FSFSLU 68

Chapter 68

To be honest…

I couldn’t collect my thoughts.

“…….”

And it seemed Yuuga felt the same.

“Ha…….”

The two of us sat side by side on the swings in the playground, staring at the glass window with stunned expressions.

This time, borrowing Isabel’s voice, I had presented the premise that to defeat that monstrous golem made of steel bricks, they first had to topple the golem themselves.

Seeing the combat personnel charge into the fray with renewed determination after hearing that, I think I had overestimated myself.

I had read The Long Story several times and could oversee every situation from above. But I hadn’t anticipated that the magical waves meant to lure the golem could be interrupted.

Honestly, at that moment, I thought the plan had completely fallen apart.

Yet, Isabel… she didn’t give up. And because of that, I couldn’t give up either. Moreover, even Denk, whom I had assumed was just a simple carriage driver and wouldn’t help, assisted Isabel. The Knight of the Wall, Galtan, had returned as well.

I hadn’t expected Hetchil, the leader of the City Guard Chains who had only been mentioned as a passing extra in the main story, to fight so bravely.

And they succeeded. The golem’s body was tilting, and Isabel executed my instructions flawlessly. She even followed through on the final step of my specific request.

It was astonishing. Only six people, and they had toppled that golem.

So now…

“Yuuga.”

I turned to look at Yuuga. He glared at me as if I were annoying, then sighed.

“You always keep your promises. That’s my sense of aesthetics.”

Without meeting my eyes, he extended his hand.

Yuuga had said it was impossible. When a golem of that size appeared inside the protective barrier, he insisted that not even mobilizing all of Casteltina’s forces could topple it.

As things stood, I couldn’t use Yuuga anyway. I first had to create a situation where no other citizens or combatants could see Isabel.

So I set a condition for Yuuga: if they succeeded in toppling the golem using only their own strength, thereby satisfying the premise for defeating it, he would hand himself over to me without question.

The condition was fulfilled. I sent a message in front of Isabel’s eyes and took Yuuga’s hand.

Then I moved toward the glass window.

Isabel was delighted.

Until now, everything had gone exactly as planned.

Of course, if anyone other than Isabel had known what she was thinking, they would have shown incredulity, but Isabel’s mind never reached that point.

For Isabel, the plan was going smoothly. No one had died, Liz and Denk had shown impressive performances, and the golem was falling.

So now, all that remained was for her to perform well herself.

Thanks to Liz’s throw, she fell like a streaking meteor, gathering her inner divine power as she approached the golem.

And flipping through the air, she turned her back to the golem…

With a short shout, she extended her arms and unleashed a massive curtain of light.

A holy protective barrier. Unlike the usual shields that first emit beams of light to protect large areas like the city, this was more like a wall, wide and vertical, extending from the direction she intended.

Fortunately, Isabel only needed to evacuate the other five participants of the golem-toppling operation, excluding herself. So she carefully designated the range, advancing a wall of light that expanded broadly in front of her.

“Huh?”

“Ugh!”

Liz, who had vanished from the air and was falling, Denk, also falling, Lister, feeling intense wrist pain from striking the heel of the steel golem, Galtan, trying to control his panic from being outside after so long, and Hetchil, who strangely missed his subordinates terribly, all witnessed the advancing wall of light.

The wall did not strike or repel them. It merely pushed them gently and slowly.

Yet, since it emitted light, they could not see what was happening beyond it.

So, after rolling to the ground and barely standing, they shifted their gaze and let out awed groans as though witnessing an incomprehensible phenomenon.

And rightly so.

In the vast area of Casteltina, where the collapsed walls had revealed the surroundings, an extremely long and wide wall of light now blocked them, as if redefining the space both inside and out.

However, it seemed the wall only served to block. It didn’t damage a single blade of grass or tree. Even Liz’s fall from a height higher than the golem was slowed by the wall. What a considerate barrier.

But when they saw that the wall had settled over the lower half of the steel golem they had just toppled, and that the golem’s lower half twitched as if about to rise,

They were all utterly shocked.

“No way…!”

They all imagined the same thing.

