Chapter 269: Aestrea Against The World (XLVI)

The moment his palm pressed deeper against Ruby’s chest, the black veins pulsed violently.

The slimy ooze writhed, resisting, but then it began to shift.

“Ghhnn…” Ruby gasped as the corruption peeled away from her flesh, flowing like tar being sucked through invisible veins.

The black ooze coiled up his arm, crawling under his skin, sinking into him instead.

His expression barely changed, though his jaw tightened and his eyes sharpened slighly.

Ruby’s breath came in shaky bursts as the last of the darkness drained from her. She braced herself for the agony that was supposed to remain… but then…

The corruption was simply gone.

Her body, once half-covered in writhing black sludge, was clean. The taint had vanished as if it had never existed at all.

Ruby’s eyes widened.

Her trembling fingers touched her bare skin in disbelief, sliding over her arm, her side, her chest….

“…What… happened?” she muttered, half in awe, half in fear.

She looked up, and her heart skipped.

Aestrea slowly pulled his hand back, his palm faintly steaming as if it had burned against something unseen.

Ruby frowned, sitting up slightly.

“…Where did it go?”

Aestrea said nothing at first.

He simply lifted his hand and gave it a slow wave.

At once, the air glowed lighly, and from his palm, the same black ooze that had covered Ruby began to seep out.

It gathered together, forming into a small, pulsing sphere that floated just above his hand.

But instead of writhing violently as before, the ooze… almost nuzzled against him.

It pulsed softly, changing its shape in tiny playful waves, as though clinging to him affectionately.

Ruby’s eyes narrowed.

“…That’s not normal…” she muttered under her breath, frowning deeply.

The thing looked… almost cute.

The dark corruption that had once eaten away at her body now behaved like a loyal pet before Aestrea, swaying lightly in the air as if content to stay by his side.

Ruby leaned forward, her brows furrowed, ready to analyze the strange reaction. But just as she opened her mouth to speak…

Clutch.

Aestrea closed his hand around the orb without hesitation.

The black mass let out a faint hiss before collapsing inward, vanishing into nothing as if it had never been.

The room fell into silence.

Ruby stared at him, lips pressed tight, a dozen questions on her tongue.

“…What in the nine hells are you?”

Aestrea didn’t even glance at Ruby after her trembling question. Instead, his lips parted as he asked:

“…The ones who attacked you. How did they look?”

Ruby froze for a moment, caught off guard by the way he so casually ignored her.

Her brows furrowed, a flare of irritation flickering across her face, but she let it die down with a sigh.

“…They… didn’t look human,” she admitted slowly. “More like… corpses. Like the undead, walking husks of flesh… zombies.”

Aestrea’s eyes narrowed slightly. He nodded slighly, as if her words merely confirmed something he already suspected.

“…And where?” he asked again, his voice cold and steady.

Ruby bit her lip.

“…At the cathedral.”

That made him pause.

For a moment… he remembered Christina.

It had been a long time since they last met…

“…Alright,” Aestrea muttered.

“I’ll go there and take a look.”

“WAIT—!” Ruby shot up from the bed, reaching a trembling hand toward him.

But in the very instant the word left her lips, he was already gone.

The air rippled where he had stood, the space collapsing with a faint hum, leaving nothing behind.

Ruby’s hand lingered in the empty air for a moment before clenching into a fist.

Her teeth ground together, anger and helplessness flaring all at once.

She almost slammed her palm against the bed hard enough to splinter it, but instead, her strength faltered.

She dropped back into the soft sheets, her chest rising and falling heavily.

Her eyes closed halfway, and a faint, bitter smile crept onto her lips.

“…Who am I kidding?” she whispered, her voice quiet and trembling. “He’s stronger than me now…”

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“Ahh… so it really was Helheim,” Aestrea muttered, his brow furrowing as he studied the black ooze that clung almost possessively to him.

The thing that he felt a connection with him wasn’t Yggdrasil… but Hellheim.

“But why though?”

He flicked at the ooze lightly, yet instead of being shaken off, it wrapped tighter around his finger… then… licked it.

Aestrea exhaled slowly, shaking his head.

“Haa… whatever. I’ll deal with this later. For now… let’s focus on the cathedral.”

Creak…

The massive doors groaned as he pushed them open, revealing the familiar sight within.

Chairs, statues of the Goddess of Light, or whatever people called her… came into his view.

“…System.”

[Yes?]

“…You’re a lot more responsive now. Why?”

[Because you’ve finally awakened as a Vessel. I now have the freedom to communicate with you properly.]

