Having been told by Neltarid that there was a good reason for Willow’s isolation, Davey felt he still had to check if Willow was okay. One mistake was all it would take. However, he still needed to investigate from multiple angles before taking drastic action.

“Things are crazy these days. You don't know anything else about it?”

“As of now, no,” Davey responded.

“We’re... going to be fine, right?” Hyun-Ah asked cautiously, turning off the TV that was broadcasting the news.

“Hopefully.”

“You protect us from most problems. Can't you just do the same thing this time?”

“The world doesn't always go the way you plan.”

“And when did you ever not live life the way you wanted?”

“What did you just say?”

When he glared at her, Hyun-Ah, barefoot, lightly kicked him before tilting her head. “Then stop moping around and go figure out a solution, you ugly cuttlefish. I can’t believe that head of yours even turned dumb too.”

“I didn’t know sea urchins talked now?”

“Oh, just go!!!” Annoyed, she kicked him again before continuing to put the finishing touches on her outfit.

He was curious to see her busying about. “Why are you so dressed up?”

“Why else? I’m going on a date.”

“What did you just say?” Davey couldn't believe it. “Who’s the guy?”

Not backing down, she shot back, “Why are you asking who I meet? Is it any of your business?”

Nonetheless, she still answered, “Chris Marten. The American hero.”

“Now that I think about it, that guy always seemed to have a thing for you. Now he's already...” Davey murmured.

“I’m kidding, it's just a business meeting. Given my position, I can't just show up in casual clothes. Uncle’s pretty much handling all the company work these days, anyways. I just need to properly show up and fill these kinds of spots.”

Davey accepted that and was making his way out of her apartment before suddenly realizing, “Wait a minute... she’s the one who made me come here.”

He wondered who she took after, as she had been the one to look for him only to kick him out. He eventually realized that it was just normal for siblings to fight for no reason.

Thinking so, he couldn't help but worry if Darian and Abel would end up fighting Evangeline to the death later on.

As he left her place, lost in those thoughts, the sky opened up.

The Celestial Valkyrie Frelia, a messenger of a god complete with pure white wings, suddenly dropped down and grabbed him by the collar. “What the heck... did you teach her, you crazy bastard?!!!”

She was so angry that her face was beet red. “You're going to take responsibility, you jerk!!!”

He figured he had no other choice than to play along as she screamed and shook his collar, and so didn't resist.

Grasp!!

“Let go. I did what I needed to do, according to the contract.”

“What the contract said?! Haaah. Never mind, follow me.” She tried to drag him across the rift with her unimpressive strength.

He wondered what she was so upset about. Since he had something to say anyway, he followed her.

Soon, they arrived in the prayer hall of a quiet temple. It was an internal prayer room.

A small girl was kneeling there, praying, “Lord Neltarid, who watches over all things. Your trials are very spicy, so please make them a little sweeter. I greatly appreciate your glorious grace... and please take care of those who are suffering a little more.”

Frelia asked with exasperation, “See? What the heck did you do to make a kid like that in just a few days?!!!”

“What's wrong with that?”

Once the floodgates opened, everything poured out.

Just like Super Ribbon with her instrument and singing, Agatha, the saintess candidate for the Church of Neltarid, had truly come to her own realization by observing Davey.

“Who in the world!! What saintess candidate prays in such a disrespectful, cocky way?! She’ll get divine punishment for it, not grace!!!”

Frelia being angry was understandable. Yet despite her fears, Neltarid didn't show any sign of punishing Agatha for her prayer.

“What part of that prayer is making you so mad... pfft... is what I'm saying,” Davey responded, clearly demonstrating remarkable control and composure.

“You think it’s funny?!”

They said children were like sponges and absorbed things quickly. Agatha's growth was so remarkable that he couldn't help but feel proud.

In fact, her potential was even greater than Saintess Lena's, to the point where he wondered if she might become the only person on Earth who could manage to use 8th level holy magic.

“Where’s she from?”

“I don’t know her detailed origins. I think she’s from the European continent, but I heard she was caught by a human trafficking organization in the Middle East. The traffickers got scared when her stigmata manifested, so they ran and left her behind.”

