Fake Saint of the Year

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Translator: Tsukii

Editor: Evelet

Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!

Chapter 83: The Final Battle

The swords of light summoned by Elrise pierced through the “Witch.”

If it had been a common demon… no, even a Greater Demon would have been finished by this one attack.

That was the great amount of the power contained within it.

But Vernell’s group knew. This wasn’t enough for the giant “Witch” monster to go down.

“Don’t Elrise! That thing only materialized the moment it attacked! That is made of Mana itself!”

Hearing Propheter raise its voice, Elrise’s expression turned rugged.

The difference between this giant “Witch” and Alexia was the fact that the invincibility that the giant Witch was supposed to have possessed had faded.

What was there was merely a compilation of curses belonging to the generations of Witches; it was just “Mana that had achieved consciousness.” 

In conclusion, it was the remnants of the generations of Witches, not a true Witch itself.

The source of all the world’s despair up to now had indeed been the “Witch.” But the great despair itself was not a Witch. 

That was the reason why Supple’s Golem could properly deal damage to it.

But in exchange for losing its invincibility, it now possessed a new immortality trait in the form of “lack of substance.”

Indeed, the “Witch” that supposedly received a fatal blow shimmered and restored itself as if nothing happened.

Mana existed everywhere in this world. It was the same as air.

Attacking the “Witch” which possessed no substance was like attacking empty air.

“Ufufufufufu…”

“AHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

The faces on the “Witch” all laughed hoarsely and extended their necks.

They tried to entangle and tighten their grip on Elrise but she was constantly enveloped by a powerful barrier.

Therefore, it had no effect and her face remained cool.

Not just that, a gigantic sword of light that made a practically empty swing and stabbed the ground suddenly moved and cut off the necks stretching out from the “Witch.”

“OOo…OO…!”

The “Witch” was momentarily frightened.

But the necks that had been cut off soon turned back into black mist and were re-absorbed into the “Witch” as it restored itself.

The attack indeed landed the moment it materialized… It landed but it seemed that the “Witch” could freely switch states between substance and Mana.

In other words, unless one could finish it with a single attack, it would keep regenerating itself.

No, even if someone managed to finish in a single attack, it may be possible that it would merely return to its Mana state and restore itself soon after¹.

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” Elrise declared the name of the skill she’d just thought of.

She lacked a good sense for naming things so she just picked random proverbs from overseas, but people in this world didn’t understand them in the first place.

For people beside Elrise, they perceived these words used only by Elrise as “Divine words that were only to be used by her.”

Light gathered behind Elrise then a Giant of Light made of mana appeared.

She had used the simple logic that ‘since the other side is a Giant made of mana, then I should counter it with the same thing.’

The Giant of Light which Elrise had summoned (Elrise named it “Tough Guy”) took the form of a rugged and robust man wearing white cloth.

It had white shoulder-length hair and a thick moustache that covered its whole mouth region and made it look like a dandy.

It wore a circlet on its head and the right part of its body which wasn’t covered by the cloth showed its muscular beauty.

“Tough Guy” slowly grabbed the Giant Sword of Light and approached the “Witch” as its footsteps echoed.

Even as it swept its sword there was no obvious effect.

But this was fine. “Tough Guy’s” role was just to be a decoy, after all.

“Festina Lente.”

While “Tough Guy” held down the “Witch”, Elrise activated a magic spell that covered all citizens.

Then, several pillars of light rose up from the ground and moved any citizens who were too late to flee behind Elrise.

The first thing to do was to let people escape so they wouldn’t get caught up and become collateral damage.

Leila instantly understood what this meant and she screamed in nervousness.

All the people in front of her had been evacuated… that meant that the fight would intensify to the point that non-combatants had to be removed from the area. 

Elrise had chosen the place that was already destroyed by the “Witch” as a battlefield.

“Your Majesty Aiz, it will be flashy but I hope you don’t mind.”

“Yes, I don’t mind… it has already been destroyed by the “Witch” anyway and all that is destroyed can be rebuilt later.”

The direct path from the Capital’s gate to the church had been turned into rubble by the “Witch’s” rampage.

That also meant that the side of the town behind the church was still fine.

So, to prevent any further damage, it wasn’t a bad decision to select a place that was already destroyed as a battlefield.

Obviously, the best choice was to not fight within the city at all, but to repel the “Witch” outside was quite difficul

Elrise flew to the already destroyed region and led the “Witch” and “Tough Guy” who followed her there.

The flashy attacks couldn’t be used just yet.

She couldn’t risk somebody getting caught up in it, so she needed to gain some distance before she could attack.

Since it was Mana itself… then that should be effective. But the problem is how to use it.

As she avoided the “Witch’s” attack, Elrise thought about the “Barrier that blocked mana” which she had used last time to fight Alexia.

That should work effectively against this “Witch.”

But it was merely a barrier that blocked Mana. Elrise possessed no skill that was capable of destroying Mana itself.

Therefore, what was important was how she used it.

Simple confinement would soon be broken by the monster.

However, merely reinforcing the barrier wouldn’t do much.

Then, how about if she were to confine it and then expel it into outer space?

It was unknown whether Mana was available in space, but at the very least, it wouldn’t be able to return to this planet.

But this kind of solution left a seed of disaster for the future, as it was a common development where the monster would revive one day, so it left her with an evil premonition.

