Apotheosis of a Demon - A Monster Evolution Story

98 - GODS AND DEMONS

The girl of white stood there, with skin and hair of snow. Her eyes gently opened to reveal a vivid scarlet.

A pair of fluffy rabbit eyes draped on her lustrous, somewhat-messy locks of hair. When she had looked about fourteen before, now she had grown to fifteen, perhaps sixteen, the childishness fading from her features. The survivors of Touze all released an unwitting sigh as they saw her.

Her scarlet dress, modeled after a bunny girl outfit, had had some changes. Her bunched-up skirt had unraveled to resemble a tailcoat, with the long-extending hem wrapping around her legs. Depending on the angle, it almost looked like a gown.

Powerful magic surged from the white girl — from Shedy, the magic different from what she had before. The skies trembled in front of her.

From above, Fiorfata showed a fissure of a smile as it looked upon the birth of a new God-class. It pointed toward her and toward the city stretching below it, and it released an enormous magical blast.

Facing the approaching sphere of magic that was dozens of meters across, Shedy silently raised a finger of her left hand toward the sky.

"—Firebloom—"

With the power of The Divine Language — the evolution of Materialization — a glove, resembling azure flower petals, appeared to cover her left hand from the wrist.

A pure white mist burst from her left hand. As the mist touched upon the foulness, it transformed into black petals as though absorbing the malevolence and erupted in blazing flames.

The white mist purified, sealing and burning the wickedness. It clashed against Fiorfata's magic power, and the two opposing forces sputtered and died out.

Space twisted, and a vast swath of the sky shuddered. Shedy suddenly flew out from the haze toward Fiorfata from the front, and a kick struck it in the back.

Fiorfata instantly reacted to the spatial reversal, blocking Shedy's kick with its own arm. The two's magic power clashed in flickering sparks of lightning.

Both were blown away several hundred meters from the impact, but Shedy had rolled with knees hugged to reduce the force. She forced herself to a stop in the air and pointed her right hand toward Fiorfata.

"—Rimeblossom—"

Her right hand was covered by a white glove glowing faintly red, and from it came a raging blizzard that shone with a similar shade. All the miasma in its way were transformed into petals of ice, and the storm lunged toward Fiorfata.

"‡̵∴̸*͟∋͟͠＊＊̢͜†̢"

Fiorfata released a sound that sounded half-singing, half-laughing. Its wings flapped at blurring speed, and it released a wide-ranging magical blast to blow away Shedy's curse, that which turned everything it touched into icy petals.

Her left hand was the merciful hand of a goddess. From it came a mist to heal all living beings and to turn all evil into flower petals that burned in eternal purgatory, burning until they were no more.

Her right hand was the ruinous hand of a demon. From it came a blizzard to bestow a peaceful death to the sinless and to turn the wicked into flower petals that froze, annihilating them to their very souls.

The left hand of gods, and the right hand of demons.

The flames of mercy that burned all into nothingness, and the blizzard of destruction that brought death equally to all.

The power of gods, and the power of demons.

Gods purified one's sins by granting never-ending suffering, while demons cared nothing for purification, only granting equal destruction to all.

An artificial goddess faced a demon of the Netherworld. The clash of two absolute powers had cleared away the clouds of the whole Central Continent, and once more, they took to the skies of Yggdrasia to resume their battle.

*

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Joker]・Dea Ex Machina. An artificial goddess born in cyberspace. Possesses the right hand of a Demon to destroy all, and the left hand of a Goddess to save all.[Magic Points: 489,000/500,000] [Total Combat Power: 539,000/550,000] [Unique Skill: <Causality Alteration> <Dimensional Manipulation> <Consumption> <The Divine Language>] [Racial Skill: <Fear> <Mist Form>][Simple Identification] [Deity Form (Lovely)] [Subspace Inventory][Overlord][Goddess from the Machine][Unseelie Lord・Fiorfata] [Race: Dark Pixie] [Demon Lord]・One of the seven Demon Lords ruling Netherworld. A god of the Netherworld.[Magic Points: 445,000/600,000][Total Combat Power: 515,000/670,000]

Under the cloudless sky of Yggdrasia, we faced each other with nearly a hundred meters between us.

With my evolution, I finally gained power equivalent to Fiorfata.

...and as traditional whenever this happened, another one of my abilities evolved weird...

...so anyway, I got the evolution for my final ability. I'd arrived at the same plane of existence as Fiorfata, and I had gained the power to defeat it.

But... without Blobsy and Panda, without the dragons' sacrifices, without the many, many monsters and demihumans, and without the help of some humans to grind down Fiorfata's magic power, I couldn't have stood in front of it as I was now.

I had evolved. I was a Joker. I was the final and the greatest trump card.

I was both a deity and a demon, a man-made goddess born from the world of cyberspace.

I was dea ex machina.

My new power had been granted to me by the secret alpha testers... no, not just them, but by the whole world of Yggdrasia.

All the same, even if we were now on a level playing field, I still only just evolved. I didn't know how much of my power I could use. Still...

"Fiorfata. Ready yourself."

I wouldn't let it recover any more magic. I would end this, here and now!