The well-documented existence of a god seemed to establish the possibility of punishment for evil deeds after death. In fact, crime rates had significantly dropped because of it, even in a world where Awakened individuals and monsters roamed.

However, no matter how reckless the human trafficking organization normally was, they recognized that if they actually harvested the organs of a child who had received divine stigmata, the entire group could well be wiped out overnight.

Having no good reason to take that kind of risk, they’d quickly cut ties.

“It's not just the prayer, either! Do you know how lazy she’s become? She used to be so devoted!”

“She's not doing her job?”

“Well...” She hesitated before continuing, "She's still doing her job, but...”

“Then why are you always keeping her all cooped up? Do you think having a stigmata means you lose all emotion? That's only your problem, because worshiping god is fine. Maintaining the right mindset and appearance as a saintess candidate is an understandable motivation, but that doesn't give you the right to change a person however you want.”

A priest and a follower, who both seemed to be looking for the girl, approached at that moment.

“Lady Agatha.”

“Ah, you're here, Brother.”

“Yes. We apologize if we interrupted your prayer.”

“Not at all, the timing was perfect. I just finished.” She gave a surprisingly mature response for a child.

However, once the two left, she immediately slumped into a chair and sighed, “Haah. I'm exhausted...”

“S-so suddenly?!”

“She’s less of an apostle of god, if you ask me,” Davey commented. “More of a warden, wouldn’t you say?”

“What did you say?!”

Davey decided to advise her, saying “Listen up—you can't get a proper believer in a repressive environment.”

“That's ridiculous! There are plenty of cases like that.”

“You think they don't complain because they don't know any better? Do you think this temple exists for humans?”

“W-what?”

“A person should worship their god and hold a reverent heart while understanding their own state. That's what looks good to a god, at least. Do you think your god can’t see through things?”

Frelia fell silent at that. Although Agatha had become a bit more free-spirited in a way, she was actually more energetic than before.

It must’ve felt like being released from something that had been oppressing her.

“That kid... she probably acted like she was fine when she got here, but I could tell she was full of built-up frustration inside. What I did was just provide her a simple act of rebellion. You guys need to take it from here if you want to change things for the better.”

Unlike other priests, Agatha was expected to dedicate her life to the Church of Neltarid. Therefore, simply controlling and suppressing her would only hinder her growth.

“Let her think freely and worship your god freely, all while not losing sight of her own position. Isn't that the direction you should be guiding her?”

“W-Well... even so... if anyone saw her like that...”

“So what if they did?”

“H-Huh?”

“So what if they see her? Remember what I asked you earlier? Do you actually think this temple exists for humans?”

The god there was Neltarid, and that was the eternal and immutable law.

“Do you think Neltarid will have a problem just because a few humans gossip here??”

He thought suppressing the priests out of concern over public attention was ridiculous.

Besides, there was still a lot he hadn't taught Agatha. He had only taught her a simple prayer, after all!

“But... if she's allowed to be that free, she'll become lazy eventually. Someone like that will eventually fall to corruption.”

Her point was also valid. In fact, a reason why religion had demanded such tight discipline for centuries was probably partly to prevent the lazy from emerging and falling into corruption.

However...

“Didn't Neltarid ask for me to act? Since that guy wished for it, I just taught her my own way.”

If Neltarid was the peaceful god he knew, the one who loved tranquility. If they were the same god who loved the people of Earth, they might’ve been very saddened by Agatha’s suffocating life.

It would only be natural for them to feel that way, honestly. “Clearly, you guys still don't know your own god very well.”

“W-what?”

“You need to understand what the existence of a high priestess or a saintess means to Neltarid.”

The existence of a high priestess or a saintess was particularly special to Neltarid, unlike other gods.

“I’ll take care of the rest of her education later. More importantly, I did some investigating on the way here.”

“Investigating?”

“Yeah. I needed to find out if Neltarid caused the scenes of an upcoming ice age.”

“Such blasphemy!! How dare you doubt god?!!!”

“At least Neltarid is keeping Willow safe while locked up, so don’t tick me off.”

Once he made his presence known, Frelia quietly avoided his gaze and trembled.

“God wouldn't destroy the world...”

It was true that Neltarid lacked the power to cause the precursor events of an ice age. The complete lack of any physical presence also played a part in their inability, of course.

