No, How Can an Atheist Become a Saintess!?

No, How Can an Atheist Become a Saintess!? – 55

EP.55

Chapter 5

Belief and Reality (7)

“Alright. I understand.”

In this situation, Ria accepted my words with surprising ease.

And with those words, my mind suddenly froze.

“Wait, you understand?”

“Yeah. You said we need to stop it, right?”

Ria said this as she swiftly mounted her motorcycle again.

“Magic has a way of affecting devices—”

“I know. It can cause malfunctions. But it’ll be fine. At least for a one-way trip. This vehicle was specifically designed for such purposes. It’s somewhat shielded from magic.”

However, we wouldn’t be able to return once we went.

With the situation like this, the electronics might hold up for the journey there, just as Ria said, but they would inevitably fail once we got closer.

It’s like pushing electronics into an area with intense radiation. Depending on the shielding, it might withstand some of it, but if the radiation is too strong, the circuits will fail and cut out.

“……”

I stared blankly at Ria for a moment.

Right. I had said it. We needed to stop it.

Even though I said that, I honestly didn’t know much myself.

I still didn’t know what kind of being we were up against, how the divine power was detected, or how the saintess was brought here. I had only read up to the beginning of that part of the story.

But even if I knew, would I have been able to tell Ria?

No, more than that, I hadn’t said anything like that.

People in this world might question it. They might think that stopping the gate would solve everything or that we hadn’t reached that point yet.

It felt as though Ria completely trusted my words.

“What are you doing? Get on. Didn’t you say this was urgent?”

“It is urgent, but…”

If we left it alone, trouble would definitely follow. That mass of magic would only grow larger over time and eventually become a massive problem.

Ria stared at me for a moment, then spoke.

“Why, don’t you trust me?”

“No, it’s not that—”

“How far do you trust me?”

“……”

I didn’t immediately have an answer.

I… trust that Ria would willingly save my life, no matter the circumstances.

But that’s not because I know her that deeply. From the time we’ve spent together, I know she’s a good person, but my belief in her isn’t based solely on that.

I know the character “Lee Chae-eun.”

Because I read the novel.

Lee Chae-eun, though she tried to appear otherwise, was ultimately a selfless person. Someone who could risk her life for her friends.

That would likely apply to me as well.

Yet Ria, who had never read a novel like that, seemed to trust me completely. We’d spent the same amount of time together, but she seemed to fully understand me.

That fact left me a little confused.

“Wait a second.”

Instead of answering, I gathered divine power in my hand.

I threw the gathered power forcefully onto the ground, shattering the crystallized mass. The broken pieces were nothing but pure divine power, and the color of the land beneath us changed instantly.

“With this, at least within this area, your lives won’t be consumed by magic.”

“Wait a minute.”

Lee Si-yoon stepped forward and spoke.

“Shouldn’t the other hunters stay here?”

“What about the magic mass? Is there anything like a monster around it?”

“…No. There’s nothing visible at all.”

Gloria spoke, and Han Yu-ri nodded in agreement beside her.

“In places saturated with magic, neither monsters nor creatures can survive…”

No, that’s not entirely true.

There are things that can only exist because of that mass of magic.

But for now, it seems fine. Perhaps because we’re only at the beginning of the story, the mass is just a mass, nothing more.

I closed my eyes again.

After having summoned divine power with all my might earlier, I was able to do it more skillfully this time.

It flowed around my hand like dry ice left out in the open, emitting a white power.

I climbed onto the back of the motorcycle that Ria was riding.

And I placed my hand on Ria’s back.

“The last time I felt this…”

Ria glanced slightly towards me and spoke.

“This divine power… it feels warm.”

*

Ria understood my urgency perfectly.

Even though the motorcycle hovered in the air, it wasn’t an aircraft. I didn’t know exactly how high it could go, but—

“…!”

I couldn’t even scream.

The motorcycle flew just above the treetops. The colors of the branches passing at breakneck speed below us grew darker the farther we went, leaving only bare branches and eventually leaving nothing but shattered remains of fallen trees.

“If we’re going to crash and burn, let’s do it quickly!”

“Kkek.”

I tried to say something, but only a scream escaped my lips, and I quickly closed it again.

Instead, I tightened my grip around Ria’s waist and buried my face against her back. Honestly, it felt a bit embarrassing, but safety comes first, right?

Moreover, Ria is right. If we can’t make a round trip anyway, at least it’s better to go faster. It would be better to fly above the trees than to navigate through them.

Still, there was an increasingly hot heat emanating from the motorcycle, and some kind of vibration was becoming stronger, but I decided to ignore it for now.

“…Look!”

At Ria’s words, I barely opened my eyes.

And I leaned my head out to look ahead.

It was, quite literally, a ‘giant mass of magic’ itself.

This was the initial form of the magic mass, and it was enormous.

As time passed, the magic would condense and become smaller, eventually forming a single, powerful nucleus that would give birth to a massive monster.

“How high can this motorcycle go!?”

I squeezed the words out and yelled, but Ria didn’t respond for a moment.

Instead, she looked up at the sky, as if gauging something.

