The Hunted Regressor: My Heretic Saint System-Chapter 51: No One Touches What’s Mine

’I’m dead...’

That was it.

There was no debate.

Ignotus had no clever trick up his sleeve.

He couldn’t see, couldn’t fight, couldn’t—

’...damn, so much for ending them three.’

He smiled faintly, closed his eyes, and waited for the bite.

’Ignotus!’

A roar slammed through his skull...

’DODGE RIGHT!’

Eris.

His body moved before his mind could argue, rolling right as a fang snapped into the ground where his chest had been, barely escaping the invitation to the donut hole club.

HISSSSSSSSSS!

Ignotus scrambled to his feet and stumbled back.

"...not yet then."

He took a stance and asked:

’Can you see—’

’I CAN SENSE, NOW STEP BACK!’

He obeyed without hesitation or question.

Her voice... he trusted it completely.

’LEFT!’

’DUCK!’

’FORWARD!’

’UP—TWO STEPS—DIVE!’

’RIGHT—NOW—FEINT—PUSH!’

It was madness, even more than before.

Ignotus couldn’t see a damned thing, acting the part of a puppet strung along by Her roars. He weaved through strikes, slid between scales, and followed every command, despite how wrong some sounded, until he eventually drove his blade home the moment She told him to.

A Python thrashed and fell before he pulled out his sword.

’Only two left.’

They weren’t done yet.

’MORE! YOU MUST—’

Her voice suddenly cut off, making him flinch.

Ignotus knew why...

’I can’t have that.’

Her strength was running dry.

Before She could fade, he recklessly poured his Divinity into Her.

He felt his Soul tear, like ripping muscle from bone, but he shoved it through anyway.

His world tilted, their connection continuing its silence before the arrival of something soft:

’...You fool.’

Eris hesitated for a moment but roared again:

’TEN SECONDS! KILL THEM IN TEN OR WE DIE!’

Ignotus, even now, grinned, his sword pointed forth.

"Fine. Countdown it is."

—

10

—

He slid under a tail, sparks flying as it scraped the stone.

—

9

—

He hacked upward, catching the belly of one Python.

—

8

—

Its jaws snapped shut inches from his throat.

—

7

—

Eris screamed, ’RIGHT!’ and he barely dodged.

—

6

—

The second slammed into the first, their bodies tangling.

—

5

—

He climbed its back, driving his blade down.

—

4

—

Venom hissed through the air, burning his skin.

—

3

—

"RAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Understanding that Hierophant, he roared back, plunging deeper.

—

2

—

The blade finally cut through its spine...

’DAMNATION!’

One fell.

—

1

—

He didn’t stop and lunged at the last Python.

His sword met its scales, but it pulled back instead of lunging, and Ignotus...

’Ah.’

...Ignotus had missed, his blade only scratching it.

He had missed by less than an inch.

’NO!’

Eris’s scream shattered in his head before fading to nothing.

Now there was only silence, darkness, him, and the last Python.

Ignotus could barely hear the sound of its scales dragging against the grass, but that didn’t seem to deter him as he shut his eyes tight.

"Hm."

Before it could even think of attacking, he mimicked the motion of throwing his sword, twisting his arm, only to then let the sword vanish into his inventory.

The Python slithered away at the empty throw, its eyes tracking what wasn’t there.

Ignotus spun on his heel, using momentum once more, and actually threw the sword straight after calling it back, aimed at exactly where the sound of its movement originated.

It whistled through the air and cracked right into the beast’s skull. Far from deep enough, but Ignotus was already there.

He threw his whole body onto the hilt, both hands pushing down with everything his dying body had, driving the steel deeper, through bone and brain.

With a loud hiss, the Python collapsed, and he allowed himself to fall alongside its corpse, his chest rising and falling.

Ding!

—

╔══════════════╗

║☆ ORDINATION UP ☆║

╚══════════════╝

[You’ve Killed a Seeker]

[You’ve Slayed a Python X 10]

[You’ve Felled a Weak Curse]

[SF = 585]

[Ordination: 13 → 18]

[+ 15 STAT POINTS!]

—

’Finally...’

Ding!

—

╔═════════════╗

║QUEST COMPLETE!║

╚═════════════╝

[You Have Protected Lykos]

[+ 5 STAT POINTS!]

—

’And it was so worth it.’

With that thought, Ignotus finally allowed sleep to claim him, fully deserving it.

***

Eris stood alone in an endless white.

An eternal realm bathing in Divinity.

Ignotus’s soul.

It was untouched no longer; its ceiling cracked with black cobwebs traveling across for many miles.

Resisting the expansion of those cracks was a... Rune.

His Luck Root Rune.

It floated high, a weight scale glowing with Divinity, nearly dominating what could only be described as this realm’s skyline from the outside.

