gentle voice, like a mother's blessing to her children before they go to sleep, instantly woke them up. They looked around at the eerie forest, the strangely dressed man, and the beautiful Li Pu, who radiated a motherly warmth and safety, as if they had just woken from a nightmare.
These children instinctively chose what they considered a safe place, and ran to Li Pu's side, hugging her and hiding behind her.
"Damn it! That wretched Goddess!" Caster roared, tearing out a clump of his hair as his plan was about to fail. "I won't give up like this! Give me back my saintess! That wretched Goddess!"
Caster drew his Noble Phantasm, the Prelati's Spellbook, and began to activate the monsters hidden within the children.
'This is bad!' Although Li Pu sensed that her divine power had slowed the appearance of the demons, it couldn't completely eradicate them. Moreover, she was injured and her strength greatly diminished; she still needed to use some of her power to suppress the curse. Was she going to fail here?
Li Pu could sense that the power of these demons was resonating with the Honkai power within her.
If he really summons the monster, not only will he fail to save the child, but he himself will also be in trouble here!
No! She must have other opportunities; she must still have at least one powerful trump card she hasn't revealed! Not the one that will grant her wish!
What is it...?
"That's it! It's an angel!" Li Pu immediately remembered that thing from his My Goddess's concept. Yes, that's it! An angel is basically another incarnation of the Goddess; she is one with Goddess, sharing the same will, characteristics, and thoughts. Moreover, many of the Goddess's Divine Art require the cooperation of angels to complete, so an angel is not simply an incarnation of the Goddess, but rather, in a broader sense, another reflection of the Goddess.
The combat power that can be exerted with the cooperation of angels is greater than 1+1>2, so I should also have angels.
Yes, definitely! Theoretically, only Goddess who have eaten angel eggs should have them. I haven't eaten that stuff, so I shouldn't have angels. But the problem is that this character is Belldandy, and all the prerequisites for me to use various Divine Art as Goddess have been set by Belldandy.
Yes, I've mentioned it before! Li Pu remembers that in the setting of "My Goddess" Belldandy has a setting that has never been mentioned.
She's a certification maniac! She's passed almost every certification exam available in the celestial realm, and Belldandy has even consumed an angel's egg.
Theoretically speaking, I could do it myself.
Summon! Summon! Now I have no choice but to take a gamble and see if I can summon an angel!
Summon the angels!
Li Pu temporarily reduced the suppression of the curse, and the negative effects immediately followed. She felt a tearing pain in her heart! But there was no other way; she had to grit her teeth and persevere!
Increase the output of external forces to delay the formation of those monsters!
Li Pu closed his eyes and calmed himself down.
Summoning an angel isn't difficult. The first key is consuming an angel's egg, and the second is engaging in dialogue. Angels and Zanpakuto (Zanpakuto) are quite similar in nature.
They all have their own names, and knowing their names is the second step in summoning them.
If I could summon angels myself... summon my own angel...
If things had gone according to plan, everything should have fallen into place naturally, and the only thing I needed to do was...
It's just one thing: let go of past obsessions, let go of past identities, and completely abandon that past self. From the moment I summoned the angel, I am no longer Li Pu one playing the role of the Goddess.
Just as she realized in that world, she was no longer the person she used to be, nor was she the Belldandy she was playing.
I am...
Battle Goddess!
"Come out, my angel!"
Chapter Eighteen: Wings of the Goddess
"Come out, my angel!"
The quantity of divine power did not increase exponentially, but its quality more than doubled! Li Pu opened her eyes, and when she looked up, she saw her angel. She placed her hands on her shoulders, lowered her head, and looked at her with a gentle, motherly smile.
"Nice to meet you, my name is Belldandy," Li Pu said in a voice only the two of them could hear. "Gaia."
The angel is another Goddess, a manifestation of the Goddess's will, characteristics, and thoughts. And her angel was something even Li Pu himself hadn't anticipated; she seemed to reflect another characteristic Li Pu hadn't paid much attention to: 'motherhood'. Based on the 'motherhood' characteristic, she combined Belldandy's 'healing' characteristic with Vivian's, or one could say Li Pu's own 'combat' characteristic.
This angel was surrounded by water, with many pea-like seeds scattered around her. What set her apart from other angels was the thick headband with intricate carvings, her half-length sleeveless armor, and the silver-edged, gold-patterned gauntlets on each arm.
She appears gentle and beautiful, but at the same time she is sacred, brave, and inviolable.
Li Pu didn't hear Gaia's reply, but when their eyes met, she seemed to hear Gaia's voice as well. Gaia was greeting her, telling her name again, and expressing the joy and honor of fighting alongside her.
At this moment, Li Pu's mind was suddenly filled with more knowledge and things, some of which belonged to Belldandy and some of which seemed to have been brought by Gaia.
