Chapter 1237: Divine and Evil

「P-Preposterous…! How can heretics serving the Evil God possess divine power…! Uwah…!?」

All of Potima’s murderous intent and hostility vanished, as she suddenly froze with her face contorted in shock.

If she believed that divine energy was a blessing granted only to those chosen by the gods, it wouldn’t be surprising if she couldn’t fathom Fran wielding divine energy.

She was trembling as violently as someone thrown into a blizzard in a t-shirt. I wasn’t expected it to be this bad.

On the other hand, Fran replied nonchalantly.

「…? Because I got a divine blessing.」

「I-I see! You gained this power from the Evil God!」

「No I didn’t.」

「!」

Potima should have already realized her mistake. There wasn’t a trace of evil energy mixed into Fran’s divine aura. If anything, Fran’s aura was more intense and pure than Potima’s.

「The wavelength of power… the Beast God… No, it can’t be! You’re trying to trick me!」

Still in a frenzied state, Potima lunged at Fran with her sword.

But she was pretty sluggish. Well, I guess she was technically pretty fast. It’s just that her lack of feints or strategy allowed us to easily predict her movements.

The state of confusion and shock must have really gotten her.

「Stop this sham right away! Aaaaagh!!」

She screamed while swinging her sword again, but Fran effortlessly parried.

「Kwah! Aaaah!」

Potima continued crying out like a wailing baby, trying to muster all of her strength into her sword hand. But Fran had an overwhelming advantage in stats, so the brute force approach was pointless to begin with.

It seems being unable to leave a single scratch on me only intensified her surprise.

Panicking, Potima opened her mouth wide and exhaled a purple smoke. This was probably her Innate Skill, Poisonous Snake Breath.

While the skill was not at the level of divine poison, it was still a potent toxin with a hint of divine energy. It would likely break through the resistance of most.

Potima twisted her lips into a smile when Fran took a direct hit from the smoke without any attempt at evasion.

But that expression disappeared just as quickly. Fran came out completely unfazed.

「W-Why…!」

「It’s easy to block if I cloak my barrier with divine energy.」

「Lies!」

Despair began taking root on Potima’s face.

「Hah!」

「Gwah!」

At that moment, Fran executed one of her recent favorite moves: a flying kick imbued with divine energy. Potima avoided taking the full impact by jumping backward, but her face was contorted.

While this kick was not enough to bring her to her knees, it was undeniably an attack empowered with divine energy. Potima must have realized that Fran’s divine energy was genuine.

The only reason Fran hadn’t finished the battle was because she had questions for Potima.

「Did your god tell you to destroy the Evil God?」

「Yes!」

「Really?」

「My village was destroyed by an orc army! My father and mother were eaten, and when despair threatened to take my life, I was granted this divine power! At that moment, I definitely felt the presence of God! There’s no doubt that He came to grant me power for my sake! What else could this be if not the will of God!」

Potima answered in a shrill voice.

I see. Awakening to your inner potential when you’re about to die is a common pattern. And when she awakened to divine energy, she attributed this to God’s will. Not unreasonable.

Though honestly, I’m pretty sure it’s just that something clicked in her when she triggered Awakening…

Fran tilted her head. She found it strange that Potima was speaking with such conviction about God’s will when she never met a god.

「So your god didn’t tell you directly?」

「Even without speaking to Him, I can discern His intentions! God has instructed me to vanquish the Evil God with this power!」

As expected, Fran still couldn’t understand. We’ve met gods on various occasions, yet we never received such commands.

On the contrary even, they never displayed any hostility toward the Evil God. The Chaos Goddess, in particular, seemed almost friendly with it.

「But you! Despite obtaining divine power, you became a wicked apostle of the Evil God! I must kill you in the name of God! I’ll snap that sword of yours too!」

「Mrgh.」

Fran’s brows furrowed again with anger. She might not have completely understood Potima’s fervent speech, but she certainly heard the threat against her sword. That moment, she remembered that Potima was someone who could not be reasoned with.

（Master, use evil energy.）

『Here? Now?』

（Nn. Surprise her even more!）

『I see, got it.』

（With both divine energy and evil energy, she’ll be terrified!）

Combining divine energy with evil energy. Doing so effectively refutes Potima’s conception of the absolute nature of divine energy, which served as the foundation of her righteousness.

I doubt Fran had thought that far, but her action was likely the result of pondering what would be most irritating to the vexing woman before her. She had come up with quite a vicious idea.

C-Could it be due to Eiworth’s influence? Has 1/1000 of that geezer’s behavior contaminated Fran?

（Master?）

『…Alright. Let’s try using evil energy.』

「Nn.」

And so, the evil energy began leaking from my blade.

「Now you’ve shown your true colors! That sword is as wicked as I thought!」

「It’s just using evil energy. That doesn’t make it wicked.」

「Nonsense!」

「Look at this!」

Fran merged her divine energy with my evil energy to create evil-divine energy. She then clad me in this fusion and raised me high into the sky.

「My super amazing sword has the power of the gods and the Evil God!」

Huh? Was she just taking this chance to praise me?