Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 450: Arc 6, - 66: You Are (Not) Too Late

With nothing but wind whipping at them in frenzied unnatural directions, they stood in silence. The building cracked like an egg from the top, the pillar that had no hum or fizzle, the guards having fled and with some of their corpses joining those of the cultists’.

The lull that followed the fight was, nice? Sunrays broke through the cloud cover as they now had to wrestle with the fact that they might have been too late, even with the haste they had arrived in.

A moment to gather their thoughts while glistening dew drops clung onto rubble and roof alike. "Are you alright?" Hotaru approached and placed a hand on Fumeko’s shoulder.

The brunette tucked away her hoodless cloak; the right side of her pinafore was furled down with the strap that held it up severed. Half-shirt, half-pinafore—bold fashion statement if anything else. "I’m fine; a bit drained, but fine."

"Same here," Jotou added.

"Me four," Asobi wobbled around and reached them.

"Where’s Tiffany?" the blonde glanced below.

"On her way up," Fumeko looked at the broken theatre and the footprint left in crumpled seats. "There goes Palais Celneir."

"They’ll fix it up, I’m sure. Only one side of it got, destroyed..." Hotaru replied and then her ears flickered. "What in the," she looked back.

Across the remaining walkways, around the corner ran in a figure in bright red armour, clanging and panting.

"Glad you could show up just in time," Jotou’s eyelids waned.

Ben got to them and rested his hands on his knees, "Dude, they didn’t, gimme a sec. Agh. They didn’t let me in, the police literally stopped me from entering, they were gonna arrest me if that- oh yeah. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?" he pointed to the horizon.

"One of the new gods."

"They can do that!?"

"No," Fumeko bluntly put. "That’s a new trick."

"Yeah, me and Jotou almost got her while she was thievery-ing a poem. She wasn’t very, godly?" Asobi stated.

"A poem?" the redhead’s brows furrowed.

"She did in fact have some kinda papers with her," Detective Rose joined the conversation, over half of her utilities missing. However, her injuries seemed minimal. "She was writing with some special pen, just not sure what."

"It was addressed to Irvette, God of the Oceans—the Sea-Witch. Beauregard said it was a connection to her, the old god. When I brought up Mare, another old god, she said that the cult couldn’t find any connection to her," Jotou informed.

Fumeko held a hand to her chin, "If Beauregard was encased in there with that, ’connection’, then she got... infused?"

"Sorry, who’re you?" Ben pointed at the detective. "And who’s Beauregard?"

"That’s Beauregard," Hotaru pointed to the being travelling through the sea. "We met her before. She’s some sentient slime-woman and one of the leaders of the cult."

"Slime-woman?" all of a sudden Ben’s interest was piqued. "You mean like slime, slime? Like an actual slime-girl?" he blushed.

"You know what, you two were made for each other. We’ll set you up on a date once this is all over," Jotou squinted.

"Sorry."

The blonde sighed, "Honestly Crispy, even if you were here a while ago, I don’t know if it would’ve made any difference."

"And I’m Detective Rosemary Chesire. You’re the, Scorching Inferno I’m assuming?" she reached a hand out and had her polite guise back on.

"Finally, someone knows me!" he enthusiastically shook her hand.

"It appears mine ensemble of fellow sirens are of ungodly constitution, just as the void preordained," announcing her presence, Tiffany strode towards them.

"You survived!" Asobi cheered.

"Indeed, for I, Stella Vespertillio, the Child of-" as she walked more towards the wreckage, her uncovered eye darted to the right to catch something in her periphery.

She now got a clearer view of Beauregard’s march, or rather trudge towards the east. Tiffany pursed her lips, "So looms the demise of the regime of ill repute. May mercy be upon ye all."

"They’re gonna need more than mercy," Jotou replied. "That’s a new god with the newly found powers of an old god."

"Huh? What did I miss?" Ben queried.

"You didn’t miss anything," Fumeko looked over at the broken pillar and sphere. "That’s what the cult was doing with all those souls and pillars. They’ve moved on from the testing phases onto the trial phase.

