"Damn it!"
With two of his moves cracked in succession, Perseus had no choice but to meet the next exchange in a scramble.
Under normal circumstances, if he'd treated Saint Raphael as a real enemy from the outset, he could've gone all out with the Sun-God series of wide-area bombardments and interrupted her casting before it ever took shape.
But Perseus was arrogant. Wearing that lofty air of "Using the Sun God's authority on some underling would be beneath my style," he'd decided to save that trump card for his real opponent—the Godslayer himself.
Who would've thought that a mere Saint Raphael—the one he'd looked down on—would be the one to stop him in front of Sai Akuto?
It was only natural for Perseus to dismiss her. Raphael was neither a god nor a Godslayer; all of her power had been forcibly raised by Akuto, and you could practically say it had no foundation at all.
Even her "Over-Demon King–class" strength was something she'd only gained temporarily through a divine avatar.
Perseus, on the other hand, was different. As the other face of Lord Mithras, he started at god-tier strength, and with a little burst he could hit chief-god levels without breaking a sweat. So yes—him looking down on Raphael was perfectly "reasonable."
After all, who would respect a strength that looked so… borrowed?
But the moment she took up that holy spear, everything changed.
With the spear in hand, the floating, unstable power inside Raphael rapidly condensed into something solid. Even more than that, her fighting spirit evolved into a degree of intensity she'd never possessed before.
Most shocking of all was the level of kotodama spilling from her lips—and the terrifying compatibility between her and those words.
Perseus knew that some humans could wield powerful godslaying kotodama, using a mortal body to carve real damage into the divine.
But what was hers?
The grade of Raphael's godslaying kotodama had already surpassed the category of "godslaying." It was pressing right up against "divine authority" itself.
And her holy spear… it seemed to be resonating with every syllable she spoke.
So Perseus could only watch—wide-eyed—as Raphael's "godslaying kotodama," under the spear's amplification, climbed into the realm of true divine authority.
Normally, even with "David's kotodama," one of the greatest kotodama of the Christian system, plus the holy spear as a supreme sacred relic, the "Song of the Bow" would never reach the level of an actual Authority.
But Akuto had recently pulled an Authority called the "Kotodama of the Holy Son." The deeper the speaker's faith in him, the greater the blessing.
Two layers of amplification stacked together, and the impossible finally happened.
A normal godslaying kotodama could only do limited damage to a god. But a godslaying kotodama that had reached Authority-level wasn't merely "words that can hurt a god."
It was the real thing—
Words that could strangle a god to death.
…
Only now did Perseus finally decide he had to end Saint Raphael—fast.
But by then, it was already too late.
After his kotodama of temptation failed, he was left with only enough time to meet the next strike in haste.
And after his hastily-fired divine arrow dragon aura was blown apart, he didn't even have time to counter—only to defend.
"Sh-sh-sh-sh—!"
Four blue-and-gold arrows of the holy spear screamed out.
You didn't hear the whistle first—you saw the shafts.
Before Perseus could even catch the sound of them tearing the air, the spear-arrows were already on him.
In desperation, Perseus could only resort to the most fundamental defense a god possessed—
Divinity Defense.
"Vmmm—"
In the space of a heartbeat, a golden barrier engraved with arcane runes wrapped around him.
Divinity Defense was terrifyingly strong, but its flaw was just as obvious. Once that barrier was shattered, a god's divine power and the might of their authorities would drop by at least half.
And if the barrier was broken by authorities like "corrosion," "curse," or "aging," the damage to the god's very origin would be far more severe.
Worst of all were abilities like Verethragna's—powers that could seal authorities outright. Once sealed, you didn't just lose that authority; the divine power that authority supplied would be sealed along with it.
Against a Godslayer, the Golden Sword wasn't as decisive—most Godslayers carried multiple authorities. Even if their strongest was sealed, the fight could still continue.
But against a god?
The Golden Sword was pure terror. Even gods with two—or three—origins could be driven into a dead end the moment their strongest divinity was sealed.
And yet…
Perseus still used Divinity Defense.
Because the warrior's instinct roaring inside him told him that if those four arrows hit cleanly, the outcome would be far worse.
"Clink!"
The first blue-and-gold arrow was knocked aside.
But then—
"Crk!"
A visible crack spread across Perseus's divine barrier.
"Clink!"
The second arrow followed immediately, slamming into the crack the instant the first was deflected—widening it until the whole barrier trembled on the verge of collapse.
