Heart of the Corrupted Skadi Descended Upon the Sea
Kal'tsit found herself at a loss for words.
It was not because her CPU had overloaded, but because reality was simply too absurd.
Just minutes ago, she had exchanged crucial intelligence with another version of herself and learned that she still had two years to deal with the coming apocalypse.
During those few minutes, Kal'tsit had been frantically brainstorming ways to save the world, thinking of how to avoid repeating the same mistakes and being wiped out by the Sea Creatures again—
Then Heart of the Corrupted Skadi said, "I'll call them home for dinner," and... that solved it?
It made the Sea Creatures' destruction of the world seem like a joke. And those who had been destroyed by the Sea Creatures were an even bigger joke within that joke.
"Hakimi, why are you always so hung up on the Sea Creatures? This Worldline was an extremely low-probability event to begin with. It could have been completely avoided."
Kal'tsit and Savior Kal'tsit turned to look.
They saw Chen Ran, who had already settled Yelagund down, walking toward them.
The moment Chen Ran finished speaking, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi, who had been tugging on his little finger the whole time, said, "Lord God, you said Hakimi isn't a cat."
"Oh? Red T, you know how to tear me down now? Weren't you the one who used to sing 'Hakimi, Hakimi' the most enthusiastically?"
Chen Ran poked Heart of the Corrupted Skadi's little head with his other hand.
Then he looked up at Savior Kal'tsit, who was hiding the 'Holy Sword' in her hand behind her back.
"Forget it. What was I saying just now? Oh, right. So instead of dwelling on this, Hakimi, you should be worrying about those highly probable events."
"For example—some Terrans might slap their clever little heads and go, 'Hey! I have an idea. Since we're worshipping a god, shouldn't we have some sacrificial rituals? What should we sacrifice... Let's sacrifice a person!'"
Human sacrifice, huh?
As he spoke, Chen Ran pointed at Yelagund, who was sleeping soundly nearby. "I'm not making this up. Human sacrifice is recorded in great detail in the chronicles of the Yergland Church."
Siracusa was isolated from the rest of the world, tucked away deep in the mountains and forests, and it had also deliberately shut itself off from outsiders.
So compared to those humanoid creatures outside, Siracusa could be considered fairly simple and honest.
Yet even so, Siracusa had still managed to conclude that Yelagund had abandoned them just because she had gone to sleep.
So, in order to call Yelagund back and make their god reveal herself once more—
Siracusa came up with the brilliant idea of sacrificing one saintess every year, and kept it up for a full hundred years.
Who knew whether Yelagund had been scared senseless when she woke up and found a hundred corpses piled around her?
Anyway, according to the official historical records, Yelagund had never dared to close her eyes again after that.
"So, Hakimi."
Chen Ran pointed at the Demon King Rabbit in the distance, happily eating a little cake. "If those Terrans really start doing human sacrifices, I won't say how I'd react. But that little rabbit... she'll definitely let you know why she's called the Demon King Rabbit."
Kal'tsit: "... ..."
Seeing Kal'tsit's face darken immediately, clearly having taken his words to heart, Chen Ran nodded in satisfaction. He then looked at Heart of the Corrupted Skadi, who had been fiddling with his little finger since earlier. "All right, all right. Red T, where are those Sea Creatures you mentioned? Let me have a look."
... ... ...
... ...
Terra, on the normal Worldline.
All the nations of Terra had now fallen into a strange silence.
Several days had passed since the incident of the god's appearance.
Yet every country had been remarkably well-behaved—oh, except Kazdel.
Every Sarkaz had seen the black crown above the Demon King Rabbit's head. It was the mark of their Demon King, just like Theresia before her.
So the Sarkaz cheered. They believed the Demon King Rabbit was their king, that she stood on their side, and that their victory was assured.
The other nations of Terra were behaving themselves for the same reason: the Demon King Rabbit.
They did not know what kind of power that god possessed, but the Demon King Rabbit's hand-crafted meteor was undeniably real.
With no exchange of benefits and no change in status involved, the upper echelons of Terra's nations had not done anything stupid this time.
And before they could figure out the exact relationship between the Amiya of their Worldline and that Demon King Rabbit, Rhodes Island, being at the center of everyone's attention, was instead the safest place to be.
Laterano, as the largest religious nation, seemed to have developed a tiny problem with its faith after the god's appearance.
Meanwhile, the Reunion Movement—
After clarity returned to Talulah's eyes, she immediately learned everything that had happened during this time and began reorganizing the movement internally.
The first matter addressed during that reorganization was FrostNova hanging Talulah up and whipping her.
Such days had continued for several days. Most people were enjoying this rare peace.
But a small number of people understood clearly that if the Kal'tsit taken away by the god did not return soon, the once-obedient nations of Terra would gradually reveal their true natures again as time passed.
Because the god had appeared, but had only watched.
Although the Demon King Rabbit had drawn her blade, she had only killed a few people.
Only a few people, right?
That was far too kind.
And precisely because of that kindness, while the nations of Terra did not dare act openly, they would certainly begin secretly testing the god's bottom line, step by step.
Unfortunately for them, Kal'tsit did not make them wait long before returning in spectacular fashion.
A beam of holy light fell from the sky, and Kal'tsit descended from above—there was no way for the nations of Terra not to notice such a sight.
Then, just as the nations of Terra waited quietly to see whether Kal'tsit had become a Divine Messenger or brought back some divine decree—
"No human sacrifices."
That was the first message to emerge from Rhodes Island.
The nations of Terra were dumbfounded.