If so, it must be the world's innate purification system that Goddess Freyja had suppressed until she fell asleep, and which was only now beginning to move once more.

“Do you have any idea why?”

“A reason? Hmmm. I don’t know the truth of the world. I’m sorry, but I don’t have any information to give you.”

Even as a god’s apostle, the information she was given was limited.

A goi wouldn't carelessly reveal the truth just because someone prayed, as every single action like that would cause many irreversible changes.

Looking at the conclusion, Neltarid's words were quite credible, but Davey couldn’t help but feel unusually suspicious.

They hadn't properly told him where Willow even was. They only said she was trapped in a subspace that he created.

Although her authority still lingered in the world and remained connected to her, confirming her safety, he wasn’t planning on believing until he saw Willow with his own eyes.

However, if he checked on her location, there was a possibility that she’d recognize his presence, and everything would get messed up.

“I had a similar experience before.”

“Oh!! Master!! You're here!!!” Agatha, who finally noticed Davey, smiled brightly and ran over quickly.

She looked up at him with twinkling eyes. “My holy power has grown stronger since I started doing what you taught me!!!”

It was a simple placebo effect. Or perhaps Neltarid, who had accepted her change positively, allowed her more holy power.

He ruffled her hair happily.

“Don't forget. What I taught you was...”

“I know! That the effect only appears if my heart’s firm.”

“That's good enough. I’ll teach you the rest later. Things like holy magic.”

“Yes!!!”

Frelia sighed, seemingly speechless that Davey had won Agatha over in just a few days.

Whoosh!!

Just then, a rift opened, and Kain appeared with his wings flapping.

“You've arrived.”

“Oh!! My bro Kain!!!”

“Bro...?!”Kain looked at Agatha, startled, then turned his gaze back to Davey.

“What did you teach her, exactly...?”

“What? You got a problem?” It was just a small bit of revenge on his end. “I just told her to be more comfortable when no one else was around, instead of calling you apostle all the time.”

“Ugh. Well, that's not what's important. Let's go together. Lord Neltarid said that a change is happening to Lady Willow. They said you have to see the change in her power yourself to believe it.”

He nodded at his words.

The place Davey followed Kain to was a rift between Neltarid's sanctuary and middle earth.

There, he saw something massive.

A gigantic black sphere, dozens of meters in diameter, was being suppressed by hundreds and thousands of light streams. He could clearly feel the power of Willow within those streams. However, her divine power was much stronger than before.

Maybe that was why some of the streams of light suppressing Willow shattered instantly, only to keep restoring themselves again and again.

“Lord Neltarid said that Lady Willow's power was too weak because she hadn't completely assimilated the authority of Goddess Freyja yet.”

“I see,” Davey commented. “He's putting her in an extreme situation so that she can strengthen her power.”

“While her apostles will handle the adjustments in the meantime.”

‘So they had plans from the start, huh?’

“But... It's too slow. It’d be greatly appreciated if you could hold the anomalies back in the meantime...”

The problem was that Davey didn't have the fundamental power to completely stop such things.

“I can forcibly suppress it, but that’d only be a temporary measure.”

“The apostles were born not long ago. Therefore, it's impossible for them to completely resist the signs of the incoming ice age.”

So they wanted him to at least temporarily hold it down.

“Furthermore, her levels are definitely not below Lord Neltarid's, so they are currently using all their power to suppress her. Thus, they don’t have the capacity to directly resist the disaster.”

“Fine. I can accept that.”

‘But don't expect too much.’

* * *

Even with Davey lending a hand, it wasn't enough to stop the Primordial Winter. Incomprehensible phenomena continued to occur in the world.

People kept seeing unbelievable events like snow falling in the desert or the sudden melting of polar ice caps.

Tionis was also thrown into chaos by these phenomena, but places with advanced technology were in a complete state of emergency.

They had all reached the conclusion that an ice age would arrive if things continued unobstructed.

The news had not been properly announced yet, but word spread like wildfire.

Posts began to appear all over the internet.

[Guys, did you see the snowfall in the Sahara Desert? The researchers investigating it said that the Saint of Tionis showed up, erased the snow, and then left.]