And then the third—
"Clink… boom!"
The third arrow shattered Perseus's Divinity Defense completely, and his once-swelling divine aura sank sharply on the spot!
"How is that possible?!"
Spitting blood, Perseus snapped his longsword up in a desperate interception.
The third arrow had already bled off much of its momentum breaking the barrier, and at the last instant he managed to knock it away.
But the fourth—
He couldn't stop the fourth.
The fourth arrow still carried frightening speed. While the first three were being dealt with, it had already crossed the distance and arrived at his chest.
"Pff—!"
Perseus's sword was a fraction too slow.
The blue-and-gold spear-arrow slammed into his heart without any obstruction.
"Pff—!"
With his heart pierced, Perseus coughed up another mouthful of bright red blood. His presence—already weakened by nearly thirty percent—fell again, noticeably dimmer.
…
"This power is—!"
Hit at point-blank range, Perseus could finally sense the holy spear's true nature up close.
"So it's… a divine implement specialized for barriers and the world itself?"
In the DxD world, powerful weapons were called Sacred Gears. In the Akame ga Kill world, they were called Imperial Arms.
And in the world of Godslayers, they were called divine implements.
Of course, divine implements weren't limited to weapons alone.
Under normal conditions, Perseus's Divinity Defense was absurdly durable. Without something like the Golden Sword or a specifically targeted ability, breaking it shouldn't have been possible.
But Akuto's weapon was special. It carried tremendous amplification against barriers and the world—and Divinity Defense wasn't merely a defensive technique.
It was a thick divinity barrier.
That was why it was so hard to break.
And that was also why—
In front of the holy spear, it was so frighteningly fragile.
…
As Perseus struggled to fend off the spear-arrows in a rush, Saint Raphael's hands began to form a golden kotodama sword.
Despite meeting Perseus for the first time, Raphael had already learned his roots and origin from within the holy spear itself.
"You are a man from the East, and yet you are also the undefeated sun—Helios! You bear many titles, a sun god born on the winter solstice. That is your other self! Hero of light, Mithras—this is the name you have hidden!"
"At first, you were only Perseus. Perseus—the man from the East. You were the outsider who saved Princess Andromeda, the one marked by the great serpent, and the master who reforged the blade that slew the snake!"
"Since ancient times, there have been countless heroes who fought snakes—and dragons. You are the archetype among them. The hero defeats the dragon-serpent, takes its wealth, and weds the beauty—an old story sung and resung across endless myths!"
"But why did they fight the serpent? The answer is simple. Dragons and snakes are the fallen forms of the Earth Mother goddesses who once ruled the divine realm—reduced to wicked beasts in disgrace!"
…
"The queen of the divine realm was condemned as a nightmare and struck down, and a new mythic order—led by hero gods and father gods—replaced the old!"
"And so, the goddess-crowned world collapsed. Warriors bearing bronze and iron weapons rose to the top and ruled by force! And your mission, you heroes of iron, is to build a world of brutality!"
Words were light.
Words were power.
As the kotodama surged, the Golden Sword in Saint Raphael's hand took clearer shape—and the number of golden swords orbiting the battlefield swelled into something terrifying.
Normally, Perseus should have attacked Raphael with everything he had, forcing her to spend those swords on defense and dulling the Golden Sword's initial edge.
But unfortunately for him, Perseus was already being entangled by the World-Piercing Holy Spear.
To his shock, the holy spear's pressure was no less troublesome than the Golden Sword he feared most—if anything, it was even worse.
Because the three spear-arrows he'd deflected—
came back for him.
Staring at the three arrows returning to his throat, Perseus almost went numb.
He hadn't been able to fully stop that volley at full strength. Now, with his body already battered, three arrows that had missed were coming back around.
With what, exactly, was he supposed to block them?
Even so, surrender never crossed his mind. He carried the pride of a hero god.
"HRAAAAAA—!"
Perseus threw everything he had into holding off the spear-arrows.
And then he realized something—
The remaining three spear-arrows didn't seem as strong as before.
Clumsy, pressured, but… with his current state, he might actually be able to manage three.
…
"Because they lost the kotodama's blessing, their power dropped," Athena murmured, lips parting as her gaze flicked toward Akuto, wonder threaded through her eyes. "Even so… it's still a weapon beyond measure."
This man truly was different.
No wonder he was the wild one who could kill the Sun Dragon.
(End of Chapter)
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