“And before this?”

[You wouldn’t have survived holding a conversation with me for more than thirty seconds.]

“…Mhm.”

Aestrea hummed slighly, although the system’s explanation was still full of loopholes.

“…Am I human?” he asked at last.

[…Partially.]

“Partially?” His brow lifted.

[You are… fifty percent human.]

“Half, huh.” His lips curled faintly.

“And I’m guessing you can’t tell me what the other half is… because of some ‘divine gag order.’”

[Ehh… close enough. The instant I speak your race’s true name, a god will descend and erase you.]

Aestrea froze mid-step.

“…That serious?”

[Yeah… you’re race… is forbidden, and is the enemy of all gods except… three of them.]

“Who are they?”

[…The Goddess of Magic, The Goddess of Obsession… & the Goddess of the Moon.]

“Ah…. makes sense,” he nodded slighly.

After all, he had a close relationship with all three of them.

“So,” his voice dropped lower, “my race… is why Helheim acts so damned affectionate toward me, isn’t it?”

[Correct. Your bloodline grants affinity with all beings… but none embrace it more dearly than the creatures of evil.]

“…Evil, huh?” Aestrea smiled coldly.

“Not much of a surprise.”

Slowly, Aestrea closed his eyes and slowly spread out his senses.

Faint traces of Helheim brushed against him, pulling his focus to the statue of the Goddess of Light.

He walked closer, and then, without hesitation, he waved his hand.

BAAM!

The statue shattered into countless pieces, stone flying across the floor. From within the rubble, a ball of black ooze rose, pulsing with heavy power.

Aestrea narrowed his eyes, then smirked.

“Pfft…”

“They really hid Helheim’s source inside the Goddess of Light’s statue?” He shook his head in disbelief and reached out.

The source responded at once, leaping onto his face like a clingy cat. It rubbed against him, dripping, almost affectionate, almost… playful.

“…Ahaha…” Aestrea chuckled softly, raising a hand to steady it.

But his smile faded a little.

“…Strange. Why aren’t any of the Dark Order here? For them to leave this unguarded… something isn’t right.”

With that, he pulled the source from his face, pressed it into his palm, and slipped it into his spatial ring.

But the moment he did, his expression hardened.

“…The flow of time… it’s different here.”

His instincts were screaming as he spoke. Because he had Time Affinity, he could clearly feel that something strange was happening inside here.

“…Is it five times faster?” he muttered, closing his eyes to sense.

But the longer he measured, the more his face darkened.

“No… it’s… five thousand times faster…”

The weight of that realization left no room for hesitation. Aestrea vanished from the cathedral in an instant, stepping back into the streets outside…

Only to freeze.

“…What the fuck?”

His eyes widened.

Pamphlets littered the ground in every direction, and on them was a clear image, him, shattering the statue of the Goddess of Light, and stealing Helheim’s source.

“…Fuck… no wonder it was so easy. This whole thing was a trap.”

He tilted his head back, staring at the sky.

FWWOOOMP!

Ten figures descended at once, their auras erupting into ten colossal pillars of light and color.

The air shook under the pressure.

Aestrea didn’t even need to glance at them to see that all ten of them were SSS-level rankers.

…The current ones, as there were only twelve registered SSS-rankers in the world… with two of them being Ruby and Eleonora.

But none of those two were here… for obvious reasons, especially the latter.

“…Mhm, even you came?” Aestrea raised an eyebrow as he glanced at the Elven Emperor, who was staring at him coldly.

“…I honestly thought that I could trust you,” the elven emperor replied, his hands clutching, causing a tornado of wind to rush towards him.

FWWIP!

It met his body without causing a single ounce of damage.

Aestrea merely shook his head.

“What if I say that this was a trap made by the Dark Order?” he asked calmly.

“…I wouldn’t believe you.”

“I see…”

Aestrea nodded slighly.

The reason the Elven Emperor won’t believe was because Aestrea had threatened his own wife…

“Well… I don’t really c—”

He froze.

His gaze landed on one of the figures.

Her soft pink eyes shimmered faintly, unfocused yet carrying a quiet pressure. Her figure was graceful and refined, her waist slender and curving with effortless allure.

Golden hair cascaded down in flowing strands, catching the light as if it belonged to the wind itself.

“…Fuck.”

The curse slipped through clenched teeth.

Because the woman before him was the one he had remembered only minutes ago.

Christina.

And from the look of her robes, her insignia, her stance…

She was no longer just Christina.

She was now the representative of the Holy Nation.

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