[I saw that too! They say he stopped the rain in areas where it was pouring like crazy. It seems he prevented what would’ve otherwise been a massive flood.]

[He already visited our area, but signs of an ice age are starting to show up again. Is the world really going to end...?]

[Even he can't solve everything alone, it seems...]

[Well, yeah...]

[But honestly, there’s something special about the way he just shows up without a word, solves the problem, and leaves. Is it just me who thinks that it’s cool? He’s an outsider, but he's stopping this disaster anyways.]

[You’re perfectly normal. Honestly, it's not weird that public opinion is good, since he keeps preventing what would’ve been a catastrophe if he'd just left it alone.]

[The cult bastards were barking all this bullshit saying that the end’s coming now.]

[Admittedly, has he ever wasted his precious time on small incidents?]

[Then is the end really coming...?]

[Holy cow! Neltarid have mercy...]

[My God...]

Conspiracy theories spread in an instant, and many voiced their concerns.

Davey was dealing with the most severely affected areas first, yet that only solved the immediate problem, not the fundamental one.

Recognizing that, more and more followers flocked to the Church of Neltarid to pray for salvation.

The leaders of various nations, judging that it was no longer possible to hide the facts, publicly announced what was to come.

Eventually, a disaster occurred unabated.

[Breaking news! A small town in France has reportedly frozen solid in an instant due to a weather anomaly. Tens of thousands of casualties...]

The forum posts were only even more agitated by such news segments.

[It's really the end... We should really build bunkers and hide underground.]

[Y’all, panic buying’s getting seriously intense!]

Even with the Saint of Tionis helping, it was impossible for him to stop what was happening across countless dimensions.

Not only did the range of events expanded, the intensity rose as well. The damage was continuously increasing.

In that situation, another phenomenon was observed. An unidentified presence began to cover the sun, much like a solar eclipse. Unlike the moon covering the sun, this phenomenon felt like darkness was slowly appearing from empty space and gradually obscuring the sunlight.

It was slow. The change was only the size of a fingernail now, but the fact that it was continuously growing planted fear in the hearts of many people.

[Boss... what's happening? Is the world really ending?]

[Seriously? Just like this?]

[I heard the Saint of Tionis is doing something. Do you know anything?]

With all the anomalies happening, people demanded answers from places and people connected to him, like the Sacred Group or Evangeline through her stream.

“Everyone, stop asking!! I don't know either!! I know my dad’s doing something urgently, but I don't know anything more than that. So please, just wait!!!”

[How can we wait?! If things go south, the world’s going to end!]

[I heard that if this continues, a rapid ice age will come.]

“I really don’t know. Haaah. This doesn’t feel like the right time to stream. Where in the world is Willow, and what’s she up to...”

Evangeline didn’t know the details and worried about Willow. She knew she should solve the problems, but she didn’t move.

[Willow? Meaning Boss’s older sister who has the goddess concept?]

[Come to think of it, she had that whole concept of being the Goddess of Harmony. Why isn't she showing up now?]

“Willow said she's really busy right now, though I haven't heard what she's doing specifically. I haven't seen her since.”

Her words were as good as admitting that she was a real goddess, but people didn't take it seriously.

They felt assured that it couldn't possibly be true.

[Breaking news! Florida’s beaches are completely frozen solid. Holy...]

[What?!]

As the atmosphere grew heavier, Evangeline covered her face with one hand. It truly was a sudden disaster. The fact that the world was slowly heading toward its end was difficult for her to accept.

[Is it only Earth that’s like this?]

“Tionis is the same. It seems like my dad’s going around, not just on Tionis but on Earth too, prioritizing the big problems. Let's just wait, everyone...”

That was all she could say.

The dark shadow covering the sun gradually expanded its territory. During the three days after Evangeline ended her stream and took a break, the shadow had covered half of the sun.

Pzzt!!

At the same time, the black sphere that Neltarid was suppressing began to crack.

An immense density of power started to leak out through the crack.

[Come out quickly. I can't hold on anymore. If you don't awaken, the world will meet its end.]

Neltarid's voice briefly echoed.

Then, their voice spread out very faintly, as if crumbling away.

[O Goddess... forgive me...]