"Before Little Saint died, she used herself as the sacrifice to summon that child. That child really is special."
"Although what that child truly is still needs to be verified, since he has already inherited Little Saint's position, I should treat him as our quasi-ally."
"In order to keep the Evil Gods from discovering him before he grows up, I have to divert their attention as much as possible."
The "child" that the Good God was talking about, of course, was Sai Akuto.
And the reason she kept calling Akuto "that child" was because… she really had taken care of him for a period of time.
Back then, the Good God used her own ability to possess the past, descending into a person who was almost impossible to notice, and personally looked after Akuto for a while.
During that time, the Good God had been constantly trying to see something, anything, from Akuto.
But she failed.
Seeing that the duration of her possession was about to end, she finally steeled herself and decided to scan Akuto's body.
And then…
She was directly expelled from the time line Akuto was in, and could never enter it again.
…
Akuto was the only existence she felt she could not see through at all.
He clearly looked weak and small, yet was completely unaffected by changes in worldlines and timelines.
He clearly looked weak and small, yet after coming into contact with her, he could directly drive her avatar out of the DxD world's past timeline, to the point that she could never enter again.
Only someone like Akuto could allow the worldline itself to recover from its former crisis.
So, with Akuto as the one and only breaking point, the Good God could only go all-out to protect him.
…
On the other side.
In a certain Church somewhere in Europe.
A girl with facial features extremely similar to Irina, even her twin-tail hairstyle almost identical, was standing there in a pure white robe, both hands clasped around a sacred relic.
If not for this girl's hair being black, anyone would have found it difficult to distinguish her from Irina at first glance.
This black-haired twin-tail girl's name was Maki Shidou, the mother of Irina Shidou.
(In the original storyline, Irina was born into a Church family in Kuoh, Japan. Her father, Touji Shidou, serves as a pastor of Protestantism, one of the three major Christian factions, and works as an exorcist.)
(After the worldline changed, Irina's mother had already borne the surname Shidou from the start. Because she became the vessel possessed by the Good God, a deity from the exe world, she formed a connection with the Church and helped repel an invasion of the Church.)
Normally, those possessed by the Good God would retain no memories. However, since the Good God had not left of her own accord but had been forcibly expelled, some fragments of memory still remained in Maki Shidou's mind.
…
Strictly speaking, with Maki Shidou already in her thirties, it would be inappropriate to call her a "girl."
But on one hand, Maki had never had any male partner.
On the other hand, because she had once been possessed by a god, her physical condition had been frozen at her maiden years.
So, calling her a "girl" was in no way a problem.
And all of this… began seventeen years ago.
Seventeen years ago, Maki Shidou conceived by fate, believing she had received guidance from God, and joined the Church.
The reason she joined the Church was that she had experienced a mysterious, divine event.
She had a very long dream.
In that dream, she took care of a cute little boy.
Only after a few months passed and she finally "woke up" did she realize that what she had experienced was not a dream at all.
So, she moved to live near that boy's house and cared for him as if he were her own child.
After that, she was summoned by the Church to the European region to do missionary work, and in a Church in Northern Europe she received the title of "Saintess."
However, given that Maki Shidou had both been possessed by the Good God, and had once looked after Akuto, a subtle web of fate surrounding Akuto and the honor of his Empire naturally formed around her.
…
After Akuto conquered the Vatican, he once issued an order that all high-ranking members of the Church worldwide were to come to the Vatican to offer pilgrimage.
As a Saintess, Irina's mother did not count as true high-level clergy, so she could not join the first wave. But she was still placed in the second batch of the pilgrimage list.
Thus, with a heart filled with utmost piety, Maki Shidou came to the Holy City of the Vatican.
Led by the specially appointed "Trial Saintess," Maki Shidou arrived before the Holy Lance that had been left behind in Peru.
"Saintess Shidou, this is the Holy Lance left behind by Holy Son-sama."
"As long as you can pass the trial of the Holy Lance, you will be qualified to serve at Holy Son-sama's side."
"According to the rules, if you pass the trial today, then half a year from now you will be sent to Holy Son-sama's side and receive his guidance."
Following regulations, the Trial Saintess wrote Maki Shidou's name into the "Under Trial" list as required.
If Maki Shidou passed the trial, the Trial Saintess would then move her name into the "Trial Passed" list.
Akuto's thinking was that there was no need to have too many people at once. Around a dozen people per day was already the limit.
Thanks to being able to treat one day as five, if a dozen came at once, Akuto could, after learning each Saintess's and nun's life story and forming a heart-to-heart bond with them, then eat them.
…
If he simply ate them, the speed would of course be much faster. But Akuto still wanted, as much as possible, to discover and savor the charms of beautiful girls of different "attributes."