They were looking for connections to old gods to empower themselves using the spiritual energy from who knows how many sacrificed people. How the hell it all works is anyone’s guess, only Ceridwen would know," she asserted.

"Special pen, probably by writing a name. If Ceridwen can use the affinities of others by using their souls, it’s not a leap that anyone theoretically could; only unaccounted variable is whether or not Ceridwen herself has or had an affinity.

But using that logic, realistically they probably don’t have access to the souls of the old gods, so they need the closest connection. It could be that all the spirits in those pillars make up for the fact that they don’t have the true soul of the old god.

Sort of like watering down milk, but you’d have to add just enough water so that people can still recognize it as milk and not water. The ’people’ in this analogy being the forces of magic and spirits," Jotou put together a plausible theory.

"The poem is to milk, as souls is to water," Tiffany added.

Hotaru sighed, "So the cult, or Ceridwen, figured out a loophole to bring back an old god’s powers."

Jotou gave a strained smile, "Loopholes and magic go hand in hand."

Ben’s eyes were crunched while looking at them, "I think I get how everything’s working? Gears turning in my head. One factor though, what’s an old god? Who were the old gods? Were there a pantheon of them? I’ve never heard of them."

"As for the Gods, they left centuries upon centuries ago—mortals who ascended. They say when your affinity has reached such a high capacity, that those who believe in you can tap into your power," Jotou quoted.

"Who’s they in this scenario?" Rosemary finally spoke up.

The golden blonde shrugged. "It’s false anyway. At least I thought it was until well, that," she pointed towards the sea. "Though I don’t think Beauregard ’believes’ in Irvette."

"Right..." Detective Rose adjusted her hair into a braid so that the howling wind stopped unfurling strands. "If that’s all the case, then this might’ve been the Deuctus Cult’s goal the entire time.

And of course I mean, for their entire existence. The naming convention and theatrics seem a bit too coincidental otherwise."

"This is years of work; nearly two decades or more, there’s no doubt about it. They didn’t figure all of this out last month," Fumeko agreed.

"What level’s the powerscaling here?" Ben asked. "Are they above haros? Champion?"

The wolf-girl shook her head, "Who knows. There were many times they should be dead by now, but they’re not. I wouldn’t put it past them that they might even be legendary or supreme level."

"There’re many times I should be dead, but I’m not. Let’s not use that as a measure of power," Jotou remarked with a dry chuckle.

Hotaru’s ears bristled, "Well that over there is definitely supreme," she said in regards to Beauregard.

"Transforming into dragons and creatures on a whim, stone slates at the blink of an eye, using every affinity and element in the book—I think the one new god you killed was just the weakest of them," Fumeko recounted.

Jotou crossed her arms, "Well about that, apparently he’ll just revive himself in the next half-century according to the massive slime."

Fumeko waved her hand to insinuate it proved Hotaru’s point. "And Ambrose," the brunette continued. "Healing and necromancy. His blood was the blood used by the cult in all the accounts of injections.

By that fact, all the dead cultists here that got reanimated must’ve had Ambrose’s blood in them; it must be how his magic works. His healing was insanely fast and his claws were bigger than Aru’s."

"Let’s not compare," Hotaru folded her arms.

"He’s a vampire," Fumeko added.

"A vampire!?" Asobi eeked.

"A vampir. Sharp fangs that sink into a supple neck, pale skin that sparkles in the light—a bat, a wolf or even a rat, a creature of the darkest night," Tiffany posed as the two bat-shaped blood-red hair clips she wore perfectly reflected the sunrays.

’Almost sounds like Hotaru.’

"Probably not the one you read in books bat-girl," Fumeko’s eyes glazed over. "But something like that. I think I figured out his quirk too; his magic doesn’t work under sunlight."

"Any indication of that other than he was just not under the sunlight whenever we’ve faced him?" Jotou glanced up to the sky.

"He seemed to not like the sunlight and moved away from it while on the wyvern. The fangs, the blood, what he was doing at Casten Castle—he only ever kidnapped at night or under rainfall. Even that witch apprentice said as much," the brunette replied.

