The Yellow-Haired Villain in Soaring Phoenix's Novels Also Desires Happiness

“The kids look like they’re having a lot of fun.”

With his peripheral vision skimming the lively scene far below, the Pope couldn’t help showing a kindly smile—like an old man in his twilight years watching frolicking children and recalling days gone by.

But the instant he drew his gaze back, his time-worn eyes turned ruthlessly cold.

Above the firmament, the faceless woman’s skirt swayed; a child’s crying rang through heaven and earth; countless blossoms and fine rain drifted down, bringing a calamity of despair.

The entire sky was tainted by eerie Pollution.

In the face of that darkness, the human body seemed so small.

“But then again...”

Though standing alone, the Pope stared unflinchingly at that terrifying Evil God. Blood and fire stirred his beard and white hair as he spoke low—but with force:

“At a time like this, to let your mind wander—Even if You are an Evil God, isn’t that just a bit... overconfident?”

The Pope tightened his grip on the scepter; his wide sleeves suddenly billowed with an endless gale.

Behind him, a golden Gate boomed open!

A holy, peerless, serene, and ethereal scene unfolded beyond it, like a heaven-on-earth promised by a god.

An inexhaustible Holy Light flowed forth from the Gate.

Unlike the single strand of Holy Light that Liya, the Saintess candidates, and even the Saintess herself could release, what poured out here was a thousand—ten thousand—times that!

This was the Church’s millennial foundation—faith from countless believers across the continent, offered to the highest Life Goddess in exchange for the divine authority to purify all!

“Sanctus!”

Solemn chanting rose and echoed!

Hundreds of white-skirted maiden phantoms appeared behind the Gate, fingers interlaced, faces compassionate, eyes devout.

They raised their voices in praise of the Deity.

“Your compassion blesses the world; Your grace shines upon the four seas; Your most-holy Name bears supreme glory...”

“Sanctus!”

“In Your Name, cleanse all that is unclean!”

The sea of Holy Light surged. Innumerable white cross-lights floated up from the depths, thundering as if lances were nailing into the vault of heaven.

The weird, proliferating vitality halted at once. Under the pure cross-lights, those abnormally grown things suddenly fell into rot.

Under the holy, corruption spread.

Growth that had broken free of the cycle was, in the end, dragged back into life’s cycle—toward its end; the stench, before it could even spread, was likewise purified by the Holy Light.

The Evil God’s power... was actually being reverse-polluted by that Holy Light!

“Waaah—”

The child’s shrill crying grew even harsher. High above, within the encirclement of endless Holy Light, that Evil God suddenly let the swaddling cloth fall from Her hands.

The swaddling tumbled, wailing.

In the turn of a moment, the infant within was finally revealed.

—But it was no infant.

It was... the divine abomination birthed by the Evil God named Abundance!

The filth the Holy Light was gradually purifying began to shrink rapidly, sucked into the abomination’s belly.

Falling into the sea of Holy Light, the abomination’s crying ceased in an instant—because it exploded outright!

Vast filth heaved up tempests upon the sea of Holy Light; endless Pollution and warped life-force spread like a drop of ink falling into water, racing outward.

“So you’ve been forced to the point of abandoning even your own child?”

The Pope let out a mocking smile, then swung his scepter «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» hard:

“No—things like you, the one thing you never lack... is so-called children, isn’t it!”

Holy Light rolled back—Pollution and counter-Pollution. With an absolute difference in magnitude, even the god-spawn of an Evil God was quickly and utterly erased.

But the abomination’s sacrifice still made the surging Holy Light... stall for a single beat.

And in that single beat, the Evil God whose Name is Abundance suddenly descended lower!

Her purpose in coming here was never to annihilate the Church.

If a single projection of an Evil God could wipe out the Church completely, the Church would have been destroyed countless times over in the past thousand years.

Therefore, the true aim of Her coming this time was...

Blossoms in full bloom fell, swallowing the Holy Light and magic that blocked the way. A domain like a nation shrunken countless times appeared before the Mother of Abundance.

That was... the Lost Land, Kanteville.

It was Her pasture, Her platter. She had raised a million lambs there. After more than a thousand years of meticulous cultivation, those lambs had long since become incomparably delicious.

They made Her mouth water.

If only She could devour them—those million carefully reared blood-meals would let this projection, in an extremely short time, possess power approaching the main body.

And that “extremely short time” would be enough for Her to accomplish another... the ultimate goal She had waited a thousand years to see.

So...

Those lambs.

That blood-meal.

That delicacy.

It must...

It must...

【Hmm?】

Suddenly, the Mother of Abundance’s downward motion stopped.

Though Kanteville was right before Her, She ceased to move.

She tilted Her head. Upon Her empty face, it was as if a doubtful gaze formed, piercing the outer Wall of Kanteville, reaching deeper...

Deeper...

Still deeper...

Until... She felt something.

Or rather... what should be felt was not felt at all, and what shouldn’t be felt was, inexplicably, felt.

Crack.

A fissure split open across the Mother of Abundance’s voidlike face.

Within that crack, countless dense flesh-buds writhed madly—just like the fury of this Evil God at this very moment!

Where were Her lambs?

Where was Her blood-meal?

Where was Her delicacy?

Such a vast pasture—a full one million souls She had left untouched for a thousand years for a certain reason—She had finally come back to slaughter and gorge Herself and...

Gone.

Not even a pop to be heard—simply gone.

The Mother of Abundance’s head twisted abruptly; the flesh-buds within the crack stood bristling straight. Her gaze finally and completely pierced Kanteville’s Wall and, through the traces She had left behind, saw within.

To call it “saw” is not quite right; it wasn’t very clear.

Because in Her sight—upon that flesh-plain now turned char-black, atop that towering spire—She saw only one thing.

A sun.

A sun that shone upon all!

And the crimson fire that sun radiated—no matter how She looked at it—was familiar.

【The! Withering! King!】

A horrifying roar beyond human comprehension crashed through this seat of the Highest. The Mother of Abundance’s entire projection flickered and warped, as if unable to bear this backstab-from-beyond-the-world rage.

The Pope—who had been about to marshal his strength to safeguard Kanteville—lifted an eyebrow as he watched the Mother of Abundance suddenly go into hysterics, and he cast a meaningful glance as well toward that Lost Land.

“Heh-heh. That kid... was supposed to be just a spare piece on the board, and to think he actually did that.”

As for what could make this Evil God so enraged—there was no need to guess.

And who could make such a thing happen—by the Pope’s reckoning, there was only one possibility.

“To be willing to burn up power bestowed by a God, and to bear the weight of that sin... That temperament—no wonder he’s that old thing’s disciple, hm?”

“But whatever the case, the Church now owes you for this. So that you won’t be devoured by those sins, I’ll have to...”

The Pope’s hand—reaching for the Eye of Omniscience—suddenly stopped.

Because without even looking, he sensed what was happening in there.

He silently put the Eye of Omniscience back. A vein throbbed on his forehead.

It was as if he were watching the cabbages in his own field get rooted up by some golden-haired hog.

And in that instant, he seemed to understand the Mother of Abundance’s fury.

“You damned thing—what are you doing?”