Kalla rather liked the current situation.
‘Heehee!’
Things were taking a very amusing turn.
[Apostle! So you are finally ready to accept me?]
She merely said it on purpose. It seemed like that would scrape at his nerves more easily.
“Hurry.”
However, contrary to her playful thoughts, Karix was quite serious.
[......]
Kalla did not like that.
‘Why is he acting like that?’
He had rejected her so fiercely, and now he was accepting her merely to save those weaker than himself?
‘Mm......’
That was not fun.
‘My apostle is quite amusing when he gets angry.’
A serious expression was only boring to her.
‘Karix himself seemed amused when I got angry too.’
That was not wrong.
When she had first met him and her blood pressure had risen in anger, Karix had certainly been laughing.
‘Anger is quite an amusing emotion, is it not?’
She became interested in the emotion called anger, which she originally should not have been able to feel.
‘We did not have things like this in my time.’
What she felt when she saw hybrids such as gnomes or half-elves was not anger, but disgust.
It was an emotion that had not existed in ancient times, so it was even more interesting. That was why she wanted to draw out his anger even more.
Because that would be far more amusing.
In truth, there was no need to dress it up in so many words. It could be expressed in a single phrase.
She simply felt a bit mischievous. That was all.
[You just need to drink blood.]
Kalla spoke as if it were simple.
Though her face was practically unable to contain how amusing she found it.
“Blood? You want me to drink that?”
Karix did not even notice her expression.
[Yes!]
At that answer, Karix’s face crumpled fiercely.
[Pfft!]
At that sight, Kalla could not hide her laughter and merely covered her mouth with her hand as she twitched.
“It’s not as if I’m a vampire.”
She did not know what a vampire was, but from the feeling of it, Kalla understood that it was something that drank blood.
[Are you going to drink it? Kikik!]
The bastard, whose face had been crumpled, glanced at his own arm.
“How much do I need to drink?”
That question could not help but excite Kalla.
‘Is he really going to drink it?’
If he drank it, she was thinking she would mock him tremendously.
“It doesn’t matter what kind of blood it is, right?”
[Hmm?]
However, Karix moved differently from what she expected.
CRUNCH!
[Hey! What are you doing!]
Karix tore into his own arm with his teeth.
Crimson fresh blood dripped from between the torn flesh.
Kalla pulled on Karix’s bleeding arm.
“I just need to drink it, right?”
[No......!]
This was not what she had wanted.
[Apostle! Do you not know how to value your body?]
“You said it will recover anyway.”
‘At least I thought he would drink someone else’s blood!’
If he found it difficult to drink the blood of a living person, she had planned to tell him to drink the blood in the room where he had fought the Apostle of the Sun.
‘Has he truly lost his mind?!’
She had never dreamed he would calmly make himself bleed and drink it.
“......Nothing is happening.”
[Of course not!]
“Why, of course not?”
[......]
Because drinking blood did not help at all.
Kalla could not bring herself to say that.
“Tell me.”
[To obtain blood divine power, you use blood accumulated in the body. What meaning is there in drawing your own blood and drinking it yourself?]
Kalla chattered away without even wetting her lips.
[Yes! If you dislike drinking someone else’s blood, shall I simply teach you how to recover using divine power?]
“Tell me honestly.”
[......What?]
Cold sweat ran down Kalla’s back.
Of course, as a spirit, there was no way such a thing could exist, but at least Kalla herself felt that way.
“Drinking blood had nothing to do with it, did it?”
[......That is why I said I would teach you how to recover with divine power.]
Her apostle was far too quick-witted to fool.
***
To be honest.
‘Does she not know?’
It was all visible on her face.
It had been the first time I had seen someone with such a transparent expression since Helin.
When I asked earlier whether there was a miracle for recovering, she looked surprised, so I thought there had to be at least one.
And after that, when she told me to drink blood, she grinned so much that anyone could tell it was a lie even if they rolled forward, rolled sideways, rolled backward, and came back to look.
So I deliberately tore my own skin. It seemed like that would be faster.
‘She is so easy to read that she is very useful.’
Putting personal feelings aside, I decided to accept her for the sake of the children.
In that respect, she was quite a useful evil god.
‘If I had contracted with the Evil God of Pride......’
Before I could even think of using him, I would be used instead.
[Haa! Apostle! I told you, if you die, I am ruined too! Your life is practically connected to mine!]
“So how do I use the recovery miracle?”
Honestly, I did not even want to call it a miracle.
‘A dark art.’
If I had to describe the miracles used by evil gods, that would be correct.
[Imagine transfusing your body with blood.]
“Transfusing?”
[Fill the lacking parts of your body with blood made from divine power.]
Was that how recovery miracles usually worked?
‘Thinking about how Miss Halla used hers......’
It felt as though warm divine power wrapped around my entire body.
[Should I do it for you?]
“......?”
Why?
[......I suddenly do not want to.]
Why was she so fickle?
[Because you are looking at me with those eyes!]
“What kind of......”
Ah.
“I was looking at you a little pathetically.”
[Isn’t that usually something you only think?]
Where was the time to think?
“Here.”
[......?]
For someone who had taken issue with my eyes, she herself was now looking at me with eyes stranger than mine had been just now.
[Why?]
“You said you would use the recovery miracle for me.”
Rather than my inexperienced self doing it, it would be more efficient for someone who had used it before to do it.
