“O reborn from the fire, may you wield the Authority to create and destroy all things, and bring change to this decaying world.”
She opened her eyes, waking from a cruel nightmare that felt as if it were drowning her.
“I, the Human Ancestor, hereby bestow your name upon you.”
“W-Wait, what?”
“『The Twelfth Saintess』. From this day forth, your name shall be Kaylar.”
“Huh? I don't want to... I didn't...”
“At this very moment, I bestow upon you a grand Authority. May you forge anew all things in this world.”
『χωνευτήριον』
What appeared in Kaylar's eyes, into which the Authority had been branded, was a vast, dim hall.
The continuous bellow of bellows and the rhythmic strike of blacksmith hammers echoed as endless weapons were embedded in the walls—or rather, a barrier built of countless weapons enveloped the hall layer by layer.
She sat slumped before the throne.
Upon the throne sat the “girl” who called herself the Human Ancestor.
She was a greatsword wielder clad in rust-colored armor and a helmet, with only her voice carrying a feminine quality.
Her voice was crisp and cold.
Kaylar knelt on the stone tiles, her mind still unable to fully process what was happening.
What happened? I got hit by a truck. And then I ended up here.
Reincarnated in another world?
And this is my cheat ability? Some blessing from a bizarre entity? Is this my path to becoming an overpowered protagonist?
“—The gods have betrayed us.”
Wait, what did she just say?
“He said that all things are His children, and that He should not show favor to any one side.”
The Human Ancestor spoke indifferently, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the hilt of her greatsword.
“But that is wrong.
Humanity is the eldest child, His first friend, the meritorious contributor who helped Him construct the world, and the incarnation created in His own image.
Humanity is the primate of all creation, born to reign above all things, just like the gods.
Since He betrayed us, He must be punished. Simply exiling Him to the Sea of Void Flowers is not enough. The sword that beheads the gods must be wielded by human hands.”
“...What do you mean...”
“You shall shoulder the heavy burden of 『Godslaying』.”
Kaylar, twelve years old at the time, understood for the first time what it meant to have a heavy responsibility and a long road ahead.
After a while, she completely grasped the situation.
This place was the World-Forging Cult, one of the Abyss Cults. Extreme human supremacists. They loathed the gods who loved all creation, and by extension, they hated all non-human races.
The Human Ancestor was the Pope here.
And after Kaylar was consecrated as the Saintess, a ring of runes was tattooed around her neck—the kind that would explode.
The holy scriptures made it very clear: if the Twelfth Saintess betrayed them, they would simply replace her with the thirteenth.
Betrayal had happened many times with the previous eleven Saintesses. They had all blown up. Through that ring of runes.
The explosion was incredibly powerful; even a Rank Seven would suffer greatly, and for a Rank Six to survive on the verge of death was already a miracle.
As for what counted as betrayal?
Selling out the cult, using the Authority without permission, or any other behavior that made the Pope believe they harbored disloyalty.
Simply put, if you wanted to die, you died.
“...”
That night, clutching the holy scriptures, she sat on the Saintess's bed. She wanted to cry but didn't dare to do so aloud, fearing someone would hear her and report it to the Pope.
“What a load of absolute bullshit...”
Facing her mattress and sheets, she only dared to curse silently in her heart.
Then, she began to think about how to survive.
The next day, she began to read the holy scriptures in earnest.
The contents of the scriptures gave her, a primary schooler who hadn't even graduated from the sixth grade, goosebumps all over.
Starting from the premise that the Creator first made humanity and then took a rib to create the Dragon Ancestor, it deduced step-by-step the absolute supremacy of humanity, proved that the gods reclaiming the Authority was equivalent to betraying their own child, and finally reached a conclusion she could not accept under any circumstances.
Non-human races were nothing but stepping stones for humanity to reclaim its supreme status.
Even though she had already known their ideology during her first meeting with the Pope, it still struck Kaylar as utterly absurd and ridiculous.
Looking at the chapter titles in the scriptures, illustrations of various demi-human races flashed through her mind.
They all possessed equal intelligence. They could speak, laugh, and cry.
She had watched plenty of anime like this before transmigrating.
She didn't think the Pope was right. But she didn't dare say it.
She didn't want to die.
This was entirely different from those cool plots about “fighting for one's ideals” or “awakening to defeat the enemy.” She just wanted to live. Even if she had to live like a coward, it was still living.
Sharing her dormitory was another Saintess candidate. She wasn't some “one reborn from fire,” but merely a child born to members within the cult.
She never spoke, only burying herself in hard training. Upon returning, she would cast an envious glance at Kaylar before going to sleep.
They had never once spoken to each other.
On the third day, the Pope questioned her on her understanding of the scriptures to test if her study progress from the previous day had gone astray. She recited the entire chapter on the spot.
Her voice was steady, her eyes sincere, and her fingers were pinching the flesh of her leg inside her sleeve.
The Pope remained silent for a long time after listening.
“You are a good child.”
The voice coming from beneath the helmet was very soft, soft as a sigh.
Why did she never take off her helmet? There were clearly no enemies here.
...It took Kaylar a very long time to understand things like that.
Six months after becoming a Saintess, Kaylar was sent out on a mission with senior members of the cult. Their tasks were to recover lost technology and eliminate heretics.
Her first mission was to ambush a small merchant caravan at the border of the Demon Realm. There was a demi-human in the caravan, a wolf-kin. Kaylar was assigned to keep watch.
She squatted behind a rock for a full fifteen minutes, her fingernails digging into the stone crevices as she listened to the sounds coming from over there.
Things like “I still have children at home,” “I don't want to die yet,” “I still have things I want to do,” or simply screams and curses. They were nothing but the usual formulaic words.
She had seen it many times in anime before.
But it was her first time hearing how a living person screamed the names of his wife and daughter while being beaten to a pulp.
After it ended, she poked her head out to take a look. When she returned to her dormitory, she threw up all night, emptying her stomach of everything she could until there was nothing left but stomach acid.
The next day, she got out of bed as usual, not daring to let anyone see that anything was wrong.
After that, she was rarely sent on missions again. The senior members of the cult complained slightly about this, but the Pope did not pursue the matter.
She didn't know if the Pope was shielding her.
A few months later, her birthday arrived.
“Lord Pope, do you remember when your birthday is?”
She didn't quite dare to directly bring up wanting to celebrate her birthday, so she chose an indirect approach to gauge the Pope's attitude toward birthdays first.
“I have never kept track of such things. I was born at the very instant the Creator cast the heavens and the earth into being. To attempt to define my existence by a single moment is simply too foolish.”
“Ah... then, what do you think of birthdays...”
“Useless things need not be mentioned again.”
“...Okay.”
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