“Oh my. And I had thought by the behaviour of the Mermaids that we had an unusual guest… To think it was you, Lord Astaroth!”

Before I had time to respond, Undine was already behind me, filling my ears with the sound of those accursed bells. Not hiding my irritation in the slightest, I used a bit of magic to push her away. As far as I could.

There was no sense of sanctity. Not in the slightest.

She lacked Salamander’s heat, or Sylph’s calm winds, or Gnome’s reliable earthy feeling… Even Lady Luciel probably felt more divine than this.

In other words…

“Ahh, I see, is that so. So that is the game we are playing, is it… Very well, I understand.”

And that was also why Philia had… I nodded to myself a few times.

“Hm? Lord Astaroth, what’re you…?”

“No, nothing, I am just talking to myself.”

“Hmm… Well, if you say so~”

Undine had her usual, sing-songy tone, distinctive even amongst the… vivid personalities of the goddesses. With a big smile on her face, she tried to approach me once more, so I once more pushed her away.

“So, Lord Astaroth… For what reason do I have the pleasure of your visit~?”

Her sing-songy voice…

It was getting a little on my nerves, but I managed to grit my teeth and bear it.

“We were hoping to obtain the cooperation of the Mermaids, and also their racial treasure.”

“My! You wish for Origin Water? And our cooperation…”

“If it pleases you, I could even grant you a gift, of sorts.”

“A gift? How pleasant~. What kind, may I ask~?”

“Hmm… Asami. Step forth.”

She did as I ordered, kneeling down in front of…

Not Undine, the actual goddess, but me. Indeed, she was facing me.

“I cannot give the girl to you,” I said, “but I shall have her offer you a dance. ‘Tis quite a pleasing one. Though she lacks the fools to slaughter this time, I have no doubt you will enjoy it nonetheless.”

“My! What a lovely gift! I shall gladly be taking you up on that~!”

Hook, line and sinker. Could not have gone better.

“I am very glad to hear it, Undine.”

With confident steps, I bade Mica guide us to some manner of highly spiritual place—of course, one strongly associated with Undine. The location of her Thousand Throne, or something.

Because that thing she was sitting on, while pretty, was ultimately just a carved rock.

***

I did not estimate I would have appreciated this as much as I did now if I had viewed it when I was just starting out.

Nay, even at the beginning of this entire campaign, when the Heroes launched their attack that ultimately led me to take the first Saint, this would have failed to move my heart.

Perhaps it was my semi-ascension to godhood that allowed me to fully appreciate the beauty of the ritual.

Her shining form entranced even me, and I was not the target of the ritual at all.

In addition, this was not something I had taught her—I had simply instructed her to perform a summoning dance, and that was all.

Her every step was calculated, and she moved about the shrine, quick as a gale, fluid like water. Despite the greatcoat that obscured much of her body, her moves still shone with impeccable grace.

“In the name of the Goddess, I shall dance, dance, dance.”

If she was any similar to me, the words flowing from her mouth simply welled up from her heart as part of the ceremony, as though she knew them innately.

“She who rules over her subjects like a gentle playmate.”

Without a doubt, this was a chant that specifically described Undine. Next to me, I saw her face light up with joy.

“She who controls both gentle, lapping waves, and strong, all-destroying storms.”

Her voice, filled with devotion to the one true Goddess, yet addressing a different entity entirely, contradicted itself, but unlike a certain other contradiction, the two opposites, in this case, blended beautifully into a harmonious whole.

“She who is beloved by all mermaids, and even some beyond—and yet, she who is feared and revered by not just creatures of the sea, but also the creatures of the land.”

The contradiction in her tone of voice appeared to be attracting an audience—from every which way, Mermaids of all the colours of the rainbow approached, watching with interested eyes. Perhaps there were fewer restrictions on who was allowed inside this shrine as compared to Sylph’s.

“Love and fear, towards the same entity—surely, that is a contradiction.”

Despite her words, her voice did not weaken—if anything, as the terribly inviting magic circle she was drawing with her feet kept growing, her voice, too, grew, not in size but in confidence, attracting more and more spectators.

“Answer me, o mortal—canst thou understand this?”

The magical circle below her feet glowed with sacred blue light, the smell of brine penetrating even the protection of my blessing of the sea. Indeed, this was the true feeling of sanctity a god was to possess. I could feel a pair of blue eyes, watching, not just the ritual, but also me.

“Of course not. Before the Goddess of the Sea, something as small as a contradiction between love and hate means nought.”

The glow grew stronger as the circle grew yet greater, but soon, she would reach the edge of the shrine, and the time of judgment would come. Would Undine approve of her dance?

Of course, I had no doubts.

Nay, even if the dance had been subpar, Undine would probably still approve.

For currently, she was—

“The Goddess of the Sea, her shining form beheld by only the most devout of believers, shall overcome contradiction and appear in this world once more.”

It seemed her chants were even being adapted to the specific situation. Looking to the side, I saw “Undine” still watching the ritual, though rather than an excited grin, she was pulling a face.