No human sacrifices? Whose order was that? Kal'tsit's, or Lord God's?
If they could not perform human sacrifices, how were they supposed to offer holy men and holy women to Lord God and thereby secure their own positions... No, no, how were they supposed to better serve Lord God?
"Divine Messenger Amiya forbids it."
That was the second message to emerge from Rhodes Island.
Oh. Then it was fine.
Once they learned that the Amiya of their Worldline had countless connections with that Demon King Rabbit—
Detailed information on Amiya's life and history was placed on the desks of every nation's upper echelon that very day.
Although several incidents were vaguely described, they could still make a judgment.
With Amiya's innocent, kind, and gentle nature, she indeed seemed unable to tolerate something like human sacrifice.
Then it seemed that the Demon King Rabbit held no small place in Lord God's heart.
With no other choice, the nations of Terra had to seek another method, hoping to find out what they needed to offer in exchange for greater benefits from the god—
Heart of the Corrupted Skadi descended upon the sea.
Why Are There Two Isabellas?
The reason the word "descended" was used was because Heart of the Corrupted Skadi had not entered the world in the ordinary human-sized form that the Demon King Rabbit had.
Heart of the Corrupted Skadi descended from the stars onto the sea in a colossal form as imposing as a towering mountain.
From afar, it looked as though Yelagund, who stood several thousand meters tall and stretched for hundreds of kilometers, had been flipped upside down and placed over the ocean.
It also looked like a Planet Godzilla with a gender-swap mod had taken flight.
The good news was that Heart of the Corrupted Skadi could fly, so she did not fall directly into the ocean and trigger an apocalyptic flood across all of Terra the moment she descended.
The bad news was that Heart of the Corrupted Skadi was simply too enormous. Even the waves stirred by the slightest movement of her hands and feet forced the coastal nation of Iberia to issue emergency evacuation warnings.
Iberia might become the first nation to be innocently flooded to death just because Little Orca wanted to take a bath, jumped into a water-filled bathtub, and made all the water spill out at once.
But the nations of Terra did not care about such trivial matters.
With the Demon King Rabbit as precedent, upon seeing Heart of the Corrupted Skadi's massive body, Terrans did not even need to guess to know that she was another Divine Messenger.
But the Demon King Rabbit had appeared to pass judgment. What, then, had Heart of the Corrupted Skadi descended for?
As the nations of Terra waited quietly, several people across this land had already offered differing opinions.
"Is that... Skadi? Did she become a Divine Messenger too? As expected of one of my team members. Well done." This was Ulpian, captain of the Abyssal Hunters' Third Squad.
"An orca from the Third Squad? What exactly is Ulpian doing? Can't she even look after her own team member properly?" This was Gor_etia, captain of the Abyssal Hunters' Second Squad.
"Is that me? What did I eat to grow that huge?" This was Skadi of this Worldline.
Heart of the Corrupted Skadi knew nothing of their opinions.
The reason she had chosen to descend in such a huge form was because she remembered that when Lord God had taken the Sea Creatures to the Gourmet Planet, he had also scooped up huge handfuls of them with both hands.
Being big was nice. She did not have to painstakingly notify them one by one that it was time to eat.
So Heart of the Corrupted Skadi ignored the Terrans whose gazes had gathered upon her.
Heart of the Corrupted Skadi merely pressed her hands together, closed her eyes, and sang softly, "Hakimi—ah, no... this isn't that song."
Everyone on Terra: "?"
Kal'tsit, far away on Rhodes Island: "?"
The people of Terra were confused because they could not understand her.
They had originally been trembling in fear, worried that Heart of the Corrupted Skadi would sound the horn of doomsday the moment she opened her mouth. Why had she stopped right after starting?
Was she going to keep singing or not?
As for Kal'tsit... well, she was confused precisely because she understood.
But Heart of the Corrupted Skadi was not affected. She merely tilted her little head and thought for a long time before suddenly remembering.
She was not supposed to sing "Hakimi." She was supposed to sing "Under Tides."
That was right, the song she always competed with the background BGM to sing whenever she was deployed.
So Heart of the Corrupted Skadi closed her eyes again, pressed her hands together, and sang softly.
It was like the whisper of a siren, and like the mournful cry of an orca, but ultimately, all those notes converged into one—
The call of The Great Swarm.
Heart of the Corrupted Skadi's song spread across the land and reached the depths of the sea, nearly causing a phenomenon on the same scale as the Great Silence—
Starlight shimmered.
From the sea and from the land, countless specks of light began to rise and gather in Heart of the Corrupted Skadi's direction.
The sight was incomparably beautiful, beautiful enough to remain unforgettable for a lifetime.
Because anyone who focused closely on those lights would discover that the countless points of light were actually individual Sea Creatures.
And so, one, two, three...
Merely by watching, merely by understanding, the number of Sea Creatures in The Great Swarm began multiplying rapidly at that moment.
The nations of Terra finally realized that something was wrong.
Their leaders ordered the people not to listen, not to look, not to understand, and especially not to answer that bewitching call.
But it was useless. The number of Sea Creatures continued to grow.
As Heart of the Corrupted Skadi sang, more and more starlight gathered around her, like a veil of stars draped over her in the night. It gave her a sacred, warm radiance entirely unlike the Demon King Rabbit's hazy mystery.
"Isabella!"
"Isabella!"
"Isabella!"
The Sea Creatures chattered noisily. They had heard Isabella's call, they had come at her summons, they gathered around Heart of the Corrupted Skadi like children being picked up by their parents after school.
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