It was Isabel’s doing.

While toppling the golem, Isabel had pushed them all beyond the holy light barrier.

They had thought their goal was only to topple the golem, and having achieved it without anyone dying, they thought they could rejoice freely.

But Isabel had pulled such a massive stunt.

Then, Lister suddenly looked up at the sky. What he saw was clear: the barrier maintained by Evan and created by Isabel had disappeared the moment the golem fell.

Evan had maintained the shield for one reason: inside the barrier, the steel golem ran rampant; outside, massive earth, rock, and wood golems wreaked havoc.

To sum it up…

“Is Isabel… beyond this wall with the four golems? Alone, excluding us?”

A vein bulged on Liz’s forehead.

“So that’s why you had us throw her?”

Bang, bang—the ground shook. The lower halves of the golems under the wall writhed, trying to rise.

Even with Isabel’s incredible divine power… asking her to face four self-repairing golems alone, after using her powers nonstop since dawn, something even all of them together couldn’t handle—was this really an angel’s command?

Liz ran toward the wall. Without anyone stopping her, she slammed into it with her entire body.

But Liz’s charge couldn’t break the wall. It was solid. Moreover, unbelievably, the impact rebounded almost not at all.

A wall made from the power of healing and order faithfully blocked, without generating reactive force on the one striking it.

Still, crossing beyond that wall was impossible.

Seeing Liz’s charge, the others slowly realized. Isabel was beyond the wall. They had to get through. She couldn’t face those golems alone.

But how could they break through? How could they reach Isabel?

Liz shouted Isabel’s name, practically pressing her lips against the wall. Yet, even half of her cry seemed not to reach beyond.

“Hey! Open up, you—!”

Liz called to Isabel with the bluntness of someone raised in a lawless world, but it was futile.

Denk and Hetchil clung to the wall. Galtan, still trying to comprehend the situation, had no next objective after achieving the goal of toppling the golems. His mind was blank.

Then, the only one among them skilled in theology, Lister, muttered in a trembling voice:

“This… is called a Holy Veil. A wall that harms no one. To cross it…”

Lister recalled theories he had learned at the church before founding Zeronis, back when he was not yet Michael’s agent.

This wall, the Holy Veil, is an application of barriers once used by priests to block evil forces. To pass it requires the power of healing and compassion, not violent force.

It was a very unfamiliar concept for Lister.

Ever since becoming the agent—and even before—he had focused on eradicating heresy, using divine power for that purpose.

He had constantly pondered what set him apart from Isabel. Both could heal with divine power and use it in combat, yet there was a difference.

Now Lister felt he understood.

Isabel’s divine power cannot harm others. Even if it takes the form of a wall or prison, it cannot injure anyone.

Regardless of her character, the application of her divine power, or any other factors…

It was simply harmless. Isabel. Her divine power was harmless.

Lister, who had used divine power to harm others, could not do the same.

Could not? Really could not?

‘…….’

Lister surrounded himself with divine power.

Not for protection. Not to strengthen his body for battle.

Simply to make himself felt as “harmless” to the wall, even if not as harmless as Isabel herself.

He smoothed and polished his sharp, heavy divine power.

At that moment, the other four near Lister sensed a change in him.

Though clad in armor, his steps were light.

Though injured, his breathing was untroubled.

None of those present noticed, but it was the first time Lister, focused only on delivering divine punishment as Michael’s agent, drew out the power of compassion.

Lister took a step forward. Liz and Denk stopped striking the wall and watched him walk slowly toward the barrier.

The wall did not push him back.

Lister let out a short sigh. For the first time in a long while, he had resented God, feeling powerless. Why had God bestowed such immense power upon Isabel, but arrogance and stubbornness upon him?

Now he seemed to have found the answer.

Lister had become someone capable of possessing what Isabel held.

It was the first step for Lister Leme, who had once been just a minor obstacle in The Long Story or a casualty in the Undead Parade, to break free from that constraint.

With that first step, he crossed the holy veil blocking him, and what he saw was…

“……!”

Isabel swinging her demon sword, cutting down the golems.