“Now, Goddess of the Seas, ruler of water, o great Undine—”

The only reason this ritual was necessary in the first place, rather than a simple shrine maiden, was because Undine was currently preoccupied—

“I beseech ye, appear before us and show us your form!”

The light of the circle coagulated, I heard the distinct sound of shattering chains, and—

Next to Asami, Undine appeared, washing over the room with her divine presence as she rubbed her wrists, still marked by painful-looking red spots.

Several seconds of silence, if it wasn’t more, as Undine looked at me, a teasing smirk on her face.

And then, acting on pure defensive instinct, I leapt away from “Undine” next to me—and not a moment later, the place where my head had been was struck by a blast of steam.

“Charlotte! Protect the mermaids!”

“Und’rstood!”

Within the blink of an eye, Charlotte was in front of the audience, deflecting countless projectiles that had come from “Undine”.

No, that was…

“Was my summoning the real Undine an unexpected occurrence, you poor man’s imitation?”

“Shutup shutup shutup!”

Just by summoning Undine, it appeared we had sent the fake’s mind into a blind panic, judging from the erratic projectiles of steam and ice it was sending every which way.

Yet all that would have hit a mermaid was instead pulled towards Charlotte, and as for the rest—

“Hmph. Did you think something of this level would be effective?”

I was beating down everything that came near me with brute force, simply by emitting mana into the environment.

“Ahahahaha~”

Davna was dodging left and right, laughing excitedly—even underwater, her wings proved useful in manoeuvring.

“Tch. Pain in the…”

Lilith’s variety of new skills allowed her to put up a barrier with minimal effort.

“Navillus will, take~!”

Navillus was neither blocking nor dodging—nay, she was taking the brunt of every attack head-on and quite simply absorbing both the momentum and the mass of every last spell, allowing her to grow in size every time she was hit.

The children, of course, were not easy prey, either—Asami was using the same movements she was just using for her ritual, this time to dodge every attack that came her way, and Nexu was more than capable of either blocking or nullifying everything that came close with his giant sword or his spirit magic.

Alpine was creating barriers of ice wherever needed as she ran around to dodge what she could, Nyx appeared to be unaffected to begin with, and the former humans—

Well, one was a living, formless shadow, one was clad in Black Silver, at least under her greatcoat, and the last was my little sister, with all the protection that entailed.

And of course, the one who was most likely the main target of the barrage, her wrists still red—

“Fufu… Did you think I would be done in by my own clone? I’ll have to reeducate you, I see~”

Indeed, for this was not a spiritual descent, like it was when a god was called into a shrine maiden, then forced out of her body.

She was not standing here at a mere 100, or even 500. Even I probably surpassed that number at this point.

Nay, she was a full god in her own shrine, standing here at 1000 or more, and she was using every bit of that power against the fake.

“Gggghhhh… Shut uuuuuuup!”

The fake waved its hands this way and that, each motion accompanied by the disgusting, loud sound of a warped bell. As a result, more magic went flying this way and that, including several tentacles similar to the ones Philia had used, but—

“That is my line.”

With a sweep of my hand, I wiped away all its magic.

“I have had this thought for a while, but all of you wretched otherworldly dogs wagging your tail for a master that cannot even think are way too loud! Would you just shut up already?!”

I took a step closer, and it took a step back.

A step closer, a step back.

Step, step.

Step, step.

With every step it made, it produced another ring—

“Arrrrgh, shut it!”

Within an instant, I replaced my hand with its shadowy equivalent, stretched it forward and seized the copy by its neck.

“Let me- Let me go- Release me—!”

It struggled and struggled, yelling at me.

“Miserable confounded scum!”

I pulled it close and slammed it to the ground, then let go of its neck and placed a foot on its chest instead.

“I like the sound of church bells as much as the next demon king, and warping it certainly adds an element of mystery and sinisterness that I can appreciate. But do you have to be so loud about it?! It feels like my ears will start bleeding just from being near you!”

It violently struggled and writhed under my foot, but I was too heavy—it was unable to push me off, and my command over the local mana prevented it from attacking me, too.

“Undine. If you are going to finish it, I suggest you do it quickly, before I accidentally crush its head under my foot.”

Certainly, capturing one of Meph-something’s minions or avatars or whatever they were alive could be enlightening, but I could not bring myself to be in this thing’s presence for any longer. If the sound were just a little purer, and a little quieter, and perhaps a little less frequent, I would have been content to parley with one of these creatures for an entire day, or even more—

But even amongst the ones I had encountered so far, this one was by far the loudest, and also the most frequent, with its tolls. It was incredibly irritating.

“Undine…? I am getting impatient…”

“Of course, of course, Lord Astaroth~”

With a face that was all smiles, the real Undine approached the struggling fake under my foot.

“Hmm… Well, I don’t exactly have any dramatic parting words, so…~”

“No! No, wait! Lemme go! Get off of me right now, you—”

“Bye-bye~”

With a full-faced, bright smile, Undine formed a blade of ice in her hand and—

“Could you not have done that more cleanly? Now my shoe is covered in blood.”