Elrise thought she would try something else first and would only expel it to space once she had nothing else she could do.

Let’s try other things first.

If it could be defeated, that was the best thing.

As she came to this decision, Elrise flew out in front of the “Witch.”

To deal damage to this monster, one had to match the timing of the attack at the moment it materialized.

The faces of generations of Witches that covered the “Witch” all over its body opened their mouths simultaneously and shot condensed mana all at once.

Elrise avoided this by flying higher then held up her palm.

“Aurea Libertas!”

Light rained down from the sky, turning into rays that pierced the “Witch” one by one.

The heads of generations of Witches were pierced and disconnected; on top of that, “Tough Guy” used its sword to cut off the head of the “Witch.”

Elrise’s rays of light tracked their target, but the “Witch’s” rays did the same thing.

The black ray she evaded earlier chased after Elrise in the sky and Elrise increased her speed to gain a lead.

But those lasers changed their course again to chase after Elrise, so she went into a sudden dive toward the ground and then diverted course… The black lasers were unable to catch up with the sudden change of direction, thus all of the black lasers hit the ground and exploded.

On top of that, Elrise shot undiffused “Aurea Libertas” toward the “Witch,” the gigantic cannon of light swallowed the “Witch” and erased the rubble, pierced the city, and drove it away to the horizon.

After the attack only gouged land could be seen continuing to the horizon.

Alfrea looked at such differences in the magnitude of power while shivering and hiding behind Propheter.

“Isn’t the dimension that girl fights in way too different…?”

What is a fake Saint again?

I see, so this is the reason why the church had to make the title of Great Saint.

If that was treated as a fake, then everyone in future generations would be inferior to the fake.

Elrise kept watching the “Witch” that had been turned into fog by one attack. Finally, she sighed softly.

“KYAHAHAHAAHA!”

The “Witch” which had earlier been erased reformed itself in front of Elrise.

It proved her hypothesis in a bad way.

It seemed that even if it was completely erased, it would merely turn back into mana and reform itself soon after.

It proved that dealing damage upon it had no meaning.

On top of that, the “Witch” reconstructed itself in a different shape. It was just a huge version of the face of the First Witch and its left and right hands only².

It judged that it wasn’t comparable to Elrise… Although it possessed no intelligence with which to make such a judgment, it matched its form to the fight it was in. 

The gigantic hand approached Elrise to catch her but she evaded by flying about.

At the same time, “Tough Guy” hit the “Witch’s” face, slamming it all the way down to the ground.

Cobweb cracks spread across the ground; rubble that happened to be within the area sank into it.

“A picture is worth a thousand words.”

As both of those hands approached, Elrise released mana in all directions to eliminate them.

It was an attack she used when she had eliminated several demons which had possessed a level of power comparable to a Greater Demon, all at the same time.

On top of that, the Elrise currently was stronger than she had been back then, so the spell’s power was even stronger.

“Tough Guy” used its sword to chop the “Witch’s” face into pieces and once again destroyed “Witch” to bits.

“AHAHAHAHA”

“IHIHIHIHIHIHIHI”

“UFUFUFUFU”

“EHEHEHEHE”

“OHOHOHOHO”

“NOUHOHONOUHO”

But, as expected, it was meaningless.　

This time, all the faces of generations of Witches floated, creating a hellscape³.

If it continued, all the people’s impressions of generations of Saints would drop to zero in no time.

Perhaps the generations of Saints would cry as they saw it from the afterlife.

The only Saints who weren’t included within the monster were Alfrea and Eterna, who had never become the Witch, and Saint Lilia who was said to have died without managing to fulfill her duty.

Obviously, since Elrise wasn’t even a Saint, so she wasn’t included there.

Even as Elrise felt relieved about that, it proved that it was close to impossible to defeat it.

So the only thing left to do was to confine it within the barrier and expel it to space but…

No good; I made a mistake… I should’ve done it when it was still in Giant Form. It can’t possibly have known my plan, but it has now spread too far…

The current “Witch” spread and covered the sky with the faces of the generations of Witches.

Every one of those faces was moving about like a cloud, so she didn’t know how big a barrier she would have to deploy to cover all of them.

Not only that, it had now become so big that attacks could come from everywhere and she didn’t know how to defend against them all.

…There’s no choice! It will cost a lot of MP, but it will be too late if the victim appears! 

If this kept up, indiscriminate carpet bombing would commence and the damage would be immense.

As Elrise thought that, she abandoned her worry about mana consumption and prioritized erasing all the faces from the sky first.

“Aurea Libertas!”

A ray of light with compressed mana went up to the sky and smashed it.

Midway, it diverged and shot down the Witches’ faces one by one.

The Witches’ faces vomited out black mana to attack the ground, but Elrise’s power was greater than their power.

The Witches’ vomited beams were all pushed back into their mouths and exploded, blowing all those faces to bits.

“Haa…Haa…”

Elrise looked at the sky above while she let out a turbulent breath.

That earlier attack had cost her around 100,000 MP.

On top of that, since the range was so wide, she needed to maintain power for the attack to travel before hitting its target so even more MP was consumed.

In addition, all of those Witches’ faces were powerful, so she needed at least that much to destroy them all.

Then, in front of a panting Elrise, the “Witch” once again materialized, this time, in the form of a human similar in size to Elrise⁴.

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