[Actually, I do not know how.]
“......You said you would do it.”
[I naturally thought you would refuse, did I not?]
......Damned bitch.
“Haa......”
Her emotions showed plainly on her face, but only that.
‘I can’t tell whether it is a lie or not.’
Her emotions were transparent, yet she thoroughly hid what those emotions were for.
‘Is that natural?’
Until now, the only things that had appeared on the bastard’s face were joy and ang......er?
‘How?’
Did she not say ancient gods, except for Lady Aria, could only feel joy?
[Why? Why are you looking at me like that?]
“You got angry when you first met me, didn’t you?”
[That is right?]
“How?”
Was it a lie that she could only feel joy?
[I do not know? Did a new god of emotion appear?]
“There is no......”
There was.
“Haa......”
The Seven Sin Gods existed. The roots of the seven evil emotions born from Aria.
‘Those emotions are something Lady Aria cannot touch.’
[By the way, are you not going to use the recovery miracle? You do not have time for this, do you?]
“Then why can’t you use it?”
[Do you think a god would use such a recovery miracle?]
“Even gods have bodies the same as humans.”
Gods died if struck by blades and died if struck by arrows. They simply did not die of old age.
[Even if we die, we reincarnate, so it does not matter much.]
“Then why do you know this miracle?”
[An apostle from long ago made it.]
?
Was a miracle not something a god made?
[He was quite an amusing friend.]
“Did he die?”
[As if a mere human could enjoy eternal life.]
True.
‘He must have been someone from the ancient era.’
It had probably been ages since he died.
“Why? He might still be alive as a monster.”
[If he is, I will kill him.]
......
[Because he would have defiled the sacred blood I gave him.]
You said you cherished him.
‘Let’s just ignore it.’
What mattered right now was recovering my body quickly. That was all.
I closed my eyes.
“Huh.”
I felt a sea of blood so vast it was absurd.
“Hoo......”
I exhaled.
Between exhaling and inhaling, I let divine power flow little by little.
[That is not how you do it.]
Leaving behind the bastard who kept scratching at my nerves beside me, I moved the blood-red divine power.
‘Unpleasant.’
The fishy blood scent circled my head.
‘Blood...... fills the lacking parts.’
I covered my body with divine power.
Of course, nothing happened.
[I said to fill it with blood made from divine power, not divine power.]
Wasn’t that the same thing? In any case, it was all the same blood.
The divine power twitched.
‘It’s impossible.’
She was telling me to forcibly turn something formless into something with form?
That made no sense.
How was I supposed to do that?
[Try focusing a little. At this rate, War will arrive first.]
I closed my eyes slightly.
‘There is plenty of divine power.’
There was so much that I could not understand why the recovery miracle was not working.
‘Though Lady Aria’s divine power has weakened comparatively.’
Thinking about it, that part could not be helped.
‘Why did they try to use monsters?’
Even while moving divine power, my thoughts did not stop.
‘What is the correlation between kidnapping countless children and monsters?’
[Oh. It worked?]
I opened my eyes slightly.
Drops of blood were dripping from my fingertips.
The divine power had already become blood.
“So this works.”
With each falling drop of blood, I felt divine power drain straight out of my body.
[Now let that soak into the injured parts of your body and...... it should feel a little like a transfusion?]
I understood what she meant.
I dropped the blood on my broken arm.
“Holy shit.”
I had no choice but to say that automatically.
‘Regeneration?’
Literally, the bone that had been broken was regenerating.
[Actually, it is not a particularly useful miracle.]
“What?”
Did she know what existing recovery miracles were like before saying that?
Originally, recovery miracles proceeded separately through cell replication, bacteria removal, and bone mending.
‘This does all that at once.’
That was why a priest’s proficiency was extremely important.
Because they had to kill each bacterium that might arise in the process while regenerating cells and accelerating recovery.
‘This is just regeneration.’
However, this was far too different.
It returned the body’s condition itself to its original perfect form.
[There is one problem.]
“......Problem?”
[You will know soon. It drains divine power terribly fast.]
What was that supposed to......
“Ah.”
I understood the moment I stood.
THUD!
Strength drained from my body so thoroughly that it was hard to stand properly on both legs.
‘Holy shit!’
My divine power, which had recovered enough to fill around two buckets, had shrunk to about one ladle of rainwater the moment I restored my body.
‘So this is why they don’t use it?’
Its efficiency was terrible beyond belief.
[Do you want to drink blood?]
Get lost.
“Hoo!”
Still, it was only because my divine power had suddenly drained that my strength had left me. There was nothing particularly wrong with my body.
“Done. Let’s go.”
[Hmm? Where?]
Where else?
“The monster forest.”
The Fifth Holy Knight Order could not be trusted from ancient times.
‘I will find them myself.’
Because I had made a promise too.
I would not send that damned apostle of War bastard to the Lord’s side so easily.
***
“Karix. Is your body all right now......?”
When Garon entered the room, all his eyes found was an empty bed.
Still, it was not as if there was nothing.
There was a note on the bed, written in atrocious handwriting.
That utterly free-spirited handwriting was obviously Karix’s, no matter how one looked at it.
“......”
One simple sentence was written on the note.
—This is frustrating, so I’ll do it myself.
Did they think they could defeat holy knights with nothing more than monsters?