With these items, Li Pu was even more confident. He waved his cane lightly and said, "Demons, begone!"
Countless water droplets rose from the ground. As if they were alive, they burrowed into the children's bare feet and into their clothes, darting around on their bodies and making the children laugh and giggle, as if they had forgotten the pain of the monster about to burst out of their bodies.
Yes, they really need to forget the pain and the nightmares. Now they only need to remember this dreamlike illusion and the warm, spring-like water droplets that are healing their wounds and taking away the monsters.
As the water droplets emerged from the back of the children's necks, the tentacles that Caster had implanted beforehand were uprooted and rose into the sky along with the water droplets.
It flew high and then turned into a firework and disappeared into the sky.
"Damn Goddess! Damn Goddess!" Caster screamed hysterically, frantically urging the magic book in his hand to summon more monsters to attack Li Pu!
"The farce is over." Li Pu clasped her hands together, and the divine staff disappeared from her grasp. When she opened her arms again as if embracing everything, the divine power spread even further throughout the entire forest.
"Dispel, heal, rebirth, hope." She murmured softly, "The Song of the Goddess."
The Song of the Goddess is no ordinary song. To outsiders, it sounds more like a wordless chant following a melody. But in reality, the Goddess's Divine Art uses the song to change the frequency of the spell, executing the shortcut commands of the spell formula, so not a single note can be sung wrong.
This was the first time Li Pu had truly used the Song of the Goddess, and she dared not sing it wrong, as doing so might produce some unexpected effects.
As Li Pu sang, whether it was due to Caster's prior preparation or the eerie atmosphere inherent in Einzbern Castle itself, the mist surrounding the forest dissipated, and moonlight shone on the earth through the gaps between the leaves.
The birds sang along with the Goddess's voice, and the fireflies that had been hiding all flew out and danced in the forest.
The sounds of the stream and the wind become light and melodious, making one feel relaxed and happy.
The tentacles summoned by Caster rapidly withered, decayed, and disappeared. Caster covered his ears and screamed in agony! His screams seemed to be the only discordant element in the room.
Li Pu stopped, and shook her head as she looked at Caster, who was kneeling on the ground, clutching her hair in a frantic and miserable state.
Even as an enemy, his pitiful state is still heartbreaking.
Li Pu was about to walk over, but she was stopped by a child beside her after taking only one step. She looked at the child with a puzzled expression.
"Goddess, don't go over there!" "That guy is a bad person!" "We absolutely cannot allow him to hurt Goddess!"
Whether it was because of the previous blessings or because their fear had been dispelled, these children actually stood in front of Li Pu, as if they were trying their best to protect the Goddess.
"Ah..." Li Pu looked a little dumbfounded. She could only say, half comforting and half advising, "The children are okay. He couldn't possibly hurt me."
"Children, taking his life would be as easy as turning my hand. The real difficulty is getting him to confess his crimes and reform," Li Pu said earnestly. "I am the Goddess of Fate Belldandy. My duty is to advise those who have made mistakes, to urge them to confess their crimes, confess their crimes, and reform. For forgiveness, pardon, and the willingness to give them a chance to reform—isn't that what Goddess should do?"
Although Li Pu felt it would be more appropriate to kill Caster directly at this time, and that the place where this guy with his hands covered in the blood of innocent children should go was hell, her angel Gaia still advised Li Pu to give it a try, as a Goddess, to guide and save those who have gone astray and fallen into the abyss.
Of course, if there's really no cure, just kill him.
"Gaia, as another version of myself, you're being a bit too saintly," Li Pu said.
'Don't forget you are Goddess, a Goddess who represents fairness and justice and holds sway over the judiciary. Only when you try to forgive will you know who can be forgiven.' These were Gaia's words, but they didn't sound like a dialogue; rather, they seemed like a thought or a message that entered Li Pu's mind directly.
"I understand." Li Pu walked towards Caster.
With each step she took, she left a silvery trail. She walked slowly and leisurely toward Caster.
"Don't come any closer!" Caster shouted, scrambling backward as if he were terrified of something, not so much of Goddess, but something else entirely.
"Damn Goddess! Damn Goddess! One day I will take revenge on you! On you ugly gods! For my holy maiden!"
"For my chaste saint!"
He roared as his figure transformed into a speck of light and vanished into thin air.
'This guy...' Li Pu stopped in his tracks, thinking to himself, 'Does he really deserve to be saved or forgiven?'
"That's hard to say," Gaia said. "Haven't you noticed? He's not actually afraid of us; he's afraid of redemption. Perhaps for him, salvation is the cruelest punishment."
'Okay...' Li Pu felt she could understand Gaia's logic, and then asked, 'By the way, can the curse brought by the Destroyed Gáe Buidhe be cured?'