Hotaru glanced over at Rosemary, "Sorry to keep you here if you have any other business."

Detective Rose shook her head, "Oh, no trouble darling. Only more for me to write once I get to my typewriter; or maybe I could just get Peter to do it..."

"Plenteous postulations aside, the complications of the hour has yet to be resolved," Tiffany spoke.

Ben gave a strong nod and righted his posture, "Yeah, did we just lose? Game over? I mean, the hell do we do here?" he gestured to the massive slime-woman now a bit further away.

They all looked at the threat... that was, perhaps not a threat to them?

"She’s not very fast, is she," Jotou made an observation.

"So? What, you’re gonna catch up to her?" Fumeko furrowed her brows.

"I don’t think your spell would reach that far or have the impact you’d hope for, no matter how far you fly into the sky," Hotaru reasoned.

Jotou laughed as she said, "As if I could even cast the spell right now, my magic’s holding on out of pure spite." She took a breath, "No; what I meant was, that Beauregard hasn’t figured out her full potential yet.

The god of the oceans should be able to part the damn sea floor, if not just surf across the surface at an unparalleled speed. I don’t think Beauregard lacks the imagination, but new tricks still take time to figure out."

"Dude, don’t get lost in the sauce, what’s your point?" Ben stopped her from going on a longer tangent he knew she was about to go on.

"She’s not omnipotent; she’s not that powerful yet," Jotou reaffirmed. "The whole giant trick makes anyone think she’s now extremely powerful by default. Meaning, if we want to stop her, we have to do it soon, cause now is when she’s at her weakest."

Rose squinted at her words.

"If that’s her weakest dude, I don’t know if we have a chance in hell," Ben grimaced.

"How fast is the fastest ship in Belle-Ventrialis?" Jotou continued.

"Even if we do catch up, then what?" Hotaru went along with the blonde’s thought for the time being.

"Yeah, me, you, Sobi and Tiffy are out of magic. Aru’s siphoned off some mana for herself which isn’t gonna be enough. Fire and water, I don’t need to say more," Fumeko motioned her hand to Ben. "All of us have barely had a good night’s sleep.

And Detective Rose isn’t gonna be able to do much against that titan of a new god, no offence."

"None taken," Rose replied.

"Only Sobi’s light and my lightning’s done anything to hurt Beauregard. If I can electrocute her at a high enough voltage, that new god would be nothing more than steam."

"Yeah but like Meko said, we need sleep silly- OH!" Asobi’s eyes glittered with white light.

Jotou smirked, "That potion we bought from the witch is with our stuff in Guinzione Bridge Station, right?"

"The one that let’s you get a full night’s... I see," Hotaru connected the dots.

Detective Rose looked at all of them and then shrugged a shoulder, "Anywho, if you lot think you have a plan, far be it for me to stop you. Now would be the time for you to flaunt the Azure Firefly’s title to charter a ship.

I’m sure the alderman would love to know what’s going on; the situation couldn’t get any worse. Try to get the Burntish navy on your side, they’d be willing to risk it. If not, I’m sure you can find a few nobles who would happily fund your expedition.

As for me, I know when I’m no longer useful," she gave everyone a curtsy. "I’ll be around, canvasing the area and all that remains; also deal with the pigs so they don’t bother you lot."

"Thanks," Fumeko gave a nod.

"Always a pleasure," Detective Rose reciprocated. "The sooner I investigate and leave, the less I’ll have to deal with the smell of rotting corpses."

Jotou tilted her head to the side and knitted her brows. Her eyes scanned Rose’s expression carefully... ’I don’t think she’s lying about the info she just gave, I do think she wants to help, but...’ "Are you hoping that we fail to stop Beauregard?"

Rosemary looked past the blondes and across the sea, knowing the Malecise Regime lied in the distance. "I don’t think you’re gonna like my answer darling," she smiled. She then turned and walked away while pointing to the sky saying, "We’ll reconvene soon."

Up in the sky, everyone looked as a familiar secretary bird with pearly-white wings shimmering under sunrays flew. Kira perched onto the cracks upon the roof and surveyed the familiar faces.