Chapter 14: What Spilled Over

What is a lie? It is but the truth in masquerade.

— Byron

A swarm of Aragami glared at a blue-haired girl draped in a cloak.

Several large, lion-like Aragami wearing the cold masks of a goddess statue—Prithvi Matas—surrounded her.

Watching the scene leisurely from atop a tower of rubble was a large, black Aragami with the face of a human-like baboon: Dyaus Pita.

The Prithvi Matas let out a roar, crouched low, and unleashed a barrage of ice spears all at once.

Countless sharp, white spears made of ice pierced the girl. However, all that remained there was the empty husk of her cloak.

Far above.

Flipping her brown limbs clad in the scales of blue-black armor crystals, a beautiful valkyrie danced through the sky with her arms raised high.

Right before their eyes, the right arm of her raised gauntlet transformed into a massive, wicked, blue-black scythe.

"Genocide Fang!!!"

The blade of the giant scythe extended and expanded greatly. As if it were a massive living creature with a will of its own, its serrated claws chained together in multiple layers as it was swung in a horizontal sweep.

It was like the scythe of condemnation wielded by the Grim Reaper, inviting souls to the underworld.

It bit into the bodies of the formidable Prithvi Matas, slicing, shredding, and reaping them all.

However, a Mata that had escaped the attack closed in on the opening left by the girl's technique and struck.

"Twin Blade Piercing Strike!!!"

A fierce wind surged, and the blades of twin swords sliced through the body of the caught-off-guard Mata from its head down to its groin, cleaving it cleanly in two.

"Are you okay, Bell? Don't let your guard down."

The man with a cross-shaped scar between his eyebrows, who had bisected the Aragami, flicked his dual-wielded God Arc and took a stance.

"Werner! Thanks!!"

The rescued blue-black girl, Bell, thanked him with a bright, cheerfully captivating smile.

"Looks like we've cleared out most of the surroundings. All that's left is that guy watching from his high horse."

"Yeah!"

The God Eater duo, the girl and the man, sat atop the high ground of rubble and looked up at the Aragami gazing down at them assessingly.

A pitch-black Aragami modeled with a hideous, bearded human face.

It slowly and sluggishly raised its massive, red cloak-like outer shell, glaring with the cold eyes of an emperor, as if belittling the foolish mortals who had slain its harem.

Dyaus Pita.

An Aragami first confirmed at the Far East Branch. A Class 1 Contact Forbidden Species of the Vajra class. It is theorized to have originated from the Eurasian continent. A formidable enemy recognized as a dangerous anomaly that surpasses the similar Vajra species that had been running rampant until then.

It is an Aragami that brought numerous Prithvi Matas under its umbrella from seemingly nowhere, threatening the human sphere.

It looked down with its eerie human face, smoothly raised its massive front leg, and swung it down onto the rubble platform, splitting the high ground as if breaking a tile.

A barrage of rubble turned into an avalanche, shattering into splinters and closing in on them.

Bell and Werner struck away the pulverized fragments with their God Arcs to defend themselves.

"Ah!? Werner! Behind you! Look out!!"

"Ngh!?"

Before he knew it, a black behemoth reflected right behind Werner. Realizing this, Werner immediately deployed his Buckler.

The claw of the Pita's massive front leg swept out at tremendous speed, blowing away both the defending shield and his body, but he managed to guard just in the nick of time.

Opening the mouth of its bearded human face wide to reveal a row of sharp fangs, the Pita leaped forward in a pursuit stance.

Was it planning to devour him whole, along with his defending God Arc?

"Grim Reaper!!!"

The lingering flash of a sharp scythe danced into the fray, barely grazing the tip of the Pita's nose as it dodged.

Quickly backstepping, the Pita lightly flipped its massive body to secure a safe distance.

"You okay, Werner? Now we're even."

Bell smiled, pointing her disproportionate, blue-black scythe—fused with her slender right arm—at the black Aragami without dropping her guard.

"Yeah, sorry. You saved me, Bell."

Werner smiled back, lightly rolling his shoulders and readying his Biting Edge.

As if observing the attack patterns of the two God Eaters, the Pita lowered its posture, spread the cloak on its back, and began to charge itself with electricity.