Yet that wasn’t what took the beautiful black-haired Goddess’s attention. Her ruby eyes were locked on a projection that stood before Her.

It showed Her Ignotus in a third-person perspective, almost in an eagle-eye view.

This was only a recreation of what was happening, of course, as She only saw what Ignotus did, and usually in his direct perspective. So again, this was nothing more than a prediction of the truth... much like a mirror.

In this truth, Ignotus remained sprawled against the corpse of that last Python, breathing faintly, his face slack with exhaustion.

His body twitched now and then, tiny signs of it mending, his Soul pulling threads of itself back together, yet he slept through it all.

’So soundly.’

Her lips softened into the smallest smile.

"Great job..."

A soft whisper left Her before She even noticed, finding Herself constantly surprised by this boy who accidentally saw Her no more than a week ago and was now making Her act unlike how the world ever knew Her.

With him, there was no need to bare fangs, trying to get him in line, like Her previous rebelling Followers, no need to rip apart Gods and Demons alike... barely surviving in a realm that wanted Her deep in Hell.

Here, it was only him and Her.

And oh, how damned proud She was.

Stepping forward, She placed a hand on the surface of the projection, the faint warmth of his presence brushing against Her fingertips.

He had fought, stumbled, bled, and nearly died a dozen times over, and yet...

He had kept moving.

Ignotus had trusted Her voice.

The voice belonging to the origin of Calamity.

Trusted Her when no one else ever could.

Truly... did anyone trust Her as much as he did in that moment?

That thought alone made Her chest ache, an odd, tender ache that belonged only to him in a way She didn’t quite understand.

Her smile deepened.

’I can’t wait to see where you’ll take us...’

Indeed, Eris couldn’t wait for him to wake.

She wanted to hear his blunt words, his strange humor, and his careless laughter.

But until then... She would protect him.

Her ruby eyes flared, turning cold.

"Goddess Achyls."

The still white began to ripple, and a gray fog bled into the air behind Her, a whisper of rot following soon after:

"Goddess Eris." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Eris did not turn right away, staring at Ignotus a moment longer before finally lifting Her head.

What stood for air in this realm grew heavy. Her black dress rose as the ends of Her hair shimmered crimson, and Her expression froze into something far removed from that earlier softness.

The fog solidified almost immediately in response, defending Herself from Calamity’s Will.

Such a defense would’ve been unneeded if She was actually here, but thankfully for Ignotus’s still-intact Soul, this was nothing but a thread of Achyls’s mind.

Because otherwise?

His Soul would have been blasted apart before time could even catch up, and even if he somehow survived thanks to a miraculous action from Eris... He would’ve turned Hollow, unable to hold a single Rune, never mind finishing anything of what he had set out to do.

Yet Calamity didn’t seem to worry about that, knowing that Achyls wasn’t suicidal and wouldn’t test Her luck.

"You seem to have forgotten my warning."

Her lips pulled into a thin line.

"Seeker Ignotus may think our Calamity is to blame for all of those Giant Crabs and Pythons, but I know it’s you. Don’t think I’ve missed your Divinity, dragging them into his path."

The fog twisted, like it was laughing.

"And what will you do, Goddess Eris? Fight me? In your weakened state? In your Follower’s Soul, no less? Are you sure? Or will you send over another Follower to fight your battles for you?"

A mocking laugh left Her.

"Unfortunately, I don’t think any of the four would be listening."

Eris’s eyes burned so hot that the fog shuddered, and before Achyls could even notice, She was right in front of Her.

With one pale hand, She touched the fog.

A crimson red spark burst outward, traveling through the gray in a blink.

Achyls gasped, Her fog stumbling back in pain.

"W–What have you done?!"

Eris smiled, the smile of a Goddess who had set a trap the very moment they met.

"Welcome to my world, Goddess Achyls."

The fog began to unravel, threads ripping apart faster and faster as the spark consumed it.

"N–No! Stop! Please, I didn’t know you were a Higher God—!"

Achyls, once formidable, begged pathetically.

A God, reduced to pleading in front of Her.

Eris tilted Her head, amused, and then with a wave of Her hand...

Thump!

The fog collapsed into nothing.

In its place, a structure rose from the endless white, its stone sprouting like bone, glass-like veins glimmering red, and wood-like flesh, until eventually, a great manor took shape.

It was dark, gothic, and beautiful, every inch of it steeped in Her Will, especially the part where its tall spires turned soft when reaching the white above.

Eris stepped inside, and the fire in the first hall’s hearth welcomed her, crackling warm.

She, materializing a bottle out of thin air, poured Herself a glass of crimson wine and settled onto a velvet couch before the flames, Her dress pooling around Her frame.

Her eyes softened once more as the same projection appeared before Her, his face bright in the dark.

"No one touches what’s mine."

The fire flared higher, as if obeying Her Will.

"Not even ’Them.’"