“How much do you trust me?”

Ria asked.

It wasn’t said in a loud voice. It was just a casual, passing tone, like she was asking me something ordinary.

But somehow, that voice sounded very clear in my ears.

I don’t know why she’s asking me this at a time like this, but—

“…At least, I trust you enough to leave my life in your hands.”

In the end, that was my answer.

“Really?”

Ria let out a small, playful laugh, then—

she removed her hand from the motorcycle’s handle.

I opened my mouth in shock, but I couldn’t say a word.

Ria pulled out her sword, which had been tucked under the handle of the motorcycle, and—

By the time I realized what was happening, we were already flying through the sky.

To be precise, it felt more like Ria had leapt off the motorcycle, holding me in one arm, and with a sword in the other hand.

I didn’t even manage to scream.

In an instant, the sounds around us disappeared. The only thing we could hear, from the height we had reached, was the sound of the wind.

“Don’t worry. I can handle magic to some extent— well, in a place like this, it’s even easier.”

Ria said as she jumped higher and higher.

Ah, that’s right.

Lee Chae-eun was this kind of character. Well, if she was going to fight monsters, this much was expected.

I gritted my teeth and looked down below.

I was already holding a crystal of divine power in my hand. Above us, a beam of light shone down. The dark sky, perhaps influenced by the magic, lit up for a moment as if a divine light were guiding us.

And as if the light were leading us to the place we were headed.

It illuminated the magic mass below us.

A massive black sphere was floating in the air.

Thick, black magic seemed to flow down the surface of the sphere.

The mass of magic spun slowly, and then it seemed to ‘see’ us.

“Wow.”

Ria spoke, sounding somewhat uncomfortable.

A massive eye, hovering in mid-air, stared directly at us.

No, more accurately, it was probably staring at me.

“.…..”

I raised my hand.

The magic mass shuddered, as if it considered me a dangerous factor, and released a smaller version of itself into the air, as if to replicate itself.

It wasn’t as big. It was about the size of a human head, barely visible from here.

But that thing was dangerous. Just like the tiny crystal of divine power in my hand had unimaginable power compared to regular divine power, this smaller mass of magic held tremendous force.

From the mass, black vines began to grow. The speed at which they grew was incomparably faster than the growth of real vines.

It was just like the vines in the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk.

“……”

Its method of attack was exactly the same as in the novel.

So, this is how it goes.

I— hurled the crystal of divine power with all my strength.

Even the sound of the wind brushing against our ears seemed to stop for a moment.

The glowing point, which looked like a single droplet of water falling, split the massive vine that had been heading toward us.

“Wow.”

Ria’s voice was filled with pure awe.

But, it wasn’t over yet.

I closed my eyes once more. Then, I thought of the entity that had sent me here. I still didn’t know what it looked like, or what it even was, but— well, fine.

Becoming a saintess wasn’t something I desired.

Believing in a god wasn’t something I wanted either.

But just because I didn’t want it, I couldn’t give up on everything.

…

No, I thought I could just run away, and everything would be fine, but seeing this thing do what it’s doing, I guess that’s not the case.

There must be at least some kind of reason for me being here.

It would have been easier if I had placed more trust in someone else to rely on.

A beam of light shines down from the sky, directly aimed at me.

I thought to myself.

Okay, okay.

This round of power struggle, you win.

…But next time, I’m not going to lose.

“Ria.”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go.”

“Do you need the sword?”

“If you have one, it’d be great. Please, cut as deeply as you can.”

I turned my head and looked at Ria.

Had we jumped too high? For a moment, it felt as though Ria and I were the only ones in the sky.

Hmm.

This was a bit… embarrassing.

I only thought that afterward.

Ria, seeing me like that, flashed me a mischievous grin.

“You said you trust me, right?”

Her smile had a playful edge to it.

Ah, well—

Before I could even say something like, ‘Can you go a little slower on the way down?’, Ria had already cut off her magic.

Once again— I couldn’t scream.

But—

Beyond the sky, far off in the distance, someone else, too, sent a beam of light toward me.

I could see the mass of magic below us, gazing upward at us. Our eyes met, or more accurately, the mass of magic’s gaze met mine, though it was just an eye.

The vertically split pupil reminded me of some villain from a fantasy movie I’d seen long ago.

And then, Ria’s sword pierced that eye.

Charged with divine power, and even receiving the light that was directed at me, Ria’s sword was shining brilliantly.

The blade of light easily split the mass of black magic in two.

A scream, one that no human voice could replicate, rang out, and the pupil’s center tore wide open.

“…Really.”

I muttered, slightly irritated.

I tried to resent the entity above us just a little bit—

and then, I shoved the divine crystal into it.

What followed was a brilliant light.

A bright light that seemed to purify everything.

I could almost understand why people called it ‘divine light.’

“…Ah.”

A bit of strength left my body, and I felt myself about to fall backward when someone lightly caught me from behind.

Of course, it was the red-haired girl with the short bob.

She looked at me with a somewhat complicated smile.

…Ah, still.

This position was a bit… embarrassing—

But, of course, there was no time to say anything aloud.