Chapter 348:
Last Cathedral, I promised Celeste, a saint of the Sun God, that I would take her to a ruin of the Sun God she did not know.
A few days after that meeting with Celeste, I stood in a desert covered in sand somewhere in America.
…It was a little hot.
As I was thinking about that, I heard a beautiful voice behind me.
"…Here?"
In a desert with endless stretches of orange-colored sand, under a fierce blue sky with blazing sunlight, Celeste, a silver-haired woman dressed in a pure white saint's robe, was standing in a mysterious mood, very alien to the scene.
She turns to me, her eyes wide with wonder.
"Yes, that's right, this is where the ruins of the Sun God are located."
At my smiling reply, she opens her mouth coldly, staring at me with golden eyes behind thin lids.
"As the Sun God's hand-picked saint, I don't feel anything…Well, you can try."
I can only laugh at her words.
Of course she couldn't feel it. If she did, she would have already found it.
It's information that can only be known because the source has knowledge.
With that thought, I smiled at the image of Celeste standing with her arms crossed over the desert.
She looked like a true saint herself, slender with an air of mystery about her.
I could feel her power and the overwhelming strength she possessed.
‘…Creepy.'
I could feel the vast power within her, as if it was boiling uncontrollably.
There are many powerful people and villains in the world.
Among them, Celeste, the world's number one ranked villain.
She is said to be able to part oceans, move continents, and bend the heavens with a wave of her hand.
In truth, people don't know exactly what her powers are, just that she's overwhelmingly strong. She can teleport, breathe fire, and do anything by herself, so some people just assume she has all the powers but I know what her powers are.
Her abilities, which are not even clearly stated in the source material, but which fans have deduced from the given elements.
To put it simply.
‘The ability to turn dreams into reality.’
That's what Celeste's power is.
The ability to use the power of her dreams in reality.
It was her real power that’s why she always walked around with her eyes closed.
It sounded so simple, so powerful, but the thing was, she wasn't sure where the limits were.
Since this ability was directly given to her by God, the creator of this world's paranormal abilities, Celeste was the final boss among the humans in the original work.
After all, her powers made her the strongest villain in the world… No, she became the world's most powerful heroine.
She's still stronger than Stardus, who's almost finished growing, though Stardus is stronger against powers…
"Hmph. You still haven't found where those ruins are?"
"Haha, wait a minute."
That's why she's able to stand tall and proud.
She has absolute faith in her strength.
…Of course, I don't know if that's still the case today.
With that thought, I turned to the ground below where I stood and muttered the words.
"O sol sancte Aperi alveum qui lucet ad perdendum malum…"
As I muttered the incantation, the sand beneath my feet began to shift.
After a moment,
"…Now. How about this."
"….."
And just like that, before us, a staircase to the underground appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the sandy desert.
Celeste's eyes were still closed, her expression unchanged, but I could sense a hint of surprise.
She hadn't expected there to be something she hadn't detected in the first place.
"…Hmm. Well, fine, lead the way."
She spoke to me coldly, as if she didn't care.
…Of course she was, but there was an undeniable interest in her eyes.
She's a Sun God fanatic, of course, and I suspect she has a miniature Sun God in the house.
"Okay, follow me."
And with that, I led the way down the stairs, and she followed behind.
Dressed only in a saint's robe, she walks into this basement without a care in the world.
She's too strong to think that anything in here could harm her.
…And then.
I smirked, and looked toward the swinging door at the end of the stairs, that was what I was aiming for.
These ruins are special and my purpose is to get closer to Celeste…Not that she'd notice now, of course.
"Come on, let's go in."
"Sure. Let's see what we can find."
With that, Celeste and I stepped through the swinging doors and in that moment, the scene before us changed.
"Hmmm…"
Suddenly, we were standing inside the white-walled ruins.
It was old, like it had been built in ancient times, so long ago, but somehow sacred. It was bathed in a pure white light.
I giggled as I turned to Celeste, who was stumbling around with her eyes wide open, and I opened my arms and introduced myself.
"Welcome, this is the Temple of the Forgotten Sun God."
"….."
Still speechless, she looked around.
After a few moments of looking around, Celeste said with a sigh.
"…So it's true, such a temple was hidden."
Her eyes were still closed as she spoke, but there was an uncharacteristic sparkle in them. She had been staring at the temple with interest since earlier.
She was a Sun God nerd after all.
"I wonder what era this was built…"
And as she said that, she took a step forward.
Suddenly, from within the ruins, there was a magical sound effect.
-Bang.
The glowing door we had entered through suddenly collapsed and became a plain wall.
"…There must have been security."
Seeing that, Celeste muttered that with a calm expression.
She wasn't surprised at all. Well, with such a powerful force, she shouldn't be surprised.
As she said that, she gestured towards the collapsed wall….but nothing happened.
"….?"
Sensing something was amiss, she pointed again, but the rock didn't budge.
"Wait…!"
"Ugh…"
Celeste staggered, holding her head, as if something had been knocked out of her.
Then she looked down at her hand and mumbled.
"Ah…"
I smiled at the sight.
Here, in the United States, in an underground temple of the Sun God.
The peculiarity of this space is that all of the Sun's powers are neutralized inside.
Unlike the power chamber in the basement of the old Han Eun Group, this is a place where the Sun God himself sealed his powers so that others cannot use them.
As such, no matter how powerful you are, you'll become a normal person inside.
Of course, my powers didn't originate from the sun, so I didn't care.
"I'll clean it up."
With that thought, I moved my hand, still smiling.
The crumbled boulders scattered, and I moved on.
…For the record, my hands were shaking from the effort, but I had a hard time keeping a straight face.
Celeste, of course, didn't seem to care.
"No…what is this…?"
She looked down at her hands, her voice trembling for the first time in her life.
Her eyes were open for the first time since she entered this place, unlike her usual closed ones.
Perhaps she can't see out with her eyes closed anymore.
She's always stood at the top, but this must be the first time she's ever been stripped of all her power and become a normal person.
Why? Her powers are among the best on the planet. If Celeste were trapped in a powerless chamber like the one Stardus and I were trapped in before, she'd probably escape by forcibly using her powers to destroy it with pure force.
But that's not how it works here.
This is a place where the Sun God, who gave her powers, takes them away.
So no matter how wary Celeste was, she couldn't have known what was coming. Nor would she have seen it coming, for those who ascend to great heights become arrogant and blind to what lies beneath.
Anyway, here's what happened.
She's trapped here with me, unescorted, naked, and minus all her powers.
"Ah…"
And then she realized it herself.
She raised her head, trembling, and our eyes locked.
I looked into her trembling golden eyes, smiled and said.
"Shall we continue?"
In my arms was a gun.
***
A moment later.
"Uh… You're not coming with me?"
"…No. Do you know what you're going to do?"
"No, really…"
Deep in the center of the ruins, I sighed as I watched Celeste, standing far behind me, hiding behind a pillar and only poking her head out to say so.
…I must have scared her too much.
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