A cluster of plasma lightning orbs generated around it, forming red lightning bolts that surrounded its body before being fired off with tremendous force.

The searing spheres of lightning roared as they flew in. The ground where the lightning struck evaporated and popped, radiating heat and melting into glass. Werner and Bell exchanged positions and dodged with perfectly synchronized teamwork, weaving through the gaps in the endless barrage of crimson lightning.

"Let's do this, Bell!!"

"Yeah, Werner!!"

Light overflowed from their bodies.

""Engage!!!""

Dyaus Pita flinched and reflexively narrowed its eyes at the blinding aura of the enveloping Bias Field.

""Haaaaaaaaah!!!""

The overlapping God Arc blades and a soaring flash tore through the Dyaus Pita from its shoulder to its torso.

Echoing a scream, the Pita's massive body shuddered before it collapsed to the ground.

"We did it! Werner, we beat so many Aragami!!"

Bell jumped up and down with joy.

"It was quite a formidable enemy, but it seems we managed to subjugate it somehow. This should have cleared out the Aragami swarm nesting in this area."

Werner watched the innocently laughing girl with a warm smile. Since that time, the two of them had been traveling aimlessly through the Ashlands, subjugating Aragami along the way.

The humanoid Aragami girl, named Bell.

She looked like a beautiful girl in her late teens with lovely long blue hair and brown skin. However, she possessed numerous physical traits that made it hard to call her human. Twin horns on her head, skin covered in crystal-like scales, and a lizard-like tail at her waist.

It was far too realistic and bizarre to be written off as an Aragami cosplay. Making excuses was difficult. Aside from that, she just retained a bit more childishness than her outward appearance suggested.

The terrifying brutality she had shown back then was completely hidden, nowhere to be seen now.

What was that?

Was that her true form, her nature as an Aragami?

She didn't remember anything about what happened that time. Not even what she herself had done.

Which one was the real her now?

Werner shook his head. He couldn't say he had no doubts. But he had decided to watch over her until the very end.

"Werner, what's wrong? Did you get hurt somewhere?"

Bell tilted her head.

".........No, I'm fine. How about you—"

Werner snapped out of his pointless thoughts. Dwelling on it wouldn't help. Regardless of anything else, he would protect this girl to the end.

Just as he renewed his resolve, the lying body of the Dyaus Pita suddenly rose up.

"This guy, it's still alive!?"

"Crap! We didn't finish it off!?"

The near-death beast trembled and let out a resounding roar. The cloak on its back changed shape, deploying into bladed wings. It twisted and spun its massive body, slashing upward with its expanded wing blades.

Facing the extending wing attack, Werner and Bell readied their God Arcs, but were sent flying by the desperate Aragami's fierce assault.

"Whoa!?"

"Guhhh!!"

However, the Pita didn't press the attack; instead, it hurriedly leaped from the spot, climbing the rubble and turning its back in an attempt to flee.

"Ah! It's getting away!"

"Ugh! Hm? Wait, there's something else here!"

Werner and Bell were bewildered by the unexpected counterattack. However, blocking the path of the retreating Dyaus Pita stood a massive white shadow.

The Noh mask of a goddess. The colossal frame of a Vajra species.

That Aragami was a Prithvi Mata.

No, it was different. It possessed a bizarre, distorted body far too massive compared to the Prithvi Matas they had just defeated.

It boasted an exoskeleton and size that overshadowed the Dyaus Pita before it. It bore blue ice spears all over its body like robust armor.

It exhaled a chilling breath of cold air, looking down at the Pita below with freezing eyes.

Like a frog glared at by a snake, the Pita trembled violently, bowing its head and prostrating itself like a faithfully obedient servant.

It seemed the Aragami claiming this entire area as its territory wasn't the Dyaus Pita, but this massive Prithvi Mata.

The gigantic Mata exhaled a breath of ice from its mouth, showering it over the groveling Pita.

Bathed completely in the freezing, sub-zero breath, the Dyaus Pita was transformed into a pure white ice statue.

In an instant, the Prithvi Mata's massive front leg smashed down, crushing and destroying the solid, prostrate ice statue of the Pita.

Shattered into fragments of ice work, the broken Pita dissolved into fine black dust and scattered in an anti-climactic fashion.

The giant Mata slowly turned around, staring coldly at Werner and Bell.