Moreover, since he had started out with a process of directly taking their bodies without first connecting hearts, after observing for some time, he found that if he first bonded hearts and then bodies, the probability of those Saintesses and nuns becoming Evernight Angels upon reincarnation was noticeably higher.
…
Without a doubt, a pace of a dozen per day (or, in other words, dozens within what he experienced as a day) was already extremely fast.
Even so, with the Church's enormous headcount, the current queue for "Holy Son Service Eligibility" had already been pushed back by half a year.
Now, even if Maki Shidou passed the trial, she would still have to wait half a year before she could meet Akuto.
"Yes. In order to be worthy of serving Holy Son-sama, I will definitely do my best to pass the trial." Maki Shidou's eyes were brimming with piety.
"Hm? This is…!"
The moment she touched the Holy Lance, Maki's beautiful eyes flew wide open.
Because she felt a very familiar aura from the Holy Lance.
The aura on the Holy Lance was the same as the aura she had felt back then while "asleep"!
In other words… that was God-sama's aura?!
Maki Shidou's feeling was not wrong.
The God of the Bible, for all His innate mystery, was not capable of forging, before He became a being on the level of an Evil God, a weapon capable of killing Evil-God-class entities.
The "Holy Lance that Pierces the World" was not only the God of the Bible's heart-blood, but also contained a considerable amount of the Good God's knowledge and power.
Originally, the Good God could use the Holy Lance to make contact with Akuto.
Unfortunately, Akuto had a System.
Once the "Holy Lance that Pierces the World" was taken in and catalogued by the System, it no longer had anything to do with the Good God.
In short, on the Holy Lance, Maki Shidou sensed the same aura as that of "God-sama"!
Even though she had worshipped the "Good God" by mistake as the "God of the Bible," who could say the Good God wasn't "God-sama"?
In a sense, within the ecology of the exe world, wasn't the Good God precisely the "God of the Bible"?
And so, in this crisscross of fate, Maki Shidou accepted the trial of the Holy Lance with an incredibly devout posture.
Casting a glance at Maki, the Trial Saintess slowly began to speak.
"Once the trial is activated, a version of yourself almost identical to you will appear in front of you."
"What you need to do is surpass your former self in certain aspects."
"Generally, there are two main ways to pass the trial."
"The first is to defeat your copy in terms of combat power and become stronger than before."
"The second is to defeat your copy in terms of faith and become more devout than before."
"By regulation, any Saintess who fails the trial will be stripped of the title of Saintess. Please take this seriously." Before activating the trial, the Trial Saintess gave her final reminder.
"Yes, I understand. I believe I will be able to pass the trial!"
With considerable resolve, Maki Shidou accepted the trial.
"Vmm~"
A golden light flared. The phantom of "Maki Shidou" immediately appeared before Maki Shidou.
These three silhouettes respectively represented Maki's "Body of Battle" and "Body of Faith," plus the Holy Son's own phantom.
To better help the faithful pass the trial, Akuto would manifest an image of himself during the process to provide guidance.
However, the moment she saw the phantom of the Holy Son, Maki froze in place.
"Eh? That's Akuto-kun?"
"Hm? Saintess Shidou, the phantom of the Trial Saintess has appeared?" The Trial Saintess instantly stepped forward from her original position.
"Holy Son-sama? Akuto-kun is Holy Son-sama?! B-but, Akuto-kun isn't…"
Maki's brain simply could not process it for the moment.
After entering the Church, Maki had basically been living in seclusion in Northern Europe, isolated from the outside world. At most she would discuss magic formulas with the old lady next door. She barely used any electronic devices.
On top of that, the Church she belonged to was too remote, so she truly did not know that Akuto had already become the Holy Son.
She didn't even know that when her daughter went out to carry out the mission of retrieving the Holy Swords, it was only when Irina was hunting for the Okazaki Holy Sword that Maki herself learned of it.
"Hm?"
At this point, the Trial Saintess also noticed something off.
"Wait a moment, Saintess Shidou, are you saying that you already knew Holy Son-sama before he became the Holy Son? Is that correct?"
"Yes. When we were children, I once took care of Akuto-kun for a while, then later I entered the Church."
…Wait.
Maki Shidou herself also noticed something strange.
Why was it that even though she believed looking after Akuto-kun had been God's will, she had never reported that information about him to the Church?
Could it be that the fact she forgot to report it… was also God-sama's doing?
Maki's thought sounded fanciful, but… she was not wrong.
In the original worldline, Akuto had not possessed any particular divinity. The phantom of the Trial Saintess told her the answer.
Later, after the Good God intervened, all worldlines related to Akuto were fixed.
Therefore, no matter how absolutely devout Maki Shidou was, she had never once considered that Akuto might have any connection to God.
Because "Maki Shidou will not overly disturb Akuto's life" was a destined fate that had already been set in stone before the worldline was fixed. Even with the Good God's interference, this would not change.
(End of Chapter)
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